Visit to California

My younger sister Kristen and her husband Evan had their first baby, Connor, in the beginning of October. I was excited to meet her little cutie pie, so I flew out for his baby blessing on Nov. 2. It was a lot of fun to visit and sleep in their living room. On a side note, Grant slept next to me in an "Infant Travel Bed". A spare dresser drawer would have also done the job. :)

Kristen holding Grant while I got to hold baby Connor!

My mom bought the boys matching Future Missionary shirts. We thought it would be fun to get a photo of the little companions in action.

Grant and Connor at the end of a long day.

"Am I the senior companion? But I've got drool on my shirt!"

Grant and Connor listening intently. Grant interrupts, "when can we eat?"

Family Portraits

(This pic is ironic, because Grant doesn't really sit up much yet, but just slouches over his diaper and chunky tummy. But we like the picture!)

It's been nice so far to have this week "off" from school. "Off," of course, is a term of art - it means "not in class," not "no studying." With finals right around the corner and the rough draft of my note due for law review soon, there's no time to take a true vacation, but that's okay - it's still nice to have the extra time.In honor of having the extra time, and the fact that Grant is growing pretty fast, we decided to get some family portraits taken yesterday evening. Of course Murphy's law was in full effect. We had Grant's nap schedule all mapped out so he would be in a good mood for the pictures, but no dice. We had hoped to get him down at around 4:30-5:00 so he would sleep around an 1-1.5 hrs and be good for our 7:00 appointment, but we couldn't get him down till 6:00 and had to leave at 6:30 - so he was a little tired when we got into the studio. In spite of that, we feel pretty good about the pictures, because we managed to trick him into smiling a couple of times. But this meant KaraLee & I had to freeze smiles for like 10 minutes. But we're happy to get the pictures and memorialize our little family. (We've include samples in this post)

Monkeys & softballs

It's been a wild past few weeks. To start out with, Grant had his 4 month check-up a couple of weeks ago. For those keeping score, he weighed in at 17 lbs 15 oz (92 percentile) and 26 inches (80 percentile). In spite of these large numbers, his head circumference only fell in the 30 percentile. So we've got a big baby with a tiny head (kinda the opposite of Bobby from Bobby's World, but I think we've still got a great cartoon idea going here). He's our little bear!

(Grant's the one in the crib)

Grant had a great Halloween. We decided not to take him trick-or-treating this year, mostly because you just can't trust people anymore and we didn't want him eating razors. :) Or because he has no teeth. Depends on whether you ask me or KaraLee! So I wanted him to be an elephant. KaraLee got this great elephant costume a few months ago that we were hoping he'd grow into, but alas, in spite of his massive size (which would seem appropriate for an elephant costume) he's not quite there yet. Stay tuned for next year on that front.

He looks okay while on the floor....
... but some obvious problems when standing up!

So we gave up on the elephant idea and went for a monkey instead. We think this was a winner costume for him this year:He was real cute, and yes, that's a banana on his head. But honestly, as far Grant was concerned, these were just another set of snuggly pajamas. He actually slept through most of the church Halloween activity!

In further news, we had the law school softball tournament yesterday. For those who are unfamiliar, softball takes precedence over pretty much any law school activity at the University of Illinois. To give you a feel for how big it is, we have 19 fully loaded teams in the league this semester, with each time having around 13-18 players on the roster. And for a school with only about 180 students per class (and 3 classes, of course), I'd say that's a pretty significant amount of participation. Anywho, in our first game yesterday afternoon (we made it to the semi's before getting eliminated), I turned my ankle coming into home on a close play. I scored, of course. I won't lie, it hurt. Here's a little footage (props to KaraLee for having a camera handy and having the wherewithal to come out of the dugout and avoid the chain-link fence getting in the way of the picture):Needless to say, it was rough getting my shoes on for church this morning. But at least my run counted and we won the game!

Got Tagged?

So one of my really good friends, Erin, "blog-tagged" me. It has taken me a long time to respond because I had to think about 7 weird facts about myself.

