Spring Sneaks In!

 Jackson has been too busy enjoying our beautiful spring days to get photographed, but this little guys still just sits still and makes a great photography subject :)  The weather finally broke last weekend, and we took advantage of it!  The boys and I went to the grocery store Sunday morning, and from the minute we got back around noon, Jackson was outside playing until 6pm! He took a short break for lunch, but that was it.  The friends rotated a bit, but he was so happy our there with his friends and their outdoor toys :)

 Josh and I worked on organizing the garage, so Graham kept us busy out there.  He Exersauced in the driveway when he was in a good mood :)  We also took some good family walks--Jackson is now brave enough to ride his bike down the big hills down the side streets off of our street!  He is SO proud :)

 I am so in love with this jacket!  This will be painful for me to watch Graham outgrow :(

 Peek a boo!!!

 Monday was also supposed to be super nice!  We made a date to meet Cole, Meredith and Baby Blake at the Lion's Mouth playground.  It was a little cloudy, but still a nice day to be outside.  Graham got to swing for the first time!!!

 He loved sitting in the swing and dangling his feet!

 SOOO happy!!!

Snow Day!

  Typical D.C., we got a "big" snow in March!  LOL  We sat right on the edge of this storm--depending which way the weather tipped, we either would have gotten TONS of snow, or a couple of inches.  We got a couple of inches, but school was closed for two days!  Unfortunately, the first day when it was actually snowing was not so pretty for playing outside :(  But, we did get out for a bit! 

 Jackson was excited to sled!  He was excited to go out and play with Reagan and Avery.  Some of the other girls in the neighborhood joined them to help make a snowman!

Jackson, Avery and Reagan with their snowman!

 Working together!

 Snuggling back inside!  Jackson still loves his Elmo slippers he got for Hanukkah two years ago!  His toes are just about ready to poke through---I suppose a new pair is in order soon...

 And, Graham had slippers of his own--horsey slippers!  He was pretty entertained by them :)

Graham is Nine Months Old!

 Well, it is getting a little trickier to get Graham to sit still WITH his sticker ON to take these monthly pictures!  LOL  Graham turned nine months old on March 4th :)  He had his check-up on the 5th and here are his stats:

Height: 27 1/4 inches (11th %ile)

Weight: 23 1/2 lbs (95th %ile)
Head Circumference: 18 1/4 inches (86th %ile)

The doctor was really happy with how Graham is doing!  She did say that although I don't mind getting up in the night to feed Graham, he really doesn't need that feeding.  So, we are sleep training...AGAIN!  Teething, super stuffy noses, and travel have prevented us from making much progress on that front.  BUT, I'm determined to make progress before we leave for Evanston in a couple of weeks!

 Graham continues to be a rolling over champ, but he still hasn't crawled!  He is SO close!  He does get around by rolling and scootching.  He has his two middle teeth poking through on the bottom!  They weren't too terrible coming in, but we knew they were there...  Graham continues to be a pretty happy, easy going baby!  He doesn't have a super-concrete schedule.  He does go to bed around 6:30pm each night, and he is up for good around 6:30am.  He is usually ready for a nap again at 8:00am, which works well on school days because it gives me some time to get  us all ready to leave the house while he naps!  Several shorter naps seems to be his M.O., at the moment, but his disposition is happy and content :)  He has liked everything we have given him to eat and he is now eating three meals a day in addition to nursing four or five times during the day.  He is wearing size three diapers and is in nine and twelve month clothing!!!

I love watching how pleased with himself Graham gets as he tests out new skills!  He is pretty proud of being able to feed himself small pieces of food using his pincer grasp.  He LOVES listening to his own voice and the sounds it can make now!  The smile that accompanies the sound is absolutely priceless!  He gets such joy out of making other people smile--just like his brother when he was a baby! 

This picture is of Graham's sweet little fingers peeking out of a special blanket my good friend, Kim, made Jackson when he was born!  I LOVE using those special items for Graham too!  Kim is due with her first baby (a GIRL!) any day, and I cannot wait to meet her!  She will have to settle for the storebought gifts I have put together since I am not nearly as talented as her ;)

What a Weekend :/

Here is one of the wonderful points of our weekend in Staunton!  Gramma soaked up as many snuggles as she could get :)  We had a great visit with Uncle Larry, Aunt Murph, and Gramma J, but there were quite a few things that we could have done without :( We started with some wet jammies for Jackson when he was surprised by Aunt Murph and Uncle Larry's dog in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom.  Josh woke up with a HORRIBLE crick in his shoulder/neck, and was in a good amount of discomfort for the next few days.  I got probably the second-worst migraine I have ever had while we were at Gramma J's.  I went straight to bed once we got back to Murph and Larry's, which was so disappointing because Murph and I had plans to go get pedicures :(  I did feel better as the night went on, and we had such a fun evening hanging out!  It was COLD, and Windjammer is always so cozy with the fire going and hanging out in the great room.  Murph made a delicious dinner, and she and Larry were wonderful hosts, as always :)  In the middle of the night, Jackson woke up throwing up, and then it was just back and forth between Jackson and Graham waking up and settling back to sleep only to have the other wake up, and so on...  We hit the road as soon as we could get packed up on Sunday morning, which cut our trip short a bit, but we just wanted to get back home and settled in!  Jackson seemed to be on the mend pretty quickly, but then Graham started throwing up a couple of days later :(  OY!  I had a touch of whatever they had too.  The difference between how yucky I felt Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday was crazy!  I felt SO much better!  Good timing since Thursday was Graham's worst day :(  He finally kept his feedings down overnight on Thursday and is finally back to eating his normal menu!  

