Pumpkin Patch 2012

On October 13th, we woke up and headed out for our annual Pumpkin Patch adventure.  This was our 4th year in a row to go to the same place and although it wasn't horrible they had made a lot of changes this year that made it pretty difficult to maneuver, not to mention the mud from all the rain.  Despite the changes we had a good time and made some fun memories.

I have learned that if you don't start with a group picture you won't get one at all, well unfortunately we still really didn't get one.  Both boys were to busy looking at all the people.

Then this one just cracks me up, Josh told me to look the same direction Graham was and then Graham decided to look at the camera.  Oh well, we tried!

I love looking back and comparing our trips to the pumpkin patch. It's so fun to see how much Reed has grown, then to see Graham's first tractor picture and both boys together!  Such precious memories!

   Reed in the hay, refusing to look at the camera! :)

Excited to get on the tractor

Daddy and Graham watching big brother!

I was hoping for a picture of the boys together in the picture below.  But Reed decided he needed to run around behind the photo wall and found a nail that he cut his finger on.  Needless to say he had a complete meltdown and the photo op was over.  Oh well, Graham had fun sitting there and he reminded me so much of Reed on our first trip to the pumpkin patch.  They both immediately started picking at the hay and put it in their mouth.

Here is the side by side of Reed and Graham chewing on the hay!  Reed was 6 months old and Graham was 10.5 months here.

And here is Reed 20 minutes later still having a complete meltdown over a little cut.  Let's just say we are in for it when he really actually gets hurt! :)

We made the best of it and got some really cute pictures of Graham on his first trip to the pumpkin patch!

Reed perked up when Papaw showed up, thank goodness!  Dad took him on the little train around the pumpkin patch and the day got much better! 

All in all we had a great family day and enjoyed making priceless memories!

Favorite time of day!

Every since Graham has been a little bity baby he gets so excited when you get him out of the bath tub and wrap him up in a towel.  I have always wanted to capture this moment, so finally a week or so ago (these were taken 10/4/12) I asked Josh to grab the camera.

He was playing peek-a-boo.

Sweet baby! 

The lashes are long, but when they get wet they are insane! You can tell his eyes are getting darker in this picture too.  I still don't know if they will stay hazel or turn completely brown. 

I cherish these moments every day and never want to forget the sweet times every night! 

Gigi turns 50!

On August 16th Josh's Mom turned 50!  We can not live without her, so we wanted to make sure she knew how special she is to us.  We put together a surprise party for her and invited all of her closes friends from over the years.

I thought her cake turned out great!

The birthday girl with her cake!

We tricked her and made her think we were just going out to eat and had her meet us at our house.  As soon as she walked in, Reed said, "Gigi Uncle B is here and it is a surprise I'm not suppose to tell you!"  So part of the surprise was already out of the bag!  Branden had traveled down from Missouri and had come over earlier in the day to see Josh and Reed.  I was out getting ready for the party, but when I found out I told Josh that was a horrible idea.  He said that he had had a talk with Reed and he felt like he wouldn't say anything.  Poor Reed he just couldn't hold it in, he literally lasted 2 minutes after Gigi got here.  So Jeannie just thought the surprise was Branden coming down.  Little did she know 15 more people were waiting to say, "Happy Birthday!"  

The whole gang! 

Reed brought Gigi a special piece of cake! 

There were also lots of great gifts! 

Of course Reed was right in the middle of the present opening! 

Jeannie/Gigi is the most giving person I know!  She is always there to watch Reed & Graham anytime we need her and even more just so Josh and I can have a date night.  I hope she always knows how special she is to us and that we literally could have never raised the two precious boys we have without her.

Graham is 10 Months Old

Well, better late than never this month! Graham turned 10 months last Friday. I have been super busy with work lately and worked over 40 hours last weekend.  The craziness all started right after these pictures were taken.  I had Graham all dressed when Gigi got here to watch him last Friday, because I knew if I didn't take them then it might be a while.  Graham wasn't in to much of a smiley mood, but we got a few cute ones!  I can't believe we will be celebrating his birthday in just 2 short months, unbelievable!  Josh and I are starting to say a lot, that we can't believe the baby stage is almost gone!  It just goes by TOO fast!

