Brady's Two Year Portraits

I really wanted two-year portraits of Brady, since we have some that I love from when Anderson was two.  And we have preschool pictures of Anderson from this year without Brady pictures to match.  So this morning while Anderson was in preschool, I took Brady to a portrait studio.  Mom joined us, which was a big help.  Brady's session was dramatic (he laughed, he cried, he screamed a little), but I LOVE the results!!  We picked just 4 poses for prints, but they (accidentally, I guess) gave us the CD with all of the 50-some shots they took.  Here are some of my favorites......

This one!  It's ridiculously cute.  And I love it, and chose it for the mega-package with like 64 prints. ;-)

Mini-snow day

We got a dusting- 1/2 inch of snow last night and this morning, but it was enough to close Henrico schools, and therefore Anderson's preschool and Brady and my church group.  So we had our own little snow day.  It took about 30 minutes to get the boys all bundled up to go outside.  At this point I was sweating through my light sweatshirt, so I didn't need a whole lot of bundling.  And I love every one of the twenty little fingers that live in our house, but putting mittens on little boys (again and again and again) is my least favorite part for sure.

Nonetheless, I got everyone ready and out the back door for some solid snow day playtime.  I think we were out there for almost 45-minutes, so slightly better than the time preparations required.  Victory! :)

Anderson really wanted to build a snowman, so we did.  A little one. :)  We had no carrots for his nose, but Anderson settled for "pebbles."

Brady reallly wanted to knock him down- and did a few times- but finally he let "Olaf" be.

They had fun on our little slide

But Brady didn't want to be rushed.  Hello, two-years-old!

Cutie!

Once Anderson got the idea, he wouldn't stop eating the snow.  I finally just told him to make sure the snow was white before he ate it.

Stripped off all of our wet snowgear and came inside to play and eat lunch.  Anderson was running laps around the house while some of Brady's birthday balloons "chased him."

Pretty sure we are inside for the day now (for one thing, I think the snow has about melted on this 40 degree day) , but it was fun while it lasted. :)

Brady turns two!!

Yesterday we got to celebrate the best surprise I've ever received!  Brady is such a joy, and we love getting to spend our lives with him.

He is typically quiet, but we really don't have to worry about him standing up for himself.  And he talks more and more- definitely speaking in full sentences a fair amount.  Some of my favorite of his "go-to" phrases lately: "What are you talkin about?!"; "Mama, are you a princess??"; "Well, what are you waiting for?".  He's also trying new sentences out.  Today at the park he told Ryan, "Anderson doesn't want to swing" (because in fact Anderson did, but Brady wasn't ready for his turn to be over.)

He's very friendly, but he is in a shy phase.  I think it's the age- at least it has been for both of my boys.  He still gets upset sometimes when he's given a lot of attention, but I see him outgrowing this more and more.  He is perfectly happy to tell me goodbye if he's going somewhere familiar (like "Ganma, Gampa's house,"but I almost always get the happiest "HI, MOM!" when I get to see him again.

What he loves, he LOVES.  What he doesn't love, he doesn't give the time of day.  This is definitely true with food.  He always loves fruit, Cheerios, french fries, yogurt, and dessert.  Other things come and go.  He'll refuse to touch macaroni and cheese at lunch and then devour the exact same leftovers for dinner.  So I never know for sure.  He's not good at trying new foods yet, but I think that will improve with age.

Brady loves vehicles of any kind.  He loves animals and toy animals.  Mostly he loves his toys to be in pairs- one in each hand.  He's also very happy to look at books and be read to.  He has a few books memorized well enough that he can sort of read along with us.  Not all of the words are clear, of course, but he gets the important words in.

Brady is certainly growing.  His once chubby, squishy, lovely legs are now long and sturdy- not a roll to be found.  He is so handsome and his smile is magic!  His hair is still curly in any sort of humidity, which we all love.

He tends to run wherever he's going, and he's already mastered the solo-jump.  In fact, earlier this week the boys were totally in show-off mode trying to out-jump each other in front of Grandpa and me.  Anderson's jumping skills show that he is 19 months older, but Brady's jumping a lot sooner than his brother did.

I wanted Brady's second birthday to be low-key and just reflect his sweet personality.  We chose a family and closest friends dinner for Anderson's second birthday, and decided to do the same for Brady's.  Brady's birthday happened to fall on a Saturday, which was convenient.

{Side note: the day before Brady's birthday, our loft renovation was finally close enough to being finished that we could move furniture back in and use the space.  There's still a list of work to be done- including all of the painting- but I was so glad to have the space in time for Brady's big day!}

Here was the invitation I emailed to our local family/ best friends:

And photos from yesterday's dinner:

After nap, before the party, Brady checking out the "centerpiece" on the table.

