I cannot believe that Graham is already 3 months old and that it is time for me to go back to work! Where did these past three months go? I am so glad that I decided to stay with Graham these first 13 weeks, I have enjoyed every minute of our time together! I just didnt expect it to go by so fast! I head back to work on Tuesday!

On Thursday afternoon, Graham and I went and visited the daycare center again. We stayed about an hour and half and got to know everyone a little better. They have an open door policy that the parents can come and go anytime, pick the child up for lunch, etc. I am sure this first week, I am gonna pop in and check on him! It will be different for sure! We feel really good about the center, so I am sure it will all be fine!

On Sunday, we had the church christmas program, Dean had a solo and a duet. All the music was so pretty. Graham woke up just in time for it to start and was awake the whole service, and even tried to help sing "Joy to the World." Both sets of grandparents joined us also, so that was fun! And, we all went out for lunch at the chinese buffet afterwards.

I took Graham for his weekly weight check on Wednesday and he weighed in at 13 pounds and 2.5 ounces! Still growing pretty steadily! I did find out that the center opens at 8am, so I should be able to pop in one morning each week before work and get him weighed! I just love knowing how he has grown every week, especially since we are going two months between doctors visits this time!

I did finally get all our Christmas pictures loaded this week. I took some shots this weekend to mark his three month milestone and will get those posted soon. Here are some favorites from last weekend.

We survived Grahams first Christmas and he made out like a little bandit! We had a great holiday weekend. We spent Christmas Eve Day with my family and left there and went to church for the 6pm service. (Dean sings in the choir and they sang special Christmas music). Graham had a great time "watching" us open his gifts. He is always in a great mood in the mornings, so he was awake and alert taking it all in. There was so much excitement, he only took little baby naps, so when we left to head to church, he slept the whole way there and almost all the way through service! We went home for a couple hours and opened one gift with Graham and read him Twas the night before Christmas and Rudolph and then put him in his Christmas PJs and went back for the 11pm service. Graham was awake through the whole service and again was taking it all in. He really seems to enjoy all the singing and music. When we went up for communion, I stuck his Santa hat on him and everyone got the biggest kick out of him! He fell asleep on the way home and we moved him to his bassinet and he slept the rest of the night.

We got up around 830am and brought Graham down to see what Santa had left him. And, we opened our presents with each other and to Graham. Again, the morning proved to be a great time for presents with Graham and he took it all in. We had a late brunch and then headed to Michelles for part three of our Christmas celebration with Deans family. Graham napped on the way there and then was awake and ready for more gifts. We spent the afternoon there and had dinner and then headed home!

All in all, a great first Christmas for Graham! I got a new camera!!!! So, needless to say I took LOTS of pics, so I will be spending most of the day after Christmas downloading, ordering and posting and on the web. So, keep checking and I will be posting tons and tons.

I took Graham to be weighed last Wednesday and he weighed in at 12 pounds and 9.5 ounces. So, he was back up to around an ounce a day! I will take him again this week to get weighed and then I guess that will be the last time I can take him in to the lactation center for the weekly weight checks, as I go back to work next week!

We had a fun lunch last Monday with both sets of his grandparents! It was neat to have both sides of the family together. We also celebrated Christmas with Tammy and Mark on on Sunday evening, so it seems as if we have been celebrating all month long! Lots of fun!

Graham is still sleeping through the night every night, anywhere from 8 – 9.5 hours! I keep thinking every night he will probably wake up, but so far, so good! And, he is still napping a couple times each day too. His eating patterns seem to have changed a little, I guess to adjust to going so long during the night without eating. I took him for a weight check on Monday and he weighed in at 11 pounds and 14.5 ounces. So, that was a gain of 7.5 ounces in 10 days, so he actually slowed down a little bit after gaining an ounce a day for about three weeks!

On Monday afternoon, we met Mama, Daddy and Granny Stoots for lunch and some shopping, which was fun. They all enjoyed getting to see Graham (and me!). Granny is so sweet loving on Graham and making over him, it is really neat to see!

On Thursday, I had a luncheon meeting for my Public Relations Society at Hotel Roanoke, so we decided that would be a good test run for the daycare center. So, I took him by there and stayed for about 45 minutes and then I left him for about 3.5 hours. I have left him several other times with Dean or Mama, but this was definitely different. When I got back they said he did great, he ate, slept, and watched all the other babies very intently! So, I was relived to know that he was okay. I really like the ladies that work in the room and the other kiddies were cute too. So, as it stands right now, he will officially start there on January 2nd when I return to work.

We are very excited for Christmas to arrive to celebrate Graham’s first Christmas with our families. Even though he won’t remember any of it, we will have lots of photos to document it and we will certainly remember all the details! On Monday, I am fixing a big Christmas lunch for both sets of Graham’s grandparents. They have not got to visit with each other since Dean’s parents arrived from Texas, so that will be fun. I am sure I will take a few pics!

We had a full week this past week! Deans parents were with us from Tuesday through Friday, so that was lots of fun. They enjoyed getting to know Graham, as well as seeing our new home. We had a full couple of days and then they headed back to Michelles house in Blacksburg. We hope to see them again real soon! It is kind of surreal to all of us when they leave, that we arent really saying goodbye anymore, that now they live close by! They are going to rent a house in Blacksburg and then will most likely buy a house somewhere in the New River Valley in the spring. So, Graham is very lucky to have all his grandparents now within driving distance.

On Friday, Graham and I took off for our first overnight adventure! I had plans on Saturday for my annual Christmas get together with Carol, Stacy and their kids, so we decided to go a day early and spend some extra time with Grandma and Grandpa and visit some other family friends. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa loved having us there with them and hope to be able to do that again soon. We had a really good time and Graham continues to be a good little traveler! Stacy and Carol and I have been getting together for over ten years on a Saturday before the holidays to exchange presents, eat holiday foods and catch up! This year, we has six little ones with us! It is hard to believe that we have grown into such a large group!

Graham is also officially sleeping through the night, well at least for now.... the last four nights he has slept for 8 hours, straight through! Even at Grandma and Grandpas house! Who knows if it will last, but it sure is nice for now! Although the first morning when I woke up at 630am and realized that he had not woken me up during the night, I panicked until I looked in his bassinet and saw that he was just fine! He still has a good nap schedule during the day too and slept all the way through church this Sunday! Everyone at church continues to be amazed at how good he is!

Lots of new photos are posted in the photo album, so check them out!

Graham turned two months old this week, which I documented with lots of photos! There is a whole album dedicated to his 2 month milestone in the Photo Album and here are a few of the best. We went to the doctor on Friday morning. He did pretty good. He weighed 11 pounds and 7 ounces - 50th percentile and was 23 1/2 inches long, 50 - 75th percentile. When the doctor came in, Graham laughed and cooed and carried on and she cracked up! She couldnt get over how playful and alert he was, she asked him if was really just two months old! ha! She said we were so lucky to have such a good baby! Then, she left and in came the nurse with 4 shots! two in each thigh! The third one - tetanus, she said was the worst. He screamed and screamed and couldnt get his breath. Dean had his hands and I rubbed his belly and cheeks. Afterwards, I swaddled and cuddled him and then we fed him a bottle and he settled right down and slept all the way home! At the 4 month check-up, it is an exact repeat of today!!!! So, all in all, a good report!

We did our Christmas decorating around the house this weekend, Graham seems quite interested in all the lights on the trees. He laid on a quilt on the floor beside the tree watching us decorate, we had to laugh when thinking about how different it will be next year when he is mobile!