Halloween stroller strides

Stroller Strides was Halloween themed this last week. All the kids dressed up and we did a scavenger hunt. It was so much fun! Braydon has the best time hanging out with the other kids in the class. There's this girl Sophia that's the same age as him and they play together a lot. Her Mom Jessica is really nice, she's from Nor Cal too. He got in his first wrestling match with a little boy his age named SCott. It was hilarious! They wer laughing and wrestling with each other. I think Bray won ;)

Halloween

Braydon LOVED his first Halloween! Grandma Schwarz made him the most beautiful Lion costume! It kind of freaked him out at first but then he got used to it. Our neighborhood is the best neighborhood for Halloween. There are a ton of little kids that live on the block. We went to a block party up the street where they blocked off the streets and all the neighbors gathered and the kids played. Braydon is super social. We let him out of his stroller and he took off after the little kids, crawling and yelling with them. He played with a 3 year old boy for a while. He had the best time! We had a bunch of trick or treaters and ever time the doorbell would ring Bray would crawl to the door yelping with joy and when the door would open he'd crawl out the door and take off after the kids in costume. So funny! I made corpseloaf and ghost mashed potatoes for dinner. I think Halloween may be Braydon's favorite holiday.

Braydon is 10 months old!

Braydon is 10 months old already! I can't believe how quickly he's grown! He is a VERY funny little guy. He makes me laugh so hard every day. He has such a great personality. He is REALLY smart and a quick learner. He'll watch us do things and figure out how to do it himself. He loves to throw balls for Monty, I think he'll be a baseball player. I figured I'd outline a typical day with Bray:

6am - wake up with a huge smile and play with Mommy and Daddy in bed

7am - while Mommy takes a shower cause massive destruction, crawl over to the scale, flip it upside down, dismantle the battery holder and take all the batteries out, then cruise over to the drawers and empty them out, crawl over to the shower and pound on the glass door to say hi, crawl over to the trash can, open the lid, take everything out of the trash, then cruise into the hallway, take the nightlight out of the wall and scoot it around the ground....ALL this while Mommy is in the shower!

8am - we go downstairs and Bray sits in his highchair and eats cheerios, a few for himself and then he gives some to Monty who now sits beside his high chair begging because Bray will feed him, eat breakfast, try and rip off his bib, and give Mom big grins with his mouth full of food and his 4 little teeth showing.

9-10am - Chase Monty around and pound on him while laughing, empty all the kitchen cabinets and drawers, bang on pots and pans, push the chair around-using as a walker, quickly crawl over to Monty's food bowls hoping he can out run Mom, take handfuls full of dog food and put in mouth if successful at beating Mom to the bowl, try and exit the house out of Monty's dog door, crawl to Dad's guitar in the office and scoot that around on the ground while pounding on it, try and throw all the DVDs around the room, figure out how to open the DVD player and take the DVDs out of there, grab the TV remote and chomp on that, try and climb into Monty's toy basket, then use Monty as a stepping stool to climb up onto the ottoman...

10-11:30am - NAP, YAY! Mom gets a moment of free time to clean up his mess :)

11:30-3pm - Repeat all the things done from 9-10am, walk laps around the ottoman using it as support, pull Monty's tail and ears, open toy basket and empty out toys, try and crawl in the fridge when Mom opens it to make lunch, unravel the toilet paper roll in downstairs bathroom, etc.

3-4:30pm - NAP, Hooray!

5-6pm - Repeat the fun and try and figure out something new to get into

6pm - eat dinner in highchair, sneak Monty some food

7pm - Bath time! He loves baths! He'll splash around and eat his foam letters.

8pm - Daddy reads him a book, gives him a bottle and battles him to sleep for the night

Braydon walking

Brady took several steps on his own this morning! He's been walking around furniture and pushing chairs while walking for a while now and he's even taken one or two steps on his own and fallen on his bum. But this morning he WALKED, he was holding Monty's toy basket for support (which he loves to do while trying to dig through his toys) and I went in the pantry to get some cheerios (which he LOVES), he turned and looked at me, let go of the toy basket and walked towards me very slowly. He took around 7 steps and stareted walking on his book so that's what stopped him but he never fell! He still just stood there staring at me with his cheerios. He will be 10 months old in a few days.

