Graham is 3 1/2!!

To my favorite boy,


3 and a ½. Wow! You are getting sooo big! I even have the stats to prove it:


Height: 41 in, 90-95%
Weight: 36 lbs, 50-75%


Besides your stature, you’re getting big in many other ways. You are becoming more independent all the time. You make a lot more choices in what we do, what you eat. You do more things for yourself, such as being potty trained for more than 4 mos now and helping dress yourself. We are so proud of you!


Your temperament is the same as always. You are our sweet boy. You listen pretty well, as well as any 3 yr old I have seen. You try to please us and seem sad when you don’t. If we scold you or are disappointed you will say, “Uh-oh” and hang your head. It melts our heart and we can’t help but forgive you instantly (not like we wouldn’t have anyway).

You are a great big brother, sweet to Macy just like you are to us! You are very interested in your little sister. You follow me when I am caring for her and you try to help. You’ll pat her butt when she cries, or hand me a wipe when I am changing her diaper. You have never shown any jealousy towards her despite our close relationship and now having to share your mama.

Right now it is summer so your routine is waking up between 8:30 and 9:30 am. We put you to bed around 9 pm, though it’s 10:15 now and you’re still in your room talking to Mr. Frog. By the way, you love Mr. Frog (maybe one day you’ll come up with a more creative name for him than Mom and Dad did). You give him the biggest hugs when it’s time to lay down. You don’t stay in your bed long. You get out and sleep on the floor. You’re still our “crime scene sleeper,” that is when you finally fall asleep it looks like a crime scene! You don’t always think you need a nap, but your mama knows better, so every day you spend 1.5 hours in your room for down time, about half the time you fall asleep.

You have Physical Therapy on Mondays and Wednesdays for an hour and a half. Your therapist is Staci, with Kathy assisting. Believe it or not, you love it. Your favorite is when they hook you up in “the cage” to practice jumping. You can now jump on your own, just barely clearing the ground, but clearing it nonetheless. We can see that you are getting much stronger. You are running faster and longer distances. I am so impressed at how hard you work.

You have Speech Therapy on Tuesday and Thursdays for 45 minutes with Olga. She is the first Speech Therapist you have really worked hard for and she is getting a lot out of you. Many have noticed that your pronunciation has improved a lot. The biggest accomplishment is that you are now combining words!!! I cannot tell you how excited we are for this milestone. It has seemed you were on the cusp of this for 2 years and now you are finally doing it. When you first started doing it your mama cried tears of joy and gratitude!! You have had many 2 word phrases for some time, but you were not combining separate phrases yourself. You have done it on occasion, but not with any regularity. The first I noticed it recently was at the Chromosome 18 Conference. We were lying in bed and you were jibber jabbering like you always do, but then I noticed It wasn’t gibberish. Your pronunciation wasn’t perfect so it took me a minute to notice you were saying, “Push arrow, push arrow.” At the conference you loved pushing the arrow on the elevator, as well as the buttons for the floors. No one taught you this phrase, you just said it. I was pleasantly surprised. Then the next morning as we were checking out you were standing at the doors waving saying, “Hi car!” Then I pointed to the elevator and asked you if it was going up or down, you replied, “Go up.” At the point I knew we were onto something. Your first 3 word sentence was, “Get off me!” taught to you by Daddy. He will lay on you until you say it, now you have added a please to the end. Of course now you say it at other times too, like when we try to dress you or put you to bed. Then we question if we should have taught you that. You have added many other phrases to your repertoire. The other day you said, “Get ON me,” and climbed into my lap for some cuddles. How sweet is that??

You have swim class on Tuesday and Thursday nights with Daddy. The classes are a half hour and go fast. Daddy says you are kicking much better and now you’re working on paddling.


Things you love: your Smart Cycle bike, sleepovers at Gaga and Papa's, yogurt (dairy free), going outside, books, letters and numbers.

 

You are our favorite boy and we love you so much!


Love,
Mommy