One Smart Cookie!

I think any parent will brag about how smart their child is and I am not any different! It has been so fun over the past (almost) 18 months watching Brayden grow and learn. Just the other day while taking a bath, he started identifying letters. We have been working on this but he hasn't really caught on until now. He can officially identify A, B, E, J, K, L, O, T,  and W and then sometimes he gets a few others correct. I am so proud of him and I can clearly see that all the reading and practice we do it really helping him to learn.

Splashing is also really cool!

We practice a lot in the bathtub with his foam letters and then he is constantly pointing out the letters he can already identify! 

I was just talking with my parents about how much Brayden is turing into a little kid. I love how he has so much personality now and can verbally communicate but sometimes I really wish he was still a little baby that would cuddle with me. I am in limbo but I guess I should just get used to that!

Top 12 of 2012

I could NOT get down to just 12! Ugh...it was hard to get down to these 13! So I am cheating by one photo..oops! 

They are in chronological order so follow along with our year!

Trip to San Francisco!

First time flying to Alabama

 Our first trip without Brayden!

BFFs

 Brayden's 1st birthday monster!

Me with my momma!

 Professional photos

Not really excited about Santa!

We had such an awesome year and I am so excited for the years to come!

More to come...

Here is a sneak peek at our Christmas festivities! I have so many pictures to go through since I took about 1,000 with my new camera! Here are a few for now... 

Playing peek-a-boo through the island shelf!

Sliding around in a plastic bowl with Grandpa!

Ball pits are pretty awesome!

And so is a box!

We all got so spoiled this year and we could not be more thankful! I LOVE my new camera and can't wait to take some amazing photos of my family!

Santa Photo Fail!

Yep...this year we definitely had a photo fail with Santa. Brayden was deathly afraid of the big man in red!! He had a super grip on the hubs as he set him down on Santa's lap. Hubby had to peel away the little fingers to step out of the picture. We let him cry for one photo while I told to photographer to just take it and there was no point in trying to get him to smile. I KNEW it was going to be this way and I was totally okay with it...I mean, who doesn't love to look back at a photo of a screaming baby with Santa?!

 (2012, 17 months)

(2011, 4 months old)

I am hoping to get a smile next year so we will see what happens! 

Rainbows and Cupcakes

Today proves that not every day around here is full of rainbows and cupcakes. I have been trying to put Brayden down for a nap for an hour now. I am sitting in the living room while he cries in his crib. This NEVER happens.

 I don't know what the deal is. He is fed, has a clean diaper, his favorite blanket is in his crib, he has 3 pacifiers and nothing is working. I took him in at noon like I always do, read him a book and put him in his crib. Sometimes he will let out a little cry or two but that is usually it. Not today. 

He continued to cry so I went in there and picked him up. I thought maybe he just needed some more time to relax before going to sleep. I held him in my arms for a few minutes and he fell asleep. Perfect. I got up from the rocker and went to put him in his crib where he immediately started to cry. Mind you, we did the whole "cry-it-out-method" a long time ago and he has been falling asleep in his crib ever since then. I let him cry for 10 minutes before going back in his room. I picked him up once again and he promptly fell asleep on me. I held him for about 10 minutes to make sure he was really out before attempting to put him in his crib. As soon as I went to put him down, he started crying again. 

I am out of patience. I hate days like this. His nap is my only break during the day. My only "me" time and today it doesn't look like I am going to get it. 

So I am writing this to show you that some days are not so great around here. We aren't perfect by any means and yes, some days I really feel like pulling my undone hair out. Is it too early to have a glass of wine?!

17 Months!

Whelp, I am a week and a day late on Brayden's 17 months post but that is pretty standard these days. As usual, Brayden has changed a ton in the last month! He is talking more than ever and is acting as a personal echo. It's all fun and games until he hears you say dammit and decides that is a great word to repeat. Oops!! He is wearing 18 months clothes and size 6 shoes and according to his doc, he is right on track. He had another cold but we seemed to kick it pretty quick this time. 

