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.

it's a stare down

graham has a really funny quirk that i've noticed here lately. last week when i dropped him off at daycare, i noticed that he would crawl up to the closest baby and touch foreheads and get eye to eye with them and have a stare down. this past weekend i got down on the floor with him and he did the same thing to me. he is such a funny little dude.

graham and his quirks.

Feeling Funky

it's been over a week since i've posted anything and to be quite honest, i'm just in a funk...yes, a blog funk. i really don't have much to say. about anything. hmmmm. fumbling here. trying to figure out what to type next.

graham is saying "Duck" all of the time now. Mimi taught him that while we were in Texarkana over the 4th of July weekend. it's so cute. he hasn't quite mastered the last "K" sound but it's still precious. but what isn't just precious about this little boy? even when he wants to headbutt me, or poke me in the eye, or slap me on the cheek. it's still all precious.

he will be moving to the bigger class at his daycare on monday. i thought that was going to be a good thing since he will be the youngest and won't be bulldozing over all of the other babes. but i think i'm gonna be wrong about that. i went to visit with his new teachers and i took one look at all of the babies and well, he's still pretty much going to be the biggest kid in class even though he will be the youngest.

what else?

I'm in the process of planning graham's birthday party and i'm getting so excited!!! it's going to be so cute! we were going to go with the "firefighter" theme but decided to do that when he is a little older and maybe we can have a firetruck come to the house. so now we are going with the alphabet zoo theme. We decided to do the zoo/animal theme because we LOVEEEEEEEEE going to the zoo. we went all of the time when I was pregnant and graham has already been NUMEROUS times in his 10.5 months here with us. so it just seemed fitting. marie at autumn's creek created graham's invitations and they are so AMAZING!! she left me speechless and in TEARS!! she is so good!! She is so laid back and easy to work with...I HIGHLY recommend her for all of your custom card needs. She did Graham's birth announcements and also our holiday cards.

I'm not going to post his invitations yet. I will do so after I receive them and send them out. BUT if you are itching to see them, you can go to her blog. it's so much fun to plan his party but so stressful too because i want everything to be absolutely perfect!!

well, i guess i did have quite a bit to say.

Challenge 2 details and some other good stuff

Hey Everyone!

Some of you have asked me to let you know if there is going to be another challenge and I have GREAT NEWS!! YES!!! But you MUST get in touch with Tanna by Wednesday, the 27th of May.

Here are some of the details:

(copied from Tanna's blog)

Challenge 2 Details:
Monday June 1-August 22
SIGN UP BY WEDNESDAY, MAY 27th
12 weeks long
16 cheats (make your coupons)
Take a before picture
Check your weight before it begins
Take your inches (waist, hips, chest, arms)
Record your current size of clothing
No fried foods
No sweets
Only 12 ounces of soda per day
Exercise 3-6 times a week
We will only weigh in every 2 weeks(you will email info on Fridays instead)

Email me the following:
(tctummy@yahoo.com)
Name
12 week "pound" goal

(That is all I need to know this time. I have all the rest. You need to keep up with your weight, inches and all that because we will be seeing how those change)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



We have only one week left of our 42 day challenge and I have to say that I've done pretty good. I've lost 5 pounds so far and I have toned up a little bit because my clothes are fitting really well. For the 2nd challenge, my goal is to lose 10 more pounds...more would be ideal though! :) I haven't been able to work out as much as I wanted to especially this week. I caught food poisoning or the stomach bug one.

Thursday night I woke up at midnight and was up til 4am in sheer misery. Oh it was terrible. I don't wish that on anyone. I won't give you TMI but I certainly would rather go through labor a million times than go through that mess. I think that it could have been the stomach bug though because Saturday it seemed like maybe Graham had gotten it too because he was pooing it up. But he never threw up. I, in a way, envied him (not really. I felt so sorry for the poor thing) because I would much rather just be pooing than pooing AND throwing up. I hate throwing up more than anything. ugh. I honestly don't see how people can make themselves throw up cause it just makes me cry like a little baby. Back to Graham pooing. Oh, it was so baddddddd. He had pooped all over himself, his highchair, me. I stood in the kitchen for a good minute, holding him up in the air with poop dripping off of him and not knowing what in the world to do with him. I didn't know where to put him and undress him without getting poop everywhere. So I threw gently sat him in the tub, fully clothed and diapered and just washed away. Poop had dripped all the way from the kitchen to the bathroom. I was so disgusted. and the smell. oh dear Lord. it was the worst I have ever smelled. I felt like I was never going to get the house disinfected. I kept shaking my whole body thinking that it would make all of the germs go away. shaking now just thinking about it. All of this before 730am. It made for a longggg Saturday because that happened two more times before the end of the day. I ended up giving both Graham and myself 3 baths in all.

But we are all fine and dandy now, thank Goodness. and where was Chad during all of this fun?? working. what a lucky fellow. but you better believe he has had to change every single poopie diaper since. I may just make him change all of the poopie diapers for the next month after all of the trauma that I experienced. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

good night and happy pooping.

Updates...but Sadly, No Pictures

This exhausted family no longer has baggy saggy eyes!!! YAY!!! We all got much needed rest last night and it was sooo nice...actually I didn't sleep as HARD as I would have like to but I just have a habit of waking up in the middle of the night to check up on Graham. So I guess I never really get a full night of sleep uninterrupted. But at least I was only up for minutes at a time (compared to hours) and then was right back to sleep. Graham was soooo exhausted. He slept most of the day yesterday as well. He was making up for lost time. I could just tell in his eyes yesterday morning that he was exhausted and not feeling well. But this morning he had HAPPY EYES!!! Okay, and let me just be honest, Chad said he didn't really sleep well last night. Yesterday evening, he started telling me that he wasn't feeling well again...he's feeling like he felt when that dumb doctor that he went to said he had rotavirus. But he's calling GIL FOSTER (the dr. that I told him to go to in the first place but instead they made him see some lady doctor there that apparently has no idea what she's talking about...where did she get her MD anyway) to get an appt with him for tomorrow at 4pm. So let me just rephrase. hmmmm...GRAHAM GOT SOME GOOD SLEEP LAST NIGHT. I got good sleep when I did sleep. and Chad did not. so it is chad that still has the saggy baggy eyes. but still so handsome. :)

So...(I say So a lot and this annoys me)....SOOOOOOOOO.....Last night, we were playing on the floor in Graham's room and he LOVES getting on his hands and knees now and rocking back and forth. LOVES IT. LIVES FOR IT. Okay, I'm going overboard but yes, he seems to fancy it quite SO. Yes, I just had to throw that SO in there. he's getting the hang of crawling backwards and is trying SOOOOO hard to go forward. Chad and I were getting so stinkin excited! But then when I would get excited, he would position himself back on his hiney and just look at me and smile...so I had to stop outwardly expressing my excitement so he would keep on trying.

Graham is giving "kisses" now too! :) He learns quick. I tell him to "give me kisses" and he pokes his lips out! It's the best!! Mommy can NEVER get enough kisses.

Challenge Update: As of this morning, I have lost 4 pounds which doesn't seem like a whole lot to me but I can definitely tell that my clothes are fitting so much better. I'm also getting my ab definition back and LOVE IT!! Chad even said yesterday morning that they are looking great! Chad used to be a personal trainer so I love it when we can both get out in the garage/gym and he can work me out (that doesn't sound nice). He has had me doing these "jack knives" for my abs and it's my favorite!!! But my biggest problem areas are my arms and thighs. Boy, do I have some big ol' thighs on me! But I'm working on it people.
I'm meeting Tanna aka "the beast" (she started the challenge and lives in the Dallas area) for lunch on Friday and I cannot wait!!! I am going to give her a HUGE HUG!!! I would give her a big kiss too but she may find that a lil weird. ha! I hope that a lot of the other "beauties" that are in the LR area will be able to meet up with us too!

If you are in the LR area, what church do you attend??

