20 months

Remember that time I used to blog about Graham's monthly milestones?

Yeah.... so I got behind.

We somehow completely missed his 18 month dr. appointment, woops. So we went recently when he was actually 20 months old.

He's growing and maturing every day. It's the most amazing thing to watch and witness. He is daily adding to his list of words and blows us away with his associations. I mean, he will think of something or see something anywhere and turn our heads to make eye contact and use his limited words to try and tell us the story about what made him remember. An example is with Uncle B (of course). There is this sculpture park of turtles and snakes etc. near B's house that he has taken G to a few times. In the bath a couple of weeks ago, he picked up his little turtle squeeze toy and showed it to Matt and said "B" over and over. Matt didn't know why he was doing this, so he just kept telling him that B was at his house. That only frustrated Graham and then he started saying "guitar" and "B" over and over. Matt finally understood and said that "yes, you went to the Turtle Park and played guitar with B" which was exactly the story that G was trying to tell him. Graham just smiled at Matt clearly excited that he had gotten his point across. That is just one example. He does this all the time. He made pancakes with Laura and my brothers last week and when I asked him if he wanted to help me make pancakes this past Saturday, he started saying "Laura, Laura, Dre-Drew (which is the name he calls all of the boys)" over and over. He just keeps repeating himself until you look at him and repeat the story and acknowledge what he's trying to tell you.

He is quite the collector. We can't leave the house without all of the following: his guitar puzzle piece, his keys hooked to his pants, his yuh-yuh, bink, his stuffed Woody, and any other small item that he may be attached to at that moment. It's soooo annoying! I hear that it's just a phase. Gosh I hope so.

He is also very into calling us all.day.long. He'll call out to me and I'll tell him that I'm washing dishes. He'll come hug my leg, walk over to the table, then call me again. It's been like 10 seconds, I haven't moved. He'll call me, no matter where we are, every few minutes. He does it with Matt too. We just respond like broken records "I'm right here Graham, right where I was a minute ago, haven't moved."

Food update. G is still extremely picky. His favorites are still yogurt, cheddar duck crackers, raisins, grapes, strawberries, clementines, blueberries, other berries, bananas, wheat pitas.... you wouldn't know that we try to get him to eat other things all the time. He does looove a chip, pita or tortilla. So we recently introduced him to hummus and home-made salsa. Who knew that the child that rejects any and every vegetable would eat salsa? Well he does. He also has begun eating cheese quesadillas dipped in salsa, PB&J on occasion, and he'd probably dip everything in ketchup if I let him. But I don't. Did you know that there's high fructose corn syrup in there? Trader Joes does sell a pure ketchup...so we let him have that on occasion. He just wants to lick it really. Little weirdo.

Ok, I think that's enough updating. He'll change again tomorrow.

At his dr. apt. we got his latest stats:

Height: 31.5 (14th percentile)

Weight: 22 lbs. (4th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.5 in. (20th percentile)

3rd Annual Reunion

I'm soooo late in blogging about my reunion weekend. It's embarrassing. My dear friends are great bloggers and were able to get home and write up wonderful posts about our time together. So, you should check them out. Traveled Road, Spoonful, and Best Laid Plans

We gathered in Memphis this year. Nell's parents happened to be out of town and graciously offered us their house. What with the pool, outdoor sitting area, amazing screened porch....and not to mention all of us getting our own bed for the first time in ages. We most definitely enjoyed the accommodations. Thank you Flemmings!

These ladies are so incredibly dear to me. They refresh my soul. We have been friends since college and I'm the odd one out geographically. So I live for this weekend of refreshing conversation, wonderful food, and long walks.

It just goes to show how like-minded we are actually. We planned all of our meals months in advance and were in our pj's snuggled on the sofa by like 10 pm. We all woke up (inexplicably) early and enjoyed a long walk. The Memphis neighborhoods are just beautiful. We relaxed, swam, talked, ate, talked, and ate some more. I was so sad to see the weekend end.

