My Son the Chew Toy

All parents hear at some point about the biting stage that toddlers go through. I get it, it's how they get their point across to each other. And I've seen my child be bossy enough times to expect that behavior from him. And I've been given some advice on how to deal with your own child biting you (and it sounds like it works).

Grant has been bitten at day care. First, in his old room, the waddler room. Nate came home with "I had to sign an accident report. Some kid bit him today." He seemed a little upset about it. I told him it's going to happen. And I'm glad I took that attitude about it because it turns out that it was Grant's fault. He was sticking his whole hand in the kids mouth! Talk about asking for it. Now, in the toddler room, he's been bitten four more times in the past two weeks. And the marks left behind are getting worse.


This one happened Wednesday. I didn't take a picture of the one
on his back from the day before.

Dont' get me wrong. I'm still of the mindset that this will happen. But I'm gonna need Grant to start biting back. Wednesday morning before school (we call daycare school) I heard Nate telling Grant "Don't get into any fights today over toys. If another kid wants the toy you have just give it to them, don't get bit today." WHAT? No sir, not cool. I said "Don't tell him that! [Hello, like he understands either one of us] We can't teach him to just roll over and get picked on! Grant, if someone wants your toy and bites you then you do this." And I grabbed his arm and bit him lightly. It must have tickled because he laughed. And then Husband kind of agreed and told him he should also kick them in the diaper. Clearly, no lesson was learned because he was bitten again that day. So he got the same lesson yesterday morning and there were no biting occurrences.

Again, I'm not upset that it's being done to him. It happens and I know that. But c'mon, Grant! Stick up for yourself! I thought for sure he'd have caused a problem by now! (He can be kind of a bossy pants sometimes.)

Goals for the New Year

Last year's post about the new year seems like much longer than a year ago. I did ok with some of my goals, others changed as the year went by. One was to become a "stay-at-home" mom for Grant but that's been put on hold. We've gotten into a routine with work and day care and we've realized that it works for us right now. If we ever have another child (Husband says never but I keep telling him that we probably need one more) then I'm sure we'll re-evaluate the situation, but for now things are good the way they are. That was really the biggest one.

I had also challenged myself to try new recipes. And I did pretty well with that one. I didn't always post about them - and they didn't always turn out great - but I enjoyed trying new recipes and I need to keep it up because lately I've gotten rather lazy in the kitchen.

My goals for 2012:

• If there is anything I've learned in the past few years it's that life is short. Too short to take everything seriously. And way too short to be an "all work and no play" sort of person. So this year I'm going to have more fun and I'm going to force Husband (who can be very "all work and no play") to have fun with me.
• I'd like to take at least two vacations this year. Even if one ends up having to be a long weekend. We need to take a trip up to NY to visit my family. And I'd like us to have at least a long weekend in the mountains or even the beach.
• I will excersize more. Not really to lose weight, but just because I feel better when I do it. Even if it's just getting outside with the stroller for walks. I need to do more of it.
• Keep up my recipe challenge. My search for new recipes was a little frustrating at times but I enjoyed getting out of my recipe rut. And I like that Husband was very honest when trying my new stuff.
• My frivolous goal: to either buy and learn to use a sewing machine OR get myself a new camera. Maybe I'll even be crazy and do both. They're both fun and neither one is necessary but I really want them.

Happy New Year everyone!

16 Months

Morning snack and cartoons while Mama and Daddy
get ready for work.

I know what you're thinking. Is that really the best picture she could post? The answer is: Yes. Yes it is. It seems as if the only time this child is still is when he's sleeping. I have tried a couple times since he "turned 16 months" to take pictures of him. I may still manage a good one or two to post at a later date but what you see is what you get. If you want a better one check out the one I posted on Christmas Day.

It's funny how a month changes things. My last update said he was doing some talking. He still gabs all the time like he did when I posted that but we're getting more real words out of him now. Just the other morning he told me "thank you" when I gave him his breakfast and even shouted "nana!" and pointed when he saw me cutting his banana. He says "ball" now and says "hey" and "hi" quite often (he loves to greet people in the grocery store) and even says "bye" sometimes. Recently we've noticed that it seems like he's trying to say "big truck" and will point to a truck when he's trying to say it. He's been gabbing so much for the past few months that we've said several times that when he starts using more real words he'll probably never shut up. 

He still loves his books and any toys that he can stack and is really into music. He loooves to dance (and by "dance" I mean sway back and forth when he hears a song). Its so funny to see him run around like crazy and then stop to dance. And he'll generally clap when the song is over.

