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!

Today we experienced our first earthquake! I was downstairs with Graham and all the sudden the house was moving. My thoughts went like this… is that the washing machine? no, its not on. tornado? nope, sunny outside. maybe a strong gust of wind. nope, no wind. maybe casey fell down or dropped something. nope, that doesn’t make sense as the house is still moving. plane crash? bomb? at no point during the few seconds the house swayed did I think earthquake. In fact even after the shaking when Casey and I discussed what had just happened neither of us mentioned earthquake. Not something you would think would happen here in North Carolina. Sure, I know there are fault lines on the east coast. I actually really love geology and remember learning in school how we were due for a decent earthquake around here, but I still never thought that was what just happened. Casey went out and asked a neighbor that was outside if the ground just shook and he was glad to know it wasn’t just him! I called mom, dad and a couple friends to see if they felt it too. I referred to it as the buildings moving or the ground shaking, never an earthquake. When I realized it wasn’t just my neighborhood I started thinking maybe this was an earthquake. Got on Facebook and saw a lot of people were posting about it, many in other states. Exciting day around here.

In other news, Graham has taken to pointing and grunting/moaning when he wants something which is pretty annoying. He will do his sign language at times, but seems to really prefer the pointing/whining. We are down to one nap a day, but I hate it. He is so grumpy and fussy with one nap. Plus his nap is really short so I can’t get anything done these days. It makes for a really long day. Hopefully he will adjust soon. He loves to do the Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus motions now although he doesn’t do either “correctly”. Still really cute. Mom also taught him to blow kisses which he loves to do. His newest words are car and truck which he says constantly when we go for walks in the morning. I am probably the only one that can understand him since he can’t make the r sound yet.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend Uncle Gary, Christine and my brother were visiting.

Caught him mid fall as he was playing with Maggie.

It seems like Graham learns new things on a daily basis these days. It is amazing to see how much babies learn and how quickly once they get going…. it did after all take him many months to hold up his own head, learn his name, sit, crawl, etc. His little brain is in overdrive these days and it is amazing how much energy he has, it is exhausting to just watch him. It is all new to him, so much to learn, so much to explore, so much to do! I guess as a 30 something person it is just old news to me. It is a little sad for me in some ways to see how exciting every little thing is to a child, the imagination, creativity and innocence they have when compared to us jaded adults. Sad that as the years go by that innocence and excitement will fade, but such is life I guess. For now I will just enjoy watching the world through his eyes as it is much more exciting than the world I see!

He has gone from eating pretty much anything to eating only certain items, mostly fruits, carbs, dairy and anything filled with sugar. I really can’t blame him as these are my favorites too and probably 90% of what I ate when I was pregnant. If I coat veggies with enough cheese he will sometimes eat them. Many of the foods he used to love he now spits out. I suspect it is less an issue of him not likely them and more the fact that he knows eventually I will give him the foods he prefers in an attempt to get some nutrients into him. He knows exactly what he is doing. The most annoying part (even more than throwing away tons of perfectly good food when there are literally thousands of starving children in Africa) is that he throws the food on the floor when he doesn’t want to eat it. He looks right at me when he does it with this little smirk.

Even though he still doesn’t want to walk much he loves to climb. He loves to play with the pots, pans, spoons, measuring spoons, cups, plastic forks and spoons, boxes, oh and sometimes his actual toys. He loves and I mean loves TV. He will watch pretty much anything, doesn’t have to be kid’s shows, but he will often sit for a whole kid’s show which a lot of toddlers his age won’t do. He still loves to dance and will stop playing or doing whatever important thing he is doing to do a little dancing when the mood strikes and the right music starts playing. His favorite words are still light, fan (which he says without the f) and JD. Whenever a new person comes over the first thing he does it point to a light and say “yight”. He now knows where his nose, ears and eyes are and loves to point to them when you quiz him. He is not sure about mouth so we are working on that one. He is still doing sign language, mostly more, eat, milk and ball. He has also made up his own sign for where. Today he stacked blocks for the first time which I was very excited about. You would have thought he graduated college. I turned around and there were 4 blocks stacked on top of each other and he was putting on a fifth! Until today he would only destroy my block creations and never make his own. He seemed pretty proud of himself.

