Hunt Family Connection

Graham's Art - December and January

I love having these cork squares on the wall in the kitchen to display kid art. I'm about to clear it out for new artwork, so thought I would take a picture of what's been collected over the past couple of months.

And for a little closer look at some of Graham's work....

These are some of the Christmas projects he worked on at daycare. I know he still needs help with these kinds of things, but I think he did a lot of his own work on the Santa and wreath. When I asked him about the Santa page, he even told me what he did to make it, step by step! The wreath was pretty awesome too, and he very thoughtfully wanted to make one for mommy's house and one for daddy's house.

I love that they do some worksheets at daycare too - here are a couple of pages to show they were working on numbers and shapes. Graham is very good at recognizing numbers, letters, and shapes, but not too keen on doing much else with them :)

And these are the most recent additions to the board, some drawings that Graham says he made just for me :) I didn't really get a description of what they are supposed to be, but I think they're pretty awesome!

The video camera was out this weekend, so I have some video of Graham and his art. He shares his favorite piece and favorite medium with us :)  (just in case the suspense is getting to you...it's markers!)

Enjoy!

Graham in action....

I have a couple of videos to share today - Graham "juggling" and Graham performing Itsy Bitsy Spider. Usually he does better with Itsy Bitsy Spider when I can do the hand motions with him, but you'll notice he does really nail the sun coming out :)  Enjoy!

Shake it Baby!!

Some very fun video from Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery's house - the boy does love to dance!

Unfortunately, he also loves to play with the buttons on the radio so we only get a little bit of the dancing. Enjoy :)

Some video fun...

If you have a few minutes take a look at G in action :)  I put together some clips from our Sunday - at home, shopping, at the pet parade, and finally back home again playing with his balloon. Looking back on the video, I noticed that every time I turned on the camera Graham said what sounded like "cheese". At one point I think he actually said, "say cheese" quite clearly!  I don't know who taught him this....but it's pretty funny. It seems he's a little camera shy too - he's been talking much more, but wouldn't say a whole lot once the camera was rolling.  Enjoy!

More about the birthday party....

Ok - I finally have a few spare moments to share more from Graham's birthday party.  I have the pictures uploaded and even some video!

First of all, I have to say that we had a GORGEOUS day for the party - couldn't have asked for better weather. We were able to be outside most of the time and even opened presents out there. Here is a shot of Graham and his little friend Savannah running in the yard - sooo cute!

You might be wondering about G's shirt....I got it at thinkgeek.com and there is a coordinating one that Wil wore that says v 1.0 - I can't believe I didn't get a shot of the two of them together! Oh well - next time.....back to the party.

A little football game broke out on the back lawn and the little people did run around and "play" along with them, but one of my favorite shots is this one of Graham taking a break on the sidelines....

Kind of looks like he's trying to start the wave, doesn't it?!

After some visiting and playing in the yard we had a bite to eat - brunch goodies like egg brunch casserole, muffins from Costco, and fruit. After eating we took the presents out to the patio and G dug in (with mommy's help!) Here are a few moments of the action...

G did a nice job of getting into his gifts - especially when it came to tossing tissue paper out of the bag and over his shoulder :) After awhile Savannah came over to help him some of the packages - he was more than willing to share the fun!

Graham got a lot of fun toys, clothes, and other good stuff - it was hard to keep moving from one thing to the next as G would have liked to check everything out and play with it a little before moving on.

After opening presents we went in to have cake - well actually, cupcakes. Instead of letting him dig into a whole cake, I thought it would be fun for him to have his own cupcake.  Here's a bit of what that looked like....

Of course you can't eat something and NOT run your hands all through your hair! This is what he looked like when it was all said and done...

mmmmm...cake :)

Not long after this Graham seemed completely worn out, so he took a bit of a power nap - while he rested, Wil and I worked on removing everything from it's box and layer after layer of wire twist tie thingies. When he got up from his nap I put him in his new bean outfit (love it!) and sat him down in the middle of all his toys. This kept him occupied while we played some cards with Warren and Sarah.

We ordered in pizza to celebrate Wil and Sarah's birthdays too - HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIL AND MUM MUM!!  And as I mentioned in the quick recap, the boy was up until 10:00pm that night - he just wouldn't quit!! He had a really good time with the bunches of balloons and I wish I had the camera out to capture some of that fun...while G played the part of the Energizer bunny, I watched the finale of Big Brother and crashed on the couch. I finally had to put him in bed because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer!

So there you have it - you can see more pictures by clicking HERE. My next free moments will involve writing thank you notes - we are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives to help us celebrate these milestones. I wanted the party to be as much about thanking them for all of their support this past year as it was about Graham turning a year old. It was a day to celebrate many things and we couldn't be happier about the way it turned out :)

He Walks!

