Homemade Baby Toys Part 2

Here are a few more baby toys we've made for G.

Cut up straws in a mayo jar. 

"The hockey puck," as Matthew likes to call it. 

(It's an old mints container with rice in it, covered with duct tape. Yes, we happen to have BYU duct tape.)

It sounds like a maraca and G loves to shake it and carry it around with him.

The peek-a-boo box. We hide a toy inside and then he opens it and finds it. He was super excited to see the toy inside the first few times!

The tunnel (cardboard boxes at their finest)
He probably loves this one the most.

Blurry

I feel like most every picture I take of Grady these days looks something like this.

Blurry. 

He learned to crawl about a month ago (on the same day he had surgery, mind you...babies are indestructible, I swear!) and has been on the go ever since. 

He is loving this new toy (super fancy, made from two diaper boxes duct taped together-ha). 

I find him randomly crawling through it during the day and it is rather adorable. It also conveniently blocks the stairs for the time being.

The stairs are a funny thing with this kid. He was climbing up onto the landing and the first step for a few days, but now suddenly he doesn't know how to do it anymore. He'll get into this plank pose and whine for help.

Maybe it's because he's moving so much, but this kid eats a TON. At every meal.

He's kind of over the baby food thing now and loves to feed himself. He is obsessed with fruit (and cheese...and bread...and ham) and even likes vegetables.

We ordered pizza the other day. One of them only had mushrooms and tomatoes on it, both of which he has had before. And he's had bread and cheese...so we thought, why not? I took the smallest slice and cut it up into little pieces for him. 

This was all that remained by the end of dinner:

And I'm pretty sure he'd already eaten some other things before that.

Makes me kind of nervous for the teenage years...

And, more than ever, he adores his daddy.

I'm pretty sure daddy coming home from work is his favorite part of the day.

(Along with breakfast, lunch, and dinner)

He's such a happy little man. We sure love him!

Broccoli, Books and Bathtime

Here's some of the latest with Mr. G.

Eating steamed broccoli. He loves it. A lot. 

{Somehow it ends up ALL over his little body/hair by the time he's done.}

Looking adorable in the tub. 

Bedtime stories with Daddy--a favorite.
{G loves to turn the pages very fast.}

One more for good measure:
This is what this sweet kiddo looks like when he has a double ear infection-
still smiling.

6 Years Later

Eight years ago this summer I was called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Ohio Cleveland Mission. In my letter, it specified that I would be assigned to serve in the Kirtland Historic Sites during part of my service in Ohio. 

I had never been to Kirtland, or Ohio for that matter, before this. It is a very small town that doesn't even show up on most maps, but it is a place rich with spiritual history. This is where many sacred events and revelations occurred, and the first temple built in our day is there. During the 6ish months I spent there, I was able to testify to others of these special things in the very places where they happened, day after day. My testimony and love for the Savior and His restored church grew from this experience in ways that I cannot even try to describe. 

It completely altered the course of my life, in ways better than I could have ever imagined for myself. 

It has been six years now since I returned home from my missionary service in Ohio. Circumstances had never brought me back to this area until last year, when Matthew and I moved to Columbus for his schooling. I never imagined that I would be living here again!   

We only live about 2-3 hours away from the cities I served in, but Matthew has been so busy with work and school that we haven't made it up there yet. This week I was able to convince him to take a day off work so we could take a day trip to Kirtland.

(Funny story--Matthew came to visit Kirtland with his family while I was there, way before we ever met. I didn't give his tour, but I would love to watch the video footage of this in heaven to see if we walked passed each other or interacted at all...like some kind of romantic fated moment from a movie. Haha)

Yesterday morning, we loaded up the car and made the 2.5 hour drive up north. As we got closer and closer, the roads and cities became more and more familiar. I realized that butterflies were forming in my stomach at the thought of returning to a place that held so many special and life changing memories. 

