Ch-ch-changes

Today begins the first of two weeks of transition for Graeme at school. He will no longer be an infant. In two weeks he will be known as...an older infant. He will be spending parts of each day getting to know the people and the room and the routine. It's definitely harder on us than it is Graeme. We really can't believe that he is old enough to not be considered a little baby anymore! Today he spent the morning with his new teachers, friends and in his new room. His current teacher said he never even looked back when she dropped him off. He had a great time and they think he is going to do really well. There are more things to do and lots of mobile friends he can pal around with. The older infants have more of a set schedule and begin to participate in group time/naps/meals. Today Graeme also slept on a cot for the first time. No more crib in his new room! They said he did great and managed a 40 minute nap only to follow that up with 2 more hours in his crib when he got back to the infant room!

We've been really busy lately but have not documented any of it with words or photos. We finished up our softball season with a poor record. It's been determined that we are too old and out of shape to keep up with the young bucks anymore. As I type this, Matt has been eliminated in the second round of the singles lawn bowling tournament at Brit's Pub. His team overall did well this year, they have the team tournament yet to play.

This past weekend Graeme had a sleep over with Auntie Kendra and Uncle Paul. Matt and I celebrated the wedding of one of Matt's coworkers and decided to make a night of it as it was about an hour from our house. Many thanks to P + K for taking great care of Graeme and keeping him busy! We were able to get a great nights sleep and even snuck in a movie on Sunday morning. Who knew they did that? We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II in 3D at 9:30 on a Sunday morning. Awesome. Graeme got to go to a birthday party and the St. Patrick church festival in New Prague where we picked him (and a couple of beers) up.

We're off to Madison this weekend for a baby shower and a birthday party. We'll make a point to take some photos this time!

It's Not The Quantity, But the Quality of the Posts

It seems we don't post too often these days, but when we do we try to jam a lot of things into a single post.

This weekend we kept "busy" by doing nothing really. The weather in Minnesota was extremely hot so we spent a lot of time keeping cool in the air conditioning and watching the British Open.

Saturday afternoon we braved the heat to take a walk. We tried to get Graeme to wear his new hat to keep the sun out of his eyes and we were surprised to find that he actually didn't mind....for a while.

After the walk we did some snuggling on the couch.

On Sunday we had a visit from one of Amber's co-workers, Meghan, and her daughter, Jessa. Graeme had a bit of a rough time adjusting to not having the attention. He did manage to "read" her a book, but when he was told he had to share his toys, he pulled out one of his new tricks - pitching a fit.

I guess we need a little more work on the whole sharing thing.

Graeme spent a lot of the weekend chasing after one of his favorites - Sims. I know we posted previously that Grame loves his puppy, but here is some proof.

Graeme snuggling with Sims.

More snuggling.

Reading with Sims.

 By Sunday afternoon we think Sims had had enough of the whole "big brother" routine. He tried to find any place he could to hide.

                                                                   Behind the toys.

Behind the end table

                                                             Posing as a stuff animal.

We also learned this weekend exactly how your are supposed to play with a bubble sword...

And, we worked on learning to play catch...Graeme still has no idea what this is about...and we are not sure why we are using an Iowa football...

Puff teeth

New Toys, Tricks and Words

Graeme has been having all kinds of fun lately learning new words and new tricks, and playing with new toys. Here are some of the highlights....

Graeme giving out high fives...but only on his terms...

Graeme playing with his new walker. Though this is only the video of him "walking" (which is more exciting), he also really enjoys pushing this around while scooting on his knees...

Graeme now at least understands that, "no, no" results in shaking your head. Now if only we could get him to learn what "no, no" really means (usually he is in the back hall like in this video, trying to get into Mr. Sims room to play with his bowls)...

We may have posted this one before, and though not in context in the video, he has learned that when you drop something, you say, "uh oh"...

This last weekend, Graeme got a new toy during our trip to Target - a bubble sword. What a great purchase from the $1 section. Graeme enjoyed the bubbles, but also miraculously (insert sarcasm) this seems to be the one toy that he can actually hold on to while he crawls (usually to the kitchen to bang it on the hardwood floors)...

When we were cleaning the kitchen floor, Graeme also found some new places to pull himself up and practice standing...

Were not sure what he sees when he looks out the window, but he is always really excited, bangs on the glass, and gives whatever is out there a piece of his mind.

Hopefully we can catch some more of his new tricks on camera soon!

Yankee Dooodle Dandy

We took Graeme to his first parade on the Fourth of July in Edina. The parade started at 10 and we wanted to have breakfast before hand so set we out early. It turned out to be the right idea as by the time we got to the parade route, we found it and the medians already lined with chairs and blankets. Fortunately, we were able to find some good curb real estate. Unfortunately, the place we had originally planned on for breakfast was closed. So, we settled on Caribou.





We discovered that sun screen moonlights as hair gel in a pinch:


We got back to our viewing spot with a few minutes to spare. Grandma Toni and Grandpa Kim joined us.



Graeme more or less enjoyed the parade. There was noise and movement...what more can a guy ask for?

A Whole New World for Mom and Dad Too?

We spent the first half of the July 4th weekend with Ken and Janice. We tried to go to Burger Jones for dinner on Friday, but the new location in Burnsville gets really packed, so we ended up at our old standby - El Loro - always delicious - and Graeme had a good time too.

Saturday we went up to the Mill City museum farmer's market. Not only have we never been to the famer's market, but we have never been to the museum either (which was shut down due to the State's incompetence....I mean lack of a budget deal....whatever).

After the farmer's market, we decided to walk some of the Stone Arch Bridge, again, a first for us. Here is a view of the museum from the bike paths by the bridge.

We saw a bunch of people on the bridge watching the locks where the barges come down the river. We waited for a while to watch the boats come out of the locks - it was just two fishing boats, not really worth the wait, but the view of the falls from the bridge was pretty cool.

After our time at Mill City, we went over to Block E to have lunch at Kieran's, sit on the patio, and have some brunch to enjoy the weather. Graeme is a big fan of laxin' (relaxing).

We rounded out the "normal weekend" by trying a new restaurant on Prior Lake called Captain Jack's.

The restaurant had great food, was right on the water, and with the beautiful weather.....you guessed it, more laxin'.

Thanks Ken and Janice for a fun weekend (we will have to get you to Captain Jack's next time you are up.

Tomorrow we are taking Graeme to his first 4th of July Parade, pictures to follow. We hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th - don't blow any fingers off with the fireworks.

A Whole New World

A new fantastic point of view

No one to tell us no



Or where to go

Or say we're only dreaming

Being able to crawl has its advantages. I guess it is time for us to baby proof the house........yeah, yeah, yeah, we know we should have done it long ago, but procrastination is an art we mastered long ago.