Ok, quick update since I said I would post an update this weekend ... it's still the weekend :)

Week before last we headed down to Georgia to meet up with one of Andrew's college friends and his family and Andrew's older brother and his family.  Some follow up pics will have to wait since it's so late but just thought I'd mention a preview of what's to come.  This was Jordan's first road trip.  We took a day to drive there and back and during our visit we flew with Scott (Andrew's college friend), went to a few parks, went to the Aquarium, and a children's museum.

Since coming back Jordan has gone beyond just taking a few steps when either Andrew or I were on either side of her and she is now walking half way across the room at times without initial cheers or encouragement from mom or dad.  She's such a quick learner.  I was pushing some buttons on the back of my camera yesterday and she took her index finger and pushed the same exact buttons.  She eats that way to, with her index finger and thumb.  Yep, that's the way Grant used to eat too!

Here are a couple pics from today and a couple from yesterday.  I put a barrette in Jordan's hair today for the first time :)  You can see it in the pic of me and her.  Grant was playing the harmonica today and he sounded really cute.  Hmmm, Jordan likes to play the piano/keyboard ... now if I could pick up the guitar again (or maybe we can get Uncle Micah or Uncle Joe, and Wyatt can play the piano too!) and we can get Andrew to sing ... hmmm :)  I thought the pic of Grant was especially cute because the last time we had a pic of him playing the harmonica was when we had his one year old pics done.

Grant is so much fun these days, he likes to hide an object and asks "where did it go", he then uncovers it and says "there it is" and laughs.

While playing with playdoh the other day (one of his favorites), he made a basketball and said "bounce mommy" and when I replied that we can't bounce playdoh he said "pretend."  The things he comes up with!

Also the other day, Andrew taught Grant a new chant ... one that his Uncle Jim, Aunt Anna, and Uncle Joe can appreciate as they all attended the Univ of Cincy aka U-C ...

Jordan still isn't consistent yet with sleeping but she has managed to go a few nights with 6 and 7 hours between feedings.

Jordan doesn't need any clothes for a while!!  Thanks to our very generous friends, Karen and Howard and their two little girls, we received an abundance of clothing the other day, the middle pile is 0-3 months, the pile on the left is 3-6 months, and the pile on the right is 6-9 months!  They also sent us the portable swing in the background that we'll take to Oma and Opa's and also the bouncer that Jordan is in right now.  She LOVES it already.  I had actually wanted to get one for Grant when he was her age but we already had the papasan and they have the same bouncer at daycare so we decided not to buy it.  Thanks again K&H!!

Andrew is back in school again for his second quarter working towards his masters degree.  I had a telecon yesterday with my PhD committee chairman to go over my prospectus (paper) that I finished less than an hour before going into labor with Jordan.  The bottom line is that the committee feels I'm ready to go to my prospectus defense!  So I'll defend the prospectus (PhD topic) in a couple of weeks.  Once (if) I'm successful I'll officially become a PhD candidate!!  This is the last hurdle/obstacle that I need to make it through before my big dissertation defense.  In other words, this is the last chance to be kicked out of the program :O 

Andrew was hanging some picture frames the other day and of course any time the hammer comes out Grant gets super excited.  Imagine Arnold Schwartzenager saying "ha-mmer" and that's the way Grant says it.  When hanging picture frames, a level comes in handy and Andrew was showing Grant how to follow the bubble and Grant picked it up.  Here he is checking how level the coffee table is ... so serious in the middle pic ...

Yesterday Andrew stopped at a garage sale around the corner and picked up a basket of hot wheel cars and trucks for 5 bucks, go daddy!  When Andrew picked Grant up from daycare and brought him home to the basket of cars and trucks he was beside himself!  Grant will usually come over to me when he gets home if I'm home already or when I come in the door he'll stop what he's doing and come greet me.  This time, nope, he stayed played with the toys and looked up at me with an excited ... "Trucks mommy" ...

Most people probably think that they have the best kiddo ever, well they'd be wrong because we have the best kiddo ever :)  Our bedtime ritual is dinner then a bath if it's bath night or we'll watch a little bit of Elmo or Bob the Builder and then tell Grant to go climb in his bed.  Then we read him a story or two or three or four and then give kisses night night and put on his blanket.  Well, the other night he must have been tired because after watching a little bit of "Builder" Grant got up and walked to his bedroom.  I thought that's cool, so I followed him and said ok climb into bed.  He then said "moon".  Realizing that we could see the moon earlier that evening I asked him if he wanted to go see the moon.  He said "no, night night mommy."  After a few seconds of being a little stunned I proceeded to put his blanket on him and as he was laying down he pointed to the light and said "light off mommy."    Is he the best or what :)

Just when I thought he was the best, he did something to top that off last night.  Andrew was talking about life and how we are pretty lucky and after agreeing with him I gave him a hug and a kiss and told him that I loved him.  Grant was sitting in his high chair waiting for dinner and he said "kiss mommy" and made a kissing noise.  So of course I went over and gave him a kiss too and as I was straightening back up after kissing him he said "I love you."  I can't remember if he added mommy or not but either way, he melted my heart (as usual).