Visiting Baltimore

We flew out to Baltimore to visit cousin Dylan and Auntie Wee Wee and Chad. Braydon made our 5 1/2 hour flight very interesting :) He was very hyper on the way out, only sleeping a half hour. He loved to have Daddy walk him up and down the aisle and play with his toys. He was a huge hit on the plane. We had a great time in Baltimore! Dylan is 4 months old now and much more animated. She is super smiley. Braydon was very curious about her and would grab her chubby thighs and hit her head with his hand. She would get pretty irritated with him because he would be loud and she doesn't like loud noises. The two of them are funny together. While in Baltimore we walked around the harbor and got yummy crab at Phillips, went to Wegmans and ate crab at Nicks and went to the Ravens home opener. We also toured the Ravens facility, Braydon loved it there! It was a really fun trip!

Braydon is 9 Months old!!

Braydon is 9 months old already and is the funniest little guy I know. He's such a boy, he loves to play with balls, remote controls, phone and bang on pots and pans. He has his two bottom teeth and his top teeth and poking through too. He stands on his own now and loves to walk around while Daddy holds his little hands. He's a fast crawler and gets into anything and everything. He says "Mom" and "Dadadada" and he laughs really hard at everything. He is always after Monty trying to take his toys from him. He loves to watch the dryer spin, get into the dishwasher and unroll toilet paper rolls. He also loves to bang on Dad's guitar. He has crawled up our entire flight of stairs with me following closely behind. He loves to eat! He's got a big appetite this guy. He loves Pears, Bananas and those dissolvable cookies. He talks a lot, we say he's speaking German :) He loves his Daddy, Craig is the only one that can successfully put him to sleep lately, the two of them are good buddies. I am so deeply in love with this little guy, every moment is the greatest with him!

Braydon is 8 Months Old!

Each month seems to pass by faster and faster! Our little man is getting bigger and funnier with each day. He's a super fast crawler and pulls himself up on everything! He's started to stand on his own for a few seconds and then will plop down on his bum. He's a touch little cookie too because he seems to bump his head and fall often and rarely gets upset, he'll just shake it off and keep going.

He's VERY interested in Monty. He's laugh and wave his arms whenever Monty comes near and will crawl after him grabbing his tail or feet. He is always after Monty's toys too, and Monty is so good with him, he'll let Braydon take the toy out of his mouth, let him play with it for a second and then grab it back. Braydon has also discovered Monty's dog door and will push on it over and over again with his hands.

Bray is very busy, he crawls everywhere and gets into everything. I have to watch him very carefully. I recently have had to rig his camera away from his crib because every time he goes in his crib he knocks the camera down no matter how high I put it. He also loves to flip through his books.

He is a talker too! He glabs and "dadada's" all the time. He likes to motor boat with his lips too. Just recently he's done the funniest head tilt when looking at you. And he LOVES mirrors, he'll try and kiss himself in the mirror and think's he's SO funny! He loves to eat his feet too.

He has 2 sharp teeth poking out of his bottom gums but they aren't fully in yet and he's a pig! He eats so much! He loves Bananas, Pears and Apples.

Craig and I are having the best time with him. He brightens every day and I can't seem to get enough of him. I love when he's tired and will hug me real tight with his head on my shoulder and it cracks me up when he grabs my head with both hands and bites my chin.

Sebastopol Visit at 7 1/2 months old

We flew up to Sebastopol and had a jam packed weekend of fun. Craig and Grampy went Abalone diving and caught 6 Abalone, it was Craig's first time and he did great! Then we all went to the Gravenstein Apple Fair where Brady saw his first Llama and goat and got to play around in a tractor. After that we went out to Bodega Bay and got some delicious BBQed oysters, then we went back home and cooked up some Abalone. The next day Craig and I went to San Francisco for the Outlands Music Festival and Braydon stayed with Mimi and Grampy and had a blast with them. Braydon is getting a LOT more active which makes plane rides interesting, he was crawling all over Craig and pulling at the woman next to us's book and hair, he's a funny little guy.

Our Curious Crawler

Braydon is so funny now that he's crawling. I love seeing where he chooses to go. He follows me around everywhere and when he reaches me will pull himself up to standing on my legs and grunt until I pick him up. He loves to get into everything. So far he has pulled the DVDs out of the entertainment center and scattered them about the room, crawled 4 stairs at a time (gate is now up!), gotten into Monty's dry food, playing with it like it's sand, tipped over his water bowl, found the fireplace and he loves to go after all of Monty's toys and Monty's tail and paws. He does this clicking thing with his tongue and babbles to himself all the time. He has also figured out that if he wants to bring a toy along with him wherever he crawls, he'll put it in his mouth.