Graham's first birthday

Our baby's first birthday was the day after Christmas. At the last minute, we decided not to be lame parents that overlooked the occasion because it was practically on the biggest holiday of the year.

Good thing Christmas Eve meant a day off of work, because we found ourselves at Party City and the grocery store for all the supplies. I see a new Christmas Eve tradition forming. 

Then there was a hasty email to the neighbors almost apologizing for requesting their presence at 4:30 on a Wednesday the day after Christmas. Big up to them for embracing the spontaneous.

C.J. insisted nothing but a full Texas BBQ would do for his mini. Smoked brisket, beans and potato salad were served along with the inaugural cupcake.

We are so glad we did something special to mark the occasion. Graham is worth celebrating. He has brought a whole new dimension to our family. Everything we experience with him feels like the first time, he is so different from Liam.

Liam was a somber baby, Graham is smiley. Liam had a full head of hair, Graham has a wispy mullet. Liam was walking at one, Graham is still scooting. Liam was a good eater, Graham is picky. Liam was average size, Graham is big. They both have brown eyes, but Liam's are narrow and Graham's are round.

They are night and day. It's like a circus with an elephant and a tiger. Both essential under the big top, but completely different animals.

At his one year check up Graham weighed 23 lbs and 3 oz and was 29.5 inches tall. He's down on the growth charts, only 55th percentile for weight. But at 39th percentile for height he's still on the chunky side. The 18 month clothes are snug.

His head circumference is 48.5 cm or 95th percentile - yowzers that's a big noggin.

He has all eight front teeth and two molars coming in. He does a lot of pointing and jabbering, and does a vigorous head shake to tell us "no." He's not big on rocking, but he likes to be carried. He loves playing ball.

He endures a lot as the second child. Liam is often caught poking, squeezing and taunting Graham, but he loves to announce "that's my little brother!" to anyone who will listen.

We're getting used to our status as a family of four, it means more depth in our lives, more chaos in our house and more love in our hearts. Graham is our sweet baby, and we look forward to many more holiday birthday celebrations with him.

Daddy's labor of love

Son, how do you like that smoke ring?

Party time

Our baby boy is one!

Hey, what's this?

Oh wow, that's good

Is it cool if I have another one?

What is a birthday without a pinata?

Big brother giving it a try

Family pic

Am I adorable, or what?! I'm one!

Christmas in Dixie

We survived the holidays! I failed to blog about Thanksgiving, but it was a whirlwind. Four days, two kids and 1200 miles - a quick trip to Texas that was well worth it, but tiring.

So we were happy to stay in Mississippi for Christmas. C.J. had several days off of work so we enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful holiday full of family time in our new home. It was perfect.

Keeping the Merry in Christmas

Mom and Dad came for a visit from Waco. They brought lots of goodies for the kids and we went to church service, had dinner and opened presents with them the Sunday before Christmas.

They had better luck with their pic

 

Liam "helped" Graham open a lot of his gifts

MY cars

Mmm...can I eat this?

Still not crawling or walking, but now he is speed scooting

Tell brother not to touch my helicopter

Mom, can you help me fix my puzzle?

My parents headed back to Texas on Christmas Eve. After kicking the soccer ball around and playing a little baseball outside in some beautiful weather, we made a snowman.

My favorite kind, no snow required

  

Christmas morning was our family of five. It poured rain all day which was a perfect excuse to stay in our pajamas, play with toys, eat leftovers, drink egg nog, play a game of cards and watch Elf. What could be better?

No time for vanity, it's all about hugging these precious gifts

My book is pretty good, how's yours?

I like this one too

Giddy up, dino!

A new pearl-snap shirt for Daddy

Trains are my favorite...trains are my favorite...trains are my favorite

 

Hey, don't forget me, it's my first Christmas!

We are hoping everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did and that the peace and joy of the season continue in 2013.

Reach and scoot

Graham is 11 months. I know, how did this happen? In the last few days I've really noticed that he is moving out of baby land and into the toddler world.

He plays peek-a-boo (covers his own eyes and then pulls his hands away smiling). He can point to "banana" and "ball" and "orange" in his little baby book. He gives kisses and hugs. He feeds himself. He can drink from a cup. He says "Da, Da" when he sees C.J., and I think he means it. He responds to his own name.

But the most precious thing about him right now is still his unique style of "crawling." He doesn't pull up on things or cruise yet. But I'm nervous he will figure it out any day, and then we will see less and less of this hilarious reach-and-scoot motion.

You have to watch this. He is lightening fast on that hiney. We keep him in pants so his leg doesn't get scraped up, and he might need physical therapy to even out the muscle tone in his arms.

