Preppy Bohemian

Mark was named a "Rising Star" attorney this year! It is a honor to be chosen, even though Mark doesn't act like it's any big deal! He's listed in the "Super Lawyers" pamphlet and in the April 2012 edition of Texas Monthly. Here's how it says that the Super Lawyers & Rising Stars List was chosen:

"In creating Super Lawyers (and Rising Stars, our listing of top attorneys who are 40 years old and younger or who have been in practice 10 years or less), we perform the type of due diligence that a highly motivated and informed consumer would undertake..."blah blah blah

"First, we ask lawyers across the state to name the top attorneys they've personally observed in action. We also perform our own research to find outstanding attorneys who may have been overlooked by their peers. Once we have our candidate pool assembled, we assess the background, credentials and experience of each lawyer. Specifically, we look at 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement - things like experience, verdicts and settlements, transactions, clients, honors and awards.

The lawyers are then evaluated by a blue ribbon panel of peers within their primary area of practice. Before final selections are made, we divide the lawyers by firm size and choose the top lawyers from each group until we have a list that represents 5 percent of the lawyers in the state (Rising Stars lists are limited to 2.5 percent). This ensures that you have options from all types of law firms - large, medium and small.

Finally, we check the discipline record of each lawyer prior to publication. For a more detailed description of the selection process, visit superlawyers.com."

So YAY to Mark!

I cannot believe it! Graham is getting so big, so fast. It makes me sad :( 10 months is just so close to a year old and I want to stall or something. I know that he's still such a little baby but everything has just gone by so fast that he seems big. But, I have moments where I am thankful that he's still a baby - like today, when I went in to check on him in his nap and he was doing that baby-sucking thing in his sleep even though he didn't have his pacifier in. Love it. Anyway, here's what's going on with him lately:

*He has 8 teeth! The middle four on top and bottom, and I'm pretty sure that I won't know when more come in until they're fully in. It's not like he'll just sit around and let me look in his mouth :)

*He's still bald.

*He's talking a lot of gibberish! He definitely sounds like he's learning a foreign language, but he jabbers a lot, so I'm hoping that word will come along at some point. I'm also hoping that he'll master those "m's" soon so that I can at least pretend that he's saying mama.

*He's funny. And a bit mischievous. He definitely knows that there are some things that he's not supposed to do, while he's doing them anyway, and he just looks and me and smiles and then laughs. The best, and most common, example of this is his obsession with the little bolt cover on the side of the toilet. I mean, gross. He took that thing off one day and we won't even talk about the despicable color of green that was on the inside of it. Let's just focus that he had his finger mushed in it and was about to try to eat it. I haven't found a way to keep it covered. So, when I put him on the floor in his bedroom, he immediately takes of as fast as he can and crawls to the bathroom. He always stops at the bedroom door to sit and look at me, he smiles, and then he takes off giggling laughing the rest of the way. It's definitely a game to him.

*He has also started to like chasing games. He just giggles and flirts as he crawls away from me and I crawl after. Or, he loves it when I'll crawl away from him and he can come catch me. I mean, it doesn't look pretty for me to be crawling around the house (nor does my body love it), but it makes him laugh.

*Graham is pulling up on everything in sight and he's cruising around everything. He's starting to get a little more bold and go between objects more with a split second without either hand on something, but he can't stand up without holding on to something.

*He loves to try to launch himself off of everything - the bed, the chair, the changing table. He just wants to fall, I swear. And, he randomly loves looking UP. He likes to check out lights, balloons, signs, etc at the grocery store. He likes to look up at the trees when swinging, he just likes UP.

*He still loves playing peek-a-boo - it's SURE to elicit laughter if I'm the one hiding and he still looooves playing with blankets, etc. over his head. He laughs and scrunches up his face and loves it.

*Graham will wave bye bye and sometimes hi, but doesn't really do it on command every time. But, he does love looking at people still - especially kids - and doesn't mind attention at all. So, when we go out and about, people fawn over him pretty often and he just loves it. He'll smile and kick his legs and flirt. He doesn't really know any other party tricks, but I haven't taught him any - so hopefully I'm not thwarting his development.

*He LOVES him some sippy cup. Seriously, he'd drink or chew on it all day long if I let him. He pretty much loves drinking in general. If you give him your drink, it's just the best thing ever. But, he crosses his eyes too often for comfort when he drinks - it's funny and I don't know why he does it, but if he's drinking, you'll see his eyes cross when he looks at his cup. When he really goes for it and scrunches his face, while crossing his eyes, it's really crazy looking.

