First of 1st

Today was Graham's first day of 1st Grade!  He was absolutely so excited to start back at school.  He has been counting down the days for the last few weeks.  Graham has such an amazing confidence, I am so proud of him.  Marty and I decided to just have Marty take Graham to school, because we knew that Graham would want to just be dropped off at school and not walked into his classroom (just like last year).  I have to say I was fine with it until after they left and then I was a little sad to not be there.  But it was truly just because of me not wanting to miss anything - Graham was absolutely fine and just so excited to be back at school! 

Here he is already to go with his folder, no backpacks this year - which I don't really like.

Abbie telling Graham she is going to miss him while he is at school:)

Molly, Abbie and Graham.  As you can tell from the girls still being in their PJ's I wasn't planning on taking a picture of all of the kids but the girls actually asked to take a picture with Graham, which I thought was so sweet.

Marty told me that when Graham was walking into class (from car line) the coach saw him and said "Graham, you look different!"  Graham looked at the coach and said "Yeah, because I'm a First Grader now!"  Ya, of course that's why! - or it could be Graham's long hair, maybe.

 

Then after school when Graham was telling me about his day, he told me "mom, I saw how small the kids where in Ms. Sumrall's class (his kindergarten teacher) and I have grown a lot."  I guess now Graham's a big 1st grader!

After school we celebrated the first day by letting Graham choose where he wanted to get a snack from - he chose ice cream, of course.  So the girls made messes with there cotton candy ice cream (way to sweet in my book) and Graham loved his cake batter ice cream (actually really good).  

Graham wasn't up for many pictures, but I got a little smile from him.

Molly and Abbie with mouth wide open for ice cream. I think this is such a funny pic.

I wanted proof that I was there.  I am rarely in pictures, so I decided to take it myself with my phone.  Didn't even think of having Graham take the pic for me until just now!

Abbie being crazy with her ice cream. You can kind of tell that immediately after this picture big drips of ice cream came out onto her skirt and the floor - maybe not such a good idea to encourage by taking a picture. 

I am so excited for all my sweet boy will be learning this year.  I know it will be much more work then last year was but the fact that he really does enjoy learning makes it so much fun!

Second Tooth

Graham lost his second tooth on the 16th (yes almost two weeks ago).  I was so surprised that he lost another one so soon.  And he has another one (on top) that is really loose also!  His second tooth was just as loose and almost falling out like the first one.

Just barely hanging on.  Don't you love the mouth?

This was how he sat watching a show in case his tooth fell out. 

He was so funny again because the tooth was just barely hanging on when it was time to go to bed.  I called Marty and asked what he thought, should I just leave it or pull it because I could feel that it was definitely still attached by one little piece.  I was really afraid it would come out while he was sleeping and swallow it.  Marty offered to pull it out when he got home, while Graham was sleeping!  So I said I'll just tell him why I have to pull it and he will agree.  He especially agreed when I explained if I pulled it now he would get his money from the tooth fairy tonight instead of tomorrow night:)  Pretty smart 6 year old boy!

He did great and I really didn't have to pull to hard.  I was a little nervous though. But now after this being the second tooth I feel like I get it and I won't be so cautious to pull the next one:)

Missing both bottom front teeth.

The second tooth on his box for the "tooth fairy." 

Last Day of Kindergarten

Friday was Graham's last day of Kindergarten.  He wasn't excited about school ending since he won't get to see his friends every day but he was excited for their kindergarten program.

Graham has absolutely loved this school year.  His teacher, Ms. Sumrall, has been wonderful.  The other week she sent home a note because Graham had gotten a yellow warning star (instead of a green which means you had a great day) and even though it was about him getting in trouble she was incredibly sweet and supportive.  Her words were something like "Graham, what is going on?  I guess everyone has a few bad days every once in a while.  Graham is such a joy to have in my class."  I don't usually cry but it brought tears to my eyes because it was just so sweet and sincere.  She has definitely made a positive and great impact on Graham.

At school the Kindergarten classes put on a show for us for their last day.  Graham did a great job and actually sang all of the songs AND did all the hand motions.  He has been excited about singing and has even practiced some of his songs.  The other day he told me that he was going to go in his room and practice his songs and asked me not to come listen so it would be a surprise. 

Molly loved looking through the hymnals while we were waiting for the program to start:)

Abbie was having a snack while she waited.

Graham is on the top right.

Doing some hand motions during a song. (I'll have to see if Marty can fix the eyes, they just looked even weirder when I tried.)

Then after they sang songs they had a slide show of the school year.  It was fun to see all of his classmates and Graham was excited to point out who everyone was. 

Abbie, Graham and Daddy during the slideshow.

Then after the show Graham wanted to take pictures with his friends.

