The Family Shindig

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

OriginalHalloween intros are so hard to come up with, so here is a blog postabout Halloween.

Lastyear we dressed the boy up as a kangaroo and took him to aneighborhood trunk or treat. No kids came to our trunk and no oneseemed to know what he was supposed to be (“Is he a deer?” “Noma’am, deer don’t carry their young in their stomach.”). Itrained and afterwards no one came to our house.

Thisyear Halloween was interrupted by my family’s return from China onthe 28th. They are still dealing with the time change and don’tseem to be in the mood to party.

Thisyear I took the boy to the same neighborhood party on Saturday. Hewas too cranky to put on his dragon costume. There was a boy dressedas werewolf and a girl dressed as a skull-faced jester (asurprisingly common costume this year) that freaked him out to thepoint that I couldn’t put him down.

Hefinally played a few games, won himself a thing of bubbles, which heloved once we got home.
Sundaywas devoting entirely to battling first and second hand jet lag.

Mondaystarted as a fairly normal day. We went to the library, which was notas Halloweeny as one would expect, and to the store which was alreadyout of Halloween candy.

Atfirst, when I told Grant about trick or treating, he said he didn’twant to go. But it only took one group of kids interrupting dinner toget him thinking about nothing else.

Wedragoned him up, and him and I set off, taking turns holding the noseout of his face.

Ifelt a little bad taking my not-quiet two year trick or treating.We’ve never giving him any candy so he had no idea what any of thisstuff was. People could tell I was a bad parent, either because Iwould let this way too young a child eat all this candy or I wasusing him to score candy for myself.

Itried to assuage this guilt by making Grant talk as much as possible.This was extra hard because the things he’s good at saying (“thankyou”, “Hello”) are all in Chinese. He got plenty of practicethough and after the first street he was good enough to be cute.

He’dsay “Trick or Treat” (tee-de-tee), “Thank you” (Koo) and“Happy Halloween” (Happy Ween).

Aswe/I walked from house to house, if a house looked non-welcoming or Ijust didn’t want to knock the door, I told Niuniu that they wereasleep. He was very accepting of this and would even point to houseswith all the lights out and tell me they were sleeping.

Afterwe had knocked enough doors that my back was killing me from Trainingmy Dragon and I was starting to feel guilty about how I was going toeat all this candy, I decided to call it a night. This is how thattransition happened, translated form two year old Chinese to English.Niuniu:Next house, next house!

Daddy:Sorry buddy, everyone has gone to bed
Niuniu:Everyone is sleeping
Daddy:Yup.
Niuniu:Next house, next house!
Daddy:No, now we go home, so Daddy can go to sleep too.
Niuniu:Daddy go to sleep? Niuniu sleepy too.

Withoutanother word he fell asleep on my shoulder and would not wake up. Hewas all rag doll the rest of the night as we undressed him, forcedsome milk down his throat and brushed his teeth.

Idon’t see how a kid who will wake up and scream for an hour if Istep on the squeaky step will all of a sudden sleep through a totaldepantsing.

Happy Ween Everybody

Now he just needs a wing and a song

2011-09-03T21:36:00.001-07:00

So teaching the youngling how to pray has been the most fun I’ve had doing anything related to church. Way better than road shows.

We’ve always prayed before dinner, so I think he’s just sort of accepted it as a thing that we do pre-food. We were a little slower on bed-time prayers though, only starting four or five months ago so we’ve gotten to see he’s attitude towards it change.

At first he was very earnest, he’d close his eyes and kneel on the floor next to us waiting patiently to say “Amen” and smile at us, knowing he’d made us happy.

It wasn’t long before he realized that each prayer was 30 to 60 seconds of time where Mommy and Daddy’s eyes were closed. He’d jump up, run around the room, even slap us on the butt only to run back to his original position when we got to the “In the name” part.

He’d then say “Amen” and look at us as sweetly and innocently as any 18 month who just punched you in the butt can. He was so proud of himself for gaming the system.

And I gotta admit; I was too.

He calmed down for a while, but lately his prayer time shenanigans have taken a turn to the adorable. He has three stuffed toys in his room, a giraffe, a cow and a stegosaurus (teddy bears are for weak kids with unimaginative parents) that he likes to play with while we read bed time stories.

Well a few days ago, he decided that the three amigos needed to pray with us, so he’d lay them down next to us for prayer time.

Tonight, after we all said “Amen,” he picked each animal up in turn and, shaking them in the universal sign for “this animal is talking” said “Amen.”

Now I just need to teach him all of their different voices and he’ll be set.

Rainy Days and Mondays sometimes lift me up

2011-08-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Boy, this is your father speaking, so put down whatever you are into when I decide to read/give this to you and listen.

As I write this it is July 25, 2011, you are 20 months old and have just gone to bed. Today was a simple day, very simple in fact. And yet, amidst all the simplicity, you taught me something so profound that I just had to write it down.

First, a bit of background. I said today was a simple day, and it was, but it was the kind of simple day that you live for when you become a parent. We were going to take you to the library.

I’m not sure what your study habits will be like when you’re older, but here and now, you love the library. If we’d let you, you would spent hours, running between the shelves of books, discovering new things at every turn. You love to have your mother or me read to your from the baby books bin. You love to grab magazines with Elmo or Thomas the Tank Engine on them and explain everything about them to us in your own language. You love all the posters and decorations they have there for you to enjoy.

Today however, being the Monday after a Pioneer Day Sunday, the library was closed. We didn’t realize this until we had pulled into the parking lot. You were heart broken. You kicked and thrashed against your car seat and against the injustice of it all.

