A Caterpillar's Demise

Graham loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar book. Will was reading it to him the other night and this is what I heard:

"On Tuesday he ate through 2 pears, but he was still hungry.
On Wednesday he ate through 3 plums, but he was still hungry.
On Thursday he ate through 4 strawberries, and then we squashed him because NOBODY messes with our strawberries. The end."

Long morning.

Graham is normally an extremely devoted sleeper, and 7:00am is considered an early morning for him. Today at 5:45, we could hear him up and running around his room. I opened the door to check on him and found him reading a car book by the light of his nightlight. When I put him back in bed, he cried for awhile, but eventually we heard him running around again. By the time we got up, we heard nothing, and when I tried to open the door, I could tell that something was in front of it. Will opened it enough to take a picture and this is what we saw:



Asleep on the floor, complete with two pacifiers, two blankets, and a stuffed animal.

Here he is helping Will dig a hole for Baby C's tree:





And here's an adorable little outfit we received as a gift for Sprout:



Thanks, Brian & Cheryl!

Nesting anyone?

We are in a sort of nesting mode here, although it's more of a mad dash to get things moved around before Sprout arrives (30 weeks and counting!). We're getting ready to move the boys into a room together and get the nursery ready for a girl. Still not sure how Graham will do with a roommate. I fully expect to find them both swinging from the curtain rod someday.

Graham had his 18 month appointment last week and he is still on track to be tall and skinny with a rather large head. He is saying more words, and it's amazing how much easier it makes things. For instance, "uh-oh" has become an infamous phrase around here, and it usually means that Will has once again left a glass of water on the table and Graham has dumped it out all over his Bible. Or that Graham pulled all the videos off the TV. Or that he dropped a calculator in the toilet. Twice. "Uh-oh" usually means trouble, but at least we know that something happened.

Will gave him a bath last night, and I think he did this to prove how desperately Graham needs a haircut:



It's too bad we can't post pictures of Baby C because he is so cute! And entertaining... We are still waiting to hear what's going to happen with his situation.

Thanks for all of your prayers for the baby! If we make it another few weeks, I'll be able to see my regular doctor again instead of going to a specialist, which would make life much easier. Here's the latest 3D picture of Sprout, who happened to be sucking her thumb:

Rolling and Watermelons.

Last night, we bought a watermelon at the grocery store. Graham wanted to play with it so badly as soon as it was in the cart (I think he thought it was a ball). We took it home and put it on the kitchen floor, thinking he would push it around. He touched it, it rolled back toward him, and he ran away. I rolled it toward him and he took off again. Our son is afraid of watermelons.

Speaking of rolling, Baby C has chosen that as his preferred method of travel lately. Tonight he rolled across the floor three times in pursuit of... well, nothing. He seems to enjoy it though.

We've made it to 28 weeks with Sprout! Only 12 more to go!

In the middle of everything.

As I sat here checking my email, Graham just appeared with his dad's electric toothbrush. How he got it, I don't know. I do know that it soon ended up polishing the carpet as well as Graham's pearly whites.



My sister just left on Saturday for China, but we had a wonderful visit while she was here. Not only was I able to stay off my feet, but we also got some projects done around the house (the elusive silverware drawer is now clean!). She got a kick out of the boys, although Graham made things a little more complicated. For instance, this is what happened when Rebecca was washing some windows (Graham is actually playing with a hairbrush in the shower):



We took her final full day here to go to the zoo in the morning, since there's not much chance of that happening again. The wheelchair situation actually works out pretty well, and Graham got to stare down a tiger.



We also got to meet our new nephew Logan! It sounds like Tabatha and Gwen's drive was not for the faint of heart, but it was nice to see them again.

A long post about some crazy weeks.

We have been feverishly trying to get some work done around the house while we have people here to help us out. My parents came over at the end of July and spent the entire week fixing the lawn tractor, canning green beans, shampooing carpets, cutting down a tree, and cleaning the house. It's like the nesting instinct kicked in, but all I had to do was sit back and watch. They said they enjoyed the exercise, but I'm not sure if it counts when they're collapsed on the floor. Anyway, thanks Mom & Dad!!!

My sister flew in from China for the last week of July and will be here for one more week. Graham warmed up to her very quickly, and she's been a huge help with the boys. We've also been getting a lot of appointments done while she's here to help drive them around. One of those appointments was the purchase of a larger vehicle, and we have now moved into the minivan era. As Abbie put it, I'm no longer a wife with kids; I'm a mom. Graham loves it, though, and he could spend hours sitting and playing with the gadgets.



We've had our first corn on the cob of the season...



And if Graham ever grows a beard on his forehead, this is what it will look like.



Baby C is growing by leaps and bounds and is very tall for his age. His favorite activity these days is knocking on things with his fist. We'll be sitting in the car and suddenly hear a tap-tap-tap-tap-tap, which means that he is knocking on his car seat. He hasn't yet figured out that when he puts his entire fist in his mouth, it triggers his gag reflex. One of these days, maybe.

And finally, my sister and I took Graham grocery shopping last night, and I decided I'd better not risk all the walking. Instead, we stalked a motorized cart by following a lady out to her car. Then Graham rode on my lap while we zipped around the huge store with electric finesse. It was fine until he found out that
a) there was a horn that made a satisfying honk
b) he could drastically change directions by wrenching the handlebars from my grip
c) he could make a much louder "vroom" with his own mouth.

The situation went something like this:
"Vroom! Vroom!"
beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
Veer to the left
beep beep beep beep beep
Veer to the right
"Vroom! Vroom!"

Then he found that he could do a tuck and roll to escape from my lap, so my sister gave him a candy orange slice for entertainment. Its remnants left a gooey mess somewhere near the cheese aisle. We quickly zipped away.

Good Morning

On Sunday, we awoke to the sound of Baby C growling in his crib. Then we went to get Graham up and found that he had taken a pair of metal barbecue tongs to bed with him.