Graham and his friend Dathan

Graham, Ava and Faith

Graham and the best Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Sumrall

Reese, Faith, Graham and James

Abby H. and Graham

Graham and Sheridan

I love the face his teacher has here.  She was making a wow face to something Graham said:)
What a great school year it was!!

First Tooth

Graham lost his first tooth today!  He has one or two other teeth that are loose also.  This morning he was playing in Abbie and Molly's room.  Then he came into our room saying his tooth was bleeding.  Well after many questions, we found out he had been playing on the top bunk bed and hit his tooth on the railing - the tooth was barely hanging there at all.  Here is what it looked like:

He was so nervous of us pulling his tooth and that it would hurt his stomach started to hurt.  He really thought that he was going to throw up.  I felt bad for him because he never gets that upset.  He does have a difficult time trusting that it will be ok if he hasn't experienced it before though.  Which I know we all understand to some extent:)

His tooth would move really far but you could still feel it was attached, so we decided to wait to pull it out knowing that Graham would play with it.  Only an hour or so went by and Marty wanted to look at it again.  I asked him "are you going to pull it out, if so let me get the camera."  He told me he was just going to look at it and as he was looking I went and got the camera figuring the tooth would need to be pulled out.  Well, it was so loose it just fell out into Marty's hand!!  

Afterwards Graham said "loosing a tooth was fun after I got over being afraid and all." 

Here he is minus one tooth (and minus a shirt)!

This afternoon he had some fun putting his sucker stick were his tooth was gone!

He also was pushing some of his food through the hole at lunch.  I'm glad he is excited to lose his tooth!  I think what he is most excited about is the tooth fairy coming tonight:)

Graham's cards

Graham loves to bring home cards and pictures for his daddy that he made at school. Graham absolutely loves his daddy and loves spending time with him. When we have gotten stickers, like at the doctor or Payless (we did just the other day), he always asks for an extra one for his daddy. He is so great at making notes telling his daddy how much he loves him.

All of this made it even sweeter that the other day he brought this home from school - for me!!


I love the "XO" on the envelope.



A while after I told him how much I loved it, he came back and was asking me about specific things he drew and if I liked them. It was so fun to listen to how much thought he put into it. He also told me that it took him almost his entire center time. He really wanted me to know how much time and thought he put into it!
I love my boy and his special bond with his daddy. I also love that he thinks I am "the best mommy in the world (to me)."

Monster Jam

Graham and Marty went to the Monster Jam two weeks ago, on January 24. This year they went with some friends early to the preshow where you can get your picture taken with the trucks and meet some of the drivers. All the boys loved seeing the trucks up close. I think that Graham's favorite part about going early was that they ate ribs from a street vendor (Marty said they were probably the best ribs he has ever had). He has asked a few times when he can have ribs again!

All the boys before seeing the monster trucks.


Here they are with Graham's favorite truck, Grave Digger.


Graham looks so small on the huge monster truck.



Daddy and Graham, Graham loved spending the day with his daddy.


Graham with his stuffed Grave Digger that our friends bought him. He has been sleeping with it every night since! You can sort of tell in the pic that Graham and Marty were very close, about on the 4th or 5th row. When they first started Graham got really upset because it was so loud. Once they got ear plugs, actually double earplugs, he was great and loved it.


Graham's favorite truck, Grave Digger, after winning. He crashed right before this and Graham got really upset until Marty explained that sometimes they do that for the crowd:)


Monster Jam has definitely become a yearly boys tradition!

Here's a video of the silly boys killing time before the Monster Jam begins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9UBhlRLtXM

Time with just one

Yesterday, Graham and I hung out after school while Abbie and Molly took a nap.  He wanted to bring his new race track outside and build a super cool awesome track (his words).  He started off with his track going down the slide.  He was so excited to try it out.  Well, it worked a little to well and just kept shooting the cars off the track.  So then he decided to take the track and drape it over a tree branch!?  He was so funny, thinking that the car would go all the way up (pretty much 90 degrees) and then just come down the other side.  He wouldn't believe me that it wouldn't work, he had to try it for himself.  Then he moved on to our hill.  It worked really well and he loved it.  It was so fun watching him think through it all and really paying attention to the best way to put the track together.  He is definitely learning from his daddy.

It was so nice to have some time with Graham!

THE track

I love this picture, even though it is blurry.  He is running from me trying to take his picture.

Graham (again being silly with a cup on his head) and I.  I'm not quite as good as Brittani at taking pictures of myself, but I'm getting there.

Graham's 6th Birthday

Friday, the day after Christmas, was Graham's 6th birthday. Marty took him and his kindergarten friend to the Kennedy Space Center. Graham has wanted to go for a while and he loves to get to have "boys only time" so it worked great for his birthday. Marty has some fun pictures from this day that I will share when I get them. But here is a picture of the girls playing with Graham's lightsabers while he was gone to the Space Center.

