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!