Grant is 38 weeks old. This means he's officially been out longer than he was in, since my little bug was in such a hurry to get here and see his Mommy that he was delivered at 37 weeks. I can't believe what a big boy I have already!

Taylor has had an epiphany about work tonight while we were giving Grant a bath. I'm not sure I understand it, but he's a happy man, so that makes me happy.

I want to go on the record as saying I'm totally over Miley Cyrus. She announced she's not having sex before she's married. Haven't we seen this show before? Fast forward five years and suddenly one of the Jonas brothers in the role of Justin Timberlake selling her out on 20-20 saying they've been fornicating for years. Suddenly, people won't touch her with a 10 foot pole, she's married to Federline and has a reality show called Chaotic. Why Miley? Don't you learn? Don't people watch others and see them fall apart and think, "wow, I'll be smart enough to keep my bedroom to myself"? I guess not. She's a goner! Plus, she has recently recorded a cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". I'm tired of that song in general, but I'm really not thrilled with a remake by Miley. She needs to go away. Bye-Bye Hannah Montana!

Time for some countdown updates:

Olympics start in 10 days. We'll be breaking the no television for Grant rule starting 8-8-08 as I am an Olympaholic! I'll even watched synchronized diving! I really love all the swimming, gymnastics, and beach volleyball (women's-and if you think it isn't a sport, watch Walsh and Mays-Trainer. They are incredible!). I'll watch anything and everything I can get my remote control on.

60 days until NKOTB! I'm looking for a great new concert outfit and I'm considering crimping my hair to relive the 1980's.

My life is AWESOME!

Emilie is mad at me because I haven't blogged in so long. Indeed, she is correct, I've been delinquent and so will give you a list of the randomness that has been my life and or thoughts I've had over the last few weeks

• I hate concentrated laundry detergent. I like to pretreat stains using detergent and when the detergent is concentrated I don't have enough to use on all of the stains...and with my boys, we have lots of stains. Can't I save the earth in some other way?
• Good Luck to sweet Jeniffer tomorrow. Just keep swimming!
• Alexander is back next weekend. How fast time goes.
• Chevy wants men to stop shaving and women to stop washing their hair. Honest.
• Grant has popped three teeth so far with one more on the way. He's been a great kid fighting through them.
• Taylor is really annoyed that it is shark week on Discovery channel. Still, we're both perfectly excited for the shark week mythbusters.
• the grass has been growing very well. we've been watering like mad people and have what can actually be called grass at this point! Take that Brian!
• Summer is going so fast-I couldn't be more depressed about it.
• Work is going very well so far. I really like the people I work with now. My transition has been pretty easy and I'm looking forward to getting more involved in projects.
• I had a great few weeks off. Grant and I had many adventures and play dates galore! Some of our favorites included Julie, Jim and baby Frances, Tina and baby Connor, and the Janus family.
• I really can't stand Manny. It isn't just because he's a Red Sox, because there are plenty of those guys I like and who I think have class, it's because he's a thug! He is just a pain in the rear! Ask Taylor about his theory regarding Manny's pine tar.
• I really, really, really (!) love my new car. I haven't been calling her Betsy as I planned. She still needs a name, but i think it will come to with time, just like Oprah did.
• we had a great weekend. Swim class was fun, as always, and then we were off to visit Taylor's family. Pam got a new computer (and may be our newest reader) and so Taylor wanted to help get her up and running. I was able to get some great shopping done at the same time. Grant got to go on his very first boat and seemed to enjoy it.
• Doogie Howser now does a commercial all about being a fake doctor. It was, as Barney Stinson would say, "Awesome"

Bed time! Night!

file this under the category of be careful what you wish for...

hydro seeding needs to be watered a minimum of twice a day. with the six hoses we use, that takes about 1.5 hours a time. my husband is a saint! I try to help-but he is really the man with the plan. think cool afternoon rain storms!

