Oh finally!

I've been thinking for some time about how great it would be if you could set up an online gift wish list that wasn't bound to any particular retailer. Turns out somebody did just that. For all of you having trouble figuring out what we'd love (or not love) for Graham for Christmas, birthdays etc., check out THETHINGSIWANT.COM. Hint: that wooden robot would be a HUGE hit.

Anyone want our extra Halloween candy? Please?

"Wanna take a little nap after I'm done eating this candy!"

WE HAVE DRY DIAPERS AND POTTY USAGE!!!!!!!

Well, well, well.
If you have peeked at my new blog, you know that we switched over to cloth diapers a few weeks ago.
So this last Monday morning Graham yelled, "Moooooommmmmm, I'm aWAAAAAAAAKKKKEE!" and I thought to myself, "What would happen if I just put him on the potty right now?" So we started Morning Pee:

He sat there a little bit, and then said, "Mom I peed!" Nope.
He sat there a little more, and said, "Mom I peed!" Nope.
He asked me to leave. I stood in the hall outside the door.
"MOM I PEED!"

Yup. Not like a teaspoon either, which he's done on the potty a couple of times. This was a full on, bladder emptying pee. He poured it into the big potty and flushed it. But first we woke up Nick to show him (Nick who never gets out of bed that quickly, ever) and Graham got huge hugs and kisses.

Yesterday: the exact same thing, except I peeked in just in time to see him dumping a full pee in the potty and saying, "I did it myself!"

Today: not a single wet diaper. THREE PEES in the potty.

And a little plastic indoor bowling set is all wrapped up and hiding in the basement in anticipation of the first poop. Oh yeah, we're gonna bowl when that happens. It's gonna be a big big deal!

I am SO FREAKING PROUD OF MY LITTLE MAN. Peeing on the potty at mot quite 26 months!

UPDATE 10/02
We've had TWO Graham-initiated poops this week as well and a couple dozen pees! I can't believe it, it is going so well! Clearly he's ready; he just gets it. It's pretty amazing to me.

Graham's book list 10/09/07

*favorites

*Leonardo the terrible monster / [text and illustrations by] Mo Willems. - This may be Graham's most favorite in a long time. He's asked to call the characters on the phone!
*Howler / Michael Rosen - A dog whose human pets have a new baby he names Howler.
*Sleepy time Olie / by William Joyce. - Graham does a hilarious robot voice now.
*Hear that? / Tama Janowitz - A mom and her son imagine what could be making the scary noises they hear. "Maybe a horrible, hairy ginip-ginop!" Or maybe it's just Nick.
*Baby brains / Simon James. - Graham loves rockets.
The garden of Abdul Gasazi / written and illustrated by Chris van Allsburg.
10 minutes till bedtime / Peggy Rathmann.
Yellow umbrella / by Jae Soo Liu
Sometimes I'm Bombaloo / by Rachel Vail
*Oswald / Dan Yaccarino. Graham pretends to be Oswald and push objects around the house.
*The big brown box / by Marisabina Russo. A cute book about pretend and all the things a box can be.
*If the dinosaurs came back / written and illustrated by Bernard Most. I think Graham's dino love has begun.
Arlene sardine / Chris Raschka. - Quite possibly the oddest children's book I've ever read. Really quirky. I did laugh out loud though. Not a good fit for well, I'll say it, overly protective parents.
Make Way for Ducklings / Robery McCloskey.
Alphabeasts / Wallace Edwards.
*Little Humpty / Margaret Wild & Ann James.
ABC USA / illustrated by Martin Jarrie.
Twigboy / Stephen Gammell.
Museum shapes / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
You can do it too! / Karen Baicker
*Flotsam / David Wiesner. I had high expectations for this Caldecott-winner, and it delivered and them some. The illustrations in this wordless book convey the narrative beautifully and inventively. A very cinematic read.
*Stingrays / by Martha E.H. Rustad.

