Nine Months

Graham is nine months old! He weighs in at 22 lbs 8 oz and is 29.5 inches long. He is slipping down the charts. He is between 75% - 90%. I can't lie to you, I was a little sad he wasn't 90% - 100%. I blame his month of sickness and me being out of town for one night.


Yeah, you read that, I was out of town for the night. Just me. No baby, no pre-schooler, no husband. Two days, one night, just me. I felt semi guilty but I pretty much rolicked in my own muck. I drank cocktails, ate mexican food and slept a glorious 8 hours without baby interruption. I need to do it again soon.


Yes, the boys survived, thanks to Nona and Cissie. Graham even slept better than he has in months. Despite my fears not any one died - not even me (from massive baby, husband, pre-schooler missingness).


All of the photos in this blog are a week old. We took Jr. to see the Museum of the Rockies. He LOVED the frogs and LOVED the dinosaurs, and had a crazy good time in the kids room. . . until the "ballcano". It scared him - well, starteled him, but he kept going back. Future horror flick watcher you know it.






This weekend means I have a three year old now. We made it. More on that later.




Beware eye melting handsomeness.

Thanks for your input. . .

So Jr. thinks that he is a full fledged member of the decision making body in our family. That would make it a three pronged democracy of decisions. We try to let him know that it is more of a benevolent dictatorship with either Ed or I at the helm depending on the moment. Jr. he doesn't see it this way, therefore Ed and I have to put up with his constant comments, demands and suggestions on how we should do everything. The part that makes it funny is that he understands about 75% of what we are talking about.

For example - the other night I was asking Ed what his work address was so I could have his phone shipped to his work. He was hmming and hawwwing and I said - JUST GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS. Jr. piped in with "845 Granite!"

Ed and I were discussing how Jr. must have been raised by the labs because he is ALWAYS under foot. Ed said something like "I blame Selma." I added that it could have been Miles too because he was around during Jr.'s formative years. Jr. piped in with "Miles is dead. He is in Kevin." Ed: "Heaven?" Jr.: "Yes, Kevin!" When asked what Kevin is like Jr. describes him as a guy, because he doesn't have any legs.

And lastly is the story of the BBQ. When discussing the new BBQ I suggested Ed take his old one to work. He said - no go, there is no place to store it. I suggested the breeze way between the two buildings and Ed explained why that wouldn't work because he once had to kick a bum out of sleeping there. Jr. wanted to know what a bum was and his dad told him it was a homeless man. Jr. wanted to see a homeless man. His dad assured him that next time they saw one he would point it out. Later in the day, Jr. was on the phone with my mom and told her that we were getting a new BBQ because there was a guy sleeping under our old one. He is big into "liking" or "not liking" things lately. "Like Selma" "I don't like Selma anymore." Same with Mom, Dad, Baby Graham, baths, dinner, naps, Aimees, playing outside, reading books, etc. He uses it to manipulate us into letting him do what he wants. Crafty little wizard.

So then there is Graham. Happy little well Graham. So giggly and sweet. His new favorite thing is to roll under his crib and laugh hysterically at the bottom of his mattress. He kicks his legs and makes little fists and laughs and laughs. That is pretty much a good example of how he is all day. Man he can eat too. He loves to feed himself. I still get amazing smooches complete with hair pulling and teeth. He has 4 up top and 4 on the bottom. No wonder he got so sick, the flu plus two or three teeth. It was a rough month.

Welcome back Mr. Sunshine. We missed you.

Photo credits - Kim Moog and her super cool iPod camera. I love love love these girls.

Hi Uncle Brian!

Countdown to the big birthday bash - Easter Day 4 PM. Easter egg hunt. MIL, FIL?

**before you ask - photo editing in Picnik. It rules and I think I will pay for the professional options. Now that I have a job on Monday. Sigh. So many amazing plans laid to waste - thanks a lot congress. I was going to go fishing, play video games and maybe hang some art. . .

