Sold!

Our newest purchase...Can't believe it's already time to get rid of the infant carrier. My little boy is growing so so quickly!

Rough and Tough....and a question for moms!

After battling the "what to do" in my head all week, I broke down and called the pediatrician today. Since Sunday, Brayden has woken 2-4 times a night, been seriously congested, not eaten well, and screamed while being put to bed. All of these things are out of the norm for him. When I called to check on him today, my child care provider said he had only eaten 4 ounces and hardly wet any diapers.

That did it!!!!

I called and we were on our way to see the doctor at 4:00.

Final diagnosis...

He did in fact have a cold, which was overseen because he ran fever from his 6 month shots. And from that cold Brayden is experiencing his first ear infection. The doctors comment was: what a tough boy! I'm sure he is hurting...and here he is laughing and smiling!

So...

why does mommy look like the sick one...

Well you go from sleeping through the night, then up 4 times a night!!!! I guess my baby boy is a lot tougher than me! But I'm okay with that... :)

At the doctor, we found out Brayden has gained another pound in just a week! WHAT!?! A pound AND been sick... CRAZY! So this has put a slight push into our car seat shopping! So all you mommies out there...any car seat advice. After my research and consumer report data, we are thinking we will go with the Britax Roundabout 50.

But I'd still love to hear your thoughts before our big purchase!!!

Always looking cool...

Looking cool at 3 months...
Still looking cool at 6 months!

Super Saturday!

Brayden has been running fever from his 6 month shots all weekend. And on top of that he is fighting a cold, so he is really congested. He took only two short 45 minute naps today, so you can only imagine the fussiness! We decided to get out of the house. We thought it would help Brayden to be elevated in his carrier, and he is such an "on the go" baby, we knew he'd love to get out. So where to you take your baby when you just want to get out:

BABIES R US!!

First we check out car seats, then we looked at Halloween costumes. I'm determined not to buy a Halloween costume, but I just might break! He has so many precious Halloween outfits, I think it would be crazy for us to buy a costume too!

So after that we made our way through the precious baby shoes and into the "bigger boy" section of the store where daddy and Brayden played dress up with the cowboy clothes!!

Next we headed over to the new "holiday" section to search for my Christmas presents (knowing they would never make it until then!) In every aisle, daddy had to play with EVERYTHING and then we checked to see if Brayden liked it. First the piano, then the tickle me Elmo, then the trucks, then the toy cell phones...you get the picture! I don't know who had more fun on our Saturday afternoon out....daddy or Brayden!?!

A First For Mommy

I have been super excited about Brayden's first big holiday. Mommy and Travis are coming over to trick-or-treat with us...like the 3 houses we are going to. Then we plan on passing candy out to the actual trick-or-treaters!

I have been wanting to carve a pumpkin for the porch, but since it was a first for me, I figured I'd try it at work first. (I teach first grade if you didn't know) The kids at school were super excited. We did a big pumpkin unit and celebrated our learning by carving our own pumpkin. We estimated the circumference, predicted how many seeds, and guessed the age of our pumpkin. Then we cut her open and explored the inside. We voted on what to carve into our pumpkin...

All I have left to say is..

The whole pumpkin carving thing is MUCH harder than it looks!!! If you can't tell...we made a bat! I'm glad Brayden won't be able to remember this pumpkin!

6 Months

I can hardly believe my little boy is 6 months old. I still feel like he was just born, and I can still recall every feeling I had that day. This past week we went to our 6 month well check up and got the following report:

• 18 pounds, 6 ounces-75th percentile
• 26.5 inches long-50th percentile
• 10th percentile for head! Yeah!! Had a fear of "big head baby" syndrome!
• able to move to 2nd level baby foods
• had 6 immunizations

About 12 hours after his shots he started running fever. I have always scheduled his appointments for Friday in case this happened. That way he wouldn't be in child care and we have to leave work. However...mommy made a THURSDAY appointment this time since all was well the other two times. Shame on Mommy. So we had to leave work and pick up Brayden with 102 fever and come home. He has had a rough 24 hours and woke up in the middle of the night last night for the first time in FOREVER! But he hasn't had high fever since yesterday afternoon, so we are hopeful that the worst is over.

Some other fun things about our precious 6th month old are:

• he's starting to want to sit up on his own! he can support himself for about 5 seconds now...it's too funny!
• he's wanting to feed himself
• he's moved to size 4 diapers
• he's eating 3 meals a day and one bottle before bed
• he's starting to be very alarmed at loud noises-and cried for the first time when Cali barked last week
• no stranger anxiety-however the doctor tells me "Brooke...it WILL come and it WILL be much harder to leave him in the mornings then...but it's just a phase." Great-looking forward to that one...like leaving him isn't hard enough!
• he likes to look out the window in the car
• he's close to needing a new car seat, so we are in the shopping market for one now!
• he creeps everywhere on his tummy
• he's actually starting to want a paci
• he's not sucking his thumb as much, only when it's bedtime

At first, I didn't want him to grow a day more! I wanted Brayden to stay my little baby boy forever. I always want him to be my precious baby boy, but I'm loving each growing day more and more.

