Birthdays are the Best with the Goose



Betty Crocker style, y'all. Birthdays are one occasion where we are all-American and from-a-box in our house.*

*The other is pancake syrup, to the horror of Vermonter Kerry and my m-in-law.



Birthday smooch. This position, by the way, requires significant upper body strength. Who needs a gym when you have a 20lb kid? Come on over to test my guns.

TJ! Meets Graham!

Long ago I went to college with a bunch of v. smart folk at the University of Utah. One of the smartest, sweetest, and humblest of the bunch is TJ- now Dr. TJ, PhD in Awesomeness. He was here in Boston to attend some sort of geek conference at MIT (what else would they have there?) and stopped by to meet G. If I could ask TJ to siphon a little bit of his brain into my baby's head I might, because he's both brilliant and easy going. So we reminisced about the goofy days of college, when we used to do things like put our friend Jenny in a shopping cart and wheel her around Salt Lake in the middle of the night. Also: Tj does not age. He won't divulge his secrets, but I swear he looks exactly like he did in 1998.

Note: Geez, I'm finally nostalgic for college. That officially qualifies me as ancient, right? And I'm turning 32 this weekend. Makes me miss the peppermint schnapps I used to drink. Almost.

Man, Does He Ever Like It

We got off to a rocky start as far as solid foods go, but now Graham is in the swing of it. Eating is a full body experience- toes curl, arms flail, and knees get smacked (as if he was attending a hoe down). Come on over and see my little eating machine in actions. This week: winter squash was met with unqualified approval.

Over the River

It's been quiet here at the DailyGraham this weekend because we've been to our new vacation home in Vermont. Well, to be truthful, it belongs not to us but to Jen's parents, the ever-generous Catherine and Van. They bought a new house (and 10 acres) last fall, but we had not been out to see the new place because of late pregnancy, and then a newborn, and then an anxious new mom (me). So, the four of us (and oh, 10 tons of baby goods) piled into the car Thursday morning (at 6! a.m.!) in the hopes of luring G into a long, long nap. And he worked with us, my friends, by sleeping the whole trip, with the exception of a 20minute pit-stop at a McDonalds in New Hampshire. Have you been inside a McDonalds lately? They look all plushy- this one had a rustic feel, with a fireplace and couches, truly the opposite of the hard seats and stinky bathrooms of my childhood. And the coffee's decent. But I digress- We made it there without major trauma.

Then we got to see the place. Holy cow.




I'm including a snap of the view from the front deck (including a pond!). It was the first moment when I could almost imagine Graham as a little boy running around and poking things with sticks. He'll do it there! Molly was beside herself with joy- she swam and barked at squirrels and pretended she was a country dog.

Here she is, all exhaustificated.



And Jen was so excited, she jumped and twinkled pretty much all weekend. Here, she checks the birdfeeders.



Anyway, everyone should have such a Vermontian-wonderland (it helps that it all comes with the frequent and wonderful meals from Catherine, who is an enviable cook).




P.S. In honesty, I should report that our last day was marred by G throwing what seems to be an epic teething induced fit. But it was still all awesome, I swear.


Note: I've been feeling guilty about taking Graham into a McDonalds. I know all about how they market to kids and that by stopping there I've doomed my kid to a life of obesity. But, really, when you have to feed and change your baby, you have relatively few choices in New Hampshire. If you know of an independent coffee shop that sells only organic, fair trade coffee, along with the tears of milky-skinned virgins, let me know.
Note 2: There is still snow in that picture of Vermont, I realize, because of a big storm that passed our way last week. It was all nearly gone by the time we left Sunday morning.

The Dominant Gene

We have long held that G strongly resembles my dad, Steve. It's become a little nickname for the baby, and whenever he makes a face that is clearly, totally a Wilson face, we call him Little Steve or Stevie. Anyway, I don't have baby pictures of my dad handy, but here's one from my brother's graduation last June.





And here's a new one of Graham.



Fear the dominance of the Wilson genes, people. They have eradicated whatever else is floating around in there.

Notes from the Sick Bed

Did you know infants can't breathe through their mouths? Well, I'm guessing they can, but they don't know it. So when a baby's nose becomes stuffy, they can't compensate: instead, they wake up every 15 minutes, they snarfle and snort, and they turn their mommies into sleep-deprived zombies. Luckily, this cold, Graham's first, was pretty short lived. We seem to be through the worst of it for all three of us.

New Skill of the Day

Tripping his gag reflex while sucking his fingers and drooling.

Not cute.