OTHER BOOKS WE LOVE:
The Day the Babies Crawled Away, Peggy Rathman http://www.amazon.com/Day-Babies-Crawled-Away/dp/039923196X
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
In the Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak
When Sophie Gets Angry - really Really Angry, Molly Bang
We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen http://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Classic-Board-Books/dp/0689815816

LIVID ABOUT BUSH VETO ON CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE BILL

Here's the run down on the bill, which passed in a bipartisan effort in the House 265-159 and the Senate 67-29. Bush has vetoed, citing a desire to keep government out of healthcare. You know what I think? I think Dubya's got an obligation to veto, since expanding coverage would be paid for by a $0.61 tobacco tax increase. Yeah, forget that more people quit the higher the price goes, forget that we'd be taking money from smokers to pay for kids to have access to health insurance. Let's protect the interests of TABACCO.

FIFTEEN more Republican votes need to be drummed up in the House by October 18 to overturn Bush's veto. In MN, the only elected officials to vote nea in either the house or the senate were Kline and Bachmann. I have a call in to Bachmann's office to find out what the hell she was thinking. She has 5 children. Are they on healthcare I pay for?

Look up your representatives here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html
Look up how they voted here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll906.xml
Look up the history of the bill here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-976


From: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-976&tab=summary

"H.R. 976: Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007
An act to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to extend and improve the Children's Health Insurance Program, and for other purposes.

The following is Project Vote Smart's highlights for this bill, graciously made available by PVS:

Appropriates $9.13 billion for fiscal year 2008, $10.68 billion for fiscal year 2009, $11.85 billion for fiscal year 2010, and $13.75 billion for fiscal year 2011 for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) [Title I (Sec. 101)].

-Creates an incentive pool for states whose CHIP enrollment numbers exceed baseline projections [Title I (Sec. 105)].

-Prohibits the issuance of CHIP waivers to non-pregnant childless adults after passage, and terminates existing waivers on September 30, 2008 [Title I (Sec. 106)].

-Allows a state to apply for Medicaid waivers to continue coverage for non-pregnant childless adults whose waivers have been terminated [Title I (Sec. 106)].

-Allows states to continue providing child health assistance to parents of eligible children under an existing waiver through 2012 and provides additional funding for states meeting certain outreach and coverage benchmarks [Title I (Sec. 106)].

-Allows states to change their child health plans to provide pregnancy-related assistance to targeted low-income pregnant women if they have a Medicaid eligibility level for pregnant women that is at least 185 percent above the poverty level, among other requirements [Title I (Sec. 107)].

-Establishes a CHIP Contingency Fund to eliminate the Federal share of shortfalls in state CHIP allotments [Title I (Sec. 108)].

-Appropriates $100 million for grants to eligible private or public entities to conduct outreach efforts designed to increase CHIP enrollment among eligible children and sets aside 10 percent of the allocated money for the administration of a national CHIP enrollment campaign [Title II (Sec. 201)].

-Allows states to offer subsidies for qualified employer-sponsored group health coverage to all targeted low-income children who are eligible, if such coverage is more cost-effective than enrollment in the State child health plan [Title IV (Sec. 401)].

-Requires the publication of a recommended core set of child health quality measures, including full insurance coverage and the availability of a full range of services and treatment, for use by state CHIP programs by January 1, 2009 [Title V (Sec. 501)].

-Increases the tax on cigars from $1.828 per thousand to $50.00 per thousand for cigars weighing less than 3 pounds per thousand, and increases the tax from 20.719 percent of the retail price to 53.13 percent of the retail price for cigars weighing more than three pounds per thousand, with a cap of $3.00 per cigar [Title VII (Sec. 701 [a])].

-Increases the tax from $19.50 per thousand to $50.00 per thousand for cigarettes weighing less than 3 pounds per thousand, and increases the tax from $40.95 per thousand to $104.9999 per thousand for cigarettes weighing more than 3 pounds per thousand [Title VII (Sec. 701 [b])].

-Increases the taxes on cigarette paper from $0.122 to $0.313 per fifty papers and on cigarette tubes from $0.244 to $0.626 per fifty tubes [Title VII (Sec. 701 [c-d])].

-Increases the taxes on snuff from $0.585 to $1.50 per pound and on chewing tobacco from $0.195 to $0.50 per pound [Title VII (Sec. 701 [e])].

-Increases the taxes on pipe tobacco from $1.0969 to $2.8126 per pound and on roll-your-own-tobacco from $1.0969 to $8.8889 per pound [Title VII (Sec. 701 [f-g])].

