730 days ago...

Yesterday was our second wedding anniversary. It started out as a stressful day, complete with a clingy, diaper-rashed baby, a dirty, filthy house, and stupid work issues to deal with. Then...my husband came home, and my night quickly turned around - long stemmed red roses, a fantastic, touching card, a delicious dinner at Big Rock Chophouse, super expensive wine, and a fantastic sitter who picked up my house for me! I couldn't have asked for more :-) It was great. Seriously. Probably the best night I've had since... oh.... I dunno... our wedding festivities? Seriously, it was perfect!

Of course, in typical Elyse fashion, I forgot my camera. Again. So, unfortunately, no pictures of our fantastic meal, my handsome husband, or my gorgeous roses. But I wouldn't want to leave you without some kind of visual enjoyment, so here's some pictures from our honeymoon in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Look closely, you can see the worker who climbed the tree to get me a fresh coconut!

Our villa - we were upgraded to a honeymoon suite!

Erik's favorite cigar bar, fashioned after Ernest Hemmingway's place

Mariachi band at one of our a la carte dinners

Posing in front of the swim-up bar, our favorite spot in the entire resort!

The hotel at night - tiki torches were everwhere

My new hubby, enjoying one of the many yummy wines we had!

Being goofy, showing off my new wedding ring!

Space Filler

Ok, in all fairness, this post really should be titled: Mommy Is A Total Slacker And Would Forget Her Head If It Wasn't Attached To Her Shoulders

Because, it's not that we DON'T have updates. We do, we've had lots and lots of fun over the last week. It's just that I ("Mommy"), in all my hurried unpreparedness, didn't think to bring along a camera on any of our adventurs. Not once, not twice, but four or five times over this long weekend. So while we had *plenty* of fun photo ops worthy of preserving on film, my dumbass didn't have a camera. So yeah. You just get to read a whole bunch of blahbity-blah-blah about our Labor Day weekend instead. Fun, no?

Over this weekend, Graham made his first pilgrimage to Mommy's Mecca - Birch Run! We had lots and lots of fun dreaming of all the ways we could spend Daddy's money. But we were good, we have lots of stuff to save our pennies for. Then we went to Frankenmuth to have some chicken and potatoes and beer with Oma and Opa. A great time was had by everyone, and Graham was really enjoying his chicken and mashed potatoes! He even had some ice cream, thanks to his Oma.

On Labor Day, we went over to Franklin Village, to visit the Franklin Cider Mill. Graham had his first taste of apple cider and donuts - one of Mommy's favorites! Needless to say, they were both a hit with the little guy. Graham also started feeding himself off of his highchair tray - FINALLY! He was stuffing pancakes, chicken and grilled cheese into his mouth by the end of this weekend. He's been a little slow at the whole self-feeding thing, and it's really nice to be able to actually enjoy my dinner while he feeds himself next to me

:-)

--> Editing the blog to upload some pictures I have on my iPhone (big shout-out to my honey, who bought it for me! Thanks darlin', I love you!!!!!), of Graham during his first trip to the park. And please note the long pants, windbreaker AND socks he was sportin' in the middle of freaking SUMMER! That's Michigan for ya....

And visiting with his Aunt Jamie

Ten! And Nine

Today, Graham is 10 months old! I have a hard time calling him a "baby" or an "infant" now. Seemingly overnight, he's become an actual, honest-to-goodness PERSON, a mini-Erik in looks and a mini-me in attitude, an almost-toddler who's full of life. Full of charisma, smiles and a little bit of mischief. He has his likes (Mommy, biting, nursing, and singing) and his dislikes (lamb, Puffs, going to bed, wearing pants), and he has no problem letting you know exactly which is which. He consciously seeks out trouble objects, crawling to them with amazing speed. And he has perfected the innocent "who, me?! I wasn't doin' nuttin'" look when he gets caught with his hands in the dogs' water dish.

We took Graham to Mod4 to have his nine month pictures done in August, and a sampling of the pictures are up on her blog now (--> Pointing out the "His mom is also one of our favorite moms too~!" statement -- just in case y'all needed further proof of how awesome I really am!!!). If you like what you see, you can view (and order) the rest of the pictures in the gallery, the password is "elyse".

My Baby.

My Toddler.

My joy: