The Blackburn Family

I have been a slacker lately with posting. Also with taking photos and videos. It was a lot easier to take photos and videos when Graham didn’t try to grab the camera or camcorder as soon as he saw them. He used to sit or lay on the floor and I could snap tons of photos. Now I am lucky to get one photo before he makes his way over to me and starts hitting all the buttons on the camera. Hitting buttons in general is an obsession. We don’t let him spend much time in the bonus room anymore because he goes right for the keyboards. He cannot resist an open laptop. He has to hit the buttons with fury. Casey gave him an old lap top and he went so crazy hitting buttons that they started coming off the laptop! So no more lap tops for Graham.

Graham is walking now. Really walking. He walks about 85-90% of the time now. I love watching him walk around. He is still walking pretty slowly so it is still fun. I might not think it is as cute when he is running from me, but for now I love watching him walk around. He hasn’t figured out that he can stand up in the middle of the floor and walk so he crawls over to something and pulls himself up to standing. Then he walks. He looks so proud every time he walks and he is getting faster. He was going pretty good today and got a little too fast and tripped. He didn’t get upset though and got right back up so that is good. He is throwing less fits lately and his temper has been better. He is getting a little better at playing and being independent as well which is really nice for me. He has been pretty attached to mommy the last few weeks. Last Sunday he decided he didn’t want to sleep unless he was sleeping on me. At first I thought he was sick or teething since he never sleeps on people. Not even as a baby. So the first night he slept with us because we thought something must be wrong. By 10 that night I just wanted to sleep and I felt bad for him so he slept with us. I really don’t know how people sleep with kids in the bed with them. At least at this age. He was all over the place. I think he was the only one that got any sleep. He was moving, kicking, punching, crawling, moaning…. so one night was enough. The next day he wouldn’t nap either, or the next. Since I had a busy week and I just needed him to nap so we took naps together. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it a little. He was never a baby that liked to sleep on people so it was nice that he wanted to be with me! This weekend we got him back to napping in the crib. He naps much better in the crib. He would get really sweaty sleeping on top of me and wouldn’t take a very long nap. I know in the blink of an eye he will be too cool to be with me, won’t want to hug me, kiss me or look at me and smile with so much love and joy in his eyes. Can you blame me for wanting to hold on to this time a bit? He is only little for such a short time! Casey is hard core though and has put an end to my naps. Boo.

His favorite activity lately has been throwing things in the trash. I often will give him items to throw away, but he also likes to throw away any other item he happens to find on the floor. His favorite is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher and throwing them away. You have to really watch him so he doesn’t throw away something important. I have a little video from a few weeks ago when he first started this new activity. He also likes to take the trash out of the trashcan. Gross.

I also have this video of him eating toast one morning. This is how he eats most things. In large handfuls stuffed into his mouth. He loves to eat. Well, loves to eat fruit, dairy and carbs. I gave him several toast sticks which he promptly grabbed into one hand and tried to stuff into this mouth. We are working on using a spoon to eat and he can do it, but it takes too long so after one scoop he drops the spoon and scoops it up with his hands. This goes for anything he is eating including yogurt. He is usually covered in food and most of it ends up on his hands, between his fingers, on his bib or beside him in the high chair. He has no patience for the spoon. It is much easier and faster to use his hands to scoop food. He eats like he hasn’t eaten in days and isn’t sure where or when his next meal might be arriving. It is amazing he hasn’t choked yet considering how much food he stuffs in his mouth!!

This past week I volunteered and shopped at a consignment sale in Wake Forest so we are pretty well set on clothes for this fall. At least I hope we are! The biggest problem is shoes. Finding shoes that fit him is pretty much impossible. I think it is time to just invest in a good pair of shoes from Stride Rite. Once I know his size in their shoes I can be on the lookout for more at sales and consignment stores, but I think first I need to have him sized and have at least one good pair in the closet. I am also trying to find some athletic shoes for myself. I am going to some stroller stride classes and my shoes are so old. Like I bought them in college old. Seriously. They are just so expensive and ugly. I hate athletic shoes. I hate shoes that cover my toes in general, but with winter coming I won’t be able to walk in my Merrells anymore. Again, I think I need to just suck it up and go to some professionals to get a good shoe that fits well and works with my foot and the way I walk, however that is I have no clue. Considering I get shoes every 10-15 years it is probably worth the money to get a good pair. I hate the pair I have now and they really hurt my feet. Perhaps because they are 10 plus years old and have no support. My toes hurt just thinking about being cramped up in those stupid shoes.

Graham, mom and I spent last weekend in Pennsylvania. The trip up was pretty crappy and it rained A LOT! We got stuck in a lot of traffic in DC as usual, made worse by all the rain. Graham did good though and hung in there pretty well even though he was clearly ready to get out. He enjoyed saying “tuck” (truck) over and over. It was funny because he would put his hands on the car seat snap and then do the all done sign. He did this many times and got very annoyed that we weren’t letting him out of the car seat. Here is a picture of him riding around with Uncle Ned. Make sure you check out the grip he has on his shirt!

As usual Graham had a hard time napping and sleeping while we were away. In his defense it is pretty loud there and there was a lot of construction going on while we were visiting. By Sunday he was pretty tired. We took him to a graveyard that I needed to visit quickly (family tree research) and he didn’t want to walk around. He kept sitting on all the grave markers! On the way back to the house he fell asleep in the car!! I know to most of you this isn’t a big deal, but my child NEVER and I mean never falls asleep in the car. Even on long trips he sleeps about 30-45 minutes tops. He never falls asleep while running errands. Not even as a baby when he was supposed to “sleep all the time”. So I had to grab a couple pictures since this never ever happens. I put him down when we got back to the house, but he refused to sleep so I tried an hour later and he slept for 2.5 hours. Guess he was pretty worn out from all that not sleeping.

He looks just like Casey to me in the last one.

It is fun to see him learning so many new things and trying to say words. You can tell he is trying to say the words we say even though he can’t make all the sounds yet. He says several words now, but like I said in previous posts I am most likely the only one that understands them. He also love to imitate sounds and try to make animal sounds. He is walking more the last few days, but still wants to crawl a lot. He will often come over and take my hand so I can walk with him. I will try to have more photos next week!

Taking pictures of Graham has become very difficult lately. He could care less about sitting pretty and looking at the camera. Plus when he sees the camera he crawls right for it before I can even snap a picture! Since he refuses to walk when I take him outside he crawls everywhere and you can’t get many cute pictures of a baby crawling since they are usually looking down. I tried several times this weekend to get some pictures of him and this is the best I could do for now. I will try to add more if I can get some more and I also have a couple cute videos if I can find the time to edit them. There isn’t much new with Graham. His favorite words are still JD, light, car and truck. Although I am pretty much the only one that knows what he is saying. He has given up his glow worm already. Probably since I went out and got a back up at the last consignment sale. A couple months ago he would not go to bed without it and if the battery died he would scream until it was fixed. In the past week or so he has stopped playing the music when he goes to bed and when he gets up. Makes me a little sad. It was really cute watching him turn it on when he was falling asleep.

There isn’t much else going on around here. Still hot and humid which makes doing any outside activities difficult. My yard is a mess. I am really tempted to go get some plants on sale, but seems like I don’t have time anymore to water them and they all end up dying. There are several projects in the yard and around the house I would like to do, but I just don’t have the energy for it anymore. Plus they all cost money and apparently I can’t get that to grow on trees either.

Playing in the dirt and rocks in our backyard. He tried to eat several of the rocks.

Flying!