More milestones

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a wonderful celebration, and have made some good resolutions. Graham has evidently resolved to walk as soon as possible in 2009- today he took his first "real" steps, between Jon and I three different times, which was amazing to see! He's still a little concerned about striking out on his own, but more and more he tries to walk instead of dropping down to crawl everywhere he goes. I think before Shosho leaves next week he'll really be going. In other news, his first tooth finally popped through two days ago as well! It the is bottom right incisor, and he loves to run his tongue and fingers over the little ridge all day long. It must be a strange new sensation!
And here are some sandbox pictures as I promised.

As you can see he was very serious about his work. He can focus so intensely sometimes, it's funny and fascinating to watch. I wonder what is going on in that little head.
Jonathan and I have been talking about how we kind of wish Graham would stop growing up because he is at such a fun and cute stage. I am going to miss his little backside as he crawls down the hall, and his unintelligible jabbering that is obviously deeply meaningful to him once he starts talking and walking. But this isn't the first time we've thought it was an amazing life stage. I guess that is part of the magic of children, each new discovery is as good or better than the last.

Much love,
Kate

Happy Holidays!

It's about time I got another blog up here! December has simply flown by, and suddenly it's pretty much over. Before we get any closer to January I have to put up some pictures of Graham's first Christmas, which was a very fun affair indeed.

We celebrated with Shosho and Babu on the 22nd before they headed down to Georgia, and then Granna and Granddad came to visit for the day itself. Wow, he had a great time! We all got some great presents, and Graham had a ball with all of his, as well as with the various sparkly and shiny Christmas paraphenalia, and most of all with the extra people around to hug and kiss on. He is such a loving and cuddly boy, and that just seems to increase as he grows and becomes more aware of what it means to relate and to love. I've said it before, but we are so blessed!

In addition to hugging, kissing, clapping, dancing, singing into his tin can, and jabbering all the time Graham is determined to walk any day now- he cruises around and takes mini-steps between objects or people, but doesn't quite have the confidence to strike out on his own yet. Sometimes he forgets that he's not holding on to anything and he will stand for many seconds at a time. It's amazing that he's already so big...


For Christmas Jonathan got a new camera, which will hopefully jump start his new videography business, so some of the pictures I'll add will be extra beautiful as a result. Today it was almost 80 degrees here in Virginia so we got to try out one of Graham's new gifts, the sandbox! I haven't downloaded those pictures yet (of sand everywhere, including in the mouth- thankfully it only took once to learn that lesson!) so you'll have to wait until next time for those.

Much love to everyone, and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

I just found this great picture I had to post- what a ham!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's already December... Blessings to all. Kate

Quick update

We just wanted to let you know about some of Graham's latest tricks, such as:
Driving
Surfin' the web
Eating (he's really good at that one!)
Pointing
and of course, just looking cute

What a guy! He's so much fun, and has the best attitude, even with all of the changes going on with his life as we all juggle new jobs, places, and schedules. We're excited for our first road-trip to Kentucky this week as well (well, we're excited about getting there, anyway!)

Love you all! Kate

Ps- sorry it's all underlined, I don't know why, or how to fix it. Oops.

More pictures

I can't believe we're already halfway through November! Graham is continuing to grow into a wonderful little boy-- here are a few pictures of him with me and his dad. We're having so much fun lately; we had Grandma Douglas here to visit a couple weeks ago, so now Graham has officially met all of his great-grandparents. Also, on top of lots of great time with Shosho and Babu, he got to see Granna and Granddad last weekend when they drove our car down to Kentucky.

We really think he's finally working on his first tooth as well. It looks like at least one and possibly two bottom incisors are about to break through. What with the fussy moods, returning sleep issues, and drool everywhere, we're about ready for those puppies to pop into place!

I start training at my new job (at Patient First Urgent care and clinic) on Thursday, and Jon is going to start working part-time at Starbucks until he gets his video business going. So, things are getting busy around here. We are looking forward to whatever God has in store for us, and hope that Graham will settle in to our new schedule well.

Blessings to all of you from us!

Favorite games

Fun times:



We just got some videos of Graham's favorite new games, affectionately known as "Gallopy" and of course good old Peek-a-boo:































He's also just darn cute:
















Here's him "putting up with picture time", less than enthused:
















And one last one, when he's sick of the paparazzi:

Happy Voting Day!

Hope you are all getting out to vote today! We have already voted by mail-in ballot in Washington, so now we're just sitting back and waiting for the results.

I have been meaning to post some pictures of Graham's room, because he loves it so much and it is so cute, so I will do that now. These aren't the best, but you get the idea anyway!

Love you all,
Kate