Every. Single. Minute.

The Duke and Duchess of Sabie Manor are very pleased to share this lovely picture as they celebrate master Grant’s fourth birthday, 

and would like to thank everyone for all of the kind messages they have received.

My conversations with Grant are the highlight of my day.

Wait - AND my husband coming home from work, seeing Logan grow up, playing with Ollie and Toby, my back not hurting anymore, and breathing air... yup, conversations with Grant are a huge highlight of my day.

Why? They make me laugh. They make me think. They make me smile. They make me appreciate the way his mind works. They make me want to climb in the back of the van with him and snuggle and hope someone else can drive us to school.

On the way to school today...

Grant: Mom, this ride is so long. I'm going to count to 100.
Me: Okay, go.

G: 1, 2, 3, ....no wait! That will take too long. I'm going to start at 11. 11, 12, 13... No wait. Count by 10s it will be faster. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100!
M: Whew! That was quick. We are still on the freeway.

G: Ya mom, you should drive faster.
M: I can only go as fast as the car in front of me.

G: Mom, pick a faster car to follow tomorrow.

In the mornings, I don't play music. I don't have the radio on. We drive in silence. I don't ask questions. I wait. If nothing else, parenthood has taught me to sit quietly and wait (I'll hold while you all giggle at me waiting and being quiet.)
I wait for the magic that happens when Grant and Logan are in the car together. They talk to each other. They laugh. Grant tells me all about the dinosaur that lives in the forest - the grove of trees we pass every day. Grant used to count the school buses. Three school buses was normal, only one meant we were early, and one day we counted seven - we were really late to school that day. Now he keeps track of trucks, car transporters, blue cars, red trucks... you name it and depending on the day he is tracking it. I have no use for music in my car, just the boys talking and laughing is music to my ears.

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The other day, Grant asked me what his belly button was for. In our house, we answer the question we were asked, but stop there. Usually just enough information is... well, enough. 

G: (eating lunch with Logan). Mom, why do we have belly buttons?

M: Well, when you were in my tummy, I ate food. That food went from my tummy in to your tummy through a hose to your belly button.

G: EW. Gross. Good thing we have mouths now.

M: Yup, good thing.

G: Logan too?

M: Yup, my tummy fed Logan's tummy too.

Grant now gets up to walk over and pick up Logan's shirt to make sure he has a belly button too. Logan takes this as an invitation and takes off his shirt at the table.

G: You fed us through a hose?

M: Well, I chewed it first, and it got digested. And then you got it. It made you grow.

Grant makes a face, sits down, and continues to eat his lunch while contemplating the meaning of life. Logan, in Logan fashion, is done with lunch and announces this by throwing all his food on the floor.

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Before our trip to Costco the other day:

Grant: Logan, make sure you poop before we go so you don’t smell like poop in Costco.

I could not agree more. 

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School

Speaking of counting to 100, it was Mom's day at school the other day and I got to visit Grant at school and have him show me around.

This is a picture from one of Grant's teachers. The school uses an app to take photos during the day and they show up on the app on my phone. Love it. Grant is learning to use the 1-100 board. First, you organize the numbers in groups of 10 under the correct heading, and then place them in the square board in the proper order. You can see by the order Grant did all the 10's first, and then sort of just fills in as he goes.

 Same day, total joy and excitement at being done with his "work".

On Mom's Day, I went to school with Grant for an hour and he got to show me all around the classroom and what his favorite "works" are. First of all - do not sit in the wrong spot! 19 moms all trying to sit down in the classroom with their kids telling them "No mom, that's not my special spot." AH!! Someone please tell me where to sit. I finally gave Grant my hand and said "Tell mom where to be," and he did. He placed me right where you see me and I stayed for fear of being yelled at.

He immediately pulls out a rug (all works must be done on a rug), unrolls the rug, and goes straight for the 1-100 board. This time even though he lined up the categories at the top, he skipped them and took the tiles from the box and went immediately to the board. The board is basically a 10 x 10 grid with 100 squares penciled in. You can see he started with 1, 2, 3 and 5. Then the fun started. What you don't see is that then he pulled out all the 10's - 10, 20, 30... and lined them up down the side of the board. Then he started pulling out random tiles and placing them in the square where they go.

