This and That

12-12-14 Just realized that I had this post from about 6 weeks ago that I never posted!  

I am very behind on updating the blog.  I have started writing a post several times only to get side tracked when I come back to it the information is all out dated so I don't finish!

Things have been good, but busy.  Nolan is playing soccer again so we have practice on Tuesday nights and then a game on Saturday.  This year they play with goalies.  The first game of the season Nolan was put in as goalie.  He had barely even practiced the position before.  He did great though!  Everyone was so impressed with his skills.  While he did let a goal or two be scored against them he had many more stops.  The coach said that he would just rotate all of the kids through the position but Nolan has played it a few more times because of the fact that he does well at it and genuinely likes it.  When he isn't goalie he is doing pretty well too.  He hasn't seemed to get in the mix quite as well as he did last year but this last week he seemed to be improving.
 


We have also had quite a few birthday parties to go to this fall.  They are fun and the kids enjoy them but it just reminds me that things will be a lot busier once all of the boys are involved in sports and parties!

Nolan is doing well in school.  He enjoys going and I think is doing well overall.  We had our teacher conference last week and his teacher said that he is doing great.  He is reading really well too!  He asks to read to us at night.  It is crazy how much he has improved in such a short period of time.

Henry is still a happy guy.  He is enjoying gymnastics.  He is learning to draw pictures of people and learning to identify letters.  He is a pro at finding H's!  We had an evaluation with the school district for some speech therapy due to articulation issues he has (G sounds like D and K sounds like T) but he will not qualify for district services because it isn't bad enough.  We are going to go the private therapy route just to knock out the issue.  As his mom a feel like I understand most of what he says but with him hopefully going to pre-k at NHE next year we didn't want him to face any issues.



Grant (aka Pigpen) is also doing well.  He is basically running now.  He is so fast running down the street trying to keep up with his brothers and the neighbors.  He is into everything and such a mess.  He could literally take multiple baths a day because he is constantly dirty.  He is really good at dancing now too.  He loves to turn on his musical toys and dance.  He still isn't saying all that much but he does understand what we say to him and is learning to identify more objects in his "First Words" books.  He is super social and loves to wave to people and cars going by.

A few weeks ago I had a message from daycare. When I checked the message it was the director saying that Grant had fallen and hit his lip.  They said that they weren’t sure if it was bad enough for the doctor to look at but that I might want to check it out.  Henry and I headed straight there with the groceries still in the car.  Grant was in perfect spirits when I arrived.  It was a decent cut but I wasn’t sure if it would need stitches either.  I tried calling the doctor but just left a message for the nurse.  I took a picture and then left him to eat lunch and take his nap.  I texted my sisters the picture and they both thought it probably was bad enough to need stitches.  In the meantime the nurse had called back and said that he would just need to go to an urgent care or ER for the stitches.  I let Grant nap and then picked him up.  We were seen immediately at the stand alone ER.  He needed 4 stitches.  I am a pretty tough parent.  I don’t get worked up when they need shots etc., but being there during the stitches was pretty hard.  He was velcroed down to a little board and he screamed the entire time.  Once it was finished he was back to normal as if nothing had happened.  

  

A few weeks ago Kevin and I went on our first kid free trip.  Kevin's friend Scott was getting married in Austin.  The boys stayed with Kevin's dad.  Everyone did well. The build up to leaving the boys was harder for me than actually leaving them.  We got frequent text updates with pictures so we knew they were in good hands.  Kevin and I had fun.  We went to San Marcos on Saturday to do some shopping and went to lunch at the Gristmill.  The wedding was a lot of fun too!  I only wish I would have been able to sleep in those 2 mornings in the hotel.  Old habits die hard though.

 

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  Not the best pictures in the world but they were ok. We also went to a Touch a Truck event with Kevin's dad and Lisa.  Finally I also went with the moms club to Dewberry Farms with Henry and then Kevin went two days later with Nolan's class field trip.

Gymnastics

A few weeks ago Henry started taking gymnastics.  He was on the waiting list at first but he only missed one class before there was an opening.  There is only one other boy in the class with him.  He seems to love it though and goes right on in without a moments hesitation. 

Each week they do different activities.  They dance and do somersaults.  The also do a lot of obstacle course type activities involving the trampolines.  I really don't have any good pictures because the parents sit kind of far away from them.  I will have to bring the good camera one day to get some shots though.  He will be in this class until the end of May so hopefully he will continue to enjoy going.

Back to School

Nolan has been back to school for a month now.  He seems pretty happy to be back.  The transition to kindergarten has been easy for him.  His day isn’t that much different than it was when he was in Pre-K.  They do get to go to the big playground now though!  

There are a few kids in his class that were with him last year.  All three kinder classes get together on the playground and in the gym so he gets to see his friends in the other classes during those times.  

He really enjoys Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when I pick him up.  He tells me that he wants to be a “walker” every day.  

Kevin likes to comment on how young his teacher is.  She is pretty young...I think it is her second year of teaching.  She seems to be good though and I have heard that she really knows how to keep her class in line. 

