Carter Daniel Grunwald

31 months of trying. 9 months in the making. 1 second to steal your heart. This morning at 11:46 AM we welcomed our second child into our lives. Carter joins his big brother, Ryan, as the only two boys on either side of the family. Until this morning, Heidi and I always wondered if we'd be able to share our love with another child - especially after 4 1/2 years with only Ryan in our lives. As soon as we saw Carter...we understood. You don't share your love between your children, your love grows to encompass them. We are truly blessed to have two beautiful boys in our family!

Carter had no problem exercising his tiny lungs during his first bath. It was priceless!

Then it was time to get warm under the lamps...

The end result...an incredibly beautiful little boy!

Happy Halloween!!

Seeing Halloween through a child's eye is always a treat (literally). Ryan was so excited to be a pirate this year - he was running around yelling "Arrrghh" and was ready to hit the streets! Earlier in the day, his pre-school held a Halloween Party - at first Ryan thought it was a birthday party...but then realized it was more about Halloween than a birthday...for once, in a group photo, Ryan was one of the few kids actually looking at the camera (the fact that his Dad was taking the picture just MIGHT have had something to do with it!!)

Now the good part!! It was time to trick or treat in the neighborhood! We had to head out a little early because we were competing against bed time (but he did great!). He couldn't wait to get out the door and find some treats. He was incredibly good with his manners and saying "Trick or Treat"...we were very proud of him!

Sadly, our house is in what Mike likes to call the "Cliff Dwellings"...big houses...bigger hills. After an hour, Ryan was pooped - he sat down by the light pole, pushed his hat back...and I couldn't resist. He did so well...he even told his Daddy he was ready to go home!

And here was the haul from the night...not too shabby for a 4-year old!!

I couldn't resist this picture - we took it during his bath on Halloween Night. Ryan was in such a good mood...splashing and playing. He even hauled up his two plastic pumpkin light things and turned the big light off (right after this picture was taken) so he could see the shadows and splash some more...it was too cute!!!

October, Pumpkin Patches & Texas

Last weekend we ventured out to good ole' Cibolo TX and the Ford Family Farm to hit a pumpkin patch. We didn't want to drive too far. Heidi didn't walk too far (she's pretty far along). We didn't want spend a lot. OK...we're cheap when it comes to pumpkin patches.

Ryan loved playing in the hay yard and trying to balance on the telephone pole. He only fell off once - and still managed to have a great time. Even better than that, he actually played with the other kids there - a little bit of progress every day!!

I love this one below - he was pretending that his little pumpkins were eyeglasses. It was too cute!!

Fire Station Part II and Part I

First, I have to say that Mike is going to be very surprised that I figured out this blogging thing, and that I actually blogged. I guess with him out of town all of the time (he is currently in Las Vegas,) I might need to keep it up at times. So here it goes...Heidi's very first blog...

Ryan's preschool class went to the Fire Station today for Fire Safety month. The kids all seemed to have a good time until Firefighter John starting putting on all of the gear. The kids ran for cover to all of the mommies waiting. It is kind of menacing when you think about how they look in all of the gear. Thankfully, they are on our side when they are fighting a fire, or just helping in general.

You might think this is an actual firefighter, but it is not. After asking for a volunteer from the teachers and the mommies, Ryan's teacher, Mrs. Tonder, volunteered to get into the gear. I made sure to remind everyone that my belly would not fit at this time! She was a good sport, and I got a ton of pictures and a video to bribe, I mean, give to her.

You might be wondering why I went from Part II to Part I for the title. Well, here is the story of the morning...