I really wish I could make this stage last longer! He is so much fun right now and he is still a pretty good listener. He will usually stop if we say no but the little rebel inside him is coming out. Sometimes he will keep doing whatever it is we told him to stop but after a smack on the hand, he will walk away and find something else to do. He is such a good little boy and he is just so happy!! He is still sleeping like a champ and taking one nap each day with about 12 hours of sleep at night. He still loves his baths, cartoons, food, milk, Elmo, Oso, PBS Kids, his grandparents (all of them) and great-grandparents too! The one thing he most certainly hates?? Haircuts. Yep, he totally freaked out last time and it took 3 tries for it all to get cut. Hopefully he grows out of that rather quickly because it is not fun for anyone when he needs a trim! Oh and the only other thing he hates is Santa! Haha if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you would have already seen his picture but I will be posting it here tomorrow. Poor kid! 

Anyways, Brayden is a happy, healthy 17 month-old little boy that we absolutely love to death! There is nothing better than being his "mommy"!

We are so lucky!

How did we get so lucky to have TWO amazing families that are absolutely obsessed with our son?! I am not sure but I am definitely counting my lucky stars because life cannot get any better. We just spent a week in Alabama with my husband's family and it was amazing. It is always fun to see his family and this trip was no exception. We spent tons of time with my MIL and Brayden loved every moment of it. We also spent tons of time with my husband's brother and girlfriend...let me tell you, my husband and his brother(Ethan) are frighteningly alike! I mean, Brayden pointed at his uncle and called him "dada"....we had to correct that REAL quick. 

During our trip we got to watch Ethan graduate from the University of Alabama! It was so awesome to see this huge moment! Brayden did great during the ceremony and I only had to take him out to play a few times. We had a graduation party after and got to see family I haven't seen in 2 years. 

This was probably the best trip to Alabama yet! I really wish we could have stayed longer but we are hoping to make a trip out this summer so we can see the beautiful greenery! Instead of blabbering on about the rest of our trip, I will just show you the pictures!

Brayden did great on the flights and comfortably slept across our laps, however, we could not have been more uncomfortable! Next time we will definitely be getting a third seat for Brayden to have on his own! Other than the flights, this was a spectacular trip and now of course hubby wants to move back!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It is most definitely THAT time of year where I can barely get a breath in. I have been so busy with my sister in town, work, a sick baby boy and preparing to fly to Alabama this week. It has been a little nuts! 

Brayden got sick early last week so we have been trying to fight it with tons of Vicks vapor rub, a humidifier and the lovely nose suctioning. Ugh! Not fun! We did manage to get some fun in with a trip to get our Christmas tree and a trip to a local park that was hosting a holiday fun day. There was a snow slide and a snow play area and Santa was supposed to be there too. We didn't stay too long because it started right at Brayden's nap time but we were there just long enough for Brayden to play with some snow and for me to take some pictures.

This bad boy obviously still needs some decorations but
that will probably have to wait until we get back!

As for this week, I have some work stuff to get in order and then we leave for Alabama on Wednesday morning...at 1:20 am. Yuck! Obviously we chose that flight in hopes that Brayden will sleep a majority of the flight but I am really not looking forward to the whole flying part of this trip. Everything else will be amazing!! We will get to see my brother-in-law and his girlfriend graduate from college and have a graduation party with all of my husband's family. I am so beyond happy that we get to see everyone and spend some quality time with them. We don't get to see them nearly enough so this will be such a fun trip! We come back early the following week and it will be straight back to work for both of us. 

Like I said, super busy!! Before we know it, Christmas will be here and gone. It's so crazy during the holidays and it is really the time of year I would like to slow down the most. I love spending time with my family and it just goes too darn fast!! So I probably won't be back with an update until we get back from our trip. Even then, it might just be a photo bomb because I will just have too much to say about it all! 

Wordless Wednesday

This picture speaks volumes!!

