FFFF: Motion

Here's a bit of a video that shows how cute and crazy our little guy is.

The first part of the video is him playing peek-a-boo with Daddy. But, Grant's graduated from the standard, eye covering form of the game, and he now does the "look away" move. You'll know what I mean when you see it.

From about a minute on, you'll see crazy man IN MOTION. Sometimes, he moves so fast that his limbs blur. No kidding. You can find other kids in motion at Loving Lydia.

At the end, Bret asks Grant to do his "strong boy" impression, which in person is to die for funny. On the second round, listen for the substantially loud toot that Grant lets out. If you wonder why Mommy and Daddy are laughing like mad in the background, you know now.

On a side note, yesterday, on the way home from Costco (where I managed to stay on budget--who would have guessed?), Grant asked me 34 times (I actually counted) what the yellow, toy star in his hand was. I answered him, but I don't think he believed me until the 34th time. The kid's got patience.

Then and Now

Thanks to Lissa at Loving Lydia for another easy and reflective FFFF challenge: Then and Now.

Here is the world's cutest baby!

FFFF Challenge

Thanks to Lissa at Loving Lydia for another fun (and super easy this time of year) FFFF challenge. This week's challenge: O' Tannenbaum.

I give you the only picture of Grant actually looking at the camera (and not the tree) that we have.


If he's not looking at the tree, he is dismantling it, tearing open presents or trying to get the the nativity set to chew on baby Jesus. Ah, Christmas with an 11 month old baby. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

FFFF=Real life Christmas

How to sum up the Christmas photo shoot with an 11 month old baby boy??? One word=impossible. Grant is always on the go, and simply will not sit still. We have more photos of the back of his head than anything else this holiday season. If it's not the back of his head, it's him on all fours... can't quite keep him sitting up for long enough to snap a pic. For more Christmas photo sessions gone bad, check out Loving Lydia.

FFFF=Hair

If there's one thing I had to learn about from day 1, it's how to take care of baby Grant's hair. African American hair is very different, and I must admit that I think my son has the cutest head of hair ever. People ask when we plan on cutting it, and I could burst into tears at the thought. And, it's partly because he has had so much from the beginning. For other adorable children with supa' fly hair, check out Loving Lydia.

Here's Grant's first day out of the womb hairdo... it was sooooooooooooo soft and sooooooooooo strait:

Here's Grant in mid April: His hair is getting more and more curly,but it was not kinky curly... almost wavy.


Here's Grant in late June with his wicked bald spot. It's growing in nicely, now.


Here's Grant in the tub; it's a little blurry, but you can kind of get an idea of how long and springy his hair really is:


Here is Grant in the last few weeks. Blow up the pic and check out how tight his curls are. They are little springs. His hair is well over 6" now; it's sooo cute to see hundreds of little, tightly wound curls on top of his head.

Dressing up for the brrrrrr...

This week's FFFF challenge from Lissa at Loving Lydia is all about dressing for the weather. I know I just posted a picture of Grant dressed for winter, but come on, there is no such thing as too much of a good thing.



Right now, Grant thinks cold weather is funny, and he opens his mouth and laughs whenever he gets hit with a gust of wind. Silly boy.

Sheer Joy

This week's FFFF challenge from Lissa at Loving Lydia is Personality shots, those pictures that capture the true nature of the subject.

Grant is a happy baby. Sure, he's fussy from time to time, but truth be told, he is simply happy and greets the world with wide-eyed-wonder.

Here's my one pic that captures it best:

Snoozin'

This week's FFFF challenge (from Lissa at Loving Lydia) is about as easy as it gets: snoozin'. Every mother has pictures of her sleeping baby, and I am no exception. It doesn't hurt that baby Grant loves to sleep. We recently tried to move him down to TWO naps a day, but no go. My 8 month old still takes 3 naps a day (sometimes 2 hours each!) and sleeps 12 hours at night. There were many months there where my sanity was tested because of what seemed like sleepless nights, but we are really blessed with a hearty sleeper. Now, if I could just get him to sleep in!

