Little Boy Braeden

Dropping some NYC

2010-02-10T21:36:00.006-05:00

It's probably time, right? Christmas was more than a month ago and I haven't posted any stories or pictures about it yet.

Let's start with our trip to NYC. It's a pretty short train ride from Rhinebeck to Grand Central Station. Mat and I have been wanting to take Braeden to the city for a year now. I chickened out last year worried he was still too young to make it through an entire day. He did well this year but I definitely think we were right to wait the year.

We took the train down the Sunday morning after Christmas. I felt bad about it because it was Gagey's birthday but it was the best weather day we had. Braeden had a great time on the train. It's such a beautiful ride down along the Hudson. I was so excited to show him Bannerman's Island which he loved. He started to get antsy just as we reached the city so that was a pretty lucky break. We got off the train and hopped on the subway to the Empire State Building.

Braeden was soooo excited to go up to the top. And I'm not good with heights so Mat took him up and I sat a Starbucks on the ground floor and knit. I can't possibly tell you the whole story of how Mat and Braeden got to the top but trust me when I say it took more than THREE hours of standing in lines, $60, and the kindness of one very understanding employee.

When they finally got back down to the ground we had lunch then went over to Rockefeller Center to see the big tree, the golden man, and the ice skaters (or in our case, the zamboni).

Braeden loved the big tree. And I'm glad we took him to see it, but I've never been around that many people all trying to see the same thing and stand in the same 12 square feet.

But even with all those people, we still managed to get some of my most favorite pictures.

After fighting our way through the crowds at 30 Rock, we went to FAO Schwartz. We certainly didn't get away from the crowds by going there. But we promised Braeden we would take him, and he definitely had a good time looking at all the toys.

The last stop we made was to see the Public Library lions. Mat had a hot dog and Braeden and I had a pretzel before heading back to Rhinebeck.

Routine doctor's appointments??

2010-01-11T13:24:00.004-05:00

In the immortal words of Charlie Brown...

Good grief!

Thursday morning we took the boys for their annual check-ups. Last year's simultaneous appointments went so well, I went ahead and booked this year's appointments together as well. And drama ensued.

The exam table comes out diagonally from the wall, so Braeden likes to crawl behind it and pretend he's in a cave (or something like that). And whatever Braeden does, Gage wants to do. Mat and I were talking to the doctor and, at the same time, watching the boys crawl around the floor. Then we heard Gage cry; I turned towards him and picked him up when I heard Mat say he was bleeding. He had split his top lip open when he fell forward. It bled quite a bit (all over the front of my shirt!) but stopped bleeding pretty quickly once the doctor stepped in to apply pressure. The three adults all felt bad because we clearly weren't paying enough attention to what the kids were doing.

After that, things seemed to settle down. The kids got weighed and measured, and Braeden passed the vision test and successfully completed the hearing test. I breathed a huge sigh of relief on that one after last year's debacle with the headphones. His blood pressure is perfect at 86 over 42. He weighs 40 pounds and is 44 inches tall (or 3 feet 8 inches) placing him in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. Braeden jumped up on the scale again this year proving that he is excellent at following directions. Gage is 32 inches tall and weighs 23 pounds (or less than one pound more than Braeden weighed when he was ONE). Gage is still tracking in the 3rd percentile for weight but the doctor remains pleased he's on the chart and not showing a dramatic increase or decrease. On the positive side for Gagey, his iron level is finally normal so we're done with the iron supplement. Looks like all the roast beef we've been feeding him has paid off!

Braeden got his finger pricked to check for lead and iron (both fine) and we learned he would need four shots. Gage also had his finger pricked and was thoroughly pissed off we insisted on covering it with a band-aid. He needed one shot. And it's right around now that the train really went off the track.

Gage was crying and whining incessantly about the band-aid (seriously??) and Braeden was freaking out about the shots (so loudly our doctor thought it was his post-shot reaction). Mat took Gage out for a walk to distract him, and I set to work calming Braeden down. I got him quiet but he was still wired, so he took off after Mat and Gage determined not to miss anything fun. From the exam room I heard a door slam and then Braeden screaming.

It turns out it wasn't a door slamming, but my kid's head slamming into the door handle. And now he's bleeding. A lot. More blood than I've ever seen. He runs to me and I press my hand on his head convinced he's cracked his head open. It felt like forever (and a gallon of blood) before the nurses appeared with towels but I'm sure it was seconds. They put him in a chair in the hallway and our doctor's nurse held a towel to his scalp while I held his hands. He was panicked...making this sound over and over again. Blood is dripping onto the chair seat and he's desperately trying to get away from it. He wants to hold my hands but we're both covered in blood and that's freaking him out. One of the nurses handed me wet towels and I went to work cleaning us up, talking non-stop about who knows what to distract him.

At this point, the doctor appears and is completely confused. She had heard a kid got hurt but didn't realize it was our kid. Everyone seems to realize we're in the hallway and might be freaking out the other kids and their parents, so we move back into the exam room. Our nurse is still applying pressure and I start talking to Braeden about my shirt. Not the bloody one, but the black cardigan I'm wearing over it. "It snaps but I never snap it up. I don't know why. I don't think I like it snapped. MeMa bought it for me years ago. Do you think I should snap one of the snaps? Want to help me?" We snapped all the snaps, then undid them, snapped just a few...I was amazed this worked but he was completely distracted my shirt and its snaps.

Things got a little fuzzy after this...Gage got his shot and Braeden got a pass on his. The doctor looked at his head and decided he needed stitches. I got nauseous and became convinced I would throw up. Someone called the hospital. I got over my nausea because I had to. Mat took Gage to day care. And I took Braeden to the ER.

I checked him in as he told the women behind the desk all about his injury. At this point, he was starting to seem like himself (happy to be the center of attention, proud, and interested in everything around him). The woman kept asking me if Braeden had ever been to the hospital before and I kept saying no when it hit me that he had been. When he was three months old he had an ultrasound because of his reflux. His head was still bleeding a little so the woman went looking for gauze. Instead of gauze, she took us right back to a room.

All in all, we were in the hospital for about 30 minutes. Braeden ate a bag of goldfish, Mat arrived in time to give the admit person his social security number, everyone was very surprised to learn this happened at the doctor's office, I washed the rest of the blood off my hands and arms, and a PA put two staples in his head, gave us care instructions, and sent us on our way. Mat went back to work and I took Braeden home stopping on the way for coffee for me and chocolate milk from McDonald's for B. I would have taken him anywhere for anything but that's what he wanted. And I knew we both deserved something to calm our nerves.

We had a lazy rest of the day watching cartoons and eating snacks. We clean his wound twice a day and put antibacterial cream on it. The big question I had for the PA (after the staples were in and I was convinced he would be fine) was what we should do about his party on Saturday. I knew canceling wasn't an option so I needed to know if there was anything special we should do. She suggested covering it with gauze and making him wear a hat. Actually they said toboggan but I'm translating for everyone who isn't Southern. I'll post later about his party, but suffice it to say, he had a great time and his head wound wasn't an issue at all!

Braeden's staples come out later this week. And he still has to go in at the end of the month for his four shots. And next year? Separate appointments. Different days.

Playing

2009-11-23T00:48:00.004-05:00

Here's something exciting...a set of random pictures of the boys. In truth, I have no idea how old some of these are (I'm at work and the originals are saved in dated folders on my home laptop) so let's just pretend they're a few weeks old.

This is Gagey eating a snack. I think it's cheerios. I know I took the picture because I loved the way he grabbed a handful from the bowl and shoved them in his mouth using both his hands to be sure they stayed in there.

This next one is Braeden and me at the table after dinner one night. For a snack he was eating jelly belly jelly beans. I dumped some out of the baggy and he started matching them up by color and counting the number of each. It's a little trickier than it sounds because there's more than one shade of most of the colors. We did this a few nights in a row and it never got old. For either of us.

This one is definitely a mommy-fave! Braeden brought the first pillow and blanket into the kitchen. Then Gage wanted to lay down with him and Braeden freaked out about Gage wanting to share the pillow. Mommy to the rescue with a second pillow (and the camera). Braeden, always willing to ham it up for the camera, was trying to help by turning Gagey's head to look at me. (Not the first time Bray tries to help out like this.)

OK. The jig is up. I know when I bought this little table at IKEA so I now know just how old this picture is. I could lie, and you would probably believe me because Braeden is wearing snowman PJs, but...the truth always comes out in the end, right? This was October. Middle of the month-ish.

I bought the table because I thought it would mean I would get my dining room table back. We eat our meals there, sure, but dinner is always accompanied by 12 matchbox cars, a block tower, whatever stuffed animal is the current favorite, or some other random toy. The new little table didn't have quite the desired effect, but it sure is cute to see Gagey sitting there to eat a snack.

Vacation (it's about time, right??!!)

2009-11-22T23:57:00.005-05:00

I've had these pictures ready to go for weeks now...I've just been too lazy to post them. So I've posted a bunch of pictures and there's also a lot of links to posts from the past four years of trips. A fun walk down memory lane.

Every October we meet my parents in Virginia Beach for a long weekend. We stay at their timeshare, and we never do very much. We hang out, Braeden makes my parents read him the same seven books over and over again, we dig in the sand, sometimes we feed bread to the seagulls, we go to the aquarium (not this year), we take our picture in front of the Neptune statue...

One afternoon Mat, Dad, and Braeden went to check out the old Cape Henry Lighthouse. They had a great time learning its history and climbing to the top. Once there, Braeden told everyone who came up the story of the old lighthouse and the new one. Braeden knows I'm afraid of heights, so when he got back he cautioned me against going because I would have to climb up a ton of stairs and then a ladder to get to the top of the lighthouse. Sweet, huh?

Here's Dad and Braeden headed up the stairs to the lighthouse.

That is one happy kid!

Braeden has a couple of hats but he doesn't wear them very often. He does wear them when we're around my dad (who lives in hats!).

Each year we take a family picture at the beach. This year's was taken in front of the Neptune statue after we rode a surrey (one of those four-people bikes) from our place on 5th to the park at 31st street. It was a long ride into the wind. Luckily for us, Mat did most of the work! Gagey rode in the basket in the front (I say basket, but it's meant for babies and has a seatbelt). Braeden rode in the back between my parents. Mat did all the steering and had his fun by driving my side of the bike into the bushes lining the path. Fun for him, not so much for me.

I think you can tell from these pictures that it was cold again this year. Cold last year, cold this year. Rainy and windy too. Monday was okay...it was starting to clear up and warm up some. And Tuesday was perfect. Of course we were in the car by 10:00 headed back to Whitsett, so we were a little bitter about that.

Mom and I took Gage to a yarn store while the boys were at the lighthouse. We stopped at an Atlanta Bread Company for coffee and cupcakes on our way back. Gage loved the cupcakes, but what a mess! Saturday morning Mat ran the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K along the boardwalk. He was pretty happy with his time and running this one has inspired him to run more. (He just ran the Turkey Trot, another 5K, at Elon; is registered for the 5K portion of the NC Marathon in March 2010; and put the date for the Charlotte Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on his calendar. I know he'll run that one, too, if he can.

Sunday we went over to Ben and Stephanie's house in Chesapeake for lunch with her parents (Mat's godparents), Don and Debbie, and Mat's parents. Their house is great, and Stephanie made a ton of fantastic food including macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for the boys. She also made this amazing chocolate eclair dessert. Speaking of which, she gave me the recipe and I really ought to make it to bring to work one day. Monday night, Mat and I went back to Chesapeake to have dinner with Ben and Steph (minus kids and parents). We were so excited to go to a Thai place (and to spend more time with the two of them!). We hardly ever get Thai...it's a pretty tough sell with Braeden. They'll be headed to California in February or March (Ben's in the Navy), so it was really great to spend this time with them.

Hamming it up

2009-11-02T15:59:00.004-05:00

We had a lot of rain this weekend and Mat realized water was backing up into our crawl space. He spent a few hours outside Sunday afternoon digging a trench to divert the water downhill into the easement between our property and our back neighbor's. He also got into a snit with the neighbor, but no one wants to hear about that...

After his nap, Braeden watched some football with me and ate cheez-its. And when he got bored I suggested he go out on the deck and watch Mat work. It was in the low 50s and sprinkling so I worried he would be too cold in his light jacket. I got down my winter stuff bag and found a very soft scarf I had crocheted years ago. I knew he would like the feel of it around his neck. He insisted on mittens. I know we have gloves for him but I couldn't find them, so he's wearing mine instead.

When I tried to take a picture of him just smiling for the camera, he refused. He insisted on a new pose for each picture and who was I to refuse!!

I love the half-smile he's giving me in this one. He knows how cute he is so he's trying to play it coy.

A little blurry because he's moving. He really wanted me to catch him standing on one foot but his balance isn't that great. (He gets that from me!)

I saved the best for last...this one is my favorite!

Halloween preview

2009-10-29T09:40:00.003-05:00

This morning as I was getting ready to leave, Braeden told me when he grows up he wants to work at UNCG so he can stay with me. He didn't like that I was leaving him. I just thought that was the sweetest thing he could say. I had to go back and give him another big hug. No wonder I can't ever make it to work on time in the mornings!

Friday his class is having a Halloween party. The kids can come in costumes if they want. Or as Braeden told me, they have to come in costume. I didn't want him messing up his fireman costume he'll wear Saturday night, so I thought up a couple other ideas...costumes I could easily create with what we already had in the house. I thought my first idea was perfect. Braeden should be a surfer. He can wear his swimmy trunks, a tee shirt, sunglasses, flip flops, and carry his kickboard as a pretend surfboard. Well, apparently you don't wear swimmy trunks to school unless it's pool day. Huh. Guess he told me. My second idea was that he go as NY Giants player. He's got the shirt and a Giants football. I figure he can wear sweatpants. And I was thinking of finding some way to make the black marks under his eyes. He loved this idea, so Friday Braeden will be a Giants guy (his words).

He told me yesterday that Makena's mom doesn't want her getting her real costume dirty either, so she'll be a cheerleader Friday. I love how nicely their costumes will go together. Not that the Giants have cheerleaders...thank goodness! The other upshot to his costume idea is that his teacher is a big Cowboys fan. And sticking it to a Cowboys fan always puts a smile on my face!

Sing me a song

2009-09-22T21:36:00.002-05:00

Braeden's teachers have been teaching them a lot of songs lately. One of them is more like a cheer. For his day care. It's adorable. And he gets a lot of pleasure performing it for us.

Planets

2009-09-17T10:22:00.003-05:00

So I didn't manage to get a picture of Braeden in his medal but I did want to tell you about the conversation he and Mat had over dinner last night.

Braeden started asking Mat questions about planets. It started with Mars and Mat explaining that it would take months to get there. Braeden knows Mars is a red planet, thanks to a Backyardigans episode. That episode has a great song, Boinga, that Alicia Keys sings. I'm not at all ashamed to admit it makes me want to dance right along with Uniqua, Pablo, and Austin!

(The video quality isn't great but I wanted you to see the dancing!)

After they got done talking about Mars, Braeden asked about other planets. Mat went through the list...amazingly, he still remembers the order of the planets, something we learned in elementary school. And he also knows that somewhere along the line scientists changed the pronunciation of Uranus to stop people from cracking so many jokes. No more Pluto and now it's Ur-a-nus...this just feels weird to me.

So as Mat's rattling off the list of planets, Braeden brings up the purple planet. Mat seemed confused, so Braeden explained that Dora and Boots visited the purple planet in an episode of Dora the Explorer. :)

Mat took it all in stride and explained that he didn't know about the purple planet but that Neptune was blue. And then he explained to Braeden how it got its name. He asked Bray what else he knew that was called Neptune. Braeden immediately named the Neptune statue in Virginia Beach. And he also remembered there's a King Neptune in Spongebob. He and Mat talked about how Neptune is the king of the sea. And Mat asked him what color is the ocean. Braeden replied blue, and he realized that's why the blue planet was named Neptune.

I had the greatest time listening to the two of them talk about planets, both real and imagined. I love that Mat never talks down to Braeden and is always interested in teaching him something real.

Smarts

2009-09-16T15:22:00.001-05:00

Braeden got an adorable medal at school the other day for being the first kid in his class to know his address and his phone number. We already knew he was a smarty-pants and now we have proof!

I'll try to post a picture later.

All the goings on

2009-09-11T20:13:00.003-05:00

Braeden went to a birthday party for one of his friends at a park in downtown Burlington. The park has a bunch of Braeden-sized rides and a train that goes through a tunnel and over bridges.

Here's Braeden with his friend, Zander, on the cars.

Braeden loved the cars! And once he figured out how to work the horn, he honked his way through the entire ride.

He liked the boats but definitely not as much as the cars!

The carousel was the last thing we did before the party ended. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to ride on it at first, but when everyone else went he decided to go too. But he was sure he didn't want to ride one of the horses that went up and down!

He had so much fun that we took him back the next weekend when Mat's parents were in town. I love the little kid birthday parties and hate them all at the same time. This was, hands-down, one of the best. The food was simple (Chick-fil-A nuggets, grapes, those puffy, crunchy cheese balls, and juice boxes) plus a cake. The kids got to go on the rides for about an hour and a half before we met up in the gazebo for food, cake, and presents. The presents weren't out of hand, and most of the family saved their presents for a more private setting. I decided to make the little girl a backpack. I had fun shopping for girly fabric and finding just the right design for her backpack.

If I did it again (and I'm pretty sure I will), I'll make a lined backpack instead of unlined and find something better to use for the straps. But this one got the job done. And pretty cutely too!

Braeden and I also went to Will's second birthday at the Science Center. Gage had an ear infection and some kind of skin thing. The doctor thought it might be a case of hand, foot and mouth. Not serious but it is contagious. And the poor kid was pretty pathetic--temperature, not eating well, itching. So Mat and Gage stayed home. Braeden had a great time at the party petting the animals (who knew chinchillas were so soft??!!), using the animal tracks stamps, eating the most beautiful multi-colored cupcakes, and celebrating Will! For Will, I wanted to give him something very, very special so I knit him a vest.

I actually knit one for Gage earlier in the summer and kept it off the blog because I knew right away that I wanted to do one for Will. And I really wanted to surprise Emily with it.

For Gage's, I had bought this brown wool cotton yarn in November with no idea what to do with it. I found the vest pattern this spring and realized I had the perfect yarn already. How often does that happen? Since Gagey's turned out so well, I knew I would knit one for Will. And then I took a big chance and asked Braeden if he wanted one. Not suprisingly he said yes. In red. The big question is, will he wear it? Stay tuned.

For Will and Braeden's vests, I got to buy a brand of yarn I'd been dying to try. Their vests are made from organic cotton. Will's is a beautiful shade of green called basil which I thought would go perfectly with his big brown eyes and white blond hair.

What else? Braeden had a case of fifth disease. We noticed it Sunday evening, but it really looked like he had wind burn or maybe a little sun burn from the pool that afternoon. When Mat took him into day care the next morning, they said it looked like fifth. Then they told him some of the other kids in his room had it. I was pissed that they wouldn't tell the parents that or put up a note on the day care door to explain it to parents. It bugs me that they told Mat about the other kids after they noticed it in Braeden. Fortunately fifth is a mild rash that never progressed past the barely noticeable stage. Braeden liked to tell people he had the disease. He was pretty proud of himself.

I absolutely adore this picture of Braeden! He was watching Mat use the pressure washer on our back deck. He wanted to help but he wasn't sure he wanted to get too close to the spray. I just love that face!!

