Happy 3 month birthday to you!

Dear Grant,
You are 3 months old today! Time has flown by quickly. Before you know it you will be a toddler on the move like your brother and I will be longing for the days where I can just sit and hold you. With that in mind, I have been trying to do just that, sit and hold you more. But it is hard with your brother always into something. I am trying to make a conscious effort to soak in all those sweet smiles. With your brother I was always looking forward to what was ahead and did not savor those sweet baby things as much as I wished I had. I'm learning.



What you can do:
-lift your head 45 degrees
-laugh and giggle (especially when tickled or while changing your diaper - you like being naked!)
-SMILE really big
-You have discovered your left hand especially. You will wave it back and forth, and stare at it until you fall asleep. In the past day or two I have noticed more activity in the right hand. Before too much longer you will be directing the band.
- bat and reach for objects in front of you
- follow with your eyes 180 degrees me or some other object of interest
- with some help you can hold a rattle or toy
- you goo and coo quite sweetly and have made a razzberry sound a time or two (possibly on accident but we can pretend it was intentional)



You aren't really on a true schedule yet - at least not like your brother was at this age. (I'm trying not to compare you since you are different people, but he is all I have to base my baby experience on.) You eat at different times, sleep at different times, and seem to vary day to day what is your most active time. But I can usually figure out what you need - it's just not real easy to tell others what you need if I need to step away. I hope in the coming days you will get on a schedule that is similar to your brother's just so I can get some things done around the house and I can play with you and your brother more while you are awake and happy.



You are a super sweet baby and I look forward seeing you form as a person.



Love always,
Mommy

Miles' ABCs

I have had blogger's block and don't know really what to blog. Lot's of fun things have happened but I just don't know which one to write about and I don't have time to talk about them all. My friend Laura did this on her page so I thought I would do it from Miles' perspective. I thought it was a cute idea - what do you think?





A is for age: I turned 20 months on November 1st. The big #2 is right around the corner.

B is for burger of choice: McDonalds, but Mommy has to help me hold it together. I'm not real good at sandwich handling yet.

C is for the car I drive: I have a tonka truck complete with horn and blinkers.

D is for your dog's name: A stuffed one named Yukon. (Gran and Pop brought him back from Alaska.) I sleep with him every night. Almost.

E is for essential item you use every day: My sippy cup

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Curious George hands down!

G is for favorite game: Tickle Me with Daddy

H is for home state: Arkansas

I is for instruments you play: Harmonica, Piano, Drums, Guitar - I'm quite musical

J is for favorite juice: I like them all. It's also my favorite word to say "JOOCE".

K is for a habit you'd like to kick: This whole diaper thing is a drag. I need to work on my potty skills. Also due to some language limitations, I like to point and grunt or whine. I need to work on the communication skills too.

L is for last restaurant at which you ate: Flying Fish (Also happens to be the first restaurant I ever ate at. What a coincidence.)

M is for your favorite Movie: Curious George the movie

N is for number of piercings: I don't know. What's a piercing?

O is for overnight hospital stays: I've heard that I stayed at the hospital after I was born? Does that count?

P is for people you were with today: Mommy,Daddy, and Grant

R is for biggest regret: Regrets? I'm only one.

S is for status: toddler

T is for time you woke up today: Around 7 a.m. I slept in.

U is for what you consider unique about yourself: I have a very unique language. It's a cross between chinese and spanish and for some reason when I speak it people just stare at me. I know what I am saying but they just sit there. I don't get it.

V is for vegetable you love: English Peas or Broccoli. It's a tie.

W is for wedding date: I'm holding out for the right girl, though Scarlett is pretty cute.

X is for x-rays you've had: I had a chest x-ray once and it was quite traumatic. Mommy had Grant in her tummy so she couldn't hold me. It took 2 nurses to hold me down while they did it.

Y is for yummy food you ate today: oatmeal, banana, nutri-grain bar, chicken nuggets, english peas, and pears.

Z is for zodiac: Pisces. Whatever that means? We say "Z is for Zebra" at my house.

Welcome Dylan

Introducing my newest nephew Dylan Matthew Cleveland!

He arrived yesterday, November 10 at 9:24 p.m.

8lbs. 7oz. 21 inches long

Due to my miserable cold I have not had much contact with them but from second hand information and my brief phone conversations, they are doing incredibly well! Way to go Kim and I can't wait until Dylan and Grant can run around together. In just a year, its going to be nuts when we get together.

My new toy...

Mason surprised me last week with an early Christmas present. In the 7 years we have been married, we have never really given each other much in the gift department, so this was a huge surprise. I have always wanted one but never thought I would ever, ever get it. I have actually never even voiced that I desired to have one so way to go Mason on reading my mind. Oh - what is it?


My very own fancy schmancy SLR. Though I am trying to learn the manual settings, even the automatic settings take a pretty sharp image. It should. It's 12 mp! So you will have to humor me here as I thrust my learning curve upon you. All these images are SOOC (That is camera speak for Straight Out of the Camera).

When you live in my neighborhood, this is the obligatory photo shoot location.

Dang sun spot and this would be perfect. Oh I just want to grab those cheeks!

This tree is just around the block from me. It glows all autumn long.

The sun was peeping through the trees perfectly.
If I had a different lens and this shot would have been perfect.

Grant has upgraded to the big boy seat in the stroller. He is too big to lay down anymore in the "hidey-hole" as I like to call it. He liked riding like this. Giggled actually, when I started walking and then was asleep when we arrived home.

Pretty little Amelia, Sams baby sister.

I am going to a Cannon seminar in a week or so. I will be playing with this until then but hopefully I will learn a thing or two about my camera and shooting will become second nature for me. So I wonder what this means I have to get Mason for Christmas? How about a photo alblum?

Trick or Treat

So what do a monkey, bumble bee, and astronaut all have in common?
They are all really cute and like candy.


We went trick-or-treating for the first time with our friends Scarlett and Sam in "Aunt B's" nice safe gated neighborhood. They didn't quite get the concept of trick-or-treating at first, storming like a gang into the first lady's house when she opened the door.

Notice Mason having to hold back Miles by the arm.
He would walk into everyone's house if we let him.

By the end of the night Miles could say "Tik Teet", would knock on the door and hold out his bucket.

Don't we just look like trouble coming down the street? Grant went along for the ride in the carrier. I do believe he slept the whole time.

The Loot. (Looks a little lame but for a 1 year old who hasn't eaten
this much candy in his lifetime, it's a lot.)

These next pics were from the Nutrition Center's Halloween Party earlier in the week. Miles had a fun time just playing with their toys and having some juice.

This is the suit that inspired the whole astronaut theme this year.