Example: he pulled out 67 and put his finger on the 60 tile already on the board, counted 7 squares over, and put the 67 in that square. If you've ever wanted to see a mom try her hardest not to cry in preschool, today was the day. I sat there. I said nothing. I tried by very best not to jump in, and then realized, I wasn't needed anyway. And that's the point. He did it all by himself.

Now I must add he likes to type on the computer at home. He types letters, tries to spell things, and has recently learned you can type numbers too. I set up a square template for him in Excel to type numbers in 1-100 (before he did this work at school) and we talked about how you know you did it right when all the 1's line up going down - 1, 11, 21, 31...they all line up.

When he was done with the work at school, before I could say anything, he looked at me and said "I know I did it right because look, all the 7's line up." Ugh. Tears.

Yes, there is Dad's day early next semester. Will keep you posted.

More Fun with Questions

When we are getting ready for school, Grant does most of the heavy lifting himself. We set out his clothes the night before, which he promptly vetoes the next morning and picks new clothes. He and Logan both can pick out their breakfast, and luckily, Logan likes to copy brother and everyone brushes their teeth together. We were brushing teeth one morning and I mentioned we will have to put the children's toothpaste on the shopping list...
(Keep in mind the three of us are brushing our teeth while we have this little chat).

G: Which shopping list does it go on? 

M: Well, I will put it on Target and the grocery store and where ever we go first is where we will get it.

G: But where is it?

M: At both places, Target and Schnucks.

G: But where?

M: You mean where in the store? (nodding) In Target, the toothpaste is over by all the lotions and soaps, where all those aisles are together. 

G: Oh, where all the pretty mom stuff is at Target?

M: (trying not to laugh and spit out toothpaste) Yes bud, over by all the pretty mom stuff.

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Grant's Birthday

For Grant's birthday we were invited to the preschool class to spend a few minutes telling the class all about Grant, what he likes, sharing his favorite toys, and then reading Grant's favorite book to the class. Kyle, Logan and I all got ready and the 4 of us went to school together. He was shy about having us in "his space" and was not really happy about being the center of attention. I don't think it is a case of being embarrassed, more shy and not wanting the attention - more so not wanting everyone looking at him. We were only there for 20 minutes, and once we left I'm sure he bounced right back to his normal self at school.

Grant goes to a Montessori school and birthdays are science-based. Grant is supposed to hold the Earth and walk around the sun (a lit candle) 4 times to learn that a year is once around the sun, but he said no thanks to that. Kyle held the Earth and told the class all about Grant's exciting first 4 years. You can see Logan in the background, exploring the class and not having a concern for what is going on.

Then we switched and it was my turn to show the class the collage that Grant made of family pictures, stickers, cut-outs from magazines and coloring books of all his favorite toys. He even did the scissors and glue-stick all by himself.

In the end, it was time to go. Gave him one big hug and off we went. I'm sure he was happy to have it all over and done with.
Funny thing happened later that day - I was taking Logan to the Toddler room to meet the teacher - he will start 2 days a week in January with the same Toddler teacher that Grant had - and we saw Grant's class walk by. Every student in line behind the teacher, all hands at the sides, eyes straight ahead, totally quiet. I gave Grant the big mom wave, and he turned his head to look at me once, and kept on walking.

Forty-five minutes later when I picked him up and he climbed in the van he says right away "Mom, we aren't allowed to talk. We have to have eyes front, mouths closed and hands on our hips." Okay bud, you did a great job then.
"Ya, Logan is going to have to learn all these rules pretty quickly."

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Funny conversation earlier that morning - the morning he turned 4 and clearly a switch turned on in his brain because he is a totally different person than the 3 yr old from last week. All four of us were in the kitchen having breakfast getting ready to go to school...

G: Mom - what are those bumps on your shoulders?
M: Hmmm....what are you talking about bud?

