I will keep this post short so I can fill it with pictures! We had a very nice Easter weekend. Casey’s parents came up to visit on Saturday and Sunday we went to my parent’s house. Graham got to see all his grandparents and he had a great time with all of them. He is doing much better with “strangers” (aka anyone that is not me or Casey) now and doesn’t cry nearly as much. He will still freak out at times if he is tired and thinks that we left him, but for the most part he is a happy little boy.
I hesitate to call these my Easter pictures because I am sure I will put him next to an Easter basket or other Easter items on Sunday for more pictures so I will call these my spring pictures. No, my child’s eyes are not this sparkly and gorgeous. And no I am not that great of a photographer. Editing. Whenever you see pictures with gorgeous eyes they are almost always FAKE! Well, some babies, children and adults have very sparkly eyes that catch light well, but how very very rare this is especially for someone with brown eyes. It is amazing what you can do with Photoshop…..
The “Casey” face as I like to call it.
The flower apparently is not tasty. And yes, I did have a stern talking to Casey AGAIN about letting him eat flowers since some are poisonous and I have no clue which ones. It is his job as my assistant to watch him!
Funny face, but the only one that I got of him on his belly. He still would rather sit and after this picture put his head in the grass and cried until we let him sit again.
Laughing at daddy.
Black and White expression of the week. I enjoy doing these. We will see how long I can keep it up!
Well as many of you know Raleigh was hit with a tornado this weekend! It was actually very close to us at one point. Only about 2 miles from our house and neighborhoods very close to us had a lot of damage including my friend Sarah. We drove around some today and you can easily see the path the storm took over here. There was a good amount of property damage, but we didn’t see any houses that were completely destroyed. Most were missing a roof, siding, trees or debris on houses. We saw several power lines that were down. Not just small ones either. The big huge metal ones! They looked like someone just grabbed them, smashed them and threw them down. I was downstairs with Graham when the storms started hitting Sanford. We were listening to the radio and every few minutes there was another weather warning so finally I just turned on the TV. Casey was upstairs studying for a test he is taking this week. When they confirmed a tornado had touched down in southwest Raleigh I started packing everything up! I put JD in the downstairs bathroom (our safe place) and put the rabbits in the carrier. The storm was tracking very close to us so I wanted to be ready! We watched as the storm got closer and were ready to go downstairs. We had a couple big gusts, but that was about it. Casey was making fun of me and continues to make fun of me for “overreacting” to the weather. Well, a couple miles to the east and it would have been us that was hit! It isn’t like I pack up all the animals every time there is a storm. In the 6 years I have lived here I have only packed up everything and was ready to head to the bathroom one other time! Clearly I don’t overreact. When there is a storm this dangerous heading your way you better be ready!!!
There isn’t much else going on around here this week. Graham is still cruising around the house, but not walking on his own just yet. He has decided sleeping on his stomach is the best thing ever and now will only sleep on his belly. This is something most babies figure out around 4-5 months. It took him awhile…. now that he is sleeping on his stomach he is waking up and scooting around the crib on his belly. I figure it won’t be long until he is crawling in there and pulling up. Since until now he has refused to be on his stomach he is pretty far behind on the skills that come from being on your belly, like crawling and pulling up from his belly. He can only pull up from a seated position for now.
JD and the rabbits are all doing well. JD figured out a few weeks ago that he could hit the pantry door to open it and then help himself to his food. Since I am lazy I often don’t seal the container. I would come downstairs, see the pantry door wide open and think “jeez, Casey left the door open again”. I thought this many, many times. Then one morning I got up, got Graham up, fed the bunnies and no JD. He is always following me around all morning crying for food. I actually thought he might be dead! Seriously. I was kinda scared to find him. Eventually he came wondering out of the bonus room and didn’t seem hungry which I thought was strange. When I came downstairs the pantry door was open and his food was all over the floor. This is when I realized what he was up to! He was helping himself all night to his food. Now the food is on a higher shelf and sealed. The rabbits aren’t up to anything new lately. They get out every night so life hasn’t changed much for them. I do bring Graham in there in the mornings and he loves to watch them run around. I had him in there this week when I was cleaning up their room some. I had him on a blanket and away from all the stuff on the floor, but he managed to find a poop. I looked over and he was chewing on something and he did not want me to take whatever it was out of his mouth. Well, I got it out and it was a poop!! Gross. He didn’t seem to mind it and I guess he had another one in his hand because a few minutes later he was chewing on something again and I saw some brown drool coming out of his mouth! I guess he likes to eat poop.
Last night after writing this post I became very sick with some type of stomach flu. I will spare you the details, but that is why I don’t have new pictures yet. I was going to do them today, but I can barely move right now. So I will put some sleeping pictures because I think they are so cute.
