We had another busy week and weekend. On Tuesday evening, Graham and I met Tammy at IHOP for dinner, one of his fave places to go. He told everyone who spoke to us that he wanted sausage and pancakes and he cleaned his plate, a couple times, ha! It was a fun evening. He talked Tammy's ear off!

On Saturday morning, we headed to swimming, another great lesson, tried to get some videos loaded below. He is just doing so good. The head of the program loves all the videos I have been making and wants to use them on her website! So, Graham will be a star! He even worked with a different instructor for part of his lesson and didn't miss a beat.

We left swimming, grabbed some lunch and met up with Bryan, Kelly, Chris and Delaney who were in Roanoke for a Taekwondo tournament. We met them at the tourney site and picked up their brand new 9 week old pug puppy and puppy sat for a couple hours. Then, after the tourney, they came back to our house for a visit and dinner. The kids had a great time playing together and of course the puppy was the star of the day. Graham was quite in awe of her! It was a great visit!

On Sunday, we enjoyed a nice church service. Graham is getting better about being able to stay in the service longer and adds his AMENS at the appropriate times, so that is cute. We headed out and grabbed some lunch and Graham fell asleep on the way home! He did that on Saturday as well, so for first weekend in a long time, he napped during nap time both days!

We spent the rest of Sunday at home getting ready for the week and for me to be gone. I will be in Minneapolis from early Monday morning through late Wednesday evening. Graham saw me bring my suitcase up from the basement and drug it around the kitchen saying he wanted to go on a trip! So, hopefully he wont be too upset when he finds out mommy went on a trip without him!

He is still taking music class and gymnastics classes on Monday and Tuesday and then swimming on Saturdays, so that is all keeping him very busy. We are gonna continue the swimming for April and May and then take the summer off since we will be at the pool ourselves so often, which we cannot wait for!

Here is a cute pic of the kids and puppy. They brought Graham the stuffed puppy and he has barely let go of it and has been sleeping with it. He loves his stuffed animals, so that was a perfect gift!

Graham's Swimming Lesson - March 22, 2009

This is a clip from his private lesson. This is about the 4th session that he did not fuss or complain and he was really into and if you look closely you can even see him smiling!

We tried to get outside every chance we could while it was warm this past week, but it seemed to not be quite warm enough to be out all week. We are really hoping that is about to change soon! Graham did some better at daycare this week, no biting, but still hitting and kicking some. We have been reading books about it and talking to him about it alot, so hopefully he is going to start to understand more and more not to do it!

On Friday night, we went over to Jennifer's for a play date with her and Lane and Emily. Emily and Graham played so well together and were in to everything, play-do, coloring, books, toys, they had lots of fun. Graham has a friend at school named Emily, so he called her New Emily. It was cute!

We had a jam packed weekend! On Saturday morning, we headed to swim lessons and Graham was just amazing, no fussing or crying and he is just totally getting it every time it is his turn. We got some great video of him and he was talking about it like crazy the rest of the day. We ran some errands and then headed home. Dean and I had tickets on Saturday night to a JDRF fundraiser with my work. So, Dean's parents came down and spent the night and watched Graham while we went out to the gala. A good time was had by all! Graham got to stay up a little later as he pulled another " no afternoon nap, but nap at 630pm instead," so needless to say he wasn't ready for bed at his normal time. But, it all worked out, as we got to see him when we got home and then he went to bed.

Dean's parents also joined us for church on Sunday and then headed home. And, for the first time in ages, Graham fell asleep on the way home from church and napped another 2 hours after we got home. On Sunday afternoon, we had a private swimming lesson to make up for some for some of the weeks we missed. He had 20 minutes of one-on-one time in the pool with Meghan and he was amazing. We took the big video camera this time and got some great video footage. We went right over and got in the pool with her and then laughed and smiled all through his lesson! We are soooo glad that we stuck it out through all those weeks where it wasn't going as great. They kept telling us one day it would just change and they were so right! We can't wait to get to the lake with him, he is gonna be so fun at the pool this summer!!

Here is a pic from is St. Patty photo shoot, working on Easter next.......

We enjoyed the warm weather the beginning of the week and got out for another nice walk, but then the cold temps kept us back in the rest of the week. Graham had a better week at daycare, no biting reports this week, so that was good. Hopefully, that was a short lived phase!

On Thursday evening, we headed to the salon to see Rachel for Graham and Dean to get haircuts. Graham's hair is still slowly filling in, so she trimmed the long stray pieces and evened it up. He looked like such a big boy when she was done. We thought he was gonna sit in the chair himself this time. But, at the last minute, he decided he wanted to sit on my lap, but that was okay, he did really good. And, of course, he knew he got a sucker at the end!