G: Those two bumps on your  shoulders? (points to his chest)
M: (Keep it straight. Keep it simple. Go for science.). Bud, ladies and men are different. Ladies have breasts in case they have babies, then they can feed the babies milk. I'm a lady and I have had two babies, you and Logan.

G: All ladies have them?
M: Yes. Every one is different. All ladies are different. They are in case you have a baby, then you can feed the baby milk.

G: Oh, can I have another breakfast bar?
M: Yup, here you go.
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Naps and Quiet Games

Due to being the 2nd child, Logan gets the shaft on morning naps. He gets a quick nap while we drive Grant to school, and another quick one when we pick Grant up. Therefore, he is a great after-lunch napper. Grant is not an every-day napper, but has picked up the skills for playing quietly. We have a rule while I take Logan upstairs and read books for nap, Grant can come with us, read books on his own, or find a quiet game to play until I come back downstairs. The other day I was upstairs reading Logan books and in the back of my mind I heard the basement door open. I heard feet going down the steps, the cabinet open, and a game being brought back up to the kitchen. Then I heard tiles being stacked on the kitchen table and he was telling Ollie "mom says we have to be quiet" in the loudest little boy shhhh-voice you can imagine.

I knew he was playing Rummikub. We had brought the game out before and just lined up the numbers and looked at the tiles, never really played the game by the rules. However, I think when he gets a bit older he will jump right in and beat the pants off of all of us. I was not ready for what I saw when I came downstairs.

This is what he did. On his own. Quietly, in about 20 minutes. He pulled out the trays and not only separated by color, but you can see he had time to put some of them in order. He was so excited he talked in the loudest whisper ever. I asked if he wanted me to play with him and he politely declined, "No thank you, I'm good. I'm almost done lining them up."

Of course when Logan woke up, he saw what was on the table and Grant was willing to show Logan how to do it. Logan mostly wanted to chew on the tiles and try to place them in the tray. Grant would come by every few minutes to help Logan separate them by color and line them up. Then Logan would knock everything on the floor just to watch Grant lose his marbles... and so it goes. 

Those of you who have played cards with me before know that I hold my cards backwards. Rummy, poker - you name it and I hold my cards with the higher numbers on the left. When I would play cards with mom and Grandma Siemens, Grandma Siemens used to call me "Mandi from backwards land." Well, look who else is from backwards land, and no, I did not show him that.

Christmas

Last year Grant had just turned 3, and it was the first year he understood the idea of presents. Did he understand Christmas? Probably not. He had just had a birthday and turned 3, and all the presents on the table were for him. Then 10 days later was Christmas and he had a tough time understanding why all the presents under the tree were not for him. I can see the confusion. The big milestone was just being excited and physically knowing how to unwrap and get to the present. Last year with just the four of us, actually three because Logan was 6 months old and napped through most of it, opening presents took 4 hours. No exaggeration. He would open a present and be so excited (which is exactly what you want) and then go off and play with present. We had to remind him to come back because he had a few more. This year's birthday was pretty much the same, with about 20 minutes per present while he played with each one. Which really, is exactly what you would hope for because so many kids rip through the paper only to see what it is and reach for the next gift. These days at the ones to enjoy.

This year, Grant understands a bit more, and while Logan doesn't totally understand, he does notice when Grant thinks something is important or special, so he follows suit. Here are a few of the things that the boys think are pretty important.

The felt Christmas tree. I bought this last year (or maybe the year before that when he was 2?) on etsy for Grant to play with. The idea was he could move the ornaments and presents around on this tree and not on the real tree. Grant still loves to play with it. Logan mostly ignores it until Grant is playing with it, and then goes over to bug Grant.

Kyle does the house up every year. He changes out the bulbs to the lights on the house so they are red and green, and we have a candy cane walk-way. I open the front door so the boys can see out through the clear storm door and look at the candy canes lit up and all the lights on the neighbors' houses. Grant will ask me every day "Can you tell the sun to go down so we can see the lights?"

