Hunt Family Connection

Then and Now

The one on the left is me - I was one, so I guess it would have been 1975. The one one the right was taken today - my baby girl at age one....35 years later. Same sweater (thanks mom) and my first attempt at pigtails (Ellie was NOT a fan of that attempt!)

We had a nice, relaxing day today - just hung around here, playing inside and outside.

Things are still a little crazy around here as we try to settle into the routines of daycare, work, and spending time with the kids. Everyone seems to be adjusting just fine to our new normal....

Graham Goes Swimming

(Guest writer: Daddy)

"I can't wait to go swimming, Daddy!"

"I'm so excited to go swimming!"

I arrived at Sabrina's house this morning to pick up Graham for his swimming lessons, and that's pretty much what I heard for the next half hour or so before the swim lessons started.  (Well, there was one, "Daddy!  I missed you!" when I first arrived.  That was a great emotional lift in these stressful days.)  But Graham was *so* excited about swimming lessons.  It was incredibly fun to talk to him about it on the way to the Sheldon Pool.

Daddy was surprised when we got there, though.  Apparently parents don't get to participate.  In fact, we're not really even supposed to be in the pool area at all.  The pamphlet they gave out said they wanted the kids to participate without the distraction of their parents... which makes sense.  I can totally see the mental image of 15 over-protective parents squealing at the side of the pool.  They do allow us to be there (down by the pool) for the first and last lessons, though; but when I asked Graham if he wanted me to stay down there with him he said, "No, Daddy.  I'm Ok alone."  He's trying so hard to be a big boy.

There are only three kids in his lesson group.  (In fact, he was the only kid in his original time slot, so they moved into this one... what a huge group, right?!)  I'm pretty sure he is the youngest of the three.  From my vantage up top it looked as though he was sometimes having trouble following directions, but he was definitely just as brave as the two girls.  And he didn't break down crying like one girl did.  I felt  bad for both the crying girl and the instructor.  I'm sure they're trained what to do with that situation, but I know I'd be at a total loss.  Graham did bite his lip toward the end, so they had to take him out of the pool a minute before the lesson was supposed to end, but he was really good about it.

As a slightly amusing note... the instructor, a girl named Chelsea, seemed to be pretty good with the kids, but apparently reading names isn't her strong point.  When it was time to collect the kids she came over and asked, "Are you 'Gray-hamm?' "  Graham didn't even realize she was talking to him.  I tried to tactfully use his name (correctly pronounced!) in front of her a few times, but she wasn't taking the hint, so I had to tell her.  It's Graham... like the cracker.

Bleepin' teachers these days... don't they teach our kids anything?  Oh wait... I'm a teacher... Doh!

So that was day one of swimming lessons.  Graham did great, and Daddy had to (got to?) sit up in the balcony area and read the Eugene Weekly while he did his thing.  I tried to watch, but you can only watch the same activity over and over again so many times.  Oh, the first thing they did was pretty cool.  Chelsea poured water over the kids' heads to get them used to being wet.  Graham was a little unsure at first, but he did fine.  Then after that she let the kids pour water on her.  Turn about is fair play, and Graham loved doing that!

Yay for swimming.  Graham and I are both excited about going back for round two tomorrow morning.

Before I forget....

Graham has done some pretty awesome and sweet things lately (along with some pretty not-so-awesome-I'm-almost-3-years-old behaviors) that I just don't want to forget.

pretty awesome thing...
Last night before bed Graham was running back and forth from the bathroom to his room upstairs. He was dragging every kind of ball he could find into the bathroom, and for the life of me I couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to do. He kept saying he was playing basketball, but it just looked like he was throwing all of the balls into the sink. In a tired, end of the day kind of rush, I ran him back into his bedroom to get ready for bed....we can play basketball tomorrow for goodness sakes!

