Braden is 20 Months Old!

So...I guess that's just 4 months away from 2 years old?!? Thanks for pointing that out, by the way, Laura!


He has grown and changed so much this month! This month of growth for not only physically but developmentally has been the fastest since his first month!

New Braden things:

• Calls his blankie "duckie" now...even though he calls ducks "duckies" too
• Can point out a cow in a book, on the TV, or in read life and say "moo"
• Spins around in a circle when he is looking for someone or something with his palms up in the air. HILARIOUS!
• He is getting very good at communicating his needs/wants. He can answer a lot of yes/no questions and has even started saying "no?" sometimes when I ask him to do something :)
• He calls both of his Grandpa's "Papa" now, so cute!
• He can do the all the actions for "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" except shoulders
• Loves it when I play "This Little Piggy" with his toes & he repeats the action and plays with his toes after
• Plays "Braden? Where are you?" usually in the bathtub at Mom's. It's adorable...he can say his name pretty darn good! (see below)
• He can pick up a camera, look through it as if to take a picture, and say "cheese" he's learning well!
• New words:
• thank you (tha coo)
• excuse me (scoo me)
• turtle 
• cheese (cheeeeeee)
• how you doin'? (how doin'?) SO STINKIN' CUTE! [video/post soon!]
• bum, he even said to me once with a really wet diaper "MY BUM MOM!"
• Bob [as in, Bob the Builder]
• bubble
• doctor
• diaper
• Lukey (Ookey, Dukey...this is the first cousin's name he's been able to say!)
•  Teeth - finally got the 4th front bottom tooth! Drooling like CRAZY when he has his fingers in his mouth, so we still have the 4 eye teeth to go, I can't see any teeth buds
• Sleeping is very consistent. Goes down for his nap from 12 - 2:30/3 and goes to bed 6:30-7:00PM until 7:00 AM and babbles until we get him up at about 7:30. AWESOME!
• Has had two really goopy, gross runny noses already this fall :(
• He would live outside if we let him
• Still loves Thomas but also likes Bob the Builder now (Thomas follows me on Twitter - how cool!)

I'm really enjoying this age again right now. We have our moments where he makes this awful "uh-uh-uh-uh!" whiney sound where I know he wants something and just won't tell me, then I have to remember that I'm the adult, take a deep breath, ask him what he wants...he tells me and we can move on with our bad selves! He is such a sweetheart and still a big goof!

A lot of family members have been saying "he sure doesn't miss much, does he?" If you show him something once. He'll remember. The last time we were at Mom's, Ben showed Braden how to make music with the intake vents...and Braden was upstairs doing the same thing this time! Not much gets by him! Here's what he did this AM while I cleaned, watched some George:

And here's a little snippit right at the beginning of the clip of him saying "Braden". He was sitting on my nightstand (stinker!) and was playing the "Braden? Where are you?" game! If you listen closely it's RIGHT at the beginning. I tried to get him to say it again, but no luck...so the rest of the video is kinda pointless!




How about some votes for Braden's 20 month birthday? And don't forget to like us on Facebook please!

Thanks and have a great rest of your week!

Eating Update

As Murphy's Law would have it, back when I was complaining the other day about Braden's lack of eating, he turned right around and is eating like a little horse again. (I should complain about stuff more often so that Murphy and his law would do their thang!) I do agree with my friend Katie, and think that Braden's eye teeth might be the culprit. In the teething department he needs all 4 eye teeth and the 4th bottom tooth on the front...if that makes sense. Whenever Braden slows down with his eating, it's always because of an illness or that he's just not feeling well. As for the "getting into trouble" part of that post...well, we're working on that!

Anywho, I might be a lame blogger for the next few days while I enjoy time with my family and friends in Edmonton. So I apologize for the possible lack of posts but certainly don't apologize for spending quality time with my loved ones! (I knew you'd understand!)

The only picture I have to share is my little man going to town on his corn from our BBQ the other day, absolutely loving food again!

Also, Tuesday is approaching and thus my favorite blog hop! Thanks Growing Up Geeky & Our Growing Garden for this wonderful opportunity to share my blog with other mamas and meet them and learn from their blogs too!

