Funny Story

This morning Graham and I attended our weekly class together. Each week I can tell that Graham is more and more comfortable in that environment and he is really starting to enjoy himself. Today, I believe he reached a new level of comfort....we were all sitting in a circle watching and listening to the teacher tell a story with some puppets. Graham was sitting on my lap for a while then got restless and started to move around. I didn't think anything of this, as the kids are allowed and actually encouraged to wander freely around the room. Does Graham go towards an exciting toy? No! He moves right into the middle of the circle where he proceeds to smile and wave at everyone all the while "talking" very loudly over the teacher....at 10 months old this behavior was actually very cute and I'm sorry I didn't have a camera to capture the moment, but I really hope this isn't an indicator of his behavior at school in the years to come!


Since I didn't have my camera at school today, and I know Graham's fans look for pictures every day, here is a completely random, but very cute picture of Graham.

Time to Play!

Considering his entertainment options for the morning...

Of course the toy he decided upon was on the very bottom of the basket. It took him a while to dig it out, but he finally got it!

Who would have thought that a plain old kitchen whisk could be so entertaining? When I'm getting things ready in the kitchen, Graham explores the room with his very own set of wheels.... his walker. Recently, he has decided that the whisk needs to explore the kitchen at all times with him too!

This is Graham trying to hit the camera with his coveted kitchen utensil. I got the impression that he's tired of having a camera in his face! With such an adorable subject, I just can't help taking so many pictures of him though! That and the fact that each day I'm still in complete awe that not only is he home, but that he's perfectly wonderful in every single way!

Graham and "mini-Graham"

Lately, Graham has a thing for people's eyes....mostly their eye lashes....and mostly my eyelashes. If I'm changing his diaper, he's trying to grab my eyelashes. If I'm feeding him a bottle, he's trying to grab my eyelashes. Graham is very observant and really doesn't miss a thing, so it really wasn't surprising to me that he took an interest in blinking eyes. This new found curiosity of his was cute until he poked me pretty hard in the eye. I've tried everything-moving his hand away, placing a toy in his hand, trying not to blink when I'm changing him-you name it I've tried it!

Graham has an Asian doll that actually looks quite a bit like him-giant cheeks and all! He really hasn't paid much attention to mini-Graham (Graham tries to be fair and pay his MANY toys equal attention :) ) until I showed him that not only does mini-Graham have eyes that open and close, but that the doll also has eye lashes!!!
Studying his plastic look-alike

...going for the eyes!

Showing mini-Graham "pop pop"

A nice long weekend.....

Our Thanksgiving started off with a delicious mid-day meal with Jeff's family.

Jeff's cousin, Shelly, recently had a baby so it was a real treat to meet the little doll. Seeing Bryce and Graham next to each other makes Graham look like such a big boy! I predict that next year, these two little boys will have a ball running around getting into things on Thanksgiving! It's amazing to both Jeff and I how fast Graham is growing.

After our we left the Olson's we began our journey to Spooner. We timed the drive with Graham's nap schedule which worked out perfectly. Graham slept for the entire two hour ride which meant he was in a great mood when we arrived! Graham looked like such a big boy sitting in his booster chair and eating off his pilgrim plate. He was pretty proud of himself that he was able to feed himself finger food off of a real plate at the table while everyone else ate their meal.

The chair is finally filled!!! This chair sat empty for a long time in Spooner. Then, on June 29, when we got Graham's referral picture, we taped it on the chair. Finally, on Thanksgiving, the chairs rightful owner was able to make use of it. We thought Graham looked pretty cute in his pj's and Santa hat sitting in his rocking chair.

Graham enjoyed pounding on the coffee table!

Mohawk Man!

Graham has moved onto chapter books...."Eat, Pray, Love" to be exact!

Having dinner at our favorite place in Spooner-The Spooner Market and Grill. After our difficult meal at the Mall of America last week, I was a little apprehensive to take Graham out for dinner. He was terrific though! We were actually able to "dine" rather than shovel the food into our mouths as quickly as possible. We sat at the table for over an hour and Graham did a great job! Notice the plaid shirt....that's in honor of the being up in the north woods....I felt that there was never going to be a more appropriate location for plaid flannel!

As we were getting ready to leave the lake and come home, we started cleaning the fridge out. Jeff was finishing off the leftover pumpkin pie and I noticed that Graham was staring at it. I figured that since the pie is already the consistency of baby food, why not let him try it. All I have to say is that Graham LOVES pumpkin pie! He was not too happy when I said he'd had enough. I really think he would have eaten the entire piece had I let him!

Off to the lake!

Dear Friends,

After a Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow at Grandma and Grandpa Olson's house, I'm heading up to the lake for the very first time! I'm sure my Mom and Dad will take LOTS of pictures of me up north, so by Monday, you can expect the to be blog updated with all my weekend fun! In the meantime though, here is a link to make you smile...it's me (and my crazy parents and of course Annie) getting into the holiday spirit!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9567728218
(Can you believe what a crazy dancer my Dad is? Who would have thought that the conservative finance guy would have moves like that? :) )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Graham

PS Did you know that on Thanksgiving Day I'll be 10 months old?!?

