Brady's One-Year Pictures

Hey, guys!

I finally got Brady's one-year pictures back! Click here to see them. :)
  
Love,

Brady is One!

Hey, loves!

Brady is one year old today! He weighs 21 lbs and is 30 inches long. I seriously can't believe that I'm a toddler mom now. It's amazing how much babies change in the first year. It seems like yesterday that I found out that I was pregnant, heard his heartbeat, found out it was a boy, felt him moving and kicking, was in labor and holding him in my arms and kissing him for the first time, then seeing him smile, laugh, roll, crawl, walk, talk, etc. Time has just flown by and I'm treasuring every single second of it. He is my sunshine. I totally love the toddler that he is and the kid that he is becoming ... wildness and all. ;-D

We went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate today and he had a blast ... ok, so Brad and I had a blast, too! Lol. He also got spoiled with tons of toys from both of our families and us. We went to Ohio last week and had an early birthday party for him which I think we'll do every year, Lord willing. 

We're getting his one year pictures taken on Monday by the same lady who did his newborn pictures. I can't wait to see them because I know they'll be awesome (she does a great job!). I bought him a couple of really cute outfits and a birthday hat. We're also going to do a smash cake session which should be fun and messy. Haha. I'll post pictures on Facebook as soon as I get them, of course.

He has eight teeth now.

Just in the past couple of days he's started saying "mama" and "mom" which completely makes my heart smile. I've been waiting so long for him to start saying that. 

Now that he's a year old I won't be doing monthly blog updates but I'm sure I'll post every now and then. It's been hard making the time to even do the monthly updates but it's been worth it, especially to have to look back on.

I can't say enough how thankful I am for God giving Brady to us. There is nothing that compares to being a mom and you don't realize how much love your heart can hold until you have a child. I'm truly blessed beyond measure. 

Much love,

Brady's 11 Month Update

Hey, everyone!

It's that time again. Brady is 11 months old today. Seriously, months are flying by way too fast these days! He weighs 21 lbs and is 29 inches tall. He's growing like a weed!

He has five teeth and three more are starting to pop through. 

He's been a pro-walker for quite some time but here in the last week or so he has started being able to bend over and pick stuff up without having to get on the floor to get it. 

He won't sit down for baths anymore; he has to walk around playing with his toys the whole time. It's funny. I'm telling you, he really doesn't ever sit still, unless he's asleep. Even as he's falling asleep, his legs are going. Lol. 

He had his third haircut on Sunday. Speaking of hair, he loves to eat hair and fuzz. Like, he'll pull hair and fuzz off of his stuffed animals and other things. I have to even take one with longer hair away because of it. Weird and nasty at the same time. :-P

I've been meaning to mention this but I keep forgetting: When Brady's drinking milk he always says one of these four things while drinking, "yickle, yickle, yickle," "gickle, gickle, gickle," "nickle, nickle, nickle" or "goya, goya, goya." I wish I knew what he was saying in his mind. Lol.

 

He is SO much fun to be around! His personality is AWESOME! He's a goober. He's very independent and strong-willed. For instance, he doesn't really want me to hold his hand when we're outside walking around and stuff like that. He'll yank his hand away most of the time because he wants to walk around by himself like a big boy. And if he can't figure something out, he'll just keep trying until he does.

He can rough-house and play with older kids already. He was out running and rolling around playing in the grass with a six-year-old in our fellowship the yesterday evening. 

He has little temper tantrums sometimes when he doesn't get his way or something. He'll go up and down the hallway, walking really fast and stomping around, flailing his arms like a monkey and shouting, "ADADADADADA!" and you can tell he's mad. It's HILARIOUS! Haha! <- I'm literally laughing right now just thinking about it.

He's definitely a foodie and likes to smack his lips incredibly loud when he's eating. (Daddy says that's cute now but something he'll have to break him of when he's older. LOL)

My dad installed a swing in our breezeway/sunroom when he came to visit last month and Brady absolutely loves it! He can sit and swing for an hour or more at a time.

I can't believe my BABY is going to be a one year old next month.

 

 Much love,

(A mom of an almost toddler -- whaaaat?!)

 

Brady's 10 Month Update

Hey, loves!

Brady is 10 months old today. He weighs 19.75 lbs and is 28.5 inches long.

He has five teeth now. I had to get crib rail protectors because he decided to start chewing his crib. He loves eating ... not just food. :-P

He is a pro at walking and barely ever crawls. He had his second haircut a couple of days ago.

He gets his bath after dinner everyday. As soon as he hears the water turn on, he runs (yes, he can run now, LOL!) for the tub and tries to climb in. He still loves his baths! He loves water and likes to walk around holding on to his sippy cups with his mouth by biting down on the straw with his teeth.

Speaking of teeth, he loves grinding his teeth, which grosses everyone out but me. He loves hanging upside down like a monkey. He loves taking his socks off and chewing on them. He baby talks pretty much non-stop. He loves shaking his head "no" and does it just to be cute a lot of the time. He always laughed at sneezing but he laughs at his own sneezes, too. It's so funny. He's also started making a smile face showing his teeth, which I can't get enough of.

