Happy Birthday Graeme!

We had a fantastic time at Graeme's 1st birthday party!  It was so fun to see our little guy having fun with his cousins and friends.  He LOVES being around other kids and wants so much to play with them.  Since Graeme loves wheels and things that spin, I put together a bunch of pinwheels for decorations along with a couple toy cars. It was such a windy day, the kids were able to have some fun with the pinwheels outside where they spun like crazy!

As we're a family who very much appreciate good food we had a delicious lunch of paninis made with Nick's homemade foccacia.  I made a little yellow cake with white chocolate frosting for Graeme and for the adults, I made chocolate cake and Nick's mom made her famous red velvet cake.  Graeme had  a great time shoving cake into his little mouth once he figured out that's what he was allowed to do!  It was so funny watching him just dig his little fingers in, squishing icing, and eating his cake.

Many hands made short work of that cake!

Graeme got a lot of great presents which I'm sure he'll love!  He's already enjoyed the change from some of his toys that are becoming passe.  He had such a busy day that when we got home he napped for a good 3 hours.  I think he's still adjusting from his fun filled weekend. 

We are so lucky to have the majority of our family near us!  Graeme's party went off without a hitch with a lot of help from them. 

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes for our Mr. Graeme!

Almost 1 year old!

Graeme is almost 1 year old!  I can hardly believe it has been one whole year since we had our teeny man.  We couldn't be happier with our little boy.  He is the best thing to have ever happened to us.  I've been planning and preparing for a little shin dig for him and excited to celebrate with our family.  We are so lucky to live nearby everyone.  The only ones we're missing are Uncle Pat and Auntie Jen.

At almost 1 year old Graeme has 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom.  I'm pretty sure more are on their way as he's been drooling and chewing on everything.  We woke up one day to several tiny teeth marks on his crib rails.  We quickly got some rail covers though the damage has been done.

Graeme's first word word was Mama!  His second word was Dad, da-da.  I know he's known what these words mean for a long time but he's finally figured out how to say them himself!  He knows that lions roar and has been practicing with Dad.  He also knows that ducks quack and loves playing with his ducky in the tub.

He loves wheels and will sit and spin the wheels on cars and trucks for the longest time.  Anything that can spin, he'll spin it.  Anything that can roll, he'll roll it.  He's got a great throwing arm and we have a great time tossing a ball back and forth.

He loves his cousins!  Every time we're around them, he watches in fascination.  I know he's so anxious to be up and playing right alongside them.  At his cousin William's blessing in Logan, he couldn't stop smiling and laughing trying to keep up with Alia, Mel, & Harrison.

Graeme is such a nice little guy.  He's always so cheerful and ready to smile.  Graeme's first fortune cookie said "Your winsome smile will be your sure protection."  We heartily agree, that smile will very likely get him out of a lot of trouble in the future and it is the best thing we've ever seen.

Love our teeny man!

Mr. Graeme's Misadventure

So Mr. Graeme has had a bad cold resulting in some horrible coughing and wheezing and last weekend we had to take our first trip to the hospital.  Poor babykins was working so hard to breath and luckily we had a nebulizer at home to give him some treatments before I felt like it was just too bad to stick it out.
 I'm glad I've had a lot of experience with asthma and know what to do if I see the symptoms.  The only glitch is, I know what to do with people who can communicate back.   So after the 4th treatment of the day with no results, we bundled him up to drive him to Primary Children's.  Wouldn't you know it, he fell asleep on the way over and by the time we got him back to be seen he was doing just fine.  This made me feel like an overprotective mother, but oh well!  I'm just glad he finally seemed to be getting better.

The next day . . . I can down with the same cold and am now dealing with the asthmatic effects.  I've been sick so much more this winter than I've ever been before.  I guess Graeme and I are passing everything between each other.  I personally think this is universally unfair!  Mother's should not be allowed to get sick!

Graeme was fascinated with his pulse-oximeter

We came prepared with his toy car and some books.

Graeme was so happy Grandpa and Grandma Watanabe came to see him!  He was all smiles and laughs.

