Ain't No Mountain High Enough!

G'day! What am I saying? I am not Australian. Coming up with a greeting is really tough. It has been almost a year and I am still stumped. If I don't come up with one by my birthday, I will just have to stick with something...

So what have I been up to? I think the more appropriate question is what have I been into? My answer is what haven't I been into! If there is an open door, I find it and get into or drag out whatever is in there! Mommy takes so long getting ready in the morning that I can find lots of her stuff to drag out. The dishwasher is another favorite. Standing on it or pulling things out of it - great fun!Sitting in the rocking chair was boring so I would stand on it. Mommy tried turning it over. Graham used it as a snowblower and I of course climbed on it. Graham likes to climb in our tunnel with it up on the ottoman. Once in awhile, I get a turn too. Of course I need it on the ground or for Mommy to help me it Graham is using it as a slide. I have become a really good eater. I can't remember the last time I ate baby food. If I see people eating, I want some too! There are some things of course I can't have yet. It makes me mad even if it is a choking hazard.

We went to Grandma's a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately it was a nice day so we got to play outside. We rode in the wagon behind the lawn mower. I kept climbing on the mower to sit in the driver's seat - only when it was parked and off. Grandma tried to give me a ride, but I was not a fan. We also sat on the four wheeler (Graham actually rode it with Daddy).

I found Grandpa Dennis' cane in the closet. It was bigger than me, but I still did my best to carry it. I might look soft and cuddly, but I am STRONG!All the excitement wore me out!

We go to the Y pretty regularly. I graduated myself from the baby area to the big kid area. Mommy would drop me off in the baby area. I would cry. They would hand me over the wall to be in the big kid area and I would be happy. I really like one of the ladies that works on that side. Ryann is her name and she is my favorite! Graham usually play near me too, which I like. Speaking of hanging with the big kids, I have gotten to stay with the kids during Brighter Beginnings. This is the class we go to where we sing songs, then the mommies leave for awhile and the kids have snacks and play. I have stayed twice. I really like it. I am not sure Graham likes me infringing on his territory.

Hope you have a Happy Easter!

Is Winter over yet?

Hey Graham Fans! Are you surviving winter? It really hasn't been that bad. I have gotten to play outside some, but Baby can't really play outside so she holds me back. Luckily we have had some nice days where Mommy will take her outside too. Now that she walks she can kind of fend for herself at least.

Speaking of Baby and walking, it is kind of fun that she does, but it means she gets in my business more. That aggravates me and she gets what I feel she has coming - pushed down. Well that means I end up in trouble more. That is no fun. Don't get me wrong, I still love my sister she just frustrates me. I do try to do things that 'make her SO happy'. The bonus of that is it makes Mommy happy too. Hugging, patting, trying to help her all good things.

Gosh so what have we been up to? We are really behind so I have to take you all the way back to January. Grandma came to visit the end of January. Mommy and Daddy went skiing during the day so Grandma babysat us. When Mommy and Daddy came home, we ate dinner and had birthday cupcakes to celebrate Grandma's birthday! I love birthdays and I love cupcakes!

A couple of weeks later we went to Kansas City and celebrated Daddy's birthday with Nanny, Uncle Brad, Aunt Lisa and Benjamin. Daddy and Mommy went out to dinner the first night and Caroline and I played at Uncle Brad's. The next day Mommy and Daddy took me out to lunch at this place where a train delivers your food. Big fan of that place. I don't really care about the food, but how awesome is it that a train brings the food to your table. That night we went back to Uncle Brad's house. We had birthday cake for Daddy's birthday! It was an ice cream cake - YUMMY! Daddy had to go out of town for work the next week so Mommy, Baby and me went to Grandma's. I didn't get to play outside as much as I wanted, but Grandma did take me out to the shed so I could check out all of my favorite things - Greg's tractor and Grandma's tractor. I told Grandma to open the door so we could drive the mower. She seemed to think it was too wet. Grandma has a couple of books I LOVE that she always reads to me.

Grammy took us to lunch the next day at Pizza Ranch. It is a good place for me. They have pizza and peas and cucumbers and pasta salad - stuff I like. Grandma baked in the afternoon so I got to help. Other than that we just did our usual stuff - played the piano, played with the tractors, played with Grandpa Dennis' trucks, and Grandma even had Dora on tv!

Later that week, we met some friends from Brighter Beginnings at Backyard Adventures. It is like a big park with lots of playground equipment but inside. I hope we go back - that was fun!

Aunt Deb, Uncle Tim, Sam and Kayla were in town the end of February so they visited us. Daddy took me to the Science Center and Sam came along. There were some fun things there.

Grandpa and Susan came to visit a couple of weeks ago. We had fun. Grandpa and I played downstairs and he played outside with me. He read to both Caroline and I. He definitely had his work cut out for him at lunch - Grandpa helped feed Caroline. She ate and ate - I think she wore Grandpa out. Susan and I played with Play Doh. I am pretty sure they were so tired when they went home!

We started to going to church for the fish fry. I guess that means it is Lent! Uncle Greg eats with Mommy, me and Sister. Daddy is in the kitchen cooking. I always have fun. There is so much space to run and I like to ride in the wheel chairs and of course eat dessert! Caroline likes it too. Since she eats mostly table food now, she chows down when we are there! Of course, she walks all over. Mommy likes it because we burn energy!

Last weekend for some reason I don't understand, Mommy left us overnight to hang out with friends. Like she got up Saturday morning, she got ready and Miss Sara then was in our driveway. I was still in my pajamas. Nanny came later in the morning. We made cookies and went to Target. We had fun, but when Mommy got home we were sure happy to see her! Sister climbed off of Daddy's lap and toddled right over to Mommy. She didn't want Mommy to put her down. Now don't think we don't love Daddy too - we are always happy when he comes home from work! Sometimes it makes me sad that he has to go to work. Mommy just has never been gone that much without us. We managed just fine. "Me wuv guys weekend!"

Other than that life has been pretty normal. We play around the house.

Sometimes it is fun to wear Mommy's shoes and I don't like to wear my pants. I like to watch tv in Mommy's room while she gets ready in the morning.

That is life at our house.

Into Everything!

Hello my followers! Is that too formal? I am still struggling to come up with a greeting that fits me. Graham had it easier. Graham Fans just kind of rolls off the tongue. I will keep working on it.

I have to apologize for the delay in my post. I have just been so busy because I WALK! Yeah I am that good that I started walking at 9 months! Gosh I am so good at it that I don't even have to balance myself with my arms in the air. I can climb up the stairs - all of them! In fact, if the gate is open I just start climbing. Mommy has come running multiple times to stop me. Even if the gate isn't open I will climb the bottom step and then even step up on the gate.I will climb on anything. I climb on Graham's chair. I climb on the dishwasher door. We have a little picnic table - I can climb up on top of it. I keep finding more things to climb. Mommy would have more pictures of me climbing if she didn't have to protect me from falling.

Walking obviously takes up a lot of my time. Unfortunately I still fall. Sometimes things get in my way and I just don't know how to get around or over them. All things in time right? Good thing I have some 'cush' in my tush! ;)

A couple weeks ago I went swimming for the first time. At least that is what Daddy and Mommy called it. I would call it Mommy holding me in a HUGE bathtub while wearing bathing suits. I would definitely be game to do it again. It will be more fun when I get taller and can stand up.

Speaking of bathtubs, I graduated out of my baby bathtub. I really like the freedom of having the whole bath and more toys to play with. The down side is that now Graham and I take a bath together. It is fun most of the time, but he will take my toys or push me. Sometimes it would be nice to have a Graham free zone.

I eat a lot of table food now. Mommy doesn't always give me what they are eating, but lots of meals I eat only table food. I like cheerios, waffles, toast, pancakes, bananas, apples, pears, peas, carrots, corn, cheese, pasta, some meat, breadsticks. If someone is eating and doesn't share with me, I will give them the stare down. Don't they know it isn't polite to eat in front of others without sharing?

Well I will let Graham share what we have been up to the last couple of months. Hopefully it won't be so long between posts!

I could maybe beat a turtle

Happy New Year! Okay so, it has been 2011 for awhile but in my life not that long! First off, I started crawling before Christmas. I almost forgot that I hadn't shared that with you all.It is so old hat for me now. Mommy said Graham wasn't crawling at 7 1/2 months, though she said he rolled around the family room - something I never did. He army crawled longer.

I know Graham blogged about Christmas so I will just share my perspective. My perspective is that I got the shaft. Straight up the shaft! Graham got more presents than me. Did Santa think I wouldn't notice? I did. Hopefully he won't make that mistake next year! I did have fun! Graham already shared where we went so I won't go into that. The downside of Christmas was that I was sick with a bad cold. Between not feeling well and not sleeping in my own bed, I (and Mommy and Daddy) didn't sleep well.

While I like my toys, I really just play with things I can put in my mouth. We got a kitchen and food to play with it. I love to stand at it and the food is great to chew on!
Speaking of standing, I have been doing a lot of it.