Braeden and I went to Southern Season a few weekends ago. I needed to pick up a few things for a package and we needed a few things from Trader Joe's (just down the street). Braeden and I had brunch at the Weathervane, the restaurant at Southern Season. He had chocolate chip pancakes and milk I had a breakfast quesadilla and a mocha. Weathervane is kind of fancy and kind of not. It was fun taking him someplace like that. We usually just eat at our local, favorite Mexican place (in a strip mall). I like that he and I can go out together somewhere nice (with cloth napkins) and eat together. We sat up at the bar on tall stools. He loved it!

Check out Gagey's blog because I updated that one too!

Birds

2009-07-26T21:17:00.003-05:00

While Mat and Braeden were in NY, Gage and I had an unexpected visitor. I went out one night to water which means slipping between the front porch and the bushes to hook up the hose to the spigot. Pretty easy, once I got the hang of the so-called quick connect. But before I even got to that point, I had to contend with something else entirely.

When I was unraveling some of the hose from the hose reel I looked over at the bush and saw him.

He wasn't making any noise at all, and he didn't move. He just sat there staring at me. So I sat there staring at him. And all I could think was if I moved he would freak out and fly at my face. Yeah, I can be irrational sometimes.

Anyway, after I looked at him for a while I noticed these little tufts on his head and realized he was definitely a baby. That's when I really started to worry. About him. Had he fallen from a nest? Was he abandoned by his parents? Did he get lost or separated from his family? And then I was thinking I wish Braeden was here to see the baby bird. I really worried about him late that night when the thunder and lightning started. We got an inch and a quarter of rain that night and I stressed that the poor little guy would drown or something. I went looking for him early the next morning and didn't see him. I worried for a minute but then I noticed him on the next bush. Phew. He was safe.

I was glad I had taken a few pictures when a coworker suggested I call a wildlife rehab person I had found online. We were joking about me not knowing what to feed him or if I even should feed him. The woman I spoke with asked that I send her a picture and check to see if he was still there when I got home. He wasn't, but she e-mailed me back to say that he was a fledgling, a toddler bird who was learning to fly. She explained they learn to fly from the ground and are taught by their parents to take cover in bushes. And she told me he's a mockingbird. I'm so glad he found my shrubs to hang out in while he taught himself to fly.

In other news...here are a few pictures of my two boys hanging out.

Look at that smile!!

And here are my boys playing with the hungry hippo. Gagey climbs in and sits (a little awkwardly) and Braeden pushes him up and down the house. It's incredibly sweet and cute. This is a game they both love!

Pics

2009-06-29T22:10:00.003-05:00

A few pictures...

Here's Gagey in the other diaper I tie-dyed with Emily.

On the Saturday before Father's Day we went to Trader Joe's in Chapel Hill. Mat definitely wasn't impressed, but Braeden and I had a good time. They had a bunch of different kinds of cookies--chocolate animal crackers, regular animal crackers, cookies shaped like cats--but Braeden picked out these cinnamon cookies shaped like letters. I wasn't very excited about them when we bought them, but wow! They were so good! We ate them every night after dinner until they were gone. Braeden loved that I spelled out his name. I love seeing both kids' hands in the picture reaching for more cookies.

This one is just classic...this is what Braeden wears to the pool! He made his visor at school by glueing foam letters and animals on a plastic visor from some conference or something. Flip flops, sunglasses, last year's swimmy trunks (because this year's 4T pair are too big!), and an old tee shirt. Is he stylin' or what??

Braeden being Braeden

2009-06-14T21:07:00.002-05:00

Remember the Danimals Crush Cups story? Well, here's some video of Braeden crushing things in the living room. Of course he's just wearing his underwear because that's all he's wearing in all of the pictures I take.

When he asked if we would buy him the yogurt, I wanted to run right out and buy them for him. How could you say no to that oh-so-earnest face?? We did, but it was tough. :)

So this next video...I hardly know what to say. Braeden showed me how he could put a can under the lid of the tub we store his play food in then jump on one end of it to shoot something that was resting on the other end high up in the air. Mat would have just said a fulcrum, but why use one word when you can use 25?!

Did you catch that he learned how to do this from watching Shrek?? Cute, right?

And yes. Just the underwear again. :)

Crush

2009-06-08T22:17:00.002-05:00

Braeden and I were snuggling in my bed tonight. He decided I should fall asleep and he would be my rooster who woke me up. He cock-a-doodle-dooed and I pretended to hit the snooze button. He didn't like that I ignored my wake-up call.

He looked at me and said, "I crush you!"

I burst out laughing and asked him where he'd heard that.

Danimals crush cup commercial!

And that only made me laugh harder. You see that commercial is on some nights when we're watching Spongebob or Penguins of Madagascar (my new favorite cartoon!). Braeden even made the little finger crushing motion and scrunched his mouth up like the boys do on the commercial.

Once he knew I thought it was so funny, he couldn't stop doing it. He crushed the chandelier, the clock, the TV, his daddy...you name it, he crushed it!

Graduation!

2009-06-03T08:35:00.002-05:00

The day care held a graduation ceremony for the four-year-old class last week. They'll be headed to kindergarten next year. Braeden's class did the opening ceremony and sang two songs before the four-year-olds processed in wearing their white caps and gowns.

For the opening ceremony, Braeden's class walked in down the center aisle of the church each carrying a small American flag. They lined up along the front and said the pledge of allegiance. Then they chant USA a few times and cheer. It's pretty cute even for cynical old me.

When they finished up, his class was supposed to walk to the other side of the church to sit together. I was near the front on the end where Braeden could see me. As they got ready to walk to their seats I heard Braeden ask his teacher if he could go sit with me. So sweet.

The three four-year-old classes got up individually next to do little skits they'd been practicing. They were so cute to watch. Some of the kids loved being on stage and were very confident with their parts, some shouted whatever they were supposed to say, but there was one little girl who refused to speak. She wouldn't take the microphone either; she just stood there with her head down the whole time.

When they finished their skits, they headed in the back to put on their caps and gowns and Braeden's class came back out to sing their songs. They were lined up in the colors of a rainbow. Braeden was orange. We couldn't find a plain shirt so I bought one that could be turned inside out. Apparently his teacher didn't like that idea and gave Mat a hard time about it. This is the same teacher we struggled with when Braeden was a baby in her room. Whatever.

I think I did an amazing job with the video considering I was crying throughout the songs. Seeing Braeden up there singing so confidently and looking so happy just made my heart burst with pride. These are the moments when I realize he's not a baby anymore.

Catch-up

2009-05-02T08:54:00.006-05:00

Friday morning I took Braeden to the dentist. We tried to get x-rays of his teeth but he couldn't hold the film in his mouth. Every time the hygienist got it situated, he would push it away with his tongue or start coughing. I'm sure it was uncomfortable for him and he doesn't understand how to sit still with it in his mouth and just wait it out. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. Apparently we'll try again at his next appointment in November.

Other than the x-rays, his appointment went well. He had no plaque on his teeth, so we can feel good about the brushing we do twice a day. The dentist said we might have to worry about the fact that there's no space between his bottom teeth. He said sometimes no space between baby teeth means when the permanent teeth come in there won't be enough room and he'll need braces to straighten them. It's not worth worrying about it now, although Mat did joke we should start the orthodontics saving account now. :)

When we finally got out of the dentist office, I took Braeden to school. I thought I would just peek in the window of the door at Gage. The kids were getting ready for lunch, so they were climbing on a small stool in front of the little sink to wash their hands. I was so excited to watch Gage, so I was glad to see he was next in line. He climbed right up on the stool and stuck his hands under the water. His teacher was helping another kid dry his hands, so he waited for her with his hands in the water. She turned back to him and squirted soap in his hands, then helped him wash his hands. When she let go of him, he put his hands back under the water until she helped him down from the stool and dried his hands off.

It was adorable! And it made me wish we had a sink that was about two feet off the ground so Gagey could wash his hands at home too.

Then she told him to get in his chair. He walked right over and climbed into his chair to wait for lunch. And that's when he saw me. He stared at me for about a minute before getting up and walking towards the door. When I opened it to go in, he got this huge smile on his face and ran to me. Normally I would worry about interrupting his day and then leaving him there, but it was okay Friday because I could leave him eating lunch.

These photos are from last weekend. My friend from Rhinebeck, Misty, and I went to the herb festival sponsored by the Women's Center and we took Braeden with us. I loved his outfit and thought he looked so cute, so I had to take a picture. It was a little dark in the kitchen, so it didn't come out that well. But he's still adorable!

I bought basil, parsley, and rosemary at the herb festival. We dropped Braeden off at home, then Misty and I went to Chapel Hill. We had lunch at Weathervane, shopped at Trader Joe's, and 10,000 Villages then came back home. It was a great day. And so much fun to spend time with someone I've known my whole life. It's funny how nice it is to have someone like that when you live so far away from where you grew up. We always end up talking about people we know--what they're doing now or something funny we remember about them from 10 (or more) years ago.

Then there's cutie-pie Gage in a one-piece from Carter's. I bought two sets of these and would love to go back for two or three more! He looks so cute in them.

And this is a little washcloth I knit for Braeden. It's a little hard to tell in the photo, but it has a VW bug on it. There's a little heart on the door of the bug and at the top it says Beebeeep. I'm not sure Braeden really sees the car design, but he loves that I knit him a washcloth to play with in the tub. And that's enough for me!

Just a regular day

2009-04-22T23:32:00.004-05:00

Mat had to attend a function for one of his students after work today, so I got to pick the boys up from day care. I LOVE doing that! When we got home, I made scrambled eggs for dinner. The three of us love them, and Braeden thinks it's fun to eat them for dinner. I've always loved breakfast dinner, so I'm happy to pass that along.

After dinner, Braeden played with play-doh for a while. At one point, Gagey walked over to the front door and started whining. When I asked Braeden if he wanted to go outside to play, he was thrilled!

The boys played with cars...

rode bikes...

scared mommy by climbing on the bike in a death-defying way...

looked cute...

in matching jackets...

and posed with my Mother's Day dogwood that's starting to bloom...

A perfect night!

More Charleston

2009-03-31T13:11:00.003-05:00

In my description of what we did in Charleston, I totally forgot to mention the visit to the firehouse Friday. They had a few new trucks we looked at, but Braeden really enjoyed playing on the old truck. When we got there, the firemen were playing basketball behind the station. They were glad to show Braeden the trucks and talk to Mat about how the older ones operated. I was happy to shoot my first video with my new flip! My birthday present from mom and dad...thanks, guys! I love it!

Charleston

2009-03-30T13:31:00.008-05:00

So I was afraid to talk about this before we left (exposing too much detail online and all), but now I can tell you all about our weekend away in Charleston. Mat had a student accepted to a conference hosted at the College of Charleston. As the advisor, he had to go along. And when he mentioned it a couple months ago, I leaped at the idea of going along with him. We LOVE Charleston! The idea of spending a weekend there sounded so good.

We left Friday morning and arrived around 2:00 after stopping for lunch at Chick-fil-a somewhere in SC. We were able to check into the hotel, the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina. The previous times we've been to Charleston, we've stayed downtown. But those were work trips; this time we were footing the bill for the hotel. The worst part about staying in Mt. Pleasant is that you have to drive into the city and park the car somewhere if you want to do anything. And parking is so expensive! But it was nice to get out of the city at the end of the day and it's hard to beat the view.

Our first stop in Charleston was at a local yarn shop, Knit. Mat and Gage went down to the CoC bookstore and Braeden and I visited Knit. The yarn on the left is going to be a pair of socks. The yarn on the right could be a washcloth. I haven't made up my mind.

After Knit, we went to the Market. Mat wanted to go in a shop filled with flags, history books, etc. He took Braeden this time, and Gage and I wandered the length of the market looking at all the stuff, most of it crap. Then we met up and went to dinner at A.W. Shuck's, a place we ate at last time.

Gage slept in the pack-n-play and Braeden had his own bed in the room. To get them both to sleep, we turned off the lights and I climbed into bed with Braeden to snuggle. Mat went back into the city with a couple of the students to walk around. We all ended up falling asleep. At 8:30!

Saturday morning, Mat went off to the conference and we got to play. We went to the aquarium first. Right inside the front door, they have this big tank with fish and a turtle. On our first trip to the aquarium, Braeden was fascinated by the tank and that turtle. This time around, he was more interested in the remote-controlled sub that was inside. Besides, he was a little more interested in seeing the sharks this time around.

The newest display at the aquarium is a tank of penguins. They were so cute! And they loved the kids standing on the ledge in front of the tank. They would swim up to the glass and tap on it.

Braeden liked the penguins but his favorite part of the trip was the boat they had set up for the kids to play on. He loved driving the boat. It was tough to get him to leave but it was time for lunch.

We drove into the city and had lunch at a deli on King Street. Braeden liked eating a grilled cheese sandwich and eat potato chips. He also liked helping me with Gage, picking up Gagey's sippy cup and admonishing Gage not to throw his food. I love that he likes to help like that. We went back to the hotel and I managed to get both boys down for a short nap, just over an hour.

Then we went outside to the hotel's "beach". The hotel is on the harbor so there's not a real beach, but they have sand.

Braeden loves playing in the sand. Gage liked it too. He wasn't really sure about it, so he tried eating it at first.

Braeden wanted to take pictures of the sand, so I handed over the camera. This was his second time taking his own pictures. I posted the first batch to facebook but haven't put them on here yet. I'll add that to my to do list. Anyway, here's his picture of the sand.

I love those toes!!

I wanted to take them to the real beach, but the wind was blowing so hard and they were predicting thunderstorms. I was afraid we'd get caught in it, so I didn't want to stray too far from the hotel. When it got too much for me, I brought the boys back inside and we watched cartoons and ate goldfish. When it was time, we met Mat downtown for dinner. We didn't really have a plan, but we ended up at our favorite Charleston restaurant, Basil. Amazing Thai food! We ate there twice the last time we were in Charleston. The boys did great! They ate a bunch of rice and shared an order of chicken satay. And since Braeden was so good in the restaurant, I promised him a treat. Fortunately, Cupcake was still open so we slipped in just before closing and ate cupcakes! So good.

Sunday we got up, packed everything up, checked out of the hotel, and drove into Mt. Pleasant to find a diner for breakfast. Then we were on the road home again.

Great weekend!

Too cute

2009-03-23T19:58:00.002-05:00

Braeden learned how to do the crab walk on the Tumblebus and he was showing off for us the other night. I convinced Mat to show off his walk, and the next thing I know he was giving Braeden a ride around the house!

This next video is actually a couple weeks old...I had such a hard time loading the video of Gage outside playing with the gutter that I waited a while to upload this one to youtube. Amazingly enough, these two videos loaded in just a few minutes!

Braeden always helps Mat put away the paper towels and toilet paper we buy at Costco. It looks like they have a new little helper!

The Swedish Invasion

2009-03-08T21:13:00.004-05:00

Early this morning Emily, Jenny, and I left our husbands and boys at home to drive to Charlotte to visit our brand-new IKEA. We had such a great time! There was a little drama as we sat down to eat our swedish meatballs (yum!), but we really did have fun.

The IKEA is HUGE! We got there just after it opened, but there were already a ton of cars in the parking lot. And a whole host of people in red shirts directing traffic. It seemed crazy, but I've never had an easier time parking and shopping.

When we bought the house, I ordered some of our furniture online from IKEA--our entertainment center, bookcase, and dining room table and chairs. I love everything, and it was so easy to get the stuff over the internet. But it was nothing like shopping at one of their stores. I couldn't believe how much stuff they had. And it was all so cheap. 99 cents for a toilet bowl brush (Emily and Jenny bought those), 79 cents for a vase (Jenny bought one), and 99 cents for a potholder (we all bought that one)! We all got some great stuff...Emily wanted a table and chairs for Will and she got a really cute set. I can't wait to see him sitting there drawing pictures or eating ritz crackers. :)

I was looking for bedside tables but didn't see anything I really had to have. But I did buy a great bench, a cool vase, and a tray. And no, that vase isn't going to live that permanently. In this house, one of the boys would break it in about 12 seconds! The bench might not even stay there...but I love it, so wherever it goes, I'll be happy.

But the greatest thing I bought today was a tent for Braeden. He loves turning my couch and chair with all the pillows and blankets into a fort. I thought the tent would make a perfect fort. And I thought it might save me from having to constantly pick up the pillows and blankets. :)

I LOVE this photo of Braeden. And he loves his tent. He ate his snack and drank his juice in it this afternoon. You can close the flaps with velcro. I would close the flaps then he would run out and grab a toy and ask me to close them again. I'm so glad he loves it as much as I thought he would!

Mat blogs

2009-03-05T21:45:00.002-05:00

Funny story…

For some time now, we have known that Bray and his classmates “say their blessings” before lunch each day. I think it bothers Melissa a little, but I think it’s cool because I think Bray should grow up to be humble and thankful for the things he has, regardless of whether it is in a religious context or not.

It seems that last week, Ms. Ann (one of Bray’s teachers) asked each child in the class who they were thanking for their blessings. As you can imagine (this is NC remember), there was a fair share of answers involving “the Lord”, “God”, “Jesus”, and the like.

Then they came to our little Bray. To whom does he ascribe his blessings? Barack Obama! No kidding.

His teachers thought that was the funniest thing ever. They both pulled me aside first thing Tuesday morning to tell me, and they were both laughing hysterically when they relayed the story.

Twenty-five

2009-02-05T11:37:00.006-05:00

Everyone on facebook is doing the 25 random things post. I did it. Abi did it. Emily did it. Even Mat did it! And if Mat does something on facebook, you know everyone's doing it.

Then Emily took it one step further and did the list for Will. On her blog. And I thought, my kids deserve a list too.

