HOWDY!

First off, I must say GOOD NIGHT NURSE I have become the worst blogger EVER! I have been writing this for over a week now lol.. This is what happens when I start focusing fully on work between 7:30-4:30… Then where in the heck is my personal blogging time going to come from? I can’t give up my baby time at night can I? :) Uhhh nooo, that time is for baby, not blogging ;).

I am going to have to say that it can be somewhat of a happy feeling after a tedious Monday (rewind back to last Monday 4/19) when you see those little signs that your little one so peacefully wants to go nightie night early. However, there is no more imagining your soft pillow when those images quickly become invisible and smothered by the stinch of a stinky diaper that a certain someone has so carefully been putting together for you while you are thinking what an angel going to sleep so well (because there is no noise coming from the crib.. which means ASLEEP, unless “certain items” are needing to exit ):). Ah such is life huh :)... I certainly can't really complain because I think (knock on wood) that is only the second one that has interrupted night time sleep :). All has been well in our life o' a 5 month old, yup I can't believe it either. 5 MONTHS, I can't believe how many changes have come in this last month! Heck even in the last week or so! He has one of the sweetest demeanors and so many smiles for everyone. He has been giving some open mouth kisses that only a mother could love :). Boy has he also found his chatter box! He has some of the sweetest little coos and sounds! He is also really wanting to see what fabulous delicatessen those little sausage resembling toes taste like! He is getting a lot closer than I thought he would!

UPDATE!!! (This just proves that he is changing soooo quickly!) So we have a toe sucker! Last Thursday, he had a nice suckling on the toe action happening when Dad (Pappy) went to grab him and get him up from his nap. I am very impressed with his flexibility as I would have sworn he was going to have to be content with the nice tug o war game he was going to get to have just trying to get it past those yummy chunky thighs and gut :). But he did it, and by God I took some pictures that I have been madly anticipating! I looooove the pics of sweet little babies with those feet in the air...

I am wondering though if I will think he is sooooo cute when he is doing at 32? Like his pops is here?? :)

It’s funny because he is figuring out what his muscles do I guess… His legs are now pulling back against his hands wanting his feet in his mouth. It’s like his own little war hahaha!

Momma went on her first girls night out to see a comedian. It was a great time for mom and a good sense of satisfaction for daddy as well. The boys did it, they made it without momma! Although what the heck! :) Just kidding.. It was a great sense of accomplishment for all!

Man the teething devil has come to surface like none other. Although we are lucky with that too (believe me for all the whining I do on here I say 100 times of thankfulness in my prayers everyday! Right now poor thing, the teething seems to be at its worse. I am thankful that overall he has been very consoleable. I can finally see the "white pearlies", VERY FAINTLY... Infact I could be lying to you and my blind eyes could be making it up.. BUT I think I can see something and I KNOW I can feel something. I hope and pray that he is one that doesn't experience alot of pain once the first couple make it through. I can already see a HUGE difference... either that or we better prepare him for the night time sleep, which is when that pain hammers him. I have started putting Oragel on right before I lay him down and it seems to help alot.

He is just awesome! He is officially not the youngest on BRAD'S SIDE ( he only had 9 days of being the youngest on mine lol) anymore.. Little cousin Carson came and stole his spot :).

Although he is welcomed with loving arms and just as TINY and precious as can be....

However, I figured I could stuff Brady in one of these here hospital beds and relive the wonderful memory of seeing him in that bed, so tiny, so perfect only 5 months and 3.5 days prior to Saturday :). Buuuuuut, as you see.. there is nothing tiny about an 18 lb. 4 oz. (got weighed on Friday) baby in a newborn bed lol.

Brady started getting his first sniffles I guess it was last Wed.... Woke up and was just as clogged as can be. The cedar, or a cold bug, has been floating through Gigi and Pappy, then hit momma a little bit and then Brady was stopped up. I went ahead and took him to the doctor on Friday just to ease my mind (teething and ear infections have so many similar signs, I have been so scared he had an ear infection, then he started touching his ear which could be a sign of an ear infection, or just a new discovery!) and his chest and ears were clear, AMEN! But we have been having to get the brain sucker out.. I swear we have the only kid, until someone proves me wrong by reading this and crushing my idea of Brady being so perfect even with the brain sucker.. He will seriously LAUGH sometimes while you are suckin’ the nose goo out. It’s soooo funny… At his dr’s. appt. on Friday he was weighing in at 18.4 lbs. :). I don’t care what they say, I think he is 20, and my arms back me up :).

He has started this growling business… At first it almost sounded like a “poo pushin’ growl”… then we thought, well maybe his throat is itchy as he started it around the time of sniffles to where he was consistent with it. Well, it seems like it might be becoming something of the “norm”… maybe a sound that he will do when he isn’t wanting something? Last night during bath time I would go to pour water over his hair to get the soap out and he would “growl”… seriously…. Like I would pour, he would growl.. I would stop because my cup was out of water, he would stop.. kind of like the “grrrrrr” noise we might make when we are inpatient… yup- HE IS DOING IT. He would repeat and stop as I refilled and emptied my cup. He is really such a character… I am so glad…. I mean if you know me, you know that I am not the quietest, “traditional” personality… so I am glad to have an entertaining child. By no means is he horrible, infact quite the opposite. He is extraordinary in my eyes and the perfect sweet baby, BUT.. that doesn’t mean that mama is blind to the fact that this kiddo is going to possibly have everyone, including mom and dad (Brad and I) wrapped around his finger… and pull our little leashes around wherever he wants us :). He just has the sweetest personality... I hope he is always happy. I pray for us to be capable of providing his happiness every day.

BASHFUL BABY :) LOOK AT THE PRECIOUS TOUPEE' :).

Let’s see… I am going to try to start doing my weekly blog again, but I wanted to make sure that I covered everything.. THIS is why I want to do weekly because the memory is a lackin’ for remembering back this far :).

We aren’t sitting up yet, but by God he can when we are sitting on the ground and he is playing between my legs when they are in a “V”. Let go of him though and it’s TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMBER… down he goes :). It cracks me up to watch him, it cracks him up too when he is going somewhere he can’t control. I know, or assume, not much goes through their minds when that happens as they haven’t learned yet what to do… but if they could know I wonder what he would think… like- OOHHH GOSH, HERE I GO, I’M GOING DOWN, YEP… FALLING… HERE WE GO… lol.. It’s so intriguing watching these little people learn what comes so “natural” to us.. and how hard they have to try to do it.

I learned quite a few hard lessons this past weekend.. I got pee’d on.. then pee’d on again and again :). He soaked himself, me, the changing station, his clothes, his new clothes to change into.. I had to put him in an outfit that poor thing, it was like Spandex… Last time to wear it, but it served it’s purpose… I learned that when his “pointer” is pointing WATCH OUT.. it’s fixing to “point” pee your way :).

Speaking of the “pointer”.. someone has found his goods… he literally doesn’t take his hands off of “it” the entire bath time. It’s really funny… and if it wouldn’t make such an awkward picture..It would be here. However, I just feel foul taking a picture like that. HAHAHA! They find their “importants” at such a young age.. haha… he will even try to get a "sneak a grab" when i am changing his diaper. Oh dear….

We are heading to College Station this weekend for a tournament that has never been anything more than a big party to us :). However, that is Friday night… so being the responsible parents that we are- we are not going until Saturday- hahaha! It's still going to be soooo different! I am excited to see everyone and to show off this new little bug of ours. They are just going to be shocked :)… It’s crazy that last year I was freshly “knocked up” and here this year, here we have our little bug with us. Year before last… KIDS, NO WAY (yeah right, I have never been one to say that). Just crazy the wonderful things that life brings us and how FAST our lives change! I love it, I love every second of it!

