Everyday Life

There are so many moments in the day when I just stop and run for the camera, only to miss the moment. I have been really enjoying the stages that both Grant and Miles are in right now and so these are just some random pictures to capture the moments. Miles will officially be 6 months on Sunday and he is just so fun right now! He is very interested in toys, is starting to discover his toes, and about two weeks ago, he surprised us by rolling over from back to front, and then back, and then he just kept rolling until he made it across the room. It is so fun to watch him learn these new tricks! I had a conversation with Grant's physical therapist last week (who also has a daughter with a serious medical condition) about how incredibly cool it is to watch Miles meet these new developmental milestones on his own. With Grant, each milestone was plotted out as a goal and Kyle and I worked with an entire team of therapists to help him learn how to do each new step. What a blessing it is to see Miles just spontaneously show off his new tricks! I am determined to make sure that all of my children get equal camera time as they grow, so here are some simple shots of Mr. Miles. He likes to hang out on our bed while I get dressed or fold the laundry.

The next pictures were taken this morning and they might not look like much, but it is HUGE to me! See what he has in his mouth and hand?? A normal binky! YEAH!! We worked so hard to get Grant hooked on a binky in the hospital so that he would not loose his sucking reflex and it worked... almost too well! Grant was hooked on the hospital green soothie binky's and we have still not had the heart to break him of his habit! (Don't judge!! He is so close to giving it up!) Miles took the soothies like a champ for the first few months and then wanted nothing to do with them. He just wanted to nurse all the time and I worked for weeks to get him to like the pacifier again. We finally got him back on the green soothies, but every time I tried any other type, he would spit it out and reject it right away. Last week, I was playing around with him after he ate some baby food and he latched onto it and loved it! I am so excited to be able to clip it on his shirt and keep track of the binky! It really is the small things in life that make me happy. :)

We started Miles on rice cereal around 5 months, but had minimal success. It seemed so strange to be introducing solids to him so early, but then I had to remind myself that Grant was a year old and on a feeding tube with absolutely no foods taken by mouth, so of course Miles seems young since we got to try solids with Grant when he was almost a year old! After trying once a week for a few weeks, I just decided to skip over the rice and let him have at the squash and pears that were sitting on my counter. We had much more success there and I have been on a baby food making and freezing kick since then!

Grant is having so much fun with Miles around. Miles laughs at just about everything that Grant does and he takes such pride in trying to get the giggles out of him. They took their first bath together a few weeks ago and Grant thought it was so cool to have Miles in the tub with him. He kept trying to squirt him with his toys and insisted that he needed to help me wash his head, even though that meant dumping a lot of water in his face. Oops.

In other news, Kyle met with his advisor today to map out a new plan for graduation from the MBA program he has been completing over the last year and despite the grad school not offering classes when they were supposed to, he is set to graduate in December of 2013!! I am so proud of him. He works 40+ hours a week at work and the runs off to school, homework, group meetings, and church callings in the evenings. Most of his weekends are spent trying to help me catch back up on the housework and he gets up early and stays up late to get his studying in. Three more semesters to go! I really miss having him around, but the boys and I do ok most nights. Miles is on a decent schedule and usually is in bed about 30 minutes before I get Grant down, so we get some good one on one story time in before bed. I was given a new assignment/calling from our stake presidency last month to serve on the committee that is organizing our upcoming youth pioneer trek to Martin's Cove. I am in charge of the public relations/photography/videography/historian aspects of the trek and I am super excited! It is going to be a LOT of work to pull it all off, but I am excited to have an assignment that puts me back with the youth again and allows me to continue to grow and develop my talents. Our trek is in July of 2013, so I am just hoping that Miles will be independent enough and Grant will continue to have good health so that Kyle will be able to come along with me for that week. I am also crossing my fingers that I will have enough photo jobs on the side to allow me to purchase a new lens before we go! If not, I might just have to rent one in order to truly capture all of the images I want to without missing anything. Fingers crossed! I have a whole post about Grant and some of his funny moments and sweet things that go on in his little brain drafted, so I will try to finish typing it so that there is another new post this week! Three would be a record!