Quick stop to Redding

     On the way up to Redding my dad wasn't feeling very well. We decided to stop at a hotel on the way up. Uneventful except for the miracle that I wasn't expecting at all.
     So Grant has his own room...for good reason too. He is such a light sleeper. I credit that do the fact that I usually have all the household chores done before he goes to bed at night and also before he naps. So there is usually no reason for me to make noise when I'm relaxing and reading books right? That will surely change for the next Stotts baby but for now we have a light sleeper. The sleep was really the biggest anxiety for me since I would be sharing a room with Grant the entire vacation with him being able to see me and all. Anyway, he got used to his pack n' play environment while in Sacramento so the rest of the trip he was an angel.
     So back to the miracle. Since my dad was sick he got up multiple times in the night. Grant was in the make shift closet nook hallway to the bathroom. The light was on a lot,  the fan turned on and off, my dad....door opening and closing. Lets just say Grant didn't notice a bit of it and slept the whole night like an angel. Well actually to be perfectly honest I think angels were there making sure he slept and me as well.
    So that was just utterly amazing and such a mercy. Anyway, so then we were on our way to Redding. We were there for 2 days. I would have liked to have been there for like 4 but you know, at least I got to go. The deal we made was, if I flew in there, I could tag along with whatever my parents wanted to do for the rest of the trip.
    My in laws let me borrow a car and I visited with Meg's friend Amber and we had Spoon Me frozen yogurt. The next morning I had breakfast at my sister in law's home and Grant got to play with a bunch of cousins and see his other grandparents. We then went the park with the kids and Grant's other aunt got to bond.

Grant with his cousins.

Ahh breakfast!

Caedon was so good with Grant

Later that evening, my family and I went to Whiskeytown lake to take in the views and get nostalgic about the many many many days and evenings we spent at the lake such as kayaking, canoeing, boating, lounging, exploring, swimming, rope swinging, camping, etc...  Then even later my family and I got to see my good "best" guy friend at Spoon Me. We talked and caught up and reminisced and then the time was up.  I say "best" because really Perry is my best friend. Weston was the best guy friend I had before I met Perry.

Whiskeytown lake!

     The next morning we were off to go visit some family in Medford, Oregon.

First Stop: Sacramento

So Sacramento was our destination for the flight. We were staying in Folsom at a hotel and attended a lot of the wedding weekend activities. My cousin Rochelle was getting married on that Saturday. I flew in on Thursday with Grant. Perry flew in Friday evening and back out again on Sunday evening to get back to money makin'. So I think the events went as follows. First we went to this little festival, kind of like Saturday's market. Grant met a big Elmo.  He also strutted his stuff up and down the street.

Friday we laid low. Meg and I did our nails and went to the pool with the family. Then Saturday we got ready for the wedding. Perry's sister and family and mom came to visit with Perry since he wasn't going to be able to visit them when we my family and I went up to Redding. The wedding was fun. The food was good. There was great laughter and it was a wedding. lol. They had a kid's area for eating and also a little nanny to watch the kids. Not the whole time but a lot of the time the nanny was there to watch kids. Grant learned his new love of peanut butter.  He also bonded with his Aunties Megan and Amber. This trip sounded hard in theory and was at times but it went really well overall. Then Sunday we had a big barbeque. Sunday evening we left to go up to Redding.

Mega and Me, holding baby Hailey (Amber's Daughter)

Rochelle, mom, Grant

18 Month Stats

So Grant and I went to Grant's 18 month well-baby visit today. I was expecting at least one immunization. Lo and behold he isn't due for another until he is 2. Yay! I had a hard time deciding which doctor for Grant to see. And I meant to get some recommendations but forgot of course. So anyway, I chose a close knit Pediatric Care of Provo with 2 doctors. They were great! I feel really good about my choice. So Grant's stats:

Height: 32 inches  45th percentile

Weight: 21.13 lbs 10th percentile

Head circum: 46 cm 10th percentile

Playing in the sink.

So anyway I basically have a light small headed, average height child lol.  Everything seems normal and he is a healthy boy! Yay! A positive experience at the doctor's for Grant too so maybe by the time he is 2 he will remember happy memories at the doctor and be okay when I mention it. More posts to come about the vacation we went on.

The Vacation: First flights.

So I have been avoiding this post because it will be long but I guess I have decided to divide it up into just pure memories and moments. So Grant experienced his first plane ride. I was nervous because when I was 3 I was on my first plane ride and the pressure got to my ear really bad and I was screaming the entire flight of pain. So I was really hoping this wouldn't happen to Grant. I was prepared with every snack possible, juice, and toys. So by the way, I was planning on Grant sitting on my lap because I didn't pay for a ticket for him. Luckily for me though on both flights they had room for Grant and me carrying his carseat, stroller, and diaper bag paid off....to the gates and off both flights might I add. It was physically gruelling to say the least. There were a couple really nice sympathetic people though who were willing to help me and carry things at times.
Anyway, Grant was a champ. He didn't display any discomfort other than not wanting to be in the carseat. Boy was he in for it! He was in his carseat a lot of the trip: to the airport, on the flights, to folsom, to and from where ever we were, up to Redding, up to Medford, OR, up to Portland, down to medford, and the 15 hours it took to get to Orem again.
Some highlights of the beginning were that he did really well during the flights. He was cheery. We got photos in the pilot's seat. we got free pretzels.

