Shoes: Size 4s are snug but size 5s are tripping him when he walks
Clothes: Size 12 months, 9-12 months, and some 18-24 months depending on brand
Diapers: size 3 and 4
Schedule
Grady still wakes up happy between 7am and 7:30am every day. We get a diaper and a bottle in the playroom while Whitney drinks her milk and I have coffee. Then we all head into the kitchen for breakfast and "The Letter Factory" DVD before we all have to get dressed and out the door by 8:50am.
Some days, Grady and I stay at Whitney's school for chapel (both kids LOVE it!), but other days we head home for another bottle, some books, and a snooze while I get to run on the treadmill. He naps, wakes up happy and will play in his crib for a long time (sometimes 30 minutes!) before even making a peep. Then he eats lunch and we have to get ready to go get Whitney from school. When she gets home, the two kids hang out in the playroom and then Whitney lays down for a nap around 3pm. Grady naps shortly after that and wakes in time to see Eric get home from work. Grady continues to go with the flow and tag along for the ride, as life rarely tosses us two days that look alike! He is happy on the go or at home with all his favorite toys!
Sleeping/Napping
Grady continues to be a rockstar nighttime sleeper! He naps every day, and gets enough sleep that he's always happy, but his naps arent always the same length day after day. The 45-minute naps have, thankfully, been gone for months now, but sometimes he will nap for three hours and sometimes he naps for an hour and a half. If he happens to fall asleep in the car on the way home from Whitney's school, Im in trouble. He will stay awake from the time we get home until bedtime at 7pm. That's 5 hours of stumbling, fumbling, tired-but-not-willing-to-lay-down baby. He isnt unhappy if he doesnt nap, he's just clumsy...not a good quality in a baby learning to navigate the world. :)
If I didnt have a video monitor in his room, I would have NO CLUE when he wakes up. He sits up, rubs his eyes, and starts playing with his toes or the few small books I leave in his crib. He has stayed in there completely silent for as long as 30 minutes. Then he starts babbling "bababababa" and talking so I go get him. I remember Whitney used to like to hang out in her crib, too. She would say "I not ready yet" when I would go to pick her up. I wonder if Grady will be the same way :)
The boy is HAPPY when he wakes up!
So snuggly!
I was on the treadmill with his monitor and looked down to see this sweet face. :)
I went to get him and was greeted by the happiest, cutest baby boy ever :)
He grabbed his book and showed it to me, so proud :)
And he cruises his way around his whole crib, squealing and yelling as he makes it around.
One of my favorite recent pictures....he was waving to me :)
And on the rare occasion that a car nap derails his afternoon nap, I have been able to push him in the swing on the porch. We go from this:
To this:
To THIS, in less than 10 minutes.
Eating
Grady is working on mastering the sippy cup. We have finally settled on two brands he can drink from with no choking or gagging, but he forgets to hold the handles up in the air and gets mad when he is sucking air.
He is finally taking 5-6 ounces of formula at a time, four or five times a day. He eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with us and we havent found many foods he wont eat. He loves pancakes and strawberries and ham and chicken nuggets and fish sticks and chicken breast (he can eat 3/4 of a chicken breast in one sitting!). He likes lima beans and cheese sticks, pasta, and animal crackers. He is not a big fan of most fruits, but will eat oranges and strawberries. Spinach and potato baby food is still his favorite, but there arent many other baby foods we feed him anymore since he eats people food now.
He still thinks Bailey's food bowl would be great fun, but I havent let him go to town just yet. He crawls right up to it and sits there just waiting for someone to say "Grady, no!" As soon as he knows he's been caught, he smiles and crawls away. Stinker.
He has four teeth on the top and two on the bottom, but it seemed like his molars were bothering him last week so I gave him a frozen waffle to gnaw on. He was in heaven. And it all came out of the carpet.
Personality
THIS was the month when his personality REALLY broke through! Grady is happy and easy-going and is showing us that he's going to be a funny little kid! He dances and yells and claps and laughs and babbles now. He loves to talk and talk, preferring the "B" sounds. He officially says "Ball" in reference to all balls. And he yells and holds things up to us when he wants to know what its called. When we answer him (ie, "keys! Those are your keys!") he grunts and studies the keys intently. He absolutely LOVES Whitney. LOVES. He yells "Buh, Buh, BUH!!" loudly when we tell him "call Whitney!" I think he's mimicking us calling her "Bug, Bug, Bug!" He waves and yells "HAAAA!!!" when he wants to say "hi" and he lets ya know when he is out of food on his high chair tray!
He listens to books nicely, and while he doesnt watch TV the way Whitney did, he looks at the TV every time we make the "Blue's Clues" sounds and he dances to every commercial or song that comes on TV all day.
I read our favorite prayer book to him every night. He hits the pages and listens with grunts and "babababa". One night last week, I started saying the prayer but didnt bring the book out since he was already so tired. He was laying in my arms calmly but as soon as I started saying the prayer, he sat straight up and launched for the bookshelf where we keep the prayer book. Its like he is learning to associate the TV with Blue's Clues and the book with the prayer/words. Pretty cool to see him piece things together.
