Baby Ashlyn

Graham has a new cousin on the Memmesheimer side -- Ashlyn Elise Comerford. She was born on April 18, 2007. We got our first peek at her on Memorial Day, when Anne and Hank hosted a barbeque for all the kids. Chris and Christine made the trip, too, so all the cousins played in the sprinkler while Ashlyn watched. Here's Graham checking her out.

Fishing Derby

Not to be left in the dust by his cousin, Graham too participated in a fishing derby. Here's one of him with a catch. Of the three kids who went together with their dads, Graham was the youngest and caught the most.

Graham has become really good friends with a neighbor who is about six months older than he is. Jordan has slightly different interests, and a different "style" than Graham (perhaps because he's a middle child between two sisters) and has been a good friend. Graham, Jordan and his older sister Madison participated in the fishing derby. Not a one of them would eat at the fish fry that followed!

Mea Culpa

Man, am I bad at this keeping in touch stuff. I'll get the kinks worked out eventually. I'm going to try to recap the summer for you, since it's now fall.

Art Show 2007

Each year, Graham's school holds an art show where the child care center is transformed into an art museum. The director introduces herself to each visitor to the museum as the curator, and makes the student the art museum guide. Graham chose for us to see the kindergarten room first, rather than his own room, mostly so he could explore where he would be going this summer!

Graham's class has been studying all things medieval -- knights, castles, dragons, princes and princesses -- including chivalric behavior. The other night I was bestowed with the most solemn bow in place of a "you're welcome". He also explained to me how people must address a king -- apparently they appointed "king/queen for a day" and Graham got to be the first child to be king. I am greatly appreciative that he did not inform us of this when he got home, but otherwise acted in a normal fashion. I was informed a few days later of his gracious behavior and good sportsmanship as king. The children made a castle out of recycled products, made flags for the castle, made shields, and worked with modeling clay to build something related to knights. For reasons only known to him, Graham decided to make "an alien king who lives in the castle and has many knight students and lives with his alien queen". There was also a display relating to a sand castle that they built in which each child was quoted regarding what they learned about castles. Graham said "I know everything about dragons. I know everything about everything. Frost dragons are nice and cold and fire dragons are hot and full of fire." Wonder where he learned to know everything about everything! His father says that's my fault -- I would tend to agree. I've included a picture of his flag above.

Graham has still not shown much interest in drawing actual shapes and people, although he can when pressed. He likes the Jackson Pollock method the best, and may be working on some other methods for which I do not know if there is a name. A lot of his people have only one eye, and they have many legs. This is a drawing he did on his magnadoodle of our family. Don't ask me who is who.

Sugaring 2007

Well, global warming has affected the sugaring here in New Hampshire. We kept waiting and waiting and waiting for Popa to call and tell us that he needed our help sugaring, but the call never came. We all thought (and Mom dreaded) that the big run would come while Popa was in Florida with his golf team, but it was bitterly cold that week, luck for Mom! But not so lucky for Autumn who left a message on Popa's answering machine that he played over and over to encourage him in his task "please, Poppy, I need more syrup!" I think he ended up making less than a gallon -- and he usually makes 10!

Graham had fun, nonetheless. And I think he made himself sick from eating too much syrup. We had sugar on snow, too! I'm not sure what's going on in this picture, but it looks like there's some big decision being made, don't you think?

Okay, so I am not so reliable

Well, my intentions were good, but then I actually starting (collective gasp!) trying to exercise in the morning before Graham got up because that was the only time I had to myself. Well, tonight, Mr. Graham asked (yes, you read that right) to sleep in his own bed! I am going to win this battle yet! So, I got some extra time to work on my pathetic attempts at blogging. And, of course, I found that Melissa and Deana were ahead of me again, and I had to at least catch up!

So, we've been busy since February, but it's all the same old stuff. We're still searching for answers for Chuck's problems, but are now finally being pointed to the Boston hospitals, which relieves me a great deal. He's scheduled for an EMG in June and we'll see what that tells us.

Graham has grown by leaps and bounds. I haven't measured him lately, but he seems to have shot up an inch in the last two weeks. He's getting ready to transition to the kindergarten program at our child care center, and he is really excited. The best part for him is that they won't make him take a one-hour "nap". He is still a year away from public kindergarten, which is fine given his level of activity and (in) attention level. The only bummer is that his new "best friend" from our neighborhood will be going to public school this fall and I think there will be some drama associated with that!

First Time on Skis!

Graham tried out a pair of cross-country skis that were a little too big for him, but he did REALLY well. He went around and around and around the house. This was before our Valentine's Day snow storm, so he was operating on nearly sheer ice! I only saw one fall, and it wasn't too traumatic (unlike what I recall from my own first attempts at skiing!)

