A break at the lake

We were given the fantastic opportunity last week to stay at a lakeside cabin with tons of private land ... complete bliss. For four nights we slept (or took turns sleeping), played by the lake, and enjoyed every minute of being together. Graham loved crawling and crawling with no street or cars in sight.



One of Graham's recent developments is that he began signing. He knows eat, water, more, and milk, and with that success we'll add more signs soon. He surprised us on this trip by pointing to the lake and doing the sign for water. We were so impressed that he could transfer the idea of water in his cup to water that made up the lake! (For baby signing devotees, note that the way he signs for water is by pointing to his mouth with one finger rather than making a W with three fingers. We get it. It works.) The photo album for the whole trip is here.

Six states in 6 months— our traveling baby!

If you count Minnesota, Graham has now been to six states in his short six-month life. This past weekend we added Florida to that roster. Others in the lineup include Georgia, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Iowa!

Our Florida trip was planned so we could visit his grandmother, Oma, and her husband Colin, "Coco." And of course, the rest of the family was so excited to meet Graham for the first time.



Four generations of the Avrutis family came together: my grandfather (now called "Great Grandpa Buzz"), my mom, me, and G. I adored seeing Graham and Great Grandpa Buzz play together. He wasn't afraid to get down on the floor with G and play right alongside him. Important memories were made right there.



We took G to the beach and though it was too chilly for a swim, Graham did dip his toes in the Gulf of Mexico for the very first time.



G also had a great time meeting my cousin Cory and his Great Aunt Vicki. He initially liked their little hunting dog, too, but then he barked in Graham's face, which made him cry. Poor punkin.



G's Great Aunt Susan, my dad's sister, also drove four hours from Jacksonville to meet him. Thanks, everyone for your visits and for showering Graham with love!

Cabin fun

We took our first multi-family vacation this past weekend: 6 parents, two 3-year-olds, a 14-month old, a 7-mo-old, and Graham, who will be 5 months tomorrow! Graham was exposed to the sometimes chaotic, loud, and super fun nature of being with a bunch of kids all at once.



He was completely intrigued by watching the 3-year-olds play rock star band while screaming "banjo! banjo! banjo!" and playing with big sticks. Naturally, Jeff was the band leader.



We roasted marshmellows over the campfire, took turns with the canoe and kayak, danced to Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and more, and went for walks among the colorful fall leaves.




Joe and Jeff relaxed in the lakeside sauna then jumped like madmen into the super cold lake. The adults also took turns making fabulous meals (circus waffles with a homemade raspberry sauce, from-scratch marinara sauce, and Joe even brought the bread machine!, and more...), and we managed to polish off—over the course of the weekend—nearly an entire bottle of whiskey and several bottles of wine after the kids went to bed. Oh! and there was lots of star gazing and some of us even saw a few shooting stars. When can we go back???

Last summer vacation

Summer is over. So sad. But we had a great one and the cool fall air is refreshing and invigorating. We wound down our summer by spending the last week of August at Lake Okoboji, Iowa with Jeff's parents. One of the highlights was that Graham got to meet his Uncle Greg and Aunt Brigitte for the first time. He was smitten with them both and developed quite the crush on Brigitte. We think he may be destined to love brunettes from here on out.


They also bought him a funny little hat imported from Thailand or Vietnam and proceeded to call him "Genghis Graham" for the rest of the weekend. As soon as we put the hat on Graham he proceeded to make an appropriate face for such a little ruler.


On the way to Okoboji, we stopped in a small town called Blue Earth, where they have a giant Green Giant statue (thanks to the peas and corn canning plant there). Naturally we had to stop for a photo of our growing boy next to said Green Giant.


We also had a great dinner lakeside and watched a beautiful sunset...

Sadly, Jeff, Greg and Brigitte had to return home to work after a long weekend but Graham and I stayed on with Nana & Grandpa for the rest of the week. That meant a couple of really cool things: A) I got to sleep in every morning while the grandparents played with Graham (THANK you!!) and B) We all go to lounge around the lake, go swimming, and relax.

We also went for gorgeous boat ride around the lake and Graham got to wear his baby shades for the first time at the beach, under an umbrella to protect that baby skin, of course!

