mommy

realized there were no pictures of mommy from the holiday weekend!!  guess i need to get out from behind the camera sometimes!  luckily grady was able to capture this moment.  i cherish these times like no other.  i love my little cuddle bug!

future babysitter

yup...i think natalie is going to be a great babysitter when she gets a little older!!!

the dude loved being pulled around by her.  i think we might need to get a wagon for him once the weather  gets a little warmer.

playground photoshoot

one thing i LOVE about our townhouse is the fact that there is a playground, tennis court and pool literally right across the street from us.  we somewhat thought about that when we were buying the place, but didn't realize how much of a luxury it would be until we had the dude.  

once he starts walking completely on his own we'll be at the playground more so he can walk around and move.  for now though, the tennis court and his walker is where it's at!  it's perfect!

even mojo gets some playtime!!

happy feet

woah!  first steps captured with my camera completely by accident!!!

he's definitely a big dude now!!

give thanks

last year we drove to north carolina to spend thanksgiving at grana and grampa's house.  how time has flown by, and wow, how much has the dude grown!!  such a teeny lil' dude then...and such a big dude now!

so this year we decided to head to west virginia to visit with grammie, bruce, justina, sam, kim and her bf mike.  we were so lucky to have AMAZING weather and spent most of the day outside.  we brought the dude's dino walker with us, which was perfect.  he was able to move around on his own and enjoy the great outdoors at grammies!  we also spent some quality time reading stories with grammie and justina.

when it came time for dinner i made graham's FIRST thanksgiving dinner plate.  too bad he didn't want to eat any of it (no offense bruce, because everything was delicious!).  well and i take that back, i think he did eat some of bruce's homemade bread.  and luckily i had made some of our infamous chili sauce and grape jelly meatballs, because that was the only other thing the dude wanted to eat.

 he was so good at the table though.  even though he didn't want to eat much, he sat patiently with everyone and didn't make a peep.  all the fresh air caught up with the dude though.  not too long after we all finished eating the eyelids were getting heavy.  so i brought him back to the main level bedroom and he passed out!  

20 minutes went by and we hadn't heard mojo...hmmm, did we leave her outside?!

NOPE!  such a good doggie!!!

wheezie update

the steroid shot seems to have done the trick!  the dude woke up this morning sounding much better.  not 100%, but definitely better.  what would a holiday be without a sick child right!!  :)

oh...and we'll be making an appointment soon for the dude to see a pediatric pulmonologist.  i'll keep everyone updated on that as well.

wheezie

over the weekend the dude started getting a little snarfely.  we didn't think too much of it though since there were no yellow snots, fever, etc.  looked like a regular little cold.  not much the doctor could really do.  all we could do was continue the pulmacort treatments every morning and night like we've been doing for months.  and to try and prevent a trip to the doctors office we started giving him albuterol three times a day as well.

unfortunately, when i picked the dude up from school today, he didn't sound any better and that's after two days or so of being on pulmacort and albuterol.  mwrrrrrr!!  : (  i don't like to mess around with his breathing, so i called the doctor to see if they wanted us to come in to get him checked out.  YUP!  7pm here we come!

we walk back to our room and even the nurse was like...hmmm, he doesn't sound good.  never like hearing that!  i knew it was kind of bad though.  like the nurse said, you could hear him wheezing from across the room.  doctor fernandez walks in (who has seen graham a couple times before).....'mr. graham!!!  i don't like the sounds of this!!!'

we know the drill though....listen to his chest, give him a neb treatment, then doc comes back and listens again.  i had a bad feeling we were going to see the ER at inova that night.  graham proceeds to scream the entire neb treatment (which is totally unlike him), the doctor comes back and listens to him and still isn't completely happy with how he sounds.  

we had three options:

1 - start oral steroids in addition to pulmacort and albuterol

2 - get a steroid shot and see if that kicks in quickly

3 - go to the ER

it was kind of a no brainer for us.  #2!!  the dude didn't like it, but we knew it would probably be our best option seeing as we didn't feel like being admitted to the hospital!  so we'll see how it goes!  cross your fingers!

