So we have a new thing… a new thing that Graham has discovered. Well, maybe not discovered because we don’t think he knows he is actually doing it. But he has started in the middle of the night and during the day flipping over on his belly. Now I know that people roll around and move during the night in fact my wife lets me know that I move around quite often. But this is different because what he does is when he is rolled over he is propped up on his arms and his eyes are closed. Like he is asleep, he is out but he has no idea that he is doing this. And then in a sheer panick he wakes up and realizes where on earth am I, what has happened to me, why am I in this position??? And then bring on the screams and crying. It has happened twice this past week during the night and once during the day. Maybe he is getting so close to crawling that he is beginning to have dreams about it.

And getting close to crawling he is …..he has gotten the scoot down pat. He can scoot any direction you wanna scoot, he is a scoot -a- toot! He has also figured out that he can push himself forward with his toes and so he lurches towards things in that manner occasionally too. He pulls on blankets and the carpet as well. Yep, my daily life is totally about to change….

…The other day we went to Lowes to get a new garage door opener. This was our first trek out since we have done away with the bucket style car seat and moved into the “bigboy” car seat. Well I wasn’t quite sure how Graham was going to respond to the little seat on the cart. At first he fought it and did his new thing where he arches his back and starts squirming to avoid having to get in it at all cost. But then once his legs slipped through and he saw he was going to get to sit up he was a happy boy. He proudly rode around in that cart quietly checking out everything in that store. I wish I could hear what was going through his mind as we rolled down the aisles because he would look up and down the big racks and then check out the other side and look those up and down, it had to be truly fascinating.

And then there was the lady, yep that one lady who has to come from all the way down at the other end of the aisle and come “check him out”. Now, if i know you that’s one thing, by all means come speak to us and say hey….but if I don’t have a clue who you are and you don’t know me please don’t put your hands on my kids cheek and tell him how cute he is…you can do that from afar….you can do that without touching my kid. Step back lady, my kid might have bad dreams about you while he is sleep crawling….Thanks!

talk to ya soon

ray

So I haven’t been able to post because I have not been able to put our boy down for longer than oh twenty seconds. Hard to write a post in twenty seconds. Graham was acting nothing like himself on Wednesday…actually it all started in the wee hours of the night on Tuesday with no sleep for him or us. He has recently been teething so we were thinking, well maybe another one is coming in…but after battling it all night and then pretty much the whole next day, we folded and called up the doc. Abbi decided to take a personal day because Graham pretty much slept like twenty minutes the whole night, therefore meaning that we only slept for about that long all night.

On our first call to the doctor, the receptionist told us that they were full and didn’t have anything for a day or two, but that she would pass the information along to the nurse. Well, thank goodness the nurse called us back and said she could squeeze us in if we got there as soon as possible….let frantic running around the house commence….we scooted that way and i dropped Abbi off at the door and went to find somewhere to park. They were not kidding about being full…at least from a parking lot stand point…there was nooooo where to park. So I went back to the house parked in the driveway and walked back. After circling the parking lot several times and almost getting hit by a lady on a cell phone a spot finally opened up. I then hustled inside to find Abbi and one other lady with a child to be the only people in the office…Where are all the owners of all the vehicles outside?  Anyway, Graham has gotten to the point that he doesn’t like anything stuck in his ears or mouth kinda like a tongue depresser and the ear scope thingy (I know it has a fancy name but I don’t remember what it is) …let frantic screaming while being pinned sown commence now….conclusion….the start of an ear wax collection and an ear infection…

We have now been giving him his medicine….well trying to give him his medicine….he has also discovered how to buzz his lips..soooo medicine goes in, he buzzes and medicine comes right back out….all over the place…good times!!!! We have created the designated “medicine burp cloth” because it is slowly turning from white to Amoxicillian pink in an attempt to keep some of his meds in his mouth.

mndyxjgngxgf ggfntnydnmsyhgxn ghstrnncghmc x mmmm  mmmm hxnbvnbhjmmc xx

hjmhnh—–So Graham just typed that…he thought that would be nice to share    ./;/’ ha got close again…Alright well he is awake so end of my story i guess…just pray he can get back to himself.

see ya soon

Ray

Ah! Who knows what he will be… But, this weekend we brought out a gift we received at a shower that is a basketball goal and two little basketballs. Now, this is no ordinary basketball goal…this basketball goal has a breakaway rim that when you “dunk” it this little crowd appears in the backboard and you hear cheering noises. In addition, on the backboard is a swirly, twirly basketball player on a spring that you can spin around and “whack”. Also, it has two rattly spinny things at the top that “keep score”. OOOOO YEAH!!! Now the funny thing about this is that he can sit in front of it and he has no interest in the basketballs themselves, but more so the backboard and the different events that are on it. Another cool thing about this basketball goal is that the goal will actually go up two more heights so it grows with him…i would have to say he can keep it as long as he wants because while he is playing with everything on the backboard I am trying to shoot around him….

Another cool toy we got is this little giraffe, or at least I think that is what it is suppose to be, that you can put a ball in it head or two arms and then they roll out the feet. Well again, forget that there are balls that come with this great toy Graham just looks to take out the giraffe anyway possible. Today the giraffe got the best of him and actually “came” after him instead of him pushing it over. Yes, the giraffe attacked my son…OK, OK , the giraffe attacked him because he pulled him over on himself…but he hasn’t looked at the giraffe the same since.

So the month of February…yes the the whole month, I have failed at putting up a blog post for you all. Wow!!!! So, sorry to loyal followers who check daily and find to their disappointment that nothing AGAIN has been written….BUT…I have a resolution for March..O Yes, a resolution, forget needing one for the new year, I apparently need one for every month (and only the third month at that)….better blogging.

In this month of non-existence a lot has happened. Graham is now six months old! Developing quite the personality I must say. He may look like his mother but I think he is going to act like his father. He is 90% getting the sitting up on his own thing, with the occasional face plant as he is reaching for something or trying to search something out in the room. As he searches, for like a sound that is being made in the room, it is like he becomes so focused on finding that sound he forgets he is sitting and plop…there he goes to one side or the other. He is so close to wanting to crawl. He is beginning to scoot around on his belly but hadn’t quite got his legs up underneath him to make the final push to crawling freedom. Abbi and I have caught ourselves sitting on the couch looking around the room, pointing out things that will have to go to higher ground once he starts his movement.

At his six month appointment, he weighed in at 17.13. He is eating bottles really well, in fact he will hold the bottle for you now, which is nice because it frees up a hand to change channels on the TV when The View comes on (see an earlier post about that)  during the second meal of the day. We have started him on some solid stuff, but his little tongue just doesn’t want anything to do with helping us get food in him. As soon as it goes in, his little tongue pushes it right back out where it came from. I am like “Son, you have got to learn to eat, you can’t suck out of a bottle the rest of your life.” I can see him take a sack lunch in elementary school and pull out a bottle and start sucking on it. “What’s that?” a friend will ask…”O this…this is lunch man, don’t you know everything is better out of a bottle” Graham will reply. “Forget those crazy spoons and solid foods…that’s too much work.”

Also, He has two teeth coming in on his lower gum line. So that has been a few days of screaming and pain. Tylenol and these little teething tablets have been our best friends over the past couple days. I have also recently been following him around with a mop to clean up all the slobber he has been producing. It is amazing to me how he doesn’t dehydrate, I would need so much to drink after basically leaking fluid out of my mouth for a full day. Soft bibs have also become an ally in the fight against drool. Going through three or four outfits a day was getting pretty brutal. The washing machine even threatened to start charging us over time…that’s how bad it got…

On a different note…Abbi had her 26th Birthday yesterday!!! I think that is what inspired me triggered me to remember the blog and the lack of blogging that has actually happened over the past month. We were talking about what we did last year on her birthday and the years before that and we couldn’t quite remember some of them. But if we had written down those moments on say…a blog or something like that, the wonderful world wide web would have held those memories tightly for us to go back and check out. So, to myself when I am reading this in 2050…we went to eat with friends at Chilis while MiMi (my mom) kept Graham. I got Abbi a photo album of Graham pictures and two cans of Febreeze. If you have read any of the stories with the tag “‘Involves Poo” then you know why Febreeze is such a great gift in our household.

Well, I feel as though this is more a recap of a multitude of  things over the past month than really the sharing of any great stories. But, that is going to change, because I have got to get back into archiving shape. Savoring and recording moments of our lives as they pass. And guess what….you get to come along for the ride.  Thanks for the support and thanks for continuing to stop by day after day even though I have failed you as a blogger. A new month is just around the corner and so I hope that I can truly live up to my March blogging resolution.