Peter and the Wolf

Graham has had a fascination with music since he was very little. He could sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at 15 months old (although, strangely, he does not know the song now) and we have a great recording of him playing Grandma’s piano in Jaffrey and singing “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” on Mother’s Day 2004 (he was 18 months old). We tried Kindermusic which went well the first time, but the second time he was with a group of kids who had not been in care outside of the home and had a hard time socializing with other kids. Of course, you probably know about the request to Santa last Christmas for a ukulele.

On Sunday, we went to see the New Hampshire Philharmonic perform Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The program included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, 1st Movement (Spring) and a short Mozart piece. The story of Peter was told by local radio personality Laura Knoy, a mother of two boys about Graham’s age. Chuck knows her from his days at the Concord YMCA where she taught aerobic classes!

Graham was quite surprised at the sound that that many instruments made. I think when he saw the number of musicians, he thought it would be really loud, but it was pleasant. The clapping was the worst in his view! Following the performance, some of musicians made themselves available for the children to look at and, in some cases, play the instruments. He was disappointed that there was no tuba, but when he got to play the bass drum and the timpani, I think he got over it. He also helped play the violin (regular and child-sized), cello and trombone.

Grandma's Handiwork

Grandma thought she'd get back into the crafty thing with the advent of grandparenthood. So, she decided to knit sweaters! Graham chose the puffins and Grandma performed the work. Fortunately, she finished before he grew any more!

Christmas times 3?

We went up to Mimi Debbie's in Wilder, Vermont on January 20th to celebrate Christmas with the extended Houghton family. We had a great time playing (wildly) with Zinn and Jack. It was extremely cold, but the boys got a little outside time. They also jumped on Mimi's small trampoline, played knights, and pig-piled on Laurie in Mimi's bed!

Where's Winter?

The first week of January was rather odd around here. On the first Saturday of the New Year, it was over 70 degrees!!! So, what do yo do when it's that nice? You go to the ocean, of course. We weren't the only ones with this idea, but we had a nice visit and then went out to dinner.

Of course, now winter has returned with a vengeance. It was 5 below this morning!

Merry Christmas!

Well, I fell off the blogging wagon, but I'm back and ready to roll!

Graham nicely provided us with a lovely bug from school two weeks before Christmas that had us all flat on our backs for a full week -- and then we just coughed our way into the New Year. It set back our grand plans of having all the shopping, baking and wrapping done before the weekend of Christmas! We got it done, but it wasn't pretty.

We went to a local tree farm to get our tree. Graham met a friend from school and played hide and go seek among the trees while we selected a nice tree. Emma made friends, too.

On Christmas Eve, our family lit the candles in the Advent Wreath at church. Graham got itchy, but wanted to stay for singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. So he and Chuck went to the nursery to play tic-tac-toe for a while, and then he got to hold his candle and sing "the most beautiful Christmas song".

We wrote a note to Santa that asked for a piece of coal because Graham wanted to know what it looked like (we'd been threatening that if he didn't calm down, Santa would put coal in his stocking). Santa wrote back that he didn't have any extra coal to give Graham because it was in high demand this year!

Gramma and Papa Houghton came over after their Christmas Eve service and were here in the morning for the chaos. Graham ripped through those presents!

Thanksgiving 2006

We had a very Memmesheimer Thanksgiving as all the Houghtons were across the world and country! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Hastings for a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. It was rainy, but the kids did pretty well.

Then Graham, Chuck and I went on an indoor camping adventure at Gramma and Popa Houghtons -- they'd been gone for weeks and it was a little nippy, but we warmed it up and checked all the beds (they worked fine) and found a surprise or two of the animal kind, but otherwise, we were sure that the place would be ready for their return the next week.

On Friday, we went to Keene to Gammie and Papa Hank's to play with the cousins. We went to the playground at Jonathan Daniels Elementary School (where Chuck and his siblings went to school and Kyle had his first teaching job). This picture is some kids trying to get past the troll (Christine). Adam wanted to be on the blog again, and here he is!

Ahoy, Matey!

This is Graham with his pirate ship -- you'll note that he's extremely unhappy with it. He has come to love pirates as a result of spending the whole month of October pretending to be one, reading about them, drawing treasure maps, hiding treasure and playing on the big ship climbing structure at school. He got the "aargh" down pretty good, too!

While opening the pirate present he said, "This is the best birthday I've ever had in my life!"

Graham has been making up some pretty good stories and has some pretty quotable things to say. For example, he had a stomach bug and was having some gingerale after an unpleasant middle-of-the-night surprise (all over his bed) and was upset because "one of the jumpy things from the gingerale got in my eye!"

He wrote this letter about the time of his birthday:

"Dear Daddy, I wish you could stay with me every day. I would like Daddy to stay with me all day and all night, but when I want him to leave, I want him to leave. Daddy, I want you and me to be married when I'm a grown-up and we're at our wedding. The End."

And after a bad departure from school one day, I got this note:

"Dear Mommy, I wish you wouldn't leave without any extra kisses. Tonight I want extra kisses please. Miss you. Graham"

Happy Fourth Birthday, Graham

Graham celebrated his fourth birthday on November 15th. He requested a "private" party with just Mom and Dad. Despite our misgivings, we honored the request (at the suggestion of some experienced early childhood folks). This is Graham getting his first look at his "Cars" cake!

