The weather this weekend has been nice and sunny...if a bit cool for my taste! It almost hit 70 yesterday...wish the 70's would come and stay for a while! Anyway, we had a nice day together as a family. Those days are always the best!
Any guess as to where we went? Of course it was Fort Edmonton. My in-laws are the only family that hadn't been yet, so they needed to go!
At the fort they were demonstrating some dances they used to do, so Charlie, Claire, and I joined in. Grayson was along for the ride, haha!
We walked around and then had a picnic lunch. Claire found the pony rides and just had to ride!
After several hours of walking, Charlie asked Claire if she wanted to ride on his shoulders. She said, "no! i want to sleep!" She wanted him to hold her on his hip so she could lay on his shoulder and rest. Ha! That girl doesn't fight sleep when she is tired!
She was out in a matter of minutes!
My two favorite boys!
We left soon after that and went downtown for some great Italian food. Mmmmmm....good! By the time we got home we all were exhausted! I gave Grayson a bath and fed him. Then, I gave him his pumped bottle. He sure is loving his pumped bottle. It has been helping him sleep really well at night too. We all thought it was funny he wanted to hold it all by himself.
Happy Memorial Day to all of my US friends and family!
While we were in Jasper and over the last few days I have been horrible about taking pictures. But, thanks to my Father-in-law I now have some! So, here are some views of the beautiful mountains as well as a couple of my birthday celebration (yep, I know my birthday is in July but when family comes to visit and want to celebrate it would be crazy to turn that down!!) Enjoy!
Grayson is ten months old! I am late posting this because the time just slipped right by! I can't believe that in two months he will be one! Wow!
This has been a big month for Grayson. He bounced back from his ear infection and started eating again (big sigh of relief). He still has days where he doesn't eat very much, but he is more interested in his food...especially if you bring out the Puffs can!
I am also happy to announce that Grayson has finally surpassed his 17 pounds 11 ounces! WOOHOO! I haven't had him weighed in a few weeks, but he was over 18 pounds the last time I had him checked. I hadn't even noticed until I went back over my old posts, but had been stuck at 17 pounds 11 ounces since January. The doctors we saw weren't concerned since he was getting longer and his head was getting bigger. I guess this guy is going to be long and skinny!
Grayson is now wearing 12 months and some 18 months sleepers. His summer onesies are 12-18 months and his pants are 6-12 months or 12-18 months. He needs the 12-18 months pants for length! No high-water pants for this guy! :)
He is wearing a size 4 diaper...not because of his weight but because I got tired of cleaning his blow-outs! He also had his two front teeth come in this month. They make him look so big!
Check out my teeth!
The three biggest (and most fun) accomplishments for Grayson this month is his clapping, waving, and crawling! He first clapped over Skype to Mimi and not long after that he waved bye-bye to her too. Then, I had him on the floor and he pushed himself to a book. Both Claire and Grayson first crawled to a book. He uses a sort of army method, but it gets the job done...even if it is very slow (and easily distracted!) I captured him on video this morning...my first YouTube upload...haha!
I feel like Grayson has been going through a growth spurt lately. Last night I fed him at his normal time before bed and he threw a fit and acted like he wanted more. I thought maybe I should thaw some frozen milk for him and he sucked it down which is remarkable because he rarely ever takes a bottle and usually hates it. Lo and behold, it made him so happy to have that extra milk. He went right to sleep without any fussing. Now I am thinking I might need to start pumping every night to save up a supply. After pumping with Claire so much I have not pumped hardly at all. But I am willing to do anything to make that little guy happy!
On a funny note, we realized that Grayson loves Mickey Mouse. He started reacting to a Mickey Mouse coloring book that Mimi and Dat brought for Claire. He will bounce up and down and try as hard as he can to reach it. If the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse comes on tv he goes crazy...bouncing...babbling at it...smiling! We had been planning a monkey theme for his first birthday, but I might have to rethink that!
I just am loving this boy so much. He has changed a ton in the last ten months. He is a bit of a Momma's boy...but I admit I do love that!
Well, my Mother and Father-in-law are in town and we are rapidly becoming spoiled. By that I mean, I cleaned up the kitchen and prepared dinner all while someone else was playing with the kiddies! Yes! Claire is beside herself with joy! Grayson is a little more wary but he is becoming more excited to see them when he wakes up.
We decided to take a one night trip to Jasper, Alberta over the weekend. As we were driving we saw lots of wildlife.
We would be driving along and then all of a sudden everyone would pull over and jump out of their cars to take pictures...us included! The big horn sheep were the first animals we saw and a couple of them walked right by our car before nonchalantly waltzing across the road.
Then we looked across the street and there were two mountain goats! They aren't seen very often because they spend most of their time up in the mountains!
A little ways down the road and we saw some elk!
We had a great time eating out and walking around the little town and going in to the souvenir shops. I just love those places! Claire thought when we got back to our room that we should "eat popcorn and have a jammie party!" So we did! She went right to sleep on her pull-out couch bed while Charlie and I dealt with our other child who decided he did not like the strange place he was in!