This is the final installment of our road trip recap.  Mostly this is the recap of the trip back home.  After leaving our friends in NH we met up with one of Andrew's old roommates from CA for dinner.  He lives in Boston and since he wasn't available until after dinner we drove around for a little while and of course went by Harvard in Cambridge before coming back to Lexington to meet up with Steve.  After dinner we stumbled across this street sign ... Grant Street and of course had to get a picture.

  You can't really tell in the pic but I'm starting to show regardless of what I'm wearing at this point (~ 5 1/2 mo then)

We left Boston and headed on our way and stayed the night in CT.  The next morning we continued on and stopped in the Poconos at the Pocono Env. Ed Ctr (PEEC).  We grabbed the chariot and took a short walk/hike but Grant wanted to walk most of the time so we should have just left the chariot in the car.

Grant did some more tree hugging and played hide and seek like mommy and daddy did by standing next to a tree, the only problem was that he stood in front of the tree instead of behind it ... too cute.  Grant also remembered our last trail walk and promptly found some walking sticks.

Towards the end of the walk daddy put Grant on his back after seeing a frog and proceeded to hop, Grant can't quite hop himself but he was fascinated with the exercise.  Grant then of course followed daddy and kept asking for "more".

Bubby was really good at entertaining himself or sleeping, especially for a one year old!

And here's a video of bubby talking mostly to himself, it's choppy at first but just for a few seconds, whaddya expect ... we were moving in a car :)  

It's neat to see the difference between then and now, we keep adding more and more words to the list of words that need no translator!

And that's the end of our summer vacation to NH.

The other day we started giving Grant peanut butter and he loved it from the first bite.  He ate Great grandma's entire pack of crackers and peanut butter.  Then we also bought some peanut butter ice cream and gave him a few bites, he was hooked from the first bite which you can tell in the pic of him "begging" for more ...

Grant had a good and also rough week at daycare ... he had a good week since he got to finally go and play on the playground outside of his daycare room.  Previously he had to watch the other kids go out and play from the other classrooms.  Now that he is considered in the "Pretoddler" room, they get to play on that playground.  He LOVES it!!  The rough part was that he kept getting a bruise for this or that.  Yesterday he slipped on a book and hit his head on the bookshelf.  In addition to the bruise you can see him signing "more" and how happy he was when he got more Cheerios :)  Simple pleasures.

He was soooo tired, he is a shot of him eating Cheerios, it might look like his eyes are half closed b/c he was blinking but nope!  He was soooo tired that his eyes were half open WHILE he was eating.  And yes, he took a nap after eating his 5 o'clock snack.  In the second pic below, I just liked the way his eyes looked but you can also see the bruise pretty well.

Grant has been enjoying getting into more and more things these days ... this includes going through his dresser drawers and emptying them out one item at a time ...

Almost empty ...                                              I think I'll start on this drawer next ...

A poor man's wagon .... uhhh, without wheels .... don't let it fool you, he actually liked being pushed around the room :)

Last Sunday mommy went out for a run while daddy waited for Grant to wake up from his nap.  After he woke up, it was snack time so daddy got Grant some Graham crackers and took some photos too of his first time having them.  I think they were a big hit.

  Oooh, I bet I can get all of these in my mouth at the same time ...

 If I turn my head just right and open really REALLY wide, maybe I can get a couple in at first then I can work on the rest ...

This isn't working quite the way I expected, ... maybe if ...

 I tilt my head waaaay back I can get them all in at once ...

 Oh well, I tried ... maybe I'll just save some on my neck for later ...

Hey daddy, come a little closer ....

Aaaaah, gotcha!

Mommy and Grant were playing the other day and Grant was being his usual happy guy so mommy decided to take a few shots and play with them a little.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends that we couldn't be with this year, we hope your Thanksgiving days were especially thankful and that you were able to spend the day with your families and friends.

To coordinate schedules this year, we didn't have the traditional turkey dinner until Friday so we did what we've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years (except last year) and that is we went out for sushi :)  Grant didn't get sushi but he did get some of mommy's chicken teriyaki and rice and he ate them from chop sticks for the first time (of course mommy or daddy was holding them).

