Easter

We went to the River with the Schwarz's and Randy and Diane for Easter. We also celebrated Grandpa Schwarz's 69th birthday with a delicious feast of Crab legs and shrimp scampi. Braydon learned to skip rocks with his Dad and went on a boat ride to a beach to play in the sand. Aunt Cristin read him books while he laughed really hard. Braydon has also recently discovered chocolate and goes CRAZY over it. Grandpa Schwarz also gave him his very first Harley. It is the cutest thing! It even has a little sidecar where he put his Easter eggs.

Brady is 16 months old already!

The months keep flying by and I keep falling deeper and deeper in love with my little man. I could spend every minute of every day with him, he is so much fun and is always doing new things. He associate Dad with the words "Da Da" now and me with "Ma". He calls Monty "Ga", our Nanny Monica "Ca" and will yell "Go!" at Monty when he's barking. When he goes #2 in his diaper he waves his hand in front of his nose as if saying "smelly!". And he completely understands everything we tell him. I'll say "Give it to Daddy" and he'll walk over and hand whatever it is to Craig.

He also feeds Monty. We'll say "Braydon, go feed the Goggy!" and he'll walk over to the laundry room where we keep Monty's dish, pick it up, walk to the pantry, open the door, unscrew the lid to his food and try and scoop food in (I'll usually help get food in the bowl), then he lowly walks back to the laundry room and places the bowl back in it's spot. Then he'll walk out and clap at himself :)

He LOVES other little kids, he's really good at sharing already and loves to play with others his size. He has a girlfriend Sophie from Stroller Strides, we all went to the Legoland water park the other day and they had so much fun together!

He's going through a pretty bad few days of teething right now, he's had a bad fever and you can tell he's in a lot of pain. He's got a bunch of molars coming through all at once, poor guy :( He's really cuddly when he's not feeling well.

He has this stuffed dog that plays the song "Head Shoulder Knees and Toes" and he'll touch his head and knees and toes when the song plays.

Grandma's 60th Birthday in Laguna Beach

Grandma Jan turned 60 and we had the best weekend at the most beautiful beach house in Laguna Beach! The house was 3 bedrooms and on the cliffs overlooking the Three Arches private beach. Braydon LOVED it there! He is such a beach boy! He also loved getting to hangout with all the people that came to celebrate. He is a total social butterfly and loves to work a room. He hams it up to the extreme. If he gets a laugh out of the crowd he'll laugh really hard along with everyone and the do whatever it was that was funny over and over again. He's a VERY busy little boy and keeps Mommy on her toes constantly. He moves from one place to another and never sits still.

He is a total flirt too, whenever a pretty girl is around he'll show off and get her to smile at him :) There were two girls laying out on the beach and he decided to try and hit them with the driftwood sticks he was carrying in his two little hands. He does that to the dog all the time, we'll have to work on that.

If you notice a scar on his forehead it's because we had Bray's first ER visit that Tuesday before. He fell on cement stairs by the playground and got a concussion :( It was a very scary time for us but thankfully he's okay!

Smarty pants

Braydon is so smart! He has been doing the funniest things lately:

When he goes to the bathroom in his diaper he grabs himself and then runs over to the Ottoman where we keep the diapers and he tries to lift it up to get a diaper out.

Yesterday was his first day with the new Nanny Monica and they were upstairs playing in his room, then around 10am (his nap time) he grabbed a blanket and pointed to his crib to tell her it was time for him to sleep. Then when he was in the crib he turned on his lullaby music and lay down.

He says "go!" to the dog when he tries to jump up on his high chair to get food.

When the Nanny says the Portuguese word for animal he'll scrunch his nose and snort like the animal. When she says "Cada Braydon?" which means, "where's Braydon?" he raises his hand.

15 months old

Braydon is the funniest character! He is so entertaining! He will do anything to get a laugh. And he is a very smart little guy too. He makes connections, such as whenever I put his shoes on he runs to the door cause he knows that means we're going outside. He'll yell at Monty and try and push him down if he jumps up on his highchair because he knows Monty's not allowed to do that. He has been feeding himself with his little spoon lately and wants to eat or drink like a big kid already. Daddy was shoveling dirt in the backyard the other day and Braydon ran over and grabbed the shovel and tried to pick up the dirt. Then he looked over at me and saw I was using the dolly to push a pot and he ran over to help me push it. He will take the hose that is on the vacuum and run around pretending to vacuum the floor and makes a "zzzzzzz" sound. He hums along to songs and still LOVES to dance. He gives huge kisses all the time now, anytime you ask for one. He waves to everyone and everything that passes. I joke with him that he thinks he's on a parade float most of the time. He makes our lives so much brighter and I can't even begin to explain the love I feel for our little man!

