Congratulations!!

Congratulations to "Uncle" Fred and the Montford Mustangs! They won the city football championship, and we are so glad we could be there to help cheer them on! Hooray!!

Happy Birthday!

I know everyone says it, but I literally can't believe that one year has gone by so fast!  It seems like just yesterday that we were waiting and wondering when our precious bundle would make its arrival.  And now, in the blink of an eye, we have a walking, talking, little boy who fills each day with more love than we ever thought possible.

So, how does one celebrate such a big occasion?  By playing hooky of course!!  I was not about to go to work on this all important day!  Graham and I had a blast!

We slept in, went to storytime at the library where everyone sang Happy Birthday to Graham (which he did like, contrary to his actions on the video!), had Chik-fil-a with Chris at lunchtime, took a snuggly nap, and went to the pumpkin patch and to the park!

 
                                                           

 

After Chris got home, we went to see Uncle Fred's Montford Mustangs in the city middle school championship football game!  They won, and we were so excited!!!

 

And if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, we decided to have a birthday party and cupcake after dinner.  We even invited both sets of grandparents and Uncle Brian to join in the fun via the webcams on both computers!

All in all, I would say we had a successful 1st birthday!  Here's to many, many, many more!

Fall Football Fun!

I love all seasons, but I am especially fond of those that I don’t really get to enjoy all that much living in Florida: Fall and Winter. Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder, but every year that I am not in Iowa for the changing of the summer to fall, I find myself longing cool days, fireplaces, apple cider, visits to the pumpkin patch, and jumping into huge piles of leaves (You will note that I did not say raking the leaves…absence may make the heart grow fonder, but somethings you just don’t miss!)!

The thing I miss the most though, is football games. No, I am not crazy! I know we have football games in Florida, but it just isn’t the same. I really miss those cool afternoons and evenings where you bundle up in sweatshirts and jeans to go to the local high school bleachers and freeze your toes off. I love the thought of listening to the pep band and having to jump and up and down cheering just to stay warm! Maybe the cheerleader in me has just never died, but I truly miss those days. Something about football games and shorts just doesn’t seem right to me.

We had the opportunity to take Graham to his first football game, a middle school match up between the Montford Mustangs and the Deer Lake Bucks, tonight, and I am so excited that he got a traditional football experience. Though it started warm, it ended up cool and rainy and we broke out the jackets and sweatshirts (and umbrellas). We jumped up and down on the bleachers to keep warm and had a great time! All our cheering paid off too, as Montford (the team coached by Graham’s godfather, Fred) won!!

Buddy Walk

In raising Graham, one of the things to which Chris and I are both extremely committed is encouraging his understanding that all individuals are equal and everyone deserves the right to be educated, nurtured, and loved. We hope that he will see everyone as a person first, and have a great respect for the differences in each of us.

Chris and I have each participated in the Down Syndrome Association of Tallahassee's Buddy Walk for several years now, and we were excited to bring Graham to his first "walk". He did a great job riding, although I think he would probably have preferred to walk himself! I think he was most excited by the beads that were being handed out at the end, but what do you expect from an 11 month old?! It was great to have so much fun as a family while supporting our friends and community!

First Friday

On the first Friday of each month, Railroad Square, a local arts district, hosts an event called...wait for it..."First Friday"! (railroadsquare.com/first_fri.html)
On these nights, the studios, galleries, and shops stay open late and draw a quite interesting crowd. There is always live music and performances by local singers and bands (and if you are lucky enough, some drag queens!). Though we have not gone as often as we wished, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather this weekend and take Graham to his first "First Friday". Initially, I think he probably thought we were crazy and wondered where on earth we had taken him, but in the end, he enjoyed the people watching and interacting with the art exhibits.
Check out that cutie! We like to call him "Yosemite Graham"!

Happy Birthday X2!

Does the title of this post sound familiar to anyone? It is actually the title of the post I wrote on my birthday when Graham was one week old. Now, we are wishing Happy Birthday to Uncle Brian and Grandpa Koch who are also exactly one week apart. For three straight generations now, we have had family members who are born exactly one week apart. My mom's birthday is one week before her father's, my brother's is one week before my dad's, and Graham's is one week before mine. In each case, the member of the younger generation is exactly one week earlier. So, I guess Graham's future child could be born on October 19?!

Happy Birthday Uncle Brian! We love you!

Happy Birthday Grandpa! We love you too!!
(Let's be sure we take a picture when we see you next month, so that we don't look like we are in a massive time warp with little baby Graham!)

Even in Australia

One of my favorite stories from growing up was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and let's be honest, I still get it out and read it over every so often. Poor Alexander has one of those days where seemingly anything that can go wrong does. From not getting the toy surprise in his cereal box to having to wear his railroad train pajamas to bed. Nothing that day went Alexander's way.

Last week, I didn't just have ONE of those days, I had several, all in a row, 6, to be exact. Last week was, in a word, rotten. In retrospect, it really wasn't that any one thing was all that horrid, but when you added all the bad things up it became one of my worst weeks ever. It started with teething, feverish baby and a massive lack of sleep on Sunday night and ended Friday night with our computer completely crashing due to a corrupted hard drive. In between there were extra meetings, two late night School Open Houses, bad classes, worse classes, zany students and staff, and a teething, feverish, and sick baby. Needless to say by Saturday, I was at my wit's end!!

In the story, Alexander keeps threatening to move to Australia. Only to discover in the end that his mom says, "Some days are like that, even in Australia". My solution was to seriously contemplate packing everything into the car, driving to Iowa, and living in my parents basement. Of course, my parents still can't drive down their street due to construction, the basement would need a lot of work, and oh yeah, I guess we wouldn't have any source of income, but it really didn't seem like a bad idea at the time!

So I had my "escape" all planned out in my head, but yesterday the sun rose again, Graham finally felt better, and the Hawkeyes pulled out an amazing victory! Sure enough things are turning around, at least I hope. So for now, I guess I will stay put and just remind myself that "Some weeks are like that, even in Iowa."