We have tried several different churches now and just haven't found a church that we felt was THE ONE. We are going to try Fellowship on Sunday but for some reason, BIG HUGE churches intimidate me. I don't know why. I think it's sort of a phobia. But I want Graham to grow up in a good church. Chad and I weren't raised in families that regularly attended church. We had to do it on our own. I grew up and was baptised at Beech Street Baptist Church in Texarkana. Those were some of the best times of my life. Doug Porter was the best youth minister EVER and when he left, I was devastated and heartbroken. I miss having a church family. Please send suggestions!! :)

Well, I'm on company time so I better get back to planning this conference. I will be soooo happy when June 2nd gets here. Then I can breathe and not stress so much about it. Do you know how hard it is to plan a conference for over 600 people including legislators and the Governor??? not an easy task but I do enjoy doing it as tedious as it may be. I'm chatty Patty (or is it chatty Kathy?) today, can you tell? Must have been the Diet Coke that I had at lunch. I was going to order a water but Jenn ordered a Diet Coke and well, I just couldn't resist. Plus I had already drank 3 bottles of water so why not?? Oh, I also used another cheat today (that's four in all...and two within 4 days!!) when we ate at Canon Grill. I love their beef nachos. But I have some SERIOUS indigestion now. Okay, NOW I am outta here.

growing like the weeds in our yard

Our BIG boy is now wearing size 4 diapers. this is just ridiculous to me. size 4's are for 22 - 34 pound babies. I have a friend whose child is a year old and wearing size 4's. i've started calling graham "the beast." why? because he is a freakin beast. this baby is BIGGGGGGGGGG. I took him to drug emporium a few weeks ago and decided to just carry him around and not put him in a shopping cart. I thought my arm was going to fall off and I was going to die. by the time we were walking out of the store and to the car, my arm was shaking. i carry him around so much so you would think my chubby arms would be pretty defined. I don't know how I am going to carry him when he's a year old. he's going to be carrying me. this child is already wearing 18 month clothes. when we were in branson, all of the clothes that we bought him were 12 month clothes...well, it looks as if he won't be wearing those for too much longer. *sigh* guess we are going to have to make another trip to branson SOON. by the way, out of 9 babies at daycare, Graham is the second to biggest/heaviest and he has the CHUBBIEST thighs of them all...the thighs he certainly got from his momma!

Happy 8 Months to Graham tomorrow!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our latest shoots:

i think he is throwing gang signs again...

not too thrilled about the hat

uh oh...he sees the kitty...we can forget about him looking at the camera anymore

pointing his lil finger at sebastian...

so...my poor husband has been sick and bedridden at home since last Wednesday. He went to the dr. Wednesday morning and she told him he had rotavirus which really made no sense to me whatsoever because one of the biggest symptoms is diarrhea and he had none of that. he had a fever, weakness, muscles and bones ached, headache, nausea. All she did was check his stomach and she said rotavirus. Didn't run any tests or ANYTHING. I'm no doctor or anything but from everything that I have read about rotavirus, you have to take stool samples to test for it. but whatever. his symptoms sounded like he had the flu to me. but like I said, I'm no doctor. the only thing they did was give him a shot of phenegran and a shot of pain meds, gave him a script for phenegren and sent him on his way. so that left my poor hubby living in the guest bedroom for the rest of the week because his "doctor" said that it was highly contagious and I certainly didn't want Graham getting sick. Nor did I want to get sick either. Taking care of Graham all week all by myself was hard enough. no way did I want to do it while being sick myself. I give single moms so many props for what they do. I felt like a single mom for four days and it was not fun. anyway. After a day or so of Chad not getting any better, he started taking flu medicine and by Sunday morning, he was back to his usual self. Thank goodness. I absolutely cannot sleep in our bed without Chad in it with me. I had no one to dig my "dragon toes" into at night. and my "dragon toes" really missed his legs. :)

every morning, I always sit Graham in the living room floor to play while I make his bottle. Thursday morning, I did my usual routine and I brought the bottle over to Graham and showed it to him and he looked at me and looked at his bottle and said, "ba ba." :) I think our baby said his first word. he may not have known what he said but momma heard it...and so did Chad. he came out of the guest bedroom and was like, "I heard that!!" We were quite excited but it hasn't happened again. But I know we have Einstein on our hands. ;)

graham has this thing about constantly moving his hands and feet. he "rolls" his wrists and ankles all the time.

he still isn't crawling yet and i've decided that I am okay with it and i don't want him to. nope...I'm okay to carry him around so he can get where he needs to go. even if it does kill me.