I have to confess, he's been doing it for awhile now, but I wanted to wait until I had the video ready to share. So this weekend I finally got the video edited and uploaded - see for yourself....

Pretty awesome, right?? The video was taken on April 8th. He actually took his first couple of steps right before spring break (at the end of March). While Nana was here for spring break he was stringing 5-6 steps together, and right after she left he started taking off and just going, and going, and going! He's still a bit wobbly at times, but he's picking up speed and getting around wherever he wants to go. It is AMAZING to see him getting around on his own like this. It wasn't even a year ago that he came into this world, and now he's wandering around, exploring it on his own! It's a whole new and exciting stage for sure :)

Video - finally!

I have a new video camera - it's great :)  Getting the video onto my computer and then put into a format that everyone can see has proven to be much more challenging and frustrating. The quality isn't quite what I would like, but I've been waiting for two weeks to get this posted!

Our Birthday Present for Papa

A little late but still under the wire - Graham video for Papa's birthday.  Enjoy!

2 months - week 3

As promised, I have some video of Graham taken after we got home from the dr.'s office.

Pretty happy in the video....not so happy when he woke up from a nap a little later in the afternoon.  The whole shot thing must have finally settled in, because he was pretty upset.  After consulting with mom and my personal baby expert, sister-in-law Carrie, I gave him some baby Tylenol that we got from the dr. I finally got him back to sleep the poor thing!  When he woke up again he was wiggling his legs so I put him on the floor to see how he would do...he started smiling again :)  I let him kick around there for a bit and things seemed to go well for the rest of the evening.  He was more fussy at bedtime than usual, and I could hear him whimpering a bit in there before he finally fell asleep.  He was awake and hungry at 5:30 this morning so I fed him and gave him another dose of Tylenol before putting him back down.  I hear him wiggling around in there from time to time so we'll see how long he stays there.

If he seems to be doing ok, we'll be wandering out to Art in the Vineyard this afternoon to meet up with Grandma Chery and several friends.  I see 2 booths of interest in the food court - Pasta Garden and The Divine Cupcake - yummy!  There will also be wine tasting and a lot of good arts/crafts to take in. I see that they have a sculpture garden this year - that's new.  There is a children's stage, but I'm not sure that G is really old enough to appreciate it.  We'll see what he thinks of it all....

I leave you with the latest developmental info from babycenter.com:

Your baby is an excellent listener. He recognizes your voice, and he'll show you his pleasure by smiling at the sound of your greetings. He's also excitedly using all five senses to learn about the world. You can actually see how hard he's working to assimilate the new information he's exposed to every day. If something grabs his attention, notice how hard he focuses on it and stares. He's taking it in on many levels.

Smooth operator
He's no Fred Astaire yet, but your little one's movements are getting a bit more coordinated. You'll notice that the jerky arm and leg movements of his newborn days have given way to smoother, more circular motions, especially when he's watching people.

Give your baby enough space to stretch and move his arms and legs. Lay a blanket on the floor and let him move as he pleases. These movements can help your baby strengthen and tone his developing muscles. On his tummy, he'll start to push off with his legs — the first step in getting on the move.

G plays on the floor a lot during the day and seems to enjoy being able to wiggle around. He's definitely doing a lot of pushing with his legs, especially when we're doing "tummy time".  Speaking of tummy time - he did an excellent demonstration for the dr. when we were there yesterday!

Sound sleep advice
Whether you envision your little one sleeping independently in a crib at an early age or sharing a family bed in the coming years, a soothing and predictable bedtime routine will help your child nod off and get the rest he needs. And it's not too early to start.

Your routine can include rocking, singing, a bath, a bedtime story, cuddling with a transitional object (such as a soft blanket or stuffed animal), being carried around the house and saying goodnight to each room — whatever makes sense for your family. The ritual will evolve as your child gets older.

We've got a great bedtime routine that has worked really well <knocking on wood right now!>  We go upstairs and get into a clean diaper and pjs.  Then we often play for a little bit 'cause he is in a happy place :)  We move from the changing table to the crib where I swaddle him (just his legs these days 'cause he's like Houdini getting those arms out) and then we're in the rocker.  I give him his last bottle of the day and read a story while he's eating.  When the story is done I turn on his Baby Einstein Lullaby music and by the time his bottle is gone his eyes are getting very heavy.  Sometimes he's sound asleep when I put him down, and sometimes he does a little wiggling before falling asleep. He's been doing an awesome job of falling asleep on his own when he needs to and lately has been sleeping for 7 hours in a row at night - yay us!!

Language Development

It has begun! Graham is starting to "talk" to us!  Just a few coos here and there and more smiles all the time.  I filmed a little last night because he was in a good mood...

We spend a lot more time playing now - it's so fun to see him doing new things every day!

I was sorting through pictures this morning and found some that I meant to post and never did - this one is for Auntie Carrie who sent us this great new cap :)

More to come....