This morning...

I was so delighted this morning. It was 7:30 and Graham was still just talking and being quiet. I imagined the delightful day we were going to have. We were going to stay in bed. Maybe slowly wake up and eat some breakfast. Go walking if we woke up in time to meet the neighbors, go later if we didn't.  It was going to be a nice mellow calm day. I awoke, laughed with Sean about some of the funnier little things Graham was saying, and finally decided to go in.

THIS... is what I found.

Yes, that is POOP.   Yes, that POOP is EVERYWHERE.   I mean everywhere. On his head, in his mouth, front and back of his body, on his bottle, on another bottle I found outside the crib, on the sheets, blankets, EVERYWHERE.  We had a serious tub before we could do anything.

\

Yes, I did laugh and get the camera after calling Sean to come see exactly what his son had done! Unfortunately he is just too cute (and the first child to boot) to punish. We just bathed him, then I fed him some food. I am still pretty worried about getting hand/foot/mouth disease, because... well the kid ate poop. I made him drink lemon juice with some water, and then loaded up his sweet potatoes with cinnamon, as I heard that is disenfectant of sorts. Well, hopefully he survives. If not and we get a mad cow baby, he might just look like this:

which would be adorable of course.

Slim Pickin's Thanksgivin's

I think we ripped my in-laws out of a holiday.
       I worked M-W and came home (SLC) Wed night to get all ready for our big Thanksgiving Weekend Event in SF. I delivered a friend's gift, bought all the items I was responsible for bringing to the big dinner, and packed Graham and I all up. I had the next morning's schedule all planned and explained to Sean. We were going to leave in plenty of time to miss traffic, and probably show up an hour early to the dinner, meaning we wouldn't eat for almost two hours once we got there.... Then The Illness struck. I call it The Illness because I have no idea what it really is.  Wed night I end up going to the bathroom like 6 times. I figured I just ate way too much at work ( I was preparing accordingly for the huge meal I was expecting to eat). Then the next morning Sean was pretty tired. I mean REALLY tired. I just figured he was enjoying the holiday, an didn't mind as long as we left in enough time to get there. Well as my estimated departure time goes by, and then my back up departure time goes by, and then the "if we leave right now we could still be OK" and THEN the "we could possibly still get some pie" time all flew by, I knew Thanksgiving was not going to be the same this year.
      Sean was super sick the night before and completely exhausted in the morning. Then it turns out he couldn't eat anything. He could literally barely down a piece of toast.  I wasn't feeling peachy, but I wasn't nearly as bad as him. Well, most of you know me, and most of you know Sean. Which means all of you at one point or another have gotten the excuse from us "Sorry, Sean's sick." So of course the in-laws were sceptical. Honestly, who wouldn't be? Even my neighbors have asked a few times why Sean gets sick so often. I have gone the rounds in my head many-a-time wondering if he is faking it, just a pain in the @$$, or legitimately sick. Turns out this time it was legit. So I'm trying to keep the in-laws posted, keeping up the hopes we might be able to just stuff Sean in the car and head down (and eat left-overs at least), and Sean just gets sicker and sicker. Today he was super pale, looked nasty, and is having a hard time even wanting to eat anything. I keep trying to get liquids down him, but adult boys are HARD to take care of. Then I stopped for a second to realize I haven't been able to eat much either. Last night I was scrounging for food, realizing it was definitely time to grocery shop, only in time to realize all the stores were closed or filled with early Black Friday-ers.
     So it is probably a good thing. We probably would have gone, gotten everyone sick, eaten way too much and made ourselves feel even sicker. Instead I have had a lot of time with Graham. :) :). He has learned to army scoot super good! He is such a cheery happy little soul, I don't even think he has realized his parents aren't up to par. So this Thanksgiving, we ate this little ham:

Halloween fun

OK, in reality, Halloween was kind of a mess.

