what a mess

Mommy is really getting tired of mopping every night. ha! we even have those placemats that you put on the floor underneath the highchair. but my child likes to throw his food when he's done. but he looks so darn cute making his messes.

just a few...

...short updates so I won't forget.

Graham is officially drinking whole milk as of last week. His last bottle of formula mixed in with whole milk was on July 29th. He is doing GREAT on whole milk and I cannot even express how happy I am that we are FINISHED with formula!! YAY!!! He is also not eating baby food anymore. it's all big boy food for him. sometimes I'll slide in a jar or two of baby food just to get it out of the cupboard but he really doesn't want it. he's very independant so he would rather feed it to himself. We are still working on getting him to drink his milk from a sippy cup. he is so funny about his sippy cup though. he loves drinking his juice/water out of it but when he realizes that mommy has slipped him his milk in it, he throws it down. i seriously don't get it. guess he just associates his milk with his bottle and nothing else. silly boy.

he is standing up by himself a lot better these days. He is still having to pull up on something in order to stand up but then he will let go and stand for a while. He hasn't taken any steps yet but he will walk with us just holding one hand.

He is saying "uh oh" all of the time. he dropped his sippy cup the other day and said "uh oh". Chad and I about died. It was hilarious.

that's all that I have for ya for now. i think. i'm sure i will remember something while i am drugged up on the dentist's chair this afternoon.

moving on up

yesterday was graham's first day in the bigger kids' classroom at daycare. all of the babies (i guess i shouldn't call them babies anymore because 80% of the 'babies' are walking and running everywhere and well, that just doesn't seem baby-ish to me)...dang it. now I lost my train of thought. i don't even know where i was going with that now. hmmm. well, most of the kiddos in that class are girls. i sure hope graham acts like a gentleman at all times. he does love to pull hair though.

he no longer eats baby food. :( makes me sad. number one, because it means he is growing up and number two, we have a TON of baby food left so what in the world do I do with it??? Yesterday for breakfast they gave him a chewy cereal bar. for lunch he had meatballs, pineapple and green beans. and then he had nilla wafers for a snack. i really just want to plop my big bootie on the floor and pitch a fit because i don't want my baby to grow up so fast. he won't even take more than one nap a day anymore. *sigh* *big ole frown* *tears welling up in eyes* this past weekend, I started to incorporate whole milk in his bottles with his formula. his middle bottle, i put just whole milk in it. he seems to be digesting it really well. looks like we may just quit his formula all together pretty soon. now I just need to work on him drinking it from his sippy cup. i think he thinks that sippy cups are just for juice and water because when I try to put his milk in there, he gets pretty upset with me.

graham has started to throw fits when he doesn't get his way. he will lay his head on the floor and gently bang it or he will rub his forehead across the floor. poor thing had carpet burns on his head when I picked him up from school yesterday. he does that if he is tired too. i don't know where in the world he learned that.

Ultrasound Update

Monday Graham had his 930am ultrasound at AR Children's Hospital. Both of his "boys" are definitely there and getting great blood flow. YAY!!! that was his pedi's main concern (she could only find one). They won't stay dropped though. And that can be a problem.

The ultrasound tech told us to call his pediatrician's office on Wednesday and they will have the report and can tell us what to do from there. So, I called his pedi's office on Wednesday. twice. never heard from them. called Thursday. twice. never heard from them. called Friday and left another message. waited two hours. got frustrated. so I finally called the appointment line and pretty much was in tears because I was so DANG frustrated that no one would call me back. and there was nothing that she could do. so she told me to call the nurses line AGAIN and leave another message. Every single time that I called, I was so nice. Well, the last time I wasn't. well. I was. I was just VERY STERN about them calling me back. So FINALLYYYYYYY. two hours later I got a call back from the nurse. only to be told that they didn't have the report and that the system at ACH was down and she would call me back later in the afternoon. 4:30pm rolls around and she finally called me back. to tell me that they still didn't have the report (even though I called ACH on Wed and they told me that the pedi office had it) and that she will have to call me on Tuesday but if it was something urgent, then they would call me before then. Don't you just love doctor's offices???? So that's what we know. I have a feeling that she is going to tell me what she always tells me though.