Boy, was he excited! He got the "Cars" movie, an inflatable "Cars" chair, some "Cars" cars, a pirate ship for the tub and a Magnadoodle! It was tough, but he finally went to sleep that night.

A Day Full of Promise

As some of you know, we have had a trying fall. This is a picture of Graham playing in leaves on the morning of October 21, 2006 -- Chuck's 41st birthday. We had a nice morning with special doughnuts and presents for Daddy. But by noon, Chuck was in such distress (dizziness, nausea, confusion and pain) that he called the doctor and was instructed to go to the hospital. He spent a very upsetting afternoon at the emergency room, where some strange diagnoses were suggested, and finally was told he was being transferred by ambulance to Lahey Clinic for a neurology consultation. He was summarily discharged by the neurologist on Sunday morning, and sent home, not feeling much better.

We followed up with his primary care doctor. He reccommended two things: stop taking all medication, and then scheduled him for a consultation with a local neurologist, who suggested that he might have something called BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo), a condition of the inner ear caused by debris floating in that shell-like shape and referred him to an audiologist. The audiologist says its not BPPV, but that he has permanent damage to his vestibular nerve causing the dizziness and nausea. She has recommended three months of physical therapy to learn how to compensate for the deficit. There has been no reason given for the nerve damage. It can be caused by inflammation in the inner ear damaging the nerve, such as from a virus or infection.

His joint pain has lessened to a degree, but is still present. He is not taking any arthritis medications anymore, just Advil and Tylenol. We've been fighting with the insurance company to get the necessary equipment for Chuck's sleep apnea. He got it yesterday, and we will see if that relieves his fatigue.

Halloween

We had a visit from a superhero at our house on Halloween weekend! Mr. Incredible arrived on Friday night when he attended the annual Harvest Festival at Live and Learn, stayed on Saturday when he had his haircut, showed off to his Gammie and Popa at Garrett's birthday celebration, went (speed) trick or treating on Monday, and attended Preschool on Tuesday. It was a whirlwind visit, but definitely enjoyed by all.

On Monday, October 30, we went to see The Wiggles Live! It was exciting, but the show was just a little too long for Graham -- he made it to the end, barely. He danced and sang and yelled "Wake up, Jeff!" He also went to the edge of the seats so he could talk to Murray (the red one), and that was the highlight of that visit. "Murray said 'hi' to me!"

We rushed back to Lee after the show to particpate in Lee's trick or treat. We headed out as soon as the costume was on. We headed down the connecting dead end street to find one of his buddies, Trinity (who was Cinderella). We found her and went door to door as fast as Mr. Incredible can go. It was a race to every door! Interestingly enough, he really did eat much of the candy. It was the collecting that was fun!

Grandma Hastings' 85th Birthday

On October 14th, we went to Gilsum to celebrate Grandma Hastings' 85th birthday! It was a great fall day and the cousins Graham, Katie and Jon had a wonderful time. Garrett came, too, but he didn't jump off any rocks -- that was the highlight of the day for Graham.

We visited with Grandma and Popa Houghton for the first time in a while and were surprised at how many goldfish can multiply in a pond in a few months! Graham checked out his "scary forest" and made sure that "Autumn's Bunny Trail" was in good order. We also checked out all the scarecrows in downtown Jaffrey.

Labor Day 2006

Chuck had been invited to a wedding of two co-workers, so Graham went to Sleepy Hollow with Grandma and Popa all by himself! He ran them ragged, and had the first bad dream that he was able to tell us about. It involved a long slide and monsters who ran away when Graham burped! The mind of a three year old at work!

The wedding was a traditional Greek affair, and Chuck and I had a very good time. I picked up Graham on Sunday from the Hollow. Here's a picture of Graham stomping in some puddles with his umbrella.

Lee Country Fair

I'm still a little behind on retelling the events of our summer, but I'll keep working on it!

The second weekend in September brings the Lee Country Fair. It's the best little fair I've ever been too, and Graham loves it. He asks about it starting with warm weather. The main reason is the coolest competition I've ever seen -- the Pedal Tractor Pull! Graham participated last year, and has spent all summer "training" for this year's event.

The Pedal Tractor Pull is exactly what it sounds like -- little kids pedaling toy tractors, and pulling skids with bricks on them! They pedal on a track made of plywood that's about 30 feet long. Last year, Graham made it about half-way. This year, he went off the track! He had a great time, and very proud of himself. He didn't win a trophy, but did get a ribbon and a t-shirt which he proudly wears.

The pictures are in reverse order, but this gives you an idea.

Graham also experienced helium balloons at the Lee Country Fair for the first time -- I think we lost two to outer space, and popped one. He ate cotton candy and played games for prizes -- in all a great day!