7 Months Old.

7 Month Update

- Size 3 Diapers

- Wearing 6-9 month clothes

-Wearing 3-6 month jeans

- 17 lbs, 6 oz. (25%)

- 26 ½ inches long (25%)

- Head circumference: 46.5 cm (95%)

- 2 bottom teeth

Grant has been eating solids for over a month now. He still breastfeeds approximately every 3 hours throughout the day, for about 10 minutes or less. He eats about 4-6 tablespoons of fruit, 4-6 tablespoons or vegetables, 4-5 tablespoons of cereal and about 1 tablespoon of meat. 

He loves carrots, peas, broccoli, peaches, mixed fruits, mixed vegetables, rice crackers, pears, bananas, applesauce, prunes, oat cereal, mixed fruit cereal.
He tolerates squash and chicken
He hates prune/apple juice and water. We try to get him to drink water (4oz/day) but he just hates it, so we put it in his food.

He goes to bed between 7-8 and wakes up between 7-8 in the morning. I know I'm lucky.

Sometimes I worry about his size, because he hasn't been gaining weight at all in the past 2 months, but every time we talk to the doctor or the health center, they say it is normal. Even though he is eating more solids, he is also more active then ever. And he doesn't seem to be wasting away or anything haha.

He is now caught up on all his immunizations. Right now there is an outbreak of measles in Lethbridge, which is a little unsettling, as it went from 1 case to 13 known cases. Luckily, we got him in right a way to get his measles shot. He really is a champ. Apparently it is a nasty shot and he handled it so well.

One thing that I have really noticed this month is how much this boy laughs. He laughs at everything. He laughs at his dad, my dance moves, strangers funny voices, family members funny faces, and even himself. 

I feel like he is way more aware of my presence now. He has started to cry when I leave the room and stop immediately when I return. He doesn't want to be picked up and he is totally fine, he just wants me in his view.

I enjoy this boy almost too much, if that is possible (it's not, that was a joke). Finding a balance between playing and working is really hard for me. I always have these long to-do lists of things I have to get done and it frustrates me when it is the end of the night and i've maybe checked 2 things off my list. But then when I am having a really productive day, I feel guilty that I am not spending enough time with my little man. Learning to balance all my goals, lists, and motherly adventures is definitely something I have to work on. But I do need to point out that Grant is pretty good at playing by himself.

The only time our house is quiet is when Grant is napping. When he is awake he is talking, laughing, squealing and babbling on about who knows what. Last week he started saying "Ba ba.." and just last night he started saying "da da".

The other night while I was changing his diaper, he did the funniest thing with his legs. He was moving them both in rhythm like he was exercising. I seriously died. And then when he saw how funny it was, he started laughing and we were both killing ourselves laughing.

He is so polite, still always clasping his fingers together, he is so precious.

Grant loves being outside. Anytime he is every crabby, we just take him out shopping, our out for a drive or for a walk. Sometimes he has a hard time waking up from his naps, he must feel really groggy because he won't stop crying, that is until we take him outside on the front lawn.

We've started putting him in shopping carts and his stroller without the carseat. The first time we did that he thought he was the coolest kid around. Well, he probably was. It's nice because I can actually use my jogging stroller now.

He's started standing by himself when he is holding onto the couch.

He loves peek-a-boo! When you put a blanket on top of him, he will pull it off and laugh when you shout "Peek-a-boo!"

He always loves hanging out with dad no matter what, wherever Garth is, Grant is.

Over the past week we've stopped swaddling him when we put him to sleep. At first, when we first put him down, he thinks it is so funny. Tonight when I left the room after putting him to bed he fussed for awhile, I went back in to give him his soother and he had the blanket over his face with just his eyes peeking up at me, smiling. When he wakes up in the night, he doesn't find it funny at all, he is still at the point where having his arms free is new to him, but at least he can sleep without those dang Swaddle Me blankets.

