Finally she posts!

I have started to do several updates in the last few weeks (and this post incorporates a couple), but kept waiting for more pictures or better videos. At this rate, I might get this updated by Christmas! Decided to just jump in with what we have.

Brady turned 18-months-old on June 3rd! I can't believe it, but he proves daily that he is all toddler! At his 18-month check-up last week, his pediatrician was all smiles. He really isn't delayed in any area. In fact, he is now at the 85th percentile for height (with those little short legs??!) and 50th percentile in weight. He wasn't even on the charts when I brought him home. He's in 18-24 month shirts and 18-month pants now.

Woo-hoo! I'm 18-months old today!

Mommy won't let me pick these flowers.

Big Step!

Hammin' for the camera.

Where's your head?

Where's your nose? (Always IN the nose!)

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First Trip to Anywhere

We took a trip in May to visit the relatives in Oregon. First time they have met Brady! It was wonderful, but exhausting. We stayed at a Comfort Suites for a few nights, which was my sanctuary, as every home we visited was so NOT babyproofed! Brady enjoyed all the attention and did really well, although never took a single nap the entire time (other than sleeping for a few minutes at a time in the car). The big discovery on this trip was the value of blackout curtains! I had to wake him up at the hotel. He has them in his room at home now. :) We flew in (too bad my current Premier Exec status on United, earned with all those Kaz miles, will only be used for quick trip to Eugene!) and then rented a car. It was a 2009 Nissan Altima and it had a push-button ignition -- no key! Very weird and kinda cool.

Having a snack at the hotel. I knew there was a use for those phone books!

Brady jammin' with a couple of distant cousins.

Puppy! Puppy!
"Puppy" is his favorite new word. It applies to anything with 4 legs except "kee-kees" (kitties)

Chase me up the stairs again! Brady had a ton of fun visiting our old friend John Andrew.

Brady LOVES to see what is going on whenever we drive anywhere. He always points and talks/babbles and waves. I felt awful for him the entire time we were in Oregon. We had a couple of all-day drives and he couldn't see out the window of the rental car! Combination of the carseat being too low and the door being too high. Poor kid. It would have been much easier for both of us if he would have had that distraction, especially with so much to see! Cows, barns, sheep, big trees, llamas, green hills, ocean, etc. So very different from Colorado.

Are we there yet?
(Taken moments before yet another meltdown.)

Lush countryside

A local farm.

An old wigwam and mill.

The beautiful southern Oregon coast.
(Gorgeous day, but it was spent driving.)

Fun playing on the hearth -- this was his favorite spot at my aunt and uncle's house.

That's a big bathtub!
(This is from my aunt and uncle's backyard. Amazing views, especially in nice weather. Several hundred foot drop to the water.)

ACCKK! NO climbing the fence!

Due to the weather being cold and rainy the two days we were at my aunt and uncle's house, we didn't go down to the beach. I just couldn't deal with cold, wet, sand, and toddler. I'm sure I'll regret it someday, since I have no idea when we'll get to go to back.


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The Everyday

Summer is here, or so they say. We've had severe thunderstorms, hail, and tornado warnings in the area almost every day for a week, with another week of the same in the forecast! I'm missing California weather more this year than ever! When I picked Brady up at daycare today, I was told they had spent 2 hours in "emergency" mode, so he'd be pretty tired. Emergency mode apparently means that due to a tornado warning they woke up the kids from their naps after less than an hour, stuck them in a single crib, and pushed the crib into the very small bathroom. I guess after awhile, they decided to move them to the inner hallway with the rest of the kids in the center, serve snacks and let them play a little. This whole episode lasted for 2 hours. Seems they don't have a basement, but then, tornadoes are not supposed to be very common this close to the mountains. That's what I was told last year too! I vacuumed out the enclosed area under the basement stairs a couple of nights ago and tossed in an old throw rug, a big foam mattress pad, a couple bottles of water, a flashlight and a radio. We're set if needed.

I may be a stay-at-home mom before long, but, alas, not with my phantom lottery winnings. My company has been acquired (have competing bids at the moment and not sure who will "win") and have no idea if I'm going to have a job next month. For some reason I'm not too worried about it, but if I get laid off, I'm sure the panic will set in. Keep your fingers crossed!

Brady still loves daycare and they love him, most of the time. I am still getting several incident reports every week due to biting and "aggressive behavior." I've witnessed and been the recipient of it several times now. We are using time outs and a stern "No bite!" or whatever is appropriate, but it does not seem to be subsiding. And no, he is not teething, although the fingers are in the mouth much of the time. All of the teeth have been in for a couple of months now.

Other than that, life in Bradyville is good. He plays and learns and continues to amaze me day after day. Here's a few more photos from the last couple of weeks.

They had a substitute teacher for a couple of days at daycare. I cracked up when I saw Brady had a name tag (aka masking tape) on his back when I brought him home. (He did have pants on then though!)

This year's community-wide garage sale garnered this fabulous train table for cheap! It has all its tracks and trains and buildings, but Brady is too young for them yet. Meanwhile, he found the best way to play with it! Off to the basement it went until he stops climbing on everything!

The time out pose.

The applesauce "do" created by Brady.

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I originally created the following post for Mother's Day. Yep, just a little bit behind. So Happy (Very Belated) Mother's Day to all you current and future mommies out there!


There are many of these lists around, but I just have to add a few of things I have discovered, mostly about myself, in the last 8 months.

You know you are a mother when...

...the hostess at the restaurant where you had a quick workday lunch says goodbye and you wave like a 16-month-old and say "bye-bye."

...every one of your shirts has stains on it from a grubby little face and hands.

...it dawns on you at the end of the day that the annoying smell emanating from that spot on your shirt is vomit.

...the smell of vomit apparently no longer makes you gag.

...you might be willing to reheat day old coffee every day because the beeping of your automatic coffee pot wakes up your kid at 6am.

...having washed poop off your hands at least once during the day doesn't make you want to eat chips, carrot sticks, cookies, etc. with a fork any longer.

...you can sing (way off key) all the verses to Old McDonald, the Muffin Man, and Little Bunny Froo-Froo.

...you have more fun playing with your son's new bathtub toys than he does.

...you've learned how to find the pacifier in the dark under the crib at 3am and can still go back to sleep. Sometimes.

...you have finally come to terms with the fact that your hardwood floors, cabinets, furniture, window sills, walls, and baseboards will never, ever, be the same again.

...you're already trying to figure out how you are going to tell your child some day that Moo, Baa, and Cluck-Cluck is what's for dinner.

--you know exactly how much a bushel holds, cuz that is how much snot comes out of a toddler with a cold in a single day.

...you have Kleenex boxes every 12 feet throughout your house.

...you realize you really shouldn't have burst out laughing (and couldn't stop) when your son's daycare teacher, very seriously, asks if you have ever had his hearing checked, because no matter how many times she says "no", "stop", "get down", or "don't do that", he doesn't respond. (I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. Told her he "can't hear" at home either, but he has already had two hearing tests and tested at a level better than perfect.)

...you have to turn your back quickly on the little imp after putting him in timeout to keep from smiling at the big puppy-dog eyes and the cute way he just sits there and doesn't move.

...you try to not to look forward to timeout, since when you tell your little boy that timeout is over he comes running and gives you a big hug!

...you don't stop smiling for hours when your baby boy gives you a hug AND a kiss just because he wants to.

...you realize your heart can melt on a daily basis when one little boy smiles and comes running when you walk into his room at daycare.

...you burst into tears the first time a sweet little voice says "Mommy" and he means you!