"Let's just wait to see if they drop by the time he is a year old and if they haven't, we will get Graham to a urologist."

Keep on praying for Graham!! We really appreciate all of the care and concern from all of our friends and family. It means the world!!

G did so well at his appointment so he got some watermelon when we got home! He was definitely a fan...not so much a fan of Kiwi though. It was quite tart for his liking.

one of my favorite things about spring

I love going to Texarkana to get crawfish from Shamsie's...they are the biggest, spiciest and just the BEST!!! Mom got me 2 lbs Friday night and then I had to go back Saturday morning for 6 more pounds...ALL FOR ME...mom helped me with a few but she said that they were too spicy...can't believe my mom who is asian and LOVES hot food said they were too spicy...but more for me. :) I was hurting REALLY bad afterwards. I've certainly had my crawfish fix for the year. I'm a crawfished out.

the aftermath

man, looking at these pictures is making my mouth water

Blueberries & Blackberries

We gave Graham blueberries and blackberries for the first time...and well, you can judge for yourself whether you think he liked them or not. :)

who needs mommy and daddy anyway???

lil man G has become quite self-sufficient these days...well, not COMPLETELY...he still needs us to fix his food and bring it to him but he's pretty much holding his bottle and drinking it himself. He does tend to get tired of holding it up and he will start whining which means, "mommy. help. now." Chad and I started giving him Graduates food such as the dried strawberries and bananas and the puffs. He has gotten the hang of putting them in his mouth. The other night at dinner we gave him Mum Mums which are vegetable crackers. So we just put them on his tray and let him have at it. HE LOVED IT!! I haven't let him try to feed himself any pureed food because I really don't like messes. So it may be a while before I start that.

done with his mum mums

6 month stats

Yesterday, our lil man turned 6 months old and oh how the time flies. I know I probably say that all of the time but seriously. it does. and i want it to stop. It's all happening just way too fast! I have been trying so hard to write things down that he is doing and I frustrate myself so much because I feel like I am not doing enough to remember and capture everything. With the way my memory is these days, I am so afraid that his babyhood is going to be lost if I don't keep a memento or something of EVERYTHING. i'm whack. ha! does anyone else feel this way or am I the only crazy one?

I took Graham to Dr. this morning for his 6 month vaccinations.

Stats:

Weight: 18.14 lbs - 75th percentile

Length: 26 7/8 inches - 75th percentile

Head Circum.: 43.1 - 40th percentile

He did great with his shots. he just screamed very briefly and then was over it. Dr. said that everything looked great and he is growing and developing as he should and no worries! It was a pretty short visit. :) And I love having the first appointment because we were in and out in no time! 9am appointments it will be from now on! but let me tell you, it was no easy task keeping him still on that table. that boy is a force to be reckoned with for sure. he was all over the place. ha! He was putting on quite the show. I wish I had my camera with me so I could show what the white paper that lines the bed looked like when we left.

Graham loves rolling over from him back to his tummy now. We cannot get him to stay on his back. but when he is on his tummy and gets tired, he won't roll back over to his back. he refuses. he wants mommy and daddy to do it for him. silly boy. spoiled rotten. he is really interested in his toys now. he loves playing with everything and is grabbing at anything and everything. his favorite toy right now though is his walker. he even turns himself around in it. he isn't quite doing one foot in front of the other very well though. right now, he just kinda pushes himself off with both of his feet similar to how a kangaroo hops. he notices now when chad or I leave the room. he will try to follow us with his head and darn near breaks his neck trying to turn to see us. we are still trying to get him weaned from his swaddle blanket at night. Last night, we put him to bed around 9pm without being swaddled and he did great til around 2am. He kept whining in his sleep and wouldn't stop for an hour. so we decided to swaddle him and he didn't wake up or make a peep until 8am this morning...and that is only because I woke him up to get him fed and ready for the doctor.

