All About Grant

There are so many awesome things I want to remember about Grant right now, so I finally decided just to publish this post and keep adding to it as I think of things. Enjoy.

At prayer time tonight, we had been praying for our many heart friends who are struggling. This has been a rough week in the heart world since sweet 4 year old Mia died very suddenly while on her Make A Wish trip in Florida. I whispered to Grant as I was helping him with his night time prayers "please bless Mia's family that they can have peace"  ... He carefully repeated, "Please bless Mia's family that they can have..... a piece.... of..... Apple Pie!" Then he turned and looked at me really confused.  Oh my goodness. Kyle and I barely made it through that prayer! I guess the concept of Peace vs. Piece needs to be worked on!

Grant has been trying to give up napping and I have been trying to keep him napping. Today, he got up out of his bed trying to escape napping after about 15 minutes of quiet time. I told him to turn around and get back in bed and instead, I find him start bringing out all kinds of things from the kitchen that he had been hoarding in his bedroom to put away in the kitchen (I was nursing Miles at that moment). He smiled at me and said... "But mommy, I am cleaning up! I don't have to sleep now!" We switched him out of his crib straight into a high off the ground twin size bed that Kyle built him just before his Fontan at age 2. Because he was still struggling to learn to climb, he has never tried to get out of his bed and would call out to us and wait for us to come get him from every nap and during the night. It has only been in the last month that he has decided he wants to climb out of bed on his own. It still surprises me every morning when he wanders into my room to wake me up. He has been getting up way to early since Daylight Savings time switched and he gets so mad if I tell him to go back to bed. He will throw open the curtains in my room and say, "See mommy... SEE?? The sun is waking up so I get to wake up too!". Ugh. Hard to argue with him logic, but after being up half the night with Miles, I miss my boy who used to sleep till 7:45 most mornings!

One of my favorite things about the stage that Grant is in right now is his love of his friends. He has absolutely THRIVED being in Sunbeams a year ahead at church. He is the youngest kid in the entire Primary, but he was SOLID on his part in our Primary Program a few weeks ago. He learned his part and would practice every single night after we put him to bed. Kyle and I would close the door after saying prayers and just listen to him reciting, "Hevwly Favohw bwesses me when I choose the wight!" It was adorable. When the time came, he cracked us all up by playing the air guitar during the songs the kids sang at the practice! On the actual Sunday, he marched right up to the mic and recited his lines clearly and perfectly, then he stopped and just smiled at everyone in the audience. No stage fright for him! I have had MANY people come up to me at church and tell me just how darling he was sitting in the front pretending to lead the music, direct the kids to stand up, and just dancing around. He is seriously such a cute kid!

Grant has a wonderful imagination and his imaginative play has me giggling every day. He creates new imaginary friends every day and it is tough to keep track of them all! He likes to ask about his friends from church all the time and he asks me how his heart friends are doing since we pray for so many kids by name each night. Some of his favorite things right now are to pretend to be a "big mean scary Halloween Monster!!" or his favorite alter ego, "Fluffy the Cat". When he is pretending to be the cat, he crawls on all fours, talks in a high squeaky voice, and tries to rub up against my leg all the time. He is very sweet with his stuffed animals and he has a toy baby doll that he will wrap up in his favorite blanket and bounce to sleep right next to me as I bounce Miles to sleep.

Grant is a pretty adventurous eater for a three year old.  My favorite it when he especially loves a meal I have cooked. Grant's best compliment is when he says "Mmmm. Mommy, this is yummy and stinky and spicy and delicious and good." He says it in that exact order every time and we have to fight to not laugh every time.

Grant is such an observant little boy. He is very aware of how I interact with people and loves to imitate it. He gets on the phone to talk to Kyle and often will ask, "Daddy, how is your day going?" He repeats this to his primary teachers and any adult he sees. He will get on his toy phone and hold it up to his ear with his shoulder, say "uh huh..... yeah.... ok.... " and then laugh randomly. He always tells me that his friend called to tell him something funny. ;) When he is sitting around with a group of adults talking, he will laugh a few seconds behind everyone else just to try and fit in, which usually brings us all into a fit of giggles. He makes me happy. His personality is so cute. He is very sweet and tender hearted. He wants nothing more than to make other people happy and he always tries so hard to keep up, whether it be with his peers, or with doing what I want him to do. Don't get me wrong, he pushes my buttons daily and makes me want to pull my hair out, but his general temperament is that of a child who wants to desperately to please everyone around him.