Oh and one last thing.. have I ever shared my yearning to work from home with you? It was more when I was on maternity leave….. didn’t think Gigi was going to watch Brady, and just wanting to stay at home with him on my own and not take him to anyone else. Well… if you didn’t hear this from me, you missed it. I got to experience working from home, caring for Brady- end of the month billing chaos on Monday! And here… YET ANOTHER SHOUT OUT FOR GIGI because there’s no way in heck that I could do it. I was so tired last night! It was like having 2 jobs AT THE SAME TIME… no way jose, not for me :). Every once in a while, no big deal… but as busy as I was, man Brady was just amazing, and wonderful… content in his play seats, and napping… while I worked tediously. So blessed I am :)….

Last thing for real… we must always have our ankles crossed! I am telling you, he is going to win getting down any slide at Schlitterbahn lol! It’s sooooo funny.. holding him sitting, ankles crossed; sitting in swing… ankles crossed… lol.

Well I promise it won’t be as long… I hope this blog finds you well and that you are having a fantastic Spring!! Talk to you soon XOXO!

Here are a couple of "5 Month"shots :).

OK SO THIS ANGLE IS NOT SO GOOD WHEN YOU HAVE MOMMA'S FOREHEAD HAHAHA! :0)

PRECIOUS TOUPEE :)

I KNOW I AM PARTIAL BUT GOSH THIS PIC IS JUST TOO CUTE LOL! AND HOW FUNNY IS HOW HE HAS HIS HAND HEADIN' TO HIS ARMPIT LIKE GROWN MEN STAND AROUND AND DO LOL!

ALLLLWAYS MOVIN' TOWARDS THE ROLL OVER!