My poor baby boy is sick...again! I don't know why he gets sick so often! This is about his 4th cold and he's only 17 months. Maybe that is normal but I feel like it's a lot and I HATE seeing him sick. He is so congested and I have been doing everything to help relieve it. He hates the saline spray but I do it anyways and he is not too bad with the suction so I do that as much as I can. Poor kid can hardly breathe out his nose. We will see how sleeping goes tonight but I hope it's nothing like his nap. He slept a total of 45 minutes today. Yikes!! It was a rough day but we made it through with minimal tears (none from me although I was close tonight) and I am hoping he is much better tomorrow!

Chasing Ducks

Yesterday was a day made special 7 years ago and I wanted Brayden to experience it with me. With my parents, we took Brayden to the gravesite of a very dear friend to say our hello just like we do every year on the anniversary of his death. It was a little different this year because after we shed our tears and blew our kisses, we headed to a park we saw on the way in. A park that was packed with ducks. I mean, how can you not stop at a park that looks like this??

Of course we had to stop and chase these ducks!

Brayden loved running after them and sounded like a broken record saying "duck, duck, duck.." (*On a side note, I am very thankful that the way Brayden says "duck" actually sounds the way it's supposed to. That could be bad!!)

After chasing the ducks, it was obviously time to crunch all the fallen leaves. He wasn't very interested in throwing them but he definitely loved running through them.

On a day like that, it's important to remember to enjoy the small things in life, like chasing ducks and crunching fallen leaves. You never know when your time will end so soak up every last moment of love you can find, spend the time playing with little kids instead of doing the dishes or cleaning the floors. Those things can wait...our lives don't wait for us. So go chase some ducks!! GO!

Fall Activities!!

We have been soaking up the fall weather lately!! I LOVE that it is starting to look like Christmas and I play Christmas music every chance I get. I have watched Elf twice in two days, taken about 100 boxes of Christmas decorations out of storage, splurged on some tasty desserts and spent some quality time with Brayden doing new things!

It has been a bit wet around here and we had been stuck inside all day with the rainy weather. When Brayden woke up from his nap, I decided we needed to get out of the house or we were both going to go crazy. We got dressed and headed out the door to Barnes and Nobel! Brayden had never been there and I just knew he was going to love it. (*The fact that he says book and points to his stack of books every time he is in his room sort of gave me the feeling that he would love a whole room of books!) We made a beeline for the kids sections, before I got to looking around and decided I NEEDED something, and Brayden was in love. I'm talking huge-smile-on-his-face-for-an-hour in love! He immediately pointed at all the kid-friendly books on the lower shelf and repeatedly said "book" for about 10 minutes. 

We looked at all the books, took some off the shelf, played the book with a piano, and then headed to the little table with blocks on it. 

Brayden loved that little table too. The kid couldn't get enough of our fun little outing! We played with the blocks, looked at toys, played with toys and then we were on our merry way. Brayden still needed to eat dinner and take a bath so we didn't get to stay for very long but we were there for about 45 minutes. Oh and the best part is that we are now part of the Kid's Club! I hope to take Brayden to a reading soon but I need to find a reading that he would actually be able to sit through. They have "The Polar Express" coming up but I tried that the other day and we didn't even make it through a page. Maybe next year. Until then, we will be visiting Barnes and Nobel WAY more often!!

Wordless Wednesday

I am so excited that it's time for this...

I am not only excited because I LOVE Christmas but I think Brayden will have so much fun this year. He already loves the lights and I think he will really love tearing open his presents on Christmas morning. I can't wait to see his smile when he sees what Santa brought him!

Anniversary!!

This will be short and sweet but I just wanted to say happy anniversary to my husband! It has been a crazy 2 years with many changes along the way and it has been wonderful!! I wouldn't have my life any other way and I am so unbelievably happy! 

I actually had a friend recently ask me, "how did you know he was the one?" Basically, my response was probably not helpful at all. I can't picture my life without him. Plain and simple. I want nothing more than to be with him and our son every day. Even on those days where I want to pull my hair out and we argue about stupid things, I would never wish for a different life.

So cheers to a wonderful 2 years and to many, many more!