Diaper Shower

Baby Girl's Room

Finally some pictures of "Sister's" room.  We call her Sister.  She doesn't have a definate name yet.  We have a list, but still not narrowed down.  And, I kind of want to keep browsing to see if I find something else I like. 

Anyway, this is what her room looks like so far!

Her name will go in pink letters above the crib, eventually. 

And, the TV will be removed from the room too!

Grady is excited for Sister to come and check out her room!

I am happy with how it has turned out so far!  The only thing we are going to try to change is the pink stickers that came with the bedding set that are on the walls do not show up very well since it is pink paint.  I am going to get some more brown circle stickers to replace some of them.  Especially in these pictures, it is hard to see them, so picture the pink spots with brown!  :) 

Baby Shower at School!

My friend Andrea planned an awesome baby shower with my class at school.  She is one of my close friends and I get to have her daughter Addilyn in my class this year and she teaches first grade in Hershey.  The kids loved being a part of the baby shower and thought it was really fun! 

One of the mom's made a diaper cake that was really cute! 

The piggy bank in the above picture was part of a "shower game".  The kids all put a penny in the bank and made a wish for the baby.  We had a lot of good ones!  Some of them were:  I wish the baby was here right now, I wish the baby could fly, I wish the baby was magic, etc.  It was cute!

Paul and Grady got to come to the shower since it was Paul's Friday off.  Grady LOVED being with all the kids and running around exploring.  He especially loved the pink cupcakes!

My class at the shower! 

The kids also got to write what name they think I should name the baby.  The most popular was Princess.  :) 

Among the other choices were:  Sally, Elizabeth, Jacquelyn, Jane, Ella, Ally, Hannah, Lady, Briley, Deonna. 

Baby Girl Guenther was blessed with some cute little presents too!  A couple blankets, a couple outfits, and a cute teddy bear. 

It was a really awesome shower! 

Knock Knock Jokes

One of Grady's new things to do is tell Knock Knock Jokes.  He especially loves to do them in his bed when he can knock on his headboard and we are laying in bed with him. 

This is a small portion of his comedy tour: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaw5zZNXTeM

2nd Video of his Knock Knock Jokes:

(No More Monkey's Jumping On The Bed!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kSsebvs1Cg&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Sorry they are sideways.  I couldn't get it to turn!

Luke's 2nd Birthday/Grady update

The 3 little boys on a Mule ride!

Our nephew, Luke, had his 2nd Birthday Party last weekend!  We went back for the weekend and got to do lots of fun stuff!  Gradyn got to do one of his favorite things!  Ride in Grandpa Ron's Tractor!!  Every time he sees a green tractor he calls it "Grandpa's Tractor".  We also got to ride around in the Mule and watch the cows eat and even watch Daddy, Andy, & Ben chase some cows into another pen.  I don't really know what they were doing, but we sat and watched them run around and yell at cows for awhile.  :)

Luke's party was a basketball theme so we got to enjoy a basketball cake, soup supper, and fun games! 

Luke & Isaac trying to give Grady a hug when he first got there. 

The Birthday Boy!

Some of the "crowd" watching the fun and games!

Luke got lots of cool presents!

One of his presents was an Elmo music player thing.  Grady LOVED it!  He danced, sang, and did actions to every song for about 1.5 hours!  (From 9 to 10:30 at night....)  Can you tell how much he LOVES music???  He is obsessed!  He can now hear 2 notes of a song from his CD's or music toys and yells out what song it is immediately.  He can also sing all of the words and does the actions to them.  Paul has heard him say what song comes next before it even comes on.  We have a pretty musical little boy I guess!  We do a LOT of singing and dancing in our house every day.  Good thing he also really likes to play catch, hit off of his Tee, and play basketball too (although not near as much as Luke does...).  :)  He also really likes to play with his cows and tractors.  He will come get Paul and say "Daddy get up!  Come play cows!" 

Speaking of giving orders to Daddy, he is getting to be quite the boss.  I guess that's what comes with his vocabulary expanding so much!  We hear quite often, "Mommy Come On" or "Get up" or "No Daddy!  That is Mommy's blanket!" 

He is VERY particular about making sure the right things go in the right place.  I really love it, but it drives Paul crazy somtimes.  He knows what things are Mommy's, Daddy's, and Grady's and makes sure we have what is ours at all times.  Paul tried to use "Mommy's" blanket the other day and Grady threw a huge fit and yelled at him until he got his own.  haha!  He does this quite often with many things.  I secretely love that he has OCD qualities coming out! 

We had his 2 Year Check Up a few weeks ago:

Weight:  27 lbs.  (40th %tile, highest he has ever been!)

Height:  34 inches (30th %tile, also the highest he has ever been!)

Head:  can't remember the measurement, but 75%tile (same big head he has always had!)  :)

Everything was fine at the check up.  He likes to stand on his tiptoes a lot, which she said is from running so much, so we are just supposed to watch that to make sure he doesn't do it all of the time and that he can go down on his feet.  Try to correct him when he see it.  I don't really notice it when he has shoes on, just with shoes off and mostly when he is really excited.  He does still pretty much run everywhere so we think it is also mostly from habit of running, which is a good thing to be on your toes! 

