Crazy Legs

Graham is "on the move" these days. He's got CRAZY legs!!

Almost 8 Months Old!

Graham is experiencing the world these days! We went to visit my grandmother in Richmond a few weekends ago - celebrated my sister in law's birthday, too! Fun! Lots of pool time and good food. Graham has been telling us forquite a while that he's found his voice. Now he's finding words - da-da, a-da, we think he's saying ga-ga. And lots of the classic baby talk. It's so fun!! I'm trying to teach him to say mama, but he just laughs hysterically when I say it. No luck, yet. Graham LOVES bathtime! He is especially partial to a family of ducks that joins him with every bath. He likes the ducks so much that they now live all around the house and rarely find their way into the tub! So, we improvise with the hippo. Graham is really trying to crawl - while on his belly, he now pushes his upper body up with his arms and then uses his toes to get the rest of his body off the floor. Just can't seem to figure out the forward motion, yet.

SERIOUSLY?!

Last Thursday was not my favorite day. I came home from work to Chip (our AC guy). Now Chip is a great guy, but he's not the guy you want to see in your house when it's 100 degrees outside. Yep, the upstairs AC was on the fritz. Again. We had the pleasure of purchasing a brand new AC heat pump and air handler last week. Yea.

Shortly after Chip left that afternoon, a crazy storm hit Virginia Beach. We lost power. Great. Graham had a terrible cold, and we were relying on the humidifier to help him sleep. Later that evening, we heard a CRACK. Yep - tree down in the front yard. And now my front yard looks a little naked.

The Ladybugs

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!

Love,

Molly

Graham LOVES the dogs. He laughs hysterically every time he sees them.

Something we've learned - don't leave Graham alone for even a SECOND just after eating. We ran upstairs to grab something the other day, and when we came down Graham's face and hands were clean as a whistle.

My sweet older lady - LOVES to sunbathe after swimming laps. (The carpet by the pool steps is so the girls don't slip when they're getting in and out of the pool. It's not a decorating statement.)

Lessons Learned...

I confess this blog entry has nothing to do with a little boy or two dogs! So, we'll consider this a commercial break - we're talking gardening now. We've started to enjoy the veggies! We actually had enough vegetables to saute quite a bit of them and serve with parmesan cheese over fresh cheese ravioli the other day - so yummy. So, lessons learned -

I can't tell the difference (yet) between the tomatoes we planted from seeds and the actual plants. (Except the obvious - time it takes for them to grow.) They're all yummy!

If you like - but don't LOVE - squash, don't plant 15 little seedlings. They FLOURISH! Can you see the butternut climbing up our six foot fence?! It's now climbed up the tree in my neighbor's yard.

Peppers - sweet and jalapeno - take a little while longer to grow. Cukes grow quickly!

Basil grows very well from either plants or seeds. I used all seeds this year, and it's growing like a weed. We'll be making lots of pesto and freezing it for the winter.

Flowers - I just love lilies, and they're all in bloom now.

Asiatic lilies really do grow and multiply year after year. Just wish the blooms lasted longer! (Might have something to do with the fact that these flowers are in the middle of one of Molly's running paths...)

Life With Baby

Life with Graham just gets better and better every day. We're trying new things all the time - sippy cups (he's certainly not proficient, yet), standing (only for about 10 seconds with some help), lots of swimming and kicking in his float, walks in the Baby Bjorn (Graham's legs move LOTS)...

Our vegetable harvest begins!! The first tomato...

Graham, unfortunately, is not a big fan of tomatoes - I've put them with potatoes. Not a fan. He's also not a fan of chicken (but who would like pureed chicken?!) We tried chicken with sweet potato and apple. There was no hiding the chicken - yucky. We just tried plums this week with some bananas - he loves plums! We've got LOTS of squash in the garden. (Actually no squash, yet. Just lots of squash blossoms. I definitely overplanted. It was starting to cover up my watermelon and jalapeno plants. Kyle had to trim it back because I didn't have the heart.

Graham finally fits into the clothes that Kyle bought him from WRV when I was pregnant! We've dubbed this shirt one of his "going out shirts".

Lilies are probably one of my favorite flowers - I've been eyeing the buds on my asiatic lilies for the longest time - they're just starting to pop open! I'm hoping Molly lets me enjoy them for a while before trampling them.

Practicing our standing...

It's definitely hot here these days - 90s - and Graham seems to prefer no clothes. (Is it possible for them to have an opinion at this age?) He fights me putting his clothes on in the morning. So, I cave since I think his naked body is just irresistible.

It's actually possible to have a life outside baby time! (For a while I wondered if it really was possible....) Kyle and I hosted our dinner club this past weekend, and we had a blast. We love getting together with these friends - always full of laughs and lots of good food. And I've started enjoying getting back into trying new recipes and cooking more. It's fun when I have the time and can enjoy it.

We started to introduce Graham to a sippy cup a few weeks ago. He's not quite sure what to do with it. So, we're trying a new one to see if he'll go for it. Such a big step for me!

Some of our dearest friends were in town for almost two weeks recently! We got lots of time with them - dinners, beach time, pool time. We wish you all lived closer!!!

Christy and I tried out the paddle boards while the guys watched the little fellas.

Silly jet skier making waves ....

We took Graham to the beach - his first "official" beach trip. We've been before but just to go walking or look at the ocean. This time was our first official "let's pack lunches and all kinds of equipment because we're camping out" beach day. And, we decided to leave our house at 9:45 on a Saturday morning and just hope for the best. (Graham takes a nap around 10.) He had an absolute blast and completely forgot about his nap! We stayed until about 2:30 when he did fall asleep.

Graham and his buddy Kallen at the beach....

Graham had his first overnight stay at Papa and Gigi's house (my parents) a couple weeks ago. We went to the Coldplay concert with our friends Jill and Adam. Pretty cool story ... our local amphitheater put all lawn tickets to every concert this summer on sale for $10 each a couple Fridays ago. We couldn't pass up that offer. The four of us arrived, got a bite to eat and had just claimed some lawn (at the very, very back) when a lady approached us. She asked if we were having fun and if we wanted to have more fun - well sure. She gave us tickets for the first section near the stage, row Q! So, we walk all the way up front with our new tickets and enjoyed the show up front! Great show by the way. Was hoping to see Gwyneth - no such luck. A bit of the concert is below.