Graham Rolls!

Graham rolled over today for the first time! On his 13 week birthday. :-) We were hanging out at a friend's house and he just finally got his weight shifted enough to make it all the way over (he's been very close to nailing it for the last week or so). After about the third time, I finally pulled out my phone to take a video--I had to send Seth the video since he's in Chicago this week.

Graham's Progression Photos -- 3 Months

Here is a selection of Graham's 3 Month Progression Photos.

Graham had about had it with posing him for photos. He gets a real big lower lip when he's about to cry.
As my mom would say "Gonna have to take out a new zipcode for that lip!"

At this point we have been doing the neck exercises for about 3 weeks and have noticed improvement. The strangest thing was that the way he laid in the crib (for the majority of the time) should have already prompted him to look more to the left. But it didn't. UNTIL we gave him his Glow Worm for Christmas. The light and sound of it make him look to the left pretty much all the time while in his crib now. This has helped his looking every which direction while up and about. We nearly forget about the neck issue entirely! Unfortunately, he still has a flat spot on the back of his head. We're hoping that goes away (or is minimal enough) by his 4 Month Well Visit next month that we won't need that dreaded helmet. Please keep praying with us.

He continues to be chatty, smiley, and have nearly all his head control. Looking forward to exciting things ahead!

Click here to compare to 2 Months.

Click here to compare to 1 Month.

Click here to compare to 1 Week.

Design Dilema

Hi there! 

Thanks for reading my blog posts. I come to you today with a question. A design dilema, really. 

I LOVE a good stairway photo collage. See these four examples:

This is from Home Alone. I tried to find an image of the stairway from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but couldn't. If you've seen the movie, picture that gorgeous staircase.

This is a bit too busy for my tastes, but is a good example. 

This is my favorite of the four images. Sigh. Wainscoting...

But, as you might (or might not) know, we live in a 1-story ranch house built in 1959. This gorgeous stairway photo collage is not gonna happen. Not in this house, anyways.

So I'm trying to make my own version of this. In our hallway. Our small, many-doored, short-ceilinged (I can touch the ceiling while standing on my tiptoes) hallway. There isn't much room for a bunch of design elements as the space seems too cramped for tons of visual fun. 

This is our hallway:

Under this light is where we'll be hanging the photos. 
Centered for now. Until we have more to add to the mix. ;-)

Here's where you come in... 

Do we 
1) put large, 10x13 matted framed photos of the boys in there. These photos would stay the same--not change with the years, but stay a picture of them as babies (6 months).
OR
2) put 8x10 matted framed photos of the boys in there. These photos would change each time a new photo is taken (3, 6, 9, 12, 18 months, 2, 3, 4 years etc.).

Currently both of Austin's versions (10x13 and 8x10) are on the built-in in the family room. I'd like to move one set out into the hallway now that there will be Graham's pictures to add to the mix, but I just can't decide if the family room should have the baby-staying-the-same pictures or if the hallway should. Help.

Chinese Lanterns

I bought a Groupon for half-priced tickets to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Fair Park. When I bought the tickets, it said they expired January 20th. Soon after buying them, they sent an email saying that they in fact expired January 6th. That was pretty frustrating because I wouldn't have bought them with an expiration date so close to all the holidays. As it was, though, I was adamant that we would use that $19 I spent and tonight was the night.

Holy. Cow. There was some sort of incompetent parking person directly traffic and we sat forever never moving before we even reached the gate to get into the park! (I found this incredibly frustrating.) Once we finally made it to the gate, the parking attendant was moving at a snails pace. And then when we got parked and up to the entrance, there was a faux line created and it took us forever to realize they weren't even trying to go in so we finally jumped out of the line and went in. And then there were the tripods. I've never seen so many people stopping and setting up tripods and their cameras at a family event like this! That and smart phones and pads of all kinds, people stopping and taking pictures, just blocking the sidewalks everywhere. We had the boys in the stroller, so there were several moments where we couldn't do anything because we weren't able to go around. (Seth found this incredibly frustrating.)

Having said all that, it was cool and I AM glad we went (though I'm not sure Seth can say the same). Here are some pictures I was able to get.

I just love walking through lit archways... so soothing or something.

These ones were made with little pieces of colored glass or plastic whereas most everything else was made with thin fabric.

The big pink things opened and closed.

This dinosaur freaked Austin out. Looking at this picture (and knowing that it was both roaring and moving) I don't know why I didn't see that one coming!

Some of their heads moved back and forth and Austin was afraid of these as well. 

Again with the lit archways... ahhhhh.