This kid has no desire to go anywhere. He will be playing with a toy, drop it, it will roll away and he will reach for it for a second and decide he doesn't care about it anymore and move on to something else. Doesn't give me much hope for him crawling anytime soon, or at all. I feel like he will be walking and talking before that happens.

He is so good with his hands and is so focused on little details lately. He picks up little objects and when you hand him a toy, he usually just ends up fiddling around with the tag.

He has started waving. He doesn't know what it means yet, but it's still adorable.

Now that we are settled into his new place, I have been having so much fun setting up his new nursery. I am so excited to see it all finished!

Time flies by so fast, and he is getting so old... but he is just as cute as ever :)

-A

A Song for my Grant

When I learned that I was pregnant over a year ago, I decided that I wanted to write a song to my baby boy or girl to let them know how excited I was to meet them. I put into lyrics, everything that I was feeling at that time, and I am so grateful I did. It was impossible for me to get through the song as an emotional and hormonal pregnant lady but I decided that I better record it now, while he is still young, so he can watch and listen to it as he grows up over the years. 

Ever since I met him, Garth became the first person that I debut my songs to. I love seeing his reactions when he hears my music for the first time. This time around truly turned into an experience that I will never forget as I shared my feelings with my loving husband. I also had a special experience as I played Grant's song,  as an 8 1/2 months huge pregnant lady, for Jessica and Rachel. It was so funny, when Garth got home and walked through the door to find us all laughing and crying haha.

Now that Grant is in my life, I sing this song to him all the time, and I don't think I will ever stop. I know I will write many more songs about him but this one will always remain special to me.

 Here are the lyrics:

Inside Out (A Song for Grant)

I feel you kicking away,

you're getting stronger everyday.

I pretend you're talking to me and

you say it's very nice to hear your

voice today.

I picture little feet on the kitchen floor.

We'll give you all we have and more.

And I'll watch those feet grow a long with dreams

that you spend so many days and nights

learning to explore.

You're the one who knows me from the inside out.

Your daddy sings to you, and you're all he talks about.

I can't wait to hear you scream, i'll kiss your nose and say

"It's very nice to meet you today, today, 

It's very nice to meet you today."

I must admit I'm sometimes scared.

It's hard not to feel so unprepared.

I know sometimes i'll have no idea what to say

but you'll love me anyway.

You're the one who knows me from the inside out.

Your daddy sings to you, and you're all he talks about.

I can't wait to hear you scream, i'll kiss your nose and say

"It's very nice to meet you today, today, 

It's very nice to meet you today."

And there'll be times when I just don't know how

I could ever love you more, then you wake me in surprise.

And the days will fly too fast, but you won't let them pass you by.

I'll watch it all before my eyes.

You're the one who knows me from the inside out.

Your daddy sings to you, and you're all he talks about.

I can't wait to hear you scream, i'll kiss your nose and say

"It's very nice to meet you today, today, 

It's very nice to meet you today."

I know someday you'll go away.

Grown up and stronger in every way.

You'll call me up, and I'll say that

"It's very nice to hear your voice today."

-A.

6 Months Old!

What the heck?! How is this happening? That is half of a year. Crazy.

• Size 3 Diapers
• Wearing size 3-6 month pants , except one pair of 0-3 that still fit haha
• Rest of his clothes are mainly 6-9 months.
• At the second week of September:

• 17 lbs 4 oz (75%)
• 26 ½ inches long (75%)
• Head circumference:  45 (90%)

• He can sit up on his own... unless he is excited about something!
• He is fascinated by peoples faces and when you go to hold him, he will reach up and put his hand on your face (It reminds me of Renesemee from Breaking Dawn, although I don't see anything when he does it, darn)

• He loves grabbing noses and any other facial feature he can get a hold of.
• He wants to FEEL and stroke everything. Everything is fascinating to him.

• He is the biggest flirt. Anytime we are around people (girls) he flashes the most playful grin and starts talking to them.
• He can grab toys placed in front of him and move them between his hands.

