Photo Shoot & Big Boy Bath

Ashley and I had a little photo shoot with Gradyn today because he was looking so cute in his new fall outfit! Ashley came for the weekend and got to watch Gradyn all day on Saturday because I had a class in Kearney and Paul played in a softball tournament all day. I think she had a lot of fun with him! They went to the mall and did a little shopping which he loves because he can sit up in the stroller and look out at everything. We also had a friend come visit us for the weekend and get to hang out with us! Thanks for coming Shana! :) So, here are all of the pictures from the photo shoot:

With Aunt Ashley

This week we started giving Gradyn baths in the bathtub instead of the sink. He has become too big of a splasher to get bathed in the sink anymore! Mommy can't handle the splashing all over the kitchen!!! He loves being able to sit up in his little bathtub inside of the big bathtub and plays with all of the toys. And, he splashed his hands and giggles when the water hits him in the face.

DADDY LOOK ALIKE! Most people tell us all the time that Gradyn looks just like Paul, which is very true. However, he has always looked more like my baby pictures because I was a small baby like he is. BUT, today Paul got out his baby book and there is a picture of him from when he was 6 months old that looks pretty much exactly like Gradyn! So, I guess we know who he will keep growing up to look like!

The only big difference is that Paul was a lot bigger than Gradyn! At 6 months Gradyn weighed 15 pounds. Paul weighed almost 20 pounds when he was 6 months.

We have a sitter!

Gradyn started sitting up all by himself this week! He had been able to do it for a little bit before he tipped over, but on Wednesday he started sitting all by himself for long periods of time! He was at the doctor's office with me while I was getting my allergy shots and he sat on the floor while we were waiting for 20 minutes while he watched all of the people walk by. Of course, the nurses love to stop and talk to him and play with him! I go to get allergy shots once a week, so all of the staff there are getting to know him pretty well and love when he comes in. He even has a special nurse that always gets to hold him while I am getting the shots! The next day at daycare he sat up and played with a toy that he can sit under and play with that lights up and talks to him for almost 40 minutes! He loves to sit and play and watch everything that is going on! It is so much easier now that he can do it on his own because he was never usually happy on his back or belly for too long. He is now getting ready to crawl. We can tell he is pretty close, but still no real movement yet.

He is still continuing to try lots of different baby foods. He has now had: carrots. sweet potatoes, squash, peas, bananas, peaches. He was definately not a fan of the peas at first. He gagged on every bite that he took. It was a little dramatic. He is also not really a fan of fruits, which I think is so weird. I thought he would like those better than the veggies, but so far he doesn't. He can now eat bananas without gagging or starting to throw a fit because he gets mad and doesn't want them anymore. So, hopefully this will continue!

He did really well at daycare this week. He loves to watch the other kids and interact with them. He gets pretty spoiled with all of the attention! The only problem he has is that he usually doesn't sleep very well while he is there because he has too much to look at and doesn't want to miss anything! But, fortunately it doesn't make him crabby or fussy. Hopefully he will get used to the nap room and the other sounds he hears soon so he can take regular naps. He has been going to bed earlier than normal, so that is good and will hopefully stick with being his new bedtime.

We are getting excited for Paul to start flag football this week! It will be fun to go to his games every week, as long as the weather stays nice. We are also getting pretty excited for the start of Husker football and have already started teaching Grady "Touchdown", which I am sure he totally understands! :)

Our Little Swimmer

We went to the pool today and I was so excited about how much Gradyn loves the water! I mean, we knew he liked it already because he has always liked to sit in his crab floaty and kick around in the water, or sit in his stroller and watch the other kids play. But, today we took him into the big pool and held him so he could really get kicking and use his arms and he LOVED it! He was kicking and splashing his arms like crazy and smiling and laughing the whole time! I'm so proud to have a good little swimmer! (His daddy, who hates the pool, is not as proud but I told him we might have the next Michael Phelps on our hands so maybe he will be happy when he gets to go to the Olympics some day.....)

