A new kind of swimming

....swimming in leaves!!

Food Strike

When Noah turned one (literally, the day after...) he decided he could make his own choices on when/what/if he was going to eat.  My happy little eater who ate anything and everything suddenly, out of the blue, decided he would skip meals all together.  It's my mom's fault... stubborness is in her genes. 

So now I am resorting to being really creative.  If I can blend it up and stick it in his sippy, my chances are WAY higher that he will eat it.  This morning he had a pumpkin, banana, applesauce, kefir and flax seed smoothie.  Why, oh WHY would one choose this over pancakes?!?!??! 


xoxo,
~The Grant Gang

King of the Jungle

The Saturday after Noah's birthday (November 6), our family and closest friends gathered to celebrate the King of the Jungle's first year of life!  It was important to me that the people who made the first year possible celebrated with us.  We have such a strong support network, and Noah's life has been beyond blessed because of that!

We had some fun decorations to get in the mood.  Gara's mom has this amazingly awesome machine, so we got crafty with it!  I made a banner and she (on her own initiative!) made some super cute centerpieces!  I probably would not have had the patience to do these, but I was SO thankful she made them.  I think they really put everyone in the mood! ha!

I also made Noah a little lion shirt and a crown... a King is not a King without his crown!

And then there was the cake.  I came really close to bailing out on making a cake and just making some cupcakes.  I found some different animal cupcakes that were SUPER cute, but then I realized that the CAKE LADY could not forgo a cake on her own son's first birthday.  I am SO glad that I decided to do a cake!  It turned out super cute!

Unfortunately, when it came time for the party, Noah was not feeling very well.  He had a really nasty, nasty diaper rash that popped up while he was taking his afternoon nap (his skin just pealed off his little toosh when we wiped it... VERY sad!) and you could tell he was just not feeling up to par.  He did his best to hang in there, but just was not his happy self.  He was not even very interested in his cake!! (That is when I knew something was wrong!!!)  He did dig into it some, but don't let the pictures deceive... most of the cake on his face is from us trying to get him to eat it.  Ha!  The ice cream, on the other hand, was a different story.  He thought it was pretty awesome...

Noah's friends and family had a good time, though!

Opening presents was pretty exciting... lots of fun things!!!

Tita and Uncle Jason brought over a fun tent and tunnel for the kids to play in.... they definitely enjoyed it!!

I hated that he was feeling crummy, but I know that the grandparents and aunts and uncles didn't mind the extra cuddle time...

I'm not sure how Cappy escaped getting his picture made... probably because he was hiding behind a camera himself!  He was there, too, lovin' on Noah and giving lots of "Wooo"s!  Uncle Buck was going to come in for the party, but decided to come in a week earlier so he could catch the Rangers in their first ever World Series appearance!  We had fun while he was here.  Aunt Dianne and Uncle Rawrr were also going to come in to meet Noah for the first time, but they got held back due to some work stuff.  We sure missed them... Noah was practicing his "Raaaaawwrrrrrrr" so he could impress his great Uncle!

xoxo,
~The Grant Gang

King on his Throne

I'm sure this is going to be one of those posts that Noah is going look at me and say "Mo-oooooom!" when he is older and reads through this blog.  But, I feel a need to document. :-)

After Noah's horrendous diaper rash, I tried to let him just air it out for a little bit every day.  He seemed to LOVE walking around without a diaper.  I typically did it at meal times so I could just put a towel in his high chair and not worry.  One morning he started making that face.  You know what face I am talking about... glassy eyes, strained mouth, red cheeks. Crap!  (pun intended)  I decided to just pick him up out of his chair and take him to the potty.  He thought it was hilarious, and I thought it was awesome.  No poopy diaper to change, hardly anything to wipe.  He has since done this several other times.... and daddy happened to catch it on camera!  I know he is nowhere close to being truly potty trained, but it is nice to start getting him used to doing his business somewhere besides his pants!

xoxo,
~The Grant Gang

A whole year!!

My sweet little guy turned one on Friday.  ONE YEAR.  I can't remember life without him, yet it seems like it was just yesterday that I was piddling around the house trying to figure out what to do while he took his sweet little time getting here...! 

Noah is SUCH a blessing to our lives.  He is hilarious.  He is sweet.  He is charming.  He brightens the room, the grocery store, heck... he even brightens the outdoors.  His smile is that electrifying.  Seriously!  He has this ridiculous ability to draw people in... to make them smile.  It is a quality many, many people wish they had.  Lucky for me, I get to be around him all the time, and hopefully it rubs off a bit on me!

Noah is walking everywhere.  He started taking steps around 10 1/2 months, and by 11 months walking was his main mode of transportation.  He has started to try to run.... which ends in him stumbling because he can't keep up with his little legs!

Here's what he is up to these days...

- 31" long and 21 lb 13 oz.  He is long and lean... a big change from his chubby little baby self!  The pediatrician actually told us we need to fatten him up.  HA!  I think it is because he does. not. stop. moving.

- He loves to play with doors... open, shut.  open, shut. open, shut.

- Noah likes to always have something in his mouth or in his hand.  Pretty much whatever he can find will do.

- He likes steps.. but only going up them if there are more than two or three.  If there were an infinite flight of stairs going up, he would be all about it!

- Little man is a pretty good eater.  He is all about anything creamy (just like his mommy).  He loves cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, cream cheese, etc.  If I make a casserole with a creamy or cheesey base, he loves it!

- Noah does not like funny textures on his hands.  When it was time for his smash cake, he dug into it, then tried to shake off the icing from his hands.  He was not a fan!!

- Buster loves to be around people.  He loves playing around other kids, and he likes it when there are several people around him.  When we go to the grocery store, he spends the entire time trying to get people to pay attention to him!

- Noah has a new obsession with the garage door.  As soon as we get out of the car, I say "Let's go push the button!" and he reaches out his hand.  He holds his hand out until we get to the garage door opener, then giggles and kicks his legs.  When he pushes it and makes the door close, he starts to clap and smile!  So cute.

- There are no real words coming from Noah's mouth yet, but he knows several phrases.  He will wave when we say "bye, bye" or "hi", knows "push the button", "high five", and "touchdown". 

I will be posting several more posts in the next few days with pictures of festivites and other things we have been up to.  Until then, enjoy all the sweet pics of my little 1 year old!

xoxo,
~The Grant Gang

Foodie Jr.

I gave Noah some plain chicken chunks at lunch today.  He refused them.... actually, he hid them down the back of his shirt along with his veggies (which is confusing me... he normally LOOVES his sweet potato chunks!)  I decided to try giving him a bite of my Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad just to see, figuring he would refuse it as well.  Nope. 

This is the face of a kid, mouth wide open waiting for the next bite, wanting to know why his mother stopped to take a picture in the middle of a DELICIOUS new food experience.  This kid has quite the palette. 

xoxo, ~The Grant Gang