Hi Friends!
All is well in the world of Heather. I'm enjoying my time off. I consider this time home with Grant a little gift from the heavens! He's so much fun right now! He's also exhausting! I'm much more tired now being home with him full time than a "normal" work week! He's getting so big and learning new things every day. He's got two teeth now! He's still working on crawling-he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks-which we know is the step right before taking off! He's funny too! I hope many of you get to visit with him soon!

The house is getting busy! They've been working hard on our yard. We have a lovely driveway that has been paved. they finished the grading and have layed down the loom. they also run the rake thing over the finished area to get ready for the hydro seeding. I'm hoping they do that today and so we can be done with the construction zone! Grant and I have enjoyed watching all that is going on, but we've missed being able to sit out on the deck and the sounds of the noise makes it tough for the little man to take naps!

We start swim classes tomorrow. We're so excited! I've never taken a formal swim class, so maybe I'll learn something with the little guy! All the classes at the Y have funny little names and ours is called "Skip" class. Grant thinks "skip class" is the funniest thing he's ever heard-so if he doesn't like the class at least he's gotten plenty of giggles at the name. Worth the money and more! Hopefully we'll get some pictures to share.

Welcome Betsy MacFarlane! Betsy is our new car. She's about 48 hours old. Betsy is a 2009 Subaru Forester and I love her! She's silver (I know-why did I pick silver?) and the 2.5i premium. 2009 is a redesign for the Forester and it is a whole new car! I would have never looked at the old one, but Betsy and her friends are so cute! We're very happy together and look forward to a very very long relationship!

Hey Friends! I know many of you wonder why I haven't had too much to say in recent days. Things here have been rather stressful. Work for me has been a nightmare. But, the good news is that is all over! I've found a new job that I'm really excited about and yesterday I got to walk into the bosses office and hand over my letter of resignation and leave. I'm so excited!!!!!

So, now I'm taking a few weeks off before I start my new position. It is still in Alumni Relations, so I'll be similar things to what I was doing. I'm happy and excited and really looking to taking a little bit of time off to spend with Grant-man. So, if you're around where I live in the next few weeks and want to spend some time with me and the little dude, we would love to see you! We're going to work hard to finish getting the house unpacked and things put away, work on mommies tan and keeping Grant baby white, and having some fun!

The average American eats 160 bowls of cereal per year. I eat zero bowls of cereal per year. turns out, just like the song, I am anything but ordinary!

side note:Grant has started sleeping through the night! six nights in a row so far. He still wakes up sometimes, but usually just puts himself right back to sleep. last night, from 2:00 to 2:45 he played with his musical Ocean Wonders toy in his crib. I don't care if I never hear that song again! He's such a cutie!

If you get a second today, go online and watch Luke Russert on the Today Show this morning talking to Matt Lauer. What an amazing kid. Most of you know my fondness for Tim Russert and Taylor and Jen will tell you I spent much of my weekend watching tributes to him--even letting Grant be in the room with television so I could keep watching. When you see Luke and hear him talk about his dad you just feel so happy for him having 22 years of that incredible relationship and simply devastated at the same time knowing he has to make the rest of his life's journey without his father as a compass. Matt even called him "Tim" accidentally at one point and the kid took it in stride. The photo of him on the Meet the Press set Sunday is enough to make anyone's heart ache. I'll keep Tim as my news husband even though he has passed. Anderson Cooper can wait a little longer-Tim's shoes are far to big for him to fill!

I'm a sleepy girl! Grant has been doing some weird things with sleeping lately. The good news is, he's pretty much dropped that last nighttime feeding (or at least it comes after 4:00 am). He still wakes up around 2-3 every morning and on good days he goes right back to sleep and on bad days, like the last few, he's up crying his head off! Saturday night he was up from 3:30 until 5:00 and cried to the point that Taylor closed Grant's bedroom windows for fear of waking the neighbors! Kids got a nice set of lungs when the spirit moves. This morning he was up for the day at 5:00. I got him out of bed at 5:30 and he was more than ready for his nap when I dropped him off at daycare a little before 8:00. I wish I could have laid down for an hour or two of sleep too! Oh well!