Now that the weather is nice, he LOVES being outside. I love watching him learn, explore and discover new things. I feel like a kid again watching him. It's awesome. :-D

Until next time,

Brady's Nine Month Update

Hey, everyone!

Brady is nine months old today. He now weighs 19 lbs and is 28 inches long.

He now has four teeth, which only add to his extreme cuteness. Teething doesn't seem to bother him much, which I am beyond happy about. No mother or father wants to see their little love in pain. :(

Wait for it ... wait for it ... Brady walks now!!! He will still crawl but he can totally walk. He'll even let go of furniture and walk to me. Of course, he falls sometimes after 10 or so steps but he is getting more and more steady every day. I've been trying to film it to post on Facebook & Instagram but it's hard because I want to make sure I'm there to catch him if he falls. I'll get a video soon, though! :-D On the 15th of February is when he took his first steps. I can't believe my little man is already walking.

He also had his first official haircut on the 27th. It looks SO much better and just makes him look that much more grown up. He sat still (he NEVER stops moving!) the entire time and didn't fuss once! Brad and I were in total shock. The stylist even ran the electric razor around his ears. I think he did so well because there was so much for him to look at and be mesmerized by. Haha. Plus, I gave him one of his arrowroot cookies to chomp on. ;-)

He loves shutting doors, pulling his socks off and chewing on them, taking things apart and throwing things on the floor ... especially when he's in his highchair. Oh, and his happy screams have made a comeback. Haha!

Here are his pictures for this month. I couldn't tame his bedhead today. :-P

 

Blessings,

Brady's Eight Month Update

Howdy, folks! :)

Brady is eight months old today. He weighs 19 lbs and is 27-3/4 inches long. 

Let's see, what's new with him this month ... 

Well, as of yesterday, his top two teeth are popping through the gums. I can't wait to see them come all the way through. :-D He is now walking (more like running) around all by himself with his walker. I think he'll be walking in no time! Last night he started trying to climb furniture. He's a mess. Lol. He talks all the time and is non-stop saying "dadada uh-da dadada" and other baby talk all day long.

His sleep is SO much better this month! He only wakes up once or twice a night, eats, falls right back to sleep and is up for the day around 6:00 or 6:30. It's been great!

We've been really busy moving into our new house (we outgrew our last house). We're almost settled in. It's much bigger and he has way more room to get out all of his energy. Needless to say, he's adjusting well. I'll have to take pictures sometime when I get a chance and post them on Facebook. It's a beautiful house with amazing Smoky Mountain views from every room. We're blessed.

Until next time,

Brady's Seven Month Update

Hey, everyone!

Brady is seven months old today. He now weighs 17 lbs 13 oz and is 27-1/8 inches long. 

He NEVER stops moving, literally. He's always on the go, unless he's sleeping (he's definitely lived up to his nickname, "Monkey"). Changing his diaper and clothes has become a two-person job because he just wants to roll and squirm. He fights sleep like crazy, too.

This month has definitely been the month that he's changed the most. He started to crawl around 6-1/2 months and is a speed-crawler now. He loves sitting on his knees to play with his toys and can also pull himself up to a standing position when he's holding onto something like his toy box. He's really advanced for his age. I suspect it won't be too long until he's walking. He also just started picking up his finger food snacks and feeding himself.

He's toy-crazy and his toys (which he has a ton of) are always all over the place which has helped me overcome my OCD quite a bit. I care more about him having fun than how perfect and in place everything is. Not to mention, he makes a mess when he eats solids, which I actually think is quite funny. It gets slung on the floor, on me, everywhere. It's actually pretty funny. Especially when he laughs about it. Messes can always be cleaned. I do manage to still keep my house pretty spotless, though (minus the baby drool all over the floors which I'm always cleaning up). Haha! :-P

OH! He got two teeth on the bottom this month! The first one popped through on the 21st. They are SO cute! As if he wasn't cute enough already, those two teeth put him over the top! He makes this new toothy fuss-face and grin now that is hysterical. He also sucks in his lips to look like a bird beak (Brad calls them his bird lips). He is such a funny baby. I fall more in love with him and his personality every day. He's definitely not lacking in the personality department.

He also got his first haircut this month. I was trimming his bangs and around his ears (it was really long!) and then when I wasn't looking, Brad snipped a big piece off the side and totally messed up his hair and I had to try to fix it, which I couldn't because he cut it way too high up. I never even got to save his first locks. I cried like a baby. I would go get it fixed but there is no way Brady would sit still to let a stylist cut it (I had to TRY to fix it when he was sleeping on Brad's shoulder). I'll just have to live with it and wait to get it cut. It will grow back and Brad said he'd never cut it again and leave it to the professionals.

I forgot to mention last month that he gives kisses now. I say "kisses" and he grabs my face, opens his mouth wide and French kisses me. It's adorable!

He's definitely over the paci. He's now a paci-free baby. I'm glad he kicked the habit early. I heard it's a nightmare to try to wean a child from their paci when their older.

His sleep is totally unpredictable. One night he may sleep through and the next wake up four times. That's been the hardest part of raising him but as sleep-deprived as we are, we even treasure those times in the middle of the night that we get to snuggle and feed him. We realize that he'll be grown before we know what happened.

 

Love,