Graham's cracker

My favorite thing that happened today:
I was throwing a ball back and forth with Graham, which puts him out of his mind with glee.  He squeals, thrusts out his arms, and stomp-runs to chase it.  After one toss of mine he chased it, and  passed over a graham cracker he'd abandoned on the floor earlier.  A few steps from there, he squealed again, ran back to the cracker, the same jubilant edge, and shoved it into his mouth. 
And then he lumbered over and collapsed in my arms.
He's one of my unending obsessions.  

The Bruiser

Graham is my bruiser.  He climbs the park structures and down the slides like a boss.  Jude takes toys from him and body slams him all day long, and he doesn't bat a lengthy eyelash, but if I haven't read his mind on food or beverage, or put him down too soon, he scrunches up his face and smooshes out his soggy lips.  He loves to climb up on the couch and lean way back, getting really comfy.  And he beholds his kingdom (the family room) with a look of satisfaction. 


He woke up crying from teething last week and I went up to take him some Tylenol.  I picked him up and as I put the dropper to his mouth he growled, "Not that!"  I had to laugh -- he growls 90% of his little sentences. 


He loves hanging with the bros.  If there's a grown man around, that's who he wants to play with.  On the 4th of July, we went to the beach with a bunch of friends, and Graham spotted the Air Force Pilot in the bunch immediately (Seth Schurtz) and climbed up on his lap.  It's like he knew that of all the people there, this guy would be most likely to hook him up with a ride on a fighter jet.  They shared a can of Pringles, and Graham would take huge stacks of them and shove them in Seth's mouth. 


He tries to run and it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.  If I leave the baby gate open for 2 seconds he knows it and books it as fast as his fat legs can go, pumping his arms, eyes wild with the thrill of MAYBE making it into the office where he can throw pens around.


Long live Bruiser!

GrahamBamCam

This jolly barnacle is built like a 1930s boxer, and walks like Frankenstein's monster.  The things that make him most happy are still being held, tickled, giving zerberts, and EATING. 

Besides a hefty load of "DADADADADA" he walks around saying, "I DID IT!" all the time.  Sometimes it's obvious what he just did; he got ahold of the ___ he wanted, pushed himself up, gave Jude a zerbert, but sometimes he just says it and we assume he must be talking about blinking his eyes or breathing in and out.  This nearly omnipresent phrase is cute, and mixed in at times with "I NEED THAT!" or "I GOT IT!

He takes a 2-3 hour nap, and has yet to give me the witching hours in the afternoon that are so prevalent in little runts.

He calls me "Nonny" most of the time, sometimes "Momma." 

He's in that phase where he is such a klutz and a complete and total danger to himself.  He gets a new bruise or scrape before the last one has a chance to heal.  You can see the shiner he got from the bathtub -- I promise I was holding onto him!  I just pray he keeps his teeth. 

He loves to arrange and with just a teensy amount of guidance, he will clean up toys in their proper place, and loves to throw away trash.  Or anything into the trash.  I have fished several non-garbage items out of the trash can, and a bottle of Aquaphor I saw him walking around with is still MIA.  I suspect I shall never see it again.

I spend so much time kissing his poofy cheeks; he's still the dreamiest Graham of them all.

Why Graham is Extra Awesome

• He's almost walking!  He will push himself to standing all the time, but it's almost always just so he can dive bomb/trust-fall onto a person or a pillow.  He's shuffled a few steps, but is much more excited to stick the trusty crawl.
• He says, "Yeah!" especially if the question is, "Do you want some milk?" or "Do you want to swing?" or "Do you want to go down the slide?"
• He also says, "Mmmmmmm-DAA!" all day long just because it's so much fun.
• When I hold him on my hip, he holds onto my thumb that's holding his leg.  It's these little things that just about kill me.
• He started giving Jude zerberts whenever he's got some skin exposed.  It's hilarious.  He'll pat it a couple of times and then go at it with the "zerbies," as Jude calls them.  Hysterical. 
• I still can't take his tantrums seriously -- in fact, they almost always make me laugh. The things that make him despair or furious are things like not getting to splash around in the toilet, eat my phone, or chalk, so I just don't feel bad for him. 
• He will chug more milk than a 15 year old football player.  Our pediatrician reminded me a couple months ago that it's best to keep it to 16 ounces and under each day and I had to stifle a giggle.  I lose count of the ounces.  He just drinks and eats A LOT.

