Man what a break! What a GREAT break! We are back with fun new stories and adventures…. 

Abbi, Graham and I were home (or somewhere) together for the past two weeks. And looking back, those two weeks went fast. We started the break just enjoying our time together as a family. We then headed down to Mena to spend the first part of Christmas with Abbi’s part of the family. Graham wasn’t spoiled at all…ok, I lie… he was the main event. We then came back to Fort Smith on Christmas day in the “snow” to spend the evening with my family. Graham wasn’t spoiled at all…ok, I lie…he was the main event. And this past week the three of us just got to chill together and enjoy it. Now I have several stories that I could tell you about but for today I have a couple that stick out….

So it was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a …. O sorry, wrong story. So on Christmas Eve, Graham had a small present to open from his Grandparents. We helped obviously (though he was able to “open” some bagged gifts by pulling out the paper) and opened it up to find a little toy that lights up and plays music. But, Graham was more interested in the paper and started playing with it. When he tried to put it in his mouth, we pulled it away from him. He wasn’t gonna have that and began crying, with his sad, pouty, lower lip sticking out. We tried to show him his new toy and how cool all the lights and music were….nope no interest, crying continued… we then gave him the paper back and he dried up almost immediately. It was the saddest, funniest thing we have ever seen our boy do. His first fit…at four and a half months…its cute now, but in two years…not so much.

Developmentally, Graham has really been coming along. He is starting to grab things, shove his toys (or feet) in his mouth, and he is getting close to sitting up by himself. Anything that flashes, he is instantly attracted to it. In addition to these new developments he has started eating rice “cereal”. Now with this comes a little friend called constipation. It hasn’t been bad, but a couple days the boy has been plagued by it. Well, diapers are often bad, but you can only imagine a day or two of buildup…and then release…If you know what I mean. If you have read my blog before, you know we have had several diaper stories, well these past few have truly out numbered out weighed, out grossed (is that a word) any that he has produced before. Only a couple diapers have been more unforgettable than these over the past couple weeks.

We were thankful for all the Christmas fun we had this year and I look forward to sharing more stories with you soon.

talk to ya soon, Ray

So we were clearing off the video camera preparing for Graham’s first Christmas and found this…

The funny thing to watch is how big his binky is compared to his face and also how big Abbi’s hand is compared to his face…He was so little (tear)

Grahams Ride Home!! from Ray Peoples on Vimeo.

DBD will take a Christmas break but we will be back, I am sure with all kinds of stories from the Christmas Holiday…I am guessing you could check back next Monday…or you could subscribe to the right and then you would know when the next post is up…or you could comment and let me know if anyone is actually reading this and if there is any reason to post anything next week….Merry Christmas everybody…From Graham…and us…

Yesterday was a fun day for Graham and I. (if that is not proper english I apologize, but in my defense this is a blog, not an english semester final)(by the way, I had all A’s in english during college…take that Ms. Holland…((my seventh grade english teacher that gave me my first C) ) …and yes those are double paretheses…ok…bringing this rabbit back around……

Soooo, Uncle Kyle (Grahams uncle, Abbi’s, sisters, husband…hope you follow that) came to visit yesterday. We had a great time. We played with Graham when he was awake and then played Super Mario on the Wii when he was asleep. Now Kyle has been around Graham quite and bit and has experienced some of his smelly diapers and been spit-up on and all that good stuff. However, yesterday I think Graham about put him down for the count. You see, Graham is on meds, as I explained in my last post and well meds don’t make poops smell like fresh-baked cookies if you know what I mean. So we were all three sitting in the living room playing around when Graham filled his shorts loudly enough we could hear it…and continue to hear it..and continue to hear it…sounded like when your in the pool and you put your mouth in the water to make that “motor boat” sound. Yeah. about thirty seconds of that….straight!!!

