Big Smiles

There's been a lot of this lately

He is such a sweetheart boy. He's been very busy this past week! I will do my best to share our favorite Bradley stories.

Bradley and The Kitties

Ohhh, are there going to be a lot of these stories in our future. Bradley doesn't care about the kitties yet and the kitties should thank their lucky stars. However, he can sleep through very loud yowling from kitties who follow me into his room looking for attention and we are very grateful for this because loud Meg does this on a fairly regular basis.

Yes, this photo was staged

Layla is going to be Bradley's best buddy, we can tell because she'll come prancing into the baby room to "help" us put him to sleep. Or she's figured out that when we finally put the baby down she gets the love and attention she needs and deserves. Here's a photo of her being helpful by keeping me company while I rock the baby to sleep.

But then she's less helpful because it's difficult to disturb this in order to get up and put the baby in his crib

Layla also becomes very upset whenever Bradley cries and if he's especially loud she'll look me or Nathan in the eye (whoever is taking care of Bradley at the time) and will let out a loud, mournful cry. Pre-baby she would get try to comfort me whenever I was upset and having a baby around who does a reasonable amount of crying is rather tough on our sweet kitty. 

She also didn't like it when we kicked her out of our bedroom for the first two weeks of the baby being home. We actually had to put padding over the door handle because in addition to crying outside the door for long periods of time, she would scratch and claw under the door and then reach up and bang on the door handle! It's a cute story now but it was less cute at 3am when this new mom was doing her best to figure out how to make the baby go to sleep. Bad kitty.

But how can you stay mad at this?

Turns out our fears of cat cuddling up next to the baby and cutting off air supply were completely unfounded though, at least for our cats. The baby is this scary thing that will let out loud noises unexpectedly. They won't even touch the baby stuff, even cute fuzzy blankets. If I put baby clothes or a blanket on or near a favorite kitty napping spot, they will nap elsewhere. However, if it's MY clothes that I have foolishly left in a comfy spot, that's just fine.

Some of the perils of having cats before making a baby include: trimming your child's nails and calling it "trimming his claws", cats not getting pet as much and having to invest in an item called a furminator, and try as you might cat hair shows up on baby clothes and gets caught on pacifiers. This kid has definitely already ingested some cat hair. On the plus side, no way he ends up with cat allergies!

Things We Now Know

Poo can be cute and a source of parental pride

Poo can be horrifying and a source of parental fear even before solid foods

Putting in a pacifier while driving is a real skill

Bath time is the best

Cuddles with baby are even better

Spit up can be hilarious when it's not on you. There was this time that Nathan was holding Bradley up over his head and almost got a direct hit to his face ...

Long hair at this stage of my life was a poor decision. Luckily, Bradley is pulling it out a few hairs at a time so I won't have to worry about it for much longer.

Getting a broken nose via baby head is a very real concern

And I know how to use a Moby wrap now! It's just a long piece of cloth that you use to hold the baby and it's surprisingly simple to figure out.

Moby wrap champion. Bradley agrees.

 Fathers' Day

... is best left not discussed. I let Nathan sleep in and got him a manly shirt and fathers' day tie but then we went to a softball double header and things with Bradley got tough. So I went home. And left Nathan at the game. He knew I was leaving, it wasn't quite THAT bad. And he got a ride home with one of his man crush friends so really I did him a favor. If you are curious about this man crush business, please ask me about it sometime. Nathan is both cute and ridiculous.

My Birthday

Was super fun! Bradley slept seven hours in a row! It was already a good day when I got to sleep in until 5 am. Bradley and I had a lovely smiley day together and I even got to read on the deck for a little bit. I took Bradley outside for a sunny photo shoot and he was not a fan. We lasted approximately three and a half minutes, here's the best I got in that time.

And then Nathan came home and showered me with gifts and presented me with an ice cream cake. Have I mentioned how much I love that man?

Here we are out at Panera. Yes, we go to Panera a lot these days, it's quick and family friendly. And they have the best french onion soup, I am quite the fan!

Other Fun Bradley Items

He loves to suck on his fists these days, which is beyond adorable. No chance this kid doesn't end up sucking his thumb. He also likes to suck on anything he can get near his mouth. The other night I was giving him his bath and he starting sucking on my arm and jabbering at me. So adorable, daddy usually gets to give him his baths but he may have to share at least one or two of those bathtimes every week!

This photo is unrelated to what is written above, I just think it's cute. We like to play "count those rolls" with Bradley. He has quite a few!

Also, we've officially moved to the one arm swaddle! Hurray! Huge parenting success, we were so afraid of what was going to happen when he outgrew his swaddles since they don't seem to make them for his next weight class. This kid is a tubbo.

Proof of parenting expertise

And one last item of great importance. Bradley has a message for the kids. Don't do crack.

First Time Swimming

First Time Swimming!

 We took Bradley swimming for the first time. So. Much. Fun. I found this great pool about 5 minutes away from us that caters to small children. The pool is 92 degrees (yeah, I know) and they even have a row of padded baby changing stations adjacent to the pool. Absolutely amazing.

Bradley wasn't exactly sure what we were trying to do to him at first but there were no tears the entire time. Nathan dunked him underwater twice and I guess it's true what they say about it being instinct to hold your breath. Bradley is such a sweetie pie. He started to grin a bit when Nathan bobbed him a little in the water and when he took a speedy trip with daddy around the pool. We had such a great time and can't wait to go back. It's just $6 for all three of us each time so we'll be making many a trip to the pool over the course of the summer!

And yes, I do rock the mom tankini. I went online and bought this about a week after we brought Bradley home from the hospital. I've been looking forward to swimming with him for a while!

