Days like Wednesday.

Okay, so on Wednesday afternoon after getting home from Bible Study, I decide that I'm going to be a Super Mom and make my own baby food. (You know this isn't going to end well already, don't you?) So, I decide to start with the easiest thing possible: bananas. First off, I need to mention to you that you really only need to mash the bananas. There need not be any 'processing' involved because they're so soft already. No cooking, nothing. Just simply peel and mash. Do I do this? Nope.

I decide this is a great opportunity to use the wedding presents. I open up my corner cabinet and reach WAAY into the back and pull out my shiny red kitchen aid food processor. "Beautiful!" I think to myself!

I peel the bananas. There are six of them so I think I'm going to make plenty of banana baby food, right? Right! I start pulsing away. "This is SUPER easy!" After I added a bit of formula, I decided to transfer my new banana puree (that sounds fancier than baby food does) to a measuring cup so that it's easy to pour into my new ice trays. (You freeze the baby food in the ice trays and it makes perfect proportions. Seriously, super easy).

As I'm making the transfer, I'm hearing Brady begin to babble on the monitor. "I am AWESOME! This is perfect timing!" (You know I probably said this aloud, right?) I take the dirty stuff to the sink and BOOM. Everything falls on the kitchen floor. Now, this would probably be no HUGE deal to clean up, except that Georgia was right underneath me and the bananas got ALL over her. She immediately began to freak out and run around the house trying to scratch the sticky banana puree off her back. I instantly grab a dish towel and try to wipe up the excess banana from the floor. I realize, all of a sudden, that I no longer hear Georgia.... where is she?

She's ON OUR BED!!! Rubbing all over our pillows, our bedspread, our sheets... the sticky banana 'puree' is EVERYWHERE!!!!! (Meanwhile, Brady is LOUDLY crying now that he's up from his nap!) Did I mention that on Monday, Georgia got sick all over our bed, and I had JUST gotten everything back on the bed, nice and freshly washed???

Anyway... it was a disaster of an afternoon, and you'd think it would teach me not to attempt something so lofty... but it didn't. I made some more baby food yesterday (Applecado = applesauce + avocado) and some this morning... (Squash + Sweet Potatoes). You should see how colorful my freezer is!

Moral of the story: Don't take yourself too seriously, or you would never find humor in a day like this!

New Things All at Once!

First off, I must admit that I'm forcing myself to post an entry today just so that I can put Friday's entry behind me. I have gotten a lot of emails and comments from girlfriends who have shared similar experiences with me, and for that I will be forever grateful. Not only did it make me not feel as bad, I also got a good laugh out of one or two of them. In fact, we were at our small group on Sunday after church and every single mommy there had a story or two like mine. (Joanna was probably scared of all of us!) She did get a good laugh out of all of us though!

This weekend, Jeff's college roommate, Matt Link got married. So since Jeff was in the wedding, it was filled with rehearsal dinners, groomsmen breakfast, photos and receptions. I have to say that Katy definitely made everything. From the Save the Dates to the Guest sign in to the party favors. I am going to ask her how in the world she did it all when they get back from their honeymoon. In my perfect world, I may have attempted to do this, but it would have either looked horrendous or I would have gotten halfway done, gotten tired (or bored) and given up! Props to her!

Tonight when Jeff got home, he said "I think I'm going to bed early." I couldn't agree more. Today I am just beat. I feel like perhaps we're all coming down with a cold but it's probably from the busy weekend. (At least, that's what I'm telling myself). I don't really know what we did all day, but I am worn out!

Today was a day of new things for Brady, though. We had to make a trip to the grocery store to get some new items. First, it was time for us to move up a diaper size. Has anyone noticed that the size 3 diapers are not called Swaddlers? They're cruisers! But Brady's not crusing yet! I like the yellow package, not the blue one! I don't want to change yet! Lucky for me they make an 'in between' size that is perfect for our growing boy... and they are still in the yellow package, titled Swaddlers. Yay! We're now officially in "2-3" diapers.

We also tried a sippy cup for the very first time. We've started juice, and our doctor's suggestion was to start a sippy cup with that, since it's a new taste anyway. I usually give him about 4 ounces of dilluted juice and today he finished a little more than two ounces in the sippy cup. I know he's still getting used to it, so I consider that a great accomplishment for the day!

Also... did anyone else know that there are multiple sizes of Soothie Pacifiers? Kendra Hall mentioned it to me a few weeks ago and I had never noticed before. In my opinion, you can never have too many pacifiers, so at the store I decided to get some new ones, and sure enough... there they were. 3 months + Soothies. They come in pink and blue! (I hate to admit this but I had just had a 'discussion' with Jeff on which I insisted that they only came in green. Ooops). So we upgraded our pacifiers too. (Yes, I know we should probably be getting off the pacifier all together, but hey... one thing at a time, people).

But here's the BEST thing: Jeff heard Brady say "Da-Da" yesterday! (During the disaster that was the Cowboys game, I might add). He was feeding him his juice and afterward Brady was sitting on Jeff's lap and I said, "Are you sitting with Daddy?" and he intently looked at me and said loudly... "Da-Da".... Jeff's eyes got so big, it was priceless! Now he can't stop trying to get him to say it again! (I bet he believes me now, huh?)

So that, in a nutshell, has been our life the past few days. We're over the bumps and bruises that were developed last week, and we're onto new things this week! Yay!

(Below are pictures of us at the rehearsal dinner on Friday! Thanks to the Justin, Joanna and Becky for keeping the Bug for us this weekend!)

Brady's SECOND Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I am SO glad today is Friday. Aren't you? More than I am glad today is Friday, I am glad yesterday has come and gone. And what a LO-ONG one it was. Mommy or no mommy, these days DO come... please tell me you identify! I kind of get, um... annoyed (or maybe it's jealous) when people act like parenthood (or life in general, for that matter) is just all roses and that they never come across a bad day. (If you indeed don't have 'bad' days, or even long ones, please tell me your secret!) Please keep in mind that in the grand scheme of things, yes, life at the Leach household is pretty easy going, but we are normal people, just like the next person and I like to share my horrors of being a mom just as much as my joys so that no one feels like the odd one out when they have a day like I am about to describe here. :)

Part One - Dropping the Bug off with Papa Ron

On Tuesdays, my mom watches Brady while I work for my dad at the office, and on Thursdays Brady's Mimi's and Papa Ron watch him for a few hours in the morning as well. It's nice for me to kind of get out of the house and do my 'own thing' at my dad's office and have some adult interaction, but now that he's more active, it can be a little daunting getting out of the house by 8:30 in the morning. I've come to realization that no matter what I do, we will not be on time any more. Even when we leave on time, we end up not being on time... anywhere. This bugs me to pieces because I used to be SUCH a stickler for being on time. (This is the ONLY time that I ever tell Jeff to speed up - when we're late for church!)

Anyway, that's not really part of the story. When I got to the office (where Ron meets us), I saw that my dad was there so I wanted to take Brady in to say Hi to his Big Daddy. When I got him out of the car, I could smell his diaper, if you know what I mean. Ron said, "Oh don't worry about it, we'll change him when we get home." So we went in to say hi, chatted for a bit and then back out to the car it was for the transfer. As I was putting Brady back into his carseat, I pulled my hand from behind him and it was COVERED with you-know-what. It was all over the car seat. (In fact, I think it was more than I even realized). Panic mode set in.

"Um, Ron, I think we might have a situation here".

He comes around and looks.

"I think I'm going to take him back in and try to clean him up...."

"No, we can clean him up when we get him home... it's not a big deal".

Well, apparently Brady thought it was a big deal because he cried the whole way home from his messiness. I know he's a boy, but I guess he doesn't want to be THAT dirty, right? Who does? Looking back on it, I can't believe I let him ride home like that. It's one of those moments that you have two options and both of them aren't good... so you just pick one. I think I would have rather made a mess of my dad's new carpet though. So sorry Brady. Horrible Mommy... part one.

Part Two - Dr. Gates's Office

After I picked Brady back up after the messiness... I took him to the doctor's office for his check up. I was really looking forward to this appointment! And in fact, I had just told Darlene how great Brady did with his shots last time and I wasn't worried too much about it at all this time. Little did I know that the shots would be the least of my worries.

After the nurse checked his pulse, weighed him, measured him, inspected him, we were waiting for Dr. Gates to come in. So, what else do you do but sit on the table with toys, right? Brady's gotten SUPER good at sitting up. I'm talking, he never falls anymore, in fact he cries when he wants down because he can't figure out how to get out of sitting up. So he was sitting up on the table. I was actually thinking that was better than laying there because he would roll over before anything else happened. (You can tell where I'm going with this, can't you?)

So, I was standing right by him, I had my hand on his leg while he was playing all nicely with his chains and everything. Dr. Gates came in and was admiring how great he was at sitting up.

"How long has he been sitting up like that? He's looks really comfortable sitting!"

"About two weeks, Dr. Gates. He's such a big...."

All of a sudden he wasn't there anymore. I'm talking a split second. I had my hand on his leg and I was on one side of the table. Dr. Gates was at the end of the table. The other side of the table was almost against the wall. But he wasn't there. He had reached for the cords on the wall that come off of the eye and ear thingy and fallen between the table and the wall. (The table is angled so it's not like he was stuck or anything...I just can't believe this happened). I think I froze. It felt like MINUTES went by before either Dr. Gates or I moved. Then FINALLY I ran around the other side and picked him up. (Um, is it weird that I was proud of him that he was in a 'crawling' position though? With his knees up under him and his arms pushed up?). He didn't make a peep for a bit, but it was probably because the air was knocked out of him and he was doing that terrible silent cry thing. That's how you know he's REALLY angry.

But the silence didn't last for too long. Then came tears. Crocodile tears. Lots of screaming and looking at me like, "WHO ARE YOU??? WHY WOULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" I was crying. Dr. Gates handed me a tissue. (Isn't it great when you have an audience when something like this happens?) He proceeded to tell me stories of when his girls were little and one busted her chin open on the sidewalk when she was learning how to walk in the front yard on the grass, but he looked away for a second and she was face first on the concrete. Then about lifting one of his girls over his head, and she was cracking up, and then all of a sudden, she flipped her legs over and flew out of his hands and he thought she was paralized. (She's totally fine, by the way, not a broken bone or anything). He promised me that these things happen to everyone and that Brady would never remember this. (Although I think this morning he woke up and thought to himself, "Why does my head hurt? Oh, it's because my mommy didn't hold onto me and I fell off of the table at the doctor's office").

Dr. Gates then ran to get the nurses and told them to give him his shots before he calmed down, so he got it done all at once. I wouldn't have thought about that, but I thought it was probably a very wise decision. I stayed for about an hour, trying to feed him and get him to calm down. Dr. Gates came in to check on me several times (what a little muffin), and he told me that if it were going to happen anywhere, I should be glad it happened there. It saved me a visit to the doctor! He told me what to watch for the next time something like this happens. I said, "next time?" and he looked at me with a sad face and said, "He's a boy... you will have lots of next times in some shape or fashion."

When I left, I called my mom and said, "Please tell me this stuff happened to you!" I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this (because she was a fabulous mom!) but she told me that she knows we all were dropped, fell, electrocuted (that's another story) or something similar, multiple times. She told me Cam rolled down the stairs at least twice. (I am cracking up while I'm writing this by the way). She then called me back later and left me a message and this is what it said... almost word for word:

"Becky. I just remembered that when Katie (my sister) was about two years old, we were leaving the grocery store and she fell out of the grocery cart onto the pavement in the parking lot. I hope that makes you feel better. Love you!" (Katie, if you're reading this... surprise!)

What are moms for? To share their own horror stories and make you feel better? Exactly.

Now, I know there are a few moms out there (who shall remain nameless) who have had moments like this, and I so appreciate you sharing those with me! This morning, I'm absolutely exhausted (from the emotional wreck that was yesterday), but the B-Man is doing great, he's happy and he's taking a great nap for me already. Dr. Gates called Jeff twice last night while he was in class and didn't leave a message... I'm thinking it was to check on me, not Brady. He said that Brady's fine, but I was the one that he was worried about. It definitely shook me up.

Ahhhh.... the joys and fears of mommyhood. Gotta Love It.

Happy Friday everyone!

