fun with food

The other night after dinner we gave Graham his bowl to play with.  There was a little of his dinner left in there that we thought he might enjoy exploring.

I think he liked it....








What do you think?

top four

Teeth that is. 

Graham is cutting all four, that's right, all four of his top teeth.  At once.

Poor little guy, can't be fun for your whole mouth to hurt like this.

The left eye tooth broke the other day and the right front tooth is breaking right now. 

He's one wad of cranky weepiness.  Is "weepiness" a word?  Now it is.

The silver lining is that is he a wee bit more cuddly. 

Hope they finish breaking through soon, I hate to see him hurting!

my weekend

I could try and cleverly tell you all about my weekend travels....or I could send you to my friend's blog where she already documented it.

I love my dear college friends so much and am already looking forward to our next gathering.

Walking, talking, eating, porch swinging, shopping, trying on each other's clothes....the usual.

Click here, and here for a better post about the weekend.

Thanks y'all, it was wonderfully refreshing!

why?

Why did grandmothers insist on "tucking us in" when we were younger?  I remember being so nervous when my nana would come in and tightly tuck the covers under the edge of the mattress as she kissed me goodnight.

It's sort of like being buried alive.

I usually sleep with my feet hanging out of the bottom of the covers.  Is this my little way of rebelling "the tuck?"

Do you like being "tucked in?"

stupid human tricks

I can put enormous potato chips into my mouth and close my lips without breaking the chip.

Beat that.

My dad and I are usually the last ones standing among the groups, oh ok just my family, when we try this with a new bag of chips.

Sort of humiliating.  I vividly remember when Matt first learned of this little "game" that my family plays....I'm sure glad he still loves us.

9 Months

Sweet Graham is almost 9 1/2 months old so I better get this post up.  We are having so much fun these days with our little guy!  I could try and make up some profound excuse for my blogging absence but it's pretty simple.  Three words: Graham is mobile.  He continues to be such a joy and we love his energetic and curious personality!  He is crawling all over the place, it's like having an octopus loose in the house.  Nothing is safe.  He is also pulling up, so the low shelves are in trouble too.  We've had a few tumbles, bruises and tears, but nothing serious.  He's not cruising around the furniture yet, but it's not too far away...

He is eating a little more food, but not much!  Some days he is super interested and gobbles down his food wanting more...other days he spends his dinner time spitting and batting at anything I get near his face.  Our doctor gave us the green light to give him anything, so it's fun letting him try what we're eating.  He still only has his two bottom teeth, so we're still careful to give him pretty mushy food and nothing with skin or anything tough.  He's enjoyed spinach, zuccini, mango, apricot, lentils...and I'm sure a few others.  He does really love these Maple flavored teething biscuits that a friend introduced me to from Whole Foods.  As an added bonus he smells like maple syrup the rest of the day.  You know those little "puffs" though, the little cereal things that babies are supposed to looove?  Well Graham hates them!  He loves to play with them on his highchair tray but if one makes it into his mouth he gags and makes the most terrible face!  He hates the texture on his tongue!  Quite funny to watch.

Bath time has become quite an adventure as well.  First of all, he loves bath time.  We've bathed him every night since he was born because it calmed him down, so he's been used to the water.  But since he can now crawl...he loves to explore the tub.  It is so fun to watch him slip and slide all over the place chasing his toys!

Stranger anxiety has also hit in full force.  While he loves kids and new places give him something to look at, he only enjoys these things in the comfortable arms of a family member.  And even then, if the crowd is too big and loud, he really only wants me.  Is it weird that I think it's sweet?  On the days that I work, he is with either mine or Matt's mom.  The smile on his face when he sees them in the parking lot as we make the transfer would make your heart melt.  I know they love their time with him!  After a full day with them though, he is pretty clingy to me for the rest of the evening.  We don't mind this phase though because we know it'll be over before we know it.  When in his element and when he feels secure of his surroundings, he can't wait to crawl away from us.  This will soon turn to running off to play, wow!

