Can you believe Graham is TWO????? The past two years have been a total whirlwind and flown by! Graham has been in party mode most of the week! On Wednesday night, we met Tammy at the park for a picnic, presents and playground time! (She and Mark coudlnt make it to his party). So, Graham got a little early celebrating and we had loads of fun!

On Friday, my parents got here bright and early and spent the day with Graham. I left work around mid-day and came home to get the cooking and cleaning and decorating going for the party. Graham got another present Friday evening from my parents, a John Deere tricycle! He isn't quite sure about the pedaling thing yet, but he sure likes to push it around!

I did get all the party pics loaded in the photo album! I am still behind on the last couple months, but I will get those filled in soon!

We had a good week this past week after getting off to a bumpy start. Daycare called late Monday afternoon and said that Graham was running a fever and we needed to come get him. So, we went ahead and took him on to the doc to get his ears checked and see what else it might be. The only thing that they found was a couple bumps on the rough of his mouth, they tested negative for strep, so they just chalked it up to a virus and told us to alternate tylenol and motrin and keep him home Tuesday. So, Dean worked from home with him on Tuesday and he seemed fine all day. So, we went back to daycare on Wednesday and that was that!

We had a busy day on Saturday, we stopped and got Graham his 4th haircut first thing that morning. He enjoyed it about as much as the others.....not so much! Luckily she didnt need to cut much, just kinda even it up a bit. Then, we left there and we went to swim class. It went about the same....... he still fusses throughout, but he does really good at the actual lesson part. The instructor maintains he is doing really good and catching on and that he will settle down soon. We went out for lunch afterwards and treated him to pizza!

Dean did some yardwork, planting some trees and Graham and I played outside some and watched some movies. Sunday, we went to church and then ran a few errands and headed home.

We did finally finish the official 2 year photo shoot over the weekend. So, here are the best of the best! And, the party is next Saturday! So, be ready for party pics!!!!

I had a good trip to Boston, other than missing Dean and Graham very much and Dean and Graham had a good time while I was gone. I got home late Wednesday and Graham was already asleep, but he was up early Thursday and ready to greet me! He had music class on Monday and really enjoyed it and gymnastics class starts this week.

Swim lessons went about the same in terms of how upset Graham was, but he did great on the actual lesson part. He was just fussing the whole time. A couple parents commented on how good he was doing and aksed how long he had been coming! And, his instructor said he had already made great progress and the fussing will end soon and he will be swimming by next summer, if we stick with this....... so, we will go back again next week! He seemed to really get the part about flipping over to his back when he comes up from under water, so that was neat.

After swim lessons, we met my mom and dad for lunch at Chick-fil-a and then Dean and Graham headed home for nap and we headed to the Hotel Roanoke to a P Buckley Moss convention, which was lots of fun. Afterwards, we went home and then Dean's parents joined us and we had a nice family dinner and Graham got a good dose of grandparents! He was worn out by the time everyone left and slept til almost 8am Sunday!!!

On Sunday, we went back to the regular church schedule, with Dean having choir practice and going back to the 11am service. Graham made his normal entrance when I brought him in - exclaiming, Hi daddy, I go church! Everyone was quite amused! We had a nice afternoon at home and a nice walk before dark! It is getting darker earlier every night, so our walks are coming to an end soon!!!!!

Graham's bday party is in two weeks, so I am busy preparing for that and also trying to finish up his two year photo shoot! Pics coming soon!!!!

This afternoon, we were out in the yard playing and I grabbed the camera and graham kept telling Madison to say cheese!

It was a short week for us this week coming off of vacation. Just three days of work and daycare. And, after a busy weekend, I am heading out again on Sunday morning! I am flying to Boston for 4 days for a training conference for work and will get home late late Wednesday night. Dean and Graham will be on their own again, they are just gonna stay in Sunday and then Dean will do drop-off and pick-up on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I am excited about the trip, but of course gonna miss my boys very very much!

On Saturday morning, Graham started swim instruction. This is much different from the class we did at the Y last spring. This class is more instruction and survival. And, the biggest difference is that it is kids and instructors only and we have to watch from an enclosed observation deck on the second floor! We got there early to let Graham acclimated and he was all excited and wanted to get in the pool right then. So, finally the instructors came and we led Graham over to the steps and he went right down, but turned around to see if we were coming too, and when he saw we were leaving, he threw a fit. But, we went on the observation deck and he was still crying! The class lasted for 30 minutes and she alternated between Graham and another toddler - pulling them off the side of the pool, causing them to go under, bringing them up, getting them to "swim" around and then getting them to flip to their back and "float/swim" and then kinda "tossing" them back to the wall, so that they had to grab for the wall and pull themselves up on the side of the pool...... WOW, very very nerve-wracking to watch, and Graham fussed the entire time! She said he did great and that all the toddlers cry the first couple of weeks, but she thought he did good overall. We asked him afterwards if he liked swimming, he said un-huh, if liked going in the pool, he said un-huh and he if he wanted to go back to swim class again and he immediately said NO. So, that should make next week interesting...... I guess we will stick with it for awhile and see how it goes!

After swim lessons, we went to Grey's 3rd Birthday party at Brad and Kelly's house. It was lots of fun and Graham had about a big of time as if it was his bday! He enjoyed "helping" Grey with his presents and checking them all out and of course loved the balloons! See the photo below. We are very excited for Graham's bday party at the end of this month!

Graham is also starting music class and gymanstics class at daycare once a week for each in the next couple weeks. So, that will be neat. He is certainly getting exposed to lots of new and different things! Hopefully, I can pop by and visit the classes one week!

We had a fun filled vacation over the past week. We headed out on Thursday to Baltimore in the pouring down rain. We had a good trip and Graham alternated between napping, reading and playing with toys. We stopped just outside of Baltimore and did some outlet shopping, and got to stretch our legs a bit. We got into Baltimore later afternoon and headed to the Harbor to PF Changs for dinner.

On Friday, we headed to Annapolis, still in the rain....... we hopped on a trolley for a historic tour and that was really neat. After the trolley ride, we went to local crab shack and ate overlooking the water. Then, it stopped raining some and we took some pictures (below) along the water. We got back the harbor and met up with some of our mommy friends for dinner!

On Saturday, the highlight of our day was going to the Maryland Science Center. There was a special floor just for kids and lots of neat interactive activities! There was also a large dinosaur exhibit and recently he developed a thing for them, so that was neat.

On Sunday morning we headed to the aquarium and Graham was in heaven, every fish there was Nemo and he loved the sharks and stingrays too. After a nap back at the room, we headed to a pool party with some friends and their kiddos, so that was lots of fun. There was pool time, playground time and lots of play time! Graham was worn out!

On Monday, we took a water taxi across the harbor to Fell's Point and walked around a bit and then had lunch outside at a neat little Irish pub and then we water taxi'ed on over to Ft. McHenry, which was really neat. The weather was beautiful after those first two days of rain and we had lots of fun, but also looking forward to heading home on Tuesday bright and early!

I have hundreds of pics to go through but on the water taxi Monday morning, the lens in the camera broke somehow! So, I had to stop and get a dispsoable to finish off the sightseeing! So, that will be a fun thing to deal with when we get back home!!!!! At least it waited until the end of the trip to break!