Graham - 15 Months Old

Graham turned 15 months last week!  He is a handful, but also a sweetheart. He still loves to held and hugged (and to give hugs in return, especially to Parker and Otis) and he loves to walk around holding your hand.  Even in the house, I will say "come on, Graham" and hold my hand out and it makes him so happy. He walks along, looking up at you with a big smile on his face.  On the other hand, he gets into everything!!  Graham is just a curious kid and has taken a recent liking to pulling out our small appliances and dragging them around by the cord and then sometimes wrapping the cord around his neck.  Nice!  Video here:

Graham is starting to vocalize more but still only says a few words, including Mama, Da, ball, and hot.  He says Oh for Otis and is starting to try and say Parker more.  Even though he is not talking much, he makes many sounds and we can usually figure out what he wants by the pointing, grunting, squealing, or "more" in sign language.  He is very good at following direction and loves to help by closing the dishwasher, putting things in the trash, etc.  When we say, let's get your shoes on, he goes right over to them and picks them up.

He waves bye-bye, claps, and shakes his head "no".  Graham LOVES to be read to and will often go into his room, find a book and bring it out to be read.  He will plop right down on your lap and be happy as can be.  His absolute favorite book is "Go, Dog, Go".  This is the short, board book version.  He adores it and will make us read it multiple times before bed.  He even tries to say it!

Graham is a pretty good eater.  He is getting pretty good with a fork and we are working on the spoon now.  This is video is from a couple weeks ago, so proud of himself!

Graham loves to roar and not only will do it on command when you ask "What does a lion say?" but will roar when he sees a picture of any animal. 

His hair is getting pretty long and he's definitely a blondie.  His eyebrows and eyelashes are very fair.  I took these photos and video the other day when he woke up with some awesome bed head.  The lighting in the video is a little funny because we were sitting on the kitchen floor.

Graham does great in his Tiny Tots class at school.  The 15 month evaluation is below (it got wet from a leaking water cup on the way home, thus the tears). He was not supposed to move up to the next room until October, but they decided he is bored being the oldest in his current room and decided to move him up early.  He starts in his new room on August 1!  They already have him sleeping on a cot rather than crib and he is doing awesome.  When we pick him up from his classroom, we need to go down an elevator and a long hall to get to Parker's room and Graham has taken to "carrying" (i.e. dragging) his bag the whole way there.  He likes having a little job.

Graham passed his 15 month check up with ease.  I had been thinking he was a bit behind in speaking, but Dr. Pichichero said they just look for three words at this age, so he is right on target.  Graham is definitely advanced in his gross motor skills, so no problem there!  He didn't measure quite a large as I thought he would:

weight: 25 lb 4 oz (60%)

height: 32" (75%)

head circumference:  19" (79%)

Some other fun tidbits:  

• can point to his nose, eyes, and tummy
• flaps his arms while running when he is excited
• loves to be naked
• loves to drink water, tends to drink much more water than milk
• has a goofy laugh he likes to do, especially when prompted, need to get on video
• I call him "Stinker" a lot because he is always getting into everything. Parker calls him Stinker too but she says because "he is always pooping in his pants"
• loves to be outside

4th of July in ADK - 2015

For the Fourth of July weekend, we headed up to the Adirondacks this year! The Johnsons drove up the day before from Pittsburgh and Papa G and Sandy drove up Friday morning.  We wanted to time our drive during Graham's nap, so we he hit the road right after lunch.

We rented cabins at Blue Mountain Lake, which was about a 3 1/2 hour drive.  Our cabin was adjoined with the Johnsons and shared a nice front deck/porch.  Papa G and Sandy had a cabin right on the water.  Our choices were bit limited because we needed dog-friendly accommodations for Mr. Otis.

The first night we planned on eating at a pizza place on Raquette Lake, about 15 minutes away.  Greg and I had eaten at this place years ago during a camping trip.  Let's just say we won't be going back.  We had outside eating, so at least the kids were occupied playing with sticks and rocks, but after an hour and a half of waiting for food, we finally gave in and left. Apparently they were short-staffed in the kitchen and the servers were new and so forgot to even put in our appetizer order.  We had a bunch of beers and threw a $20 on the table and left.  We scrambled to get the kids fed when we got back to the cabins and then grilled some burgers for the adults.  It worked out OK but threw off our meal planning for the rest of the weekend.  

Then we had a campfire that night and roasted marshmallows.

On Saturday, we split up to go on two different hikes.  The men hiked up to Castle Rock, with a view overlooking Blue Mountain Lake.  The ladies took all the kids on a hike to Rock Lake.  It was 1.6 miles round trip and basically flat. However, it was more difficult then we expected because of so many boulders and big muddy pits to navigate around.  Gennie took charge of Cate and I had Graham in a backpack, so thank goodness Sandy was there to be a literal helping hand for Clare and Parker.  The girls loved it and we had such a nice time.

During the afternoon, Graham took a nice long nap while I hung out at the cabin with him and everyone else went to Papa G and Sandy's "beach" to swim.  We went back over there that night to cook dinner.  A thunderstorm rolled through while we were cooking out, so we had to pile in the cabin for a little while.  

Graham unloading the cooler for Sandy

I did not get a video of the dance party we had this evening, but it was so much fun and such a good memory.

The next day was boating day!  Papa G rented a pontoon boat for us to cruise the lake.  We packed up lunch and found the perfect spot to beach on Osprey Island.

The boat came with a tube and we used it a lot at the beach to just drag the kids around in.  

And then, big shot Clare went for a loonnnggg ride behind the boat in the tube! She did awesome and loved it so much she didn't want to stop.  Clare especially loved the big bumps.

Then we just went cruising (with some naps involved)!

And finally the cliff jumping...it was about 15-20 ft high.  Greg, Eric, & Gennie all swam over to try it out.  As soon as Eric jumped, Otis was in the water too. Otis climbed up to the top but did not jump off that high.  Greg jumped twice. Gen couldn't quite do it.  But there's always next year!  Then we had to get everyone back in the boat with no ladder.  Pulling a 90 lb soaking wet dog up on a boat is not so easy.  Otis was having none of it and swam back to the island. Greg ended up bringing the tube over to him, putting Otis in it and then getting him onto the boat from the tube.  We provided a good 10 minutes of entertainment for the other people on the island.

The next day it was time to head out.  We drove to Old Forge to visit the famous hardware store and grab lunch.  Then we walked around the lake a bit before getting back on the road.

Such a great trip and we can't wait to go again!  Some other random photos and videos:

We got home around 4:00 and decided to set up the baby pool to get a couple more hours of outdoors time.  It was the first weekend it had been warm enough and not raining to use it!