Brady and his daddy

The birthday boy and some of the ladies eating dinner.  I just realized we didn't get a picture of the food table.  It was pretty cute, with "stoplight fruit" (strawberries, pineapple, and green grapes), spare tires (mini-chocolate donuts), and build-your own train tracks with graham crackers, peanut butter and pretzel-sticks.  Pizza and macaroni and cheese were the main course.  Just picture it all as perfect as Pinterest. ;-)

More of the crew eating dinner.

Brady opened presents...

Hello, Colby!

Including a cool ride-on tractor...with some assembly required!  McKenzie very sweetly requested Ryan go ahead and put it together.  But he was saved by the cake... the tractor will be assembled another day.

Speaking of cake....

Cute cake, thanks to Kroger

Ha- this birthday photo-fail makes me laugh.

There's the birthday boy!

Diggin in! :)

These two buddies had a blast playing together!

A big-kid craft

Grandpa and Anderson playing some soccer/ basketball

Admiring his Thomas balloon. :)

Ashley trying out the Thomas ride-on from Grandma and Grandpa

Kelly and Ashley

Sarah and Daniel

Sarah-Anderson lovin

As the party wound down, Brady quietly retreated to a basket full of toys. Here he is giving his two chickens lots of kisses.  Sweet boy.

We had a lot of fun, and we're so thankful for the "village" with whom we get to raise our precious Brady.

Sick Days

Last week was just strange.  Sunday evening, while Anderson and I were at TeamKID at church, Ryan and Brady were at home as Brady came down quickly with a tummy virus.  Neither of our boys had ever had a stomach virus before, so this was new to all of us.  Poor sweet Brady just kept getting sick, and sweet Ryan was doing everything he could do comfort him and prevent a complete mess.  When Anderson and I got home, all I wanted to do was scoop up my baby and hold him, but we decided I should get Anderson to eat and go to bed since I was relatively germ-free at that point, and Ryan would continue helping Brady until I got Anderson in bed.  Skipping a few details, Brady was sick a lot that night, slept from 10:45 until 1:30, but then was in the bed with Ryan and me until 5:00 when his tummy finally settled down and he was asleep.  I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep and then woke up sick myself.  I went and got Brady, who was surprisingly awake and perky after such a bad night.  Ryan went to grab Anderson out of bed before leaving for work to find out that Anderson had gotten sick in his bed, "Daddy, it's yucky!"  We put the TV on and Anderson and I lay in bed.  Brady was apparently feeling much better because he wanted to run around my room and play.

This was all weird enough, but add to it that our loft/ stairs renovation project was underway, and our contractor arrived a little after 8 am.  I just had Ryan post a "Come on in... we're upstairs and sick" note so the boys and I didn't have to leave the room.  Since it was Monday, my parents were planning on having the boys for the day while I tutored.  Instead, Mom just came out and scooped all of us up and we spent the day in Montpelier.  

Luckily Anderson never got very sick- just that once, again almost 48 hours later, and then he had what seemed to be an upset tummy for a day or two.  Brady definitely had it the worst and his tummy still isn't right a week later, but ever since Monday morning he seems to feel pretty good.  My virus was on the mild-side, luckily.  And thanks to my parents who took care of the boys all afternoon, I got to their house and got to go straight back to bed.  The boys weren't sick anymore on Monday, so it was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend a sick day.  I got to nap on and off, my dad heated up some Campbell's chicken noodle soup for me, and I cuddled with the boys and watched a little TV... thank goodness for my mom and dad!!!

The rest of the week, the boys and I spent about as much time at my parents' house as at our own since there was loud construction going on several days.  Wednesday our contractor had to cancel, so we ended up at home all day.  Nobody was feeling 100% yet, but we had such a nice, quiet day at home.  

Lauren and Kyle had given Brady a fun "Paper Bag Monsters" craft kit for Christmas.  Luckily, Brady was happy to share because Anderson really loves it!  We had 30-45 minutes of solid crafting time (a little less from Brady) thanks to these paper bag monsters.

Brady enjoyed both assembling and disassembling his monster.

Please excuse/ enjoy Anderson's lovely jammies.  We'd been through A LOT of jammies at this point in the week.  And sheets, and towels.

Anderson made 3 different monsters, including this "sleepy" one.

Brady was ready to move on before Anderson was.  When he gets in the mood, Brady loves nothing more than to play by himself.  Here he is with his LeapReader Jr., which he got for Christmas.  I'm thrilled with how much he likes it- he's just old enough to be independent with it for a good little while.

And it wouldn't be a day in our house without some quality train time...

                                     

I hate seeing my boys sick, but all things considered it wasn't a bad week- mainly just a weird one.  We will all be ready to have our tummies back feeling completely good and having the renovation finally finished.