dear graham

every weekday morning, your daddy and i wake up at 6am to get ready for work. your wake up time is at 6:30am and i always rush in there as soon as 630 rolls around because i want to get to you before your daddy does. most of the time you are already up because you have an internal alarm clock. mommy is NOT a morning person WHAT.SO.EVER. but you are. you always wake up with a big smile on your face and when i come to get you, if you are standing up you start bouncing up and down. if you are sitting down you start rocking back and forth in sheer excitement. it just makes my heart flutter when you get so excited to see me. and it makes me want to just squeeze those plump chubby cheeks so hard. but i restrain myself because 1.) it would hurt you and 2.) it would make your poor eczema flair up. aren't you glad that mommy is so considerate?



you started saying maaaaa. FINALLY! after months of saying dada dada dada dada over and over and over and totally taunting me, you finally called out for maaaaa. it was music to my ears. maybe i have already blogged about this. if not, good. if so, sorry. sometimes my repeat button gets pushed...more so now since my thyroid has my memory ALL out of whack.



you are a rough and tough little boy. the first week at your new daycare, your morning teacher ms. jennifer asked me if we wrestled with you at home. we don't. but she said that you like to pin the babies down like you are in a wrestling match with them and in general, you just play aggresively. i just couldn't believe it. i mean, we have seen you pin your singing puppy down but we never thought anything about it. we have seen you play with other babies before and never have we seen you be rough. and this started to worry me. i stressed and stressed and stressed about it and lost many nights of sleep because i was so worried that you were the classroom bully and tryin to figure out why in the world you are acting this way. i finally just let it go and just thought that maybe she was just overreacting. you are a baby. you are growing and developing and you are ALL BOY. well, this past sunday we stopped in Hope to see our friends, Tabatha and Tal. their son Brady is 15 months old. so i put you down so you could play on the floor with brady. we weren't even there for 5 minutes and you were already on top of him and grabbing/smacking at his face and made the poor thing cry. after that, he was afraid to play with you. graham. graham. graham. it's not that you are doing it in a mean way. you get so excited and throw yourself on top of the babies and then you flail your arms in the air and bring them down with some serious force. you do it to mommy too. and daddy. i hope that as you grow, you will become a lot lighter with your movements. because you are a bull. a big, heavy bull. not a bully though. never.

you give me big hugs around my neck. big hugs. BIGGGGGGG HUGS. I want you to know how awesome it makes mommy feel knowing that you love me. that you need me. that you want me. gosh darn it, i love you child.

thank you for making mommy and daddy's life complete.

dear graham

dear graham,

every day you look more and more like a little boy instead of my "newborn baby" and it's bittersweet. you are SOOOO full of personality and you are so funny. I absolutely adore your personality, it's so cute. this past weekend, we went to texarkana so you could spend time with mimi and poppi while mommy and daddy went to a crawfish boil in Hope with our best friends, Tabatha and Tal Rhodes (you will come to know them and their kiddos, payton and brady, very well). you are getting too big for Mimi to carry. she tried to carry you around outside while wrapped up in a blanket and you were slipping right out of her arms. i would say that you weigh around 20 pounds if not MORE. you are such a big boy. Mimi said that you will be carrying her around before we know it. friday night when we arrived, you were so excited and in such a playful mood. you wanted to bounce and jump all around. your legs are so strong and you absolutely LOVE standing on them. i stood you up and propped your hands on Mimi's ottoman and you stood up by yourself so well. i just could not believe it.

you are holding things in your hands so well and you always play with your paci and pass it from one hand to the other and then you want to throw it. you have quite an arm on you. maybe you will love baseball as much as mommy does. daddy isn't a huge fan. daddy pretty much lives, eats, sleeps, dreams RUGBY. It's his life, Graham. your daddy was a phenomenal Rugby player. we have so many pictures for you to see. it's daddy's dream that one day you will get to watch him play. daddy wants to play Rugby again so bad. daddy wants YOU to play rugby too but that makes mommy incredibly nervous. it looks rough, tough and dangerous and I swear if I ever saw you get hurt on the field, mommy would run out there and head butt someone. and i don't think you want to be embarrassed like that.

you are addicted to the television and i am so sorry for this. but mommy and daddy will NOT let you be a couch potato when you get older. no sir. we will be outside playing and having so much fun. I always sit on the couch with you and feed you your bottle and when I try to burp you, if the tv is on, you will break your neck to see what is on tv. it's so cute as much as i think it's bad.

in your bedroom, on your changing table, on the left side is where your lotions stay and everytime I change you, you have to reach completely over your head to grab whatever you can. and then you throw it...sometimes you want to smack mommy with it. you are so curious. and you used to be so still and so good when i would change your diaper. no more. you are the wiggliest worm.

you sleep every night ALL NIGHT LONG! it's so nice and mommy and daddy appreciate it so very much. we put you to bed around 8-830pm and you sleep until mommy wakes you up around 7am. I tell daddy all of the time how incredibly blessed we are to have you as our son. God has blessed us in so many ways. you are such a good and laid back baby. you just go with the flow no matter what. you don't HAVE to be on a schedule. sometimes we have to break your schedule and you are A OK with it. you just keep on trucking.

you are such an incredibly happy baby and i cannot tell you how much it warms me to the core. you are always laughing and smiling but you do have your moments where you are dead serious and you just want to study something or someone. Daddy has this funny voice and he says to you, "Where's tha baby?" and you just laugh and smile so big. you love your daddy soooo much and I tease daddy all of the time and tell him that you love him so much more than me. I know you love me. and I love how much you love him. as soon as daddy walks in the door from work, you just light up so bright. it's the sweetest bond I have EVER witnessed between a father and a son. you two are best buddies and I just LOVE it. You have such a wonderful dad and he will do anything for you and your happiness.

I love you so much, my lil man. you are the love of my life and I've never know a purer love than this.

A lil love note to my baby boy....

graham,
this morning for breakfast, i fed you stage 2 bananas and you were so funny! after every bite, you would open your mouth up and say, "ahhhhhh." oh, you had me in stitches! I know you probably didn't know what you were saying at the time but it was just so cute! I wish I would have had a free hand to video record you.
it's a monday and we are at home together. you aren't feeling too well but act like you feel GREAT! you have been battling a cold ever since you started daycare in November and for the last couple of weeks, you have been so well! No coughing, no fever, no wheezing or raspyness...just a lil bit of a snotty nose every so often. but last night and this morning you have been coughing and again, it sounds terrible. i took your temperature and it's 101 and so i gave you some tylenol. you are such a good medicine taker. as soon as you see the dropper come towards your mouth, you open up so wide. the ladies at daycare love giving you your reflux medicine because you don't throw a fit. you willingly let them give it to you and it amazes them and myself every day. you are such a good baby and you have blessed mommy and daddy so much. i honestly can't believe how we got so lucky. i love you so much baby boy.