Swinging at the Park!

A couple weeks ago on a Sunday the weather was so nice here so we went to the park with the Deaver's to play and feed the geese. It was such a nice day to walk around outside and play! Here are some pictures of Grady swinging, which he loves! He has a love-hate relationship with going fast. He laughs and giggles when you push him hard and fast, but then starts crying when he realizes what is happening!

Weekend with Family

A few weeks ago we went to visit family in Omaha, Pender, and then Lincoln. Ron had surger on his neck in Omaha so we went to see him in the hospital and then Paul drove him home with Gradyn. We then spent the weekend in Pender and all of Paul's brothers came home for the weekend. We had a good time hanging out with everyone and playing with the little boys! After church on that Sunday we went to Lincoln to meet my dad and Zoya and Irina for lunch. I think everyone loved seeing Gradyn and how much he had grown! It was a good weekend! We even got to sneak a little trip to Sioux City with all of Paul's brothers and Cassie while Grandma and Grandpa watched the 3 boys. We got to eat at Texas Roadhouse which, YES, was as good as everyone says it is. :)
Here are some pictures of our trip:

Gradyn and Grandpa Ron in the hospital, watching the Missouri game.

The 3 cousins: Luke, Isaac, Gradyn

Uncle Joey and Gradyn

Uncle Mike

Playing in his favorite thing: the walker! Although he pretty much RUNS in it, not walks....

Helping Grandpa ron recuperate afte surgery.

What Up Joey??

Zoya and Gradyn

Gradyn pulling Grandpa Steve's Hair!

Oktoberfest in Sidney

This weekend we went to Sidney to visit Ashley and to attend the Oktoberfest celebration they had. It was a lot of fun! We went out to eat, drove around town, visited Ashley's friend who just had a baby, helped her dogsit for a funny dog, went to a parade, and went to the "tent" for the rest of the Oktoberfest festivities, which was mostly food and beer.

Gradyn seemed to love it all! He is the type of baby who loves to be out and about and can just sit and look around and watch everything for a long time. He loved the parade, especially the bands that marched in it. He also loved being out at the tent and seeing all the people. Lots of people stopped by to talk to him!

We are very lucky that he is a good sleeper wherever we go. He fell asleep and took a nap during the parade (even with all the noise) and again at the tent with all of the people around. We pretty much just have to lay him down in his stroller with his blanket and pacifier and he will sleep if he is tired. The only problems we have are that it is hard for him to eat in new places because he can't pay attention to his food because he is too busy looking around and checking everything out!

He is still NOT crawling yet, for those of you who were wondering. He is getting pretty close to scooting around though. He can scoot backwards really well, and he will get up on all 4's and rock back and forth, but still no movement! Which, I am actually fine with because I can't imagine how crazy active he is going to be when he can crawl! He is already moving constantly!

Here are some pictures from our weekend in Sidney:

Family Picture at a restaurant

With Aunt Ashley

Walking to the parade, actually if you look really close you can see that Paul is marching to the parade......

Baby G

This was right before nap time! :

Toast anyone?

Gradyn had toast for the first time last weekend so I thought I should take a few pictures of the occasion. He loved it! But mostly I think he liked how hard it was and felt good on his gums/teeth. I don't think he ended up eating any of it, just sucked on it and gummed it until it was really soggy!

Hair Model?

One night when Paul was giving Gradyn a bath he decided to try some different hairstyles out on him. Paul has always loved to give our nephews, Luke & Isaac, his famous "butt-cuts" and now he thought it was time that Grady had one too. The 3 hairstyles he tried out were: the side part, the butt-cut, and spiked hair. He was so cute!

These are of the spiked hair, which is my favorite! I can't wait until his hair is longer and thicker so we can spike it up all the time! :) Right now his hair is too thin and fine to do a very good spike with!

This is the famous "butt-cut"! Parted right down the middle of his head!

We now have the side part.

Gradyn & Madison

Last weekend we went to Lincoln & Omaha to get together with our college friends and see some family. Gradyn had a very busy weekend and got lots of attention from lots of new people. He was a big hit with everyone! The only bad part was the horrible end to the Husker game. He must have been pretty upset afterwards because he couldn't sleep at all! :)

On Sunday we got together with some of my family at my Aunt Lori's house in Lincoln. Madison, my cousin Josh's baby who was born 10 days before Gradyn, was there from Colorado so Gradyn got to play with her a little bit. They were really funny to watch together, especially when they first saw each other and were checking each other out. Gradyn liked to try to put her whole head in his mouth a lot and was really into touching her and checking her out! We think he is going to be quite the little monster after we watched him steal all of her toys, dive all over the place, and never stop moving (even though he can't crawl yet.....). It was a lot of fun!