On Friday, we met up with Oma and Opa, Gross Oma, uncle Micah, uncle Joshua and his girlfriend Tara for the traditional turkey day meal.  It was delicious and it was great hanging out with the rest of the family.  Grant ate Turkey, mash potatoes, a roll, a bite of sweet potatoes and he even ate some pumpkin pie.  His belly afterwards definitely looked fuller than usual.  In the recent past, there has been two tables at Oma and Opa's house, one for the adults and one for the kiddies, of course the kiddies are just the four youngest siblings and are what most folks would call adults ... and yet they seem to enjoy sitting at the kiddie table.  Last year they played ... "will it burn?"  using the candle on the table.  No candle this year and we told them that the game couldn't be "will Grant eat it?"  Since Grant is truly a kiddo, we let him sit at the kiddie table and he seemed to fit right in.

Here are some shots before we left the house in his spiffy "My First Thanksgiving" shirt, he also wore a matching bib when it came time to eat.  He's starting to look like such a big kid.

And here are some shots of his first Thanksgiving meal ... turkey of course.  After the meal, Oma blew bubbles to Grant's delight.  And then Oma broke out the pots and spatula for Grant to use to make some noise. He used the tops as if they were cymbals.

I got the compilation down to about 5 minutes.  It's really neat to see Grant's progression as he tries to move to the next step from rolling over, to rotating, to sitting and pulling up, to crawling and now taking his first steps.

 
Video: Grant, from birth to his first steps

Grant was really cute this afternoon and he knew it.  Mommy was standing next to Grant's crib holding him and rocking him a little before his late afternoon nap.  Grant was definitely tired but he was fighting it.  Eventually he put his thumb in his mouth and got quiet but just when mommy though Grant was starting to settle down Grant thought otherwise.  Mommy was holding Grant in a cradling position and Grant had one arm hanging down under mommy's arm and out of sight of either Grant or mommy.  When mommy was rocking Grant back and forth, all of a sudden after swinging him back she couldn't rock him forth ... then, with his thumb in his mouth, Grant got a cute grin on his mouth as he knew why mommy couldn't rock him forth ... he was holding onto the side of his crib :)   It was so funny mommy starting laughing and of course there wasn't going to be any sleeping for a little bit longer.  He held onto the side of the crib a few more times and it was sooo cute to see on his face the knowledge that he was doing what he was doing with the results that he wanted.  He's starting to get clever!

Mommy and daddy were in Grant's room last night playing with Grant.  He loves to crawl all over us and use us to hold on to while he stands up.  We were a couple of feet apart, Grant was holding onto daddy and then decided he wanted to play with mommy so he put his arms in the air, smiled really wide, his eyes got really big and you could see the excitement as he made the decision that he was going to try to walk!  He got a couple of steps towards mommy and then started to fall forward when mommy caught him.  Mommy and daddy were REALLY surprised!  You could tell Grant was just so proud of himself. 

Today at daycare he was doing the same thing when mommy was there playing with him and the other kiddos.  He's starting to stand on his own for a few seconds too.  It's really cute, you can really see it in his face when he's deciding to go for it and then he tries to do it (whether it's walking, crawling, or reaching for something, or trying something new).  Hopefully we'll get some video soon.

Warm days are probably behind us for awhile.  This morning we actually had a light snow, it didn't stick but it came down just the same and with it ... cold temps!

Here's our little guy with his new jacket, hat and mittens and looking happy too.  Don't let it fool you though, he doesn't really care to wear the hat, he tolerates it though. 

Here's our little angel after daycare.  He usually takes a nap on the way home from daycare and today was a usual day.  Sometimes when he only takes one nap at daycare, he'll take a little longer nap when we get home (like today).

Top left:  Grant's got two Nilla Wafers for dessert and is pretty happy about it!

Top right & Middle:  Hmmm which to eat first ... maybe I'll try to stuff both of them in my mouth at the same time

Lower left & right:  Ok, maybe just one at a time, but I bet I can fit the whole thing (notice the bulge in his cheek)!

Grant had his 9 month appointment yesterday and he's doing really great hitting all of his milestones and then some.  His height and weight are in the 40-50 percentile for both weighing in at 19.1 pounds and slightly more than 28 inches.  I doubt he'll hit the 3x his birth weight by his one year birthday but he should hit the 20 lb and 12 months old mark and then we'll need to turn his car seat around!  Seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.

We've been waiting to get the photos back to post this.  We had to do it the old fashioned way since mommy forgot the digital camera but there was a disposable one in his cubby at daycare.  So, Grant's daycare did Spirit Week the last week of October. 

