It is exciting to think about when Graham will be able to feel Baby Brother. Graham hugs and kisses my tummy and says (in a gentle voice) that he loves Baby Brother but he still doesn’t really have any clue about what is going on.
Other Cute Antics and Noteworthy Tidbits:
- Graham’s summer schedule is set. He will be taking swim lessons twice a week, going to Growing Times once a week, and going to MyGym Gymsters classes once a week. We signed up for a month trial at MyGym just to confirm that Graham was ready and I could tell right away that he was loving the classes. He gets to play on all of the ‘gym’ equipment, learn gymnastics skills, and still have story and song time like he enjoys so much in his Growing Times class. I took some pictures and videos of Graham playing at MyGym. In the pictures, he is pushing a huge ball, playing a rings-on-cones game, and practicing climbing a ladder. In the first video, he is being chased by a buddy. The video is not that great but I enjoyed the fact that my little boy could far outrun the other guy and that Graham is starting to enjoy interactive instead of just parallel play. In the second video, Graham is saying “clap” as he pops bubbles. There was a third video of Graham climbing on a obstacle course but another mom told him that he was very talented just as he was finishing and it distracted Graham, so the video ended with Graham walking off the edge of the raised bridge and having a big fall. I thought it was best to leave that video out but I will share some pictures of Graham showing off his bruised chin the next morning (2 years, 3 months, 18 and 19 days old):
- Latest speaking updates:
- I observed Graham having a LONG conversation with his stuffed hippo. He asked if his hippo had a boogie and then ran into his room to get hippo a boogie wipe. He said “poor hippo, don’t worry hippo, I’ll help you. Hold on hippo, I’ll be right back, I’ll go get you a boogie wipe.” He returned to the room and said “here you go hippo.” Next, he held the wipe up to hippo’s nose and made a blowing noise and then said “that was a good one hippo.” Then he said, “should I throw this out?” and ran to the garbage to throw out the wipe.
- We have noticed that Graham has trouble pronouncing the “S” at the beginning of a word when it is followed by a consonant. The actual “S” sound is no problem and he is fine when the “S” is followed by a vowel, but we have started to correct him each time when he leaves it out before a consonant. He will say “pider” and we will say “can you say ssssssspider” and he will say “sssssspider” but whisper it, so we will ask him to say it loudly and then he will go back to “pider.” The other day, Graham told me he was ready to brush his teeth with his “pider-Man” toothbrush and I wasn’t paying close enough attention so I didn’t ask him to correct himself. He paused and looked at me expectantly and then perfectly said, “can you say Spider-Man?” So, it looks like our little boy may be getting it and actually know how to say the words correctly, he is just getting used to our correcting routine.
- When asked if he will do something or if something is a good plan, he will now say “I’ll do that” or “let’s do that.”
- Whenever Graham gets the slightest bump or tap while he is being help by Nick or me, he will give a very exaggerated and loud “OUCH” and say “don’t hurt me."
- Out of the blue, Graham has started to say “no thank you” instead of just “no” when he is presented with something he does not want.
- Graham is very verbal about things he does not want someone else to do. We have to laugh when he says things like “don’t look at your iPhone and do a quick email check (but he has picked up the phrase from us and calls it a quick EMC)” and “don’t play Chopin on the piano, I want yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me.”
- When he gets to the front door, Graham says “knock on the bell door.” No matter how many times we tell him that it is knock on the door or ring the doorbell, he is set in his ways. He will then open the door and say “is anyone else here? No, it looks like it is just us.”
- We are in a fantastic (knock on wood) place with Graham’s naps. Once I figured out that I needed to read Graham his before nap story with him already tucked in (instead of tucking him in afterwards) and once I agreed to let him read the story to himself when I was finished reading it the first time, Graham started napping perfectly. He is back to 3, sometimes 4 hour naps and usually goes right down. He has also started letting me know when he is getting tired by telling me that he is ready for his nap. Before figuring out the new routine, we had a rough day with no nap, but Mommy and Daddy felt vindicated in our extreme efforts to keep the nap when (that night) Graham feel sound asleep in the middle of eating his dinner (2 years, 3 months, 8 days old):
- Graham is still a picky eater, but he downs his full sippy cup of milk with no problem at every meal. He started asking for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th servings of milk so I started to get worried that his entire diet was milk. We introduced “milky water” so now when Graham finishes his milk, we refill the cup with water and he loves it so much he sometimes requests his milky water before he is even half way through the milk. We also tested out a big boy plate with Graham. He felt pretty special with his grown up plate in front of him, but moments after the picture was taken, he dumped everything onto his tray (which he calls his desk) and finished his meal from there (2 years, 3 months, 17 days old):
- I’m in the midst of touring preschools to find a stimulating place for Graham to go a few days a week when the new baby arrives. I’ve been told that some children have a hard time adjusting to preschool, but I'm not terribly concerned about this being a problem with Graham. During our tour today, he decided to join the rest of the kids during their snack time and plopped himself down in a chair and then said “Mommy, look at me, I’m having snack like a big boy.” (2 years, 3 months, 19 days old):
- We have made some changes in Graham’s dental care routine. Graham has his first dentist appointment scheduled for next month and his personalized “Dentasaurus” book arrived last week, full of suggestions for healthy habits to follow. We usually brush Graham’s teeth after each meal while he is in his highchair. He has a fluoride free learning toothpaste which is safe to swallow, so we hadn’t really worked on spitting. Now, Graham gets out of his highchair and goes to the bathroom. He holds the toothbrush while we still guide it around his mouth and then he takes his cup of water, takes a big mouth full, swooshes it around, and says “plaaaaa” as he spits the water out (usually ending up all over himself and the counter), but hey, it is a step in the right direction. As we are brushing his teeth, he will list what he ate during the meal and say “get rid of cheese, get rid of turkey” until everything is cleaned out.
- Graham has added a stuffed dog to his group of sleeping pals (so now we have hippo, lowly worm, and dog). We call the dog, “dog” but one day, I asked Graham what his dog’s name was and he thought for a while and then said “Rooney” which is the name of my parents’ dog. I got a video (to send to my parents) of Graham naming his dog (2 years, 3 months, 11 days old):
- I just recently went shopping for some new clothes for Graham and I bought all 4T. I took some pictures of Graham modeling his shirts which are still a little big but definitely better than his old shirts which were beginning to expose some arm and tummy (what a big boy). He loves his monster truck shirt and I got a picture of his bicycle shirt when he was showing me the construction hat he had been playing with at the YMCA daycare (2 years, 3 months, 17 and 19 days old):
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