1. On the weekends Braeden insists on a special breakfast. I trained him to want it, and now he has to have it. He decides in the morning if he wants scrambled eggs, french toast, or pancakes. I like that we do something special to celebrate Saturdays and Sundays.
2. Gage loves eggs, french toast, and pancakes. He also loves my macaroni and cheese (which is really my mom's since I use her recipe even though mine turns out completely different), risotto, and turkey meatballs.
3. Braeden naps in our room on the weekends. He always starts out on top of the covers reading books but ends up under the covers asleep. I LOVE that he knows when he gets tired and snuggles under the covers to nap.
4. Gage is obsessed with climbing our stairs. If you turn your back for a second, he speeds over and gets a few stairs up before you turn back around.
5. Braeden thinks that walking quietly is tip-toeping. I get him to say it all the time for me because I think it's so funny!
6. Gage is cranky in the afternoons at day care. Mat thinks he doesn't like the woman who works the afternoon shift.
7. Braeden always asks to have the same books in our room for his rest time on the weekends--all three Toot & Puddle books.
8. Gage has very ticklish feet!
9. Braeden loves to be tickled. After a while, when he's out of breath from laughing, he begs you to stop. But after a minute, he asks you to start tickling him again.
10. Gage laughs every time you hang him upside down.
11. Braeden sleeps with a pink pig, a dog wearing a Giants sweater, an octopus, a duck, and a Curious George monkey. There might also be a salamander.
12. Gage sleeps with a lovey blanket I made for him. I even made a second one for him to sleep with at school. When we check on him, he's usually on his stomach on top of the lovey.
13. Braeden is terrified of our neighbors' dog. The other day I came home just after Mat and the boys got home. The neighbors' giant Newfoundland had gotten out of their house and was chasing Braeden around our mailbox. I hopped out of the car and called the dog and Braeden tore ass up the driveway. He was screaming the entire time! It took me a few minutes to get the dog back in their house (the front door was wide open and no one was home), and Braeden was still screaming. And shaking. I felt terrible for him, but Mat and I couldn't help but laugh!
14. Gage would rather push the button to pop the DVD tray in and out then play with the tons of toys we've gotten him.
15. Braeden usually prefers baby toys to his own toys.
16. When Gage is done eating or bored with whatever we've given him to eat, he starts throwing food over the side of the tray.
17. No matter how much Braeden has had to eat he always has room in his tummy for some of whatever I'm eating. And if I say no to him, he reminds me that I LIKE to share with him. That I ALWAYS share with him.
18. Gage has blue eyes and the most amazing eyelashes ever. He is often mistaken for a girl. Mat thought getting a haircut would fix that. It hasn't. I thought dressing him in blues, greens, jeans, and boyish sneakers would fix it. It hasn't. :)
19. Braeden HATES trying new clothes on. It's a HUGE fight each time!
20. Gage is really, REALLY great in the car. He always has been.
21. Braeden is too. And together, they are phenomenal.
22. Braeden talks in his sleep sometimes. The stuff he says doesn't make sense, but it's really funny. He also rolls around pretty violently and routinely crashes some part of his body into the wall. It makes a huge thump we can hear in our living room. But it doesn't seem to wake him up.
23. Gage likes to chase after Hudson (the cat) but has never once caught him.
24. Braeden has been afraid of Hudson for a while (there was an incident), but since turning four has decided he isn't afraid of him anymore. That's what he says, anyway. He's still afraid, though. But he does talk to Hudson, he makes an effort to pet him if Hudson is lying down, and if I'm holding Hudson he will come over to pet him.
25. My two boys are the best of friends. It is amazing to me to see it. And I hope they stay like this forever!

Rock on!

2009-01-29T13:29:00.002-05:00

I got this e-mail from Mat just now. And my first thought was to post it on the blog. 98% of the content on the blogs comes from me. I'm not complaining. I love blogging. And as a control freak, I'm pretty sure it would drive me nuts to visit the blog and see Mat had posted something random. But Mat has different experiences with the boys and a different perspective on them, so I do get a little sad sometimes that we're not preserving his side of things.

This is a perfect example:

So, remember that I told you about that day when Bray was an infant and I was home with him (he was sick) and we grooved out to White Zombie on VH1 Classic? I found the video here:

http://www.vh1classic.com/view/artist/1024/85248/White_Zombie/Thunder_Kiss_65/index.jhtml

With all the color and motion you can see why he was so darn transfixed and smiley when he saw it. This is why I love White Zombie, they are metal but also groovy and totally trippy.

Naughty, naughty Braeden

2009-01-28T11:00:00.004-05:00

I'm back to thinking about combining the blogs...I know, is anyone NOT sick of hearing me go back and forth over this? I'm certainly getting sick of thinking about it...

Anyway, I've always said that I've loved every age Braeden has been. And it's still true, I love having a four-year-old. There are so many amazing, adorable, wonderful things Braeden can do. He's a loving big brother who wants to take part in Gage's upbringing. He is funny. Hysterical, in fact. He's so smart. And perceptive. He's loving, adventurous, timid at times, carefree, charming, rough-and-tumble, and loud.

He's also stubborn. It's not a bad thing...I certainly respect him for it. How could I not? He comes by it honestly from both his parents. :) But, oh my, is it annoying! And troublesome. We're lucky that he has more good days than bad ones at school. But those bad days? They're really bad! He got in trouble earlier this week for playing under the table at lunch, talking back to his teachers, and playing in the bathroom while his friends were in there. That was just one day! He lost his Hess truck dump truck for that. He also lost his after-dinner treat and cartoon time.

At home he gets into trouble for not listening, for yelling when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, for talking back, and for a litany of little things. The other day I went into our downstairs bathroom and noticed little bits of toilet paper floating in the heating vent. He had ripped up toilet paper and dropped it down the vent. When the heat ran, the little bits floated. Clever, certainly. Naughty, definitely. Mat had noticed it the week before but thought it was accidental. Mat was mad enough to spit when we realized it was a game he was playing.

People always talk about the terrible twos. Honestly, two was nothing. A walk in the park. As he got closer to three, that's when we started seeing deliberate naughtiness. And now he can be downright bratty. Again, he comes by that honestly. Mat can attest. I'm a brat. :) But I'm pretty sure our house is only big enough for one brat, and as the mommy I lay claim to that distinction.

The upside to all this naughtiness is that when it's over he is genuinely contrite. He will apologize so sweetly and explain that he will be super-polite the next day at school. What does that mean? Always say please and thank you. His apologies always come with a hug, and he gets very upset if you don't acknowledge his efforts.

Our favorite game

2009-01-13T14:54:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you but I reread my own blog posts all the time. All.the.time. I can't help it. Today I was looking back at posts around the time Braeden turned one. I was looking to see when he started talking (late March, early April). And I found this post about playing "Where's Braeden?"

Now it's three years later and we're still playing the same game! He'll hide under a blanket or in the fort he's made out of couch cushions. "Mommy. Say where's Braeden." And I say it while looking for him in bizarre places.

Is he in the freezer? Noooo. Is he in the cabinet under the sink? Noooo. Is he under the entertainment center? Noooo. I give up. Where's Braeden?

And that's when he pops out of wherever he was hiding. Did I mention he giggles the whole time??

So much fun.

Fours

2009-01-12T11:01:00.002-05:00

We've got a gate at the top of our stairs that we keep closed at night. I'm pretty sure Braeden sleepwalks, or at the very least is very, very slow to wake up. Even though he's great on the stairs, I worry he'll sleepwalk and fall down them or not be quite awake enough to navigate them. And the gate is our last line of defense. When he messes around at night and gets out of bed 10 times, the worst he can do is turn the light on upstairs and stand at the gate. He's contained. The same is true in the morning. When he wakes up, Mat and I still have a few minutes to get ourselves together before we have to deal with him or Gage.

Not anymore.

Saturday morning Mat woke up with a start which woke me up with a start. Braeden was standing quietly next to the bed staring at Mat. It was just like that night in Charleston. I wonder how long he stood there before we woke up...

My first thought was that we had forgotten to close the gate. Mat asked how he had gotten down the stairs, and Braeden said he opened the gate. We were both shocked. Braeden told us that's what fours do. Fours open gates and come downstairs. (Fours is day care speak. Braeden must hear it a lot now that they've combined all the fours together in one big room with two teachers.)

We put Braeden in bed between us, but he didn't want to lie there quietly or fall back asleep. Instead he went upstairs and woke Gage up. Nice, huh?

Sunday morning he did the same thing again. But instead of going up to wake Gage up, he played "quietly" in the living room which woke Gage up. It was 7:15 both mornings, but seriously. Sleeping in would kill him??!!

My oh my!

2009-01-09T21:15:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I'm amazed at the things Braeden says. I'm sure every parent feels that way about their kids at some point or another. This year Braeden has memorized the story 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He doesn't have it perfect, but it's a LONG story. And he is only four.

So, without further ado, here's Braeden!

One of my favorite parts is his Santa voice. You'll see.

The last few days of 2008

2009-01-02T11:24:00.003-05:00

I have lots of pictures (at home), so this picture-less post will have to do for now.

I actually have a really cute story to share. I wish I had a video camera surgically attached to my hand. One that was always charged up and ready to go. Because then I could capture the adorable moments that happen in between the whining, crying, and mess-making that goes on at our house.

Last night near the end of dinner Gage started to get a little fussy. Braeden stepped right in to fix it. He started laughing a silly laugh, and that made Gage smile. Then he talked in a funny voice, and Gage smiled even bigger. Then he made a funny face and blew air at Gage, and Gage started to laugh. Braeden went through a series of things, each more ridiculous than the one before, and Gage laughed at all of them. Mat and I were laughing too. I can't put into words how good I felt watching this exchange. How proud I felt that my little boy (Braeden won't know I called him that) knew immediately that he should step in to help take care of his baby brother. And seeing how happy it made Braeden to be the one to cheer up Gage was the icing on the cake. It was a little slice of heaven at our dinner table!

Tuesday we took the kids to day care. Mat washed my car, then we went to the local Subaru dealer to look at cars. I wanted to downsize from my small SUV to something with better gas mileage that drove like a car. I loved the look of the new Impreza hatchback and was really looking forward to driving one. Unfortunately they look a lot better than they drive! I had a WRX when I lived in Ithaca. It was beautiful (okay, actually it was a little strange looking but that's what made it so beautiful). I knew I liked Subarus, but I guess what I liked was MY WRX not all Subarus. I still think the car is cuter than cute, but I got it out of my system with one small test drive. The sales guy was a bit of a doofus (with the worst comb-forward I've ever seen in person!). He tried to get me into a series of cars that I had no interest in like a Forester (hello! why would I trade in one smallish SUV for another??) and a Volkswagen Rabbit. The Rabbit was adorable, but tiny. I sat in it, though, and remembered all the things I loved about Volkswagens. I had two in Ithaca before the WRX. The sales guy went inside to run numbers on the Subaru, and then I saw it.

A Jetta. A perfectly adorable, silver, Jetta. The Jetta was cheaper than the Subie, bigger, with a bigger trunk, and better gas mileage numbers. He ran the numbers on it, too, but I couldn't make up my mind. Not between the Subie and the Jetta but between trading in my Outlander and keeping it for longer. Lately I've been realizing that I like things the way they are. Not necessarily that everything is perfect in my life, but that I'm happier to leave them alone than I am to switch things up and go through the hassle. Maybe I'm fine with change...I'm just lazy. Whatever.

We left the dealership with no new car and went home. Mat was no help in making a decision. He actually wanted me to decide for myself. Can you believe it?? That night I made a pro/con list. I won't share it with you because it's a little embarrassing. It helped a little. Maybe it was sleeping on it that helped. I don't know. All I do know is that the sales guy called Wednesday morning and I told him yes. :)

We picked up the Jetta at 1:30 that day. And it's adorable. It's a 5-speed manual. Silver with an obnoxious black pinstripe. Who out there likes pinstripes on cars? It's the base model, the S, but it comes with a slate of really cool features that make me smile. Like heated seats! I have always wanted heated seats on a car. I hate the feeling of that dry hot air blowing on my face, drying out my lips and eyes. I never would have paid extra for the heated seats in NC (NY definitely), but they come standard. The car has an auxiliary jack for my iPod so I can get rid of the lame iRiver and the even lamer iTrip that play your iPod through the radio. There's a button to pop the trunk on the clicker...I love that! There's one-touch up and down windows on the driver's side. It's really the little things with me that make all the difference!

I'll have to get some pictures of the car to post. When I picked Braeden up from day care that day he told me my new car was pretty. So I knew I had made the right choice. :)

After I picked him up Wednesday, I took him to see the Tale of Despereaux. It's the first movie he's seen in the theater! I was a little nervous but figured what's the worst that could happen. And he was great! He ate whoppers (aka chocolate balls) and some of my popcorn. He was a little too light for the seat so it popped closed on him the first time he climbed into it. But I helped hold it open for him, and he sat on my lap for part of the movie. He didn't mind the dark, or the huge screen, or that the movie was obnoxiously loud.

Braeden's favorite part was the magical vegetable guy who helps make the soup and helps Despereaux save the day. This is Boldo.

The movie was really very good. It had a lot more plot than I was expecting from a kid's movie. I don't think Braeden followed all of it, but he got that there was a princess to save from bad rats. And he got that Despereaux was a hero. I had fun figuring out who was voicing each of the different characters. I didn't figure out that Stanley Tucci was Boldo until I went looking for the picture. Boldo has a French accent, so it wasn't as easy as some of the other characters.

Anyway, I was glad to take him and glad that he had such a good time and made it through the whole movie.

We're still here!!

2008-12-22T12:02:00.004-05:00

I know it's been a while (bad blogger!), but things have been more than a little crazy around here.

Both boys got sick at the same time. That just shouldn't happen. One of them should be considerate enough to wait until the first one is done, right? Well, no. Apparently they didn't get that mommy memo.

Braeden had a bad cold. Lots of coughing and congestion with a sore throat. He coughed so much at school one day he threw up. Gage had a very yucky nose and was running a low temp. I took them both to the doctor (and learned that 2 boys + 1 appointment time = 2 copays or $50!!). Braeden just had a cold. $25 to have that confirmed. Huh. Gage, on the other hand, had his second ear infection in the same ear as last time. It was early, so we weren't seeing any symptoms of it like last time.

Gage finishes up his 10-day course of antibiotics tonight. We used the probiotic again for a few days and he had no yucky side effects from the amoxicillin. Phew.

We told Braeden that being sick meant he could watch lots of cartoons, so we've been hearing that for the last week or so. "Sick kids get to watch a lot of cartoons." You try telling Braeden he's not sick any longer. See how far you get! :)

As the kids were starting to feel better, I got sick. It never fails. Sore throat, headache, and fever. I had to leave early on Thursday after our office holiday luncheon. Came home, changed into my jammies, and took my temp. 103. I felt like such crap I couldn't even bring myself to care. I sat in the dark living room on the couch under a blanket with NCIS on the TV. Whatever I was watching ended, NCIS came on, and I couldn't bring myself to change the channel. If that's not a sign of how sick I was, I don't know what is.

I stayed home Friday as my temp was still high in the morning. I felt a lot better by the end of the day, though.

Saturday we celebrated Christmas at Mark and Jenn's townhouse in Charlotte with Mat's parents. Mark and Jenn did a great job entertaining us and the two kids. They made mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, green beans, and a really nice salad for the grown-ups. I was really impressed with the thought they put into the menu. And they even seemed not to care when Braeden spilled an entire glass of juice on the table or when Gage threw mac and cheese everywhere. :)

The boys got some really good presents, and it was nice to spend the day together. Pete and Carol leave for AZ after Christmas, and we'll be in NY starting tomorrow, so we won't all be together again until the spring. We gave Mark and Jenn a gift card to PF Chang's for Christmas. It's what they asked for, and who are we to disappoint. They laughed when they opened it, then handed me our present. A gift card to PF Chang's. As soon as Mark told his brother that's what they wanted, he groaned remembering they had already bought one for us. Silly.

We'll be leaving around 4:00 tomorrow morning for Rhinebeck. Maybe I'll post from the car. Maybe not. We'll see how the trip goes. Braeden will be great. It's Gage we're worried about. Hopefully he'll do a lot of napping!

Why I don't pump my own gas

2008-12-05T10:54:00.002-05:00

So last night I stopped in to get gas on my way home. All the pumps were filled which surprised me. And there at least 12 pumps at my gas station. Gas was the same price it had been that morning. It wasn't Friday, or the start of a long weekend. As far as I knew there was no scare about rising prices.

I waited a few minutes, then pulled up to pump. Pumping gas is kind of a big deal for me. I don't do it that often. Mat and I have an agreement about the cars. He handles maintenance. And to me, that includes getting the gas. But I knew I needed it and I was getting home early, and since I drive right by the gas station on my way home it made sense that I stop.

So, I pull up to the pump and get all my crap together. We use speedpass, but it tends not to work at this station. Maybe it's all stations these days. Whatever. It's a pain in the ass. So I flip the switch to open the gas tank door. Turn off the car. Get my keys with the speedpass. Dig out my back-up credit card. Put my phone in my pocket. Take my gloves off. Realize I've parked awfully close to a post and very carefully ease my way out of the car. Then I watch a white minivan pull in to the pump next to me. My eye is automatically drawn to the front passenger seat.

Can you see?

That's a baby sitting on the lap of the woman in the front seat. Sitting on a pillow, actually. On the lap of the woman in the front seat. And you know what? The woman is wearing her seatbelt. She's buckled in but she's carrying her GodDamn baby on her lap on a pillow. In the front seat.

I had to take a picture. I didn't even hide the fact that I was taking a picture like I usually do. And then I considered calling 911. I honestly did. I was shaking I was so crazed about this.

After all this, I finally get down to business to pump my gas. And found out there was gas all over the handle of my pump. And now it was all over my hand.

And on top of that, the pump is running incredibly slowly. A woman pulls up behind me and I tell her I'm pumping a gallon every minute. The woman at the pump next to me lets me know it's not just my pump that's slow. Then I feel something whack into my leg.

A grasshopper has flown into my leg. And for some reason, he thought this was a good place to camp out. A grasshopper!

He didn't seem at all concerned as I tried not to freak out. The woman at the pump next to me leaned over to see. But the thought of a bug landing on her leg freaked her out and she had to go back to her pump. Me? I took a picture so I could post it on the blog. Then I used the napkin I was using to wipe the gas off my hand to shoo the grasshopper off my leg. And then, because I'm me and can't stand the thought of the little guy getting squished (even though he grossed me out by landing on my leg), I used my napkin to coerce him into hopping onto the platform where the pump is.

So, in case you're having a hard time following...first, there was the baby on the lap. Then my gas hand. And then the grasshopper on the leg. Fast forward 15 minutes, and my tank is now full. With 13.8 gallons. And I have to put the pump back in the holder. And that means getting my hand wet again. Yuck.

Amazingly enough I somehow have a couple wet wipes in my glove box with the Dunkin Donuts napkins. That's the one bright spot of my stop at the gas station.

And that's why I don't pump my own gas!

Snow!

2008-11-30T16:31:00.002-05:00

We had our first snow and I dressed Braeden up and sent him out to play. We take what we can get in NC, even if it's a light dusting. I seriously hope Rhinebeck gets walloped with snow while we're there for Christmas. Braeden is used to NC snow. He has no idea!

The most snow was sitting on top of our pine straw, so that's where he went to make his snowballs.

He was happy but cold!

Showing me the snow on his mitten (from the dollar section at Target!!).

My (?) holiday decorations

2008-11-26T23:46:00.004-05:00

Two posts in one day? Unbelievable. Or as Braeden would say Un.be.lieve.able.

It's time to post about holiday decorations. Bet you didn't see that one coming! Braeden is really into the holidays this year. And I am so so so excited about it!

Braeden started talking about cornucopias one day. Mat and I weren't sure he even knew what a cornucopia was. When we asked him, he informed us that it was a horn-shaped basket filled with things you're thankful for. We were humbled. And confused. Where did he learn that? At school? Then I caught the Moose A. Moose interlude between episodes of Blue's Clues one morning. Ohhhh, there's the cornucopia! Moose sings songs and does puzzles. He's pretty funny. And those songs get stuck in our heads...we all sing lines from them whenever it seems appropriate. I sometimes catch myself about to do it at work and have to remind myself that none of my coworkers have babies. They totally won't get Moose A. Moose!

So, Braeden and I bought a cornucopia. If it were solely up to me, the cornucopia would live on the dining room table as part of my Thanksgiving centerpiece complete with gourds, pumpkins, baby pumpkins, and my fake fall leaves. Oh, and the adorable stuffed turkey that gobbles that I bought last week at Swoozie's (when I used my coupon). Braeden likes to play turkey field. He can play turkey field for a very, very long time. When I watch him play, I always think this is going to be fun for a few minutes but then 30 minutes later he's still playing.

The other thing the cornucopia is good for?