Notice he's my souse chef in the kitchen. He loves pulling all the pots and pans out of the cabinet. And he put the strainer on his head after seeing big brother do it (smarty!). He has a great sense of humor and loves getting a laugh from us.

I am wistfully anticipating the passing of his first year. I'm not ready to see him grow up. But watching his personality unfold is so fun. He just gets sweeter by the day.

Halloween 2012

Despite the fact that Thanksgiving just passed, I'm going to finish this post about Halloween. What's a few weeks late in blog time?

I did not make the shepherds pie. The first rule of survival in the season of parenting small children: do not go it alone. When the neighbors invited us out for pizza we said yes, even knowing that restaurants and small children do not mix (adult conversation? not a chance!).

So I'm no Super Mom, but I did finish Liam's scarecrow costume, which was his idea. He told me over and over again he wanted to be a scare crow.

Now isn't this cute?

But, when the time came, Liam chose to go as a stubborn toddler. No costume needed, thanks Mom. Little brother was compliant and didn't give me any trouble over the cow costume. We took a short hay ride with the neighbors to the local block party.

Little trick-or-treaters

But we barely made it out of the driveway when, oops, a flat tire. And here is why I must finish this post, because this is where Liam demonstrated he is just as much a Winckler as he is a Sparks. No, he won't put on a costume, but he will be front and center when the tools come out.

Liam is saying, "I''m fixing it."

 

And the rest of the kids: "When are we going to get some candy?"

 

So again, what was that? Nature or nurture??! I have never seen C.J. wear a Halloween costume, but he does come from a long line of men who can fix things. This Halloween, Liam made his Daddy proud.

And on a side note, yes, we hit jackpot in the neighbor lottery, again. I've said it before, happiness is having good neighbors. Nothing improves your quality of life like living next to people in the same season as you.

One of my top favorite things about Mississippi: these women!

3.5 and 10

On the 26th Graham turned 10 months and Liam turned 3.5 years old.

I would blog more, or for that matter, return phone calls, upload photos to Facebook, read, exercise, volunteer, wash my hair, sleep, follow the news or generally organize my life more, if my time wasn't filled every non-working minute with these two little boys.

Aren't they adorable?

This is the season of life I am in.

The season of scrubbing crusty cereal and smashed bananas off every surface on a daily basis in our breakfast room. The season of dashing around pulling foreign objects out of a baby's mouth every two minutes (Didn't I just sweep? Where did that leaf come from?) and playing with construction trucks for what feels like hours. The season of washing loads and loads of clothes caked with milk and crumbs and bodily fluids.

The season of not being able to carry on an adult conversation for longer than 30 seconds due to some interruption from a little person. The season of feeling like I am trying to do a million things at once while accomplishing very little (although I try to remind myself, keeping children alive is an accomplishment!).

Evenings at home go something like this: start dinner, get Liam a snack, get baby in chair and put some food on his tray, work on dinner some more, try to unload dishwasher, answer 50 questions from a toddler like "Mommy, what are you doing?" and "Do I have a lot of trains?", see most of food on baby's tray is on the floor, give him more food, finish dinner, eat standing up, hurry and get back to cleaning and feeding and answering questions. 

[By the way, "Eating Standing Up" will be the name of the book I write about parenting someday (aka never). I catch myself scarfing food over the kitchen sink way too often.]

After dinner, I let the big one watch a cartoon while I dash upstairs for bath and cuddles and bedtime with the little one. Then dash back down stairs for the mentioned construction truck play and then maneuver bath and bedtime and books without too many tears from having to be separated from said construction trucks. 

After that marathon I push myself to clean and tidy up and do the scraping and scrubbing. Then I think about all the other things I was hoping to get done, and I give up and fall into bed exhausted.

With C.J. working long hours, keeping up my own job and taking care of the kids morning and night, I feel most days that I am barely hanging on to my sanity. I don't mean that in a depressed or dire sort of way, I just mean, life is chaos right now. 

First world chaos, that is. I need to keep it in perspective. What exactly am I complaining about here? 

I try not to allow myself to feel stressed about some items lingering for weeks on the to do list. In the season of small children, something has got to give. The house does not need decorating tonight. Those friends will forgive me for not returning their calls. I can't remember every birthday, I can't worry about the gray in my hair or my unpainted toe nails, I cannot make myself into a more organized person, I can't capture all my whirling thoughts in this blog as many times as I would like. 

Every night that my family is safe and warm in their beds and we made it through another day with no major event is another day to feel grateful for. The rest is incidental. 

And incidentally, here is what is happening with my 3.5 and 10. 

3.5 started a new school and the transition has been easy and he likes it. This makes me very happy. 

He is not potty trained. This does not make me happy. No amount of bribery with M&Ms, Hot Wheels or Thomas the Train underwear will get him to do his business in the potty. We try, then I clean up dirty pants, then I give up for awhile. Dr. Brown of Toddler 411 says it is not a developmental delay until age 4. Thank you Dr. Brown, I am clinging to that bit of information.

