Smile!

I used to take photos of Lucy daily.  I used to take photos of Harper several times a week.  I take photos of Graham a couple times a month.  I knew this would happen.  I just don't have the time to take as many photos of my little baby as I did when Lucy was a baby.  But here's the thing, he isn't such a little baby anymore.  He is growing up very quickly and while very short and very "sturdy", he is talking more and more, able to keep up with his sisters more and more and is looking and acting like a little boy more (and more!)
His latest antics are to climb on anything that will stand still.  This includes the couch, Lucy's bed, trying to climb into his bed, chairs, the kids table, his basketball goal, etc.  He also likes to decide when it is time to go somewhere.  He will pitch a fit when it is the actual time to go and refuse to put on his coat, but at other times, he decides it is time to leave, usually to go get Lucy. He will get his coat, tell me "Go Ucy!" And no, he doesn't understand that we don't need to leave for an hour. He is now pulling the "go!" antic on Ian when he is trying to leave for work.  Guilt trip.
The other morning he came and told me "Barper and Barper"  (he sometimes calls both sisters "Barper") and ran out of the room, only to return a minute later saying "Pay tas".  Yes, I know these aren't "words" but the fact that he can now run into a room and tell me that his sisters are playing trains is a pretty big deal in the world of a little guy who struggles to communicate what he has to say and often resorts to tantrums to get his point across.  I said, "do you want to play trains with them".  "Yes!  tas!"  and ran off to join them.  Now, I won't comment on whether they happily had him join them or not. 
He now knows most of his body parts and likes to put his fingers in my eyes, Ian's nose or ears and tell us our parts as well.  There may be nothing more uncomfortable than a tiny litle finger going directly into your eye, while trying to maintain eye contact and saying "yes, that is my eye!"
And the books.  He has entered the there aren't enough hours in the day to read all the books he wants.  We read and read and read all day long.  His favorites are anything Eric Carle and anything with animals that he can make animal sounds at.  When you combine that with Harper's love for books and Lucy's mastering reading, then that is alot of books in our house being read every day.  My goal: Lucy picking up some of the slack and doing the second runs of books each afternoon.  Second runs are when I have already read a book to Graham but he is insisting on hearing it for the second, third or twentieth time that day.  Don't you think this would be great practice for Lucy?
More photos and info to come, one day, as soon as I have time, and aren't rescuing Graham from himself. 

Two Cool

Harper and Graham are quite the little couple these days.  When Lucy is home, Graham plays second fiddle, Harper is all Lucy's, but when Lu is away, Harper will play.  Now, this means that Graham does whatever Harper says and Harper is a girly girl, soooo.. Graham ends up wearing lots of jewelry, painting his nails, dancing to princess music, getting his hair fixed and playing beauty shop, etc.  No worries, he always has a rubber dino or lizard nearby and likes to hit his little big sis with the play hair dryer regularly.  He also rocks Snoopy sunglasses as opposed to Harper's cheetah or polka dot. 
We went to Trader Joe's the day they wore all their beads.  Everyone congratulated Graham on his very happy Mardi Gras.  He is crying because I made him stop and take a picture- he is a boy on the go and did not like being told to wait a minute.
The scene on the couch is a little "desk" that the little guys set up out of a couch pillow so they could read their books in comfort.

Peek a Boo

Graham's favorite activity at dinner (as opposed to eating).  This can go on and on and usually ends with Harper also playing peek a boo and Lucy wondering aloud why we don't want her to also play peek a boo (we know she knows we see her right in front of us.)
I love watching Graham giggle while he is "hiding", I also love seeing him peek out between his fingers to see if we are still watching him. 
We love him, in plain sight.

I love pizza!

After we got home from the Gekkos exhibit the little guys ate pizza.  Harper said, "I love piza so much, it is sooooo good.  You should take a picture of me eating pizza and being cute."  So I did.

Gekkos!

So recently Graham has fallen in love with a couple of rubber, beanie filled dinosaurs that are actually his sisters.  Sincerely, it is love.  They are definitely his "lovies".  He carries them everywhere, roars or growls with them all day long (including to unassuming strangers).  I thought this would be a great time to introduce him to snakes and lizards and were heading to the zoo to see them, until I saw that we had one day left to visit the Gekkos! exhibit at the National Geographic Museum.  With Lucy set up with a playdate at a friend's house after school, we had extra time to go and enjoy the exhibit. And it did not disappoint. 
There were tanks of live gekkos all over the room, little interactive stations with lots of buttons to push to play games, and entire walls of close-up photos of gekko feet, tails, etc. 
Harper quickly began picking up random facts about gekkos, mastered the games that were about and loved learning about the different scales that gekkos have through crayon rubbings.  We read books about the lizards, put together gekko puzzles, and she loved learning about "leopard gekkos".
Not to be left out, Graham loved the entire experience, from the live lizards to the stools set up around the room to stand on for viewing the lizards.  He stuck his tongue out at his scaly friends, roared and growled at them and kept galloping from one tank to the next (yes, he gallops, and it is hilarious!)  It was a day made for a little shorty who loves lizards.
We wrapped up the outing by hitting the gift shop and scoring new rubber lizards for all the kids.  Harper left with lots of stories about gekkos, Graham left with a dinosaur in one hand, a rubber gekko in the other and a big ol' smile.
(note, the gingerbread man is Parker's.  He sent it to us after Lucy sent one to Pop Pop and Gramzie for a "vacation" as part of a school project.  We take it wherever we go and take photos to send to Parker so he can see what his gingerbread man has done on his vacation.)

