Graham is getting big!

Yes, he's just now past 11 months. He's a machine when crawling across the floor, and has been for weeks now. He can walk with the aid of parental fingers. He can cruise from chair to couch and back again with the best of them.

What, you want more? Well, he can already kinda say a few words: Daddy (daddada...), kitty (keih!), and Finn (Fh!). He usually won't do them on command. I would say that "Fh" is the clearest, because that is a pretty unusual noise for a baby to make. Usually he just babbles in stuff with "a" as the vowel. I think that daddy is now less clear than it was last week.

As he's eating more and more solids, he's liking finger foods more and more. O's, goldfish, raspberries, graham crackers, saltines, teething biscuits... He's becoming more annoyed with being spoon-fed baby food, since then he's not in control. Sometimes at dinner he'll flatly refuse the spoon! But I'm not giving up because we've got about 15 more jars to get through. And what is better for eating than *finally* getting those two top teeth that you've always wanted? He just had those bottom two for many months, which just wasn't cutting it for the big-time eating.

After some initial troubles in sleeping through the night at our new house, we eventually realized he was probably getting a little cold at 3 a.m., after he kicked off his blanket and before the heat came on. (Yes, in summer here you need the pilot light lit.) Now with a bigger blanket that we put on him right before we go to bed, we are all sleeping better. Since he's been sleeping through the night pretty well since he was 8-9 months, he's 5 months ahead of Finn!

The Last Days in Los Gatos

Blogging, right, we have this blog that we've been great at keeping up and posting to, for nearly 3 years! It is a record of our life and, most importantly, our sons' early years. Well, when you move into a new house, ya really got a lot of STUFF to do, and that takes up a lot of time, let me tell ya. Even when the pace of unpacking is painfully slow, life fills up with non-blogging activities.

On the plus side, thanks to our Droid Incredibles, I've been snapping a lot more pictures of the boys. It's just very convenient, and the quality is pretty good. I decided that I'd blog about our last couple of weeks in Los Gatos. I miss being so close to downtown Los Gatos, and being so walkably close to great stuff. But really, our new place is better.

But onto the pictures! Here is cute little Graham visiting Blossom Hill Park in Los Gatos. Since he can crawl, he had a great time in the tube. This was our 2nd-to-last Daddy Friday, as well. I can't work 4 days a week forever, sadly.

The four of us visited the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, which is now 30 minutes farther away from our house. We hadn't been in awhile, but I wanted to make sure that we did, because there is a room there especially for crawling babies. Graham liked the little mirror box room. Finn liked...many things.

The night after the movers (yes the money spent was SO worth it) packed up all our things, we were left with no wine opener, only my little tool box. Thankfully Katie and I devised a way in. (Not pictured: pliers) Where there's a will, there's a way.

Finn's last bike-ride on our driveway! Thankfully he didn't hit upon the idea of trying to go up and down the movers' ramp.

We moved!

I was going to write something sappy about it, but there's no time. My house is full of boxy chaos, like this, but... more so. At least we finally have internet.

On the bright side, we have this yard ("MY yard," says Finn), and now there's a play structure in it (Thanks, Kim (and John and Sammy)!!).

In the category of bittersweet, today is the boys' last day at the daycare/preschool where Finn's been going for two and a half years. Keep your fingers crossed I don't bawl my eyes out when I pick them up today. Here they are there this morning.

Graham is gargantuan. And growing.

Graham is ten months old now. He wears 18 month clothes, and is as big as a number of two-year-olds we've met. He crawls with is belly raised off of the floor (sometimes). He cruises (a bit). He steals Goldfish crackers from his brother. He just cut his third tooth on Monday. Yesterday I stuck my hand out and asked him to give me five, and he refused, shaking his head and grinning. What a joker! Not that you'd know it from this recent photo session (courtesy of my mom. Thanks, Mom!).


If you like that, there's more. Note that that link is not the "cute ones" that we got prints of. It's the blooper reel.