High 5, G.

"The Big D"

For Christmas, Jude and I got Disneyland passes.  This gift was a subject of some debate.  On one hand, I don't want our kids to think Disneyland is no big deal, or be spoiled to go there so often.  On the other hand, having it so close is a perk of living in Southern California, passes used often make entrance pretty darn cheap, and it's an activity that we ALL enjoy.  You know those gem activities when you're in the trenches of raising young, dependent children, those activities that both parent and child are happy to participate in?  Jeff wouldn't be able to go much because the passes we got are blacked-out most Saturdays, so he didn't want one, but I convinced him that he'd never forgive himself if he wasn't there for Jude and Graham's first visit to Disneyland. He got a one-day pass.

One Saturday in January, the boys were still a teensy bit wobbly in the tummy, but we had nothing pressing on the schedule, Jeff didn't see a weekday coming up he could escape the office, we realized black-out days don't apply to the first time an annual pass is used, and so we filled the bottom of the stroller with Pedialyte, Gatorade, cheerios, granola bars, and zipped up the 5 to "The Big D" (as my parents used to call it). 

It was a little crazy to be the parents in this situation.  I kept watching the kids thinking, "So this time we're the parents bringing our kids here??"  Very surreal, and it felt like a very big step in parenthood.  But so much fun. Jude vacillated between overjoyed and overwhelmed, and Grahamsky was just happy to be along.  Here is some photo proof of the day:

Dumbo

Screenshot of Jeff's Instagram of the obligatory flower Mickey Mouse family photo -- it looks like I was digging my nails into Jeff's shoulder/arm, but I promise I wasn't.

Sssshhhocking!  Disneyland wore out my baby.

Before he got worn out, though, he blew out his diaper.  (I did bring a spare outfit, but he looked so cute and pleased in his nakedness, plus he'd pinched Jude's cup of Gatorade, and I obviously had to take a picture.)

While we waited 45 minutes in line to see "Mickey" (see total biff below), the boys played in line like hooligans.

About 3/4 of the way through the long line to see Mickey at his little house in Toon Town, we realized there were only little girls surrounding us in line, and the closer we got to the house it was very pink; we'd gotten in the wrong line and we were going to see Minnie. Woops!  Luckily, the boys didn't give a woopdeedoo.  In fact, this was a stop we made pretty early in the day when Jude was a little weirded out by the characters.  He would freeze up a bit and cling to us but I could see it in his eyes, he was suspicious, pitied them, and admired them all at once.

Main Street really is still exciting to me!



Meeting McQueen "Muhkeen!" blew Jude's mind.  We also saw Mater, and Red the Fire truck.  He still talks about this.  It's like when my mom had been reading the Cinderella book to me and Elizabeth for months on end, and on our first trip to Disneyland, within a few minutes of entering the park, Cinderella approached us on Main Street, knelt down, and gave Elizabeth a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  My mom said it brought tears to her eyes, and she wanted to ask, "How did you know?!"  McQueen didn't kiss Jude on the cheek, but if you tickle his headlights he giggles, and the whole thing just made our day!

Jeff and I were both so impressed with Radiator Springs.  On some rides Jude would not let himself be excited until it was over.  He'd sit with a deer-in-headlights face until it was over, and then as soon as his feet hit solid ground he would jump up and down and yell about how it was the best thing he'd ever done in his life :).  A major error on the part of MOI: after 6 hours at the park, the boys were fading and we figured we had enough time for one more ride before the boys would be deranged by exhaustion.  I thought it would be awesome to go on a ride that's been around since the 80s -- aka a ride I'd gone on as a child.  The shortest wait was for Pinocchio, so that's what we picked.  As soon as the safety bar was lowered and the lights dimmed I realized this was a baaaad move. And with each subsequent millisecond the ride got scarier and scarier, and it took Jude all of 2 seconds to start wailing, and then he wailed louder and louder.  Do kids even enjoy that ride anymore??  It's all loud carnival music, creepy images popping out at you, you get eaten by a whale, and there was nothing to do but sit and live through it and hope the car we were on would pick up some speed.  Jeff and I had a pretty good laugh about it, but we booked it outta there and of course they fell asleep before their car seats were even buckled.  He seems to have tucked that nightmare somewhere deep into the dark corners of childhood terror memories, and has not mentioned it since. :)


And since we've gone about once a week.  I'm such a lucky mom to get to go with my kids and my friends -- they love it every time!  Jude dances while watching street performers do Newsies numbers, loves the Jungle Cruise, Monsters Inc. ride, and I think next time I'll try Pirates of the Caribbean. 

