Dear Brady Bear,

I can't believe my sweet Brady Bear is 18 months old already.  In effort to continue the tradition, and in honor of the little blonde boy that has stolen my heart, here is my letter to Brady.

Dear Brady Bear (18 months old),

          I love you so much!  You are sweet and snugly, independent and determined, big and strong.  Your smiles don’t always come easily, but when they do they fill the whole room!  And your giggle is one of the best sounds in the world (even the mischievous version.)  Hearing you laugh or hearing Anderson laughing at something silly you did is the best part of my day.

          You have slowly and steadily been taking steps since 15 ½ months old, but finally at a little over 17 months, you decided you would walk all the time.  I love the way you have to weave to catch your balance sometimes and the way you watch your arm swinging beside you.  The freedom that walking provides you has brought an even bigger dose of independence along with it.  We will be working on learning how to hold hands- for safety, not balance, now.  Since this will be my idea and not yours, I’m sure it will take a little while to convince you.

          Sometimes a pretty independent guy, you love attention from your family.  You love for us to read books to you, roll the ball with you, or take you outside to roam.  And you love to get kisses!  If we lay down, we know you will be over to wrestle in 2 seconds- huge smile on your face.  You love your big brother, and together you are both learning to share and take turns.  We’ve never had to worry too much about “little Brady” sticking up for himself; in fact, pinching or pushing has won you a few quick trips to timeout already.  So far it seems like a treat for you to get to sit in the chair, and your “I sowy” is so sweet. 

          You talk all the time, and your tone and body language show definite intent.  You tend to talk in phrases, and we are figuring more and more of these phrases out as we go.  “Hi, Daddy” turns him into a puddle every time.  “Momom” or “Mom” is a rare and sweet sound to my ears.  You love to point out letters, and you can name a good amount of them (A, B, E, F, S, T, Y for sure).  Other words we often hear from you: “gook” (book), “tain” (train), “tuck” (car/ truck),” hi,” “byebye”, “no no”, “yesh”, “Tank you”, “hooway”, “eat”, “bawl” (ball), “bok” (block),  “ou-side” (outside), “key” (Mickey), “on your head”, “eyesh” and “nose”.  You are getting really good at animal sounds, too: lion (tiger/ bear), fish, owl, puppy dog, cat, cow, sheep, plus cars and fire trucks.  Come to think of it, those words do a pretty good job of summing up your favorite things.

          As time goes on, you are becoming a pickier eater.  Favorites these days include fruit (!!), especially bananas, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and mandarin oranges. You love Cheerios, PB&J, macaroni and cheese, crackers,  avocados, sweet potatoes, and sometimes chicken tenders, hot dogs, and grilled cheese.  Meals can be challenging some days, as we have not yet figured out how to persuade you to try new things.  You’d rather eat and run than sit and chat, so meals at home work best.

          You love to play peek-a-boo, and you recently have shown the confidence to bust a (vertical) move.  Both hands in the air in “monkey” fashion, big smile on your face.  I love to hear you sing along with Daddy, Anderson or me.  And you’ll get excited now when you hear singing and tell us about it.  You’ve started attending Romp n’ Roll, and the instruments are your favorite part so far.  At Romp n’ Roll, play dates, and church you sometimes show signs of “stranger danger” and get upset at a lot of attention from new people.  I think this is part of the way you are suddenly noticing the big world around you.  From the start you’ve been very happy to be with new people, and I think you will become more comfortable with this again. 

          It’s impossible to imagine life without you.  We are so thankful that God knew how much our family needed you.  I can tell that as much as I want to teach you as you grow, you will be teaching me so much more.  I hope you are always surprising me.  I know you will always make me so proud.

Love always, always,

Mommy

Nats weekend!!

We were sitting in the beach house Tuesday (I think) night, realizing we wouldn't be staying in Nagshead as long as we'd hoped, watching a National's game.  Ryan and I already had tickets to the Sunday game for our anniversary day (one day early), and I mentioned that since we'll be in town all weekend, maybe we could go to the Saturday game, too.  Well, that was all it took.  Ryan's attitude perked right up at the thought of back-to-back Nats games.  We'd given each of our parents a promise of Nationals tickets at a future game for Mother's Day/ Father's Day.  The Ives weren't up for the game just yet, but my parents were in.