Surprisingly, the diaper held it all in. (way to go Pampers!!!) But, it had an epic fail in containing any of the smell that accompanied the dirtiness inside. (My next invention is going to be a diaper that can absorb the smell.) It was so raw…nose burning…nasty…that it filled not only our nostrils but the whole room. It was so intense we did the ole “tuck the nose in the shirt” while we carried him in to the changing table and while I  changed him. I think that is the fastest diaper change I have ever done. When we came back into the room it STILL smelled of Graham poo, it was amazing….after burning three candles and going through four bottles of febreeze we finally cleared the room enough a human could enter… The smell finally died out and Graham just looked at us like “What, did I do that?” In Kyle’s defense that was one of the worst smelling poos that has come out of my child…Kyle described it as though Graham had just eaten perhaps a gerbil or a mouse…but i feel as though words can not describe it, it is truly something your nostrils have to experience for themselves….

PS..sorry for another gross one…it is a ploy to get folks to comment…to reveal their identity….

talk to ya soon!

Ray

So, kids should come with a warning label…”As child becomes larger so do poops and spit-ups. Child may develop abilities that makes cleanup for these substances harder”

Hadn’t had a gross story in a while so here are two goods ones…..

Today I was changing Graham’s diaper…yes this is really how it is starting…and I knew it was going to be a bad one, the boy is on meds for an ear infection. And my assumption was correct…full to the flaps and as juicy as they come..well we did the usual grab the little legs and hike them high in the air routine. Well, it was kinda like pulling a lever, and sent a little more poo shooting across the changing table. In reaction to the squirt bottle stream of poo shooting forth I dropped one of his feet. Yep, right into the diaper…but wait it gets better. Since he now knows how to kick his little feet, why not kick them wildly about now that it is free from dads grip. So, there he goes kicking back and forth…into the poo and out…into the poo and out…splashing about as though he were in the tub. I tried to grab his foot (now covered in poo) but he simply kicked my hand straight into the large collection in his diaper. So my hand was now successfully covered in poo, on the inside and out. I finally managed to get a grip on his leg therefore transferring the poo on my hand to the calf area of his leg. We were covered! It took me three wipes just to make the area manageable to work in. I quickly strung him up by one leg and carried him out side to get the hose and spray us down. I then got a wash cloth and wiped us both down in addition to using probably half of the package of wipes. Good Times!!!!

Story number two happened just a few minutes ago as a matter of fact…(well more like an hour ago, the Cox guy came to “update the wiring in our box” he must have used the wrong wire because out internet was down for about an hour) I was burping him after he had his bottle….yes this is how this one is starting…up on my shoulder. Now, he usually lets out quite a burp and then waits a little bit before he does any kind of spitting up…so thank heavens for that…So, he was up on my shoulder and his head is kinda bobbing around a little bit. Well, it comes bobbing toward my mouth…I knew better, I knew it was coming…and then he lets his little burp fly…right into my mouth and nose region. I swear it was like I had just eaten a full helping of burp… if they made a product called burp this is what it would taste like… it was right there…so stout I could have chewed on it. Knowing what was next, I quickly turned his head the other direction to avoid any type of substance coming my way. And just in the nick-of-time…one more head bob and then he covered the burp cloth on my shoulder. Whew!!! That was close… I take the burp over the real thing in my mouth any day!

I know what you are thinking…thats gross…but if you made it this far, then you read the stories…it is kinda like watching certain people at Wal-Mart, you know you should look away, but you are just too intrigued…OOhhh don’t judge, you know you do it too…

talk to ya soon!

