Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Today we got to help my Dad celebrate his birthday! We went out for a birthday dinner and Graham was very vocal regarding his displeasure when we wouldn't allow him the use of the knives or straws. I am soooo looking forward to Graham's vocabulary expanding so his frustration level goes down regarding communication or lack of communication. When Graham is having trouble getting his point across his likes to scream which is what we've been dealing with lately. Later in the evening when it finally came time to open up the birthday gifts, Graham had fun delivering them...some he even decided to tear open himself!

Graham worked very hard this afternoon to add his own personal touches to his Grandpa's birthday card-think scribbles and Elmo stickers! Here is Graham displaying his artistic talent...

Hanging out with Grandpa

Before Graham had the chance to help his Grandpa open his presents, we had a very important stop to make. This evening was Graham's open house for school! Two weeks from today Graham returns to school. It was kind of sad to walk past his "baby" classroom from last year and continue down the hall to the classroom for toddlers. My little guy is growing so fast! There is one main difference in the way his class will be structured this year. Parents and children will be together for about 30 minutes, and for the remaining hour, the parents go into an adjoining classroom for parent education while the children remain with their own teacher and classroom aides. I've been assured that the door between the two classroom sections remains open, there is a giant viewing window, and the children are allowed to come in to "visit" for comfort. Even with all this knowledge, I've been wondering how Graham would do with this separation. Judging by his reaction this evening though, I have absolutely nothing to worry about. As soon as we stopped in the doorway to meet Graham's teacher, he took off into the crown and got busy playing. He didn't care that the room was full of strangers, all he cared about was a room full of new toys! As he grows, he's asserting his confidence and independence more and more each day!

Driving the "bus"

That's Graham waaay inside the house...

Still inside the house....let's just say we had a mini battle to get him out!

A trip to the Minnesota State Fair!

The Minnesota State fair is a pretty big deal around here, and during the two weeks that it runs, nearly everyone in the area will pay a visit at some point. Today it was Graham's turn to attend the "Great Minnesota Get-together" and he loved it! Each year Jeff makes it his personal mission to eat his way through the event sampling as many different varieties of food as possible, and tot surprisingly, Graham followed suit. Take a look at all of the different foods Graham had the opportunity to dine on!

First, he had some "Nitro Ice Cream"

Then, he shared a vanilla malt with Grandma

Cookies are the best!

Thrilled with his very own pronto pup!

Italian bread sticks with cheese and marinara sauce

It doesn't get any better than grilled corn on the cob

"Look Mom, no hands!"

Lefse with cinnamon and sugar

After the lefse, we thought that Graham must be thirsty and offered him a juice box. BIG MISTAKE! He guzzled it down immediately and not more than 2 minutes later, up it all came....right into my hands! Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood! Graham apparently wasn't phased by the fact that his juice came up, and immediately began asking for more cookies. Ummmm, I don't think so!


I suppose I should mention the fact that we did more than just eat at the fair today. We did stop to see some pretty cute animals as well!

Graham becoming acquainted with a piglet.

Graham was a bit stunned by the size of this beautiful horse!

My meat loving boys...

Graham was visibly agitated at dinner this evening. On his plate was chicken cut up into bite size pieces and on Jeff's plate, was an entire drum stick. Since Graham desperately wants to be a "big boy" it didn't take us long to realize that he wanted to eat his chicken just like Daddy was eating his chicken. So, we handed Graham a drum stick and let him go to town!

Family Dinner

This evening we had a family dinner at the Olson's. My parents, as well as Jeff's Aunt Maureen and Uncle Michael also joined us. Before our meal, Graham enjoyed running around the very open floor plan and trying to gently handle all the "breakables"! No meal is complete for Graham until at least a few pieces of food have hit the ground, and tonight was no exception. Food is such an issue for him-unless it's just the three of us at home having a quiet meal, we should not plan on Graham eating too much. Interestingly enough, he has no problem with fruit or desserts. How is it possible for such a little guy to have such strong opinions?

Sharing pineapple with Great Uncle Michael

Checking out the other end of the table. At home, Graham eats in a booster seat at the table, so he wasn't too thrilled with being strapped into a highchair and spent a good amount of time trying to get out. It's a highchair with history though (it was Jeff's), so we continue to use it!

Where's Graham?

Playing Peekaboo with Halmoni (Korean word for Grandma)!

The Next Food Network Star

We've been in the market for a play kitchen for a while now. When Graham and I attended our ECFE classes during the school year, he, like every single one of his classmates, was drawn the the miniature kitchen. It's been a challenge for us to find one that A)wouldn't take up half of our living space B)didn't look too girly and C)was a good price. Today our search ended and Graham finally has his very own kitchen. I might even suggest that it's nicer than our real kitchen! With its "stainless" appliances and "granite" counter tops, it's actually pretty trendy!

