ANOTHER catch up!!

So I know I haven't been keeping up, like at all. Sorry for that. It's hard to get a second when you're having to watch your 9 month old like a hawk all day long. Even during naps, I find myself 10 steps behind. There's just not enough time in the day. But I'm here now, if only for a minute, but I am here!

Let's see, there has been a lot going on lately. We took Braden to the doctor to get a check up. He's still our little peanut, but he's gaining and staying on his curve now, so that's a good thing! As of Friday he is 16 pounds 8 ounces (they marked down 7 because the scale landed on 7 after he managed to get his feet all the way up by his ears), but we saw 8 the whole time before he started wiggling so we're sticking to that! anyway that keeps him in the 2nd % for weight, little string bean! oh, and he's 27 1/2 inches long.
On Sunday we discovered that his two bottom teeth have finally popped through, so now he's on his way to having 2 full grown bottom teeth!
And his new tricks: showing us his muscles! and waving! We have no idea if he knows what he's doing when he waves yet, but he's got the motion down, so we'll count it.
Oh! He can also crawl like a normal kid now. (I really didn't know if that would ever happen!) He still throws in a slug now and then but I think it's safe to say he's not too freakish with the crawling thing anymore. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

It was pretty warm here for a few days. Today it was in the low 80s but I'm not counting that since it feels so cool compared to 104 degrees which is what it was the other day. And yes, it is May, just to remind you. But we've been able to take Braden swimming a couple of times, so that's been fun. He's just as mellow in the water as he is out of it. We've managed to dunk him a couple of times each time we've been. It doesn't even phase him! Well... except for the last time Chris did it, I think he swallowed a little water, which he wasn't too happy about. Oops. Oh well, what doesn't kill him only makes him stronger, right?!

Me? I had my first official Mother's Day. It was actually a pretty relaxing day, which is always nice. I got to sleep in, woke up to breakfast being made for me. We went to lunch over at Chris's brother's house. Then my mom came over for a bit later in the evening. I was pretty tired at that point so I asked Chris if we could skip going out to dinner, so we did. We watched a movie and I had Chris pick up some fried chicken instead! WHAT? I could eat whatever I wanted to eat, it was MY day! Other than that, I managed to get my hair cut yesterday, which was really nice seeing as how I haven't gotten it cut in 6 months. This mommy thing can really suck the presentableness (yes it's a word) right out of a girl!

Chris has (I think) 10 more days of school left before he's out for the summer! We plan on getting a lot of our backyard done during the two months he's off. And it's a lot! I hope doing all the backyard work will help me work off this mommy gut I've got going on before Summer's over!

Our backyard plans:
Break up the current concrete patios
Replace them with new ones
Kill off all the weeds
Replace them with grass
Plant 25 Italian Cypress trees along the back sound wall
Build 2 water features to muffle the traffic sounds
MAYBE build a bocce ball court (Chris wants one so desperately, me not so much)
Build at least one pergola for the side entertaining patio, maybe another one later for the back patio
and get a nice above ground pool to jump into when it's all finished!

We'll see how much we get done in time for Braden's 1st birthday party! If we get a lot done, we'll host it here, if not it'll be up at the neighborhood park.

I leave you with some pictures... and even a video this time! Don't you feel so lucky??

Holy crap this post took forever! Uploading pictures really does take a long time!
Enjoy!

Braden's 1st time swimming

My little baldy

Braden on Mother's Day

Me on Mother's Day...
(Guess who forgot to take a picture of the two of us on Mother's Day? That's right, me! BAD MOMMY!)
Eating pizza
Showing off his muscles!
About to go swimming for the 2nd time!Getting his technique down"I will be a professional swimmer by age..."Chillin' out poolside After his dad splashed him!After his dad dunked him!After showing off his guns... what a silly face!His first two teeth!Be grateful, these were hard shots to get!He ate an entire cream cheese sandwich and then more food!
(Yes I did cover his high chair with a plastic garbage bag!)
The long awaited video of him showing off his muscles!