Ray

Today Graham is four months old! Wow, four months that the little guy has been around and been a part of our lives. What a blessing he has been. What was life like before he came around? Well, we will get to that in a minute. I just wanted to let you know we are thankful for your help. Yeah, you… the one sitting there reading this because, you are have also been a part of our lives and we thank you for that. And we wouldn’t mind knowing who you are if you would want to comment down below…just saying…

So, life before Graham…Well, nights seemed shorter and days seemed longer. We watched a lot more TV…to where as now, he is our main source of entertainment. Our life was not so scheduled, we now live on his schedule, (Graham’s schedule) but we still have more of a schedule than we used to. We now live our life in one and a half hour increments…just kidding…but seriously…when I am at home during the day it feels like I play with Graham for an hour and a half and then it is time for him to crash…and he sleeps for about an hour and a half…then we play for an hour and a half…but it’s all good!!!!  I can live an hour and a half life thats great, ’let’s do it…. we used to have clean shoulders…and the house didn’t have the funny smell of dirty diaper…a couple weeks ago we took the pack-n-play out of our room and MAN(!!!) did we forget how much room we had in our bedroom. Stacks of dirty clothes now have a place to go…on the floor…not laying over the edge of the footboard or over the edge of the pack-n-play. 

But, we wouldn’t ask for it any other way! We have loved these past four months and are so grateful to see how God has worked though our lives as he continues to bless us. …

So I have to add this in here because I have more readers here than I do on my other blog…But,I have redone my Photography website and blog. If you want to keep up with my photography blog you can check it out HERE…or you can check out my website HERE. If you know anyone getting married soon perhaps you would be so kind to steer them my way… Alrighty thanks…yeah I don’t feel bad about this post…

Ray

So, two things I have learned so far from being in this position that I am in as a SAHD. Number one, you can’t judge a crying kid if you don’t know the situation. In other words if you don’t have a clue why the kid is crying, I really feel you have no grounds to judge or comment. Now if a kid is down on the ground throwing a fit, that is a whole different story. Case in point, the other day we were eating lunch and Graham started crying, well we didn’t have just the greatest waitress and she took awhile to get back to the table. We needed some hot water to warm up his bottle, we even in desperation to stop the crying ,tried to give him a cold bottle, which he quickly rejected. In fact it may have made it worse.(we know this is not good for his tummy…we ain’t a dummy) We even tried standing next to the table bouncing him which usually calms him down. Not this time…..The waitress finally shows up and gently says “somebody’s not happy are they?” Yeah thats great lady, we need some hot water ASAP. While this great display of misery is going on another family has been brought in and sat down right behind us (thanks hostess)  The crying increases, the lady who just sat down shoots Abbi a death stare (might as well suck it up lady we still gotta warm the thing up) as her kids “angels” (yes… she has kids…she must have just stayed at the house for four years while she raised her little ones…this never happened to her…more on that in a bit) sit there starring, mouths wide open.

The warm water finally arrives, we dunked the bottle in it before she even hits the table with it. It is funny because we were pulling it out checking it so much it probably wasn’t getting any warmer. Finally, it was somewhat warm and we popped it in his mouth….rejection by the little man. I took him for a second so Abbi could take a “breather” (she had been bouncing him and taking death stare shots from the wicked lady) trying to get him to calm down and take the bottle. Food, we knew it was food that he wanted, so I went walking with him up to the lobby and tried laying him out on my lap to eat like we do here at home (not much room to do that in a booth) Still didn’t work. Abbi then joined me with the hot water and we tried again to warm it up. Success!!! Picky little fella…he is like a hollywood star…”I need my monkey blanket and blue pacifier to sleep as well as my milk bottle slightly warmed to 93.5 degrees, no more, no less will be excepted in my dressing room…thank you that is all ,chop…chop.”

So as I came back to the table, the lady who was throwing death stares is saying to her husband…”Sounds like they need to get that boy to sleep, he doesn’t seem to be hungry.” OOOOO lady! Glad this table is here, and witnesses are around. I wanted to stand up and be like “GUESS WHAT LADY??? HE JUST WOKE UP FROM AN HOUR AND HALF NAP!!! YOU KNOW WHAT HE DOES WHEN HE WAKES UP FROM AN HOUR AND A HALF NAP? HE EATS!!! THATS RIGHT…HE EATS, HE STINKING EATS…NOW TAKE THAT FORK YOUR “PERFECT KID” IS BANGING ON THE TABLE AND SHOW HIM HOW TO USE IT… TO EAT!!!! …10….9…..8….7……6….sorry got a little heated just thinking it about it again…. but my greatest joy was when Abbi brought Graham back to the table, as happy as a clam, with the bottle sticking out of his mouth….HE EATS!!!!