The first video is of Graham discovering his new toy. I had a strong hunch that Graham would have a cute reaction to seeing his kitchen for the very first time. So, I was ready and waiting with the camera...

In the second video, Graham is cooking up a storm!

Back home safe and sound (and completely exhausted!)...

Our Colorado adventure is over and now we're back home. We stayed at the Broadmoor
which was quite a treat and a resort everyone should try to experience at least once! Graham apparently loved the place so much that he didn't want to sleep at night for fear of missing something. Seriously, Graham had the worst time sleeping while we were gone. Since the nights were so rough for him (and the rest of his family), his days were difficult too, due to sheer exhaustion. Graham made it very clear while we were gone that he missed his Daddy immensely as he called out for him several times a day. I definitely think Graham does best when we travel as a family unit-he seems pretty out of sorts when he doesn't have both Mama and Dada around!

Getting settled into our room. What more could a boy want than the remote, a very comfortable bed, and a snack-trap full of snacks!

I don't know how many times I told Graham that the toilet paper was not a toy and that he was to leave it alone. When I caught him this time, he immediately began wiping his nose with it-like he was going to fool me into thinking there was actually a purpose to enrolling an entire roll!

During the day my Dad attended business meetings (aka Golf) and my Mom and I did lots of exploring and hiking. We spent our evenings hanging out with Jeff's brother Jon and his sweet fiance Catherine though! Graham immediately took to both of them and they in return were very patient as we all tried to cope with Graham's moody, tired, typical toddler behavior.

Eating fortune cookies with Uncle Jon and Catherine (soon to be Auntie Catherine!)



Hiking in Garden of the Gods

We finally came to a point in the hike that didn't have a steep drop-off so Graham had the opportunity to explore on foot

Hiking is very tiring!

Despite the cool weather, we decided to brave the pool one evening. Uncle Jon and Graham had fun in the water together!

Our last adventure of the trip was exploring the area zoo. I can't say that I've been to too many zoo's around the country, but this one has to have the most picturesque location! It's actually built into the mountain and requires elevators to view the different exhibits as they're basically stacked on top of each other! The view of the mountains was spectacular and alone would have been worth the trip!

Feeding the giraffes- Graham was a bit apprehensive about his long, black tongue!

Much happier checking out the giraffe's from this vantage point

Riding the Tot Train. I really couldn't tell if Graham was enjoying himself...until it was time to get off...

Apparently Graham was not ready for his train ride to end!

Graham did a great job on both flights this trip. On the way home we even got to sit in first class which allowed Graham quite a bit of room to spread out his toys. I will say though, that I doubt Graham will ever be invited back into First Class. You'll probably notice that once on the plane, Graham is not wearing pants....There was a bit of an "issue" and due to poor planning on my part, I had nothing else to change him into. I've learned my lesson!

Getting ready to board the plane to head home. How cute is his little backpack?

He may not be wearing pants, but he is in a great mood! On a plane, I'll take a happy baby without pants any day over a screaming baby who happens to be fully clothed!

Do I look stylish in these?

Graham's first ice cream cone...

In honor of completing another milestone on the road to bringing home our little girl (details on the Princess Olson blog) we headed out this evening to celebrate. It was a perfect night so we headed to a restaurant right on the lake so we could enjoy the evening. Unfortunately the restaurant was packed, so we had some time to kill until we were seated. Luckily, with all the boats and ducks to check out, keeping Graham entertained was a piece of cake.

Checking out the boats with Daddy

After dinner, getting some ice cream sounded like a great idea. If it were up to me, I'd live off of ice cream, and the fact that we were in fact celebrating this evening, helped me justify this indulgence. Graham has had ice cream on many occasions, but this evening, for the very first time, we let him have his very own cone of frozen vanilla custard. He was thrilled to say the least!

Could he be any happier?

On a completely different note, Graham and I are heading off to Colorado with my parents (unfortunately Jeff is unable to come with because of it being a busy time at work) for a few days. We're looking forward to spending lots of time at the pool (we're hoping for sunny, warm weather) and also catching up with Graham's Uncle Jon and his fiance Catherine. We'll be back mid-week, and although I'll be taking lots of pictures, I'm going to take a blogging break while we're away. Stay tuned for pictures of Graham's first mountain adventure when we return home!

Monkey boy is back...

In the past few days, Graham has taken his climbing abilities to new heights. He's figured out how to climb onto the couch and proudly clap for himself when he accomplishes his task. I've also caught him moving dining room table chairs around the kitchen so he's able to climb up and retrieve off limit objects from the counter. He's also been working really hard on successfully climbing up onto our red suede chair. He's able to do it about half the time and the other half of the time he ends up in some strange contorted position yelling for help. So although it might seem strange in this video to hear us actually encouraging him to climb, I'd rather him be able climb safely than get hurt. I've had to accept that there's no stopping our monkey boy!

