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.