Your mother, the quick-thinker she always is, placated you by saying we could take you to school next to the library to play on the recess toys. If there’s one place you like more than a library, it’s a park. There’s less books, but more screaming, which is a fair trade in your young mind.

We’d never taken you to this park before. You were hesitant at first, but grew more adventurous, eventually climbing higher than you ever have before. When the time came, you didn’t want to leave. Even the first drops of rain would not dissuade you from pointing at the numbers on the hopscotch boards and giggling with glee.

To move you closer to the car while maintaining your level of happiness, your mother and I each took a hand. When run together for a few steps and then “One Two Three!” swing you forward into the air. You laughed, your mother couldn’t help but smile and I tried to capture the moment in my mind so that I could live in it forever.

I was convinced the day could not get better.

I was wrong.

The rain picked up, damping the world and our spirits. We ran to the car, and promised you that we’d come back and play there again soon. We drove home. As your mother and I cowered in the garage, looking out into the rain, you ran straight in, laughing as you went.

Knowing your mother is part cat and hates to get wet, I went after you. I was about to bend over to pick you up and carry you back into the house, when I decided the “Cool Dad” thing to do would be play with you in the rain for a while.

We started to walk around the block, at least you did, and I followed. As is normal for most kids your age, it was a slow walk, because you had to stop to examine everything. Every rock, every yard, every puddle was the most amazing thing in the world to you.

I hope one day you’ll understand what it does to you to watch your child explore, it makes you slow down and try to understand what they find so fascinating. You think back to your own youth, and for a few minutes recaptures the feelings of wonder and amazement you used to feel when everything was new.

That’s what happened to me. You’d seen everything that we looked at before. Many times in fact. But tonight it was different. Tonight it was wet, shiny and clean and despite the fact that you had to get soaking wet to do, you wanted to see every last bit of it.

I hated when I had to bring it all to end as bed time closed in. But even as I carried you home on my shoulders you were amazed by what was around us and you were smiling.

I pondered this as we finished the last leg of our journey. Into all our lives, rain will fall. Rain that will make us cold, wet and miserable. But the rain will bring with it change. It will wash the world clean and if we embrace it, it’ll wash us too.

When this rain comes, it brings with it a choice. We can hide, staying indoors, where we are safe, warm and where everything is the same. Or we can run, laughing, into the downpour.

We’ll see things in a different way than ever before. We’ll overcome our fears and dislikes, and find a whole new world to play in.

Today you taught me to run in the rain. Something I’d forgotten over the last 27 years since I was your age, when the time comes, I hope to teach it to you again.

Thanks boy.

You’re the best.

End of year wrap up.

2011-01-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

Ugh, this is just like peach porridge now (nine days old) so the into doesn't make as much sense as it used to. Sorry.

2010 comes to a close and I wouldn't be a crappy blogger if I didn't try to squeeze something out last minute. I could do a top ten list of my favorite Niuniu related moments or I could to a chronological recap of the whole year. But both of those would be harder than I really want to do between now and the New Year's party we're going to in a few hours.

Besides, really the best to do is recount what's happened in the last two months like I would with any other blog post, and throw some pictures up next to it.

November:

After Halloween we began settling into our winter routine, which is a lot like our summer routine without the evening walks. We still take Grant for walks when the streets are clear and he's gotten stir crazy from too much being inside. Fortunately he likes going out more than he dislikes getting bundled up. I think he knows how good he looks with his winter hat.

Halfway through the month was his birthday. I was under the impression that after this point I didn't have to remember how many months old he was and could just say he's one, but apparently that's not until he turns two.

Regardless we made his birthday a family affair. Everyone got together at his Great Grandma Burdett's house for cake and manual labor with a risk of tetanus (we spend the afternoon tearing down a rusty old down run in the back yard, but Grant just hung out in the house so we didn't get a picture of him with work gloves and bolt cutlers sitting in a pile of 40 year old chain link).

As per family tradition we had a special angel food cake for the birthday boy and a real (chocolate) cake for the adults. Normally in our family we set the kid in front of the cake and just let them got nuts, thereby properly introducing them to the world of emotional binge eating on special occasions.

Grant would have none of it though. Both the tradition and the cake. He pointed at it the whole time we were bringing it to him and looked excited to be the center of attention but as soon as the cameras were rolling and the cake was in front his hand shot out toward the cake, he took the smallest about possible and promptly through it on the floor. No amount of coaxing, encouragements or example would get him to pay the cake any attention. So with nothing else to do we could do the adults had two cakes.

It was a happy birthday.

Thanksgiving was another chance for the little guy to show off how cute and well behaved he is for the extended family. Unfortunately he was sick that day so he just sat on the floor between us and fussed the whole time.

We tried to get him to try some of the holiday foods but he was content with a few bites of roll and a lot of whining. Finally after most people had left and things had calmed down a bit those of us still around were enjoying some cheesecake. Who ever was holding Grant at the time gave him a small bite and his eyes just lit up. It was if he suddenly understood why we had drug him so far and made him be good around so many people, it was for this cake.

He immediately requested more. When that source would not longer give him any, he climbed down and then crawled over to the next person and began begging like a dog. He went from person to person until everyone had given him some. It's bad habit I'm sure but you can't get mad at cute.

And now we know what to get him next year for his birthday.

December

Like most people our December was buried in preparations for Christmas. Grant had apparently decided that since we weren't going for family walks as much that walking was over rated and stopped trying to become a biped.

