And Then There Was Fall

It's that time of year and our family's favorite time of year! We've brought out the fall decorations, the fall candle's, and already made a few batches of soup. October started out pretty warm but the mornings and evenings are starting to get that cooler. We've begun raking our crazy amounts of leaves. I say we but really I mean Nick...but this year he has found a willing helper.

We've been taking walks to the park about every night. Grant loves this and we know soon it will be too dark to do so. These walks started out as us pushing Grant in the stroller, then him riding his tricycle (which has a handle for us to push him), then him pushing the tricycle, to now him just walking along side us. This kind of sums up Grant right now...getting big, doing a lot more on his own, and definitely expressing his want for independence. Gotta love it!

September

We had a very relaxing Labor Day Weekend hanging out at home and getting some things done around here. We spent most of the weekend outside especially since Grant was having so much fun on his little outdoor toy we found for him.

We spent a fun weekend back in Kearney for my 10 year class reunion. We saw a lot of friends and I think had even more fun seeing all their kiddos. We also had a fun morning at the band day parade with my Mom, Dad, and Michaela. Grant was mesmerized by all the bands, firetrucks, and motorcycles. Then the next weekend we did the whole parade thing again at the Overland Park Fall Festival. However, this parade Grant was all about getting all the candy. I don't know that he has ever had that much candy in his life.

Grant's also been doing a lot of reading...or at least loving looking through all his books. At least once a day we'll find him going through all his books in his room or the basket of books in the family room. Going off of Grant's current interests, Nick believes he is either going to be a Librarian or a Nascar driver.

I had to get this last picture because it just makes me smile...I have so many pictures over Grant's life on this changing table and it's always funny to see how much he has grown with each one. Our little guy is getting quite big!

Where did August and September Go?

Well here we are in October and I'm wondering what the world happened to August and September. The end of our summer blew by and obviously we have kept busy. So here's a little recap of our August...next update we'll tackle September.

The start of August took Nick and I on a little trip to Chicago. This was intended to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and we could not of asked for a better way to do it. We met some good friends there, visited Navy Pier, had an afternoon on Miracle Mile, hit up a great comedy club, and spent a day in Wrigleyville. It went fast but was a great weekend in the Windy City. Here's a pic of the crew outside Wrigley Field.

Another thing we did a lot over the past two months was hit up the Overland Park Farmer's Market. I could go on and on about how much we love this experience, whether it's the Wednesday or Saturday market, we always enjoy our morning there. The fountains and music are Grant's favorite part.


Grant's craze over trucks, tractors, and cars continues and this is quite evident every Thursday when the trash trucks roar up and down our street. We usually see about 3 to 4 trucks and every time Grant hears them he dashes for the couch and watches intently as they take our trash.

We spent a great am with friends at the KC Zoo. Grant loved seeing all the animals but I think the Polar Bear was his favorite. He loved watching him swim, flip around in the water, and most importantly yell "whoa" with all the other kids as the bear came up to the glass.

Catching up with Friends and Fam

Over the summer, Grant's been having a lot of fun seeing family and friends. Back in June Grant was fortunate to get a few days at his Grandma Diane's and Grandpa Mark's, then a few more days with his Mimi and Papa. We were also fortunate to get to meet up with Hayden Howard for a little picnic and park playdate.




At the start of July Grant had a fun day with the Hellbusch boys and Will and Caroline Gutz (I also had fun with their Mama's :). We all went to the Deanna Rose Farm and then had lunch and some backyard pool time at our home. The boys were a hoot to see all together!




One of Grant's (and our) biggest adventures this summer was when his cousins (the Nachtigal girls) came to stay with us. My sister and her husband needed to be down in Rogers, AK for a few days and asked if we could watch the girls. So of course we said yes and our small family of three, quickly became a family of six. We kept busy and did lots while the girls were here. Grant had a blast having "friends" to play with everyday and Nick and I really enjoyed getting some quality time with our nieces.

Hot Dog! He's One and a Half!