I call it the Costco Christmas tree. The impulse-purchase Christmas tree that sings lovely standard Christmas songs and has Santa and his reindeer on one level and a train on the bottom, and it lights up! What more could two boys want? I'm actually surprised we haven't broken it yet. We are on year 2 and the boys keep trying to put in their own trains on the bottom track and it blocks the whole thing up. Tough little singing tree!

Books

A friend of mine, who knows I try to sneak in reading books whenever I can, recently asked me to join a book club. I said thanks but politely declined. My thought process on that is I have a very limited time to read all the books on my long long list, and I usually the books other people read aren't the ones I want to read. In theory, I don't want to read the same book as 11 other people and then talk about it. HOWEVER, if you could have 12 people read 12 different books and then come to a meeting and talk about them, I could learn about 11 different books and then quickly either add them to my read list or my no-thanks list.

If you read books and want to talk about them, I am on goodreads.com with a few friends and we post our reviews there. Goodreads is a good way to keep track of the books you have read, plus the books you want to read, and read reviews from other people about books you are on the fence about - like Netflix is for movies, Goodreads is for books. I also have a small group on facebook where we post our book reviews. Just let me know if you are interested.

I am currently reading a book by Joe Biden, Promise me, Dad.
Regardless if you like his politics or not, this is a great book about family. love, hope and motivation. I find it very interesting too because we get play-by-play info of certain political aspects that you don't hear everyday on the news. I also had no idea that he was married before Jill and that his two sons are not from his current wife. No spoilers here, you learn that on the first few pages. His first wife is the wife of his two sons and a young daughter, but the wife and daughter die in a car accident that nearly kills the boys as well. You will be in tears by page 4.  Happy tears and sad tears. Highly recommend.

When I read a book, rarely do I get it from the library. The books I have read most recently are to learn a new skill, add to parenting theories, or read about a person. I don't just read books, I devour them. I highlight, I write, I love my books. I consume them.  I rarely give them away or loan them out. If I do loan a book out I have no expectation of getting it back. The house of my dreams has a room in it just for books, so I can keep all the books I read and look at them again. In that regard, I suggest you buy your own Joe Biden book, because this one I am keeping.

I also just read a fiction trilogy, mostly because they are turning the first book into a movie and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. It is the Southern Reach trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. Great books, a quick read, but you don't want to read them quickly. You need to pay attention. I did buy these books off Amazon because it was faster than waiting for my turn at the library. They are making a movie off the first book with Natalie Portman, and it is one of those books where if the movie nails it, then it will be awesome and epic, or it could go horribly wrong and be the worst movie ever. After reading all 3 books, I am excited to see the movie. I do have these books, and I am happy to pass them along to anyone who would like to read them.

That's all I have for now! Until next time, keep exploring! Love and hugs from our family to yours.

M, K, G, L, T & O

Big Boy!

Look out world, we are entering Big Boy status. 

School has started, and it is all the rage. We love school. We only go 3 hours twice a week, but we have so much fun! As soon as I pick him up, he jibber-jabbers all he can to tell me what he did that day, right up until he falls asleep. After 3 weeks of school (6 class days), he has yet to make it all the way home awake, and that is okay by me! Thankfully, he transfers well to his crib and as long as we have a snack before we head for home he will stay asleep and take a great nap.

Before school started we talked about all the fun things he was going to get to do. The class has a turtle and a hamster the kids can feed in the morning, plus puzzles, games, painting, and toys outside.  He was ready and rearing to go.

Here we are with Dad on the first day of school. Mom had a bad back that day and had to call in for reinforcements, so Dad jumped in. With this school, they do something really helpful and the teacher came to visit Grant at the house a few days before school started! It was just for 15 minutes, but it was fun for him to meet her "on his own turf" and show her his toys and say hi. Then on the first day he walked in the classroom like they were old friends. 

With Grant, there are no tears. He's happy to hold your hand on the way in to class, but once he sees all the fun stuff to do, it is almost as if he holds up his hands and says, "Peace mom! I'm out. See you later." and walks right in to class without looking back. 

