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.

Welcome to Seven Months

So far, seven months is the greatest Baby Graham age yet. He is working on crawling, I overheard Aimee tell one of the other parents that he would be crawling within the month. I consider her an expert on all things baby. Graham, unlike every other baby I know LOVES to be on his belly and play on the floor. Jr. used to FREAK OUT the minute he was on his stomach. I didn't think he would ever crawl. He pretty much didn't, he just rolled and then walked. I am so not ready for Graham to walk.


It hit me pretty hard this weekend that he is our last baby so as he hits every developmental milestone, that also means that he is becoming less and less of my baby.


We are ready to be done with "baby", but it doesn't make it any easier to mourn the loss of my sweet tiny little man. Not so much with Jr. I don't know why, but it seems like we were always in a great big hurry to see that kid grow up.



See how his haircut makes him look so darn cute - try to overlook the blue lips. He just sat there all spaced out sucking on his marker. To this, his dad said - "Okay Buddy - no more markers, just crayons from now on!" Yeah right. If Jr. even sees the marker aisle at Target and you don't go down it and purchase new markers, well lets just put it this way - SOMEONE is getting Child Protective Services called on them. I am sure marker deprivation is some sort of child abuse.






Jr. had the stomach bug this last week and into the weekend. Boy howdy, nothing brings you to your knees like a sick kid. Baby Graham refused to be put down for longer than one minute and of course Ed was completely paralyzed by pain from his - eh hem - man surgery. He is a champ though.


Oh and I got a new camera - I was thinking that if I got something nice and fancy all of a sudden my photos would get really smashing. Well so much for that. They are still mediocre. Luckily I have two super cute models so you won't notice.

Fishin'

Jr. woke up from his nap today yelling "Momma! I want to go fishing! I want to catch a big fish!" The perfect storm aligned, Ed came home from work early, Graham was in a good mood, it was sort of warm and we found the Batman fishing pole. It took us down to Spring Meadow Lake to look for some open water. No fish, but it got us all talking about spring. How amazing and awesome our lives will be once it warms up a little bit. A new boat (90% sure), getting the stroller rolling, exploring the trails, fishing and swimming at the lake 3 blocks away from us. . . . Vitamin D. . . ahhhh sunshine. more sunshine. need sunshine.


This is the shitty time of winter - it is almost over, the snow is gone and all that is left is ice. You can't want the warm weather too much or too publicly because cold wet snow will hit you like a slap in the face. The weather bimbo just announced that it is going to keep getting colder. DAMN YOU WEATHER BIMBO! DAMN YOU AND YOUR MINI JACKETS SMIRKY FACE SIMLE!

Just like a slap in the face, the camera is not doing well. Half of the time it doesn't open and then the battery dies in 5 minutes AND we lost the charger. The photos look like crapola. Ug. Time to go buy a new one. I really want a big fancy one, but I am somewhere less than an amatur. I want to take better photos and even learn someday to be a good photographer. Someday when I have more time. So that is kind of my excuse for the low blog density, bad camera, no photos.

But then who reads this blog to hear me whine. About the boys.



Graham rolls to get everywhere and wants to get into everything. He is so curious, such an investigator and damn is he cute! I mean so cute. He is such a good baby too. Always happy. He quit napping at daycare though, which is super stressful for me and I hate going to pick him up and having a sad red eyed baby - we call him zombie baby. He usually naps after work and then wakes up briefly for dinner and a bath, then back to sleep. It is hard because the only time I get so spend with him all day is those brief hours where he smiles at me behind those tired tired eyes. Aimee assures me that he will come around. I make up for it on my days off, lots of snuggles.




Jr. started his birthday list while we were at Target today. First on the list, a nerf double sided axe for "big boys". He also wanted a sweatshirt with skulls on it, a bunch of games, some toy tools and some dog bones, for Selma. Man I love that kid. I need to figure out a synonym for sassy, but that is the best term to describe him. In fact, I must tell him at least 100 times a day, "STOP SASSING ME!"

Since I started saying at home more, I get a lot more kisses and hugs. I also get a lot of him telling me I am beautiful and telling me he loves me. I have to remember that even though toddlers are a-holes, their sweetness completely makes you forget. . .


It still amazed me how much I love those two boys. It is crazy. You can't even put it into words.

Dear Jr.,

Please, please, please sweet man, go to bed and go to sleep. Bedtime does not need to be stretched into 3 hours and several trips to the bathroom to "poop on the toilet!"

In return I promise that I will yell less overall. You are the sweetest most smoochable "almost 3 year-old" and I want to spend more time loving you and playing with you and spend less time getting after you. How can someone so sweet be so sassy?

I am so proud of you. You are so wicked smart. You are so fun, strong and agile, I can't help but beam with pride with just about everything you do. You are also such a WONDERFUL big brother to Graham, thank you baby.

I love you so much, my heart aches.

Love, Mom

P.S. our camera is circling the drain. Damn.

Dear Graham,

Please don't quit nursing. It is way too early. Thank you.

Love, Mom.

P.S. Sorry about the constipation. I hope you know that I love you so much I actually pulled poop out of your butt. I am sure I will not fail to mention that when you are older, but please understand that it was pretty nasty.

P.P.S. I love you like crazy.