Number two thing I have learned: Every kid is different…yes we may have all been there with the crying kid in the middle of the restaurant but while your kid may be sleepy, mine may want TO EAT!!! So, you might offer words of advice or a comment but just remember every kid is different. When I go the opposite direction of your suggestion, it is not because I despise your advice, but because every kid is different and I know my kid better than you know my kid…because my kid…is MY kid. We still need advice, we still need help from veterans in the parent world, but every kid is different. We are doing the Baby Wise thing with Graham, either he isn’t very wise or he just marches to the beat of his own drum, because they suggested one hour of awake time then lay the little person down. We tried that and fought it for weeks, we then tried knocking off time…nothing. So, we added time, and got to an hour and half awake time and now he is basically walking into his bedroom, closing the door and jumping into his bed and falling asleep.     Every kid is different….mine…HE EATS!!!!

Talk to ya soon,

Ray

This past weekend we got in the Christmas sprirt. We put up the fall decrations and traded them for all the Christmas stuff. But, more importantly than that we took care of all our baby’s first Christmas duties. We snatched up our baby’s first Christmas ornaments, got an ornament that is a cookie that looks like a G, and a sock monkey. We also bought a advent “house”, which as we were putting it in the basket I told Graham we just bought ”a yearly tradition”. The greatest thing we did though, was take the little man to see the big man himself. Jolly, well not so jolly, ole saint nick. Luckly, he didn’t spit up on the big fella or he would have probably have been put on the naughty list. 

As I  mentioned in an ealrier post he has started grabbing things. Well, today as we were walking by the Christmas tree he tried to grab onto one of the little branches sticking out. So, in my curiosty we started making our way around the room seeing what else he would grab onto. What I learned is that he can almost pull down the garland over the fireplace, grab and ring the bell wreath hanging from the doorknob(with a little help on the shaking part) and pick up a Dove chocolate out of the bowl and “hand” it to me. He also likes our fake Santa’s beard. Next year is going to be quite an adventure. I think we may just lay the tree out next year instead of putting it upright, just so he doesn’t try to climb it.  

So if you have read some of my post before you may recall that Graham and I go eat on Wed. with “the boys”. (For the sake of this story, names are: Cory, JJ, Bobby, & Rob…often the number varies from 2 to 10 people) Friends from church that get together and have lunch and just talk about what is going on. Well this week was interesting, and maybe interesting isn’t the word ,testing, I’m not sure how to describe it. A team effort to say the least.

Anyway, we went to eat at 12:00. Usually, Graham has eaten by this point and we are out the door and he is happy, all is great. Well on this particular day his schedule was a little off and he was still asleep up untill 11:50. That then puts him waking up and screaming for a bottle just about the time we are going to get to the restaurant. How bout one better? When we (Abbi came home for lunch) put him in his car seat he woke up soooooo…he cried all the way to the restaurant as well. In between me fumbling for his binky and stuffing it in his mouth he would let out little burst of I WANT A BOTTLE! So we get to the fine establishment and we scurry in. As soon as I sat him down he begins his wailing again. The people at the table next to us give me the look that I have not pretty much gotten used to.  The “What is that guy doing with that child?” look. So I finally got his bottle and popped it in his mouth…instant silence. I look over to the next table and get an approving “Thats all he needed.”  comment from the lady sitting there. No duh Sherlock! Thats why I was scrambling for it in the first place and why I didn’t just sit my screaming child down next you and go through the line to get my food. Thanks a million captain obvious!!!