A jam-packed day!

We certainly know how to keep busy during the day! We headed out bright and early this morning to meet up with Amy and Alex at Underwater World at the Mall of America. It was breakfast time for the fish and turtles so Graham and Alex were very entertained by all the activity. Soon after though, the fish lost their appeal. Alex became distracted by her hungry tummy and Graham decided to amuse himself with the buckles on his stroller. After taking a quick lap around the mall, we decided it was time for lunch. Both kids did such a good job with their dining manners, that they even received a compliment as we were finishing up!


This evening we enjoyed dinner with my family and some family friends. Graham was all smiles for his fans and enjoyed showing off his knowledge of body parts and animal noises. If Graham could talk, I believe he would say the highlight of his evening was being allowed to dig in a giant pot of dirt with a long stick...it really doesn't get any more "boy" than Graham!

Sitting at the table like a big boy!

Enjoying watermelon compliments of Linda

After dinner we took a boat ride on the river-what a great way to end the evening!

He's at it again...

We were supposed to meet up with Abby and Wendy for a picnic lunch at the park today, but we woke up to cool, drizzly weather-not too conducive for the playground. So, we opted for meeting up at the mall to let the kids run around in the children's area before we had lunch. Unfortunately, it seemed like every other Eden Prairie mom had the same idea today. I guess the rainy weather options are pretty few and far between when we've been spoiled with amazingly sunny weather lately. The kids did have fun though and appeared to be very happy to see each other! I know you'll see this picture and wonder why Graham kisses nearly every girl he comes across, but in his defense, I will say that today, Abby instigated every single kiss! It has been about two weeks since these two have spent any time together, so perhaps they're making up for lost time!

Kiss!

The Batttle for Bedtime

Today, all three of the Olson's are completely sleep deprived. Graham decided last night that he didn't need to go to sleep. We put him to bed about 7:30 just like normal, but he proceeded to talk and play in his crib until close to 9:00. When we didn't respond to his chatter, he began to scream. I don't mean soft crying, I mean absolute screaming! After finally getting him calmed down (we still don't know what was going on) he fell asleep...until 2:50. Graham decided that 2:50 was the perfect time to start his day. Despite trying everything we could think of (including bringing Graham into bed with us-something we never do) we realized that Graham just wasn't going to go to sleep without a fight. So went our sleepless night....

After trying to convince Graham that a morning nap was a good idea for both of us, and disappointingly I was not successful in my quest for sleep, I decided I needed to completely tire him out. I still don't understand how he wasn't completely exhausted when I myself could barely keep my eyes open. So, we headed to the park where I let Graham run completely wild and carry his golf club with him. My plan worked because after lunch, Graham could barely keep his eyes open and soon enough he was sleeping. I began to rush around the house trying to pick up and just as I was getting comfortable on the couch for a nap of my own, Graham woke up...

This face just doesn't say "tired" to me

My mom was running errands on this end of the city this afternoon so before dinner we headed out together to pick up a few things at the store. Graham is continually amused with sunglasses, so here he is modeling his Grandma's glasses!

As a side note, Graham went to sleep without a sound tonight!!!! Please cross your fingers that he stays sleeping until morning!!!!!

Another great weekend...

We stayed in town this weekend and to be completely honest, were pretty lazy, at least as lazy as you can be with a very active 18 month old! We kept ourselves busy, but we kept busy with fun activities rather than working around the house. We started our weekend with a trip to the zoo. We headed out fairly early in the morning in hopes of beating the crowds, but unfortunately, it seemed as though every other zoo-goer had the same plan we did. I guess perfect weekend weather will do that. We did fight the crowds for a few hours though until the heat and exhaustion finally got the best of Graham. He was sleeping soundly in his car seat before we even pulled out of the parking lot to head home!

ROAR!!!

Graham was impressed with the sea otters.

There was some sort of farm festival going on this weekend at the zoo so there were many cool vehicles for kids, both big and little, to climb on!

I think the Olson boys would love one of their very own!

We stopped to listen to a children's band. Although Graham was a bit too apprehensive to dance with the crowd of kids, he did accept the maraca and shake it to the music while I held him.

After breakfast this morning we took a walk and decided to explore a new park. We had the entire place to ourselves! Here is Graham playing with the diggers.

It's hard to see, but Jeff is holding a giant grasshopper on a wood chip for Graham to see. Despite my coaxing, this is as close as Graham would go. In his defense, it was a really big and ugly bug!

Graham wrapped up his weekend with a dip in the pool