Amazing Apple Run-on

"When grow big and wanna go pick appos (apples) gan (again) from the appo trees and come home and take a baf (bath) with appos and bob for appos in the baftub. "







We had lots of fun picking apples at EMMA KRUMBEE'S. with Uncle Jimmy, Uncle Bill and Aunt Yessica (as Graham calls her).

Said in his highchair to avoid eating vegetables:

"I feew sad bacuz I want ta get down."

Said tenderly to a bar of soap

retrieved from the bath water: "I got you yiddle buddy. I got you yiddle buddy."

A Ring Bear says ROAR!!!!!

A few images from Nick's sister Jessica's wedding last Saturday. Pictured are the bride annd groom, Bill and Jessica, flowergirl Kayla (Graham's cousin), and of course the three of us. It was a fun time!

Breastfeeding PSA's you'll never see

because formula-makers have too much money flowing into our government.

Don't believe me? See
20/20
The Washington Post, 8/31/2007

Graham's 2nd Birthday

Graham woke up to a room full of yellow and black balloons and me in a construction hat bearing the number 2 and his picture. He opened presents from us in the morning. He got a new easel, smock, tempera paints and paintcups and brushes; 2 wooden construction truck puzzles which quickly frustrated him and needed to be held together with rubber bands so he could actually play with the trucks; a set of bug parts to "play bugs"; and a wooden beading snake.

After his nap Grandpa Chuck and Anneva came over and we had cake, chocolate with green icing and mounds of chocolate cake "dirt" on top, with bulldozers pushing it around and two huge sparklers for candles. He tried so hard to blow them out! It was adorable.

Then we all went to the State Fair for the night, wearing our Graham construction hats! We checked out the Birthing Barn, which was really interesting. It appears that the pigs are confined however, during labor. This was really upsetting to me. Having gone through it now myself, I can't imagine not moving around. It seemed immoral to me. But it was hard to ignore Graham's excitement when he said, "Look Momma! Baby pigs, nursin!" He also saw and pet many other baby animals, so that was neat. He just about debilled a baby duck though.

He feasted on absolute junk, which I never allow, so it was quite a birthday treat. He had cheese curds, lemonade and Sweet Martha's cookies for dinner! We rode the giant slide, the Sky Ride and the Ferris Wheel, the last of which combined with all the junk he'd eaten and the late hour to absolutely freak him out. It wasn't his first Ferris Wheel ride, but he wound up wanting to get off pretty badly. Then my dad won him a football shooting hoops on the Midway, and we went to see the horse barn on the way out.

Graham didn't pass out on the way home, but we all expected him to. It was a big day!

We love you sweet boy.

At the cabin with Jacki and Krystle

sleepy, in the rain, wicked pissed, shaving

Summer is bad for blogging.

So my son is a toddler. I don't mean this in the sense that he is a walker, well now he's a jumper and furniture-flier-offer. I mean it in the sense that we have EPISODES. Lots of them. A recent day:

Graham finds a red permanent marker while Dad is in the bathroom and manages to hit 5 doors, the hallway, the floor, two couches (cushions and arms mind you), the wood coffee table and his entire face. Mom yells. A lot. The rest of the day Graham says, "Only paper, momma. Only paper." Three hours later he would appear to be asleep in his room. All is quiet. Then there is a loud shriek. We rush in to find Graham standing in the crib, palms outspread and terrified. "Momma I peed!" But what it is is poop. G likes to keep his hands in his diaper, but didn't anticipate that if he pooped he'd have *that* to contend with. I imagine in his anxiety about what to do he frantically wiped his hands on everything. It appeared that way.

Since then, two more instances of pee or poop in the bed, the produt of having totally removed his diaper in the night. It's such fun.

I routinely am told, "Be quiet Momma! Too LOUD!!!" but also occasionally get to hear the heart-melting, "So proud of you momma." He wakes in the middle of the night to belt out, "Bob the Builder! Can we fix it? Bob the Buillder! Yes we can!" and a very breakneck version of "Rock-A-Bye Baby."

WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week, Graham and I joined friends Melissa and Twila, along with about 30 other moms in our community to participate in a global display of breastfeeding normalcy spanning 25 countries over a 24 hour period.

You can read more about the event HERE.

