The Blackburn Family

Graham took his first steps this week. Well, he has taken a few steps over the last few months, always less than 5 and with very little coordination. If he didn’t think about it he would do it, but as soon as he would realize he was walking he found abruptly stop, sit or fall. He never walked with purpose. Monday night I went with Allison to Wine and Design for a little girls night out. We had a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Raleigh area. We painted hydrangeas and neither us had ever painted, well not since art class in school many years ago. We were both a bit nervous about it, but it was really fun and easy. Anyway, when I got home I found out Graham walked. Yeah, I cried. I can’t believe I missed it. I am with him all day every day and he picked the one time I went out to walk!! Casey and mom did get a little video of him walking. Casey and I took a little video of him last night too and I grabbed a few pictures. He still prefers to crawl and you have to kinda force him to walk, but he so proud when he does it. The look on his face when he is walking is priceless. He walks like Frankenstein with both arms out straight and very shaky, but he does a good job. We have been staying very close while he practices so he doesn’t take a big fall. One big fall will probably set him back a few weeks. He stood on his own months ago and took a big fall when he lost his balance and didn’t try it again until this week. He actually tried again Monday, the same day he walked. I watched as he purposely let go, stood up, danced a bit and sat back down. He looked so excited and proud that he was able to do it and maybe that is what motivated the walking that same day.

I have a few photos for the week, no black and white expressions for the week. I have been off my game thanks to this wisdom teeth. I will get some for next week though.

Show down with the cat.

Playing with cards while I tried to get a picture of him sitting with his legs crossed. The second he seems the camera he crawls to get it.

Walking!

First walking video, the walking I missed.

Walking Tuesday.

Tomorrow I go in to have my wisdom teeth removed. Luckily I only have two so hopefully it won’t be too bad. They are slightly impacted, but the dentist seemed to think it wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe I will lose a couple pounds since I won’t be able to eat!

I have a few pictures to post this week. The black and white picture of the week was taken by Casey, but he did a pretty good job. The others are from last Sunday when we took him to ride the carousel at Chavis Park. It you live in Raleigh you probably know of the Chavis Heights area, not exactly the “best” area of town, but I didn’t really care. Pullen Park is still closed and I thought it would be fun to check it out. I have lived here my whole live and never knew the park or carousel was there. I even went to middle school right down the road. When we got there we were the only people there. A nice (although hot) summer day and not a single kid on the playground or carousel. It was really sad to me. It is a nice park, new equipment, but I guess people don’t know about it or don’t want to go to that particular area of town. We were the only people there to ride and the guy running it was really nice. He talked to us a lot about the carousel and the park. He used to drive the train at Pullen, but since they have been closed he was been working at Chavis. It must be a pretty boring job to sit there all day with no one coming to ride. We paid are $2 and rode around for what seemed like five minutes although it was probably two. I don’t do well going in a circle and it was making be pretty dizzy and whoozy. I did manage to take a few pictures. I was worried he would cry, but he didn’t. He did have a look of concern on his face the entire time and stared at the center. After we were done the operator turned on the band and that did scare him a bit. It was much louder than the CD and also out of tune. I think we will go visit again one day. Maybe when he is a bit older to see what he thinks about it, but I am sure it will be a few years until he really enjoys it.

I took a couple pictures of his feet crossed. I need to get one of him sitting with his legs and feet crossed, but every time I try he crawls away.

Carousel

Graham loves the beach! I was a bit worried it would scare him or he wouldn’t like the sand, but he loved all of it. There were times when he got a little scared of the waves, but I don’t blame him. Waves are scary! The first day we had him on the beach he crawled all over it. Down to the water, back up, over to some strangers playing bocce ball (he wanted the balls) and around again. He was covered in sand from head to toe and kept rubbing it into his eyes. He didn’t seem to mind the sand being on him or his eyes. He also ate quite a lot of it. Even though he loved playing in it and getting it all over him he hated having the sand cleaned off him! We would rinse him in the outside shower at the house and he would scream like he was being tortured. He hates having water in his face now. When he was a baby he didn’t mind it one bit, but lately he hates it which makes bath time pretty difficult.