When we arrived, it felt like coming home. Some things have changed (ie. RJ's is closed, no more walkie-talkies, the sisters have never heard of Ethan, and I was now the mom with the noisy baby) and I don't know a soul there anymore, yet somehow it felt exactly the same. The sights, smells and sounds were all so familiar and brought a thousand images, feelings and experiences to mind.

(Soaking in the beautiful scenery before beginning our tour while baby refuses to drink bottle)

(Ignore the weird hair in these shots...it was raining)

Though I missed all the faces I remembered from before, being there with just my sweetheart and my baby boy kind of brought it all full circle and made the day even more perfect. I love this place.

I'm sure this is only the first of many return visits.  

**Sidenote: I'm old. One of the sisters giving our tour was 19. I realized later that she would have been 13 years old when I left the mission. Yikes.

Homemade Baby Toys

My favorite project these days is making baby toys for Grady. Doing anything crafty strikes my fancy and helps keep me sane, so this is totally up my alley. Plus they are cheap, which is in my budget these days!

Thanks to pinterest and google, I've found some cute ideas! Here are a few of the ones I've made so far: 

(p.s. These have all been played with/chewed on already, so they don't look perfect)

This one is only for supervised use. I just hot glued different items into an egg carton with fun textures for him to poke at and touch. 

Baby can pull fabric out of the box (instead of wipes...or tissues) and practice opening and closing it.

This is one of Grady's favorites right now. Popsicle sticks fit into slits cut in the lid of a canister. He loves to pull them out. And chew on them, of course.

Milk lid "piggy bank"

Pom pom bottle (secured shut with hot glue and duct tape)

The toy on the left has different ribbons that have been poked through holes in the canister and knotted on the ends for baby to pull back and forth. The toy on the left is just a metal canister with some dry macaroni and the lid hot glued shut. It makes a fun sound when you shake it, probably why this toy is Grady's other current favorite.

 Sorry, but for the life of me, I cannot get these picture to turn around!
This is a book (made from paper, ziplock bags, and packing tape) that is acceptable to chew on and crinkle up. I made two of these--one about shapes and one about colors, with different colored pages.

Probably not good for kiddos with teeth.

And, there you have it! Best part is, all I bought to make these were the pom-poms and some wrapping paper to cover the cans. The rest of the stuff I already had in the house. Grady loves them!

Spring Anticipation

I've been (impatiently) watching this tree out my front window for weeks. 

I can't wait for those little buds to burst open!

Jurassic Park, Little Boys and Daddies

Last night I watched Jurassic Park for the first time in my life. 

(I know...it only took me 20 years) 

That movie is intense. I could barely breathe the whole time.

When it ended, Matthew asked, "Now can you see why 8-year-old me thought dinosaurs were the coolest thing ever after watching this?!"

I was more thinking how dinosaurs are now the freakiest thing ever and shocked that he didn't have nightmares about this movie as a kid.
But I was never an 8-year-old boy, so I suppose I wouldn't understand.

Good thing our little boy has a daddy...so somebody can understand what's going on in his little mind. And so mommy doesn't shelter him from all the fun (scary) stuff.

Speaking of daddies, Matthew is a pretty dang awesome one. I hear about some other dads who don't know exactly what to do with their babies or just aren't all that involved with them. Not this guy. He has never been afraid or hesitant to do anything with Grady. I could probably ask him to fly on a plane with Grady to Europe and stay there with him by himself for a few weeks, and he would do it without flinching. He's done it all--diapers (even finally experienced his first blow-out this week), baths, medicine, bedtime, feedings, spit-up, boogies, playtime, fussy time--you name it. He takes care of him all through church and occasionally, if he doesn't have to be anywhere right away in the morning, will get up with Grady and close my bedroom door so I can sleep in a little longer. 

He is fantastic.

   

And Grady knows it. 

My favorite moment of every day is when Grady sees his daddy come home. He lights up like a little firecracker and can't stop smiling. He watches every move his daddy makes and always wants to know where he is. They even have their own secret code language (Matthew speaks to him in Russian). They are the very best of buddies, and I wouldn't be surprised one bit if "dada" is Grady's first word.