Language Burst

So first of all, I haven't blogged because I was on vacation and I am still kind of vacationing because my family is still here. I will blog about the trip when my family leaves. However, Grant has had such language development in the last 2 weeks. It has been insane. He has said his first sentence: "Eat snack." This isn't supposed to happen until age 2 so I'm pretty proud of that. Also Grant says "Mom" instead of mama.  He says "shba" for shoe. "Wewah" for weed wacker, "uh oh", "hi", "bye", "wee", "yay", "pea", "cheese", "Chee" for cheek, and the list keeps rolling because everyday he will surprise us with so many new words just from copying us. Its so much fun to hear his little voice saying somewhat logical things. I am a proud mama!

For Sake of Memories.

Independence Day was a whirlwind of a day. We woke up. Then we started cooking. We invited a friend over for a celebration meal and didn't realize he wouldn't be able to come for dinner so instead we were having lunch with him. I cooked so fast and was multi-tasking on everything! Perry was helping in the fashion of watching Grant the whole time. Then we went to the store, got a couple little fireworks, came home, finished up lunch and had our friend over. The meal was yummy. We had teriyaki chicken grilled, pasta salad, which I think I might just go have some right now, and grilled corn. The guest said he had never had better corn. I was thrilled of course. Then we had our traditional stars and stripes angel food cake thing with blueberries and strawberries. Yum. Then when we were done eating our other friend and his cousin came over to pick something up and we invited them to eat also. Then when they left Grant was up from his nap. Perry washed all the delayed dishes from the whole week of sickness and achiness and finally we were able to relax. We did FHE and lit Fireworks. Grant threw a couple of the popping ones and then really didn't like them anymore. We only had about 10 things to light and Grant was very upset by the end. Good thing we didn't go to any show. He would not have stood the noises and fire. I had fun though. We put him down and just enjoyed a relaxing evening. I cuddled with my hubby and finally got a tinge  of "I'll miss you" for going on my long trip soon. I'm really excited. These next couple of week will have at the end many videos and pictures with my family. See ya then!

Compounded.

So life likes to throw all kinds of curve balls. Especially this week. So remember my last post....well yeah I am yet again reminded of my blessings when I don't have ailments. I said on Facebook that I would rather have back pain than the flu. Well guess what? My thoughts were against me on this one. I have the flu. And my back aches. And usually it aches more when I'm not up and moving. Just as long as I don't twist and what not. But I barely feel it when I'm walking around. That means that sitting all day trying not to feel nauseous kind of sucks on my back.

So I got the flu. Probably because my immune system was lowered from having a lot of junk yesterday, plus Grant sputtering puke into my mouth, as well as the fact that my body just can't handle red cow's meat. So I woke at 5:30am puking my guts out. Went to bed. Woke an hour later and puked my guts out all morning until about noon. I puked bile in 3 sessions. Sorry this is kind of gross. So I read that once you have stopped puking for 1 hour you can take 1 tbsp sips of water every 5 minutes. Boy did I look forward to that. I was getting dehydrated for sure and the water tasted so good. I think water always tastes better after you are sick. So the first thing I'm going to do when I'm well again is to chug a lot of water and have a spinach berry smoothie. MM! Anyway, the rest of the philosophy goes, if you haven't puked for 4 hours into the sipping thing you can double the amount sipped every hour every five minutes. I decided to not wait for the 8 hours of water drinking to start solids. I also read that you should wait until your tummy growls before trying to eat because that means your tummy will digest the food and not just let it sit into a lump. All I have eaten since 11 last night is half a piece of toast. Slowly. My awesome visiting teachers brought dinner over that I can't even eat yet.

After this awesome crappy day I have decided to really cut back on the sweets and to ban red meat. It always ends terribly and the sugar always makes me get sick easier. I mean geesh. I have been sick 2 times in 2 months of living here. But the cool thing about it is all I crave is more healthy raw fruits and veggies. Fat, sugar, and highly processed foods just don't appeal at the moment. I know it will change but I think this plan is for the better. I will be more likely to get pregnant when I want to .....which is not soon mind you. I will be healthy more often. And when you eat good stuff for your body,  your body craves it more anyway. So in a way I am starting on a clean slate.  No food has been in my system for almost 24 hours. All I have had is water and now when I'm up for it I can start anew with a delicious smoothie.