Blog Challenge

So I've decided to do a blog challenge along with some other folks starting tomorrow (info and fellow blogger participants can be found on Elizabeth's blog i seek with all my heart). It's a 30 day photo challenge that I can hopefully keep up with! I've seen blog challenges that other people have done so I've really been looking forward to starting this. Here is the list:

day 01 - a picture of yourself with ten facts
day 02 - a picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
day 03 - a picture of the cast from your favorite show
day 04 - a picture of your night
day 05 - a picture of your favorite memory
day 06 - a picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
day 07 - a picture of your most treasured item
day 08 - a picture that makes you laugh
day 09 - a picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
day 10 - a picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with
day 11 - a picture of something you hate
day 12 - a picture of something you love
day 13 - a picture of your favorite band or artist
day 14 - a picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
day 15 - a picture of something you want to do before you die
day 16 - a picture of someone who inspires you
day 17 - a picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
day 18 - a picture of your biggest insecurity
day 19 - a picture and a letter
day 20 - a picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
day 21 - a picture of something you wish you could forget
day 22 - a picture of something you wish you were better at
day 23 - a picture of your favorite book
day 24 - a picture of something you wish you could change
day 25 - a picture of your day
day 26 - a picture of something that means a lot to you
day 27 - a picture of yourself and a family member
day 28 - a picture of something you're afraid of
day 29 - a picture that can always make you smile
day 30 - a picture of someone you miss

It should be fun and, hopefully interesting for my readers. I think some of it will be challenging...which seems to be the point :) And be sure to check out Elizabeth's blog at the link above to have a look at the other participants. You may want to follow along with some of them as well!

This Can't End Well

It doesn't. I walked past Grant's room yesterday after work where he was hanging out in his crib for a bit. I noticed something I'd never seen. His little head peaking over the side of the crib. Usually I see this:

But yesterday I saw this:

And so we learned that Grant knows how to pull up to his feet now. I was simultaneously excited and wary. Yay he's learning but oh no he's not stable enough for this. So I laid him down on the mattress and waited for him to show me how he does it. He did and as he smiled at me so proudly I saw the blood on his lip. He had, at some point, gone forward and cut the underside of his top lip. I was worried but I wasn't. He didn't seem bothered by it so I cleaned him up and let it be.

Fast forward to bedtime. Grant would not calm down enough to sleep. He was wide open. I laid him down, then I would go in a few minutes later to check on him and where was he? Standing at the side of the crib. It was an endless cycle that lasted at least an hour. As I said, this doesn't end well. A little after 10:00 I heard it. A horrible crack that made me think he fell out of the crib. And then the scream. I went in and poor little Grant was on his knees in the crib and had gone into Silent Scream Mode with the tiny shaking fists. Blood streaming down his now purple face. He had smacked his face on the crib side and given himself his first bloody nose. After semi-calming Grant, I had to semi-calm Husband ("If you're going to freak out then leave the room!"). Thankfully it was only a bloody nose and nothing worse. No broken nose, no bruises. Just tears. Pitiful, pitiful tears. But, as we all know, Mommy makes things better. I got him cleaned up, gave him a little bit of baby Advil, and a little bit of warm formula. Out like a light and slept - well, like a baby :)

The Most Ridiculous Diaper Ever

Over the weekend we ran some errands and Husband pointed out that we will need more diapers soon. So when he wasn't looking, I stuck a box of the Huggies jean diapers in the cart. Let me point out that when they first came out I constantly demanded to know what kind of person buys those. But as soon as I saw the display I immediately thought of how funny Grant would look crawling around on the floor in those diapers. Husband is completely against them and I am positive that this is the only box that we will buy. They truly are ridiculous. And funny.

 

Looking at this picture makes me think that size 3 diapers may be a hair too big.




Hahahahahaha! What in the world made them say "Hey,
we should totally make diapers that look like jeans!"

 

He really doesn't care what his diapers look like.