Quickie

I forgot to mention that our 7 1/2 month old is NO LONGER using his paci. We are soooo excited that we don't have to worry with those things anymore. they can become quite the pain in the neck. What started it all was his stuffy nose a couple of weeks ago. We would put the paci in his mouth at nighttime or whenever he usually would like it and he would spit it out. So I just took it away altogether and didn't send it to daycare anymore. He surely doesn't seem to mind. I'm so glad that he's over it now rather than trying to wean him off of it when he's older and much more stubborn...

We are leaving today to go to see Graham's Mimi and Poppi in Texarkana. they bought a fishing boat/party barge so we are taking it out this weekend for Graham's FIRST FISHING TRIP!! We are so excited!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

ahhhh-kay

every night I call and talk to mimi and I put her on speakerphone so I can let graham hear her voice. so saturday while it was rainy and yucky, I made several calls to mimi because...well....because quite frankly, we were pretty darn bored. we had outplayed ourselves on the floor, in the jumparoo, in his walker, in his excersaucer, on the bed...we had played with everything that we have for Graham to play with...so on one of the SEVERAL calls to Mimi, she was talking to Graham and telling him how excited she is to see him this coming weekend and she can't wait to take him out on the boat and take him fishing...and she said (in her broken English that we all just absolutely love...the way my mom talks...it just makes my mom, my mom), "Graham, you be good this week and I see you this weekend." and as if he REALLY DID UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE WAS SAYING, he responded right back, "ahhhh-kay." Mom and I both heard it and I about did a back flip off of our couch. It was the cutest thing in the world. I really do think he was seriously talking back to his Mimi. :)

This little boy talks all of the time. Honestly, I don't know where he got this from...I CAN be a talker if I want to be but for the most part, I am pretty quiet...and Chad is the exact same way. graham likes to say "ka" a lot. that's his favorite. So we "ka" like birds...a lot. ka ka ka...ka ka ka...

he is now sitting up on his own without having to hold himself up with his arms...and then I see his chubby lil legs turn purple and it really freaks me out. does this happen to anyone else's kiddos??

Graham is also starting to rock back and forth on his knees so I guess this means he is going to start crawling soon. He already rolls everywhere he needs to go...he also likes to spin himself in circles while he is on his belly. silly boy.

So, this morning was Day 1 of the 42 Day Challenge and so far so good. Woke up (well, didn't really WAKE up since I pretty much stayed up all night and I guess it was from anxiety about today so let's say that I GOT OUT OF BED) at 5am and did 30 minutes on the elliptical and a few arm exercises. This evening Chad and I will do the rest of our strength training. I've already had three bottles of water and I am getting a great workout just from walking to and from the bathroom.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch (an awesome cereal if you don't like yours to be soggy).

For Lunch, I had a small salad.

My snacks for later on will be grapes, fat free yogurt, and a plum.

For dinner, I am cooking a YUMMMMMYYYYY Chicken Gumbo Soup...it's low fat and super good. I got it off of Baptist Health's website. It's one of our faves and SUPER EASY to make...

Chicken Gumbo Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, Diced

3 cups Reduced-Sodium, Reduced-Fat Chicken Broth

3 cups Water

1 cup Chopped Onion

1 clove Minced Garlic

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Pepper

1 Bay Leaf

1/8 tsp Sage

¼ tsp Red Pepper Flakes

¼ tsp Thyme

1 cup Chopped Fresh Tomatoes

1 cup Corn Kernels, Frozen or Fresh

1 cup Okra, Frozen or Fresh

2 Tbsp Canola Oil

¼ cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 cups Cooked Brown Rice

Directions:

Place chicken in a large stockpot with 1 cup broth and bring to a boil. Add additional broth, water, onion, garlic and seasonings and simmer for 20 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn and okra and simmer for 15 minutes. In a separate pan, heat oil, add flour, and whisk until the mixture is golden brown and bubbly. Add 1 cup of the soup broth to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add mixture back to the soup pot and whisk until dissolved. Simmer 30 minutes. Stir in rice the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

NUTRITION PER SERVING

Calories 271, Fat 7g, Saturated Fat 1g, Cholesterol 44mg, Sodium 480mg, Fiber 4g

Saturday Sunshine

today has been absolutely GORGEOUS so I got Graham and myself ready and we went walking around the neighborhood and then he sat in his stroller and watched me prune the heck out of my rosemary bush. it needed it bad!!! So I decided to wack it down to nothing. looks so much better too!!

Graham has now developed separation anxiety from me and Chad. BAD! We can't walk out of the room without him screaming his poor head off. This is going to take some getting used to because he's never been that way before. It started when we got back from Branson. I read in one of my books to play the "bye bye" game with him to try to ease it. It said that every time I leave him say "bye bye" and then when I return he will see that I wasn't gone for long and it should help him with the separation anxiety.

Right now, g LOVES it when we sing, "if your happy and you know it clap your hands." anytime he is getting cranky and is crying, we just start singing that and he calms down and is so happy. He will kick his feet to the tune. ha! We started doing it to teach him how to clap his hands but he would rather clap his feet.

Graham has been working on trying to crawl lately. He is trying so hard to get on his knees but it doesn't last too long.

When Graham wakes up from his nap, I'm probably going to take him to the park or I may wait until Daddy gets home from work.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. I thank Jesus Christ everyday for giving his life for us.

feeding schedule & stuff

I've had several friends ask me Graham's feeding schedule so I will just post it on here so I will have a record of it too. :)

I just looked at my calendar and realized that G will be 7 months old on Sunday. SEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! I can't believe it. Yes, I say this every month but good gosh!!! SEVEN MONTHS OLD!!!!!

Okay, let's get back on track...

*7am - 6oz of formula
*10am - Cereal and 6oz of formula
*1pm - Stage 2 fruit and 6oz of formula
*4pm - 6oz of formula
*7pm - Stage 2 Veggie and 6oz of formula

in between these times, I give him his sippee cup with either 4oz of water or diluted juice and he drinks it whenever he's feeling parched. ha!

On the weekdays, I wake him up at 7am...on the weekends, I let him sleep as long as he wants and he normally will sleep until 8 - 8:30am.

Sometimes, G only gets four bottles a day if he goes 4 hours between feedings which he seems to be doing a lot lately since he is getting older. I like to feed him solids 3 times a day but sometimes I only do it twice. and no, this child is NOT picky. He eats it ALL.

His nap schedule varies and he really doesn't have set nap times. It just depends on how hard he has played for the day. And he will nap anywhere. He normally doesn't fuss too much if he's sleepy. He just passes right on out. I'm not playing when I tell you he is pretty laid back and easy going. :)

So there ya have it. :)

We are leaving Friday for Branson and we are sooooo excited. We are going with the Kelly's and staying at Alpine Lodge in their Lakehouse. The guys are going to fish probably most of the trip and Amy & I are going to shop the outlets. and we will all be doing a lot of eating at all of their great restaurants. :) I need to buy some work clothes for my conference in June and Graham is in dire need of spring clothes...okay, not DIRE need since Mimi just went to Children's Place last week and got him a few cute outfits BUT I can't pass up the chance to get him some cute things at the outlet stores.

We had quite a bit of money saved up to spend but probably won't be spending as much as I wanted to now. Chad will more than likely be on strike next week for who knows how long. AT&T and the union (CWA - Communications Workers of America) still have not reached a contract agreement and the deadline is April 4th. So Thursday when chad leaves work, he has to turn in all of his stuff like his computer, badge, tools, truck keys, EVERYTHING. They are bringing in retirees that they trained for his program to do their work while they are on strike...AND PAYING THEM DOUBLE WHAT CHAD MAKES. I mean, REALLY??? What kind of d*^& sense does that make. I don't cuss and this situation seriously makes me want to curse like a sailor. ugh. So please continue to keep us in your prayers.

we are trying not to think about this whole union/strike business and we are just going to enjoy our nice mini vacation in Branson that will be full of good eating, good shopping, and great friends!!

