High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some of my favorites from the past week. It's been a great week!

1) Last Friday I decided to send my sister a screen shot of the current weather on my way to work...sort of engaging her in a little who's-colder-weather-pissing-contest. She won.

It's very likely she'll always win, at least in the winter.

2) Saturday was a very lazy day and it was great! It was actually a lazy yet productive weekeend, which is always nice.

Getting ready to play Grant's favorite board game!

3) On Sunday, I finally hung up the little kitchen signs I inherited from my Mom's kitchen. On various trips home I would buy her a few of these because she thought they were so cute. For years they hung above her kitchen cabinets. My sister sent them to me with my Christmas stuff and I've been wanting to hang them since.

Above my bay window.

4) SNOW! A bigger post to come on this but we actually had snow! I am not a transplanted northerner come to escape the weather. It's actually one of the biggest things I miss (besides my family!). While I don't think I've ever had to stay home for 2 days for only 5 inches of snow...I did take the opportunity to really enjoy it with Grant. This wasn't Grant's first snow - it snowed last February - but we did get to enjoy it longer this time.

5) During our snow day adventures, we decided to trek through the "woods" behind our house and found this great little stream. I had no idea it was back there! Grant and I spent a lot of time back there yesterday. It's so pretty! 

I hope you have a great weekend!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Labor Day Weekend Review

Saturday was great. Grant helped me run errands (having him with me while doing returns in a very crowded mall kept my temper in check) and then we rewarded ourselves with some yummy frozen custard.

It was downhill from there. After we got home he seemed fussy and lazy (very un-Grant). Husband took his temp and he had a slight fever. I figured he was teething or had a cold. However, since he was bitten by mosquitoes the previous week, Husband went into panic mode "OH MY GOD HE HAS WEST NILE!!!!"

Fast forward to bed time. My bedtime. Grant was sound asleep, Husband was snoring away in the bedroom (very loudly so I had planted myself on the couch), and I had just turned off my kindle and was ready for sleep too at 11:00 p.m. on the dot. Grant chose that moment to start screaming. Not the "I woke up and I want someone to come in here so I know it's ok to go back to sleep" cry but real screaming. I knew he hadn't fallen out of the crib because it wasn't preceded by a thud. I go in, pick him up and try to calm him. I stand him on the changing table to check him out, he reaches for me, gags and vomits all over. Then, of course, he wants a hug. Vomits again. Tries to hug it out. Vomits again. Husband comes in "OH MY GOD HE'S THROWING UP! WHAT DO WE DO?" I have said in the past, and he agrees, I handle this stuff much better than Husband.

So we get Grant calmed down, almost asleep even, after a change of clothes. We figure the worst is over but have to get the 103.3 temp down. We gave him Tylenol...and there we go again with vomiting and hugging. I smelled great. Husband: "WHAT DO WE DO IF HE CAN'T TAKE MEDICINE?" I'm not exaggerating his panic in the least, by the way. And there was a lot of it. I tell him to run a cool bath. A) It helps and B) Grant is wearing his last 3 meals. "ARE YOU SURE THAT'S WHAT TO DO?" Let me tell you, between taking care of Grant and dealing with my deranged husband, I felt like Supermom that night. But it all worked out and we all managed to find sleep around 2 a.m.

The rest of the weekend consisted of laying around in PJ's and watching more Thomas the Train  and Monster Jam than anyone should ever be subjected to. Slight relapse of fever but otherwise just fine.

I wouldn't let Grant play outside so he sat at the door and
watched Daddy mow the lawn. He loves the "tractor".

