10 Months

Even though Grant is well on his way to 11 months now, I've got to get milestones down before I forget. Also, this post has a million pictures of essentially nothing, because I wanted to get all the pictures off mine and Josh's phones. 

This month Grant...

Can go up and downstairs, but at the top he, a lot of times, doesn't think to turn around so he can go backwards, so I still have to be watching him constantly.

He learned to clap this month.

He CRUISES EVERYWHERE. Mentally, he is dying to walk, but his body just needs to catch up a little.

My biggest pet peeve is that he just clings on to my legs and cries every single time I am in the kitchen which makes cleaning, cooking, and basically everything else pretty tough.

He has 7 teeth and I don't really see signs of any new ones any time soon.

 My sister asked me, "Does Grant always make that face where he turns his head to the side and looks out of the one side?" When I finally updated his picture frame, I thought it was hilarious! Maybe he's not as photogenic as I thought, but he definitely knows his best side.

 Oh yes, another reason my house is always such a mess: Grant's obsession with the dishwasher. And he doesn't want to just look around inside, he NEEDS to BE inside.

 The same day that I had a conversation with a couple of my friends about how so far Grant doesn't really get in to stuff or make a mess, he did this... and pulled all the books off all the shelves in the library... and pulled all the straws and plastic bags out of the bottom drawer. It's like he heard me, and realized that he was missing out on something.

These next pictures are nothing new. Every time I look at my phone, I have a similar sequence of selfies from Meili. I really liked these particular faces so they're going in the scrapbook. Bear in mind that I deleted about 75% of the pictures she had taken and just kept the best ones. Can we say vain?

 When it was less than 20 degrees outside we decided to take our kids to an Aggie football game, because that is the kind of cautious, caring, sensitive parents that we are. But really, can you blame me? They're just so fun at football games!

 I couldn't narrow them down because I love every single one of Grant's faces.

 The joy of being dad.

 Meili got birthday money from Jake and Kami, and picked out this barbie.

 Meili thought it was hilarious that Grant had banana stuck to his face, so we laughed and laughed. Grant had no idea what was so funny, but he sure was a good sport!

 Everyday I hear my kids laughing together and think, "Oh, I need to record this!" Because I know that someday it won't be the same anymore I won't remember what it sounded like. But it is my favorite part of the day.

 Meili and I made a couple Christmas decorations, but look at how beautiful she is. (Maybe if I stopped saying that she would stop taking so many pictures of herself :)

 Meili and Josh made donuts, and they were both so cute in their aprons.

 Of course, Grant wanted to be pictured as well!

That face!

1, 2, 3... 4!

When I was pregnant with Meili, my due date varied from November 2nd, to October 31st, and finally October 30th. Because my sisters went early with all of their kids, I just assumed that I would as well. But there was one thing I was sure about: "As long as it's not Halloween." In fact, when we checked in to the hospital 4 years ago, the receptionist said, "How do you feel about a Halloween baby?" And I said, "I'm coming around to the idea." (Because that's what a  week of contractions will do to you.)

Four years later I will tell you that I actually really love Meili's birthday. It is definitely not the worst holiday to share your birthday with.

The day started with Meili opening her presents before Josh left for work. In year's past, I've found that it's hard to juggle opening presents, eating dinner, greeting trick-or-treaters and going trick-or-treating ourselves between the time that Josh gets home from work and bedtime. So starting this year, opening presents in the morning may be the new tradition. And the added bonus was that Meili could play with her gifts all day.

Meili definitely doesn't need a ton of things, but me, as mom, gets carried away sometimes, and the things I buy for Meili are almost as much for me as they are for her.

My mom and I teamed up in getting Meili an 18-inch doll and a horse to go along. But my mom was planning to give Meili her present the next day. As soon as Meili opened her horse she asked if there was a girl that went with it. And I just had to smile all day and say "Nope, I guess there isn't." Then I watched as she tried unsuccessfully all day to make toy and after toy fit on the horse.

The picture's not great, but I couldn't resist. She said she was strong enough to pick up her horse.

Again, even though it's blurry. How can you resist that face?

My friend Alisha and I took our kids trick-or-treating on Main Street.

That night, we had the traditional Macaroni and Cheese that Meili requested. (I let her choose breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and she chose cereal, "Old MacDonald's (I don't think she even knew what she was talking about, but she liked the sound of that place) and Macaroni and Cheese. That sounds like a typical kid-menu to me.) 

Then we went trick-or-treating, but I almost think Meili liked welcoming the trick-or-treaters even more. In fact, some tears were shed when Josh accidentally opened the door by himself once.

I have to say that I think our area is absolutely perfect for trick-or-treating. We had kids come just as it started to get dark, and and they only came for a couple hours. For the most part they were young-ish (the perfect age of trick-or-treaters) and we even had to leave a bowl on the front step for a little while and I honestly believe that people didn't take advantage of that. 

We have some neighbors that usually have a bon fire with hot dogs and hot chocolate, and that's where we ended the night. Then we headed to Bountiful because my parents were having a party the next day, and Josh was planning to go hunting with his brother, so it made more sense to drive down that night than have to wake up early the next morning.

I don't know who was more excited for Meili to open her presents from my parents the next morning, myself, my mom, or Meili?

She loves her doll, LillyAnna.

And these are pictures from my mom's Halloween party...

I love my 4-year-old. I love this age. She is genuinely sweet. Even though she can be a stinker sometimes, for the most part, she really wants make good choices and be helpful. I'm amazed everyday at how smart she is and that she is learning new things constantly. She just started learning to read, and I absolutely love helping her read her books everyday. She loves coloring and puzzles and books and tv and treats and primary and preschool. She LOVES preschool. I would say that this was the year of the horse (obviously), pink, and also the year of "When I was a baby..." Because of Grant, we talk a lot about how she was when she was a baby. So now she just makes things up as she goes along. "When I was a baby, I called popcorn "Kahn-Ae" (or some other made up word that she think up) and then she just laughs and laughs at how silly she thinks she was when she was a baby. Most of all she loves her family. She's always so excited to see dad when he gets home from work, and her grandparents and cousins. And she loves her brother. I can't say enough what a great big sister she is. She wants desperately to be helpful, she is totally willing to share, and always thinking of how she can be helping with Grant (like if he starts heading for the stairs, she is the first to make sure to get in the way, so he won't fall head first.) I could handle her staying this age forever, but she's way too excited to grow up to let that happen!