The House of Big Laughs...

Most of you know that Jen has an amazing, infectious sense of humor. Graham is pretty funny too, funnier all the time. These days we all hang out trying to make each other giggle.

Bath time is excellent for peekaboo, splashing games, and general silliness.


Nothing makes Graham happier than the swiffer, the one thing he loves as much as the vacuum, and the sight of him with it makes me laugh every time.


Jen and Graham are a perfect match. They can laugh at/with each other all day.

Walkin'

Did you know that Graham is walking all the time now? I'd heard stories of kids who just one day stand up and run, but it's been more of a gradual progression for G, as he still prefers to crawl when excited or upset. I think it takes a lot of concentration for him to stay upright, and anything distracting sends him right back down to the floor.

Poor guy's been struck by another cough/cold; now I know why parents dread flu season. It sucks. I'm going to install a sanitizing shower in our foyer. Think the other owners will mind?

Post-Christmas Post

We had a really nice Christmas this year with Graham up in Vermont. Jen's parents (Kiki and Granddad) take good care of their houseguests. Really, you should call them up and ask to be invited. Here are some of the highlights.

Graham and Granddad share their thoughts on vacuums, table saws, and politics.



Graham is more specific in his demands for books these days. I'll comply until my hands drop off. I find Sandra Boynton's book the most fun to read 5 consecutive times.


This picture captures a kid's experience of Christmas, especially the fact that he liked the box at least as much as the toys inside.



Graham and Kiki hung out a lot. He thinks she's great (as we do).

We're having a good time in Vermont, doing all the things you would expect: eating, show shoeing, chasing Graham up stairs, eating. We bought a new camera as our family gift to ourselves, and it's been great to just hang out and take photos, though I think Graham is developing a "Please, No Paparazzi" sort of gesture.

This week in photos

G is obsessed with the camera (uh, mebbee because I take pictures of him every day), so yesterday we played around with self-portraits. The result? Confirmation that we have exactly the same color eyes. Weird.



Today G.'s pal Flora came over for a play date (and to save me from crawling the walls, as it snowed. Again.). They had a great time digging through the basket o' books.




Lastly, tonight, we put Graham in his snowsuit and took him outside to meet a snow drift. He was not pleased.

Snow Day, Part Deux


Gentle readers, we've had another storm. It's not even winter yet, not officially anyway, and I confess to feeling a little wall-climby. This morning, we celebrated the snow with french toast.

Here, Graham worships the maple syrup container, an image that should warm the heart of any Vermonters reading here.

Here, Graham worships his Mommy's (Whitney's) french toast, a worthwhile endeavor (as any who've tasted it well know).

Big Snow

Jen made it home before the worst of the traffic issues, but we have neighbors who had a 2, 3, and even 5 hour commute yesterday (all drivers, I might add). Once all snug, we hung out and watched the snow, made dinner, and got to work catching up on all that sleep we lost last week. 

Our best snow day activity: dump out a bowl of cheerios; eat some; put the cheerios back into the bowl (one at a time); repeat. Totally unsanitary, but excellent fun.

The snow, seen through our dining room window (and no, we don't live in the country, but, yes, that house you see is really old, like 180 years or so). 

Graham is walking more and more. He's now really interested in surfaces he couldn't easily access before, like the table tops. Time for level 2 baby proofing, I guess. 

Thanks...

Thanks to everybody who sent get well wishes. G is feeling much better today- and I'm feeling very thankful for modern medicine.

In other news, we are in the midst of our first big snow storm. Cross your fingers for a snow day tomorrow.

Notes from the Sickbed


I can't begin to describe how badly the past week has sucked. Honestly. G's croup became an upper respiratory tract infection and then 2 (count 'em) ear infections. No one (except the dog) has slept more than 2 hours at a time since last Friday.

Funny, we were just congratulating ourselves on our awesomeness as a family- we had a great time at the birthday party and, you know, just couldn't avoid some "we're through the first year, and isn't he fantastic?" sort of back patting followed by some hypothesizing about baby #2. Ah, to be humbled by the universe. Anyway, our once clean house is now a wasteland of sick-baby apparatuses and mama detritus.

We're counting the *seconds* until the antibiotics kick in.

happy birthday: here's some croup

G was up all night barking like a seal. Turns out he has croup. A little birthday present from the virus community, I guess.

