Graham's first chair

Everyone has their first chair! I remembered having a plastic woven one and also a little wooden one that would fold up. The wooden one probably wouldn't pass the safety inspection for the kids these days as the folding mechanism would probably catch a finger or two; or the child could get stuck in the chair if it accidentally folded up on them. Ahh... too much drama!
I have been thinking about getting Graham one of those fancy Bumbo seats but at $40 a pop, daddy decided it was too expensive! And today, I found a cute little plastic chair at the local farm/hardware store for only $5!

In the meantime, Graham just loves to slouch on his high chair.
He loves to kick and put his feet up on the tray. I hope this won't be a problem once we have to start feeding him on his high chair!
Then of course, after straightening him out, he decides to flop onto the other side of his chair.
I've been trying to encourage him to crawl too. But after a while, he gets tired and just wants to suck on his thumb.
Our little boy is growing up so quickly!

Graham rolling over!

Last Sunday - at 13 weeks (and 1 day to be exact), Graham figured out how to roll over from his belly to his back! He has rolled over a few more times since then but I've been able to witness it only a couple of times. When he did do it yesterday afternoon, he just cried and cried!
But this morning, he was "cool as a cucumber" as Bobby would put it. He just stared at his mobile.
Who knows how long he was staring at it as Mommy was still busy sleeping :-)
Speaking of sleeping... guess what I caught Graham doing while he was sleeping a few days ago! Too funny!

Backyard activity

I never thought our bird bath would get this much action!
The birds were fighting to get in (and stay in) the bath!

This morning, after the rain - momma deer came by with her two fawns. I feel like the paparazzi, taking pictures with the camera lens in between the blinds! And as you can tell, momma deer can still sense me through the window!
I hope they are eating the weeds and not my flowering plants!

1,000 miles!

My new VW stationwagon has just reached 1,000 miles! It's amazing how fewer zeroes it has compared to my Honda Civic! Speaking of which, I cleaned out my car and moved it to my neighbor's last weekend. It's now sitting on their driveway and I can see it every time I drive in and out of our house! When I dropped it off, I told the neighbor's kid to look after my "baby" and he replied, "Don't worry, I won't do anything too flashy to it". Hmm... makes me wonder what his level of "flashiness" is!
As for gas mileage, Bobby filled up the tank last week (about $40 worth of diesel) and so far, after about 270 miles, I still have about half a tank left! It's awesome! I love my new car! :-)

Hanging out in the kitchen with Mommy

Graham and I baked our first cake together today! I figured out how to put him front-facing on the BabyBjorn and he seems to like it and does quite well in it. I did have to put a bib on him because he has been drooling so much recently!
He was so calm and content (even with the KitchenAid mixer going!) that we were able to put all the ingredients together for our banana pound cake till the very end. I had to put him down when it was time to grease and flour the loaf pan.
He was in his swing briefly but when he started to fuss, I decided to put him in his high chair. It's his first time in his high chair today! He loves to be sitting high up and loves to just look around - maybe because there's so much to see in the messy kitchen! So while Mommy was cleaning in the kitchen, Graham was just chillin'. He was doing well keeping his head up but after a while, he got tired...
and then a while longer, even more tired!!!
So it was time to put him in his playpen and roll him over onto his belly. I'm so blessed that he is able to sleep well and also soothe himself to sleep,... for now, at least! :-)

Garden update

The temperature in Tulsa has been so hot lately - in the 100s... and my tomato plant just can't manage! I have yet to see one tomato this summer. The flowers on the tomato plant are blooming but they would dry out even before it gets a chance to fruit! :-(
As you can see, I went with 3 pots this year and weirdly enough, the size of the tomato plant correlates with the size of the pot! The basil is doing great though, but no tomatoes mean no Caprese salad! :-(
I have been able to take some pictures around the garden though. Check these out:
Close up!!!
Can't wait till this lavender plant actually gets bigger and produces more flowers!
The following picture was taken during our vacation in New Zealand last year, in front of our motel room. Look at all that lavender! It smells amazing too! But watch out for the bees! Glad I didn't get stung. It sure makes my little plant look quite pathetic now though! There are actually lavender farms in NZ. It looks amazing when you're driving in the countryside. Just a sea of purple!
And I planted some sunflowers in the garden this year, but had to pull them out when we hit a dry spell.
My rose bush is making a come back too, after the flowers were being eaten by the deer! Or perhaps it was a rabbit!
Or maybe it was the grasshopper! We have some big ones here this year! Good thing we're not in China. The grasshoppers would be in a wok by now!
And can't finish up without a picture of Graham. He was so content in his new stroller yesterday! He was actually crying when he was being held, but once we set him in the stroller, he was quiet! He loves to sit looking forward and love to just takes every in!