Today is golf day at my old job. I miss it!

Happy Belated Father's day to any of my readers. Granty got Dad a tie. Daddy gets a tie for Daddy day. It is how it goes. He also made him this neat little thing of nuts at daycare that Taylor has been enjoying munching on all weekend. His big gift was this fancy sprinkler think that he wanted-though we still have no lawn. not bad for a little boy with no allowance!

we went to RI to visit with Taylor's family yesterday. we went to some seafood place for lunch (I happily had one of the few non-seafood dishes-the "Angus" burger!). G's doctor gave him the all clear to start trying some finger foods and so after his jar of "Country Dinner" (chicken and brown rice) he munched on the potato from some of my fries. He was so excited to gum on those bad boys! He probably got less than a half of a teaspoon of actual potato, but it help him busy and happy through most of the meal, and Grammie was excited because I let her hold him and feed him yummy fry guts too! He also tried his first cheerios this weekend and made quick work of those. watching his face as he tries new things is amazing! still, the best face was when he grabbed my mint chip ice cream cone on Memorial Day. The mint and the cold really shocked him but he was so excited and went back for as much as mom would let him have. Aunt Jenny has the photos on her camera (old school film!), so when they get back I'll share them with the group.

I skipped book club on Saturday to hang out with the boys and I just got an email that says we aren't meeting again until September because summer is too hard. I'm so bummed! I haven't been since October -mostly because we have had a bad time with scheduling. I've only missed two meetings. It seems so wrong that it will be almost a full year. I love those girls, but more the fun conversation that come with the group. Plus, i get to read a book for me! for fun! and it has no pictures! I think maybe Grant and I will go to the library tonight and look at books for mommy. Grant has a library in his room (seriously-the kid has well over 200 books on his shelf I would guess) and is about to inherit all of the books me and my brother Rob had as kids when we go to Maine in July. Holy Moly! We're going to need a whole new room just for books! We'll have to finish our basement sooner than we planned!

There is a random meeting in the room next to me right now about FBI background checks. I love sitting right next to the conference room!

how are you my readers? I miss you!

something to entertain the masses...

Hello Friends! Thank you all for the great birthday wishes. I loved the cards, flowers, and especially the awesome purse from my two boys. I was spoiled and thank each of you from the bottom of my heart.

Survived commencement this weekend. The Class of 2008 is in the books and my alumni group just got 200 people larger. I'm such a proud alumni momma! Hopefully they will come to all of my events and even give! we'll see.

Had lunch with some special gals on Friday. was nice to have the gang back together even for an hour, and was such a bonus for me since I didn't think I could make it. They are a motivating group of women. and, we went to Friendly's, so what could be better.

Getting ready for the fun wedding this weekend of Alex and Carrie. Nice to see that he got himself a nice Johnson girl in the end! We really are the greatest! I have no idea what I'm wearing. Anyone think that is a problem? What does one wear to a wedding at 10:00 am? I'm really looking forward to wedding cake...

So excited for the girls and their boys to come. Krissy and Matt will be here tomorrow and are even coming to an alumni event with me. work is so much more fun with friends! Jenny and Brian get here on Friday. What a fun weekend we will have, even with no chairs in our house!

I hate my hair right now :(

Grant is Half today! Yeah big boy!

Here is a photo of he and Mommy on Mommy Day Sunday

Not the best photo of his life, but the only one of baby and mommy from the day. Papa was a baby hog in OSV (which was fine with everyone involved-especially Grant!), so we didn't get tons of photos. Such a cutie in his whale finery! You should see his shoes (Thanks Auntie K!).

To Quote Mary Chapin Carpenter and my best friend from high school's yearbook quote
"Somepeople say that you shouldn't tempt fate and for them I cannot disagree. But I never learned nothing from playing it safe, I say fate should not tempt me--I take my chances!"
So screw fate-I bought my New Kids tickets! Seeing the boys in September! YAHOO!!!
It also seems like there is a great TWW quote about tempting fate, but I think it is in latin so...

