Happy Halloween!

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.