Bradley turned 9 months old yesterday. We celebrated by hanging out with our PEPS parenting group in the morning (nothing special, a regularly planned meeting) and spending time with my parents and my little brother and his girlfriend in the afternoon. Bradley had a very social day.
We had a nice day today, my little guy and I. He's hilarious now for naps, he just wanders around his crib and occasionally gets himself stuck in impossible positions and I have to go up and save him from being flat on his back with a leg lodged in the crib bars. His average wander time is 20 minutes. You wouldn't think a crib could be interesting for that long but Bradley keeps busy! It's very fun to have the video baby monitor so I can watch him as he wanders and turns in circles and gets himself tangled up in his blanket.
He also follows me around the house now. Literally. In the morning I'll be running back and forth between the kitchen and the living room straightening things and getting Bradley's breakfast ready and wherever I go, there's a baby crawling behind me trying to catch up. He's quite cheerful about the whole thing and to be honest it's pretty heartwarming. Nathan experienced this firsthand today when he came home from work and a delighted Bradley make excited noises as he crawled across the room and around the couch as fast as he could so he could grab at Daddy's feet. Nathan said that Bradley could do whatever he wanted tonight after that, it was spoil Bradley time.
Unfortunately for Nathan, I had decided that tonight was feed Bradley solid chunks of food night and had steamed some butternut squash, carrots, and peas for Nathan to try to get Bradley to eat with dinner. There were two problems with this plan. 1) Bradley is STARVING come dinnertime and just wants you to shovel food into his mouth as rapidly as possible. Finger foods are not conducive to this. Also 2) Bradley is not a huge fan of carrots or butternut squash and he hate hate hates peas. Tonight may have been the worst dinner Bradley has had to endure for some time. I tried to help at the end by holding up the steamed foods to Bradley's mouth and I have to say, not laughing at my child when he makes faces at foods is something I really have to work at. The faces are amazing. Also amazing is when I hold up a single pea to his mouth and he closes it firmly while pushing my hand away. I'm not supposed to laugh at this?
We're looking forward to Nathan's mom and stepdad coming to visit us for a few days at the end of this week. Bradley is looking forward to the spoiling he is sure to receive and I'm looking forward to lots of good family pictures!
In the meantime, here are some Bradley videos!
Daddy is just the funniest ever!
Dressed up for Christmas with his friend Brynn
And here are a few holiday photos! It was a great Christmas!
SO many presents for one small person. Fortunately he did not complain.
Yes, we are pregnant with baby #2! I hope this provides at least some excuse for the sorry state of this blog in the last month or so. The first trimester hit rather hard this time. But now I'm 14 weeks along and energy levels are going back up so hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon and Nathan may even get a home cooked meal again someday! (We've been living off of Costco meals and soup and sandwiches for quite some time now)
Nathan got a picture of my parents' reaction when they found out. It was pretty fun to surprise them!
We feel so fortunate that we have had such an easy time getting pregnant
whenever we've been in the market for a baby ... but it wouldn't have
been too terrible if it had taken just a little bit longer this time
around. I'm both excited and a little embarrassed that we seem to be repopulating the earth and Nathan - Nathan is
so proud of himself. Shocker.
I found out after feeling a little queasy most of a Saturday a couple months back. I took a pregnancy test while Nathan was out with a friend and I might have flipped out when it turned out to be positive. I couldn't keep the news to myself so I decided to call Nathan.
Me (too brightly) "Hi!"
Nathan "Hi ... what's up?"
Me "Oh, nothing. Everything is good. You should come home to watch your movie with Pat"
Nathan "Uh, why?"
Me "I just think it would be a really good idea. You'd get to see Bradley ... just come home."
Nathan "Anne, is everything okay? You're acting a little weird?"
Me: "No I'm not. Just come home. As soon as you can."
Nathan "Okay, I'm in a private place. What's up?"
Me: "Nothing nothing nothing. Okay, I want to tell you something. But you need to come home."
Nathan: "Why can't you tell me on the phone?"
Me: "Because I want to see your face ... it's not BAD. I just ... come home."
Nathan: "... are you pregnant?"
