Craziness at the Hammer House!

According to Mom and Sue, it has been entirely too long since I have posted new pictures of Grady... So sorry! Life at our house the past couple of weeks has been crazy! Between Josh having kidney stones and me trying to just stay afloat at school as usual, it's been a tough couple of weeks! THANKFULLY, Josh is finally starting to feel better. He gave birth to "twins" and passed two kidney stones yesterday! ha. So he's excited about not having to have surgery to have them removed! He's really had a rough time and we're thankful that this is finally over! Poor little Grady-man has just been putting up with both of his crazy parents and being SUCH a little trooper as usual! He is more and more fun every day.

Saturday we took him for a long-overdue visit to see Grandmother. She couldn't believe how big he had gotten!
Here's a picture I took tonight during our normal nightly playing routine! Grady LOVES to have our attention while he's exploring on his mat. We're still working on crawling, and he is getting there slowly but surely... hmmm...he may end up being like Aunt Sue and resorting to ROLLING instead of crawling! ha!

My sweet boys! How AWESOME to come home to this at the end of a long day! :)

"He's Getting More Human!"

This was Josh's quote of the week... "He's getting more human!!!" It cracked me up when he said it, but yes, (in other words), Grady is really growing up! He will be 7 months old tomorrow. When he was first born and I was really struggling with learning how to handle the "newness" of being a mom, my cousin Christy told me that the first few months were the hardest and you just had to suffer through them. Then, everything would be okay. I remember her saying that she and Keith would keep saying "this is my favorite age" every month or so, and then changing their minds in another month or so when the baby learned more things and got "more human" (as Josh would put it! ha!) Well, so far, THIS is my favorite age! Here are a few of his little "milestones" at this age so far:

• He is in the process of learning to sit up. He can totally do it by himself for a good little while, but he can't pull himself into the sitting position by himself. We have to help him get there, but once he's there, he can sit unassisted pretty well. We're still working on it! :)
• He seems to have the crawling thing mixed up! He can "scoot" backwards, but we don't get very far going forwards! ha! It is entertaining to watch!
  
• He squeals with delight and giggles and this is my most favorite thing to hear! He loves for Josh to raise him up and down, up and down in the air! He is also very ticklish under his arms and loves to be tickled!
• He is so very observant of EVERYTHING! Guess he gets that naturally from his dad! When we first started putting him in his jumperoo, he just jumped like crazy and didn't pay any attention to the lights and little "playthings" around the rim of the jumperoo. Now, he is way more into checking out all the little toys and seeing how they work than he is actually jumping in the thing!
• He loves to play! Balls and things with wheels seem to be his favorite toys. He is also a big fan of stuffed animals, especially his monkey and his bulldog who we have named "George" (after the real George, of course!) We bought him a big "puzzle piece" floor mat for our living room (yes, our house looks like it has been taken over by a toy store, but that's okay!). The mat is great for catching all of his drool and spit-up when he is playing and attempting to crawl.
• The spit-up issues HAVE gotten better. They still exist, but considering how bad it used to be, we are doing much better! :) Maybe the solid foods have helped!
• Speaking of solid foods, he is a little pig! He gobbles up pretty much everything with the exception of peaches and bananas...but even with a turned-up nose and a few faces, he will eventually eat even those things he doesn't like because he's not going to turn away ANY food! :)
• Sleeping: WHEW! We've come a LONG way on that! He is now going to bed at about 9:00 p.m. and sleeping until we have to wake him up to get ready in the mornings...Josh usually wakes him up around 7:00. What a NICE change from three months ago!!!!
• Bath time is the most entertaining part of our day! As soon as his feet hit the water, he starts kicking both of them simultaneously and violently as hard as he can, as if he is trying to squash a bug to death. It is hilarious! You'd think he'd get tired and stop, but he does this pretty much the entire time he is in the tub. You definitely have to have on clothes that you don't care a bit about getting wet! :)
  

Here are some recent pictures!

"Thanks to Grana, I have my very first bat! I've got to practice if I am going to play for the bulldogs one day!"

"See, I already know how to hold it! I'm going to be a slugger!"

"Next up...learning how to shoot my new basketballs!"

"I enjoyed getting to hang out with my Paw-Paw last week! He came all the way from Maryland to see me!"

"This is me hanging out with my friends Elephant and Monkey. They don't mind listening to me babble and they always let me do the talking!"