Graham - 7 Months

These monthly growth posts are rolling around way too quickly.  I am not quite sure how Graham is already 7 months old, but he is and Nick and I are doing our best to soak up all of these special moments because we know that they don't last long.

If I had to pick one word to describe Graham the last month is would have to be CURIOUS.  He doesn't want to miss anything, and his curiosity drives most everything that he does.  He wants to touch/hold everything he can get his hands on, and if it is in his hands rest assured it will end up in his mouth.  Speaking of his mouth...in the past few weeks his first two teeth have appeared (bottom middle).  He has been a little fussier than normal but not too bad.

He eats solids once a day usually around lunch or in the afternoon.  He has eaten everything we have offered him, but so far it seems that is favorite vegetable is squash and his favorite fruit is peaches.  

His other accomplishments this month include:  sitting up, scooting, playing peek-a-boo, and language development (da da and ba ba...no m's just yet, but we are working on that).

Each day bring something new, and I am so thankful that I get to experience each step of this journey with him.  

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like About.me. Everyone’s got multiple social media sites, blogs, etc. About.me lets you showcase them all at once. Don’t want to send friends, family members or potential employers on a wild goose chase across the Internet? This free service grants you a customizable webpage that “giftwraps” all of your sites in one spot. Best of all, you get a personalized URL that can be added to your business cards or email signatures. You can visit mine at http://About.me/NickBaggett

This week I love tomatoes. I may have declared my love for tomatoes in an older post. But I’m here to clarify my love. You should know that when I say “tomato”, I don’t mean the variety you get at Winn Dixie that has turned pink and hard from refrigeration and preservative chemicals. I’m talking about the red, juicy maters that come from the Black Belt region of Alabama. No, it’s not called that because of the high number of karate enthusiasts that live there. It’s referring to the dark, rich soil there that is known to make a successful gentleman farmer out of anyone with a shovel and some seeds. My parents gave us a big batch of tomatoes out of their garden during our recent visit to Camden and I can’t tell you how many BLTs Julie and I have devoured since then. Give me a tomato and a salt shaker and you and I can be friends. Add some Dukes mayonnaise, some lettuce and lots of bacon and you watch whatever you want to on my TV.

This week, I don’t like being without my keyless entry remote. The plastic case on my truck’s keyless entry remote broke. Since it’s no longer attached to my keychain, I’ve decided to leave it at home. Now, I’ve prepared myself for the day when the remote’s battery died by not allowing myself to use the “clicker” to unlock my door when standing less than 10 feet away from my truck. It kills me to see people walk up to their car door and use their remote rather than their key to unlock their door. But I seem to have my hands full more frequently these days and I’m really missing that remote. Those suckers are expensive and I thought I found an affordable replacement for the case online. But it was too good to be truck as the replacement case was not an exact match for my broken case. Oh well, guess I have to continue using the old fashion method.

First 4th

Our first 4th of July as a family of three...

Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like my “dad” shoes. Since my last post, I enjoyed my very first Father’s Day. My beautiful bride made me a wonderful breakfast and my son gave me a new pair of boat shoes. They’re kinda like the shoes all the popular kids are wearing these days. I refer to them as my “Dad shoes” because they’re almost exactly like the shoes my dad has been sporting on lazy Sunday afternoons for the last 20+ years. Yes, the same pair. I was surprised how comfortable these shoes are and I’m breaking them in more each day. Thanks Graham!

This week, I love a good garden hose. It has been extremely hot and dry over the past few weeks in our neck of the woods. While I feel watering the lawn is wasteful (money, not water), there was no getting around the unsightly dirt patches in front of our home. Our yard does not feature an irrigation system but fortunately, it’s not so big that I can’t keep things wet with a regular sprinkler and a garden hose. Julie and I have two hoses. One is very cheap and the other is one of the more prices “no kink” hoses. Guess which one I like more? I swear that cheap hose gains a new crease for a kink every time I roll it up!

This week, I don’t like the modern-day version of showing political allegiance. There’s a great scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou that depicts what it was like to see politicians of the era campaigning on the courthouse square amongst their supporters. People still show support by going to political rallies but in this new age, many people take to the Internet to voice their allegiance. And by voicing their allegiance, I mean “point out the flaws of the other side”. That’s all it’s about these days: bashing the other side without really knowing what your side is about. And the non-personal aspect of the Internet gives people a false confidence in their views and eliminates the fair consideration of the other side’s good qualities. One of my Facebook friends (who is known for his sarcastic sense of humor) said it best the other day after the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s healthcare plan: “Man, I wish folks would just open up and share more of their political opinions on Facebook.”

This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about from both sides:

And there's this...

I mean, would you really say this kind of stuff to someone's face?