If I believed in arranged marriages...

If I believed in arranged marriages the deal would have been sealed long ago for Brady. Our good friends that we have know since Karl was stationed in Dayton, OH (before we were married) have an absolutely adorable son, Colton, that Brady just loves to play with. Well, he still is back in Virginia so we haven't seen him since December and we miss them lots. Brady's day was made yesterday when she got to talk to Colton on the phone. 

If I did persue the arranged marriage, BOO could become BOOM if she choose to hyphenate her initials. But since I don't believe in such non-sense ;) I guess I will sit back and let her be a toddler. Oh well... 

Colton's mom, and my dear friend, Melisa sent me duplicates of pictures they printed of the last 6 years. WHAT A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE! But what I loved most was seeing all the pictures of Colton and Brady together. So I decided to share those with you. I also added into the mix from my own collection the very first and last picture they took together. I have to admit,  I did get a little baby itch looking at these, but that is one itch that is not going to be scratched!!! 

[caption id="attachment_259" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="BOO at Colt's baby shower (about 3.5 months old)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_258" align="alignnone" width="362" caption="The very first picture the two took together, Colton was 8 days old and Brady was 4.5 months old"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_261" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="Hanging out at the mall...the are both in a breastmilk coma here!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_260" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="They loved swimming together...they took a swimming class together"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="Playing in the ball pit, up to no good"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_263" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="Colton's First Birthday...Brady being a bully"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="Halloween again, my how much they have grown since that first picture!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="At Gymboree, where they played together, twice a week!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_266" align="alignnone" width="390" caption="Their goodbye hug, well should I say kiss...last time they saw each other...sniff sniff"][/caption]

Wordless Wednesday: Enjoying Sunny Pensacola, Florida in February

Knock, Knock...whose there?

So this post marks  one month of the blog, and I have to make a confession... I am obsessed with the stats page of the blog. Okay,  I know you aren't surprised, my math mind never shuts off. You would laugh to know that I look at the stats section for my blog everyday! I don't get exposed to math very often as a stay at home mom so I soak it in where I can.  The stats page tell me random facts like which posts got hits on that given day. There is a line graph for the total hits for the blog for each day. I also find that amusing, my blog gets the most hits on Wednesdays...when I go wordless....what does that say about my writing??!?!? But also I average about 15 hits a day to the blog, so I want to know who is out there... so if you don't mind clicking "leave a comment" and tell me who is out there

KNOCK KNOCK....WHOSE THERE?

Chores

Karl and I have decided to assign Brady chores. Although we rarely use the word chores, needless to say she has them. Here is the best part...SHE LOVES THEM!! Her chores are to carry the dishes from the dinner table and place them on the counter and to clean up her dollhouse each night. It is great to have her enthusiastically helping out around the house already.

We have chosen not to do a sticker chart for chores since she loves to do it and we want her just think of it as part of her everyday routine. We use lots of positive reenforcement. On the rare occasion that she refuses to clean up her dollhouse and a parent has to do it, then it gets put away for a day, and you know from previous posts that is a very sad day for BOO.

Another great part about it, is her feeling included in doing adult activites. It makes her want to help out in other ways. This is a picture of her helping Daddy clean the bathrooms, another favorite thing for her...

Auntie Andi came to visit!

The best thing about having people to visit is it gets you out of the house. I didn't want to stick to my same ole routine while Andi was here so we made sure we did something everyday she was here. The best part about this was I explored parts of Pensacola that I wouldn't have otherwise. Quick synopsis of our time:

• Thursday:dollhouse,  outlet shopping, Chick-fil-a, doll house

• Friday: dollhouse, Pensacola's Discovery Gallery (children's museum), dollhouse, Andi and I had a sister date to dinner and movies after the girls went to sleep!

• Saturday: dollhouse, Fort Barrancas picnic and tour, Reese's first trip to the beach, dollhouse

look at the 3 vertebrae Auntie Andi found on the beach!

Did you pick up on a theme here? You got it....lots and lots of dollhouse! Thank you Auntie Andi for coming to visit...we all had a blast and enjoyed exploring parts of Pensacola that we had not been to yet.

My other job. Yeah, that one I went to college for.

So as most of you know I spent four years of college training to become a teacher. I taught one year of math at Davis Drive Middle School. Didn't love it! After getting married,  I worked at a couple Sylvan Learning Centers for almost 3 years and I liked that a lot. Well for the last two and a half years I have been a stay at home mom, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! So Karl and I have talked some but not written in stone when I will go back to work, the general agreement seems to be whenever our kids are all in school and I can go back to teaching and have the same schedule as them....wait...go back to teaching...the thought of it scares me and right now I am several years away from even applying for that job. I have even considered being "one of those women" and every time it is time for me to go back to work get pregnant with the next kid....KIDDING...(we will only have kids when the timing is right for the whole  family!) 

