Brady at 15 months

Brady at 15 months:

Still a big boy!  26 lbs. 12 oz. and 33" puts him at 95th% and 97th% respectively.

Loves his big brother! Sharing is an every day topic of conversation around here.  Usually they do well, and Brady is already the easier going second-child when it comes to sharing- although if he's decided that he wants something, he won't hesitate to take it.

He's been an animal lover from the start.  

One of his favorite things to say is, "Hi dish!" anytime he sees a fish.

The boy loves to eat.  

He stuffs food in by the hand fulls, and he's only sometimes allowed a plate. (He throws!)

Favorite foods: bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, pb&j, chicken nuggets, bread.

So far he doesn't like noodles or ravioli, but he does like macaroni and cheese and spaghetti.

One of his new tricks- "Hewo?!"

Other things Brady likes to say: "Hi, da" (Hi, dad); "Uh oh!", "No!" "Goo gul" (Good girl, meaning Sadie); "Yeshh", something that sounds like "Let's go!", "Danks!" (Thanks) and "Elcum" (You're welcome).  

He really is a chatty guy, and he babbles with a purpose a lot these days.

Apparently an extrovert, Brady is very happy to be out and about.  

At home we see more of the attitude appear, but he usually cheers up as soon as his buns hit the car seat.  

Loves to stand and cruise, and has been taking one or two stutter-steps for a couple of weeks, but we're not quite there.  These Ives boys take their time!

Always ready to wrestle and play, especially with Daddy (he is a daddy's/ grandpa's/ papa's boy).

I can't get enough of him. 

He's always been so easy to drop off with others (although I've been so lucky not to have to most days.)

Last month our nice neighbor Maria offered to watch him so I could take Anderson back to the doctor.  I love our neighbors, but Brady has really not spent any time with them, AND it was nap time.  Still, I hesitantly accepted her very kind offer.  Two hours later we got home and Maria said Brady had been perfect and happy to play the whole time.  She said he yawned during his diaper change, but that was all. Ha.

Usually Brady is a happy go-lucky guy.  He is so sweet and cuddly and can be so easy-going.   But sometimes he's just in a mood that I can't figure out.  Also he can be the biggest bugger with pinching and biting (mainly me, but other family members, too.)  

I just really hope he outgrows this before he's pinching/ biting other kids.  I can tell you, it hurts!

He has shown signs of separation anxiety more lately, and as much as I hate to see him cry, I am certainly happy that he knows he needs him Mama.  And of course I want to be his favorite person of all. Ha. (But really.)

He is such a good boy.

Easter Weekend

Saturday was an Easter Party at my Mom and Dad's house.  A good part of Ryan's family and some family friends came for an egg hunt and dinner.  The weather was mid-60's with some sun peeking out, which was just about ideal.

Mom's friends, the Salas family, joined us for the second year.  The three boys are rambunctious and fun and so enamored by the horses, which is mutual. 

Wagon-date.  Ashley putting the moooves on ;-)

McKenzie loved the swingset.

Easter Egg Hunt- Anderson finally filled a basket (there were 300 eggs in the yard!)

Singletons (And hey, Lauren and Kyle! I wish I'd gotten some pictures of you, too... oops!)

Guess who found the Golden Egg??

Picnic Date.  Anderson was in love with the deviled eggs!

Brady visiting Napoleon.

Ashley, Kelly, Nannie, and Brady

Easter Sunday was nice, but I learned my lesson- LESS of the trivial stuff and MORE of the real stuff.  I loved all of our egg hunts and Easter outfits etc. the weeks leading up to Easter.  But come Easter morning, the perfectly coordinated outfits, carefully filled baskets, and personal egg hunt stressed me out!  We finally made it to church (not early like I'd hoped), and I found what I needed.  Not the bunny or the eggs or the candy, but the hope.

1 Corinthians 15...
" 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

And that makes for a very happy Easter!

Not my favorite thing

We are potty training and potty training and potty training around here.

Con: I feel like we can't go anywhere or do anything right now without a pull-up, and therefore total negative progress.

Pro: Anderson definitely is making progress, and we all feel good about that.  

