Grant's 9 month checkup

Grant turned 9 months old on June 17th. Here are some of the things that he has been doing this past month: #1 - thinking about crawling. He can pivot around on his bottom and reach for things, but doesn't quite have the hang of crawling yet, but he is close.

#2 - he loves this this little basket. We load it up with toys and he takes them all out and spreads them around and then we load it up again. Once he is mobile, I'm sure this won't be fun anymore.

#3 - He can scoot over to the TV cabinet and pull out the DVDs. The jury is out on whether Chris taught him this lovely trick since it was one of his favorites. After pulling them out he likes to chew on the cases.

#4 - He has a new found love for the sliding glass door and window. He likes to pound his hands on the glass and sometimes even lick the glass. Yummy!

#5 - he loves the grass. He doesn't mind the scratchy grass at all. If we carry him outside he keeps leaning forward out of our arms towards the ground.

#6 - and then he likes to eat the grass.

#7 - the 9 month pictures did not go well. He wouldn't sit still.
A quick getaway.

He was more enthralled with the camera lens cover than the paper this time.

At his checkup he weighed 21 lbs, 12 oz (95th percentile) and was 30 1/4" long (68th percentile). I looked at Andrew and Claire's weights and heights at the same age and he weighs the most, by a few ounces and was the same height as Andrew. Grant is getting really good at telling us when he is unhappy by making a whiny noise and waving his arms up and down. He lights up when he sees the cat and just tried (and liked) baby food with meat in it.

Flowers - finally!

We have this long dirt area along our fence in the backyard that had seen better days. The bushes were over grown and there were lots of weeds, so we decided to rip it all out during the winter. And by we I mean Danny :) We had great intentions to replant everything in the spring, but with baseball and other activities we just never had the time. Last Saturday, we finally found the time, unfortunately it was one of the hottest days of the year so far. Oh well, we loaded everyone up and headed to Lowes. I took too long trying to decide what color pallet to go with and what flowers and bushes would work in our super sunny location. By the time I decided what I wanted the kids were done. Here they are with the cart fully loaded. Unfortunately, this was by far not enough stuff, so I had to go back later.

All of the flowers were so pretty and I got Andrew and Claire to pose for a moment in between threats that they were going to collapse because of lack of food.

While Danny was checking out, they wanted to look at the fountains. They REALLY wanted a fountain and picked out several possible choices.

Meanwhile, Grant hung out in the stroller. We kept him busy with a steady supply of Puffs and he was happy.

This is a before shot - just plain dirt.

Then it was time to start planting. Note that Claire changed her clothes. I asked her why she changed and she said that she wanted to wear something with a cupcake on it. Okay, that sounds fine, but then I asked why she was wearing cupcake pajamas and she just smiled.
Then Claire decided that she should entertain Grant. This means that she plays with his toys and he has to watch - it is a lot of fun for him!

Of course we ran out of time and energy, so the process took three days. Andrew was a really good helper though. He was good at digging holes and putting the plans in by himself.

Since Grant won't keep a hat on, we tried the umbrella approach to keep him out of the sun. Take a look at Claire's chosen outfit here - a pink dress. She promptly got dirt all over the front and had to change again.

Grant trying to get up on his knees by holding onto the umbrella pole.

And finally, some watering. Andrew and Claire both love to water the plants. It has been really hot here this week, so I hope that we can keep them alive.
Claire's new favorite watering can.

Community garden

My mom's friend Renee has some plots at a community garden not far from our house. My mom started helping her with a few things here and there which led to rebuilding the boxes and multiple other things. A month or so ago, my mom invited Andrew to go with her after school. Ever since then he has been hooked! He loves to help out with all sorts of tasks. However, he may like the part about going to get frozen yogurt afterwards the best. One week they went to get free mushroom compost from Morgan Hill in the truck and then shovel it out in to the beds. As a side note, for some reason my kids LOVE to play in the back of Grandpa's truck. I'm not sure why this is so fun, but it is.

More shoveling...not so excited.

The missionaries came to help one day and Andrew loves to talk to them.

Natalie has also been going up there to help out and her kids love it too! Claire, Elaina and Chris are master waterers. Whenever they get back from the garden I get a full report on how everything is growing. I had my mom plant a zucchini for me and I can't wait to make bread and muffins and maybe some healthy stuff too.