Well this morning he was back at it - this time I noticed that he was also throwing the hand towel hanging next to the sink to the floor. And in a bit of a clearer state (though not much clearer 'cause I'd been up since 4:40am - thanks Ellie!) I noticed that he was using the towel holder, which is in the shape of a ring, as a basketball hoop! It can be moved to stick straight out from the wall, and it actually looks like a basketball hoop....I get it now :)  Pretty smart little man - and definitely a sign that you are without a doubt a Hunt boy. The problem solving, engineering, and creativity - those are definitely traits I've seen in those older Hunt boys.  Part of me thinks we should probably look into some basketball hoop options for his room, but part of me thinks the bathroom game is kind of fun too....but maybe a little dangerous...hrmmm....will have to think on that.

pretty sweet thing...
Also this morning....Graham and I have been eating a little breakfast together lately before work/daycare - just me and him at his little table in the play room. This morning as I was fixing our breakfast (egg sandwich for me and cinnamon waffle thingy with applesauce for him) Graham yells to me in the kitchen that he's going to pull my chair out for me. I looked and sure enough, there he was pulling out a little seat for me at the table....what a sweet, sweet boy.

I also routinely get "peanut butter" or "applesauce" kisses during breakfast - Graham likes to give kisses to "make me happy" and at breakfast his face often has traces of those two food items....he thinks it's pretty funny.

to sum up...
It's hard to imagine what life was like before him - his personality reveals itself more and more every day and I have to say, I'm totally in love :)

Eleanor's 2 month check-up

It took me a crazy long time to get me and both kids out of the house this morning (how will I ever get to work on time?!) but Graham got off to daycare and Eleanor and I made it to our dr. appointment on time.

Dr. says she looks great - here are the 2 months measurements...

    Weight - 11lbs. 6oz (60th percentile)   
    Height - 22 3/4 in. (60th percentile)

I had fun looking back at G's 2-month stats - he was a couple lbs. heavier and a few inches longer at this age and was apparently sleeping for 7 hours in a row at night!  Eleanor's longest stretch is about 5 hours - really not all that bad.

She had the beginnings of her vaccinations (see G's 2-month stats post for specifics) and was not at all happy with the poking. The nurse was super-quick though and had some funky Sylvester band-aids for her little legs. She actually smiled when I peeled them off her leg this afternoon!?

She's been a little "off" since getting the shots - a bit fussier than usual. I've been keeping her dosed up on Tylenol so hopefully she has a peaceful night of sleep.

We walked to get Graham from daycare this afternoon - the sun was out and apparently we won't see it again for some time...thought we should take advantage. When we got home from the walk I sat down on the couch and started feeling a bit "off" myself. As the night went on, I felt worse and thank goodness Wil told me to go lay down after dinner. I crawled under the covers, shivering, and took a nap until it was time for Graham to get ready for bed and Ellie's bottle. I gave E her bottle while Wil got Graham in bed (THANK YOU WIL!) I'm feeling a bit better now - the nap was a big help and I imagine the ibuprofin I took is kicking in too. I have no time or energy for sickness and I certainly don't want to pass anything along to Eleanor. Here's hoping it's a fleeting bug I can continue to fight off with rest, liquids, and meds.

Some updates

I have tons of pictures to edit and I'm having a hard time learning how to do so with my new 'puter. I tried to tackle just photos from today and think I have some ready to share....we'll see how I do :)

Wil left for a conference on the east coast this morning (EARLY this morning!) so I wanted to be sure and put together a post about what he missed today.

We had floors installed over the weekend while we were away at the coast and came home to a BIG mess. I spent most of the day trying to clean up the mess and put things back where they belong. We also had a number of deliveries today

First came the new furniture (at 7:30am!) - Sofa and loveseat for the living room...



...chair for the office

 

It's sooo soft and cozy, but a little stiff 'cause it's new - I'll have to put some time into breaking it in :)

Next came the guys from Sleep Country with Graham's new box spring - I didn't take a picture of the box spring, but here is a picture of the bed all put together.  Note the super cool airplane quilt that Mum-Mum made for G's big boy bed - he LOVES it!

 

Finally, the guys from Sears came with the dishwasher...

 

They only deliver, no installation. We thought Wil would install it, but didn't know at the time that he would be away. I attempted to set up installation for today but it didn't go well, so I've decided to just wait until Wil gets home to take care of it.

I fixed the playroom back up so that Graham would have somewhere to play when he got home from daycare - I think everything is pretty much back in its place...

 

I also spent a chunk of time in Graham's big boy room to get that ready to sleep in if he would want to tonight...

 

I haven't put too much in there yet - we'll concentrate on sleeping first :)  I did bring a box of his favorite books and an airplane night light. A little later I also brought in his CD player so he could listen to his nighttime music.