Talk to ya soon…. Ray

Alright, here I am again… asking for forgiveness for a total lack of posts. Life goes fast when you are having fun and before you know it you have gone weeks without posting anything on your blog. The last couple weeks seem like a blur but, nothing all that exciting has really happened.

Graham has been sick the past 5 or 6 days so…that has been fun. He has a little cough and all kinds of congestion. What is funny is how he coughs…he sticks out his little tongue and just kinda gives out this sad little “ack…ack..” It reminds me of Zoolander when he is telling his dad he has the black lung. Also, his congestion has led to a large amount of drool, (plus we think he is teething) so we are going through about 5 bibs a day trying to keep as many outfits as dry as possible. I have also resorted to wearing bibs in an attempt to not have change my clothes three of four times a day.

He has been rolling over for a while now. But, he has recently began to get better at it. So, now the beginning of nap time is spent with him rolling over and then getting “stuck” in the up position. Which leads to him crying because he doesn’t know how to roll back over. It has become a daily battle between the two of us. In addition to rolling over in bed he has also figured out what button turns on and off his rainforest noise maker. So he can occasionally be caught spending the first part of his nap time just trying to reach the button. (which i think lends to the rolling over) It is comical to watch because he will hit it, but maybe just not quite hard enough so he looks at it like “that should have worked, whats up?” Then if we are watching, he looks at us like “Well…YOU turn it on.” We are his slaves…it’s true…

He recently has also become very clingy. He HAS to be in our arms…he doesn’t like his bouncy seat…he doesn’t like his swing…he doesn’t like his exersaucer (which has resulted in less injuries) …he likes arms…OUR arms. He has been quite the workout though…holding 17.5 pounds for 3/4 of the day will truly sculpt the arms…like I have said before, a baby workout video may be in the works.

Your own little weight set…He helped put those pounds on..now use him to take ‘em off…

Talk to ya soon..Ray          soon I promise…

 

So Foto Friday hasn’t happened in several Fridays so here we go…

Ok so I have to share this, cause it just happened and I have time…

As I was sitting here typing the last post Graham started crying, out of nowhere. So I walk around the corner and I can tell smell what the problem is….HE POOPED…and the odor filled the room. So I went out to the garage and got my gas mask. So, I went in with my shirt over my nose and scooped him up…O WOW!!! I won’t go into detail, but yikes that is something fierce….Abbi if you are reading this at work…we need more febreeze cause I just cleared two cans in our house….and detinated four of the febreeze stink bomb 5000′s in each corner of the house…the rest of this post will be written at the coffee shop…ok later…I’m out of here…  

Graham is resting comfortably again…or he has passed out due to poo fumes….

Ok not really…but i have been MIA for the past week so I apologize to faithful readers everywhere… we worked hard last week getting ready for the Bridal Fest for the photography biz and it seemed every waking moment was dedicated to that or to Graham.

So last week a lot happened but at the same time things stayed the same. Graham is still having issues with constipation which has its pros and cons…Pros include not as many diapers bought, changed and disposed of. Therefore, the diaper genie does not get filled up as quickly, therefore reducing the amount of times it has to be taken out. (though this is still a weekly thing…don’t get me wrong) Cons include monster poos, the occasional “my tummy hurts” breakdown, and monster poos…therefore leading to two baths in a day, therefore, leading to more clothes needing changed, therefore, leading to more clothes needing to be washed….

But this past week he looks as though he has been to war. He has had many a run in, with many an item this week. It all started with a battle royal with his exersaucer. He was happily playing along when he stabbed himself in the eye with this “rattle on a stick” we will call it. Well that led to a total melt down that was luckly quickly remedied with getting him out and soothing him for a minute or two.

I then put him back into the exersaucer and turned him to where his back was to the “rattle on a stick” and he could play in another area. He starts playing with this castle that has a little rattle wheel in it that spins. Next thing I know his hand slips off of the wheel and he face plants right into the castle part…initiate crying sequence now….so needless to say we didn’t play in the exersaucer  very much after that.

