The Evolution of an Oatmeal Eater

I have been making baby food. It's actually really easy, although it takes some time, and when you freeze them in ice cube trays, it makes the perfect amount to be popped in the microwave and fed to Graham. So far, I have frozen a ton of applesauce, as well as prunes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and blueberries (which were the only food I probably won't do again).

The other day I was looking at a box of baby oatmeal. "Why do they charge so much for this?" I asked myself. "I can buy a whole canister of adult oatmeal for half of what I paid for this box." And so my quest to create baby cereal began. I put the oatmeal in the food processor and ground it up. And ground it again. And again. For some reason, it just wouldn't turn into those nice little flakes you get in the baby cereal box. We decided last night to try it anyway. Even after warming it up, it looked kind of gritty and goopy. We figured Graham could handle it. Here's what it looked like:

1. Yay! I get cereal! I love cereal!



2. This is NOT my normal cereal.



3. What IS this new devilry?



4. Egad! MAKE IT STOP!!



That's when we threw it out. It wouldn't even come out of the bowl very easily--I had to waterblast it, and it slid out like a giant slug. Then we gave him some baby cereal, upon which we decided it was worth the extra dollar.

Of TV trays and toilet paper

Graham has changed so much in the last few weeks--from real crawling, to pulling himself up, to furniture cruising. The other evening we were eating dinner in the living room and Graham wanted to be part of it, I guess. First we saw some fingers, then some crazy red hair, and then a face.



Last night we came back from a meeting. I put him on the floor, kicked my shoes off and took off my jacket (which takes what, 5 seconds?). When I turned around, there he was in the bathroom:



He's also moved down to 2 naps a day, which was rough at first, especially with Will gone so much. (Hopefully that's over!) He's got 4 teeth now, so when he bites, I automatically scream uncle. And if there are any parents out there who might be a teensy bit jealous that he's already upwardly mobile, take comfort in the fact that he is not yet sleeping through the night. Not even close. And he eats toilet paper.

A Conversation.

As I was walking away from the checkout line at the grocery store yesterday, a sweet little lady (for our purposes, I'll call her 'Pearl') came up and started fawning over Graham. Here's an excerpt:

Pearl: "Oh my goodness! What an adorable baby! Look at you! Red hair and blue eyes! Tell me that is a girl."

Valerie (noting that Graham was, indeed, wearing blue): "Nope, it's a boy."

Pearl: "Oh, well, you are just going to be a heartbreaker! Look how cute you are!"

Valerie (noting that Graham was still in his pajamas which were now quite dirty, had a slobber-covered chin and a big scab by his eye where he scratched himself...): "Thank you."

Pearl: "What did you name him? Oh, don't tell me. I've got a name in my head that I think it is."

Valerie: "We named him Graham."

Pearl: "Oh, Graham, what a sweet name! You look just like a Graham. I was going to guess Bruce."

----

She went on for a little while longer and I just smiled. I think she really meant every word she said, but it sure came out funny.

Corn Maze

Will's mom, sister, and cousin came down last weekend to hang out with Graham, and we tried out our first ever corn maze:





Somehow I had forgotten how tall corn can be. They had some problems with damage from Hurricane Ike, but overall, it was pretty fun. I think it would have been a lot more challenging at night, but we had enough trouble with daylight. :)

In other news, Graham likes to eat bubbles in the bathtub:



At one point, he had a perfect little beard, but I didn't get the camera quickly enough.

Graham's tree

We stole an idea from Matt & Leigh Ann and planted a tree for Graham. Now every year we'll take his picture next to it and see how they've both grown. However, I think we'll fail to mention the fact that "his tree" was only put in because the one that was there died and we already had a gaping hole in the front yard. He did pick it out, though, by pulling a bunch of leaves off of it in Home Depot and sticking them in his mouth.



I think we should have bought him a weeping willow instead of a silver maple. He sure got a kick out of this one...

Hurricane Ike

Who would've thought that Hurricane Ike would reach us up here, give us 3 days off from work, and leave us otherwise unscathed? I know a lot of people who had storm damage or power outages from it, but we just had a yard full of twigs. It came through on Sunday with a lot of wind (but no rain to speak of) and blew trees down all over the place. Our power flickered, but all we lost was our internet access for the evening. Then Will's work site was closed for 3 days because they couldn't get the power back on. SO... neither of us had to work until today, and we basically got to sleep in every day and hang out as a family. We realize just how fortunate we were not to lose power so I don't want to seem insensitive, but it was one of the most fun, productive, and unexpected vacations we've had. :)

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go out for lunch and visit a local kids science center, where we saw a glass blowing demonstration and some cool stuff that I hadn't seen since college.

Graham's favorite was the wavy mirrors, although I think he was confused by them:





And here's our infrared family portrait, which I think should be our Christmas picture. One thing to note--the big purple splotch on Graham's bib is from his drool...



Back to work today, but I can't complain. :) It was a nice break!

Graham update

Graham turned 6 months old on Saturday! He is really getting big now, and has several new skills that he likes to show off.

#1. Crawling around on his belly, and rocking back and forth on his knees. He intersperses this with smacking things with an open hand.



#2. Getting teeth. He's got 2 on the bottom, which makes for a cranky Graham and cranky parents when we're not paying attention and he bites us.



#3. Sitting up. This is the playing position of choice these days.



#4. Eating solid foods. No longer content with rice cereal, Graham has now moved on to such delicacies as sweet potatoes and squash. This means that when he spits up (which he still does constantly), you can no longer read what his bibs say and the carpet now has orange spots.

#5. Chewing on water bottles and girls' heads. Cyprus was very patient.




He went to the doctor yesterday for his checkup and at 27.75" and 17lb 2oz, he is still in the 90th percentile for length and 50th for weight. Other than recovering from his third cold, he's very healthy!