Lots of things have happened since the last post. It's been a busy few weeks! First of all, we welcomed a new member to Doug's side of the family. Doug's cousin/close friend Andy and his wife Nicki had a little boy, Jack Andrew Haap, on December 16. Grant is so excited to have a new little playmate, and we know the two boys will be best buddies!
We started celebrating Christmas on December 22 with my family. It's so hard to coordinate everyone's schedules around the holidays, so we found it easiest to open presents a little early. Grant loved opening his gifts, and of course liked the wrapping paper better than the actual presents at first, but he is still excited about his new things. We then opened presents with Doug's family on Christmas Eve. Grant and Timmy had fun doing this together, and they loved Grandpa's train set! Santa visited our house for Grant as well, and he opened a few more presents Christmas morning. He was quite the party animal over the course of these few days and didn't want to nap at any of the family parties we were at. He even got to play Baby Jesus in a little play my family put on with all the kids. Needless to say, he was exhausted on the 26th, and actually took a 3 hour nap! He seemed to love Christmas as much as Doug and I do, and we can't wait to recreate all the memories we made this year in the years to come.
Today marks Grant's 8 month birthday. Wow, time is flying. He is changing more and more everyday, and it seems like this last month has brought on many new developments and tricks! He has been repeating our sounds, such as "da da" and "boo" and likes to talk a lot. He is also raising up on his arms more. He hasn't figured out how to get on his knees, but he is figuring out other ways to move. He can make it across the room by rolling and going backwards by pushing with his hands. He can also turn his body while on his belly. It won't be long before we are chasing him through the house. He has also started rolling over in the crib. He's been rolling from his back to his belly for awhile, but just started doing it in bed. I awake many mornings to hear him talking and playing, and when I look into our video monitor, he is on his belly staring right at the camera smiling. What a great way to wake up everyday! He also grew out of his baby tub we've been using since he was born, and he graduated to a new, fun ducky tub where he can sit up and play and splash. His latest trick is clapping. We noticed that he was doing this on Christmas. We first thought it was just a fluke, be has continued to do it since then when we do it first or say "Clap!" It is so cute, and I've attached a video for you to see. We weighed and measured Grant on our own here at home, since we don't see the doctor until 9 months and were curious. Not sure how accurate it is, but we got that he is around 21 pounds and 27 3/4 inches tall! He is still wearing 6-9 month clothing, but will probably be busting out of that size soon. He is still as happy as ever, sleeping well, and making us smile everyday.
Tonight we are celebrating my sister Susanne's 30th birthday, and we wish her the best year yet!
I can't believe 2010 is about to come to an end. I feel like I was just writing the posts about last year's Christmas and New Year's. I'm so glad we have this blog to remember this year--the year we welcomed our precious little son to our family. We hope 2011 will be just as great, and we wish the same to you!