J&G

More stuff:

That little hand: Jude can be quite the Mr. Bossy Boots.  Sometimes this results in me saying, "Jude, I'm the mom."  Sometimes we'll be driving and he tells me which direction to go, and he does the cutest thing guiding me with his hand.  Fingers together, his thumb extended, he holds his arm out and ushers me (or tries to).  "This way, Mommy, go this way."  Sometimes we aren't going the way he wants me to and wails from his car seat, unfortunately.

Sometimes Jude says, "Hello, my mommy!"

He's way into "I did it a' by mysef!" but is very kind in crediting everyone he loves with creating anything he likes around the house.  Like, Grandma made his blocks. :)  I ask him a lot "Jude, are you happy?" so now he will just volunteer it, "Mama, I'm happy."  On Sunday he said, "Mom, snuggle me."  "Ok."  Sometimes I really want to call him my baby boy, but don't you dare make that mistake.  He will sob (like a baby) and say, "Noooo I a BIG BOYYYYYY!" 

Whenever I'm on the floor, usually kneeling or squatting and changing Graham's diaper, Jude comes up behind me and tackles me, knocks me down or throwing his arms around my neck and choking me. They beat me up every single day.  They drop heavy toys or objects on my bare feet, pull my hair, Graham is obsessed with chewing on anything and his razor teeth hurt every time, he bonks his gigantic head into my cheek bone and/or gives me a fat lip, really, I get pummeled on the regular.

Graham has been such a mom's boy lately and I'm loving it.  He hides his face in my shoulder, gives me coy smiles, and only wants me to put him down when he thinks I'm staying close by.  But on the other hand, while we're out and about, he wants to be free of a buckle or human hip of any kind and wants to crawl wherever he fancies.  Speed crawling just like Jude did, putting holes in his pants, probably a month or two away from walking. 

Graham is still my crazy bottomless pit, eating at all times of the day as if I only allow him a lettuce leaf for meals.  He says, "MMMMMMMMM" whenever he sees food or I put him in his high chair.  He also says "uh-oh" which makes me worry that out of all the words he hears in our house, that's the one he hears most consistently :).  He loves to pick up a ball, throw it a few feet, laughing hysterically, and then he chases it, and repeats.  He buzzes his lips and squishes his chin down to glorify the chub under his there.  I want to eat him.

My favorite thing from today: Jeff came home from work and I ran upstairs to take a shower.  As I came downstairs I could hear laugh-squealing.  All 3 of my boys were wrestling and jumping on the giant teddy bear, Graham was wild with delight to be in on the frenzy and kept pouncing on the bear and biting it, it was all pretty great.

Graham is ONE!

How amazingly cruel it is that we can't rewind.  Our Grahammy's first year has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Each day I knew that I was in the middle of something singularly wonderful with this cherub on my hip.

Obviously, being the first child has its bonuses and drawbacks.  Jude got me (us) all to himself for 2 years.  But, I was a novice, and that dragged a lot of minuses with it.  Graham had to share me from the minute I got home from the hospital, but I knew what I was doing (mostly).  I also didn't really care much about what developmental milestones were on the horizon, I was able to appreciate each minute just for what it was and where he was in his babyness.  I had made it through 2 years of parenting Jude, I knew I could make it through with Graham, so I was ready to relish.

On top of this, Graham is, in my humble opinion, just perfect.  And he makes us all happier and better.  There is no grump he could not charm out of a funk; he is the ultimate elixir of joy.  These last several weeks I can see some of the pre-toddler angst as he wants to keep up with Jude but lacks some of the mobility, but it is his inclination to enjoy life.  I wonder daily how I got so lucky to be mother to these two boys, and I'm trying really hard not to screw them up.

The LDS church promises joy in this life and in the life to come if we are faithful.  I've tried to always live in a way that would make Heavenly Father happy.  With my husband and our children, I feel God has given me this joy beyond measure, despite my many, many flaws and the mistakes I make.  It's like Elder Holland once said, "There is theology in the family."  Now I'm going off on a tangent, but as I look back on this last year with Graham, and the last 3 years with Jude, and last 4 years with Jeff, the love is so sacred, I know in my heart it could not touch this life only.  This is stuff that is absolutely heavenly, and meant to go on forever.