Happy Birthday, Graham

Here's what we got on December 6th 2006:




Here's what we have now, exactly one year later, pictured eating his birthday blueberry pancakes (Check out those chompers!):






We love you, Goosey. Hope this day is the first (well, second) of many wonderful birthdays together.

Your mamas

Birthday Week Happenings

Two things:

Graham is now tall enough to see out of the windows in our house. There's no greater thrill than spying on the neighbors yard, my friends.



He's got his first real cup. It's trial and error at this point (often more error than trial), but he loves to work on this new skill.

Birthday Party

We had a little birthday party for Graham yesterday afternoon. Before you go feeling miffed that you weren't invited, you should know that the guest list was limited to the under-two set (plus parents). It was a small party, which was good, because G got a little overwhelmed by it all. He did not cry when we sang, since we've been desensitizing him to "Happy Birthday" for a week.
The cupcakes were divine! They were Jen's mom's carrot cake recipe, which we chose since I had carrot cake for my first birthday. Plus, carrot cake is AWESOME. Anyway, the actual big day is Thursday so expect more birthday post surprises this week....


Before the party (clean! clean house! Cleanest ever!)




Graham went down for a nap 25 minutes before the first guests arrived, so he was a little out of it for the first hour or so. Here, he gains momentum with his present from Kiki and Granddad. In a sidenote, this picture shows the growing evidence that G has inherited a genetic tendency towards awesome arched eyebrows- inherited from me and my mom.



So. many. cupcakes.




Everyone gets a cupcake (or three)

Graham took his first few steps last night, from the stove to Jen. The stove wasn't on, by the way.

First Words

I think it's "no." He says it quite clearly. What kid says "no" as their first word, instead of "ball" or "duck"?

Thanksgiving, or, Let Him Eat Sweet Potatoes


Holidays are a lot more fun now that G is a person. I mean, last Christmas he was just three weeks old, which doesn't really count, does it?


He ate sweet potatoes.


He got introduced to power tools.



He took the photo for his first album cover.

What's Cooking

Graham's about this close to walking. He stands unassisted all the time now, with no fanfare and is at the point where he seems to want to be on his feet more often than not. He's also gotten taller, again, and looks more like a kid (versus baby) all the time.

Last weekend we took a field trip to Western Mass., which is the place we would live if we didn't live in Boston. Graham had some milk and a muffin at our favorite farm (Atkins), and we bought some sweet potatoes to make for Thanksgiving. Then, while I presented at a meeting, Jen and G went to a great bookstore and he picked out two books. Himself.

As far as talking goes, it's a little unclear. He says mamamamamama all the time. He can make the dog sound more clearly (uff, uff) and can point at all the pets by name (Where's Jacob, etc.). I swear he said ball today, while we were playing with one.

Anyway, we are on the fast track to toddlerhood here at the DailyGraham, and with the big birthday only a few weeks away, I'm stunned at how far we've come since last year, when I was overdue and e-nor-mous.

We're headed to Vermont for Thanksgiving and will post from the wilds later this week. Have a great holiday, everyone.

Here, Jen and G share a bite at the farmstand. Graham made friends with all the surrounding folk.

We tried the zoo again yesterday with our good friends, the Cowans. Graham was much more interested in the animals this time around. And they were interested in us- the zoo was mostly deserted (despite the balmy weather), and the gorillas came right up to the window and checked us out, while we did the same.

Here's our little monkey.

I wasn't kidding about the vacuum obsession....

Month 11: milestone madness

Graham did two totally new things yesterday.

Whenever he was playing with something dangerous/irritating and I would say no (so, every 5 seconds), he would then point at the knife/Drano/whatever (and smile). While he's pointed at the Gorilla in "Good Night Gorilla" for a while, this was the first time it was unprompted. According to the development folks, pointing is a close precurser to speech.

Then, later, we were hanging out with Molly and I asked Graham, "What does Molly say?" "Ruff Ruff," he answered (or "uff, uff"). So, my question for you all is: does an animal sound count as a first word?