Until next year..... who knows where we will gather, but for sure we will. I love you all!

We went out to dinner Saturday night. So we had to document ourselves... since it was the first time all weekend we got dressed up and put on makeup. ha.

In case anyone was wondering.... this was a child-free weekend. My first time away from Graham, and guess what, we all three survived. I won't lie, Matt said it was exhausting. G is super routine oriented, so he was especially aware of my absence during certain activities. But they did great!

It was fun friends, I miss y'all all the time!

just a little playing outside...

So, we spend a lot of time outside.

This interaction with G and Baxter was way cuter in person. Graham was just giggling and chatting with Baxter making sure to sit just outside of the reach of Baxter's line.

We have also been spending lots of time playing in the baby pool and in the sprinkler. Now, when I say "play in" I really mean "play around." G would much rather play with the hose or throw things into the pool than actually get in. So silly. He does love the sprinkler, just not if it splashes his face. We learned that the hard way.

Oh, and he refuses to wear a swim diaper, a regular diaper, or any swim shorts. So nakey bottom it is. All around the yard, sitting in the grass, chasing the dog, waving to the neighbors... all naked.

We had a friend over to play that afternoon who also joined in the nude fun and both were trying to drink from the sprinkler. It was so adorable. However, I didn't get any pictures of the boys that were on the G-rated side.

This one of G's rear was all I got. Still funny.

gang's all here

Graham has been really into The Jungle Book recently.

So I went on a quest to find him some little animal figures so that maybe watching TV would have some sort of educational benefit.

Now whenever he watches it, he lines up all of his animals and makes sure to show me the elephant when the elephants are on, the tiger when the tiger is on...same with the bird...

He seriously loves that movie. Dances when Mogli dances and all. We think it's quite cute.

it's all about uncle B

See those keys. The ones tucked into the waistband of his little shorts? Yeah, he's quite obsessed. Asking for his keys is one of the first words out of his mouth each morning. And he wants them tucked into the waistband. Not the pocket, not around his wrist. Why you ask? Because Uncle B wears his keys clipped to his waistband.

This is maybe the beginning of his life-long quest to be just like him.

Next up: musician.

family morning at the park

We are trying to do something fun as a family every Saturday until Jackson gets here.

A few Saturdays ago, we thought feeding the ducks might be fun. So we set off with some stale bread, an over-excited toddler, and the puppy.

Graham loved seeing the fountains and watching the ducks. He just couldn't understand why he couldn't get closer and why they wouldn't swim over to us.

That is one happy dog. Despite being a total spaz on the leash, it was fun to try to include him.

fun in his own room

G is in love with his own room. It's super cute. The following pictures are just silly things we have caught him doing.

He loves to read and/or play iPhone games on his bed. Shortly after this picture was taken, he dialed Nana and Guh and chatted it up with them and then hung up abruptly. The big red button was too easy to press I guess.

He was all into having that stinking blanket draped just so over him and the arms of the chair. He did this for way too long.

Those red boots. Loves to wear them. Loves to stomp around the house seeing how loud he can be. Loves to wear them on the wrong feet. Loves to interrupt daddy while he's working to show off those boots.

He went through a phase where the lion always had to have those sunglasses on. Thank goodness we're past it now. He did think he was so funny when he lined up his animals on his back. We could just hear him squealing with delight that they were all being so silly.

sand play and fingerpainting, but not at the same time.

G loves him some sandbox time. Each and every morning, after our walk, we play in the sandbox. Then after dinner, he is so thrilled for Matt and me to sit outside while he plays around the yard.

One morning, we had our friend Parker over to play in the sand (I didn't get any good pics of both boys though, bummer.)

We followed it up with some finger painting. It lasted for like a minute. But we have G's first official artwork. It's on the fridge.

I think we'll stick with crayons and markers for a little longer.

awwww

If this isn't one cute cute pup.

If only he would stay this small and fluffy forever...