Darn him. It's funny, looking back there are some real indicators
that something was up. A couple of weeks earlier I had cried a little at
the Price is Right when a blind man won money on the show. Drew Carey was so NICE to him and he won a bonus and he had a dog and ... I shed tears. And I had tried to get out of some evening activities a couple days before finding out but Nathan was so mean to me and encouraged me to go out and spend time with friends even though the couch was so cozy. The jerk. I was obviously justified in being furious with him for his betrayal of my need to rest on the couch and watch Hulu shows. And then there was the time that I yelled at him because he went and got me a
couple Swedish fish when he OBVIOUSLY should be helping me get Bradley
ready for his solids meal instead. Let's just say that both of us were relieved to discover that this moodiness was likely linked to pregnancy. Ordinarily I am a delight!
Patrick has quite the fan club of nurses when we go into my OB appointments. Normally the older sibling is not still a baby when the mother is pregnant with #2 ...
In my defense, my body has been taking a beating with this pregnancy. It's not like I can rest whenever I like, Bradley doesn't allow that. Things have gotten a lot nicer now that he sleeps through the night. And if he wakes up, Nathan goes up and changes his diaper and I get to sleep. But I'm also still breastfeeding, despite the doctors telling me that is not a great idea. I would be delighted to give Bradley formula at this point but Bradley does not agree with me. So we continue to breastfeed.
Luckily, Bradley is growing more adorable and charming every day so we're hopeful that by the time baby #2 gets here we'll have a reasonable time of it. He had a blast over Christmas with his Grandma and Grandpa Redfern who spoiled him beyond measure. He was carried around as much as he liked and every grunt and whine was responded to quickly and cheerfully, which is just the way he likes it.
The kitties had a rougher time over the holidays. We drove up to my parents' house and had Layla and Meg in a carrier together so Layla would be happy and calm for the ride. It didn't work, we found out when we got there that she had thrown up. A lot. Including on Meg. The unhappy kitties were given a bath by Daniel and Nathan, which was not their favorite Christmas present ever. Sookie gets to be Layla's car buddy from now on.
And if things weren't rough enough on a kitty, Bradley has caught the kitty fever and there is nothing he loves so much as chasing down a kitty from across the room. He spies them, gives a squeal of glee, and then crawls over at a surprisingly rapid pace. The cats wait until he's about a foot away from them and then he generally pauses and gives a few more loud squeals which is when they make their escape. Poor kitties. I try to protect them by chasing them down and holding them for Bradley so he can get good and close to them. It sounds cruel but I make sure that Bradley is gentle with them.
The other day we couldn't find Layla anywhere ...
She was so so warm and happy.
Bradley has encountered a few dogs in the past few weeks and he isn't as sure about them. We went to my friend Cerra's house over Christmas and he cried a little after the two family dogs barked quite loudly when we walked in. But then he tried to chase after the frightened dog half an hour later, so he recovered. He giggled a lot when another friend's dog licked his hand but he wasn't as much of a fan of his face getting licked. But then, neither was I. I just have to tell myself that he's getting exposed to the good germs. Not that there isn't enough of that at home. Pregnancy has taken a toll on my housecleaning and now he crawls all over ... I just have to keep telling myself that those are the good germs. If this kid has any allergies it's not my doing.
And he continues to eat like a crazy person. Meals with Bradley are an experience, he wolfs down food as fast as you can give it to him and makes frantic whiny noises if there is any slight delay. And he'll cry when we cut him off - after 12-14 ice cubes of food. For comparison, his little friends in our parenting group are eating a max of 5-6 ice cubes of food for a meal. We have a pediatrician appointment in about a week, I'm very interested to hear what he has to say about this. Thank goodness for my mom's help making baby food, we go through it at an astounding rate.
We are having a blast with this kid, it's probably good that #2 is coming along sooner rather than later so he doesn't get more of a complex from being the center of attention all the time.
Bradley is becoming a menace. This kid can motor around pretty efficiently these days and his favorite things are eating pieces of his foam mat (acceptable), trying to grab and eat Christmas decorations off the tree (unacceptable), and trying to eat any power cords he can find (HIGHLY unacceptable). Nathan took a video today of me moving the vacuum cleaner and Nathan's slippers away from Bradley as the child scoots after them with great determination. What a stinker. We don't have any baby gates as of yet so it's a little thrilling whenever I try to leave him alone in the living room for 30 seconds in order to use the bathroom or get food or any other silly thing I like to do. He'll be happily playing with his little people cars one minute and the next minute he's moved on to trying to take down the Christmas tree. I have a video of him getting upset at the tree when the branches touch his head while he's trying to get his grubby little hands on a shiny ornament. This is my kid all right.
