Self portraits...

Sometimes you just want the goofy big face picture that results from extending your arm as far as it will go (even though it's still not long enough) as opposed to setting the self timer. :-p

Just Ducky Part 2

This is the spring version of the "Just Ducky" outfit...and yes things are still just ducky with us. Love you little man!

Uncle Joshua's Visit

Uncle Joshua was here this week for work- what fun for us! As much as he enjoyed the time with his uncle, I think Brady was wondering ...where's my Aunt Kris? I've got all kinds of spit-up and drool for her!

The kind of day that makes you drool...

well, that's pretty much any day for Brady :) But the weather was a little more spring-like today.Mother Nature was listening and did step up the sunshine. Sweet! We were on our way out to go walking today when Daddy came home early! Yay! What a great surprise! He had a training class and was home by 3:30. We all got to go for a walk and enjoy the weather together. Afterwards Brady got some extra time with Daddy and drooled all over his work clothes. :)

I love baby knees (and wrists and elbows and thighs and breath and pretty much everything)! But I had to take a picture of the chunk knees. Just want to squeeze 'em!

Little Monkey

So I was thinking Brady just wouldn't be able to wear one of these warm sweatsuits I bought for him at a church consignment sale. Well, isn't Mother Nature sweet? She didn't want this adorable outfit to go to waste...that's why it's April and 48 degrees today! Thanks for looking out for us ma'am...but he has some really cute spring clothes to wear too- so step it up Sunshine!

C-Buds Gen 2

We had a partial C-Buds (short for the Cumberland Buds, the self-proclaimed name of Brett's high school buddies) reunion this weekend and introduced the inaugural members of C-Buds Gen 2 to each other. Brady got to meet Ian, Sarah and Bill's 14 month old son. Pictured above are Steve, Jeff, Bill, and Brett with the "mini buds."

After lunch, Brady was exposed to the baby paparazzi. They were trying to photograph his infamous pouty lip and with all the lenses in this face, he gave them what they wanted! ;-p

(Don't) Look Mom...No Hands!
Only daddies play these tossing games with their kids. Mommies stand by, wincing and praying. But then, babies do seem to like it...

Mommy Zen

After hearing of the fun his bud Avi has as a yogi and seeing Kadyn practice the poses, Brady wanted to check out what this yoga business is all about. This morning we attended Mommy Zen, a Mommy and Me yoga class taught at our neighborhood's community center. It was a fun time together...Brady smiled a lot and I was able to stretch out some of the kinks I have from carrying around the little Chubby Cheek Chomper.

Uncle Sonny: the cord blood Banker $$$

Yes indeed, Brady's very own "brownie posse" is growing. Currently little Babraham is still cooking (and on schedule to arrive in June). The picture on the left is from Dec. 29, when Sat and Vik first met (then 9-day-old) Brady. Additionally Pradeep and Maureen publicly announced yesterday that it was no April Fool's Day joke; they have a 1/2 brownie (maybe a blondie?) in the oven. Their timer is set for mid October. Congratulations Mo and PT!!!! The picture on the right is from their visit with one-month-old Brady on Jan. 19. It was only after they left and I viewed a magnified version of the picture that I realized PT's eyes are closed. Oh well...this is a glimpse of how they'll look this fall when they are the happy, but sleep-deprived parents of a one-month-old. ;-p

So this morning Pradeep IM's me asking about umbilical cord blood banking. I replied that yes we did this with Brady and that we could refer them but he'd have to ask Brett for more details because this was a "Brett pregnancy action item." Pradeep replies, "Sonny already beat you to it." Whoa dude! They just announced yesterday that they were expecting! lol! Geez Sonny! You bring whole new meaning to the term cord blood banking. May I remind you all that Sonny still makes fun of Brett for his "part time job in college" earning $10/person for referring people to American Bank???

Now again, this is Daddy territory...it is their task to research this subject while we women are busy growing little people. So Brett claims there is a bigger issue at hand here. He cites the gentleman's agreement among friends and notes that Sonny's offer of assistance to Pradeep actually violates Vik's next-in-line rights. Here's the breakdown:

Sonny (Avi's dad, 4 Dec 2006) referred Basil (Kadyn's dad, 27 May 2007), who declined.
Sonny was not deterred and instead capitalized on my pregnancy by referring Brett (20 Dec 2007).
Brett referred Vik (due June 2008).
Vik SONNY refers Pradeep (due Oct 2008).


So speaking of cord blood banking, I was reminded this morning (when I was telling PT the story) of one of our first proud parents' moments. CBR called the day after Brady was born to confirm receipt of the blood. The message relayed that they liked to have at least 100 million cells collected to store and that Brady's count was "excellent" and nearly 2 billion! (1921.72 million, according to his certificate) We joked and said we could clone the kid with his cord blood cells! Yes, we are proud parents...okay, okay the credit here really goes to my doctor, but we're still proud parents. :)

On borrowed time...

Well, not exactly "borrowed." Unpaid parental leave is the official term. "Warden Brett" (aka CFO in the Luhring household) granted a stay of execution for my freedom to be at home with Brady for 6 more weeks. WHOO HOO! Yay! Thanks Daddy! My (paid) maternity leave is scheduled to end today and I was going to return to work on April 1. I've used all my short term disability and paid vacation. Any time after this is classified as unpaid parental leave, but really it is Totally worth it. As I told my manager, I am just enjoying being Brady's mommy too much! :) Brady is happy about this extended time too. The picture below is another self-timer shot from this morning because it's just us and the dogs home but we're both saying "Yay!" for more time together. btw, the cool "my mom rocks" onesie is another borrowed from the Riley Collection.

