Grant Matthew in the Middle

When I read this in 30 years I probably won't remember that there was a TV show called Malcom in the Middle that I was trying to be funny with my post title. I wish I could post about something funny Grant has said our done, but the truth is I am a little worried about him. He has always done a great job entertaining himself and I wonder if I have taken advantage of that. Lately, it is like he is in his own little world and I have started trying to make sure I connect with him every day, which sounds so terrible, like what was I doing before, just acting as if I had a little roommate? Actually, I do remember one funny thing, at Christmas, my brother (who the boys don't often see) was wrestling with Kyle and Grant runs in, puts both hands on his face and says "Oh, No, what are we going to do about that guy?"

The other pic is from our annual (except last year when I was too busy laying on the couch being pregnant to host) New Year's party. My how things have changed since our first party 5 years ago. We had 9 kids under 9 in the basement and the baby upstairs. The kids did great playing downstairs and I think the adults enjoyed just hanging out upstairs. In years past, there was always a lot of running up and downstairs and "Ok, it's your turn to deal with the madness in the basement". Thinking back to last year, it is so weird to think all that time, Ryan's little haywired heart was beating away inside of me. During my first sono, the tech actually had a little trouble imaging the heart and asked the doctor to come in and take a look, during the time Ryan moved and she said, "Oh, there they are, everything is perfect", so a heart defect was the last thing I was worried about. At least I got to enjoy all of my last pregnancy (because it was so the last pregnancy) and we were fortunate to deliver in a great hospital where Ryan had all of the things he needed before being transferred.

I have seen other people do this on blogs and I thought it was a funny way to capture some more mommy moments:

Things I Didn't Do -

• I didn't force my husband to take a peanut butter sandwich and Dora yogurt in his lunch to work because of the insane amount of time that has past since I last went to the store.
• I didn't play a Baby Einstein dvd 2x in a row for Ryan. If I had done that, it would have only been to make cookies with the aforementioned middle child

Things I Am Grateful For -

• Random 60 degree days in January and friends that call and see if you want to meet up at the park. We went 2x yesterday, once in the morning with some of Grant's friends and once in the afternoon with a bunch of Kyle's. It was perfect, Ryan seemed to love it and we were there for 2 hours in the afternoon.
• The new stand mixer I bought for $25 at Target the day after Thanksgiving. Making cookies with the boys was much less stressful when I didn't need to worry about holding the mixer and making sure flour didn't wind up in the living room.
• Whole grain pop tarts