In your face Dr. Jarwar

Graham's Christmas present to us

At a mere 15 1/2 months, Graham decided he was finally ready to try standing on his own!! He is so proud of himself and stands there grinning at us like he has conquered the world. As of right now he is pretty content just standing there, but perhaps he will attempt some steps soon? Oh gosh I hope so.

Does anyone even care anymore?

Hello? Anyone out there? I can't imagine there is still anyone reading this blog, but just in case I have decided to update it. It's a Christmas miracle! Here is a quick update of everything that has happened to us recently:

Elliot

graduated from Georgia State (like the visuals?)with a bachelors in accounting and finance. He is now working as an accountant for his parents business and taking a few night classes to prepare to apply to the masters program at Georgia Tech for winter 2011. He is going to get his financial engineering degree (don't ask what that means because the answer is sooooooooooooooo boring).
In August we moved out of Elliot's parents basement to Decatur, Ga. and we LOOOOVE it here.

We live right in downtown Decatur which has this cute small town feel to it but is still only a 10 minute drive to downtown Atlanta which is perfect. I can walk to the bank, post office, park, grocery store and library which works out great because Elliot takes the car to work everyday and leaves Graham and I stuck at home so now we have plenty of places to walk to when we are bored. Our ward is full of Emory students so there are lots of other people our age with young kids and I have already joined 3 play groups! (don't knock this, these playgroups keep me sane).
Ok, now on to the holidays I never blogged about. For Halloween we went to our ward party and placed 3rd in the chili cook off. Impressed? Don't be. There were only 4 entries and one of them was GROSS.

We also carved this awesome pumpkin. We are so talented.

For Thanksgiving, we drove to see my parents in Indiana. It is a 9 hour drive and we weren't sure how Graham was going to do, but we had high hopes. Very unfortunate for us because the drive there and back was THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF OUR LIVES. Seriously. I am not even exaggerating. We ran into traffic which made the drive take an additional 4 hours and Graham decided to scream at the top of his lungs for the entire second half of the trip. Thank goodness for the DVD player we borrowed. Occasionally he would take interest in it and tone down his screams to a dull moan. I'm not sure we can ever travel with him again. Let this be a notice to all of my far away relatives: you are going to have to travel to me from now on. Direct all complaints to a certain grumpy toddler.

Don't let this picture fool you, this is not how he looked during our road trip.

My brother and his wife and kids came up from Kentucky to spend Thanksgiving with us so Graham got to bond with his two cousins which he obviously thoroughly enjoyed. He also loved seeing his Poppa and great grandparents. He is lucky to have so much family that loves him (remember him in your will's folks. And his parents too).While we were at my parents we celebrated Christmas since we won't be able to see them at Christmas this year. Elliot took all the wrapping paper from our gifts and shoved it inside Graham's pajama's. That's a normal thing to do right? Graham didn't even seem to notice. Last week Graham had his 15 month check up. He now weighs in at 27 lbs and is 32 inches long. In case you were wondering, no, he is STILL not walking. It's getting ridiculous. I cannot continue to haul around all 27 lbs without weekly chiropractic visits. He shows absolutely no interest in wanting to walk either. Lucky for him, he is the cutest baby on the planet so I cannot resist picking him up all the time. We are still going to work on walking though. I'll keep you updated......

Anniversary

Elliot and I met 8 years ago yesterday.

Graham's 1st birthday

Here is Graham in the $10 onesie that he can only wear once but that I had to have. What's the point of having a birthday if not to wear ridiculously overpriced clothes? I'm hoping Elliot has this point of view in 6 months when my birthday comes around :)

Waiting for the Dr. to come in. We always have to wait FOREVER for Graham's pediatrician. I keep thinking about switching Dr's but then I remember I am too lazy to do something like that. Too much effort. It's easier to spend 5 hours in the waiting room every few months.

Graham weighed 24 lbs and is 31 1/2 inches long. This is slightly disturbing because he was 31 1/2 inches long at his 9 month appt. How is it possible that he hasn't grown even 1/2 inch in 3 months???? Is this it? Is he going to be 31 1/2 inches long for the rest of his life? Am I going to have to carry him around forever? Because my arms are getting tired. On the plus side though, I'll be able to buy him cute onesies for every birthday. I feel better already.

The poor guy also had to get 4 shots so he was definitely not a very happy camper after the appt. To make up for it, we threw him an awesome birthday party and invited all of his friends. This mostly consisted of everyone he is related to that lives nearby. We're working on branching out.

He pretty much hated that hat but I loved it and insisted on taking a million pictures of him wearing it. I'm an awful awful mom.

Graham is crazy about cats and anytime he see's one he squeals and try's to jump out of my arms to get to it. Unfortunately for him we will never own a cat but I did make him these cat birthday cakes. One for him to go to town on and one for the rest of us to consume.

It didn't take him very long to start stuffing the cake into his face at rapid speed. Pretty much the same way he eats everything.

Present time! Grandma got him some p.j's. He was obviously thrilled. What kid doesn't get excited about sleepwear?

I gave him the blanket that I recently finished that I started making when I found out I was pregnant. Wow.

Elliot's gift was the best. Elliot is really into hockey and loves the Pittsburgh Penguins, so he made Graham his own Penguins rookie card. I'm not sure Graham get's it quite yet but he loved chewing on it.

The party was so much fun and I we all had a great time. I just wish we could take a decent family picture.

Happy Birthday Graham!!

Graham turns one tomorrow!! So exciting. It is so weird that he could go from this

to this

in one year! He had a rough first few weeks of life but thank goodness he pulled through just fine and is the sweetest, most kissable, giggly little baby and I am so in love with him!! Before Graham I had never been so constantly entertained by someone or wanted to kiss them all over (sorry Elliot, you lose to this little guy) or been so frusterated and at a loss as to what to do. The joys of motherhood.

He has his one year dr's appt. tomorrow so I don't know any of his stats yet but I definitely know that he weighs a ton! It is exhausting lugging him around. If only he would start to walk. So far he shows absolutely no interest in that yet so I guess I have a few more months to build up my arm muscles. He better know that I'm counting my personal chauffeuring as his b-day gift. This stuff doesn't come free around here.

Another fun video

You'll never guess who I spend my days cleaning up after.

Even Michael Phelps had to start somewhere...

While we've been away......

We've been busy enjoying summer. And by that I mean doing laundry, cleaning up the different places Graham has decided to puke and watching various TV shows recorded onto DVR (anyone else watching NYC Prep? Who are these kids?? And where are their parents??). We have had a few exciting events happen as well. A few weeks ago it was Elliot and his mom's birthday (they share the same birthday). Debbie made the most delicious steak you have ever tasted (well, I guess you didn't actually taste it, but I did and it was good) and we had a family dinner.

Elliot doesn't like cake so I made Debbie this cake. In case you can't tell, it is supposed to be a Macy's card. Debbie is a professional shopper.

Graham and Elliot on his b-day.
Megan and I put together a special treat for Elliot and Debbie. Graham's message is a little light, but it says "birthday." Are you already dialing DFAC's?
Graham turned 10 months old. Here are some of his pictures. He was a little sad about getting older. Such is life.
Isn't this outfit awesome? I found it at a garage sale. Elliot does not share my enthusiasm for it. Something about turning Graham into a girl. Does that mean I could finally start putting those cute bows in his hair?

We took a trip to Stone Mountain one night to see the laser show. It was so fun! In all the time I have lived here I have never seen it before.
Elliot's cousin who was visiting from San Diego came along with us.
And last but not least, Elliot took his boy scout troop on a 3 day camping trip. He came home exhausted and with 13 tic bites which I removed. 2 weeks later he now has Lyme Disease and has been sick for days. Oh man. We still have one more month of summer to get through.

Wanna win a pair of designer jeans?

Go to my giveaway blog and sign up to win. They are really cute jeans.

http://justformeandyou2.blogspot.com/2009/07/ymi-jeans-review-giveaway.html

My first review!

I have joined forces with my in-law sisters (or is it sisters-in-law? Whatever, you know what I'm talking about) on their review/giveaway blog www.justformeandyou2.blogspot.com. Go check it out! Next week I am doing a giveaway of the same pair of shoes I reviewed today so start following us and enter to win!

What a difference 4 years can make

Food, friends and family

We got to stay with my Grandma Joanne while we were in Portland. It was the perfect place for us to stay and I'm really glad we got to spend some extra time with her. She was so great!

Graham adored her dog Rusty, but unfortunately, Rusty did not return the love. He is not a fan of kids and would run to the other room anytime Graham was near. This did not deter Graham though, and he worked on crawling fast enough to get close to Rusty, without ever having any luck. Poor Graham. It was pretty funny. On this trip he seemed to fall in love with any dog he would see. He would laugh hysterically anytime one would come around and pay attention to him. I put a really funny video at the end of this post of him playing with some dogs.
Graham met about a thousand relatives that he never knew he had. He was pretty good natured about it and gave everyone his toothy grin. Here he is with his great grandma.
Graham and Nancy.
Joanne had a kitchen sink that was perfect for Graham's baths. I wish we could have taken it home with us.
We went to 5 BBQ's in Oregon!! We were definitely fed well. Graham took it all in stride and strapped on his bib, ready to chow down on any food we would put in his mouth.
My brother Jake and his wife Amanda.
My sister Steph and I holding our cousin's one month old twin girls!!! They were so small. I don't even remember Graham like that anymore.


Steph and her girls.

The whole family.
The girls loved Graham. You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he really liked them too.l
Siblings.
Elliot's extended family all live in Washington, so we made the trip over the border to seem them while we were there.
My Aunt Debbie and her son Olin.
We met up with one of my good friends from high school, Ben. Their little girl is only 2 months older then Graham so it was cute to see them together.

Our last BBQ of the trip. Graham did not enjoy the pool scene so we stayed in just long enough to take some pictures.
Is this picture not completely priceless??


This was such a good vacation!! I'm really glad we were able to go (thanks again Nancy!!!). It was hard to leave, but nice to come back to our own bed. I can't wait for the next time we make it out there.