Graham is 15 months next week. Every day he changes a little more, becoming less like a baby and more like a boy, but I hope he keeps those soft, sensitive eyes forever.

Jen was home all last week, which was great, because it gave us the chance to host a bunch of friends over the course of her break. We saw Amber and met Mariel, a friend Jen hasn't seen since high school, at the Children's Museum. Best of all, I had a surprise snow day Friday.

Graham loved all the action and was pretty happy to show off his wagon tricks (see picture) to everybody. He likes to be pushed around while he balances. Clearly he gets his fearlessness elsewhere.

In other news: we figured out this weekend that if you ask Graham for a specific book, he'll get it for you. For example, "Where's Mickey?" will result in G fetching "In the Night Kitchen." How awesome is that? We've also taken to refusing him more of anything until he says "mo," his approximation of more. He'll screech for a while, then comply. Clearly he gets the stubbornness right here.

Parenting lesson #563: don't let the kid play with your only set of car keys

Graham loves keys, so we let him hold the car keys from time to time. Yesterday, he took them off the table and dropped them into a box filled with his outgrown clothes and toys waiting to go to the basement. It took us 24 hours to figure out the course of events, a period filled with wailing, gnashing of teeth, and frantic googling of "lost keys replacement cost." Now found (by Jen, an event that resulted in dancing and shrieking, girl style), the keys are resting on top of the book shelf, one of the only surfaces still safe from commando-style Graham activities, especially since we caught him dragging chairs to shelves and attempting to climb them. Toddlers are hard (and hilarious).

Shoes!

After weeks of obsessing, we bought Graham's first pair of real shoes yesterday. Coming from a home where shoes are important (and belonging to a family of uncles who care at least as much about their Pumas as we do), this was a big step. More pics to follow.  

Party People in the House

The indoor gym was a big hit with everyone, especially Xavier. 

Graham clung to this jar of cinnamon hearts all night (with good reason). 

Tilly really, really liked the cookies. 

Adele and the other kids pretty much ran around, with short cookie breaks for energy. 

Today, we hosted a (late) Valentine's Day cookie part for my grad school friends (who are really simply my good friends, but it's easy to taxonomize them that way). I don't unreservedly recommend handing off frosting and sprinkles to a three year old and three one year olds, but it was terrific fun despite the mess. 

Happy Valentine's Day
Love, Graham

Food Update

We've screwed up, already, many times as parents, I readily admit. Graham's still not a fantastic sleeper (though much improved), which is our fault. He's sometimes shy around new people, which may be because I didn't really leave the house his first year. We're not so great about bargain shopping or letting him wear stuff that is handed down, unless it is cute (thereby starting him off with a healthy sense of materialism). But, gentle reader, we've done one thing right: we've made a kid who likes the same food adults do. I just can't bear the "toddler food" industry, so we went straight from the pureed stuff (which I made, mostly) to the same things we eat. So, the other night for dinner, we sat down to a dinner of asiago/mushroom sausages, mashed potatoes (a yuppie bangersnmash), and spinach together, all three of us. I'll say right now that these habits would be different (or more difficult) if I worked full time or loved cooking less, but as of today, I feel proud to have made this boy who eats olives and tangerines and yuppie sausage. He'll even try it with a spoon most of the time.

Anyway, enough with the back patting. Since I spend so much time wondering about everything I must be doing wrong, it felt like a good time to think about what we've done absolutely right.

We've missed you!

Jen's mom is recovering well from her surgery, and we are thankful. We spent a few days in Vermont helping out. Graham enjoyed ferreting out all the non-baby-proofed goodies and fell in love with their vacuum. He's also a little more interested in snow, so we might get a few uses out of our snowsuit after all.

We're tired to death of winter here. Today, Jen brought in the play gym from the yard. It's sitting in our dining room, waiting for Graham to demand more trips down the slide.

On Super Tuesday, I took Graham to vote for the first time- he got lots of attention from the voting committee folks, and I was proud to have him there.

Lastly, G popped a new tooth in the past few days and it seems like at least one more is on the way. I think we changed his drool soaked shirt three times today.

How many weeks until Spring?