Yep. It's a hat, too. :)

Today Braeden and I went to the grocery store for a few last-minute Thanksgiving dinner items. We also stopped at Michael's for a basket to hold the rolls I bought at Great Harvest Bread Company when I left work today. Along with the roll basket, Braeden found this gold wire sleigh with accent beads. It was pretty. Pretty tacky. But they did have a much less tacky version that I thought could be a lot of fun. As a Christmas decoration.

Braeden had other ideas.

He's Santa, ho ho ho-ing all around the house and distributing toys to good little girls and boys. With a pretend Santa hat on.

If I can wrestle the sleigh away from Braeden, I've got a bunch of ideas about how to fill it. Surprisingly enough, none of my ideas include Braeden's diggers, the drawers from the dollhouse dresser, the star ornaments from our new Toot & Puddle Christmas book, or the boomerang man. Weird, huh? I'm thinking very prettily wrapped presents. Although to accomplish that I'll need my sister to fly down here and wrap some empty boxes for me. Or pine cones if Mat can find the time to go exploring and find some. I'll post pictures when I get it together. If I get it together. :)

Boss sloth

2008-11-26T11:17:00.002-05:00

"I'm the biggest sloth that you see says sloth."

Braeden is always repeating stuff he's heard on the radio or TV (whack the badger, Barack Obama, or the Queen song). Lately he's been saying something really weird. And I had to listen to him say it about a hundred times before I could get it straight. I had no idea where he got it from, but Mat was able to fill in the blanks for me.

He's been repeating (in his own garbled way) a line from a rap song he's heard on the radio while driving with Mat. What's the line?

"I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far." It's from a song called the The Boss by Rick Ross. A really bad song. A song about some big guy who sells drugs and makes lots of money. If you're really interested, you can watch the video for yourself at youtube. I honestly debated whether or not to even give you the link, that's how bad I think it is.

Braeden's line is much cuter!

Hot cocoa

2008-11-24T14:43:00.001-05:00

I forgot I had taken a couple pictures of Braeden at Starbucks! He took his hot chocolate very seriously which I just thought was adorable!

I love mail!

2008-11-17T22:49:00.004-05:00

Today was an awesome mail day! No diapers, but maybe Thursday. :)

However, there was still really cool stuff waiting for me when I got home tonight. Unfortunately I can't post about all of it here since some of it will be for Christmas.

I received two packages containing things I ordered from etsy. I LOVE etsy. It's one of my favorite ways to kill a little time and the site of some of my most favorite, most hoped for items. I've got an etsy wish list a mile long!

The first package had some Christmas gift tags, some really cute tags. The second had something that will probably end up as a gift so I can't post the details here. But you can click here to see the shop I bought this something from. I'm thinking I'll keep some and give some as a gift because I really, really love what I bought. That way I can enjoy the something just as much as the person who receives the gift. And if that isn't the spirit of Christmas then I don't know what is! ETA: I did keep some!! YEA!!

Then there was a 20% off coupon at a Greensboro shop that sells personalized things and all kinds of gifts. Just for being a member of the Greensboro Children's Museum I can save 20% shopping there on Thursday. And the museum receives 10% of the proceeds. It's a win-win! Except for Mat. Everyone wins but Mat. Poor guy.

Then there was the envelope from PF Chang's. While I was talking to Mat about it, I remembered that a while back Emily and I had lunch there and our waiter asked us to fill out a survey. And I guess just for filling out the survey I got a 10% off card to use through January 4. Cool, right? I've been wanting their Dan Dan Noodles and now I have the perfect excuse to go there!

I think the universe was kicking on all cylinders today...PF Chang's and Swoozie's (the Greensboro shop) are spitting distance from each other. I can feel it already...Thursday I'll be doing a little Christmas shopping at Swoozie's then picking up takeout from PF Chang's. I can already tell it's going to be a great day!

How sweet!

2008-11-14T12:35:00.003-05:00

I have to brag a little...I have the sweetest little boy in the world. Of course, he would be highly insulted to know I called him little!

Yesterday I had to drive to Garland, NC for an alumni luncheon with my boss. Round trip we were in the car for FIVE hours! My boss likes it cold, and since it was raining we were running the defrost. On cold. By the time we arrived, I was very cold and could feel an ache in my neck and shoulders which I figured was from the driving. I had to excuse myself from the table a few minutes into lunch because I felt sure I was going to throw up. I managed to buck up and make it through lunch (without eating anything else). We got back in the car and left Garland around 2:20. We returned the car on campus around 5:10. Then I still had to drive home.

I met the boys in the driveway and helped get them inside. I changed into my comfy clothes and climbed into bed with Gage. I nursed him (since I didn't pump at all yesterday!) then Mat took him out to the kitchen and I fell asleep. I slept until Mat woke me around 8:00 to nurse Gage again. Then I went back to sleep until I woke up at 4:40 this morning feeling so much better! I think I was just really tired and probably a little dehydrated.

Anyway, I'm sorry you had to read through all of that just to get to the part about how sweet my kid is. After I nursed Gage this morning, Mat took him upstairs with him to get Braeden up and dressed. Since I missed Braeden last night, I slipped upstairs while he was brushing his teeth (naked, by the way). He saw me in the mirror and came running to the gate so happy to see me. Then he said, "Are you feeling better, mommy?"

Is that not precious??

He also tells me to drive carefully when I leave for work. In the mornings he asks me if I slept well. And when I come home, he asks if I had a good day. :)

MORE vacation pictures!

2008-11-09T23:01:00.002-05:00

Mom sent a CD of her pictures from our vacation in Virginia Beach...

My dad spent a lot of time sitting just like this with Gage balanced on his lap. The condos are pretty small, so they have mirrors covering a couple walls to make it seem bigger. Sometimes you forget they're there until you catch a glimpse of yourself...makes you want to sit up a little straighter. It's a nightmare for people who try hard not to be in photos. Like me.

MeMa, P-Pa, and Braeden at the Neptune statue.

Gagey and me...aren't we sweet?!

Here's my sister Abi, her husband Jeremy, and Gage.

And a really great picture of Aunt Abi with Gage.

president elect

2008-11-05T00:15:00.001-05:00

Wow. What a night! I hardly know what to say.

I've always felt proud to be a Democrat. I've never shied away from the word liberal or considered it an insult. But I've never been as proud as I am tonight.

Obama was not my guy. I voted for Hillary in the primary like I voted for her when I lived in NY. I was disappointed that she didn't win the nomination. As a woman I felt saddened that this would not be the year I saw another woman run for president. But I have faith.

But even though I came late to his party, I feel overwhelmed with emotion tonight. I'm proud of what he has accomplished and proud of the efforts of the volunteers who devoted themselves to his campaign.

I can't wait to tell Braeden tomorrow morning that Barack Obama won the election and will be our next president.

Historic.

Election Day

2008-11-04T21:05:00.004-05:00

I met Kay Hagan tonight! Kay is running for the Senate against Elizabeth Dole. I did phone banking for her a couple weeks ago. Anyway, she was on campus tonight encouraging people to vote. When I came out of the university center on my way to the parking deck I saw her and smiled. She smiled and asked if I had voted. I told her I had and that I had voted for her. I also told her about volunteering for her. She thanked me, shook my hand, and asked me my name. It was nice to meet her after spending a few hours making calls for her. And she's so tiny in person.

The kids voted today at school. Barack Obama won. He had Braeden's vote!

One of the times Braeden and I were baking together I let him smell the vanilla and my unsweetened cocoa powder. So after that one time, smelling the vanilla has become one of his favorite things to do when we're working in the kitchen. It's part of the story about how the vanilla got spilled Sunday when we were baking snickerdoodles. So this weekend he started saying he was the flavor man. He had to smell the vanilla, cocoa, and sprinkles (!) because he's the flavor man. He said, "I smell stuff. And I taste stuff." How ridiculous is that?!

Mat and I are watching election coverage tonight. I'll probably post again later since things are certainly going well so far! Oh, and I stopped on my way home from work tonight at Starbucks for my free coffee. Yum.

Artistic ability

2008-11-03T13:22:00.003-05:00

Would you look at this?? At not even four, my kid is a better artist than me!!

Here's Braeden tracing his name from dots his teacher made as a guide. He draws B's for us all the time. He's also getting pretty good at M, Z, L, and T.

The weekend

2008-11-02T16:09:00.004-05:00

The line was a lot longer than we expected at the Fire House, but the waiting wasn't so bad. There was an antique fire truck outside that Braeden liked looking at. Then there was the man behind us in line who exchanged high fives with him and even did the "too slow" thing that I remember from elementary school. There was a sign (like an upside down V) that Braeden sat under. And then there was this woman in front of us. I looked down to see what he was doing and realized he was standing in front of this woman leaning against her legs. I think he thought he was leaning against me! When I said something to him, he looked up, saw it was another woman, and said, "I like leaning against her." I looked at the woman worried she would be angry, but she just laughed. I was glad we got caught in line with nice people who liked kids!

When we finally got inside, the voting went pretty quickly. Mat held Gage while I took Braeden with me. Our voting is done on touchscreen computers that are set around waist height. Just right for Braeden! He loved pushing the buttons. And in the end he got a sticker which he put on his cheek. He was pretty happy...he didn't even mind not getting to see the big, modern fire trucks.

For lunch today we all had grilled cheese sandwiches. Or grilled trees as Braeden likes to call them. Gage ate almost half a sandwich. And yes, P-Pa, it was potato bread.

I had to reschedule my hair appointment for next weekend but was able to get to my facial after a quick trip home to nurse Gage and eat a yogurt.

This morning Braeden and I made snickerdoodles. I used a recipe I found on a new blog I'm loving. Braeden loves to hold the measuring cups and spoons and add ingredients. He also cracked the eggs and turned the mixer on and off when needed. He managed to spill about a third of my giant, Costco-sized bottle of vanilla on the floor, but we won't talk about that. (Even though it means repainting part of our kitchen wall that's now stained a vanilla color.) He had a hard time making balls out of the cookie dough. I showed him how to roll the ball, but he really just flattened dough. His hands seem a lot warmer than mine too, so that didn't help matters. But he liked to try to roll a ball, then he liked to give me his squished dough in exchange for a nice ball. And when he was done holding the ball, he liked to drop it in the cinnamon sugar. Oh, and he liked eating the cookies when they were done!

And now I'm watching my Giants play the Cowboys. My guys are having a great season! Two weeks in a row I've gotten the game. Amazing, right?

Early voting

2008-11-01T20:55:00.001-05:00

I had to reschedule my hair appointment thanks to the long line at the fire house. It took over an hour but we voted! I'll post more about it tomorrow including pictures.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T20:22:00.002-05:00

What a wonderful Halloween!

This was the first year Braeden really got it. He put his doctor costume on right away and was ready to go. We got Gage dressed in the orange, black, and white striped onesie with the little spider. Then we were off. We must have gone to 10 or 12 houses before heading back to our cul-de-sac. Only two of our neighbors had their lights on. We tried anyway, but they didn't come to the door. Braeden was disappointed for about 4.2 seconds then dragged me off to the next house.

He was great about saying trick-or-treat, happy halloween, and thank you at each house which made me very happy. And if people asked, he would tell them he was a doctor.

When we got back to the house we turned our outside lights on so that the trick-or-treaters would know we were home. The first time the bell rang, I passed out candy to the kids. After that, Braeden decided it was his job to pass out candy. And he was amazing. And so darling. He insisted on giving two pieces of candy to each kid. He would ask kids how old they were (or as he would say it, how many are you). He would tell kids he liked their costumes. He even told two little girls they looked cute. Near the end, when we were running low on candy, I told him he needed to give out just one piece to each kid. So when he handed out the candy, he would tell them he could only give them one piece. He took his job very, very seriously. I was so proud of how grown-up he was.

At the dentist

2008-10-30T20:58:00.001-05:00

Braeden was perfect at the dentist this morning. He got his teeth cleaned then flossed. And he got a fluoride treatment. There were a bunch of flavors to choose from and he picked orange. They tried to do x-rays but his mouth was too small to hold the thing.

The glasses are to shield his eyes from the bright light they use. He liked the chair that moved up and down and reclined back, but he didn't like having to lie so far back on it. I think he was worried he would fall off, but I held his hand and that relaxed him. They also had Spongebob on the TV when he walked in, so he was happy. In fact, that explains the super-intense look on his face.

At the end of the visit he had his pick of toothbrush. He had to decide between Shrek and Diego. Tough choice for a boy who loves both, but ultimately he picked Diego. It well with the Dora toothbrush we already have.

Preschooler food anxiety

2008-10-28T20:29:00.002-05:00

Short post tonight...

I asked Braeden what he wanted for dinner tonight and he said macaroni then went to the pantry and pulled out a box of mac and cheese. I agreed to make that and thought we would have hot dogs too. But there was only one hot dog in the freezer. So Mat and I had hamburgers with our mac and cheese. And I steamed broccoli. I told Braeden he had to eat one piece, and he agreed.

We sat down at the table, and he wolfed down his mac and cheese and his hot dog. He drank his chocolate milk but still hadn't touched his broccoli. His one tiny piece of broccoli.

I asked him nicely to eat it. He reminded me that the last time I made him eat broccoli, he threw up. I explained that it wasn't the broccoli that made him throw up, it was the fit he threw. I told him he couldn't leave the table until he ate it. I told him he wouldn't be able to watch cartoons if he didn't eat it. And finally I told him I was taking his plate away and he could get down but I would not turn the TV on. Once I got up, he started acting like he was going to eat it, but he kept messing around with it.

So I took his plate and cleaned off his hands. He began to cry because he finally realized he wasn't going to get to watch cartoons. Mat suggested we dip the broccoli in the cheese sauce and Braeden agreed to eat it.

He was standing up in the kitchen when I fed him the piece and he started to chew it. He coughed a few times and we knew immediately that he was trying to make himself throw up. I told him not to do it, to stop. But instead he threw up on our kitchen floor. We were so, so mad at him!

We cleaned him up and sent him to time-out. Mat cleaned up the floor and I went to check on Braeden. He was doing fine but we made him stay in time-out until it was time for his bath.

I just can't believe he did this again.

Silly boy!

2008-10-24T20:40:00.001-05:00

Quick post tonight...Braeden knows how to spell Gage's name now. And tonight I was teaching him to spell Potter.

I told him we were going out to dinner tonight and I asked him where he wanted to go. He said Arbys because we just ate there on our way home from the beach. Then he said Monterreys but I knew Mat was really tired of going there. So then he had to decide between Monterreys and Moe's. When I pushed him for an answer, he said in his most exasperated tone, "Mommy, I have to think about this." We ended up at Moe's.

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us. I wish we could just be lazy but we have tons of errands to do and Mat's parents are visiting on Sunday.

Pumpkins

2008-10-23T20:43:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago Braeden came home from the grocery store with a small pumpkin. He was so proud of it he immediately put it on the dining room table. Then last week his class went to the pumpkin patch on a field trip. Isn't that cute?? And he brought home a small, white pumpkin. So that went on the table too.

When I went to the grocery store Tuesday when we got home from the beach, I bought the little gourds I love so much. I got a little bumpy one, an egg-shaped one that has a green base and an orangey-yellow top, and two baby pumpkins.

Braeden was so so excited when he saw them on the table with his two pumpkins. The white one is the momma pumpkin, the orange one is the daddy pumpkin, and the little ones are the babies.

When he eats dinner he likes to have one of the baby pumpkins on the placemat next to his plate. And he always wants one of the gourds to hold while he watches TV. Only he asks me for one of the vegetables. One of the little vegetables.

So cute!

My boys play!

2008-10-22T21:37:00.003-05:00

At some point my video of Braeden and Gage playing together will load on youtube and I'll post it here. Until then, just know that there is a really cute video coming of my two boys playing together. This is one of the first times they've played together without one of them freaking out or starting to cry. Sometimes Braeden plays too rough for Gage and sometimes Gage messes with Braeden's toys or knocks down his tower upsetting Braeden. But today they played so nicely together I had to run to get the camera.

I didn't realize turning the camera wouldn't automatically rotate the video I was shooting, so I'm sorry the last 15 seconds are sideways. It's like on Barefoot Contessa when she leaves the top of the cake rounded instead of leveling it off. Rounded cake=homemade and old-fashioned. Leveled-off cake=professional and boring. My videos are liked rounded cakes. :)

2008-10-18T14:25:00.001-05:00

I just cannot get over how big Braeden looks in this jacket with his hat on backward. It was so windy that Bray's hat blew off a couple of times.

2008-10-18T14:14:00.001-05:00

We went down to the beach after lunch to fly the $5 kite Mat bought at one of the stores on the boardwalk. Turns out Braeden doesn't care too much about kites but I think Mat enjoyed it until the string broke.

on the road

2008-10-17T18:35:00.001-05:00

We left home around 5:15 snd just got back in the car after a quick dinner at Arby's. Braeden is telling me a story about a tower that is wet and tired. (The "toy" in his kids meal was a pop-up book on the Eiffel Tower.)

Mat says we should be at Virginia Beach around 10:00 tonight. Hopefully Gage will fall asleep now that it's dark and he's nursed and eaten banana. I hope Bray will sleep some too since he'll be awake for a while once we get to the hotel.

The car is stuffed! In my list last night I forgot to mention my pump and the three or four other random bags that I had to add to our load in the few minutes before we left. We have too much stuff!!

Mom and dad are already there, and Abi and Jeremy will drive down tomorrow.

I'm posting with my blackberry so this is all I can manage for now. More tomorrow from the beach!

Packing overload!

2008-10-16T20:56:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow we're going to the beach! We've been looking forward to the trip for a while now, especially Braeden.

I just can't believe how much stuff we're bringing with us!! Gage is going to sleep in the pack-n-play and Bray will sleep on an inflatable bed. We've got his suitcase and a bag with Gage's clothes and diapers in it. Mat and I each have a bag packed with clothes. There are a few bags with food and a bag with beach towels, extra wipes, sippy cups, and medicine. Then there's the bag with Mat's rollerblades. And the bag full of toys. And Braeden's dog. And a gift bag with birthday presents for mom and dad. We also need to bring mom and dad's advent calendar. And maybe our kitchen sink. :)

We'll be leaving tomorrow after work and coming back sometime on Tuesday. And how will I live up to the terms of my own blogging challenge? Well, I guess you'll just have to keep coming back to find out. :)

Spelling

2008-10-14T20:17:00.002-05:00

I promised to post more about Braeden's spelling, and here we go!

I've already told you he can spell mommy, mom, and Bob. He can also spell his name! At first the only time he was spelling his name was when we were snuggling in his bed. Since he has his name on his wall I just figured he was reading the letters, but I covered his eyes and made him spell it again. When he does it he always spells out Braeden Rhys, never just Braeden. :)

He can also spell Dylan, another of his classmates. He hasn't spelled any of his other friends names but he does do something else. He'll tell me that there are two A's in Makena. And one K. Or that Macy has a Y in her name. Or that Matthew has two T's in his name.

Cute, right?

What makes me nuts, though, is that he says Y starts with me meaning his name starts with a Y. I always explain to him that he HAS a Y in his name not that his name STARTS with a Y. But he keeps insisting that his name starts with a Y. He'll get it eventually. I'm just impressed he knows as much as he does!

Cartoons!!

2008-10-09T09:25:00.003-05:00

This is hard for me to believe but I've never posted about the cartoons Braeden likes to watch!! Cartoon time is very important in our house. Braeden gets to watch TV after breakfast and after dinner (if he's gotten a green light at school, if he's been a good boy for us, and if he ate all his dinner).