Lessons we learned:
1) Anyone under 4 or 5 needs to be in a stoller or a carrier. Too many people--too much chaos, really--for it to be safe for them to be loose. We were VERY thankful we had strapped Austin in.
2) Get there right away, aim to arrive early, before it opens, and you will have a much more enjoyable time. The line to get in the entrance was about a 1/4 mile long when we left. People just standing there, waiting to see something!
3) Don't pay full price. I enjoyed it more than Seth did, but even still, it's quite small and the walk around the whole thing wouldn't have been worth the hassle if we'd paid full price.
4) Expect people, strollers, tripods, cameras, never ending stopping and going and stopping again. It. was. nuts. Pack your patience.
5) Not all little boys are super into dinosaurs. There were some moving ones that even made noises and I suggested that Seth wheel over to them so Austin could see them (expecting some sort of excited response out of Austin) and when I leaned down to him and said "Isn't that cool?" He starts sharking his head and shrieking "No! No! No!" on the verge of tears and I shout at Seth to get him moving before he has a full break down (it was outside and noisy, I wasn't "yelling" at Seth). (He also did not appreciate the moving Longhorns we saw later. We put the hood down and I walked between him and them to block the view.)

World's Greatest Hobby Show

One of our goals for 2013 is to do a Family Outing once per month. For our purposes, we're defining "Family Outing" as somewhere we go, all four of us, that's primarily designed for the boys (mostly just Austin at this point) to have fun. This is to be a non-holiday event, but could range from something like the Irish Festival to the Dallas Arboretum.

Austin's been on a huge Thomas the Train kick lately (I'm honestly not sure where he got that from.) and so when we saw the World's Greatest Hobby Show (with a Thomas YOU CAN RIDE!) advertised on tv, we immediately started making plans to attend. It was over in Ft. Worth, so we knew we'd have to set aside a good chunk of time, but luckily (even though we'd heard about it only this week), we were able to work it out. We were only able to stay for about an hour and that was about plenty for us, Austin running all over the place and Seth chasing him while I pushed Graham in the stroller and attempted to get pictures. We got there right when it opened and I was very thankful because it was PACKED when we were leaving.

Kids were free, but parents were not.

This train was self-propelled and any time it hit something, it changed directions. Austin was a bit perplexed/freaked out by it. We couldn't stop laughing. Aren't we nice parents?!?

There was a whole section of trains and tracks to play with. It's really only about the Thomases, though. (And yes, he wore his Thomas shirt. Cheesy, right? ;-)

I love that pointer finger.

Some of the train sets up had HUGE trains put together. Like an engine and 80+ cars!

He's fuzzy because he's bopping up and down going "Choo Choo! Choo Choo!" This was his third time riding and he got to be at the very front!

He had a SUPER time.

He even let out smoke!

It was a little like the scene in Elf... He put his one foot up ahead of him.

Here's a video of him riding Thomas.

Austin "sings"!

Here's a cute video of Austin "singing." Enjoy.

The Spofford Christmas Season 2012

We get to do a lot of Christmas celebrating around here! In addition to our Christmas Countdown Calendar, and Cookie Delivering that we do, we have several events that we do with family. This is an attempt to consolidate all the festivities down to one post.

General Christmas photos
I didn't put up a single Christmas decoration except the tree and the stockings. I felt a little Grinch-like not putting more effort forth, but I simply didn't have the energy to spend on something that would ultimately require more work/effort down the road. Just. Couldn't. Do. It.

I felt so anti-decorate that the only decorations that went up on the tree were ones we received this holiday season. I was just too tired.

I think it still looked really pretty, though!

Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve, we go to IBC's candlelight service with Kim and David. Afterward, we come to our house to eat dinner (this year they ate spiral-cut ham and I had steak as I don't like ham). We really enjoy getting to spend this time with them as the time is a little more special when there aren't 20 other people around (or, ok, even just 5 other people). Once we're done eating dinner, they leave to go home and receive Spencer, Cheryl and DTI meanwhile we change into our jammies and get ready to eat yummies, drink hot cocoa and open our presents.

All the kids went down front to hear Pastor Andy read the story he chose for this year.

We have decided to go with the 3 Gift Rule. Jesus got three gifts, so our kids will get three gifts. Plus a stocking. Their gifts are sorta in categories, but not explicitly: something to read/watch, a toy, and something I think they'll enjoy and could use. Their stocking gifts are not wrapped and are things that will be "used up" or things they need (same goes for Seth and I's stockings). Some of their stocking gifts were vitamins, socks, toothbrushes, dental floss (Austin seriously loves clean teeth ;-) Seth got Burt's Bees shaving stuff and some Reeses candy. Seth gave me some tinted Burt's Bees and a rain gauge!

(This cheese! face is starting to get annoying.)
This is Austin playing with the Little People nativity set. We talked about why we celebrate Christmas, that the Wise Men were making a journey and delivered gifts and we were about to open gifts in memory of that event. I'm sure he didn't understand a word we said, but it was nice to remind ourselves.

I want to try to get a picture of them by the tree each each in their jammies just before present-opening. Graham was still so young that it was a hard one to pull off.

Austin by himself was much better. Albeit it has his Cheese! face going strong.

This is his face upon seeing his new Thomas spinbrush toothbrush. He was in love!

Some floss of his own!

He wouldn't keep opening presents until we took Thomas out of the package for him to start using.

We had a bit of a breakdown right after this photo, so you'll see that the next pictures are in a different location.

Austin is by-far the best gift receiver I've ever seen. He has zero clue what he's opening, but yet it's still "Ooh! Ahh! Wow!"