Every girl's crazy about a sharp dressed little man...

Brayden looking gorgeous in his new Gymboree clothes :)

Christmas every day!

It is Christmas every day in the Bridges house! Everything I have bought Brayden for Christmas I have ended up giving him! This weekend I let him have the Leap Frog drum. It lights up and plays music, and when he hits it, it repeats the ABC's. It's too cute. And anything this boy can do with his hands he loves! Wonder what present he will get next...

In with the new...

Lately Brayden has been desperately wanting to hold his own bottle. He just can't support an 8 ounce bottle though, so I thought I'd try an introduction to a transition cup. We bough him the NUK sippy cup (which he loved!) and he was able to feed himself-for like 30 seconds! We are going to keep working on it! He's just getting more and more independent everyday!

Wondering?

I always wonder how Brayden gets himself into the positions he does!? He wakes up in crazy places and positions in the crib, creeps to corners no where near where I had him, or I turn around for 2 seconds (literally) and he has gotten his legs twisted around the play mat bars! Today I just sat back and watched. It was amazing how quickly he moved in 6 seconds! I think the baby days are over...he's officially a little boy on the go! I just can't believe how quickly the time went!

Still holding strong!

When Brayden was born, advice from others started coming left and right. One of the most difficult pieces of advice thrown my way was:

Don't hold that baby so much...it will make him rotten! It will make him spoiled! It will make him not want to be held by other people! He will have to be held to get to sleep!

Seriously!


Well guess what?

I held him then...And I'm STILL holding him now!

And for the record...my son doesn't mind anyone else holding him, he doesn't have to be held OR rocked to get to sleep, he doesn't have stranger anxiety, and well okay...maybe he is a little rotten! But I'm pretty sure holding him isn't what did that :) So to all my new mommy friends...you hold those sweet babies!

Sitting Support

Brayden is desperately wanting to sit up on his own. He just can't quite get the hang of it yet. Today he figured out if he held onto his play mat rattle he wouldn't fall over! He hung on for dear life! It was too funny! What will he figure out tomorrow...

More Firsts...

Brayden has been aware of his feet for quiet some time now...but in the past few days he has really started to play with them. Changing his diaper is quiet easy these days...as you can see!! Usually he is kicking and laughing and trying to grab my hair when I change him, but now he has a distraction! Won't be too long before he figures out they reach his mouth! Everything else ends up there...

6 vs 6

6 weeks...

6 months...


I love my sweet boy!

Take note...

If we didn't know any better, we would say that Brayden said his first word tonight. Now, being the intellegent people we are...we know this isn't the case. But...it sure sounded like Brayden (in midst his babble) said "mama" tonight at dinner. Yes you heard me...not dada, but mama. And "mama" is so glad that "dada" was there to hear it!!! (That's so wrong!) Daddy and I both looked at each other and had to laugh! Then as we were laughing he said it again. This made mommy very very happy :)

And he's up...

Sitting up that is!!!

By no means is this little boy FULLY supporting himself, but he SO wants to! He can sit up for about 30 seconds without falling over, and he is starting to try and pull himself up whenever we put him down. He hasn't figured how to look around and keep his balance though. It's too funny. My sweet baby is turning into a precious big boy!!! I'm amazed everyday at how much he has learned to do!

TV time with daddy

Daddy hasn't liked Brayden trying to steal his remotes. You can't sit them anywhere near him or he will be reaching out and fussing to get them! But during the football game, he gave up and let Brayden play with the remote to keep him entertained and happy!

Out with the old...NO WAY!

These were my daddy's clothes when he was little :)

Time of our lives

Daddy and mommy both have birthday's in November, so tonight we were trying to decide what the other wanted. After a few minutes of thinking daddy made a SO SO true comment:

You know...the things I want have just changed so much. They aren't important like they used to be. If you get me just a soccer chair or something I'll be happy. Those "things" we used to want just don't seem as important anymore.

What a brilliant man I married...and I couldn't agree with him more! Having Brayden has just made such a priority switch in our lives that those "things" we wanted for our birthday's or Christmas just aren't as important anymore. Now we want to GIVE to our precious baby boy instead of GETTING for ourselves. I can't wait to enjoy the giving season we are about to enter. I'm just having the time of my life with my boys, and the memories I make with them are the only things I want to GET in this life.

Where's Brayden??

There he is!!!

Today we took Brayden to the pumpkin patch and had a blast!!! Daddy followed us around and took pictures.

We could hardly get him to look at us becasue he wanted to observe and touch all the pumpkins in the wagon!

Then Brayden and mommy sat on the hay stacks and got their pictures taken!

Brayden liked the hay!

Then we walked around to find the "just right" pumpkin to take home with us. We can't wait to carve it for Brayden's first Halloween!

And we couldn't leave without a boo picture!