He goes through these phases with cartoons. Like for weeks all he wants to watch is Spongebob. Then suddenly he's over that and wants to watch something else. For a long time after dinner he would watch Baby Looneytunes and Krypto the Superdog. I didn't care for the looneytunes but I did like Krypto and was kind of sad when he got tired of that.

My parents gave him a Blue's Clues DVD this summer so he's been into that now. We're lucky because there are two episodes on in a row in the mornings. While we get ready for work, Bray watches Blue's Clues. And he writes stuff down in his handy-dandy notebook. Or sits in his thinking chair. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about then you obviously need to watch one or one hundred episodes of Blue's.

The schedule is totally different on the weekends which Braeden doesn't understand. Usually we end watching Sprout for the good night show or the sunny side up show. Then he can watch episodes of a bunch of different shows like Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, or Berenstein Bears. Berenstein Bears was another of his phases. He had to watch it EVERY morning! We've got several of the books and have seen some of the episodes four or five times.

My favorite of the sprout shows is Make Way for Noddy. I can't tell you how much I adore it! Noddy is a little wooden toy who lives in Toyland. He drives around this adorable red and yellow taxi and even flies a little red and yellow plane. And his clothes...his blue jingle bell hat and his yellow scarf with red polka dots just make me smile. Fortunately Braeden likes him too. Noddy isn't his favorite, but he still likes to watch him. The song sticks in my head all day. Make sure you have your speakers turned up if you visit the link above because you'll get to hear the song too! :)

Sometimes Braeden just wants to watch a video. He doesn't care what we try to tempt him with (Dora, Diego, Spongebob), it's a video or nothing else. We don't have too many for him to choose from, so I guess we need to build up our collection. He likes the Disney movies I have, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty. He also likes Monsters, Inc. He LOVES Shrek especially the third one with the Shrek babies. In fact, I finally got to see the whole movie the other night. We watched it two nights after dinner which is how I finally got to see the end.

And on rare occasions we let Bray watch cartoons in the middle of the day on a weekend. Like if it's raining, or one of us is sick. And sometimes he watches football or tennis with me. Or music videos or autocross or formula one racing with Mat. He likes the funny-looking cars racing around the track. And I like the noise they make.

The things he says

2008-10-02T00:42:00.001-05:00

Here's a cute, quick story about Braeden...I made Mat write this one up because he knows the book and was there to have the conversation with Mat.

So Bray has a book (I think it is called “Giggle Giggle Quack”) that he likes very much and he and I have read it many times. Basically, the story centers on a farmer who goes on vacation and leaves his brother in charge of the farm. The farmer leaves the brother handwritten notes describing how to care for the animals. During the story, the brother is fooled by a crafty barnyard duck, who replaces the farmer’s notes with all sorts of silly instructions of his own design (telling the brother to order pizza for the hens, bathe the pigs in the house tub with the farmer’s special bubble bath, etc.). Anyway, before the farmer leaves for his vacation, he (ominously) tells the brother to “Keep an eye on duck, he’s a bad influence on the cows.” In our hallway, we have a nightlight that Gage is a little obsessed with. He always wants to play with it, and Bray enjoys playing sheriff and yelling at him about not screwing around with it. At one point this weekend, Bray told me to “Keep an eye on Gage, he’s a bad influence on the nightlight.”

Silly boy!

2008-09-26T20:53:00.006-05:00

Braeden and I were snuggling in his bed tonight after dinner at Monterreys. He's into telling riddles lately. He'll say to me, "Mommy, what swims in the deep ocean and eats fish?" I start guessing random silly things like a butterfly or a kitty cat which makes him giggle. After a few guesses I tell him I don't know. Then he proudly announces it's a shark. Sometimes he gives away the answer in the riddle. Mat and I just look at each and smile.

Tonight he was talking about school and his friends. He told me that he didn't have to eat by himself at lunch time. I asked why he would eat by himself and he explained that's one of the punishments his teachers use when one of the kids acts up too much. Then we talked about who his friends are. He talked about hugging Makena and I asked him if he thought she was pretty. He said she was. Then he said that when his friend Isabella wears a dress he tells her she looks beautiful. Isn't that sweet?

Remember how Braeden picked up saying Barack Obama all the time? Now he say, "Barack Ohhh-bama. To the rescue!" I like to think of that as a good sign for November. :)

Our weekend

2008-09-21T14:16:00.009-05:00

Mat went whitewater rafting with the Elon Outdoors students on Saturday, so I spent the day with my two boys. Gage and I slept in until 8AM then had breakfast while Braeden watched Beauty and the Beast. We played the morning away building towers, racing cars, and drawing pictures.

At lunch I decided to give Gage some bites of cheese. He didn't seem to understand they were something to eat. He devoured bites of dry toast but mostly just pushed the cheese around the tray. He did a pretty good job drinking apple juice from a sippy. We've only given him a sippy a few times, so he's still learning.

After Braeden finished eating his PB&J, peaches, and bee crackers he wanted to play with play doh. He got into play doh a couple weeks ago when he got a little container of it in the gift bag from Will's birthday party. Then I bought him this Diego play doh thing at Target. And he loves it!

Both boys took naps (YEA!!) then we made crayons. Braeden likes to break his crayons, so we peeled the paper off all the broken pieces and combined different colored pieces in muffin cups. When they came out of the oven we had reese's peanut butter cup shaped crayons. Here they are fresh from the oven...

I got the idea from Martha Stewart (of course!). Braeden liked doing it and loved the idea of crayon muffins. He thought that was really funny.

Then we went to Elon to go exploring while we waited for Mat to get back from Charlotte. We walked over to the lake and fed Gage's cheerios to the ducks. They're so used to people feeding them that they were completely without fear. They climbed out of the word and swarmed around us quacking for cheerios. I stood between the ducks and Gage and Braeden danced around us. I could tell he was a little worried about the ducks, but he was laughing too. We even picked out our favorite ducks.

Braeden had a long stick and pretended to fish. We walked around to the other side of the lake and met a man who was fishing for real. He showed us the little fish and one big fish he had caught then pointed to a huge turtle sunning himself on the bank of the lake. I couldn't believe how big he was!

We met up with Mat and went to Monterreys for dinner. We love Mexican!

On Sunday we went to Target and the grocery store. Mat washed both cars while the boys napped. Braeden and I made chex mix. And Gage pulled himself up to stand every chance he got. I was too busy worrying he would fall forward and bang his face to take any pictures. But he's getting so good at pulling up. And he's so happy to bang on whatever he used to pull up or just to even look around and admire his new view of life. And the Giants won.

Great weekend, right??!!

Art

2008-09-19T11:45:00.003-05:00

Braeden has been really into writing lately. He loves notebooks to write in (hint, hint to anyone who might be buying him presents). I gave him a notebook someone gave me that had a Monet print on the cover. I love Monet and my family knows it, so over the years I've been given some beautiful things with his works on them. Unfortunately I really have no use for a notebook. I do always need those long, skinny, magnetic pads you put on the fridge for your grocery list. I am not at all subtle, am I?!

Anyway, he uses the notebook to make the grocery list. Or to draw me a map, just like on Dora. Or to let me know I got on green that day. Or just to draw.

For the longest time all he really managed was scribbles or lines. Then we noticed he was able to draw these weird, misshapen ovals that he called circles. And now he's started to write a few numbers and letters. He LOVES the number 100. It's Blue's (from Blue's Clues) favorite number and he says it's his too. He likes me to count to 100 for him. I always count for him at night when we're snuggling in his bed but sometimes I'm just not in the mood. :)

Anyway, he can write 100. One day he wrote the letter z. He's written a 7. It's kind of hit-or-miss with him. But it's also something they work on at day care. Now that school is in session, his teacher, Mrs. Shirley, runs their room like a classroom. He's actually come home with homework twice!

I asked Mat to scan a couple of the things Braeden has done at school so I could post them on the blog. I am ALWAYS thinking about the blog and what to post. Now if only I could get the posts out of my head and onto the internet in a more timely way...

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Here they were told to circle the letters that appeared in their name. I love that Braeden knows uppercase and lowercase letters. We have his name on the wall in his bedroom, so he knows all those letters.

And this, this is a masterpiece! From scribbles and lines to people. And you can even tell they're people! He came home with a cow picture he'd drawn yesterday. I'll have to get Mat to scan that one too.

Amazing, right??

We have those magnet letters on the fridge and he loves to string a whole bunch together and ask me if it spells anything. xhdoawtoisenhgtoisngvoiehtoiea Nope. Sorry, honey. Try again.

I've also been trying to teach him to spell some easy words. I started with cat, but he had no interest in that at all. So then I moved on to mom. That one he got. Then mommy. And Bob. For Bob the Builder, of course! Maybe dad should be next.

Poor Mat. I taught Bray to spell Bob before I taught him dad. I'm feeling just a smidge guilty now.

Happy Birthday, P-Pa!!

2008-09-12T13:35:00.002-05:00

We didn't get to the store to buy a birthday card for P-Pa, and I felt really bad. What's a girl to do?? Get her three-year-old to sing happy birthday so she can film it and post it on her blog, obviously!

Happy birthday, dad!

Braeden's looking forward to going to the beach next month. But ever since he watched Finding Nemo, he's been worried about sharks. I've tried explaining that the sharks are out in the deep part of the ocean. I think it will make more sense when he's there and sees the waves. Hopefully this is the year I can get him to walk in the surf with me. I think he would have so much fun as the waves roll over his feet and he can feel the sand slide out from under him. I love it! And I want him to love it too!

MIA

2008-09-04T20:16:00.003-05:00

It's been a while. Even without Emily's not-so-subtle reminders to post, I knew it had been too long since an update. In our defense, we've been sick. Not Braeden. That is one healthy kid. He never seems to get sick. Knock wood. But the rest of us were sandbagged by a cold Gage brought home with him. For him, it's been mostly just runny noses, fussy attitudes, and wakeful nights. For me, it was a temperature, brutal sore throat, painful cough, and congestion. And poor Mat has almost no voice which is kind of a requirement for his job. Classes started Tuesday!

This was my first year having Labor Day off. What's great is that the day care is always closed and usually either Mat or I have to take the day off. So I was excited to have the day off. But then I was sick. So Braeden and I mostly spent the day cuddling under blankets on my bed watching cartoons and tennis. Not a bad way to spend the day but I would have rather gone for a picnic somewhere or baked something yummy.

In addition to being sick, I've been watching a lot of tennis. A LOT of tennis. I LOVE the US Open. It's my favorite of the slams. Roddick, one of my faves, has been playing amazing tennis. Until tonight. He's sucking wind against Djokovic which is pissing me off. Tonight's tough for me because I'm flipping back and forth between the Open and the Giants' season opener against the Redskins. That's going a whole lot better for my guys who are up 16-7 at the start of the fourth quarter. My dad called tonight and pointed out that the Giants were undefeated in Gage's lifetime. I like that. We think that maybe Gage is like the second coming for the Giants. That ought to get us seats at home games, or a luxury box. :)

Braeden and my parents had a great conversation tonight. He's never really understood that my parents can't see what he's showing to the phone or can't see him when he nods instead of answers a question out loud. But tonight Braeden was answering questions and telling them things. It was nice to watch. And nice for me not to have to do as much work helping to keep the conversation on track.

Mat took Braeden to Barber Dan this morning for a haircut. He was originally worried about taking both boys out Saturday morning since we were in the path for Hanna and they were projecting a lot of rain and wind. I have to work all day Saturday for an alumni board retreat. I'm not happy about it! But now the projections have Hanna hitting further east, so I guess that means no rain and some wind. I don't really pay attention, so I get all my updates from Mat or people at work. And it seems like no matter where I work (Cornell, Ithaca, Elon, or UNCG), people are crazy-stupid about weather. Maybe they all listen to the same crappy, alarmist, "the sky is falling" weatherman. Anyway, Mat took Braeden this morning and Barber Dan wasn't there so another guy cut Bray's hair. It's shorter than usual, but soooo cute. I'll have to take a picture.

Here are another video I just took off the camera. This is from November 2006 which means Braeden is almost two. We've put him to work waxing the car!

In case it's not obvious, I get ranty when I'm annoyed. And I'm incredibly annoyed at the crappy level of play Andy's giving us tonight. He lost the first two sets but might be starting to turn things around in the third which means for him to win, we're in for a long night! But at least I've updated one of the blogs. :)

Good times

2008-08-24T21:06:00.002-05:00

Oh my gosh. Braeden said the funniest thing today. He was getting ready to go upstairs for some books and his pillow so that he could have quiet time in our bedroom. He wanted one of us to go upstairs to help him carry his things downstairs. I reminded him he had done the exact same thing yesterday all by himself.

He turned to us and said, "I'm not very good at carrying things. I only have two hands after all."

Mat and I cracked up. It's hard to argue with that logic, so Mat went up with him to help with the carrying. :)

We had a great weekend! Mat went down to Charlotte on Saturday to go whitewater rafting with his brother. And I took the boys to Will's first birthday party. We had a great time! Braeden was a little shy around the other kids who were mostly Will's cousins. He has nine on Emily's side alone! I wish Molly could have been there. The two of them had such a great time playing at our house when we had my Elon friends over for a cookout a couple weekends ago. But the party was a ton of fun. Emily and KT have great friends and lots of them have kids, so the party was loud, fun, and relaxed all at the same time. You can see all the pictures on Emily's blog. She also made a sweet montage of photos from Will's first year. It's so hard to believe that an entire year has passed since Will's birth. I remember visiting them in the hospital and holding baby Will for the first time. He was so tiny. And now he's crawling, laughing, eating cake, standing up, and soon he'll be walking. I can't help but think about Gage turning one. It's all happening so fast!

After the party we went to EarthFare to buy more inserts for Gage's gDiapers and fenugreek for the nursing mom. I told Braeden we were buying vitamins which he took to mean vitamin water (or vitamin juice water as he calls it). So of course I had to buy a bottle of that too. Then as we were driving home, I saw it.

Our Dunkin Donuts is FINALLY open! I pointed it out to Braeden and he was so excited. We had to stop! I love that my kid loves Dunkin Donuts like I do!

Tonight we were going to go out to dinner. When I asked Braeden where he wanted to go, he picked the IHOP. I reminded him he'd just had pancakes for breakfast. So he explained that he wanted to go to IHOP because he wanted to see the hot air balloons again. Too sweet.

My mom sent us this set of great pictures of Braeden. He loves to look at himself and is so glad I put the frame on our entertainment center where he can touch the pictures whenever he wants.

I've uploaded a couple more old videos of Braeden to youtube, so expect to see a post in the next couple days with those. Otherwise Mat and I are excited to be able to send both boys off to day care tomorrow. (Well, I'm as excited as I can ever be about sending my kids away for the day.) Gage is finally healthy and Braeden never came down with so much as a sniffle.

Our Saturday

2008-08-17T08:56:00.002-05:00

We had such a great day!

While Gage was taking his morning nap, Braeden and I went to the grocery store. He was happy because I let him ride in the car cart, a treat normally reserved for trips with MeMa and P-Pa. Plus he got to eat a few pieces of cheese they put out to sample. And who doesn't love cheese??

After lunch and a short quiet time (on our bed again), we headed to Costco. Actually, Mat dropped Gage and me off at JoAnn's and he went on to Costco with Braeden. They did the shopping and ate the treats while I bought elastic and fabric to make more pairs of pants of Gage. It can get cold in the baby room at daycare and I wanted to make pants in a fabric I wouldn't mind sending to daycare. The pairs I make out of the cute fabrics I buy online seem too special to me for daycare.

We came back home so that I could nurse Gage and change his diaper, then we went to the ridiculously small and out-of-date outlet mall in town. Every year at the end of summer Mat buys a few pairs of nicer khakis to wear when he teaches. It's a ritual. Yesterday he found wrinkle-free, stain-resistant pants at the Van Heusen outlet for just $19. Mat's incredibly traditional when it comes to clothes, especially to the colors of pants and shirts he buys. I'm proud to say that his style has done a complete 180 since we first started dating. Over the years he's even gotten pretty good at picking out his own clothes, but he doesn't like to try new things. It took me a few years to get him to buy khakis instead of just jeans. It took me about five years to get him into his first pair of corduroys. It was a real struggle to get him to wear the salmon colored shirt I bought him. With the last suit he bought I was finally able to convince him (with the help of our very nice, very fashionable salesman) to buy a non-white dress shirt! Anyway, all of his khakis have been some shade of khaki...light tan, darker tan, or olive. This year was no exception. He was prepared to buy those three colors all over again until I suggested replacing the olive pants with navy. I think the main reason he agreed was that he finds it a struggle to find the right color shirt to wear with olive pants. I just find them drab! Even though I could tell he was VERY reluctant, he gave in to my better sense of style and bought the navy. When we got home we spent a few minutes in his closet while I picked out all the different shirts he could wear with his new pants (pale blues, lime green, maroon, the salmon shirt, white, etc.). It's going to be a really big deal the first time he wears them! I'll try to get a picture...if he cooperates, that is. :)

After our pants shopping, we went to the IHOP for dinner. Braeden's choice. He had pancakes and scrambled eggs; Gage had pancakes too. Mat had the popcorn shrimp. When I was a kid we would go to Kingston sometimes for dinner at IHOP. On Fridays they had all-you-can-eat popcorn shrimp. Dad and I loved to get that! Before I could tell Mat the story, he cut me off. Apparently I'd told him the story SEVERAL times!

When we walked out of the restaurant, Braeden and I saw a hot air balloon just taking off from a field across the street. We started to walk over to see it when I realized there were four more balloons still on the ground in the field. We jumped in the car, made an illegal left turn with tires squealing, and parked in the field to get a closer look. It was really amazing! The balloon guys were all from Raleigh and had heard the winds were good over here. They like to fly together, so they hopped in their vans with their balloon trailers and drove an hour to set up shop in the field next to the highway. Weird. A bunch of people had stopped to watch and some even paid to go along for the ride. The woman we spoke to said the winds are best the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. They carry 40 gallons of kerosene and use about half for an hour's ride. They can go anywhere from 3 miles to 18 or so during one hour depending on the winds. The people on the ground follow the ballooners in their vans and pick them up wherever they land. Seeing the balloons take off and watching them float quietly up and away was an amazing end to a really good day. Braeden LOVED seeing them, and I think he and Mat will end up taking a ride one day.

I took these two pictures with Mat's cell phone so the quality isn't that great. In this picture you can see the five balloons.

2008-08-17T08:55:00.002-05:00

Here's Mat and Braeden in front of one of the balloons getting ready to take off. You can bet if they do take a ride sometime I'll bring my camera and get some much better pictures of them and the balloon!

One cute kid

2008-08-10T20:16:00.003-05:00

I'm back to seriously considering combining the two boys' blogs into one...I almost always post on Gage's blog neglecting Braeden's blog entirely. It's really more of a mental hurdle than anything else at this point. I never want to do anything that will make Braeden feel he's been supplanted in our hearts. Combining the blogs is a small thing, something he would probably never even know about or see as a slight. That's why I say it's a mental hurdle for me. But since we do so much as a family and the boys get along so well together, it makes sense to make one blog out of two.

Until I decide one way or the other, here are a couple more videos I pulled off our camera today. I recorded these videos one afternoon in November 2006, right around Thanksgiving.

Today Braeden spent his quiet time in our bedroom. It was perfect! He brought a few books downstairs and then shut the door. I needed to change Gage's diaper so I quietly opened my bedroom door and found him asleep with his head on my pillow and the covers tucked up just under his chin. Adorable.