And the title of this pic is, "Caught by Mimi on the Internet When We Should Be Being Productive- Well, We're Sick, So You're Lucky We Aren't Whining."

We Now Interrupt...

All three of us have varying forms of the same cold. I can't imagine taking any pictures for the next few days.

Enjoy the cold, rain, sleet, and (possible) snow over the 3 day weekend.

w

Milestone Madness, Part 2


Today, G got up on his arms when tummy-down. Then, he proceded to roll over. Then he did it again. Guess he read my post from earlier this week. Anyway, I made him do it a third time and took his picture.

Milestones are for Crap

Every baby is supposed to reach a certain set of developmental goals each month. I'm sure very good research has gone into the creation of these milestones, but in my experience all they do is make sleep-deprived parents insane. For example, G is way ahead of some things (like wanting to bear weight on his legs and laughing) and behind on others (like holding up his head while on his stomach). Some of this surely relates to our own interactions with the kid (I'm more likely to prop him up in a sitting position than put him on his stomach; I spend all day trying to make him laugh; he has a big head that perhaps takes more effort to lift). How do we deal with the milestone issue? By hiding the child development books and banning Google, for two. We're also using the stomach down position (ickily referred to as "tummy time") more often: note Molly and Mimi's legs in the photo.

Who me?





Yeah, that's right. Chick Magnet.*

*Thanks to Gabrielle for the fantastic shirt.

Thank-you Easter bunny

I'm a big believer in the secularization of religious holidays. Basically, I like candy- days like Easter provide me with plenty. This year we took G to his first Easter egg hunt (which meant I borrowed an egg from a kid and took a picture).

I also believe in stuffed animals, so much so that I used to share my childhood bed with a horde of them. This year, I got to buy G his first bunny. Then when we got home we played killer rabbit. Note the look on his face: already moms are so lame.

Happy 4 months

Today Graham is 4 months old, which seems like a little older than brand new to us. His hobbies include: touching things, touching things, and then putting those things in his mouth. Oh, and looking at his feet. Our hobbies include: changing clothes (his and ours), playing spaceship while driving the car, and having fake phone conversations with bad British accents ("Gray-um, it's mummy- want to go down the shops for a sweetie?" "No, mummy, change my shitty nappy.").

The End of the Stoller Saga

See this picture?



It's the reason we bought our stroller, the Bumbleride Flyer. It's cute, you know? And the baby in the picture is sunshiney and happy and at the park. In our fog of pregnancy, we didn't remember that we don't live in California- instead, we live in Boston, which is sunshiney two months out of the year and where the sidewalks are 100 years old. So our Bumbleride, while enviably cute, is also tragically inappropriate for our new apartment and neighborhood.

It took four months and a lot of humble pie to admit all this to ourselves. We looked at *tons* of stollers and even dragged poor unsuspecting friends (like Amber. Thanks!) to test drive and hem/haw over the whole business. And business it is: it's hard to find a stroller for less than $200, and the good ones go for more than $300.


Finally, we found our solution: a stoller called the BabyJogger City Series. It's made by the company that invented jogging strollers, but since neither of us jog (really!) we bought the model meant for urban families who walk a lot. And I just have to say that it is awesome. It can be steered with one hand, folded with one hand, and has tires that jump cracks, potholes, and curbs with ease (glee, almost). Even better, the canopy seems tailor-made for fair-skinned babies AND it holds a kid up to 75lbs. We're so excited for the new spring weather to arrive (soon? please?), so we can spend more and more time in our new stroller.

So cheers to correcting big mistakes, and especially cheers to Craigslist, where we sold our Bumbleride to a nice pregnant woman from the 'burbs.

Adoption Day

Jen legally adopted Graham today. While it seems unfair that we had to jump through this logistical hoop, it gives us some protection at the federal level (and in states like Florida and Utah). So we headed down to the courthouse this morning and met a very nice judge, who fell in love with Graham a little, even after he puked on her courtroom floor (imagine our lawyer scrubbing at the stain with paper towels). We took a bunch of pictures and the judge talked to Graham about being a lawyer when he grew up. Then we came home and all took a nap.

HOORAY FOR DR. FILIPA!

Graham (and Molly's) favorite auntie found out yesterday that she's been accepted to medical school. Congratulations! We love you and can't wait for you to start contributing to Graham's college saving's account.

Bumpo Madness

This contraption helps babies learn to sit. We think it's pretty much the goofiest thing ever, but Graham finally seems to be liking it. His thighs (ahem) do need help fitting into the leg holes.