First Word and Other New Tricks

Well, it's official. Graham's first word is tractor or "taktor" as he says it. As one of Mommy's friends said "You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy!" He can recognize a picture of one and say the word. He's said it many times now too. Of course he can already say Mama, Dada, more, and uh-oh. Occasionally, he will say "bobble" for bottle. Recently, he has started saying "no" too. When he does something wrong, he'll stop, point his finger and say "no!" So he knows what he is doing is wrong or at least that it gets a "no!"

His other new trick is blowing kisses. They taught him this at daycare and the first time we saw him do it was for Nana who of course just melted. He's also learning his colors at daycare. They have been doing colors since we moved to Busy Bees but it is only in the last week or so that we have noticed that Graham is picking it up. He said "blue" last week and could bring his Daddy the blue ball when asked (there were multiple of all colors in his play pen). Today on his daycare form, it said that he said "green" and did the sign for it. One of Mommy's favorite new tricks is that he can pick up his toys! Last night he put his stuffed animals in the toy bag/hamper in his room. Of course I clapped and tried to give as much positive reinforcement as possible. (It seemed to work too!) I can say "let's put up the toys" and he knows what to do. He's also trying to put books back on the shelf but hasn't quite got the hang of which way to turn them. He gets frustrated and hands it to me.

Although in a previous post I wrote that I regret putting a bookcase in Graham's room (and that's still mostly true), most nights after his bath, I sit in the floor and play with him and the bookcase. He pulls books off of his shelf and brings them to me to read. Sometimes he will plop down in my lap (which I just love). Sometimes we make it through an entire book and sometimes not. He'll bring me another one to read before I finish. His favorite books make noise, are touch n' feel, or about animals or tractors. One of his favorite books has all of those features except make noise. It is a touch and feel tractor book that also has lots of animals in it. It's perfect that the tractors are different colors so we use to to talk about colors too.

Graham got a few puzzles for his birthday. Even though they said 12 months and up, Graham has not quite got the hang of puzzles. Instead, the pieces with wooden handles become cymbals that he bangs together quite vigorously. I would not want to get caught in the middle of them! Tonight he did manage to get the orange circle in the correct slot and seemed pretty proud of himself.

When Graham saw the tractor above in the toy store, he practically jumped out of his Daddy's arms because he wanted down so badly. I guess we know what he will be asking Santa for this year. =)

Sundays

We pretty much missed church for the first year of Graham's life. Mostly because one of us was sick all the time. Graham would get sick. Then Mommy would get sick. And then Daddy would get sick. Repeat. We have been blessed with a streak of wellness that we hope continues. We almost made it through an entire sermon series! Except, Mommy and Daddy got sick so we missed the last one in a good series. We have it recorded though. Anyway, it is nice to be back at church. Besides loving being able to attend worship, Mommy is also having fun dressing Graham for Sunday School. Here's some pictures from the last two Sundays. Graham is wearing his first hard soled Sunday shoes.

Graham is probably the oldest baby in his Sunday School class since it is for babies born February 1, 2010 or later and it is called the "crawler class." Well, we all know Graham is basically running now. After about the 3rd week, we went to pick him up in the nursery and the lady said "We didn't know he could walk!" I guess they had just held him the whole time in previous weeks. We were able to start attending again about the same time Graham moved up to his new class at daycare so it was a lot of newness for him and he was a little fussy when we dropped him off. However, we think he warms up quickly because they always say he did great when we pick him up.

New Wheels

Daddy finally put together Graham's birthday present from Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Bob this week and we unveiled it for Graham for the first time today. He liked opening the door and when daddy would push him "fast." He loved holding the wheel and honking the horn.

Happy Spring!

Yesterday we went to Brian's grandparent's farm to celebrate their birthdays. Graham got to meet his great great aunt, Aunt Shirley, for the first time. The uncles caught some big bass in the pond and Graham went on a wagon ride with Aunt Janice and Uncle Rick (his great aunt and uncle). It was a beautiful day!

Notice in the pictures that Graham is wearing the John Deere hat that Santa brought him for Christmas. Until yesterday, Graham refused to wear a hat. He has 4 baseball hats but always tries to pull them off as soon as you put them on his head. He usually doesn't like for Daddy to wear a hat either! But for some reason, he doesn't seem to mind them so much now.

Graham with his Granddaddy


Uncle Eric with the fish he caught.

Graham with his great great aunt, Aunt Shirly.

Four generations of Franks.

Graham with Mommy and Daddy

Uncle Kevin with the fish he caught. Uncle Eric had already thrown his back so we're not sure which one was bigger!

Graham eating "ice cream" for the first time...aka frozen yogurt. We think he liked it!

Graham with Granny (great grandmother)

Going on a wagon ride with Aunt Janice

The whole clan

Here he is in his frog towel that he got for his birthday.

Recent Pics

OK, I've been really bad about keeping the blog up to date lately. I've taken tons of pictures since Graham turned one but haven't made posts about many so here is my attempt to make up for lost time.

Here's Graham in his cute firetruck pajamas from Mrs. Martha and Mr. Lin (Grandmother's cousins)

Before church one Sunday...

We had some really nice weather in February and went to visit Nana and Papa for a cookout. Graham got to watch Papa feed the cows while we were there.




First outside wagon ride.

Eating a cookie...

Deer hoodie towel that he got for Christmas.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Graham wore his cute St. Patrick's Day shirt to daycare today and in a frantic rush to make it in time for breakfast, I snapped a few quick pictures.

While we were getting ready, Graham was playing with one of his farm themed soft books that also has sound. One of the buttons cranks a tractor and this morning it sounded like Graham really said "taktor"! Of course, he hasn't said it since then.

What a difference a year makes...

UAB made it to the NCAA "First Four" and Graham wore his UAB overalls to school yesterday since the game was last night. It made me look back at the pictures from last year when he wore his first UAB outfit for the NIT game they played. I was amazed at the chubby but tiny baby that I saw in the pictures. Now he's a jabbering, not so chubby 13.5 month old.

Graham is so much more interactive now. He points to things, jabbers, can make dog and cow noises, and gives high fives. He's really a lot of fun. The only not-so-fun thing is the mess he makes at dinner. He's eating really well, but loves to throw things on the floor. It is impossible to keep the kitchen clean and Mommy wonders if she will ever have the luxury of a clean house again. So far his favorite restaurant seems to be Cracker Barrel. He's been there twice and has eaten a ton both times. The funny thing is that Mommy loves Cracker Barrel but Daddy is not a fan. At least now there will be someone else that wants to go!

Graham is also doing really well at daycare too. He's learning sign-language and his colors. The "more" sign is the one we have seen him do the most. His teachers say that he loves the playground. Mommy feels like she is living at the beach due to all the sand in the bathtub. She makes sure to take Graham's shoes off over the garbage can because a ton of sand always comes out. The new class must really wear him out during the day because he comes home pretty tired. Mommy feeds him dinner almost as soon as he gets home. Then Daddy gives him a bath. He may play a little while but is usually fussy and ready for bed between 7:30 and 8. We put him in his crib, give him a bottle (he makes less of a mess with that than a sippy cup), and turn out the lights. He drinks his milk, then tosses his bottle out of the crib or to the side and goes to sleep. It's fantastic.



Daddy installed his new car seat. He's almost too tall for his old one. Here's a picture of him during his first ride in the new one.