I was worried about how he would do away from home and our schedule for so long. He did pretty good the first few days, but the first night was tough. He cried a lot when it was time for bed and it took over an hour to finally get him to sleep. After a couple days he started waking up earlier and earlier. Most days he was up at 5:00. Ugh. No vacation for me! Now that we are home he is sleeping later again which is very nice. I think after about 5 days he was ready to come home and started getting really whiny and clingy which made me really ready to come home. Even though we had a great time it wasn’t as relaxing of a vacation as it used to be!! I need to plan a girls weekend so I can really relax.

We spent the first week with my family at Sunset. We all meet at Sunset every other year for a little family reunion. Most of them drive a great distance to spend the week in NC, but they don’t seem to mind much. We all have such a great time and it is nice for us to all get together. We don’t see each other much since we are so spread out across the country. It is pretty crazy to see my cousin’s kids growing up. I remember when many of them were around Graham’s age on the beach and now they are grown up! Our group is expanding a lot, there are so many new children and spouses in the family. After leaving Sunset we drove up to Oak Island to see Casey’s sister, her husband and Graham’s three cousins. We had a great time with them and Karley had a blast “babysitting” for us.

I have a ton of pictures. I actually took over 900 pictures! I took a bunch for Casey’s sister of their family. Plus I tried three times to get cute “beach” pictures of Graham. It is really time consuming to go through all those pictures and edit them! I won’t post too many, but here are a few of my favorites. I also have a bunch of videos that I need to edit and post. I need more time in the day. Click HERE to see all the beach pictures.

My posed beach pictures of Graham:

About 30 seconds after the above shot he fell in the sand and that was the end of it. We let him play in the sand for awhile and it didn’t take long for him to be covered in it. You can see the sand all over his face!

Playing in the sand and water:

Hanging with mom and dad, family shots:

Playing in the water with Grandpa:

Black and white expressions (it’s been awhile!)

Gosh, been awhile since I posted! We just got back from 10 days at the beach which should explain my not posting! There was so much to get ready so my time before we left was limited. I have tons of pictures, but haven’t had time to get them together yet. Lots of videos too which might take me awhile to edit. I thought I would post quickly on some new developments with Graham. If I don’t get this stuff written down soon I will forget it all.

We are still working on signs and he now does several now – more, ball, eat and all done. He is picking them up quickly now and I need to work on learning more to teach him! He does more A LOT!! This one is a bit overused so I am trying to get him to use thirsty, drink, water, milk and eat instead. So far he will do the sign for milk and eat, but not regularly. When he got up from his morning nap today the first thing he did was the sign for eat. Usually he waits until he sees food and then does the sign for more. We went to Trader Joe’s today and every time I put something in the cart he would point to it and do the sign for more! Like I said more is a favorite around here. It is really fun to see him do the signs.

It is amazing to see how quickly he is learning things and how he is learning how to push me around! He is all about the tantrums now. He has a fit every time he doesn’t get what he wants right when he wants it. He is very demanding right now. I think being away from home for 10 days hasn’t helped so maybe we can get back in our routine and calm that down a tad. Although, I know it is part of being a toddler. He likes to take his food and drop it on the floor. He also likes to play “hide the spoon” when eating. It is so freaking cute. I will get it on video. He also likes to play hide the cup, but that doesn’t work quit as well. Today I really watched him and it is like you can see his brain processing stuff now. It is fun to watch him “do” activities with purpose.

During bath time he will put his toys away when bath time is over. Love it! Tonight I asked him if he was ready to get out, are you all done? He then did his sign for all done! So I started putting toys away and he scooted down to the toys and started putting them in the holder.

He isn’t walking on his own, but he could if he would just do it. In fact he has taken several steps on his own a couple different times, but he isn’t confident enough to do it yet. He is very steady on his feet as long as he can hold on so I figure by the time he works up the courage to actually do it he will pick it up quickly like crawling. Even though he doesn’t walk he is all over the place! He climbs and crawls on everything. While at the beach he taught himself how to climb the steps! He is a pro at it now. He hasn’t figured out going down just yet though.

I will post more about our first beach trip another day, but here are a couple pictures from the first day on the beach.