11 Months. Can you believe it?


G is growing by leaps and bounds. He understands no and sometimes moves faster away from you when he hears it. He wants big pieces of food, so he can bite with his grand set of 8 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom). He can stand unassisted for as long as he feels like, but prefers to crawl from place to place. He kisses: sweetly, dramatically with a pronounced pursed lip and a smaaaack. His biggest love? Removing things. So, for example, if you leave your school bag on a chair, he will find it, open it, and empty every last object one by one. Actually, his biggest love is the vacuum cleaner, and, if I let him, he'll open up the closet and play with it. He's brave, too. Last night he slipped in the tub and dunked his face. After a good cry, he wanted to get right back in.

Strollers and Jobs

We never fully updated everyone about our stroller replacement (and I'm sure you're dying to hear about it). As you know, our perfect stroller was stolen in August. That was stroller #2. Stroller #3 is a light, small umbrella type we bought for our trip to Utah. Stroller #4 is a SUV-ish red thing: expensive but sturdy. Since this thing is essentially my car, I think it's worth it. Anyway, for me strollers are like shoes are for some women. It's like Sex and the City, but strollers and Sesame Street.

In other news, I didn't get the job I interviewed for last week. We are nothing but relieved; truly, we aren't ready for full-time day care and after we did the math we realized that after paying for Graham's care, we would have no more money than we do now. So, it's a good thing in the end (though my ego is a little dented).

Mostly, because now I get to spend more time with this little man (pictured in his red stroller):

Halloween!

Jen and I both come from families where Halloween was celebrated enthusiastically. This year we brought our A (or at least B+) game and decorated our porch. Graham wore a slightly too short dinosaur costume (what? How were we supposed to know we'd be growing a giant.). Our neighbors down the street had a barbeque and everyone stayed up past their bedtime.

You know, sometimes I worry about raising a city kid, but the mix of neighbors (old timers, yuppies, gay, straight, dogs, kids, black, white, and everything else) gamely eating hot dogs and drinking cider was something I was really excited to be a part of. As Jen said, "It's like we live on Sesame Street."

Note: Filipa wins the award for being both our most attentive reader and the biggest Sox fan. She pointed out to me that our pumpkin, wearing a Red Sox hat, bore the number 25, which is both our house number and Mike Lowell's number. That's awesome.

Game 3

We've filled a hole in Graham's wardrobe, finally.

Game 1

While everyone else in Boston was drinking and watching the game, we stayed up with Graham for the first couple of innings and I wore his Halloween costume like a hood. We are party gods.

A Few Things

We had a fantastic weekend last week and went to two parties. There was some fallout, however: G has been sick since Wednesday (who is patient zero? One of those preschoolers; I'm sure of it)- the kind of cold where he can't sleep. And when baby can't sleep, nobody sleeps.

Which has meant we get to stay up for baseball. Since having a son, I've decided to adopt a sport, just in case he wants to be a sporty guy. Since we're in Boston, baseball is pretty seductive. I've been reading up on things a little and watching what games I can. And though our conversations would still make a true sports fan nutso (Jen, don't you think J.D. Drew is cute?), we're getting there.

Lastly, I'm interviewing this week for a real, live, full-time, professional librarian job. That's good for every reason except it would mean putting G in full-time day care, which I hate to think about. We'll keep you posted on the situation.

First cupcake/First love
The Cowans came over today for conversation, a trip to the park, lunch, and cupcakes. Graham felt a little left out about the cupcake part, so basically panted at Mathilde's side until she began to share with him, making her his favorite person in the whole world. (Check out the frosting all over G's face in the first picture- the sharing wasn't all that successful at first. )

Still, well, big

We had Graham's 9 month appointment today, except he's 10 months (and September was such a nightmare of business we're lucky we remembered at all). We're still above 100% in all catagories- he's 32 inches long, which means he's grown 10 inches since birth, almost 50% of his length. At this rate, he'll be 15 feet tall.

Anyway, he's healthy, healthy, healthy and spent some time cruising from one chair to the next in the waiting room. Except he like to push the chairs together, then move from one to the other. Smart, huh?

Kids and Pickiness,...according to the scientists.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/10pick.html?ex=1349755200&en=51045ae881c09efb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Bedtime Photo Booth

Fall Weekend in Vermont

It's so nice to have a country house, you know? I mean, we work hard to afford this second property, and our caretakers make sure everything is homey and comfortable when we arrive. It's the perfect situation.

Here's Graham enjoying his country house (aka, where his Martin grandparents live). Now, if only the ski chalet in Utah was closer.