2011

Grant's birthday is in early February, as you know, and that makes me feel like it is coming right up. I mean... this is JANUARY. February is the next one! I can't believe my little buddy will be one year old, so soon.

Grant has been surprising us lately, mostly by growing teeth when he has no business doing so. He's got 12 of the darn things now. Why? No rush, buddy. It isn't like you are eating steak every night. But there he is, growing more teeth again. At this rate I think we'll be done with teething by May.

He's also walking faster, better, and did I mention faster? He's quick. This week he figured out how to stand up from a sitting position in the middle of the floor, so now he's unstoppable. For a while he had to crawl to something that would help him pull up to a stand, but nope, that's over. Now he gets up like a big kid and just walks off.

Grant is also a climber, and may in fact be more of a climber than his brother was. I've already found Grant: standing on his toy garage (quite remarkable), in the process of climbing onto the top of our house heater by way of an adjacent coffee table, standing on my nightstand at 5:30am, and of course, standing on the little art table chairs in Cooper's room. Gotta keep an eye on that kid.

And Cooper. His ability to hold a conversation and explain himself has grown by such leaps and bounds lately. He'll tell me almost anything, and is getting SO much better at controlling his often explosive and difficult emotional ups and downs. He's even starting to cry less, which is a relief for all involved. Turns out telling Cooper he doesn't really need to cry unless he's sad or hurt, for the last YEAR, is finally paying off. He'll tell me "I gotta go settle down in my room with my blankie" or "I fusstated so I no gonna cry" or "I got hurt so I need to cry" or "I got scared and I gotta cry" between sniffles, gasps and/or sobs. It is awesome to be able to finally understand what is driving him- and to actually be productive in fixing or helping the situation. It is a lot easier to be empathetic to a little boy that is telling you a toy fell down and he got scared, rather than a little boy that is screaming non-stop for no apparent reason for the tenth time in an hour. Sometimes, I have to laugh at him for why he's upset (like being so mad at not being the one that put the cap back on the orange juice jug- THE INJUSTICE!!!) but hey, laughing is so much better than getting mad at a miserable child.

Last but not least, I remain blessed by my napping kings. Cooper still takes a 3 hour afternoon nap almost every day, and Grant still regularly naps 3, yes 3, times a day. Grant's naps are typically 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours around noon, and 45 minutes at around 5pm. No wonder Matt and I are still capable of keeping the house in some sort of order and clean state.

2011 is going to bring us into having to little kids that walk, talk, and eat fruit leather by the box. As Cooperstar Raddow-see says, "That'll be great."