• His facial expressions never cease to amaze me
• He never stops talking. We have to take him out into the hallway during church meetings every Sunday, and it's never because he is crying.
• He has been mistaken for a girl 6 times now. It doesn't really bother me because I know it just means I have a pretty baby. I think it is his eyes. Everywhere we go, everyone always says he has the most gorgeous eyes. 
• Bath time is the best! He loves to splash with both his feet and hands. he still hasn't figured out that he is the one getting water in his eyes.
• Started doing the "spitting noise" and the "razzing noises" are more frequent and just as cute as always.
• Grant's fifth month of life has been a month of change. Lots of change and lots of firsts:

   - New House
   - New crib/ nursery

   - First cold
   - First jacuzzi
   - First time in hot springs
   - First bath in a bucket
   - First sliver
   - First camping trip/ first time sleeping in a tent
   - First taste of sand and dirt.
   - First solids! At 5 1/2 months we started him on rice cereal and vegetables and then moved to fruits. His first taste wasn't so good, but after that he has been a good little eater.

   - First teeth! His two middle bottom teeth and coming in! For one week I was pretty sure that I was never going to have the chance to sleep again, the poor boy was so sad all the time, but now he is a great sleeper. Which leads me to...
   - First time sleeping through the night! I know so many people who's babies started sleeping through the night so early on but I never felt comfortable letting him until we started him on solids. After a week and a half of solids, he was still waking up every night. I was so done with that! So we spent one long, long night listening to him cry, and then the next night he cried for about 20 minutes and then the next night, NOTHING!

• Still loves being swaddled. We are slowly trying to break him from that, so we leave him unswaddled for naps.
• I love being able to put him down awake and walk out of the room.
• Grant loves when you stroke his ear when he is sleepy
• He laughs every single time we take him out of the bath, and bundle him up in his towel. Every.single.time.
• If we let him, he would play in his exersaucer for hours
• LOVES LOVES LOVES his jolly jumper. From the moment we put him in it, he knew exactly what to do. It's almost like he is performing, and it's hilarious.

It's safe to say we will definitely keep him <3

-A.

End with a BANG. (Fun in the Sun, Sleeping in Tents, Fort Steele and Killer Bees)

This past summer was amazing and I feel very blessed. Garth had his best summer yet at work and we are so proud of him and how hard he worked. I am so grateful for the new friendships that I made, and all the good quality bonding time I had with Grant! After our last month of spray parks, girl time and sunday walks around Edmonton, we packed up all our stuff and headed down to Lethbridge to our new place. We literally threw everything into our house, packed up all the camping gear we could find and took off to Wasa Lake (BC)!

Garth's family has been going to Wasa pretty much every summer since before he was born, so he has a lot of memories there. Since Garth's job requires sacrificing his summers, we havn't had the chance to go with the Forsyth family, but we decided that we would end our summer with a bang and head to Wasa for the first week of September!

Our Campsite #88

The most gigantic marshmellows!

Wednesday consisted mostly of driving and then setting up camp. We spent our first night sitting around the campfire making smores (of course). 

The next morning, we had an amazing breakfast (thankyou Garth) and the got ready to head to the beach. We spent a couple of hours there which was super fun. When it started to get cloudy, we decided to head to Lussier Hot springs. I wasn't that excited to leave the beach but I knew we would have plently of time to spend there. The drive up to the hotsprings was terrifying, all I did the whole time was picture us driving off a cliff... I was so glad I wasn't driving. Once we arrived there, I was pleasantly surprised  I had never been so I was picturing Banff, or Radium, but it was a natural hot spring.  There were a couple different pools right by the river. Warm, warmer, and hot pools. Grant and I liked to hangout in the warm ones because the hot one was wayyyy too freaking hot for us haha. He seriously loved it so much and he spent his time flirting with some old ladies across the pool.