When the boys got back I had put out all of Graham's presents, some balloons and some Star Wars plates. Graham was surprised and thought it was special, but I forgot to get a picture of it. We had some good Godfather's pizza and chocolate cupcakes and then opened his presents.

Graham with his birthday presents.

Graham with his green flame.

Blowing out his candle. 

So hard to believe that it has been 6 years since you surprised both your daddy and me coming so early.  Graham you have brought so much good into our lives.  I am so proud to be your mother.  You have such a sweet heart and strive to follow the rules.  You are such a quick learner and a great friend.  I love your desire to spend time with us, especially how much you love having one on one time.  You are the best big brother that Abbie and Molly could have. Always looking out for them. I know that you will continue to become a wonderful man of God and continue to teach us also.  I thank God that he gave us you, which is exactly who and what we need in our lives!

Christmas - the part I forgot

On Christmas Eve day, the kids and I went to the Christmas Eve service at Northland.  Marty was able to sit with us also.  That morning Graham had been complaining that his ear hurt which I just thought maybe he had gotten some water in it or something.  He didn't seem to bothered by it at the time, but when we got to church he kept complaining and asking to go to the doctor.  And last time he went to the doctor, just a few weeks ago, he had to get a shot so I figured his ear must have really hurt.  During the service, Marty got Graham some tylenol from my car and took Graham backstage where there was lots of food.  Graham seemed to be feeling better after that and I couldn't decide whether or not to take him to The Little Clinic since our doctor was closed.  I decided not to take him since he seemed to be better.

That afternoon we made our Christmas cookies for Santa but when we were going to decorate them Graham said he just wanted to lay down and rest. He went and laid down in his bed and fell asleep for a little while.  But he woke up right before bed time and was so upset that he didn't get to decorate a cookie for Santa. He was better when I told him that I decorated one to give Santa and that he could decorate more tomorrow.  

When he tried to go back to sleep, he was miserable.  He couldn't go to sleep and when he came downstairs and told me he had liquid coming out of his ear I decided he definitely had to go to the doctor. So as soon as Marty got home from service around 9:30pm, he took Graham to the After Hours Clinic.  The poor boy ended up having a bad ear infection AND strep throat (yes that's what he had right before Thanksgiving also). I was so sad for him and didn't want him to be feeling bad on Christmas.  

By the time they got home, it was around 11:30pm.  Marty went back out around 12:30am or so to get Graham's medicine.  Thank goodness for 24 hour Walgreens. When Graham woke up again at 2am, Marty gave him his first dose of Antibiotics and some pain medicine.  He woke up again around 4am and then slept until about 7:30.  Well, it was amazing how much better he felt Christmas morning.  He had actually cleaned up his room completely before he came into our room:)  I had told him that we needed to clean his room to make room for his new toys, but we never got around to it since he was so sick.  God definitely helped him feel better sooner than he should have.  Marty and I were so thankful that he got to enjoy Christmas completely!!  Really, I mostly forgot about it that's why I didn't put it in my last post.

Change of plans

I was planning on posting pictures of Graham today.  Graham's school had a Thanksgiving program today.  Unfortunately, yesterday Graham woke up saying his throat hurt and then very soon after he threw up.  We went to the doctor and he has strep throat - yuck!  The doctor gave him an antibiotic shot, since he couldn't keep anything down.  He didn't throw up after that and his fever went down.  Unfortunately the doctor told us he was contagious for 36 to 48 hours which meant no Thanksgiving program for Graham.  We were both so disappointed to miss his first kindergarten program.  I know there will be many more to come though!  

Graham's Green Meadows

I mentioned in my last post that Graham went with his Kindergarten class to Green Meadows. His friend Tristan's mom went with them and she took some pictures of Graham with his friends, Sebastian and Tristan. They have become quite good friends. It is so fun to see them together.

Graham was very excited to get to ride the school bus. But he told me he was really bored since it took an hour to get to Green Meadows and as he said "we couldn't play, we could only sit there."

Tristan, Graham and Sebastian riding the train

S, G, T riding the school bus

S, G, T in front of the pigs

Graham telling Tristan's mom that it stinks

Graham and Tristan 

Day Off

Last week, Graham had a day off school.  Abbie had class that day so it was just Graham, Molly and me.  Graham is such a great big brother, he was very happy to have some time with only Molly.  We went to the Science Center for the short time when Abbie was at class.

Graham laying an egg

playing with the water table

Molly got her shirt soaking wet

Graham changing the muffler

this picture looks like a real garage but it's just a picture behind him

Molly watching the baby gators, turtles and fish