Pictures!

On Saturday, September 27, 2008, Matt, Grant, Sasha, and I all headed to the park where we met Brianna, a friend from work who also happens to be a great photographer. Grant wasn't in the best mood, but you wouldn't know it from the shots she got. You can check out her blog at http://briannagrayphotography.blogspot.com/ She has a few pictures of Grant posted, but of course I want to post a few too. We have lots of beautiful pictures, so I had a hard time choosing which ones to post! I decided to more or less randomly pick a few (I tried not to pick any that Brianna has on her site- you'll have to go there to see more) and here is what I got-

That "white thing" in the corner is our dog. Sasha was very useful during the shoot. She can almost always get a smile out of Grant!

A picture of the whole family. Sasha was helpful in this picture as well. We got Grant to walk by telling him to follow her.

Is it just me, or does he look like he's planning something devious in this picture? Or at the least about to say a bad word?

This is one of my favorite pictures. The car was a gift from Gama and he loves it! You can see it in almost every picture. You can also see the three teeth he had when the picture was taken. Now, less than two weeks later he has 5-6 teeth (I know he's gotten at least two more, possibly three, but I'm not putting my finger in there to confirm that last one). Perhaps that had something to do with his bad mood?

That's my boy!

It's too bad Grant isn't looking at the camera in this one, but I still really like it.

Another good picture of the family (or at least the human members of the family).

I might post some more pictures later, but since it's the middle of a work day I should probably get back to work.

A Golden Day!

Happy Birthday Grant!!!!

Today was Grant's birthday, which also happens to be his golden birthday- this being the first of the month and his first birthday. I know it's a cliche, but I have to say it: where does the time go?!? How did the tiny baby I was so carefully holding just yesterday turn into the rambunctious toddler who fearlessly took a nose-dive off my bed today? (Don't worry, he's fine- my nerves, however, are another story.)

To celebrate this golden event, I took the day off to be with Grant. Matt ended up taking a half day as well, and we all headed to the Minnesota Zoo. It was a perfect fall day, warm and sunny enough to enjoy being outside, but cool enough to justify putting Grant in the new sweater and hat I got him a couple of weeks ago. Here are a few of the pictures from today:

Matt took this one as we were leaving the zoo. Even after a couple of hours there Grant was still in a great mood! If you scroll down to the other pictures, you'll see how much he loved it all.

As you can see by the huge grin on his face, Grant loved the salmon. Well, that or he just really liked being allowed to hit the glass. Either way, he was one happy boy, as you can see:

You can see the brown bears in the upper part of the picture. This part of the new Russia's Grizzly Coast exhibit, which wasn't yet open when we went in May.

Another picture of Grant watching the bears. He seemed a little in awe of them.

This was Grant's expression as he watched the prairie dogs. When one disappeared back in its hole Grant chirped "Uh-oh!" and then giggled when it popped back up a second later.

Grant pointing out the prairie dogs to his daddy.

All in all, it was a great day (well, except for the swan dive off of the bed, but I'm trying to forget about that as Grant has already done so). The birthday party will be this Saturday, and I'm sure we'll have lots more fun pictures to post then.

Got teeth?

GRANT DOES!!!
(Warning, the following images may be too graphic for some viewers)

That’s right “teeth”- plural. Just three days ago, Grant had exactly zero teeth. Today, we have two confirmed tooth sightings, and another two suspected at any time. Grant is being very secretive about the exact contents of his mouth, but close analysis of the above pictures will show that there are two teeth present. Conditions are also favorable for the other two front teeth to appear at any time. I am happy to report that Grant’s mood has improved considerably since the appearance of the first tooth, which was on the upper left. Experts had expected the first tooth to appear on the bottom, but apparently they failed to explain the expected order of things to Grant.

Teeth- what are they good for?...

...Absolutely nothing!