Graham was beyond excited to sleep in his big boy room tonight and wanted to go up there right after dinner. We went to check out the room and hang out there for a bit before his bath. After bath he got into pjs, we read a couple of books, and he crawled right into bed! He gathered up all of his favorite things, gave me hugs and kisses, asked me to turn on the music, then happily said goodnight as I left the room.....and that was it! He chatted to himself for awhile, then fell asleep.  I had to get one more picture of G on his first night in his big boy room...

 

Doesn't he look so little in there??  It's 10:00 and I've checked in on him a couple of times. He's sticking to the same general spot and is sleeping soundly - here's hoping the rest of the night is just as uneventful.

Wil called to tell us that he made it to his destination so we're happy he got there safely. Graham and I both miss him already, but hope he's having a good time.  I'm going to get back to work on figuring out how to use this computer - I'm still rather frustrated but am trying to read as much as possible to figure it all out.

A few things that made me feel good yesterday

I had a nice chat with Ted the yard guy and he commented on how great I look (in case I’ve never mentioned it before, I LOVE Ted the yard guy for so many reasons!) He didn’t just comment though – he kind of went on about it -

“No really Jessica – your hair looks so good – did your husband notice?”
“You look so healthy! When is the due date?”

 
No worries – the man is 50-something so I probably won’t be running off with him or anything, but he did make me smile :)

I went into work yesterday morning to meet with my supervisor about a couple of things. He gave me a really wonderful comment before leaving…he told me the two things that he feels defines a real “professional”:
1. constantly learning and working to improve one’s skills – professional development
2. giving back to the profession – teaching others
And he went on to say that he saw me doing both of these things – and in his way, gave me a really great compliment. 
My job is often fairly overwhelming and thankless – while I feel supported (most of the time) by my supervisors, we don’t often hear how much we are appreciated or respected.  It feels nice :)

I’m tagging this post as “Things To Remember” because I know there are going to be days when I need to come back and re-read this stuff…

Looking Back – parties and bedtime routine

I was reading through blogs this morning, and a favorite of mine by Cathy Zielske was looking back on a picture she had taken on this day last year. It prompted me to go back into my picture folder and see what we were doing this time last year.  I also dug into the blog archive to see if I was writing about it too :)

I didn’t take any pictures on the 12th, but pulled up this one from the 11th

That’s my “boss” Larry and in the background is a bunch of the special ed. staff/co-workers that I work with. Larry has made it a tradition to invite the district’s special education staff to his beautiful home on the river for drinks, eats, and end of the year celebrating. 

We just had our end of the year celebration on Wednesday as well as an end of the year lunch/meeting/celebration with the school psychologists and consultants.  I went to both events and took most of my pictures at the school psych/consultant meeting – here is a shot of some of my wonderful co-workers :)

We were celebrating the retirement of two members of our group – very sad to see them go, but happy for them and whatever adventure they choose to go on next!  On Monday we’ll be gathering again to celebrate two more co-workers that are moving on to new jobs next year. 

Like I mentioned earlier, I also looked at the blog to see what I was writing about this time last year and found this post from June 11th: Worn out and a new routine – I just LOVE that picture of him asleep in the high chair!

It was also fun to read about the bedtime routine we had a year ago, just as he was giving up that bedtime bottle. Of course our routine looks a little different now…

Some nights the routine starts with a bath – I get G started by filling up the tub, help get him undressed, and recently we’ve been trying to sit on the potty to see if he’ll go at all before we get in the tub (no luck there yet!) Once in the tub I get him all washed up and then call Wil in to supervise tub play while I pick up around the upstairs. After bath we get pjs on, then head back into the bathroom to brush teeth.  Graham has been good about this so far and even lets me help – I’m hoping this continues!  After we brush teeth we go back into his bedroom to take his fluoride then rock and read stories. Right now his absolute favorite is the Amazing Airplanes book – it’s one we have on loan from the library, but I think we’re going to have to look for it at the book store because he is very insistent that we read it every night! We sometimes read more than one story, and sometimes he just wants to read the airplane book again. After stories we do hugs and kisses and he goes right down into his crib and gathers up everything he needs there….a sippy cup with a little water, his puppy, blanket, and yes…he still has the pacifier at bedtime.  I’m determined that it will not move to his big boy room with him though – a battle that will soon be waged :(  I start his bedtime music, shut off the light, and that’s it! He sometimes chats to himself or plays a little, but often goes right to sleep. We are very lucky that bedtime is this easy and even luckier that he sleeps all night long.  I usually get him down sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 and he isn’t up again until anywhere form 7:00 – 8:00 the next morning.