 

I had just gotten back home (aka SLC) from a quick weekend trip to Idaho with no Seanypoo. I was super frazzeled (if you don't believe me, just read the blog bellow). I dquickly did a lot of laundry to get ready for the week, and started packing to head back down to SF. Needless to say I forgot to pack costumes for Halloween.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal if I hadn't been telling people at work that I was definitely dressing up etc. I really do love Halloween and it kind of did break my heart. My neighbor in SF tried to convince me to run home  (SLC) on Tues night and just stay down in SF for Wed.   I considered it before I realized, I would be EXHAUSTED. Working a 10, driving to SLC, not actually getting to see my baby for longer than an hour or so before going to sleep, waking up an EXTRA hour early to drive back to work, work another 10, get ready for Halloween and then pretend to enjoy it all?  That just wasn't going to happen. Luckily I put my decision in Sean's hands, and with a little prayer we decided just to stay in SF, and drive home on Wed like usual. The fun part was dressing Squish up for a whole 15 minutes... and taking really cute pictures!  He is a Grahmpire, and I was "Bella Cullen" (which really was my work clothes with a lot of make-up!).  But the pictures are so cute!

Cutest little Dracula/Vampire you have ever seen! His hair was the perfect length to push it all forward! I wanted to spray it black, but you take what you can get.

His little outfit had wrist bands in the cape! It was so adorable he would walk or reach up to hold my hands and his little cape would flap! Super fun.

Tirade...

Tirade of an insane mom...
  

  Yes, I realize I brought this on myself. Each and every stinking problem I have... I know is entirely my fault. But can I just say... it is TOO much.

I love my family, but I am so sick of carting half of us to once city to work for a while, then another to clean and "live." I want to put things away in my apartment. I want my winter clothes to fit in the stinking closet! I want to OWN enough hangers to put my winter clothes in the closet that they should fit in. I want things to have a place and to know, and hopefully remember, where that place is. I want to clean my bathroom more than once a month. I want to spend more times with my super cute babes (I clocked one work day: 2.1 hours with Graham. That's it). I want to be able to dote on my husband, and cook dinner more than once a month. Is this really too much to ask for? (Again, I already know... this is my fault.)

 I like my job, it really is quite interesting. But I am SICK of working with crazy people. I may understand why things happen, or why people do thing, but that doesn't make it any less offensive.  It doesn't mean I think about it less at night, efficiently getting myself roiled up, and then having to calm down again. I like doing my job, I've discovered I don't like doing insane leadership/reporting on things I can't change and I can't fix. That is particularly depressing. I know managing is an art, and quite frankly I am a sucky artist (at least at this job).

Ok, so there are only two major things... but tonight, just tonight as I sit in the lap of luxury at my mom's house, unable to act on any of my problems... I tirade.

Sad Days

You know it is bad when your FATHER tells you that it is time to update your blog. We have just had some crazy weekends.  So here is my update, but I know what you really want is PICTURES. So here is a ton!

Well, Graham is "sizely". We happened to be at the doctors office for an unrelated visit and I slapped him on the scales, 20 POUNDS. He is getting very long, rather than fat. But it still is a workout to get him up all the stairs to our apt. Here you can see his little scooch. He really doesn't like doing this very much, but he was enthralled by the door jab thing. (He loves these in every room he can find). If you notice he makes a nice 180.

 He will prop himself up when he is on his belly, but he won't crawl. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing!

What happens at Nate and Kim's, stays at Nate and Kim's! Mostly, we just wanted to see what he would think of a "beebee". We didn't even put bows in his hair.

  He loves the cougars!  However sitting still for games is impossible.

 Nakey baby's are sooo cute!

 Such a smily baby!

 Graham loves walks and walking. We found some pretty dinosaur leaves (is what I call the huge leafy plants) and I couldn't resist a little photo shoot. Graham also perks right up when he sees a camera.

 He LOVES being outdoors. My sister-in-law has a theory that if you treat babies like cave men they will be happier, and Graham definitely loves being outdoors.

 However I'm still trying to teach him that dead leaves don't taste good.

 Yes, this is a U bib. He was being a temporary traitor, but it was just so gosh-darn cute!

