Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Bob's Birthday

We went to San Luis Obispo, CA for Thanksgiving, which meant we'd also be there for our 3-year wedding anniversary and Bob's 28th birthday. We stayed with Bob's Grandma, Mary Alice.

It was a lot of fun. One day we went to Morro Bay and a nearby park with Carrie and her daughter, Sierra. Then for Thanksgiving dinner we went to Bob's cousin, Carrie's house in Cambria, CA. There was so much food and the view was amazing.

 

The boys--Pettit cousins.

For our anniversary Bob took me to downtown SLO, to a fancy shmancy restaurant called Novo. I had quail for the first time. It was tasty, but a lot of work to get the meat off the bones of that tiny and perfectly cooked bird. Then we walked around downtown for a while to see various little shops and spend some time together. It was nice to spend time and celebrate our marriage.

For Bob's birthday, we invited family over for dinner (pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potato fries, and various veggies and chips) and French apple pie with vanilla ice cream. We ate, talked, and played games. It was fun.

 

Birthday presents!

Earlier in that day we went to see Bob's Grandpa's grave to pay some respects. Neither of us had been out there to see it yet, so it was good to see where Grandpa Rusty was buried.

Before leaving, we got some photos with various family members. Tani, another of Bob's cousins got to hold and play with Graham before she went home to Lake Tahoe for Thanksgiving.

Jason, Carrie's husband, loved holding Graham.

And of course, Grandma Mary Alice got to dote over her first and so-far only great-grandson. She loves boys, and was so happy to spend time with him.

Growing Graham: 7 Months

Graham is one busy, high-energy kid. He's also extremely happy and silly and makes us laugh every day.

He is completely mobile now. At about 6 and a half months old, he crawled on purpose (before that he had crawled but didn't realize it and couldn't do it again) and he hasn't stopped crawling since. Then, two weeks after officially crawling, he already pulled himself up on furniture by himself so he can stand. If he can, he climbs the furniture too. We've had to drop his crib mattress down to the lowest setting because we caught him trying to climb out of it the other day. Did I mention that he's only just 7 months old?! It's like he can't wait to walk, and at this rate he will pretty soon. 

Along with crawling and climbing, he's been getting bruises from falling and bumping into things too. He had three bruises on his forehead at one time. But he's already learning how to prevent a lot of that too! He's gone from falling and bumping his head to falling into a sitting position so that his head never even comes close to the floor. He's a smart baby!

As with any baby his age, Graham loves to put things in his mouth. But sometimes it's just hilarious when/what he does. The other day he was crawling around on the floor in front of the couch. There was a pillow propped up against the ottoman, and the corner of it just happened to be the same height as his mouth. As he was crawling past it, he turned his face to it, looked at it for a second, then tried to latch onto it for a moment like it was a bottle. Then, since it didn't produce anything, he unlatched, looked at it confusedly, and tried again. After the second time, he decided that it was useless so he continued crawling past it.

He's a fantastic, although particular (but not picky), eater. He knows not to grab the spoon when we're feeding him, and I even like to set the container of baby food that I'm feeding him on his tray. So far he leaves it alone while he's eating. But he eats a lot. And very fast. At any given meal, he'll eat two or more full containers worth of baby food! But you'd never know because he's still so skinny. As soon as I've given him one spoonful, I have to immediately be getting the next one ready. If I'm taking too long to get that next spoonful, he gets upset and starts crying. He'll also cry if there's not enough on the spoon or if the food is too watery. And I haven't fed him anything he didn't like yet. However, if I feed him a sweet fruit first, he has a hard time eating green beans or peas afterward. Something about the flavors, perhaps... 

Graham also talks up a storm. He babbles constantly to his toys, crawls around blowing raspberries nonstop (and his latest development is blowing raspberries while crying), and when he finds a tiny piece of paper or a shoelace he focuses on it really hard as he carefully examines it with his fingers and he makes a steady "ehhhh" sound. We call it his concentrating sound. It makes us laugh or smile every time.

He's very opinionated. If I set him on the floor when he doesn't want me to he'll look up at me and whine. If it's nap time and he doesn't want to take a nap, he dramatically throws his head backward, arches his back, stiffens his legs, and flails his arms about while screaming/crying. This one is especially fun to deal with while holding him. He'll also throw that tantrum when we're changing his diaper, all the while trying to roll over and crawl away. It sure made us learn how to change his diapers quickly. 

