Graham at 24 Months

Sigh. This will be my last "monthly update" for Graham. It really happened. He turned two. He's not a baby anymore. It's funny how all those sayings are so true but you just don't get it until it's you: it feels like he was born yesterday, the time goes so fast, if you blink you'll miss it, and the one that seems most true to me, the days drag but the years fly by. I hope I am appreciating this time with my sweet little ones as much as possible even on those "dragging" days that are trying and difficult. They are so precious to me and I just want to cherish this time!

Graham has grown so much this month! I think he went through a growth spurt. He is such a tall guy, people are usually surprised when I tell them how old he is. He's grown in other ways this month as well. He is doing very well with giving up the binkie. He still likes to have it at night but is not using it at nap or any other time during the day. I am very excited about this!

He's also doing much better behaviorally than last month. He still has tantrums here and there but they are becoming shorter and less frequent. He could still improve of course, but we are thrilled that he seems to be responding to our efforts to encourage him to use words and discourage fits. In fact, over the past two days the word NO has fallen down on the list of "most often used words" and has been replaced with the word SURE! "Want to go to the doctor, Graham?" "Sure!" "Want to brush your teeth, Graham?" "Sure!" "Want to get a root canal, Graham?" Well, you get the point... It's very cute! The doctor even referred to him as "happy" and "agreeable." Yay!

Other tidbits and milestones from this month:
- Of course, he's added lots of new words and phrases. Along with sure, some other new words and phrases include: football (which used to be B ball), jump, outside, I watch show, juice peeeez, water peeeez, ouside peeeez, Thomas, Mommy I got __________ (blankie!, binkie!, juice! He likes to brag about what "he got.")
- He's singing more and more. Some new favorite songs are, "Praise Him, Praise Him," "Baa, baa, black sheep," "Rainbow," the Veggie Tales theme song, and a silly counting song I sing.
- Speaking of counting, Graham can count to 20! He has also been able to say his ABC's for awhile now. He really enjoys working on numbers and letters. Now if we could only get him to work on colors!
- He is really enjoying his play group that meets every other week. He is really doing well with sharing and playing with his friends (Stephen, Michael, Berkely, Sophia, Bricen, and Brantley).
- He built his first block tower. This may not seem like much of a milestone for a two year old but up until recently, he was solely interested in knocking blocks down and kicking them around (hence the nickname Destructor). Now he is building and is pretty good at it!
- Along those lines, he has also stopped throwing trains at the train table and is now playing with them like a normal child. :)
- He climbed out of a pack 'n play while staying at Mumo and Papo's house! I know now that it's only a matter of time before he climbs out of the crib!
- Graham has learned to sing the prayer song that Jack says as a blessing each night at dinner. It is so very sweet to hear them singing it together.
- His favorite things include his fire truck, the movie Finding Nemo, Jack, playing at the park, jumping on the trampoline, and giving big hugs.

I'm sure I've forgotten many things, but those are some highlights. We just love our Graham and can't wait to see how he grows and changes throughout the next year!

Happy Birthday, Graham!

"A two year old is like having a blender, only you don't have a top for it." -Jerry Seinfeld

Happy Birthday to our sweet, funny, cute, loving, happy, emotional, expressive, loud, dramatic, social, active, destructive, singing, dancing TWO year old, Graham!! We have loved every minute of knowing our sweet boy (with the possible exception of the several minutes of tantrum throwing in Target yesterday) and he has brought so much joy and laughter into our home!

We celebrated Graham's birthday with a Veggie Tales party with family on Saturday. Graham really loves Veggie Tales songs and shows so we thought he would be pretty impressed by our Bob and Larry cake, veggie bouquet, veggie face pizzas, etc. I think he was more interested in the wrapping paper and boxes than in our cute decor but of course, he is two! We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and were so glad his soon to be cousin, Hailey, was able to come. Graham got lots of new toys including an airplane, books, a big stuffed doggy, a stuffed Nemo, clothes, etc. Again, he really seemed to enjoy the wrapping paper... which worked out well for Jack, who enjoyed the airplane!

On Sunday night, Randy, Jack, and I took G to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time so that he could do something special on his "real" birthday. He seemed to be in heaven there, running around playing the games without even putting tokens in them. He was pretty good at ski ball, but Randy was the real winner, hitting a jackpot of 380 tickets on some kind of lottery game. That earned us a 10" inflatable air guitar and some fake vampire teeth so we all left happy. :)

Brooklyn Elizabeth

The ninth day of January has been an eventful date over the course of my lifetime, in good and bad days. It's my dad's birthday, the day my grandpa went to be with Jesus, and the day another dear family friend went to be with Jesus. Thankfully this year, January ninth was a joyous day!

I had just nodded off to sleep a couple of hours prior when at 1:30am my phone rang. It was my mom letting me know that Adrienne's water had broken and that we were going to head to Oregon to meet my first niece. What a crazy day! I was so excited that I could hardly sleep and probably only got another two hours in before getting up at 4:30 to pack. I woke Jack at 5:20 (couldn't leave that one behind!) and was on the road to the airport by 5:45. Brooklyn's timing couldn't have been better because the company jet was scheduled to head to Oregon that morning anyway! We crashed the flight, stopped in Arizona for a few hours, and then landed in Corvallis around 12:30 pacific time. Luckily Brooklyn waited for us through all of that and even let us have lunch and a nap before really getting serious about entering the world! She was born at 5:33pm and I am just so thankful that I was able to meet her only an hour later. She is perfect! Being an aunt seems like the best gig ever so I'm looking forward to the fun times ahead. Jack was in his typical big brother mode and held Brooklyn like a pro. He is just such a nurturer and will probably look after her from now on!

Daniel and Adrienne seemed so happy and I know that they will be wonderful parents! Congratulations to my awesome brother and his amazing wife! Thanks for bringing Brooklyn into our lives!

Small Group Family!

Randy and I are beyond blessed with such an amazing small group. We consider them family (our kids certainly act like brothers and sisters sometimes!) and look forward to "doing life" together for many years to come. Here is a group pic from the Osters' annual Christmas party. Poor Michael is missing because he was sick with the flu. :(