So the 6 of us headed to D.C. Saturday morning and met up with Lauren and Kyle for the game (Brady's first).  Luckily it was a blowout win for us, because I missed a lot of the action between the boys and chatting and getting food for our people.  We were in the shade, and it was a lovely evening.

Anderson held on to that hot dog for dear life throughout the game.  He did drop it once, apparently.  Finally when the game was over, he happily gobbled it up. Ha.

 In typical Anderson fashion, he quietly (and in this case, nervously) took it all in. But that day sparked quite a love for the Nationals.  That night he insisted on wearing his new Nationals shirt (the give-away for the game.)

He can now name off about 8 of the players and some of their "favorite numbers" (he has Ryan Zimmerman- 11 and Bryce Harper- 34 down, every time.)  Lately he's "Jayson Werth Anderson." I am "Ryan Zimmerman Mama" and Brady is "Brady Bryce Harper."  He loves to play baseball/ batting practice with his soft bat and ball... for hours on end, some days.  Also, apparently Anderson really loved the racing Presidents.  We brought each of the boys home a pennant from Sundays' game (just Ryan and me), and he lit up when he saw Brady's racing presidents "flag."  He can tell you the presidents are "Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Bill Taft, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington."  He will gladly report to you which one has a beard and which ones have a mustache (pronounced, mus-STASH).  He knows George Washington was the 1st president, Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd and Abraham Lincoln was the 16th (and since that's all I know off the top of my head, that's all he knows...)  Throughout the day he leads me and Brady in a "Let's go Nationals!  Let's go Zimmerman!, etc" cheer.  Makes our baseball/ Nationals- loving household very happy. :)

OBX 2014

No thanks to Hurricane Arthur, our trip to the Outer Banks this year was short and sweet.  According to my next door neighbor (who used to forecast hurricanes for the Navy- so she knows.) this is the earliest recorded hurricane to make landfall ever- and the now 2nd earliest hurricane was in 1912!  So Arthur the hurricane had no business showing up, but he did.  And he cut our week short.  Alas, the 4 full-days we had at the beach were about perfect.

We drove down Saturday afternoon, with a brief pit-stop at our favorite farmer's market, Morris Farm. 

Brady always seems to great on our way to vacation, and so far he has a much rougher time coming home...

I can't help it.

Anderson was so excited to get to the beach, and asked to go to the ocean all throughout our quick to-go dinner at the beach house.  So, we got ourselves down to the sand before dark (and got some of my very favorite photos of the trip.)

The wind really accentuated their awesome capes. ;-)

The next day, we hit the beach with Ryan's parents and the Hammitt/ Gray/ Manis clan.  The highlight of the whole trip, for me, was seeing Anderson and Will play together.  They were great buddies and always so excited to see each other!  Brady would join in, some, but he also spent a lot of quality time in laps (especially Nannie and Papa's laps) on the beach.

Bromance highlight reel...

Leaving dinner

Snacking with Starr and Colleen

Being goofballs after dinner.

Brady had a few sleepy/ wilty moments on the beach, but overall he was very happy.  Anderson LOVED it and got pretty brave with the water.  I found this year more relaxing than the last two.  And other than the aforementioned hurricane, weather was perfect (even Thursday, when we squeezed one more morning out before hitting the road).

Boys in the shade (Papa, Brady, Daniel, Jerry, and Will)

Anderson's "wave dance", as he worked up some courage.

Chillin in the shade.

Colleen and Brady

Jerry had the big boys digging for treasure (coins), which they loved!!

Brave Will and Starr

Daniel and Sarah

The boys and their Papa

Nannie and her boys.

We left Thursday afternoon; sad to see our week come to an end!  We did make the most of an unexpected weekend in Virginia, though.  More to come on that next. :)