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.