Now, bring on fall! We're excited to relax by our new fireplace, go apple picking, enjoy Halloween and have a few good friends visit!

Coming Home as a Family

The three of us have grown a lot this past week. We just returned from a week-long vacation to the mountains in western North Carolina—our first vacation as a family of three. Jeff and I grew as a couple (and as parents) and Graham seemed to do a whole lot of growing up in just one week. He is 11 weeks old now and his sweet, fun personality has certainly emerged!

Whenever I've moved somewhere new, it has never truly felt like home until returning from a trip. When I walk in the door and unpack my bags, there is a newly realized sense of comfort at returning to a familiar, cozy place. Somehow leaving and then returning brings the meaning of "home" into focus. I had a similar feeling tonight when we returned home as a family of three. It is no longer just J and me. No longer J, me, and a new baby.

It is us: a threesome. A family.

It might have been the first time this all felt exactly right. Until now, I've floated in and out of various states of bliss, fear, discovery and of feeling utterly overwhelmed. As I think any new parent can attest to, there is no way not to be ignorant about the range of emotions that accompany the transformation from couple, to parents, to family.

Anyway, when we walked in the front door tonight, I saw some of G's play things in our family room: a book or two, a colorful floor mat with toys hanging above, a swing. I saw these things and instead of looking at them and feeling like such a newbie to this parenting thing, I looked at them and felt how much they belonged there. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be.

Somehow, our trip to NC brought the three of us closer together. The trip itself was perfect timing. J and I were both exhausted and needed to spend some real time together as a couple. (Thanks to Robert and Carol, we had some time alone.) We set two goals for the trip— #1: sleep and #2: be in nature. We stuck to them pretty well, though we could still use more of both.

We also grew as parents. We were anxious about how G would respond to travel—especially the flying. He was a dream. We played and laughed on the flight, and of course, he slept, too. Other passengers were smitten with him. Most of the time spent in the car, however, was exhausting. G would cry, wail, sob. With a minimum three-hour drive from the Atlanta airport to our condo in NC, and then lots of twisty mountain roads every time we wanted to do any exploring during the week, we had to find ways to maintain our sanity through G's cries. We tried everything to soothe him, but still, he would wail. It was heartbreaking. But we also learned that this kiddo is resilient. Within seconds of taking him out of his car seat, he would beam and giggle at us again. He didn't hate us after all for putting him in that darned seat. And yes, we could survive his stretches of crying—though sometimes barely.

Perhaps we got a bit of the new parent bewilderedness knocked out of us. With each passing day we became more confident at our ability to parent well together. I know that the feeling of bewilderment is likely to return throughout G's childhood as he passes in and out of various stages, but I hope we always retain the constant feeling that we are capable of parenting to the best of our abilities.

We learned from our mistakes, too... vacation isn't what it used to be for us. No more staying out all day (or all night) as we might have wanted to. A little baby has limits, gets overstimulated, gets oh-so-tired. And that can't be ignored. Yes, a couple of times we pushed G beyond his limits—not realizing that we were doing so—and then felt like terrible parents afterward. So we learned to slow down and we admitted that we just can't pack in all the same adventures like we used to. We learned to be OK with that, too, though somehow it came naturally. That meant foregoing some adventures we would liked to have had (whitewater rafting, river canoeing, horseback riding — we'll do those things when he's older!). Those things were replaced with simple pleasures like laying G on a blanket while making silly faces at him, giggling endlessly together, and taking shorter nature walks rather than hours-long day hikes. I think J and I fell more in love with each other watching the other one parent, too.

With that, I'll end this rambling. In the next entry, more about the trip itself, and fun photos! -A

Flirting with the ladies

On our way to North Carolina, we stopped for an afternoon visit with Karina, who lives in Atlanta, and Amanda, who drove in from Birmingham. The three of us girls were beyond happy to be together again. Graham loved meeting these lovely ladies for the first time and reveled in the attention. Mr. Flirtation for sure.

He also really liked Chris, K's boyfriend, who went to great lengths to get giggles out of G with some funny (freaky?) faces. Thanks, Chris!