SOME BUNNY LOVES YOU! This will be the picture that will have everyone rolling during the wedding reception of my sweet, sweet bug… And probably the picture that he will hate on momma a little bit for :). I will tell him that momma did learn a very important lesson, unfortunately at his expense… BUNNY EARS ARE ONLY CUTE IN PINK AND ON THE HEAD OF A GIRL. Buuuuuut, my finger could not refrain from pushing the button. Mommy was laughing so hard AT THE BUNNY EARS, never at you my sweet baby ;)… THE EARS…. that I accidentally pushed the button and it turned out to be the most precious, HILARIOUS picture. OK so I am fibbing… there was no accident to taking this picture. But I did learn a lesson that putting bunny ears on a beautiful little boy sitting in his matching diaper is kinda like putting a bow headband on him hahaha! Ya just gotta leave that to the beautiful baby girls… Brad condemned me to hell, I think, for suscepting his son to this… This is as close to a smile as I got... He gave me the- WHAT ARE YOU DOING look- yeah- the entire time. Easter was a great time and tons of visiting with family! We began the weekend with celebrating the day that our nephew Colby came to be on Saturday! He is an April Fool’s baby… is that not the funniest thing ever! Jeff, my brother in law, said it was pretty funny calling people on the day he was born and it NOT being an April Fool’s joke.. That cracks me up that they had him on that day! We went to a place in SA called Pump it up.. which basically consists of rooms filled with air filled “jungle gyms”, moonwalks as us oldies call them :). Brady even got to partake on some of the action with his aunt Amy helping him to slide :). As you can see he is already ready for the water slides at Schlitterbahn with those little ankles crossed HAHAHA! Sidenote- he actually does that A LOT.. it’s so cute! He loves his "Man" (grandpa name for Brad's step dad :) )....always seems to get a giggle out of him.. It was fun…. he WILL NOT be partaking in any Rodeo festivities when he gets older.. MOMMA SAID! :) As you can see the bucking bronco (which costs 50 CENTS! What happened the 25 cent ride of your life that used to be outside the local Kmart when we were growing up!) does nothing for him when there is the delicatessen of the fists available for your slobbering pleasure! Sweet little guy is going to be “rosey cheeked warrior”… I hate it and want to stick him in an ice bath when I see it… Such a hot little kiddo! He is sitting up by himself better and better... gets a little "leaner" sometimes but overall he just looks like such a big boy! I mean look at that big boy outfit.. I wish I could just have him in onesies all his life :). KING O THE CASTLE! KING O THE CASTLE!! The birthday boy gets to sit in this humongous chair to open his birthday presents... I just took the picture so I can have a reminder that he is still sooo very small in a really big world :). After the birthday party we went to Jeff and Lisa’s for a Connell/Wilkins/Shaw (Did I get all the names hahaha) Easter egg hunt! Bug of course didn’t participate but he was a social butterfly with tons of talking and laughing with Aunt Amy and Grammy! He is growing up so fast… a lot of me likes him growing up, I really do. I think mainly for selfish reasons- as he grows up, I get more relaxed. It’s like a little package… a see-saw… as his side goes up with growing up.. my stress goes down :). But then I miss him being brand spanking new too, BUT, I miss that with the idea that if I could go back and feel as comfortable in my new momma shoes as I do now! I do not miss the fear that I had about every little thing! Man that was a rough, AND TIRING road! There are so many things that I just absolutely love about that child o mine. I love that he laughs, and you can get him REALLY LAUGHING… Last night I had him laughing sooo hard.. that he was doing the whole small laugh just ANTICIPATING what you were fixing to do for the big laugh :). It was so funny! Brad had a long rough day too, hearing him laughing like that took all that away for him and made home a great place to be :). I love that he really is getting a personality more so every day. He talks to you… when he is getting sleepy he gets so peaceful…he looks at you so peacefully and smiles the sweetest smile, squinting his eyes and all :). He is a great baby.. he really is. I am so thankful for the road that he has taken us down, and the patience that HE has had with US while we learn what in the heck to do with our new package from God :). This little bundle of love also spread that love and laughter around the GREAT grandparents this weekend! After we left the huntin’, we went to my Grandma’s.. Brady’s GREAT GRANDMA greatness of Grandma. I think I will teach him to call them that hahaha.. GREATNESS GRANDMA.. and GREATNESS GRAMMY hahaha! We had a delicious dinner with Grandma, Jim, Dad, and Mom… had some great visiting and then went to G (GREATNESS, REMEMBER?)-Grammy (my Grammy, not Brad’s mom Grammy :)) and stayed the night there to spend time with them on Easter. Pack-N-Plays are not Brady’s ideal sleep spot we learned.. traveling should be interesting in the future knowing that! PACK UP THE CRIB BRAD, PLLLLLLLLEASE??? Haha! He was up and down a lot on his FIRST OVERNIGHT TRIP- forgot that part :). It was our first night out of town with Bug! It was more me keeping me up then him… I was worried he was hot… then cold.. then he felt cold so I put a blanket over his legs because I stupidly put him to bed in a onesie thinking he was hot.. so then I would wake up to check to see if the blanket was on him… I mean I made MYSELF get no sleep.. not anyone else’s fault. HE WAS FINE :). I think that sometimes “I” make believe he is a “hotter” baby then he is.. sheesh. I think I will try to write the manual that everyone talks about they wish came with a new infant hahaha… I know they are all different but heck, I would have liked to have a manual as a guideline, wouldn’t you? Then just tweak it here and there haha… yeah right. We had a great Easter day with GREATNESS (Is that growing on you yet? Yeah me neither… it’s too long hahaha) Grammy & Grandad! I had a horrible messup, wasn’t my fault, but I don’t see Brady understanding me blaming Amazon.com if this would have happened if he were older and some of his gifts came in AFTER Easter.. sheesh.. they delayed my shipping. I should have known better… and ordered it a month ahead of time. WHICH I WILL NEXT YEAR AND EVERY YEAR AFTER if I have to order a present again. His big items came in.. one was this.. it’s called a Winkel :).. He looooves, of course, to put anything and everything in his mouth.. Poor thing, he constantly puts things in his mouth the wrong way. Something that he should put in horizontally, yeah he does it vertically. Therefore causing a meltdown of aggravation when it won’t go in his mouth and quench the yearning that those little gums have for the object to gum away on :). Well this little Winkel charm of a toy has tons of little places to hold onto and then has soft little tubing to gum to his heart’s delight. Still have to help him a little because for some reason the tubes in the MIDDLE of the wrapping of tubes is what he aims for which smooshes the outside larger one into his forehead haha… the tubing is very soft, BUT….. then here comes volcano o’irritation. He is going to have the patience of his momma… too bad hahaha! I needed him to have his daddy’s patience, WATCH OUT WORLD! He also got a “seahorse”… this is suppose to be a sleep aid like noone’s business.. It is like our “glow-worm” when we were munchkins.. but it has a 5 minute play time on it. It did help when we were in SA as I took it out for him a day earlier just to see how well it helped with my out of town sleeping paranoia (ridiculous). Right now on our regular night time it doesn’t do too much because if he hasn’t fallen asleep during his bottle then it will take much longer then 5 minutes for him to put himself to sleep. That is a daily learning process.. he is getting very good though. The part of his present that lagged behind were the books that I ordered him.. When he is not super sleepy (normally he is because we took out the evening cat nap to hold him over until bedtime and just started bedtime a little earlier because I think he started thinking that he was rested, it’s amazing what 20 minutes can do to their little systems… I’M ALLLLLL RESTED!! Atleast that is what they think :)) I read to him after his bottle… although I sometimes have to flip quite quickly to keep his attention, he really pays attention well. The more colorful the better, of course! I need to look for a baby book that has more then 4-5 thick pages hahaha…. I have to make up words and hold one book open while reaching for another so I don’t lose his attention. Anyways…. So I ordered some books through Amazon which I could have bought in other stores, but while I was on there ordering the winkel (it’s not in stores) I was like, AW heck I will do a one stop shop.. sheesh. LAZY= LESSON LEARNED. I ordered- The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pat the Bunny (touch and feel book), Where is Baby’s Belly Button, and Goodnight Moon. I am exciiiiiiited, and after tracking the package yesterday and it saying that it would be here today, I just tracked it again and it was indeed delivered to our mailbox yesterday!! I can’t wait to get home! Watch him go down like a little angel with his bottle…and me not get to read to him hahaha! I do have to say, I will not be THAT disappointed :). If you have other books that you have found to be great with your kiddos, throw them at me! Gigi and Pappy gettin' some buggie love.. and THE BEST SMILE FROM BUG :). Mommy and Daddy getting some of the picture with Bug action :)...