We will just have to plan another trip soon so we can really relax and enjoy ourselves without these little complications! 

Action Jackson

******

Mr. Graham gets a little update post each month, but poor Jackson has been pushed back to yearly!  But, I wanted to make a point to write down some things about him these days :)  He is almost 4 1/2!!!  Pre-school is going SO well--he LOVES it!  He always asks if he has school as soon as he gets up.  He loves his teacher and his friends.  He seems to get along with all of the kids in his class, but he has made two friends who are true pals :)  That fact makes my heart SO happy!  I was so nervous he wouldn't have anyone to play with and would be left out.  His favorite thing is playing Monster Trucks with several other little boys in his class.  

I cannot believe that he has started to choose drawing/writing pictures during some of his free time!  This boy is obsessed with letters (he has been for a while) and numbers!  His fine motor skills have progressed by leaps and bounds since school started.  He is forming all of his letters on his own, and he can usually make them small enough to fit into a small space.  He is starting to draw pictures of things he thinks up on his own, and I LOVE watching where his imagination takes him!  On February 7th, Jackson read most of his first book: Hop on Pop!  We are stoked!  Josh and I love to read, and I hope he continues to love it too!

They did a unit on space recently in school, and Jackson remembered SO many facts!  He just poured them out as soon as he got in the car.  He even sat down to draw pictures of the sun, Earth, the other planets, stars, and the moon!  

He is enjoying singing songs, sharing rhymes, and taking on more responsibility (clearing his place at the table and setting the table).  Of course, Jackson still LOVES being a big brother!  He likes to help feed Graham and to play with him.  His favorite color(s) changes daily!  LOL  He does remember that my favorite color is blue and Josh's is orange :)  It is really neat watching his little personality take shape, but also watching as he becomes more aware of likes and dislikes of his friends and family. 

We are SOOO proud of our sweet boy!  He has grown so much this year!  We are planning to enjoy the last few months of school and then have fun with some adventures this summer before launching into FIVE mornings of school next year! 

***The story of the video is that one morning we were talking about numbers on the way to school, and Jackson was getting tripped up as he counted between sets of tens.  He couldn't quite remember what set came next.  So, I just counted by tens to explain that those are the special names you need to remember and then you add one, two, three, etc. to the end of each one.  He repeated the whole thing back to me!  I asked him if they had been practicing at school, or how he learned that.  He said, "You just told me, Mommy!"  What a fabulous memory!  Scary, but fabulous!  LOL  The treasures in the video are our incentive program right now.  He earns a treasure when we catch him making a good choice, being on his best behavior, or going above and beyond our usual expectations.  Once he gets 100, he gets this cool train set I have had sitting in our guest room for a while.  I bought it on clearance at Target, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  He found it, and was excited, so I thought if he can earn 100 treasures, he can have the train set.  Plus, some new habits will hopefully be set in place :)

Welcome Baby Mary!

 We got to meet Miss Mary Eloise Bascom when she was just NINE days old!!!

Unfortunately, she was born during the yucky cold and flu season, so visitors were restricted at the hospital :(  But, that just meant we all got to go for one of our favorite Bascom/Smith Family Playdates!!!

 The boys and I drove out and hung out for a bit before David went to pick up Josh who took the bus out from the city.  The guys picked up pizza to go with the salad and fruit I brought for dinner.  Dinner was YUMMY!  Sarah and I escaped after dinner to run a couple of "errands" to Carters and Osh Kosh while the guys held down the fort. 

I made this DELICIOUS Salted Caramel Cheesecake for dessert, but I scarfed down my piece, so I could get in a few snuggles with this sweet little girl!  I can't wait to get back there to her :)

Three babies down, at least four to go! 

Go Mason!

 Josh scored some free tickets to the George Mason game this weekend!  We had SUCH a good time!  The energy in the stadium is wonderful!  The students all looked like they were having SOOO much fun!  They were really fun to watch, as was the band!  Jackson's and my favorite part was the tuba that was decorated with green lights and what looked like antlers.  How fun?  The band director put on quite a show himself.  Our seats were really great--only a few rows from the floor!  Jackson was pretty into everything, and he was content with what has become his standard snack: popcorn!

 Nom, nom, nom!

Josh and his boys

 Check out that pudgy little fist!  

 Oh, yes, this happened!  I could not love this baby any more--he is so sweet and snuggly!  He hung out for a bit, ate, and then pretty much just layed his head down on my chest and went to sleep!  LOVE IT!

 SOOO cute!  Jackson really had a great time!  He was excited that there was a blimp at this game, just like at the UVa game we went to earlier in the season.

 Twins!

 The Smiths cheering on Mason!

 After the game we headed to Susie and Joe's for dinner and hanging out.  This little stinker woke up just before we were going to leave anyways.  He hung out with the big boys while I got everything ready to go.  He's just so cute when he wakes up when he's supposed to be sleeping... ;)

 The fun with basketball continued as Graham joined in Jackson and Daddy's game. 

 His idea of fun is to eat the ball.  Luckily, he has a good-natured brother and daddy!

 Can the whole thing fit in my mouth???

 WHOA!

 Trying again!

Sweetness :)