It’s been another jam packed week and I am behind again. Sunday is supposed to be my coupons/update website night, but lately seems like it spills into Monday (and Tuesday). I went to the beach alone over the weekend! Well, not totally alone obviously, but baby free. Allison and I went to Atlantic Beach for Kelly’s bachelorette weekend. We had a great time relaxing at the pool (just sitting, not swimming in the ice cold water), walking on the beach and enjoying a nice dinner on the water. Oh, and a little alcohol wasn’t too bad either. Of course it only took one jello shot to get me buzzing since I haven’t had alcohol in what seems like years. It was a short trip since Allison and I both needed to get home to our little guys. It was really nice to have a girls weekend, but I did miss Graham a lot. Of course when I got home he was whining and crying for me which made me wonder why I was in such a rush to get home….. This whining phase is already driving me crazy. He whines all the time for me and now breaks out into a full cry if I ignore the whining. Then he gets himself all worked up and it just isn’t worth it to me to ignore it.
I think it is going to be time to cut Graham’s hair soon! So I am really debating on trying to snip a bit myself or take him somewhere to have it done. I don’t really want to pay $10 or more to trim up such a small amount of hair, but something tell me doing it myself isn’t going to work out so well. He is getting pretty good with cruising around now and will sometimes let go a bit when walking around. He is also moving around furniture pretty well now. Today he rolled across the room, but he didn’t realize what he was doing or that he had moved himself because he was busy having a fit since I wouldn’t pick him up. I don’t think he has any understanding that rolling is a form of transportation. He is too set on walking now. Still only two teeth and I managed to get a picture of them this week.
Teeth
Black and white of the week.
Enjoying my Sunday paper. Why do I even buy toys? Notice the double chin!
Eating is messy!
Graham loves to “dance” now and usually gets excited when I turn on music. He really just bounces and he will dance sitting or standing. I don’t have a video yet of him doing the standing dance so here is the sitting dance.
Last night after his bath he realized he could talk into the cup to make his voice louder. It was so cute.
Casey loves to push Graham over when he is sitting on the bed. At first he used this as a way to teach him how to keep his balance and keep himself up, but now Graham thinks it is a game and throws himself back when Casey pushes him. You can see him tilt his head up and look back as he “falls”.
Graham is 10 months old today. He is really getting to be a big boy now and is learning new things all the time. It is really amazing all the changes that occur in the first year. We have started watching to see which hand he favors and so far it is pretty even between left and right. Left thumb sucking, right had does most of the eating, left had does most of the playing. He has figured out how to make most of his toys make noise now. Well, on purpose. There are a few he has been working for awhile, but now I can show him how to turn something “on” and he will watch closely and then try it. Most of the time he does his pushing with the left hand. He is also starting to perfect “letting go”. He can throw toys now, not with any accuracy at all and I don’t think he really gets it yet, but he is starting to learn how and when to let go of something. He loves to toss his spoons around during meals and toss the toys all around him when he plays, mostly behind him. He still has no interest in crawling. He will almost get into the crawl position, but then doesn’t really follow through with it and just sits back down. When he wants to move he puts his hands out and whines for me to help him walk and stand. He can take a couple little steps on his own, but he doesn’t really know he is doing it yet. Mostly when he is going from one person to the other and one of us lets go a little early he will take a couple steps as he falls into the next person. We spend most of our day walking around the house and I can tell he is getting much better at it and his balance is improving a lot.
Last week we drove to Greenville to visit cousin Greg and Christine. Aunt Jan and Uncle Dave were there too on their way to sunny Florida. Mom, dad, Graham and I drove down for the afternoon and Christine made us a wonderful dinner. Graham did pretty good and LOVED their dogs. The feeling was mutual. Mabel spent most of her time cleaning Graham which he didn’t seem to mind and he tried to “lick” her back a few times. Graham slept on the way there, but we had to wake him up when we arrived so he didn’t get as long as a nap as he probably needed. He was good though, a little fussy at time and clingy with me, but that is pretty normal when he is tired. In the evening I have to be sure to stay away if Casey is doing bath and putting him down because the sight of me will set him off in a crying fit and he won’t stop until I hold him and take over. If he doesn’t see me he is fine and it was the same way when he was in Greenville. He was fine until he would catch sight of me and then he just HAD to be with me that instant. I don’t really mind though. One day he won’t want me around so I am enjoying it!! By the time we left he was really tired and screamed for a bit in the car. Then he stared out the window for a long time before finally falling asleep…. for about 30 minutes. As soon as the car slowed down when we got into town he was awake and not very happy. We stopped by the house and Casey grabbed him for me. After a couple books, bottle and new diaper he went to sleep pretty well, but didn’t sleep in even though he went to bed late! I didn’t take any pictures, but I do have some video that I will try to edit soon. I want to put some new videos up so I will try to work on that one night this week.
Here are some pictures dad took of Graham and Mabel.