Too silly!

2008-07-13T23:11:00.005-05:00

Sometimes I can't help but kick myself...Bray says all kinds of adorable things, things I want to remember forever, but if I don't write them down immediately I forget. So, here's a list of silly things about Braeden--stuff he says, things he does, or just my own observations about him. I hope you enjoy these things as much as I do!

1. Braeden has understood for a while that letters make up words. But here's what he says, "Z starts with zipper. M starts with mommy." But my personal favorite is this one: "B starts with me." I LOVE that.

2. He's getting really good at taking care of Gage. Or, as he says, "dealing" with baby Gage. He brings Gage toys, talks to him, makes silly noises at him, gives him kisses and hugs, "pets" him, and tells me he thinks Gage wants to nurse. Gage watches Braeden when he's in the room, smiles when Braeden talks or does something silly, and seems very happy when Braeden pays attention to him. It's so sweet, somewhat unexpected, and such a help to me.

3. He hears us use adult phrases and then incorporates them into his day-to-day speech. Like what, you ask? Well...a couple he picked up from MeMa are "Holy Cow" and "Let's go outside and enjoy a beautiful day." Another funny one he says a lot is: "Well, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me." He says that one in response to lots of things like going out to eat, reading books, just about anything.

Here's another one, one that makes me very aware of the things I say around Braeden...when we went to see my parents last month and we were almost there I got stuck behind some cars going much too slowly. I was impatient and tired, so I was muttering and complaining about the drivers in front of me saying things like "C'mon...why are you driving so slowly?" Well, the other day Braeden and I were in the car and he started saying some of those same things. It cracked me up! I was glad I had enough sense to complain in a G-rated fashion instead of using the bad words that come so easily to me. :)

4. His pronunciations of certain words just kill me! One of my favorites is the way he says girl. I'll have to get him on video doing it because my writing out his pronunciation isn't going to do it justice.

Me: girl
Braeden: gorl

Another good one is oatmeal. He actually sounds Canadian when he pronounces the word. He does watch the Berenstein Bears every morning, and that show is voiced entirely by Canadian actors...maybe that's where it comes from!

Me: oatmeal
Braeden: otmeal

I'm sure I'll think of more silly things to post but I'm tired of seeing this unfinished post every time I log in to blogger. :)

Happy (half) birthday, Braeden Rhys!

2008-07-06T08:44:00.005-05:00

Around the time I was 13 (in middle school, anyway) my friends and I used to celebrate our half-birthdays. It was nothing elaborate, more that we recognized the day. When we had Braeden so close to Christmas, I felt like he was getting the short end of the stick in the celebration department. To compensate, Mat and I promised we would always make a big deal out of his birthday instead of making him feel like it was lumped in with Christmas. And we also agreed to celebrate his half-birthday. And what fun that that day falls on July 4! Who wouldn't want fireworks on their special day?? Not that we've taken Braeden to see fireworks yet...if only they happened during the day and not after his bed time!

We kept it simple, but it was still fun. Bray's new teacher (Mrs. Shirley) has been working with the kids to learn their birthdays. Braeden now knows he was born on January 4. And what's fun for me is that he'll turn four on January 4! My mom will understand that...she was delighted to be exactly double my age one year and double my sister's age another. :)

Mat took Braeden to the pool Friday afternoon and while Gage napped, I wrapped the presents: a Melissa & Doug wood puzzle (except ours has a fire truck, a yacht, an airplane, and a motorcycle), a Berenstein Bears book he wanted, and a couple new caterpillar construction toys. Braeden already had the dump truck and a backhoe; now he has a skid steer and a front-end loader. He loves them--they make construction noises and light up. They are sooo loud, especially when he brings one in the car!

I made cupcakes, then when Braeden got back from the pool we made frosting together. Braeden loves to help and I've been getting better about letting him. He wanted blue frosting, so that's what he got. :)

We grilled hot dogs and ate them with french fries. After dinner, Braeden had a cupcake with three candles (because he's three!).

Getting ready to blow out the candles...

I think he got tired of me taking so many pictures of him, but I have a 1 GB memory card for my camera now. I can take a hundred pictures just to get one good one and not have to worry about running out of room!

After his birthday cupcake, we went into the living room to open presents. After he got back from the pool, Braeden didn't want to get dressed again so he's just wearing his underwear. When he was a baby, he screamed during diaper changes and baths because he HATED being naked. Or maybe he hated being cold. But now it can be a real battle to get him dressed. He loves running around the house with no clothes on. He routinely tells me he'll put his shirt back on but not his shorts (or vice versa).

See how excited he is to open his new skid steer? In this picture you can see his poor, beat-up face. He took a header down our neighbor's driveway scraping up his face, a couple fingers, and his knee and shin. Poor baby.

It was a great day, a lot of fun. And now we're looking forward to tomorrow when MeMa and P-Pa arrive for a visit!

Memories

2008-06-22T22:36:00.004-05:00

You guys know Braeden loves looking at photos of himself on my computer. When I'm using my computer, he'll run over and say, "I want to see pictures of Braeden." I love showing him the pictures because I want him to remember the moments captured in those pictures. Like our trip to Charleston. Or our most recent vacation in Virginia Beach with MeMa and P-Pa.

Those are memories I try to keep alive for him. But sometimes he surprises me with what he remembers on his own. I showed him pictures Mat took when we were in the hospital after I had Gage. I reminded him how MeMa and P-Pa brought him to the hospital to see us and how he peeked into the room then ran to me where I was sitting in the chair holding the baby. He climbed up into my lap and looked at Gage. It's a moment I'll never forget.

Anyway. While we were looking at the pictures and talking about that day, Braeden told me how he and I sat on my bed together. And that he pressed the button to make the bed go up and down. I hadn't thought about that until he said it, but he's right. He climbed up into the bed with me, and I thought he would like that the head and foot of my bed went up and down. And he did love playing with the buttons and feeling the bed move under him.

I'm constantly amazed by the way this kid's mind works...the things he says, the connections he makes between things and situations. I'm going to post more of his memories and the crazy things he says because they're things I want to remember. One of Mat's former students (and someone who has babysat for Braeden!) e-mailed me today and said that when Braeden and Gage are older, they'll be so glad I blogged about them. She said she cherishes the baby book her mom kept for her. I think she's right. Braeden will love reading these silly stories one day!

And we're off!

2008-06-11T20:13:00.004-05:00

We're headed to MeMa and P-Pa's house tomorrow for a visit. I may be crazy, but I'm driving the 700 miles up and back. By myself. With just a three-year-old and a five-month-old for company.

My parents had wanted to come down for a visit but my dad couldn't get away from work. They won't be able to come down until later in August. I've got time, so why not drive up there? Mat has to work, so it's just me and my boys. For 11 hours in the car.

Wish me luck. :)

I had to include one picture...here's Braeden at the science center. We stumbled upon their special kids area, and it was tough to get Braeden to leave. We wanted him to go see the animals, but all he wanted to do was keep playing house. He loves playing at grocery shopping. It's one of his must-do activities at the children's museum, so he was thrilled to see this little basket and play food at the science center too.

I love this face!

Our Saturday

2008-06-07T22:18:00.003-05:00

Today was a LONG day for us. I didn't think we tried to do too much, but it seemed like it was too much for both boys.

The children's museum had a special program today on fire safety. They had a truck outside and a funny little train that ran around the parking lot. Braeden was excited to see the firetruck but didn't want to play in it. It was probably the firefighter that freaked him out. He did ride around the parking lot in the train with Mat once but then he wanted to go right inside to play.

We got him an ID card complete with his fingerprints. I tried to keep the whole experience kind of light but at the end the woman pointed out that there were instructions inside the packet on collecting a DNA sample. I just broke down. I can't even write about it now, so I'll just move on and say that Braeden was very happy to drive the firetruck that's inside the museum. He even brought his fire hat. (The local fire department was at our Lowe's one day and they gave him the hat.) Of course, he wears the hat backwards so it looks more like a plastic baseball cap!

He never likes to leave the museum but we bribed him with lunch out. He ate his entire lunch (pancakes!) but was a little naughty. Gage was awake and fussing because he really hadn't napped at all during the morning. Braeden fell asleep in the car on the way home but Gage was awake and talking the whole way! Poor kids were really hot and sweaty, though. When we got in the car after the museum, the car's thermometer read 110 degrees!!!

When we got back home after lunch, Bray went upstairs for quiet time. Even though he had napped in the car and was obviously very tired, he didn't sleep during quiet time. Then we were off to Lowe's for our grocery shopping. And when we got home from that, I shot a couple little videos of Braeden and Gage.

Braeden didn't like that Mat put away the teddy bear he had taken with him to the museum this morning (the bear stayed in the car while we went in to play, but Bray really likes taking him in the car and I love seeing him snuggling with the bear while we're driving!).

I'm not sure how clear Braeden's words are, so here's a little transcript. First Braeden tells me Gage's hands are juicy. :) Then he goes through a list of things he's going to teach Gage when he grows up...how to grab the bear, to climb up on the white kitchen stool, to turn on the TV, and to push buttons on the camera. What a good big brother he is!

When we were getting ready to leave for the museum this morning we could hear a car alarm going off. It was close but muffled, so we figured the car was in a garage probably at the end of our street (but not in our cul-de-sac). Well, the damn thing is still going off! I guess the owners went on vacation and something set their alarm off. Sitting in my living room, I can hear it pretty clearly. This person's neighbors must want to kill someone! I would probably end up calling the police. Or breaking into the house to shut off the alarm.

I'm off to bed...hopefully I won't be able to hear that damn alarm in the bedroom!

Bed time means go to sleep

2008-06-04T20:54:00.002-05:00

When I was a kid, I used to slip out of bed after my parents tucked me in so that I could read my Golden Books. Sometimes I would creep all the way out to the top of our stairs to read by the light from downstairs. And sometimes, if I was feeling less brave, I would sit by my door and read. More than once my parents found me asleep behind the door.

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because we're having some issues with Braeden accepting that lights out means bed time. He seems to think it means get out of bed and look out the window. And get out of bed to turn on the light and read books. And get out of bed to ask for a drink of water. And get out of bed to announce to us he needs to go to the bathroom. And get out of bed to...Well, you get the point.

Braeden is in bed with the lights off by 8:00. Tonight the bed time games went on until 8:45 when it finally grew quiet upstairs. Right after Mat came downstairs, we could hear Braeden calling for him. Daddy. Come. Up. Here. Now. He said it over and over, growing more insistent each time he said it. He wanted Mat to say goodnight to his Curious George. (Braeden sleeps with six or seven stuffed animals!) Once Mat came down, things were quiet for a while. By quiet, I mean he was in his room talking and singing to himself. I was sitting down on the couch when I got that weird feeling. That feeling someone was watching me. I turned around to find Braeden standing at the gate looking down at me. He wanted me to come upstairs and cover him up. Then a few minutes later he came out to say he heard a noise. After that he needed to go to the bathroom. And the last time he came out, he told me he had seen a red bird meaning he had been out of bed looking out his window.

I know some of this is happening because it stays lighter later. It throws me off too. By the time it's really dark, it's after 9:00 but in my head it's only 7:30.

But I also think he's afraid to miss something. He's particularly interested in keeping tabs on our neighborhood, especially our two neighbors with LOUD cars. He's always been like this. He was the same way while we were trying to potty train him, afraid to stop playing to go to the bathroom. It was just too easy to pee in his diaper.

Part of me thinks his aversion to bed time is cute. But I can't let him see that. Mat's very serious about bed time. He gets really pissed at Braeden's antics. And I know we need to stay together on this one so that Braeden gets the message. So I do my best to keep the smile off my face and be firm with Braeden. But sometimes I just want to laugh. And scoop Braeden up in my arms. And cover him with kisses.

My helper

2008-05-27T20:56:00.004-05:00

Every time I've sewn something, Braeden has asked me if it was for him. He looked at the itty-bitty white shirt I appliqued and asked if it was for him. Friday when he came home from school, he peered down at the small pair of pants I had just finished and asked if they for him. And each time he's asked me, I've had to say no. And I kept telling him that I would make something for him very soon.

It's not like I hadn't been thinking about what to make for him. And it's not as if I didn't have about 10 ideas competing for space in the tiny part of my brain devoted to crafty projects. It was just easier to make bibs, burp cloths, and tiny pants. But today was Braeden's day!

After lunch with Mat Thursday, Gage and I went to Target looking for something. Instead of a canister for flour, I walked out of there with two clearance items--a blue dish towel with a dump truck and the words "Lil Helper" on it and a large blue outdoor tablecloth with cars and trucks on it. I knew right away that the towel would become an apron for Braeden to wear when he cooks with me. The tablecloth might become a picnic blanket or maybe some big pillows for outside seating. I haven't decided yet.

Saturday Mat had to be on campus for Commencement, so in the morning Braeden and I made cupcakes (using a red velvet cake mix!) while Gage napped.

After Braeden's quiet time, I brought the towel upstairs and we got to work. He didn't like modeling the towel but he definitely wanted to help me sew. I let him help me cut the towel and he operated the foot pedal to wind the bobbin. He always wants to push the pedal. He's actually stepped on my foot while I'm sewing and sent the needle flying at a breakneck pace! And he's gotten into trouble for it, too! So he loved winding the bobbin.

The whole thing only took about 20 minutes (not counting the times I was interrupted by Braeden, Gage, or Mat coming home). It's not the best job in the world, but it's cute. And it's big enough that Bray will be able to wear for a couple years, at least.

Into the pool

2008-05-26T19:52:00.005-05:00

We took the boys to the pool at our development today for the first time this season. It was a beautiful day, in the low 80s and sunny with a light breeze. The kiddie pool is closed for some reason, so we had been preparing Braeden that he would have to go in the big pool. We also had him try on his ski vest a few times so he would be used to wearing it. Mat got it for him last year at Costco in preparation for the day he would graduate to the big pool.

Here he is in new swim trunks and NO swim diaper! He looks sullen but he was really just being silly and posing for me. He even wore his reef flip-flops for the first time today. He picked them out; I didn't have to twist him arm or force him into them. They're so cute because they're the same pattern as Mat's. :)

We weren't sure how it would go when we got there since Braeden often seems really excited to try something new but then his excitement fizzles when it actually comes time to do it. But not today. Today he was thrilled to be at the pool. He balked briefly when we tried to put the vest on him, but he came around pretty quickly.

Mat wanted him to jump into the pool right away, but Braeden preferred to get his feet wet slowly on the stairs.

But after a couple minutes of this, he asked Mat to pick him up and take him into the water. They walked around a bit and came over to where I was sitting on the edge with Gage. Braeden sat next to us for a few minutes, but we convinced him to get back in so he wouldn't get too cold. And then we convinced him it would be fun to jump in. I think he was worried his head would go below the water. We explained that the vest would keep him above water and Mat promised he would catch him when he jumped. And after a couple minutes, Braeden took the plunge. Over and over and over again.

He's very excited to go back next weekend! I'm already thinking about teaching him to swim...buying him a kickboard to learn to kick, teaching him to put his face in the water to blow bubbles...so much fun. But for now, Braeden wants some kind of inflatable raft or tube, so I'll be making a trip to Target this week in search of something cute.

Wildlife

2008-05-21T20:12:00.001-05:00

"Mommy, there's an alligator in the garage!"

Yup. That's what I heard Braeden say as I was putting Gage in the car Saturday morning. We were headed out to run errands while Mat was on campus giving a final. I came around the car and saw Braeden crouched over our lizard.

Isn't he cute? The lizard, I mean. Braeden, too, of course.

Yum...Coffee!

2008-05-16T21:51:00.004-05:00

This is too sweet not to post.

It's not much of a surprise to say that I LOVE coffee. Growing up in NY means that, at heart, I am a Dunkin' Donuts girl. I was spoiled in college because there was a DD just down the street from campus. I went often, many days more than once, for a medium hazelnut with cream and sugar or (in the summers) an iced coffee. When we moved to Ithaca I learned that the DD had gone out of business the previous year. I was crushed!

But then I found this wonderful cafe just across the street from our apartment complex. Hope's Way catered a lot of events I did at Cornell. They catered our wedding, too! And I went there every morning before work for coffee and a muffin or scone. Then something dangerous happened. I had my first vanilla latte. And suddenly I was one of those people spending upwards of $3 for a cup of coffee. Ithaca Bakery made the best nonfat vanilla lattes but Buzz Coffee was a little bit cheaper AND had a drive-through, so it was a toss-up as to which cup I'd be sporting that day.

Moving to NC, I wasn't sure what I would find. No DDs in our part of the state, that's for sure. Apparently they're coming to Greensboro, though. Can't wait. Down here there's a Starbucks on practically every corner. Since I don't like their regular coffee, I try to limit my visits to once or twice a week. Shelling out $3.63 for coffee grates on me, but I love it. It's my treat to me.

By now you're wondering where the hell I'm going with this...Occasionally when Mat and I both worked at Elon and we would drive together to work, I would insist on stopping at Starbucks for coffee. And sometimes I would decide to make my coffee run before we dropped Braeden off at school. He thought going to Starbucks was a treat, too, and I thought that was just wonderful. I love sharing things with my boy. He knows a lot of stores by their logos, and Starbucks is no exception. When I would take him inside with me, he would tell the barista I wanted a mocha. And they always thought it was so cute that this two-year-old was ordering mochas for his mommy. And at home he would bring me pretend-mochas all the time. If he got on his buck to run errands, his errands always included a trip to Starbucks for me. Such a good boy to want to go get coffee for his mommy.

About a month ago he got a lot more sophisticated in his pretending. He's now got my Starbucks order down pat. Well, almost.

He runs around telling anyone who will listen that I want a "defat grande nonfat no whip mocha" which is exactly right except it's decaf not defat! Today he was making coffee for his teachers and friends at school and telling them that I go to Starbucks every day (in my dreams, maybe). He was also serving penguin cappucino...he has this little penguin that came with a Diego toy set my parents gave him last year at Virginia Beach. He puts the penguin in a cup and pretends to make cappucino out of it. Slightly disturbing if you give it too much thought. But on the whole, totally cute.

And thoroughly sweet that my little boy takes such good care of me!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-12T20:23:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a happy mother's day! We did.

My mother's day actually started Friday when Braeden came home from school with my present. Each year the teachers help the kids make something for the moms. This year he brought me home a plastic bowl with potpourri in it. On the outside of the bowl is a little poem and Braeden's handprints. It's very sweet. And very smelly. :)

Mat and Braeden had also stopped off at our Lowe's (the grocery store) to buy me flowers. Mat let Braeden pick something out, and they came home with a beautiful hydrangea. It's funny because my boys gave me a hydrangea last year for mother's day too. I love hydrangeas! I'm looking for a place to plant it in our yard, something I didn't do with last year's plant.

Those were my surprise mother's day gifts. Mat and I had talked about gifts, and I asked him for a tree. We've been talking about planting trees for each of the boys since before I was even pregnant with Braeden. It will be nice for them to grow up helping to take care of this tree. I hope that they'll want to plant dogwoods in their own yards someday. When we finally got around to planting trees, I didn't think our yard was big enough to add two more, so one will have to do. I always knew I wanted a dogwood. Dogwoods are a Potter thing. We had one in our yard at the house I grew up in. When my parents moved to their new house, I bought them one as a housewarming gift so they would have one in their new yard.

