Quick Brady update

It is hard to believe that Brady is 7 weeks old today!!  Here is a quick Brady update.

He is smiling some, and those smiles are so sweet.  I've tried to get a good smile photo, but none of the photos I've snapped do the smile justice.  I'll keep trying!

Sometimes when he gets ready to cry, his little pout is just pitiful- like his feelings are genuinely hurt.  So cute.

He has rolled to his side twice.  He seems to really like to lay on his back to stretch out.  Some evenings when we've entered his "fussy time" (typically between dinner and bedtime) letting him stretch out, looking at him, and talking to him is all that will make him happy.

Some days I think I see a schedule emerging, and some days he still takes a good 3 hour nap.  But most days he still likes to "cluster feed" some, and he will snooze for 30 minutes or less but then wake up.  He's usually awake and happy for 1-2 hours after he wakes up and eats first thing in the morning (around 7:30/ 8:00.)  After that, he hasn't let me know what his nap schedule is going to look like.

He's taken a bottle every other day or so for a couple of weeks now.  He hasn't had any trouble with it, and drinks 4-5 ounces at a time.  I'm a little nervous about being gone for school all day; it seems he is going to maybe need 3 bottles while I'm gone, and Anderson only ever needed two.  Fingers crossed that I can keep up!

He is good and chubby. I weighed him tonight and came up with 13.5 pounds.  His tummy and cheeks are certainly chubby.  His legs haven't quite chubbed up yet, like I know they will.

5 weeks old

6 weeks old- love the chins!!

Two of a kind

Anderson is really into pairing things these days.  For weeks now, he gets excited if he sees two of the same letter, shape, color, etc.  Lately he's expanded to pairing things that are similar and not just identical.

He points to the first one and says "Wuu..." and then he points to its match.  He's started saying "Ooo" for the second one, but often he just smiles and let's you say "two ___".  

For example, he was playing with his nativity scene one morning.  Ryan came in to tell us goodbye on his way to work.  Anderson was playing with Mary and Joseph, and I said "that's the mommy and daddy."  So Anderson pointed to Joseph and said, "Wuu" and then pointed to Ryan, all excited. :)

A couple of my other favorite pairs Anderson has come up with:

One baby, two babies!
(Anderson is very sweet with"Glow Baby" and gives it kisses, like his own baby gets.)

One Papa (seen here with my nephew, Tobias)

Two Papa!
AKA the dog whisperer... but Anderson is adamant that this is his Papa.
 Hahaha- cracks me up!  :)

Aunt Lauren and Uncle Kyle visit!

The first weekend in March, Auntie Lauren and Uncle Kyle flew in to meet Brady.  In just a few months, they'll be living in the DC area, so we are looking forward to seeing those cute Kinderknechts more than just 2 or 3 times a year.  :)

Anderson likes to show off some when we have company, and he was happy to see Lauren and Kyle. Anderson's latest favorite thing to do is "drawing."  By this, I mean he wants you to write letters and numbers as he says them... over and over and over.  He does like to take a crayon or marker and scribble some (maybe 10 %) of the time, too.  Kyle was kind and patient and wrote the numbers one through nine... fifty million times.

This is how Anderson counts:
"Wuu, Ooh, Eee, (stares at you until you say four), bye, (stares- you fill in six, seven), Eee, Nine (his best one ;))" and then he's finished.

And he knows quite a few letters and LOVES to recite the alphabet duet style as follows:
"A (he always sticks his tongue out a little to say A, so it doesn't exactly sound like A, and we don't know why...)
B... D, E, ......... I...ku.....nu, O, P...R...U.... Y..."

This is what he looks like at his drawing seat:

So just picture Kyle there for 30+ minutes as Anderson's lovely assistant. :)

Back to the point, once Brady woke up from a morning nap (by the way, good daytime naps are much more precious and few these days!), Lauren and Kyle got good quality time with our chubby little guy.  I love the pictures we got!

After Anderson's nap, and once Ryan got home from Saturday work, we all headed to the zoo:
(My mom and dad, Ryan, Brady, and I were all there, too.  But it looks like only L, K, Anderson, and the animals made it into photos.)

We had a family dinner at the Boathouse at Brandermill after the zoo, which we all really enjoyed. :)