Getting ready for Christmas is so much more fun with a kid. Every time we when to Babies R Us (our default stop when the kid needs anything) we found something new that he would love. We were able to more or less restrain ourselves but I'm afraid it'll only get harder once he starts to weigh in on the subject.

Actual Christmas was great. Another big family get together and with the exception of waking up at 5:00 AM and then going back to sleep at 8:00 AM when everyone wanted to do presents, he was a perfect Christmas baby. And I'll take him waking up at 5:00 to play with my grandma's 101 Dalmatian toys over staying up all night crying like he did last year anytime.

Grant had plenty of practice opening 12 days of Christmas presents, so we figured he'd be excited to do all the unwrapping he had ahead of him. He was super excited for the first two presents. After which he decided being a baby on Christmas was hard work and he'd rather just look at the pretty packaging and smile at everyone than open anything.

He did eventually get through all his presents and was thrilled with all of them. He was a good baby and would let everyone hold him, at least until he got bored and wanted to go back to Grandpa.

The day after Christmas I set him on the floor to make us some toast. He crawled right to his tub of blocks and was about to start playing with them when he looked across the floor and saw the toy cars his Grandma and Grandpa Shinney had given him. He squealed with delight and threw the blocks down and crawled over the cars as fast as he could. It was a fun moment for me.

For New Years we took him to a friends house. He was a great party baby again and had a great time except when he fell into an unused cable jack and cut his cheek a bit and gave him a nasty welt. It was one of the worst injuries he's had so far so I think it hurt Mommy and me as much as it did him.

All in all it's been a great 2010 with Grant in our lives. We've grown (mostly him) and learned (mostly me) so much and things just keep happening. Here's to an even better 2011.

Halloween: So cute it's scary

2010-11-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

If it get this posted up before midnight, I'm still in the 1 month grace period before I become a bad parent. Or at least a bad blogger, which is almost as deplorable these days.

So Halloween has come and gone and with it Grant's last “First” holiday. It's crazy to think that this time last year was the scariest Halloween ever as we sat around on pins and needles just waiting for the big moment that would change our lives forever. This year was much more fun because we got to dress that big moment up as what ever we wanted.

We went through several drafts of the Halloween costume. My first idea was a super-complex zergling costume complete with wings and pincers. That was way beyond my skill as a costume maker however. For a while before Halloween he went through a phase where he'd head bang while hitting the floor with drum sticks so I though some thick glasses, a baby flannel and a blond wig would make him a perfect Baby Garth. I was even going to dress up as Wayne to complete the ensemble/explain the reference. Unfortunately he stopped doing this as much, and really even this was beyond my skills are a costume maker.

Finally as the time drew near, we decided to just buy him a costume. Total party foul I know but you do what you gotta do when you're untalented. Sally and I are both hoping to raise a very practical child so we picked the costume with the most extra uses we could find. The kangaroo was a natural choice, it came with a toy he could play with, it fit right over his clothes, it was warm and the pocket could hold enough candy we wouldn't need to take a bucket. All this at the price of no one knowing what he was.

Seriously people, he had a pouch with a little kangaroo in it. They don't make space man costumes with that feature. Believe me, I looked. But we got all kinds of wrong guesses. Deer. Horse. Rabbit. At least they were all mammals. I guess.

We had a lot of fun though. We took him to my work's Halloween party and then the local ward's trunk-or-treat the next day. We were going to take him to the Chinese Ward activity, but he was a little sick and slept through it.

Through out it all, we could tell that he knew something important and excited was going on and he just didn't know what. I can't wait til next year when concepts like candy and costumes are more within his grasp.

Oh and everything they say is true. When you grow up, you can steal your kid's Halloween candy.

Holloween mystry.

2010-11-18T21:33:00.001-08:00

So right before Holloween, we discovered that we might have a rat in our house. Here's why we thought so.

Turned out we do have a little rat, who's caught in action here.

"What are you looking at, ma?"

Our boy is 9 1/2 months ...

2010-08-31T21:32:00.001-07:00

How did time fly when you have a little one. It's been three weeks since my parents left. But on the day they left, Grant got the hang of getting his pictures taken. Every time he sees a camera pointing at him and if the person says "yee, er, san!" (one, two, three), he'd give you the cutest smile coz he's a smart boy and knows what to do.

On 8/16, we went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake with Julie, Jaxson and Kennadie and Ann and Lynn. This was Grant's first time in a zoo and he was stoked. He screamed with great excitement even before entering because he's never seen so many kids at the same time.

So we went on a mini hike in the canyon by us when my folks were still here and we tried using the baby carrier on a hike for the first time. Doesn't he look so cute and happy to be on daddy's back? By the end of the hike, he's out. That's what he'd do if he didn't nap much during the day.
And here's another good one with daddy by the Great Salt Lake.

Now that we got our new nice camera, we've been experimenting it and of course who do we experiment it on?

Grant is such a natural when it comes to picture time now. These were all taken in a row and he was all smile in all of them.

Later that day I was eating a yogurt and Grant insisted on having it, too. He was moping by my side and couldn't stand seeing me enjoying it by myself. So I quickly finished it and rinsed it out and gave the cup to him. Then he's so happy that he finally got the "yogurt", too, even though he still has some tears if you look close. He makes me laugh...

Weekend in Park City

2010-07-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

With only two weeks before Chinese Grandma and Grandpa go back home, Mommy and Daddy have suddenly realized that they haven't taken them very many places. So now, they're dragging me all over the place trying to make up for their mistake. I hope the rest of my life isn't this unfair.

