Yay!

Our basement is finally done! This entire project started with a great idea to turn our basement into a rec room, and it ended with a lot of blood, sweat and well…maybe not tears but close enough! I really have to hand it to him…Matt did a wonderful job with everything. I have to admit, it was only my idea…and from that point forward I just took care of Grant while Matt and his amazing helpers worked countless hours down there. We started the project in January and with only working on it one or maybe two days a week, we finished in April (the night before Grant’s first birthday party…to be exact!). It’s amazing how you can realize just how many toys a little guy has when they are all in a central location now! Grant loves playing in his play area now, too! Special thanks to my Grandpa, Jim, Dave, Aaron, Eric and Schaefer for all of your help with this!

Weekly Target Run

Grant loves playing in Target just as much as I do!

Happy Easter!

Grant not only survived his very first Easter, but he also had an absolute blast! It was almost like a late Christmas or an early birthday for him with all of the stops that the Easter Bunny made for him. His Easter celebration began a few days early by receiving his very first Easter basket from his best bud Evan's parents! It was then that he realized that he was going to love this holiday! Next, Aunt Kristin and I took Grant to Southridge Mall to sit on the Easter bunny's lap. He loved the Easter bunny so much that he kept wanting to play with him. (Is the Easter bunny a "him"?) His Easter celebration continued with his Aunt Mandy receiving her confirmation at the Easter Vigil held at St. Louis church (that Grant couldn't handle due to more teeth coming through). She and Uncle Josh got Grant a super cute Easter basket with his name personalized on it and lots of goodies on the inside, too! Then, Easter morning Grant had to look for his basket from the Easter Bunny himself and he found it right away! (I should note that it was just sitting on his favorite chair, but hey...we couldn't make it too hard for an 11 month old!) After searching for his basket, we dyed a dozen Easter eggs together as a family. Grant got pretty bored almost immediately...so he went to play with daddy while I finished up. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Gestl's house at 11:00, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Hahn's house at 4:00. He loves getting together with family, and he loves it even more when he gets Easter baskets from everyone!

Eleven months old

What an exciting month we had! As you can see from previous posts, Grant has decided that after 10 months, he is ready walk. It has been very fun helping him along this process…as it has also been very fun finally baby-proofing our entire house. It’s amazing the things that he can get into! We have now put up a gate to block off the living room from the rest of the house because we just had to face it…the ottoman was not going to work forever. Now we can also keep Oscar away from Grant when needed.

Speaking of Oscar, this month was not filled with all “good” excitement. Oscar started to “act up” while Matt and I were away and he actually bit Grant. Grant was fine…just a little marking on his forehead and under his eye, but it was one too many bites in our eyes. We now have a joint custody arrangement with Grandma & Grandpa Gestl. They have Oscar during the week when we are away at work, and we take him on the weekends when we are home. Oscar is absolutely fine with Grant when Matt and I are around, so this arrangement has been working out great for us so far.

Besides having strep throat this month, Grant also experienced his first cold (yes, at the same time as having strep). Poor guy had a runny nose for almost an entire week! However, his first cold was remedied fairly quickly with lots of kleenex and cuddling.

Finally some good news from this month was that another one of Grant’s friends was born! Katie and Eric welcomed little Owen Patrick Freimark into this world on March 11th. He weighed 10 lbs. 4 oz. and was 21 inches long. Grant went to visit him twice already, and I can see a very good friendship brewing.

Also this month, Grant celebrated his Godmother’s birthday. Mandy turned 26 years old and we spent the night eating wings and playing Wii (while Grant watched us and laughed). Sam also came over this month to spend the night with us and Grant. Grant loves to play with Sam, and we even went to the zoo because the weather was so wonderful outside! Grant spent his 11 month birthday at his girlfriend, McKayla’s, 1st birthday party at the Racine Yacht Club. He even ate half of a cupcake!

The Luck of the Irish...

...was not with Grant for his first St. Patrick’s Day! The night before, Grant probably slept a total of 4 hours. This is extremely unlike him because ever since he was 8 weeks old, Grant has slept through the night almost every single night. On this particular night, we knew something was wrong because he was screaming bloody murder! What was also fan-flippin-tastic is that he could only be consoled by his “mamama”. This melted my heart at first, but after rocking him for hours on end…I would have loved to be able to tap out for a little bit so I could get some sleep. However, going on only a few hours of non-consecutive sleep, I went into work the next morning and Matt woke up with Grant at home. He said that Grant was as happy as ever in the morning and that nothing seemed to be wrong with him at all! I still wanted him to get checked out by his doctor, though, so Matt took him in at 10:30 that morning. She checked his ears twice and said that they looked fine. Then, even though he didn’t have any symptoms of strep except a slightly reddened throat, his doctor thought she would test for it anyways…and sure enough…it came back positive! I have no idea how he would catch such a thing, but if this is what Grant is like when he has strep throat, I am absolutely convinced that God has blessed me with an angel disguised as my baby.

Watch out World!

We have a walker coming through! As you can see from my previous posts, Grant has been pulling himself up and walking along the furniture for quite some time now. I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to round up enough courage to step away from the stationary objects. Well, at the end of February he started to let go of the furniture just long enough to stand for a few seconds and then fall onto his diaper padded behind. Then, on March 10th we finally saw him take a few steps all on his own! Matt and I quickly grabbed him and had him walk back and fourth in between us as we stood a few feet away from each other. He loved it, and now he walks all the way across the entire length of the living room!

Jamaican Me Crazy!

Well, we did it. Matt and I were jointly away from Grant for the first time since he was conceived, and I think we did fairly well with it (or at least Matt did). On March 1st, Matt and I along with 58 other people flew down to Jamaica to stay at the Breezes Runaway Bay Golf and Spa Resort. We had an absolutely wonderful time relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. My dad and Wendy got married on March 6th, and it was an absolutely beautiful event. I’m so happy that Matt and I were able to witness something so great, but we could not wait to get home to squeeze our little guy! We came home on March 8th to a smiling and laughing little boy. What a great welcome home!