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas eve night is always a little hectic around our house.  We wake the kids up from naps, get ready for church, head to church, eat dinner and then the Christmas Eve traditions start: putting out cookies and drink for Santa (this year it was peppermint bark and a "Shirley Temple"- Lucy's choices, because they are both red and "Santa likes red"), putting out carrots for the reindeer, sprinkling "reindeer food" outside, (a combo of oats and glitter  Graham also ate the "reindeer food"), tracking the big guy on NORAD, reading "Twas the Night before Christmas" and letting each kid open one gift.
This year Lucy added to the chaos by insisting that she needed to wrap gifts that she had made for us (the gifts were made weeks in advance, the wrapping was done minutes before bed), and that she needed to write Santa a letter.  All sweet, but once Lucy is writing a letter, then so must Harper and if Harper and Lucy are "writing letters", then Graham must put crayon to paper as well. 
Pajamas, giggles, "Silent Night" and off to dream of the Sugar Plum Fairy.  Santa had a bit of work to do (like drinking a large Shirley Temple with 3 cherries, one from each kid!)

Christmas 2011

Here it is, all the glory that is Christmas in our house.  Many, many, many tiny little toys.  Graham not really caring all that much about the presents, only interested in ripping paper and eating candy from his stocking.  Harper thinking everything is "beautiful" and Lucy saying everything is "awesome".  Lucy thinks Santa is the best thing ever, citing that not only did he deliver on nearly everything she asked for, but he "also knew that I really wanted a book about volcanoes!"  Man, Santa knows everything- magic!

Highlight gifts for the kids:
Lucy:
a globe that also lights up into starry constellations in the dark
Spiderman figurine
the game "Operation"
Lite Brite
Tag books
Lots of little princess and Toy Story figurines
Ken doll
Baseball glove and ball
Pirate ship

Harper:
Singing "Angelina Ballerina" doll
Little princess figurines
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer little figurines
Little Einsteins
Pez
Nail polish
Cat keyboard
Cinderella and Tiana barbie dolls
Angelina's little doll house

Graham:
Basketball goal
3 racetracks
Lots of cars, trucks
Garbage truck
Bubble fire engine
Pez
Take along Thomas Train

Big Fans of "the moves"

We walk home from school today with two friends in tow.  Upon entering the house, they begin asking what sorts of things Graham can do.  "Can he crawl?", "Can he talk?", "Can he walk?"  After hearing this last question Lucy says, very enthusiastically, "Yeah!  He can crawl, talk, walk, skip, jump and he has the most amazing moves!"
Graham quickly bust out some dance moves that made his audience swoon.  Yes, I think Graham is going to do just fine as the only little boy in the house, just fine, as long as he keeps "his moves" sharp for the ladies!

I DO!

Lucy and Harper are playing wedding.  Lucy is the "boy bride" and is wearing a white hooded towel on her head because she "can't find anything else that a boy bride would wear" and Harper is wearing a "beautiful pink princess bride dress".  I just heard Lucy telling Harper that instead of flowers, she was making her some "nice hot soup" to carry, and a glass of water.  Harper is warning her that it better not be too hot.  Graham is occasionally trying on feather boas or construction hats.  I'm not sure he is even invited to the wedding.  I am not. 
Oh, wedding called off, the "boy bride" is going upstairs to play basketball.  Harper said "that's ok, I'm going to be a girl princess playing with a barn". 

Water Skiing Santa

Since we are in VA without family on Christmas each year, we have developed a few of our own traditions. One of these traditions is for me to take any eligible child in the house to see the water skiing Santa.  (To be eligible, you must not cry at the idea of being cold and you must not threaten to jump into the Potomac River every 30 seconds).  This year Harper made her first trip to see the show.  We grabbed some lunch and headed down over to National Harbor, where they say it was the 25th and final year for the show.  We enjoed candy canes and carols while cheering for Frosty, Santa and the elves and booing the evil Grinch.  The water temp was 33 degrees, the air much cooler with the wind blowing and the ground which we were sitting a bit icy, but we were warm under blankets and many layers. 

When told that it was probably the last time we would see a water-skiing Santa, Lucy asked why.  I told her that I heard Santa wanted to enjoy his last few hours before Christmas somewhere warm (as heard on the news when they interviewed "Santa").  She simply replied, well, then I guess that makes sense!"  33 degree water or a warm beach, looks like Santa will be in Bermuda shorts next year.

Cheer Club

Lucy started Cheer Club today.  The excitement was palpable.  Who knew?  Well, I did.  The promise of learning new jumps, with friends?  Well, it was a whole lot of excitement bundled up in a glorious afternoon for Lucy.  She learned "spirit fingers", a few jumps, part of a routine and then what to do when it was time to "show some spirit" (for Lu this means jumping up and down, wildly, screaming, "Go Dolphins- yeah!"
We have 7 more weeks to go of cheer club, and next week it is compounded with a playdate before hand- no entertaining a very excited 5 year old during Graham and Harper's naptime before cheer club?- that's something I can jump and shout about! (with spirit fingers!)

Taylor, a Godly bride?

Today the girls were on one of their "Let's save baby Jesus!" kicks, this time running around the house with Graham's garbage and transport trucks, baby dolls, beaded necklaces, tape measures and a stack of books.  Jesus, particularly Baby Jesus, tends to be the topic of much play around our house from early Dec. to March each year.  Last year Lucy would traverse large mounds of snow in an attempt to "save Baby Jesus!", this year, apparently, it involves garbage trucks.  My favorite line of the day was Harper's: "We have to save Baby Jesus.  He is a boy.  He is going to marry Aunt Tay!"
All of this, of course, would be a big surprise to Aunt Taylor who has not dated anyone Godly in some while, much less Jesus.  But their are always more dates to be had, and just maybe one of those will be her (and Harper's) saviour.