We had his 9 month doctor appointment last week.  He's growing and quite the charmer with the nurses.  His favorite thing this visit?  The paper on the table.

Height: 26 in. (7%)

Weight: 17 lbs. 8 oz. (7%)

Head circumference: 17.5 in (25%)

We are loving this new phase in life even if it means many a tantrum and much time spent following our little octopus around the house.  Praise the Lord for his continued health!

Some pictures after church...

nope!

I feel as if I should qualify.  Since I haven't posted in a few days (more on that to come), you may still think my sweet babe is sleeping in so beautifully for me.  Not so much.  As I assumed, it was just a phase and it was oh so sweet while it lasted, but it's gone.  Back to waking up around 8, which I cannot complain about for sure!

Do we have a schedule?

Graham's whole life he's been a total schedule mystery.  He might go 3 days doing the same routine and then send me running in circles searching for what he needs...  We've enjoyed learning to read him and figure out what he's trying to tell us he needs.  Well, he turns 9 months tomorrow.  9 months. Wow.  I mean, I've officially known my little baby twice as long as everyone else and I think that's pretty sweet.  Tomorrow he will have lived outside of me as long as he did inside me.  After tomorrow the outside world will surpass me in sustaining him.

We are entering such a fun phase in his life.  Mobility.  He's crawling all over the place!  It's very rigid and robotic (are we surprised?)  He discovered that there are more rooms to the house than the den and loves to follow us and/or Mable around.  He loves the air vents, it's quite funny.  He also loves cords.  I mean...he might spy an inch of a cord under a chair and digs himself under there searching for it.  I have video of it but still don't know how to get it off the camera (hint hint Matt?!) of his crawl that I'll try and post soon.  He usually gets to what he wants and then rolls over to his back to play with it.  And if he wants to turn around, he drops to his belly and just pivots using his arms.  The pivoting move is awesome...he'll just turn in circles to look around the room.

Another fun thing he's doing is whistling.  It's so precious!  I talk to him and whistle to him when he's nursing and noticed that he studied my mouth the whole time.  So we began whistling to him and if he's not too distracted he whistles back. Absolutely adorable and pretty cool!

With this first tooth finally breaking through, his interest in food has really taken off.  He's loving green beans and applesauce mainly, but also peaches, bananas, avocado, and is sort of interested in those baby cereal puff things.  He likes to pick them up and play with them but makes the "I hate this" face when they make it into his mouth.  It's fun introducing him to new things!

Ok, so back to the schedule thing.  While he might do something for a couple of days and then play switch-er-oo on me, it's been a week and a half, so I'm wondering if this is a real deal thing.

He's been taking 3 naps a day for a loong time and I read that he should be dropping a nap soon.  His days used to go something like this:  wake up around 8ish, play, eat, then nap around 9:30.  Wake up around 10, play a long time, eat then nap around 1ish.  Wake up again around 2ish.  Play and then eat and nap again around 5:30/6ish.  Wake up at 7, eat, play, then bath and eat again before going down around 9:30/10.

Fast forward to a week and a half ago....he started sleeping in until between 9 and 10.  What you may ask???  Yes, my infant sleeping in.  Weird I know.  But he kept doing it so I wasn't about to interrupt, I like to sleep in too!  So he'd wake up, eat, then nap around noon for about 30-45 mins.  Then he'd wake up, eat, play, and then eat again and nap around 3.  That nap would last for, wait for it, around 3 hours!  Totally NOT my baby, but I'll take it!  Here's the questionable part though.  Since he'd nap until like 6/6:30, his bedtime was anyone's guess.  So....we're still trying to figure out how to help him go to sleep before 11pm.  However, with this new little change in his routine, I'm pretty sure he's also dropped one of his night feedings which is very nice.  So eating once between 3-5 and then again around 7ish.  Who knows if this is a schedule or not, but I sure do like the sleeping in thing!

