Every mother should post this in her house...

"I hope that my child,
Looking back on today
Will remember a mother
Who had time to play;
Because children grow up
While you’re not looking,
There are years ahead
For cleaning and cooking.
So, quiet now cobwebs,
Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby,
And babies don’t keep." - Unknown

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I know we did. It was jam packed with 5 Christmases in 2 days, but was worth it since we got to spend time with so many of our families. More details to come...

11 Months!

Yes, the countdown has begun. We're officially less than a month away from Brody's 1st Birthday! And I say it every month (and will continue to say this for the rest of my life) but he's getting so big so fast. I see it every day but every once and awhile it still catches me off guard when I realize how much he's grown in 11 months. He used to be so tiny!

Okay, I'm wiping away the tears now and onto what he's been up to...

Walking! I have to say we officially have a "walker." He's not perfectly steady on his feet, but he usually chooses to walk from one part of the room to the other. Many times (i.e. when he's not tired) even when he falls, he'll stand himself back up and keep walking. He's not as daring as I thought he would be, since he will walk towards something that he can hold onto to steady himself before walking to his end goal. However, not surprisingly, he usually falls because he's trying to walk too fast. He wants to run, but his feet won't keep up!

Honestly, I think he's been working so hard on walking and standing up on his own, that he hasn't had time for any other skills. But there are a few other small ones he's working on. Rumor has it, he can wave! I have yet to see it, so I still don't believe it, but his daycare teachers swear it's hilarious. He doesn't go for the typical baby hand flopping up and down wave. No -- he apparently swings his arms from side to side like he's drawing a rainbow. Apparently him & another boy in his daycare room do this to each other after nap time. But he's in no hurry to show his parents.

He's added "na-na" to his "baba, mama, dada" rambling. I think he's pretty sure what mama means, but he still will use it out of context. But many days he'll say, "mama" directly to me while he's coming towards me. So it's hard to say. He's also getting really good at turning pages while we read books & he loves to clap! He's also "pointing" at things, at least that what we think. He actually uses his whole hand to point instead of just a finger, it's pretty cute.

As far as personality, I do think we have a little shy guy on our hands. He adapts well to new situations in the fact that he doesn't cry or freak out in new places. Or if we leave him alone & he cries, he'll get over it very quickly. However, if we're there, he does tend to cling to us a little bit until he's sure of the situation.

More than anything, he never "shows off" in big groups. We couldn't get him to clap at his cousin's basketball game, but he loved watching the game and sat still for an hour to do so! At his Aunt's graduation party, he walked a few steps but nothing like he does when it's just us and him.

For now, I'm classifying him as an observer. He seems to love watching what other people (and kids) are doing before he jumps right in. And this is where his personality continues to take after me. I'm actually pretty shy in new situations, but eventually warm up.

Last month until we officially have a toddler on our hands! But at least there will be a fun birthday celebration!

And this last picture is his reaction to taking 11 month pictures -- I'm outta here!

Looking Back to Thanksgiving

Weeks later, I'm finally getting around to blogging about Thanksgiving. We hosted for our extended families for the 5th year in a row, however this was the first year as a family of three. Unfortunately, I didn't go as smoothly as I imagined.

Weeks prior to the holiday I was picturing Brody sitting down in his highchair next to us and eating turkey, rolls and veggies. I was very excited for him to eat his first Thankgiving meal. It's the first major family holiday that he'd be able to participate in. I could not wait.

The Friday before Thanksgiving I took a vacation day to do the grocery shopping while Brody goes to daycare. Then I spent a little time getting the house ready, but I figured I had all weekend to finish it and went to pick up Brody early. That night, he came down with the stomach flu. Fast forward to a weekend full of an unhappy, clingy baby and a lot of napping in my arms.

Honestly - what mother doesn't love lots of cuddle time? Right?

I still had a lot to do to get the house ready for our 15 Thanksgiving Day guests. And since the end of the month is my busiest time at work, what didn't get done over the weekend wasn't going to get done until Wednesday night. I'm a bit too neurotic to let things go until the last minute. Oh, and where is the husband during all this? Yep - sick with the same flu as Brody. I was on my own.

So I repeated to myself, "It's okay if the house isn't perfect", "my family will love me anyways". And when that didn't work, I called my sister & brother and begged them to come over and help. (Which they usually do anyways)

And was the house perfect? No.

And for the most part, it went unnoticed.

All in all it was a great day of family celebration. Brody was still a little unhappy but was mostly starving after a week of being sick. And his grand Thankgiving meal? He ate Cheerios while we ate Turkey. But at least he was there with us.

I was too busy being a part of the fun, that I forgot to snap pictures during the day. But here are some from Thanksgiving morning. Luckily his Aunt Nicole brought him a new toy to play with! It seemed to make getting over the flu much easier!

Proud Daddy

I've heard other women say how much their husband impressed them when they had their first child and how they love him so much more watching him turn from husband to loving parent. Honestly, it wasn't the same with us...

The thing is, I knew Jason was a wonderful father long before we had children. I knew he'd be a natural and I knew he'd love our son more than anything in the world. There was really no surprise there! He has two nephews who he cares so much about. When one of Jason's best friends had her little girl, he naturally loved playing with her. He was born to be a father.

However, every once and awhile he still catches me off guard with something he says or does.

You see, Jason is a fairly practical parent, where I tend to be more doting. However, he's also a bit competitive, wanting his son to be the best. So when he tells me last night that Brody drew the best picture at daycare that day, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Really?!? Our 10 month old is artistic? I personally think his art looks like scribbles, or blobs of paint. Somehow though, Jason sees through all that and brags about how his chalk art was much better than the rest of the class. How he used "shading" to make it more artsy.

This morning I checked out the masterpiece. I really think it looks like he smeared chalk all over paper -- but I guess that's just me.

First Haircut

After dragging my feet for at least a month, I finally booked a hair appointment for Brody. Jason has been bugging me for awhile as Brody's hair got longer and longer. I knew once he no longer had his baby hair then I'd really have to realize that he's growing up!

We booked an appointment with a kids salon, knowing that we'd want someone with experience cutting the hair of a 10 month old. He barely understands the word no, so telling him to hold his head still was out of the question. Obviously, I was a little nervous -- not just about losing his baby hair - but throwing a temper-tantrum in the salon.

The hair place had cars instead of chairs. You could pick anything from a pink Jeep to a blue mini-cooper-type car. We went for the blue one that was open. Each station had it's own TV with a kid movie playing. I imagine this works well for kids that are a little older, but Brody has very little interest in TV, so it didn't help much.

Overall - Brody was a trooper. He didn't get cranky once and he held still very well. Every once and awhile he's turn his head quickly to see something else going on around him. He loves to watch everyone around him, which worked well until they started vacuuming out a seat behind him and he quickly turned his head around mid-cut. In the end though, he hair looks great and it's no longer in his eyes.

But he does look more like a little boy than my baby...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Steady Feet

Brody is getting so close to walking! Tonight he pulled himself up using the cabinet handle so that he could walk over to the other cabinet -- no hands!

So of course we tried for a repeat performance...but this is the best I could get on video.