I'm such a mommy-I just opened my purse for something and found a pair of Grant's socks. And I was excited about it. I love that kid!

Happy Birthday to Emilie and Julie! Two very special and important ladies in my life.

Fate is a cruel, cruel woman. New Kids on the Block finally announced their Boston tour date and I have to work! Life just isn't fair! I've been waiting over 20 years to see them in concert and it is the one event I just can't get out of! Not cool.

Like Father Like Son

We love the NFL Draft!

"If you want your life to be a great story, remember you are the author." -John Maxwell

G-man loves peas! Sweet peas are sweet when you're G! Yum!

We had a great weekend. Grant is so much fun right now. He just giggles and laughs. He beat tummy time this weekend! He kept getting in trouble for not spending enough tummy time and not rolling over. Well, Saturday he decided he knew how to roll over. He had done it here and there and with lots of encouragement. Saturday afternoon he just started doing it like a nut. He literally rolled over 20 times in a row. Now it is just a thing he does that is no big deal like he's been doing it forever. It is the coolest thing! I really love this kid!

Jen and Krissy and their boys all have plane tickets to come for Bricker's wedding. It's real! It's happening! We can't wait to see them. We're already making a list of all the things we need to do before everyone comes to the house. The first thing-TOILET PAPER HOLDERS (TAYLOR-PUT THESE UP!!!). It should be a super fun weekend.

So, it is 9:30 and that means my bedtime. I understand that makes me a loser, but ask that you understand that I'm up at least twice a night still with the kid. I haven't slept more than 2.5 hours straight in a very long time! Night Night!

Randomness...

• why does music sound better in the summer?
• I love my blackberries-I love my husband!
• first ice cold Nantucket Nectors Lemonade of the season.
• Feta Cheese is reason enough to have G be an only child.
• can't help singing along with my iPod today-my coworkers hate me!
• I have inherited a second job to do while doing my own. I'm trying to cut down my hours not increase!
• Julie is such a thoughtful friend!
• It is a Pina Colada on the deck kind of night. If only I had chairs on the deck, or in the kitchen, or at the bar, or really anywhere in my house!
• one hour until I get to go get my baby!
• birthdays galore coming up in May. may buy stock in Hallmark!
• Tina's having a boy and is naming him Connor. Glad she finally knows-I've known for weeks and been afraid I would tell her.
• I miss my old coworkers so much!
• Planning a trip to Italy that I'm not going on --yes--another one!
• rediscovering my love affair with flavored seltzer water. yum!
• blue raspberry jolly ranchers are the greatest.
• Everybody Hurts and Spilled Perfume are my Desperado.
• What's a Wicked Wango Card?
• I can't see a single space of wood on my desk.
• 80 degrees today. Grant didn't know the temperature went above 40 until last week. Gotta love New England!
• I think I might have a tape worm.
• I gave up the chance to have Del's today so I could wait and have it with Taylor. That's love.
• Remember when Alanis was angry? that was great!
• I'm making a to do list-but not actually getting anything crossed off. depressing.
• I wish I was puddle jumping at Wheaton with Jeniffer today. Why did we spend a day doing that? Taylor lost his jacket in Knapton that day because he was distracted by the wackiness that is me and J.J.
• I wonder when I started calling her J.J.-and why!
• Kellen Clemens kid got kissed by the Pope yesterday. Think that makes the Jets unstoppable this year? Nah-maybe if it was the good Pope...
• I love how country music is trendy now. where were all of you 10 years ago?
• If Grant were allowed to watch television, tonight we would be watching the Muppets take Manhattan
• Cleaned up on the chach at my benefits fair yesterday
• the baby is moving up diaper sizes this week. I think he won't be a "swaddler" anymore and will be a "cruiser". it is enough to make me cry. He's a "big big boy"
• Did you know Big Bird (and my new boss) are from Ohio?
• Time to find out what Barbara is having for dinner so I can copy cat (Pizza-easy enough)
• One of two left in the building.