Already?

So Graham is already wanting to stand on his own and walk. All day yesterday and even the day before he would be standing at a toy or the couch and let go. He of course falls right away. He's still a little wobbly even when holding on, so I'm not expecting the standing on his own to happen all that soon, but all the same, he's trying, and that is a little nervous.
I think this says a lot about the differences in my kids' personalities. Nate was an early cruiser. He was cruising furniture well by 9 months old, but he wasn't mobile in any other way. He also NEVER let go of the furniture. We finally made him practice walking after he turned one. He could do it, but was afraid to try. And that has carried into other things. Nate is a very cautious child when it comes to trying new things, or even things that he hasn't done in a while. I have a feeling I'll appreciate that more and more as the years go by, even as it is a frustration in other things. Graham on the other hand is much more adventurous, a quality that I'm sure will help him get what he wants in life.
So there you have it, they may look alike, and they may cry alike, but they are two different children.

Movin' Right Along

So Graham has had a pretty busy past 2 weeks. He learned how to crawl up on his hands and knees, and does that pretty much all of the time now. He also has learned to pull himself up. At first he did it, and fell over right away. It didn't take him long to figure out how to stand. So now he stands. He can also kind of move along things, like the early early stages of cruising. He can sit on his knees. He can pull the laptop off of the table. He can pull the lid off of the goldfish cup. (And eat the goldfish without too much trouble.) He also got 2 more teeth. But they are not the ones you would think, they are the side top teeth. So we have a little jack-o-lantern. Plus, I'm pretty sure he went through a grown spurt because he did nothing but eat. Whew! I'm tired just listing it all.

Nate is being 3 and all that involves. Enough said.

And finally, my high school 10 year reunion is coming up, and they asked for current family pictures to be sent. Well, I don't have a current family picture. There is no picture in existence with the 4 of us. So I had my photographer friend take some family pictures tonight. Now we have one. Good for us.

Anyway, that's it. I'm going to go and watch the men's marathon with Jesse now. Hope they show every second of it.

ps- Erin- I just went to a pie party that my friends hosted. Are you jealous?

A side note

So, a side note, I just realized that this is the picture of taken right before the one picture of Nate on Jesse's lap with his blanket and a cookie. So yeah, he wasn't crying right then, but had just been...

Cozy Coupe

So whenever we go somewhere that has a cozy coupe, Nate becomes the worst sharer in the world. He just never wants his turn to be over. The problem is that one has appeared in nursery, so he really needs to learn to share these. (and I just typed in "lurn" so I'm a dork.)

So cozy coupes are pretty expensive, especially for a time that is not a birthday or Christmas. I told him that maybe he could ask Santa to bring him one- and btw- it's a bad idea to mention "Christmas" and "Santa" to a 3 year old in August. It's still 4 months away and now I will hear about things I have accidentally told him to ask Santa for until then. Anyway, I decided to see if we could get a used one. I have no patience for yard sales, so I got onto freecycle and asked for one. Someone said that we could have theirs, and yesterday I went to pick it up.

Nate was super sad when I left and he didn't even know where I was going, so I told him that when I got back I would have a surprise for him. (At which point he mentioned Santa bringing him a red car...) So before I had even gotten into my car Jesse brought him outside because he wanted to watch me leave, and then they were still outside when I pulled back in. (This guy lived close, I was gone for maybe 10 min.)

Nate was so excited when he saw that I had one of those cars in my trunk. Now it is all he wants to do. All day long he has been asking to play with his "red car." Of course, it's an outside toy, so that's kind of annoying with a baby that have needs that are not met outside. But Nate is happy with his new car, and maybe if he plays with it enough he won't be so bad about sharing at nursery.

Where's my blanket?

So when I graduated from college, my parents took me to Europe. (Not as a graduation present or anything, it just happened to be timed that way.) They also took my sister and her oldest child, who was at the time about 5 months old. Erin brought along Ben's quilt, and it was fun to see him light up when he was given that quilt. That was what made me decide to make quilts for my babies. I wanted them to love something that I created just for them.

With Nate, it was wildly successful. If I had all of my photos on the new computer I would to a collage of Nate and his blanket, since the two are never far apart. We were supposed to give it up at his 3rd birthday, and it was going to be a bed time thing, but I haven't had the guts yet. Anyway, the other day someone looked at his blanket and said that this must have been one of mommy or daddy's blankets that was passed down. Oh no, it's just been that loved. I had to make him a second one, just so that I would be able to wash them. Nate is a blanket boy.

Graham is just starting to get into his blankets. Often these days when I go in to get him out of his crib he will be sitting there with all of his blanket pulled into his lap.

The nice thing about loving a blanket is that is an easy comforter. Whenever there are tears, the first thing we grab is the blanket. (One of the reasons that it has not been banished to the bed yet.) And that brings us to events of the other day. For some reason both of the kids were crying at the same time (quite a regular occurrence) and then Jesse and I looked, and both of them had their blankets in their mouth as they were crying.

The picture of Graham is from the actual event. I couldn't get both of them at the same time though. And Nate is not really crying in the other picture, but it's a safe bet that he had been crying not too long before this. (We have A LOT of tears in our house.)

Same old

So we've just been hanging out the past few weeks. Just boring stuff. Nothing exciting. So here are a few pictures of our boring life.

And today after I came home from my run Graham woke up, so I had to go and rock him back to sleep. As I was still on my endorphin high I was able to not be annoyed at his not really going back to sleep. So I sat there and watched him and he was studying his hand. That is something that is always fun to watch because I always wonder what they are thinking about. But he was lying there opening and closing his thumb and pointer finger. He would open.... and close, and open.... and close, and open.... and close. He did that for a few minutes before he moved to a different position. It was just one of those moments that I was glad that I stopped to watch, and that I was in a mind frame to enjoy it, and not be mad about his delaying sleep.

Happy Feet

So today Nate went and saw his first movie in the theatre. Regal Cinemas does a free kids movie 2 days a week during the summer, and since our local theatre is a Regal Cinemas, it works out nicely. So we went with Phoebe and her family, and Nate and Phoebe loved it. (Aside from the part when the sea lion tires to eat them, and then the whales, oh and the part with the rocks almost crushing them in the sea, and them almost getting blown away in the blizzard...) But they sure loved the dancing part. They danced and danced and danced. There were some happy feet in our aisle. Nate now wants to go to more movies.
In other news, I have found myself strangely addicted to facebook. Even though not much goes on, because I don't really leave too many comments on other people's walls, I'm still at that beginning part where I am becoming friends with more people every day, so it keeps drawing me in. And, people want to be friends with me. I sent out my initial requests, but all of these other people have found me and requested to be friends with me. I'm so popular.