Graham Forgets His Manners...

This is how Graham greets me most mornings when I go to get him up. He's big enough now to pull himself up, and parade around the perimeter of his crib while he occasionally gnaws on the wood.


Graham and I met Tiffiny and Livia at the Mall of America for lunch today. Graham is normally VERY good at restaurants and I've never been embarrassed by his behavior. Today that all changed. I'm still not sure what was bothering him, but he did not enjoy the Nordstrom Cafe! He wasn't content in his stroller so I put him in the highchair. He started crying and repeating "up up" so I got him out and put him in the booth next to me. He quickly became bored and started emptying the diaper bag. When he tired of that, he tried to grab nearly every piece of lettuce and chicken on my plate so I put him back in the highchair with hopes of feeding him lunch. I brought his favorite foods along with his favorite sippy cup and he wanted nothing to do with any of it. As a last resort, I handed him a few puffs and let him hold the container they were in. Before I knew it, the top of the container came off and puffs covered the floor. This frustrated Graham even more because he could see the puffs, but his mean mother wouldn't let him eat them off the floor. Sometimes, trying to eat with a baby is a real challenge! It was great to talk with Tiffiny and see how much Livia has grown in just a few short weeks, but this was one exhausting lunch! You might be wondering what Livia was doing during all of this.....well, she sat like a perfect angel during the entire meal!!

Graham and Livia as we were getting ready to leave. Graham's cute outfit is compliments of his Auntie JoAnn :)

More Graham and Livia. On the way into the restaurant we were asked if the babies were twins. Other than the fact that they're obviously both Asian, Tiffiny and I laughed at that question because we don't think they look a thing alike. We were also stopped by an elderly man who asked if we "got them in China"......when we answered no, that they were both born in Korea, he followed us out of the store asking one question after the next. Sometimes the comments that strangers are comfortable asking is very amusing to me!

Multi-tasking.....9 month old style!

Graham loves the dishwasher and he also loves his "pop pop". When the dishwasher was opened and he already had his beloved toy in his hand, it looked like he was going to be faced with a decision between the two. It took him a few minutes of shifting the toy back and forth between his hands but his finally figured it out.....how to hold both the dishwasher and the "pop pop" at the same time!

Thankfully, the car seat doesn't cause anxiety for Graham anymore. Actually, on most occasions, it's the complete opposite and Graham is sleeping within minutes. Don't we all wish we could travel by car all tucked in like this?

New Shoes

I love shoes. Admittedly, I have a problem with shoes in that I feel I always need a new pair. There is absolutely nothing better than shoe shopping! It's no wonder then, that Graham's shoe collection is already beginning to grow. Up until today, most of the shoes he's worn without having a meltdown, are soft soled, almost like a slipper. This morning, I put his new "big boy" shoes on him, expecting him to cry and kick them off. Here is Graham trying to figure out what those things are on his feet and what he should do about it.

It didn't take Graham long to determine how to best put his shoes to use.....chew on them!

And here he is a few minutes later, still chewing on his shoes! He's so flexible it's almost comical to us. I can't think of any adults who can lean over and put their shoes in their mouth....not that they'd actually want to...but think about the flexibility required to do what Graham so elegantly demonstrated here.

Fun in the tub!

For the past few days, Graham has been fighting a cold. We've been keeping a pretty low profile in hopes that his cold is soon gone, so unfortunately, I have nothing too exciting to report. A runny nose doesn't stop Graham from turning bathtime into his own personal party though!

Graham's Morning Phone Call

Nearly every morning around 8:00, Graham get's his very own phone call. His Grandma Greer calls, I turn the speaker phone on, and she sings him a song. For anyone who's interested....after all her years of teaching pre-school, she's got quite the repertoire of children's songs...ask her sometime! :) Here is Graham this morning listening to his morning concert!

Up the stairs....

Graham was amusing himself with a newly discovered air vent near the stairs. I wish I knew what he finds so appealing about vents!

A few minutes later, Annie joined Graham at the bottom of the stairs. They both sat facing the stairs, while I'm sure Graham was debating what to do. Should be attempt to climb or go back to his toys? I pull him away from the stairs countless times each day and redirect him to a safer activity, but he continues to go back.

Graham gave into temptation, and with some encouragement from Annie, he began to climb the stairs. I'm not thrilled that Graham has mastered the stairs, but I did think it was cute that Annie sat patiently a step or two ahead of Graham until he made it successfully to the top.

Graham's newest accomplishment...

Graham has been the proud owner of a sippy cup for just over a week. But in that week, I don't think he's gotten one drop of liquid from his cup. Rather he's used it as a teething toy, enjoyed watching it fall over and over from his highchair tray, and taunted Annie with it by waving it in front of her face. Tonight at Target I spent a good amount of time in the sippy cup aisle (yes, there are enough options to fill an entire aisle!) trying to figure out if there was a better option for him. I made my purchase and was excited to let him try it out. I'm happy to say that, the new cup did the trick. Graham is now successfully able to drink from his cup. This new skill of his won't replace any of his bottle feedings (I'm in no way ready to give up that time together!!!) but will just allow him to have something to drink as a snack or with his meal. We do have one small problem with this though.....Graham has a meltdown every time we try to take it away from him! Let's just say we think he's pretty proud of himself!

