Last update before Christmas!

We had Christmas as our house this even because Auntie "E" leaves for California in the morning. Brayden taking his necklace on and off over his head.

He is saying everything we say these days. He is talking up a storm. He often gets out three word sentences or three syllable words ("terribly"). He responds to what we ask and say and even initiates conversations. It was so cool the other day when he was getting hot, he turned to Auntie "E" and said "HOT!" as he was trying to get his hat off. Then, that afternoon we had pizza. Brayden recognized it right away and started saying "Ooo, PIZZA!"

Brayden was really caring while Mommy was sick, giving hugs all day. He thought it was so funny the noise I made when ever I threw up, though. I had him all asleep, but could not make it out of the room to the bathroom in time so I used the trash can in our room. It woke Brayden up and he just laughed and laughed at my funny noises.

One morning Brayden woke up, sat up and said, "Coffee! Coffee!" He crawled right out of bed, walked down the hall and into the kitchen to get Daddy's coffee started for him. He loves to help Daddy make his morning coffee.

He is really starting to go off and play with his toys on his own. It is helping Mom out a lot.

Brayden loves to chew on gum wrappers. He is always opening up the bread box asking for "Gum! Gum!"

He has been making this funny sour face recently. He has always had such funny faces and silly smiles.

He is obsessed with his belly and lifting up his shirt this week. Who knows?

He does not like his high chair any more. It is very difficult to get him to sit still and eat.
He loves to feed others with a spoon or fork. He feels so grown up.

Brayden uses his teddy bear to say his prayers at night. He puts teddy's little arms together as we say them. (He also likes to play hide-n-seek with teddy. The best spot is behind the diapers!) Brayden helps say "Amen!", gives Mommy and Daddy kisses and says, "I love you!" Then, he blows out the light. He will miss saying "Nigh, Nigh!" to Auntie "E".

That is it for now. Happy holidays and we will see you again after Christmas!!!

Sick with the Flu!!!

Poor Brayden got sick with Mommy's flu. What an aweful day. We were amazed at home well he did make it through the day. He was really tired and took two naps. He laidd on Mommy most of the time. He did drink a lot of water and eat a little. We hope tomorrow brings a better day.

Out to see the Raindeer!!!

Auntie "E" and Blaine took Brayden to see the raindeer and Santa while mommy stayed home sick with the flu.

Where is Brayden?

There he is!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

We wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful new year!!!


We will be sad to see Aunti "E" go home in a week, but excited for her new adventures ahead. Bye, bye. We love you!!!

SLEEP!!!

Brayden slept 8 hours in a row last night. This is only the second time ever. Yeah BRAYDEN!!!

18 months

Brayden had a modified time out for the first time the other day. The doctor says that he can't believe we never needed a time out before then. "That mean he is a really good boy!"

Anyway, Brayden was really fussy and upset about everything on morning. He was throwing books, and stomping around so I told him he needed to calm down. I said when he was happy again he could meet me in the living room. It only took 30 seconds and Brayden was back out with me, in my face, saying, "Hi, Hi...Hi!" I think as to ask if everything was okay. We have not had to do that since.

























Here is Brayden watching a video and talking up a storm!














More silly faces!



















Brayden loves to help clean the windows, sweep the floor and dust!

Nov. 5

Brayden is a year and a half old now. He is more fun than ever and sometimes more challenging than ever. He has been a lot less frustrated this week, or we have just learned to me more encouraging and understanding of his need to be independent and make choices.

He is becoming more social also. He has a great time with his friend Eva around. He seems to feel very comfortable, making all his faces and his new loud, boy noises.

He is twirling all over the place, loves to help push the shopping carts and strollers, and spends a lot of time playing on his tummy.

Brayden does a really great job following directions right now. I ask him to help all day long. (Ex. We will be folding laundry in the bedroom and I will have a pile of dishtowels all folded. I will ask him to take them to the kitchen and he will take one at a time out until he has them all in the kitchen. It is so sweet!)

He is trying to say so many words. He is putting multi syllable words together and even saying a lot of two word sentences. His cutest words right now are "peanut butter", and "I love you."

I think his days of grunting for what he wants are nearing an end. He will often start to ask for something with a grunt and then we ask him "What do you want/need?" and he responds with a point and a word. Sometimes we don't even have to ask him to use his words. He will often turn the grunt right into a word. It is great!!! Although, sometimes we have a hard time figuring out what he is saying. It is so cool when we figure it out and hear how close the word he is saying sounds to the real word.