We've been noticing that Grant lets us know when he's has poopy pants. Ok, so sometimes it's fairly obvious with the grunting. But sometimes...not so much so we ask him and he'll point down toward his diaper. And it's also pretty obvious that he knows what the toilet is for. So probably in the next month or so when our schedules all get back to normal we're going to start getting him used to the potty. Not really hardcore potty training but just to see how he does with it and if he's really ready.

Grant has been forward facing in the car for about a month now and seems pretty happy with it. I know we are. Besides it just being more convenient, it's so nice to be able to glance back and see what's going on. And Grant seems to enjoy it more too, I think it's easier for him to look out the window with the new angle of the seat (and I think he likes that he can see us too).

I think that about wraps it up. He seems to be doing everything he's supposed to be doing - as well as plenty of things he's not supposed to be doing.

Christmas 2011

Our family had a great Christmas. Like last year, we had a little get-together on Christmas Eve (my goal is to keep this up because we always used to do it in our family growing up). And my sister came again this year to spend the holiday with us. We got up early on Christmas morning, had a less than yummy breakfast (I tried a new breakfast casserole recipe that I will never make again), and opened our stockings and presents. I don't have a too many pictures because we used the video camera a lot but also because I tried to put down the camera some and enjoy the day. Grant got up later than the rest of us so the three of us opened our presents and then Grant did his.

After Santa came - the big red bag is Grant's basketball set. I'm not
a fan of unwrapped presents "under" the tree so Husband and I
compromised. He put it together so Grant could play with it
immediately and I got to throw a big bag over it and call it wrapped.

It was the best one I could get of Grant by
the tree. He wasn't much for smiling
at that point.

My sister has been "threatening" to get Grant a drum set. And, in
cahoots with my mother-in-law, she did. However, it's pretty adorable
and has yet to become annoying.

Husband likes it too.

Grant loves his new little chair

What I wish I'd gotten a picture of is my sister opening one of her presents. I'd been teasing her about it for almost two months and she wanted so bad to know what it was. Right before she opened it I told her to not get excited about the box because it wasn't what was actually in there. So she starts to open it and she pays no attention to it being a box for a Kindle knowing that I have one. So she starts to look for the box opening and I said "No, I'm just kidding. That's what's really in there." She flipped out! I guess she wanted one more than I thought she would :)

After all that we went to my Mother-in-law's for Christmas lunch. (FYI: the camera got left behind - by accident - so all these were taken with my phone. Sorry for the quality but there's no amount of editing that would help.)

Grant's cute Santa plate!

Grant and Robbie. Grant loves how little she is!

More presents!

After lunch, present opening, dessert, and talking about how we shouldn't have eaten as much as we did we headed back home so Grant would take a nap. He seemed to be refusing to nap at Grandma's. I think he just didn't want to miss anything. After a good nap - which meant the three of us could rest too - Grant got up to play some more with all his new toys.

Along with the new toys (and the clothes that went
unnoticed) Santa brought some fun new books!

And a pre-bath escape that led to...

A Lego explosion.

It probably doesn't look like it, but we tried to go small with Christmas. Everyone gets excited about presents - and I am no exception - but I really want to raise Grant to care less about the presents and more about spending time with family at Christmas. To know that it's not about getting everything you put on your list but about feeling fortunate for what you have and who you get to spend it with.

We had a really great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and I hope everyone reading this did too!

Santa Came to Town...

Actually, Santa came to day care. And I'll bet he was hiding a flask in that big red suit. Grant's last day of day care before Christmas was Thursday (I kept him home Friday so we could go pick up my sister from the airport and spend the day together). That day was "pajama day". Apparently they have Santa come to day care and they have the kids dress in their PJ's for pictures. I had wanted to take Grant to see Santa this year but with how crappy I felt from being sick I just never had the time. So I got over my jealousy that I wasn't going to be there the first time Grant saw Santa and hoped they'd send home a picture.

And they did.

And I laughed myself silly.

I've seen pictures over the last month of other people's kids with Santa and I got kind of sad knowing we wouldn't have a picture like that from this year. Then I saw the day care picture. I'm totally convinced that my liver attacked me so that I wouldn't take Grant to see Santa. He is that kid.

I was informed by Husband that "It's not funny. It looks like they tortured him!" But I thought it was hysterical. Poor Santa.

Maybe next year.

*Side Note: I want to point out that, although it doesn't seem like it here, I love that they do this stuff at day care. In addition to the above picture of my terrified child they also sent home several Christmas crafts that they helped Grant make for us. My favorite is a reindeer made from his hand prints and a footprint. So so cute. I feel like he's learning a lot from them and this new room that he's moved into is going to be even more fun for him.