This past Saturday we went to a place called Park City. Which wasn't too far from our house. After my afternoon nap we loaded up into the car and drove for a while. I'm not too clear on what happened, all I remember was that we drove up a really big heal and Chinese Grandma kept trying to cover me with a pink umbrella so the sun wouldn't get me. It was really nice of her, but a little embarrassing. You never know who might be sitting in the car-seat in the mini-van next to you. I'll have Mommy reminder her that I'm a boy and make Daddy go get me a Batman umbrella.

The first place we went was called the Canyons. It was whole bunch of giant condos like Great Grandmas by Bear Lake, only this time there was now lake. Just a bunch of stores selling really expensive, funny colored clothes and some weird ropes with chairs on them going up and down the mountains. It was pretty, but I really didn't get the point of it all.

It was really hot out and even though my parents were smart enough to bring me some juice for me to drink, they didn't bring anything for them. Daddy bought two bottles of water from some Thai girls for $2 a piece. I thought in my life I'd seen it all, but a grown man paying for water may just be the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Fortunately we didn't drive all this way to just pay money for something we have a lot of at home. The next thing we did was get into a big metal box hanging form one of the ropes. Once the adults were all seated and I was properly being held, the box started moving faster heading up the mountain.

It was really pretty at first. The forest stretched out below us and I could see lots of pretty trees. Then we got to what should have been the end of the ride and when over into the next canyon. It was just then that I realized we were way up in the sky! This is not where I wanted to be. All of a sudden the occasional shaking of car wasn't fun, it was really scary. Chinese Grandpa was holding me but that wasn't enough. I wanted Daddy. But once Daddy was holding me I was close enough to Mommy that I wanted the best I could get.

Finally we got off the horrible thing and got out. We were in a really nice forest. We took a nice little walk, took a bunch of pictures, saw some birds and a ground squirrel and then drank some juice on a bridge over a little creek. I was starting to think that this place wasn't so bad.

Then they made me get back in that stupid thing!

This time I wasted no time expressing my displeasure. Right from the get go I was going to be with Mommy and I was going to be explaining how high we were and how scary that was. As we got to the bottom, the thing wasn't so high off the ground and Mommy's hugs were enough to make me feel better.

Daddy was no help. He just took my picture.

Daddy's kinda of a jerk some times.

After the ride in the car thing we went back down the mountain. Daddy drove us to a place where they held the Olympics seven whole years before I was born. I didn't think anything from so long ago would be very interesting, but once we got there, I was amazed by the stuff people had done. We saw all kinds of things from the Olympics. I even posed for a picture holding the torch, but you can't tell because Daddy has a stupid, big head so you can't see it in the picture.

We also got to watch some big kids do ski jumping. They did some amazing twists and turns in the air. It was truly a testament to the potential of the human body and the power of the human spirit. Chinese Grandma and Grandpa were very impressed. Daddy was distracted by a chipmunk.

I we left Daddy said some day I could be in the Olympics. For the first time in my life I feel pressure.

After the Olympic Park we went out for dinner. The Grown-ups ordered Mexican Food. I had baby food. It's really doesn't seem that fair now in retrospect but I was OK with it at the time. Probably because the girls at the next table and the waitresses were all entranced with me.

All in all it was a fun day. I can't understand why Mommy and Daddy would live so close to such a nice place for so long and never go. I hope they take me again soon.

Just not up that stupid mountain.

Our little guy is mobile.

2010-07-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

Not much really to say out side of the header there. Grant is up and moving around all on his own. By up really am only talking about his head though, he's mostly just army crawling unless some one gets in his way to wrestle.

This new adventure started over the fourth of July weekend. We had taken Grant and his Chinese Grant parents to hang out with my family at Bear Lake, we'd had a good time but it was getting time to go. We were packing up and had put Grant on the bed while we were gathering up our stuff. He'd been a master level roller for a couple month by now so one of us was watching him to make sure he didn't roll any where he didn't belong (like off the bed).

Sure enough he rolled on to one side. He just chilled there for a minute as he often does and the rolled back to his stomach, only this time he moved his arm forward, just a bit. Then he rolled the other side. Again, when he returned to lying on his tummy he moved his free hand forward just enough. It didn't take long for him to realize what had happen. For the first time in his life he had moved along the z axis all on his own.

Excited he repeated the process. We were thrilled. When his Chinese grandparents came in we used a cell phone to coax him to repeat the process. The were thrilled. We took him home and practiced. Soon he realized he didn't need to “swim” to move forward. He has since learned to army crawl and to scoot forward, turning our little click beetle into an inchworm.

It's been really fun to watch him gain this new independence. Well, as fun as anything truly terrifying can be. I'm happy for him, I really am, but I kinda miss the days when all I had to remember was where I put him down. Now he could be anywhere.

That's not all he's doing that makes his father really excited when he does it when I'm in the room but scares the cupcakes out of me when he does it when I'm gone.

So everyone else went grocery shopping today, leaving us for some father/son bonding/rough housing time. He made a mess in his pants and I daddyed it away as best I could (some day I want to write a thesis on the changes that have happened to this kids poops since we started giving him solids). As is normal in these temporary single parent moments I put him in his crib to run and wash my hands.

It's been months since I was shocked to see him in a different position in his bed than the one I put him down in. But this time he was just turned around, he was vertical. As in standing. He'd not only pulled himself up using the edge but he was leaning over the edge at a heart attack inducing angle since the bed hasn't need to be lowered until just then.

So now we're going about baby proofing the house. So far we've piled a bunch of junk in front of the railing so he can't fall through there. We're good parents.

