106 weeks, 6 days.

Graham and Annika took a stroll at the park this afternoon.

106 weeks, 5 days.

Graham sang "Happy Birthday" to himself while decorating a playdough cake today.  He loves imagination games right now, especially having conversations with his toys.  For example, Graham adopted a catnip fish and a little dog toy from the cats, which he has named "Fishy" and "Old Guy."  Today, he read stories to Fishy and Old Guy and took them along on our trips outside the house, chatting with them the whole time about where we were going.  He also seems much more able to follow a storyline--for example, when we read Where the Wild Things Are, Graham remembers that Max didn't get his supper, worries about Max being hungry and asks whether Max will eat the "big monsters."

106 weeks, 3 days.

Graham went to Annika's birthday party this morning (l to r, Graham, Sam, Vivian, Annika, Sly, Violet, and Reed).  It's pretty amazing to remember that Graham and Annika met when they were 4 and 2 weeks old, respectively.  Graham was too busy eating cake to do too much reminiscing, though.

In the afternoon, Graham and Sam played endless games of chase around the Elefun game.  Thanks for the great toy, Nana!  Graham doesn't understand what the nets are for, but he LOVES running in circles around the elephant with the butterflies flying in the air.

106 weeks, 2 days.

Graham and Daddy went to the park this morning, where Graham ran into Bennett and learned how to play fetch.

105 weeks, 6 days.

Graham and Xavier formed a band this morning.

105 weeks, 5 days.

Making pizza at art class!

Graham had his 2-year check-up yesterday.  He's talli-sh (35", 65th percentile), slim-ish relative to his height (28 lb, 3 oz, 52nd percentile) and has a big head (in more ways than one) (53 cm in circumference, 101st percentile).

105 weeks, 4 days.

Valentine's week art.

105 weeks, 3 days.

Graham and Sam headed home from playgroup together.

105 weeks, 2 days.

Thanks for the Mr. Potato Head, Nana! Graham opened it this morning and is having a great time playing with it.

105 weeks, 1 day.

Will and I gave Graham a set of Wizard of Oz Mr. Potato Head figures for his birthday. He loves them and wants them to sleep with him, sit on the table while we eat, etc. Here he is tucking Lion into his blankets with him.

105 weeks.

Graham and Noah played in the snow after playgroup this afternoon. Good times in the snow, but at playgroup, Graham threw his first true temper tantrum for no reason I could figure out. After shouting "more go outside" for 45 minutes, he snapped out of it and played happily with his friends. Let's hope this isn't the start of the terrible twos.

104 weeks, 6 days.

Happy Valentine's Day! Graham celebrated by cutting out cookies and decorating muffins with Ellie and Bennett.

104 weeks, 3 days (aka, 2 years!).

Happy birthday, Graham!!! On his birthday, Graham threw himself a birthday playgroup (complete with a game of balloon chase), visited his friend Eric, and played in the snow.

At 2 years, Graham sleeps from about 7:30 pm - 8 am and takes 1 nap from about 1 - 3 pm. He takes after his daddy (in many ways) and still has the occasional huge sleep-in, from 7:30 pm - 10 or 11 in the morning. He's generally a great eater and is currently in a vegetarian streak. Some of his favorite foods are apples with peanut butter, cottage cheese with blueberries (which he calls "cold berries" since he usually has them frozen) and "squirrel nuts" (walnuts). He has a sweet tooth which we try not to exercise often.

In the last few weeks, he figured out puzzles and now can do picture-at-bottom puzzles without any trouble. He also loves organizing/sorting/stacking type activities and all types of music, from "Banana Dance" (aka, kid music) to "Billie Jean". He doesn't watch any TV (other than the occasional Duke basketball or Eagles game), but saw his first movie in the theater, "Wreck it Ralph," a couple weeks ago, and has also seen "The Wizard of Oz" and bits of "Toy Story." He loved "The Wizard of Oz" and talks about Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Lion and Tinman daily. He is a chatterbox and loves to order around the cats (and everyone else).

Graham is silly, smart, empathetic, and a dancing machine. We love you, buddy.

104 weeks, 2 days.

Blowing out his candle.  Didn't need any help.

Woohoo!  Celebrating Graham's lungs!

Birthday fist bump!

First bite of cake!

Dipping the candle in the frosting is the best part.

Pregnant ladies and mamas.

Nursing lady.

Daddy.

Other daddy.

Uncle Bob and Aunt Emily.

Cousin Molly.

Besties.

Intellectuals.

Nana.

Opening cards.

Graham's brunch birthday party! Graham seemed pretty confused about what was going on when his guests started arriving, but before long, he was having fun. He blew out his candle and loved the cake. Thank you to everyone for coming, and special thanks to Nana, Aunt Emily, Uncle Bob and Molly for making the trip up from Philly!

104 weeks, 1 day.

Brooklyn got about a foot of snow last night, so we headed to Fort Greene park for Graham's first sledding trip. At first, he wasn't sure that he wanted to get on the sled, but he ended up loving it. He said "wheeeeee" with Mama and roared like a lion with Daddy.

Later that day, he read The Wizard of Oz over Daddy's shoulder.

104 weeks.

Graham met up with Bennett at Kidville this morning. He had a great time, although he pushed other kids a few times. He is going through a pushing phase. It doesn't seem to be malicious--it seems to be more about trying to get attention from his victims--but is obviously something we are trying to nip in the bud nevertheless.

103 weeks, 5 days.

Graham is a blur of motion dancing at art class.

103 weeks, 3 days.

More of Graham's recent art.