Happy Fall!

Today is officially the first day of fall! You wouldn’t know it around our house though…I decided I’m feeling too lazy to put out our fall decorations this year :) I have a pretty good excuse: most of it would get moved and/or destroyed by a certain toddler anyway. So, maybe in a few years I’ll bring that stuff back out! As of now, I’m still planning on us putting up a Christmas tree this year. Hopefully it will stay upright all season ;)

We’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks, and I can tell it by how tired I am. This morning I accidentally poured lemonade into my bowl of cereal. Womp womp. I can say with full confidence that I had no idea how exhausting being a parent was until I became one. There’s just no way to comprehend it until you’re living it. (Side note: Thank you, Mom and Dad, for raising me! I now know just how tiring that was…at least the baby/toddler stage of it!). It’s hard work being a stay-at-home mom: take care of kids all day, cook dinner, clean up the house, get Brooklyn bathed, tuck kids in bed, and THEN finish doing laundry or making the grocery list, etc. But, it’s equally hard to be a working dad, in my opinion. Travis works all day, comes home and picks up the house, does the dishes after supper, helps with the bedtime routine, manages our finances, and fixes the never-ending list of things that seem to break around here. It’s no wonder that by the time we get Savannah and Brooklyn in bed around 8 or 8:30 that we don’t even feel like talking or doing anything but sitting on the couch in peace and quiet…or even just going straight to bed! Maybe once Savannah starts sleeping better (c’mon girl!), we’ll have a little more energy left at the end of the day. Maybe :)

So, here’s what we’ve been up to over the past couple of weeks:

Brooklyn helped me make chicken pot pie one night for supper!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to story time at the library nearby for the first time. It’s literally probably 3 or 4 minutes from our house…I’m not sure why we’ve never gone before! It’s from 10:30 to 11 AM on Mondays and Thursdays. The first day we went, Brooklyn didn’t want to sit on the rug with the other kids. She sat on my lap the whole time, but she did participate a little bit in the songs they sang. At the end of the 30 minutes, they did a little craft. I think Brooklyn enjoyed it! Alisha and Carter went with us, and Lucy and Ellie were there too with Joe. After story time, we walked over to the playground nearby to play for a few minutes. Lucy loves Brooklyn, and they seemed to have fun playing together!

Of course, playing with the rocks was as much fun as the swings or the slide!

The second time we went to story time, Brooklyn actually sat on the rug for part of the time. She had a hard time sitting still (surprise, surprise!), so she would scoot around on her bottom some during the stories and pay attention about half the time. She was scooting around in between the other kids and hopefully not getting on their nerves too much :) I think she enjoys going though…especially singing the songs and doing the craft at the end.

I found this tutu onesie in a tub of clothes recently, so it was obviously Brooklyn’s. But I don’t remember B ever wearing it! At least Savannah has gotten some use out of it…it’s cute :)

I ended up buying Brooklyn an Alabama t-shirt at Target a couple of weeks ago. I thought I would try to get a couple of pictures of the girls in their Bama gear. Haha…what’s the point???

“No pictures, please!”

Best one I got…

“I said…no pictures please!” Haha!

Maybe next season I’ll get some decent pictures. Wishful thinking, I’m sure :)

On the day of the Middle TN State game, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was nice outside that evening!

Ready for a stroll!

Last week, Elijah and Leisha were here with their kids for our gospel meeting. Monday, several of us with toddlers met at Kidventure for them all to play together. It was a fun morning! *All of my pictures from that morning are blurry! They were never still long enough for a good picture :)

Brooklyn loved the ball pit! It was one of her favorites for sure…

Carter enjoyed it too, although you can’t tell it from this picture :)

Cute babies! Before too long, Savannah will be able to sit up and join them!

Brooklyn loved spending time with “Maddie Gwace” – she is still asking to play with her! It’s a shame they live so far away :(

MG and Brooklyn were just a blur going down the big slide together…haha!

That night, we had the Aarons, Lovelesses, Broadwells, and Cici over for supper before the gospel meeting. Britni made ice cream sandwiches for dessert. They were yummy!

Last Wednesday (September 16th) was a big day in the Grant house! Brooklyn used the big girl potty for the first time! It started when I yelled for her to bring me a burp cloth, and she ran into the nursery completely naked…she’d taken her diaper off in another room! So…I had her bring in her big girl potty and sit on it. We sang songs and read some books. She drank water and also some watered down lemonade–a special treat because she usually only drinks milk or water. Then she was finally able to go! I made a HUGE deal about it. Then, she got a piece of chocolate and an ice cream sandwich! :) We even called Daddy and Rae Rae to tell them. She seemed really proud of herself and excited. Then she did it again for the 2^nd time the next evening while sitting on the potty in the kitchen after supper. We haven’t made any progress since then, but I guess it will happen whenever she is ready. Yay Brooklyn!

