"Lock Up Your Daughters"

This was the fair warning advance notice Brady gave to his girlfriends' parents this weekend by sporting this awesome t-shirt from our Texas buds, the Consers. Today we attended the Thaivalappils' shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Maya.

Funny note: my aunt and uncle from New York arrived at our house just as we were heading out the door. Brady cried a little bit when I handed him off to them and then went out of his line of sight. But go figure...we get to the shower and Brady is right at home among all the brown faces. He was perfectly content the entire time he was passed to the aunties and uncles...some of whom he's very familiar with (like Uncle Satish, Uncle Basil, Auntie Soma, Uncle Pradeep, etc.) and some who had never seen before (like Maya's grandparents- Pradeep's mom and dad). If this does not prove his paternal genetics, I don't know what does! This little boy is definitely Brett's son!

As a reminder of just what we're talking about here, below is a picture from Basil and Soma's wedding about 6 years ago. At one point one of the guys was making fun of Brett for not having his jacket on and sticking out "like a sore thumb." Uh yeah, THAT was what distinguished him in the crowd, not the fact that he's the only glowing white face in the entire crew...it was the lack of jacket for sure. LOL!

Anyway, the shower and visiting with all our friends was so much fun! Brady got to see his #1 gal Kadyn for the first time in a while. They were so cute sitting together. Kadyn asked Brady for a foot rub, and of course the gentleman that he is, he obliged:

B: "ooo...I like your feet."

K: "Will you rub my feet?"

B: "Okay."

B: "Hey, where you goin?"

B: "I wasn't being fresh Uncle.

My daddy says my shirt says it all!"

B: "You want another foot rub?
Okay, but don't get me in any more trouble." :)

They also had a dightie-changing session together followed by some toy sharing:

While the babies shared toys, always-thoughtful Auntie Mo and Uncle Pradeep shared their baby celebration with birthday-boy Daddy. They had a little bday cake, sang to him, and even gave him a present! (an awesome orange Hokie fleece in preparation for the upcoming football season) Thank you Mo and PT!!!!

Uncle Satish laughs with Brady while Uncle Basil pretends to lock up his daughter--

Auntie Mo and Uncle Pradeep even let Brady test drive Maya's walker. He had lots of fun! It was the hovercraft to his Jeep...it allowed him to move sideways in addition to forward and backwards...Awesome!

We stayed for quite a while and Brady was starting to get a little cranky. Uncle Pradeep pulled out this little Nerf airplane that Ritin had left behind and showed it to Brady. That thing was trippy! When you press the button, the airplane propellers move and after a while some psychedelic lights come on. Uncle Praveen put it in front of Brady and commanded, "You will like butta-butta chicken!" (Daddy's favorite Indian dish) Given that Brady has already "embraced the Indian culture" (as Uncle Satish said Daddy did on our wedding video) ;p I'm sure he won't need any additional coaxing to like butter chicken!

We should have taken a family photo earlier in the day instead of when we were all getting tired and cranky (and there weren't tiny fingerprints left by baby hands on the camera lens causing a slightly blurry picture). But we didn't, so we had to use the hypnotic airplane on Brady. The picture below made us all LOL because you can see Uncle Pradeep's hand holding the airplane while Uncle Praveen took this photo. It did not occur to Uncle Praveen to step forward until Brett said, "uh, why don't you get in front of Pradeep when you take the picture?" Always fun times with these guys! :)

And he's off...

After about a week and half of rocking back and forth or taking a few crawling "steps" and falling, Brady's on the move now! I first noticed it yesterday when he took about 5 "steps" towards me. Brett tried to get him to repeat it, but it wasn't happening. This morning I realized Brady just required the proper motivation. He didn't feel like moving towards his toys or us. But when he spotted the tv remote or I put paper within his line of sight, it was ON!

Reduce, reuse, recycle

We've found a new way to recycle in our house. Old magazines become new toys- sweet! :) Brady LOVES paper. Tonight while I was getting his bath ready, I sat him outside the bathroom and gave him a magazine I was done reading. He went to town and happily sat destroying thumbing through it while he waited.

Huffing and Puffing

Brady had his first finger food this weekend...banana flavored Puffs. These are like Cheerios, but are designed for babies because they dissolve almost instantly when they are wet. Seeing as Brady only has two spuds, which are like less than half teeth :) and they're the front bottom ones, he's not able to chew hard food. Gumming is as good as it gets. I remember reading Soma's account of Kadyn's first finger foods and giggling because it was adorable. Soma, we had a similar experience with the difficulty in the release...too cute! I thought self feeding would be easy because Brady puts Everything in his mouth. Go figure that the one thing he's supposed to put in his mouth...he didn't. He would smash them with his hands (such a little boy!) or squeeze them in his palm. At first he only ate them if we held them...then it was almost instinctual to mouth them. We guided his hands and finally he would bring his hand up to his mouth himself. But often times the Puff would be stuck to his hand and he'd wind up sucking his thumb. It was making me laugh...it was like he was playing that magic shell game or being a magician for himself.
Where's the puff?

Learning the art of conversation

Romey's doing his part to help develop Brady's language skills. He's actually been talking to his little bro since he was 3 days old. He sees me chattering away to Brady all the time as I narrate life and expose him to language. This afternoon Romey was his narrator. Brady attended well. However Romey was a poor model of turn-taking skills...he's a conversation hog...he hardly let Brady get a word in! Not for lack of Brady's trying though. If you listen carefully you can hear Brady's quiet "da" sounds over Romey's incessant barking.

You can't have cookies for breakfast...

But you can teethe on a plastic Oreo at 7:00 in the morning. :)

At 7.5 months, Brady's 2 bottom teeth finally poked through today...we have spuds!!! He's also getting going on crawling...sort of. He did it for the first time today. He goes one or two "steps" forward, then falls, and marine crawls or rolls the rest of the way to the object he's seeking.

Sealed With A Kiss

When I picked Brady up at daycare today, just-turned-8-year-old Angie (who is the niece of Miss Adela and Miss Flori...she is there for summer camp) said to me, "Brady is married to me now." I said, "Oh really? How do you know?" She said, "because he kissed me on the mouth today." So there you have it.

Modified Child's Pose

I went to check on Brady tonight as I always do. Okay, so he really doesn't need to be checked on, but I love to peek at him and watch him sleep...he's just so sweet. He usually stirs a little when I go in, but tonight he didn't move at all. He was sound asleep with a slight congested snore. This was the first time in a while that I didn't put him in his sleepy-sack. We need to get the next size up because I'm not sure he can completely stretch out in his current one. Anyway, so he slept in just a little footless outfit. When I peeked at him, he looked so adorable with his little diaper butt raised up in the air and his hands snuggled beneath him in his modified yoga child's pose position. I had to chance taking a picture so that I could capture this moment. He didn't even flinch when the flash went off.

I. Love. This. Sweet. Sweet. Boy.

Do you have your VIC card?

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! :)

Uncle Basil's Fiesta

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!!

Mommy's Mom

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!)

Another happy Friday

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.

"Wanna play ball?"

Outdoor command center

Yes, he can control his little world from outside on the porch as well. Again, we Love this toy! :)

Rack 'em up!