12 Months Old

Whoa! The famously fast first year had come and gone on March 10. Even though we were prepping for a birthday party that upcoming weekend, we managed to snap a few 12 month photos and a one year photo all in time to display at the March 15 party.  It's July now and I just realized I didn't do the quilt and chair pictures. Good Lord, not that I care since the last 6 months' of them were fairly awful and I don't plan on doing anything with them. But really....to suffer through all those and then miss the very last one? Sheesh.

Anyway, here are the few 12 month photos to round out the series.

And...that was pretty much it for good ones. Here are the other attempts.

 So focused.

Mom, you're bothering me.

Millie is such a good helper. 

 

I can get it!

Over it. Which is great since we still have a wardrobe change coming up.

Wait, one more of this sweet face before we move on.

And here are the ONE YEAR pictures. 

I love how these turned out. The background is a quilt my mom and I made for Graham's first birthday and it includes many of the fabrics featured in his monthly photos. As I say, it was "Pinterest-inspired" but "Grandma-executed." There's no way I could have pulled this together without her expertise. Squaring a block? What's that? I'll be over here rearranging the order of  the colors for the 17th time. Graham clearly loves it so we must have made a good team. 

Actually, he loves the bowl and spoon.

So here it is...the final product of this monthly chore tradition. I admit some months were easier than others to capture, but  looking now at this roll up of all his changes in a year, I say it was well worth it. 

Let's wrap with a baby butt picture though...

Graham's First Haircut

Drum roll please.....

Actually, the first haircut wasn't that dramatic. First of all - I did it. With nothing but a borrowed scissor and a YouTube instructional video. And it was a day-of decision to make it happen.

It all went down on March 2, 2014. Here's a quick before and after.

If it doesn't look all that obvious, maybe this next one will show you more of what we were dealing with at the start.

Graham did a great job screaming during the "before picture" to make it look as bad as possible. He has the right idea for a weight loss infomercial in the future...

So anyway - this was his look and it was just a few days before his 1 year pictures and birthday party. Mama made a fast decision to give him a trim since I didn't want to mess with trying to get an appointment that week. How hard could it be?

The best advice in the instructional video had nothing to do with the scissor and all to do with what snacks to provide your little person during the process. Yogurt puff things definitely kept the event from ending in bloodshed.

Do I look like I know what I'm doing? I don't.

I just held his hair in my fingers and snipped away, putting most focus on the long, uneven bangs and the behind-the-ears wing tips. It wasn't perfect, but not totally botched either.

We were both pleasantly surprised with the results.

Dad, the photographer, didn't get the memo that when I smile at the camera, I was thinking I could be in it.

Eh, who cares. Here's the real star of the show!

Mom, should I start styling it with your hairspray?

I think he likes his new look.

Once it was all done I of course wondered why I hadn't done it sooner. It definitely looked better and transitioned him into the little boy he is so quickly becoming. 

The rest of February

Here's what Graham and his family were up to in February...

We kicked off the month without him actually. Mom and Dad had a little downtown date.

Coffee at Atomic, massages at Hair Success, lunch at Nichole's and a little shopping--Aaron even went to a fabric store (Modern Textiles) with me. The whole day was actually me redeeming my Christmas present of "quality time" (all I wanted with the schedule Aaron's been keeping). It took us until February to do it, but it was worth the wait. Grandma and Grandpa Hill watched Graham while we were away and I'm pretty sure that even after us squeezing all that in, we still picked up Graham too early for their preference.

Jillian's Augustana choir landed in Moorhead as part of their winter tour, so we all headed out to listen her sing. It was a beautiful concert and Graham was her biggest fan!

Well, Graham AND Grandpa Bob of course!

In early February Graham came down with another fever which meant time at home to snuggle mom, dad and grandma. He only wanted to be held, hence the baby carrier. 

I'd forgotten what it was like to completely lose the use of my hands from carrying a baby. I'm not complaining...it was great to have a snuggly baby again. We just had to get creative to get a few things done. Like drying my hair. 

The bright end of a sick baby. Nonstop snuggles.

When feeling better, there was a brief window of a couple weeks where our morning routine consisted of Graham sitting on the bathroom counter while mom got ready in the morning. He made toys of the water cup, hair clips and of course ... the mirror.

So big!

We also discovered the dishwasher. Knives don't get loaded as regularly anymore. 

Yikes.

Here we are watching dad ref a basketball game with grandpa. I think these were the last games before Aaron ended his reffing season early - by choice after it was too much time away from home. With a little guy at home and a busy business, we're putting reffing on hold until further notice which was definitely the right decision. 

Nonetheless - this was a fun game to watch with grandpa! 

Since the ball games were at the Civic Center downtown, we checked out the Wiggle Room at the library again quick before the game. 

Back at home, sometimes we don't wear pants. (look how long that hair is getting!)

Bring on the food, mom! (pay no attention to the fabric hanging in the background).

Life with Millie...always interested in what she's up to. She....not yet so interested in what he's up to.

Grandma Ange babysat on Saturday afternoon. She texted us this picture of what Graham thought of the vegetables she tried serving him. 

Speaking of Grandma Ange, she retired (for real this time) from NDSU Extension in February! Graham was excited to celebrate with his now-more-available babysitter/Grandma out at the brewery.  

Also exciting news from February ... playing around toilets, which includes unrolling the toilet paper and chewing on it. The toilet paper has not been on our dispenser for months. You get used to it. 

Playing...

Here's the first time Graham got into the Tupperware cupboard. It was really cute the first time. Now it's just a way of life. 

We started the month on a date...we ended on one too! 

A birthday date this time. Aaron turned the big 3-1 so we celebrated at Monte's and Wurst Bier Hall. 

I got him a cool watch (that he picked out at Outermost Layer on the date at the beginning of this post). 

And then we were home by like 9:30 (according to Aaron's new watch).