This Very Important Customer had a new experience @ Harris Teeter today. He finally got to ride in the front of the grocery cart instead of in the basket in his car seat or in the bjorn or sling. Nosy boy was Loving it! He kept twisting around to see all the colorful things the store has to offer. He also really enjoyed kicking his feet. Oh, and going through the checkout was fun too!
There was a good sale on kids...
this one seemed to be the best of the bunch. So we took him home! :)
We were out to celebrate Uncle Basil's birthday tonight. Happy Birthday Uncle Basil...thanks for being born! Thanks for dinner Auntie Soma! Brady had a great time hanging out with the aunties and uncles. He had his own dinner then took a little siesta @ Guajillo but did wake up after we had been @ Cafe Asia for a bit. He was a little squirmy, but was content playing with Auntie Hema's wristlet, which she thought was hysterical. She tried to tell Brett about how enamored Brady was with her purse, but when she offered it to him in his daddy's presence he didn't even give it a second glance. :p
Another daddy-in-training
Piyush and Toby are expecting their first child in January! Congratulations!!
I read on another blog once that "sometimes moms just need their moms." This week my mom had come to help out with Brady and being her usual self, wound up helping me out with Everything! After a very full week of taking care of Brady, the dogs, our house, and ME (!), Meemaw is going home today. Even though she had to use vacation from her full time job at Nascar to be here, I think she needs a vacation after this week she's had with us! It was more like a vacation for me...yummy home cooked meals (and leftovers too!); a clean house and laundry; and a happy kid and dogs...and I hardly did a thing! Thanks Mom!!!
btw, isn't this little baller outfit a riot? It's the first time I've put him in it, and unfortunately he's already growing out of it. I love it though! He totally looks like a little player. :) (and the fabric is awesome, so easy to clean- baby food, milk, and drool just wipe right off it!)
Meemaw's off to dinner with Tim, her former boss @ Nascar (who now works for the Redskins and lives just a few miles away from us!) and Brady's off to bed.
"Ma-ma does everything for the baby, who responds by saying Da-da first." ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
You know the Bill Cosby "Himself" routine from 1983 where he describes how as a father he works so hard with his son teaching him the game of football, letting the boy tackle him, etc....then the boy plays in a college football game on tv, makes a big play, and then looks in to the camera and says, "Hi Mom!" That's nothing compared to the moms who grow their babies, birth their babies, feed their babies, diaper their babies, clean their babies, Love their babies, etc....then have the first "word-like sound" that comes out of that same baby be "dada dada." I've heard countless stories of this from other mamas, but as a former speech therapist I know that these sounds naturally develop first. :) Today Brady finally started vocalizing the consonant-vowel repetition babble (when he wasn't upset). All he's been saying all day is "dadadadadada."
As Bill says, "Well, you don't mind that...you know who taught him." :)
By the time it occurred to us to stop laughing and take some video, Brady wasn't too talkative. But my mom and I were cracking up because he said "dada" for literally everything today. I was sitting on the couch with him. We're nose to nose and he looks at me and says, "da. da." and I said, "mama?" He immediately replies, "dada." "Dada" was his response to every word or sound we said to him all day long. It was comical!
So apparently Brady can hold his bottle by himself...he doesn't always tip it to get to the milk, but we learned yesterday that he can hold it up to his mouth independently. We haven't given him a bottle at home in a while because he nurses here and only gets bottles at daycare. This week daycare is closed for vacation and Meemaw is in town to care for him while I'm working. It was news to me yesterday when she told me that he holds the bottle himself, but sure enough he does!
Meemaw also taught Brady to drive his car yesterday. Previously he just sat in his Jeep and sometimes pushed backwards. If you wanted him to go forward, you had to tow his Jeep by pulling him along. ;p But Meemaw enticed him with toys and encouraged him to use his Fred Flintstone mobile like it was intended. He was motoring all over the place! Meemaw had to stop him and cite him for speeding a few times! Well, today he combined his two new tricks and our result is that Brady now drinks and drives:
Have you gone M.A.D.D.? :)
Deciding that drinking while trying to operate his Jeep was too distracting and that his Mother was Against it, ;p Brady sat with Meemaw and a pillow prop on the couch to have his early lunch.