Oh, and thank you to those that have asked about me and my underactive thyroid. Every day that I wake up, I run to the kitchen to take my medicine. I seriously get so excited about it because it just makes me feel like I will soon feel good again. I can already tell a little bit of a difference...not a lot but a little bit...but it's certainly better than how I was feeling, that's for sure.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Sorry I haven't had any new pictures on the last two posts but I am sure I will more than make up for it after this weekend.

Love you guys!

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..

can i just say....

...that having graham is the absolute best thing i have EVER done in my life??? never in my life did i imagine that I would be able to love THIS much. this kind of love is just indescribable. he is so much fun and such a joy to be around. he really is an awesome lil baby. he loves to play with his feet and tries to get them as close to his mouth as possible. poor thing, he just can't quite get them toes in there. he tries. he struggles. he grunts until he has pushed all of his food back up and out of his mouth. that big ole belly gets in the way every time.

he's very interested in everything around him. textures. colors. sounds. i love it when i have him on his changing table because if he is not playing with his feet, he is feeling all over the wall and just staring intently at it. and then grabs everything in sight. the other day he grabbed his vicks babyrub jar and threw it at me. unintentionally i am sure...well, i hope it was unintentional. maybe he was mad at me for making him wear the things that i put on him. i think he looks awfully adorable in the clothes i pick out. maybe he doesn't think so. maybe he doesn't like all of the fuss and just wants to be in his footed zip-ups all of the time.

graham loves his daddy so much and he loves it when daddy gets home from work. as soon as he sees chad, he has a HUGE smile on his face. it just sends me through the roof. i just want to fly!

he is showing so much interest in all of his toys now and it's so cute. i can definitely tell which ones he likes and the ones he could care less about.

here lately, he only wants to nap laying on my chest. and it makes me cry. he is such a sweet lil cuddler and i just lay there and squeeze him as tight as i can and kiss his soft hair and stroke his beautiful skin. and i am constantly thanking God for blessing us with such a wonderful baby. chad and i have never been so happy. so content. so loved.

i love all of his jam. toe-jam, underarm jam, neck jam. i should just bottle it up and save it. or not.

when i read to him, he seems to be pretty fascinated with what's going on in the pictures. i'm always talking to him. explaining to him what i am doing, why i am doing it, where we are going, why we are going there. i read that it's very important to talk to your babies. it helps their language skills. when i picked graham up from school the other day, i was talking to him the entire time. about his day. about my day. asking him what he wanted to eat for dinner. and he was talking back to me. ms. karen said that he acts like he knows exactly what i am saying.
and then i talk to him all the way home. and it carries on until daddy gets home. and by that time, my jaw hurts and i take a break and let daddy do all of the talking.

and he watches tv. is this bad??? other mothers out there, what is your take on watching TV? bad? good? whatever? when g gets bigger, i definitely do NOT want him to be a couch potato. but is it okay now? it sure does help when i am getting everything ready in the morning and he has something to keep his attention. maybe i should just let him play by himself for a while without the tv on. what do you think?

just some random thoughts for the day.

things about Graham that i adore...