*Graham's doing better about napping. We had a sliiiight regression last month - but I'm sure it was because he was crawling and moving and it was just too much fun to stop. And, I'd go in and try to snuggle and rock him to sleep. I think he just decided that it was more fun than sleeping, so I had to stop that too and just let him cry it out for a little bit. It was way harder for me than him because I had to listen to him cry, and more so because I had to control myself not to go snuggle and rock with him. :(

*Now, my snuggle time is kinda limited to our reading before bed. We read about 2 books before every nap and before bed. It helps Graham calm down, helps me get in some snuggle time!, and I think it's good for him to hear the books being read (even if it is right before bed). In the last week, he's started just curling into me at night and not even looking at the book. It probably means he's too tired, but it's just too sweet for words and I really wish he would NEVER EVER EVER grow out of it (if that wouldn't make him a totally creepy grown man).

*This is gross and the kind of thing you should only admit to your husband, but I love the smell of my baby. Ha. It's not even like he smells like baby anymore. And, it's not like we can use ANY good smelling soap or lotion because they make him break out. I just love the smell of his sweet little baby breath. It's a little weird and probably TMI, but I just love it and would totally pay a million dollars to have it bottled for when he's older and I'm screaming at him to brush his teeth and take a shower.

*G's little chunky legs are still fat and rolly at the moment and are just too cute. I'll be sad when he loses those rolls - and I can already tell we're moving that direction. He's leaning out a little and I don't even know that he's really gained any weight this month. Not that he's wanted to drink any of his day-time formula, so I'm not really surprised.

*Boy loves him some cheese. Oh my gosh. If Mark and I didn't know he was our child before, we know now. He will pick around anything on his high chair to find the cheese - every single last teeny tiny crumble. And he'll eat a fist full of shredded cheese while gathering more in his other hand. It's definitely his favorite food at the moment. But, he's still a good eater and will pretty much eat everything you give him. The only thing that he's really hated was baby food chicken - he gagged on that a couple of times, but he'll eat it mixed in with veggies or pasta or something, so I think it was just because it was so gross from the baby food jar.

*I still haven't given him every food that I could and I'm lazy about giving him finger food. We, sadly, don't have enough healthy dinner food around the house to just give him ours, but that has to change pretty immediately. Graham would much prefer to feed himself than eat baby food, so I need to get with the program. He's eaten hummus and loves it (again, we know he's our child), and he loves bread (go figure with Mark as a dad), cheerios (a mealtime staple), and fruit. The veggies definitely have to be served first, when he's more hungry, to get a good amount down. And, he still loves his oatmeal in the morning.

*G man pretty much despises diaper changes. And, man, is he stubborn. He'll thrash and scream and throw his little leg up and down in a temper tantrum. It is not his cutest moment. Too bad it happens at least 8 times a day. And clothes changes are the same. Most of the time, you just end up struggling to throw something on him, and I'm not really sure who's ever in charge, even though I try really hard.

*He's still taking 2 naps a day, wearing size 4 diapers, and sorta taking 4 bottles. He drinks big bottles in the morning and night - about 9ish ounces but then doesn't really like his 11:00 bottle and will probably only drink about 4 ounces. But, then he's back to about 6-7 ounces for his 3:00 bottle. He's probably drinking too much formula vs. food, but I'm not too worried about it at the moment.

*He was 24 pounds, 13 ounces on May 2nd so has definitely slowed his growth - only 8 ounces in the last month! He's wearing 18-24 month clothes. Of course, after I bragged that I bought all of the right size of clothes for the summer (18 mo), he's quickly growing/grown out of them. I had to return a huge lot of stuff to Janie & Jack that I was super excited about because they're too small and they don't come in larger sizes. Ugh. Clothes are mainly too short for him and the snaps tend to pop open on his outfits more times than not. So, he should really be in most 24 month clothes, but I get confused between that and 2T (same difference), but do NOT want to by 2T clothes for some reason. They're just too big. Plus, they're too old looking and I'm trying desperately to hang on to those cute baby clothes as long as possible.

*Graham loves being outside (even though he hasn't quite realized that he's allergic...poor kid's eyes are so puffy and red when we come back inside), and LOVES the wind blowing - he'll just smile and wave his arms around. He loves the swing that we put in our front tree and is pretty content just hanging out there, chewing on the strap, for a while.

*He's pretty observant and definitely curious - he'll look for every noise and everything going on when we're out. But, he still doesn't love loud noises (he had a melt down the other day when Mark sneezed pretty violently) and he's still more introverted when we're in larger crowds (like family gatherings) than when he's here alone or with just a few people.

*He still loves his mama :) and I hope that what they say about boys...that they're so sweet and loving to their moms...is true forever. Because I love this kiddo more than anything and know that will never change.

These pictures are increasingly hard to take - as to be expected I guess. Most of them look something like this because he's moving or trying to jump off the chair and I'm reaching out to catch him:

Or this:

Here is a pretty accurate sequence of events for most of the time we took pictures. I literally took pictures for 30 minutes because I was trying to keep him still. This camera lid actually kept him more calm than he was without it!