I love these Paul Frank PJ's that I bought Graham at Dillard's. It says "Chicks Dig Scars" and has little band-aids all over. So cute!

Tuesday night, Chad had a piece of individually wrapped cheese and he gave it to Graham to play with before he ate it. Graham took it and waved it all around and had a field day with it and did NOT want to give it back to daddy. So, Chad finally got it back and unwrapped it and put it to his mouth while Graham was watching Chad's every move. So I told Chad to give it back to Graham and see if he would mimic him. And he sure did. As soon as Graham got it back, it went straight to his mouth. What a ham! I love it! and no, he did not take a bite of it. ha! We grabbed it back before we let him do that! None of that til he is a year old.

So much else is going on in our lives that I don't even know where to start. So I apologize now because this will probably be a LONGGGGG post instead of me making a lot of small posts. I'm kinda in a hurry to get this posted since I have to see my OB at 1:45pm for my 6 month post operation check up for my c-section. I hope that is all that it is. eeeeeeick.

Chad has been really stressed at his job because his union is in contract negotiations with AT&T and they are all afraid that they are going to have to go on strike pretty soon...and strike could last a min. of 4 days and there is no telling how long it could go on. AT&T wants them to pay 80% of their insurance premium and right now we don't have to pay ANYTHING which is sooooo nice! If we were all on my insurance with the state, it would cost us almost 500.00 a month!! Please pray that it won't come to this. Also, Chad gets a raise every 6 months and AT&T wants to take that away from them as well. There are so many issues that's being discussed right now and nothing that is great. Please pray for us. I don't know what we would do if the union went on strike. So, we have been really stressed out about that.

My job is going pretty good. Since the Legislature is in session, we stay quite busy going through all of the TONS of Bills that are being drafted to give us more General Improvement Funds which means more grants that we have to administer and more work...hope they plan to give his more pay! :) Also, it's my conference planning time and that keeps me EXTREMELY busy!

I have been sick for the past week and am FINALLY getting over it. I took the day off yesterday because I just felt terrible but I stayed drugged up so I feel a lot better today. And GRAHAM IS GETTING BETTER TOO!!! I better knock on wood. He still has a little bitty tiny cough and a little bit of a runny nose but generally he is doing so well!!

Here is Graham in Daddy's Rugby Helmet.

Graham LOVES this book!! This is a fun book that the Kelly's got Graham and it teaches him out to spell his first and last name...well, in his case, middle and last name. :)
I got the proofs back of Graham's spring pictures at school and OH.MY.GOOD.NESS. They are sooooo adorable!!! I tried to scan them but they didn't turn out so good so I am just going to buy the CD from the photographers so I can make as many copies as I can. It seems to be the cheapest way to go because the individual packages are so expensive and I can't mix up the poses. and I want copies of EVERY pose! Am I a proud mommy or what?? I have been terrible at not printing all of these THOUSANDS of pictures I have of him though. I will get on Walmart.com and start uploading and then I get so overwhelmed and stop. But family, I will get on that soon, I promise! I know you all want new pics of Graham..

the pucker face

G was excited about seeing his container of food

and then he quicky realized that it was pears and made his pucker face

and then decided to spit it out and it went upwards instead of out or down. ha!

friday night, the 27th of Feb was the first time we gave him pears. he puckered up at first but quickly got over that. he gobbled them up. of course.

not a meat kind of baby...

last sunday, we all went to sam's to do our BIG grocery day at sam's and super-walmart and we picked some different baby foods for graham to try. we got him Turkey and Turkey Gravy and well....he may just turn out to be a vegetarian.

he smelled it and knew something terrible was coming (it seriously smelled like canned cat/dog food)

decided to give it a chance.

