Easter Eggs

Good morning, Graham! The Easter Bunny came to visit!

What a fun basket!

Forget the eggs, Graham wanted that shiny grass.

After church it was time for an Easter egg hunt! Graham had his bag and he was ready to go.

Alright! We found some eggs!

Hey! Someone put money in these eggs! Cool!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Serafine for such a fun Easter egg hunt!

water babies

This week Graham went swimming for the very first time! My cousin Stephanie came to visit and we had to take advantage of the good weather. Graham loves the bath, and didn't have any problems with the pool water either! The water was nice and cool and Graham seemed to be enjoying himself.

Thanks, Brooke and Jackson for letting us use your pool!!!

Graham time

Baby Graham, what are you watching?

Woody! This was the first time he saw Toy Story, and really the first time we camped him out in front of the TV (which wasn't for very long...he wanted out of his bumbo before too long).

We love toys!

Time to wash the car.

This is how the big kids wear their pants. Looks pretty ridiculous, huh? Big kids, if you are reading this, know that it looks silly on everyone, including babies.

ahoy, fondue!

A question for you: Did you go get free cheese fondue on National Cheese Fondue Day? I hope so.

We did! It was (we think) our very first Monday night date. But the cheese fondue was so good. Yum. Then we had to splurge, and we felt bad for just being cheap, so we bought a chocolate fondue, but with no regrets. We ordered the S'mores fondue. Chocolate fondue topped with marshmallow cream and crushed graham crackers, then "flambéed table side." Mmmm. So good. I would have licked the fondue pot if it wasn't so hot.

And no, Graham didn't get any fondue. Sorry, buddy. Maybe next time.

stool

he he. There's this store right by us called Stool and Dinette and every time we drive by it I think of all the other names they could have called it.

On to the real reason for this post...last weekend I went garage sale shopping with Brooke, and we had a pretty good time. I found some toys and books for Graham, and some bar stools! They were $5 each, but I had to buy 3. : (

I was excited when I saw them, but the guy that sold them to me was kind of strange. He was one of those people who tries to be funny at every moment, but they really aren't funny. For example, he tried to give me change in Monopoly money. I know he had been planning that all week and was doing it to everyone that tried to buy something from him. Then he told me his name was Javier, which it wasn't. I could only get a few home at a time, so he was going to hold the other ones for me, and I tried to tell him my name so they knew who was coming back.

Anyway, this is what they looked like before. A little rough.

But it wasn't anything a nice coat of Gripper and some paint couldn't fix. I even had a chance to do one of my favorite things: glaze. So fun. There's nothing like taking a nice, clean paint job and making it look old and dirty.

I wanted to put wreaths on the back of them...but no one has small, red wreaths. I also saw some stools on a blog where a lady put vinyl numbers on the back of them. Cute. So I compromised. Hanging numbers. Maybe they'll stay, maybe they'll be replaced. Who knows. But they add some nice seats to our kitchen. : )

coupons at walmart

So far I hadn't tried any crazy coupon shopping at Walmart, but last night I decided to be brave and pulled Matt to Walmart with me. My plan was to get some formula for our food storage. I had a bunch of coupons from the paper inserts I get from my school--21 of them. The formula was on sale for $3.84 and the coupons were for $5. So if everything went right, I was going to make $24.36. Sweet. So we went to Walmart, found my 21 bottles of formula, and other groceries to use up the $24.

I was a little nervous about checking out because the coupon said two things: $5 off any Similac formula (which was more than the formula cost), and "Limit one coupon per transaction." I was hoping that they would just ring them all through at once so we wouldn't have to do 21 separate transactions where they gave me back $1.16 in cash each time. (The Walmart coupon policy says that if the coupon is for more than the value of the item, you can get the extra money in cash or apply it to a purchase, although I'm pretty sure none of the workers know this....even though it's on their website.)

So we put all our groceries on the belt and the cashier scanned them all through. I tried to cashier profile and choose the best one, but none such luck.

I handed him the coupons. He scanned some other ones in first, then I handed him the stack of formula coupons. He looked at them, and looked at them, and looked at them, and didn't say anything, just called over his supervisor. She came over and was adamant that I couldn't use them because the picture on the coupon was for the tub. I reminded her that it said "ANY" Similac, and that it didn't give a size limit. Then she didn't know about the coupon being for more than the formula was worth. So they called over a manager. She came over, looked at one coupon, then asked how many I had....21. She rolled her eyes. Rude.

Eventually they just rang them through in one transaction (phew...then I didn't have to stand there and ring up 21 separate times). We got out of there paying $3 for 21 quarts of formula, and almost $25 worth of groceries.

Score: Us: 1 Walmart: 0

Four (and a half) Months Old

(on a side note: this is what happens when you spit-up during tummy time.)

We took Graham to his four month appointment a few weeks ago, and he has grown!

Weight: 15 lbs! (47th percentile)

Length: 25 inches! (33rd percentile)

Head Circ: 16 1/4 (30th percentile)

Diagnosis: short and chubby, as always. : )

Graham's appointment went without any problems, and he did really well with his shots. It was kind of funny, though, because Graham is quite ticklish above his knees. When it was time for his shots, the nurse held his legs just above the knees so he couldn't move during the shots, but he started giggling! It was super cute, but the giggles didn't last too long...the shots came and he cried. : (

But here are some of Graham's accomplishments in the last little while:

Sleeping: He sleeps like a champ. We struggled for a while with him not napping, and he was a grouch during the day. He would try really hard to stay awake, and would only sleep for a few minutes before waking up crying. That's when I went to the library and checked out Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Basically, I needed some encouragement from someone or something that leaving him in his bed was okay. I knew it needed to be done but didn't have the guts to do it. So one Friday, in the morning, I put him in his bed awake, but sleepy. He cried for 35 minutes. It was heartbreaking, but then he fell asleep and slept for an hour and a half! Then in the afternoon, I put him in his bed awake, but sleepy. This time he cried for a little over 50 minutes. This was even worse. Incredibly stressful. But then he slept. The next day, Saturday, I put him in his bed and he went right to sleep. Same thing the next nap. Since then, we put him in his bed when he's tired, and he goes to sleep without any problem. Sometimes he'll cry, but for no more than 5 minutes.

So, nap training? Took one day. Go Graham!

Graham giggles with the best of them. It's so cute. He's super ticklish above his knees, in his armpits, and on his collarbones.

He's also started grabbing toys and putting them in his mouth. All of a sudden he started really focusing on things and once he got his hands on it, it went straight to his mouth.

And he talks. Baby talk. He jabbers like he's telling you something really interesting...which is too cute.

Anyway, we think he's the best baby ever and we love him tons!

high chair

Eddie Bauer has this really great high chair that I had been eying for quite some time now. It's wood, it's fabulous, and matches our table. One down side was that fewer and fewer places were carrying it, and they places that did only had it on their websites. Another down side was that it was a little more than we really wanted to pay for it, even with coupons and sales. So we started looking on Craigslist, and behold...a Craigslist miracle!

Isn't it great? Graham and I went and got it yesterday from a nice lady who only used it for one kid. It's in really good shape, and cost us a third of what we would have paid for it if we ordered it. I scrubbed it down with some Clorox water and now it's germ free and ready to go.

Graham is still just a hair small to sit in it...but I think he likes it.