 

These pictures were totally worth the eye rolling I had to endure from
Husband every time I looked at the box of diapers and started laughing.




Seven Months

 On Saturday Grant turned seven months old! And it's been quite a month! Grant is crawling - finally! I feel like I've been telling people forever "Oh, he's almost got it". And he's pulling up...holy crap. It seems like his favorite thing to do lately is pull up on his crib bumper and then hit his head against the crib. We lowered the mattress for just this reason - it is now as low as it can go - because he was frog hopping and bashing his head into the thickest part of the crib.  It seems almost pointless to have done all that work lowering it just so he could get on his knees and keep bashing his head. If he's not doing that then he's pulling up and yelling over the side of the crib "Eh! Eh! Ba ba ba!" until someone goes to him. It's actually really cute though. Nate swears he's on the verge of saying his first word. Slow down Grant! Not too many firsts at once.



Seven months old!



It is very hard to get him to sit still for long.

 Besides the crawling and pulling up, Grant is eating his stage 2 vegetables (the mixed kind) and for fruits he's had pears, bananas, and peaches. We just started peaches on Sunday. We won't even talk about the "meat".

Hurry up with those peaches, woman! I got places to go!

 

Ok....



So not in the mood for peaches.

Grant is also doing the sippy cup with water and a tiny bit of juice but he thinks of it more as a plaything than something that has any nutritional value. He does know to grab the handles and that the spout goes in his mouth...but after that it's just a toy.



Look Ma, no hands!

 Grant is, of course, playing a lot although it's hard to keep his mind on one thing for long. And don't leave the room for too long because you never know where he'll be when you get back (I speak from experience). 

Grant and his new toy :)

So that's that. Growing up too fast. The good thing about all this activity is that it's making him sleep better. And when he's out...he's out!

A couple random pics for your viewing pleasure:



Hi there Brodie! You're starting to get used to me, aren't you?
You kinda like me, don't you?

 

I love this picture. It so captures the fact that he will not do what I want him to
for pictures anymore. But how can I be mad at that face?!



This Is Why There Is Baby Jail

We have got one mobile baby. It seems that over night Grant has gone from this tiny baby that used to lay under his baby gym for an hour to a miniature man who's into EVERYTHING. Last night, after a very active day, he seemed so tired. He was rubbing his eyes and when he would blink they were the long, lazy blinks of a very tired little man. So I got out my Ben & Jerry's ice cream (I'm trying really hard not to eat that stuff...but it was on sale and I needed a treat), then I tucked his blanket around him and laid him on the couch for a little night time nap. I sat on the floor in front of the couch in case he rolled and settled in to watch a little TV. There was rustling and when I turned around this is what I saw:



 So I put down my ice cream. And evidently it looked quite tasty:

I obviously couldn't let him have the ice cream (but someday he'll obviously love it as much as mommy does). So he went after one of his favorites, the phone:

And so this is why there is baby jail. Having a mobile baby really does change everything. It's fun but some times you really do think "Ok, what do I do with him now?". Well, you put him in the pack-n-play or the fenced in baby gate area or whatever you have. Because you can't watch them every second. But we will need something bigger than the pack-n-play soon because that little area doesn't make him happy for long no matter how many toys we put in there. And sometimes he's kind of pitiful in there.



Hello? Anybody out there...?



Hello...?

 

Oh, there she is. With that camera again.
Why does she have to document my misery?



First Meat

On Wednesday night we decided to go for the first meat (and I use that term loosely): chicken & gravy. Although I should call it "chicken". I've said in past posts that I make it a point to taste whatever he eats. I feel like I should know what it tastes like and I can't really explain why. The stuff I've tasted really hasn't been bad. I didn't even mind the bananas and I don't like bananas. But this is one I wish I hadn't tasted. It did taste like chicken. The most bland, nasty chicken I've ever tasted in my life. And it was grainy. How do they make chicken grainy? Apparently Grant was of the same opinion because he didn't like it at all.

