One year old

Happy Birthday Brady!

WOW! Where has the time gone and how is it that Hippo and the rocking chair keep shrinking? :) It is completely wild to think that one year ago we were in the hospital all day waiting for Brady to make his grand entrance. That happened at 11:05 PM and was the most incredible moment of our lives. It is even more unbelievable to us to realize that we love this amazing little person more and more every day.



Brady now walks completely on his own and has been doing so for about a month now. Just after his 11 month birthday, he just took off. Lately he's even gotten better at getting up in the middle of the floor without pulling up on something. His "down-dog" yoga position get up is so cute and I've always loved how toddlers squat to pick things up...I could watch him all day long! There are a few times we've seen him walk so fast and determined that it appears to be a run. He thoroughly enjoys being able to get around quickly and explore the world around him.

He has 8 teeth- four upper and four lower. For now they are seem pretty straight and make an adorable smile (obviously he got Daddy's dentals. Whoohoo! I hope they stay like Daddy's- straight, strong, and healthy!) When he was first getting teeth, I thought I'd miss his gummy grin. I did love that goober face, but his little boy smile melts my heart too.

He still says "da" for just about everything, but he definitely has inflection and tone. He adds a squeal that communicates his excitement very well. He increases his volume and uses a deeper tone when he's insisting. (We often tell him he can be quite bossy when this is accompanied by his funny little point...more on that in another post.) Lately he's also an excellent parrot and attempts to imitate what we say, but uses the "da da" of course. We think he really believes he's saying what he hears. Honestly when you couple his tone and inflection with just a little imagination, it kind of does sound like it...or at least it's suffice to say that we are thoroughly entertained (*sigh* parents!). For example we will say, "thank you!" in a sing-song voice and he will consistently reply "daa doo" in the same sing-song voice. We think he's signing "milk" and "more" consistently...but we're still in the process of testing that hypothesis. :)

He's eating everything we eat, with the exception of some citrus, sweets (poor kid...but I eat enough for both of us!), and of course nuts. Cheerios are still his favorite. He also seems to love tomato sauce. When all else fails, we give him pasta and vegetables with tomato sauce and cheese and he's content. He drinks whole milk and water and starting tomorrow will do this from sippy cups 100% of the time...no more bottles. Such a big boy!

Weight: 24 lbs. 4 oz. (70th percentile)
Height: 30.5 inches (75th percentile)

Visiting Santa

It's obligatory...he's already met the Easter Bunny, so we just had to introduce Brady to Santa and get his picture taken. He did fine, just didn't feel like smiling. He was much more interested in the playground that is the mall! I'm not talking about the kiddie play-stations they have in the mall. I'm talking about the actual mall- an awesome place to walk...and walk...and walk; to play on clothes racks; to touch all kinds of fabrics and textures; to try and climb the displays. Brady had so much fun! I know exactly where we're going when Brady somehow gets bored with the bazillion toys he has at home. Meemaw, Brady, and I were all tired by the time we left. :)

Collegiate prepster

Grandma Luhring is always saying, "Grandpa has Brady starting Virginia Tech next year." Grandpa is proud of his smart little grandson. :) In this preppy argyle cardigan this morning, Brady definitely looked the part...very collegiate. Well, I suppose it's only "very collegiate" if you disregard the fact that he's eating a spoon and pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree- haha!

Love this "Popeye-looking" one ;p

Brady's actually been very good with the tree this year. He pulls ornaments off and carries them around, but as long as we're supervising the extraction, he's been pretty gentle and we haven't had any "tree incidents" yet.

Our little snow man

Every night Brady sleeps in footie jammies. Tonight the laundry basket is overflowing with footies so we put him in these cute snowman pjs that Kelley gave us (and then he had a sleepy sack on top...he hasn't worn one of those since before he could stand up...we'll see how that goes when he wants to get up in the morning). Anyway, I thought he looked so cute with his big ole' belly popping out. Also, Daddy preempted any solo exits from bed by moving Brady's crib mattress to the lowest setting tonight and we wanted a picture of it. Brady hasn't attempted any escapes yet, but he is a wonderfully curious kid and we figure it would only have been a matter of time.