1.) I can wiggle my ears- and I don't have to use my hands.

(But not as well as this little cutie pie)

2.)I know what a pigeon tastes like. And it doesn't taste like chicken.

3.) It's true, I can't turn away from reality TV competition shows. It's weird because I don't care for competition in my own real life. My favorites are Shear Genius and Iron Chef. Sorry, Big Brother, not interested.

4.) "Calling all Sulfur hot pools". My favorite secret occupation would be to work as a forest ranger in Yellowstone Park.

5.) I taught myself how to drive a stick shift, french braid, and tap a pencil on the side of my cheek to make water dropping sounds. I am now working on juggling.

6.) As a child I was a major cleptomaniac. When I was around 6 or 7 I would roam around the neighborhood, go into people's garages and take shoes that I thought would be cute. My favorite were "Jellies". Don't worry, I buy my shoes now- legitmately.

7.) Last but not least, in college my roomies and I wanted to open up a " Toast" Restaurant. We were all on tight budgets and ate a lot of toast. The perk to the restaurant would be to serve toast with different kinds of Jams and jellies. But then we realized that this has already been invented. A Bakery.

Family Vehicle

KaraLee and I are thinking about upgrading from the Subaru. Any thoughts? A good investment? I couldn't find anything on consumer reports, but the user reviews were very insightful (make sure you check them out)!


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00067F1CE

Log Roll

No more than 10 minutes ago Grant rolled over from his back to tummy all by himself! Talk about exciting! While KaraLee was in the kitchen finishing up dinner, I was sitting on the couch watching Grant lying on the floor. After two false starts (trying to roll over and then getting stopped by the lower arm), he successfully figured out that he can move his arm down and get over! What an exciting moment for our little family. Our little boy is quickly becoming a very effective log (except you can't sit on him for very long - he starts to get hungry). Here's a little post-roll picture.
10:00pm Update: Check out a video we took of the squirt on his 3rd roll of the night!

The Giggling Begins...

Grant started giggling for KaraLee a couple of weeks ago, but we finally managed to get a little on video this afternoon. I think we're starting to figure out that he's a bit shy when around people he doesn't know or when he realizes he's on camera, which you can see near the end of the clip. In any case, he's a lot of fun and continues to develop & grow from day to day.

We bought a new digital camera last weekend because our video camera stills were just too grainy. So here's a couple from our new camera, which look fantastic (even when enlarged!).A picnic between conference sessions last weekend at a little lake in Champaign.
I just realized that I did the red-eye thing wrong. Oh well. Still good pictures.

Thumb sucker

So KaraLee and Grant came to pick me up from school this afternoon. Grant was crying a pretty good Grant-cry because KaraLee had taken him to a park for a walk with some of her friends and it turned out to be a little too hot for babies. So she stripped him down to a diaper and fed him. Since he seems to find me funny (we hope it's my personality and not just my looks!), I sat in the back seat with him on the way home. As we were riding home, to entertain him, I gave him this soft, musical duck that my Grandma & Grandpa Anderson gave us for him. So here's my little squirt - duck in one hand, burp cloth in the other, and still managed to find a way to get a thumb in his mouth! Yes, it's true, we have a thumb sucker.

This all goes along with his recent milestone (?) of grabbing stuff and pulling it to his mouth. So it's fun that he's grabbing stuff, but it's unfortunate because when he has nothing to grab, it's straight to the mouth with his thumb. We don't have a picture of it yet (I guess we're kinda avoiding photo evidence) but when/if we get a picture, you'll be the first to see it. :)

In further updates, Grant has become very giggly and playful. He's responding to tummy/neck raspberries with little baby giggles, and big, toothless smiles. As part of this playfulness, we think he's starting to figure out how to manipulate us. Last night we laid him down around 9:30 for bed. About 10 minutes later, we heard crying - but not the normal "I need you, get in here now" crying, but this sort of half talking, half crying. We go in there, and as soon as we opened his door and looked at him, he had a big smile on his face and just looked so pleased that we were there. Yeah, we got tricked. So for better or for worse, our little baby boy is starting to shed some of his baby innocence and develop good ole' fashion American manipulation skills. But we still love him.

