e-i-e-i-o

We daytripped to Richmond today for Avi's 2nd birthday party. This was Brady's first birthday party (not his first birthday party, but his first friend's party). Well, he did attend Eli's second birthday party when he was just one month old...so I guess this was the first friend birthday party he attended that he didn't sleep through. The party was held at a barn in a park and it was so cute! They had animals you could feed...although by the time we went outside to see them, they were already in the barn for the night. So we looked at them in their pens. Brady said "duh" when he saw the sheep. We believe "duh" to be his first word and he means "dog." He has used it consistently for several weeks now and says it when he sees Romey or Sandy...and sheep apparently. In his defense, they kind of did look like big fluffy dogs. :) I'm posting these two pictures for now even though they are not great ones. I do like how you can see Brady's cute ear hat- a fun hand-me-down from Elise, who used to live next door. I'm hoping Uncle Sonny got a better picture with his camera. When he sends it, I'll post it.

Anyway, it was neat to allow Brady to walk around the barn and around the party area. He walks just fine now and is pretty steady. The Tuesday after we posted his walking video (Nov. 25), he stopped needing the encouragement from us to walk in between us. He just started walking to get from place to place and he hasn't stopped since! It's so funny to have this little 2 1/2 foot tall person padding all over the place. He is unable to get up without pulling up on something. So if he's in the middle of the floor, he'll crawl over to something (furniture, a toy, us), help himself up to standing, then take off. It is pretty awesome to have him be independent and follow us around. However, I do hear myself talking to him as if he's Romey or Sandy..."Brady! Come. Come here!" "No Brady, you stay there. Stay." :)

After the party, we went back to Avi's house to hang out and watch the tivo-ed ACC Championship game.

GO HOKIES!
Brady and Avi tried out Avi's new toys.

The "parallel play" of an almost one and two year old.

Brady even sat quietly on the couch with Uncle Sonny. We have no idea how Sonny did it! We cannot get Brady to sit nicely with us on the couch unless we have a bottle in hand. I guess he just loves his Uncle Sonny! He even appeared to be watching the game, and reacting appropriately, at one point (see right- Sonny's worried look, Brady's "aw com'on!" face).