And here's "that huge baby" (per Finn) in the infant room at the Children's Discovery Museum yesterday. He had a blast.

Graham at the CDM from Katie on Vimeo.

Tomorrow is MOVING DAY. Stay tuned.

Swimming!

The weather has been hot this summer, so we've broken out the little plastic pool...only once so far. Hmm. Well, more to come. Both boys have a great time. This picture shows what a, um, large boy Graham is, but there is really is some kind of trick of the eye going on, because he's MUCH smaller than Finn. (But Graham is certainly bulky. We went to Hakone Gardens today and he was bigger than a little girl who was almost two.)

Also, today, I took Finn to his first round of swimming lessons through Los Gatos Recreation. It is the entry level class, Cuttlefish. Out of the 7 kids, he was the oldest there, but certainly took direction the best. We worked on kicking and using ones arms. He was really interested in the lifeguards, mostly. And the lane lines. And running on the side of the pool. We'll have to get Graham in someday soon too. Right now Graham is becoming an expert scuba diver from the friendly confines of the bathtub, which you can see here:

Untitled from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

And, just for fun, 3 more from our GREAT trip to the midwest. It was probably our best family trip ever. The last pic really shows you that Finn is the bigger brother.

We are a mobile family.

But not a family from Mobile. In case you were thinking that.
We are back from our trip to Minnesota and Iowa! It was super fun, especially because we didn't over-schedule ourselves the way we usually do and mostly just hung out with family. A few highlights:
Finn and Graham, airport style. How do you not miss your flight when it's half an hour earlier than you thought (because THEY MOVED IT AND DIDN'T CALL) and you're traveling with two small children? Keep the kids on wheels.

Finn's new suitcase-on-wheels arrived just before our trip. It came with its own strap, which he used to play a game he called... well, just listen.

Awesome Trapeze from Katie on Vimeo.

Cousins! The boys got to spend a lot of time with Fortney cousins Finn and Jamie, and Bennett cousins Brandon and Jacob, plus bonus cousins and other kids. (Hi Ashley, Haley, Wes, Daniel, Izzy, Henrik, Abbot, Clara, Joanna, Zoe, and Owen! Is that everybody?)



Jonathan and I went to a Twins game with Jonathan's dad at the new stadium. They lost - wow, did they lose - but it's a great stadium. I got to eat cheese curds twice that day (zoo; ballgame), which is a nice consolation for missing the state fairs again this year.

Did I mention we went to the zoo? And a wedding? And got to see my brother's and sister-in-law's place for the first time? It was a pretty full trip.
We moved up the closing on our house - to tomorrow! We did the final walkthrough today, and already have keys. One more day, and we'll officially be homeowners. We move next weekend, so activity on the blog will probably continue to be ... about this frequent. We are busy, people! Fortunately, kind movers have agreed to pack up all our belongings for us. For a fee, of course, but without them I'm not sure if we'd ever make it to the new house. Packing! Moving! Onward!

Long Form Movies -- no edits! ;)

The minister of chubs is starting to grow up. As you know, he can army crawl. He is starting to get pretty good at pulling himself up and standing, using a parent's legs, or the couch. He hasn't mastered it yet, and he doesn't know how to sit back down once he stands up. But he's really learning fast.

He's really into the solid foods, as you might expect, since he's an eating savant. "Puffs" and Os are a big hit--although having just one in his mouth makes him angry. Three are preferred. He can do a pincer grasp sometimes, and on one occasion he's managed to put an O into his own mouth.

Puff Eating from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

He somehow discovered that he really likes to play ball, both with me and Katie.

Playing Ball w/ Daddy from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Finn is growing up too, and is excited for our move next month to Santa Cruz. He is excited for the big yard and the big garden. I don't think he knows that we'll be really close to the pond that he liked visiting, so that will be a fun surprise. He and Katie made letter cookies this week. He's a big fan of "F."

Letter Cookies from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Graham is nine months old. (And I got a new job and we're moving.)