So thaaaaaat's what's been bothering him!

My little sweetheart. My guy who loves to sleep. Has not been napping in the afternoon well. I've been toying with and experimenting cutting him down to 1 nap a day. Not working, so I ditched that idea. He sleeps 2 hours in the morning (lately) but is having the darndest time settling for his afternoon nap. He didn't nap at all yesterday afternoon and was up 7 hours until bedtime - a VERY rare thing in our house. He was content in his crib for awhile, but then he'd get ticked off and just want to come out and play, so we went with it.

He has still been sleeping well at night, so I just summed it up to him trying to decide whether or not he was ready for 1 nap a day. WELL. Last night after being up for 7 hours I thought it would be a head-hit-the-pillow and out kind of night for him....yeahnotsomuch. He screamed, and screamed, and cried. I only let him do that for a minute because he NEVER does this anymore. I went in and he was just beside himself. I picked him up and started checking for teeth. Found out that not only did he cut the other tooth beside his other big tooth, but his poor upper right gums are raw from working on a molar!! :( Poor guy, it just looks awful. So a dose of Advil and some stories and about 20 minutes later he was good to go. I can't imagine the pain he's in. He has been chewing on his index finger on the right side for a long time now, and he finally has something to show for it. I brought Sophie the giraffe out of retirement, but he's not too keen on her anymore - sorry, Sophie!

Just thought I'd share, and here's a couple of pictures for your enjoyment...

A "Then & Now" pictures of him in his high chair - 5 months and 14.5 months - wow!

Sometimes he can crawl in and out of the ottoman bench...he is quite proud!

Oh Tooth #3...Where Are You?!?

So tooth #2 made it's appearance on his 7 month birthday, and 9 months is around the corner. He had a couple week break from the teething symptoms but for the last 1.5 months almost, he's been having ALL the symptoms non-stop! Which brings the question - WHERE ARE YOU, TOOTH #3?!? Hehe! He has been a river of drool, mind you it seems to be worse in the morning now, he has been chewing and sucking and putting everything he can into his mouth, he's even gotten the rosey red cheeks with a bit of a rash that comes and goes, he has days/moments when he's fussy and irritable for him and nothing seems to satisfy him. The sleeping is still good, thank God! But I see absolutely no sign of any more teeth on the horizon on the top or bottom.

Well, just had to blog/complain about that quickly!

Mystery of the Ornery Baby: Solved!

I'm truly not exaggerating, and I think anyone that is around Braden enough can attest to this, but he is not a fussy baby. Never has been. Until the weekend! Braden just had a long morning nap, I changed and fed him and packed him up and off to Ikea with Mom we went! Not even 1/2 hour into our trip he started getting kinda fussy and whiney. Didn't make sense to me...cuz usually he lasts 2 hours after a nap and feed no problem, but this was barely an hour after he woke up! So I took him out of his car seat and held him for awhile and that seemed to do the trick. Changed him and fed him way earlier than I normally would and he did eventually settle with a lot of persuasion! I did have the baby carrier with us so when we went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I thought he would enjoy that more....not so much! He wanted to be held and snuggled. Luckily he slept as good as he has been, but has just been ornery!

...then last night...

OUCH! I was letting him chew on my finger like he always does and low and behold - a tooth!! Finally! All that chewing, drooling, and sucking over the last almost 4 months has paid off! He's just started cutting it though, the tip is through the gums, but the rest hasn't appeared yet. Luckily he is still sleeping quite well, doesn't have trouble falling asleep...but is waking up 2 times per night, consistently. Oh well, at least now I know he is teething and I gotta cut the poor guy some slack. Baby Advil...here we come!

Teething reminded me of this clip of Stewie from Family Guy...

Squeaky Gums!

Squeaky Gums!
Originally uploaded by NurseLovesFarmer

Lately Braden has loved to rub his gums across on Sophie and it makes this adorable little squeak! Teething sure must make those gums itchy! I still can't see any teeth, but that doesn't mean they aren't there!