Brady's 1st Birthday!!!

Can't believe our little man turned one year old this week.  He has been such a gift to our lives and our families lives, we love him so much!

The party crew

Happy birthday to our little man.

Ok Mom, what the heck is this?

Eventually the sugar kicked in lol 

Funniest. Picture. Ever.

Thank you Grandma Reggie for all the gifts!

Thank you Grandpa Bob and Grandma Terry for the toys! 

SO funny watching Brady dance to his musical card - thank you Uncle Paul! 

Brady's first set of clubs!

What happens in Vegas...Thank you Uncle E!

Week 52 -

WALKING!!! This week Brady went from those 1-2 step lunges to a real first couple of steps.  What a big milestone for our little guy!  He now takes those few teetering wobbly steps toward you, sometimes walking more sideways than straight.  He assumes you will catch him if he falls so you really have to pay attention.  While he teeters and wobbles, he walks with his hands up by his shoulders like he's ready to catch himself.  So far no major incidents falling forward, he's realized he has padding to fall on if he falls backwards (diaper).  And now that he knows he can walk, he does it ALL over the place ALL the time.  If he can walk and not crawl he will.  He's gaining confidence and speed and those legs get more stable every day.  Today he even chased a ball around trying to kick it.  It wasn't the most graceful act but was pretty cute.

This weekend was Brady's first birthday, but not without a trip to the northeast to celebrate Great-Grandma's 90th birthday.  Aunt Diane hosted the party along with Cousin Stacey bringing in siblings, relatives, friends, and classmates of Great-Grandmas to the Snowmobile Club for the party.  It was a beautiful day and we got to see people we haven't seen or talked to in 20 years.  Aunt Rose made a great slideshow of Great-Grandma from all the different chapters of her life.  It was very special.

Since we were in Boston, we took Brady to see the Boston Aquarium.  He had a great time looking at all the fish, turtles, seals, and jellyfish.  Unfortunately due to major renovations the penguin exhibit and shark tank were closed, we'll just have to go back.  We also had time to walk to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall where we picked up a few Red Sox items for Brady and had some awesome Italian cookies and cannolis.

Aside from walking and partying, Brady's personality continues to show.  He's a happy talkative baby, and has no fear wrestling kids bigger than him (like his classmate Jackson @ 95th percentile or 5-10 lbs bigger).  He will be moving to the toddler room soon, but we're not hurrying it.

While we celebrated major milestones in our families lives this week, we also observed the tragic events of the Boston marathon bombings and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion.  Uncle E was WAY too close to the bombings (only a couple blocks away) and the shootout with one suspect and eventual capture of the second suspect (again, only blocks away). Uncle E was in the 20 block lockdown in Watertown MA where we were supposed to stay the first night.  Maybe we owe JetBlue the $50 inconvenience credit they gave us for our flight delay!

Happy 90th birthday Great-Grandma Muzzey

 Brady in his party clothes

 Uncle E, Daddy, and Brady

Mommy with 2 of the 3 brothers (Chris was at college)

 Plymouth aka "P-town" driving in over the Capt DiCenzo memorial bridge

(We miss you Dougie)

 The old Wentworth house where Mommy grew up

Sad to see no one living there now

Who's food for who here? Brady with Atlantic salmon 

Watching the seals play at the Boston Aquarium

Jellyfish!

Week 51 -

One more week until Brady's first birthday, wow where has the time gone.

Mom and Brady were solo this week and took advantage to catch up with some of Mom's girlfriends.  First Brady got to meet Catie, one of Mom's long time Texas friends.  Catie's husband is out of town for a couple months so she came over for dinner.  Brady just loved her, cuddling in, sucking his thumb, and being very content.  Then Brady got to see Kris and Randy who were awesome and brought dinner.  Brady had a lot of fun showing off his toys, cruising around the house, and telling them stories (ie babble).

Brady got another try at a swing this week down at the park.  This time he was a little hesitant to get in until Mom gave him Mr Squirrel, then he did ok.  He swung in the swing for a while watching people come and go and watching the big kids play basketball.  While he doesn't quite fill out the swing seat he does look a little taller in the swing than last time lol.

We took advantage of the nice Friday afternoon weather and checked out the Botanical Gardens.  Brady liked crawling around on the blanket, but didn't like touching the grass (still doesn't).  He was hilarious crawling on hands and feet (vs knees).  He did get to see some birds, turtles, and lots of pretty flowers.  And we all managed not to get sunburned.

Every week his balance gets steadier, he can stand longer, and take more steps.  With all this freedom his independence has grown.  He now likes to feed himself his own bottle while he cruises around.  This can be pretty messy.  When Mom or Dad try to give him a bottle he may tolerate it for a few sips but then he wants to get back up and go.  Think he now officially qualifies as a toddler, eek!

Mom broke down and bought him some 12-18 month clothes for spring/summer.  She wishes she could spend $50 and get an entire spring wardrobe (or at least a pair of jeans).  While the Texas weather has been 70-80 deg, the northeast has been getting snow.  Here's sending some nice weather their way!

 Catie and Brady

 Kris scooping Brady up

 On the swing

 Hanging out with Mom at the playground

 At the botanical gardens with Mom

 Playing with Dad

Eww, grass!

Checking stuff out

Early birthday present from Mom - Go Sox!

Week 50 -

Brady had a great week, standing longer on his own and taking more steps learning to walk.  He'll walk toward you with his hands in the air ready to catch himself at all times.  He babbles and chatters a lot, and still points making noises like he's trying to say the name of the object.  He's a bundle of energy cruising around the house walking along the furniture or walls, or crawling room to room.  The baby gates are up, both upstairs and downstairs.  They're a pain when you have a basket full of laundry, but they limit Indy from watching squirrels and barking when Brady's trying to take a nap.