Con: My house is a mess with towels and blankets covering rugs, sofas; books all over the bathroom floors; Clorox wipes and Spot Shot out just in case anyone should need them.

Pro: Cute photo-ops that I have deemed "blog-worthy" even though I will keep them off of Facebook.  I hope they make you smile, too.

Con:  Even with all of the progress I see, there's a long road ahead....... and I am already sick of potty training.

 

Oh, how I love this one! :)

Little Flower

The other night we ran to Lowes to get some more mulch (Ryan devoted 2 weekends to the yard and it's looking really good :) ).  I let Anderson help pick out some flowers for the mailbox, and he wanted a purple flower.  So, this is the blossomless beauty that stole Anderson's heart......

We planted the flowers quickly that night, and told Anderson that with a little sunshine and water it will grow.  The next morning I was grabbing some laundry upstairs and overheard this...

"Hi Little Flower!  How are you?  Hey Little Flower, maybe you can grow.  Alright Little Flower?"

Bad news, still no purple blooms yet.  Good news, it survived a below freezing night even though all of our impatients did not.  And Anderson's favorite thing to do these days is go outside and water (and talk to) Little Flower.  Anderson should have something to show for his efforts soon.

Parks and Eggs

I'm loving our neighborhood more and more every day.  With both boys old enough to enjoy being outside and going to parks, it's been wonderful having so much within walking distance.  Even the full week that Anderson was knocked out with strep and a miserable cough, daily walks kept us all sane.  I can think of 4 parks that are an easy walk from our house.  The closest, "our" park, is a 2-minute walk.  I've posted pictures of our beloved Tot Lot before, like here.  Just this past month, it got a complete overhaul.  I wasn't thrilled that somebody decided to change our park, but it's really growing on me.  

Our first trip to the newly-improved park day 2 of strep.  

My mom helped me a lot that Monday- for one thing we were keeping the boys apart as much as possible.

We really needed some fresh air and sunshine because there was waay too much of this going on:

Thank goodness Brady never got sick; this was purely a sympathy episode of TV. ;-)

We went back just the three of us Wednesday this week...

Anderson loved finding his shadow on the walk over.

We love these (there's also a "single" snail.)

Anderson graduated to the big boy swing.  I had to catch him once, but I think he felt really proud that he could do it.

My baby looks like a man!

I like this action shot. :)

The next day we had a ton of fun at a different park, about a 20 minute walk away, but I didn't take any pictures.  Anderson found a 4-year-old playmate, and the two of them had so much fun.  Phoebe (his new friend) shouted to her mom, "I finally found my friend!"  Ha. :)  She kept giving Anderson tasks, "Go get more sticks," for example.  He'd say, "Alright!" and off he'd go.  They were really cute.  Brady appreciated all of the time I had to help him cruise around the equipment since my other little guy was so content.  The teacher in me hesitated to take any pictures of them since we'd just met (at school we needed signed permission to photograph anyone's kid). I guess I should've just asked her very nice mom, but I didn't.  I did get this picture of our view on our way to the park...

So pretty!  And we can always count on some ducks or geese to entertain us.

I've been a part of the "Wyndham Mom's Club" for over a year now, and it's been good to push me out of my comfort zone and meet a lot of nice women throughout the neighborhood.  I play bunco about every month, and the boys and I are in a playgroup.  We've been "dabbling" in the preschool-age play group since Anderson's really too old for our infant playgroup.  We were invited to a preschool Easter egg hunt at our neighbor's house.  It really was so fun.  After several events of not knowing a lot of the women/ kids, I'm starting to know or at least recognize enough folks to feel more comfortable.  So that makes it much more fun for me. :)

Brady is getting better about putting everything in his mouth, but I still have to watch him! He loves giving kisses, for one thing.

Anderson ended up picking up 2 of the 200-or-so eggs in the yard.

My boys are apparently not competitive egg-hunters.  We're talking "super-social" league.  My favorite part was that a couple of the older siblings peeked in my boys' baskets and said, "You need more eggs," and gave them a couple of theirs.  Thankful for such nice neighbors!