 

Hopefully Henry will get into Pre-K next year because he asks every time we drop Nolan off “when do I get to go to Nolan’s school.”  

 

The Rest of our Summer

Even though Florida was our only “big” adventure this summer we still had some fun during the rest of it.

We went to the Laird’s beach house for the 4^th of July.  Galveston has been hit with a ton of seaweed this summer.  It was really funny because when we first got to the beach Nolan did not want to put his feet down.  He finally loosened up and had a good time.  The kids found a bunch of hermit crabs, built sand castles, and had fun riding on the golf cart.  We thought about sticking around for fireworks but headed home before that.  One of these days we will actually take the kids to see some!

 

Mid-July we (my sisters and parents) hosted the Neville family reunion.  We had a really good turn out and it was great to see most of the cousins and aunts and uncles.  The next generation has sure grown since the last time we all got together!  There was a welcome party, a BBQ night, swim party, Mexican night, parent’s night out to the bar, and finally a farewell brunch.

 

At the beginning of August Kevin was going to be out of town for most of the week.  First for work to Denver, and then for a bachelor party close to where we had been in FL back in June.  During the weekend that Kevin was going to be gone my office was having a day at the beach in Galveston.  I decided to brave taking all three boys by myself.  The trip actually went pretty well.  Nolan loved playing in the water.  Grant loved eating the sand.  Henry didn’t really want to do much else than sit under the tent but he seemed happy too.  The only part that wasn’t the best was I decided to take them to the Strand for ice cream before heading home.  They were pretty good but it was hard to find parking and Henry and Grant were falling asleep.  It just wasn’t really worth the hassle!

 

 

The week before Nolan was to go back to school we decided to take the older boys to Crystal Beach at Moody Gardens.  The boys had fun going down the slides and around the lazy river.  I think their favorite thing was the wave pool though. 

During the week we did a few fun things too.  Nolan and Henry were home with me every Tuesday and Thursday so we tried to do some different things on those days.  We did a movie, Noah’s Ark, the Children’s Museum with Nanna, lots of swimming, and lots of trips to the mall/Target where the boys loved to look at Lego sets. 

 

14 Months

Grant is 14 months old now.  He is now a full time walker.  He started taking some independent steps at the beginning of July but much preferred crawling.  Each week that went by he would add a few more steps but still wasn’t ready to commit.  Finally about 2 weeks ago he decided he was ready.  He is pretty steady on his feet.  If he does fall he pops back up. 

A week ago he moved up to the toddler class at daycare.  With the new class comes outside playtime.  When he was outside walking he fell and busted his chin.  I got a call from the director that he might need his chin to be glued.  When I picked him up he was happy as could be.  They said that he barely cried when he fell.  He had some blood on his shirt but the actual cut was kind of hard to see.  When the doctor came in she said that our options were to get some stitches from a plastic surgeon or she could do dermabond.  She said if it was her child she would just do the dermabond because it was on the chin and not the face.  She did say that it will scar.  She cleaned up the cut and that was the first time I got a really good look at it.  The cut was bigger/deeper than I originally thought.  She thought she might need the nurses to help with the gluing but he was so calm on my lap she just let me hold him.  She said that he was her patient of the quarter.

Grant babbles constantly but I am still not sure how many true words he has.  Over the past few days I think I have started to pick up on a few though.  I am pretty positive he says “snack” because he makes the same noise over and over when he sees food that he wants.  It sounds like nack.  He also smacks his lips when he sees some food that he wants.  I am pretty sure he said “ball” a few days ago too.  He has one of those first word books with pictures and he can successfully point out the cat and dog. 

He really loves to dance.  There is nothing cuter than when babies start to move to the music.  There is a little boom box toy that we have that plays a few songs and he just loves to grove to that music.  We also have a Grover microphone that he likes to play with.  When standing he has started to bend his knees to get even more into it.

Grant is already a climber.  He has a little piano toy that he climbed on top of the other day.  He will also climb from the anywhere chair onto the coffee table if it is right in front of it.  Then he does a nose dive back off the table onto the chair.  He likes to stand on the step stool in the bathroom and reach up to the counter.  He likes to play with the toy kitchen and he will stand on any toy available to get a better position.  Luckily he can’t climb onto the couch yet but now that I have said that I am sure he will any day now. 

Bedtime is a breeze (knock on wood).  He is generally ready for bed no later than 7:30.  We look at books / play in his room.  Then I turn off his light and sit with him in the rocking chair for a minute.  He snuggles for a few seconds and then points to his crib.  I lay him down with his lovies and turn on the noise maker and that is all.  He has been waking up around 4:30 though.  Generally all he needs is his paci (usually it has fallen out of the crib) and his noisemaker back on and he will go back to sleep for a while. 