Opening doors

Braydon is starting to catch on to things REALLY quickly. He now opens doors. Not the knob kind yet but the ones with the knobs you pull down on. He copies everything we do now. He figured out how to unscrew the top to Monty's dog food and grabs handfuls of food. He will grab his shoes, sit down and try and put them on his feet if he wants to go outside. He'll also grab his beanie and try and put it on his head. He gives high fives and fist bumps and thinks its so the funniest thing when he pushes Daddy's belly button and Daddy makes a funny sound. He is such an entertainer too! We were interviewing Nannies all weekend and he'd turn on the charm big time! At the end of the interview I'd say "Braydon, walk your guest out" and he'd run to the front door, stand by it and wave goodbye with a big grin.

Cousin Dylan's Baptism Weekend

Dylan tackling Braydon
Bath Time!



A plane flew by when this was taken so both kids are watching it

9 1/2 month old Baby Dylan and the Steele's decided to Baptize Dylan in San Diego at the church Wendy and Chad got married at. Mimi and Grampy Wilder came down and so did Courtney. Courtney and I are Dylan's Godparents. We had such a fun weekend and Braydon and Dylan were absolutely hilarious together!! Dylan is almost walking and has such a personality. She looks at you with these huge hazel eyes and will plant a huge kiss on your lips. Since then Braydon has started to give lots of kisses too. Dylan lights up when she sees Braydon and gives huge smiles and Braydon doesn't know what to do with her. He'll pet her and give her big hugs from behind. They took baths together and Braydon would push Dylan around in his toy car. We all went to Legoland one of the days which was fun! And we had a big party after the Baptism. We also lunched at George's in La Jolla. It was such a great weekend and we miss the Steele family already! If only we all lived closer to each other! Maybe one day... I can't wait to watch the two cousins grow up together!!

14 Months old

Braydon is 14 months old today and he is the biggest entertainer ever! We were out at a restaurant the other night and little did I know Braydon had a huge table of college kids laughing at him and smiling and waving. He was dancing on the table, smiling and waving at them, completely hamming it up. They said he was the most confident and cool one year old they had ever seen. One of the guys said he needed to be in movies.

CLIMBING - He's mastered walking and has moved onto climbing everything and RUNNING. He likes to stand on his cars and try to ride them like a surfboard, gives Mommy a heart attack.

PERSISTANCE - He's a very persistent little guy, he won't give up until he gets what he wants or does what he wants to do.

MONTY - Lately he's been chasing after Monty with a broom and laughing really hard because it freaks Monty out.

SIGN LANGUAGE - He now knows "more" and "all done". He uses more whenever he wants something, such as he wanted me to pick him up and did the "more" sign and pointed to me.

KISSES - He is the sweetest with his kisses! It seriously makes my day, he'll look you directly in the eye, hold your gaze while grabbing your face with his two little hands and pull you into a kiss with puckered lips.

COPY CAT - He copies everything Craig or I do, if I'm cleaning he'll grab a rag and clean too, or grab the broom and sweep. if Craig's working on something he'll grab a wrench and get down with him and pretend he's doing the same thing.

GOLDFISH - Still addicted to goldfish

HAIR BRUSHING - He loves to have his hair brushed! If I have the brush he'll run over to me and duck his head into me and point at his hair to have me brush it.

MUSIC & DANCING - He loves to dance to all kinds of music, he'll do this squat thing and bounce up and down.

REMOTE CONTROLS - His favorite thing to do every morning is grab two remote controls and hold them in his little hands while watching cartoons and he'll press the buttons to see what they do.

LIGHT SWITCHES - He loves to climb up the step stool that's under the light switch in our room and flick the switch on and off.

Braydon and Monty

Braydon LOVES Monty! Every morning he goes running to his cage yelling "Ga gag ga!" and wants to open it. Then he'll crawl inside and give him a big hug. He laughs really hard at him when he plays around with Daddy and will try and play tug o war with Monty's rope. He also thinks that cows in books are Monty, we'll read this farm animal book and whenever we turn the page to the cow he points to the cow, then to Monty and yells "Ga!"

13 Months Old!

Braydon is 13 months old today! He has turned into a little man! He continues to crack me up and I fall more in love with him every day. He's started to copy everything Craig and I do.

MORE - He's very smart and picks up on things quickly. He now uses the sign language sign for more to tell me when he wants certain things. For instance if I'm sitting there and he wants to play with me he'll sign more, point at me and walk over and grab my hand. Or if he wants a toy that he can't reach he'll sign 'more' and point to the toy.

DANCING & SINGING - He still loves to dance and just recently has hummed along to a few songs.

GOGGY - He LOVES Monty and is always going up to him and giving him huge hugs while laying his head on his back, it's so sweet. I think Monty loves him just as much because Braydon loves to feed him Goldfish.

LIFE OF THE PARTY - Braydon is a social butterfly, whenever we are out and about he charms people. he is not shy at all. We were at the beach yesterday and he walked around to everyone at the beach smiling and waving and trying to share his sticks and rocks with people. At Stroller Strides he'll cruise around playing with all the kids and making his rounds.

EATING - He loves eggs, cheese, Goldfish and Salmon. And he loves to eat!

DRIVING - His favorite thing is to drive around in his electric car or on his fire truck. He cruises.

HUGS & KISSES - He is so sweet and affectionate, he gives Mommy lots of hugs and kisses.