Our First Family Vacation

The week following Memorial Day we headed down to Carolina Beach, North Carolina, for our first vacation as a family. We spent the first weekend with Ben, Jess, and their two boys, Caden & Abram. Ben had to head back to work for most of the week but the rest of us were able to enjoy a fun-filled week at the beach. We had a great time sleeping late (we had to take turns on that one), going for walks, hanging out on the beach, swimming in the pool, and really just relaxing. We didn't have any plans for the week and other than a couple of trips to the grocery store we stayed close to the house for most of the week.



Liam loved the beach and lucky for us he took the best naps in his tent in the shade while Rolf and I were able to enjoy some time hanging out on the beach. He didn't quite know what to think of the pool at the beginning of the week but by the end would enjoy it in 15 minute increments. Late in the week his Mimi brought him a pair of "Babybanz" sunglasses that he loved to wear in the bright sun and they really seemed to help. Other than a pretty bad reaction to his sunscreen, Liam had a great time!


Check out all of our pics from the week in this slideshow. (**Don't forget to pause the music playing on our website so you can hear the music for the slideshow--on the right side near the bottom of the page.)

Internal Medicine Dining Out

In May Rolf and I got all dressed up, hired a babysitter (my mommy came up to watch Liam), and went to the Internal Medicine Dining Out. This dining out is a farewell/roast to the senior residents but is attended by almost all of the residents, interns, and staff. We had a great time visiting with friends and celebrating the seniors. It is crazy to think that Rolf will be a senior resident at next years Dining Out. YEA!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

"raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens."

Well those things are nice but that is not at all what I was referring too. I wanted to share a few of our favorite "baby" things in hopes that others would post in the comments some of their favorite baby/toddler/kid things.

In the Graning house there are 2 things that we swear by. For the first 6 months we didn't go anywhere without both of them at the ready.

The Miracle Blanket (aka "The Straight Jacket")

The Miracle Blanket was given to us by my dear friend Rebecca and after seeing how well it worked with their little girl Rylie (not so little any more) we knew we would be using it. Liam absolutely loved being swaddled whenever he was going down to sleep be it naptime or night time. He just weaned from the Miracle Blanket (yes, we had to slowly wean him from it) about a month ago but he really didn't want to give it up.

The Sleep Sheep

The Sleep Sheep was a gift from Aunt Evie and Uncle Sebastien and has really been a lifesaver. Liam loves white noise and the Sleep Sheep has 4 different sounds to choose from. Liam's favorite is the ocean which is very close to the "shhhh" sound that he also really likes. Dr. Harvey Karp would be proud, Liam is definitely a "5 S's" baby.

So those are our favorite things from the first 6 months. Please share some of your favorite things! We would love the advise as we move into this next stage.

My 1st Mother's Day

This first Mother's Day is going to be a hard one to top. Since we were down in North Carolina for the weekend Rolf and I were both lucky enough to be able to celebrate with our mothers.

First we enjoyed a great brunch on Hillsboro Street in Raleigh with the entire Graning clan.

Mary Anne with all of her babies.

After brunch we headed out to lunch with my family just around the corner in downtown Raleigh.

So happy to be with my mommy!

Another one of my favorite mommies, my sister Gabi with her little boy Ian (age 4).

Thank you to each and everyone of my mommy friends for all of your advice and support as I have embarked on this crazy journey into mommyhood. I am so blessed to have each of you in my life and I don't know what I would do without you!

NC State Graduation Weekend - Congratulations Charlie!!

The second weekend in May the entire Graning clan traveled to Raleigh to celebrate Charlie's graduation from North Carolina State University. We had an awesome weekend celebrating Charlie and his great accomplishments, not only did he graduate but he also has a great job. We are so proud of Charlie and know that he has so many more awesome things to come.


In addition to celebrating Charlie, this was also our first time meeting our new nephew Abram. This was his first big trip at just 3 weeks old. All of the little ones did awesome and as you can tell from the pictures they did a pretty good job of sleeping right through things.


Here are a couple of other pictures from the weekend:

A Saturday at the Farmers Market

A couple of weeks ago we headed out to the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market. The weather was perfect and we had an awesome time walking around and just enjoyed being outside. We were able to buy lots of local produce, as well as fresh steaks and pork chops, homemade ice cream (for Rolf), and kettle corn!

Liam checking out our yummy Kettle Corn!

Liam's First Solid Foods

Since we have been struggling with some possible food allergies for the last couple of months (via breastmilk) we delayed starting solids until just before Liam turned 6 months. Rolf was so excited to finally be able to help feed Liam. We started out with rice cereal and breast milk mixed together and as you can see from the pictures Liam was a little perplexed by the whole experience. It took Liam and us a couple of weeks to get the hang of solids but we are now doing great with them. So far Liam has tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, and most recently, avocados. Liam is a really big fan of avocados!