Another fun thing about school is that Grant is in charge of taking his tote bag to and from school every day. Sometimes there is nothing in it, sometimes a piece of paper, a note home from the teacher, but every day the bag goes to school and comes home. I like that it teaches responsibility, how to carry something, be in charge of something, and it is too stinking cute to see all the toddlers carrying their bags. Plus, the preschoolers have a different bag, so at drop-off in the mornings you can tell who goes where by which bag they are carrying. So fun!

With school only 2 days a week and swim lessons on Saturday, I thought how bizarre and confusing it must be for Grant to wake up and wonder where we are going today? We talk about it at night when he goes to bed, letting him know tomorrow is a school day, but what else could we do? A calendar! I grabbed some poster board and post-its and made a make-shift (read - okay if he destroys it) calendar. We read it every morning when we come downstairs, and then before we go to bed we look at what we are doing tomorrow. I am still waiting for my swim stickers to come in the mail, and then we will know on Saturdays we swim.
On a sidenote - when did stickers become so hard to find and so expensive? I remember stickers being sold everywhere for maybe $0.99 a pack, and now that I actually want to buy stickers, I can't find them. I am not paying for those scrapbooking stickers either. Moving on...

I was telling an acquaintance of mine about the calendar, and having no children, they asked, "Can he even understand it?"

Don't know, don't care. He seems to get the idea, and if not now, then maybe in the future he will. Would you rather have someone show you a new idea or concept before you are ready, or have them wait and not tell you until they think you are ready? All I know is that for 3 years in high school Spanish class every morning we had to say "Good morning. Today is Monday, September 14, 2015" (en espanol por favor), and I still remember it to this day. So if nothing else, Grant will learn his months, days of the week, and how to count to 30...between now and 3 years from now.

Another part of being a big boy is that we can climb up on kitchen chairs now. He can climb up on anything now. He like to sit at the table and eat, and originally requested all his meals served at the adult table. However, a negotiation was reached, and the three main meals are served in the high chair, with the after-nap snack served at the adult table. The after-nap snack is usually crackers and cheese with milk, which is the least messy of the meals during the day. Plus, Toby really likes crackers and cheese and is happy to help clean up. 

I accidentally bought the best book ever. While strolling through Target I grabbed it for him to read in the cart as I finished up the list. Yes, I know, I was boycotting Target for Amazon Pantry, but that is a blog for another day. We are back at Target with "list only" purchases on a "needs-only" basis. We tend to have a lot of rules...clearly I broke one of them already by buying the best book ever when it wasn't on my list.

After walking through Target and getting my list done at light speed, I realized Grant had not made a peep the whole time. He was mesmerized by this alphabet book. For every letter, it has arrows showing you how to properly print the letter, and as an added bonus, each page has a flap to show you one more word that starts with that letter. He loved it. He uses his fingers to follow the arrows, lifts the flaps up, and when he got to the end, he closed the book, flipped it open to the front and began again. Sold!

Grant's personality emerges more and more each day.  He is a funny guy, and loves to smile and giggle and laugh with you. He also has decided lately that he loves hats.We have a real hats around the house, but I also grabbed a few from the $1 bin - important hats like fireman, construction worker and army general.

Oh, and if you are wondering, I looked it up. Darn English.
emerge: to come into existence; develop
immerge: to plunge, as if into a fluid OR to disappear by entering into any medium, as the moon into the shadow of the sun.

New fun for our house also includes a magnet board. Our fridge has wood paneling to match the cabinets (which is way cooler than it sounds) and so we were at a loss to play with magnets on the fridge. A little Google search to see what everyone else is doing, besides paying the $50 some companies wanted for their magnet boards, and I found the best idea ever. This is an old-school oil pan. The kind your grandpa had under his car in the garage that is $11.99 at Ace Hardware. It is perfect. Plus, now he's not in front of the fridge. He loves it, and I love that he can play in the kitchen and be where I can see and hear him. 

One of Grant's favorite things is running around the circle in our house through the family room, entry way, dining room and back again. He thinks it is funny every single time he pops out of the swinging door, and really, who could blame him? Toby thinks it is a great game too and the two of them are peas in a pod, right up until they are mortal enemies. But best friends right up until then.