Sick of Sick

Well just when we thought it couldn't get any worse it did. Baby Graham got SOMETHING, we just don't know what it is, but it is bad. That kid is SICK. He even had to go to the hospital go get x-rays on his chest. I don't know if I will ever get over the image of Ed and the x-ray dude holding my little naked baby up against a x-ray film while he looked over at me desperately crying. His little eyes said HELP ME MOM! I haven't slept since Tuesday so I could watch him breathe.




It makes me remember bad things from when Jr. was born. Memories I want to put behind me forever. Shudder.

Jr. is finally better - I mean his cough is gone, he is in a great mood and is back to Mr. Spunk. I was reading this article the other night about a 2.5 year old terror and I thought the woman was writing about my boy as of 6 months ago. She nailed it. I don't know what has changed in the last 5 months, but I have a totally different boy on my hands. He is still sassy, but he is SO charming. The sass is much less. He told me the other night that I was beautiful. I told him that he was beautiful and he said that we were BOTH beautiful even though he was a boy. He is full of hugs and kisses and is really for the most part sweet sweet sweet to his brother. He is starting to mind, he listens and he helps out around the house by picking up his toys grabbing things for me that I can't reach and entertaining his brother when I need 2 seconds to run upstairs or downstairs.


He is great. I mean really great. He told me the other day that he wanted to play an instrument, I asked him which one - hoping for piano. He declared - "The DRUMS MAMA! I WANT TO PLAY DRUMS!"




Before he got sick, Graham was learning to clap. I think he is too chubby to crawl just yet, but he tries SO HARD. That is the hardest part about his illness, my sweet happy little baby is gone - I get small glimpses of him, but this crab pot baby boy is so hard to mke happy. I feel so bad. He doesn't really eat a lot and gets meds every 2-3 hours. Poor belly.

I feel respondsible - recently I was running my mouth off about how we hadnt been sick all winter. Me and my big mouth. . .

I want my sweet baby back.

**I am a video**

**Me too!**


Sunday update - I wrote this sometime last week but couldn't make time to get photos in. Pretty much same. Graham is still running a fever and is still coughing. Jr.'s cough has returned. Sigh. My sinus infection is gone.

It is APRIL GOD DAMN IT. Time to move on out of this winter illenss month. Hello!


I promise next post, more positivity and hopefully good things to report. We will be getting ready for the birthday party royal. I can't wait for his birthday party. I can't wait. He is so amazing and I want to celebrate.

Tricky

Being a mom is really hard sometimes. When you have sick kids (again - yes again) and don't feel well yourself it seems like it is give give give and very little receive. I need something to change around here. The nurse Coleman bit is exhausting. That coupled with zero spring break is murder on the soul.

It is the little things that keep you going. Like family hikes and planning a 3-year olds birthday party. It is a month a way people. What should we do? Right now we are thinking Easter egg hunt. Boring. Maybe fishing derby?




Baby Graham feeds himself now. So cute. He is eight months old and says dadadada and yayayayaya. I say to him "mama" and he happily replies dadadada. Stinker.




Jr. is all about "outside" and "compost". Oh and Astro Boy which may be in my opinion Nicolas Cage's worst performance EVER.



I tried to replicate this photo:



With this:


Check the picassa photo stream for some sweet vids.

Brothers

I have beautiful visions of these two as brothers and best friends growing up in perfect brotherly harmony. La la la. I can even see them playing on the same football team, smiling with their arms around each other in family photos, fishing contentedly side by side. Maybe even be in a band together some day. Something like the Black Keys, Oasis, or maybe even the Doobies but not like the Osmunds.





You are rolling your eyes and saying that I am a totally sappy crazy hippie, but BEHOLD video evidence!


I never would have predicted that Jr. would be such a sweet loving adorable big brother, but he is.

Today we had to take Baby Graham to see Dr. Frank to make up his 6 month shots and both boys got weighed. Jr. = 42 lbs and 41" tall. Graham 22 lbs 8 oz. Bubba bubba.

Some sweetness from Nanny and Aunt Lisa's brief stop through town.

Big Boy Genius

I have to stop calling him a toddler. He is a big boy. His 4T clothes are getting a little tight/short. OH NO!



**click on me, I am a video**

He puts his own boots on.



And put his own "pack pack" on.


Here is some Graham. He is pretty cute too.