EUREKA!!! I figured it out!

So I finally figured out why Braden hasn't been sleeping! I kinda figured it had something to do with this but now I'm sure! With his new found skill (pulling himself up to a stand), came the need to practice it all the time. So when we'd put him in his crib, he'd instantly go to a standing position. This might be alright when he learns how to get himself down, but he can't do that yet, so he gets stuck. Then Mom or Dad needs to go in and help him down. Then he gets mad because we just came in but didn't get him up, so he get's frustrated and stands up again. Then we have to go back in. Can you see a cycle happening here? I try to leave him in there to let him figure it all out, but he usually gets so upset he falls and wooden bars + little Braden head = not a calming situation. So we stuck him in his Pack 'n Play. I think it was like 5:30am and Braden was wide awake. Neither of us were getting up that early, especially since it had been a long night of Braden waking up every 2 hours to practice standing, so we figured he could stand in there and if he fell it wouldn't hurt- it's got mesh sides and no wood. But instead we found that he CAN'T stand in there. He hasn't figured out how to push against the mesh, so he has nothing to grab onto to lift himself. So what does he do instead? He SLEEPS!!!!! So that's where he's been taking his naps and where we've put him for bedtime. And it's worked! He took all of his naps yesterday and only woke up once during the nighttime. Thank goodness we figured it out just in the nick of time. A week of no naps and wakeful nights... I was starting to go a bit nutty!

9 Months Old!

Braden is 9 months old today! Boy has the time flown by! Unfortunately he's decided to go backwards with his sleeping skills though, so I've been pretty exhausted the past 3 days. We figure his sleeping needs might be changing right now to where he doesn't need to go down as often. Or something. I really don't know. I'm just doing my best to figure it out so I can finally stop walking around this house like a zombie. I would like him to know that I don't like the new 6:15 am wake up time though. So Braden, if you're reading this... knock it off! Kthanks. =D

In other news, our little guy can now pull up to a standing position! I've been wanting to get him an activity table for awhile now, but just never got around to getting one. Bad Mommy! Some of Braden's vbffs have them and were starting to pass him up on the milestones, so we decided to borrow Braden's cousin's from when he was little. The instant we set it up for him, he crawled straight over and pulled himself up to a standing position! He's been trying really hard to pull himself up using our couch, but it's awkward and a bit tall, so he's never managed to do it, but I figured he probably could, and he CAN. So yay for him! The next morning I walked into his room to get him up for the day, and there he was, standing up in his crib for the first time, smiling back at me! Of course I had to run and grab the closest camera I could find, unfortunately that was my camera phone, but at least I got pictures! However crappy they may be, they're still pictures! That day we went and bought him his own activity table, and he loves it!! Now he pulls himself up on everything, and I mean everything. It's actually a little exhausting, especially because he hasn't learned how to get himself down yet. So he just stands there and whines and looks at us like we're being so cruel by just sitting there and laughing at him. I mean, oops, yeah maybe that is a little cruel. But we can't help but laugh! Doesn't he know all he needs to do is bend his legs and fall on his little butt? Well... I guess not. Anyway, now that he's getting more comfortable standing up, he's starting to move around the table a bit. I'm excited for him to start catching on to moving his feet, but another part of me finds myself doing the same thing over and over again-- wishing for things to speed up and happen and then regretting it as I spend all day long chasing after him and watching his every move in order to save him from another bump on his head. Motherhood is exhausting, why didn't anyone warn me??

What a random post. I feel like I just brain farted that entire thing out. Oh well, don't be picky, at least you got to read SOMETHING!

As always... pictures!

Playing in his tunnel!

Second or third time he'd pulled himself up... he's so proud of himself!

Yumm!

Standing up in his crib for the first time! So excited!!

And finally...
9 months old!!


With his table!

Why yes I am eating painter's tape...
Such a handsome little dude!