The goals of the event were:

To gather the most number of mothers in Synchronized Breastfeeding Worldwide, that is, participants will breastfeed at exactly the same LOCAL TIME in their Time Zone. Like the celebration of New Year, with every hour in succession for a 24-hour period, countries in one time zone will be breastfeeding simultaneously. See enclosed list of countries in each Time Zone.

To make a permanent and on-going roster of the national records of each nation on simultaneous breastfeeding in a single site and in multiple sites, urging each nation to surpass its own record every succeeding year.

To establish cooperation between nations, each nation competing with its own record. The Organizers will keep a roster of achievements of every nation,

(a) its record for single site.
(b) its record for multiple sites,
(c) the national record for breastfeeding mothers per million population as the true measure of their effort and achievement,
(d) the overall record for each Time Zone, and
(e) above all, overall worldwide record for each year. Each nation will follow a standard set of Event Guidelines.

To nurture a fellowship among breastfeeding mothers in their locality and country that may facilitate the formation of mother support groups.

To establish simultaneous breastfeeding as a form of universal prayer for peace and thanksgiving for the gift of motherhood and breastfeeding.

Tomorrow G is 22 months and he said:

"Mommy's noodles are all gone."
and
"Mommy rock-a-bye up in hammock too!"

This is too much to take! So *that's* what all the spazziness was about. Now that he's broken the Talking Barrier he's back to a much more pleasant version of himself. I always forget about the nastiness that precedes a developmental leap, but there it was and there it went.

*Sigh* I love this.


ETA: In the interest of not throwing up a new post everytime G says something amazing, I'll just add it here:

"Daddy took a sticker off my sticker chart and said sorry." !!!!!!!!!
"Anneva loves doughnuts."

Today's thought:

"That tree has a big top."
- Graham

My BABY said that!!!!

Ewwww, toddlers.

So Graham has gotten to be quite a challenge. Lots of very exciting things have developed, and lots of difficulties have ensued. A particular un-favorite is the wonderful game of "I want that, no I want the other thing, no I want the thing that I wanted before." This game never ends well. He also is still in the Hitting Phase. It seems to have gotten worse. We are not spanking, but man do I want to sometimes. This is, I think, probably the reason I don't spank: I don't want to spank out of anger, and once I'm not angry anymore I don't think spanking is the solution it seemed to be when I was pissed. Plus, do I hit him for hitting? That makes no sense whatsoever! But, ugh. He is trying my patience and on my last nerve a LOT.

Ok, fun things. He's got the 3-word sentence down pat, and some 4's: "Pablo eat bugs, gross!" and "Rainboots go outside now." Puddles are "cuddles." He can pretty much do all his ABCs and count to 12 (sometimes) although he always skips 4. He is beginning to be able to recognize some letters, we've had good luck with B's and O's. He calls the alphabet letters "C Ds." He has finally started calling Anneva "Nina" instead of "Nonny," my dad "Grandpa" instead of "Baba," and I am no longer Mama. I'm Mommy. I feel a little sad about that, until I hear him yell "Nick! Nick!"

In other news, we took a trip to the Emergency Room this week. Monday night he fell, a short fall, but one that left him a little rattled and without apetite. Then overnight he got really really sick. Like puke all over everything 6 times sick, like so sick and tired he was vomiting without really waking up to do it. Tuesday morning I put it together that he may have a concussion and we had to go get a CAT scan. Well, as it turns out it was strep throat. So here is where you learn what I learned: strep can make kids throw up. Who knew. It was a pretty terrible lesson, and an expensive one.

I want to post some about the Bradley childbirth educator workshop I attended last weekend, but that will have to wait. It was so amazing, I just can't do it justice right now. I am really excited to start teaching though.

Nunu's Drum Party - Fun!

Monday night Graham and I stopped by our friend Carol's grand opening of her new performance space, the Lowry Lab Theater. There was this great performance by a Japanese drum troupe, and Graham was very impressed, especially because they let him bang on the big drums before their performance. Melissa (who G calls Nunu) and Amy had a hand in the event as well, which led to Graham's excited reminder this morning:

"Nunu's drum party - Fuuunnnnnn!"

Graham has been pure delight lately. I am perpetually dumbfounded by his near-constant happiness. His most-used word is "happy" by a long lead. He is so affectionate and sweet, and a little sensitive. I don't know how we got so lucky. I want to gush about him constantly.