Graham embracing a balloon from the baby shower we threw this past weekend for our friends Kayce and James Ford...
Counting his 100 last pushes on the swing...
Splashing in the puddles on his sandbox...
Maximizing the mess!

And then wiping his wet hands on Daddy's pants...

Nana and Papa saved the day! A house full of baby-shower-attendees would have overwhelmed Graham, so Nana and Papa came down and played with him for the day. He did make a much-anticipated guest appearance as the party was winding down.

After refusing a real nap, Graham persuades Papa to take a pretend nap with him on the sofa...

It has been raining here in Charlotte for the last couple of days and we are so thankful!!! Even the really hard showers didn't stop Graham from putting on his jacket today (go Sox!) and exploring our waterlogged neighborhood. We spent well over an hour splashing in puddles and looking for drippy spider webs until Graham discovered... the drainpipes! He is now quite intrigued by the under-workings of our city and he spent the evening talking about pipes and the rainwater that runs under the roads and back into our house. He just loves details!
Grahamy and Daddy doing their lessons! Actually, this is one of Graham's favorite past times. He calls it "counting numbers." Scott or I will write from 1-100 or higher if possible, while Graham counts along. Then, he "writes" over our numbers and counts them again. He loves to count and will count into the hundreds and then back down. One napless day, I walked past his bedroom and heard him counting down from 1165. He is even beginning to grasp basic arithmetic. Apparently, Scott was very good with spelling and numbers at an early age, so he can take all the credit for these tendencies because they certainly didn't come from me!
Once a reader, always a reader!!!

A sweet shot of my boys in their jammies... Complete with sweatshirts because, unbeknownst to Mom, they went straight outside after breakfast without dressing first!
Some shots from Clara's kid-crazy 2nd birthday party. Many kids didn't make it into my pictures, but it was quite bash!
The birthday girl herself!

The 80-degree afternoon caused us to re-think Graham's costume for this themed party. In case you can't tell, he's an Italian soccer player!

And, a few shots I took of Graham on a playdate at the park the other day...

Check out the tongue! This is one of Grahamy's signature looks...

To Scott's horror, Graham is now fascinated with SPIDERS!!! Though it is difficult to see, the enormous web in this picture is at least as large as a hubcap. Graham loves spiders and spider webs and he even understands why spiders build webs. He has even been known to request "bugs" for dinner. Don't worry, he might enjoy the concept, but we're not serving up bugs for dinner. Yuck!

We often go spider-hunting on our walks these days...

We never seem to have our camera with us when we're out these days, but we're always set to capture Graham being silly at home! Here are some candid shots of him showing off his new talent: LEAPING! He mastered jumping a while ago, and one morning as we were heading out the door, he took a flying leap off the front stoop. He loves the word almost as much as the act itself.




Graham has been dropping his nap for a few months now, despite our continued efforts to keep it. He naps a couples days a week and "rests" in his bed the rest of the days. Often, on these napless days, he will ask for a nap around dinner time, but he manages to perk back up with some food and Daddy's appearance. On this day, Graham took matters into his own hands and climbed up onto the couch while my back was turned for a split second. I didn't have the heart to wake him right away and let him sleep for about thirty minutes.

Yes, another driveway picture! Despite having a large and enclosed backyard, Graham's favorite place to play is our driveway. He has fashioned several creative games around the steep incline. Some, involve minimal supervision (rolling sticks down to the sidewalk). Others, like the one he's playing here (rolling crab apples across the road into the neighbor's yard), involve maximum adult supervision. I often feel like a goal keeper as I watch for cars and pedestrians at the bottom of the driveway and then kick, throw or bat the target back to Graham.

WEEKEND IN MARS HILL

Happy Birthday Gamps!!! It was such a blessing to be able to join you on your special day!

While Scott spent his long weekend at the TN game with some college friends (gotta love bank holidays!), Graham and I hunkered down in the mountains with Nana and Papa. Here are bunches of pictures from our weekend...

Graham and Papa pointing at each other...

Graham and our 17-year old cat became immediate friends... possibly because in cat years, Cocoa is 119 and way too old to run, or even move much at all...

Graham demonstrating "gentle pats"...

Graham loves Cocoa!!!

Here, we're attending a FUN festival where we picked up local honey and jams. Sadly, we missed the livestock, which apparently showed up later in the day...

Graham drowning in attention...

Papa and Grahamy playing frisbee...

Graham learning the phrase, "bad throw Papa!"

Caught it!!!

Gamps and Graham playing soccer on the hill...

Excitement of a new day...

A quick trip to the Nature Center to check out the animals...

Any bears down there?

Drinking Daddy's water... Scott joined us for the last evening and chauffeured us back home...

BUDDING SCHOLAR

Graham has never shown much interest in crayons, but he LOVES to paint!
He especially likes to make new colors by mixing colors together. The messier, the better! Thank goodness for washable paints!!!
Here's Graham "reading all the words" (the ones he recognizes anyway) out of a dictionary. It's amazing what can keep this kid occupied!!!