Sorry! It's been a while

So a lot has happened since my last post.  Mr. Graeme is growing up so fast! The new year started off with a couple exciting moments for Graeme.  On January 2nd, we gave him his first hair trim as it was getting a bit long over his ears and later that day, he crawled for the very first time!

These days, he's a crawling king.  We decided to get a little gate so we don't have him underfoot in the kitchen.  I think he really likes that the floor in the kitchen is cool, slippery (compared to the carpet) and when he drops things on it, he can make a lot of noise.

We can't seem to feed him enough and all signs point to a growth spurt.  Our big boy is getting even bigger! He's begun pulling himself up in his crib and elsewhere so it was time to lower the mattress.  It sounds cliche but time goes by so fast.  In about 1 month he'll be 1!

He has specific books he likes right now and books he just can't abide.  Every day, he reaches for  his books and we read:

• The Little Blue Truck
• Marvin the Ape
• Doggies by Sandra Boynton
• Night Night Little Pookie
• Each Peach Pear Plum 

Doggies and the Little Blue Truck are his top favorites.

Graeme greeting me on my birthday!

Oh delicious sweet potatoes and apples

Cheese!

It's getting harder to get picture of G without that little hand grabbing at me

Could he possibly be cuter?  I don't think so.

"Big Grandma" is giving G a ride!

 Now for some non Graeme updates.  Nick and I went to a fantastic dinner on Valentines day.  It was 16 courses of gastronomic adventure at the Mist Project!  The idea behind it is that they will create a menu and open a restaurant for a short time in different cities.  The menu includes many types of food preparation but showcases a genre called molecular gastronomy.

Molecular gastronomy takes food preparation down to a scientific level focusing on what happens in food preparation physically and chemically.  The chef, Gavin Baker, said, "We use non-traditional ingredients in the kitchen: carrageenan to emulsify and gel things, and calcium hydroxide to fossilize.”  A few of my favorite courses were small bites of crispy pork belly, cooked to perfection, miniature popcorn with powdered bacon, and a cold barley "gelato". 

There was a dish of short ribs cooked Sous Vide for 100 hours topped with potato mouse and a chorizo gremolata which was the ultimate comfort food. 

 

Another favorite was a scallop topped with mushroom foam, minced thyme, shallots, and pancetta. 

 

The largest dish called "Campfire" served up new york strip steaks, celery root, baked beans, and edible charcoal.  With this dish, they drew some rendered fat across the 500 degree granite stone then some pine needles across that just to impart the aroma and then the steaks went on top of that.  It smelled and tasted divine!

 

It's hard to find the right words to describe what a fantastic dinner this was!  It is by far the most exciting dining experience I've ever had.  I wish everyone I know who appreciates food like I do could experience this.

Well, that's it for tonight.  We've been sick round these parts and I need sleep.  I promise to try to post more regularly.

Busy Busy

So we're all pretty busy including Mr. Graeme.  Graeme is now doing the classic rocking back and forth on his hands and knees and I keep thinking he'll start crawling any day now.  He's also sprouted little tooth buds!  One little tooth on the bottom and one little tooth on the top are definitely through.  Now the other bottom and top teeth need to work their way up.  It's so darn cute looking at those little teeth in his face lighting smile.  I love it!  He's been such a jabberer - I'm sure he's saying all kinds of good things if only I could understand.

In other great news - Nick has graduated! He now has his degree in Construction Management.  I'm very proud of him for sticking through it and working so hard and very glad that he is now done!  We'll get to have him around home more often which will be so nice.  Way to go Nick!

I'm really looking forward to Graeme's first Christmas.  We didn't go nutso with presents for G since he's not going to know what's going on but have gotten him a few fun things.  I think he'll very likely just enjoy crinkling the paper and trying to eat it.  Christmas as a new little family will be fun.  I've had three stocking hangers for several years now, and now . . . they've all got stockings on them.  Christmas is so much more fun when little ones are involved and now I've got my own little one! 

Needless to say, I love having my teeny man.