Grant even gets in on the action from the stroller.
I am going to have to get to this garden to check it out soon. We just got Claire a new large watering can for our yard like the one at the garden.

I'm glad they get to experience gardening first hand. Andrew's first babysitter had a garden and he used to love to pick the fruits and vegetables when they were ready. Now I will have to work on getting them to eat tomatoes because Renee planted lots of them. I have a feeling that it won't be easy.

More park fun!

Erik and Lisa were visiting this past weekend because they did a sprint triathlon - awesome! I wish Lisa lived closer so that I could hire her as my "get back in shape coach". After a morning of baseball, we took the kids to Oak Meadow park. They ask to go all of the time because of the train and merry go round. Elaina, Claire, Taylor and Andrew were fascinated by the creek below. Of course, Andrew started throwing rocks. I didn't get any pictures of them playing on the playground because Andrew and I got there late from his baseball party.

On to the merry go round. I still can't seem to get pictures of it in motion that turn out.

The train was next. The kids were all posing for Lisa who was standing next to me, so I didn't get a great picture. Before we got on the train Claire took the flowers out of her hair because she was worried that they would fly away again.
My mom with McKenzie. She is crawling all over the place! Grant is jealous and has made an effort this past week to catch up.
I was showing my friend Lindsay the cousin pictures that we took while camping, and she suggested that the next time I took a picture of the kids like that to have them all hold hands.
So I tried it with these pictures and I like how they came out. It made the kids be a bit sillier so we got some great candid shots.

As a funny note I asked Taylor how old she was and she said, "I will be 3 in August". Wow - she has some serious vocabulary and thought process. It was fun seeing everyone again and Lisa has inpired me to get back into some sort of shape.

End of the baseball season

Last Saturday was Andrew's last baseball game. The weather was finally nice enough to be able to play and for all of us to come and watch. Andrew has really improved his skills this season - especially catching and throwing. He likes the fact that he was on the Red Sox for two seasons and tells people that his favorite teams are the Giants, Red Sox and sometimes the A's. Here is is waiting on third base to run home. I wish I had taken a picture of him running to home plate. He feels that it is necessary to slide every time he passes home plate whether the situation warrants it or not.

His whole team struggled with some boredom out in the field. He should be standing in this picture and the coaches often have to tell them to stand up and pay attention. Apparently there are some really interesting weeds and bugs on the ground.

Andrew and his team mates on the bench. Interestingly enough Andrew has been using his golf glove for batting. I would have thought they were different, but Danny said it was fine.

Despite all of my best efforts, Grant will not wear a hat. He used to not mind at all, now he instantly pulls it off and chews on it.

Andrew quite a good hitter. He usually hits it past the infielders.
Meanwhile, I was on the side lines trying to occupy Claire and Grant. Claire all of a sudden has an interest in feathers. She keeps finding them on the ground wherever we go and bringing them home. Here she is with her latest fine. As a side note, she picked out the tights with her dress. I put the dress on her, but while I was on the phone she found the polka dot tights.

Cheering for the other team.

The whole team - one of those impossible to get them all looking shots.

Andrew put his hat on Grant at the end of the game.

We had a team party a couple of hours after the game. Andrew loves getting his trophies! He told us that now he has two soccer and two baseball trophies. I am afraid that we are going to have them forever.

Andrew says that he wants to play fall baseball instead of soccer. We'll see about that - soccer is SO much more interesting to watch.

Last day of first grade and awards ceremony

Last week Andrew's school had the last first grade awards ceremony of the school year. They give all sorts of awards to all of the kids like perfect attendance - no absences and no tardies for the quarter. Yeah - we didn't get that one. He wasn't absent, but 8:00 am comes fast every morning.

He got an award for being advanced in writing and math.

Thursday, June 9th was Andrew's last day of first grade. They had a luau where everyone had to bring something to share. Andrew brought grapes which he said everyone was excited about. Here he is standing in line.

Here is a picture of Andrew and Mrs. Welle. He said that he is sad to have the school year end because he really liked his teacher and he didn't want to change. Andrew was in for big changes in first grade as he struggled with quite a bit more (and harder) homework. He loves the social aspect of school but is easily overwhelmed with the homework especially the math. We worked hard to help him better understand the concepts and by the end of the year he had made many improvements. He still has a love for books and reading. We look forward to learning more new things in second grade.