On the up side, 10 is so big (23 pounds at 9-month check up) that he and 3.5 can wear the same size diapers. This makes things a little easier when packing the diaper bag.

10 is mobile. He decided crawling is for suckers and has developed his own highly effective way to get around on his bottom which I refer to as "the reach and scoot." I turn my head for a second and he is in another room discovering a microscopic ball of lent on the floor (Again, didn't I just sweep??). 

Just this week he learned to push himself into a sitting position from laying on his belly.

3.5 asks a LOT of questions and it is precious. And tough! I don't know why the sun is hot, sweet heart.

He continues to love trucks, trains, cars, airplanes and anything that goes. His favorite book right now is Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site. I highly recommend it for anyone with small boys. We read it several times every night.

10 is over his objections to real food. He basically skipped over the pureed baby stuff and prefers eating tiny bits of what we're having. I forgot what a mess it is when babies feed themselves. 

He is wearing size 12- to 18-month clothes. He likes to clap his hands (when we sing patty cake), wave (when we say bye bye) and high five (which makes him giggle). 

Raising young children comes with so much joy and frustration and comedy and fatigue. Rather than "getting on top" of everything, we are most days just in survival mode at our house. 

If I can post this blog today AND finish up Halloween costume preparation AND cook shepherd's pie tonight, sure, I'll feel like Super Mom. But what really should make me feel super is seeing two little faces light up when I walk into a room and getting their willing hugs and kisses every day. 

I have to constantly remind myself to embrace the chaos. The only tragedy would be to miss the fun of having a 3.5 and 10. 

Map gene

As Liam is getting older we can see him mirroring our behaviors and exhibiting our personality traits more and more. That's part of the fun of having kids, you get a little mini-me to follow you around and act just like you.

One of my unique (obsessive) qualities is my love of maps. On every vacation, or really, anytime I leave the house, I am usually plotting my route or involved somehow in the directions.

C.J. enjoys mocking this neurosis of mine by taking photos of me reading the map on every trip we take. Each photo is accompanied by some smart-alecky comment like, "here we are surrounded by the most esteemed art collection in the world and my wife has her nose in a piece of paper."

I enjoy reminding C.J. that he would be completely lost without me.

So what does this have to do with our kid?

Paris 2004

Moscow 2007

Jackson Zoo 2012

Now, what is this? Nature or nurture?! That's my boy!

Was he watching me? (Of course I read the map at the zoo. I like to know what animal is coming next. Neurotic, I'm telling you.)

Or is this the navigator gene presenting itself early? He is the product of a long line of direction junkies. Before me there is my dad and before him there is my grandmother, who I remember back in her driving days would regularly consult the globe compass attached to her car dash.

When C.J. and I saw this we had a good laugh. Which way should we go next, big brother? Don't worry about those exotic pink flamingos, you could see those anywhere.

And of course, C.J. had to take a picture to start documenting the next generation of obsessive map reader.

Texas Fight

This past weekend we went to the UT v. Ole Miss football game in Oxford, MS. What a thrill!

We haven't watched a football game in years, mainly because we don't really care about football and don't have time to keep up with it. But something came over us, and we really wanted to go to this game. Probably because it was an opportunity to see the Horns play live; it was a rare event for these two teams to get together; and we wanted to do a little exploration of our new state. 

I surprised myself with how much fun I had. I guess I do like football after all. And I guess I have a lot of pride for my school and my state. And it just felt so American. It was a spectacle of tradition and sportsmanship and friends and food and drinks and chaos and lights and cheers and bursts of action.

The tailgating in The Grove lived up to it's reputation, I have never seen so many pop-up tents in one place. It was a sea of red and blue along with heels, pearls, solo cups, chafing dishes and chandeliers. It really was a party like no other, I see why they've earned the distinction of best tailgating in college football. As their saying goes, they lost the game but they did not lose the party.

It didn't seem to bother anyone that Ole Miss didn't have a chance, everyone was there to have fun, including 15,000 Texans. It's been a long time since I've been surrounded by so much orange. It oddly felt like being at home. 

To make it even better, we had some dear friends come in town for the game, and we spent some quality time with them over the weekend. It is always fantastic to see familiar faces. It doesn't matter how many years go by, old friends are gold.

Now that C.J. is attending residency at Ole Miss, we've got a new team to cheer for and a new road trip to add to the fall calendar. As long as the game is not against UT, we'll be the ones wearing the red and blue and yelling, "Hotty Toddy!"

 

 Here's some of that quality photography I'm known for - Hook 'em Horns!

BIG UP to dear friends Rick and Jared who made the trek from ATX