Grace (the world's longest pregnancy) will probably never sleep a wink. You know how it goes.

I am sorry that these pictures are repeats, but he's so cute that he deserves to be shown off twice!

Catch up

1. This week's FFFF challenge from Lissa at Loving Lydia is Close Ups. And in the Hawkins' household, how many up close and personal shots do we have of the boy wonder? Too many too count. I put together a "quick" slideshow (it could have been 15 minutes long... I swear, I've got a camera in Grant's face every other second). The slides are from current Grant to baby Grant... what a little hunk-a-love. **You can hit "view all images" at the bottom and control the speed.

2. Today is Bret's 32nd birthday. Happy birthday baby! Bret takes GREAT delight in the fact that he is 6 months younger than I am, so I always love when his birthday rolls around because--for at least 6 months--we're the same age. I actually forgot I was 32 the other day (I thought I was still 31), and when I discovered my error, I really felt like I had lost a year of my life. So, loudly and publicly, Bret David is now 32 years old (that's 8 x 4, or 16 x 2, or OLD in any language).

3. While Grant is indeed all boy (as outlined by Bret in the previous post), he also is a heart melter. He has officially (he's been working on it for some time) started giving kisses. When asked (and presented with a large set of adult puckered lips), he opens his mouth (there's no pucker involved yet) and places his lips, ever so gently, on the lips of the asker. Problem is: I keep asking. After one kiss, why not two? three? four? He tires of the game quickly. The really "melt my heart moment" happened yesterday when I was playing with him. He stopped, opened up his mouth and waited for me to kiss him... I wasn't even asking for a kiss. To die for cute! I gave him my credit card at that point and just surrendered to the fact that I'm a TOTAL goner!

Grant's Best Bud

This week's FFFF challenge from Lissa at Loving Lydia is Best Friends. And who is Grant's bestest buddy; that's easy: his Daddy. Grant's official first and only word is Daddy... or da da (he's been saying it for several weeks). Grant's world lights up when he sees his Daddy. Nothing makes me happier.

kisses and more kisses

This week's FFFF challenge sponspored by Lissa at Loving Lydia is something we here in the Hawkins household are very good at: kisses.

How many kisses has Grant received in his lifetime? Thousands upon thousands. How many has he given? A couple. Ah, the life of a mother. At least in baby state he can't do anything about my kisses. It'll be a few years before he is asking for us to drop him off at the corner so his friends don't see us... much less give me a kiss in public.

Say Cheese!

Thanks to Lissa at Loving Lydia another creative Photo Challenge: Cheesy grins. These pics of Grant are gold because it is soooooooooooo hard to catch a smile on film. By the time I get the camera out, he's busy trying to grab it to put in his mouth. So, these smile pictures are a rare treat. Our last FFFF challenge was a few weeks ago, and thanks to leaving town again (Bret to China--for business, not baby Grace... and Grant and Mommy to sunny California to visit family), it migth be a few weeks before we get to participate again.

Stars and Stripes

The Chinese adoption blog community is deep and wide, and over our very long wait for baby Grace, it has been a huge support. There is something encouraging about seeing all these little Chinese babies finally home and happy. Every Friday, one such family issues a challenge, a Family Foto Fun Friday, and I am going to try to participate in the different themes each week. When Miss Grace finally does show up, she can join her brother in the pics, but until then, the cutest baby ever (Mr. Grant Nicholas for those of you who are slow) is going to be the show.

Thanks to Lydia's loving parents for taking over FFFF!

So, this FFFF challenge was Stars and Stripes.


So, how was Grant's first Fourth of July? Think=uneventful. We lazied (yes, a new verb) all day and headed to the house of some new friends for dinner. It was kid and couple central at the BBQ (with 7 kids under the age of 5). Grant was a trooper, but about a half hour past his bed time, he had had enough. He was asleep before we hit the main road. Luckily, our friends live about a mile away, so it was all good. We did light two sparklers, which Grant gazed at with mild amusement. Next year, we'll try to do the big fireworks, but with Daylight Savings Time finally making itself felt in Indiana, it's past Mama's bedtime by the time they finally start.