Graham, thanks for being my baby.  We can't do anything but love you!

Graham: 11 Months

 Reasons why this baby cakes has my heart:

• When I pick him up, he relaxes his body so I can squish him and hold him tight.  
• If I'm holding him but not paying enough attention, he'll swoop from my hip to put his face right up in mine.  Jude did the same thing :).  
• He still has big, wet, drool soaked smiles that have given him a rash around his mouth.
• 4 teeth, all the better to shovel food into his mouth.
• He "waves", i.e. sticks his arm straight out at you, and it looks a little Nazi-esque if you want to know the truth.  But he'll learn to wiggle his hand too and I won't be worried he'll come off as a white supremacist.  
• My Mother-in-law and Erica heard him say "cruck" (truck) over christmas.  Last night he was on my lap and ripped a board book spine (it had been hanging on my a thread already).  I said, "Uh-oh" and he said, "Uh-uh" a handful of times.  !!!
• He greets you in the morning with outstretched arms and the biggest smile this side of the Mississippi.  
• He must follow Jude everywhere and participate.  Sometimes this doesn't work out for obvious reasons, but when it does it is cute.  I love to hear Jude say, "Gam, pay wis me!"
• He taught himself to drink out of a straw tonight, purely in an effort to copy Jude (I think).
• Graham will go off roaming around the family room and will totally entertain himself.  Jude definitely believed I was his cruise director at this age, so it's a little surprising but very sweet and keeps me a little more sane.
• He's just got to clap.  He claps and claps, and even when he's tired and cranky he will start clapping, look like fatigue is sweeping his face, asking him to rest those weary palms, and then you can see a resurgence of will, and he goes on.  MUST.  KEEP.  CLAPPING!!!!

I am not sure how this year has flown by the way it has, but it's gone too fast for me.  Graham is so easy to love.

Graham: 10 Months

He is more rascally every day.

His hair is getting curly.

He is climbing up to standing and holding onto things.

He and Jude look at each other, open their mouths wide, and just yell "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" at the top of their lungs.  I've said it before, I'll say it again, my ears hurt by the end of the day!  I try my best to redirect their attention, but even so, the volume is often a little more than I can handle.

He is constantly needing to eat.

He is also constantly smiling and squealing.

One thing I love about this age is how they talk to themselves.  He'll pick up an enticing object, and as he babbles "Da da da da" he'll go from a normal talking voice to a whisper and back again while he figures it out.  Like he's Indiana Jones entering a Mayan cave or something.  So charming.

He started clapping last week and it's the cutest thing.

Ear ache #2 hit today, and it's pretty discouraging.  He loves the water so much, I don't want him to need tubes like Juju.  While taking a bath he'll dive around the tub, rolling and swishing around like a fat fish, so completely happy!  He also practically does snow angels in the sand at the park -- he and Jude have a zeal for life that I find completely admirable.  :)

Graham has been so easy going, but there have been a few moments of temper flaring that have caught me off guard and are kind of funny.  I was trying to change his diaper and in true crawling infant fashion, he was trying to escape.  I had him pinned down in a way and after struggling and griping for a bit he balled his hands into little squishy fists and punched his tummy and grunted as loud as he could three times, "UHH!!"  He was so sick of it and so mad.  Again, I had to laugh!  My mom says it's good -- everyone needs to have their limits and a little fire in em.  Just as long as he doesn't do that every time I tell him to pick up his dirty socks off the floor in a few years.

Please tell me that his 1st birthday isn't just 2 months away.

Graham: 9 Months

He likes to yell in a happy way. (!)

He began crawling a few weeks ago, and is pleased as punch with the freedom.  Jude had to learn to keep his most prized possessions off the floor.

He is into everything, but this is less stressful the 2nd time around.  He also, unlike infant Jude, has a live-in buddy to play with, thus making "stuff" in the house less enticing most of the time.

He's swatting, jabbering "dadada mamama bababa", pulling himself up on things, putting all objects into his mouth, attacking us, chewing on our faces, and loving everything.

Cutting his first 2 teeth has turned him into a drool machine.  I change his saturated bibs about 5 times a day.  

