9 is Divine

It's hard to believe that Graham has been out in the world with us for 9 months, nearly the same amount of time I was pregnant with him (I was 9 months and 3 weeks along, 1 week from my due date when I delivered him). Our lives have completely changed, but every single part of it has been a complete joy.

At 9 months, Graham is expertly crawling and pulling up. He has started to cruise and every now and then I cathc him trying to let go and stand all on his own. He FINALLY cut teeth. The two front bottom ones are out (1 about halfway up, the other just came through the gum the other day). He has started to really interact with his toys and is definitely understanding action and reaction (if I push this button, it makes the sound I think is funny; if I drop it here, it will land there; etc.). He continues to be an awesome sleeper (12 hours at night, two 1-2 hour naps during the day). He loves his solids and is getting quite good with finger foods. He absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVES water, but hasn't mastered a sippy cup on his own yet. Watching him grow and change is amazing. The changes in his development are obvious from one week to the next and it is so much fun watching him explore his world. In 3 short months, our baby boy will celebrate his 1st birthday - hard to believe!

*UPDATE (on 8/8/2011): G went for his 9 month checkup today. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 4 oz., which keeps him in the 50th percentile. He measured 29 inches long, which keeps him in the 75th percentile. His development is right on track, although we were asked if he can wave "bye-bye," which he can't. Guess we'll be working on that one!

Cheers to 2 Years!

Like Mother, Like Son

I am apparently not the only one in our household who loves clean laundry. In fact, G decided that he loved his basket of clean laundry so much, that he might as well just climb in and lie in the basket.







*On a side note, I can't believe that I have an almost 9 month old that has the ability to climb into a laundry basket on his own.

Week of Firsts

This past week has been a week of firsts! Graham pulled up for the first time, and he has now mastered that skills. At first when he was pulling up in his crib, he wasn't able to get back down on his own and would fall. This was terrifying for me because I was sure we'd end up having a baby with a concussion. After a few falls and one minor head bump, he quickly learned how to get himself back into a sitting postion. This past week he has also started to get himself in and out of a sitting position on his own. Graham is also cutting his first tooth! I had sort of given up on this happening anytime soon, so I hadn't been checking his mouth. Monday night he put a piece of carpet in his mouth, and I went to get it back out. As I was feeling around for it, I felt a little poke on his bottom gum. he wouldn't let me look in his mouth then, but eventually I got to. The top of his bottom left front tooth is completely out! Here are some pictures from today:

I was grabbing the towel and turned back around to find this:


We got undressed:


Finally we're in the tub!


After our bath, we found the mirror on the back of Mom and Dad's bedroom door:

Standing Tall

Graham has been pulling up! He did it for the first time last week, and we have seen him do it several more times since then. Mostly he has been pulling up in his crib. Yesterday, my sister and I watched pull up, fall down, pull up, fall down many times over on the baby monitor. He also showed Cookie, Grandpa Roger, and Mew Mew his new skill today. I haven't captured him completely up on his feet yet, but here are a few shots of him getting ready to pull up. Please excuse the massive amounts of drool on his onesie. Hopefully all of the drooling will lead to FINALLY cutting some teeth...







And notice my efforts in baby-proofing the pointy edges on our bed!

Under the Sea

Yesterday my sister Angie, Graham, and I went to visit the aquarium. None of us had ever been, and we had a great time! We saw quite a few neat fish and for some reason, the aquarium has tigers. Graham really enjoyed the tigers. Angie was carrying him and had him right next to the glass as they walked by. She said he had a huge smile on his face. Did he recognize them as a larger version of something he sees four of at home every day? Unforunately I did not get a picture of Graham looking at the tigers, as I was around the corner of the enclosure at the time. I did get some great pictures, though!

With Aunt Angie (Abe, as we like to call her)


Lunch time!


That flash is bright, Mom!


G couldn't get enough of all of the decorations hanging down from the ceiling.


The ceiling in the restaurant.


Shark attack!




The purple sea urchin really caught G's attention.


Enjoying one of the exhibits.


Tired!


Here's some of the cool things we saw:

When It Rains...

...it pours. That has certainly been true for Colorado this past week. All over the state, we have been experiencing pretty severe storms that include torrential rains, dangerous lightning, crazy flooding, and strong winds. Last night the storm out our house was intense. It was most definitely the strongest storm we have had in the nearly three years we have lived here and one of the stronger storms I have experienced in my life. The lightning was pretty scary. In fact, the house four down from ours was hit by lightning and the attic caught fire. There were many, many emergency vehicles in front of our house dealing with the fire. Luckily, everyone who lives in the house got out safely and the fire seems to have been minor.





The storms continued today. You can see in the pictures how fast the water started to build up in the school parking lot and on the baseball field - these were taken less than 10 minutes after the rain started.











The storms took a little break, but as the sun set, the wind started up and it began to rain again.