He definitely knows his own name and the names of our family members. When we ask him "Where is Bailey?" he crawls to find the dog. And he LOVES to "go find Bug!" He tucks his head down in a determined effort to get to Whitney's room as fast as his little body will take him. His favorite thing to do is wake Whitney from her after-school nap. He races into her room and pulls up on the bed, squealing with excitement.
He is super ticklish and likes peek-a-boo.
And he still loves his bath!
He gets super excited when he grabs a toy or object he thinks he's not supposed to have. Like Whitney's Prince Charming Barbie or the TV remote. He also definitely understands the word "no!" He stops what he's doing, stares at us to determine how much trouble he is really in, and then smiles and waves. Hard not to laugh. :)
He is cuddly and wild, all at the right times. :)
He's also pretty tough. On more than three occasions in the last 30 days, Grady has had a bloody mouth. The first time, I wondered if his teeth would fall out of his head when he slammed his chin on the toy bench in the playroom. He cried. I worried. He bled. I tried not to panic as I checked for loose teeth.
The second time, he barely even whimpered but looked to me for some cuddles and then quickly wanted to get down and keep playing.
And the third time, I was almost certain he would lose his top teeth as he jammed face-first into a park bench, but after some ice and hugs from mommy, he was back on the go.
When Grady gets tired, he gets serious. Which is way better than getting whiny and sad and cranky when he's tired. He just gets serious and very calm. Its hard to get a smile from him when he's tired, but he also doesnt cry or complain either. I always think "you get this side from your daddy!" because Im cranky and evil when Im tired! And Im rarely very serious at all ;)
He is a "jump first, ask questions later" kinda kid. I cant even tell you how many times I caught him diving face-first off his chair.
Activity
This was a big personality month and a very big activity month for Grady! He is into everything and pulls up on any piece of furniture of person who is stationary long enough. He uses Whitney's pink walker very well on carpet and pretty good on tile, but I still dont think he will stand on his own or walk anytime soon. His belly isnt strong enough to support him and he is in such a hurry to move that he wont take the time to learn how to stand still. "Still" is not in his repertoire. He learned "Grady is SOOOO big" and puts his arms up above his head. Then yells "Yeeaaaaaah!" and claps. So. freakin. cute.
He really likes his blue car, the jogging stroller, and going on walks around the block.
He will climb over a mountain to get to his sister, laughing the whole time!
And he is constantly on the hunt for Bug.
Grady had his first pool day this month and LOVED it!
I think we have a VERY fun summer ahead of us!
Whitney could be left alone in the playroom momentarily while I ran to the bathroom or turned over some laundry or got dinner started or lunch made. Grady is quickly teaching me that boys are a whole new animal! I can be sitting right next to him and he manages to destroy toys or harass Bailey. He is QUICK and he loves anything that's NOT a toy. The door stopper behind the front door? Loves. Tissue boxes bring him great joy. Outlets? Mysteries he MUST solve. We never baby-proofed when Whitney was an infant. I mean, we put cabinet locks on the kitchen cabinets and outlet covers in the sockets, but we did all that "because youre supposed to", not because Whitney ever attempted to stick a fork in a light socket. Never had a baby gate or a toilet lock with Whitney. Grady might change that.
Exactly one year ago, that ultrasound picture was taken. A year later and he is man-handling toys and tearing everything out of the bookcase.
And the destruction is not just contained to the playroom:
Its going to be a LOT of fun watching this baby boy turn into a little boy :)
Sibling Fun
These two. Wow. They have completely stolen my heart and wrapped me around their fingers. When they really start working against us, we are in trouble!
They chase each other and belly laugh hysterically. It melts my heart to see Whitney being such an awesome big sister, especially knowing she was never "supposed" to have this opportunity. We always thought she would be our only child, so seeing her in the role is a treat beyond words. She is so in love with this baby boy.
And he thinks she walks on water.
And obviously they both agree that Mommy is hilarious :)
I often lament the fact that I can never get them to look at the camera at the same time AND smile simultaneously. But then I capture moments like this, where they are both SOOO happy and SOOO silly and just being themselves, and those beat any "perfect" picture where their eyeballs hit the lense.
I see pictures like this and hope I never forget the laughter they were sharing and the drool Grady left behind as he laughed and tried to crawl at the same time.
I know they are both SO happy now, and while I know they wont always be best friends, I hope they always love each other to pieces the way they do now. I hope Whitney grows up seeing herself through her brother's eyes because he sees how AWESOME she is, even when she cant get her shoes on the right feet the first time. And she loves him and tries to calm him when he bangs his head on the tile for the third time.
Its nice to have cute kids. And we do have some of the cutest. But its even better when they are HAPPY, cute kids.
Cracks me up, every time.
They both thought bath time was double fun this week while Eric was out of town. Grady wants to stand up the whole time and Whitney wants whatever toy he has at the moment. We all ended up laughing and being silly and making fun out of the madness as Mommy tackled the role of single mom for a week.
We have the best Princess and the Frog ever :)
Happy NINTH Month, Grady Jay!
The birthday party planning is well underway! In less than three months, we will gather all of our closest and favorite family and friends to celebrate another amazing year!
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