Another awesome purchase that I was not intending to buy - gigantic flashcards from Costco. They are just the right size for little hands to hold and play with. Stacking them in the box is the best part. They have great pictures and a clean large font to read. I have thrown out some flashcards in the past because the font was so flowery they were not easy to read. We have a ABC set and a First Word set. Love them both. Grant likes to look through the flashcards and find ones that he knows we have the actual object in the house, like ball or apple, and he will get up with the flashcard in hand and walk over to get the item.  He also will place the Dog flashcard over by Toby, because, you know, he's a dog. It's amazing to sit and just watch the wheels in his head go to work. With the airplane card, he will grab his ear and point towards the sky because we can usually hear airplanes flying over the house. Any animal card and he makes the sound of the animal. Interestingly, since we have not seen a van (we have an SUV), he would see the van card and I would say VAN, and he pointed up - to the ceiling FAN. Even when he gets it wrong he still gets it right. Thankfully our neighbor now has a van so we can see it in their driveway and talk about it.

My favorite part of every day is just watching him grow, learn, and explore. He is so happy to share his world with us and tell us all about it. You just have to sit and listen.

We have posted a few new videos since last time. Instead of listing them all here, just go to the Mandi Comer Sabie YouTube page to check them out.

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,
M, K, G&T

Big Boy!

There is a young male child living in our house.

He has only been on Earth for 20 months, and has yet to circle the sun for his second time, however...

He smiles soo big when he is happy, and has the cutest "mean" face when he's mad.
He knows how to tell a joke.
He knows how to pet Toby and give him snuggles.

He empties my pantry of canned goods on a daily basis, only to stack them all back up again.
He takes all my tea out of the tea box, and then puts them back in - separating each of the 4 teas by color.

He likes to brush his teeth, but we are still working on spitting.
He knows that if he clicks the mouse enough, Curious George cartoons appear on the computer.
Oh, he can reach the computer.

He can reach the top of the counter on the island in the kitchen.
He can reach the locks on the doors.
He can open every door in the house, locked or not.
He can also go inside while you are still outside, and lock you out. (once)

He knows the basement TV plays more Curious George and Thomas cartoons than the main TV. (Amazon fire stick)
He opens and closes the dishwasher, knows which button unlocks the dishwasher, and will pull out the silverware tray and put it up on the island counter top for you.

If he could, he would open the fridge. But once open, he can pull open the drawer and pick out apples and oranges for lunch.
He communicates with every fiber in his being. We are trying to learn his language while he learns ours, but in the meantime, we communicate with sounds, arm movements, pointing, and sign language. Sometimes I feel like I catch myself sounding more like Curious George.

He likes trains, cars, trucks. If it can roll fast and preferably crash into a wall, then he likes it.

He's not afraid to fall down.
He will point and show you where on the ground exactly he fell down.

He doesn't mind skinned knees, or that mom cleans out his cuts at the end of the day.
He does not like to wear Band-Aids.
He does not like dirt on his hands.

He also likes to snuggle.
He likes blankets, and likes to be wrapped up in them.

He loooves to play in water: bath tub, kiddie pool, big pool, water table, shower, sink.
Sprinklers? Not so much.
He loves chalk. Loves to write with chalk, color with chalk, sit in chalk.
He loves crayons and his coloring table.

He loves to read.
He loves his books. He will sit for spans of 30 minutes and quietly read books from his basket.
He will also cross-reference books while you read to him. This book has a picture of an octopus. He will pull out another book and flip to the page of the octopus in THAT book too.

He LOVES his Dad.

He likes to GO. He likes to RUN. He likes to have FUN and LIVE.
He is happy all the time, except when he's not. Thankfully, he's becoming very good at telling us why and when he's not.

He likes us. We like him. I love Every. Single. Minute. of it.

 He likes trains, and train tracks. He likes to watch Mom put a track together and then take it apart like Godzilla.

Toby likes to photo bomb pictures.

He has discovered how fun chalk can be, especially on a black asphalt driveway.