Look at those eyes begging for daddy to help him.
after a few bites, I just couldn't bare to feed him anymore of that nasty nasty stuff.

fruits and veggies it is from now on...we also gave him a little bit of white grape juice but i don't think he is quite ready for it. he had been doing so well about not spitting up, but that juice totally ruined it. think it's just too much acid for his poor lil belly to take right now.

open up and say ahhhhhh

in the last post, i talked about graham eating and opening wide for me while "saying" ahhhhh....we were able to catch it on video Tuesday night while feeding him sweet potatoes. So cute!

Sitting up...

Look at this big boy! Sitting up on his own now...sometimes he tends to fall over and topple on his head because he wants to reach out and grab at something but we have been working on it and he's getting so good at sittin up for longer periods of time! I can't believe it! He tends to grunt a lot while he is in this position because his belly is so big! ha!His new Baby Einstein Caterpillar toy

Today we tried his first stage 2 foods...mac and cheese!! He definitely liked them better when we warmed them up in the microwave. We also tried Peaches this past week and he liked those too...BUT...I think he's going to be much more of a veggie baby because he tends to make the "sour face" with his fruits.

eating his peaches and puckering up

Stage 2 - Mac and CheeseWe have had a pretty great week even though it's been pretty hectic. Thursday night we ate at Texas Roadhouse with the Kelly's. Graham never wanted out of his car seat so he stayed in that the entire time and didn't make a peep. He just enjoyed people watching and fell asleep towards the end.

Amy & Caroline

Graham passed out

Saturday afternoon, my friend Jennifer came over to visit with us and she was so excited because she got to feed Graham some sweet potatoes....i think they were sweet potatoes...or were they peaches?? my goodness. my memory just keeps getting worse. what am I going to do with myself? Anyway. Saturday night, graham and daddy had guys' night at the house and I went to dinner with some of my girlfriends and celebrated their birthdays. We went to Big Whiskey's for dinner and then had a couple of drinks at Flying Saucer and Willy D's/Deep. That trip downtown made me realize that I am getting so old when all i can think about is how bad my feet were hurting from the BCBG heels that used to be my favorite. yeah, we were all home by 11pm. ha! I had a great time with my ladies though!

today, we spent the entire day grocery shopping. first trip was to Sam's and then Super Wal-Mart. as always, graham did great! he just loves to people watch and is amazed by all of the hustle and bustle. and when he is tired, he just falls to sleep. but when we returned home chad said we must have left our baby at wal-mart because graham SCREAMED his head off for an hour.

now the baby is asleep, daddy is catching up on past seasons of Heroes and mommy is about to lay her head on her soft pillow and slip off to dreamy land. night night.

such entertainment...

...our little boy is to us. it's so much fun to do stuff and have him mock us. Sorry for sounding so vulgar in the video. I love how the video captures the many expressions that g always makes.

Tonight we tried out Squash and I think this may be his favorite so far. He barely let anything slip out of his mouth!

So far we have tried:

Rice Cereal - Jan. 8, 2009

Sweet Potatoes - Jan. 19, 2009

Bananas - Jan. 21, 2009

Green Beans - Jan. 26, 2009

Prunes - Jan. 31, 2009

Peas - Feb. 6, 2009

Carrots - Feb. 11, 2009

Applesauce - Feb 14, 2009

Squash - Feb. 18, 2009

And he likes them all. I'm so happy for that too because I certainly don't want him being a picky eater like his mommy. Now, people tell me...when do I start giving him stage 2 foods?

So...this past weekend while we were in Texarkana visiting with my family, Graham learned how to scream. We both thought it was soooo cute and funny. That was then. now, our ears are constantly ringing because he just loves to scream. all the time. just for the heck of it.

All is great with us! Graham is getting bigger everyday and is so much fun! He's turning into such a little boy and it's bittersweet! He loves to stand on his legs. I will lay him on his back and pull him into a seated position and he starts trying to push up cause he wants to stand. so I will help him up and he will stand on his legs for a good minute. his legs are getting so strong!

Below is how I found Graham sleeping in his chair. guess the tv must have been too loud for his taste.

g is screaming so i better go!