Monkey Joes

This one is a little fuzzy but I wanted to post it anyway so everyone could see my big boy going down the giant slide all by himself!

Last week Grantham and I met some friends of ours, Megan and Brantley, at Monkey Joes. If you are unfamiliar with Monkey Joes, it's basically a giant playground full of jump castles. I was a little nervous about how Grantham would react because it's pretty overwhelming but he literally dove right in. We started out in the small jump castle called "Toddler Town" and were in there for about all of 3 minutes. Then we moved on to the big kid ones. Brantley was a little more nervous about it all than Grantham but she definitely warmed up by the time we left. I think that was a prime example of the difference between boys and girls because let me tell you...Grantham is all boy and Brantley is all girl :)

By the time we were headed home, Grantham was going down the giant slide by himself! I can't believe how big he and Brantley have gotten so fast. I'm so thankful that he has a little playmate who is almost exactly the same age as him (Brantley is 1 week older). Thanks for going with us and we look forward to our next playdate at Monkey Joes Megan and Brantley!

P.S. I left my camera at home so all pictures are courtesy of Megan...thanks for sharing!

Baby on the Move - Part 2

It's official...Grantham has started walking. He started taking a couple of steps when he was about 11 months old but I definitely did not consider that walking. The day before his birthday he started consistently taking between 5 and 10 steps and his confidence grew from there. It took him about a week after that to really take off and boy has he ever taken off. The only time he really crawls anymore is if he gets tripped up when walking. He will then crawl to the nearest wall or piece of furniture, stand back up and continue on his walking quest. He still doesn't have great balance so he walks like a monkey. It's absolutely hilarious...he holds his hands above his head and keeps them that way the entire time! It's actually kind of perfect because since he was born I've always referred to him as "my little monkey."

I hear parents say all the time that they don't love the walking stage because they have a hard time keeping up with their child. Jamie and I don't really find this any different because we started having a hard time keeping up with him when he began crawling!!! Needless to say, we are loving his new found independence. It's really a lot of fun!

I snapped the above pictures while he was walking across the room towards me...you can definitely see the monkey action in them :)

It's a BOY!!!!!

I thought this one was cool because he's waving at the camera. You can see his 4 fingers but we're not sure where his thumb is...maybe folded over his palm?

I had my ultrasound last week and we found out that we are having another little boy. Jamie and I are absolutely thrilled. A girl would have been awesome, but we were both hoping for a boy. Since the age difference will be so close, we thought it would be great for Grantham to have a "little buddy." Everything looked great and baby boy is perfectly healthy...praise the Lord!

I've included some of the ultrasound pictures. I know that the 4-D one where you can see his face is a little bit creepy because he's still kind of in the "alien looking" stage :) Nonetheless, I thought I would include it anyway.

Happy Birthday Grantham!

My sister, Megan, and I made the cake...it was a train!

Homemade decorations...pictures of Grantham from 1 to 12 months that looked like a train :)

Well, last Saturday was Grantham's 1st birthday! It really was such a bitter sweet day for me. I can't believe how fast the past year has gone. I have such vivid memories of the day he was born. I know it's a cliche thing to say but it seems like it was yesterday. As I was reflecting back over the past year I was trying to decide if I enjoyed it as much as I should have. I definitely had my moments of frustration but overall I really do think I enjoyed every minute. I decided that I'm not going to waste my time being sad that the past year is gone...instead I'm going to look forward to the future with my little man and enjoy the next year just as much as I enjoyed the last year.

We had an absolutely perfect day! We had a birthday party for him with close friends and family and it was so much fun. I was a little bit nervous how Grantham would react to all of those people in his house. I think he loved every minute...even when 30 people were singing him happy birthday and then watching him eat his cake which, by the way, he LOVED! He's never had sugar except the natural sugar in fruit and I think he immediately realized what he had been missing. He dug right into that cake and didn't stop until we took it away from him.

Thanks to all of our friends and family for celebrating with us! We couldn't have asked for a better 1st birthday for our little boy :)

All Done

We've had a big breakthrough this week...Grantham has started to sign "all done." I started working with him on some simple sign language when he was about 7 months old. I read not to expect results until about 11 or 12 months and lo and behold, a week before he turns a year old he gets it :) He is now an "all done" signing fool. He signs "all done" when he finishes his bottle and when he doesn't want any more food. It's so satisfying for him to catch on to something in the form of communication. It certainly takes a lot of the guess work out of how much to feed him because he lets me know when he's had enough. Hopefully now that he's gotten "all done" some of the other signs will start to click too.

On a side note, I took this picture this morning after breakfast. Actually, he had just signed "all done" when I took it. Check out all those teeth up top! All four have broken through and now he has 2 more on the bottom making their way up :)

Big News...

If you can't read what his shirt says (because I couldn't get him to sit still long enough to take his picture :), let me clarify for you...it says "Big Brother". It's true...Grantham is going to be a big brother!!!! The Martin family will go from 3 to 4 sometime around the end of January. I am 13 weeks along and my due date is January 28th. So far, things have been awesome with this pregnancy. I really couldn't ask for an easier first trimester. I honestly haven't felt any different than normal which is such a blessing considering I'm chasing after an almost 1 year old all day every day :) Obviously, Grantham has no idea what it means when we say "you're gonna be a big brother." Hopefully, he'll have a better grasp on the subject by the time the baby comes. We would appreciate everyone's prayers as we prepare over the next 6 months to add to our family.

Crazy 2 Weeks!

I apologize that it has been so long between posts. We have had a really, really crazy 2 weeks around here. The week before last, Megan (my sister) and I went to Georgia/Florida to visit family. We were gone for an entire week with all three kids, Mollie (6 months), Cole (2 and 1/2 years) and Grantham (11 months). It was a 6 hour drive. I really don't know what we were thinking when we decided to tackle that, but nonetheless we did. We ended up having an awesome time and the kids adjusted really well...much better than we expected. They all did great on the car ride down and back and seemed to have a good time while we were there. It was so much fun to get to spend time with family and I'm really glad we went :)

We got back around 3:00 PM last Monday and around 5:00 I noticed that Grantham felt warm. I checked his temperature and sure enough he had a fever...a 102.2 degree fever to be exact. He also started having diarrhea on average every hour. We went to see the doctor the next morning and determined that he had a virus that unfortunately was just going to have to run it's course...not what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear "we'll give you an antibiotic and he'll be feeling better tomorrow." The fever and diarrhea continuted for the next 3 days and the fever peaked at 103.8 degrees...yikes! Since he was having diarrhea so frequently, he had the worst diaper rash I've ever seen and he also developed a rash on his lower back. I took him back to the doctor on Friday morning and found out that the rash on his back was a staph infection. As if my poor baby could feel any worse we also noticed that day that he was cutting FOUR new teeth. The doctor gave us an antibiotic for the staph and some medicated paste for his diaper rash.

I think we are finally on the mend. The staph is almost completely gone and the diaper rash is getting better. The virus is also gone but the teeth are still coming through :) This was the first time Grantham has been really sick. He's had a few colds but nothing like this before. I think it was the worst experience I've had as a parent so far. It is such a terrible feeling for your child to be so sick and for you to not be able to help. I'm so glad he's feeling better and things are getting back to normal :)