Today's Poem

Get in line

behind the cars,

Drive down the street

to the bars.


-Elias

Disney Cruise

We're back from our Disney cruise on the Wonder, a fine and sound vessel. The photos are up.

All in all, we had a lot of fun. We already signed up for our next one, probably in May, 2010.

Happy 9 Months! (Very very late)

Today, almost a week after Graham turned 10 months old, he went to the doctor for his 9-month checkup. Everything went very well - the doctor was pleased with his development and was impressed that he already uses "Mama" when he calls to me (this sounds cute, but he's usually tearfully blubbering "Mama, Mama, Mama..." when he's crawling after me begging me to pick him up while I am invariably busy with something important).

His stats:
weight: 17 lbs., 10 oz. (4th percentile)
height: 27.5" (10th percentile) - though I don't think he was stretched out on the measuring table as much as he has been at prior appointments, since he definitely has grown more than half an inch since he last went at 7 months when he measured 27 inches)

The doctor pulled up a computer chart of Elias's growth over time in his first year, and it tracks Graham's almost exactly - they both started out about average weight and height but fell to around the 5th percentile by 9 months, after a couple of months of crawling and other baby busy-ness helped slim them down. This is good news for me since Elias's hand-me-downs will fit Graham during the right seasons!

The doctor gave me the go-ahead to start letting Graham eat most table food (which I secretly have been sneaking him lately, anyway - he loves meatloaf and quesadillas). Solid foods have been a challenge for him, since he will only accept a few bites of pureed food from a spoon. After that, he wants to be a big boy and do the job himself. He's been subsisting on toast, cheerios, avocados, bananas, microwaved fruit cubes, shredded cheese, and other traditional baby finger foods, but now I'll be able to share my meals with him too. This will make feeding him on our upcoming cruise much easier.

Speaking of the cruise, we fly down to Orlando tomorrow and depart from Port Canaveral the next day. We'll post the pictures when we get back!

cadhuivh@#%

Just Goofin' Around

We'll Miss You, Grandma!

Grandma Norma was nice enough to come see us this past weekend. I had been telling Elias in advance about her visit and promised him she would read him all the books he wanted. When she walked in the door and he figured out who she was, he didn't say a word. Instead, he bolted out of the room and ran to the stairs. As he was frantically climbing, I asked him where he was going. "To get a big pile of books!" was his reply. I guess he WAS listening to me when I was telling him about all the fun he would have with his Grandma.

The weekend's fun wasn't limited to books, either. We took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad, went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and Elias enjoyed some yummy macaroni and cheese made with extra love especially for him by his grandma.

Graham was sick and miserable, but was still able to enjoy a few cuddles and hugs with grandma.

to engineer is human

This is interesting.

On my way to relax and watch a little TV while the boys played quietly, I saw Elias building a couple of towers out of his bricks and and then attaching the train tracks to the top.

A little while later, he came and asked me for help. I knew just what he wanted to do as he explained to me his plan for building an elevated railway, and I showed him how to put together all the pylons and connect the tracks in a circle. I ended up doing most of the work, actually, because he seemed to have a problem with making all the pylons the same height.

After trying out the train he'd built earlier (you can see the little "Daddies" - that's what he calls them - riding on the train cars), he told me he wanted to make a tunnel for it to go through, so I built that too and put it just where he wanted it.

Wendy thought it looked like the Disney World monorail, which it sort of does.

We were lucky with this in that Graham didn't destroy it right away. Graham always wants to play with whatever Elias is playing with, especially blocks or trains. He loves to stand up next to the train table and throw train cars around and rip up track like Godzilla, or push down and smash whatever Elias builds with his blocks. Elias starts out tolerating this, but get frustrated with Graham quickly: "Get this baby away from me!" if we are lucky, or a push followed by a screaming baby if we are not.

(Click through for more photos)