Big trouble

Daddy thinks this is very funny...the fact that big boy Brady is upright often and now realizes he can reach things if he just uses his tippy toes. Here he's reaching for the colorful Rubik's Cube. We do recognize that it's funny now (when we're watching him), but that it's also the Trouble with Big! :)

And we're back...

There's been a lot going on in The Luhring Life...we've been too busy (and tired!) living it, to blog about it. But I do want it documented for us- that's a large part of why I blog. It's for our friends and relatives who want to keep up with us and it's for US. I used to scrapbook, but haven't done that since 2004 when we got married. This is a faster way for me to log our memories. So I'm apologizing in advance for the flood of posts that's coming...but then that's how our life has been lately. :)

Nose prints and hand prints

It used to be doggie nose prints you'd find on the windows next to our front door. Now it's little hand prints. They're both adorable. I like them...and hopefully that explains why these windows are always so messy in our house. :p Brady says goodbye to Daddy in the morning in much the same manner that he watches Romey outside. The difference is he often shouts "Da da da da!" when Brett is outside. He still doesn't use "Da da" consistently for Brett ("da" is everything from Brett to me to the decorations on the wall). But I do believe the shouting "Da da da da!" that Brett can hear from the outside is music to his ears. :)

"Da da da da!"

Hey, where'd he go? On tip toes for a better view.

Big man, little version

It's actually in the 60's here today and with the warmer weather, Brady wore some of his lighter clothes before he grows out of them- like his fun green checkered button-down. I really do love little boy clothes...especially when they are put together like big boy clothes! I love the t-shirt and jeans with the unbuttoned shirt over them. Since this boy is constantly on the move these days, I just kept clicking away and took a bunch of pictures. They capture Brady today at this moment in time. Oh, and seriously some of the things they come up with for kids' shirts are hysterical! I saw this "Diaper Loading...72% Complete" shirt in Walgreens last year and couldn't pass it up! Funny stuff!

This afternoon after daycare, Brady was a little cranky. He was just sort of rolling around on the floor fussing...and he looks over and who's right there next to him snuggling and fussing too? His "duh." It was very cute. Romey did another duet with Brady and made his own fussy play-growls to go along with Brady's. Brady's crankiness stopped and he began laughing when Romey licked him. Good boy Romey. :)

Fireside Chat

One of our recent FavDay finds was this cute little mini leather rocking chair. I'm not sure we're keeping it yet. (It was almost as much as a big person leather chair and we don't even have those!) :) But for now, Brady seems to like the addition of "his size" furniture to the family room.

The Return of FavDay

It's been a while since we've had one of our true FavDays. Between appointments, holiday visits, work, and just life's busy-ness, we haven't had our quality-time day together to play and get things done. Today FavDay returned...on Monday. YAY!!! Brady's daycare was closed and I switched my days off this week. We got all sorts of things done and had Fun together! It was perfect!

First we played a little b-ball...

Down low
Hey, no traveling!

Then we played chase. Brady Loves getting under the kitchen table. Like Romey, it appears his "denning instinct" is strong. :) It's a little worrisome and we are constantly trying to warn him to watch his head...and hearing mini bonks! sometimes followed by a wail. :(

Duck! ----------------- Good job!

Then we checked off items on our "To Do" list-
Grocery shopping...I'm sure the folks at Harris Teeter are going to ban my camera from their store one day.
Christmas shopping at the outdoor outlets...it was a little chilly

I was stopped by so many people telling me how cute this little bear jacket and boots were. Thank you Kelley...we Love them too!!! I also love the little overalls- not only are they adorable, they're fleece-lined...So nice and warm! Thank you for letting us borrow them Sawyer!

A short stack for the short stack

It was another lazy Sunday around here...Love These! We stayed in pjs and comfy clothes, ate pancakes, and played. I made Brady a short stack of mini blueberry pancakes. He seemed to like them. :)

He did allow us to snuggle with him on the couch today...but notice how we have to bribe him with food. Brett's having cheese and crackers with him and he has a bottle while he's resting with me. Oh well, we'll take what we can get! Love you little man!

Cute how they're both kind of giving the "thumbs up!"