It's a Girl!

Will and I went in for an ultrasound this morning and found out that we're almost 17 weeks along with a baby girl!



Here she is, looking up...



And here's a little hand.

Quick Updates

First of all, congratulations to Ben & Tabatha on the birth of their first son (a redhead) named Logan James. Congratulations also to Matt, Leigh Ann, & Kaelyn on the birth of Evie Wren. Fun times!

Will has been working feverishly in the garden and yard, and we've had a bumper strawberry crop this year. Unfortunately some deer got in the garden and ate a bunch of the green beans, corn, and squash. Probably no bumpers there.

Today was the first day that Cristian went to daycare, so I have enjoyed having one less mouth to feed and diaper to change. Graham is currently not cooperating on the napping thing, so that part hasn't been as nice as I had hoped.

Graham's been finding a plethora of new toys in the kitchen. Today it was a box of cream cheese that I was thawing. Yesterday it was a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and a jar of molasses. He helps Will in the garden by picking and eating the green strawberries, as well as some dirt and mulch. He has also enjoyed playing with the exersaucer that we got out for Baby C. Luckily, we rescued Baby C before he got to it.



Baby C rolled over for the first time yesterday, so he'll be all over the place before too long.

We also made another trip to the zoo recently. This picture cracks me up because there's a huge ray right next to him, but Graham is totally missing it.

Still Learning Cause and Effect

A long weekend

We made a trek to visit my parents this weekend, and although the drive was painful (next time I'll bring along some bamboo to shove under my fingernails), we had a good time with my parents. Just a note to anyone whose children are about 1 year old: get a portable dvd player for the car. We borrowed one from Will's aunt and it was a lifesaver (thanks, Carolyn!).

We didn't have any specific plans, but here are a few things Graham enjoyed over the weekend:
- watering the flowers
- watering the grass
- buying new sandals and clothes
- riding a fancy carousel
- watering the concrete sidewalk
- roasting hotdogs over a fire
- watering himself
- shattering a plate at Steak 'n Shake (so embarrassing!)
- watering Will
- going to a playground for the first time

I managed to get a bout of food poisoning at 2am Monday, which wasn't fun. Thankfully nobody else got sick and my only lingering effect is a sore nose from passing out and whacking my head.

Graham and Baby C were so tired when they got home that Graham fell asleep while playing with the sunshade on his stroller.

The Great Moth Experiment

Last Saturday, Will took Graham outside to play in the yard. He spotted a moth, so he picked it up for Graham to look at. Graham grabbed it by its wings, watched it try to flap wildly about, and dropped it. Will picked it up again and they repeated this a few more times. Finally, the moth flew at Graham and landed delicately right on the end of his thumb. That's when Graham popped it right into his mouth. Will had to fish it out, and that was the end of the moth.

A Weekend of Firsts

This past weekend was full of all kinds of firsts for our family.

We participated in our first Family Fishing Derby. Graham's favorite part was watching the geese (again with the geese...). His second favorite part was watching Will reel the fish in. Anyway, he won the prize for the smallest fish, and he was brave enough to touch it.



We also got our first speeding ticket. We drove through a tiny little town on our way home from dinner with some friends. Suddenly Will saw the policeman in the rearview mirror and pulled over. Turns out he was going 37 mph in a 25 mph zone--a zone that is a mere 200 ft long and is apparently only there to generate revenue for this town. After the policeman chided Will for driving at such an outrageous speed, he said, "Now slow DOWN and remember to watch for SIGNS!" Then he proceeded to ask us about our now-cranky boys in the backseat and tell us about his sons and his dog. Are you kidding me? We weren't in the mood for a chat.

Then Graham had a good first: his first potty on the potty chair. We thought we'd start putting him on it right before his bath and after naps, just to get him in the habit. I brought it upstairs one evening last week and just as I took his diaper off, he went all over the floor. How ironic. Saturday night, however, he decided to give it a whirl. Hopefully it continues!

We tried to show him his first caterpillar while we were on a walk on Sunday. Will spotted it and I busily tried to unbuckle Graham from his carseat, only to discover that I couldn't find the caterpillar. Turns out I was standing on it. It wasn't very interesting after that.

We did, however, see some baby killdeer on the same walk. They look so funny, they make us laugh every time.



By the way, the weird scratchy noise is Baby C starting to fuss.

Ahhh, road trip.

Last weekend was Will's mom's birthday, and we went to attend a non-birthday "random" get-together that happened to coincide with the event. After Graham only slept for one hour in the car, we weren't sure what to expect with the rest of the trip. Halfway through, we decided to swing by a large outdoor hunting and fishing store so he could run around while I fed Baby C in the parking lot (joy). In the middle of the bottle, I got a phone call from Will stating that Graham was swinging $150 fishing poles in each hand, so he thought maybe they'd better leave.

Here's Graham's hillbilly attire. We didn't take any short-sleeved shirts, so we just took his shirt off when he got hot.



For not being a birthday party, this sure was a delicious birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Gwen!



Graham got to play outside with Daddy. Mostly he chased a cat.



Thanks for taking pictures, Kim!

We have used this week to recover from the trip, and the boys are just about back on schedule. Baby C slept for 7 hours last night without eating. Glorious day! I went down to check on him this morning and saw that his eyes were open. When I got closer, however, I found that he was, indeed, asleep. Maybe he gets a lot more sleep than we think.

And finally, for those of you who enjoy incredibly long videos of Graham doing nothing in particular, here's a video of him helping Will wash the car.



Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!