A note about his drool soaked outfit in these pictures: I had been thinking about how much I wished my grandparents had been alive to meet my kids.  They would've had a ball.  Then I went to the mall because Graham's been growing at a faster rate than Jude did, so a lot of the clothes I'd saved for Graham weren't seasonally aligned.  (Or, since Graham's currently the size Jude was as a 1 year old, and Jude beat TO SMITHEREENS most of his clothes from that point on, I only have church clothes and pajamas left for Graham.  You would not believe how much Jude wore his clothes to pulverization death.  That kid plays hard.)

Anyway I was in Baby Gap hoping for a couple of sale items to keep Graham clothed and the first thing I saw was this one piece thing that says "Lucky Duck"with a cute non-cheesy duck on it.  If you knew my Grandmother you know she would always say "You are a lucky…." and it was your job to finish "duck!"  I felt like the fact that there was one on clearance in Graham's size, plus another one to grow into, it was surely Merial McOmber's doing from the other side.  I snatched them up and he wears it all the time (he's already in the larger one). I think every time I pull it over his head and snap it up she's giving her great-grandson a tight hug.

 He doesn't realize it, but he has shown Jude he can fight back a bit.  Graham loves to grab hair, and when he goes for Jude's, Jude shrinks and covers his head with his hands and shrieks/whimpers, "NO GAMMY NO!!!" All the while Graham has this completely innocent, elated look on his face.  The scenario makes me laugh, and then I reassure Jude that Graham isn't trying to hurt him.  

I can't keep him full.  

He's a big spitter-upper.  I weaned him about a month ago.  A few weeks ago he was spitting up all day.  The doc says he's fine, still gaining weight and no acid reflux or anything, he's just "spitty."   We switched formula and it helps a little, but I do A LOT of laundry.  My poor overworked washing machine and dryer and my poor laundry baskets that are constantly full of folded and unfolded clothes.

Anyway, Graham makes us feel like a million bucks every day.  I still get emotional talking about what a blessing he is.  We.  Love.  Him.  

Mama mia

Having these babies of mine means that I know so well what it's like to have them drift off to sleep in my tired, jiggly arms. I get to be the person to seize the endless opportunities to pump them full of love and self-esteem, and I know their smells and their facial expressions.  I am around when Jude goes from having no interest in crayons and coloring books to choosing to sit at the table and scribble on page after page. Yesterday I saw Graham holding a binky in one hand, and a board book in the other, and then he figured out that if he bonked them together, it made a really cool noise, and then I watched him play his new game for a little while.  Because I have little kids, and am not done having them, I am trying to let it go when a fly comes in the house because Jude doesn't understand yet that you have to shut the door quickly on a hot day.  I have to accept that the house will just be a little messier than I want it to at certain points of the day.  Tonight I held Graham on my lap during dinner, and when I was reaching down to fetch his binky, he pulled my plate of rice and beans onto the floor.  It had been a long day and it's so dumb but I almost cried.  I'm so used to spit up.  Buuuut, if I leave the room for 30 seconds, when I come back in Jude yells, "Mommy herrrrr" and runs and jumps into my arms.  We have a family handshake.  Graham lets me squeeze him as tight as I please, and squish his ample cheeks against mine.  I have had so many times when I'm running errands with them and there's some breed of child-spun disaster, even when I prepare well, and I think to myself, "Can't I just do this ONE THING??????"*.  And then I vow to only ever grocery shop by myself at night forever more (this resolve never lasts).  When I cut my finger wide open the other day, my cute little 2 year old wouldn't stop talking about my owie and has given it about 20 kisses.  Today Jude was talking all about how "Chwist fwends" (Christ's friends) were speaking on tv for General Conference.  They just pull these things on me and it charms me more than anything.

It's so many good things and so many bad things and I love it.  I used to be cooler, but I think hunkering down with my babies makes my life awesome**.

Note: I did not pose these pictures at all.

* Whenever there's a meltdown amidst attempted productivity and I think to myself, "Can't I just do this ONE THING???" I then automatically hear Will Ferrell in my head from that SNL skit, "Can I just finish one damn story??"

** Last week Jude's Speech Therapist asked me after his session, "Who in your family says 'awesome'?  Jude was saying it non-stop today."  I laughed -- "My husband and I both do.  Everything is either awesome or crappy."  We need to start infusing some different adjectives.

