Baylor, Pumpkins, Friends and Hay!

Today we went to the Arboretum for "Mommy and Me" Day and what was supposed to be a Baylor get together as well. So, we all dressed our kids up in their Baylor Bear gear and headed out for a picnic! It was so much hotter than it should have been and I was sweating from the minute I was trying to get Brady in the car with Holice!

I wasn't sure how pretty it was going to be compared to the last time I went, which was in the spring right before I had Brady, but it was gorgeous! There were pumpkins and gourds everywhere, of course! Brady wasn't too sure about sitting on the hay at first, but then he started to eat it, along with the pumpkins! They entertained him.

Mackenzie was sporting her cheerleading skirt and was just as cute as ever! Jeff was trying to give Brady pointers this morning on how to flirt with her today. I just LOVE her pigtails!

Here are some pictures from our fun day out!

Jump to it!

Okay, so today I was sitting on the sofa reading while Brady was playing in his jumper and I looked over and he was bouncing so high, I thought he was going to bounce right out of his seat! He's never done this before and of course, I had to record it for his daddy who was so sad to have missed it! I was just lucky that he kept doing it even after I got the camera! (That usually doesn't happen!) Enjoy! (Oh, and sorry if it's too long, I had a little too much fun with my movie editor tonight.)

Remember to pause the music on the playlist to the right!

Lately...

So, I guess I need to post an update on the Bug and what he's up to now.

He's getting so much bigger and Jeff often tells me that he's sad he's 'growing up' so fast. I, on the other hand, and so enjoying watching his new moves and the new things that he learns every day. I see newborns now and I can't believe that Brady was ever that small! (And he definitely WAS small!) Everyone tells me to enjoy it because it goes by so fast, and although I know that it does, I feel like I do my best at enjoying whatever stage he is at while still looking forward to what's to come.

So right now he's really into taking out his paci and trying to put it back in. He doesn't get it back in the right way often, but Jeff and I think that he enjoys chewing on the side of it. It IS squishy and I actually have thought about putting it in the fridge and using it as a 'teether' since he's not interested in any of the actual teething things that he has!

He LOVES the nursery. We have had a few bad experiences, but three weeks ago we "promoted" and we LOVE the new ladies in the nursery! Last week, I told them that he is teething and gets fussy sometimes (because I thought it would be better to warn them after our previous experience at Bible Study) and they looked at me like I was crazy! "Fussy? We can DO fussy! Don't even worry about it!" And today when we went I was so excited that when we walked up, a lady came came from across the room and said, "Yay! Brady's here today!" It warmed my heart! I told Jeff that I think that's what the nursery is supposed to feel like every time for every mother! They should make everyone feel that welcome, and we just love our new ladies! (And Brady's a big flirt with his big eyelashes, so of course they love him. Am I biased?) Ha.

He sits up pretty good now, I even left the room the other day to get something and came back a few minutes later and he was still sitting up!! What a big boy! He LOVES food. We started a snack time the other day because he wasn't sleeping well and he devoured it. Yesterday we did juice for snack because he was going to be outside for a while, and I thought for sure he wouldn't drink all 4 ounces and he sucked it down like we never feed him! He scoots backwards. I guess you could say he pushed himself backwards. I've been wondering how he gets to the other side of the room (ok, it's the other side of the blanket, but still!) and then finally I realized that it's because he pushes his little body backward. I guess it's a backwards army crawl. He can't figure out how to move forward, but for now, that's totally fine with me! He can take his time crawling!

We start our next parenting class tonight! I'm excited and a little nervous at the same time. It's going to be on discipline, and I think I may be in for it! I know that we have an inpatient little boy on our hands (at least when it comes to food) and I may have to take steps now to correct that! Wish us luck! Go Cowboys!

Family Fun

On Saturday night we went to the Plano Balloon Festival! Jeff grew up going (and actually singing there) but I had never been. It was so much bigger than I had ever imagined. There were THOUSANDS of people there. I guess I was expecting a few balloons here and there and some fair food, but not this magnitude of people! People were everywhere! The weather was beautiful. I actually had thought that I would need a sweater, but it ended up being even a little warmer than I thought. But of course it wasn't near as hot as it could have been here in Texas, right?

We thought we were going to miss the parachuters, but they were running behind schedule! Jeff told Brady he would take him skydiving for his 1st birthday! 

I had actually planned on packing a dinner for Jeff and I, but then I found out they had fair food so of course I wanted that. Note to self: Next year, pack my own food. The food was about 1/2 mile away from where we were sitting and where we were parked. The lines were super long, but Jeff so generously offered to go get me some lemonade and a hot dog because I was starving!

The girls with their babies. Notice how many people were on the hill behind us!

(Do you see Sydney pulling Craig's hair?)

This picture is a bit fuzzy, but I love pictures of him sitting up! And in this one, he had just dropped his pacifier and was definitely about to fall over reaching for it!

Craig and Sydney (She was the life of the party!)

We ran into Craig, Julie and Syndney right as we were walking in, so we laid out our blankets together. Sydney is getting so big. I always use her as a measure because she is almost exactly a year older than Brady. It amazes me to look at her and think that Brady's going to be that age a year from now! (She also told me that she can't believe Sydney was Brady's age just a year ago!)

Mackenzie and Jack

Time for jammies!

We were then joined by the Aaron, Brooke and Maddie, Lindsey and Mackenzie, and Eric, Jerica and Jack. I was surprised, but Brady definitely did notice the balloons, especially once they started glowing. Of course the bigger kids really did love all of the balloons.

We will definitely be making this a family tradition!

Surprise!

I came home on Thursday afternoon to find these:




It looks like someone has been reading my blog!?! Thank you sweetheart! I love my Lands End Bags!

Overwhelmed Much?

This may not be my first post with this title. Does anyone else feel overwhelmed? I feel overwhelmed all.the.time! Especially now that I am a mom. Especially now that Brady is all of a sudden wide awake at 11 at night, 2 in the morning and 5 in the morning. Why can't he tell me what is wrong? Is he napping too much? Is he not napping enough? Do his teeth hurt? Have we started a bad habit with the pacifier? Do we need to keep him up longer at night? Is he sick? Ugh! All these questions plus thousands more run through my head all day long!

However, none of this compares to the overwhelming feeling I had yesterday morning at Bible Study.Dan Panetti spoke on not letting the culture raise our kids. Basically, raising godly kids vs. raising good kids. It was incredibly interesting and insightful and he had a ton of great information to give on countering the culture today. However, I walked away with this feeling of "Oh my goodness, I've already done so many things wrong... how am I ever going to raise a boy in this culture!" We talked in our small group about it afterward(thank goodness for small groups) and all of the women there felt the same way. It's a feeling of "How in the world can I do ALL of this for my child?" He even mentioned instilling the heros of the Bible in your children so they want to be like Gideon or David or what have you. I leaned over to Marci during his talk and said, "I feel horrible, I don't really even know the story of Gideon... how am I supposed to teach Brady?"

It was incredible. He had all of these wonderful things to say and suggestions at how to raise your kids and I didn't even know where to start. And Brady's only 5 and a half months old! What is the world going to be like when he's a teenager??

Thankfully though, as I was sitting at the park with Brady stewing over all of this and asking God what in the world I should do, our sweet leader, Laurie emailed us the following email:

"I was thinking this afternoon…some of you mentioned that you felt overwhelmed after hearing Dan speak…take it from me, you never really stop feeling overwhelmed as a mother…don’t be disheartened by the feeling, it’s more than natural…as I pondered our discussion this afternoon I came up with this: think of that overwhelming feeling as the FIRE that drives you as a mother. The minute I stop feeling overwhelmed I might have the tendency to become apathetic as a mother and that is far more dangerous… use that feeling to drive you to perform your best as a mom… your highest calling!!!! Remember we have God as the ultimate “parent” to seek refuge and advice from…it’s all right there in His Word. God uses us, as imperfect as we are, to guide and love our children. He created them and placed them directly in our homes; He trusted us with them... so we have to use our faith to walk in the path He chose for us, the greatest path, as a mother…it’s the ultimate privilege. You WILL have days of failure but the next day starts anew and fresh…continue to fill yourself up with God’s Word and you will have the peace you need to raise your little ones…it’s ok to be a little fearful…that’s when we operate the closest to God…which is EXACTLY where He wants us!!!"

How beautiful were those words? I think she's exactly right. This isn't just advice for mothers, either. Joanna pointed out last night that this is good life advice too. The minute we start feeling okay where we are in our walk with the Lord, that's when Satan attacks, and little by little he starts chipping away at us until we're further from Him than we ever dreamed! I just wanted to share that bit of encouragement with all of you out there. I know that for me, it's very freeing to know that there are no perfect moms out there that get it right 100% of the time. There are probably ones that it get it right 90% of the time, but I'm not one of those!