More cuteness... during the day. 5/31/2010

2010-06-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Bear Lake during Memorial Day weekend was an adventure. Grant was teething, got sick and also got us sick after that. In fact, Steve is still sick, he still has pretty bad coughing fits at night.

We did have some pretty cute and cool pictures and videos though. Here they are.

Okay, the video won't upload, so here's a picture from there.

Our boy is 6 months old!

2010-05-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

We are updating our blog like going to the doctor's office: last time was when he's 4 months old! It was an exciting 2 months of Grant's life. He's grown and learned alot.

Grant doesn't like tummy time, I think that's how he learned to roll over, from front to back. Every time we put him down on his tummy, he'd be like a screaming click beatle, flipping to his back almost immediately. He's not quite good with the other direction yet. Occasionally if he's on his back for long enough, he'd wiggle himself to his front. Although while I'm writing this blog, he just did it twice! The first time he did that was at grandma & grandpa's, when we went up for grandma's birthday, which was a pleasant surprise for her.

Lately he hasn't been as talkative as before, but a couple days before we went up, we heard him say "Anna" clear as day. Then when we met up with the Lovelands, we realized, Anna means Annabelle. They even sat and played in this swing together.

Grant's sitting up better and better. He's also in a phase when he'd put everything he can grab into his mouth. Sometimes when he needs both of his hands to do the job, he'd sit up straight for a brief moment.

He's also fond of people, the more the better. Every time we bring him outside, whether it's church, shopping, or for a walk, he's just amazed at the outside world and the people in it. He especially likes church, family and church activities, that's where a lot of people would smile at him, hold him or play with him. He'd give them big smiles, or blow lots of rasberries to them.

Last weekend grandma came down to see us. It was great to have her with us for a couple days and help us looking after Grant. Grant loved spending time with his grandma, who loves him a ton.

On Friday, I made him some rice cereal in a bowl. This is his first offical solid food. He was not very fond of this new concept of eating from a bowl and spoon. After every bite, he'd blow rasberries to get the food out of his mouth. So here's what he looked like by the end, almost look like he's got perfect teeth!

Grant turned 180 degrees!

2010-03-18T20:41:00.001-07:00

Grant has pretty strong leg muscles and sometimes when he's doing tummy time, he'd stick his butt up, like he's trying to crawl. But his arms aren't strong enough to support his heavy head yet, so here's what he'd look like.
Also grandma, remember how sweet you think his sleeping pictures are? Here's a look at a picture back then, aww......

Now because of his strong legs, he could move himself around while lying on his back. Usually when we put him to bed, we put his head towards North. One night when I went in to feed him, I noticed his was lying across the crib, head facing East. When he saw me, he was all smily and swinging his arms, seemingly enjoying his new found view of the crib.

Last night when I went to the nursery, I thought I was dreaming because his had completely turned himself around and was lying against the corner of the crib, with his head facing South! Again he was all smily when he saw me, as if he was showing off his new skills again. Since we don't have a picture of that, here's one for what he looks like now in the crib. Oh, how we love our growing little cute boy!

Sunday Sunday

2010-03-07T20:59:00.001-08:00

We had a very happy baby today, which was perfect timing since we had to take him to church for three hours. All he did the whole time was smile, laugh and hit on girls 4 months older than him.

It was almost a milestone for him. He's usually a content and happy baby, but today was his most smiley day recorded. And it was the first time I've been able to repeatedly make him laugh with the same thing (shaking his hat in my mouth like a dog) which was really rewarding for me, because usually I have constantly come up with new material to get him to smile. My job just got a whole lot easier.

After church we went for a quick walk with Grant today. Rather than put him in the stroller we just strapped him to our baby carrier. We had know idea that it would turn him into the worlds cutest ninja.

He also goes on about a snowman, tall, tall, tall

2010-02-22T18:57:00.000-08:00

Mommy and Daddy have taught me a lot of great things in the few months I've been with them. They've taught me my name, their names (Mommy and Daddy respectivly), they've taught me all about colors and math and what diaper time is. Daddy has even taught me the full history of a place call Middle Earth that sounds really weird.

The most import thing though, that Daddy has taught me is that there are a constantly decreasing number of speckled frogs on a speckled log somewhere along side a nice a cool pool somewhere. I'm not quite sure on the significance of these frogs but they seem to be really important to him because he brings them up ALL THE TIME.

Still for a man as old as my daddy to be so deeply entranced by some amphibians with bad complexion and their eating/bathing habits there must be some symbolic importance. So every time that he starts signing about them (oh yeah, did I mention he always is singing when he tells me about them, the mystery deepens), I can't help but sit and listen intently, in hopes of discerning whether or not my father is trying to teach me something too secret to speak aloud, or if I was born into a family of nutjobs.

Like the other night, my parents strapped me into that most uncomfortable carseat and dragged me clear to somewhere I didn't want to go in the far off land of Draper. Normally I'm very good in the car, but it was dark and far and stupid so I started to express my discomfort in the most elequent way I knew how. Before I could get to my fourth point about the chafing, my dad started singing that song. I was so taken in to the mystery that for the next 20 minutes he and Mommy sang, I was so distracted that I couldn't form a coherent argument the rest of the way there.

So it's a strange song. Here's a picture of me in my thinking chair. Another place Daddy will frequently sing it to me.

Long nights and longer explanations

2010-02-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

There comes a point in ever every new father's life when he has to swallow his pride and admit that this parenting stuff isn't as easy as we thought it was when we were watching our parents mess up at it. When Grant was born I was sure of couple things: We'd read to him often, nothing he wore would be pink and he would never get to sleep in our bed unless he had a nightmare caused by exposure to the early works of Jim Hensen.

