This and That

A few random photos from June.... 

Out for a walk in our "space ship" stroller.We do love it for bug and sun protection!

Graham was cranky and Aunt Chelsey swooped in as "Super Babysitter" to calm him down.

Looking cute in his bath towel.

 Fun at daycare. In the bouncy chair.

Being introduced to the jumperoo.Totally fascinated...

Playing on more girly things.

More playing at home.

Driving to Lanesboro.

"Oooh, Twinkle horsie..."

Building neck strength on the Boppy. Hi Mom!

All tuckered out. 

More to come on what we've been up to in July!

Meeting Clara

Cool: Having a baby 4 days apart from one of your very best friends.

Not cool: That friend moving across the country before your babies are born.

Silver lining: Her roots are still in the Midwest and when she comes home to visit her parents, I can drive just two hours to crash her party.

Graham finally got to meet Emily and Clara! On Thursday, May 30, Graham and I made a road trip to Watertown, SD to visit Emily, meet Clara and chat about all things baby.

The babies hit it off right away. Who's surprised?

At the end of the day, Emily was kind enough to capture a few moments on camera for us. For most of the pictures, Clara was an awesome sport and hung out in the MobyWrap with her mom while she contorted into multiple positions to get the angle (an impressive sight). But Clara got to snuggle up next to Graham in a couple shots too. 

Graham was mesmerized by his pretty, new friend. Look at her smile!

 
Me and my little man...

Smothered by my love. It's only the beginning my dear child.

 

Happy little guy. 

Blue eyed boy...

  

A beautiful face, but also one that signals, "I'm done." :) 

Thanks, Emily, for capturing these moments. I love them all, but especially those of Graham and mama. Will treasure them forever!

Pretty soon it was time to hit the road again. Of course the day went by too fast. But while it lasted it was so fun to change diapers, calm cries and clean up pukies with you. Life has certainly changed since late night nachos and interpretive dances on Elm Street! Wouldn't have it any other way...

Reality... (yes Graham and I are both in new clothes after getting covered in spit-up). 

That's better ...at least Emily and I looked at the camera.

One, Two Three

I'm growing!

Adventures in Camping

The weekend of June 21 - 23, Graham experienced his first camping adventure. And oh, what an adventure it was. 

We traveled to Lanesboro, MN (a 6 hour drive from Fargo) for a family reunion on the Paukert side. It was a hot, muggy weekend -- and a stormy one too. Friday night we endured a full-on thunderstorm. In a tent. With a 3 month old. The good news is that Graham did great. He slept through the first aggressive round at 2:00 a.m. Then when another bout rolled through at 3:30 he woke up but only because Aaron and I were scouring the tent with flashlights looking for leaks. In the midst of my panic and fear, it was comic relief to look at Graham in his Pack 'n Play just smiling away, looking around with total enthusiasm. Ignorance really is bliss. 

Morning finally came and we debriefed with fellow reunionites over breakfast. It's fair to say that no one got a good night sleep on Friday. If only we knew what Saturday would bring... 

Lucky for us, Gandma Ange had a hotel room with an extra bed about 10 miles away which gave us an option to debate over all day Saturday. All we knew was that if there was even a chance of storms again on Saturday, we were outta there. 

So at 9:00 p.m. when the radar finally showed "red coming" we packed up camp and hit the road for a place to sleep that included a roof. And thank goodness we did. In the middle of the night we learned that our campground flash flooded and everyone evacuated at 3:00 a.m.! It had been bad enough on Friday night to endure the storms with a baby. I seriously can't imagine if we'd had to evacuate at 3:00 a.m. 

Here is the campground as we saw it on Friday night. 

And here is the after.

The road had eroded and everything was under water. One lone camper remains, I'm sure with plenty of damage and some unhappy owners.

So we haven't exactly booked our next camping trip. I know there will be more and I know they won't all include flash flooding and campground evacuations. But for now we're staying home and staying dry. Graham agrees that this is a good plan.

3 Months Old

On June 10, Graham turned 3 months old! 

Exciting happenings include:

• Smiling lots
• Babbling
• Reaching for toys and putting them in his mouth
• First laugh - greatest sound in the world
• Loves his baths
• Loves mornings and waking up
• Likes tummy taps with daddy (especially after a feeding). 
• Loves time in front of the mirror. Very intrigued by himself and his smiles. 
• Still doesn't really like tummy time, but getting better.
• Wearing 6 month clothes (including the onesie in these pictures. 

 

Baptism

Graham was baptized on June 9 at First United Methodist Church in Fargo.

For the service, Graham was awake and happy leading up to the baptism. We were a little worried he would spit up on his gown, so he sported a bib while we waited. 

 All the waiting made Graham pretty sleepy, so he ended up sleeping through the whole process.

 But he didn't cry. He left that to mom.

Praying over little man. 

The whole crew. 

Parents and God parents. 

 
Our little family.

One cool thing about our church is for baptism, everyone gets a quilt and a faith chest. The faith chest comes in the form of a kit that a man from the congregation puts together. Then the parents assemble it. i.e. Aaron assembled it.

After the service we had lunch and cake at the house.All the grandparents pitched in to help with food which was really great. 

Grandma Ange sewed him his baptismal gown which was really special. Hopefully he's the first of many in the next hundred years to wear it. 

A little photoshoot in his gown (on his baptism quilt).