In it goes...

Wow. Look at that face.

Turning his head away from the nasty chicken



We switched back and forth between the chicken and some
veggies. This was taken while he was eating the veggies.

 

Pretty sure he's gagging here...



Happy it's over (and quite messy)!

 Grant ended up not finishing the chicken and I haven't been brave enough to try it again since then. It's really the first food he's flat out not liked. The other foods that he didn't finish were because he didn't feel well. We're going to try it again this weekend only because the doctor said to try new foods for 3 days (in a row - but who cares) to make sure he's not allergic. I have a feeling that the other "meats" are probably going to go just as well. This stuff is gross and he knows it. I've heard other moms say that their kids didn't eat the "meats" as well as the veggies so I'm not worried about raising a vegetarian.

I Think...Is He?...Yup! He's Crawling!

Ok, so I have officially decided to call what Grant is doing crawling! I’ve gotten enough opinions from experienced moms who have validated my feeling that this counts as crawling. We have a video but I have no idea how to get that crap from the video camera to the computer so these pictures are the best that I can offer. He’s been doing something like this for a little while now but I didn’t know if it counted. But late last week and over the weekend it escalated to something that seemed much more like crawling so I put him in his little Superman outfit and grabbed the camera and video camera. He starts out really well. He goes a little way actually crawling then he sort of pulls himself across the floor like he's paralyzed from the waist down. He'll usually only do it in the direction of a toy or the phone or remote (just like a man). I've tried to get him to crawl towards me and he'll start out that way but then gets distracted by something apparently more fun than me. Oh well...baby steps :)

I'm gonna get the toys!

Handsome devil getting distracted by Mommy



I wonder if Superman drooled like that as a baby

 

So proud of his little self (all the clapping and excitement from Mommy helped)


 

We took off the cape and our Baby of Steel had a power nap

So it was kind of a big weekend because Grant sort of pulled up for the first time too. What's up with all these big firsts all at once? We put him in his crib to hang out while we were getting ourselves ready for bed and apparently he wanted to know where we went. So he pulled up using the crib bumper and got up on his little knees. So cute!



Peek-a-boo, I see you

 

Crying because Mommy is continuing to take pictures even
though he clearly wants to be picked up.




So proud of himself, again.



Evidently he exhausted himself and passed out.

Wow! Big weekend! We were just as exhausted as Grant was. Too bad he didn't sleep better Sunday night so we could have. He ended up in bed with Mommy sometime around 1:00 a.m. "Crying it out" is a great theory...but not in the middle of the night when the early alarm clock is looming in the not-so-distant future. But the rest of the week has been better.

Some more cuteness from the weekend? Grant and I went shopping on Saturday for some summer clothes which we both need. And both got some good stuff! My favorite thing I bought? Grant's new sun hat. How cute is this?

Such a cutie :)

What the...?

Because I am so far away from home my sister is left to deal with my parent's (and Gram's) belongings. She's planning to move into my parent's house within the next month so she's been there in her free time trying to figure out what to keep, what to get rid of, and what to store. She has discovered my mother's supply of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers - 13 boxes of them (2 per box makes 26 magic erasers) and her supply of disposable plates and plastic ware - some so old they had turned yellow and had to be thrown out. She found multiple open bottles of the same kinds of cleaning products which she meticulously combined because that sort of thing drives her nuts. And she has found the many, many ways in which that house will need fixing - not the least of which is the lack of insulation in the upstairs walls. But there is an explanation for all that. What there's not an explanation for is the picture (painting?) that she found behind my mom's dresser. Seriously, I think we'd both like to know where this came from:



My sister has decided to call him The Matador (is that what it is?). I sorta
think she should keep him. He's rather dashing, isn't he?