SOLD!

... to the neighbor's kid across the street. Yup, we sold my Honda Civic to our neighbor's son! He has yet to turn 16 and get his driver's license but will be getting his learner's permit soon. In the meantime, he will learn how to drive using the manual transmission and will be paying us in installments. I told him that he better take care of my "baby" and not do anything crazy to it, since I'll be able to see it every day!

Random pics of Graham

Here's a collection of random pics of Graham taken today:

... ending up in the corner of his crib this morning

... napping on the floor in his travel crib in the afternoon. We're trying to train him early for all those trips we're going to have :-)

... later in the afternoon, after a BAD diaper malfunction. Yup, he ended up in the kitchen sink! I was careful not to bump his head on the cast iron. I had already bumped his head against his plastic bathtub earlier today!

... and finally, nice and clean! He actually smiled at his musical elephant today when I turned it on. That's our boy at 11+ weeks!

Family outing on the golf course

It rained earlier in the day yesterday and by the time Bobby came home from work, it was rather nice out. So, I decided that maybe it would be a good day to all go out and play some golf!

And off we went! We secured Graham on the golf cart and he was quite contented. But obviously, it didn't last very long. By the time we got to the driving range to warm up, he started to fuss. So while Daddy warmed up, I drove him around. Then, it was my turn to warm up and Daddy's turn to drive him around.
He started to fall asleep but when we got to the first tee, he started to cry! We decided to tee-off anyway (are we bad parents??!). By the way, it does take some concentration to hit while there's a crying baby in the background! But once we started to move to our next shot, Graham was quiet and went back to sleep.
It was nice being back on the golf course with Bobby again. It's been a while since we last played a round of golf together - I think our last round together was when I was at 38 weeks. It was great too that Graham could join us this time. As you can see, we didn't forget the diaper bag either! It's tucked between both golf bags and strapped on to one, so it doesn't fall out :-)
Graham did start to cry again in the middle of the round. But we started to realize that as long as we kept the golf cart moving, he would be quiet. And so, by the end of the day, we were getting good at jumping out of the cart while it was still in motion and grabbing a club... yes, while the cart was in motion. Then, one person would hit their shot while the other drove Graham around! Unfortunately, we did have to leave him crying when we had to putt!
In the end, I think it worked out pretty well. Graham fed at the club in the ladies locker room and was quite happy. He did have a red nose and rosy cheeks. Not sure if that was from the sun or from all the crying he did!
Well, he did cry all the way home too! When we got home, I fed him again and he was out like a light! He slept for 12 hours... till about 9am the next day!

My new car!

Amazingly... after 11 years of owning the Honda Civic, I finally got a brand new car! Yup, Daddy bought Mommy a new VW Stationwagon last Saturday!
It's the TDI model and runs on diesel. It sort of sounds like a clunker when you start it or when it's idle, but it drives really well. And it's fast! I guess anything would be faster than my Civic. I have to be more aware of my speed now and make sure I stick to 4th gear when I'm on the surface streets!
We have not sold the Civic yet. At 214,479 miles, it has definitely served me well.
Throughout all the road trips, it has never broken down on me. I've never had to change a flat tire on it. It's been stolen once (in west Phoenix) and I've been in one fender-bender and it wasn't even my fault! And so far, it has only cost me one ticket for aggressive driving - I was changing lanes without using my blinkers - everyone does that, right!!?!
Anyhow, I think that's a pretty darn good track record for my first car of 11 years! I'm definitely going to miss it, but "he" is getting old. The sun visors are really worn out so I've sewn covers for them (not very good looking ones, I'm terrible at sewing!). The radio/CD comes on or switches stations on its own, the sunroof opens well but can be stubborn when I try to close it, the light in the trunk works every now and then,... and just last week, the passenger window quit working! Come to think of it, the driver's side window quit working on me once when I pulled up to a golf course during a golf tournament. I had to put a towel over the door while I went out to play!
The list does go on (even growing tomato plants in the car while on the road!... as seen in pic above taken March 15, 2009) but the main reason for getting the new car was because it was not convenient to have baby Graham in the backseat of the Civic. And of course, Daddy got tired of driving my old Civic when I needed his Volvo stationwagon where we have the carseat base installed. We basically traded in one wagon for another. I feel quite bad because the main reason for trading the Volvo in was because once the baby's carseat was in, there was barely enough space for the front passenger. And unfortunately, with our miscalculation, it's almost the same case in the new VW stationwagon! Ops!!! But after a few crying spells on the way home, Daddy has decided that Mommy can continue sitting in the backseat. That way, I can soothe Graham with his pacifier and Daddy can continue listening to the Grateful Dead on the new satellite radio. Ahhh... we ARE spoiled!