My Two Favorite People

Such sweet smiles!

Tender Heart

Grant and I were in the car on Thursday, running one of our errands. He was looking out the window quietly then said, "God made trees. Jesus made Saturn. God made...GRANT!!" It was so sweet to see him sitting and thinking about what he was seeing. And even sweeter to know that he is listening to what we've been teaching him about God and the world around him. As we drove, he named everything he saw and noted that "God made it."

The other day I had to discipline him and he looked up at me with his teary eyes and said, "Let's pray." With his speech delays, it has seemed like he doesn't understand a lot of what we're talking about, but it is clear that he understands much more than we ever knew. I'm so thankful the Lord has given him such a tender heart.

Little Eyes Miss Nothing

We've been noticing lately that while Grant doesn't seem to be watching what we're doing, he can imitate us with amazing accuracy. He found Nate's headphones that he wears when riding the stationary bike and had to try things out for himself. He wanted to know where the phone was (Nate listens to his iPhone with headphones while riding). Nate let him borrow an iPod and he was all set. When all was said and done, he found that the best use for the bike was a place to prop your feet up.

Vacuuming Buddy

One of my favorite things Grant does now is help me with my vacuuming. When he was really little, he didn't care about the vacuum. Then he went through the scared stage when he'd SCREAM whenever the vacuum was out--unless I was carrying him along on my hip. That was a great way to work up a sweat. After that came the "helping" stage where he was okay with it as long as he was holding the vacuum with me. That was definitely the slowest vacuuming I'd ever done. Now we're finally at a really fun stage. When I get the vacuum out, he runs to the closet where I keep it and grabs the stair attachment. It looks like a regular vacuum head, but doesn't have a handle. He comes along with me and pretends to vacuum next to me. It's really cute.

An Eductation, Courtesy of Cheerios

"Making letters, Mommy." He says they are S, Q, O, and C. O was kind of a freebie since it came in that shape. He also made a rainbow, a square, planets ("mmmm, yummy planets) and then my favorite: the bottom picture is the phases of the moon. "Crescent, First Quarter, Gibbous, and Full Moon." I never have that much fun with MY Cheerios...and I didn't know about Gibbous until I was 34.

First Day Report

Grant did really well at his first day of preschool! The teacher said he asked for me a few times at the beginning, but she told him it was school time and he seemed okay with that. The only problem was at potty time. Grant HATES public bathrooms (auto-flushing toilets cause lots of stress for newly potty-trained little ones) and always cries that it's "TOO LOUD!" Apparently this isn't the first time they've dealt with this at the school because the teacher had headphones that blocked the noise. Grant was happy to wear them and all was well again. Why didn't I think of that? When we were leaving the school I asked him if he had fun and he said "Yes...More!" I am so relieved that he did well and excited to see how he's going to do with this extra help. Seeing him in his class, standing in line with his little backpack on he looked like such a big boy. He seems so much older tonight than he did last night! Strange what a difference a day makes.

First Day of School

As some of you know, Grant has been struggling with his speech. He has a very large vocabulary, but has a hard time putting words together in sentences. We had his speech assessed in February. I met with the speech therapist this past Friday and she informed me that Grant would be starting his class this week! He now goes to school Mondays and Wednesdays for an hour and a half each time. The class consists of other 3-year-olds who have the same struggles with speech. I'm so excited that he will have help, but it was a very difficult thing for me to drop him off this morning. Fortunately, I was able to hold back the tears until I was almost back to the car. I had planned on having him home with me until he went to pre-school in a year and a half. Nate reminds me that he's only gone 3 hours a week, but it's still a big step for us. I'm praying that he loves his class and his speech will blossom in that environment.

You're sending me WHERE???

Welcome to Chez Grant

Chez Grant is now open for business! He makes a mean bowl of broccoli... (Thanks, Aunt E, for the cool apron!) I know a kitchen is typically thought of as a "girl toy," but why? Grant loves to help me in the kitchen and now loves to create things for us in his kitchen.

New Chalkboard

I've been wanting to get Grant an easel from Ikea for a while now, so this week we picked one up. It has a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other. Lots of fun for $15! Of course, we had to draw the solar system right away. Take a look at Grant's great space shuttle!!

Learning about the Universe

Looking at a comet in the telescope and then in the book. "Look, Mommy, same!"

Playing in the Rain

It was raining this weekend and Grant had the best time splashing in the puddles.



After losing the water-drenched jeans, Grant got nice and toasty by the fire.

The Latest

I haven't been taking many pictures lately and need to get back to it! Right now Grant is really into astronomy. Nate took him out one day when I was sick and let him watch the Galileo Baby Einstein video in the car. I hadn't played those videos for him in a long time since I thought he was too old for them. How wrong I was! Grant LOVED the video and wanted to see more "Earf" (earth). From the video he learned about Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the moon, space, and galaxies. He's so excited about it and wants to talk about it all the time. This weekend we went to Barnes and Noble and picked out a DK book on space. It's been really educational for Nate and me as well as Grant. I was reading to him tonight and turned the page and was wondering what it was about. Grant said, "Galaxies!" and was, of course, right. It's really fun to see him so excited about things lately and to get to hear his reactions. Nate showed him a video the other night about space and he said, "Wow, amazing Mama." It truly is amazing to learn about God's creation all over again, this time through fresh eyes.