• he talks in his sleep. i think he is dreaming. i've been looking up whether babies dream or not and in my research, it says that they do dream since they go into the state of REM sleep but what they dream about, no one knows. since they don't have language skills yet, most likely their dreams are imagery. last night was the third time i've heard him talking in his sleep so i tippy toed back to his room to catch it on video and as soon as i turned it on, his eyes popped wide open. it's amazing to me how much he is starting to talk and use his tongue to do it. it's not just a constant babble. it's as if he is really trying to say something.
• when i feed him his solids, he holds my arm with his feet as if trying to control where my arm is going to go next. i love it when he grabs my hands with his hands and tries to shove the spoon further down his throat. it's so cute. not when he starts gagging though. he will learn. ha! he also gags himself when he's sticking his entire hand in his mouth.
• when he cuddles with me. it's one of the absolute best parts of my day. anytime he is ready to nap, i don't put him in his crib, swing, chair, etc. i lay him right on top of me and he falls right to sleep. it just melts my heart. and I squeeze him as tight as i possibly can without smothering him.
• when he stares at me and chad and feels all over our faces with awe and amazement.
• his smile and his laugh. my world just stands still and i still tear up every time. i love when he is looking around a room and sees me and starts smiling so big.
• when i wake him up in the morning and I open up his swaddle and his arms shoot straight up in the air and he brings his knees up to his chest and stretches all out and his face scrunches up. his face scrunching up is my fave part.
• his chubby lil legs and all of his fat rolls.
• his cute round dimpled up lil booty.
• when he gets shy and buries his face in my shoulder.

These are just a few things that melt my heart because really, he can do no wrong and everything about him is just PERFECT! :)

update on graham's sickliness

lil g has been slowly improving. he's not coughing near as much as he was, especially at night. but when he does cough, it's not pretty. he's spitting up alot of mucus so that's a great sign. we still have him on his breathing treatments. his teachers called on friday to check on him and ms. nichole let me know that they would administer his treatments for us. whew. that's great news! i figured that since they couldn't give them medicine, that they wouldn't do his treatments either. guess i should have just asked in the first place, huh? his appetite is definitely back in full force and we have been sticking with him as far as feeding him his rice cereal. he is always a lil apprehensive at first but quickly warms up to it. more so with daddy than with mommy. he does seem to cry while we are feeding him because we can't get the spoon back up to his mouth quick enough. our lil oinker, he is. he hasn't had a fever at all this weekend but we are still dealing with the runny nose and stuffiness although last night i hung around in his room with him while he feel asleep and he slept without making a peep. no rattling, wheezing, nothing. tomorrow i will head back to work and graham back to daycare. i hope he will continue to improve as he returns to school.

mover and a shaker

ever since the last post about graham rolling over, he really found no need to do so anymore. Until this weekend. lil man was ALL OVER THE PLACE. rolling from here to there...and scooting too. he has figured out a way to get from place to place whether he is on his back or on his tummy. we are going to have to keep a close eye out on him from now on. i can see that life is about to REALLY change.

Quite the Scare

Poor Graham has been having these TERRIBLE nasty coughing spells and last night while I was in the bedroom blogging, Chad and Graham were in the living room. Chad was finishing up eating his dinner and Graham was lying on the floor playing. Graham started coughing really bad and then I hear Chad screaming. I don't think ever in my life I have ran so fast. By the time I got there, Chad had Graham laying on his arm, belly down, and was patting him on the back and Graham started projectile vomiting. Oh it was so terrible. I have never been so scared in my life. Graham was coughing so hard and was choking on all of the phlegm that was coming up out of his chest. Chad and I were shaking so hard and we were on the floor holding him and crying. But as soon as Graham threw up, he looked at us like, "Hey Mommy and Daddy! What's up? Why's everyone so upset??" It was actually kinda funny.

Laying in bed last night I couldn't stop thinking about what if? What if something would have happened to him? What if we would have lost him? I honestly don't think I could go on living. My life would be over. I have never loved so fully and so wholeheartedly ever in my life. He is my everything. My life. My true love. My heart and soul. I feel so terrible for any parent that has lost their child. No parent should ever have to go through that. I'm now to the point to where I hope he lives with us til we are no longer on this earth. I am going to shelter this little boy and not let him out of my sight if I don't have to. That's that. I am going to be a crazy possessive mother and no girl will ever be good enough for him. I am ever more neurotic than I have ever been. Done. :)

Graham has been doing better today. A little. Chad stayed home with him all day so Graham could get in a full day of breathing treatments. Our poor baby HATES it. He cries and fights it and I feel terrible because it sounds like he is suffocating. :( I wish I could take all of this sickness away and give it to myself. It just kills me to know that he is sick.

Please keep praying for our lil baby and that he will recover from all of this soon.