Christmas 2013 - Iowa

We flew to Iowa on Dec 18, which was Grady's official first flight. Both boys did really well (although neither really slept but we are used to that since Carsten rarely slept when we had 18+ hrs in transit) and Andy and I were both amazed at how short the overall travel time was (we're used to international long-hauls!). The only problem we really ran into was that the play area in O'Hare was closed for maintenance which was NOT ok with Carsten. Here's a photo of us on one of our planes:

Grady's first flight!

Sleepy Carsten.

Sleepy Grady baby.

Kids sleeping on the way home from the Sioux Falls airport.  Poor Andy got stuck between them.

Grady's cranky day, but everyone else is happy!

Grady playing with the toys I played with as a kid!

Carsten's buddy :).

My Dad stayed home from work on Thursday to play to play with the boys which Carsten LOVED! However, Grady was super cranky ALL day long which we think was because his ears had trouble adjusting from the flights. Poor guy. My Mom and Dad spent a lot of effort getting their basement ready for Carsten and Grady to play in, and we were grateful to have such a nice space for them to romp! I took Carsten up with me on Friday to Sioux Falls to pick up Ashley from the airport. On the way up Carsten fell asleep while eating puffs from his cup-holder, and when he woke up after about 30 min, he started sleep-eating the puffs again which I happened to catch on video :).

Grandma Hoogeveen came over on Saturday to help with some baking projects we had planned, and we also played a wonderful couple of games of Yatzee where we had LOTS of Yatzees.

Isn't she beautiful? :)

Grandma fixed Grady's shoe.

Carsten helped Grandma roll.

Luke and Leah arrived Saturday evening, which meant the real party could begin! Ranschau Christmas was on Sunday afternoon at my parent's house which was a ton of fun. We got to see a lot of our cousins, aunts, uncles, and my Grandpa. It was such a joy to see family again.

The kids' table. :)

Aunt Lori and Mom!

The adults' table.

We had a "girl's day" on Monday with Aunt Lori, Cousin Sarah, Mom, Ashley, Leah, Carsten, Grady, and I where we went shopping in Sioux City. It was SUPER DUPER cold, but other than that, very fun and we snatched up some great deals!

Grady, Sarah, and Leah!

Ashley and Mom! 

Me, Carsten, and Aunt Lori!

On Tuesday (Christmas Eve), Uncle Nate, Aunt Vicki, Thor, and Dane came over to play with us, which was lovely. In the afternoon, we celebrated my Grandpa Hoogeveen's birthday in his new nursing home.

Aunt Vicki and Grady!

Andy, Nate, and the boys!

Playing with cousins is fun!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Birthday happenings.

Lovely cake cutters.

The boys and Aunt Vicki.

We celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas morning which was super fun and included duck with orange sauce for dinner. On Christmas afternoon we celebrated with our Hoogeveen family at my Grandma's house which was a blast with so many little boys running around. She of course also had amazingly delicious food and it was so fun to be able to see everyone there (nearly the whole family was there!). Thanks so much Grandma!

This is why we didn't put up a tree at our house... :)

Brothers!

Grady with Aunt Ashley and Grandma Hoogie!

Leah, Luke, and Andy!

Carsten and Andy playing with new legos.

Grandma Hoogeveen's Christmas with Thor, Dane, Aunt Vicki, and Uncle Nate!

Hoogeveen Family Christmas!

Grandpa Ranschau got to come too! 

Grady and Grandpa!

Cheeseball smile. :)

Auntie and Carsten!

First Christmas as a family of four!

Obligatory baby + tissue photo!

It was such a blessing to be able to spend Christmas with family after not being able to come home the previous year due to our move back to the U.S. Also, I should mention that Carsten is one extremely lucky grandkid. Dad would get up early most mornings to play with Carsten until he had to go to work (which was SO nice for us because we could sleep in with Grady), and one morning Dad even got up early and sat outside Carsten's door until he woke up, which I think meant he was sitting outside his door for about 30 minutes. I think Carsten brings out the kid in Dad! 

Grady at 9 months

It seems like I just won't be posting much of our current lives, but I do want to give an update on Grady since he's the one who is changing most rapidly. Here is a random assortment of photos from the last couple of weeks of our Christmas travels.

Our handsome 9 month old.

1st Christmas!

Happy baby!

Grady with Ava Parrott who is only 10 hrs older than Grady :).  Lovely babies!

Grady's first official flight!

Grady playing with my baby toys at my parent's house.

He's a trooper and does really well when we drag him lots of places!

Aunt Ashley and Grandma Hoogie with Grady!

Grandpa Hoogie and Grady!

Sleep:
Grady was a champion night-time sleeper while Andy and I were both teaching in October and November - he typically slept about 12 hours per night and rarely woke up. His bedtime was routinely about 6:30 pm which helped us out a lot because I would go back into campus two evenings per week for office hours. So yay! However, since Thanksgiving (so for the last month) something switched and he now will get up 1-2 times per night which leaves us a little puzzled and well, quite tired. But he's still a fun loving kid and we know that this too shall pass so we're trying to give him time to get back on track. Naps so far are still typically 30 minutes long, although this last week he did have about four 1-2 hour naps (amazing!) which we are praying will start to be the norm rather than the exception. Carsten started taking longer naps at 9 months so we are hoping that Grady will follow suit.

Eating:
Grady eats almost everything we give him including all of his foods all mashed up into the same bowl, for example: sweet potatoes, blueberries, apples, peas, turkey. We have actually found that he doesn't really eat straight fruits like peaches because it's just too sweet for him at the moment. He has been doing really well with finger foods (he loves puffs!) since about 8 months and now at 9 months he is very proficient and makes them disappear rather quickly. Grady has also been doing pretty well with a sippy cup the last month which has been great because he doesn't take a bottle. We are excited to try some new finger foods soon!

Teeth:
Grady has had 7 teeth since he was 8 months old (4 on top and 3 on the bottom). I'm not sure where that 8th tooth is, but he's been cranky the last couple of days which is unusual for him so perhaps we'll see that 8th tooth soon!

Playing:
Grady loves cords. I mean it. The kid will make a beeline for cords any time he sees them and well, he's fast and determined. :) Grady is really good a free-playing and loves to play with Carsten. Carsten and Grady are starting to be able to interact more which has been a lot of fun to watch. Grady also usually knows exactly what he wants and will go for it which is fun to watch.

Movement:
Grady started army crawling at 7 months and now at 9 months is a super fast army crawler. To date he really hasn't crawled on his hands and knees yet. Just this last week he started sitting up on his own, and instead of backing up onto his haunches which I would guess would be easier, he sits up using a true 'sit up' from laying down on his back. So, kudos little man - you have abs of steel :). Grady is also attempting (with marginal success) to go up the step at Mom and Dad Huisman's house, so I guess we better get our babygate up on our stairs at home once we make it back to NY.

Size:
Grady has been in 12 months clothes for a couple of months now, and they fit him pretty perfectly, so I'm guessing he'll move up to 18 months clothes sometime in the next 1-2 months. He seems tall when we have him next to other kids, but he is skinnier than I remember Carsten being and he is skinnier than most of the other babies we have had him next to lately. He doesn't have the wrist and ankle rolls that I remember Carsten having, and actually, he has slimmed down quite a bit since he started crawling.

Personality:
Grady loves to play and interact with others and really doesn't like to be left alone in the room. Recently, he went through a little separation anxiety phase, but thankfully all of our traveling to Iowa and Michigan this Christmas seems to have cured him of that for now. Grady also seems to study things like Carsten did so it can be difficult to capture a smile on camera (even though he's a very happy guy!) because he just wants to know what you are babbling nonsense with that box in front of his head.

We love our little Grady baby!

Grady was 6 months! This is only 2 months late....

My poor second child is one day going to say, "why didn't you post about me Mom?" And well, the answer is that between moving, starting a new job, and having two kids (especially 1 baby who only naps for 30 min) - well, there's just not much time for blogging. So, I realize that this is out of order, but every bit helps get me caught up.

Don't those baby blues just melt your heart?

Grady and Carsten in the same outfit at the same age. Yes. I am that Mom.

Grady is a fun loving kid who rolls with the punches pretty well. We often find ourselves saying, Carsten would have never done that (mostly referring to how well he sleeps at night) and Carsten would NOT have let us do that (mostly referring to how we put him off of eating at what would be his eating time or drag him around during what would be his naptime).

Here's a few notes about our little kiddo:

Sleep - Grady is an amazing sleeper at night and he typically sleeps from about 7 pm - 5 am and then will go back to sleep until about 6:30 - 7:00 am. He also is a champ at falling asleep at night as we can put him down asleep or awake without major issues (unlike Carsten at this age!). We feel so grateful for his nighttime sleep habits. However, he still only sleeps about 30 min at a time for naps during the day. But, nighttime is really what matters :).

Eating - we just started solid foods with Grady. We tried rice cereal last week which he did not like, but this week we tried sweet potato and banana which he did really seem to like. Our dr. told us to go crazy with food with no restrictions which is different than with Carsten (so he can have eggs, peanut butter, and everything!). So we'll have fun with it. We're also starting him on sippy cups since the bottle has been a no go for a while now.

Trying to teach this kid how to use a sippy cup!

Playing - he loves to play in his playmat and he typically likes to lay on his back still. He steadfastly refuses to roll over from his back to his tummy, but he'll happily roll from his tummy to his back starting at 5 months (he really doesn't like being on his tummy that much). He is starting to want to sit up and he has been enjoying his baby einstein jumper for the last few weeks.

Snuggles - He is much snugglier than Carsten was and he likes to cuddle more which I definitely appreciate. :) I love picking him up from his crib in the morning because he is so smily and curls up into a little snuggly ball for a minute. He also (at this point) doesn't insist on sitting straight up like Carsten did at this age - Grady is more apt to lay back and snuggle instead.

Love. Love. Love.

Teeth - Grady now has his two bottom teeth and we first noticed them coming in when we were taking Carsten's 3 year photos on Sept 9. Since then he's been chewing and gnawing on everything!

Outside - We've had lovely weather since we've moved in, and luckily Grady has always loved being outside. If he's fussy in the house we just take him outside and he'll just sit and watch the trees and us for about an hour before he gets fussy again - we really appreciate this! He also enjoys walks in our stroller and we try to do several walks a week.

So cool and so cute.

Going for a walk and bike ride!

Personality - Grady loves to interact with Carsten and thinks it's AWESOME when Carsten plays with him. In fact, Grady usually makes noise at Carsten until Carsten pays attention to him - he knows how this thing called life works :). Carsten is a very good older brother to Grady and give him lots of love and is incredibly gentle and loving with him. Grady is a great smiler and is super ticklish, which I take advantage of :). He's an amazing little boy and we're excited to watch him grow up!

Carsten is a terrific older brother!

Patient - Grady is a patient little baby and has put up with me working two mornings a week. Since he doesnt' take a bottle that means that occasionally he goes 6 hrs during the morning without eating (like if he was up early and wouldn't eat again before I left).

Hands - This month he has become super grabby with his hands and now we really have to be careful if we don't want him to grab something (like if he's on our lap at supper time).

Clothes - Grady moved into 6 months clothes at 4 months and now at at 6 months is in 9 month clothing. He seems pretty tall!

We love our Grady baby!