Toys that involve laws of physics entertain Graham the most. We have this random yellow ring that we'll spin on the wood floor, and he sits and watches it intently until it stops. Sometimes he'll yell at it until we spin it for him again. Then he'll pick it up and play with it. If there's any toy that will spin or roll or demonstrate any law of physics like that, he loves it!

He's so small that we had to stuff his blanket and whatever else we could behind him to keep him in place.

He loves to be outside. When he gets cranky we'll take him outside for a few minutes and it usually settles him down completely.Graham loves to go on walks. He usually needs one walk in the morning before napping and then some more outdoor time before his afternoon nap. I like to just sit in the backyard with him. He'll sit very still for a long time, and just look around, taking in all the sights and sounds. He loves trees and leaves, birds, airplanes, flowers, long sprigs of grass, and the sunshine. Usually he'll go right to sleep afterward, though sometimes his naps are only 20 minutes long. If we wait too long to take him outside, he gets really cranky. This boy needs the outdoors like his daddy does. He's keeping us healthy and active already!

I can't believe how fast Graham's growing up! We're excited to see more of his personality as he get older, but we're trying so hard to savor and enjoy every moment while he's still a baby because it's going by so quickly. We sure love him!

Halloween!

Bob and I love Halloween. Well, I think mostly I love Halloween and try to make it fun and now Bob likes it too. I love costumes and parties, so since our engagement Bob and I have always tried to do a theme together with our costumes.

When we were engaged we were Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (yay Disney!). I even made Bob a naked mole rat to carry around in his pocket.

              (I can't find any pictures of us from that year, but I know they exist!)

Our first year of marriage we were Ken and Barbie from Toy Story 3. We loved those costumes and had so much fun that year!

Our second year of marriage I was pregnant, and since Bob likes puns and jokes so much I dressed up as an oven with a bun inside and Bob was the chef.

This year, we really wanted to play up Graham's awesome red hair. In talking to some friends about how we can incorporate that into our costume this year, my friend Karen mentioned that Peter Pan had red hair. It was such a perfect idea! So we went with it.

Bob was Captain Hook.
His costume was a mish-mash of thrifted, bought, and borrowed items.

I was Tinkerbell.
I made my costume from 2 t-shirts, a tulle tutu, and thrifted shoes with some fake snowballs glued onto them.

And Graham was Peter Pan.
I designed and made his costume, from head to toe!

We attended a costume party at a friend's house up near Escondido, CA on Friday night. Saturday was the trunk-or-treat at church. And on Halloween we went to Chipotle and got $2 burritos for wearing our costumes there.

It was such a fun holiday this year. I can't get over how adorable and how perfect Graham's costume was! Well, I think that all of our costumes were perfect, really. I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

Now, to start thinking of next year's costumes....

September Trip!

We took a road trip up to Utah to visit some friends and family back in September. It was so good to visit and take the time to catch up with so many people. I just wish it could have been longer.

We stopped in Las Vegas to see one of Bob's good friends and his wife, Scott and Janel. We also visited with one of Bob's mission companions, Louis.

Then we went to St. George to see my friend Lindsi and I had the opportunity to be her escort as she went through the temple for the first time. We got to meet her entire family and we had so much fun with all of them.

Then we went to Cedar City to stay with Aunt Judith for a night.

And then we went on up to Herriman to visit Russ and Ashley and their kids as well as Ben, Trina, and Peyton. We went back down to Provo one day to have dinner with a bunch of friends--Scott, Adam and Aimee, Jennie Ray and Jared, Stephanie and Justin.

We even got to go with Russ and Ashley to watch William and Jonathon play in a soccer game while we were up there. They did such a great job! And I got carried away with the camera.

Ashley, their kids, and Bob and I took Graham on his first ever hike too. It was an easy hike. More of a walk, really. But it was fun to go outside and enjoy the beauty that Utah offers as autumn was approaching.

We stopped to see Ben, Trina, and Peyton in Provo at some point while there too. Peyton was really cute and kept trying to play with Graham, but he was just a little small for her to be able to really play at all. But she read him a book and kept handing him toys. It was sweet.

And I got photographic evidence of Ben tossing away Peyton's My Little Pony that he had been playing with.

On the way back to San Diego, we stopped in St. George again for a night to visit Linda. Then we stopped in Hesperia to have dinner with Aunt Donna and Uncle Bruce the following evening before making it home.

We crammed in a lot of fun visits (and I wish I had been better at taking pictures everywhere we went) and we're excited to take another trip again soon!