Brownie Sunday

Brady had the opportunity to meet a bunch of his Indian uncles and aunties today. Before you know it, Daddy's little "beta" (the Hindi word for son, that Brett uses ALL the time, usually inappropriately and with his "white bread" twist...it's now evolved to "bear-tas!" and he is always saying it to me) will be just like him- eating butta chicken, changing light bulbs to bhangra, and trying to speak Bengali.

I don't know, aside from the fact that Brady's a few shades lighter, they all look pretty comfortable and natural with him...hmm, in addition to Avi and Kadyn, maybe Brady will have his only little "brownie posse" to hang out with soon! ;-p

All of the aunties brought him some adorable clothes (cute little springtime plaid overalls, an adorable preppy button down and sweater vest, and of course Hokie gear! Thank you aunties!) ...watch for them to be posted to Brady's fashion show. :)

Baby Fashion Show...an ongoing series

One of the most fun things about having a kid is the pint-sized clothing you get to dress them up in. :) My neighbor Laura's son Riley is about 6 weeks younger and a little smaller than Brady. Riley received all sorts of hand-me-downs from his cousin. Laura figured he doesn't need them and cannot fit them just yet, so she is letting us borrow them. There are some ultra cute things in the dozens of outfits she brought over. I'll be taking pictures of Brady in them and having an online fashion show. Yeah, I'm sure he'll really appreciate that when he's older...nice, I'm an embarrassing mom already!

First up, we have Brady modeling a piece from the sleepwear collection. This one made me laugh because in addition to the penguins on his feet (which I didn't get a picture of) there is a giant penguin on his butt. Cool! ;-p

We're floored...

and very happy with the way the new hardwood looks. The "other associated work" is just about complete. Thank goodness we did hire installers instead of having Brett do all the work himself (as he thought he might since he had installed hardwood in the condo before). It's just too much for him to do while also working full time and having an infant. However he did want to do the baseboards himself because he wanted to have new taller ones with fresh paint. Well after having the floors done for almost 3 weeks now, Brett finished most of the baseboards this weekend. Hooray!

Here are some before and after shots:










I don't have a before shot of our bedroom. It was carpeted previously.

Happy Hour

It's Friday and we're having happy hour (literally!) at our house. Although there have been some awesome happy hours in our past, the ones we are experiencing these days are the Best! After some visits from the Purple Tera Dactyl during the "bewitching" evening hours, Brady only needed a mirror, some "bye bye Bradys" (where Daddy flaps his arms), and some tickles to be Mr. Happy. We absolutely Love the sound of his belly laugh!!!

As with any good happy hour, the evidence is on Brady's shirt. He shows us in the picture below. It made Daddy reminiscent of Uncle Basil after the Hokie/BC game of this past season. ;-p

Daily dose of vitamin D

What a beautiful day! Lately Brady's liking being held facing out. Today he rode this way in the Baby Bjorn for the first time during a walk. Excuse the spazz picture...it was my first time taking a timer shot with this camera, but I wanted to take one because I thought he looked so cute! As we were strolling along with Romey and getting our daily dose of vitamin D, I kept thinking how great life is. What a gift to enjoy such an amazing spring day with a happy little three-month-old! I was laughing out loud much of the way because Brady was expressing his joy too...he kept sighing happily and going "oooo!" when the wind blew. For the last leg of the trip, his sounds turned to snores and he slept...so cute!

Farm Friends

Among a bunch of other silly things, I often call Brady my "fuzzy bunny" or "bunny bear" (makes no sense, I know). Anyway, I didn't think much about it until I said it to him last night and Chuck goes, "Do you call him bunny? We call her (Gybson) Goose." Which got me thinking, many of Brady's friends have animal nicknames too- Brady is Bunny...Gybson is Goose...Drea is Piggy...Eli is Chicken (btw, her dad Stephen is called "Noodle" by his high school buds...which always made me laugh and wonder if we should start calling her mom Sharon "Soup").

Visiting with Goose

"Everything's bigger in Texas" is what our friend Chuck often likes to say (well he did the entire time we were at the Renaissance Festival with them a few years ago). :-p Anyway, Chuck, Becky, and their daughter Gybson (aka the Goose) were visiting from Texas and we met them for dinner. Indeed Gybson is bigger than Brady...but then she is one full year older. Exactly one year- Gybson was born on December 20, 2006 and of course Brady was born on December 20, 2007. It was really fun catching up with the Consers and seeing what we have to look forward to.

Gybson loves babies and immediately gravitated to Brady. She did seem a little concerned when her mommy was holding Brady, but she handled it well like a big girl and hugged her own little baby doll. Then she hugged her birthday buddy goodbye:

Turn and Burn

My sister says that's what the military calls the type of travel weekend we just had- a "turn and burn." We drove to Charleston, SC on Friday, spent Saturday visiting with family and celebrating Easter, and drove back home on Sunday. Brady did really well in the car and it only took us about 9 hours to get there (with 3 stops) and only a little over 8 (with 2 stops and some major traffic around Fredericksburg) to get home. The 17 hours traveling was well worth the visit with family and the fun we had...

Brady lounged and relaxed a bit. Here he is in some cute springwear. This was the first outfit Grandma Luhring ever got for him. She sent it while Brady was still growing inside me:He also did some workouts/tummy time with Daddy:
Had some male bonding with Uncle Josh and Daddy while they played video games:Got the "royal treatment" from Aunt Kris (she said he looked like the Emperor when she propped him up on her oriental decor pillows):

He even got to ride a bike...
...and a horse too! (Okay, so he's not really a horse, he's Aunt Kris' big doggie Noah. But weighing over 100 lbs. and standing over four feet tall, I'd say he counts as a small pony at least!)
And of course, no visit with Aunt Kris would be complete without a round of target practice. We believe this is Brady's way of showing Aunt Kris how much he loves her. He loves her ALOT! :)