What we do....on a Friday night.




Take a bath. Essentially, G's favorite time of day. Notice the mom hands, poised to catch slippery, mobile baby.



Practice standing. Check out how proud he is of himself. Notice also the pool o'slobber. We expect another new tooth any minute now. Lastly, so tall!

Graham loves to be outside. More all the time. We've set up a little camp in our tiny back yard- it's just big enough for 2 moms, 1 kid, and a Molly.

Part 2

Graham kept trying to stand up in the bath last night, so finally I helped him do it and then held his hands while he looked around. He smiled, very proud of himself. Then, he peed, a wide, triumphant arc.

Again, my future.

Where We're Headed....


I had a scary taste of the future today, in that G has begun to develop a will. He loves the dog's leash (it feels interesting and has a clanky thing on the end), but even the most laid back parent would admit that the dog's leash is likely coated in nasty stuff. So, after we returned from the dog park today, I let him hold the people end of the leash on the way up the steps. Then, when we got inside I took it away from him, at which point he complained. Loudly. This ability to remember something after it's been taken away is called object permanence, and it's new for us. But that's not the kicker.

I put him on the rug with toys and went to the other room to fix his lunch. I heard him chortling away and figured he was fine. When I came out a few minutes later, there he was, in our front hallway CLUTCHING the leash. He'd traveled 5 or so feet. He'd been chortling because HE HAD WON. He not only remembered the thing he wanted, but he strove to get it. And admired himself for doing so.

Then I thought to myself: welcome to the rest of your life.

SPOON!

Beach picnic: dinner edition

The three of us had dinner on the beach in Quincy, Mass tonight. It's a great spot: unpretentious, uncrowded and across the street from a seafood joint. Graham enjoyed the water, the seagulls and his cheerios.

Water doesn't faze him at all. We're taking a baby swim class together at the community center and he's pretty calm compared to the other babies his age. We'll have to take some pictures there next week.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Milestone Madness

We are having another period of quick, dramatic change here at the DailyGraham. G has been cooing for ages now (aaah,ooooh), but didn't seem to be ready for what the kid-folk call babbling (gagagadadada). What we didn't know was that this change happens over the course of about a day. We heard some gs, ds, ms, ls on Sunday. Yesterday he babbled constantly and with real emotion (especially when mightily entertained or frustrated).



At the same time, G has become fascinated with standing. He can do it by himself, if propped up. This kid has shown NO interest in crawling, and I guess many babies do go straight from non-mobile to walking. Maybe that'll be the case with us. Of course, our house is totally un baby proofed. Maybe we'll just cocoon him in bubble wrap and duct tape.


Lastly, G has hair! Not enough to really see in most photos, but this one captures it. It's growing in a whirl straight from the center of his noggin. This picture makes the hair seem brown, but the real life consensus is that the kid will be blond, at least for a while.

More Martin Family Madness

We spent the weekend up at the family Vermont Compund, where everyone, and I mean everyone, had gathered.

2 grandparents
3 grown kids (Jen, Neil, Yann)
2 daughters-in-law
6 grandkids, ranging from 7 months to 8 years
3 dogs

It was insane up there, but fun insane.

I'm reading a book about marketing and children and it has a fascinating section about board books- you know, those little cardboard wonders that Graham loves. Here's an excerpt:

Chewables. These short, sturdy, chunky cardboard books are made to wirthstand regular gumming, but for reasons of liability as choking hazards, this benefit could not be explicitly advertised. The books were never referred to as "chewables" outside of industry converstations; to consumers, they were marketed as board books. Although they had been around since the 1970s, board books didn't become big business in children's publishing until the 19080s.

Isn't "chewable" a much more charming name? Here are Graham's recent favorites, in order of preference.

Le Zebre Malpoli (The Rude Zebra)



It's small enough for G to hold AND it's shaped like an animal. We love the fact that it's a story about an unapologetically cranky zebra.

10 Minutes to Bedtime



This book is by the author of Good Night Gorilla. It's busy, but G seems to love all the animals. This book is a bedtime must in our house.

The Rooster Struts


I found this book again while I was pregnant. We had it when I was growing up, and G seems to love it. My favorite page: "The sloth hardly moves at all."

We had a local photographer come to our house a few weeks ago. Here are a few of our favorite shots. We're still deciding which ones will become wall art, so opinions are welcome.

Our comments:
I, Whitney, love the first one, because it's a great sly-Graham face.
Jen liked the second, although she's taken to calling it "the picture that comes with the frame when you buy it. Then you have to replace it with your own, much less perfect, pictures."

Ps. These are proofs we haven't yet purchased. Please don't make copies, because we'd like our nice starving photographer to be able to pay her bills. Let us know if you'd like one.

Sunday at the Beach


No matter how tightly knotted, the hat always comes off.


Working on the walk.


Sand is awesome.

Just so everyone is clear, G is not always happy. Still cute, though.

We hope everybody had a great holiday. Here, we had two big days: the Fourth (or, the day we were all asleep at 830pm) and Jen's birthday, July 5th. (Here, G feasts on a plastic cup.)

In other news:

Jen's cousin, whose name I can neither spell nor pronounce correctly (Marious? Marius? Mariouse?) has arrived to spend the month in Boston. His English is very good, so I don't have to pretend my French is any better than horrible. Graham is VERY taken with him.

Graham has discovered that a spoon+a pan= a rockin' good time. Our poor neighbors.

G is working on babbling: I hear Ms and something that sounds like heyyahiya. Whether hipster reference to Outkast or politically incorrect Native American war cry, we aren't yet sure.

We love books! Sometimes to eat, sometimes to look at. G now has a whole new batch of French baby books to explore.



Lastly, Auntie Filipa bought Graham a Mount Holoyke t-shirt (actually 2: one for now, one for bigger). Here's a shout out to all the MHC alums who read our blog (Jess Lee, this one's for you!).

Cousins! Martin Cousins!

It was a big weekend for the Goose, readers. This month Jen's parents are hosting the entire immediate family at their compound...I mean, at their lovely Vermont house. We headed up there this weekend to greet the first batch of visitors: Jen's brother (and doppelganger) Neil, his wife Nancey, and their two daughters, Mia (5) and Cami (3).



G had the best time. As mentioned in other posts, he's already fascinated with Big Kids, and the girls were pretty intrigued by him, so they spent the days squawking at eachother, trading books, and giggling.

We did other stuff, too:


G continued to master the backwards scootch, sometimes wedging himself under furniture.


G had his photo taken, along with his moms, by Mia.


G ate his first yogurt!