Disney and stuff

Man-o-man, we have a metric ton of pictures from Disney World coming at you at 90,000 mph. Plus some other stuff.

Chadds Ford Days

Here are a few pictures from Chadds Ford Days (and other stuff, like Elias' first day of school). Also, this video of Elias rockin' out to some folk music.

Washington and Other Places

We got back from our super-fun-packed trip to Washington a couple of days ago, and I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from there and elsewhere.

It was great to see Bill, Amy, and Guillermo. (Guillermo is fantastic. He's everywhere you wanna be!) It was also great to see Steve, Cayla, and all the Samms family at the wedding. I'd say more but it's taken more than two hours to get all those photos up and tagged, and now I just want to shower and go to bed.

Note to wanderers: Spokane is the little-known Paris of eastern Washington state. You must visit!

Updates

On Thursday, Elias and Graham went for their 3-year and 1-year old check-ups, respectively.

Elias now weighs 28 pounds, 14 ounces (19th percentile) and is 36 inches tall (15th percentile). Because he's now three, instead of giving head circumference as the third percentile, they give BMI. They didn't give the actual BMI, they just said his was in the 30th percentile. People always say that before a growth spurt, kids tend to chunk up, and I think that is what Elias is doing now. He's only grown about 2 inches since his 2-year check-up, and looks much chubbier than ever before (though to call either of the kids "chubby" is a very long stretch).

Graham is now 18 pounds, 13 ounces (4th percentile) and 29 inches tall (23rd percentile). His head circumference is 46 cm, which is in the 48th percentile.

In non-medical news, Elias has begun potty training in earnest over the past couple of weeks. We've been letting him run around the house pants-less and encouraging him to use his potty seat in the bathroom whenever he feels the need. Upon a successful deposit, he receives a jelly bean and, if solid waste is involved, a Curious George sticker to put in his special Poop Sticker Book. He's pretty good at pooping in the potty and rarely has an accident, but pee seems to be a bit trickier for him. This afternoon he came running out of his room asking me, "Where are the cloth diapers?" I handed him one from the laundry basket and asked him why he needed it. He showed me the spot in Graham's room where he'd had the accident and moved to sop it up with the diaper. When I asked him why he hadn't used the toilet, he pointed to a stuffed stegosaurus lying on the floor, backed away from it a pace, and said in a low voice, "The dinosaur was going to bite me if I went to the potty". I was about to inform him that stegosauruses are plant eaters, but decided I'd better not antagonize him.

Graham is truly a delight and it's so much fun to see him growing and changing every day, becoming more of a little boy and less of a baby. He likes to push toy cars around on the floor, making a "Vrmmm" sound while he does it. He's learning to clean up after himself, and will take his foam letter bathtub toys and one by one put them away in the frog basket that holds all the bath toys. His fifth tooth finally popped through last week, and he's been putting it to good use eating the same foods the rest of the family has for our daily meals.

The big news, though, I've saved for last. Over the past week, we've noticed that Graham has been standing without support more and more. He would pull himself up on a table or toy and then let go. At first he would sway precariously while he did it, but he's become increasingly steady with practice. The past two days I've noticed him getting into a standing position without pulling up on an object. Today he stood up next to me, I scooted back about a foot and held my arms out to him, and he took two steps towards me before grabbing my hands! Many babies first steps are more like delayed directional collapsing, but his steps were steady and deliberate. He repeated the feat in front of John a bit later, this time showing off by dramatically pausing after the first step before taking another.

Happy Birthday Graham!

He is one year old today! We went to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and had ice cream cake (made by Grandma Jane) and opened presents. It's been a busy day and I haven't uploaded any pictures yet. Maybe I can get some up tomorrow.

But here are a couple:

The cake.

The boy.

Update: I should add that Elias help decorate the cake by placing the letters, which is the reason for the interesting orientation of some of them. Also, the final "I" is not an "I", it is a "1", for one year old.

Happy Birthday, Elias!

Elias celebrated his third birthday today. He had a cool train cake made by Wendy and lots of excellent presents from his family.

Click through for more birthday photos, or check out the photostream for many more pictures from Longwood Gardens, Brandywine Park, and even our backyard, where you will see a baby snapping turtle.

Like Momma Like Baby?

My brother e-mailed me a copy of my hospital picture (taken 38 years ago today, give or take a day or two), and I thought it would be interesting to see how similar or different Elias, Graham, and I looked.

Click on the picture to see who's who.