Holiday firsts

The holiday season was so much sweeter with our little one this year. Making Christmas magical for little Graham was the goal, and I think we made it happen.
I know the presents shouldn’t matter much, but I’ve always been pretty excited about that aspect of Christmas. This year, it’s amazing how little I cared about what I would unwrap from under the tree as opposed to what little Graham would get. While I really appreciated the gifts that I personally received from family and friends, whenever someone gave something to my little boy my heart really overflowed. It was so fun to see his little face light up looking at sparkly ornaments, with each new toy, and to see him wrestle with the bows and wrapping paper (which seemed at times to be more exciting for him than the actual toy inside, haha).
It was so nice to get together with family and friends—and for Graham to get to interact with everyone. He’s becoming very sociable, and as long as Graham is not overly tired he’s in a friendly mood. He really loved seeing his young cousins. Little man loved watching other babies play and unfortunately also loved trying to steal away their toys and trying to touch (read: smack) their faces.
At 10 months of age, some light discipline is something that’s finally becoming necessary—I’m still not used to having to tell him “no” sometimes. He and his cousins are not yet at the age where the concept of “sharing” toys can be understood, so we the parents were all busy distracting the little ones as toys were snatched back and forth between them. A little chaotic and so much fun.
Graham is really into touching people’s faces these days. I’ve been trying to teach him about the parts of our faces (“where’s mama’s nose?”), so this is adding to his interest. Unfortunately what starts out as a sweet chubby little hand caressing my nose quickly turns into hard smacking and poking around. I’m trying to limit the word “no” when I can, instead saying ,”be easy, be gentle with mama,” and showing him how to lay his hand on my face softly.
But “no” is still coming out more and more as our little explorer is constantly getting into everything (the d@#% dog bowls!) and “petting” (again, smacking) our dog Freddy (“da!”). It can get a little frustrating at times, but I end up laughing at the end of the day’s thinking of this tiny little person’s antics. He is a handful for sure, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Our little Graham is the very best thing.