Code Yellow

Hi all! We'll start out with an short movie of Graham, featuring some incredible cinematography on my part. I'm an ace with that camera. Graham is doing well, but last night was terrible, as he woke up about 7 times, for no reason. Earlier in the week he had two 6-hour stretches, so we'll see. He's getting cuter as he fattens himself up.

Head Bob from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

For Finn, this is a time of big changes. In addition to gaining a brother, and starting to use two- and three-word phrases, he's moved from the toddler room to the youngest preschool room, the "yellow room," at daycare. (He's there MWF, and Graham starts in 3 weeks.) He likes it a lot, and likes being an older kid. He's even been sitting on the potty at school, and occasionally at home, with some promising results. It is mostly on his own initiative.

For Halloween this year Finn will be a Space Man. I got him the costume at Kennedy Space Center in March. We went to his daycare today (Peppertree Schools of Los Gatos) for the costume parade and lunch. He bolted the walking parade after 30 seconds and just went around on a trike, which he propels by walking. The third photo down is his class eating lunch. So cute!



We also carved our pumpkin! He even helped swiffer up the mess. Look at how little he was last year! Tonight we were going through a book about the alphabet, and we were discussing O vs. Q. The Q is like the O, but with a tail, I told him. His reply: "Neighbors." (Did what?) "Took it." (Took what?) "Tail." So now we know why the O is not a Q. Those neighbors! For whatever reason, he talks about NEIGHBORS all the time.

And YES, we will go trick or treating!

Firsts and Photos

I don't have anything really profound to say about how things are going around here. Things are going well. We have a pretty good routine at night since Graham tends to wake up after 3 hours for more eats. Between 9/10 p.m. and 6 a.m. we sleep 7-8 hours, so we're doing pretty well. It'll be nice when he sleeps longer, but this is very doable. Finn woke up early last night yelling "Linon! Linon! Linon!" It appears that he dropped his little plastic lion while sleeping, which woke him up. We've learned to NOT go in there, almost no matter what, because it just make things worse. After 5-10 minutes of yelling for Linon, Mommy, and Daddy, he went back to bed. If you go in there, he can keep you up for an hour for stories and milk.

Finn got a fantastic rain outfit that I'm sure we'll show off at a later date. Here he is showing off his frog boots (with frog eyes) and his space pajamas from Grandma Mary and Grandpa John.

Here is the first bath that I gave Graham. It was maybe his third overall. It was successful, in that he got clean. He eventually settled down when I let him lean over forward, on my arm. Speaking of leaning over on my arm, see the next pic:

Graham is a good eater and is chubbing out nicely.

This is Graham's first bottle! He did OK, but bottle #2 was very successful. I'm VERY glad that both our boys have been so good at bottles. Makes life for Katie easier.

That picture above almost makes it look like I'm losing my hair. Good thing I know better.
It's fun to lay on the mat with your brother.

Its a bummer when your parents leave town

My parents came into town over the weekend for a quick few-day visit to see Mr. Teeny and Dr. Rambunctious. A good time was had by all! But now we're back to real life with only two of us to handle our two children. Watching Mad Men makes me jealous of the hired help. I guess I should be an advertising executive...but then I'd never get to see my boys. I'm still at home every day, but I'm going into work for the first time on Wednesday.
Here is a nice one of Grandma Mary and Graham, who is flashing a little smile of sorts.

Here is the whole family relaxing in our living room. Note Paula at the bottom right.

Graham is doing well these days, looking a bit older. He's working on neck strength as Katie's video shows. The focus is not great, but you get the idea.

Nexersises. from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Finn is still very interested in Graham, and likes to be his buddy. He also likes to try to get up on your lap when you're holding Graham. It gets crowded and a little dangerous for the little guy. Here they are being cozy together.

Oh, What a Night

Graham turned two weeks old yesterday. We celebrated by attending the Ardenwood Harvest Festival with Jessica, Daren, Caitlin, and Liam (which Finn pronounces approximately "kitten" and "lemur"). While there, Graham got to go on his very first second ever train ride (apparently we go on a lot of trains).

And Finn got to climb hay bales and a big dirt pile, pick out a pumpkin, pet goats, and pick up sheep pellets (that last wasn't exactly on the program). More pictures of harvesty goodness are up at Flickr.

Then we came home and relaxed for the afternoon and looked forward to a good night's sleep, because Graham's started only getting us up twice a night. Unfortunately, Finn woke up around 3 with nightmares or something, and didn't go back to sleep until 4:30, and Graham projectile-spewed a whole feeding all over me at about 4:15. So we're hoping for a better night tonight.

In other news, Graham learned how to suck his thumb today, something Finn never got around to.

Just the four of us

My mom went back home yesterday. That was a little scary, and sad. It was way too easy to get used to having her here, and we'll miss her. But we got both boys to bed last night, got some sleep for ourselves, and got them both up - and Finn to day care - this morning. Today I'm going to concentrate on this whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" thing, because Graham is still eating an average of every two hours, which means I am TIRED. I'm recovering, slowly but surely, from the birth, and am glad Jonathan, my mom, Finn's day care, and this semester's relatively homework-free schedule are allowing me to take it easy. Both my brain and my body are operating at about 1/3 speed, if that.

Have you noticed that Graham is tiny? Obviously he's much smaller than his 32-pound brother, but he's also smaller than Finn ever was. You'd think a pound or so wouldn't make much difference, but he can wear things that Finn was too big for his first day home, like this awesome hat.And even though he never sleeps for very long, he's a little more agreeable about his sleeping conditions than Finn was at this age. Swaddling, for example, is optional, and seems to be on its way out.I think with all the "attention" he gets from Finn, he's going to be a pretty resilient kid. Combine that with Finn's extreme rough-and-tumble-ness, and we should be in for quite a time. In the meantime, he's pretty mellow. Here he is in an exciting 20-second hiccup clip.

Graham: Chilling, with Hiccups from Katie on Vimeo.

I updated Flickr last night, so there are more photos over there.

Graham and Finn Movies!

Well, we're all at home, and getting settled in nicely. Katie's mom flew in on Tuesday, and she is staying for a week. Having a third hand is incredibly nice, especially when one is taken up by Dr. Rambunctious and other by his small sidekick, Sleepy G. Newborns sleep "18 hours a day" but I think Graham prefers 20+ hours.

It has been really fun to see how Finn loves his little brother. He's sad to go to daycare, the mornings that he goes, and he says "Graham" on the way back home. The first video is just after Finn first met Graham at the hospital. Previously he knew that Graham was sleeping in Momma's tummy.

First meeting! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Here they are chilling together in living room:

Boys together at home from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

And here is Finn holding Graham for the first time, which is a movie that we took just today. He was ecstatic! He is mostly very gentle with him, when he's thinking about it. If he's not, he's liable to push on Graham or Katie when he wants to get up.

Brothers in Arms from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

We went to Graham's first doctor appointment today. He's put on 4.5 ounces of weight since leaving the hospital, which Dr. Lee found impressive. But not ONE TENTH as impressed as Dr. Lee was about the perfect shape of Graham's head. That is "a thing" amongst pediatricians, apparently....