You may ask where I decided to start. I decided that God was telling me (and has been for a while) that I watch too much t.v. Too much as a whole and too much with Brady as well. I always chalk it up to background noise, which it is mostly, but before I know it, I've been sucked in to whatever show is on. So, I've decided not to even sit in the living room during the day for a week. That way, I'm not even tempted, and we can sit in Brady's room and play on the floor or go for walks, since it's so nice outside. We've downloaded lots of Raffi songs on my iPod so we listen and sing all afternoon. (Brady actually thinks it's pretty funny when I sing. Hmm.... so does Jeff, I guess there isn't any American Idol in my future anytime soon). Anyway, just one small thing I'm going to work on for this week. We'll see what next week brings.

Yesterday afternoon we walked to the park. We stayed for two hours, watched a pee wee baseball practice and read books. Brady eventually conked out in his stroller. Jeff came and picked Georgia up after work from the park so we didn't have to walk back with her. She doesn't necessarily love walking next to the stroller.

Here are some pics that I took with my phone from the park!

Jump, Jump, Jump

Brady got a new toy! Mimi and Papa Ron got a jumper for the Brady Bug at their house and were telling us how much he absolutely loved it, so we got one for our house! We needed to add another "station" anyway, so this was perfect! He seems to love kicking his legs and twirling around. It reminds me of a ride at disney world... I'm not sure which one. How can you not love chubby baby legs?

Favorite Things

I was putting together some stuff for my girlfriend, Monica, who's a mom-to-be and it got me to thinking about my very favorite mommy items. Things that I have come to love and can't live without that I didn't know about before. I remember when I was preggers with Brady, Kate Kadane put her Top 5 Mommy Must Haves on her blog and I really enjoyed looking at what she loved and what worked for her... so I'm stealing her idea! I know everyone is different and every baby is different so this is just how it works for us... so far! Here we go: 

Number One: Mylicon

I had no idea about this until I was a mom. Brady was all of a sudden fussing like nobody's business when he was about 2 weeks old or so and I called all of my girlfriends trying to figure out what to do. They told me that he might have trapped gas and to get these little Mylicon drops and see if that works. (See Blog Post ) Immediately he started tooting! Our doctor told us that there's no 'proof' that they work, but my mommy friends swear by them, and now so do I! My motto is... there is no harm in trying them!



Number Two: Baby 411

My friend Ashley sent me this book the first week I was home with Brady. What a lifesaver!?! It has everything in there... from when to call your doctor to how to cut their fingernails to what kind of poops are normal! It has saved me a lot of worrying time and probably saved me lots of trips to the doctor too! Every first time mom needs one!



Number Three: A Land's End Bag

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Land's End bag. This was one of the best gifts ever! They're inexpensive and they come in every color! (We're actually about to get another one!) They're washable and they have two pockets inside that are perfect for bottles. (Get the medium sized one). I don't mind when things spill because they are easy to clean and don't show dirt at all!! It's the perfect size for all of his supplies for an entire day-trip! Get one!



Number Four and Five: A Formula Dispenser and Vinyl Labels from Heavenly Press

Even if you are nursing, these formula dispensers are perfect for dividing out puffs, cheerios, and the like. Right now, of course, we're just using it for formula, but it is A-Mazing. Again, didn't know about these until after I had Brady. The vinyl labels are a must too! Hillary Kouba, who is a founder of Heavenly Press gave these to me at a shower and they are wonderful! There are a ton of designs and these things do NOT wash off!! I soak my bottles in hot water every night and they're still looking as good as new!



Number Six: Some Sort of Stain Stick

Because stains do happen. I started out with the Deft stain stick, but I personally like the tide one better. It's cheaper and seems to work better for me for some reason... but anything to take with you will work, I'm sure!

This happened just last night when Brady grabbed the tylenol dropper from my hand and tried to put it in his mouth all by himself! I couldn't get it fast enough, obviously!





One of My Newest Favorites: Super Baby Food Book

This is obviously a new addition to my favorites and I absolutely love it! It tells you everything you need to know about solid foods, making your own food, store bought food and feeding your baby.