Gradyn is going to get his flu shot tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well with that. The last time he had to get shots he freaked out pretty bad so I am not looking forward to this time!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it on here before, but Gradyn now has 2 teeth! Both of his bottom 2 teeth came in at the same time and they are now both all of the way through and getting taller. He didn't have too many problems with them at all so hopefully they all come in that smoothly!

He is getting to have such a fun personality and turning into such a little man! He is still very active and never stops moving or jumping. We are glad he isn't crawling yet because I have a feeling once he takes off we will be chasing him everywhere! He is also very excitable which is funny to watch. When I go pick him up from daycare he gives me a huge smile and jumps around in my arms and throws his arms around my neck (grabbing my hair...ouch!) to greet me! It is so cute!

These are some pictures of Gradyn & Madison together:

First Husker Game

Grady got to watch his first 2 Husker games the past 2 weeks. I'm sure he will be a life-long fan and will be following recruiting as soon as he can read, just like his daddy! He is very happy the Huskers are 2-0. He is probably confused about the switch from baseball to football season, even though he does still get to watch a lot of the Royals during the week!

We were very excited to have visitors over Labor Day weekend. Paul's family came to visit for the weekend, Ron, Doris, Andy, Cassie, Isaac, & Luke. We watched a lot of football, went on walks, played outside, and did some North Platte touring. It was so fun to have all 3 of the boys together and watch them play. We are excited to see how much busier they get over the next few months. Luke is really crawling all over the place now and as soon as Grady can, nothing will be safe!!

Isaac, Luke, Grady

Grady & Isaac playing outside together.

Daddy and Grady Love the Huskers!

Grady is growing, growing, growing! He is getting such a fun personality now and we love playing with him every night! He is eating all kinds of baby foods right now and is such a good eater. He opens his mouth wide as soon as he sees the spoon and sits in his high chair. He is not yet crawling, but getting closer each day. He still doesn't like to try to pull his knees up to get on them to crawl, he just fusses when he realizes he can't get anywhere. He LOVES sitting up though and it is so much easier on mommy and daddy to have him sit.

Grady went to his first volleyball and football game this week. On Wednesday night Becky, Grady, and I went to Kearney for the UNK-UNO volleyball game because Becky's sister, Lizzy, plays for UNO. It was a packed house and an awesome game! It went 5 sets and UNO ended up losing 16-14 in the last set. It was a very loud and interesting game for Grady's first volleyball game and he did awesome! He sat and watched all of the people and wasn't scared of the loud sounds like I thought he might be, and let me tell you it was VERY loud! He just looked around at everything and took it all in.

Then, on Friday night he got to go to his first football game. Paul, Luke, Ashley, Grady and I went to the St. Pat's high school football game here in North Platte. This was not as exciting as the volleyball game and not near as loud, so Grady did end up getting a little bored and fussy towards the end of this game. Especially after he dropped his paci under the bleachers and didn't have that to comfort him anymore. He did great during the first half though and loved to be outside and look at everything. We'll definately have to go to more games as long as the weather is nice!

This next week, on Monday, we are meeting with the Early Childhood team for Gradyn's MDT (multi-disciplinary team) meeting. They decided that they want to keep him on their caseload so they can keep track of him to make sure he is meeting all of his developmental milestones without any problems, especially with his legs. His legs are not near as tight and toned as they used to be, which I think has a lot to do with the fact that he can sit up and stretch out his hamstrings so much. The plan right now is for the Physical Therapist to see him once or twice a month to check his progress. We will do this at our house and then she will give us pointers on stuff that we can help him with to keep him progressing in the right direction.

Survey on Gradyn:

*Favorite Fruit: Pears

*Favorite Veggie: Sweet Potatoes

*Favorite Toys: Exersaucer, Jumperoo, vibrating strawberry teether, THE REMOTE (naughty)

*How he sleeps: Usually gets up once a night, but lately sleeping all night long

*Bed time: Anywhere between 8:45-10:00

*New Favorite Place to Play: the bathtub - loves to sit and splash in the water and sing to himself

*What makes him laugh/giggle the most: little boys - he laughs as soon as a boy walks up and gets close to his face, especially if they say "Boo", he loves Isaac and Dominic!

*Favorite game: Peek-a-boo

*Favorite song: ABC's

*Other favorite thing to eat: Cereal - he sometimes will eat 3 bowls of cereal in the mornings, he LOVES it!

Thanks for checking in!

When God wants something special done in this world....He sends a baby and then He waits.