Graham didn't have his 9 month check up until 9/20/12 and he weighed 20 lbs 11 ounces (43%), he was 29 1/4 inches long (72%) and his head was 18 inches around (55%).  So he had gained 3/4 of a pound in less than a month.  He really is getting so big, he has definitely caught up more to the size Reed was at this age.  He is wearing almost all 12 month clothes.  We still put him in some 6-9, but they are really to small, we are just trying to make it through the end of the warm weather.  All of bigger clothes are long sleeve and pants.  If Graham keeps growing I may be buying more clothes for him before spring because the next size up are all shorts.  Lets hope the 9-12 month clothes make it to spring!  We still are not very good about putting shoes on him, but the one pair he has that currently fit him are size 4.  I just can't find any I like and he seems to hate shoes, so I just keep putting it off.  Graham is still wearing size 3 diapers, but size 4 has been bought.  Graham also got his 4th haircut a couple of days before these pictures were taken.  It is staying pretty curly and getting thicker and thicker and hasn't gotten any lighter.

Graham loves to play!  He loves all of his toys and does so good playing by himself.  It is very common for me to find him just playing by himself in Reed's room.  I remember this age being much harder with Reed when it came to having to give him attention when I was trying to get something done.  For example, getting ready in the morning, Graham is usually pretty content to eat Cheerios in his walker if he is in the bathroom with me.  Don't get me wrong sometimes we have our rough times, but there have only been a couple.  He also does great while I am getting dinner ready and will either eat in his highchair or play with Reed in his room. 

The big news this month is that Graham has started taking some steps.  He took his first little steps on 9/15/12 and by 9/22/12 he was up to 4 steps.  So far he hasn't taken any more than that.  He is pretty wobbly, but he just wants to go!  I am sure part of it is keeping up with big brother and partly because Josh and I love to work with him.  Reed took his first step at 10 months, 5 days. So Graham has him beat by a few days!  If he isn't up trying to walk or walking behind a push toy he is crawling at lightning speed and in to everything and especially loves anything he knows he is not suppose to have.  His favorite is the fireplace and the little rocks he can get in his mouth.  This kiddo loves to get tiny things in his mouth all.of.the.time.  He also loves Gracie's water bowl, even with it being moved into the corner of the laundry room!  Dumping the water everywhere is still at least a weekly occurrence.

Here he is taking a little step and this is the only picture I got where you can see his little teeth coming in!  The top 2 teeth have also broken through, I only know this because he loves to grit them all together.  Worst noise ever!  This just started a couple of days before he turned 10 months.  Another big milestone this month was moving to the convertible carseat in the car.  The infant carrier was impossible to carry around and once I heard his length being so close to 30 inches (the limit for his infant seat) I was glad we had gone ahead and moved him up.  I don't think he has really noticed and has done just fine in it. 

With the teeth coming in, the nursing came to an end.  After two weeks of being bit almost every day, I had to call it quits.  Once I knew that he was fine with formula completely I also stopped pumping and all the milk from the freezer was gone within a couple of weeks.  I would have loved to make it a year, but as a Momma I feel like you just know when its time to quit.  We were both ready to move on.  He now drinks (or should I say is offered) 5, 5 oz bottles a day at 7,11,2,5, and 8.  At least 2 or 3 of the 5 bottles are a struggle to get him to drink and it is different every day what bottles it is.  He definitely still prefers table food over his milk (which is still so weird for me, because Reed loved and still loves his milk and would drink all day over eating) and will eat anything.  One day at school he even refused his bottle completely, but at all of his food.  On 9/17/12 he fed himself his first meal of whole green beans and peaches.  He loves green beans and all fruit.  I haven't tried a whole lot of variety but so far I really haven't found anything he won't eat.  We are still doing a lot of baby food and yogurt for breakfast.  He loves Cheerios and nutrigrain bars too.  He typically eats lunch around noon and dinner around 6 and then will eat something else if we all sit down to eat dinner together.  He also has improved a ton with his sippy cup and loves to drink water.

