Dear Graham, Week 35, 36 and 37

Dear Graham,
Yes, I know, it's been awhile since I've posted. And during that absence there are so many things that have happened in your life. But all of those things have meant mommy hasn't gotten a few spare minutes at the computer until now. I think you'll forgive me when you hear about all of your latest adventures.



Probably the biggest news of the past few weeks is that you now have teeth! Two cute bottom teeth have made an appearance, although you wouldn't know it most of the time because they hide behind your tongue. One of these days they'll shine through in a picture for me to show you.



The second biggest piece of news is that mommy and daddy left you overnight for the first time to celebrate our anniversary. Not just one overnight. Three whole nights. While you played with Grahamma, Grandpa and Aunt Shannon, mommy and daddy did a little of this:



And this:


Most importantly, we got to sleep three (whole! uninterrupted! amazing!) nights with no baby monitor. Who knew such bliss existed.

But that was okay by you, because you got to hang out with lots of fun family:






Although they assured us you were actually put down while we were gone, I'm not sure that was actually the case.

You're so full of action these days, always looking to explore the world around you. (While sitting up and not wanting to crawl though, of course.) You grab for anything within your reach, something a former kitchen glass of ours can attest to. Like most babies, you love remote controls and cell phones and you always seem to have a way to reach them, even when we think we've put them out of sight.


You also now understand object permanence. This is the scientific way of saying you now freak-the-heck-out anytime mommy or daddy leave the room. Apparently you now know that we exist even when you don't see us and so therefore you want to see us during all of your waking moments. This makes doing every day tasks a challenge at times, but at the same time, in some strange way it feels good knowing you love us so much.

One of the other reasons for my blogging hiatus is that you had a bout of hand foot mouth disease. One day you were fine, the next you had a high fever and a few dots on your forehead and hand. I wish I had been timing the number of seconds the pediatrician had been in the room before declaring it a classic case of "handfootmouth" disease. (Said as one syllable with no breath.) I had to ask him to slow down and repeat the diagnosis and that's when he explained you were the fifth case he'd seen in the last two days. As if he was expecting you to come in with something more original. I, of course, came home and read everything there is to read about it on the CDC's website, and determined that the doctor was right: you were going to be just fine in a few days.

When mommy asked the pediatrician if I could catch it, he said if I did, it would just be a fever and a sore throat. "Well," I thought to myself. "That's not too bad." Apparently this thought went straight from my brain to the karma gods' ears. As if we didn't have enough going on, I, of course, also caught "handfootmouth" disease and pretty much spent 48 hours in misery.

So, there you have it, kid. A summary of our last few, crazy weeks. While they've been busy, I wouldn't have traded a second of one day of them. (Well, maybe I'd change us getting sick.) But even the hard days are worth it when you smile that sweet smile.

Love,
Mommy