Droopy Drawers solution!

My good friend Kate (The Shopping Mama) has a fantastic blog where she finds the coolest things to blog about for kids. I read it everyday, and have made a few purchases per her suggestions. This last one I just made was absolutely the best thing ever, so I had to show pictures because it is so cute! So, that is the issue, Graham is a skinny boy, a belt was a must. He loses his pant way too often. I remembered that Kate wrote about belts a while ago on her blog, and went to check them out. Once on her page , click on Accessories, then C. Belly Belts. I made my purchase and they came today, and voila, no more droopy drawers! Plus they are so cute, he looks like such a little dude. They are perfect for kids who will be potty training soon, as there is no need to undo a buckle or whatever. The frustrating part? After they arrived, I saw how incredibly simple the design is, and I thought to myself, seriously? I could have thought of this and be making some $$$$ . Oh well, at least someone is!!!

Nap bedhead.

Memeorial Day weekend...

It was pretty hot this weekend so we broke out the water toys. Graham had a blast! He loves his new bathing suit and hat!

Hair cut.....

Haircut time. I really didn't want to do it, but the boy needed a bit of a style. Now, you probably can't tell that much was taken off...that's the whole point! All I wanted was to get rid of his ends that were all different lengths. I don't want Graham to have short short hair, so we achieved our goal. I took Graham to my hairstylist. I knew she wouldn't hack it all off, and she has little ones of her own that she does their hair. I came fully prepared with our portable DVD player, stocked with Baby Signing Time video..I also gave him one of the sugar free organic suckers (thanks Jenn!) that come out on special occasions only! The whole thing took about 5 minutes, and Graham was into his video and was a perfect client!

A little unsure of what is about to happen!

Completely into his video....

Loving the sucker!

Really into the video!

All done!

Showing you his new 'do!

Being silly!



Ok, it does look better, right?

Graham is getting his first big boy haircut tomorrow.....stay tuned:)

Graham's future girfriend

Check out these pictures. I got one of Cora the other day, the other one is Graham at about 2 months old. I think they are soulmates!

Cora May 2009

Graham March 2008



Graham April 2008....this is pretty much how he spent his first three months. In the bouncy with his binky and froggy. He still sleeps with both!

My visit to Indy!

So Monday and Tuesday I took a road trip by myself to Indianapolis to visit our good friends the Morseths. They welcomed their second child, baby Cora Lee Morseth about three weeks ago, and I have been dying to see her, and of course the rest of the family. I decided to make it a solo trip since Megan is adjusting to having two kids, no need to bring a third to the mix! Graham stayed back with my mom. He was just fine, and had a great time wiht his grandparents. However, today was a different story. All morning Graham was freaking out every moment I left his side. I took him to my gym daycare, and he about freaked. Now Graham has been going there since he was 3 weeks old and has never cried when I left him. Today he panicked. He got over it after I left I guess, but it was horrible. Then, we went to his Little Gym class, which he loves, and he sat in my lap the entire class, and wouldn't play with any of his friends. I think he was afraid I was going to disappear for another 24 hours. He is over it now, but he certainly made me feel bad! Though, when you check out the baby pictures of how cute Cora is, you will see it was worth it. She is so precious!!!!

BABY CORA PICTURES CLICK HERE!!!!!

JUMP AROUND!

Our boy can dance! Ha! Graham is proving to have much better rhythm than either of us. The best part is, he is starting to understand the different ways you move to different songs. After this Pat played John Denver on the Ipod, and Graham started swaying back and forth really slow, it was so funny! His favorite song is still "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Whenever he sees the Ipod, he starts singing"oh, oh, oh" Our little music man!

Too funny!

This video is absolutely hilarious. Let me set the stage here. Graham was near the end of dinner, when he started to make some poo faces. He finished with the faces (and the poo) and I started asking him, "did you poop?". He instantly started laughing, making silly faces and recreating the poo grunts! This went on for a few minutes with me dying laughing before I got the video camera to document Graham being a little comedian! It was obvious that he knew he was getting me to laugh by pretending to poo, and I completely kept him going because it was so hysterical. So, yes he had pooed, but by the time I was taping this, this was all a show! I apologize for my gratuitous use of the word "poo" in this video, ignore me! Oh, and you can see him do a few of his signs. He signs "cracker" and "please". I think I'll play this for his prom date one day:)

Naps and other fun stuff!