The Wild Rumpus

Today we went on an adventure. We (along with Amy and baby Alex) decided to venture out and treat ourselves to lunch and a trip to a very unique children's bookstore. We wondered how things would go with two babies, two car seats, and two strollers, but both babies did great!

We managed to get two car seats into my car! Here is Graham looking annoyed to again be in his car seat. He soon realized he had company in the backseat though which pleased him.

Graham is studying the chicken in front of his stroller...yes, it's a live chicken. We visited the "Wild Rumpus" bookstore which has various animals roaming the store for children to play with.

This picture isn't from today, but I think Graham looks pretty cute. We took him for a walk in the baby carrier last night and as soon as we got home and got him off of Jeff's back, he sat up completely straight on the couch and just grinned at us. He actually sat in this "split-like" position for quite a while, which was very amusing for Jeff and I.

An early Thanksgiving celebration...(LOTS of pictures!)

After making it to the airport with two suitcases, a diaper bag, a back pack, a stroller, a baby carrier, and a baby, we were already tired when we arrived at our gate...and our busy weekend hadn't even started yet! I always thought airport security was kind of a pain, although a very necessary pain, but I was wrong. Airport security with a baby is a real pain. It was quite a challenge to remove jackets and shoes, make sure our one quart ziplock bags were in clear view on top of our bin, collapse the stroller and cram it through the x-ray machine, all the while holding a squirming baby and making sure we didn't leave our id's or boarding passes in some obscure location. Needless to say we did make it in one piece though, and Graham was quite the trooper. Actually, I'm not exaggerating when I say that he was the perfect traveler! He played with a few toys on the plane before drinking a bottle and sleeping for the remainder of flight. Quite the change from our flight home from Korea! The above picture is of Graham passing the time until we boarded the plane in Minneapolis....he's chewing on his Grandpa's palm pilot!

Graham is exploring the crib the hotel provided in our room. The white metal did look a little "institutional" to me, but it did the trick...at least for the first night. Graham loved to walk around the edge of the crib as the bars were the perfect spacing for him to feel confident enough to move around independently. Graham slept great for the first night. The second night was another story. As soon as he realized he could see Jeff and I sleeping if he stood up, he didn't want to be in the crib anymore. We basically didn't sleep on Saturday night as Graham repeated over and over "up up up up up up" and when we didn't respond to that, he began to scream. We ended up putting him in the bed between us with a few toys hoping he'd go to sleep. Sleeping was not on his "to-do" list though, and he proceeded to play with my hair, play with Jeff's nose, bang toys into the wall, and generally make sure that nobody was going to sleep. This should explain why we all arrived home on Sunday completely exhausted and in a near zombie state!

Loving his bath!

Graham was pleased to discover that even hotels have air vents to play with!

Checking out the view with Grandpa

Auntie JoAnn came to visit our hotel room so she could sneak in a little cuddle with Graham!

Graham wore himself out so completely out after breakfast on Saturday morning that he crawled into the pillows and just went to sleep for a nap!

Graham was an excellent shopper at Baby Gap! Because of his superb behavior, he was "rewarded" with many cute new winter outfits! He loved playing with the white ball on the Santa hat so much we figured it had to come home with him.

Graham and Duke getting to know each other....no Duke is not standing up....he's just that tall! He's a giant lab that is equally as sweet and Graham was mesmerized by him. Thankfully Graham isn't afraid of animals!

Graham playing with his Great Grandpa!

Graham playing with his Great Grandma!

Graham and his cousin Emily reading a book together.

Heading back to the airport in DC. Can you sense Graham's enthusiasm regarding being stuck in the car seat again?

Checking out the view from the plane.

All tired out after a fun weekend with lots of family. After flying home from Korea, I honestly didn't think Graham was capable of sleeping on a plane. Luckily I was wrong. Not only did he sleep, but his preference was to sleep all cuddled up with me. How lucky am I???

(To all Greer's: I know there were many camera's around this weekend taking lots of pictures, so if you have any favorites that you'd like me to add to the blog, just email them to me, and I'll post them.)

Leaving on a jet plane....

A message to all of Graham's fans: Graham will be out of town this weekend. In fact, he's leaving (travelling with his parents and two very eager Grandparents) tomorrow morning on an airplane and will be in Washington DC for a Greer family weekend. Because we'll be out of town, there will be no new blog entries until Sunday night or Monday. I know many of you check this blog daily for a "Graham fix" and I just wanted to let you know what's going on. I'm sure we'll have lots of great pictures to post when we return from our adventure out east. In the meantime though, here are some new pictures to enjoy until after the weekend.

Taking care of business in Grandma Greer's office...

Sending a very important email!

Hanging out with Grandma at work!

Exploring the Cancurables room...

He's really not sure about this stuffed chicken....