BUT... he is always HAPPY, so happy, and he also can be so so sweet and he absolutely melts his mama's heart. For a while he had no interest in snuggles of any kind, because that would mean he couldn't be busy. But lately, he's been hugging, kissing, curling up into my lap to read a book (finally!) or play on someone's phone (which he probably went to our room to find). At night when I'm rocking him, we read, pray, and sing and he just lays in my arms, sucking his paci and just staring at me. If we make eye contact, he grins at me from behind that paci and it's almost more than my mama heart can take! He is so, so precious. He's the kind of kid that you just want to squeeze his cheeks and kiss his forehead constantly.
Graham also has a bit of a temper. If he falls and gets hurt, the first thing he does is find someone to hit. (I can't blame him, I kind of want to do the same thing!) He bangs his head on the floor or wall or you when you make him mad, only because he knows it will fire you up even more. He hits me when I get onto him or take something away that he wanted. But then, immediately afterward, he gives you a big hug and kiss because he knows he was wrong. Oh how I want to eat him up!
He also can play so sweetly and intently these days. He's in that lay-on-his-tummy-to-play-with-his-cars-and-trains stage, which is just precious and i want to snap a picture each time I see him. It's the cutest. Seriously. Today I found the Tramp little people dog in place of the angel on the Little People nativity set, and I know his perfectionist sister wouldn't have done that :) He also loves to push the shopping cart or stroller around and fill it up with all his stuff. He loves to race his cars on his track. He loves water, dirt, birds, animals of all kinds, being messy, and being outside. We went to Hamilton after Thanksgiving and he absolutely loved being outside in the woods. He loves to "help" me with the dishes and he will come running the minute he hears me doing them. He will do anything to make you laugh. He's really learning to play imaginatively. So fun but so big!
He loves ice cream, apples, apple sauce, apple juice, crackers and snacks, go-gurt, pizza. Pretty much everything else is completely hit or miss.
He's learning lots of new words. He says: mama (On repeat all the time. It's his go-to word to say over and over when no one is paying enough attention to him), dada, bul-bul (kemble), butt (boat), blue (about anything of any color which is total de ja vu from Kemble at this age), scat, ball, ho ho ho (about anything resembling Santa-who, by the way, he loves!), ball, apple, ball, banana, ball, Minnie (his favorite Disney world character to see), ball, hot, ball, hat, ball, eat, , ball, bubble, balloon (sounds just like bubble though), football, ooo-oooo (choo choo), ball, night night, bath, cheese (as in for a picture, he won't touch the food anymore) and most animal sounds. And did I mention he talks about balls a lot?!
Give this boy some balls, a box and a few cars or trains, some snacks, and he's set. He is such a boy! He is OB-SESSED with balls of any kind. If it even slightly resembles a ball, it's a ball and he wants to throw it. At his last doctor visit (he has a lot of those...) he found a foam baseball in his bag and it was occupying him while we waited so I didn't think much of it. When Dr Henry came in he said "can you throw the ball?" to Graham and he chunked it at the wall really hard. He's got quite an arm. It rolled right back to him so he proceeded to throw it again.... right into the doctor's laptop. Oops! Our very stoic and serious pediatrician busted out laughing at that. One day at church a baby nearby had a ball and I had to take Graham out because he kept pointing and demanding "BALL!" during service. If he had to choose one type of ball, he'd choose a football. He loves to watch football with Daddy and he'll point at the TV and ask for "FOOTBALL!"
watching Daddy and Uncle Tres race go-carts downtown
He is newly fascinated with all things choo choo. Loves seeing real ones, and loves toy ones too. Hopefully Santa will bring him a train set! He will bring me the remote and say choo choo so I'll turn on Chuggington or Thomas for him.
He loved EVERYTHING about the beach!
He loves to do anything big sister does! He is constantly sneaking to her room or her craft area in the playroom to check out her stuff.
