Happy 11 Months....Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Happy 11 Months to Brayden!!!

Precious in green!

Showing off those toothers

Just to show...

Just to show everyone, my baby boy's favorite time of day (and mommy's) is STILL bathtime :)

Saturday Morning Cartoons

I am a firm believer in children not watching too much TV. Not against them watching it, just not when there's a beautiful day or 1 million dollars worth of toys laying around! So...Brayden has started to actually "watch" TV and it's just hilarious. He dances with the songs and laughs at the funny animals. He prefers the Wonder Pets I believe... So, we've found that he will feed himself, only if we prop him up and let him watch his cartoons. Now Saturday mornings we let him watch Wonder Pets during his bottle. It is too cute!! Now I've got to get him feeding himself the bottle WITHOUT Wonder Pets!

11 Months Old

I cannot believe that Brayden is 11 months. He just amazes me! At this point he is:

• crawling everywhere!
• Says "mama" "dada" "bye bye"
• shakes his head no
• laughs ALL the time!
• eats most anything
• hates the bottle, although this isn't exactly new
• sleeps through the night almost every night
• cruises on everything AND everyone!
• starting to stand on his own
• STILL loves bath time
• has started to love cartoons, we only let him watch when he is having his bottle by himself
• is moving into 18 months clothes

I cannot believe that one short year ago he wasn't even here, and now in 30 days he is going to be one year old. I have always heard it flies, but man...I wasn't ready. He is truly God's greatest gift! Can't wait to see what month 12 brings :)

Thank you son...

Brayden,
Since the moment you were born I have had so much to brag about and be thankful for. Today that thankful list got longer. Because of you, we are getting a BIG, FAT, AWESOME tax return. And to thank you-we will definitely take you on a nice, long, beach trip this summer! Thank you son!
Love,
Your mommy :)

That's what I love about Sundays

Running around and playing in our pajamas!

Going to daddy's soccer game...way too beautiful to stay in our pj's alllllll day!

Hiding under the dinner table from mommy!

I wish every day was Sunday!

New experiences...

I've been trying to get Brayden eating less baby food these days, and more table food. This weekend I introduced him to fish sticks. I don't think he was a huge fan, but I'm going to work on it. I cooked three sticks. The first one I gave him whole and let him knaw on it. He just ended up taking the coating off and feeding the fish to the dog! So the next stick I gave him I cut up into bite sizes. I could tell he didn't like the texture, but he ate it anyway. Then the last sick...well let's just say we found out Cali likes fish sticks!

Just not allowed...

I had always heard that "mommies never get sick" but the past two weeks have given me a firsthand look into what that really means...

I started feeling sick about two weeks ago. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with a "virus". Code for=we have no idea what it is. So I was sent home with NOTHING, and told to get some rest. YEAH RIGHT!!! I went to work the rest of the week because we had a huge celebration of learning planned, I had the district office staff observing, and two assessments to give to my kids before Friday. Not only did I work, I took care of Brayden all while feeling like I was going to fall on my face.

See...its soccer season in the Bridges household, which means I get to be all alone Monday-Friday and some weekends until May.

Then after barely making it through the weekend, I got worse with fever and had to finally break and call in sick for 2 days. Everyone told me to "take it easy". But any mommy knows that taking it easy while you are sick means-cleaning the house, washing clothes, cleaning bottles, making plans for work, washing dishes, taking the dog out, and making sure Brayden doesn't pull everything out of every cabinet in my home.

So I really got a good look at being sick and being a mom. It just doesn't happen. Even when we are sick, we have to constantly be going. When our husbands get sick, they become number one. When our children get sick, they become number one. But what about when we get sick???? Don't you remember the days your mom would bring you special food and check on you to see if you needed anything. I guess those days are over!! So, I have made a pact with myself that I just cannot get sick anymore!

Getting Closer...

We have gotten most everything we need for Brayden's birthday party. Just a few things we cannot pick up until the date arrives. We had fun strolling through Party City and found some precious birthday boy hats. We didn't decide on one yet, but we will def. be purchasing one!!!

Around the corner

After shopping with my mother this weekend, it became evident that the time to show my "after baby" body is just around the corner. Spring and summer clothes are out, bathing suit displays are EVERYWHERE, and my husband purchased me my first tanning bed package in 2 years. Uh oh...

So, this Sunday's family food trip to Wal-Mart was quite different. There was a lot more fruit and a lot less carbs in this weeks grocery cart.

My hope is that this summer I have a precious toddler that will get all the attention. That way my forever changed bathing suit body WON'T!

The difference a week makes...

I thought Brayden changed a lot in a week, but the weather has proven things can change qicker than I thought! Last week snow...this week summer! We had to take advantage of the beautiful day God blessed us with, so we took Brayden to the playground for the first time!

Trying to steal daddy's sunglasses...

You will see this face quite frequently today...

Daddy helping Brayden as he goes down the slide for the first time!

His slide friend!

Aparantly this is the face of choice this month...

My favorite picture from the day...

And we finished it off with a trip to Sonic for slushies!! Brayden is a fan of the cherry slush!

Sharp dressed man!

What an amazing day the weather gave us! I had to get Brayden out and enjoy the day. Since daddy was in Charleston all day with soccer, JJ and I took Brayden to buy his FIRST pair of shoes and stroll around outside at Sandhills!!! He is wanting to walk all over the place (holding onto things of course), so I knew it was time to start looking for our first big purchase!
First we got him measured....my big boy!!! Size 3.5 WIDE! This measurement made me realize I need to exchange ALL the shoes I have recently purchased at Gymboree!

After finding his size we tried on some shoes :)

And made sure they were a good fit!

Brayden sat with JJ while I bought his first pair of new shoes. Mommy was super excited! The Stride Rite people were great-recommend them highly!

When we got home, we took a stroll in the wagon to enjoy the weather some more. Brayden couldn't keep his hands off his bells for the first few minutes!!

Too precious!

After our stroll, I let Brayden walk with his toys in the yard for a while. We had to break in his new shoes!! He had a fall in the grass which led to this allergic reaction....like father like son. It didn't seem to bother him too much thank goodness. What an amazing day we had...