Grant vs his Bouncy Seat

He's almost too big for it, but for now Grant sits in his bouncy seat while I shower. I keep an eye on him through the shower glass. I noticed this yesterday, and then Grant did the same thing today so I was able to snap some pictures. His bouncy seat has 3 toys attached for him to play with. The 2 on either side are soft and attached to the seat with velcro. The middle toy is a hard frog that plays a song when you pull on the handle. Since it's harder, it's permanently attached to the bouncy seat unlike the velcro toys on the side. Grant's new thing is to pull each of the side toys off, stick them in his mouth and play with them for a few minutes, and then move onto the next one. After he gets both side toys down, he goes after the frog. Well, since it's attached to the seat, Grant gets really frustrated and mad that he can't pull it off to play with it. It's so funny to watch. I can just imagine what's going through his little mind as he tries his hardest to get that darn frog to come down!

Still happy...just starting to get into it with the frog. You can see both of the side toys to the right of his lap.

Starting to get frustrated...

And the frog wins...

PS- I didn't let him stay like that for long. I picked him up right after I snapped the pictures! ;)

4 Months

Grant turned 4 months old yesterday (July 19)! To celebrate, Grant and I went to Hy-Vee for an afternoon of grocery shopping! ;) We don't go to the pediatrician for his 4 month well baby check or shots until August 11, so I'll update after that with his stats. However, I attempted to measure Grant at home yesterday using a tape measure. I'm sure it's not accurate, but it will be interesting to see how far off I am! I got his length as 26in and his head as 18in. I'll get him weighed tomorrow, but I'm guessing he's around 18 pounds now since he was over 16 pounds 3 weeks ago. When I enter these stats into the Child Growth Chart Calculator on babycenter.com, I get the following message:

"Based on the data you submitted, your child falls into the following percentiles.
Length= between percentile 75 and 90
Weight= between percentile 75 and 90
Head Circumference= above percentile 95"

Probably close to accurate since those percentiles go along with where he fell at his 2 month check up. We know he's a big boy (with a really big head)!!!

At 4 months, Grant loves being held, playing with Dexter, and his exersaucer. He's recognizing people and smiling in response to things. Whenever we put him on his back, he rolls over to his tummy within a minute. Most mornings he's on his tummy looking around by the time I get from my bed to his crib in the nursery. Grant's really close to sitting up on his own! For now he can stay up for about 15 seconds before falling to a side or nose-diving to the floor. He's also recently discovered his voice. He loves to screech over and over again! For having such quiet parents, we sure have a noisy little baby! :)

Here are some pictures I took of him yesterday.

Naked baby!

I keep hearing that you are supposed to let babies "air out" every once in awhile and go without a diaper. I've been so scared to do that...especially with a boy! I finally got brave enough to try it the other day for some tummy time. Grant (and Dexter) loved it!

SOLIDS!

We started Grant on rice cereal this week. It's a little early to be starting, but we knew he was ready! He's so big for his age, hungry ALL the time, eats at least 40 oz per day, and has been tracking our food as we eat for weeks! The first try was a little difficult, but it's getting easier now. I've realized if you hold his right hand while he eats it's not nearly as messy since he doesn't stick that hand in his mouth! The first two days he was done after about five minutes, but the following two days he finished it all! Our big boy is growing up!

Day #1

First bite

"I'm not too sure about this!"

"Cleaning up the mess I made is no fun!"

Day #2

Still not too sure about it...

Day #3

Love this face!

Success! Happy boy!

Shark Reef

While Erica was in Vegas, we headed over to the Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef Aquarium.

It was the 10th Anniversary of the Shark Reef, so there was a long line.

Happy Boy!

Grant feel asleep right as we got to the front of the line and slept through the whole aquarium!

Aunt Erica

SMILE! :)

For the 10th anniversary, they had other hotels design cakes for a cake judging contest. This is an actual cake with a fish bowl inside of it with real fish! Pretty impressive!

As we were leaving the Shark Reef, we saw some "immature" people posing with some of the wall art in Mandalay Bay. We were making fun of them until we thought of putting our 3 month old up to the wall art. Then we became the immature people! It was really funny though!

Poor baby was still asleep in this picture!

Random Pictures

I took these pictures in June before we left for Vegas. I think they are pretty cute, so I wanted to share!

The hair on the top of his head is finally starting to grow back in...

WANTED: New babysitters

Aaron's been feeling sick since he got home from Vegas last Wednesday. On Sunday, I started feeling sick too. Yesterday, Aaron watched Grant in the afternoon and I went upstairs to take a nap. When I woke up, I had a temperature of 102.8! We were thinking we just had colds, but with that high of a fever we figured we better get checked out. So Gigi came over to get Grant to keep him overnight. It was my first night away from him! :( Aaron and I headed over to Walgreens to see the nurse at the Take Care Clinic. She did a strep test on me, and it came back positive. She prescribed an antibiotic for both of us. Since we're contagious until this evening, Grant is staying at Grandpapa and Gigi's today too. We'll pick him up tonight before bedtime, and we're hoping and praying that he doesn't get sick. I was trying to sleep today, but my body is so used to being up and moving now that it's hard for me to nap. (That's why there are so many blog updates in a row!) Aaron was up all night playing, so he's still asleep now. I definitely feel better this morning. My temperature is gone, so now I just have to deal with my runny nose and congestion. Anyway, I think we're in need of some new babysitters if we ever find ourselves in a situation like this again. These are the pictures I got from my mom of Grant last night. :)

Play Date!

Grant and I had another play date last week with the other March babies. All 4 of the babies were born within 2 weeks of each other! Grant is actually the youngest, but he's the biggest! He's also the only boy! I loved being able to share my pregnancy with 3 of my good friends, and we just have a blast now when we get the babies together. I think these pictures are a little small, so hopefully they show up okay!

Addy (3/15), Grant (3/19), and Ashlyn (3/6)

Yay! Betty Jane (3/3) woke up! All four together!

Pool Time!

The house we had rented in Vegas in June had a pool in the backyard. Grant can't be out in the sun long since he can't wear sunblock yet, but we wanted to get him in the water at least once. He loves his bath time, so I figured he would love the pool too! However, he didn't really react to being in the pool at all! He didn't cry, but he also didn't smile or laugh. He just kind of sat there in his Daddy's arms. It will be fun next summer when we can spend more time outside in the pool.

Love this one!

I guess he looks a little unhappy in this picture! :)