He doesn't really like to be swaddled anymore, but this just shows how long he is.

This picture reminds me SO much of Sam! Graham is definitely made out of a Doups mold.

I was actually happily surprised to find over 200 pictures on my camera of Graham and I. I worry every now and then that I am working too much and not documenting Graham's life. In fact, and Nate and Kim's I even gave Boston the camera (He actually did pretty good, but the pictures are a little too psycadelic for the blog). I'm very lucky to have such a photogenic baby. It makes taking pictures much more fun than it was for the first few months!

 I'm still working on a blog of Hawaii. It was really fun, but very different than I was expecting. But hopefully this will tide everyone over for a little while! I look the same, fyi.

6 mo well check

It is that time again...

To weigh in my little fatty

And make sure he is the genius I know he is!!!

  

Graham Toshiro:

27.25 inches long

18lbs 5oz

The Dr showed me the percentiles, but we didn't write them down so I forgot. He is about 50-60% for height and weight. His head shot up in size (almost 75th percentile), but he said that is pretty normal for our area. He also said that if big heads run in the family, babies are likely to have big heads. So what do you think? Does he have bigheaded parents!? Are most people in Utah bigheaded?

Other than that his development is great. Apparently his language is doing really well for his age!

Mom blogs

So I'm going back and reading my old blog posts (it's kind of like a journal and worth doing every once and a while) and I realized my mom blogs are, well, boring. There are pictures of Graham and short details about Graham.... and that's it.   I realized what little time I get on the internet I usually use to buy mom things (onsies, search for cheap blankets, etc) or post pictures of my (still) freaking cute baby.   So I"m going to try and break from the mold a little bit. No pictures of Graham (unless I find a real good one) and a little bit more ranting and updating.

1. We MOVED to SLC!
   Crazy, I know. I didn't ever expect to find myself living in SLC. Like seriously when we would drive by it as a kid I thought I would like to live in a big city, but not SLC (cuz it's not really big anyways).  And then whenever we have driven through SLC, I've always been miffed with 13th South. As you drive down it there are some cute little houses, but all in all it is kind of ... trashy.  Well guess what... be careful of what you say you will never do. I sooo live in downtown SLC and right off 13th South. We looked at a few other apts, but this one was the best fit. It turns out to be super handy to live right off the freeway exit since I COMMUTE down to SF three days a week. (I know... what wife is a commuter? And acutally I like to stay down in SF with family if I can.).
     The apt is really spacious for the three of us.  We have 2 large rooms, a tiny living room, a tiny dining room, and a galley sized kitchen. Our massive couch fits... a total plus... and if I can ever get the rest of my junk put away, actually provides a lot of great living space. I am having a lot of fun picking out my own decorations, bedding, and curtains. Mostly we have spent a lot of time at Walmart and Ikea; living cheap is the way to go for now. We can't paint the walls or anything, but it is still nice to have a clean slate where "the clan" won't be upset if I change something.