The problem with standing is when I lose my balance. I am always hitting my head on something. Boy does that make me cry - first of all it hurts, it frustrates me, and it is kind of embarassing. No one else in the house bonks their head as much!

I finally got my top teeth in! It has been a few weeks - like when I was 8 1/2 months. They didn't come in without some pain, but I don't have as much problems teething as other babies. No fevers for me. I am anxious to get more teeth so I can eat more foods. It is fun to feed myself. I really like it when Mommy gives me some of what they are eating. This mushy stuff is okay, but I want the real stuff. I do let Mommy know when I don't like something - I won't open my mouth as much and if she is really persistent, I will wave my arms in front of my face. I have to try to block the stuff I don't like. She tries to trick me into opening my mouth, sometimes she wins. Other times I win.

That is all for now. I actually have more to post, but Daddy got a new camera and Mommy has to figure out how to download the pics so I can bring you up to date on my latest accomplishments. The next one will be a big one - I promise!

Recovered from the holidays

Hey Graham Fans - All the fun of holidays has passed. I still see pictures that remind me of Santa Claus and I still sing Jingle Bells. Why not? It seems silly that in one day it is all over. Actually it wasn't over in one day for us. This year we spent Christmas at Grandma's house. It snowed that day so Daddy had to be careful driving. Grandma had a bunch of present under her tree. Mommy had wrapped some present, but she didn't put anything under the tree. This was really cool. I guess. When we got to Grandma's we went outside to play. Daddy, Sam, Kayla and I went out to go sledding. It was still snowing - I wasn't a big fan of the snow in my face.

We unwrapped presents that evening. I opened a pick-up truck with a flatbed trailer first and started playing with it. Why open more presents? I did manage to keep going. I even played some with Caroline's toys. Later somehow every seemed to be playing with my toys! Daddy was a big fan of the Play-Doh. Kayla liked to color.

Besides some toys, I also got clothes and a sleeping bag. Since I am too big for the pack and play and all the spare beds were taken, I slept on an air mattress in my sleeping bag. It was actually okay. The next day when we got up Santa Claus had come to Grandma's!After that we went to church and then Grammy came and she had presents for us. We didn't come home until the next day. When we got home sure enough Santa had left stuff there too! Mommy said she had talked to Santa about finding us at Grandma's but I didn't know if we would have stuff at our house too. I guess Santa couldn't get one of our presents into Grandma's house because it was BIG!I had to help Caroline unwrap her presents. She is too little to open presents. I also tried out her toys - I don't think she could figure out how to play with them on her own.

We didn't do much that whole week - Caroline was really sick. Actually I was too, just not as much as Baby. By Friday though she was doing better and we got to have a playdate with some friends from Brighter Beginnings! They had some fun toys and we took donuts to have for a snack! The only downside was Mommy wouldn't let me eat a donut when we picked them up. It was SO hard to wait!
Turns out Christmas wasn't over yet. We went to Kansas City and got to celebrate Christmas there. We got up super early - we didn't even get dressed before we left. We stayed at Nanny's house and celebrated Christmas with her first. My favorite present from Nanny was my garbage truck - it even make sounds! She also got me a sled. They didn't have any snow so we tried it out inside. I also really had fun playing with Abby, Nanny's dog. The cat was fun, but not

Later we went to Grandpa's. I fell asleep on the way over and to Mommy's surprise, I stayed asleep for quite awhile. The early morning road trip just worn me out! After I woke up, I discovered Grandpa and Susan had presents for us too. I got a football helmet!

I like presents! I also like Christmas cookies. Susan made Santa Claus cookies. I like Santa and the cookies were pretty, but I had no problems biting into him! The next day we spent the morning at Nanny's had lunch at Grandpa's and headed home. I missed playing with Benjamin - he was sick so we didn't get to celebrate Christmas together or play with his toys. I helped Mommy pick out part of 'Benjin's' Christmas present and his birthday present so I hope he likes them when we see him. Let's put it this way - I would really like them!

Life is back to normal. We went back to the Y though I wasn't thrilled about it. We went back to music class and Brighter Beginnings. I play with my toys or make a mess around the house. My new kitchen is fun, but I still like to help Mommy and Daddy cook. I season, I stir, I dump out ingredients (sometimes even in the appropriate container!). I LOVE my baby, but sometimes I push her over and take things away from her. I kiss her though, help feed her, make her laugh. I say "she a nice girl!" Mommy loves that.

So things are back to normal. Until next time...