Graham's Baby

My parents are currently soaking up the tropical Hawaiian sun, but they left Valentine's Day presents for both Graham and Amelia. Graham is now the proud owner of a toddler version of Candy Land (he LOVES it and I highly recommend it for kids his age) and Amelia is the proud (or at least I imagine she would be proud) owner of her very first Cabbage Patch Kid. Since Amelia isn't around to open her gifts yet, I let Graham have that honor. Graham and I have been talking so much about our baby arriving though, that as soon as he saw the baby doll, he proclaimed her to be 'Amel ya ya'. After many conversations, I finally convinced him that this doll isn't Amelia, but that she actually belongs to Amelia. Then, after consulting the very official Cabbage Patch Kid birth certificate, I discovered that this baby's name is actually Reese. Luckily, Graham is able to clearly pronounce that name and he hasn't called the doll 'Amel ya ya' since yesterday. Graham has taken real liking to Reese and I'm hoping that he is willing to hand her over to Amelia when she finally makes her appearance. Until then though, Reese is in good hands....

Notice the backwards pajama's...thankfully the diaper now stays on!

Valentines Day Party

Today at school Graham had a Valentines Day Party. The kids got to decorate 'mailboxes' with glitter (tons and tons of glitter on top of mountains of glue) so they would have a place to deliver their Valentines Day cards. I was having a hard time imagining each child willingly parting with the cards they brought from home, but they all did a great job. Graham looked so grown up walking from bag to bag dropping off his Winnie the Pooh cards (he picked them out all by himself at Target). He had even more fun when it was time to dump out his bag and look through the cards he received. Once home, lining up the cartoon character covered cards entertained him for a good part of the afternoon. It was so much fun to watch him take such pride in decorating his mailbox then examine each and every card over and over over. It made me remember how exciting it was to dig through my own bag of Valentines way back when I was in school, and it was hard not to relive that excitement right along with him!

All dressed up for the big party!

Glitter and glue...Graham decided he couldn't do his best work with his hat on, so as adorable as it looked, he took it off.

Our Busy Day

We started our morning by visiting with our friends Tiffiny and Livia. Liv was very kind to share all her toys with Graham, and the two of them got down to business playing immediately. Graham was thrilled to find that Liv is lucky enough to have her cozy coupe in the house (his is in the garage for the winter) and he spent a good part of the morning riding in the car, pushing the car around while Liv went along for the ride, or squeezing into the car with her.

These two couldn't be more adorable if they tried!

Kissing in the cozy coupe!

This evening we paid baby Miles a visit. Graham thankfully showed no jealousy while I fed Miles his bottle and spent a good part of the evening cuddling with him. I was worried that Graham would see Miles' bottle and want to drink it himself, but luckily, he couldn't have cared less, and I'm hoping this trend continues when Amelia comes home! Graham was very impressed with the baby swing, but unfortunately he's too big for it. Instead, he had to settle for allowing his trucks and crayons to take a ride. I'm still impressed by the gentle nature Graham displays towards Miles and again, I'm hoping this behavior continues because soon, (NOW, PLEASE!!!) Amelia will be coming home!

How cute are these two?

Bath Time

Graham was very excited to come home from Target with a new tub toy. He clutched it all the way home and actually laughed to himself like he thought he was getting away with something...like we didn't know he still had a death grip on his bathtub rocket. He begged in the car "Mama help!" then "Dada help!" as he desperately wanted it out of the box. We told him repeatedly that his toy could come out of the box when he took a bath. When we got home Graham immediately RAN up the stairs and climbed into the tub. As you can see by the fact that he still has on his coat, hat, and shoes, he was a bit excited!

Playing Outside

It's hard to believe it, but the temperature was actually above freezing all weekend! So, in honor of our mid-winter heatwave, we decided to spend the afternoon soaking up the sun! We bundled Graham up, loaded him into his sled, and headed to the walking paths in the woods. Graham had a fantastic time eating snow and yelling 'Fun!' each time his sled hit a bump. He tried walking for a bit but quickly realized that getting through the deep snow is quite a bit of work and soon settled back into the sled for the remainder of our trek. Enjoy the pictures of our happy guy!

Graham and Annie

Most of the time, Graham and Annie really like each other. The other small bit of time, they're jealous of each other. Heaven forbid I offer Annie a treat without having something for Graham or vice versa. Lately though, I've noticed Graham trying to engage Annie in his imaginative play. For example, Graham really enjoys his view finder so it makes complete sense to him that Annie would enjoy it as well. The problem is that most of the time I end up saying "Sorry Graham, Annie doesn't like the view finder pressed into her eyes." On another occasion Graham was playing with his airplanes and Annie was forced into the game when her back was used as both a runway and landing strip. Yesterday though, I witnessed a very sweet moment between Graham and Annie. Both of them had their noses pressed to the sliding glass door as they observed a few squirrels playing on the deck. Graham reached out to Annie and for a split second it looked like he was going to choke her. Instead though, I watched Graham carefully give Annie a big hug then I heard him say "Iluvuh". Translated, that means "I love you!". How sweet is that???

Graham and his buddy 'camping' in a tent

Dinner with RaRa and Boy RaRa

I'm once again finding myself a big behind on the blog, and this picture is actually from Saturday night when we joined our friends Chris (Boy RaRa to Graham) and Sara (RaRa to Graham) at their house for dinner. After Sara and I spent the afternoon shopping for her wedding invitations, we met up with the boys for pizza. Graham had a fantastic time catching up with his friends (he absolutely adores both Sara and Chris!) and had an appetite that rivaled the big boys! Even after his giant meal, Graham had room for his very first ice cream sandwich. As you can tell by the chocolate the covers his face, Graham thoroughly enjoyed every last bite!