Graham is still just such a happy boy!  We get asked a lot, "Is he always this happy?" and he really his!  We also always get told what pretty eyes he has.  My vote is that they are going to be a hazel brown like mine, but they are still dark blue most days.  Graham loves to wave, clap and has really started moving and shaking to music more and more.  He also still hasn't shown much separation anxiety and will go to anyone.  Graham LOVES Reed and wants to be right in the middle of whatever he is doing.  I think my favorite time of day is in the morning.  Graham loves seeing Reed first thing and if Graham is not up yet Reed cannot wait until Graham wakes up and will watch the monitor waiting for him to get up.  We have gotten a lot of Reed's old toys out of the attic this month and the fighting over the toys has begun.  Some of them Reed remembers and it has been difficult to explain that they are now Graham's toys and you can't ride around on the toy push truck all day.  Graham also loves Da-da!  When Josh gets home from work he will almost fly out of my arms to get to him and a lot of times at night he will prefer to be in his lap over mine.

Graham has settled into his school routine.  He typically only takes one nap there, which is typically around 2 hours right in the middle of the day.  He seems to really like his teachers and seems happy to be there.  At home Graham still takes 2 naps a day, one in the morning around 9 and then other one around 1 in the afternoon.  Typically they are both 1-2 hours.  As far as sleeps goes at night, this month has been a mixed bag.  In the middle of the month I had jotted a note that sleep was terrible and he had bee waking up 1-2 times a night, but lately it has been better.  We have had several nights lately where he hasn't made a peep all night!  We have just come to the realization that Graham is not a good sleeper and it is okay we just take one night at a time and we know it won't last forever and it could be much worse.  Although it is frustrating during the night, the next morning I usually can say I enjoyed the snuggle time.  I think most of the sleeping can be blamed on teething lately and partly because of stuffy nose.  The day of his check-up he woke up with a really runny nose and we ended up and still have his bed elevated to help him sleep easier.  We have been doing a lot of saline drops and nose sucking lately.  Yuck!

Graham is still a great cuddlier, but he has started falling asleep easier facing out when he is falling asleep in our arms at night.  Yes, just like Reed did until he was almost 2, Graham falls asleep every night while we hold him on the couch and he is still rocked for all naps when he is at home.  I wouldn't change it for a second!

Graham, we love you with all of our hearts!!  I just can't believe you have been in our lives for 10 months.  What joy you have brought to our lives.  I live every day to see the smiles on yours and your brother's faces!  Seeing the picture of Reed below at 10 months makes me sad because I honestly can barely remember him at that age and I don't want it to be the same with Graham!  I thinik with every child you realize more and more what a precious gift they are.  We have been given two precious, perfect and very different little boys that I couldn't imagine loving any more than I do already.

Graham is 9 Months!

I can't believe this precious baby boy is 9 months old, time is flying by!  I fall more in love every day!  However, 9 months is starting off a little rough!  Graham started daycare last Wednesday and by Friday he was coming home early with fever and then Reed started feeling bad soon after he woke up Saturday morning and was also running fever.  Graham's fever went away by mid-afternoon Saturday, but Reed's continued until Monday morning so off to the doctor we went.  Reed has strep throat again (he just had it in March and it was his first time to be really sick) and although Graham isn't old enough to be tested the doctor assumes that he also has it so they are both on antibiotics.  Although, I am super sad they are sick, we had the best day together being at home. We caught the illness super early so you would have never known Reed was sick, but Graham has been off quite a bit.  Okay, I digress on to what's new with Graham!

 Graham seems to have grown a ton to me this month.  He was 20 lbs even at the doctor yesterday!  I feel like he just moved into 6-9 month clothes and they are already getting small.  We may be in trouble with clothes this winter because all of Reed's first set of winter clothes was 6-9 months.  Looks like I have a lot of shopping to do soon! :)  Graham rarely wears shoes, but last week he wore a pair of size 3.  He is still wearing size 3 diapers, but I will be buying size 4 next, which is crazy to me because Reed was in a size 5 when he got potty trained. 

The big news this month is Graham finally got his first tooth or should I say teeth.  The bottom two teeth broke through weekend before last.  We knew it would be coming soon and we had been feeling his gums every day for a week or so and finally a little point was there on August 19th and within a couple of days I could feel both.

Graham also started clapping on August 11th.  He does it all the time and usually all we have to say is "Yay" and he will start clapping, but of course today I couldn't get him to clap for anything.  He definitely wasn't 100% today so we will blame it on that.  He has also gotten better and better at waving hi and bye-bye.  The clapping and waving are so, so cute!!