So, as I mentioned I didn’t get any food, just walked straight in and sat down and started feeding the wee one. Well by the time we were wrapping up the bottle, Bobby and JJ had already finished. Bobby then offered to go through the line and grab some food for me so I could actually eat. Well luckily Rob showed up a little late, so then I had someone to “eat” with. Right after Rob sat down all 5 ounces of milk Graham had just consumed came rupturing forth. I had a half consumed Bar-b-que sandwich on my plate, Graham had a fully consumed bottle on his shirt. Cleanup, cleanup, cleanup…the spit up, spit up, spit up….I finally got him wiped down and dried off, pulling him out of the large puddle he had just managed to construct. By the time I got done wiping down the interior of his car seat and Graham, Rob had now finished his meal as well. 

Rob then offered to take him so I could finish eating… with both hands. Spit-up covered and all. But, he loved sitting with Rob cause then he could see the TV. So as I finished my food, Graham and the boys watched the White House Press Conference on CNN. I finally got my food down and then the lunch hour break was over….. Great lunch everybody! We survived another one. Thanks for the great effort…we played our hearts out!…I am just thankful for good friends who allow me to not only eat lunch with them but to also finish it….Thanks guys!!

Stuffed…The one word to describe the holiday weekend…

We were STUFFED with turkey and STUFFING on Friday and Saturday, then we STUFFED the car full of Graham’s STUFF and headed down to Mena for the rest of the weekend. Where we STUFFED ourselves again with Shrimp on Saturday night. (Abbi’s Grandparents do shrimp cause everyone is tired of turkey by that point.)(My brother-in-law, Kyle and I had a shrimp “eating contest”. We were both attempting to eat 75 shrimp but due to nausea he had to stop at 70 as I pushed on to 75. His mistake…he stopped for a moment then came back and the taste of dirty sea water overtook him. Gross or impressive… you be the judge.) After eating all that we then again STUFFED ourselves on Sunday with Dove Peppermint Chocolates (try them…they are awesome!!!) When then re-STUFFED the car and returned to our house to sit miserably on the couch….STUFFED.

Now though our weekend was STUFFED with STUFF and food the great thing about this time of year is how we are also STUFFED blessed with family. We are so thankful for not only the family that we have around us but also the support system of friends that are around us as well. So many of you are just like family and we thank you for our friendship that we have.

So, enough of the mushy stuff and enough about us…how bout Graham? What did he think of all this traveling and his first Thanksgiving. Well, he is thankful for his first cousin-in-law once removed (yeah that sounds right) Damon for taking him to new heights that he has never seen before. He is thankful that he now has a buddy to play with in his second cousin Gabe. He is thankful for all the gracious hands that held him throughout the weekend. He is thankful for all the shoulders he was able to drool on. He is thankful for all the laps he was able to fill his diaper in. He is NOT thankful for four days in his car seat. He is NOT thankful for diaper changes in the back of the car, in the middle of convient store parking lots. 

He now has a new friend. Always by his side in sleep and in travel. I guess you could call it his first BFF. The little monkey blanket. It is a small blanket with a monkey head coming off of one corner. He loves this thing. He wraps his little arms around it and snuggles up with it when he sleeps or when he is in his car seat. It is so cute and funny. He also likes to chew on the head part. I mean that is what I did with my best friends growing up. We would often sit around and knawl on each others heads. In fact he is laying next to me as I type, just slobbering and chewing away!   

Also, he has started grabbing and holding on to things. Changing his diaper, he now gets his little hand down there and grabs the tab on the side of the diaper. I am looking around thinking it is stuck to his butt somewhere…No, he just has a hold of it! He has also been grabbing his feet a lot. This just started this past weekend as well, but has already become problematic in attempting to clean him or even put on a diaper during a diaper change. Before it was just a problem of his legs being bent up and in the way. Now we have added the arms to the mix. Also, this position has aided in an increase in gas. So, add that to the diaper changing mix as well. (Got a gassy stomach, try that position some time…clears it right up) Not only are you fighting his little arms and legs, but your getting gassed in the face all at the same time. ”"C’mon son, a little more appreciation for the person who is relieving you from sitting in poo for the next hour.”

We also had Abbi’s dad take some pics this weekend:…