"Oh...someday I'll drive a tractor"

On Tuesday everyone went to their intended destinations. But when Husband went to pick up Grant in the afternoon they said he clearly wasn't feeling well. At one point having a crying spell that no one could calm and he eventually took a nap (at 4:30 which is very unusual). He came home and guess what? Threw up. So I kept him home yesterday for a doctor's appointment. She looked him over and when she got to his throat said "There's where that fever is coming from. His throat is really swollen. We'll do a strep test but he's really too young for that. It's probably viral." So we waited for the test results. She came back 15-20 minutes later with a weird look on her face. "OMG ITS WEST NILE Well, it's strep. It's strange, we don't generally see that in someone his age." So he's on antibiotics for a bit. Now we just need to keep our fingers crossed that we don't get it!

Oh yeah, we also converted the crib Monday:

Big guy bed!

But that's a whole other post.

Father's Day 2012

It was really Father's Weekend. We had our Father's Day get-together on Saturday instead of Sunday because my sister-in-law and her boyfriend were in town. So we had the two of them, my father-in-law and his wife over for a cookout (referenced in my previous post about the chocolate cake). I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures from the evening. I spent a lot more time in the kitchen than I did for Mother's Day and in our cleaning-up process the camera got put somewhere and it slipped my mind to get it out. But we all had a great time...especially Grant because he was the center of attention. He's always shy with people at first, but once he realizes that everyone wants to play with him then he's all about it.

Sunday, at Husband's request, we had a very lazy day. After being thrown up on by Grant (because he's sick - again) we pretty much sat around until Grant went down for his nap. Then Husband mowed the lawn and I ran some errands with Grant after he woke up but that was really the most effort that either of us put forth. But sometimes you really just need a lazy day.

Grant and his Daddy (and his new bat and ball from his Grandpa!)

After a very unusual nap #2, Grant remained upright only
long enough to walk from his room to ours so he could
cuddle with Daddy and watch nascar.

Then while Daddy finished watching the race (I'd sooner have
needles in my eyes), I took my little slugger outside
to practice hitting the ball. He may just be the next
Derek Jeter (only much, much cuter)!

I may have mentioned before that Husband is the worst person in the world to buy for. The only things he ever "needs" are clothes - which I've been forbidden to buy for him. And all of his "wants" are expensive enough that he just doesn't tell me - because he knows he won't get them. But for occasions like Father's Day, I think the gifts should be special and/or unique. Last year I got him a key chain with his favorite picture of Grant on it and "Happy First Father's Day 2011" on the back. It broke like a month later. Go me.

But this year, I think I picked a pretty good one. And Grant even helped me with it! Husband is a collector of sports cards and sports memorabilia. So I "made" a baseball with Grant's hand print on it and the date then put "Happy Father's Day" on the side:

 And then I put it in one of those cases so it would look like the real deal:

I think he liked it very much.

I hope that any of the Daddy's who may happen to stumble upon this post had a great Father's Day/Weekend!

Baby of Steel!

Today has been a very lazy day. And by lazy I mean I didn't even make an attempt to leave the house (or clean it). But hanging around the house means a day with Grant which I appreciate so much more since going back to work. He's very "Look what I can do!" lately and it was cracking me up today. He's been able to roll over for a while now but for the last couple of weeks he's remembering he can do it and that he's getting good at it. He's trying like mad to crawl but frustration kicks in when he just can't put everything together. And we're practicing sitting up and with everything that he's doing lately he's never happy being held "like a baby" unless he's sleepy. Husband's favorite thing to do is make Grant laugh. He was the first one to make him laugh and, I'll admit it, he's better at than I am.

So today I remembered an outfit that my sister bought for Grant before he was born. It's a onesie she got from Six Flags that looks like a Superman Costume - complete with a cape. The absolute ridiculousness of it makes it cute and funny at the same time. Today I decided to see if he's finally big enough for it and I was surprised to find he was! When she sent it I thought "Holy crap, that's huge"...well, he's huge (compared to the little peanut he was when he was born). Check out my Baby of Steel:



He hides that six pack at daycare...wouldn't want the older boys to get jealous





Baby of Steel! (it says so on his sleeve)




Able to scale rubbermaid bins in a single bound...




I love this kid :)