He was the cutest hobo ever at Halloween. He also was a puppy for some of our festivities.
He thinks he's so big. Half the time he refuses to drink out of a sippy cup and instead insists on using a regular cup. Ever since he started school in September, where they sit in chairs at a table for snack and lunch, he has refused to sit in his high chair at home. He sits on the bench with Kemble now, which makes for a lot of "Graham, come back to the table." and "Graham, SIT ON YOUR BOTTOM!" at mealtimes. He's fallen off pretty hard a couple of times, but nothing gets him down for long! He's so tough! He's had 4 busted lips, several goose eggs on his head, mystery rashes, strep throat, croup... but he's a trooper! He even is really really good while being examined by the doctor, in fact, he loves it, as long as they stay out of his mouth!
In October, Tres and Jakee got married! Kemble was the beautiful flower girl and Graham was the handsomest ring bearer ever. She was so worried about how she was going to manage to scatter her petals AND hold her brother's hand down the aisle. Well, literally ten minutes before it was time to head over to the barn where the ceremony was from Susan's house where we were getting ready, he fell and hit his mouth on her marble hearth. He busted his lip really badly. We couldn't console him or get him to stop bleeding. Finally, it quit right before it was time to go down the aisle, thanks to a popsicle. But he would not let Daddy hand him off or put him down, so he ended up walking with the groomsmen in Daddy's arms insteading of bearing rings. Sweet Kemble didn't have to hold his hand after all, but she got stage fright and made it down the aisle, but forgot to scatter a single petal! Graham was tired and hurting and had a pretty rough night for the most part, but Kemble girl danced the night away. She literally did not come off the dance floor all night long! She did Thriller with Daddy Butch and the Cupid Shuffle with the bridesmaids. She was in heaven!
He's loving Christmas. He has sat in Santa's lap three times and did great! I think meeting characters at Disney World helped him get used to strangers in suits! He loves our trees and taking all the ornaments off. He loves the presents under the tree. He loves looking at all the lights at night. He whispers "ooooh" or "whooooa" when he's mesmerized by something! He's had fun helping Kemble find Blue (our elf on a shelf) each morning and laughing at his antics. I know he is going to love opening presents too!
Speaking of Disney World... planning the trip we took last month was really all about Kemble. We knew Graham would have some fun, but we planned things with her in mind, and knowing he wouldn't remember it forever and she would. We said we'd just take him on a trip when he's old enough. I was worried how my busy boy would do on the plane, whether he'd be afraid of the characters, not nap in the stroller, be bored or restless, not sleep well being all in the same hotel room at night. Well... I was wrong. About all of it! He LOVED the plane and was a perfect angel and sat with Kemble or us the whole time. He loved the characters for the most part, he was mesmerized by the princesses (and even scored a few kisses), LOVED Minnie and Mickey (and even escaped from our place in line, about 20 people back, under the ropes and ran straight to hug Minnie), high-fived Jake over and over again, giggled with Goofy, played cars with Tiana and Tinkerbell, and got shy with Marie, only Sulley and Mike he was not too sure about. He'd crash in the stroller mid-day (mid-Teddy Graham even! haha!) and sleep for an hour or so, no problem. He only got bored when waiting in line and on the bus, but he's 1 1/2, what more can we ask of him! And at night, we all crashed and slept just fine! It was an amazing trip and he soaked up every bit of it. It makes me even more sad to know he won't remember it, but our once-in-a-lifetime trip turned into more of a first-of-many-or-at-least-once-more kind of trip about halfway through our week. :) I need to do a whole post soon about Disney World!
To sum it up, our boy is an all-boy, heart stealing, happy happy thing who adores his big sister and daddy and loves his mommy, has quite an arm and a temper. I can't imagine our world without him. No, I can't go to Target in peace or keep anything clean or nice around the house, but I wouldn't have it any other way! I wish I could keep my babies little forever! They are just growing up way too fast for me!
