grant attack

I munch on him all day long. So irresistible. This is the smile he flashes me when he is in trouble, by the way. Can you appreciate what I'm up against here?

Grant's vocabulary exploded whilst we were gadding about this summer. It has been a lot of fun discovering what goes on in his little head. He is very communicative and talks quite a lot--not that I can always understand it. I was worried that Grant might be a little overshadowed by the daily cinematic event that is his sister. But though he isn't quite as chatty as she is, he is not easily upstaged. He has developed a very mischievous way about him (see above, Grant winding up to swat his unsuspecting father) which has proven to be a good way to divert attention from his sister's soliloquies and reenactments. Overall, he still shows a disposition for being quiet and observant.

For all of his shenanigans, Grant can be really sweet. It helps that Gracie is a very sweet big sister (90% of the time), and sets a great example for him. He is happy to kiss booboos (see above) and loves to sit on laps. He went through a little phase where he always wanted to hold hands. I'm sad that phase was short lived, though at church he'll still reach his little dimpled hand out to be held once in a while. He does a dance of joy everyday when Grace gets home from school. He loves singing songs before bed. His current favorite is 'the Temple song', I Love to See the Temple.

Grant is still wholly obsessed with cars, trucks, planes, motorcycles, bikes, tractors, trains, and anything else with wings, propellors, wheels and engines. I am struggling to grow the borders of his reading repertoire as he is only interested in books with pictures of moving machinery. Well, he likes books with soccer balls, basketballs, and baseballs too. Sports balls remain his other great obsession. He uses 'soccer ball' the way other people use the words cool and awesome. I also catch him singing happy songs to himself, the lyrics of which are simply "soccer ball, soccer ball, soccer ball..."

He does not eat crusts. He does not eat peels. Period. But he will eat 5 bowls of mac and cheese in one sitting. And he will down impressive amounts of spaghetti when given the chance. If it were up to him, he would live on a diet of milk and pasta. But we made it a matter of the 'family business' portion of our FHE to discuss his milk consumption. With the help of family intervention, Grant has cut back to only 2 sippys of milk a day (Dr's orders) and has been much less picky at the dinner table.

I'll close this post with a little story. It happened while we were at the Nauvoo Pageant. Grant was cuddled in a blanket on Cori's lap. The pageant was great. We could feel the Spirit. It was all lovely. During the performance, Grant reached out his little hand to hold mine. I took it and after a minute or two he starting pulling me over towards him. As our faces approached one another I turned my cheek to receive a smoochy. Then Grant very gently extended the index finger of his other hand and poked me in the eye. He let go of my hand and laughed hysterically (so did Cori). The end.