Oh that was fun! I will have to remember to look back more often :)  I never would have remembered all about G’s bedtime routine had I not written about it here on the blog – it is why I do this. Do you remember what you were doing a year ago today??

What we’re up to this weekend…

I know the weekend isn’t over yet, but while Graham is napping, so I have time to recap most of it :)

Graham and I hit a couple of yard sales on Saturday morning and our big find was this -

That’s right, it’s pink and has little hearts on the wheels – what of it!?!? Tee hee – Graham LOVES to push things, especially his own stroller when we’re out on a walk.  He’s tried to walk away from other yard sales with full size strollers because he wants to push them…so when he saw this one in his size, he was in love :) There also happened to be a large bin of baby dolls for sale as well, so we picked one out to strap into the stroller. No time like the present to start prepping for the arrival of his baby sister! Graham spent a LOT of time pushing “baby” around the house and yard, and even made sure he put the baby to bed last night (with a teddy bear!) before we headed up to get him into bed last night…it’s all pretty adorable.

We also went to music time at the library, though didn’t stay long – Graham decided when everyone got up to participate in the “walking song” he was going to walk right out of the room and to the elevator.  I had a proud parent moment there though…allow me to brag a moment about my child :)  We were singing and then clapping along to a song we have sung many times at music time, and for just a couple of minutes, Graham was clapping exactly when he was supposed to…on the off beat!  I giggled a bit to myself, realizing it was a fluke and kind of funny really. When the song was over, the music guy again explained to the parents that kids need help clapping on the off beat as they don’t usually do that easily (and then he added…) “except for this guy!!” and he pointed at Graham. He was fairly impressed and even used the word “genius” – lol. I still think it was a bit of a fluke, but wanted to make sure I documented it so that we could pull it out for his “Behind the Music” special someday if it comes to that ;)

The rest of the weekend has been spent just hanging around the house. One of the projects I’ve been working on bit by bit, is to make what was intended to be a formal dining room into a play room, and turn my living room back into an adult friendly room.  They are right next to each other, and Graham’s toys had been taking over both rooms. Last weekend I cleared off the two bookshelves in the play room, leaving the top two shelves for grown-up books, and then rest for kid toys and books. That got most of the toys out of the living room.

This weekend I moved a big love seat out of the play room and added a table and chairs I picked up for G on craigslist. I also moved the pack-n-play in as we have been using it for the occasional time out and will need it as a bed and changing table when the baby comes this fall. We moved Graham’s Little People farm and train set up into his big boy bedroom and moved the coffee table back to the middle of the room instead of up against the wall in the living room. There is only one little basket of books and an activity cube (a quiet toy) left in the living room – the rest is in the play room you see in the picture. The play kitchen is still in the dining room area and there are a few toys and books in the office, but that’s ok – I just wanted to try and contain things a little better and reclaim some “grown-up” space.

Here’s a closer look at the table and chairs I got for G…

Together we did some coloring and put together a couple of puzzles at the table. I think he’s going to love doing his “work” there :)

So that pretty much brings us up to nap time. I have at least one more load of laundry to tackle and some groceries to get. I called to chat with my mom and will call my sister-in-law a little later to wish her a happy birthday. When Graham gets up from his nap he’s going on a little outing with Daddy and Pa-Paw. Of course he’ll be ending the day with bath time and we’re back to the weekday routine tomorrow morning! 

Weekend in the Life - Sunday

• I was sooo tired this morning – I fixed breakfast for me and Graham (eggs, toast, banana, bacon) and then we hung out in the living room playing for most of the morning.
• When Wil got up he took Graham on an outing to the Starbucks drive-thru – they shared a sausage piadini – a good mid-morning snack.
• Around lunchtime, Graham opened up the pantry in the kitchen and brought me a box of macaroni and cheese – the boy LOVES his mac & cheese!