Mon - Pajama day ... mom loved this day since it meant not changing him out of his PJs in the morning :)

Tue - Hat Day ... Grant wore his knitted UC hat (from Aunt Anna & Uncle Jim)

Wed - Character Day ... he wore his Tigger outfit but just at the beginning of the day

Thur - Silly Hair Day ... Wouldn't ya know it, Grant has had ONE bad hair day in his life so far where when he woke up it was sticking out everywhere ... AND that happened to be on Silly Hair Day!!  What a coincidence!  (And again good for mommy since she didn't have to do anything special :))

Fri - Sports day ... When Grant was born he got some gifts from several of our neighbors back in Germany.  One of the things they sent him was an "FC Bayern" shirt and short set.  On the back it says:  50% Mama,  50% Papa, 100% FC Bayern Fan"  FC Bayern is a local soccer team.  So on sports day he wore the t-shirt but since we only had one picture left and Grant turned, you can't really read it in the picture.

    "Go FC Bayern!"  or is it "Spiel!"

And here are a couple of photos from a recent day at daycare, he was soooo tired that he just plopped down and fell asleep.  He looked so comfy that the daycare folks didn't want to move him to his cot.

******Just in today********

Grant has been saying ma ma and da da and usually he says it when he's looking at mommy and daddy respectively but we have been reluctant to actually say he's saying his first words.

But this morning when mommy was getting Grant ready for daycare, she grabbed the two bottles from the fridge and put them in the cooler bag to take to daycare.  When Grant saw the bottles he said "ba ba"!!!  I think we can officially say he's talking!!

************************ (most of the rest of this post was already drafted yesterday)

It really seems like time is flying and our baby boy is learning to do things way too fast!  We've really been blessed with a sweet little boy.  Every day brings new things and new adventures whether it's new foods to try, or a new book or toy, or trying to figure something new out like opening and closing cabinets and drawers or pushing buttons, or turning a light switch on and off. 

Here's Grant's monthly photo with his Blue Fish ... and we'll update his stats after his nine month appointment next week ...

And here is a shot of Grant eating leftovers.  Last week on the menu was Turkey Mac from Cooking Light's 15 minute or less cookbook (lots of you out there got one for Christmas two years ago) and this week it was a Pasta Bake.  The turkey mac was mildly spicy and we thought Grant might not like it but ... it was all we could do to shovel in as fast as he wanted it!  He then had it for leftovers the next day too.  So Grant is starting to actually eat what's on the menu at the "Stryker Haus" instead of just baby food or diced fruit and the like.  He still eats the baby food but he's definitely showing that he prefers table food. 

Then this week with the pasta bake which is pasta & sauce & ground beef & cheese (he didn't get the chz though) and a few other ingredients ... again, he loved it!  He'll probably get leftovers of that tonight since that's what mom and dad are having too!  No cooking tonight ... just studying for a test tomorrow (mom) and doing a project for class (dad).  Yep, in case you didn't know, dad is taking a masters class at AFIT.

And here are a couple of shots of some of the things he likes to do ... he's starting to take to books more and more especially before bed since he gets to stay up a little longer.  And his all time favorite place (which is blocked by the baby papasan chair in the laundry basket) is the TV stand that has the CD player.  The CD player has a 3 disc tray that he has learned that if he pushes enough buttons on top that he can open and close the tray!

My little guy loves his jogging stroller, he was singing for a bit and laughing and then eventually fell asleep.  Here he is after a run the other day ... so sweet :)

It seems like I have a shadow these days, where ever I go the kiddo follows!  The other day Grant was curious about the dishwasher so he stood up an tried to push or twist anything that does.  He's also steady enough to open cabinets and reach inside which is why we put the childproof locks on some of the cabinets.  He seems to love opening and closing things and seeing what's inside.

We got him this walker toy that is similar to one that he has at daycare and he's always trying to zoom around the house.  When we first got it, it came in two pieces so I let him play with one piece while I was working on the other, when it came time to put the two pieces together and I took the second piece from Grant ... whoa did he let me know he wasn't happy!  AAAGHH!  He was happy again when he realized he was getting it back.  So he definitely has opinions and expresses them now and again.  Here he is zoomin' ...

  
Video: Cruisin

Grant has another tooth coming in right next to the other one on the bottom ... soon we'll be capturing photos so that you can actually SEE the teeth instead of having to actually feel for them ... kinda hard to do online :)

Yep, you can barely feel and see it but it's definitely there.  You can feel the ridges on the bottom gum, it's tough to say but there might be a tooth coming in on the top too.