We are probably going to stop services with the Early Childhood program.  He is only being seen quarterly at this time by the physical therapist and at this point we have no more concerns about his development.  He is still not quite as flexible as other kids his age, but he can still do everything he needs to do and is advanced in every physical category.  He is very advanced in the other categories that she tested him on for his 2-year checklist.  He is functioning at a 3 or 3 1/2 year old level with almost everything else.  So, that was nice to see!  Maybe that means we can skip the Terrible 2's!  haha!  We do notice that he plays with the older kids we know, and at daycare too, and is more on there level so I guess that is because he is a little more mature.  This can be a good thing AND a bad thing I think!  

His vocabulary and languge is just amazing us every day with all of the new things he can say and tell us about!  And we can just see how his little brain is working with some of the things he comes out of the blue to tell us and talk about.  Some of them are so funny!  I do think it is almost getting harder to know what he is talking about now that he is mostly speaking in full sentences all the time.  I used to always know what he is saying and now it takes me a little bit sometimes if I can't figure out the whole sentence and what context it is in reference to.  

He is labeled as the "class clown" at daycare!  Oh No!  As a teacher, my first response was, "He is going to drive his teachers crazy!"  He is always trying to get a reaction, loves to tell jokes, make you laugh, do silly things, always wanting to be funny.  Takes after his Daddy for sure!  But, I know Paul was MUCH more shy as a child so it will be interesting to see what Grady turns into and if this "clown" personality continues!  We, of course, think it is adorable right now!  

He has moved into a "big boy bed"!  We moved his crib into the baby's room a few weeks ago so he now has a full size bed that he loves!  The transition went very smooth and MUCH better than we expected!  He has always had to go to bed on "his time" and that has stayed the same as with the crib.  If he isn't ready to go he will come stand at the door and we can hear him trying to open it and sometimes he starts to call for us.  We know that he is not ready if he does this and go to let him out.  He runs out, reads some more books, plays a little more, etc. and then we try again 15-20 minutes later and he usually goes right down.  He has never gotten up in the middle of the night, he wakes up and cries from his bed until we come in there. 

The best part about it is in the morning he gets up on his own and runs into our room while we are getting ready!  I love how excited he is to run in and see us!  It is so much happier than him crying from his crib wanting up! 

This week we also cut his pacifier.  He are going to try that method.  We cut the tip off on Sunday night and then Tuesday night cut a little more.  Our plan is to keep cutting until there is nothing left.  So far so good.  He has still went to sleep just fine at bedtime and naps.  He definately plays with it and looks it over more, but can sleep fine.  He was holding it in his hand yesterday at daycare when he was laying down to nap so we are hoping that it turns into he will just hold it for the security of it and can sleep without it.  I'll keep you posted!  Our goal is to have it completely gone by the time the baby comes, so about 5 weeks or less. 

Baby update to follow! 

Happy Valentine's Day from the Drama King!

Too bad Gradyn is EXTRA crabby this Valentine's Day and the whole weekend before!  I'm sure he is testing our "LOVE" for him and has found out that we love him so much no matter how obnoxious he is.  We are hoping it is only because he seems to be getting another 2 year molar.  He was in the process of getting 1 and now it looks like there is another one poking through.  That better be what it is and not his "new" personality....

We left 3 places this weekend while he was throwing a kicking/screaming tantrum because he didn't want to leave.  One was at Wal-mart because he didn't want to leave the game room, which has happened a lot in the past and actually every time we have left Wal-mart recently.  He actually tries to run away while we are on the other side of the store to get to that game room because he knows it is there!  We pretty much always leave with Paul throwing him over his shoulder and kicking and screaming the whole way out. 

Then I thought it would be fun to take him swimming yesterday at the Rec Center, which he was SO excited for!  I wasn't sure if he would even remember what swimming is because we haven't been to the pool since summer but he was so excited and kept yelling "swimming" and talking about it the whole way there.  He was very hesitant at first, I think because it had been so long and there were a TON of kids there, but by the end he was his old "fish" self. 
BUT, he realized there is a slide at the pool.  It is a huge tornado water slide for big kids.  So, of course he really wanted to go down the slide.  He threw a couple fits while we were swimming because he wanted to run over to it but we would always distract him.  We thought he had forgotten about it and at the end he even said, "I go home" when he was ready to go home so we got out and got ready to leave.  Well, apparently he remembered.  We drug him out of there screaming hysterically, kicking, refusing to let us put his shirt on, yelling the whole way to the car.  Fought with everything he had not to get in his carseat.  Then he did his new thing of trying to make himself throw up to manipulate us....  He didn't end up throwing up, just screaming hysterically, yelling "Slide!" the entire way home.  Which, luckily is only about 7 blocks. 
It is so hard to take him to places that he likes because he does not want to leave them!  He is SUCH a drama KING! 

We were hoping a really good night sleep last night would help him but not so much.  The 20 minutes he was actually up this morning before he left for daycare were terrible.  He literally throws a hysterical fit for things that he would normally just ask for nicely, especially in the mornings when he is at his best.  Doreen might have a LONG day at daycare! 

Let's all pray he is back to his "LOVEY" self in no time! 

Rock Star Birthday Party

We Have A 2 Year Old!

Grady's 2nd Birthday was on January 27th!  We celebrated in the morning by opening a couple presents before daycare, he took cupcakes that he helped me make to daycare, we went out to dinner, and he got to open more presents at home! 

This is his favorite gift from us, his card!  It plays the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song, which he thinks is ultra-cool! 

The Birthday Boy at Dinner!



This is how he shows he is 2.  Also could be confused with picking his nose...  But, he does yell 2 as he does it!  :)

Birthday morning!