Daddy Week

 

With father's day on Sunday and Chris' birthday on the following Thursday, this week was Daddy's week and we were all excited to celebrate this amazing guy. Grady was especially excited for the decorations and to wear a "party hat.".  Chris is somewhat of a superdaddy accomplishing more in a single day than I do in a week.  He is loving, selfless, fully engaged with the kids, witty,  a jack of all trades, supportive, accomplished, faithful, hard-working, handsome, the C.O.O. of our family, and a caretaker of us all.  I am not quite sure how I was so lucky to end up with this guy, but I am thankful for him everyday and so happy that our boys have him as a father.

A few pictures from this week.  We are so blessed.

 

Graham: 7 Months

Our sweet baby Graham is 7 months old and continues to be the epitome of a sweet, happy baby. Graham is full of smiles even while teething and/or sick.  He greets us with the most adorable grin and sounds of joy each and every morning.  As far as babies go, this one is a real keeper.  We couldn't feel more blessed to have Graham in our lives.

• Graham has the biggest cheeks I've ever seen on a baby, greenish eyes that I think look most like his Aunt Elizabeth's, blond hair that maybe veers towards ginger just a little bit, and two lower teeth and 4 teeth coming in all at once on the top. 
• I am sad about his teeth. I prefer the gummy baby smiles.  Grady was just getting his first tooth at this point so I was not prepared to say goodbye to my gummy smiles so soon.

• Graham is probably not sad about his teeth, this kid is ready to eat.  He tries to swipe food out of hands and off plates if the opportunity ever presents itself.  He CANNOT wait to eat real food. 

• He has not met a baby food he doesn't like.  He especially loves banana flavored oatmeal.  It is actually a little worrisome because he'll eat until he is literally sick.  We have to cut him off even when he would willingly eat more.
• Graham is a big boy.  We get comments on how big he is a lot, but he is only in the 45th% for weight and now around 80th% for height.  It must be his big head. 
• He is in 12 month clothes already at age 7 months. 

• He is full of smiles and giggles all day every day.  He has chubby ticklish thighs and a very ticklish neck.

•  He giggles in delight when you hold him by his legs upside down.  

• He entered Johnson sleep training boot camp approximately one month ago and is making great strides towards sleeping through the night and/or learning to put himself back to sleep.  Some nights the poor guy is still just too hungry to make it through and we are up with him about twice a week.

• His favorite thing in the world may be Grady.  He wants to touch him and interact with him any chance that he gets.   Grady of course regularly complains, "Graham is touching me, stop it Graham" . . .  awe brotherly love. 

• Bella may be a close second to Grady in terms of what Graham loves most.  He loves Bella and Bella loves that there is a baby in a highchair with sticky hands once again.  She is in puppy heaven and Graham eats her up.  Bella regularly makes herself at home right next to Graham on the floor.  

• Graham loves the swing!  He'd swing for hours if we let him.  He also loves it when big brother steps in to help him swing, a combo of two of his favorite things.

• He still loves to be swaddled to sleep, but he breaks out of it in the middle of the night.  One day he will get used to going to sleep without being all bundled up.

• He has just learned to hold his bottle all on his own, growing up way too fast.

• He moves across any room by rolling, but is nowhere close to crawling.   He still often does what I call the "Shamu" with his belly down and legs and arms up like he is free falling in a parachute jump or looking quite a bit like Shamu posing at Sea World.

• He just learned to sit for long period of times this month so he is not terribly advanced on gross motor skills, but he seems pretty good with his fine motor skills.  He is very good at swiping things that he wants including glasses, food, toys, Bella's fur, etc. 
• When I feed him he always reaches up to feel my face with his sweet little chubby hands.  He runs his hands across my face in a way that I just adore until he gets his pinchers or hair-pullers out.

• He is a happy traveler still handling long car trips with barely so much as a peep.

• We are getting more and more comments about how is looking more like Grady.  One thing is very similar between these two.  Their heads are just about the same size!   We swap hats interchangeably between the two of of them. 
• Graham loves water.  He loves splashing in his nightly bath and peddling around the pool in his "boat".  We are pleased to have another water baby.

We love you so much much sweet little Graham.   You complete our family and have given us all the greatest of happiness.   We are beyond blessed that you are ours. 

We visited a specialist this month for his pectus excavatum and it was so nice to get my questions answered.  The doctor was so nice and really informative and told me that it was the right thing to bring him in even if there is no treatment available until Graham is much older.  We'll be going to see her every year so that they can track how things are progressing with his growth and monitor if there are ever any issues threatening his health.  They are trying out new technologies at our local hospital that haven't yet been approved in the U.S. but which are approved in Europe.  It was exciting to know that there are enough kids with this issue locally that the hospital is being proactive in evaluating new possible treatment methods.  The Dr. had nine surgeries scheduled this month alone for kids with pectus excavatum.   The Dr. encouraged us to keep Graham active as he grows and to enroll him in sports and activities that promote upper body strength.  Looks like Graham will be introduced to swimming and gymnastics early on, good thing big brother will be able to show him the ropes!

And now for the picture overload!

Besties. 

He makes Grahamsitting really difficult. 

"Graham is touching me!"

Took this on his actual 7 month birthday!  Love his face.  Want to squeeze him through the computer screen. 

Grady entertaining Graham with some far fetched story. 

You can see here that their heads really are pretty darn close in size. 

Believe it or not, this is WAY more hair than Grady had at this age.   Funny that these whispies constitute our "full head of hair baby."

Toy to mouth is a very common theme.

Wide mouth smiles are also a very common theme, I swear he closes his mouth once in a while. 

 Here is a side by side of the boys at 7 months.  Grady on the left and Graham on the right. 

Even when he is sleepy he is still so sweet, often times just laying his head down instead of throwing a fit.  Notice the Bells always at his side.