#7

yup, that's right....we're working on tooth 7 now!!

hello mr. left lateral incisor!

fun at the park

the weather was pretty nice this weekend, so we decided to walk across the street and play at the playground for a little bit.  we knew how much the dude liked going down slides from bouncing bears in texas, so we decided to see what he would do with the slides at our house.  definitely seemed to like them!

he was trying to do down the little slides head first!  and then jumped in my lap whenever we were near the big curly slide to go down with me.  regardless, he had a great time playing and definitely wore himself out!

indie 500

so not too long ago we had to move the dude's dino walker for him whenever he ran into an obstacle.  NOT ANYMORE!!!  the dude puts his back into it to whip the dino around and go in the direction he wants.  his other favorite thing is running into people when they're sitting on the floor.  yeah, we're trying to break that one!

we don't have walking on our own yet, but i'm hoping a little more practice with his dino and we'll be good to go.  he's getting better about letting go of things after he's stablized himself standing up, but he just doesn't really know to pick his feet up yet and get them moving.  soon enough!

spoon

look ma,  no hands!!

well, he might not be getting food in his mouth, but we're trying to get the dude used to using a spoon.  he likes to just hold it while he eats, and then to bite down and make funny faces with it in his mouth (as you can see in his photo).  

he had already eaten most of the yogurt in this video, so i figured it wouldn't hurt to let him practice putting the spoon in and out of the container.  of course after i stopped the video he put the right end of the spoon in his mouth!  we're getting there!

study break

tiana stopped by our house for the weekend for a little study break and change of scenery!!

during the day she was a little workaholic, but we were all able to enjoy a glass of wine or two at dinner.

it was great catching up and hearing all about the massive amounts of work she has for school.  honestly, i don't envy her!  she had CRAZY amounts of reading to do just in the weekend she was at our house and she had to do more when she got back.

ah, the joys of school!

well, the dude was also glad she took a break here and  there to hang out with him.  hopefully we'll see some more of her soon!

he's a big dude now!

i'm proud to say that we have packed all the bottles away!!
HOOOORAYYYYYY!!!

we are strictly using take 'n toss sippy cups now and it's glorious!  we even got some sippy's that have a spout cover thing, so i can still travel with milk or water in his cup.  

AAAAAAAAAAAND....the bottle warmer is also packed away!!!

HOOOORAYYYYYY!!!

we are strictly giving him milk straight from the fridge and it's glorious!

:)

good job dude.  you're growing up so fast!  

normally i would say slow down, but for these two items i'm ready!

derby

someone was going through my gear bag before practice tonight!!!

texas recap

i can't express how much fun we had hanging out with tim, andrea, olivia, mason, jerry, grana and grampa!  it couldn't have been better weather, better company or better memories!

several firsts happened for the dude this trip:

- first time into another time zone

- first time REALLY playing with his texas cousins

- first time to an inflatable playzone and down an inflatable slide

- first time going underwater

- first time playing with an ipad

i know i've already posted a bunch of pictures, but andrea so kindly shared her photos with me and instead of making collages, i went with the movie route!  here were some of my favorites.

sam's

gotta love family trips to sam's!  

and WOW!!  i realized during this trip that the dudes look pretty similar, and yeah, i think this picture is proof!

jerr-man!

oh jerr-man...you are so photogenic!  and cute hiding behind those bushes!

even though you have a couple more quirks than before, you are still such a great dog.  thank you for letting the dude crawl all over you and possibly pull your hair a little.  i think we're definitely going to have to teach mojo to 'stay still' more.  

aunt andrea

we love you so much aunt andrea!!

love your cuddles!!

he's so excited....and he just can't hide it!

oh man, does this dude LOVE jerr-man!!

and tunnels too!!

splish splash

uncle tim was awesome and fired up the hot tub for the kiddos (and the big kids)!

fact: we have three little fishes on our hands!!!

and here is graham going for a dunk!

grands

we were so happy that grana and grampa could come out to uncle tim and aunt andrea's house.  we had so much fun with them and are sad that they have to go back to san antonio tonight.

i'm not quite sure....but i think grana and grampa might love their grands just a teeny bit!

market street

i really LOVE going to market street.  it's such a fun place to just walk around and snap some photos of some cute shoulder riding kiddos!

and thank you andrea for introducing me to 'charming charlies!'  i went online to see if they had an online store of some sort....only to find out they have stores in VA!!!  YAHOOOO!!!

guess where i'll be soon!!!

copy cat

playtime at the playground

after playing in our pajamas and a little lunch, we all decided to pack up and walk to the playground.  i think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed themselves!!  

there was plenty of swinging, plenty of sliding and plenty of smiles to go around.  

all the fun tuckered out one little dude too!

good morning tey-has!!!

it was so nice to wake up this morning:

 (a) in texas 

(b) with cousins to play with

(c) with aunt andrea and uncle tim

(d) with grana and grampa

(e) and play in our pajamas!!

rewind to yesterday, graham did AWESOME on the plane to texas.  even though he didn't sleep on the plane, he was a perfect dude and played with his books and watched videos on the laptop.  another flying success!!

tooth #6!!!

they seem to come in two at a time.  we now have tooth number 6!

hidey ho mr. upper right lateral incisor!