For the last six months, every time Grant was slightly fussier than usual or drooled more than I thought normal, I was sure he was teething. To date, none of these supposed bouts of teething have actually resulted in any teeth. However, the events of today have gone far beyond slight fussiness or harmless drool. I've now come to the conclusion that teeth are highly over-rated. Grant has made it a full ten months without them. I'm convinced he doesn't really need them at all. He is perfectly capable of eating Cheerios and the occasional bite of vegetable, fruit, pasta, or bread without any teeth. It's clear that he doesn't really need teeth at all, but is merely using teething as some sort of sick ploy or scare tactic.

With these findings in mind, I entered into intense negotiations with my ten month old son regarding this whole teething business. Grant agreed to forfeit any future teething rights and, in exchange, I agreed to buy him the most expensive, top of the line dentures when he gets older. Unfortunately, talks broke down over the timing and replacement schedule of said dentures. All current evidence indicates that Grant is now going forward with teething. I'll keep you all updated on any future developments in this breaking story.

Nine month pictures!

In an on-going effort to shock all of our loyal readers, I'm actually posting twice in one day. We got Grant's nine-month pictures taken this past weekend. We won't have the actual pictures for a couple of weeks yet, but I thought I'd give you all a preview.

Is it just me, or does this first one look like a school picture? My baby is turning into a little boy!

Fortunately for my state of mind, he looks more like a baby in these pictures.

If that's not cute, I don't know what is!

Playing Catch-up

"Oh dear, it appears that Mommy and Daddy have gotten terribly behind on the blog..."

"But that's okay, Mama can get everyone up to date now!"

Two new blog updates in one month. Shocking I know. I'll do my best to update you on a few of the events of the last couple of months.

Grant and Matt were both baptised back on May 24. A good portion of my family traveled from Iowa and South Dakota for the event and Matt's parents and sister were all in town as well. It was a very busy, but wonderful weekend. The actual baptism was on Saturday night. Here is a picture of Grant and me at his baptism. I'd like to post a full length picture of him in his outfit, but I can't seem to find any (hint hint to all the aunts out there- I know you all had cameras, surely one of you managed to get a full length picture of my little dutch boy???).

Then, on Sunday, everyone made the short trip to the Minnesota Zoo. We live so close to it; I can't believe we hadn't been there earlier. We all had a wonderful time, even though Grant slept through much of it (or perhaps because Grant slept through most of it??). I can't wait to take Grant when he's a little older and can enjoy more of it just his older cousins did-

Heath and Joey measuring their respective wing spans at the zoo-

A few weeks later, the Wilson family, sans the Sash who got to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson, traveled down to my home town for its annual July 4th celebration. As always, we had a great time. I've always loved the Fourth, and as a child looked forward to it even more than Christmas. It probably helped that, since my birthday is the next day, I always got presents. A parade, fireworks, and presents- hard to beat a day like that when you're eight. Of course, Grant doesn't get presents on the Fourth, but I still like to think that he'll enjoy the Fourth like I did when I was young. As with the Zoo, he slept through the parade and the fireworks, but that was probably for the best. He did get to put his footprint on Uncle Heath's derby car, so it's not like he missed all the fun. Following is a picture of Heath's derby car, which won the prize as the best looking car.

In more recent news, Grant had his nine month well baby check-up this past Monday and is doing very well- hitting all the milestones and all that. He's 21 lbs 8 oz and 30 inches tall. His head is now 19 inches- the same length of his whole body when he was born. Where does the time go?

No, he's not walking yet, but he is crawling all over the place now and starting to cruise along the furniture as well. His ever increasing mobility is playing havoc on poor Sasha's nerves. The poor pup has had to all but abandon taking naps on the floor, where her fur is a prime target for Grant's eager little hands. I'm afraid the couch is no longer a safe haven for her either. Just as she settles in to take a nap, Grant will pull himself up by the couch and, with a giggle sure to strike fear in any dog's heart, lunge after Sasha. With an annoyed grunt, she'll get up and move to the other end of the couch, only to have the gleeful baby cruise over and grab the pup by her tags. Here is a picture of Grant tormenting Sasha (heaven help her when the boy learns to walk!)-

I know, I know, it's been a while...

But can you really be too annoyed with me after seeing that smiling face? I'd like to post more, but, since I'm at work, I should probably go do something productive (if my boss asks, I'm very busy working on a CD-ROM).

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth

Well, here I am. I'm finally working on my learned helplessness issues when it comes to anything computer related and posting a message on our blog. Sorry, I don't have anything unique or witty to write, but I do have some pictures of the most adorable baby ever- GRANT! I realize that some of you probably think I'm just partial to him because he happens to be my son. In response, I humbly submit the following photographs, which we had taken a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Grant's six month of life.

No foolin' -- Grant is 6 months old today!

Wow, it is hard to believe that we were just meeting Grant only six months ago. While it would have been fun to get him a new toy for his six-month birthday, today was a busy weekday, so we did not have time for anything birthday related. We will definitely throw a party for Grant's first birthday though.

Here are a few pictures from tonight's dinner. Nothing says "Happy Six-Month Birthday" quite like peas!

Even with no cake and no party favors, we still had time for a little fun with our favorite toy, the bouncer. Grant was in deep concentration in these shots:

Big smiles here:

It's funny, Angela and I thought that maybe, just maybe, Grant would fall asleep early tonight. Right after I got home Grant was very fussy, which typically means that sleep is not far behind. Sure enough, Grant fell alseep at 8:00 p.m, almost two hours earlier than usual. The problem with this plan was that he woke up 30 minutes later and just now went back to sleep at 10:30 p.m. (April Fools' joke on us, I guess.) This kid is simply not a sleeper. At least Grant was in a good mood before bed because I was able to capture a quick glimse of his squirm dance from my tickling him on the changing table:

Good night, everyone.

Easter 2008

We had a great Easter! Sure, this is earliest Easter in nearly a century, and we received nine inches of snow in the last few days, but it was still a great time to celebrate Easter. Everyone, including Mom, was in a good mood this morning even with Grant waking up this morning at 5:30 after going to bed last night around 10:30. Knowing that the late service at church would be a lot busier than the earlier services, we quickly got ready for church. Unfortunately, as we got dressed for church, we were unable to find Grant's new Easter outfit. We ended up dressing him in one of our favorite outfits, the fox outfit, before heading out. Here are a couple shots of Grant and me right before leaving for church:

After church, the three of us ran into Dunn Bros Coffee. While Grant slept in his detachable car seat, Angela and I munched on a scone and sipped our lattes. Right after Angela and I finished our drinks, Grant was jolted awake by the sharp sounds of trumpets from the piped-in jazz music. We knew that it was time to leave.

We got home a little after noon. Mom had picked up some baby food at the store yesterday, and seeing that Grant was hungry after the car ride, we prepared a tasty lunch: organic peas. This was actually the first time that we fed Grant something other than milk and rice cereal. As you can see, the results were mixed:

Grant was a trooper and managed to swallow most of the peas that we fed him. The peas must have really energized Grant because he was extremely active this afternoon! In the last few days, Grant has started jumping up and down on our lap, doing leg exercises similar to deep-knee bends. With each jump in our laps, we would encourage Grant by saying "Jump, jump!" and laugh along with Grant. To our surprise, this afternoon Grant finally figured out that the bouncer, not just our laps, would be good for jumping. Quickly, we busted out the camera, switched the camera to video mode, and captured the two videos below. Angela and I are cracking up in the background, with Grant giggling as well. It was so much fun to see Grant's joy.

Video 1:

Video 2:

Well, we are nearing the end of nap time, so this will be it for today. Hopefully everyone had a great Easter!

Note: This is our very first post to the blog, but we are planning to add new posts weekly and to retroactively add posts dating back to October 1, 2007. Given that Little Buddy keeps us pretty busy these days, it may take a while to fully update the blog. Be sure to bookmark our blog and look for updates!