The next wound is totally my fault. My Dad has always said procrastination will get you in trouble…well procrastinating to cut your sons finger nails can get you in trouble…or more so his face in trouble…soooo while he was sleeping he apparently clawed his face several times and now looks like he was rolling around with a cat in the back yard…. My apologies son…

Then, at some point during the week he must have smacked his head with a toy, like he did me a few weeks ago. Because he gained this little bruise just above his left eye on his forehead…so if you see us in public don’t go calling DHS on us because he did it to himself…

WELL…OK, we could have helped the situation a little….but I bet this is only the beginning of a boy picking up scratches and bruises.

So I think over the past couple few days Graham is trying to run me off. Not that he doesn’t love me or anything like that but just he maybe wants a new babysitter. Perhaps he just is getting tired of just hanging out with me during the day since we haven’t gotten to go any where because of the weather. The events of this morning, coupled with yesterdays poo tradgedy I think any average man would fold or become extremly sick and give in. But, not this dad, buddy we are hanging tough.

Now for the sake of most of you who have endured the grossness of the past couple post, today’s post will be broken up into two parts. The funny event first and then the gross event (complete with a picture). So if you are tired of reading about spit up and poo you can skip that part and just read the first event.

Like I said before, i think Graham is trying to run me off or perhaps he has begun his “I am tougher than Dad, I can take him” mentality that sons get towards their fathers. I always “thought” that I could take my Dad, but the truth is there is some celestial law that says a father can never be taken down by a son. Now you can beat him in golf of basketball…sure…but when it comes down to sneak attacks or pouncing on your father to take him down, it just never seems to happen.Now, not that Graham is by any means “pouncing” on me at this point but he has been trying to attack me.       Now the second story, happened first this morning, so just remeber that as you read the developments

Story 1

This morning I was laying down with him on the floor playing. We were laying next to each other and both on our backs. I had this plastic camera that lights  up on the front and was holding it up above us (thanks floyds). He was giggling away and really enjoying it, reaching up trying to grab it. So, I handed it down to him and let him hold it. At first he had it with both hands and then he swings it with his right hand directly toward my face (he is now into “slinging” things) POP…the camera catches me right above the eye. Nice shot son…thanks a bunch.

 Story 2

I had just gotten done feeding him his morning bottle. He seemed to take it fine and swallowed it down quickly just like he usually does. I then put him up on my shoulder to burp him since he was finished. This is always a little sketchy because you never know if the burp will be in a solid, liquid, or gas state once it passes out of his mouth. Building on earlier experiences I have now learned to slighty lean him out away from me while going through the burping process. Today leaving him on the shoulder may have been the better option, seeing how he choose the liquid state for his post meal internal departure today. At least the burp cloth may have soaked up some of it instead of my shirt and pants taking the brunt of it. As you can see illustrated in the picture below, I am guessing that 90% of what he had just consumed made its way back onto my shirt. If you have seen Four Christmases, it was alot like the burp up scene in that movie…yeah straight out of hollywood, it was that good.

I still love the boy more than he will ever know, and these incidents just teach me how to prepare for the future. Like when Graham gets older and begins slinging things around… step back and protect yourself at all cost. Also, when he looks a little funny after eating…step back and protect yourself at all cost. 

Going back to yesterday…(I enjoyed your comments…thanks so much, keep em’ coming)  Abbi had a great laugh about all that happened yesterday.The awesome thing for me was that when Abbi came home for lunch she got to see the quanity and consistency of poo that I got to deal with in yesterdays mishap. Though it wasn’t all the way up his back, it was identical to what I dealt with. Her only advantage was the poo was contained to the normal “poo catching area”  (more like spilling out of the normal area) in the diaper. Yeah she didn’t think it was quite as funny after changing that one…

So below are photos of me and the spit-up and then further down is a “this is how big Graham is getting” photo. The top one was taken on Sept. 12th and the bottom one just a few days ago…yikes…growing like a weed!

Yeah… today something happen that you only hear other people talk about. Well, now I get to join in on the conversation when this topic is brought up.