The next day we headed to Fort Steele. It is a historic heritage townsite, (I know what you are thinking, but it was 10000000x cooler than Heritage Park in Calgary). It is a town that boomed during the gold rush in the mid 1800s but met its demise when the Canadian Pacific Railway bypassed it for the rival town of Cranbrooke. The town slowly dwindled as everyone picked up and moved to Cranbrooke, until there was no one left. Well anyway, they restored it, and brought in live actors. As you walk around, you actually feel like you are in the 1800s. They had a blacksmith, dentist, doctor, a bakery, a town drunk, a church, a school house, a candy shop, an ice cream shop, horses, court house, houses, a town meeting in the gazebo, an old theatre putting on a show, a train...and so much more. There was so much to see and I feel like I only saw a third of it.

This was the school house, It was really cool because you would enter the class (girls on the left and boys on the right), sit at your desk with your chalkboard and have a mini lesson. You would have to stand up by your desk while answering questions and "got in trouble" if you wore your hat inside etc. It was really fun to make believe for a little while.

I think one of my favorite parts was the train ride!

The next day, it was hot. We spent literally the whole day at the beach. Reading, swimming, tanning, playing in the sand, and playing in the water with Porter and Rigby.

It was pretty sweet because even though it was super nice, no one was really there because everybody was already getting back to school. We had the beach to ourselves most of the time :)

I am so grateful that we got to spend so much time with Neil, Michelle, Porter & Rigby. It was so fun playing with them, and having them come over and hangout with us at our campsite. I adore, adore, adore those boys.

Grant had his first bath in a bucket, it was quite adorable.

On Sunday, after church, Garth took us to Wolf Creek. It was gorgeous, in the middle of nowhere and we saw two great blue herons flying across the creek. Garth wanted to show me this little bridge, but Grant had fallen asleep in the car. We decided to leave him in the car and quickly go look because it was only like 25m away (I think in metres thanks to track). Anyway so we head over to the little bridge over the water, and Garth steps on and then I follow. As soon as I step on, I hear this buzzing sound that just gets louder and louder. I knew exactly what was happening without even having to look. Garth did look, and he saw a swarm of like a trillion bees (okay maybe like 40) come up from under the bridge, and they were buzzing around my legs ( I was wearing a skirt...). One thing I do know about bees is if they are on their own, whatever, but if they are coming up in swarms, you have disturbed them and they want revenge haha. Without missing a beat, Garth calmly tells me to run and we take off as fast as we can away from there. Luckily we noticed so fast and we got away without getting stung even once, and I am super grateful for that. Also it makes me sick to think what would of happen if we did take Grant with us. AHH stopping now. Anyway, afterwards we headed to Lazy Lake and on the way there we saw some paragliders. I am so doing that someday.

The next day was rainy, so we headed to Lussier hot springs again and then hung out at the beach in the evening.

There was a lot of this. He was pooping sand for a week after this trip.

On our last day there, we headed to Kimberly, BC. It is a ski town in the mountains which features a Bavarian style pedestrian mall during the summers. On the way back to our campsite we stopped at a local farmers market for some fruit.

Our first camping trip as a family was perfect. It was so nice being able to relax together before Garth had to go back to school. I loved spending time eating breakfast around the fire in the morning, and playing games, cooking dinner and making smores in the evenings. Half the time I felt like we were in our own little world. 

Garth is a skilled camper. If we were in LOST, I am pretty sure he would be Jack, running around doing everything, building things, saving lives yada yada. I was so impressed with how much he knows about camping and there was no way we could have done this without him. Plus he is freaking sexy when he is chopping wood. So that was enjoyable.

Camping with a baby was a little bit of work. Grant is a pretty easy going baby, but he had his moments.

I eventually gave up and just accepted the fact that he was going to get super dirty and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Every night we would do our very best to keep him warm by putting on a hat, socks, onesie, sleeper, socks on his hands a swaddle blanket and then we would wrap him up in a really warm blanket. He would still wake up every night  cold and we would end up bringing him on our mattress with us.

He is definitely the cutest little camper I have ever seen.

Such a fun trip! I cannot wait for next time <3