Last Thursday morning was Savannah’s 4 month checkup with Dr. Dudley. We had some fun playing together before it was time to leave for the appointment. At the appointment (which was technically closer to 5 months than 4), Savannah did really well. She had to get 3 shots and an oral vaccine, but she only cried for a minute or two. She actually cried less than Brooklyn, who got the Flu mist (alternative to the flu shot) while we were there. Brooklyn got the Flu Mist in her nose before Savannah got her shots, and Brooklyn was still crying AFTER Savannah had stopped crying…haha. Brooklyn has turned into quite the drama queen!

After the appointment, we went out to eat at Firehouse Subs with Daddy for lunch before he went back to work. It’s a special treat when we get to eat lunch with him during the week!

Brooklyn loves pickles!

Friday after I got off work, we headed to Trussville to spend the weekend with Paw and Rae Rae. We had the BEST car ride down there: Savannah slept almost the entire time, and Brooklyn was really quiet too. Actually, too quiet. Travis kept commenting about how well the drive was going, and I told him to stop because he was going to jinx it. Yep! We were probably less than 5 minutes from Paw and Rae Rae’s house when Brooklyn started puking EVERYWHERE. It was all over her and all over her car seat. Whew…it was gross! We had to pull over so I could try to wipe as much of it out of the seat as I could, but then she had to sit in it for the rest of the way to their house. At least it didn’t happen until we were almost there! I really thought we were going to have to throw the car seat away because it stunk so bad. Thankfully, after washing it and wiping it out really good, I think it’s mostly back to normal. Next time Brooklyn is that quiet while she’s awake, I’ll be more suspicious! :) Side note: I think it may have been the Flu Mist that made her sick…it’s listed as a side effect in kids. I don’t think it was something she ate, and she acted perfectly fine after that. She even ate a huge supper! Who knows??

Saturday night, Travis and I left the girls with Paw and Rae Rae, and we went to the Ole Miss game. We had a really great evening just the two of us. The game was exciting (and disappointing when we lost), but we didn’t even deserve to be close to winning it after 5 turnovers. Oh well. We realized it was the first time we’d seen the team lose in person since 2007! That’s a long time!

Savannah didn’t seem to be too affected by her shots this time around. She ran a little bit of a fever on Friday, but I couldn’t really tell that she was acting more fussy than normal. We’ll have a little bit of a break before her 6 month shots at the beginning of November!

Savannah tried out the doorway jumper for the first time last week also. She didn’t seem to know what to do at first, but she’s really gotten the hang of it now!

Big Sister was supervising! Now we just have to figure out how to keep Brooklyn from swinging her around while she’s in it!

I think she likes it!

More Brooklyn notables:

• Brooklyn said “Hey Travis!” to Daddy recently. She also apparently knew that my name was Erin. One night she was singing… ‘Yes, Jesus loves TRAVIS!” (She loves to make up her own versions of songs!). One morning last week she asked, “Where’s Travis?” I’m sorry, but it’s SO HARD not to laugh at her when she calls him Travis. I try really hard to keep a straight face, but man…
• Brooklyn saw a gold RAV4 in the parking lot at Target and asked if it was Aunt Alisha’s car. Same car…just a different color! I was blown away at how observant she is to be able to recognize what Alisha’s car looks like and know when she sees one like it. Since then, she has seen two other RAV4s (a white one and a silver one) and asked if those were Alisha’s car also. It’s crazy!
•  One night recently when I was tucking her in, she asked, “Can I give you a BIG kiss on your little cheek?” She gave me a kiss, and I said, “Thank you…that was so sweet.” Her reply: “Yoooou’re WELCOME!” :)
• Brooklyn sang for the first time during worship on Sunday while we were at Argo Park with Paw and Rae Rae –  she “sang” along to “And Can It Be” and “Blest Be The Tie”. I wonder if it’s because Paw was leading the singing. Regardless, it was very sweet and almost made me tear up! I love her so much!

Even though being a mom is hard work, it is such a blessing! I try to appreciate it even during the times when I just want to take a nap and not be bothered :) Life is so much more rewarding with Brooklyn and Savannah in our family!