Ok, I'll try and post some 9 month pictures soon...as soon as I take some.  Just wanted to get this stuff down so I don't forget.

pearly white

Graham finally has his first tooth! 

He's been battling with those little boogers for a looong while.

The front bottom two have been ripe and swollen for several weeks now and on Monday the one on the right made it's fist appearance!

So it's official, just shy of 9 months and got his first tooth.  Yay Graham!

pillow talk

The last few weeks have been really busy in our world.  Various things have kept us going all over town...mostly it's been all about who's pool to mooch.

So Monday night, after me being gone with Graham all day long doing who knows what...I wanted to spend time with Matt.

We've been doing a book study this summer with the book "Grace Based Parenting".  It is such a good book for you parents out there.  The mamas are meeting during the day on Monday with the babers and then the dads meet Monday night after work.  It has sparked many a good conversation between Matt and me as well as the other parents in the study.  I highly recommend the book even if you still have a diapered babe like we do, it's been great to be reminded that we only have these children on loan for a short while and that the foundation of Christ we set in the beginning is so important!

Anyway, I digress...

So Monday night after Matt got home from his study I was all ready to chat.  He was not.

We were all tucked into bed and ready to go to sleep.  But I wasn't tired yet...my brain was still going a thousand miles a minute.  So I kept blurting out things that I had meant to tell Matt earlier in the day but were just now remembering.  Am I the only one who does this?  After a few laughs...I started to tell Matt something and he said "oh no, ooohhh nooooo....."  I was like "what? what's the matter?" 

"I've gone deaf" was Matt's response.

I laughed so hard I almost pee'd. 

Sort of insensative if you ask me, but super funny at 11:30 at night.

I'm sorry Matt for talking your ears off.  I'll try to just call you more often during the day and tell you the thoughts as they come to me.  Even if that means interrupting your work.

cloth diapers

We use cloth diapers.  Gasp!  I know I know...I'm the last person on the planet that thought I'd be using them, so try to contain your shock.  But I love them! 

Thanks to a certain friend, I was directed to at least look into them for the cost benefit.  I kindly thanked her for the advice with the intention of totally ignoring her.  And I did, until Graham was born.  We all (some other new mommies) said we'd stick together, we'd continue to buy our disposables and throw our babe's poo away....and we did...for a while. 

But they all caved.  Something about needing to save money was their excuse.  I mean, how much could it really save?

(I was still using diapers from showers and big boxes that I'd bought while still pregnant...)

Then we ran out of gift diapers.

Disposable diapers are expensive!

So I went to this fun little store to check out what makes people go goo goo over these Bum Genius diapers.

I walked in a little overwhelmed at the many many cloth diapering options.  The sales people are so friendly though.  I've become quite the regular customer and have enjoyed their advice on many a topic and occasion.  PS, I totally want to work there...they take their babies with them and wear them while they work!

After wandering around for a long time I left with 6 of the one size Bum Genius in some fun colors to give them a try.

Then I fell in love.

I love my bum genius!  Since my initial purchase, I've since realized that I prefer the all-in-ones rather than the one size.  We've been using them for several months and not looked back. 

My initial reservations were about what to do with the messy ones (I purchased a wet bag and a little $6 trash can with a lid.)  I wasn't sure what to do with the poo (leave it in the diaper while babe is still breastfeeding, shake or rinse off in toilet when older.)  How do I wash them (directions here.)  For those that know me, you know I'm a girl driven by cleanliness and convenience.  So this whole cloth diaper thing must not be that hard for me to still be liking it.

I can't say enough about how much I love my bum genius.  Diapers are diapers, you have to have them.  But since deciding to invest in cloth for little Graham and any future babers, I've been very pleased.  And yes, they do save some moolah, which is a welcome bonus as well!

Oh, you want to see the cutie in one of his diapers?  Ok....click here.