The other day somebody told me that when Graham gets older he is going to read this and think that all he ever did was eat, sleep, poop, and play. Sadly enough that is the truth. That is what life we lead right now. He doesn’t go running about(or into things) or say anything hilarious yet so that is about all his (my) days consist of. Now he occasionally makes funny squeals and things like that but those are kinda hard to copy in a text format and I don’t think many people would want to listen to a fifteen minute segment of the boy squealing away. So this is what we have to work with for the time being and I think it is “sorta” funny. In fact I am going to jump on a soap box about that for a second….I see folks out in public who tell me they love the blog and the stories BUT they never seem to comment on any of the stories. Now I am not a big stickler on this, but it is nice to know that people are reading this…and perhaps enjoying it. In fact, I won’t lie, I know people are reading this not only because they do tell me in public(thanks by the way…glad you are enjoying it) but also because I have Stats on my blog dashboard that keep me informed that you are in fact out there…and out there in large numbers…so Thanks….but maybe let me know you are enjoying it…sound cool???…GREAT!!!!…..p.s. please?  

Alright, whew …off the soap box and on to the main event.

We got an exersaucer today (thanks Mackeys) and Graham loves it. When we brought it home he was happily playing along in it for a good hour or so (his legs may have turned a hint of purple but he is back to normal color now…just kidding, put the phone down…) I left the room for a moment to change out laundry. My laundry changing was suddenly interrupted by a wailing scream from the other room. Running, yes indeed, I came speeding into the room and he looked up at me like…”GET ME OUTTA HERE!” I scooped him up to find that a little bit of poo had leaked out of his diaper and on to his outfit. ALRIGHT HE POOPED!!! (if you have read my earlier post you know we are dealing with some constipation issues) I was actually somewhat excited!! We headed into his room to change when I noticed a little more poo had collected on my arm. ”Hmm..thats odd” I thought. I then laid him out on the changing table and opened him up to see what was inside (experience told me to get a couple wipes ready due to the leakage) Now if you have read this blog before you know whats coming….. As I began to unhook the diaper my nose  was filled with this horrid ”road kill” type smell. Now, his diapers have smelled bad…but never this bad, the stuffed animals were even covering their noses.

As I grabbed his legs to raise them up I noticed that the poo just kept going on around toward his back. I tilted him up a little further to see where it stopped and I couldn’t find an end… It just kept going…So, i grabbed the wipes and started attacking. Before I knew it, more poo was coming out on each side of the boy and my two wipes quickly seemed like I had brought a water gun to the OK corral. Wiping down a four-month old, who is really starting to figure out how to move, is a chore in its self, but when he is greased up in poo it makes for an interesting battle. After, I had gotten the majority of the poo I could see, I rolled up his diaper and laid down a wipe for him to “sit” on while I tilted him up to access where on his back this mess actually stopped. Well, when I leaned him forward, I quickly learned I should have never laid him down in the first place. His whole back was poo, and not like a slight dusting. I think it was deeper than some of the snow we have recently received….

The “rooster tail” I had so famously heard of  reared its ugly head and put any earlier showings to shame. It was like his day- and- half buildup decided to come forth at the worst time it could…That moment… when all his weight was  conviently placed on his little exersaucer sling between his legs. Yep, perfect timing indeed…

So, I started using wipes left and right to wipe him down, trying to contain the poo while he slid his arms through what had accumulated on his sides. Funny enough, he has started grabbing things…and he decided to grab the full diaper that was laying next to him by the tab and sling it around. It was like my December 15th post on steroids. Not only is he slinging his arms through the poo on his sides but as he is slinging them around, there is a dirty diaper at the end of those arms.

I caught myself muttering…”no way…NO WAY!!!.In the disbelief and shock of it all, this laugh just overcame me (I think to keep from crying) and I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing. I think I was partly laughing because I was thinking to myself  ”this is totally going on the blog…haha” . For a moment, I remember blanking out and just looking down at Graham and seeing the “fun” he was having whipping that diaper all around.

After I finally came to, I grabbed up the diaper and all the dirty wipes and tossed them into an empty diaper box sitting on the floor.   Then, scooped up the boy, who still had the wipe he was “sitting on” poo pasted to his butt cheeks, and carried him waaaay out in front of me to the bathtub. Plopped him down in his mini tub and fired up the water.  We were gonna get this boy and myself clean!!!!! 

Wow…I took him back into his room and it looked like someone had painted the changing area in poo. I got him a new outfit and laid him down in his bed. Must have tuckered him out cause he went straight to sleep. I however, spent the next thirty minutes cleaning up his room changing area. Eat, sleep, play, and poo…yep, thats about how it goes!

talk to ya soon, Ray!