Nothing against people who let there kids sleep with them, I just know that when I sleep I tend to roll around a lot and occasionally sleep-punch, so I figured it would be safer just to keep the little guy as far away from that as we could. However lately he's been waking up crying really bad from a combination of the horrible eczema mentioned below and just being hungry. Normally I can console him with a bottle but there are times when he just won't take it. Sally, being the awesome mom that she is, will step up to the plate and feed him, but sometimes she's so tired that she opts to feed him in bed. Plans to put him back in his crib soon fall be the way side and he ends up sleeping with us for hours.

So you see, I may have gone against my original ideals, but it's for a collections of perfectly logical and natural reasons.

And besides, who can fight such sweetness?

3 months old

2010-02-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

So today I'm offically 3 months old, and my Chinese grandma who is staying with us said that I'm already 2. Here's why. When I was born, I was already one. Then after the Chinese new year, I get another year. This 2 is my "informal" age and it will stay at 2 till the next lunar new year comes.
But really, I'm a big boy now. I weigh 14lb 5oz today. The reason why I know this is that I have really bad eczema and I went to see the doctor today. He prescribed cortizone and after using it, I have felt much better.
Now that my neck is stronger, I love to look around and see what's around. Also because I have strong legs, I like to look around while standing. You have to admit, the view is much better.

Like a Weed

2010-02-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

So I got home from work today and this is what was waiting for me. Grant has sprung his first leak. I know kids grow faster than we can blog about them, but this outfit drowned the poor guy over Christmas and now look at him.

It's a good thing we have no shortage of clothes for him. I just hope he grows out of growing out of things soon.

Grant's tummy time - 2 months

2010-01-17T18:34:00.000-08:00

This was taken on January 15, 2010, and Grant was 2 months old, already! And he's got a younger cousin, already!

Baby's First Christmas

2010-01-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

Good gosh, another Christmas season has come and gone.

I shouldn't say that in such a humdrum manner. While it was just another Christmas for Sally and I, for little Grant it was “Baby's First Christmas.”

All in all, I think mid-November is a great time to have a baby in modern society (not as good as early November, but I'm trying not to hold that against the kid). One of the few downsides however is that they spend “Baby's First Christmas” mostly just laying there.

All in all, Grant was adorable, but not as entertaining as he could have been.
We'll work on that for next year.

Still it was an excellent Christmas and one we will cherish always.

The first big exciting thing this year was Grant finally got to meet his cousin. We've been telling him for a while now that he's not the only kid around and I think now he believes us. My sister and her family flew in from Cleveland to spend the holidays with us which of course included my two-year-old nephew, Jaxson.

Jax was a ton of fun to have come visit. Despite having moved in over a year ago, with all the new stuff for the baby and the usual holiday mess, our house looked like we were still in the process of moving. Jaxson didn't care. He loved boxes and had a great time finding new boxes to bring out and show us.

Jaxson was much more entertaining than his little cousin. His parents have apparently been teaching him what a lot of different thing say and he was (after a little coaxing) more than willing to tell us what says what. He did the standard material, “What does a dog say?” “What does an elephant say?” and “What does a baby say?”

He kept it fresh though with some new stuff, like “What does a Pirate say?”

I think my favorite thing though was when he mom would ask him who Grant was, he would say in his cutest two-year-old voice “Baby Gwant.” It was beyond precious.

A few days later I got a phone call around midnight. My caller ID said it was Grandma Burdett but when I answered a deep, yet familiar voice was on the other end. It was one of those awkward moments when you can tell the other person is expecting you to recognize them, but you have no idea who they are.

My mind was racing as fast as a new father's mind can at this time of night trying to figure out who it could be. I rule out my uncles right away, and then when through my cousins one by one in my head until I realized it was Danny.

Danny had taken the bus up from California to surprise everyone for Christmas. It was nice to talk to him for a minute before crawling back to bed.

After that, things were per normal until Christmas Eve. We went up to Grandma B's for the usual dinner, pajamas and family togetherness.

It was fun to see everyone and Grant of course was a big hit. He was a very well behaved baby, sleeping most of the time and letting anyone who wanted to take a turn hold him.

After everyone else had left, if was just my immediate family (except the Nebakers, who were in Wyoming). As the night wore on people started drifting of to sleep, except Grant. It was his first night away from home and he wasn't happy about it. He just got fussier and fussier.

As everyone else went to bed, my mom and I took turns holding the little guy. Finally I got to the point where I was too tired so I laid down on a couch in my Grandma's front room. I told my mom to wake me up with Grant got too fussy again and I'd take him downstairs to his mommy.

The couch that was available was about 6 inches to short for me to really lay down on, but I was so tired that sleeping bent at the waist didn't seem to bad. Through the rest of the uncomfortable night, I would wake up every hour or so, not hear my son, assume only a couple minutes had past and then go back to sleep. It wasn't until my Mom woke me up around 6:30 and told me to go to bed that I learned what happened.

I guess my mom had fallen asleep holding Grant. Sally had started to wonder where her son was, went up and found the two of them and took the baby for a feeding, sending my mom to bed and not taking a second thought to finding me.

I spent the rest of Christmas with a sore back but an excuse to tease my wife which is a trade I'll take any day.

Actual Christmas day was very by the book for my family. We opened gifts as a family, got ready for the traditional breakfast complete with blintzes and fauna cooking. Then we did cousin gifts and the money hunt. After that the Shinney's made their way out to see the Shinney side of family, for more gifts and even more food. Grant even found they bendy plastic Santa. But since I helped him, I figured I was entitled to his candy bar.

