Dealing with premature hair loss.

Graham has been pulling out his hair for about a month now. I think it's falling out on its own anyway, but he likes to tug on it while he's going to sleep. It's coming back in, but it's not as red anymore, which is a little disappointing.

Here's his favorite way to go to sleep these days:



And here he is playing on the floor in the office:

Not deer after all.

Okay, Gwen, you were right. It wasn't deer eating our tomatoes and peppers after all... It was several tomato hornworms. Gross.



And this is what they looked like when Will got done squishing them.



The irony is that we don't even really like fresh tomatoes. It seems like a lot of work for some homemade salsa... :)

Wildlife Woes

The other day as Will and I were pulling an impressively large pile of weeds from the garden, Will came upon a brightly colored frog. He ran inside and we grabbed the camera, thinking it would make a great picture (always thinking of you, gentle reader). Unfortunately, this was the closest we could get:



Well, that would not do, of course! I stood back out of the garden about 10 feet and said, "Why don't you make him jump and we'll get the picture then?" So it began. Will poked and prodded him and made him move a few times. Suddenly, as if the gates of Hades were behind him, that frog made a monstrous leap and (you guessed it!) HIT ME RIGHT IN THE SHIN. It left nasty slime all over me, which I was sure was poisonous, but it wasn't (a slightly disappointing revelation). I should have taken a picture of it, too, because that was all that was left of the frog. Now I know why God used that particular plague.

Lately I've been noticing Daddy Long Leg spiders all over the porch. For whatever reason, they've decided to take up residence by the front door this year, and they just keep showing up and dying there. Seriously, one tickled my foot once when I opened the door without looking, and there were long spider legs all over the place for awhile. I say "were" because when I went out to get the mail this afternoon, I noticed one above the doorway. I came inside, puttered around, and went upstairs to check on Graham. When I leaned over his crib, A SPIDER JUMPED OFF OF MY HEAD ONTO HIS MATTRESS. Close your eyes and think of how disgusting they are, then multiply it by twelve. I grabbed Graham (glad to see the maternal instincts kicking in) and attacked the spider with a tissue. Then I went outside and attacked his siblings with a broom and a vengeance. Now we'll see if Will notices how clean it is when he gets home.

And deer are eating our peppers and tomatoes. :(

I will save someone the trouble and write it now... Frogs and Daddy Long Legs and deer, oh my!!

The glass is half smudged.

Graham enjoyed licking my water glass tonight:





The flowers we grew from seeds are actually doing well! Unfortunately, I didn't think about the fact that Morning Glories are so named because they only bloom in the morning. Oh well, they're pretty for a few hours each day...

Graham update #4

Graham's 4-month appointment was yesterday morning. Luckily, Will took him this time so I didn't have to hear him scream after getting his shots. :/ He is healthy and average in everything except his height, which is still in the 80th percentile. No stunted growth around here.

He is quite an active little fellow and spends his days in his fancy new playgym, doing lots of tummy time, reading books, playing with his mommy & daddy, and taking very good naps. He's still been waking up once during the night to eat, but it's usually between 3 and 4 now. He even slept through the night once, although he hasn't done it since, and I didn't sleep much because I was worried about him. :) Alas, he doesn't like to be rocked to sleep anymore and prefers to be laid down in his crib with his pacifier. It's been nice because I'm watching another little boy now and I can just lay him down, but I miss the days when he fell asleep on me.

We went to visit Will's family over the 4th and Graham enjoyed meeting his extended family. He actually did really well for being passed around for two days... Here he is in Emily's Princess chair, which was definitely his favorite:



When we got home, I fed him, put him on a blanket, and went outside to help clean out the car. When I came back in a few minutes later, he had moved about five feet away by "scooching", which is a technical term for almost crawling. He didn't move much more for this video, but you get the idea:



He also enjoys talking. This is a conversation he held yesterday with a bedspread: