Our niece Hannah is finally home!

Little Hannah finally came home last Friday after a 2-month stay in the NICU! At her first pediatrician's appointment today, she weighed in at 4 lbs, 14 oz and is doing really well! We're so thankful that she is finally home and can't wait to see her again! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the last couple of months.... many of you don't even know Kelly and Louis (or Hannah), but have been so sweet in checking in to see how they are all doing. I know they appreciate that more than you'll ever know (as do we)!

This is the happy family finally at home!

Her first ride in the car on the way home....

Waving hello!

First Day of Pre-School!

Today was Grady's first official day of pre-school (the 2-year-old class)! He'll be going three mornings a week... We've been building the whole idea of "school" up to him for weeks now and going over how we'd say goodbye to him, but that we'd come back later to pick him up. We even went out and got him a bookbag, which he was very excited about! (Of course his bookbag isn't for books, but rather stuff like a change of clothes, etc.... Elmo and his favorite blanket were also in his bookbag just in case!) Needless to say, he wore it all around the house last night and was thrilled with the idea of being "a big boy!"

Brandon and I both went this morning to drop him off for his first day. (Luckily, Brandon works right across the street, so it's pretty convenient for him.) We brought him to his classroom this morning, he hugged us both goodbye and then immediately starting playing. He didn't seem to be concerned at all that we were leaving! That's our Grady though.... a very laid back, go with the flow kind of guy. :) While Grady was completely fine, Brandon and I were doing all we could to not burst into tears!

We picked him up at noon, and his teacher told us he did "absolutely great!" She said that he happily went with the flow of everything they were doing and even mentioned how much he really loved the playground (which was no surprise....he could live at the park and be completely happy). Here are a couple of pictures (below) from when we were leaving the house this morning ... We did struggle a bit to get out of the house on time, which makes me a little nervous come November when I'll be getting a newborn ready at the same time! We'll figure it out though! I even lost my keys this morning... when I finally found the spare set, Grady turned to me and said, "Good job Mommy!" It's sad when your 2-year-old is cheering you on for finding your keys....he he. It was quite cute though!

A Long Weekend at the Beach!

Over Labor Day weekend, we decided to take a mini vacation to North Myrtle Beach.... We figured this was the last little vacation we'd squeeze in before baby #2 comes along and before we officially become a family of 4! So, after attending an open house for Grady's pre-school on Friday morning, we headed to the beach and stayed through Monday afternoon, which was great! Grady was very excited and LOVED playing in the sand. He loves the water too, but was not all that crazy about the waves in the ocean....which was honestly okay with me. I'm sure Brandon wasn't too excited about the idea of venturing out into the ocean with a toddler and a 31-week pregnant woman who could easily float out to sea if a wave hit her the wrong way. :)

As you can tell by the video, Grady was very amused when Brandon built sandcastles....Well, I don't even know if these should be called sandcastles, but close enough for a two-year-old. His new little obsession is going through and making tunnels with his trains and cars (in anything and everything), which is why he's so excited to make holes in the sandcastles.

We also decided to take Grady to the aquarium while we were there. We never know what to expect with things like this because sometimes we think he'll really love something (and be old enough to appreciate it), and he ends up completely bored and un-interested. Other times, we think something will be a complete dud, and he ends up loving it. The aquarium was kind of in the middle.... He really liked the aquarium tunnel (which we also loved!) and the interactive section (the toy section, as Grady called it). After those couple of things though, he was pretty much ready to leave. This is of course about 20 minutes after we had gotten in and after we had spent nearly $50 for tickets.....go figure. We really enjoyed it though, and he did too for the most part!

And finally, here is a picture of the highlight of the aquarium. Yep, you got it - the gumball machine in the gift shop! So funny!

Grady and his new deer...

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Grady has recently developed a fascination for deer. We see them quite often in our yard (sometimes up to six at a time), and Brandon and Grady now have a nightly ritual of going to feed the deer after dinner (which is essentially putting leftover dinner food in the compost/deer pile). Then we all watch the deer eat the food from the screened in porch. While I was out at the store yesterday, I found this deer stuffed animal that I just had to get for him! Needless to say, he really enjoyed his new little friend, and I captured this video before bedtime. (Sorry that it's kind of long!) Having a 2-year-old is so much fun.... the little conversations are priceless! At one point he insisted on going into the baby's room and sitting in the rocking chair because he needed to rock the deer to sleep. I got part of that on video too, but figured one video was enough for the blog. :) Oh- and we definitely have no plans to watch the movie Bambi anytime soon. I think Grady would be traumatized for life!