Art, eating, and counting, oh my!

The Art
Graham has completed two more art projects to add to his collection :)  We visited my old office and my friend Julie set Graham up with a piece of paper and highlighter.  After he finished his masterpiece, she was kind enough to write his name so we would always remember it was his work of art:

At Growing Times, he was presented with a sticky piece of clear paper and lots and lots of art supplies to choose from to stick on his sticky piece of paper.  After many demonstrations from Mommy, he finally started grabbing objects, gently placing them on the paper and then smashing them down with his open hand so they would stick (21 months, 17 days old):

Once I attached another clear sticky sheet of paper to the top, his art project was complete and he could start having some real fun.  He took a bowl of fuzzy balls and started dropping them onto the ground one at a time.  Just as quickly, his friend Kenzie started picking them up one at a time and putting them back in the bowl.  The two of them made a perfect pair and kept this up for a solid minute or two before moving on to story time.

The Eating
We bought Graham his first set of sticky bottom bowls and metal utensils along with some bigger boy sippy cups.  He feels quite proud at meals when he gets a bowl, fork, and cup and is left to his own devices.  Although he sometimes refuses to eat without a utensil in hand, he usually gives up at some point and goes back to the fingers (21 months, 18 days old):

In other eating news, Graham has continued his love affair with tofu.  I bought some miso paste that I can dissolve into water and then I soak tofu cubes in the miso broth and Graham is in heaven!  Here is a video of Graham showing off his advanced soup sipping skills, with miso soup of course (21 months, 17 days old):

and in this video, Graham gets quizzed by Daddy about his new favorite food.  Once he realizes he is being asked to talk about tofu (or toe-phoone as he calls it) but isn’t actually getting any, he becomes quite distraught (21 months, 17 days old):

While we are on the subject of food, I might as well mention that Graham and I watch TV together while we eat breakfast.  Graham knows what the TV is, but he is not terribly interested in it at this point in his life (which is a good thing).  He watches while he eats but as soon as he is done, he quickly gets bored and lets me know it is time to turn the TV off.  We always watch my reality TV shows, but today, on a whim, I decided to turn on some cartoons.  I took a picture and video of Graham identifying Minnie Mouse and be-bopping to the songs.  I love that his face is covered in chocolate from finishing his chocolate chip pancakes and that he appears to be giving me a look as if to say “is this for real, this is fun, I could get used to this, look, it is characters that I know!” (21 months, 19 days old):

The Counting
Graham has started to count past 3.  He used to count to 3 and then say “go” because that is what he says when he is going down a slide, but now he counts objects (like pairs of socks).  I got a video of him making it almost to 10, but the dang sieve distracted him.  You don’t see it in this video, but he thinks after 10 comes 14, 14, 14, 14 (21 months, 19 days old):  

The rest of the Cute Antics and Noteworthy Tidbits, Oh My

• I thought this was a cute picture.  A beautiful, sunny day for relaxation and play outside and both boys have their eyes glued to the phone (21 months, 16 days old):

• Graham loves walking backwards and is so proud of himself.  He insists that we watch him and then laughs and laughs when he eventually bumps into something.
• His new favorite game is bouncing up and down playing horsey with Mommy or Daddy.
• In the bath, Graham can now rub in his own shampoo and he loves to also scrub his face and will wash his tummy and armpits on command.  
• One of his new favorite phrases is “'scuse me” (excuse me) and he uses it at completely appropriate times when he is going through tight spaces.  He is also quite the gentleman and says “thank you” all the time now. 
• Graham makes little exclamations as he grunts when something is heavy, heaves when he is getting up, sighs as he plops down, etc. and it is really cute to watch.  He’s a pint-sized full person.  
• When Graham says goodnight to Daddy, he sweetly and gently identifies and points to Daddy’s nose, eyes, lips, chin, tongue, ears, and glasses.  
• I’ve mentioned this before, but again, it looks like Graham is ready to start exploring potty training.  He says “poo poo, sit on toilet, flush toilet.”  He seems truly disappointed when I point out that he has a diaper for his poo poo, so I guess it is time to stop blogging and start shopping for that potty.