He's getting moderately better at being left alone to play. I've learned that he doesn't like to be totally abandoned, he prefers it when I come and check in on him and say hi every few minutes. That way you know that if you need Mommy she will be available to you in a timely manner. These things are important to a little boy.
And in AMAZING MARVELOUS news, Bradley now sleeps through the night! At least, he doesn't require any milk during the night anymore. On the night that he turned 8 months old Nathan and I had grand plans of trying to wean him off his night feed and have Nathan go in to do the "pick up put down" method of handling a crying baby in order to get him to sleep despite only getting half of a meal from Mommy. Which was going to work down to a quarter meal and then nothing at all over subsequent nights. Bradley must have heard what was in store for him because he slept through the entire night and didn't even bother waking for what was certain to be an unpleasant experience. Smart baby! Since then he's done a moderately good job of sleeping through the night. He'll wake up if he has a poo and generally go right back to sleep. After 8 months of disrupted sleep this is miraculously amazingly wonderful for his poor parents.
A problem has been the number of poos he's had during the night though ... there were two or even three per night for a while. It turned out the issue was that our little tank of a child was eating too much. You know how they say to feed your child as long as they seem interested in the food and aren't turning it away? That doesn't work with Bradley. He LOVES food so much and doesn't seem to realize that he has an option not to eat what is held up in a spoon in front of him. One day I fed him 14 or 15 ice cubes of food for lunch - that's an entire ice cube tray of food. For a 22 lb baby. That's crazy. So now we cut him off at 10 or 11 ice cubes and it seems to be working. Maybe if we only fed him peas and zucchini we wouldn't have a problem since he actively hates both of these foods and might not eat them even if he was starving.
Among the things Bradley likes to eat these days are my hair and my shoulder. I don't really mind him chewing on my hair, he seems to especially like it when it's wet, I just think it's a little odd. But I am not cool with the shoulder chewing, especially now that he likes to get his teeth into the action. Bradley definitely knows the word "no" now and cries whenever I use it.
We've been working on baby signs ... sort of. The issue may be that I really don't care if he learns how to sign and I only want to teach him a few signs anyway. We've been doing a lot of "more" during meals and he just makes excited anxious noises whenever I pause to do so, mostly because I think he's upset that the progression of food to his mouth has been slowed. The only baby sign that I'm sure I could teach him almost instantly is "I want that forbidden thing over there." If he made a sign and immediately got the forbidden thing he'd be doing it all day.
He is getting rather verbal, it's rather shocking that a child left with me all day would like to talk! He somehow learned how to roll his r's and likes to practice this skill a lot. One's chin gets covered in a good amount of drool when one does this properly, luckily Bradley doesn't seem to mind.
We just had another meeting with our parenting group a couple nights ago and had a blast with all the babies rolling around excitedly playing with toys and trying to grab at each other. We are loving this stage with Bradley, it's so fun to see him so interested in everything and getting to be so aware of the world around him. It's also such a sweet stage, he adores his mommy and daddy and all he needs to be happy is to have one of us spending time with him. And I know I'm going to regret saying this when he's older and truly getting into some trouble - but I love that I'm getting to see his impish side. What a fun kid!
Today Bradley turned 8 months old! We celebrated having family dinner tonight which is a first, usually Bradley eats a little earlier than Nathan and me but I've been trying to push back his dinnertime so we can all eat together. We also let him try feeding himself puff cereal for the first time last night and by today he was a champ. If it involves food he masters the skill quickly. If it involves milk however ... Mommy is still best. We've been letting him play with a sippy cup in hopes that it will be more of a hit than the bottle. So far he really likes chewing on it and acts surprised whenever he manages to get a little water out.
He's also been much less clingy since my last post. I guess he's feeling better. Thank goodness, my patience was wearing thin. I'm sure I'll laugh at this when he's a toddler causing mayhem but in the meantime it's been very taxing. It's nice to be wanted but oh my gosh, I'm okay with some limits.