The next morning we were up and ready to see the Columbia Ice Field. On the way we saw this guy (A Grizzly!!) snacking by the side of the road.
We left Grayson in the car with Mimi while we hiked up to the glacier. It was so fun! We went right up through the snow to get a good look at it.
The white part is the glacier now. It has melted very slowly away over the years, but isn't that neat?!!
I turned around to find the car...it was way way down!
The snow part is what we climbed through. I was so happy on the way up, but I was scared to death on the way down! My sweet Father-in-law held my hand so I wouldn't slide. I just knew I would land on my hind end, but I didn't.
We spent a lot of hours in the car yesterday traveling back. It is always nice to be home (I think Grayson was so relieved) but it was great to take a little trip. Thanks for the fun, Mimi and Dat!
So last week Charlie had to go to a conference. In Amsterdam. Yep, the Netherlands. The kids and I took him to the airport on Monday morning and he came back on Sunday at midnight. That is a long time to be alone with these kids! It is funny because now that he has been back a few days there has been a few times that he has mentioned something about the kids being hard to deal with or gosh, the kids are so fussy at night. Ahem...yes, try a week ALONE with them!
But, it really wasn't too bad. I tried to get out every day with them and do something to keep us busy. We went to the library, zoo, Galaxyland, and the playground. I also got really adventurous one day and ran with them to Wal-Mart to get stuff to make homemade biscuits. That turned into a disaster. It seems that cream of tartar is necessary to the success of biscuits because our Wal-Mart didn't have any and the biscuits were kind of rock-ish. I should do a post one day on our Wal-Mart because it is NOT the same as the US Wal-Mart. It is kind of sad.
Anyway, Charlie had a great time. He got to see Ann Frank's house, tour the canals, and see the Van Gough museum. It was really hard to talk to him because he was eight hours ahead, but we did get to talk to him a few times.
Before I put Claire to bed on Sunday night I told her that I would be waking her up to take her to the airport to get Daddy. She was really excited to see what surprise Daddy got for her! When it was time to leave I opened the van doors and turned on the garage light and ran up the stairs to get the kids. I got Claire first and she did NOT want to wake up. I kept telling her we were going to get Daddy. I finally got her to stand in the hallway and I went into Grayson's room to get him up. He was even more unhappy. I turned around to see where Claire was and she was on her way back into her room to get back in her bed! I stopped her and finally got her awake enough to get in the van. Whew!
Both kids stayed awake the entire ride and Claire waited excitedly until we were home for Charlie to dig in his suitcase and pull out her present. She got a little Dutch doll complete with blond braids and wooden shoes. Claire has named her "Sparkle" and don't ask me why or how she got that name! I got a Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam shirt. I always love a new t-shirt.
So, I can say I am proud of myself. I had been dreading him leaving for months, but he did it and I survived! I really don't know how single parents do it. Those extra set of hands are really helpful! I have felt a little bit bad for Claire because everyday she thinks Charlie is gone again and I have been explaining to her that no, it is just regular work and he will be home for dinner!! Thank goodness!!
This is what has been going on (so far) this week in our lives...
1. Last night I went to check on the kids before going to bed and when I went into Claire's room her night light was burned out. I immediately thought about her waking up in the middle of the night screaming because of the DARK so I ran downstairs to find a new light bulb. I changed the bulb out in her room and plugged the light back in and Claire never moved. Then, I went to check on Grayson. He has been screaming as soon as I put him in his bed the last two nights, so I wanted to make sure he was breathing, and as soon as I looked at him, he woke up. Now why can't I have two sound sleepers? Sheesh!
2. We have gone to the playground so far everyday this week. Claire will not slide down the slides that she loved last year. She has regressed to the baby slide. I finally convinced her to try out the twisty slide again with the promise that is goes really slow. She finally went and she loved it. But she still won't go down the tunnel slide. I think she gets her bravery from me, ha!
3. I took the kids to the Library on Tuesday. Charlie is the only one with a card and I didn't have his so I asked the lady if she could look up his card number so I could check out some books. She said no, that every adult has a private account and I couldn't use his. Well I think that is the first time I haven't been able to share something with my spouse! Luckily she gave me my own card and a spiffy pink bag to carry my books in. The bag says "we carry everything you care about." I do love books, but I don't know if I love them that much!
4. I have been working with Grayson on signing "more." I have also been working with him on saying "Mama." Wouldn't you know that the other day after he ate all of the puffs on his tray, he said "mamamama!" I then realized that he is saying "Mama" and meaning "more." I tested him a few more times and sure enough, every time he runs out of food and wants more he says "Mama!" Haha, I guess he is just extra smart to be saying my name and asking for more, right?
5. I do have to add that a few days ago I was talking and someone asked me if I was from Australia!!! Now, why would anyone think that? I just had to laugh!
