Easter Sunday

"I'm not sure who this Easter Bunny Guy is, but I sure like the goods!"
"Easter Eggs! My FAVORITE! They fit in my mouth perfectly!"

"Ok, Dad...nice book, but could you hurry up so I can look at the rest of my prizes?"

"Mom must have told the Easter Bunny that I am going to the beach soon!"

Hunting for more eggs at Aunt Vonnie's house

Grana had to help me alot! I get distracted easily...

Our attempt at a family picture...and it only took 43 tries to get one with all three family members looking at the camera...(somewhat looking at the camera, I guess! ha!)

Grady and his great-grandmother, chilling out inside

Happy Easter!

Good Good Friday

What a great Easter weekend! Finally, a holiday weekend in which NONE of the Hammer family members were sick! Whoo Hoo! We had a fun day on Friday. We took Grady to the reservoir and hung out outside, enjoying this great spring weather! He and Josh have matching shades, now...thanks to Grana! He actually wore them for a while without trying to take them off!
Friday night, we dyed Easter eggs! Grady was a trooper...he was so tired, but was such a good sport!

"But I don't LIKE Humpty Dumpty!

...and our finished products!

.....More Easter pics to follow soon! :)

So that's what teeth are for!

Learning to use that mouthful of teeth...we're up to 6 teeth, now! He still doesn't have the front top two teeth, so as he's trying to learn to chew, he tends to move the little cereal puffs over to the side to his eye teeth! ha...

"Showing Some Leg"

I went to pick up Grady after school yesterday and found him in shorts. (Josh gets him ready in the mornings because I have to be at work so early... so I usually don't know what he has on!) I know this sounds weird, but to me...it was strange to see my little man in SHORTS! I have probably only seen him wear shorts a few times... He was so little during the summer last year that he mainly wore onesies and sleeper-kind of outfits. And then it was Fall... so it was weird to see him all "grown-up" and wearing shorts. He looked so big! Gail said that when Josh brought him in that morning, he said Grady was "showing some leg"... ha! Sounds like a Josh comment, huh? Anyway, I just thought he looked so grown-up, and so I had to take some pictures!
Somehow the chick ends up in all of the pictures lately... Grady LOVES this thing!

"Baby Chick and Baby Duck"

Jenny has been home from Louisville this week while Grady and I had Spring Break! She brought him an Easter basket with lots of goodies... my personal favorites are these little wind-up Easter toys. One is a chick and the other is a rabbit. You wind them up and they hop all over the place. Grady LOVES them! I think I love them even more! For some reason, they make me think about the Friends episode when Chandler and Joey have a baby chick and a baby duck and they get stuck in the Foosball table. One of my favorite episodes!

What Can I Tear Up?

So far, this is my favorite video. Grady is starting to get into EVERYTHING! Today, I was checking my email in our third bedroom/office, and Grady was playing with a few toys on the floor. He just isn't that interested in toys at times and looks for other things that he can destruct or rearrange... ha! Today, he found the door stopper. I got the camera out and here's what happened next. . . .

Happy Birthday, Pops!

9 Months!

Random Pics

Grady's sweet little cousin, Mackenzie, gave him some of her old toys since she is such a big girl now. Grady LOVES the little car. Thanks, Mackenzie!

Tracy, for some reason, I think he looks just like Joseph in this picture above.

We had Grady's nine-month check-up today. He's sporting his "good patient" sticker in the picture above. The best news in the whole world: GRADY IS READY FOR REAL MILK! YAHOOOOOOO!!! With the Hammer family being on "major saving mode" these days, we realized that it is going to save us $100.00 a month to not have to buy any more formula! YIPPEE!! He got a great report as usual. Dr. Flowers thought he looked like he was 2 years old instead of nine months! He weighed 21 lb. 15 oz and was 31 inches long. His height is still "off the charts"...

I am such a little ham!

Photo Blocks

Grady got these photo blocks for Christmas and I've just now gotten around to getting the photos to put in them. They are GREAT! I've told several people about them and wanted to post a picture to show you... I ordered them online from "One Step Ahead." Of course right now, he just likes playing with the blocks, throwing them, chewing on them, etc. He likes faces and the block with his own face is his favorite to look at! ha! We're hoping this will help to learn names later on down the road!

Let It Snow!

Grady's first snow was a GREAT one! It has been a LOOONG time since we've gotten a snow like this one! Poor Josh had to go to work and so he missed the fun. Thanks to Aunt Sue for coming over to help me take pictures of the little man in his first snow and build a snowman! We had so much fun!

Dad, today brought back LOTS of memories of three little stair-step girls building a family of snowmen in the front yard! And Mom, Susan and I couldn't help but share a laugh about the "garbage bag galoshes"... HA! We started to put some on Grady just to take a picture and laugh about it, but we figured the garbage bags were too big for his little feet! DEFINITELY will have to do that next time it snows! That's one thing Grady will have to experience for sure!

In all the fun (and COLDNESS!!!), I couldn't BELIEVE the little booger actually fell asleep! Susan and I took turns building the snowman and holding Grady. While Susan was working on Frosty, she looked over at me and told me Grady had fallen asleep! It took a while to wake him up...Guess being all bundled up made him feel cozy enough for a nap...

He's Got Mail!

Grady got his first Valentine in the mail today! It was from Aunt Jenny. He loves getting mail...he wants to "read" his cards all by himself... well, he wants to "read it" for 2 seconds and then he wants to "taste it"...ha! Thanks, Aunt Jen! We sure do miss you! Can't wait to see you in March! :)

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Here are a couple of videos for your entertainment....

Now showing... Grady's attempt at crawling (yes, it is still a faint attempt, but we're so proud! ha!) I'm still thinking he may be one of those kids who just forgoes crawling...

Now showing...
A clip that I just HAD to take of Grady and Josh during the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if Grady was entertaining Josh or vice versa...

Eight Months Old!

Grady is eight months old today! He is growing up right before our eyes it seems... I wanted him to grow up fast when he was 8 WEEKS old, but now, I'm kind of ready for him to slow down a bit! He is at such a fun age. He is such a little grinner and hearing him laugh is the sweetest sound ever! He has really turned out to be such a happy little boy and Josh and I thank God every day for this precious gift we've been given!

He still LOVES the jumperoo! He's gotten so tall that we have had to raise it up to the next level. I remember when he seemed to disappear when we first put him into this thing. Now, he is able to reach up (not even getting on his tip-toes) and grab the little bird and banana that hang from the leaves. He's ALL boy! He's almost broken the leaf that is attached to the bird because he yanks on it so hard! ha!

And Josh is working on teaching him to shoot hoops already! If he is going to be the next "Beast" to feed at MSU, we've got to get busy practicing! ha! (Of course, I am secretly working on hitting the baseball when Josh isn't looking!!!)

Big Boy CarSeat

Grady was getting WAY too heavy and also too long for his little infant carrier car seat, so we knew it was time to go ahead and graduate him to the bigger one. My dad told me about these GREAT carseats that Farm Bureau sells to their clients and they are only $25.00! So we ordered two! I was so excited about that purchase! So If you are a Farm Bureau member and need a car seat, look into it. They are great seats and will save you tons of money!
Anyway, we installed the new seats and the little man loves them. He's been using his new "Big Boy CarSeats" for several weeks now. Here's some pictures of his first ride in them.
Advice from people who've been there recently....... WHEN did you turn the car seat around to face forward? Someone told me that it was 20 pounds or 1 year old. Well, I know we're only at 8 months, but he is SOOOO 20 pounds... probably over that....ha! Any suggestions? Feel free to give them!