Happy Birthday, Grant! The big TWO!

December 30, 2010

I just realized that it has been ages since I wrote things about Grant that someday I'll want to remember. So here are some Grant-isms from the last few months.

• 'anks (for "thanks")
• "Taylen, and Kourntey-Allie-Payton" (yes, Kourntey)
• Super polite! ('scuse me, thank you, please, oh sorry)--sometimes it's funny when he uses these, like when he wants to sit where you are and says, "'Scuse me" as he's pushing you off, or when Dad is eating a piece of toast and he says, "Oh, sorry, Grant's" and takes it away to eat it himself.
• He loves to say everyone's full names, especially Grant Samuel and Jacob Foutz. One day in December, he said, "Jacob Foutz. Jakel Fellz. Oh! Jingle Bells..." and he started to sing the song--it was hilarous to watch his little brain as it transferred from one thought to another.
• He sings so many songs and sings them so well, but he won't ever let us record him. He wants to instantly review it. His favorites are "Child a God," I Love to See the Temple, Latter-day Prophets, Jingle Bells, Rudolph, Frosty, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silver Bells, Over the River and Through the Woods, Silent Night, and the Cougar Fight Song.
• "dine-door" (dinosaur)
• Favorite Frosty lyrics (instead of Thumpity-thump thump): Dumpily dump dump
• Oh, sherrr (Oh, sure)--used many times a day.
• Watch you, Mommy! (when he wants me to watch him)
• Help me, Mommy? (when he wants to help me, especially in the kitchen when I'm dumping or stirring).
• Hot "choco-latte" (he always says it in Spanish for some reason)
• Saw a woman on a commercial, did a double-take, and said, "boooo-ful!" 
• Literally bounces himself off of walls when he's excited, and runs from the mirror at the end of the hallway to the far corner of the living room over and over.
• When we're driving he shouts at all the other moving vehicles, "No, cars, NO!! No trucks! No! No!"
• He still loves Dad to do "hip, hip, hooray" (when he throws him in the air), but Grant's getting a little big for that now. 
• He also still loves to spin, particularly when it is Mom or Dad doing all the work. He likes to walk around when he's "busy" (dizzy).
• He tells very animated stories, and uses a wide range of tempos and volumes to make them extra-special. We usually can't understand most of what he says (because he get's so into it, but also because he probably doesn't even know what he's saying), but often it involves a crash  or smash and some sort of hitting of his hands together at the end.
• We don't take baths anymore because he can't seem to control his bowels. Gross, you say? Yeah, tell me about it. He always knows it is coming, but he won't tell me because he thinks he'll have to get out and never get back in. What a great way to inaugurate Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen's brand new tub, too. :(
• He always says, " 'sgusting" and clears his throat as if to spit when I change his diaper, probably because when he's messy I make a "blechhh" sound and tell him not to touch anything while I'm changing him because getting poop on your hands is disgusting.
• Sometimes he says, "Oh, DANG it."
• After watching a Barney episode where BJ got sick, Grant is always saying people are sick. He uses it when he doesn't want to eat his carrots, "No, Mommy, I'm sick," or when I get out Advil to give Jake. Grant wants some and tells me he's sick, too. (I used to wonder how my mom knew when I was lying as a kid. Now I can see how poorly children lie.)
• When we put him in bed, every single night he calls, "Mommy, a scratch?" because he loves having his back scratched. Bedtimes have been rough the last few months, and he sits awake from 30-90 minutes either screaming, crying, talking, playing, or jumping. One night he was sad to be in bed, and he kept calling out things like, "Mommy, a scratch? A drink? Mommy, a miss you, mommy."
• He loves us to squish up our faces with our hands and tell a story of riding Aunt Ajah's (Alisha's) motorcycle. "Faster, Ajah, faster!" Then we pull our hands toward our ears, making our faces look taut and Asian (is that bad to say?), then we say, "Slow down, Ajah, slow down!" He laughs and laughs. But he rarely tries to do it to himself unless he can see in a mirror.
• He loves to have pharaoh hats: when we pull his shirt over his head to change his clothes, we get the neck hole around his head and then flip the shirt over like hair (I'm sure every kid has done this, but it's difficult to describe!). He always has to run to the mirror and to show the other parent.
• He adores babies, and tries to do to cousin Charlie what we do to him (he squishes his face to play "faster, Ajah," tries to tickle him, talks to him, shows him things). He particularly likes baby "Charley Barley's" (as Grant calls him) Bumbo.
• He loves anything BYU: songs, Ys, colors, Cosmo, football, and the list goes on and on. 
• His most-used phrase: "Grant's turn!" He uses that anytime he wants to do something we are doing, or when he wants to do something without our help, or when he wants to do something that he's not supposed to. Sometimes he changes it to be, "Grant do it."
• He's recently become more sensitive to scary or sad things in movies, like when Moses sees the guard beating an Israelite on Prince of Egypt. He can't stop looking at it, but he always has to come over to me and tell me how scared he is.