Bradley has a few new quirks that are rather amusing. I've been taking him into the bathroom with me while I take my morning shower and fastening him into this cute baby rocking chair contraption with toys hanging from it. This has worked like a charm for about the past month ... until he decided he was no longer interested in the chair and was going to dedicate his life to trying to get at the bathroom cupboards. These cupboards are not actually within reach of the chair (I'm no fool) so one has to do some serious contortions to even get close. Yesterday I was almost done with my shower when I heard some loud sounds of distress on the other side of the shower curtain and when I looked out I saw my son dangling from the front of the rocking chair, unable to pull himself back up. I had to haul him up by the back of his shirt (he was not a fan of this treatment) and quickly rinse myself off so I could get out of the shower before I had to rescue him again. He now gets to play in his pack n play during my showers. This is lonely and he doesn't like it. Stinker.
He also has two teeth now and likes to test them out on mommy at the end of mealtimes. Not okay. I was told in my parenting group that you're supposed to smoosh their faces into you when they do this so they can't breath and learn that this is not okay behavior. My son GRINS when I do this to him. Like we're playing a very fun game. How did I end up with a little imp? I just have to be watchful now and when he slows down the eating we call mealtime over. Stinker.
But he's getting to be so much fun - Nathan and I love how we're getting to see more and more of his personality. If he can tell that one of us is teasing him he gets SO excited. I sometimes lay down next to him and pretend to snore and open one eye to look at him and quickly close it and he will get a huge smile on his face and cackle when I open both eyes and look at him. And he gets so excited when Nathan gets home or walks in the room. Nathan is in charge of bath time and those guys have a ball. And he loves the kitties, especially Layla. He grins whenever he sees her and when she brushes against his face (with some help from Mommy!) he giggles. He lives to grab her tail. I'm so glad our cats are sweethearts, I have zero concern about any of them taking a swat at him. Still, we're trying to teach him to be gentle.
And here are some pics from our Christmas card photo shoot we did at my parents' house!
Aunt Nancy got some snuggle time.
And so did Grandma and Pa. Bradley likes being properly appreciated by all his fans!
Bradley Clingy Scott (We're changing his middle name)
Bradley has officially entered into clingy baby territory. Seriously clingy.
There were indicators that I initially thought were rather cute - him reaching out for me when I came to pick him up after a nap or trying to scooch over to me when playing on the floor. But something has happened in the last few weeks and now this child is beside himself when he can see me but he is not being held by me.
Here is a video of Bradley being pretty clingy with his daddy first thing in the morning
I was feeling pretty cocky prior to this. I could just put the sleepy but awake baby down in his crib for a nap and walk out of the room and he would gently fall to sleep on his own. Now Bradley sobs like he's being abandoned forever and ever and he generally manages to roll over and bonk his head on the crib while trying to decide between comforting the screaming child or running out of the room. More and more I've been going for running out of the room ... great parenting, Anne.
He also screams if I try to put him down on the floor to play on his own so more and more I try to ease him onto the floor on his blanket and if he happens not to scream I'll run out of the room so mommy doesn't compete with tummy time. This works moderately well. I did it this morning and when I peeked my head in the room to check on how he was doing he had scooched over to the scratching pad for the kitties and was checking out the texture of the cardboard ... seriously, the ONLY thing in the room I didn't want him to touch and he made a beeline for it. We really need to get some baby gates.
And because they're adorable, here are a couple of Bradley eating videos!
This is one of my favorite Bradley videos of all time. He's such a funny, precious little guy.
And this is pretty sweet as well, although not as action packed as the first video.
Scary Grandpa Redfern
The title is really self explanatory on this one. Bradley LOVES to be scared a little and this is what happened when my dad was trying to play with him.
Also please notice how I'm getting cuddles from Bradley here. Not the norm. I was so so happy.
Grandma is not scary and is in fact rather delightful.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Nathan and I managed to make it to a Red Hot Chili Peppers show a few weeks ago. It was my birthday present to Nathan! We had our friends Kelsey and Heather watch Bradley while we were out and everything went pretty smoothly.
