15 Months and 10 Weeks

We had a family trip to the doctor recently. Have I mentioned how much I loove my doctor? Well I do. When we go, we all go. It was Graham's 15 month appointment and my first prenatal visit all in one. I'll start with the little inch worm since G's updates are more fun and lengthy.

I'm officially 10 weeks with a due date of August.... some time in the second half of the month. My dad's bday is the 18th, so it would be fun if the little squirt came then but who knows. We got to see and hear the heartbeat and watch it wiggle around and such. The tech said that the baby is just a wee bit bigger than an inch. Amazing. Oh, and I read that it's growing finger and toe nails this week. Seriously cool! Everything looks good. I've been very lucky to have only experienced very mild first trimester yuckiness. And aside from major food cravings and insane mood swings (sorry Matt and Graham!) I think everything is going along just fine. Someone might want to check on Matt and G though to make sure I'm not being too crazy...

On to Graham. He is blowing us away every day. His personality keeps us in stitches and I am just loving these new phases of his. Of course, we have our moments (sometimes afternoons or full days) where we're just missing each other and at each other's throats. Yes, I'm the adult and should probably maintain my head...but it's so hard! I know that I fail him every day with my impatience and selfishness. But we've come so far recently with his communication skills that I think he's not as frustrated as he could be.

One day recently his signing just took off. It's been such a smoother road since then! He signs for "more", "all done", "please", and we're working on "eat" and "drink". He is also saying tons of new words. His total list of words is: bird, dog, coco (my parent's dog), mama, dad, "Guh" which what he calls Matt's dad Grandaddy, "bue-ber" = blueberries, "bunun" = banana, "appu" = apple, "go-go" = lets go, "quack" for a duck. I'm sure there are a couple more that I can't think of right now.

He is giving kisses, high-fives, and noggin.

He knows what Matt means when he asks him is he wants to play "ani-match" which is a game on his iPhone. And he knows how to push the buttons to play the game.

He loves to put anything (read: small bags, necklaces, strings, anything that will hang really) on his wrist and then come to us and wave. He gets mad if we don't say "bye bye, see you later".

He brings us our slippers if he sees that we don't have them on. Especially if Matt has been gone, G will go get them when he walks in the door as if he knows that Matt will stay home if he has those shoes on.

He loves to throw trash in the trash can and put his dirty clothes in the basket. We're starting to show him how to clean up his toys. So far though it's just been him dumping out all his bins.

He LOVES to read and will bring us every book from his shelf as we read to him. Also, he wants us to sit in certain places when we read either in his room or the den. Can we say "creature of habit??"

We realized recently that when he would walk around the house saying "yuh-yuh-yuh" that he wasn't whining. That is what he calls his lovey. It's sweet really. I wasn't a fan of the word lovey anyway.... And now that we know that is what he is referring to, we can tell him where it is and he'll go get it.

Oh, and he does the car sound (sort of like motorboat) with his mouth as he rolls his cars around. He even lays down on his belly to roll the cars. I mean, wow, I sure didn't teach him....it's amazing what boys just know!

He is all out running. All. over. the. place. So fun.

He is taking one 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon which is awesome. And bedtime is even going great! He goes to sleep around 9 like a light (adding a pillow and a blanket to his bed was the best idea ever...). He lays down, grabs "yuh-yuh", rolls to his side and is out. He wakes up around 5 to nurse and join us in our bed (or the pack and play in our room) where he sleeps until 8:30-9. I love it! I'm a night person and really like the sleeping until 8:30 thing that he has going on these days. Of course there are nights that don't go as anticipated (like when he was apparently cutting a molar last week and woke up like 5 times...) but for the most part he is sleeping wonderfully. And we wouldn't trade waking up with him next to us for the world! That first morning smile melts me...

And last week we had a MAJOR breakthrough. He went into the gym nursery with not a tear! He loved it and didn't want to leave when I went to pick him up! I was totally thrilled. So thrilled in fact that I tried the nursery again on Sunday. One step too far. He refused to let go of my leg. So no church nursery yet... but it's ok, the cry room at our church is super nice. I'm just hoping that the gym nursery sticks. I have so missed my exercise!

Ok, so there's an update on the cub. Now for his stats:

Height: 29.5 in. (8th percentile)

Weight: 19 lbs, 12 oz. (2nd percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.5 in. (40th percentile)

So he's still holding steady to that upward curve at the bottom of the charts..... one of these days we'll get to turn his car seat around to face the front. Sorry little guy!

The older he gets and the more he learns the more I realize the huge task and blessing mingled together that is parenthood. We pray for our own patience and selflessness... and that God will be working on his heart at even this young age. What immeasurable joys and lessons we experience through little Graham. We love him so and treasure these moments with just him!