Brody Update!

Brody is 15 months old!  The last month has brought a lot of growth and change for the little guy.  He started really walking about a week ago.  One day he realized that he could walk faster than he could crawl and ever since he hasn't crawled much at all.

Lounging on mommy's legs.

Brody is very verbal.  Much more verbal that even his sister at this age, and we got comments a lot on her verbal ability early on.  He not only can say over 30 words, he also puts words together.  For example, he took his shoe off in the nursery on Sunday and kept saying, "Shoe on, shoe on" and when I told him to put it on he said, "I can't."  Some of the words are only intelligible to me, or to Logan (who can translate more Brody-ese than I can), but he's using them consistently for the same things.

Some of the words he knows: Mama, dada, yaya (Logan), bye, hi, shoe, ice, car, choo-choo (train), buzz (buzz lightyear), belly, poop (he would know this one, such a boy), bath, hat, ball, cheese, milk, cookie, cracker, peas, please, thank you, night night, girl, kiss, baby, teeth.  That's all I can pull off the top of my head.  When Logan and I were listing them last night so I could be prepared when the Dr. asked at his well visit, we came up with a long list together.

He's not a picky eater.  He'll eat most of what is put in front of him but he never stuffs himself.  His favorites are: cheese, yogurt, crackers, mac and cheese, peas, blueberries and bananas.

He loves to take baths.  I'd say it's probably his favorite time of the day.  All I have to do is say the word and he makes a beeline for the bathroom.  He likes to be the first one in so he can claim the faucet.  They like to fight over it.

We went in for his 15 month well visit today and everything is looking great!  He's 22lbs (50%), 31 inches (50%) and his head is in the 95%.  Just means he's got a bigger brain, right?  ;)

He LOVES to read!  He doesn't sit still, in fact, often he's running around the room while I read Logan her bedtime stories.  But, if I ever break in the story and get quiet, he turns around and makes a noise as if saying, "what happened?"  I'll post a video of him "reading" the next time I post.

 He's still between a size 3-4 disposable diaper, but he's rarely in one.  He also still fits into a few small cloth diapers but they're starting to get a little tight.  He's wearing size 12-18 month clothes and a size 4 shoe.

I know the picture above is not a good indication, but we've almost totally rid ourselves of the pacifier.  He uses it during nap and at bedtime but I usually pull it from his mouth once asleep.  I think when we get back from Florida in a few weeks we're just going to go cold turkey.  I'd like to be done with it before he hits 2.

He still sleeps really well.  He usually naps 1 1/2 hour in the morning and close to 3 hours in the afternoon.  He goes to bed at 7 and gets back up between 6:30-7:30 in the morning.  He never puts up a fuss to go to sleep, just lays down with his my-my (blanket) and goes right to sleep.  He has been waking in the middle of the night a lot lately, but he's also in the process of cutting 4 molars and will go right back down after a dose of motrin.

He is such a happily little boy.  We get comments all the time about how he never seems sad and how he's always smiling.  He's very good natured and laid back unless something rubs him the wrong way (like the word no...haha) and then we're in for some crazy fits.  But overall he's happy and loving.  He and his sister are best friends, they play well together and fight well together.

That's all I've got!  Happy 15 months to our sweet little boy!

Pool Time!

I wanted to get the littles out of the house today since they've been asking for daddy more, lately, so we headed to the splash ground/wading pool!  Logan was absolutely thrilled.

She was quite the little fishy, today, too.  I think the fact that she could touch the bottom all the way across the pool gave her some confidence.

I was surprised at how well Brody did, too!  He's been very anti pool this summer and actually had a really great time with this one.

The splash area was closed almost the entire time we were there for maintenance but it did open for about 15 minutes.  Hopefully next time it'll be open a little more because the kids really had fun together.

Logan voluntarily stood under the water buckets to get dumped on without any coaxing and LOVED it!  

Toward the end of our visit Brody hopped into the pool and enjoyed it quite a bit.

He also decided that today was the day he was going to start using walking as his primary mode of getting around.  It was a little trickier trying to keep up with his toddling self since he wanted to toddle all the way around the pool, but we managed and had a great time.

Park

Today the weather was in the high 70's so I took the opportunity to walk the kiddos up to a local playground.  It's the first time Brody's been to any playground and has actually been able to use the equipment!  He was very excited.

He's looking so big these days!

Logan attempted to be brave and go down the big slides but backed out when she realized just how high up she was.

Back to the toddler slide for her...it just didn't seem to give her the satisfaction it used to, though.

Her fearless little brother wanted to show her a thing or two about big slides and bravery.

After he went down the big slide happily (making sure it was safe for his princess sister, of course) she went down and the continued to go down the remainder of our time there.

He wasn't too thrilled that I wouldn't allow him to continue to follow her up to the bigger slides (only because it meant I had to climb up after him and make sure he didn't jump from the heights to prove his manhood...because he would.)

The toddler slide was plenty high for him, though, and he had a lot of fun climbing up it and going back down.

And I had to throw these two pictures from this afternoon in because he just looks like such a little boy in them!  Where is my baby going??  

And yes, he's wearing a completely different outfit.  I change his clothing at least once a day after he destroys the first one eating or climbing or smearing substances (dirt, grass, food, you name it) all over them.  The difference between boys and girls even at this age is astounding!

Ohio

My sister in law had a baby a couple of weeks ago and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on her so we hopped in the car and drove up to meet this little sweetie last Friday!

It was a nice distraction for the kids while daddy is away.  We had 4 kids under 4 in the house, though, and it did get a little crazy.  (3, 2, 1 and new...whew!)

The kids L-O-V-E-D the front porch swing.  I think we could have spent the entire trip out there and they would have had 0 complaints.

Nana, Papa and Aunt Kim drove out, too, so that we could all spend some time together.  

There was a lot of story time...

Nana and Papa had a pool at their hotel and we took full advantage of it while they were in town.        

Logan loves the pool, but Brody isn't quite as sure.  He spent a lot of time cuddling Nana while the others swam.

Though, he did want to check it out after a while.

The boys bonded over video games.

We had fun dressing them all up in matching outfits and taking pictures.  I'm sure one day they'll all mock us for this.

Getting them all to look at the camera was impossible.

Memorial day was spent outside in the pools.  The kids ran back and forth from the pools to the house, where they "painted" the side of it with water.  

 They took amazing naps that day.

Here is a rare moment where all three older kids were happily playing together, quietly:

Sweet Abby Mae just took it all in.  She seemed perfectly used to the chaos.

We also spent some time in IKEA.  I think I could move in there and be happy.  Logan could, too, as long as she had free reign over all of the toys/tents/tunnels.

The drive was long, but the kids did FANTASTIC.  We stopped only once on each leg of the trip (a 9 hour journey).  It was fun to get away!