What about you? Any good baby-manipulation (not to be confused with manipulation of a baby - that's just wrong) stories? Share in the comments!

Grant and Mom playing

This is a fun little video of Grant and I playing on a Friday night. It's funny how our Friday night activities have changed a little bit:)

Back in Champaign

We finally moved back to Champaign on August 15. I spent the day cleaning and packing, and when Chris got home he packed up the car and we headed south to the corn fields. We enjoyed Chicago for the Summer and were glad to get back to Champaign where there is free parking and suburban shopping.

Chris started school on August 20. He has had a good start but is as busy as ever. So far being a 2L is a lot cooler than being a 1L. :)

In the first photo of Grant, below, he's getting a head-start on his mission preparation. Who could refuse such a little cutie?! The pictures on the green chair are bathtime-prep pictures. Finally, Grant shows off his ability to relax: we call this our "couch po-cutie" shot. Enjoy the pics!

Grant in Action

"I can hear the ocean in my dad's chest!!"

"Are you looking into my soul?""Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz........"Grant's idea of helping with the laundry

Smiley Boy

Grant is starting to smile and react a little bit more! Everyday is a little more exciting. Sometimes it's a little unpredictable, so we felt pretty lucky to get this video. Actually, it's kinda funny, because he's often quite smiley when he's on the changing table. Something very happy about that place I guess!

It seems fitting that we were able to get this video this morning, because last night was the first time he's truly slept through the night! He's slept 5-6 hours before, but last night he slept from 10:00pm-6:00am. After he woke up and ate, he then slept for another couple of hours. So we're hoping this becomes a behavioral pattern for him.

Baby Blessing

On Sunday July 22,07 we were able to bless baby Grant. Also, we were lucky enough to have our parents in town for the blessing, which was a great opportunity for the new grandparents to meet their new grandson.

Kathy Arrives

My mom came in last night and finally got to meet her new little grandson. KaraLee and I are excited to have family in town for the next couple of weeks for the baby blessing which is scheduled for this Sunday. Grant was a little angel for his grandma, who got to hold him while he slept for around a good hour. KaraLee and I also appreciate the many gifts from friends in Issaquah who packed my mom's suitcase with stuff for the baby. We'll post some pictures later this week of the family in town.

Grant's First Cruise

On Friday night, Chris, Grant and I had the neat opportunity to go on an hour long cruise sponsored by Chris' summer law firm. The cruise ship sailed back and forth along the Chicago city skyline on Lake Michigan. We thought this would be a great chance for Chris' co-workers to meet Grant. The weather was beautiful and the ride was really comfortable. Grant was really well behaved and made a lot of new friends.

Welcome Baby Grant!

Little Baby Grant was born on June 25, 2007 at 10:38 am. He was born a bruiser at 8 lbs. 6 oz and 20.5 inches long. The birth was a fantastic experience for all 3 of us. KaraLee (reluctantly) did things completely naturally. The labor only lasted 9 1/2 hours and by the time we got to the hospital, she was already 9.5 cm dilated, so any hope/chance of medication was out the door. But it ended up being very positive and Grant was and is healthy as an ox.

He had his 1-week appointment last Tuesday and the doctor gave him an A+ on his check-up. He had gained a bit of weight and jumped to 8 lbs 14 oz and 21 1/4 inches. The doctor said that his healthy weight gain is a tribute to good feeding (props to KaraLee and to the baby). So that was great news.

Finally, we took the baby with us on Saturday to the Taste of Chicago. It was a hot 86 deg out, but we did well. KaraLee and the baby camped under some trees in the shade while I was the hunter & gatherer for the day. :) It was a lot of fun and the baby has just been very well-behaved through all of our little adventures. The Anderson family is happy & healthy!

Baby's a-coming!

KaraLee and I couldn't be more excited for the imminent arrival our little baby boy! The crib is set up, the clothes are in drawers, and our little family is ready to welcome baby Anderson into the world.