He woke up about 15 minutes before we got home and was a bit of a stinker to his babysitters who were trying to put him back to sleep but luckily he didn't pull anything worse than that. And the show was so fun, despite the apparent celebration of Washington's new marijuana law. The good herb was being enjoyed all around us, despite it being on indoor venue. I got to breath through Nathan's new Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt for a reasonable amount of the show, which was a little ridiculous. Still, it was really fun to go out on our third official date since Bradley has been born. We felt incredibly cool to be going out on a Thursday night, although we were zombies the next day because we ended up staying up until midnight. An ungodly hour, to be sure!
Thanksgiving in Boise
We just returned from a very fun Thanksgiving trip to visit Nathan's family in Idaho. It's amazing how much more complicated things get with the addition of one little person, it's an 8 hour drive to Boise and we had quite a few discussions about how to time the trip. Finally we decided on leaving at 3:30am after Bradley's nighttime feed in order to maximize his unconscious time in the car and also give Mommy and Daddy at least a few hours to sleep in a cozy bed. It worked like a charm on the way out and was okay on the way back. We certainly missed any Thanksgiving traffic, that's for sure!
It was so fun to see Nathan's family. They hadn't seen Bradley since he was about three months old so it was very fun to bring our big guy to see everyone. And it was his first time meeting his Aunt Amber and Uncle Steve and his three cousins Logan, Caitlyn, and Connor. It was a bit overwhelming for him at times to be around so many people but he got used to it. And he loved his cousins, they were so good with him. Logan brought Bradley a toy and I thanked him for sharing and the next thing I knew just about every toy in the house was being brought to Bradley by his sweet cousins.
They also covered him in blankets when he seemed sleepy and made animal noises to make him smile. And they also screamed and ran around the house when Bradley "chased" them. Bradley was smiling with his hands crammed in his mouth the whole time, while a helpful grownup helped him fly through the air after his big cousins.
An example how adorable Bradley's cousins were with him
Bradley had a horrible cold pretty much the entire time we were in Idaho, which was not fun. Because of this, Nathan and his brother Jake got to do some Black Friday shopping! We finally figured out by about 10:00 on Thanksgiving night that Bradley really and truly needed a humidifier and Nathan said to me, "Where am I supposed to get a humidifier at this time at night?" and I said, "Anywhere! It's Black Friday!" He and his brother went to Walmart, apparently they were the only people there who weren't getting at least two tvs.
At least one of the perks of the cold was that I got some serious cuddles from my little guy. He never cuddles so this was hugely exciting. We'd give him his pacifier and then he would just rest his head on my chest and look around at people. Hugely exciting. What was less exciting was him being whiny and clingy pretty much every waking hour. I was sympathetic but I was also pretty tired. Thankfully he's over the worst of the cold now.
The kitties went up to my parents' house while we were gone and we heard many happy reports from my family about how much fun they were having with the kitties while we were gone. Sookie slept on my little brother's face whenever possible, Layla got to eat some plants, and Meg fooled people into petting her stomach and then she attacked them. Everyone had a good time. My family could have pretended to miss MY company a bit more instead of being so gleeful about getting the kitties ... also, Nathan would appreciate it if you'd stop threatening to steal them from us.
We enjoyed our holiday travels but we are very glad we have no more 3:30am drives in store for us for some time. Especially poor Nathan, who took the first shift both ways and let me sleep. What a wonderful husband and father. He also took the vast majority of the nighttime duties with our poor sick baby boy while we were in Boise.
Many thanks to Nathan's dad Dan for feeding us within an inch of our lives while we were there and to Kati for being willing to hold her grandbaby anytime anywhere. Thank you Abby for letting us take over your room yet again and joining me on a very fun shopping trip / my only real chance to get out of the house for an afternoon. Thanks Jake for listening to a crying baby for a number of nights and letting me hand you Bradley and telling you to go take him to chase his cousins. He loved it. And thank you Anna for being such a wonderful auntie to Bradley and being so careful with him whenever you held him. Can't wait for him to see all of you again soon!
We have a crawler! Well, more of an inchworm. But I'll take it! He's so cute, squirming after toys at home or after his friends at our parenting group. His first official crawling took place this past Tuesday, when he decided that he had to grab his friend's feet and he got up on his knees and made a quick job of getting over to grab at her little toes. But generally he's just inchworming his way around the house. It's cute but we need to get a babygate stat.