On July 23rd Grant turned 18 months and since I'm using this blog as a great record of Grant's life, I thought I'd make note of all the fun things he is up to. Each day we are learning that Grant is quite the character. He loves to make people smile and we see him hamming it up pretty frequently. His number one audience would probably be his grandparents! He loves to make them smile!
Each week Grant seems to have a few new words to add to his list. Currently we hear a lot of Mama, Dada, no, Elmo, adog (apparently we say "a dog" more than just "dog", so we think Grant figures it's just one word), tractor, truck, choo choo, Amen, please, thank you, teeth, bye bye, and night night.

He also continues to sign "more" and "all done". These have been a great help with our communication considering he uses these two signs in many contexts..."more" play, "more" tickle, "more" outside. And his most recent sign it "toothbrush". He continues to love to brush his teeth (the brushing part is still negotiable, there is still a lot of sucking going on :). He has even become quite good at getting a drink from the faucet, just like Dad does. We recently got him a little step stool, so this has added another level of independence and fun to this activity.

Some other favorite things to do for Grant include playing with his cars, trucks, trains, and tractors. For whatever reason he loves to line them up all over the house. Yesterday they were lined up on the table, then on the tv stand, then on our bed, then his rocking chair...I think there were about five other places as well. He will also line them up all over his train tracks-under one bridge, then another-and this usually keeps him busy for quite some time.

Another love...music and dancing! He will come into our room, turn the radio up full blast and dance away. His dancing usually includes moving in a circle but he more recently has started moving his arms and head as well. It's quite entertaining. Recently we've found the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song "Hot Dog" at the end of the show, which has become quite catchy and usually gets Grant up on his feet and moving. :) Other songs he likes to hear/sing are Old McDonald, where he chimes in with "E"; Five Green and Speckled Frogs, adding the "yum, yum"; Five Little Monkeys, he likes to shake his finger; The Wheels on the Bus, and the ABC's.

Grant still loves the outdoors, swimming, and riding in the van. He is constantly asking to go "bye bye". He loves to wrestle, be tickled, and help out around the house. His little giggle and mannerisms just brighten our day. He continues to be a very tall, at his 18 month check-up he was 33 1/2 in (95th percentile) and 26 lbs (50 percentile). It's been a fun year and 1/2, excited to see what the next holds! :)

Grant's First Camping Adventure

Last weekend we were bound and determined to go camping. However, we woke up Saturday to clouds and a gloomy weekend forecast. We were hesitant to commit to camping with the forecast so decided to head out for a coffee and enjoy the Overland Park Farmer's Market. On our stroll home it started to pour so we ended up running home and getting soaked (Grant thought this was hilarious, he was giggling all the way). Once we did make it home Nick and I decided we were not spending our weekend indoors and went to weather.com to find a camping destination where the sun was shining. We were successful and by mid afternoon were on our way to Perry Lake.


This was our first time to Perry Lake and we were very impressed! We found a great little shaded camping site that had a beautiful view of the lake. To no surprise Grant had a blast. He was enjoying the freedom of the outdoors, playing in the tent, and eating marshmallows (Nick and I were unaware how many each of us had given him till later that night).


Our evening turned out great and we thought we were going to make it through the night rain free. But about 3am we did get hit with a good amount of thunder, lightning, and rain. We loaded the van with the few things we had outside then sat back and listened to the storm come through. We thought for sure Grant would be waking up any minute with all the racket but he slept through the entire thing! So after the thunder and lightning calmed down and I was assured we were going to stay dry, we went back to sleep.

We were really looking forward to having coffee made from on our campfire Sunday morning, but we awoke to a very muddy campsite. So we ended up getting a great breakfast from a little saloon which that wasn't far from the campgrounds. It was a nice end to a our 24 hour camping adventure and I think we all enjoyed getting out of the city for a bit. And now that we know Grant is such a good camper we are already planning our next outing!

Thomas the Train!

Last Friday a friend invited Grant and I to go see Thomas the train in Baldwin, KS. So off we went for a fun little morning. We thought we were just headed out to have a nice little train ride but little did we know that this is quite the event. They had multiple tents set up with activities including a petting zoo. Grant decided he just liked to look at the animals and not get too close, so that is just what we did. He also thought it was fun to have his first train ride (probably the best part being that he did not have to be in a carseat to travel). Our morning ended with some hungry kids eating very well at Wheatstate Pizza in the cute downtown Baldwin. Here's a few pictures of the morning and Grant with his good buddy Ali.