But you want to know why am I even thinking about all this right now, when it is something I shouldn't have to stress about for several years? Because one of my closest friends, Kristen, is so amazing at teaching that in her 4th year of teaching she got TEACHER OF THE YEAR for her school. Now she is going to be in the running for district teacher of the year....she is an amazing teacher!!! and here I am shaking in my boots to even step back in my classroom! Kristen,  I wish I could be as awesome as you...CONGRATS

Wordless Wednesday: What do you do when someone tells you that you can't have a 3rd banana?

Merry Mardi Gras

Now that we are back in this lovely Gulf Coast region, I guess my daughters' love for cheap beaded necklaces will not be an oddity! Happy Fat Tuesday!

Thought you would like to know...

Babies can read!

Tonight, after her bath, Reese got her night story, Goodnight Moon,  down from the shelf.  She started flipping through the book and on every page she said "night-night"!

So for all of those of you who have seen that middle of the night infomercial, it is true...Babies can read!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you have a happy heart today and every day!

If not the next A-Rod, maybe the next Picaso...

Santa brought Brady an art easel for Christmas this year. We keep it in the garage since we are renting and don't want to have to worry about the walls and carpets. So, every time we are in the garage she politely asks for her paint brushes and bib (we use a long-sleeved bib for a smock). How can you resist when she uses manners. Most of her paintings look very similar, a combination of vertical paint strokes usually with the colors of the strokes in the same order as the paint cups in the easel.

A couple days ago, a muse came to visit her and she painted quite the masterpiece.



After the first red 'blob' I asked her what it was, she responded that it was a dinosaur. I found this perplexing since we hardly discuss dinosaurs and of her 1000 books only 1 is about dinosaurs. Then her next carefuly placed blob I stated look like a bird, and she said "yeah, that is a baby bird,  I need to paint Big Bird!" Well as you can see from the labeled picture below, the rest of the picture just took off.



My favorite part of the painting was after she drew Cookie Monster, she had to paint him a cookie too. I also liked that Elmo has a nose and feet in a different color from his body. After painting Elmo's nose, Brady told me that Elmo has a big nose!

A trick that I learned from Disney's Family Fun magazine is to paint wooden pants hangers and use them to display artwork in playrooms. So here is the final product on display in the playroom. Notice Brady in the bottom corner of the picture because I had just hung up the picture and she was admiring it!



Lastly, here is the link to the video of Brady describing her artwork:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/WPLd3uRBuVa_72Q_Uu77ig?feat=directlink

Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

You know what that means...That I am officially 28 1/2 years old! Why am I still conscious of my half birthday in my late twenties you say...

1. It falls on an very honorable President's birthday

2. As a kid, with my birthday being in the summer, if I wanted my birthday celebrated at school (mainly preschool) it had to be done on my half birthday

3. Now as an adult, it is close to Presidents' Day, which means Karl gets the day off and Daddy gets a long weekend! I love long weekends!!!!

So happy half birthday to me! And yes, happy birthday Lincoln....he would have been 201 if not for John Wilkes Booth!

Bradyisms

Those of you who go to Facebook often may have been treated with several Bradyisms. I have decided to compile all of them into a single blog post for your reading pleasure. Please sit back and relax as you dive into a two year old's mind.

• "That's not football, that's N. C. State!" while watching a game live at Carter Finley


• Karl: What does Santa wear? Brady: "a flight suit...it's red,  and daddy, yours is green!"


• Brady said to Karl (who checked out of the squadron two days ago) tonight at dinner "You flying the helicopter tonight?" To her that is the only explanation why Daddy has been home all day!!!


• At breakfast she wanted me to explain the difference between Daddies and husbands so afterwards she said to me "You get dirty when you get married?"


• When the time had past for us to feed our dogs, Karl said to one of the dogs, "Dewy, why didn't you sign for 'eat'?" and Brady says "Silly Daddy, dogs don't have hands!"...

So here are the new ones that I have saved and have not been posted on FB:

• We all went to a Super Bowl party next door (remember this is Sunday night, so Karl had been home all weekend). We were walking home after the 3rd quarter, and she sees Karl's car in the driveway and proclaims "DADDY'S HOME!!!!"


• "Mommy, there's a baby in my belly" Me: What?!?!? "Mommy, there is a Reagan in my belly" (Reagan is the name of her good friend's 4 day old sister)


• Brady has a conditioner that smells like grapes, and a detangler that smells like pears, so tonight while Karl was giving the girls a bath I asked B what her shampoo smells like. It has a fragance, it just isn't labeled on the bottle; her response "It smells like football games"

I am starting to realize after these are all compile together that her ingenuousness falls in place mainly when Daddy  is around........HMMMMMM

Wordless Wednesday: Chunky Thighs have never looked this good....