This video is from a few days ago. He's moving even better now!
Our little boy is also starting to finally get a bit clingy. He still loves anyone and everyone he meets but he likes them a little more in the safety of his mother's arms. We're working on continuing to introduce him to new people and have him be okay with being held by them ... but I rather LOVE how when he sees me he leans in my direction and holds out his arms. He's my little guy!
Sometimes he has trouble going to sleep because he knows he'll miss me. Observe.
This is from another another day. Now I just stick the pacifier in his mouth and leave the room, I'm too distracting when a boy is supposed to fall asleep.
Here are a couple of videos of Bradley playing with Grandpa Redfern from the comfort of Mommy's arms. He doesn't really play peekaboo yet, he likes it best when he can still see and you just look elsewhere before turning and looking at him and saying boo!
We had such a nice visit with my parents. Bradley enjoys family time, he gets much needed attention! And I get much needed help making baby food. My mom is the queen of baby food, don't know what I'd do without her help.
Poor neglected child. I hope this blog conveys just how much hardship he has to endure.
Here he is enduring hardship one more.
Bradley is getting better and better at expressing his wants and desires. He LOVES a couple of the baby cards we have on our fridge and will kick with excitement whenever he gets close. It's adorable. One has bunny slippers on it and the other has sparkly animals and he cannot really decide which he loves more. It makes it hard to carry him by the fridge at all without stopping to visit the cards of awesome, he's rather insistent about it.
He's also rather into remote controls these days. Or anything Mommy or Daddy happen to be holding when the baby is near. The baby wants what it wants ... which is anything and everything!
Similar things happen when we're out shopping. Bradley can sit in the cart now and he likes to be given an item or two while we are shopping. He's good about giving them back so far so they can be purchased ... I'm worried about how this will work in the future.
Halloween Updates
I already posted about Halloween, we had a great time, but here are a few additional photos from our visit to the Swedish Hospital party.
I had to clear all items of interest from within arm's reach and then clap for the baby until I got a smile.
Look at those chins. What a doll.
And a video. Superman!
I'm Hilarious
And did you know that I'm hilarious? Yes, it's true. Here's proof.
Family Time and Snuggles
We went to the zoo a few weekends ago. Had a blast, despite the rain and gloom! Bradley saw a hippo laugh and was unimpressed. At least he pays some attention to the animals now.
And my boys still get occasional snuggles in, they're so cute! Snuggles are more fun these days because they happen during the daytime. Bradley has turned into a fabulous sleeper now that he's not dealing with teething. He typically wakes up once to eat and goes right back to sleep after he's done. Good boy!
Sometimes the boys have fun together even while they are awake!
Bradley love love loves riding on his daddy's shoulders!
Best Video Ever
And this is the BEST video I have ever taken of Bradley. We may need to work on our table manners. In the meantime, video gold!
We've had such a fun couple of weeks, we went to Santa Cruz to visit my family and away on a cabin trip with friends the following week. And Bradley FINALLY got his first tooth!!!!!
Santa Cruz
I was most nervous about the plane flight on this trip. Bradley's first plane flight ever! We flew on Virgin Airlines and I made sure we'd be in the back row of the plane just in case. Everything went just fine, despite a 30 minute delay, and I learned an important fact: babies rarely sleep on an airplane. It's just too exciting. Luckily, it was a short flight and Bradley barely made a peep, he just smiled at everyone who so much as glanced at him.
He was quite tired before we boarded the plane. We were very happy that he got a little nap in!
Our cheery guy. He was busy making friends for most of the flight.
And we had a marvelous time once we got to Santa Cruz, Bradley and his great-granddad Redfern enjoyed each other tremendously and we took many blurry pictures of the two making faces at each other. Videos seemed to work best.
Bradley also loved my Aunt Diana and Uncle Bill, he loved
being held by everyone and I could tell that he missed all the attention
when he got home.
Bunny ears for the baby! Oh no!
Currently Bradley's favorite toy. Diana is obviously impressed by how cool it is.
Shocking baby!
Cuddles with Uncle Bill who made us AMAZING food while we were there.