Videos of Tummy Time

As you can see from the videos below, tummy time was beginning to become an issue until I discovered that Bradley was finally interested in his baby gym which means he puts up with tummy time a lot more easily these days. Thank goodness.

If you skip to the 44 second mark on the first video you see an amazing smile.

And the second is just cuteness. Bradley is so stinkin cute even when he's fussy.

Baby Gym

It is so fun watching this kid develop. There are changes almost daily now and he's getting more and more into objects. He loves patterns and will actually look at the pages of the book when you read to him. But his interest in the baby gym is just the best, we spend a lot of his alert time playing around with all the cool stuff that comes with the gym!

Mr. Octopus, Bradley's new best friend

He loves to try to suck on Mr. Octopus' tentacles. He doesn't know how to chew yet so he'll just lick at him. It's incredibly adorable.

Mr. Orca Whale is also a hit

He LOVES faces now, especially his mommy's and daddy's. He got really excited when Nathan got home from work yesterday and stared at him and stared at him between huge happy grins. He does the same thing to his mommy first thing in the morning which is almost as cute but not as cute as it would be if he would just sleep one hour longer. Please child, just one hour more, that's all I ask.

He's usually pretty good about sleeping during the night, he wakes up for two feedings and then goes right back to sleep. However, one night he was not so good about going back to sleep and I was up for a good portion of the wee hours taking care of the little guy. It was finally Nathan's turn to put the boy to sleep but he was going to have to get the humidifier set up first. It was going to take him about five minutes to do, but I was so tired and wanted him to get it set up while I was still feeding Bradley so I could pass the child off as soon as possible and go back to bed. So I called him from the upstairs nursery and got hung up on. Twice. Nathan thought it was his alarm going off and kept silencing it. So I waited until Bradley was fussy and crying and called Nathan, held the crying baby up to the phone, then told him to come upstairs and set up the humidifier. It worked! Nathan hadn't even realized he had hung up on me before. 4am phone calls are tough, I'll give him that.

A Couple More Videos

Here is a precious video of Nathan feeding his baby boy

And Bradley in the swing. Not the most thrilling of our Bradley videos, but pretty dang adorable none the less.

Cool Guy

And for our grand finale - super cool picture of a super cool guy! People go crazy for a man in sweet shades. I have strangers stop me when I'm out with him in order to coo over him, I don't blame them a bit! Look at this guy. Cute and cool, what a combo!

Fancy Camera

I've officially started playing around with the new fancy camera my brother Thomas gifted to me when he found out that I was planning on spending a ridiculous amount of money on camera equipment in order to take many many pictures of Bradley (and any future siblings!) in the coming years. Thank you, Thomas!

This was my first try using it, I basically just used it as a point and shoot but I'm not afraid of the camera anymore and am looking forward to reading up on all the fun stuff I can do with it!

I think this is my favorite picture of the day!

Bradley was very interested in this new camera

Action shot!

And a prop! Bradley is not interested in his lion friend ... yet.

And here are some non fancy iPhone photos I got in the last couple days. The iPhone may not be fancy but it certainly is convenient!

He had a death grip on my finger here

Layla appreciates the new kitty sized furniture that's around the house these days

And I couldn't resist taking some photos of Bradley's bare bottom tummy time immediately prior to his bath. Bare bottom time is supposed to help fight diaper rash and he's been all clear for quite a while now! And just look at that adorable little bum!

Yes, that is a tiny heater pointed at him. We like for our sweet man to be happy and toasty warm when it's nekkid time!

He's really into the Baby Einstein toy that plays music and flashes lights. Helps keep him happy while he's on his tummy!

We're having a great time with our little man, he grows more adorable every day and he's doing his best to win over everyone he meets. I brought him to the school I used to work at and he met a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds and was just a doll the whole time. Stared at the kids, smiled a bit, and didn't start to fuss until we left. We were there for about an hour and a half. He's a trooper. And then when we got back home he saw his Uncle Daniel who was visiting and he busted out the most enormous grins for him too. Daniel stopped paying attention to the kittens for at least five minutes because of this, Bradley must have super powers in addition to his many other marvelous qualities.

He also will have conversations with his daddy that are amazingly adorable, I am getting a video of the next one. They said hi back and forth for about five minutes last night and both Daddy and Bradley had gigantic grins the whole time. Too perfect.

He Doesn't Miss Many Meals

A couple days ago we went in for Bradley's official 2 month wellness check. And the news is ... large. To quote Bradley's pediatrician "he looks like he doesn't miss too many meals".

Weight: 13lbs 13oz

Height: 24 inches

Both are 95th% for his age.

Here is Bradley not missing a meal

I got official approval to take him swimming with me which I am ridiculously excited about. We got him a little swim suit today and are trying to figure out waterproof diapers. So worth it, I got my official mommy tankini about a week after he was born in anticipation of swimming adventures together! 

He develops so much every week and we are enjoying all the new things we can do during play time together. We can now read to him and he'll look at pages with interesting patterns and he's actually interested in objects now, not just faces and light.

I need to take a video of him in his swing, he is extremely interested in the little stuffed items attached to the top!

However, the best is him looking at us and conversing with us and being pretty darn adorable in every conceivable way. Can you tell the baby smiled at me recently?

And I have the horrible feeling that just like the Nathan napping with baby pictures, the following picture is beginning to become a trend. That's right, the Anne with baby and a kitty. Sigh.

Sookie isn't interested in cuddling with the baby but she is very interested in cuddling with me when I have the baby. Ridiculous cat. I think my face expresses how much I hate this situation ...

Lots of fun stuff planned for the upcoming weeks, planning on taking lots of pictures and videos of the adorable baby!