Last weekend we went to Decatur to stay with the whole Guenther family for Paul's mom and dad's 30th anniversary and one of his aunt and uncles 30th anniversary. We stayed in cabins right on the Missouri River. It was a fun time! Very hot, but fun to see everyone and catch up.
It's also always fun to see our nephews, Luke and Isaac. Luke has started crawling now so it was cool to watch him do his little crawl around the cabin. We keep trying to tell Grady that he needs to start crawling so he's cool enough to play with Luke, but so far he doesn't seem to care. He has started to get up on his hands and feet in a bear crawl position, a little bit, but no actually crawling yet. He pivots around like crazy and can definately get places if he wants to though!

This is my last week of summer before school starts. I go back on Monday. Next week should be a very interesting week of having to get up before 9:00! I am dreading that part the most! Also, Gradyn will go back to daycare full time and will have a full week there, so it will be an adjustment for all of us. We love our daycare though and they love him! Doreen is already excited to have him back and love on him. I have been to school all 3 days this week so far to get some things done there and Gradyn has come along and been awesome. I was worried about how he would do and if I would actually be able to get anything done, but it has worked out well. He loves to sit up in his stroller and watch me move around the room doing things, or he sits in the office when I make copies and of course everyone who comes in loves to talk to him to keep him entertained! I have gotten a lot done and am thankful he has let me do it!

He was tested by the Physical Therapist on Monday to check to see if he is on track for a 6 month old. She was impressed with him and only had a few minor problems. She said they are things that aren't problems now, but that we need to stay ahead of so they don't become problems in the future. She thinks his hamstrings are tight, which is the reason we got referred to them in the first place, but she doesn't think it is a problem for him. She gave us a few suggestions on things to do with him to help him out and we will get a full report on everything after the speech therapist and occupational therapist tests him. He is sitting up pretty good now and can sit by himself for quite a few moments before he starts to lean over to the side. She showed us how to put him in the corner of a square chair to help him learn where his bottom is and move from there instead of his chest or arms. We are also supposed to help him pivot to his right when he is on his belly crawling around. He only wants to pivot to his left side and always favors leaning towards his left side when he sits up and sits in his high chair too. So, maybe that means he will be left-handed????? But, we don't want him to be over-developed on his left side so that is why we need to help him try to go to his right sometimes too.
One thing we got scolded for was having him in his Bumbo chair for too long. She said that as soon as they start to arch their backs to get out of it they are too big and it hurts them more than it helps them. So, we sadly stopped using the Bumbo since Monday. I'll keep you posted on the rest of the results of his testing and what we will do with the results once we know them. So far the overall consensus is that he is right on track for his age. Both people who have tested/observed him so far think that he is actually pretty advanced for his corrected age since he was premature. They don't think he will qualify for services based on his testing scores so they might qualify him as Developmentally Delayed in order to keep working with him and watching out for him for his first year. They can technically consider him developmentally delayed for the first year since he was born a month early.

Tomorrow night we are going to Bullfest, a PBR bullriding event here in North Platte. It will be Gradyn's first time at bullriding or any type of rodeo event. We'll see how it goes since he sometimes gets scared of loud noises or loud music! I think he will like to sit and watch all the people and the things in front of him.

Oh, and in case you were wondering he has now eaten carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash baby foods! I think his favorite so far is sweet potatoes. We might start on some green veggies this weekend. He is such a good eater! As soon as we put him in his high chair and put his bib on he is opening his mouth ready for his bite and wants to grab the spoon and help out. He is also using a sippy cup at times (even though he can't hold it very well since it's pretty wide) and can hold his bottle for a little bit. He definately reaches for his bottle and gets excited as soon as he sees it sitting on the counter. We think he's going to be quite a drama king! Gets so excited and crazy! And MAD when he's hungry! :)

Hope things are going well for everyone! Please drop us a line if you ever get a chance, we would love to hear how you are doing!

New Pictures!

Hope you enjoy a few pictures of Grady from this summer!

First time on a boat on the 4th of July!

With his friends Patrick & Jackson Deaver. They were born 1 week before Grady.

Messy oatmeal eater!

With his cousin Luke!

Tried to get a good family picture after our friend Becky's musical. Couldn't get a very good one!

He loves sitting in his floaty crab at the pool or just sitting and watching the other kids run around!

First time eating carrots!