I thought I would take a moment to give an update on Graham's napping schedule and other fun things. Sorry, no pics in this post!
So after about a 2 month transition, we are officially down to one nap a day. Graham was napping for an hour in the am (10-11) and 2 or 2.5 hours in the afternoons (2-4ish). About two months ago he started really fighting the afternoon nap, but not sleeping any longer in the morning. So, we did a few days without the morning nap, and moved the afternoon one earlier. The result? He was ok for a day or two , but but the third day of this, he started waking at night, getting up a bit earlier, having a hard time going to sleep at night, and boy was he cranky! It wasn't fun. Then, as you remember he got sick a few times, so I went back to two naps each time he was sick. He went back to two no problem. Then we started doing one naps days on just two days a week, and one weekend day. That seemed to be the best way to help Graham transition. It was like every other day, he needed those two naps. Now, we are officially down to one nap at 1 pm. It has taken a few weeks, but this nap keeps getting longer as I had hoped. He generally sleeps 1-3:30 or 4. He has started waking up a bit earlier in the mornings, around 7:30 opposed to 8ish, but that is OK. I bet once it is darker in the am this will change again.Though we got blackout shades for his room, best $$ ever spent. I had a pretty ghetto system of black trash bags after the blinds pulled down, and before the curtains, so you couldn't see them from the outside of the house, nor from the inside as long as the curtains were closed (which they always are). Anyway, they actually worked fantastically, his room was sooo dark, but with the weather getting nice, I wanted to be able to open the windows, and my trash bag system didn't allow for that! So, I ordered the blackout shades, and they are so great. If you don't have them on your baby's windows, I highly recommend them! So, that is the nap update, at 16 months I can say Graham naps once a day. I am pretty sure though if I were to put him down for two, he would still gladly sleep! His bedtime hasn't changed, he still goes to bed at 7. It is so funny how in tune he is with our daily routine. At 6:27 or so everyday, he starts going over to the stairs, and shaking the gate and says "baph" (bath) over and over. He just knows when it is bathtime! All other things too...he does the same with all his meals, when we are getting ready to go somewhere. He really gets our daily routines, and loves it!
Let's see, what else? He is talking non stop! I continue to be shocked at how many words he has. I really can't count them anymore. The one word he refuses to say???Mama. It was actually his first word, he used to so ay it all the time when he was 8-11 months...especially when he was hungry, he would come to me saying "mama" over and over. Now he doesn't say it hardly at all! He actually thinks its funny, I ask him to point to Mama and say Mama, he points and giggles and runs away. The word he loves to say? Daddy. for the longest time he would say "dat" for daddy, now he is saying Daddy. Another favorite, doggies. He even has a few phrases he says , "we go" when he wants to go outside or just leave in general, Hi Daddy, or Hi doggies, big ball, big truck, and tons of others. He know where I keep all his snacks, and will go to the pantry saying"cracker" and doing the sign for cracker over and over until someone gives him a snack! He is starting to know some colors. He definitely knows, says, and identifies blue, and can also recognize pink and orange. Random colors I know, but those are the colors of our sidewalk chalk! He continues to love buses as well. I really feel bad for him that school is almost out and the bus won't be going by! He searches like a hawk for them when we are in the car, and finds them hundreds of hundreds of feet away. The bus goes by at 8:20 and 12:45 each day where he can see them from the back kitchen window. I try to have him looking out the window and eating at these times so he can look for his busses. Simple pleasures, right?
He continues to love to read books, will bring them to us to read all the time, and knows a lot of them by heart. Speaking of hearts...he will pat my chest and say"hawt". It's very sweet. He continues to amaze me on a daily basis of all he can do. He is so happy, silly, and just so fun to be around. There were days when he was around 9 months old that I truly started to morn the loss of his babyhood, but a friend told me (thanks Megan!) that it truly does get better and better, and she was right!! At least until he turns on me as a teenager! Ha! Got to run, nap time seems to be over, it's 3:30, like clockwork!

Outside fun....more golf!

Graham's new watering can.

Picking the perfect ball..

The hot new one handed grip..you'll be seeing it on the Tour soon:)

He looks like is is contemplating a big shot, right? He's really just watching the kids across the street play basketball:)

Zoo!

Graham and I popped over to the zoo for the afternoon on Monday. It was a perfect afternoon, 60 something degrees, and the zoo was empty, no waiting! Our zoo has a brand new baby elephant, but he is only out for a few hours each day, and we missed him this visit. Plenty of time this summer to see him! Graham loved the aquarium this visit. I got some cute pictures of him in awe of the fish!

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to Yaya!

The boys spent the afternoon hitting whiffle golf balls across the driveway to each other.

Hmm....which club for this shot?

Daddy working on Graham's grip.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures with me and my guys on Mother's Day. Oh well. It was a fun day. I got a nice breakfast in bed, and plenty of fun family time. A perfect day! Though next year I want a picture with Graham!

Relaxing while Mama gets ready...

Touch-A-Truck!

The Tylers went to the Touch-A-Truck event today. It was pretty cool, every kind of big truck imaginable was on display for little ones to go in, sit on, honk horns, you name it! Graham thought it was pretty cool, and had a great time. He was a little concerned with all the honking horns, but overall it was a fun event! I was shocked at how big it was, and how many people were there. I have never seen so many minivans and SUVs in one parking lot in my life! The only drawback was there was no school bus, Graham's absolute favorite thing to point out on the road.

Bye Bye Uncle Nick:(

Uncle Nick is moving to Washington D.C. this week. We will miss him, but know he will be having fun in a new place, and starting a new job!

Out to Lunch!

Someone joined the clean plate club!

16 Months old today....but it was a hard day:(

Today has been a hard day for Graham. He went to bed last night with a cough, and woke up this morning wheezing and coughing, and really having a hard time breathing. We went to the pediatrician ans she confirmed that he wasn't feeling well. Seems as though he has a little virus which had turned into a bit of an asthma-like attack. I had asthma as a kid, and still get attacks under certain conditions, and it seems like Graham may be following suit. A lot of kids get asthma issues when they get colds, viruses, etc. Only time will tell us if this is a pattern to expect in the future, but if I were to bet, I would say so. The worst part was at the doctor they gave him an levalbuterol breathing treatment. These do not hurt, I had plenty as a kid, but they do make you really jittery, which I always hated. The other issue, with a baby, they have to wear a mask to get the medication. The nurse brought in the machine, gave us instructions to keep the mask on no matter what for at least 10 continuous minutes. She warned us that he would hate this, and it would be hard for us to watch. She wasn't kidding. I was in tears, Pat held his arms down, I held Graham and held the mask to his face. It was a long, long 10 minutes listening to Graham scream, cry, flail, and just be so incredibly sad. He felt better afterwards, but was so exhausted from the episode, he fell right asleep. Anyway, we have to now do this every 4 hours for at least the next day and see how he is doing. The first time we did it at home, he was still really upset, but was able to listen to Pat read books as I held him. Before bed tonight, I was able to do it myself as he calmed down and was less scared. I am hoping tomorrow is a better day.