(Here are pictures from yesterday afternoon when we got home. He would play and then cry, play and then cry. See the scrape on his face? That's from me!!!!!!!! I guess I've just got to realize that there is no way to protect him from absolutely everything, and he's definitely tougher than I give him credit for!)

Happy Half Birthday, Brady!

Today marks half of a year since Brady was born. Jeff and I were talking last night about how he can't believe it's already been a year and I can't believe it's only been a year. I feel like he's been with us forever! He's brought such joy and life into our world (and yes, sometimes strife). It's amazing that JUST 6 months and a day ago he wasn't here. We were looking at pictures last night from when I was pregnant and it's so weird to think he was a little person in my belly! I can't believe how much he's grown. I look at him and yes, know that he's grown, but when I look back at his newborn pictures, I feel like he doesn't even look like the same person!

His personality is coming out more and more every day. I can definitely tell that he can manipulate us now. Screaming through an entire nap and when you go in there he just smiles really big at you. Yep, nothing was wrong... he's just got it down now, huh? He likes to rock when he sits up... is that normal? That's a new thing in the last week or so. He rolls over in his crib onto his belly and then he cries because he's forgotten how to get back over to the other side!

He LOVES his cereal. We're learning to hold his little hands while he eats, trying to teach him to not grab the spoon (or bowl, for that matter). He LOVES to spit. I think it's because of all of the drool in his mouth. He blows bubbles all the time now. Yes, he said Da-Da on Friday, and I've heard him say "da" since then, and I can see him moving his mouth in that new 'consonant' way. He's just exploring something new every day now. Whether it be a new toy, picking up a 'puff' or trying to 'help' me put him in his car seat. (He's not really helping me as much as he is fighting me).

We're going to the doctor on Thursday - YAY! I think that he's around 17 pounds now (according to our scientific way of weighing him on our scale at home). We'll see, though... we're already in the 9 month clothes, so I have to think he's growing length wise, anyway!

Oh My Gosh!

So, this morning I had coffee with my friend Becky while Jeff watched Brady for me. (This isn't unusual, he does it almost every Friday for me... thank you, Honey!) On my way home I stopped by Walgreen's to get some formula and I decided to pick up a little card for Jeff too. (Because I AM such a great wifey and everything, right?) But now to the GREAT part... I had put the card on Jeff's car so that he would get it when he left (just like we did when we were dating) and I was kind of watching him through the window... it's just been one of those weeks where I could tell he needed a little pick-me-up. He came back inside and thanked me and gave me and Brady a big hug... gotta love him! So when he went back out to the car, I looked at Brady and said, "We just made Daddy really happy, didn't we?" And he looked up at me and sweetly said, "Da-Da?" My jaw DROPPED. I am not kidding. I think I froze. But there's no doubt about it, that's what he said! I ran back outside and stopped Jeff and told him. Of course, the Bug did not want to say it again so Jeff did not believe me, but he totally did. I swear it. I've read that they can say it at this age, but not necessarily mean it... which is perhaps what happened... but it DID happen!

AND... a new development from yesterday... Brady can put his paci in his mouth (correctly) by himself!! I sat him down on his blanket last night after our walk while I was getting his dinner ready and I came back in and somehow he had reached for his pacifier and put it in his mouth, all by himself. I didn't even know there was one on the blanket!! Then this morning, I went to check on him before I left and he had it in his mouth and I knew he didn't sleep with it in his mouth the entire night! Our little boy isn't as little as he used to be!! I just love these new developments!

Splish Splash!

Last night we took our first "Big Boy Bath". The Bug does NOT like to lay on his back... the second you put him on his back, he rolls straight to his belly. This goes for the bath tub too! Sooo... being the problem solver that I am, I decided he sits up good enough to switch to the "Big Boy" side of the bath. He did great! However, he did learn a new trick... SPLASHING!

I remember telling someone a while back that I really wanted him to learn how to splash in the water... especially in the pool. Well, be careful what you wish for, huh? He didn't really stop splashing the whole bath! I was soaking wet by the end, but I loved every minute of it. We'll learn 'no' next time... but for this time, we just enjoyed splashing and then laughing. He even tried to eat the plastic divider thing that helps him sit up better! What's with EVERYTHING going in the mouth?

Enjoy!

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!