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!

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!"