Graham was very excited to get back to swimming lessons, and we were excited too hoping he had truly put the fussing behind us. However, there were lots of new kiddos there and the instructors were all switched around and there was lots of crying and fussing, so Graham just joined right in and fussed too. He did great on his actual swimming, but just fussed. We are gonna try to pick up a couple private lessons for him the next couple weeks and see if we can really make some headway since he is doing so much better.

We headed back home after swim lessons and stayed in the rest of the weekend. Dean finally lost to the battle to the cold and congestion junk that we have all fought and so we stayed home from church on Sunday. He voice was really crackly and hoarse, so there was no way that he could sing.

Graham's vocabulary continues to amaze us, he just randomly joins in our conversation and he really can converse with us about anything. He loves to tell us about his day and he continues to be so in to his books. I weighed him last week for the first time in awhile and he was 31.3 pounds. He seems to be getting some taller too, although it is a little trickier to measure him for that! He is also so independent now and likes to do everything himself without assistance, such a big boy!

Hopefully the warm weather will return next week and we can get back outside, we have started looking at playground sets for the backyard, so we are very excited about that!

I hadn't taken any tub pics in awhile, so last night, we had an impromptu photo shoot during bath time!

Well, the snow continued quite heavy Sunday evening into Monday and we were snowed in. So, we both worked from home on Monday and Graham had a fun day at home. We went out around lunchtime to play a little and he was very excited to get out there but just like Sunday, after a few minutes of being cold and wet, he was ready to come back in. Graham enjoyed seeing the snow all week though and once it all started melting, he kept asking where it went! But, we were very glad to see the warm temps later in the week.

Graham is going through a biting phase at daycare, so we have been working with him on that this week. Luckily, it is never a bad bite, that hurts the other child but still something he should not be doing. We have been reading the book, Teeth are Not for Biting, the past few days and have talked to him about it alot, so hopefully, this week will be better. We also suspect he might be cutting or finishing up cutting his 2 year molars, he messed with his mouth some over the weekend and said it hurt. But, of course, we can't get in there to see what is going on.

We had a busy weekend. On Saturday, we headed to a surprise double 90th birthday party for Granny and my great aunt, her identical twin. It was really neat to see them going strong at 90. Graham got to meet lots of relatives that he had not seen before and some he had not seen often, so that was nice. And, of course, we got to visit with Mawmaw and Pawpaw and Kenneth, Danah and Lillian. We went back to their house after the party and flew kites and enjoyed the warm weather. Graham is so taken with Baby Lillian and just wants to love on her and touch her and be close to her. When we asked him if he wanted to hold her, he was all for it. He is just so sweet with her!

We got home and played out side more and even got to go for a walk, loving the weather. We can't wait until we can get back outside most every day. Graham's vocabulary continues to just explode, we can carry on conversations about most anything and he speaks so clearly and is so easy to understand. And, of course, his energy level is still wide open! He is really into all his books right now, especially Dr Seuss. In the mornings, if he wakes up before we go in his room, he gets out of bed and sits on the floor and reads his books. It is very cute! Here are some shots of him at Disney!

We had a busy week this past week. On Tuesday night, we went to the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at church. Pancakes and sausage are Graham's favorite meal so enjoyed every last bite. On Wednesday night, we were back at church for Ash Wednesday service, which put us home a little later! Luckily, Graham has resumed sleeping all night every night, so that is good! Weekends still vary on naps, but we can handle that as long as we aren't up and down all night long!

On Saturday, we headed back to swimming lessons and we have hopefully turned the corner, like the instructors kept telling us would happen! He didn't fuss or complain one bit and he did so good during the lesson! We are really excited and even got some video of him in action! He has talked about it all weekend, so we are hoping that means that it will go this well from here on out.

On Saturday evening, we went to Dean's parents for dinner with them and Michelle and Adam. We had a fun mexican meal and very nice time. Graham provided the entertainment as always and they enjoyed seeing and hearing him! He fell asleep on the way back home as we drove home in some snow flurries, which he kept saying he liked the snow!

On Sunday, we headed to church and thought the snow was all done, but by the time we got home from church and settled in for the afternoon, the snow was really starting up again. We got all bundled up and went out for a few minutes so Graham could "play" in the snow! (and to take some pics, of course!) It was kinda icy and cold, so after a few minutes, he said, "I get out of here!" so we came back in!

Next weekend, we have a big weekend - we are very excited that we are going to see Playhouse Disney Live, and see all Graham's fave shows! We have had the tickets for months and he is gonna love it! Stayed tuned for pics!