• Notice the cookie debris on G’s face – he kept all of his food in his mouth or on the tray, so he got to have a cookie after lunch today – yay!
• Graham took another nice 2-hour nap this afternoon while Wil and I rested up as well.
• After nap we got dressed and ready to do some errands…

• At Home Depot we picked up another gallon of paint to finish G’s big boy room and a few other odds and ends. We also picked out some trim for the room
• Wil really needed new jeans, so he found a couple of pair he liked at Kohl’s – Graham and I rode the elevator upstairs and found a couple of things for him, then rode the escalator back downstairs to find daddy
• Wil took Graham to the mall playground and then they walked to meet me at Target where I stocked up on “stuff” that we need for the house.
• Once we met up, we moved on to the food court for lunch – a burrito for Daddy, Subway sandwiches, chips, and yogurt for Graham and Mommy.
• I can’t believe I didn’t get a shot of it, but we used our monkey harness on our outing today and it worked so well! It seems to be a good compromise in giving G the freedom he wants to walk around while we are still able to keep him close by. The more pregnant I get, the harder it is for me to chase him down!  He walked most of the day, but wanted to be picked up after dinner, on the way back to the car

• I dropped the boys off at the house then made one more trip out to the grocery store – stocking up on a few things and getting eats for a BBQ tomorrow
• Once home we played around a little more – daddy is really good at getting G riled up :)
• Tubby-time tonight – I get Graham into the tub and wash him up, then daddy supervises while he plays. Tonight daddy decided to shave while in the bathroom with G – Graham thought this looked like fun and is imitating daddy here in the photo (putting shaving cream on his face)
• Once out of the tub we got pjs on then had some green Jello for bedtime snack. We read a few books then it was off to bed!

Weekend in the Life - Saturday

• That’s right – my Saturday started at 5-something in the AM – eek! Most days I’m awake that early, even on the weekends. It’s usually my quiet time to work on my computer and just lounge around in bed. The little green light to the right of the time is from the baby monitor – I just can’t bring myself to turn it off yet :)
• Once Graham got up (around 8am) we went downstairs in our pjs to get breakfast. I made pancakes for us and Graham decided to make pancakes in his kitchen too. We also watched Veggie Tales while we waited for breakfast – very funny.
• We played for a bit after breakfast, then went back upstairs to get dressed and gather up our library books – we also had to wake up Wil to make sure he got Suki to her vet appointment in time.
• Graham and I went to the library for family music time (loved the new guy, Brian) and then picked out new library books. Graham usually sits and looks at books at one of the little tables while I pick out the books.
• Once home we got the scoop on Suki’s vet appointment – might be a GI problem so we have some medicine to try and we’ll be changing their food – hope that takes care of it.

• Wil helped fix mac&cheese for lunch – we also had sandwiches and apple slices.  No cookies for dessert because Graham threw a bowl and some food on the floor :(
• Wil put G down for his nap after lunch while I cleaned up the mess
• During nap time Wil played his computer game while I rested in bed with my computer. We both ended up napping too before it was all over…Graham was down for 2 hours and 15 minutes!
• After nap, Graham and i hung out in his big boy room for a bit – he likes to sit at his table and look at his puppy book. He also enjoys kicking around his soccer ball and running top speed from wall to wall

• Graham and I went to play outside for a bit – G pushed his lawnmower, threw the frisbee around, drove his car and tricycle, and just plain ran around a lot.
• after awhile we went on a couple of errands – Old Navy (where we got a navy sun hat for G and a fun game to play outside) and Trader Joe’s (to pick up milk and buns for dinner

• Dinner was shredded beef on buns and fried potatoes/carrots. This was one of the meals mom left for me in the freezer – just thawed it out and heated it up!  THANKS MOM :)
• Sure, he looks cute, but when G decided he was done with his food he started chucking handfuls of it at his mama – nice – sensing a pattern here at all?? 
• Wil took G out to the living room to play while I picked up the kitchen then I decided to run an errand to Shopko by myself. Found a new pair of shoes for the boy and myself – felt much better about the food throwing after buying shoes :)

• Taught Graham a new game with his drum - “loud/soft” – alternately playing softly and loudly on the drum.
• Graham and I also had fun with the camera and took some pictures of ourselves – he likes to look at them after I snap the picture
• Started the bedtime routine about 7:30, got pjs on, and read a few stories – we are so lucky that he goes to bed without any fuss :)
• Wil is downstairs on his computer and I am exhausted and about to fall asleep (at 8:30!!)