The next A-Rod?

We recently purchased a great blow up baseball tee/bat/ball set from Target. Karl is determined to get one of his two girlie girls to love or even like sports. We have had so good family fun trying to stage mini baseball games in our empty dining room. Karl will help each girl with offense (they hit the ball and run imaginary bases) while I help the other girl 'catch' the ball and try to tag before a homerun is scored. There are a lot of sliding finishes. Everyday since the set was purchased both girls have asked to play ball with Daddy. Reese also tends to like to be a 'bat girl' while Brady is rather good at stealing bases (in the sense that she picks up the tee that has home plate attached and walks into another room with it). I just enjoy all the laugher and smiles that is had by all!

 



RUN RUN RUN
]
Reese thought a switch in the ball would help distance

H O H O M HOMERUN homerun Reese

A League of Their Own

Doppelganger

So recently on facebook, everyone was posting their "doppelganger". I found this to be quite amusing. I personally posted Amber Tamblyn who most recently known for her work on "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" movies.



Ever since she was on "General Hospital" as a child people have seen my resemblance to her. The only other celebrity that I have been told I look like was Katie Holmes when she was on Dawson's Creek. I never watched the show so in high school when people came up to me and said I look like Joey it threw me for a loop.

Well there is another doppelganger I would like to share with you. My daughter BOO has one on Sesame Street. It is a new character that they developed wihtin the last few months. Tell me what you think...







Bet you can't tell which picture is Brady and which picture is "Gone Again"!

Just what the doctor ordered

So Brady loves playing "Dr. Charette" (our old Pediatrician). She likes to listen to your heart and give you a "boo boo" (or as you may know it a shot) so that "you feel better". It is the sweetest thing. Sometimes she even feels the need to check your blood pressure. When she had to go get her shots this last winter for flu season,  I let her dress up and she gave her shots to the nurse first before she received hers. We love to play dress up in this household.

However,  I think it is most comical when she has real boo-boos and her choice of treatment for each one. She has a high pain tolerance and up until recently tears would stop as soon as mommy kissed the boo boo. Well now Dr. Brady comes up with a remedy for all of her boo-boos.  For example, in December when she feel down the stairs and busted open her lip, her response "I need chapstick, my lip hurts". Or she scraps her ankle on her wooden step stool "I need socks to make it feel better".  Yesterday, she got a cut between her two fingers "Mommy, I need to wash my hands, my boo boo hurts". And about 30 minutes ago, while watching Sesame Street and sitting in those weird position that toddlers always get themselves into, she jabbed her eyes with her foot, "Mommy, I need ice, my eye hurts". I know you are thinking the last one isn't that strange, but we as a family don't use ice on boo-boos because i just have never had success of them calming down while trying to hold ice on it.

So if you have a boo-boo and don't know how to make it feel better, give Dr. Brady a call and she will know what to do!

"That's what she said.."

Per a request from a blog reader,  I am going to list all of Reese's words (and one sentence) that she currently has in her working vocabulary. The list of words below is the ones she can use without my prompting. Right now she can repeat about any word (one or two syllable) that is said to her.

In no partical order

• milk


• book


• ball


• momma


• daddy


• Brady


• Elmo


• Cookie (as in Cookie Monster)


• banana (or NANA!!!)


• fish


• dog


• water


• baa baa black sheep


• sleep


• eat


• diaper


• hi


• bye bye


• all done (sounds more like all gone)


• quack quack


• Pace (this one is still a question mark)


• the kissing noise


• And her first sentence as of 2/1/10 is...."I want more" and yes she says it in first person

Man, the second child sure does grow up a lot faster!!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Piggy Tails

Safety First

So Karl's new job at the School of Aviation Safety may be my inspiration or is it Brady's cautious nature? Or is my overprotective nature that I had become stronger in me the longer I am a mother...ok so that is it... But yes,  my 13 month old and 2 year old have bike helmets! They don't sell them in their size; the smallest is 3 years. But since my beauties both have heads in the 75+%ile the 3 year size fits with a little tighten of the strap.

The ironic thing is when I got a bike when I first got married, Karl insisted that I wear a helmet. I told him that was silly for me as an adult to wear a helmet. He felt with my various health issues that it was best for me. Good point! Well needless to say I rode my bike with a helmet.

So Reese is in the pink dress and BOO has the blue shirt on. It is hard to tell in some of these photos.









Well when we were playing, I realized I may have taken safety to the extreme. In the picture you can see what Brady did on her own...

Brady put a helmet on her baby doll!


Hey, the saying goes "better safe than sorry"