• He knows many foods he does and doesn't like, despite my efforts to keep his mind open. For example, he will only have milk if it is on his breakfast cereal. If we try to give it to him to drink, he refuses and says, "A like it" as he shakes his head. I think it started as, "Don't like it" originally, but I guess he's gotten lazy. I can list off foods for him and most of them he accurately labels as "like it" or "a like it." Occasionally I'll get him to try a food that I know he likes, like raisins, but that he's sure he hates. And he's so surprised! "No yucky, it's good!"
• He loves to say, "It's GOOOOOD" and "Ah LUF ut" (I love it). "Oh, ah LUUUFFFFFF Santa." We're helping him learn that it is okay for Mom or Dad to also love the same thing he loves.
• He prays for his food by pointing at each thing and usually taking a bite of each one, and he prays at night for anything in his vision. He looks (or wanders) around looking for things to be thankful for.
• He knows when he's scared to do something, and he tells us that it is scary, or "Grant scared." Trains at night have started to scare him. He's been pretty brave lately after overcoming fears of nursery and loud football games, though. Reminding him of those things and how Heavenly Father always helps him to be brave after he prays has done wonders to help give him courage.
• He's recently started to be sensitive to the tone of voice we use with him. Is it melodrama when he flops onto the floor and buries his face in his hands? Maybe, but I think there is a little bit of him that just gets crushed when we aren't as gentle as we should be. I don't like him to be afraid of me, but sometimes that happens when I'm trying to teach him to fear the results of the action (like sticking things in our sockets).
• Any time he sees sticks or things that look like a cane or crutch, he excitedly calls out, "June June!" (well, it sounds more like, "Jooon Joooooooon!"). That's for my grandma, who taught him her name almost a year ago. She has two arm crutches (more like a cane than a crutch, really), and Grant adores her. He gets excited when he can see her or even talk to her on the phone. He also loves his Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mel. And Abuelo. In fact, I've seen few kids who love old people as much as he does!
• He still loves to vacuum and clean.
• When something smells strongly (good or bad) he sniffs at the air over and over and over. Then he tells us what he thinks it is. "Ooo, smells good!" or "Oh, chicken!" or "Stinks, Mommy!"
• His pitch and rhythm are getting to be pretty good. He sits at the piano and plunks notes as he sings--the notes are wrong, but usually the timings are right on. He matches the pitch of the song he's listening to, but his small range makes it hard to hit all the right notes.
• He loves Barney, Elmo, Thomas, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, and Curious George. Even though he's only seen each of them a handful of times, he recognizes their songs or sounds in a matter of seconds.
• If you lay on the floor, expect to be jumped on. He loves horse rides and bouncing on people. Last week he was getting ready to jump on Jake, and I said, "Oh, don't jump on Daddy. He's tired. Why don't you jump off of your stool?" "Oh, shuuuuurrrre." He dragged his stool over by Dad and climbed on. "Grant, what are you doing?" "Jump on Dad!" I guess he didn't quite get what I was going for there...
• He loves books about tractors, trucks, animals, colors, and shapes. Most of his books he either remembers the name of or has made up a name for (taken from the context of the book). He isn't usually big on reading books to himself (unless they are about tractors), but he loves to be read to.
• He knows the names, sounds, and functions of: semis, dumptrucks, backhoe loaders, excavators, combines, mail trucks, garbage trucks, and many others. We see them at Grandpa's house (on the farm where I grew up), in the old magazines Grandpa gives us, at the other Grandpa's house that was being built this year, across the street where they are putting in a frontrunner, all along the interstate (it is being widened), in books at our house, and in his toy box. Grandpa Hans got a new combine a month ago, and Grant is still talking about wanting to go see it.
• He enjoys computers and moving the mouse.
• He's addicted to television and movies, even though we've been pretty strict on the amount of time he can watch. I think part of that is his personality, part is his age, and part is that he doesn't really have anyone else to play with (Mom gets boring). He's constantly finding dvds from our shelf that he wants to watch--seriously, it happens all day long. Poor guy needs a buddy, but he also needs some new toys. Having your birthday the week after Christmas means that you have 51 weeks of the year where you don't get new things to explore. It's long overdue, and we're all excited for Santa to come drop off some toys for him at our house this week.
• Christmas has never been this magical for me. Experiencing Christmas through such fresh eyes has been absolutely wonderful! I'm so thankful to be a mom, and I couldn't have asked for a better son! :) Merry Christmas, my little Bugs!
• Since I last added to this post, Grant has taken up the phrase, "I can't like it" or "I can't love it." Jake says that jokingly all the time, but must not have realized it because he was shocked when Grant started saying it. At dinner, Grant will say things like, "No, Mommy. I can't love carrots. I love bread. That'd be nice!"