Graham is into everything!  I have been saying lately I know Reed was this busy once, but I just don't remember it!  Graham crawls at lightening speed especially when he sees something he knows he is not suppose to have like the fireplace rocks and Gracie's water bowl.  The water bowl sits up high, so he has dumped it many times all over him.  He also loves getting Reed's small Legos and toys in his mouth.  Reed has had to learn not to leave little things laying down where he can reach it.

Graham is pulling up on everything and even starting to walk by pushing things.  Today he stood unassisted for at least 10 seconds.  I really didn't mean for it to happen, but he was standing he front of me sitting on the floor and I just let go and he stood, he even held his arms out and purposely balanced!  Crazy!  Reed took his first step at 10 months, 5 days and was fully walking right before 11 months so we will see if Graham does the same thing.  I have mixed feelings about him walking early, but I love seeing him learn and it will be so fun to see him and Reed run together!

This month has been much better in the sleep department!  I  try to make notes throughout the month of what Graham is learning and doing and thankfully I made this note during the month because the last 3 days have been horrific as far as sleeping goes.  Throughout the month Graham was going down between 7:30 and 8:30 and most mornings sleeping until after 7, the 6 am wake up calls had finally subsided.  However, due to the sickness and teething the last 3 nights, Josh and I have been up literally every hour.  Last night I was up trying to get work done because I had to be home today and I had to rock him back to sleep 5 times between 8:30 and 12. He is pitiful!!  He just wakes up out of a dead sleep screaming and will not settle down without rocking, we have tried everything.  He is so sweet though because he just snuggles into you and goes right to sleep, but it has been rough!  So far so good tonight! 

Graham still loves to eat!  He is still nursing in the mornings and taking 4, 5 ounce bottles of breast milk at 11, 2, 5 and 8.  He typically eats yogurt with toast or pancakes for breakfast and 5 or 6 ounces of baby food at lunch and dinner.  At lunch he usually has homemade avocado and fruit and then jarred veggies or meat at dinner.  When he eats jarred food he has been known to finish 2 full jars several times.  He loves puffs and mum-mums and this month has started eating Cheerios, even eating them not broken up.  The last couple of days being sick he has lived off Cheerios and milk with only a little baby food.  We are starting to give him more and more table food and he seems to prefer it over baby food.

Last Wednesday Graham got his 3rd haircut!  Not many 9 month olds can say they have had 3 haircuts!  This was only the 2nd one we paid for, obviously I posted the second one when Josh just took scissors to his curls!  This time he really needed one all over and especially the sides again.  If only he were a girl we would have pigtails by now! :)  He looks so grown up, like a little man!

Graham is a Momma's boy and I LOVE it!  Reed never really cared who was holding him and I never remember him crying for me, but Graham has done it several times where he will fuss just for me to hold him!  Graham also loves his paci!  He doesn't have it all the time, but it is definitely a comfort for him.  We still plan to take it away around a year, just like we did with Reed.  Another one of Graham's loves is bath time.  Soon after Graham started sitting up good, he started taking a full bath with Reed.  He loves to splash and crawl all over the tub.  Graham's biggest hate right now is diaper changing!  He becomes a squirmy worm as soon as he is laid down, it makes changing a diaper an Olympic event! 

Graham seems to babble more and more every day, but so far he really is only saying Ma-ma and Da-da.  We are also starting to work on sign language with him.  Reed started signing please at 9 months, so Graham should be signing soon.  We are starting with please and more, pretty much the same thing to a 9 month old! :)  Reed is also learning to dance!  He is just starting to move and bounce when he hears music, especially on his learning table. 

Graham can't get enough of Reed and Reed can't get enough of Graham, it is best!  When Reed wakes up Graham is the first thing he ask about and when Graham sees Reed he always gets the biggest smile on his face.  Lately we have been playing in Reed's room a lot, Graham loves all the big boy toys and Reed is learning to share everything with little brother.  Graham also loves to crawl straight for Reed's room to see what he can get in to.  We love watching them together, there just isn't anything better! 

Reed at 9 months!  Lately lots of people have been saying Graham looks just like big brother.  I think they are starting to favor more and more (Graham is definitely catching up in size), but I still think they are so different!

Fun Shutterfly Card

I saw Shutterfly was giving away a free card, so I thought it would be a fun way to display all of the pictures from our most recent photo shoot! 

I love these two boys more than I ever thought possible!

Band Of Pictures Thank You Card

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