Destin Day Two and Three

Thursday we hung out by the pool by the beach a lot of the time. Yesterday, we took Brady out into the ocean again and he saw his first dolphins! (He didn't seem to care so much!) Last night we went to Baytowne Wharf (one of our very favorite places here) and hung out at Hammerheads and listened to some good music. Brady slept in his stroller the whole time during dinner and then we got him up for his dinner and some pictures.

Destin Day One... It's Beach Time!

Greetings from Florida!

We're now on our first family vacation with the little man!! We're with some of our dearest friends, the McCord's and we have been taking a ton of pictures (Suprise, Surprise) so we're going to make the attempt to update every day. (Mostly for our parents!) I do have to thank Justin for the pictures of the three of us! I also want to give a little disclaimer that in some of the pictures it sort of looks like I have my hands on my hips and I'm telling Jeff what to do... and I want to stress that this was NOT the case! I was actually pleasantly surprised at myself with how I did NOT give him directions. I was simply pointing out a huge school of fish!

Curled Up...

Yesterday I was sitting on the sofa with Brady in the boppy. He likes to stare out the window and I felt like being lazy so we played on the couch. When it was naptime, I got up to put him in his crib and I came back to find Georgia like this.... Love that dog.

First Cereal

Last week, I tried to introduce cereal to our little man. He's taking a full bottle at every feeding and I called the doctor last week wondering what to do when he starts not feeling full after a full bottle... because I'm NOT feeding him two bottles at a time! They told me to try a little bit of rice cereal after his bottle, so I've been trying it sometimes in the morning when he's a bit fussy still. He doesn't know what to do with the spoon and honestly he doesn't seem to like the taste of it either. He kind of makes a funny face every time I put it in his mouth and I can't tell if it's the taste or if it's the spoon.... :) Anyway, thought this picture was cute!

Charlie Brown?

I had to post this picture that Jeff took last week. I think the Brady Bug looks exactly like Charlie Brown in this picture - what do you think? With his big, beautiful, "bald", round head and his big, beautiful, brown eyes???

Random Thoughts at Midnight

It's past midnight at the leach household and I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep!! I have tried boring television but that's not working, so I decided to blog about things other than Brady for the moment!!

For as long as I can remember, I have lacked any power to stick to something. I am notorious for starting projects and not finishing them. I have huge goals and when I get started, I go strong for a few days and then I get bored, tired or just plain lazy and stop. This, of course, drives my goal-oriented husband crazy although I like to think that it has become an endearing quality about me that he loves! So several weeks ago when I decided to start a diet, I think he said to me (not in so many words, but this was the point....) "yeah right".

For those of you who have had a baby, you know that the majority of the baby weight comes off fairly quickly and easily. Those first few weeks home from the hospital I was losing the poundage like crazy. (Stick with me... this post is NOT about weight loss). But after a while, it slows down until it finally flat lines at a weight that is not the same as it was before you were preggers. Those last 10-15 pounds (for me it was 15) are the hardest to lose, or so I've heard. So.... after several weeks of being the same, I decided that I wanted to take action.

With the encouragement of some girlfriends, I picked up the South Beach book and began reading it. It made sense to me (especially since my food pyramid consisted solely of sugar and starches) so I decided I was going to do it. I told Jeff that I needed him to do it with me, not because he needed to go on a diet, but because I needed the accountability. This is when he told me, very kindly, not to get my hopes up because I had gotten on kicks like this before and not followed through with them. I know he was trying to protect me, but I was like "It's two weeks. The hard part is only two weeks. I can do two weeks." Sure enough... we did two weeks.... it was hard. So hard for me, actually. But it worked too! And now I've adjusted to make it part of a healthy diet... not boring, not too strict.... just balanced. Of course I'm not back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but that's ok. I'm happy that I've worked hard for something and I'm making progress.

So, with that all said.... it made me realize that I really CAN do things that I put my mind to and I CAN finish things that I start. (I know... I'm 26 and I'm just NOW realizing this. Sad, but true.) So I came up with a few goals of things I wanted to do before I'm thirty. Some of them are silly, and some are just things I've decided I want to do, so bear with me!!

First, I decided I want to run a 5K. A few years back, I made the ambitious goal of wanting to run the White Rock Half Marathon. After about a week of training I quit. It was miserable, I was miserable, and I really can't say anything more about that. Miserable. But, I've always WANTED to be a runner. As much as I hate to do it (because I'm lazy as all get out), I've always wanted to love it. My husband absolutely loves it. I want to love it. Enough said. SO, I have decided that I want to train for a 5K. Not a half marathon, but a 5K. Starting small. Kind of sad, I guess, that I have to TRAIN for a 5K, but I do... and I'm not ashamed. We've decided to do the Freedom Run in Dallas on the 11th of September and I want to be able to run the whole thing. I don't care if it takes an hour, but I'm going to run it. My precious husband is going to do it with me. Now, for him, it's not a feat to do this at all... he picked up after having not run for months, and ran 3 miles without stopping, no problem! He's just like that.... but he gets excited for me when I ran 1.25 miles without stopping last week. (In 20 minutes, I might add!) :) So, that's my first goal.

My second goal is kind of silly, and it's personal, but I want to write a book. Not sure what about yet, but I enjoy writing... not that I'm particualarly good at it, but again.. I want to be good at it. I was always horrible at english in school, so we'll see how this goes.... but again, it's just a goal. Jeff's funny about this too, because when i told him I wanted to do it, I thought he would just laugh at me, but instead he smiled and said 'Go for it!'. In fact, I'm going to be starting a creative writing class in the fall! (It's on-line continuing ed.!)