So, Sunday morning during a break in the rain, we all went to Lowe's (not the grocery store, this time!). I wore Gage in the Moby facing front again, and he had a great time looking at everything and cooing. And drooling. Braeden was very good while we were there. Mat and I split up so he could buy stones to make a ring around the tree and to edge our front bed. Braeden and I went to look at trees. Even though I was planning to buy a dogwood, I almost got seduced by these beautiful Japanese maples. Their leaves are so delicate and the red color is just amazing. I also looked at a crabapple tree...I knew Braeden would love picking the fruit. But ultimately, we bought a white dogwood. It's very sweet. And little. Not much to look at now, but I know it will grow into something beautiful in a couple years. If we can keep it alive!

And here's a picture of the front yard now that Mat edged around the flower bed. Last fall he built a little wall around the oak tree in our front yard. The soil was eroding in front of the tree since our yard slopes down to the street. Once he built the wall, the two daylilies I planted in front of the tree just exploded. I guess they weren't getting enough water before. Before the wall, only one of the plants bloomed. And now both lilies are lush and both have buds. I'm thrilled! And I'm hopeful that doing the edging around the front bed will help the plants up there as well. My daffodils were duds this spring. I was so disappointed. The lilies up there are coming in nicely. And there's one tiny hosta coming up that survived the great hosta massacre of '07.

One last cute picture...here's Braeden in his faux crocs. You may have noticed he has band aids on his knees in the first picture. He was running up and down the driveway when we got home from Lowe's and slipped on one of his trips down. He skinned both knees, just a little bit, and insisted on two band aids. Spongebob band aids. :)

Putting out fires

2008-05-05T15:40:00.004-05:00

Mat had to work all day Saturday so that left just me and the boys to hold down the fort. We made chocolate chip cookies in the morning...Braeden is turning into a great helper in the kitchen. He loves anything that requires using the stand mixer or the food processor. Come to think of it, he likes the blender too. I guess anything with a button, anything that makes a bunch of noise, or anything that you can see at work (like watching bread turn into breadcrumbs in the food processor).

I didn't take any pictures from this Saturday, but here's one from a week or so ago when Braeden and I made cupcakes. I ALWAYS got to lick the beaters when I was a kid. And it's still one of my favorite parts of baking, so I'm so happy to share that with Braeden.

While the cookies were in the oven, Braeden figured it was time to do some serious work. He put on his fire chief hat, got our step stool/firetruck out of the closet, and set to work putting out fires.

I asked Braeden if Gage could try on his hat...being the good brother he is, Braeden said yes. Please excuse these next two pictures. I'm sitting on the kitchen floor with Gage on my lap trying to take the picture without actually being able to see the screen, just holding the camera at the angle I think I need to in order to get a shot of Gage's face. As you can see, I did only okay at this. I love this picture because I love baby toes!

His face is a little fuzzy in this second picture and the bright sun completely washed out our morning room, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

Oh, happy day!

2008-04-30T21:06:00.000-05:00

July 25 will mark my third anniversary of blogging. I've never recognized a blogiversary before but as I was putting together my list of 32 things I realized just how long I had been at this. Like I said then, I've never been a good diarist or journalizer. (I knew diarist was a word but had to use dictionary.com to find a word for 'person who keeps a journal'.) Writing about myself is pretty boring. And writing about myself in a small book that noone but me will ever read is even more boring. Blogging is way more fun. Is there a third blog in my future? I could call it "The MellyP". Actually, that sounds like the perfect name for a sailboat. But seriously, before anyone (Emily) stresses about having to check a THIRD blog, I would never do it. Two is enough. Besides, I've been doing better about finding ways to incorporate more of me into the boys' blogs.

Anyway, back to our upcoming blogiversary...the traditional gift for a third wedding anniversary is leather goods, while the modern equivalent is apparently crystal or glass. What, I wonder, is the blogosphere equivalent? Should I do something special to mark our third blogiversary? Or should I just let it slip silently by as I did with the first and second? I need opinions, people!

Let me hear it...how should I mark this special occasion? Is it even special enough to mark? Leave me a comment and let me know.

By the by, the comment-leaving has left a little something to be desired lately. I can always count on my mom, but otherwise, they've been few and far between. Makes me wonder, do I have any readers out there at all?

:(

Oh, and this is too funny not to post. A couple months ago I finally told Braeden about his blog. I wasn't sure if he'd get it, but he always wants to look at photos (of him) so one day I showed him the photos on here. And a new obsession was born. He asks me all the time if he can watch the video of him singing the Wee Why Rocky Rump song.

On the day my dad left and I came upstairs after Braeden's quiet time, I made Gage's bitty blanket. Braeden went in Gage's room and dug out the Elmo phone. We bought that silly phone for Braeden at a yard sale one of our neighbors had back when Bray was just a little older than Gage. So, I'm sewing and Braeden is sitting on the futon talking to Elmo. I'm only half-listening until I hear him say 'blog' and then I perked right up! Here's what he had to say...

"Well, you'll just have to look on the blog, Elmo."

Couldn't you just die? He's probably heard me say that about a hundred times to my mom. But I'm always surprised when he repeats something as grown-up as that.

Trip to the dentist

2008-04-25T20:32:00.003-05:00

Tuesday morning Mat took Braeden to the dentist. He's been twice before (you can reread those stories here and here). Our first two trips didn't exactly go swimmingly. But this one, this one was perfect. And wouldn't you know it...I wasn't there. I'm sure it wasn't me. No, it must be that Bray's older now, more mature. Right?

Mat called me as they were leaving the office to give me the update. I was so happy to hear they had done well. And the other night I asked Mat to write up the story of Braeden's dental appointment to post on his blog.

In Mat's words...

So, this past Tuesday was Bray’s dentist appointment, and I must say that I was a little worried. His past experiences with the dentist have not been good ones, and I was taking him by myself to see Dr. Rafael that morning. When we got up, I mentioned to him that he was going to the dentist before school, and he seemed pretty cool with it. He kept talking about getting up in the chair and getting a treat at the end (they have a bin of crappy little toys and things for the kids to take on the way out).

When it was time to go, he announced to (a sleeping) Melly and Gage that he was going to the dentist, and we were off. When we got to the office, he seemed to remember being there before, and much to my surprise, he ran right in to the waiting room. We signed in, and he looked at a car magazine and pointed out the different cars to me. Soon, a hygienist came out and called Bray’s name, and he ran into the examination area and hopped right up into the chair. This surprised both the hygienist and me, and she commented on how eager he seemed to be.

Spongebob (and then later, Dora) was on the TV in the exam room, so Bray was immediately engrossed in his favorite TV shows, and let the dentist and hygienist do their work without a single complaint. Well, OK, there was one complaint. Apparently, he remembered wearing sunglasses there, because he wouldn’t let them work in his mouth until they found a pair of sunglasses for him to wear. But once that was done, he was perfect. All 20 teeth were poked, scraped of plaque, cleaned, and flossed without difficulty. The hygienist tried to take X-rays, but the bulky film turned out to be too much for Bray to handle, he kept choking on it and spitting it out, so she eventually gave up. At the end of the visit, Bray got a new Dora toothbrush, floss, a sticker, and a Darth Vader pencil, so he was a very happy boy.

Me again...I can't believe he remembered the sunglasses. Last fall when I took him they gave him a little pair of sunglasses because that big light they use was so bright. It was shining right in his eyes and he was really uncomfortable. I had forgotten all about it until I read Mat's account.

Speaking of Spongebob...A while back I bought Braeden a new hooded towel. Here's a cute picture of him wearing the towel after his bath.

Just like P-Pa

2008-04-22T22:36:00.003-05:00

After my dad's visit we noticed Braeden had picked up a new habit. I guess you could call it a habit. Mat was the first to notice. And once he pointed it out to me, I can't help but notice each time he does it.

When Braeden would ask my dad a question (usually one beginning with every parent's least favorite word, why) or suggest some new activity, dad would say, "Well..."

And now, Braeden says it too! It's not just that he says the word, though. Braeden also draws it out the way my dad does. So it sounds kind of like, "Weelllll". Maybe I can capture it on video for you.

But in the meantime, here's a typical conversation:

Mat: Bray, it's time to pick up your cars so we can go outside.
Braeden: Well, first I need to jump off the couch one more time.

M: No, Braeden. Pick up the cars. It's time to go outside.
B: Well, I have to give Gage a kiss.

M: Braeden. Pick up your cars. We're not going outside until you pick up the cars.
B: Well, I want to go outside.

M: Then pick up your cars. Now.
B: Well, you have to help me.

OK. I think you get the idea. And please don't think I exaggerated that conversation. You can hear that exact scene play out in our house a hundred times each week! Just substitute Target, dinner, or bed for outside and cooking stuff, (play) food, or books for cars. We love that Braeden has gotten better at reasoning, rationalizing, and remembering (the three R's!), but it's also made every conversation, every request, every everything a lot more work and so much more time-consuming.

Mommy, I want to stay home with you today.

2008-04-19T14:48:00.002-05:00

Nine words that will make a mommy's heart melt every time. :)

Braeden said those words to me Thursday morning. He came in to my bedroom where Gage and I were nursing/sleeping and asked to stay with us instead of going to school. How could I say no? Mat was worried it would start some kind of precedent, but I don't care about that. All I care about is that my baby wanted to stay home with me instead of going to school to play with his friends.

So, Mat went off to work and Braeden snuggled under the covers with me while I finished nursing Gage. Then I turned on the TV in our bedroom so he could watch Curious George and Clifford while I showered and dried my hair. Gage came in with me; he sits in his carseat while I shower and do my hair. It's part of our routine. And I really think he likes it. He's never fussed while I'm in the shower. If he starts up, I just talk to him. But I think he likes the sound of the fan and the water. Plus it's warm and steamy in the bathroom which probably feels nice.

When I was finished, Braeden helped me eat my breakfast. That kid may look small, but he can sure put it away! I decided we should make granola. It's a good project for us, one we've done together before. Braeden likes being my helper. He tells me so on a pretty regular basis. We each made a little mess, but I cleaned them up pretty well.

After the granola had come out of the oven, we heard some commotion outside. I sent Braeden to look and he announced that there was a truck at our neighbor Bill's house. I assumed it was a FedEx truck, but when I looked I saw it was a dump truck delivering mulch. Since it was so sunny and warm out, we headed outside to watch the action. Bill and his girlfriend Megan want to be project people but they have very little follow-through. :) A year ago they drew outlines in their backyard for two large flower beds but never went any further than that. But now they're moving forward, so the dump truck was there to deliver mulch for their front beds and was going to make a second trip with topsoil for the new beds in the back. Braeden was THRILLED! We sat in the driveway and watched Bill work.

I think I've said this before, but we have terrific neighbors! They are all so sweet and patient with Braeden. We really lucked out.

After lunch, Braeden had quiet time upstairs and then we went to the park. He played in the sandbox for a long time. I don't mind him playing in the sand but I wished he had been the only kid in the box. One of the toughest parts of being a parent is watching your kid interact with someone else's kid. It's bad enough worrying your kid will be a bully or do something naughty. But what happens when the other kid is a brat?

On Thursday, Braeden behaved perfectly in the sandbox. Sitting on the edge of the sandbox with a bucket and shovel, he filled the bucket and told me it was cake. Cake for me. The other kids were flinging sand around, jumping into the sand from the edge, trying to knock each other down, and then trying to bury one of the bigger boys in the sand. Where were their parents? Well, there was a group of moms sitting under the shelter about 15-20 feet away. They had brought their own lounge chairs. They had coolers, magazines, and a radio. And they didn't seem at all interested in what their kids were doing in the sandbox leaving me as the only authority figure. And I'm wearing Gage in the Moby so I'm trying to stand back so he doesn't ingest sand or get it in his eyes. When their behavior got particularly bad or dangerous I had to step in and say something. And finally I told Braeden I thought he needed to play with something else until the bigger kids left the sandbox.

We moved on and Braeden climbed the rock wall, slid down the slides, and drove the ambulance. Plus he was in the shade more, so I felt much better! Still annoyed at the way those other moms and their kids behaved, but calmer because my kid wasn't at their mercy any longer.

This morning we took Braeden to the children's museum because there was a special Hot Wheels thing happening. Some people came in and set up a racetrack. The track looked like a ski jump...the kids climbed up three steps and placed their cars at the top. A man lifted a plexiglass panel and the cars rolled down the track towards the finish line. There was a digital thing set up to note which car came in first, second, third, or fourth place and a woman at the end who picked up the cars for the kids. And the best part? You could bring your own cars to race (which we did) but there was also a man who had a bunch of cars in boxes that the kids could pick from.

Braeden wasn't sure he wanted to play at first. He was hell-bent on playing with his usual stuff (the firetruck!) that he pitched a little fit. But on this occasion, I was more determined than he was. He perked up a little when he realized he could get a new car out of the deal. He picked out some kind of old Chevy station wagon which turned out to be a really, REALLY slow car. Not that Braeden cared! We did the first race together, but after that, Braeden was hooked. He would place his new car and one from home in the tracks and watch them start off. Then he would run down to the finish line dodging parents and other kids to get his cars again, then run back to the stairs to start over again. We had to make sure he took his turn nicely and didn't run into anyone, but he was very good.

I think he did 10 or 12 runs before he got bored and wanted to ride the firetruck. All in all, we were at the museum for a little more than an hour before making a quick (to me) trip to JoAnn's. They had patterns on sale for $.99! For less than a buck, I bought a pattern that regularly sells for $15.95! I saved almost $15! My fabric was on sale as was the batting, so all told, I spent just shy of $10. I'm going to tell you what I'm making, but I hope to be done soon and will post all the gory details on Gage's blog. While this isn't my first time using a store-bought pattern, it is the first time I've carefully read the entire set of instructions before beginning. It's also the first time I really understand the steps and the instructions. I feel pretty confident about this.

Famous last words!

A visit from P-Pa

2008-04-11T21:33:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago my dad called to ask if he could fly down on Skybus for a visit. My mom had been down on Skybus at the end of February. It was an easy and quick flight and so easy for us to pick her up at the airport. Plus, Skybus was so cheap! Well, apparently it was too good to last. Skybus shut their doors last Friday, so dad had to rearrange his plans. Instead of flying, he drove down and arrived Tuesday morning around 9:30.

Braeden was so excited to see him! He brought presents and MeMa cookies for everyone. We just hung out at home Tuesday, but we did go to dinner at the Olive Garden that night. P-Pa LOVES the Olive Garden. Braeden likes their macaroni and cheese, and he was so excited to take P-Pa there.

Wednesday we all went to the Schmidt Park. Braeden loves the park. I've got some pictures from a trip Braeden took to the park with MeMa and P-Pa about a year and a half ago. In those pictures Braeden is climbing the climbing wall and so is P-Pa. Bray loves to look at those pictures, so I made sure the two of them climbed the wall again!

Braeden was obsessed with the sandbox, so much so that it was hard to get him out of it to play in other parts of the park. He built sandcastles, dug holes with a shovel, and "painted" the sandbox.

B and P-Pa also played on the swings. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more...what do you think?

P-Pa made us a special birthday dinner (I love how when my birthday stretches on and on)--meatloaf, baked potatoes, and summer squash. We bought a cake at Lowe's but had been looking for an ice cream cake which they didn't sell. So dad said he was going out for coffee but he really went up to the Food Lion to buy me an ice cream cake. Too sweet. So after dinner Braeden stuck candles in the cake, I lit them, and then P-Pa and B sang happy birthday to me. And then we got to eat the cake!

Thursday morning I dragged them to Michael's in search of iron-on letters for Gage's blanket. I couldn't find any I liked there, so I bought a fabric marker and might try to write his name on the blanket. The jury's still out on that one! I did find some great letters online. They're a buck a letter, not bad, but the shipping would have been 6 bucks! I hate paying shipping anyway, but I'm certainly not going to pay more for shipping than I'm paying for the product! And definitely not when the letters probably weigh 2 ounces!

After Michael's we ran over to Target to buy Braeden a new pair of sandals. Braeden being Braeden we bought the same pair he had last summer just in a larger size. And now that we have them home, he's refused to wear them both times I've suggested it. This kid HATES change!

When we finished up there, we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch. P-Pa's choice! He loves their chicken sandwiches and vanilla milkshakes. I've never been to a fast food place like Chick-fil-A. They have staff who come around and ask if you want a drink refill or if they can clear your trash. When we were there, someone was walking around with samples of their new coffee caramel milkshake. Sooo good. While we were eating, a guy came out in the giant cow costume. Fortunately he went right outside to stand by the street and wave to possible customers. Braeden is terrified (I don't think that's too strong a word to use here) of those guys in suits...the bird at Red Robin, the Easter Bunny at the egg hunts, and I'm sure he would have hated the cow if it had gotten close to him. But he loved watching the cow from the safety of the inside dining room when the cow was out by the street!

Then, unfortunately, it was time for P-Pa to leave. But it was a great visit. Really great.

Belties!

2008-04-05T20:31:00.004-05:00

Last week Mat was on spring break so we decided to go somewhere for the day. We always felt like we couldn't go too far from home for too long because we were still working on potty training Braeden. But now that he can go to the bathroom wherever we are, it was time to get out of town!

We decided to go to Fearrington Village because I wanted Braeden to see the belted cows and goats. It's about 45 minutes from our house, an easy drive on the highway. I forgot the camera and didn't even think to snap any pics with my camera phone. Braeden loved looking at the cows and goats. There was even a young donkey chasing the baby cows around the pen. Too funny.

The Village is beautiful. Brick paths lined with flowers wind lazily around the shops that sell jewelry, knick-knacks, and books. In a nod to Elon, there were a ton of people weeding and watering the flowerbeds. We went in every shop (much to Mat's complete horror) and even bought a few things (even more upsetting to Mat). The greatest thing we bought was a book for Braeden. It is the sweetest, cutest, most wonderful book ever. I am completely in love with these two little pigs! Toot and Puddle. The drawings are wonderful and so is the writing, especially the friendship between two very different pigs. There are a bunch of books, a DVD, and even a game. I'm planning to get them all, that's how much I love Toot and Puddle.

We had a great lunch at the Belted Goat and just enjoyed the sunshine! Another highlight for me was buying the boys belted cow clothes--Braeden got a blue tee shirt and Gage got a white onesie. Braeden looks very sweet in his shirt and I can't wait for summer when Gage will be able to wear his beltie onesie!

We got home and Mat took advantage of the sun and warmth and washed his car. I brought my old Raggedy Ann and Andy blanket outside so I could sit with the boys and watch Mat work. Fun! It was so sunny Braeden decided he needed his sunglasses. I tried to convince him to wear his baseball cap, but that kid sure is stubborn about that hat. I love that it was warm enough for Gage to lay out in the sun in just his gDiaper. He fell asleep on my lap and I made Mat go in for the camera to capture this oh-so-sweet moment. (And don't worry, mom, I covered him up some after Mat took the picture!)

It was a great day!

Is this the future???

2008-04-02T23:33:00.004-05:00

Here's a picture (taken with my camera phone) at Zander's birthday party. This is Braeden and Makena riding in one of those bouncy rides. It's a Jeep. And it cost Makena's mom and me 50 cents per ride! That's outrageous, right?

Makena and Braeden are tight. The bestest of friends. Could they be a couple? Check back with me in about 13 years and I'll let you know!