We had Graham's nine month appointment yesterday. As expected, he's still chub-o-licious.
22 lbs., 11 oz. (81st percentile), 28 1/4 inches tall (50th).
And for those of you who read the blog but aren't on Facebook, I got a new job! In August I will be starting as an Assistant Librarian at UC Santa Cruz, where Jonathan is a professor. Sometime around then we will also be moving, hopefully into the house that we had a bid accepted for on Monday. It's been a pretty exciting week! We'll provide full details on the house once it's closer to actually being ours, but it's 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, about 1300 square feet, huge great backyard, hardwood floors, built around 1950, and we love it. Especially because it's conveniently near a pond, a great elementary school, and the university. So that's awesome.

Cool things about Santa Cruz include being able to have your first kite-flying experience happen to be next to the ocean.


Not cool things about Santa Cruz are that it is farther from Helen and Happy Hollow.

Also farther from our pediatrician, Dr. Lee, who was already a bit of a drive north. Fortunately, he's recommended a couple folks in Santa Cruz. Now I just need a dentist, optometrist, primary care doctor for grownups, and a stylist. Bakeries appear to be covered, so that's good. Here are the boys with Dr. Lee yesterday. He's been absolutely great, and Finn is always excited to go see him. Yesterday he insisted Dr. Lee listen to his chest as well as Graham's, but didn't seem to mind skipping the ear light.

The Theater Experience, + Eating

Finn is a big fan of Toy Story, and Toy Story *2*! (He strongly emphasizes the two.) He has two Toy Story hats (one for home, one for school) and recently got Toy Story Crocs. Oh, and the pajamas. In the runup to TS3, there was clearly much more TS gear at Target, which he asked about. While Daddy was watching basketball briefly on TV, there were two TS3 commercials, which he asked about. I broke down and explain that people were making a NEW TS movie, but it wasn't finished yet. So it seemed like a good time to try the theater. We prepped him by talking about the huge screen, the lots of seats, and the popcorn. We didn't prep him for the loudness, which kept him with his hands over his hears for the many advertisements and 5 ponderous previews. I think he used up a good half-hour of his movie attention span before TS3 even started.

He liked the show, it thankfully wasn't too loud, and it held his attention for probably the first half. After that he did pretty well, but preferred to stand, sit on the floor and peek between the seats at the screen, or move from lap to lap asking questions. Sitting on either side of him kept him from crawling down the isle. So it was pretty successful, and we had a great time! Thanks to Rebecca watching Graham for us!


Speaking of Graham, we've previously told you that he is quite skilled in the consumption arts. He's quickly ascended the food ladder from milk to chunky baby food, to bread rolls, and to cheerios, not necessarily in that order. I'm pretty sure that he can drink out of a straw. Let's just say that he is advanced for his age. Buying Finn a muffin and Graham a roll to suck on is now a standard part of our Sunday morning farmers' market routine. Here is a picture of Graham with his two favorite things.

Lastly but not leastly, we all managed to more or less swing simultaneously in four swings this weekend, and I managed to get some video. Since Graham likes swings so much, Finn is starting to come around.

Family Swing from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Oh, and here is Graham sucking down a root beer at that same park:

Watch out, Finn

Because Graham will soon be getting into all of your stuff. Behold:

Army crawl from Katie on Vimeo.
Look at those teeth! The forward movement starts about a minute in. I thought about editing it down, but then I decided I wanted to post it before he was walking. FYI, Finn started doing this at almost exactly the same age - 8 1/2 months.

What a fun thing to come home to! All 3 guys gave me a very VERY warm welcome, and it was even better to come home than it was to get away. I had a great weekend in Chicago, seeing sights, catching a Cubs game, and just generally enjoying the luxury of uninterrupted sleep and of not planning, worrying about, cleaning, or arranging anything. If you're in the area, I highly recommend tours from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Also, beer and jagerschnitzel from the Berghoff. Here is Finn with his souvenir (which prompted his declaration "I'm gonna scratch some bears!").
And here are the boys being cute on a bench last week, just because.