Ryan and I got up at 5:30am, as usual. I got him dressed and then let the dogs go in the backyard. His school bus arrived around 6:30. When we walked out of the front door, a very strong odor of garlic slapped me in the face. I went back into the house to let the dogs back in. Dusty was wet and was shaking his head. I wondered what he got into, so I went into the backyard with a flashlight to investigate. I did not see anything. I brought Dusty upstairs and gave him a bath. he was acting strange, so then I started getting worried that he got into a gas leak. I put him back downstairs and I looked online for what a garlic smell might be. It did say potential gas leak, so then my head started spinning. I thought, "Who can I call this early?" Of course as I stated earlier, Mike is TDY. I called a neighbor and his phone went to voicemail. That is when I wanted to panic. I decided that if my house was going to blow up from a gas leak, I might need the fire department...and this is why there are 2 parts to the story. I called 911 and asked for the Fire Department. They sent a truck over to investigate. They got out of the truck and came over to me in the driveway. I told them I think I have a gas leak. They paused and one of them looked at me and informed me- that is not a leak- it is a skunk. A SKUNK??? Why did he have yellow on his fur? Oh, he got a direct hit! Where does the garlic smell come in? Well, with pregnancy and congestion, I guess that is how it smelled to me, and me alone. They were kind enough to go inside and open a window and put Dusty back in the back yard for me. Poor Dusty had to sleep in the backyard until the mobile pet washers (yes, they exist in some cities) came and bathed him (again) for me. He is now sulking. I know he thinks he must have been in big trouble to sleep outside all night long!



So, after all of the excitement died down, I asked one of the firefighters if they were from the Evans Road Fire Department. Why, yes, they were. Oh, I told him that my son's preschool would be there in the afternoon... He told me their shift ended at 9:00am. Thank God for small miracles and no more embarrassment.




Thank you San Antonio Fire Department for keeping our community safe from fires...and SKUNKS!

A Concert Starring M. Ryan Grunwald

OK...so it's been a while...a long while. Between all the TDYs, doctor's appointments, school days, and long work days blogs tend to go by the wayside.

Ryan has taken to playing his instruments outside - drums, harmonica, saxophone, xylophone...whatever. We try to keep him from performing at 6 AM (but he has tried this once already). These pictures were from two weeks ago when he was playing his harmonica for the airplanes (we sit right under the approach for the airport).

School Days

Ryan started school at the end of August. He goes to two schools here - and his day is busy! He goes to a local elementary school every day for 3 hours as part of a pre-school program. Mon, Weds, and Friday he goes to a local church for another program. Each is doing wonders for his ability to communicate (his sentence structure is world's away from where it was a few short weeks ago) and interact with other kids his age.

Below are a couple pictures from his first day at the elementary school. He seemed pretty excited at first - he had been to the school once and seemed to like it. Heidi took him there his first official day to get him settled, and he quickly went from cute to fed up with the concept of being there. It was tough going at first, but we (bribed him) gave him an incentive for being good, and he does great at school now - and is the proud owner of a Virginia flag (the boy LOVES flags and will work hard for them).

Our happy child at school!!

Ryan gets really excited in the morning waiting for the bus - and boy does it come early (6:30 AM)!! Some days he needs a little coaching to head out there, but we're working on it...read, we're bribing him with the Germany flag.

Hanging out in the Texas heat

Wow - we thought Alabama was hot...hello Texas! It's been a while since we posted pictures, so we thought we'd give you a taste of what we've been up to during the long, hot summer.

Ryan, as always, wants to play outside - because of the weather, he only gets to play in the morning and late in the afternoon when the sun moves around and give some shade to the backyard. He loves playing on his playground set and is forever asking to "let the dogs out"...and then he proceeds to squeeze in a quick 5-minute playtime before Mom & Dad get the wiser!

When Mike came home from his DC TDY for the Labor Day Weekend (he called it his 52-hour furlough), we put Ryan in his booster seat. We moved him to the other side of the van - where the "big boys" sit - to make room for the infant car seat where he used to sit. I wished we had got pictures from his first day in the seat...this is from his second day. He absolutely loved his booster seat! He already knows how to unbuckle himself (and we have to move quick to catch him coming out of the van). Our little man is growing up so fast!

Below are a few random pictures of Ryan - hanging out on the couch (probably watching Diego) and then playing in his new tent we got from IKEA on Saturday. What a store!! Who knew the Swedes made such good stuff?!?! We went there to get a new chair, for what will be Carter's room, and ended up getting a few more things than we planned. Good thing pay day had come and gone or we would have caused a lot of damage!!