He is roughly 24 pounds.  He is a decent eater but he is definitely starting to have opinions on what he does and doesn't want to eat.  Some of the fruits/vegs he was loving a few weeks ago he will toss to the floor now.  He still has pretty much no interest in cheese which I find funny.  He likes milk and has no issues with any type of sippy

30A

At the beginning of June we went back to the beaches of FL for the 3^rd time with the Gray family.  The first time was just Nolan.  The second time added in Henry.  Now this time we had Grant!  That made a total of 6 boys aged 6 and under!  We went back to Blue Tide in Seacrest.  It was the same complex as 2 years ago but a different unit.  The drive went pretty well.  We left Friday afternoon and drove to Baton Rouge.  We had just barely made it out of Houston when Henry asked “when are we going to be at the beach” for the first time.  We heard variations of that question about 100 more times before we finally arrived.  On Saturday we stopped for lunch in Mobile.  Luckily all three boys fell asleep after lunch and slept for a majority of the final leg of the trip.  It was around 3 when we arrived but we couldn’t go in until 4 because the cleaning crew was still there.  Nolan and Henry were begging to swim so we just changed them in the parking lot and let them swim. 

The condo has several flights of stairs so we had to block one with a bench and the other with our baby gate we brought from home.  Grant and Toby didn’t seem to play on the stairs quite as much as Henry and Ryan did 2 years ago.  Grant would just crawl right under the bench and try to get on the stairs though.  The four older boys all stayed in the loft together.  The first few nights were pretty crazy at bed time but it got better towards the end of the week. 

The boys enjoyed the beach but I think they were more interested in the pool at times.  We spent each day doing a mixture of both.  Grant really enjoyed the beach.  He didn’t necessarily try to eat handfuls of sand, but he did get quite a bit in his mouth.  A few times he just face planted in the sand but was so happy about it.  He loved it when either of us would put his feet in the water and then pull him out when a wave came.  Henry enjoyed doing that too.  He was a lot heavier though so it wasn’t as easy!  Nolan was pretty comfortable with the water.  Two years ago he took several days to warm up to it. 

 

We were very lucky to have nice weather once again.  We only got one storm and it only lasted about an hour. We went on walks most mornings but the heat and bright sun was so bad even early in the morning so it wasn’t always that pleasant.  It is so nice being just a staircase away from the water but the stairs were no joke.  I think I counted 55 stairs.  It was quite the climb with all the kids and our gear.  Most mornings we just set up our tent first thing in the morning and leave everything out there until the end of the day. 

We didn’t do much else than the pool and beach but we did go out one night for ice cream.  We also went out to lunch one day.  Nolan and Kyle even got to play golf one morning with Kevin and Russ.  We did go for midafternoon drives on a few occasions to get Nolan and Henry to take a little nap. Later nights and early mornings made for sometimes grumpy boys! We also had cupcakes on Grant’s birthday.

The drive home went pretty well too.  We drove straight back the next Saturday.  We were on the road by about 7:30 in the morning.  We did have quite a few more potty breaks than I would like but when your 3 year old says they have to go to the potty right that second you stop!  All in all we survived and look forward to going again in the future.  I think it will be even better when the boys are all a little older because then it might be a little more relaxing for mom and dad!

Grant is 1!

Grant is 1!  He had his first birthday while we were on vacation in FL.  We waited until we got back to have his party but I did buy some cupcakes to celebrate the big day.  When the cupcake was set down in front of him he knew exactly what to do.  I guess he has been observing his brothers when they get sweets!

At one year old Grant is eating and sleeping pretty well!  He goes down to bed like a dream and sleeps through the night.  He goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 depending on how fussy he seems.  He will occasionally wake up around 4:30 but if you give him some milk he will go right back to sleep.  He is a bit of an early bird though so 6:30 is sleeping late.  At daycare he usually only takes one mid-day nap but at home he still likes a morning and an afternoon one. He still gags on some foods (which makes me so nervous!) but he is basically doing all self-feeding at this point.  We still give him a puree from time to time and we feed him yogurt.   He is now eating school breakfast and lunch.  They tell us that he gets very envious still if someone else is eating and he isn’t.  If the boys have food out on the coffee table he will try to steal it.  He used to start smacking his lips if he saw some food he wanted but now I am pretty sure he is saying some version of “more” when he sees food.

He isn’t walking yet but is getting close.  He stands on his own and can stand without using anything to pull up on.  He likes to walk behind his push toys or holding hands.  He also cruises around the furniture with no issues.  This past weekend he started to take a few independent steps.  Most times he will lower to the ground and crawl if you try to get him to come to you but he has started to take about 2 steps before crawling. 

One of the most common comments we continue to get is about his fuzzy head!  He got his first haircut a few days after his birthday.  I was a little sad about losing the fuzz, but it is still there!  His hair was shorter at this age than his brothers so he wasn’t in desperate need of a cut but it was long over his ears and in the back.  He did pretty well during the cut.  Got a little antsy a few times but his first taste of a lollipop helped that! 

He did well with his one year checkup.  Dr. CS said that he is growing well and looks good.  He got 2 shots but barely cried.  Such a tough guy!



Grant @12 months:
Weight:  21lb 14oz (58%)
Height:  30in (53%)
Head:  47cm (75%)

Henry @ 12 months
Weight:  21 lbs 8 oz (27%)
Height:  30 1/2" (75%)
Head:  48cm (90%)

Nolan @ 12 months
Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz (15%)
Height:  29 1/2" (25%)
Head: 47cm (75%)