New Recipe: Creamy Stove-top Macaroni & Cheese

I was in need of a second new recipe for March and I was scouring the recipes I get in my e-mail everyday (literally, tons every day...I can't look at them all but I want to) for another main dish. One dish meals are my favorite like the Chicken Tetrazzini I made or the Lemon-Broccoli Rice with Chicken. But this time I decided to try a side dish. I love macaroni and cheese. Well, I love just about anything cheesy. But mac & cheese is awesome. There are about a billion different recipes for it and no matter how many times I make the same recipe, it always tastes a little bit different every time. This is a recipe that came in my e-mail from http://www.myrecipes.com/ and you can find the recipe HERE. 

Ingredients. I've never put some of this stuff in Mac & Cheese but I was willing to try it.



Boil & drain the noodles

 

Making the sauce (this is right after I added the cream cheese -
cream cheese in Mac & Cheese? How can that be bad??)



Add the garlic and Worcestershire sauce

Add the cheese

Oh so cheesy!



Mmmmm...

 

I served it with some frozen chicken tenders which were incredibly disappointing. Do not buy Perdue frozen chicken tenders. "Made with all white meat chicken" my butt. They were gross.



 Notes/Suggestions:

• You can use pre-shredded cheese but I prefer to buy the cheese in a brick and shred it myself. I think the pre-shredded cheese too dry and loses some of it's flavor.
• I used WAY more cheese than the recipe called for. It called for 1 1/4 cup so I went ahead and used 2 cups. Husband tasted it and said it needed more cheese...so I added 2 more cups. Yeah, I know...so what! But I suggest starting with what the amount of cheese called for and adding what you like.
• This recipe was super easy! Great for a weeknight. And because it's stove-top it's great if your meat dish or main dish has to cook in the oven.
• Experiment with the noodles! I plan to make it again and I think I'm going to use a different kind of noodle. Doesn't mac & cheese taste better when you have fun noodles?
• The recipe calls for the 1/3 less fat cream cheese but I had 2 packages of the regular stuff in my fridge. Of course it was yummy but next time I'll use the low fat stuff.

If you decide to try it, let me know! Enjoy!

Just Some Ideas...



This Mother's Day will my first Mother's Day. Last year doesn't count even though I was pregnant. Last Mother's Day was the day that started my Mom's three weeks of hospice care before she died. I'm really looking forward to this year (you can probably tell because it's March and I'm already talking about). I'm hoping for a nice weekend so we can have a cookout at a park. My sister is coming too! She says she's looking forward to spending my first Mother's Day with me...but I think she's way more excited about seeing Grant again.

So, since it's my first...I'm rather hoping that Grant will get me a present. Is that wrong? Oh well. But since he doesn't have a job, he's going to need Husband's help (*hint hint*). I thought that I would maybe give Grant some ideas, if he needed them.



I stole this one from my friend Elizabeth's blog. A coffee cup cozy (link HERE). I love the color of this one. I have two favorite coffee mugs and coffee cup cozy would be perfect for one of them.



I love this bag (link HERE). It's me but it's not me. It's just so cute, isn't it?



This is for me and Grant. It's an Ouch Pouch (link HERE) for my diaper bag. I saw this on
Etsy months ago and I will probably end up buying one anyway, I just love the idea of it.
A place to keep all the stuff you need for boo-boos...even a lollipop :)



A mommy necklace. This seller at Etsy has lots of cute necklaces, but I love this one (link HERE).



A picnic blanket! I love this one, I found it at HERE. I plan on our family haivng a
lot of picnics. It was one of my favorite things my parents did with us as kids.





Hahahaha! Ok, so I'm kidding and I'm not. I am the person who always said "I don't care how many kids I have...I will NEVER own a minivan!" Well, here I am with one baby and I'm lusting after them. I love love love the car I have now but I can't help but dream about the convenience of a minivan.
Ahhh...new mommy fantasies :)

So those are just some things a mommy may love. I've included the link in the caption so you can go to the seller's shop on Etsy or the listing on Amazon. I love me some Amazon. Present aside, I really am looking forward to Mother's Day. I'm hoping for a pretty day, yummy food, and great company. It's going to be a good day.