Movin' On Up...Or Down

After Brecken woke up from his nap this afternoon, he somehow fell and bumped his head pretty hard on the crib. Poor guy has a nice little blue bruise on his forehead. Anyway, I thought he might be trying to climb out, so we decided to lower his crib mattress again.  The first two pictures are of B helping Michael with the wrenches. He loved that they made lots of noise when he banged them together. The third picture was a lucky shot of B standing up by himself!! He kept pulling up on Michael and this time he let go and just stood there for a few seconds!  Oh my goodness...what a big boy we have. 

Cruisin'

Brecken is getting closer and closer to cruising around the house. He's taken a couple steps with his hippo (but of course stopped as soon as I tried to get video!) and when he stands while holding on to something, he keeps getting up on his tiptoes, which makes me think he's about to start taking steps and cruising any day now!

My First Toothbrush!

Hey everyone! I finally got my first tooth a few weeks ago (and my second and third just a few days after!) so when my fourth tooth popped through yesterday, mommy decided it was time to get me my very own toothbrush! I sure to love to chew on it...which then makes me drool everywhere! It has a hippo on it and matches the hooded towel mommy just got me at the Otter Creek consignment sale. :)

Oops...

Meant to post a video if Brecken playing with the leash and dogs but posted the picture again instead. And I just deleted the video...oh well...next time. 

Outside! (part 2)

The Produce Place

Yesterday we stopped by The Produce Place in West Meade. What a cool little store! They had lots of local and organic produce, meats, cheeses, and other goodies. Michael was holding Brecken who swiped a tomato and had it in his mouth before Michael even realized it!  Our little shoplifter. ;)

Outside!

It has been soooo hot here in Nashville this summer that we really haven't been outside a lot except for our morning walks and some in the evening when we would sometimes get a little heat relief. The past couple days it has been less than 90 degrees so me and B are enjoying some time in the backyard in the shade! He is sporting one of his favorite toys - the dog leash!

Midnight Moo

There is a cabinet in my kitchen where I keep overflow items from my pantry and such. Brecken knows he's allowed to play in that cabinet, and since it's the first one when you enter the kitchen, its usually his cabinet of choice. The funny thing is, no matter what I put in front, B always pulls out the same thing - Midnight Moo Organic Chocolate Syrup from Trader Joes. He loves to play with it! I'll have to say, he has good taste!

This kid LOVES wheels. We've been to two different baby showers where this stroller was a gift and he amused himself by playing with the wheels the whole time. If there is a wheel on anything (stroller, cart, ottoman, walker, toy) in a 50 ft vicinity, B will find it and play with it!

Bathtime!

Brecken and I go for walks two or three times a week with my neighbor, Julie and her baby, Sophia. This morning, since the weather was a little cooler, I put B in the backpack and brought the dogs along, too. When we got home, B had a poopy diaper so I decided to let him go diaperless for a few minutes to cool him off after sitting in the backpack for an hour. He crawled into the kitchen and I gave him his sippy cup. He took one drink from that cup and immediately peed ALL over the floor!  I think he surprised himself because he just sat on the flood staring at it in awe (such a boy!). There was nothing I could do so I just sat there with him and laughed. And now it's bathtime!

Panthers Game

Saturday night Michael and I took LeeAnn and Chuck to the Carolina Panthers preseason game against the Jets. Unfortunately, it was a very defensive game so neither team scored a touchdown the entire game! Oh, well - we still had fun! 

Brecken is driving Poppy's truck! Evidently, before I came out there, he was making the "humma humma" noise that the diesel makes!

This weekend we are in North Carolina to see a Carolina Panthers game. We took the babies to Costco today and they were so cute in the cart together! We had many people ask if they were twins!

Last week my friend, Sarah Crump was in town from North Carolina and we went to the pool to hang out and try to cool off from the incredible heat! After chilling in the water awhile, B was ready for a snack so he and Sarah shared some goldfish. He's doing so well with finger foods now. Some times he will only eat if he can pick everything up himself. Other times, he's still content to eat from a spoon. On this day, he was thrilled to be able to pull the goldfish one by one out of the bag by himself!

Brecken had a fever Wednesday that cleared up pretty quickly but then he was generally fussy the next few days and started waking up screaming in the middle of the night. My friend, Bonnie Jo, just graduated from PA school though so we had her check his ears since Michael doesn't have an otoscope. His ears and throat were a little red but no infection so we just decided to wait it out. Thanks for the check-up Bonnie Jo - you are a great PA!

...oops...we are driving to NC for a long weekend and I'm trying to get caught up on some blog posts via my phone. Great idea, except we just hit a bump and I accidentally hit "send" in the middle of my post! Oh well...I'll fix that one later! In the meantime, this is what our little guy is doing right now...chilling in the back seat.  He had started to fuss a little so we put his music class CD on he immediately calmed down. He LOVES that CD. Nothing else can calm him down in the car like, "I'm so happy to see Brecken...". We took the summer off from music class because we travel so much but we are going to start again for the fall session. One of B's favorite toys is the little maraca he got from music class. He loves to shake shake shake it!  I bought him a Leap Frog music and learning table at a consignment sale and it's probably his favorite toy of all. This little boy definitely likes his music!

This is what I saw when I went to pick up Brecken from his class on Sunday. He's still in the "bucket class" and is getting much more used to being around so many other babies. He used to be a sympathy crier and would cry any time another baby cried. That's one of the only times that he cries except for the obvious hungry, tired, 

Here's another picture from the pool the week before!

This is Brecken's friend, Sophia. She lives down the street and is 5 months younger than him. Sophia's mom and I walk three mornings a week around the neighborhood with the babies. It's good to have someone that's depending on me to exercise because I definitely wouldn't make it out there three mornings a week if it were just me and Brecken!  He's not very good about keeping me accountable. ;)

Brecken evidently thinks that anything that is cylindrical like a cup is actually a cup that might have something to drink in it. This empty metal container holds stuff on his bookshelf but he pulled it off and kept tipping it up like something might come out of it! Its pretty cool thats he's understands that it can hold things and that it's similar to a cup. He also lives the cup we use in the bathtub. He fills it full of water and then tries to drink out of it - yuck!

Brecken has figured out how to climb steps! On Saturday, Michael was playing with him in the bonus room and B just crawled right over to the steps and hoisted his little legs up. He's very proud of his new accomplishment and showed it off yesterday at church by climbing the steps to the pulpit!  The two steps down into our bonus room are perfect practice for B since they are carpeted and he can only fall so far! Unlike our regular staircase that's solid wood and is now gated on both ends. Now he just needs to learn how to go down!

Brecken is stuffing his face with peach. He's about to polish off an entire peach as his breakfast.  This kid can put away some food for an almost 10 month old. Last night for dinner, he ate diced cantaloupe, black beans, half a banana, and a piece of bread. He's definitely into foods that he can pick up and feed himself now. He will very vocally let me know if he's not interested in us feeding him with a spoon. It's hit or miss. Sometimes he'll let us feed him but usually now he just wants to do it himself. He's starting to show a some independence in his personality (just like his momma!).