Here is a cute story...Auntie "E" was leaving the room for something and Brayden asked, "Back?" He wanted to make sure she was coming back.

He will also leave a room and say, "Back!" as to say he will be right back. He says "Funny" with a little chuckle when he thinks something is silly and "Bumpy" when he feels something is not smooth.

We often ask Brayden, "How big is Brayden?" He loves to respond with a loud "BIG!" It is too cute!

Braden woke up one night last week about four times (and that is a good night). Every time he woke he yells out an animal and its noise (cow/moo, duck/quack, dog/woof, and cat/meow). All we could figure was that he was singing Old MacDonald in his sleep. We had been singing it in the car that day for about 15 minutes and made is through all the farm, zoo, and wild animals we could think of. We even had some insects in our song. Can you believe he knew every animal noise Auntie E and I could think of? He is a smarty!

Vidoes to Make you Laugh!!!

Funny Buisness!!!

Brayden is up to TROUBLE these days. He wants to explore, examine, manipulate and learn how to do everything big people do. He loves to put CD’s in and out of the stereo and DVD’s in the player or DVD boxed. He will sometimes turn on the TV, put a movie in the player and sit in his pooh chair with the remote in his hand ready for the movie to start.

He is obsessed with light switches. In music class we pretend to blow the lights out for the last lullaby. Brayden gets a real kick out of it, so we have started to do it at home when we turn a light out, but now he wants to play with the switches and turn them on and off all the time. Mommy and Daddy’s arms are very tired from holding him up to the switches. He whines to play with the switches any time we leave a room.

Brayden’s newest game is unrolling the toilet paper, opening the toilet lid and flushing the paper down the drain. The neighbors must love the bang of the lid 20 times over. I took the paper off the roll today hoping he would move on to something else, but he turned to the dirty tissues in the trash and continued. What was I thinking? He is unstoppable. He will always find a way. I am closing the bathroom door now, but he just bangs, whines and cries for me to open it up.

He also loves taking his wet wipes out of the box and throwing them into his diaper trashcan. These new games are going to get expensive. The only way I can get dinner fixed is to show him a movie or let him sit on the counter and empty a tissue box. He loves throwing all the tissues to the ground. I have also found that letting him open and shut the microwave works or empty all the spice jars out of the rack.

Bray works very hard at helping me with the laundry. He pulls the lint traps out of the dryers, wipes it clean and throws away the lint. Then he returns the trap to its place and puts the quarters in the slots. I am amazed how his little hands can get the coins in the right spots. Then he pushed the button to start the machine and we wait for the next load.

Whenever we come through the front door, he is eager to get the keys, stick them in the lock and unlock the door. He will not come in, until he has had a turn (or I should say 10 turns). He also loves to turn the hands on clocks, sweep the deck (or do anything on the deck), squeegee the windows, and play with button on anything (especially the radio, answering machine, computer, camera, and telephone).

He loves his “teddy” and many other animals and figurines right now. He carries them around and does daily activities with them. It is very cute.

We have Christmas up already and Brayden loves to say “Hi” so our Santa and pat him on the head. He also loves taking off his ornaments and toting them around the house.

We cannot get out of a store without playing hide-n-seek around the clothes racks. He is a nut for hide-n-seek anywhere. Not a day goes by without playing.

His big words right now are Daddy, Cool, Neat, Dude, Whoa, Uh-Oh, Boom, NOOO!, Teddy, Yeah, and Here. You can tell he has a valley girl for a mom. He will try to repeat anything you ask him to say. It is pretty fun. He has been playing with his language a lot. He uses his tongue funny and draws out words, especially his “Noooo!”

We have been struggling with bedtime for a week. It is taking an hour to get him down. Maybe I will have to give up more of my alone time in the evening and set a later bed time. It seems to work better that way and then he takes longer naps in the day. That is always nice so I can get more rest. I think he may never sleep through the night. I still need to nap when he does.

He is a silly guy. We can see him really starting to show some independence and strong will. Gotta love it!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went on a walk today with Aunti "E" and found a fun spot on Grand Ave. to take holiday pictures and then we went to the park to send you all our loved ones a thanksgiving greeting. Brayden was afraid of the giant Santa and snowman at first, but warmed up to them after a while. By the time we were done he had said "Hi" to every holiday cutout. It was a lot of fun!

New things!

Our two new things are the ball game Mommy, Daddy and Auntie E made and sitting on the potty.