As time wore on, we decided it was time to take the little one home. As we headed out towards the Interstate, he started getting really fussy. We considered stopping back at Grandma Burdett's to feed him but fortunately once we got on I-15 the sooth sounds of the open road lowed him to sleep.

I don't know what a 6 week old baby dreams about. But I hope for that one hour at least, he dreamed of shiny colors, new smells and being surrounded by people who love him.

I hope he dreamed of Christmas.

The Games I play with Mommy

2009-12-13T15:54:00.000-08:00

I have a secret. I was a very sleepy baby, especially shortly after I was born. I’d fall asleep during meals all the time. My parents would try to touch my cheeks, rub my neck, shake my hand, tickle my feet, massage my back, tickle my arm pick, etc. Yet no matter what they try, I’d still be sleeping like a baby. This makes it harder for them because I’d wake up almost every 2 hours and be hungry again. Finally my mommy found the right weapon to keep me awake – a hair. Every time I fall asleep during meals, she’d tickle my face with a hair! It would wake me right up and I had to start working again. It’s so unfair, I just wanted to take a nap from time to time. Sigh, a baby’s life is so hard…

Another secret, I once soiled 4 diapers in a row when daddy was on diaper duty and another day I successfully managed to get my parents’ bed wet clear from the other end of the bed. My mommy hasn’t changed as many diapers as daddy and grandma have. So I like to play the diaper game with her from time to time. I like to play it at night especially because that’s when they are most sleepy and vulnerable. One night, after I was done eating, mommy felt that my pants were wet, so she put me down to change me. But I had something else going on in my tummy, not sure how to tell her yet, I had to use the only way I know, you know what I mean. So with a big sigh, mommy mumbled something like “I should’ve waited longer” to herself, and then put me into a clean diaper again. Then I’d be laughing to myself and thought “ha, gotcha back mommy!”

Learning about the world

2009-12-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

So I am growing bigger and hungrier every day. I'm also learning more and more about the world around me. Like a few days ago I learned that there is something horrible and dumb in the world and they make me sad. Daddy calls them commercials.

I was watching this fascinating movie called Up with Mommy and Daddy the other night. It was a endless stream of color, action and loud laughter from Daddy. I was being fussy but once the show started I was entralled.

After the show was over it turns out another fun movie by the same people was showing on TV: The Incredibles. It was just as fun as Up but every ten minutes or so some boring people would interrupt the show and try to sell my mommy and daddy a car.

I hated these people so much. When ever they would come on I'd get all fussy again, screaming and crying until they got the point and put the good stuff back on.

Boy I sure hope there aren't too many of these commercial things in the world.

A Star is Born

2009-11-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well the world has been a better place with Grant in it for two weeks now. I figure it's about time I write down the whole process of getting him here before I forget the whole thing. This isn't going to be super funny or well written I'm sure, but there are only so many tasteful jokes you can do about placenta.

So Friday the 13th was the day it all started. We had our normal appointment with Dr. Jackson at 2:30. That whole morning my coworkers were making cracks about have a baby on Friday the 13th. By this point we would have gladly taken that option. It had been a long 10 days since the due date and like most new parents, we were anxious to get our son out so we could meet him.

After the appointment the doctor agreed. We needed to get this guy out here in the world with the rest of us. She called the hospital and we were scheduled to go in that night to induce her. So we made our plans accordingly. We canceled what we had planned for the night and got all out stuff in order.

An hour before our scheduled time, we called as per out instructions. It turned out they were too busy to take us, but there were a couple family in the final stages so we should call in ab hour and check.

We did so, only to learn that three more women had walked in. The lady was still hopeful though that we could get in tonight and told us to call back in an hour. A hour later the story was the same. Not the three new moms part of the story, the no room for Steve and Sally part. After calling four or five times, they told us to just try in the morning and that they should be room for us then.

Saturday November 14. I woke up early and called the hospital again. This time they had a room for us. We gathered up our stuff and let Sally's mom know what was going on and made out way up to the hospital.

We weren't scheduled to go to LDS hospital. Originally we were suppose to have him at IMC in Murray, but because of some reorganization with the Riverton Hospital Dr. Jackson didn't have a C-section team out there so we got move to LDS. LDS is an older hospital but still nice up in the avenues, the trendy part of Salt Lake. We'd never been there except for a trial run that I'd done two weeks ago when we first found out. I was glad that we weren't trying to get there with Sally in a pain with contractions. It made for a much easier trip than what I had imagined.

We got to the hospital, checked in. There was another couple a head of us. The woman was obviously having contractions so we felt lucky yet again. They took us to a room and we made our selves at home. The nurse came in and gave Sally a dose of Cervidill to get her cervix softened up enough to do what it needed to do.

Eventually this drug would start some contractions but at first it was pretty uneventful. We watched TV and waited. After a while thought it became more and more intense for Sally. At five they checked her again. They said she was soft enough and that they could start her on Petocin, which would get the process really going for us.

It did, at least it got the contractions going. They would never go into a proper pattern however. They were pretty much constant the whole time. Which is not what they wanted. After 8 or 9 hours they go to the point where Sally had had enough so the doctor gave her an epidural. Not long after that the doctor broke her bag of waters in hopes to get the contractions to pick up in intensity but begin cycling like they should.

By this time it was about 10 at night. We did the best we could under the circumstances to get some sleep. In the morning, things were still about the same. She was dialated to about 8 to 8.5 at this point but no matter how many more times they checked that was as far as she was getting.