2. Our ward is a little psycho. Literally
  So our fabulous apt is a low income housing project. We had to go through some serious rigamaroo to get in proving we won't make more than $34,500 this year just to get in. Then we go to church. I guess I didn't really think about who would be long term residents of low income housing. Turns out people who are on disability, or partial disability, tend to be very long term residents here. They continually qualify as low income, yet are high functioning enough to pay rent. And I could just see the missionaries happy faces as they convert these little souls and then gratefully turn them over to the ward members. So as a ward member I have had some funny experiences.
       One fellow bellows out the lesson and chapter we are on each Sunday mutiple times... at very odd times. His wife dutifully wears her jean Harley Davidson jacket to church and tries to explain to our Mongolian Sunday School teacher (who still has a little trouble with English) that her husband just doesn't understand. The Mongolian is great, except he struggles with a few words, and with some of the harder to deal with members. The piano teaching mom who last taught the lesson ended up fighting with the bellow-er, becuase she (very sharply) was going to give the lesson she prepared, not the one he wanted her to teach. The whole confrontation ended with the bellower very loudly saying "Well that is just STUPID."  It was an interesting way to start the lesson. RS started out with a 200+lb lady wearing make-up like a 5 year old asking each pregnant lady if she was still pregnant. One lady later confessed to me that she would switch up her answer just to throw the make-up lady off! The RS president announced we would not be doing Good News moments anymore, becuase they were getting too depressing. She then continued to conduct the music and explained we are going to try and train everyone to conduct, because she cannot play, conduct the music, and conduct RS. Her husband also happens to be the 1st counselor in the Bishopric!
  I was just called to teach RS. I'm actually really happy about it, and think we will have a good time. I may just need to work on saying No to some of the more crazy comments. My last ward was definately preparatory to my new ward... and I think we will all have a really good time. I keep thinking of it as just more oportunities to serve and hone my skills :).   I moved to Utah expecting to be in super "mormon" wards. BYU copletely lived up to my expectations, but then the family wards I've lived in have just been... well not very active. Both wards I've lived in only have about a 20-30% activity rate. A lot of the kids come from split or broken homes. All the girs/ yw struggle with really hard things... not the easy dumb drama I suffered from in my ID home ward. It is just odd, I expected to move into some super active, super perky family wards... and have yet to even find one in UT. I just find it odd.

Ok this is getting really long. Other than that Graham is eating solids like a pro. He loves his rice cereal as long as there are bananas or apple juice in it. He still loves his mom best (sorry again Kim!). And he is almost 17 lbs. Yes, he is a fatty. But he is my fatty so we'll keep him. I'm super stoked about Redfish and will have to post some pictures when we (Graham and I, no Seanypoo yet again) get back.

Consider yourself updated.

Firsts

First time eating rice cereal!!!

First time Graham's crib has been assembled (correctly). I choose not to put up the 4th side since he doesn't roll, and I HATE HATE HATE bending over and hurting myself on the stupid crib edges.

Not that he sleeps in it!

First time mom put in me my ridiculous (ly cute) monkey hat!

First Tubby pictures to go online

And one outrageously cute smily picture to top it all off!

The Way We Look

Graham is cute as usual. However he is getting bigger and bigger all the time!

I decided to go from this:

To this:     !!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've decided my face in general is just a little too big (no harm in that, more to kiss anyways) and bangs could probably help balance me out. Also, I don't know if you people suffer from this: but I lot a TONNE of hair after having Graham. It is all growing back, but my part and hairling look ridiculous!  So bangs should cover up my bald spots with fuzzy regrowth as well.  Sorry I'm not smiling in the bang pictures... it was a rough Sunday morning.

U v the Y

So Sean is officailly in and going to the U Accelerated Nursing Program. He is missing out on all the fun family reuinions (on my side anyways), and we have had one other little dilemma

Um... who do we root for now?

Graham would just rather not choose. I of course will bleed blue... but we'll see where Sean ends up.

My son, the Genius

Look how SMART Graham is:

Okay,  really it was just a thing he kept doing over and over. I may or may not have timed my question to perfection coincide with what I knew he was going to do. But it is still really cute regardless!

Oh and this is pretty hilarious, I love little baby laughs.  (The noise comes from my mouth, I promise.)

p.s. I took these both with my phone, and I've never posted a video on blog before... so forgive me if the quality/sound/functioning sucks.

We're goin.... We're goin... We're going to...

HAWAII!!!!!!!

Sean can't figure out why I won't stop dancing around the living room...

YaYaYAH!!

and coming up with song lyrics that happen to include the name Hawaii...

eeeheheheheee

I'm really excited!



While the baby sleeps...

Look what I made today!

It isn't really all that impressive, we are trying to work through some of our old food storage and I found I have a ton of cake mixes. Hence, Cake Cookies. These ones I didn't have a 1/3 cup measuring cup, so I added too much oil and they are really flat. I put a little icing in the middle and doubled them up. I'm also testing out my skills with icing tips. (I think most store bought icing is nasty by-the-way.) I also took a picture of this:

for cuteness. I especially liked the juxtaposition of these two good things I have made lately.