TOP STORY O’ EASTER! We are a rollie pollie now!! Sunday morning I was packing us up and had Brady on the bed in the room that I was in getting our stuff together. Brad was laying there with him and was like OHHH BABE LOOK… Well let me start again.. Saturday morning when I went to get him up he was laying on his side and chewing on those delicious hands… HE HAS NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE. Always laying on his back.. I was like ohhhh scccuuuuuuuse me Mister!! Saturday night when he went down, he went onto his side and fell asleep like that! So when Brad got my attention.. I turned around and Brady had gotten to his side but seemed to have a little more motivation to go even further! I told Brad that he was just going towards Brad’s body pushing the mattress down, but Brad moved and he kept trying still and WA-LA, we have a roller! He was like my little seal, literally, he didn’t know what to do with his arms after that hahaha! Scary huh!!

TA DA!!



I am officially wanting to cry because he is officially becoming MOBILE which means he is officially pushing the accelerator even more and growing even quicker! Guess the back got boring :)… Now he won’t stop if you lay him down, he doesn’t stay on his back for long if he is on a blanket where he has room. He is not moving too too much in his bed thank goodness… but I know the day is coming. Because he is on his stomach more now.. he is getting a lot stronger and holding himself up well! His 15 seconds until anger eruption from being on his tummy has now evolved to 15 minutes that he can last until BOREDOM kicks in :). My ranting can go on and on, as you know… but I best get back to the grind at work.. Hope everyone had a great Easter!! XOXO!