He did know what this was... Well, that it was Elmo-something, at least.

I like to get a picture of them with all their gifts from us.

And then they can continue opening any presents that they got from other people (This is from my Grandma LaPean.)

This is from Auntie AM and Uncle Mike, but was mis-labeled by Amazon and should have been for Graham.

Graham's first Christmas!
(Sheala shared a fun Christmas decoration idea of framing a photo of each kid from their first Christmas and putting it out each year. Hope to buy some frames next season and get us started with that.)

The boys got similar books in that they were nice-quality, gilded-edged books. Graham's was Nursery Rhymes and Austin's was Bedtime Stories.)

See how excited he is about his Glow Worm!?

Each boy also got a book about Christmas, Graham's was about the historal, true St. Nick and Austin's was about the history of the Christmas tree. (All of our holiday/seasonal books are in a box in the closet and I hope to bring them out each time the appropriate holiday rolls around. That way they'll be more special than their "normal" books.)

From my Grandma LaPean.

From Auntie AM and Uncle Mike (should have been for Austin, but that matters very little since they'll be sharing everything anyways.)

Austin is obsessed with this helmet he got for his birthday last October and WOULD NOT take it off.

We spend time reading a Christmas-themed book just before bed. (We got the story behind the Candy Cane from a family member, which just adds to all our Christmas-themed books, so in coming years, we'll have plenty to choose from! :-)

Georgia only got one gift this year and zero stocking stuffers.

And after this picture was taken, she promptly decided to have nothing to do with them.

Christmas Day, part 1
Christmas morning, we get up, change into casual clothes and head to Kim and David's for a morning full of the immediate family, fun, presents!

Graham was dressed in his casual clothes and Austin still in his jammies. The stripped pants together was just too much to resist!

There's a lot of love in this room!

We go in age order, so Graham got to go first. Austin was very helpful!

He loves tearing every scrap of paper off!

Kim and David were dog sitting, so that made 3 dogs, 5 kids, 6 adults, and 1 cat. The floor was too crazy a place for Graham, so he sat on the couch next to me. (Thanks AM for the socks!)

This was a DTI gift and Austin's hand was small enough to fit inside and steal candy. Which he tried to do often!

I'm the youngest adult, so once the kids are done, I get to go! :-)

It's a little flapper-esque, right?

He was such a sweet, good boy the whole time. He loved looking at the huge bow on my head.

Pop-On Pals!

It was for Graham, but Austin was thrilled!

He actually did this a lot, though I'm not sure why.

Aggie Pillow Pet

I loved how sweetly David was holding onto Graham here.

I think this hat is Irelands, but Austin never misses a chance to put a hat on!

Seth gave all the dogs Christmas bows. SO cute.

Christmas Day, part 2
We're done with opening gifts with the immediate family before lunch time and we rush around clearing up the mess from the morning and put the babies down for naps. Everyone else arrives and we eat Christmas lunch. We are ready to start opening gifts about the time that naps are over, so we changed their clothes (pretty much solely so that the photos would be differentiable) and began again. I wasn't feeling well that day and it got worse and worse as the day went on (I had zero voice by lunch time) and so we left much more quickly than we would have otherwise. It also happened to snow and get really cold that afternoon, so going home before dark was the safest option anyways. We came home and I went straight to bed. Seth managed everything that night which made me both very grateful and sad that I was so ill on Christmas. I'm VERY glad he got some pictures of the snow and ice, though!

Austin LOVES marshmallows. He probably came close to eating half a bag of mini ones that day because different people kept acquiescing to his requests!

Here he's trying to offer them to others... How sweet!

I'm not sure why, but he really wanted to wear Seth's sweater and then was about to kill himself because it hampered his walking so much.

Packed to the gills coming home. And we left half of it there!

Just seeing this photo makes me want to drink hot cocoa!

Icicles with our icicle lights!

New Years Day; Houston Family Exchange
On New Years Day, we get together with Kim's side of the family to do an ornament/$25 gift card exchange (while playing White Elephant) and all the kids get gifts. It's really special because we rarely get to see that side of the family, and I love playing the game. I was once again not feeling very well so there aren't many pictures from that day. I wish I had thought to get more.

The toy featured in the Austin "sings" post.

LaPean gifts
My mom and dad sent their gifts for the boys after Christmas, so we made a little activity of opening them and taking pictures. And since I had learned how awesome a gift receiver Austin is (and hadn't gotten any video from the actual Christmas activities), I decided to try during this event. I think I took video of every single gift, just to try to capture the best reaction. Love my sweet boy! Cheese face included, I suppose.

Cheese!

I love them together and I loved all the shiny wrapping my parents used.

He immediately sought out balls to roll down the inside of the slinky.

The aftermath.

One of his favorite gifts they sent.

A video of Austin's gift reaction:

Please note how he has to get every. single. piece. of. paper. off. ! And he exclaims "wow!" before he has any clue what's inside. So cute! (Note to people giving toddlers and babies gifts: please don't use so much tape. I can't take cute photos if I'm busy helping them open them cause they're sealed so well!)