We took him out to the Historic Oak View Park this morning to grab a few 14 month pictures. I also have included some pictures from our first craft experience. He wasn’t really into it just yet. He enjoyed ripping up the paper more than playing with the paints. It was fun though and after he got the paint all over I let him play in the water table to get cleaned up. I have pictures I want to post from last weekend when some of my family was in town, but I haven’t gotten to those yet. Hopefully soon.

Craft Day (clearly this is before I cut his hair last weekend):

The park today. I was playing with a few editing techniques. He loved the goats and walked down the entire fence trying to get them to come over and visit again. He kept hitting the fence which is how he gets my parent’s dog Maggie to come over and play. It was funny to see him try to call the goats over to play. I did have shoes for him, but he have very fat feet and we couldn’t get the left one to stay on so we just let him walk with now shoes and hope for the best.

There isn’t much new to report this week so I thought I would share a couple pictures of Graham with his friends. He doesn’t have many yet as we rarely leave the house most days! I am hoping soon we can start going out for more activities when he drops to one nap a day. Two of my really good friends both had little boys last year and it has been fun watching them all grow over the last year. Ethan is 7 weeks younger and Sam is 4 months younger. Unfortunately Melanie and Ethan live in Charlotte so we don’t get to see them as often, but they are so cute together. We were in Charlotte over the weekend for Ethan’s first birthday party.

Playing with Ethan’s new truck and fighting over his new ball.

A couple weeks ago Allison and Sam joined us up at the pool. Once we managed to get all our gear in the door, all the floats blown up, sunscreen on and swim diapers on we had a great time. The water felt more like bath water, but it was still fun and the boys seemed to have a great time floating around. I finally finished the underwater camera that I have had for 3 years. We took it out west for our water rafting adventure.

A pictures of me and Casey white water rafting many years ago!

Black and white expression of the week. Sorry, not my best work, but still cute.

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.

My little baby is no longer a baby! He is a toddler now and he is starting to show it. We will occasionally get little temper tantrums out of him and he is trying to see what he can get away with more often. He has created a new cry for me that sounds like his arms are being pulled off, but he is not in any pain. He wants to be held or play with something that is off limits. He is funny because he very clearly understands what he is not allowed to do and when you call his name he has the most hilarious reaction. He throws down whatever he has in his hands and “runs” away as quickly as possible. By run I mean cruise or crawl as fast as possible. I am going to have to get it on video because it is so cute.

He is also walking with one hand now instead of having to hold both hands. He has actually taken a few steps on his own when he doesn’t know he is doing it. He continues to be very cautious and I don’t think he will let go and walk on his own for awhile yet. He needs to build some more confidence first. He is very proud of himself when he walks with one hand and has a very cute little smirk on his face. He now says dada, JD and makes an attempt at light and fan. Sometimes he is closer than others. He also tries to say night night and nap nap when I say it. I always say time for nap nap or night night before I put him down. He has yet to say mama to me! He has said mama several times in the past, but now won’t say it again. He doesn’t seem to like sounds you make with your lips and rarely uses those even though he has in the past. He has figured out the sign language for more and is so proud of himself. It is the only one he knows right now so he does it ALL the time. I am trying to teach him eat and drink because he will use more instead of those. It is really nice that he can communicate to us when he wants more of something. I am hoping he picks up some more signs soon. We haven’t been doing many yet. Starting with eat, drink and more. I don’t want to overwhelm him.

Here are a few pictures for the week.

He LOVES JD so much, but JD doesn’t return the feelings. JD wants to be near us, but gets really annoyed with Graham. Graham is starting to not care as much about JD and doesn’t crawl to him immediately anymore. This was a day that JD was being extra nice and Graham was being very “gentle”.

Then a minute later Graham was doing this….. which is why JD doesn’t like him.

More eating pictures. It is just too easy to take pictures when he is eating. Good light, sitting still and lots of smiles.

Black and white expression for the week. Right after he stuffed his face full of food.

Loving on his new puppy. He loves his puppy. It is so soft.