Some pictures from breakfast at IHOP this morning. Seeing as this is something like the fourth time I've mentioned the acclaimed International House of Pancakes, it's also my attempt to document my indulging Brett when he asks, "Can we go to IHOP?" Funny how the tides have changed. A few years ago it was always me always asking him that and he who begrudgingly went. I was hooked on cheese blintzes with blueberry compote. But then one day the love affair ended. Unfortunately it was about the same time that Brett struck up an IHOP romance of his own with the ham, egg, and cheese melt. So here we are again. It does make for some good people watching for Brady though...lots of babies and kids...and that keeps him amused and quiet.
Thank Goodness It's FAVday! Yay! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past two days (80's and low humidity...it's like early fall weather in July!). This morning we had a nice walk around the neighborhood, then we had breakfast, then Brady had a nap and I had cleaning time, then we sat out on the porch together. It was so perfect! I took a bunch of timer and self-portrait pictures to remember how fun it was just the two of us hanging out. As I was reviewing them I was LOL because in many of the pictures our facial expressions look similar...it's totally unplanned (I really was not mimicking him) and the results are funny!
Then we had a long overdue meet-up with our buds Kellan (and Danisa) and Oliver (and Christin). It's been forever since I've seen these wonderful women and Brady's seen his pals (well, it was April when the moms and boys got together. In May we had a mommies night out to see the Sex and the City movie). The boys are growing up so fast! It was really fun to stroll the mall and catch up on what the boys are doing and what we've been doing.The hives reappeared at around noon today. I noticed them when we got to the mall. That is really strange because Brady had bananas, but at 9:00 this morning. Again, they sort of went away by themselves. But when we got home around 2:00, I noticed Brady looked like his winter baby self- with rosy red cheeks and Rudolph's nose. I tried to take pictures of it in natural light (so the camera wouldn't flash and I could see the redness). I put him in the solarium where I knew the floor was clean. This was the first time I let Brady lay around on the hardwood and some of the pictures are actually pretty good (or funny as they depict real life and close-up drool).
He looks like a big boy the way he's sitting in this picture, doesn't he?
We also got to meet our newest neighbor Sawyer today! Riley (who is 6 weeks younger than Brady) is our neighbor to the one side and now Sawyer (who is 7 months younger than Brady) is our neighbor on the other side. I'm sure these boys will be best buds...they'll all be in the same grade in school! Riley, Brady, and Sawyer...how awesome that sounds together! Too cool!
We had our first unscheduled "un-well" doctor's visit today. Miss Omayma, Brady's daycare provider, called me this afternoon to tell me that although Brady was not acting any different, he had what appeared to be a rash develop on his right leg, both arms, and his face. She asked me to please come pick him up. I get there and little man does seem quite happy, but has red spots and raised bumps in those places. I called the doctor and we had an appointment within 15 minutes time (it was 4:15 and the receptionist said, "the next available appointment is @ 4:30...that won't work will it?" I replied, "Yes, we'll be there in 10 minutes.") Oh, by the weigh (pun intended- haha!) they weighed him so we have an official stat to update his 7 month mark- 18 lbs. 9 oz.
The doctor confirmed that they were hives and that his body was reacting to something. She said he appeared fine otherwise and that we could use Children's Benadryl if necessary. She advised us try to figure out what set it off. We've been following the 4 day rule when introducing new food. But the doctor informed me that some allergic reactions can appear weeks after the baby's been eating the food. Well, what's the point of the 4 day rule then? lol! So anyway, I'll be conducting my own medical research this weekend (and this week when he is home here with my mom since his daycare is closed for vacation). I'm going to feed him the same things he had today (oatmeal, bananas, and sweet potatoes) in isolation and watch for more reactions. We'll see.
I brought my camera to the doctor's office to document this first "un-well" visit, but the battery was dead. doh! I tried to take pictures of the allergic reaction after Brady's bath tonight (when the doc said it might flare up again). But believe it or not, it's gone already!
As you can see there's nothing wrong with little man...
as he gives me the hand in Hollywood star vs. paparazzi fashion:
Really there's nothing wrong...he's just goofy by nature. :)
Another "fun baby gadget/invention" brought to us by Aunt Dee-Dee...the shampoo visor. You use it to wash kids' hair without getting soap and water in their eyes and ears. It works okay now, but I imagine it'll be even better when Brady understands what "rinse! tip your head back" means. The visor is cute though...I think he looks like a banker.
This Very Important Customer had a new experience @ Harris Teeter today. He finally got to ride in the front of the grocery cart instead of in the basket in his car seat or in the bjorn or sling. Nosy boy was Loving it! He kept twisting around to see all the colorful things the store has to offer. He also really enjoyed kicking his feet. Oh, and going through the checkout was fun too!