He likes to sit in the middle of the action. It's very serious business.

We bought this to warn our neighbors once Grant starts riding a bike around the cul de sac. For now, his name is "The Guy", as in "Don't go past The Guy at the end of the driveway."  Toby likes him.

 Toby likes to sit at the end of the driveway and watch the neighborhood as well as protect his family. I think sometimes Toby is friends with The Guy and thinks they are guarding the driveway together, but other times Toby may be using him for cover.

After all that fun, you need a bath...

 ...followed by some good quality quiet reading time with your good buddy.

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,
M, K, G and T

Favorite Moments

If I live to be 100, then I only get 64 more years of fun with Grant, and that isn't damn near long enough.

9 Months

Some of my most favorite moments happen when Grant thinks I'm not looking. He's somewhere else, away in his own world, carefully concentrating on his task at hand. I see him doing very important things, like examining the back of his hand as if it just appeared there this morning, staring at his toes wondering how he can bite them (he figured that out), and most recently -

Lifting up the mobile to stuff toys underneath it. Totally hysterical.

When Grant is playing on the floor, Toby wants to sit near him. He needs to sit near him. He has to sit near him. Most of the time, Grant allows this and they coexist in the same space...momentarily. Toby's only true crime is loving his brother so much he wants to give him constant kisses. When Grant starts to complain, that registers in Toby's mind that Grant needs more kisses, and on and on it goes. Grant has finally figured out that yelling and screaming don't necessarily make the kisses go away, in fact just the opposite. However, frantically waving arms and kicking feet tend to do the trick quite nicely. Of course, once Toby backs up, Grant can get a good look at him, decide that he's cute and wants to pet him, and reach out his hand to touch Toby. Toby then receives this as an invitation for kisses and on we go again. This is the dance that happens in our house most days, but every now and then I hear a giggle. Not a baby accidental giggle, but an all-out toddler that's-funny-and-I'm-going-to-laugh-about-it giggle. Both times it was thanks to Toby.

 Ready...Set...

Attack!!!

Sometimes Toby acts like a semi-truck going through those big car washes. I think he just likes to play with the toys hanging from the arch.

Grant still mostly scoots around on his tummy, backwards most of the time, or if he has his options he just pulls the blanket closer towards him and the toys come with it. Or he gives up all together, rolls over and plays with his feet. On one occasion of giggling, I look over to see Grant on his tummy, looking back at his feet to see Toby giving his toes kisses. Grant would laugh, wiggle his feet again, and Toby would attack him with kisses. Their first official game.

If you listen closely, you can hear him say "Awww nuts." Got stuck under the couch going backwards. The funny thing is he is happy to stay there until you come and pull him out. In the meanime he just wiggles and fights the couch. I swear he tries to turn his head sideways to fit under the couch and keep going backwards.

Chairs are fun to play with too.

Grant also likes to destroy his mobile. He knocks it over, tears it down, and tries to pull the toys off of it. But he has also figured out that you can look over the mobile at someone, or under it. Toby will sit on the opposite side and just watch Grant play with the toys, and Grant bent over to look under the mobile and up at Toby. Toby bent his head over to see what Grant was looking at and all sorts of smiles and giggles erupted. Then Grant sits up to look at Toby over the mobile, and Toby sits straight up. I don't think Toby understood the game because this time when Grant started laughing, Toby took one swipe with his front paw and knocked the whole thing down. Again, giggles and laughter. If we could only bottle that sound and pull it out when we need to hear it.