The first set of pics are of Grant eating bananas and pancakes ... he loved 'em!  He's been doing GREAT with eating table food.  The last set of pics are of Grant eating bananas and strawberries, he ate them all.  The pics in between are from Saturday when Grant, mommy and Piper went to our local park.  Grant loves to swing on the swings.

A bit of sad news, we didn't know it at the time but it was the last time we'd walk to the park with Piper.  Piper, our wonderful, loving, sweet dog passed away on Sunday.  She was just coming around to play with Grant and Grant was just coming around to getting excited every time he saw her.  We miss her and love her and she'll always be in our hearts.

Grant has been making motor boat noises as of late, I captured it on video ... 
Video: Motor boat sounds

On Sunday Oma and Opa were over and when it was time to go, Oma said goodbye and as mommy was holding Grant she moved his arm in a motion to say goodbye.  She let go of his arm and he did it on his own for the first time!  Then on Wednesday, the same thing happened when mommy was taking Grant off to bed and Grant waved at daddy.  Then ... on Thursday when mommy was leaving Grant's daycare room she waved goodbye from across the room and Grant stopped what he was doing and got a big grin on his face and he waved goodbye all on his own for the first time :)  Our little guy picks up on things soooo quickly!

Today's afternoon snack at daycare was frozen bananas with crushed cornflakes as coating.  When Grant was seated and had sliced pieces in front of him he wasn't too interested but when mommy offered him a whole one he went right for it and started taking a bite.  He ended up eating the WHOLE banana!!  This is especially amazing since on Monday he didn't even want even a little bite when he was trying it for the first time.

The daycare folks said it would happen soon and it has, Grant has been wanting his mommy more and more which of course has pros and cons, pros because mommy always wants to be around her baby boy, cons because it makes doing little chores a little slower having a baby to hold in one hand or having him sit on the floor crying until mommy comes back.  It's really cute though when I go to Grant's daycare room either to pick him up for the day or to join him for a meal or nurse him, he stops whatever he's doing, puts on a HUGE grin and starts crawling right towards me, it makes a momma feel good and makes her think she's doing something right that her baby boy wants to be near her or have her pick him up :)

I'll try to post another video ... he's been babbling more than ever and saying ba-ba and da-da and ma-ma and a-da and a-da-da and all sorts of sounds that I can't quite translate into "words."  He's especially talkative around mealtimes either before or after or both. Oh, and of course he's blowing lots of raspberries!  And today for the first time I heard him make some clucking noises with his tongue, I clucked back and then we clucked together for a minute or two.  Ahhh, how the simple things in life can be so sweet! 
Video: Afternoon babble

I'm having trouble downloading the photos from Grant's first attempt at eating table food with the rest of the kiddos at daycare ... I'll post them when I can finally download them.  He's doing really well though.  The first morning (Monday) he got bananas and corn flakes and he didn't care so much for the bananas but he did like the corn flakes a little.  He got rice and chicken and a few other items at lunch and he got down about the same amount which is to say very little :)  He's been using his tongue to feel the texture of everything and eventually either swallows it or spits it back out.

Yesterday he ate strawberries and did really well and then did ok at lunch.  Today he did the best of all, he had watermelon and croissants for breakfast and he loved the watermelon.  He was even holding the rind himself and taking bites and chewing and swallowing most of it!!  The last few days he had baby food after attempting the table food but today since he ate enough of the food he didn't need the baby food ... our little guy is growing up!  Today after daycare he was hungry so we gave him a bottle and he held it all by himself the majority of the time.  We'll have to ask the daycare folks how long he's been doing that.  When he's home, mom usually feeds him so no bottle required :) 

Over the weekend Grant was able to take a couple of steps holding onto only one hand instead of two of mommy's or daddy's.  Yesterday and today he's been able to take 8 or nine steps.  And he's been able to stand steady for a while only holding on with one hand.  He was cute yesterday when he was in the kitchen (I'll post the pic when I can download them), he was holding onto one cabinet and reaching over head with the other hand and he was able to get a hold of the drawer knob and he actually pulled it open a little before closing it again.  He's seems to be reaching higher and higher and further and further these days.  I'm guessing we'll have a lot of that for years to come!

Here are some shots from the wedding that Oma and Opa took.

            The gang ...    (v)                                 Daddy and Grant (v)

         (v) Aunt Anna & Uncle Jim                                 (v) The gang again ...

     (v) Uncle Micah & Grant                                       

We picked up this outfit a little bit ago thinking Grant would probably fit into by Halloween.  Mommy put it on him the other day and it was already fitting ... so given his recent growth spurt (and a couple of sleepless nights for mommy) he's probably not going to fit into come Halloween .... Here are a couple of shots of Grant crawling around in his Tigger outfit ...