A little bit lumpy...

After Andrew learned to walk our lives were never the same. I know those of you who never knew Drewbie as a baby will think I'm exaggerating or flat out lying, but Andrew really was a very good-natured baby. We could take him anywhere and he'd be happy just to be there. No crying, no fussing, just smiling and looking around. Even when we stuffed him in a car and drove him 10 hours down to Mesa (Cubs Spring Training) it didn't phase him at all. In fact, he actually enjoyed it!

Baby Andrew rooting the Cubs on in Mesa

Ahhh, those were the good old days. But it seemed like overnight our mild-mannered, well-behaved baby had transformed into a maniacle toddler with one thing on his mind...destruction.

The last thing the poor photographer ever saw was the
pudgy baby feet coming at his head...

We quickly learned that nothing was put up too high or hidden well enough to protect it from Andrew and his new abilities. Our poor DVDs lived (and continue to live) in fear.

The Incredibles were no match for the destructive force of Andrew

Drewbie's destructive force was amplified by the fact that he was up and walking by the time he was 9 months old. It was during this chaotic time when we turned our heads heavenward in supplication. We fervently hoped that child #2 would be a lump, who would just sit there and not bother to run and jump like his older brother. Enter Grant....

This does not bode well...

We actually got, for better or worse, pretty much what we asked for. Grant is our cute little lump. (He made up for this by being very opinionated and stubborn) It isn't all bad though. He enjoys sitting and playing with objects much more than Andrew ever did. It's great to watch him spin a truck wheel or play with blocks, analyzing every little detail. Much to Mom and Dad's relief, both of them will now play in their room alone for extended periods of time (something Andrew only recently started doing, and still doesn't do for very long).

Grant has since learned to crawl. Staying true to the lump reputation, he started off doing the army commando crawl, as you've seen previously...

It took him awhile, but he eventually learned to crawl normally. This past month we found out that he also can stand if he wants to, but most of the time doesn't want to. Once he realizes he's standing he carefully drops back down and will crawl to what he's after.

But it was inevitable I suppose. Our little lump is no more. Grant took his first steps the other day.

I'm sure he and Andrew have been keeping each other up at night plotting new ways to cause mass distruction and histeria in the Nelsen home.Whatever ends up happening, I'm sure it's not going to be pretty...

Celebration

We had a wonderful time celebrating Grant's birthday yesterday. We're very blessed to have John's parents visiting right now, so Grant got to have grandma and grandpa around for his first party! For Grant's birthday dinner, we had one of his favorites: chicken fettuccine Alfredo. As always, he devoured it! When it came time to open presents, he wasn't too interested in ripping the paper off; it actually seemed to almost make him nervous. However, he does love the actual presents. He got some buses and cars, a ride-on car, a little guitar, and a toy CD player. His favorite things are vehicles and music, so these gifts are a big hit. Present opening was followed by cake destroying. We gave Grant his own little 6" cake and it was so fun to watch him with it. I think he was almost more interested in playing with it than eating it. Oh well! It was lots of fun, I think he had a good birthday. We love you baby Grant!

Not as excited as you would think...

Cars go straight to the mouth, of course.


A giant bus, sweet!


Grant's first cake.


Face first into the cake!

Grant loves cake!

Sweet Baby Grant

Happy birthday to our sweet baby Grant! I can't believe he is already a year old...how time flies! I absolutely adore Grant, he is the sweetest, smiliest, stubbornest little guy around. I knew before he was born that he was going to be stubborn--he just did not want to come out! He lets you know how he feels...and don't try and force something on him, because he won't have it. But he is still so sweet and loving. He just melts my heart. This age is so much fun, but when I look back at him as a sweet newborn, I get a little sad. My baby is no longer a baby, and he just keeps growing so fast!

We love you Grant!

The Scarlet Letter

So a few weeks ago, Andrew (who just loves writing letters) wrote on Grant:

Branded.

So distraught.

Apparently he has forgiven Andrew.

I'm glad to know that Grant is not an adulterer, but what can "H" mean? Hiccuper? Head banger? I just don't know.

Easily Entertained

So I'd forgotten how much babies love Kleenex boxes! They can be entertained by them for quite awhile. And sometimes it's just best to let them take every single tissue out of the box because they're so cute when they're so engrossed. Here is Grant's recent Kleenex adventure (guest starring an excited Andrew):

An Idea...

I had an idea recently, and I wanted to run it by all ya'll (see, ya'll is just to one person, and I think I have more than one loyal reader...I hope...). Anyway, as you all know, I quite enjoy baking (and cooking, to a lesser degree) and so I'd toyed around with the idea of starting a baking blog or something. But then I thought c'mon, really...who would read it? There are SO many baking blogs out there, what would mine add? But, I thought it would be fun to do a food blog with anyone else that might be interested. What it would really be is a forum for us to share recipes, ideas, techinques, etc. with each other. That way, I wouldn't be making a fool of myself trying to start my own food blog. So, any takers? I'll try not to be too terribly offended if no one wants to....might go cry myself to sleep though. :)

Proper Motivation

Well, for better or for worse, it's official: Grant is crawling! Apparently all he needed was some proper motivation, because I think he's been capable of it for awhile. Stubborn child! Anyway, as you will see in the video clip, Grant is willing to crawl in order to get his hands on a bag of Crunch Eggs (must be my kid!). I told him that if he could crawl to them, I would let him have a little piece. Yep, I gave my ten month old chocolate. So? :)

Anyway, it's neat to see how different each child is. I know you always hear that a lot, but to observe it is really interesting. Andrew was crawling on all fours at six months, and when he was Grant's age he had been walking for a month. And Grant has just not been interested in any of that. I'm really curious to see how Grant's personality continues to develop.

And now our feature presentation....