He also loves his saucer. We try to limit his time in it to after dinner so he can wear himself out before bed. Right away when you pick him up and ask if he wants to go in his saucer he gets a big grin on his face and kicks his feet with delight. Now granted (ha!), anytime he is super excited he smiles and kicks his feet with delight: when he first sees Toby in the morning, when you tell him it's time to get in the car and go for a ride, time to eat in the high chair...it's his thing.
The saucer has so many different distractions on it, he didn't master them all at once. Initially, he picked out his few favorites - the piano, the bendy flowers, the space that holds his binki. Day by day as he has mastered those skills, his eyes now find what he was missing before. Just a few days ago he mastered the frog switch that spins the dragonfly. This is unique because most of the switches on the saucer are in/out or up/down. This one is left/right. He makes sure to stand tall directly over the switch, leans forward, and with full open mouth concentration and right hand only, he can push the switch right and left. He was so proud of himself! Immediately after mastering that, he noticed the arch right next to that had little tiny rings on it that he has never noticed before. Now he knows he can flick those with his fingers and they go across the arch. Every day is a new adventure in the land of Grant.
...and then sometimes you have those days where you just want to pound the piano with your face...

Speaking of binki, if it does fall out of his mouth and you hold it up for him to grab while he's in the saucer, he will keep running around in a circle and slow down just long enough to grab it with his mouth and keep on moving. Why stop when you have things to do, people to see? He has realized once he is in the saucer seat he can't reach the floor with his hands, and things like blankets and binkis that fall on the floor are lost forever. Given that, he has figured out how to entertain himself by running them over with the wheels of his seat and stepping on them as he goes by. He has also figured out that by leaning outward away from the center of the circle, he can get the entire saucer rocking and rolling. I think we may be soon out-witted by this young Jedi.

Pancakes! While out to breakfast the other day, Grant decided he wanted to try pancakes. By that I mean as the waitress set my plate of pancakes on the table, Grant reached out and snatched a handful of pancake right out of the middle and stuffed it in his mouth before anyone at the table could do anything about it. He smiled at us as pancake squeezed out between his teeth. He was so proud of himself. I did save that top pancake and give him just a bit more in small bites, but the thrill was gone. He had moved on to the next new exciting thing by then.

Books! We love books. We love reading books, looking at pictures, and pulling them off the shelf! Toby guards the books that fall on the floor. He is so helpful like that. Grant stopped long enough in his reading to wave hello.

Grant has officially done his first joke. The other night at 2am I went in his room to settle him. Turns out he was wet and couldn't find his binki. After we fix all that, I lean over and kiss him good night. He holds up his little monkey he sleeps with (and chews on) and I give him a kiss too. Grant bursts into laughter as he snaps his monkey back to his chest. Then he sticks his arm in the air towards me again and I give the monkey a kiss. Again, shrieking laughter. The best times are always at 2am it seems.

Grant is showing us every day that he can understand us and knows what we are talking about. We have been doing sign language for most nouns since he was little: milk, rest, diaper, dog, banana...the important things in life. I assume he understands us because he seems to go along with whatever we are asking him to do. The other day he was whining while playing with his toys and not being his normal happy self. I asked him if he wanted some milk and did the milk sign and he immediately stopped what he was doing to clap, smile, and do the milk sign right back to me. Feedback and a smile! Best. Moment. Ever.

He is also starting to show excitement and reciprocate on hugs. Kicking legs and clapping hands are his favorite two things when he likes something. When Kyle comes home from work - kicking legs and clapping hands! When I pick him up to get in the car and go for a ride - kicking legs and clapping hands! When we see Toby in the morning - kicking legs and clapping hands! Followed quickly by wiping of the face as Toby likes to give an exorbitant amount of morning kisses. Between Grant's happy wiggles and Toby's tail wagging, we are a bunch of movers and shakers in the morning. Grant has also caught on to giving kisses. Granted, you get the open mouth slobber bomb, but it's a kiss just the same! Love my little guy.

I know that Grant can understand and comprehend far more than he can communicate back to us - correction - far more than we can understand back from him. I'm sure he thinks he's communicating just fine and it is mom and dad who have the problem. Proof that he is a child of the smartphone era, he is aware of the phone and camera and is very aware when I pull it out to take his picture. Sometimes he will smile really big, while other times he stops what he is doing entirely just to protest. I caught him in these three pictures the other day, and while I can't prove this is what he was thinking, he sure makes it look like it.

Wait! Don't take it yet.

Okay, "CHEESE"

How was that?

Until our next adventure, keep on smiling, snuggling and smelling the world around you!

Big hugs, 

M, K, G & T