On the way to Uncle Andy's baseball game! (6 months old)

With Daddy after his first musical, School House Rock!

This weekend we are headed to Decatur to stay at some cabins along the Missouri River to celebrate Paul's parents 30th Anniversary. It should be a fun time with the whole Guenther family!

We have one crazy baby!

This is a video of Grady eating his cereal last night. It was so funny how he kept "bucking" in his chair and giggling so much! Paul was egging him on quite a bit, but it was still hilarious!

We started feeding Gradyn baby food this week. He has had carrots so far and has done really well with them! At first he always makes a funny face (the same face that most people make when they eat carrots...) but then he opens his mouth wide and wants more! We are going to start squash soon.

We met with the early childhood program people about the possible physical therapy he might need for his legs and they will probably come test him in 2 or 3 weeks. They will test on everything, but our only concern is about his legs. The lady we met with thinks that they are tight because he has been standing on them since he was about 3 months old. And, he loves to bounce and jump constantly so he is constantly giving them a good work out! If he doesn't qualify for physical therapy now, they will retest him in 6 months to make sure he is still okay.

We have been trying to enjoy our last 2 weeks of summer this week. It has been hard to get into the swing of things after being on vacation. I am getting sad that summer is coming to an end. It will be hard not to be with Gradyn all day long anymore! I start school on the 17th. I am sort of exited to get back into a routine with school and am getting excited to meet my new kindergartners! I have been working on a few things for school these past few days, so that has gotten me a little more on the excited side.

Today was our anniversary so we went out to dinner and then to Cody Park to get ice cream and walk around. It was a fun night! Grady usually does really good at restaurants now. He used to be colicky and then it was not so good. But, now he likes to just look around at everything and watch all the people! We usually take his Bumbo chair and have him sit in there so he can sit up and watch. Tonight we took his carrots to the park and fed him there, so that was something new for him!

I will try to post some current pictures of him soon!

San Francisco Trip!

Paul and I went with his family to San Francisco last week. There were 6 of us to make the fun trip. Ron, Doris, Mike, Joey, and Paul and I. We kept very busy the whole week! We were able to see some of our family and friends that live there. My friend Jackie Degner and her boyfriend Matt joined us for a San Francisco Giants game on the first night we were there. We all really liked the Giants stadium. It is right on the bay overlooking the water, so that is pretty neat. We also had VERY good seats! 3rd row and 9th row! It was a lot of fun! We also got to have dinner one night with Paul's cousin Melanie Mace and her husband Karl. We went to a great pizza place and then to see their house. It was cool to see what the inside of some of the houses in San Francisco look like! It was also great to see them and catch up!

Our hotel was right downtown in Union Square, which is very close to lots of shopping and transportation. I picked that hotel because it is half a block from the subway system that we used for all of our transportation.

Day 1 - Ate dinner at "Lefty O'Douls" and then went to Giants game.

Day 2 - Went on a bus tour of the city with a tour guide all morning. Ate lunch in Fisherman's Wharf, went to tour Alcatraz Island, ate dinner in Fisherman's Wharf.

Day 3 - Rented a car and drove to Napa/Sonoma area to a vineyard/winery, went to Jelly Belly Factory on tour, went to coast North of San Francisco to see the Pacific Ocean, ate dinner with Melanie & Karl.

Day 4 - Paul and I went on a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone else hung out in Fisherman's Wharf and did some touring during the day. Went to Oakland to the A's game at night.

Day 5 - Got up at 3:00 in the morning to fly back!

I think instead of posting pictures on here I am going to put the link to the pictures I posted on facebook. There are so many pictures and they kind of tell more of the story of what we did. Hope you enjoy looking at them! We had a lot of fun and got to see and do many fun things! I think my favorite part of the trip was the bike ride. It was really hard because of the hills in SF, plus it was cold and really windy that day and we were going against the wind. But, it was still really fun to do! Good thing I do a lot of cycling, Paul on the other hand was struggling at times. :)

Here is the link to the album on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2242380&id=17214806&l=71c7dfd2d7

P.S. Gradyn stayed in Nebraska with Paul's brother Andy and wife Cassie while we were gone. Just in case you were wondering about him! I think he had a fun week with his cousins Luke and Isaac.