Speaking of naps, Brady is down to 1-2 a day, usually 1 at daycare for 45 min-2 hours late morning.  If he only took a short nap at school, he may take a 30 min power nap before dinner.  School is going well, when Brady gets a little more self sufficient he will move to the toddler room (1-2 year olds).  His buddy Jackson (95th percentile) is moving next week.  They usually move the babies in a group so they stay together, makes the adjustment easier.  We got his school photos back this week, unfortunately we did NOT cut his hair in time so we apologize for the comb over!  But he's still cute.

This week was Keira's 1st birthday.  Crazy to think a year has gone by already!  She's doing really well.  Developmentally her and Brady are pretty close - she's a little taller but lighter, she stands more but attempts to walk less, and generally she's pretty laid back while Brady is constantly on the go.  They had fun playing with Keira's gifts (still in the boxes of course) and crawling around the house.  Brady had fun playing with the toys but LOVED the bounce house.  It had a small area partitioned off that was perfect for Brady and Keira to crawl around without the big kids jumping on them.  It was fun for parents as well.

Next week Mom will be solo again - maybe another Mother-Son dinner date?

Brady - 11 months old

Loves his Cherrios 

Keira opening her gift from Brady

Playing with balloons

Warming up to the bounce house, then we couldn't get him out!

Happy Easter!!!

Meeting the Easter Bunny at the Kids Expo 

Hi everyone!

 Babies love other babies, even goats

Dad and Brady watching the Expo festivities 

Our little bunny

Week 49 -

Sick again this week, this time with what appeared to be a stomach virus giving him the most god awful smelling diarrhea.  Poor guy was cranky and clingy and went through a LOT of diapers.  We kept him home from school 2 days, and thankfully by the end of the week was back to eating and pooping like normal.  At first we thought it was the 1/3 whole milk to 2/3 formula bottle we gave him, and some sort of reaction or lactose intolerance, but apparently it had been going around at the daycare.

Despite being sick, Brady did have a few firsts this week.  He can now wave hi (or bye) and he's starting to blow kisses (or lean in for a kiss).  It's really sweet.  And occasionally he stands on his own, even if he doesn't notice he's doing it.  He's getting braver with his attempts at walking, letting go and lunging toward you but not really taking steps (yet).  He showed off his skills to our neighbor and she thinks he'll be walking by his first birthday, eek!

He still babbles and chatters a lot, sometimes his words even seem recognizable like Indy, Dada, Mama, tree, dat (with pointing).  He does point at things a lot mumbling words, so we point and tell him what it is - house, car, grill, bird, etc.  It's cute to see his curiosity and watch him learn about the world around him.  Another engineer?  Maybe.  He also really enjoys music, and has since he was in Momma's belly.  He will smile and dance and shake (or bang) objects together when listening to music.

As for signing, he does very well, when he wants to.  He uses "more" a lot, "milk" if very thirsty, "done" which is more pulling on his bib than shaking his hands, "dog" to call Indy, and raises his arms up if he wants to be "picked up".  He doesn't have a lot of patience and will fuss if you don't get his sign right away, but he'll learn (or maybe his parents will lol).

Mr Handsome

 Mommy what's this?

Getting himself stuck 

Playing in the mirror

 Pointing at a bird

Waiting for blankie to dry

Week 48 -

11 months old and LOTS of energy!  When Brady's awake and happy he is HYPER, cruising around the furniture ("couch surfing") and the windows checking everything out and babbling loudly.  He is a very busy child, you really have to keep up with him.  You also have to watch what he puts in his mouth.  Turns out boys are drawn to bugs at a very early age.  This morning he managed to find and put a LIVE lady bug in his mouth, gross!  Thankfully Daddy got it out, but still gross.

This week was Mom's first week away on business travel.  She had some good distractions, going to DC visiting the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles and visiting some old friends some she hadn't seen in 10 years.  Daddy and Brady had fun too taking advantage of the 80 deg weather and going to the St Patrick's day Pickle Parade.  Brady was a good boy all week, eating and sleeping well.  He discovered he likes peas and also likes to shove them in his sippy cup straw.  This was his first full week weaned which went mostly well for both Brady and Mom.  Mom was afraid he'd forget her, but he didn't, giving her a big smile when she came home.

Brady continues to get strong, really strong.  He loves getting behind his walker or motorcycle and pushing them as fast as he can.  He is really fast!  Almost anything can be a walker too - like the dining room stools, his jumper, empty boxes, placemats, etc.  He will also stand and push on his play house, you have to hang on to it or he will push it over.

Took him to the barber for his 1st haircut.  He sat like a big boy in the chair on Daddy while the lady clipped and buzzed.  No more baby comb over.  He also started walking when Mom or Dad hold his hands and he will cruise along smiling and giggling, he really loves it.  He has no problem standing up or getting down now, he does it with ease but not necessarily grace.  When he reaches for the floor you hear him slap down on his palms.  Sometimes he gets crawling too fast too and face plants, but he gets righted and keeps going.  Silly boy.

Started a new bedtime routine - bottle, bath, book, bed.  This came with weaning.  We also found he's less hyper if we do the bottle before bath.  So far it seems to be working well with him still going down for bed at 8pm.

Corporate retreat 10 year reunion (Kelly, Molly, Nicole, Suzy...with Shilpa virtual)

 Nicole's son Augie (14 months old)

Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum

1st Haircut - no more long pieces on top

 Sitting still like a big boy

Looking good!