"School"

If I haven't said it before, Brady loves his school! This is his class...or was his class two months ago. It's quite different these days. There are 17 kids in class, which is max capacity. There are a TON of new babies, three Ryans (this picture only shows two) and I believe the girl babies now outnumber the boys. Brady is still the one and only - the infamous second Brady never showed! Our boy is now one of the big kids, spending most of his time on the carpet playing with the mobile kids and getting frustrated that he can't keep up yet. He's also old enough for art! Check it out here. Man, it seems like just yesterday he was the new guy. I bet we'll be saying that a lot.

p.s. If you look real close at this picture, you'll notice the lovely knot on Brady's forehead courtesy of his mama who decided to let him smack his head on his changing table the morning of picture day. Being responsible for your child's injury sucks...a lot.

First Father's Day

Brady sure knows how to make his dad feel special! He let him sleep until 8:00am! And even better than that, Brady kept Tim company the whole time. We continued the celebration with a pancake breakfast. Brady had a couple pieces along with some watermelon. It was off-putting to his novice palate at first and he managed to pull the Puffs off his tray and leave the new items. But he eventually gave it a try when he was ready. Emma and Billy also had their share.

After a short morning walk with Emma, we played on the carpet for a while. Brady very much enjoys dumping out his toy bin and rummaging through the pile. He also pulled himself up to stand today all by himself with the support of his cozy coupe walker.

Brady was a sports-bar-superstar. He happily wiggled and played while mom and dad had a couple yummy beers and watched the USA soccer team beat Egypt 3-0. He's also drawing the attention of older woman already. A six-year old blonde named Abby came over to our booth to visit with him two times! What a flirt.

After doing some "work" at "the office" Brady read some books with his dad and is now comfortably snoozing. Good Job, Dad! We love you!

Bellissimo!

I am resizing the digital photos we received from photographer extraordinnaire, Leesia Teh. Now they'll fit perfectly in my digital frame. But they're so fantastic, I had to provide you with a small sample. This is Brady at six months.


















































Tim's first Father's Day weekend is off to a great start. We finally went to the dining movie theater now known as AMC Fork & Screen. We saw The Hangover. It was ridiculous. Brady stayed home and had loads of fun with his babysitter. We could hear him laughing as we got into the car to leave. Today, Tim got his free Father's Day peach milkshake from Chick-Fil-A and we got a great deal on Brady's big-boy car seat. However, we received lots of looks from folks in the parking lot as we drove away with the car seat in the front seat of the Audi. Dang box wouldn't fit in the trunk! ;o)

It's a scorcher out here today. 96 but feels like 101. Tim and Brady are relaxing on the couch watching soccer. We're toying with the idea of the MidSummer Music Fest, but I give it a 20% probability.

Nine Months Old and Eczema

Brady had his nine month well baby visit today. He weighed in at 20 lbs 14 oz (57th percentile), measured 29 inches (76 percentile) and his head was 46.5 inches (82nd percentile). He was given his first HGB test which measures the hemoglobin in his blood (12.4 g/dL=normal). He was also given his first PPD test, which looks for exposure to tuberculosis. We need to watch the injection site over the next two days for signs of swelling and redness. Brady didn't mind the PPD test, and he was only irritated by the stick in his toe for the HGB test because the nurse wouldn't let go of his big toe. But his infant memory of four prior ear infections kicked in when the doc took a look in his ears. I had the pleasure of holding his head tight. Oh joy. He *really* did not care for the Hepatitis B vaccine (the last of three) either. His face turned red and he got all scrunchy for about 5 seconds before he let out any noise. But in classic Brady style, he was over it in a couple minutes. Luckily, there was only one vaccine today. I mentioned the rashy redness on Brady's back to the doctor. The good thing is that it's not ringworm (ring-what!?). It's eczema. Ewwww.

The nurse also went through a list of questions from the Denver II developmental screening test. Questions included is he:

1. clapping (yes),
   
2. crawling or creeping (creeping)
3. waving (no)
4. banging two toys together (yes)
5. pulling to stand (not yet, but trying)
6. pushing up to sit (nope)
7. drinking from a cup (no, though he's kickin butt holding his bottles)
8. saying mama/dada (he says it, but not to us)
9. babbling (yes, a lot)
10. responding to his name (yes)
11. letting us know he wants/needs something (yes).

We have to work on baby proofing, moisturizing Brady's skin, transitioning him to stage 3 foods and continuing to introduce table foods. The doc also thinks Brady is about to get a couple more teeth. It'll be two on the top - and not the middle ones. That should look funny. We will *certainly* provide pictures of that!

Ring-What!?

The kiddo has had some red marks on his back for the past week or so. I first suspected something other than dry skin yesterday. Dad did bath tonight and confirms that...it...is...RINGWORM! Ahhh! It sounds so bad. But then I looked it up and it's just another word for athlete's foot. The problem is, it's very contagious. So now I'm taking mental inventory of each and every time I washed my hands. Check. Check. Check. Phew. So, other than this week's new fungus, I can report that in the last month Brady has begun reliably sitting up, loudly babbling, picking up puffs with his thumb and index finger and placing it successfully in his mouth (at least 40% of the time), scooting backwards on his tummy and rotating 360 degrees on said tummy. In anticipation of crawling, we have stopped leaving him on the bed/couch/changing table for even a second. He nearly has his Vulcan neck pinch down as well. Watch out!

We went to the beach this month for an entire week with the Wright Family. Brady really enjoyed his cousin Georgia. He could hang out with her all day long, hanging on every last word. Brady's first visit to the ocean was rocky at first. The surf was a bit startling. But his second visit went much better. He really enjoyed the pool. We also decided to let Brady sleep on his tummy at night. Wow. What a difference. SOO many fewer peeps from him at night. And, call me crazy, but I really think it helps with any congestion. It's also pretty cute to see that he's awake in the morning because we can see his little face peering out above the crib bumper.

The adventures with food introductions continues. This kid loves meat! He's got his little bird mouth open again as soon as he swallows a spoonful. He's still not down with the bananas and didn't particularly care for the strawberry/pear/granola. Emma is also enjoying Brady's food discovery. She can now be found next to the highchair at mealtimes waiting for BW to reach down w/ food in or on his hand. Brady thinks this is hysterical, by the way. He'll reach down there and giggle even when his hand is clean. I can tell Em wants to jump up and clean Brady's face. But she's exhibiting excellent self-control.