Of course they'll have to settle the issue of who gets to drive...caused a little fight, but don't most couples fight over who's the better driver? For the record, in the Potter-Gendle household, it's me! Now Mat may tell you otherwise, but who are you going to believe? Besides, Mat doesn't write on the blog so he really doesn't have an outlet to spread his lies, now does he?!

Bowling Party

2008-04-02T23:30:00.002-05:00

Saturday afternoon the whole family headed out to the local bowling alley for Zander's birthday party. Zander is probably, hands down, the sweetest kid ever. Every time I've seen him, he has run to me to give me a hug. He has a huge smile and an even bigger heart. He routinely brings toys from home to school, like six balls, and passes them out to his classmates so they can all play together. He has amaazing hair, too. Ringlets all over his head. And I'm not the only one who loves this kid. Zander is one of Braeden's closest friends at school. This was one of those parties we had to attend.

We weren't sure how the kids would do bowling. I knew they could put bumpers in the lane, but I didn't realize they had bowling shoes that small or balls that light. They even have a bunch of metal things that look like slides. You put your ball at the top then push it down the slide. The ball hits the lane with a great thud and then rolls, very slowly, towards the pins bouncing off the bumpers all the way down. And then your kid's ball actually knocks down pins. 67 in all for Braeden!

Bad mommy that I am, I forgot the camera. In the good mommy column, I always carry my cell which actually takes pretty good pictures. These next few posts show the progression of Braeden bowling.

My kid can bowl. And the best part of all this? Bray's MeMa LOVES to bowl. She has her own shoes. And her own ball. And a bag just for the ball and shoes. She bowls once a week with a school league and gets awards at an annual banquet. Now MeMa can take Braeden bowling sometime! And if I get to go too, I promise to remember the real camera.

Anyway, here's Braeden getting his ball off the ball thing. (What is that stupid thing called??)

The girl in the picture is Zander's older sister, Bre.

2008-04-02T23:28:00.002-05:00

Here he is carrying the ball, all by himself, to the slide thing. I know, so technical, right?

2008-04-02T23:27:00.002-05:00

I had to help him get the ball on to the top of the slide thing because he couldn't lift the ball that high. Aahhh...he still needs me for something. :)

2008-04-02T23:24:00.001-05:00

Top notch photographer that I am, I managed to capture quite an action shot!

The funny thing is, none of the kids cared about the ball after it left the slide thing. Each one of them pushed the ball, watched it hit the lane, then hightailed it back to the ball thing to wait for the ball to pop up from under the alley. They LOVED that part. When a ball would pop up, Braeden, Makena, and Zander would screech with laughter.

And that was my favorite part of bowling!

Hunting for eggs

2008-03-25T21:27:00.003-05:00

I've been looking forward to Easter for a while now...it's not like Easter has ever been a really big deal for me. My most memorable Easter was the one where dad accidentally slammed my finger in our huge, heavy front door as we were on the way out for an egg hunt at our neighbor's house. I'm pretty sure I ended up losing that nail! But I was looking forward to Easter, well really to the egg hunt, because Braeden and I had such an amazing time doing it last year.

Last year we went to the egg hunt in Gibsonville. This year we were a little late getting out the door so we had to go to the Elon one at the Schmidt Park. Now we love the Schmidt Park. Braeden has an amazing time playing there. And that turned out to be our downfall! For his age range, they hid the eggs on the playground. There were about 45 kids and their parents who rushed onto the playground when the signal was given. Braeden wouldn't go by himself, insisting I go with him. We walked around and I encouraged him to pick up the eggs. Children were running all around us diving for eggs, even knocking into me in a frenzy to get them.

Bray was really overwhelmed and thoroughly distracted by the playground. All he wanted to do was climb on the jungle gym. I put one egg in his basket and he flipped out and threw it out onto the ground. It wasn't really safe for him to play, so I told him we needed to leave if he wasn't going to look for eggs. We started towards the parking lot. And that's when we saw him...the Easter bunny. And now Braeden, who had been melting down about not wanting to leave, suddenly couldn't get out of there fast enough!

Later that day he wanted to hunt for eggs, so I promised him we would do it at our house. I had eggs from last year (my parents were here and we hid eggs for him to find). I filled some of the eggs with jelly beans, some with a few coins, and the rest with little stretchy dinosaurs I bought in the dollar section at Target. I filled the eggs up Saturday night and planned to hide them Sunday morning while our neighbor (Braeden's favorite playmate) was at church. We wanted B to have a chance to find all his eggs by himself.

Sunday morning I had B's Easter basket sitting at his place on our table. His basket was filled with cute little things (again from Target's dollar section) like an Elmo drawstring backpack, an Elmo coloring book, a small stuffed bunny, a Matchbox, and a Cadbury cream egg (my favorite Easter treat!). He couldn't wait to eat the egg but has totally refused to wear the backpack. He sometimes needs a little time to warm up to new things so I haven't given up hope yet!

Midmorning we went outside for the egg hunt. Braeden did great! I wasn't sure how hard to make the hunt, so a couple eggs were just in the yard and some were a little more hidden (in the bushes, in the crook of our maple tree, and in the newspaper holder below our mailbox).

And yes, he wore his faux-crocs for the hunt. He puts them on to run out to the garage with Mat or out to the back deck with me to toss bread for the birds. They're a tad bit slippery, though. When he was running down our slightly-sloped front yard to pick up his first egg, he wiped out and lost a shoe!

I can't help but look forward to next Easter...Braeden will be four and Gage will be about 15 months old, old enough to look for his own eggs.

Ride like the wind

2008-03-22T22:14:00.003-05:00

Today was a beautiful day. Bright sun, blue sky, slight breeze. Perfect shorts weather. After Braeden's quiet time he got to play outside with the neighbor girl, Natasha. I went outside for a little bit to watch him and couldn't resist shooting this video of him riding on Natasha's tricycle. She was riding her Disney Princesses two-wheeler. He has his two tricycles of his own, but for some reason he really prefers hers.

I love how fast his little legs are pumping to make those tiny little circles. I also love that he barely even notices I'm filming him. My kid is a ham. A big, sweet Easter ham. But when he's riding on that bike, he is 100% focused on pedaling in circles.

Cute, right?

What a day!

2008-03-21T20:20:00.003-05:00

Braeden's day care was closed today and Mat had classes, so I got to spend the day with my boys. And we had big plans. :)

This morning Braeden and I made granola (soooo good!) and did laundry. Back in February I found this fantastic granola recipe and haven't stopped making it (or eating it) since. No oil, just applesauce, so it's healthier. Plus oatmeal is good for breastfeeding--increases supply. Anyway, back to the granola...lately I've been enlisting Braeden as my kitchen helper. He's always loved watching cooking shows with me, so since he's gotten older and been in better control of his actions I've been giving him jobs. He helps me beat the eggs for scrambled eggs. He comes running the second he even *thinks* he hears me whisking eggs with a fork. So this morning he helped me make the granola. He held the teaspoon while I measured the cinnamon then dumped it into the bowl. Actually he added most of the ingredients to the bowls after I put the ingredients into spoons and cups. He also stirred the wet ingredients together and stirred the granola when I poured the wet into the dry cereal. He really was a big help. And I love sharing my love of cooking with him!

After lunch, Braeden went upstairs for "quiet time" which is usually anything but. Typically he reads books moving between the futon and his bedroom. He's quiet for 10-15 minutes before he starts bargaining with us to come downstairs. Today he was busy for about 45 minutes. Then I noticed it had gotten really, really quiet upstairs. I snuck up the stairs and saw him asleep on the futon.

I love that he fell asleep with his knees bent like that.

Then, as if the stars had aligned themselves, my other boy fell asleep too.

I bought this "I am huggable" outfit at the Children's Place for Braeden when he was a baby. I saved it because it was one of my favorites. The baseball socks were Braeden's too. In fact, Braeden picked them out this morning for his brother to wear.

After Braeden woke up from his nap, we went to the Children's Museum. Braeden was a nut for the first 40 minutes or so. He ran from thing to thing spending a couple minutes doing each one. He ran us around the entire place from firetruck to sandbox to trains to racecar. Even with all the running around, we still had a great time at the museum.

We came home and Braeden played outside for a little while with Natasha then we went to Monterreys for dinner. All in all, a VERY good day!

Mommy, when I was a ...

2008-03-14T20:39:00.003-05:00

I think this all started when Gage was born. And I think the first "when I was a ..." had to do with Gage's swing and a fish. How's that for a teaser?!

Picture Braeden standing next to the swing in our living room. He's looking at the back of the swing where there's a scene of fish swimming with a seahorse and a starfish. Then he looks at me.

"Mommy, when I was a fish, I used to swim and swim (using a wavy hand motion to mimic swimming)!"

That was the first time. Since then he's been any number of things...

a cat (even though he's now terrified of cats!)
a crab
a baby (okay, that one I get)
a truck

And most recently it was, "Mommy, when I was water ..." said while we were washing his hands tonight after he peed in the toilet standing up!

Proud, proud parents

2008-03-10T09:15:00.006-05:00

I hardly know what to say...the day Mat and I have been dreaming about for so long has finally arrived. After nearly a year of cajoling, bribing, begging, and pleading, Braeden is potty trained!

In August we finally got Braeden to sit on his potty. Nothing happened but just sitting on the potty was a HUGE accomplishment at the time!

At the end of that month he peed on the potty for the first time! And then we had weeks of nothing. No potty action, nothing to report.

We tried bribing him with m&ms, spending the day naked (him, not us!), applying peer pressure...be like Tristan, pee on the potty, bribing him with pull-ups and later big-boy underpants. Nothing really worked.

But like everyone always said, one day it just happened. Suddenly he was peeing on the potty regularly. No more wet pull-ups. He would just announce he needed to go and he would go. He doesn't need our help to pee; well, sometimes he needs our help to snap his pants again. :) But, bottom line, he was doing great!

Then we had to face the next hurdle...pooping on the potty. Before children I never would have imagined blogging about poop. And truly, there's a big part of me that would like never to have to talk about it here, but it's really a huge part of parenting and an even bigger milestone for Braeden. This really felt like an insurmountable hurdle. If we thought getting him to pee on the potty was tough, well this was in a whole new league of tough.

Nothing we did seemed to get through to him. We tried to reason with him by saying he couldn't move up at daycare until he was pooping on the potty and moving up means being with Alex and Tristan. Meant nothing to him. We offered him bigger rewards like more m&ms, chocolate chips, a special present, and even a party. No dice. We resorted to watching him for cues, then yanking his pull-up when we thought he needed to go. I guess some combination of these things was ultimately successful; it's hard to say for sure because I'm sure it had something to do with his own internal sense of readiness. Probably some group dynamic at daycare made a difference too.

We started seeing real, regular success two weeks ago. Braeden would announce he needed to poop and he would go do it. He was so proud of himself and at first insisted on m&ms. Mostly now he forgets he's owed anything. It's kind of like using the potty and getting to use toilet paper is reward enough. Who would have thought?

So for a couple weeks now we've had almost 100% success with the potty. At home. Away from home has been a completely different story. Since he's been peeing, we've tried taking him to the bathroom places but it's always ended the same way. Bray gets scared of the big potty and leaves the bathroom in a slight panic. After all of our other efforts, I guess we thought this would change in time. And it has.

Saturday night we went to Sidetracks for dinner (I love their french fries!). Before our food came, B announced he needed to pee. I asked him if he wanted daddy to take him to the bathroom and he agreed. We've been here before so I didn't think much of it. Mat asked Braeden if he wanted to try peeing standing up and off they went. I expected them to come right back, so when they didn't I started getting hopeful. Cautiously optimistic in fact. And a couple minutes later Braeden ran back to the table with a huge smile on his face. He announced very proudly (and very loudly) that he had peed standing up! I'm sure everyone else eating at Sidetracks was just as excited for him as we were.

He went TWICE while we were at dinner!

And as if that weren't enough...at home he's decided he wants to use the real toilet instead of his little potty on the floor. So we finally get to use the little Elmo seat I bought to make the seat more kid-sized. We didn't have to clean the little potty at all yesterday. And that's huge! And what's even better is that Braeden is so proud of himself. Plus, this means we can plan a day trip and have one less thing to worry about! Mat has spring break in two weeks so we're going somewhere for the day, maybe Fearrington Village to see the belted cows and goats. But I'm open to other suggestions...

As a reminder of how far we've come or what we have to look forward to in a couple years or just nature's way of yanking me back to reality, Gage just pooped and I need to go change his diaper. The universe is funny like that.

As promised...

2008-03-08T00:08:00.000-05:00

So. I promised you cute beyond words. I'm living up to my end of the deal and all I want from you is confirmation. Post a comment and tell me you agree that no kid has ever been cuter!

Everyone know what he's singing?? The doom-doom-chu sound is my most favorite part. I can't watch it without smiling and most times I have to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Mat swears Braeden can sing more of the song. Near the end of the video you can hear me ask him to sing more of the song. He said he didn't know it, but I'm pretty sure he really does. I'll keep working on him.

Watch this space!

2008-03-05T22:33:00.003-05:00

I hope tomorrow to capture what is, I'm certain, the cutest thing Braeden has ever done. I don't want to give it away, but I will say this has been a work in progress.

It all started a couple weeks ago when Braeden started saying, "Wee why wocky rump!" Mat and I could not figure it out. We asked him if it was a song they sang at school and he nodded. We asked him to sing more of it, but he never would.

At the end of last week, Braeden added some music to the song and that's when Mat was finally able to decipher just what song Braeden had been singing. And tonight during his bath, Braeden sang most of the song for Mat getting almost all the words right!

It kills us, it really does. You HAVE to hear it to really understand...and I have to get it on video because I'm certain I will want to watch him sing this song forever. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll be showing the video to future girlfriends, college admissions people, and to his future children and their friends!

So, I hope I've piqued your interest with this build-up. My mission for tomorrow is to capture this cuteness on video for the world to see!

Stay tuned.

Cute or not?

2008-02-25T20:33:00.004-05:00

I LOVE shoes. Mat can attest to my obsession with shoes. He just doesn't understand why I would need so many pairs of black shoes. He doesn't get that each pair is different--casual, dressy, high heel or low, sandals, clogs, boots. But then I don't understand why he needs four pairs of sneakers!

And as much as I love shoes I HATE crocs.

I blame Mario Batali for their popularity. Mario and nurses. You can't visit a doctor's office or wander down a hospital hall without seeing those ugly things on the majority of nurses in colors to match their scrubs. They used to just make clogs but now it seems you can buy croc-boots, croc-sandals, croc-flip flops, croc-sheepskin clogs, and croc-ballet flats in every conceivable color.

Crocs make your feet look HUGE. Huge and bulbous like you're wearing clown shoes. Why would any woman purposely choose to do that to her feet? To look like a clown? And the worst part? These hideous things cost upwards of $30! This one with suede straps costs $70!!!

The only exception I'm willing to make to my all-encompassing hatred of crocs is for kids in crocs. The shoes are still ridiculous but they don't look as ridiculous on tiny feet. Maybe it's because you can put a kid in almost anything and they'll look cute. I don't know. A couple of Braeden's friends, namely Matthew and Makena, began wearing crocs to school last summer. Since you can hose them off when they get dirty, they seem like a good choice for little kids. But when I checked online, I found that the kids' crocs cost $25! Who spends that much money on a pair of shoes for a kid who will grow out of them in a few months time?

A couple weeks ago when we were at Target I saw some faux-crocs in the shoe section. I asked Braeden if he wanted a pair of clogs and he corrected me so cutely by saying, "Those aren't clogs, they're crocs!" Funny, right? He decided he liked them, so we bought them for $7.99, a much more appropriate price for kids shoes! All he's done so far is wear them around the house one time. It takes Bray a while to warm up to new shoes. When we bought the crocs, I wasn't sure if he'd ever leave the house in them. I didn't really care, though, because I was actually hoping he'd wear them inside like slippers since he doesn't seem to like to wear socks and I worry about his feet getting too cold.

Don't get me wrong...I still HATE crocs. But my kid looks cute in anything! Even a pair of the ugliest shoes known to man. :)

Baby toys

2008-02-23T15:22:00.004-05:00

Braeden has A LOT of toys. Tons. He has toys in the kitchen--play food, pots and pans, a $3.99 lawnmower, his Christmas tool bench, and a bunch of coloring books and stickers. He has more toys in the living room--his ride-on John Deere Buck, doctor's kit, computer, Diego jeep and figures, matchbox cars, Mr. Potatohead, Giants football, and Brown Bear and Bingo games. He has still more toys upstairs in his bedroom--blocks, a helicopter, puzzles, and stuffed animals plus books. It's actually a little embarrassing to Mat and me just how many toys this kid has! In fact, when Braeden behaves badly at school and we take something away as punishment, it has little effect on Braeden because he has so much else to play with.

But even with all these toys, good toys, age-appropriate toys, he LOVES Gage's things! He likes to play with the baby swing (which was Braeden's first) and with the silver rattle Gage got as a gift at my work shower from a member of Elon's Board of Visitors. Braeden loves to shake it and hear it rattle. I've already posted the pictures of Braeden on the play gym. And yesterday I showed off Gage sitting in his new bumbo...

Well, the second Bray walked in the door last night and saw the bumbo he had to sit in it. I didn't think he would fit because I've read message board posts from moms whose babies have gotten too big to fit, but sure enough, Braeden fits fine in the bumbo. See? He couldn't even be bothered to put his sweatshirt away (see it on the floor to his right)and hadn't even washed his hands yet (yuck!).

As I was making dinner last night I heard Braeden messing around behind me. When I finally had a chance to check on him, this is what I found! Braeden sitting in Gage's bumbo on top of Gage's play gym and no Gage in sight!

Bray's new game

2008-02-18T15:53:00.002-05:00

Braeden has a silly new game he likes to play. Keep in mind this is a kid who is routinely getting into trouble at school for being disruptive during naptime and who won't take a nap for us on the weekends. But for some reason, his new game is to pretend to be asleep then to wake up all refreshed. He lays down and it's especially good if he can be covered up. He scrunches his eyes up tight and tries really hard not to smile. A few minutes later he pops up and sings, "Good morning!" Adorable.

Here's a picture of Braeden "asleep" in our bed with Gage next to him.

Last night I asked Mat to take this picture of Gage and me. I take 9 out of 10 of the photos in this house so there are very few of me. I prefer it this way, always have, but I promised myself when I had Braeden that I would make an effort to be in some of the pictures too. Oh, and for those who have been wondering, my hair looks pretty good. I can't get it as straight or sleek as the stylist but I'm doing okay. In case anyone was wondering, I think it's all thanks to the Paul Mitchell serum I've been using. It smells fantastic and makes my hair shinier. Now if it would just cover up the gray hairs I keep finding...

Spring!

2008-02-18T00:23:00.002-05:00

Spring is coming to North Carolina...look at these crocuses!

Two years ago I went bulb-crazy and planted a few dozen tulips and added a bunch of daffodils to the front bed then planted crocuses in the back around the pillars holding up our deck. Well, by planted I mean Mat dug a couple holes, really deep ones, and we dumped the teensy-tiny crocus bulbs in them. I really never thought much would come of them since the holes were so deep.

My daffodils are starting to pop up in the front, including the handful that never got moved when we dug up the front a couple years ago. I went around back, just to see, and sure enough, there were crocuses! Too funny.

2008-02-18T00:22:00.002-05:00

Here's a close-up of the tiny crocuses. They're just so sweet. Since the holes were really deep they're only about two inches tall. And that includes the blooms! Shouldn't have dug those holes so deep. Oh well.