By around noon the nurses were getting worried and called Dr. Jackson. By about 1:30 it was decided that we needed to get him out of the womb, and that meant c-section.

They prepped Sally and gave me a jump suit. There's really not much more they do for the husband. They really just kind of leave it up to your imagination while they get ready, which really isn't a very nice thing to do. Your imagination is way worst than how it really is – at least mine is.

It seemed like a long time before they put the sheet up and got started. We were both really nervous, so we distracted ourselves by talking about Grant and what he'd be like. What kinds of games we'd play with him, what school he'd go to (Utah State of course).

Before we knew it a perfect cry pierced the operating room. I squeezed Sally's hand one last time and jumped up to see him. He was screaming, gunky and beautiful. At this point I have never been more torn in my life. Half of my wanted to run back to my wife and be with her while she was in such an uncomfortable state. The other half wanted to watch every single thing my son did. In the end I just ran back and forth like an idiot trying to do as much of both as I could.

They cleaned him off, weighed and measured him and wrapped him up. He had a fever which these days with the swine flu causes major concerns. They held him up for Sally see and then took him out to the special care nursery to give him antibiotics and get some blood work. If I thought I was torn before once the two people were in different rooms it was one thousand times worse.

I stayed with Grant at first while they put him under the lights, but then they were going to give him an IV and I really didn't want to stay for that so I went back to our room to help there. Sally was exhausted but thrilled to have seen him. I told her all about him and she smiled.

We wheeled her back to the maternity ward where they soon brought our little boy and our lives together were able to truly begin.

Baby loves MoTab

2009-11-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday November 21:

Just a lazy Sunday at home. Mommy is still not feeling very good so Daddy stayed home all day to take care of her.

In the early afternoon, I was being fussy, even though I'd just eaten and my pants were poop-free. Mommy was smart though and knew that I just wanted to spend time with her. She's so tired and sore these days that the only time we really spend together is when she's feeding me (which may seem like a lot, but remember how cute I am) and I usually fall asleep several times during each feeding (not my fault, Mommy just makes me feel so safe and warm, I can't help it) so it was fun to be with her and awake at the same time.

Mommy remembered that I like to have the TV on for background noise so I don't feel so alone (I think it's Daddy's fault for some reason) so she turned on the TV and turned it to the BYU channel which was showing old episodes of a show called “Music and the Spoken Word”

I didn't understand much of what it was talking about, but I liked the man's voice. What I really liked though was the singing. I've never heard such beautiful music in my whole life. So many voices, mommies and daddies, singing together. It made me so happy, I couldn't help but start dancing.

Daddy thought that I was so cute that he had to go get Chinese Grandma and Mommy told him to go get something called a video camera. I've heard a little bit about “video cameras” at Silly Baby School. They said that video cameras are something parents use to embarrass you when your grow up and bring girls over, so I wasn't falling for it. While Daddy fumbled with the cables and tried to get the camera working, I just kept on dancing and enjoying the music but as soon as he got it plugged in and unwrapped the new tape (which took longer enough for me to wonder if he's really as talented as he tells me he is) I stopped. And then just to really make him know that he'll have to try harder than that to prove that I was a cute baby, I started fussing and crying. Not too much, but enough to make him put the camera away and pay attention to me instead.

Daddy seems to have learned from this experience, however. He's keeping the camera right under my bed now instead of down stairs so I'll have to be quick if I want to be cute.

Well, I'm sleepy and pushing these button with my tiny fingers is really hard so I'm going to have another nap.

Just rockin' the cradle.

Grant

About me and my blog

2009-11-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Grant. But so far pretty much everyone calls me Niuniu.

I was born on November 15 at 2:08. I weighed 8 pounds and 2 ounces which was much bigger than anyone expected me to be. Don't tell anyone but this is only the first of many surprises that I have in store for my parents.

I don't know why but my Daddy thought that it was real important that I start blogging, even though I can't talk yet or sleep through the night. He said something about trying to make my American Grandma not so afraid of computers. Really I think he's just a huge nerd as is hoping that I'll grow up to be just like him. He even tells me stories from something called Star Wars when he's trying to get me to calm down. I'm not kidding. He really is that bad.

This my dad, the nerd I was telling you about. He's a pretty nice guy. He's going to be doing a lot of the writing on this blog too. He likes to write, play games, help me burp when I'm done eating and change my diaper. He also likes to sleep. He'll sleep right through Mommy talking to him every time. But I know how to make him get up. One cry from me and he shoots out of bed to do whatever I need him to. I guess that makes him a pretty cool guy.

You know, for a dad.

Also he's not that skinny anymore. Being at dad has made him lazy and therefore fat.

This is my Mommy. She's much cooler than Daddy. She's usually the one that feeds me so we get to hang out a lot. She had to do a lot of work to get me here. She was very brave the whole time and even though she has been in a lot of pain since I came, she's always happy to see me and spend time with me. She's also gentle and very smart.

I don't know why she spends so much time with Daddy.

I also live with my Chinese Grandma. I say Chinese Grandma because I also have an American Grandma. She doesn't live with us though. They're both very nice but very loud. I have an American Grandpa who's really cool but always points a big shiny black thing at me. I've heard my Chinese Grandpa's voice, but I haven't seen him yet. Daddy says it's because he's in China and we're in America. I'm not really sure what all that means but knowing my dad, I'm pretty sure the answer involves Star Wars, so I just pretend to be asleep.

That's it for me and my family, I'll write more as time goes on.

Just rockin' the cradle.