Graham: 8 Months

Spontaneous Graham Poetry:

Oh my big, fat chunk of Graham,
Since you were born the doth scram.
To me, your birth was yesterday,
But the crawling days aren't far away.
Stay sprightly and chipper, my dear son,
For you the fun has just begun.

I know, I know, talent beyond measure!

Graham loves to raise both arms in the air and then whack them simultaneously against his flexed tummy.  He does this about 100 times a day.  Sometimes I'd assume he was hurting himself?  He's just full of vigor and vim.

He weighs over 22 lbs!  My left arm often feels like it's going to fall off.

We finally had to lower his crib; he's getting gutsy in the movement department and is pushing up onto all 4s.  I was very sad about lowering his crib.

He and Jude are 2 peas in a pod, which is pretty awesome since Graham can't talk or walk.  I take solace in Graham's expedited growth knowing that the bigger he gets, the more the good times will roll for these "brudders".

A couple of weeks ago Graham became sturdy enough to really sit on his own.  7.5 months, the exact same age as Jude.

He loves to be tickled endlessly and a song will produce a million dollar smile.

Graham yells and yells and yells.  Jude will crinkle his nose and say, "Too loud, Gammy, too loud."  I laugh to myself because I am certain Graham learned allll about yelling from his mentor and elder brother Jude Man.

He is just all about loving and happiness, absolutely delicious.  He is a constant bright spot and we love and appreciate him every single day.

Why We've Loved Summer 2013:

+ Beach days with pals -- we've actually gone so much it makes me feel like we're getting our money's worth (mas o menos) with California's hellish cost of living.

+ Breezes cooling off the house in the evening.

+ Hopping over to the pools.

+ Hopping over even more to the park.  Sunscreen was slathered, scooters brought along, moms sat under a tree on a blanket or stood in the shade of the park structure, and the kids were adorable.  Jude has really gotten gutsy and independent and the park is not a chore to me anymore (most days).  He doesn't need me to escort him up and down the structures like he used to, he goes up and down the ladders, steps, slides, and I just make sure he is playing nicely and not pushing anyone out of his way, and then I clap and get excited for him when he goes down the "wee" or slide.

+ Jude sleeping in just his diaper, and Graham sleeping in his sleeveless blanket-sleeping bag.

And now I'm ready to be done :).  Sand in my car, sand in the stroller, sand in the shoes.  Sweaty all the time and concerned about sunburns on the boys and Jude's ear tubes.  I'll be excited again about summer next time it rolls around, but for now I welcome the break.  Now Fall just needs to actually arrive.....

And now some mem'ries in photo version:

A hug for Dad after playing in a fountain at an outdoor mall.

Woop woop!

I'm sweating like a toasted cheeser!

Jude and his red scooter

Jude still has a belly button, FYI.

Brothers

His idea to hold my hand while riding his scoot scoot to the park.  Swooooooooon

Plotting all sort of mischievous deeds, one can only assume.

Pizza party to kick off summer in the neighborhood. 

Love em both

Sometimes he holds my hand while I read him books.  Honestly, it fills my heart with immeasurable joy. 

Graham and Lyla's little brother Eli.  I think these two are going to have a great time together, but for now they just sort of grab each other's faces.

Graham, the sunburn possibilities on your porcelain skin scare me a little.

My turn to wear Jude's hat.  This hat got lost somewhere this summer.

2 Merzy feet and 1 Jeff foot

There's the omnipresent scooter + Beckham

As recent as last Christmas Jude would NE-VER have touched this slide with a 10 foot pole.  Now it's his oyster.

4th of July at Baby Beach

Mom -- LET ME OUT!

Shocker -- they found trucks on another blanket and stole them.

Apples and tomatoes on the counter

Getting to work lining up cars and trucks, OCD style

I love him.

I love him too.

We started solids, much to Graham's delight.

It was all we could do to keep him from climbing in through an open window.

Dance Central with Cam and Kacie

Meeting BFF and Cousin Rower

$1 smoothies at Jamba Juice.  I know being a kid can be rough, but really, I don't see any of it here.

Graham thinks Jude is 100% entertainment.  Jude could sneeze and it would have his little brother in hysterical, gleeful laughter.  They just love each other.

Thanks, summer!  You've been good to us!  Now it's time for "pumpkin everything" season.