Asserting his independence...

The past few days in our house have been very busy! Yesterday, Jeff's brother Jon arrived from Colorado to stay with us for a week. Jon wanted his visit to be a surprise for his brother and parents, so Graham and I have been keeping his secret since early October when we started to make arrangements! It was tough to pull it off, but we were successful in shocking both Jeff and his parents. The looks on their faces when they realized that Jon was actually going to be home for Christmas were priceless-surprises are so much fun! We're all happy to have Jon visiting, even Annie who truly believes that Jon has come for no other reason than to play with her! Luckily, Jon doesn't seem to mind showering Annie with the undivided attention she thinks she deserves.

In the past week Graham has decided to become very independent in the food department. He was slowly becoming picky with his baby food choices, but it's now to the point where he clamps his mouth shut if he even see his baby spoon within ten feet of his mouth! He's taken a firm stand, and decided that he's going to live off of mandarin oranges. For how long he'll continue his citrus obsession, nobody knows. He will eat small amounts of other finger foods, but only if he's got mandarin oranges to accompany them. I did learn this evening though that Graham LOVES whipped cream. I was making fresh whipped cream for a Christmas Eve dessert and offered him one of the beaters to lick. He looked at me like I was nuts until I took a lick myself to show him how it's done. He immediately caught on, and was extremely frustrated when he licked it completely clean and there was no more to be had. I wish I would have had my camera handy, because I think there was just as much cream smeared on his face as there was cream that actually made it into his little mouth.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve....it doesn't feel like it should be the end of December yet! It's even harder to believe though that this Christmas, we're able to celebrate with our son. Although Graham is too young to understand and get excited about the festivities, Jeff and I are so thankful and excited to be celebrating the best gift ever! I feel like I say this constantly, but I still don't know how we got so lucky with our special little guy! He's simply amazing!
Graham is taking care of some last minute holiday emails!