Those are my two big, defined goals for right now, but I also want to go skydiving at some point, read Pride and Prejudice, learn how to paint my own fingernails, take a photography class, learn how to paint, and transform an old, worn out piece of furniture into something completely new and unusual. I know.... this is all so random... but again, I can't go to sleep and it's almost 1 A.M.

So sweet dreams everyone.... I'm going to try to go to sleep now.

Picture Update!

Here are some pictures I took yesterday!! I love all the new expressions and funny faces he is starting to make, and he LOVES his mirror when he's on his tummy. He squeals every time I turn him over and he sees himself! (Notice I said when I turn him over, as he doesn't do it by himself!!) Enjoy!

Whew.....

Last week was crazy, thus there are no new pictures!! Brady was especially needy last week, and wanted to be held so much! Usually, I can put him down to play and I don't necessarily have to be right there for him to be happy and make noise and play with his rattles, but last week this was not the case. Sunday he didn't nap at ALL!! We were thinking maybe it was being in the nursery that messed him up, but sure enough, Monday was the same way. He would cry almost the whole time during his naptime. Finally in the afternoon when I KNEW that he needed to take a nap, I held him until he was asleep. (A Baby Wise no-no, but oh well...). He slept alright... and then Tuesday he was a bit better.

I had been noticing his hands in his mouth an abnormal amount lately... and he's starting to produce some drool (although it's hard to see in the midst of all of the spit-up). And I kept wondering what was going on... and then there it was... an "a-ha" moment for me... He's TEETHING!! I would feel and feel around in his mouth and not feel anything, but he would chew and chew when I put my fingers in there. Jeff called the doctor and although I thought it was too early, he said that he very well could be teething... and on Sunday, I felt a little poking out up top. So yes... I think that's what it is!! I have to say that I'm kind of sad when I think about my gummy smile leaving forever!!

We also had a two-bath day last week. On Wednesday, I was playing with him in my lap after I fed him because I could tell he was going #2. When I notice that this is happening, I tend to wait until he's finished (or try to, anyway) before I change his diaper. That way I don't have to do it twice, AND it's more unlikely to get pooped on! (Yes, I have gotten pooped on.) But when I went to change his diaper, I noticed poop all over the changing table! Then I lifted him up and it was all over his back and everything... and I couldn't lay him back down or the poop would multiply again!! So I just grabbed him and took him right to the sink and basically hosed him down. He of course thought it was funny... but seeing as I had already given him a bath that morning, it was kind of a mess of soaps, bath toys and washcloths!!

Jeff and I did get to go on a date on Friday night while Papa Ron and Mimi kept Brady overnight. We were so looking forward to going to dinner AND a movie! Too bad I was an idiot and picked a fight with him after the movie was over and now I can't even remember what it was about. But the movie was great (in MY opinion!) and dinner was good, and of course we slept in on Saturday morning but I woke up around 7 anyway... I went back to sleep fine though about an hour later!

Anyway - I'm going to try to get some new pics of my little bug later on today... I think he looks even bigger than last time I posted pictures! I weighed him on the scale we have today and it said he was 14 pounds!! Man... he's a hungry hungry hippo!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!

Another Week Old

I don't think you're even supposed to think in terms of weeks anymore.... I usually just say that he's 3 1/2 months, but then I think that the 4 month mark is right around the corner! Geeze! I never EVER thought I'd get here when we were waking up every three hours at nighttime to feed him, but here we are. Getting a good night's sleep almost every night and moving on with life! We survived!

Last week, we went to Tyler to take Brady to meet his other great grandparents. It was just a day trip, but Brady did great. Unfortunately, he slept the WHOLE way on our way back so he woke up a few times during the night, but it wasn't anything that we couldn't handle.

Brady is now officially out of all of his newborn stuff. I actually was quite sad when I packed up his onesies and jammies that he's already grown out of. His head is too big for them and they were getting tight on his diaper. I'm actually discovering quickly that the 3 month stuff isn't too much bigger than the newborn stuff... as I've gotten some of that out and it seems to fit only slightly better.... so....This weekend, we went to the outlet mall in Allen. I was going to try to take Brady by myself on Friday, and I am soooo glad that I didn't! It was completely overwhelming, but we got some great stuff at the sale at Osh Kosh B'Gosh (it's so much fun to say) and a few things at the Polo outlet.



After the outlet mall, we went and had some fun at the pool at my parents' house! We are trying to gear up for a trip to the beach! Jeff got Brady one of those little floatie things... and it's WAYYYY to big for him still... but I decided that I could hold him up in it and kind of kick around the pool. He LOVED it! He was doing what they call the "full body" smile where he was flailing his arms and kicking his legs like he wanted to go faster! We had fun! Sorry there are so many pics.... I just couldn't choose.















Brady's pushing up real good and sometimes rolling over from his back to his tummy... the same as last week... no new development there. He's getting great at the Bumbo seat and he is great at following people's voices and movements around a room. He loves watching cartoons. I just had to increase his ounces today because he was getting fussy after ever feeding ended the past few days... so now he's up to 7 ounces. It actually may be considered 8 because by the time I put the formula in the bottle, it goes up to 8. He's taking this entire amount every SINGLE time. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when he gets hungry again because I don't want to be feeding him two bottles at every feeding!! Whew!











He's laughing more.... on Friday we heard his first 'belly laugh'. I think Jeff was making some weird noise or face at him and he laughed a few times in a row, making it sound like a real person's laugh. He's getting to be such a ham with the ladies. If you smile at him, he gets this really big gummie smile and batts his beautiful eyelashes at you.... it seriously makes my heart melt!