Bradley enjoyed being fed by Aunt Diana. But then, Bradley LOVES being fed in general.
As a special bonus, here's my Aunt Diana and I dancing to Gangnam Style. Nathan secretly recorded us. I was going to delete the video ... but it's pretty spectacular. Diana and I should be professional dancers.
We also went by UC Santa Cruz where Bill works in order to get some banana slug gear for Bradley. UCSC has the best mascot ever. And we stumbled onto a prospective student day which meant Bradley got to meet the UCSC banana slug himself!
Pretty awesome! If Bradley was able to hang out with this guy without crying I think he'll do just fine with Santa at Christmas.
We went out to lunch with Diana and Bill in cute downtown Santa Cruz and took some family pictures. Poor Bradley was exhausted and napped through lunch.
And then we had an evening of taking more pictures of our son with everyone back at their place.
These two were SO SO cute together
I think both Bradley and Granddad have the same facial expression in this picture
Once Diana and Bill took him on a walk and he fell asleep in their arms and they gently placed him on his back in Great-Granddad's room for a nap - this is the kind of service a boy could get used to.
The boys watching football after Bradley's nap
Nathan and I were taking a nap during this walk, the one bummer of the trip was that Bradley needed some serious help getting back to sleep after 3am each night and since we were staying in a hotel we weren't exactly going to let him cry at all while going back to sleep. How horrible would that have been for our neighbors? So we took turns sleeping on the pullout bed with our little Bradley. I'm pretty sure Bradley loved it, he thinks we should do this at home too. Fat chance, kid. So we were a little sleep deprived during the trip. But his tooth popped out while we were there. Nathan discovered this, not me. I had even just breast fed him and couldn't tell. And let him chew on my fingers a little ... a detective I am not.
And I'm sure the sleep deprivation is why my granddad destroyed us at card games. Repeatedly. It obviously is the only explanation. Bradley liked to help us with card games, maybe he wasn't always giving his daddy good advice. Nathan had this cute thing he would do where he would give Bradley the card he wanted to play and then Mommy's job was to "help" Bradley play the card. Which basically involved pulling the card out of Bradley's death grip so I could put it on the table. Yeah, not cool. Good thing Bradley is still a fairly good sport about these things.
We even made it to the Monterey Aquarium while we were there! Bradley loved the jellyfish and the seahorses, we had a blast.
Such a good trip, so glad we got to go.
Cabin Trip
The following weekend we went to a cabin near Leavenworth with some friends. And we took ... one picture. What happened to us? I'm embarrassed. Luckily it's an adorable picture of all the kids on the trip. They look slightly traumatized because there is a row of 8 adults taking pictures and trying to get them to smile.
And Nathan caught the tail end of what had been an epic laugh fest with me and Bradley. Did you know I'm HILARIOUS when my face is upside down?
Bradley Turns 7 Months Old
He's so old! I'm already getting a bit nostalgic. Does not bode well for our future, I may cry a little at each birthday.
Our little smiley boy. I take so many pictures like this, they're mostly just blurry because he's moving around so much!
We love going to the grocery store now that Bradley can sit up in the carts! He's a good helper boy and helps me shop.
Often this tires him out
He's soooooooo sweet and cute! I could eat him up!
Halloween
We have had such a nice day today. I took Bradley to a baby rhyme time at a local library and then we took him out for a short trick or treating trip around our little cul-de-sac. Three houses in total. Bradley had a blast.
Nathan was really excited to dress Bradley up as Superman for Halloween. These are Bradley's Superman pajamas plus a cape that I bought online. Looks okay!
I do not know which one is more pleased about this situation
Nathan is so good at making Bradley laugh for pictures
Smooches for Superman!
Bradley could not believe that he got to grab shiny, crinkly items out of the bin! How to choose only one?
He doesn't even eat the stuff yet, but he loves it already
Okay, we let him chew on a tootsie roll through the wrapper a bit. I tell myself that he wasn't getting any of the candy through the wrapper ... except he did cry when I took it away.
Nathan and I put Bradley in bed soon after these pictures were taken and carved pumpkins, watched a scary movie, and handed out candy to trick or treaters. Such a nice night. I'm typically not a huge Halloween fan, but I could get used to this.
