Finally, A New Post!

A lot has happened since the last post. We have moved into our new house, celebrated Graham's first Christmas and hosted Graham's birthday party.
The new house is wonderful!

We moved in on December 11 and have not stopped since then. We replaced the downstairs windows, hung blinds, painted, changed light fixtures, put shutters on the outside and added shelving to the closets. The only thing we have left to do is put up a gate. That is scheduled to be complete on January 28th.

Graham turned one on December 29th. We celebrated with a birthday party on January 9th. We had such a great time. He is one loved baby! He enjoyed his cupcake, but his favorite thing was being the center of attention.
Graham went for his 12 month well child check last week and all checked out well. He weighed 25 lbs 7 ounces and was 31.5 in long. He is still taking after his Daddy with his height! He is walking (very well), waving hello, feeding himself and becoming very independent. He does not like to be told "no." He is still a sweet baby but he is hard-headed. We cannot figure out where he gets it from!



The whole family enjoyed Graham's first Christmas! He was precious opening all of his presents. He looked from one toy to the next and just smiled.





Pictures catching the wild man in action!

Moving Week

Graham has been busy and learning all kinds of new things. He has learned to walk, sort his toys, feed himself, wave bye-bye, and to be sad when we leave him. I feel like he is learning something new everyday!
Graham took a few steps while my mom was keeping him last Tuesday. He has since taken a few more steps each day. He is still unsteady and prefers to crawl most of the time. He also waved bye-bye on Tuesday as Dustin was dropping him off at mom's house.
Dustin's mom cleaned up his old farmhouse toy and gave it to Graham. He loves it! He spends much of his time taking the animals out of the barn and putting them in other areas (diaper bag, drawers, bath tub, Maggie's food bowl, etc).
We took Graham to the doctor for his second flu shot on Friday. He now weighs 25 pounds 8 ounces and is 30.5 inches long.
We are closing in on our final days of packing before the movers get here on Friday! We are trying to pack, chase a baby, walk around a dog, and get all the details for the closing finalized. Luckily our wonderful family is helping.
Pictures of the house will soon follow!

Graham's First Clemson Game

Graham finally made it to a Clemson game. The weather was perfect and Clemson won! I think Graham may be a good luck charm. Graham did great tailgating and stayed in the stadium for almost the entire game.

Exciting Times in November

November has started off to be a great month! Graham is into everything and so much fun be around. We celebrated Dustin's 30th birthday, Graham's first haircut, and our house is under contract! Whew, and we are only half way through the month!

Graham continues to be the love of our lives. He laughs and smiles all the time. He still has not hit the stranger anxiety stage, willingly going to anyone who reaches for him, and is happy even when Dustin and I are not in the room.

We celebrated Dustin's 30th birthday last Thursday. We had dinner with family on Thursday and went out with friends on Friday night. The festivities ended with a Clemson Tiger win today! As most of you know, Graham has a long patch of hair on top of his head that lovingly refer to as his comb over. Dustin has been wanting to cut it for several months now. So Graham decided that he was going to have Mimi (Dustin's mom) cut his hair as a birthday present. Dustin was so surprised! I must admit that Graham's haircut makes him look awfully handsome.

Last, but not least, our house is under contract! We are scheduled to close on December 18th. The inspection was done yesterday and I was able to meet the buyers. They are a very nice young couple. Dustin and I are also under contract on a house that we love! We are also scheduled to close on it on December 18th. As soon as we have some pictures I will post them.

Halloween

Graham was a monkey for Halloween and he did not like his costume even a small amount. He cried and fussed the entire time we forced him to wear it! If only he had known how precious he looked! We had some friends and family over the night before Halloween and Graham learned how to "walk" while holding onto his toy. That is what happens when we let him hang out with an older woman (Brooke is 14 months old)! We also took a trip to a church that was selling pumpkins and took some pictures. Again, Graham was not happy. I did all the crazy things I could think of and still only got 2 smiles during the photo shoot. Of course, one of the smiles came while Grandpa was holding him and there was not a pumpkin in sight! I think he was too busy watching the cars driving by on the street. We had big plans to make it to a real pumpkin patch but October 31st snuck up on us!

Another Tooth!

Graham now has 5 teeth! He had another top tooth pop through the day after my last post. We have been very lucky with his teething. His mood is not as good and he wants to be held more, but overall he is still his happy self. His other big achievement for this week is that he learned how to give "high five!" No, he has not learned to wave hello or good bye yet. I included the video of him practicing his new trick. We went to Fall for Greenville on Sunday afternoon and Graham wooed the crowd. He was in his element. He was able to people watch and talk to all that walked by his stroller. We also took him out and let him crawl around and pull up on his stroller. The weather was perfect and we got to visit with good friends. Graham is starting to eat much of what we are eating. We still have to be careful and not give him dairy products due to his milk allergy. He has not turned down any table food yet. His favorite is still sweet potatoes. Close seconds include rice, bananas, green beans, carrots, and apples. He sits in his high chair and starts saying "mmmmmmm" before he even gets his first bite! A boy doesn't stay in the 90% for weight by turning down food!

9 Months Old

Graham turned 9 months old last week. He is officially a man on the move, which is the main reason my posts are not as frequent. He is taking shorter naps and requires my full attention when he is awake! He now crawls very fast, pulls up on everything, and pulls on cords. In short, he is a mess!
Not only can he pull up on everything, but he is now tall enough to reach even the items pushed to the center of the coffee table. He loves to open drawers and cabinets. The only problem is that Graham has not learned to move his fingers out of the way before shutting the drawers. He also has several bruises on his head from where he is trying to stand on his own. I am afraid these are the first of many bumps and bruises.
Graham had his 9 month well child visit last week. His weight is 23 lbs 12 oz (90%), his length is 29.5 in (86%) and his head is 18.25 in (79%). He has met all of his developmental milestones at this point. These include: responding to his name, playing peek-a-boo, crawling, sitting well, pulling up to stand, and rolling both ways. In other words, he is still perfect!
Graham now has 4 teeth. The front two on the bottom and the front two on the top. I have not been able to get a good picture of his top teeth yet, but hope to soon.