The swing was a lifesaver for us at first, also! He wouldn't sleep really anywhere except the swing for the first two-three weeks... it was so easy to put him down at the time! It ran out of batteries a while back and I've just never replaced them, otherwise, I'm sure we'd still be using it daily! We didn't ever get a bouncer but I've heard those work the same as well!

I also love the Bumbo. Now he's sitting up a lot better by himself, but I still like to be right next to him, so the Bumbo helps us when it's time to watch Baby Einstein DVD's. Oh, that's another one... Baby Einstein! I used to feel bad about sitting him in front of a baby einstein DVD, but I have reconciled that there is nothing wrong with this! Just like in pregnancy, everything in moderation, right?

I'd love to hear other favorites... I just went to a baby shower and I feel like there are already new things that weren't around when Brady was born. It also could be entirely possible that I was just ignorant to it all and didn't know about them!

This week has been somewhat of a rough one. Don't get me wrong, it could be a whole lot worse... that's not what I'm saying at all. It's just that we're apparently right in the thick of the teething process, and that results in random 30-minute periods of inconsolable crying throughout the day. On Tuesday, my mom had him during the late morning/early afternoon and she said he was absolutely perfect! But of course, for me he was screaming in the morning and screaming in the afternoon! I actually kind of thought to myself "I am a horrible mom! He's in such pain and nothing is working!" And, I felt like I was going to pull my hair out at some points... I felt so badly for him! It's one thing if I know he's just crying to cry and then I'll just let him be, but this time I know that he's in pain! I'm his mom! I should be able to console him somehow, right? You'll look at him and he'll have both of his hands stuffed inside his mouth and he's gnawing on his fingers!!! Poor thing! (Please tell me that you other moms have felt this same thing at some point!)

On Wednesday, we went to our Mom's Bible Study at church and it was my groups's day to work the nursery. When I went to pick him up, this mom handed him over as if he were a disease and simply said "He was absolutely out of control." Tears flooded out of my eyes... I had no idea what she was talking about, all I knew was that she was absolutely put out with my child. Fortunately, one of my sweet table leaders was also in there and she told me that he was mad the last 20 minutes or so of the time and yes, he was inconsolable but her kids had been the same way. That was all I needed... to hear that her kids were the same way and that she understood! There's something special about mommy-hood when you can sympathize with other moms and their crying children. I was so frustrated with how this lady had talked to me... it still bothers me. I know that no one ever wants to be 'that' parent... especially at this age when truthfully, there's nothing that you can do about it. 

So, on my way home, we went and got some baby Orajel and added that to our regimen of tylenol at nighttime. I haven't experienced any "out bursts" since then, but time shall tell. His gums are so swollen and I really hope that we get a break through soon so that maybe we can have some relief for a while before the next batch hits. This video was from the same day as the nursery incident! You would never know how upset he had been! It's amazing how babies always laugh the hardest at the simple things! This was about to be Georgia's "potty bag" and he really liked the crinkle noise, I guess!

Game Day at the Leach House

I never thought we would make it, but it's here. The first official Cowboys game. Hooray! On Friday, Jeff brought home a present for Brady and for Georgia (because we couldn't forget Georgia). Brady got a Romo jersey and Georgia got a "double zero" jersey! Brady's jersey is 12 month so it's a little big... but not near as big as I feel that it should be. 

He's 5 months today and he should not remotely fit in this thing.... for the first time, I feel that he's growing up too fast. Mostly I've always thought that I can't wait to get to the next 'stage' of life.... but now I'm not so sure!

I have to share this funny story... Last night we went to eat sushi with our friends Matt and Jocelyn at Zushi Sushi on Oaklawn. (A great place, by the way!) Matt was holding Brady after he took his bottle and he was getting kind of fussy but wasn't too interested in his pacifier, so Jocelyn just put it on the table in front of him. He definitely noticed it and started staring at it, so she put it closer to see if he would grab it. But, instead of grabbing it, he did a sort of nose-dive for it with his mouth wide open! Luckily he didn't hit his head or anything, but when we all started dying laughing, he made his pouty face and was looking at us like "Why are you laughing at me???" I think it just caught us all off guard, which is why it was funny...

Here are a few pictures of Game Day at the Leach House.... Puppy Chow is a treat for Sunday afternoon football and yes, we do eat the whole batch!

I think he's saying "We're Number One!"

Is it just me, or does he look like he's practicing the Heisman Trophy stance in that picture?

Pooped from the morning at the nursery and cheering on Romo and T.O. to their first win.