First Day of Pre-K

We decided to put Brady in a pre-k program this year. It is 2 days a week from September until May. We decided to do a 2 day a week program, because I am not worried about how he will adjust socially to kindergarten. He doesn't meet a stranger. I figure he has the next 13 plus years to go to school five days a week. I would like to let him be little while he is still little. :) We did want him to get in a habit of getting up and going somewhere and being in a classroom setting.  That is how we made our decision and I think it is the right one for our family. :)

We missed the first week, because of vacation. So as soon as we got back from vacation he jumped into his first day.

 

Brady has been so excited! The day before he climbed up next to me and said, "I am a little scared of starting school." We talked about it. I drove him by the school, which is in a church building. We got his supplies ready.

 

I bought his lunch box one day with out him. He picked up and brought it to me and said, " Thank you so much for getting me this lunch box."

 

Then we went together to get his backpack. He picked ninja turtles. He immediately hugged it and said, "I am gonna love his backpack."

 

The morning of he was so excited. He didn't act nervous at all. He even posed for a first day photo!!!

 

We all loaded up to take him since it was his first day.

 

We walked in and met his teacher and some classmates.  I happened to already know his teacher and was excited to see many familiar faces. :)

 

Brady was ready for us to leave. He began talking to everyone like he has known them forever.

 

I picked him up and we immediately began discussing his day.  He was so happy and excited. He told me several things they did. He said, "I was scared of school, but it wasn't scary at all. I changed my mind about being scared."

He can not wait to go back. I am so impressed with this program so far. I am looking forward to a great school year.

The director had such kind things to say about him. She said he was so well behaved and smart. She said he jumped right in like he has been coming for years. I think she was impressed with his ability to talk to anyone and his outgoing personality. These are both great qualities of his, most of the time. ;)

His teacher said he had a great first day and that he is so funny.

Positive feed back is always so nice to hear.

Brady loves people and is not shy at all. I don't worry about him much, because he adapts so well and usually ends up with tons of new friends. I think this program will be great for him.

 

He is such a brave, independent boy. I am so proud of him. I am excited to see what all this year holds.
 

 



Crazy Kids

It is kind of a nut house around here as of late. Presley is a mess. Now that she is walking she is IN TO EVERYTHING. I remember this stage with Brady, but Presley is much more curious than Brady ever was. She takes "no" as a challenge, while Brady took that as something he just wasn't supposed to do.  

 

Brady is a talker and talks all the time. I mean you wouldn't believe how much he can talk.

 

Caleb and I look at each other with our "this is our life" look nearly every day. Extra special days we give that look to each other multiple times throughout.

I thought I would share some highlights of our beautiful, crazy life...

 

Conversation with Brady while washing some dishes...
Brady: Mom, we need to get some CLR.
Me: CLR, what, why?
Brady: because you see how the water comes out all crazy from the faucet, it would fix that.

 

I walked in Brady's room the other day to find this...

This was while Brady was "cleaning" his room. Obviously he is super efficient in cleaning. She was dancing up there, by the way. Oh my...

 

In the car today Brady was singing a song we sing at church and functions some called Jesus is Lord. The men lead and the women echo. Well, Brady was singing and he turned to look at Presley and said, "Presley, you are supposed to sing exactly what I sing right after me."

 

Presley decided to feed Rylan(the baby I keep) a goldfish cracker the other day. Fortunately, I realized what happened and was able to remove it from his mouth before he chocked on it.

 

Presley did this while I was feeding Rylan his bottle one day...

She loves pushing buttons on the tv.

 

Presley keeps sneaking into our bathroom, opening the top drawer, pulling out Caleb's toothbrush, and brushing her teeth, her hair, or both.

 

Presley pulled some bread and ranch dressing out of the trash and continued to dip her bread and suck off the ranch. So gross. (I immediately stopped this and washed her.)

 

Presley has dumped an entire bag of goldfish, the complete contents of Brady's bathroom drawer, and pretty much any thing else she touches.

 

I was watching Full House while eating my lunch one day and Presley was rebelling against nap time. She apparently really likes Full House.

 

I promise I watch them. I can go to the bathroom and come back to mayhem.

Our lives are kind of crazy, but it is an oh so good crazy. I wouldn't give anything in the world for it. 

A Little T-ball Update

We had a little break in T-ball due to a break in the schedule and a few rainy days, but the last week we have spent a lot of time at the ball field.

Daddy pitching to Brady. :)

Brady is doing so well with t-ball this year.

 

He is definitely more into the game and comprehends what is going on much better. Don't be fooled though, he still does his share of playing in the dirt, Gatorade drinking, and looking for the after game snack.

Brady's smallest fans!!!

Last Thursday night was the first game that Brady really played well. He got several hits, scored several runs, and attempted to caught the ball when hit to him. (He has been just cheering for his teammates to catch the ball and tag someone out.)

 

 

We were back at the field on Saturday afternoon. Brady played even better than the game before. He managed to tag several players out, score several runs, and hit the ball great. Brady didn't get the game ball in the team huddle, but his coach brought him a game ball afterwards. Coach said, he was just so proud of Brady that game and he deserved a game ball as well as the other little boy.

Brady was so excited! He has been coveting that game ball all season.

Monday night we were back on the field. Brady started off a little rough, playing in the dirt, doing some cheers, and got tagged out, but not for lack of trying. He turned it around and managed to score a home run in the last inning. Because he officially didn't get the game ball last game, another coach said Brady should get this game ball for his home run.

BOY. WAS. EXCITED. He lost his mind, he was so excited. He has retold the story of his first home run no less than 8,970 times. He reenacted the hit at the restaurant after the game. He called several family members to share his big news. We thought we would NEVER get him calmed down for bed.

 I stole this pic from my sister. ;)

As annoying as listening to the same story a bajillion times, I am loving the passion and excitement he has over something. I don't know what his future holds for baseball, but I hope whatever his future holds, he has that same excitement and passion for it. After all, isn't that what we all really want: to find something that excites us so much we want to work at it and share it with the world. 

4 years!!!

Brady turned 4 years old today!!!!

On one hand I can't believe I have a 4 year old and on the other it feels like he has been around for much longer than 4 years. I have a hard time remembering life with out him!

We celebrated with family last night. Brady choose a hibachi restaurant.

 

 

We came back to the house for Spidey cupcakes and presents.

Brady and Noah were so cute and excited at dinner. Brady looked at Caleb and gave him a huge hug right in the middle of it.

It is so hard to imagine my little Christmas baby is not a big, talking, funny, sweet boy.

We love him more than we could have ever imagined and can't wait to see what joys the next year holds!!!!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!!!!

2008

Brady-isms.

We have had a special visitor staying with us last week and part of this week. Our friends little one, Josie, is 7 months old. I have enjoyed the extra gummy smiles and snuggles, but  have also stayed super busy with a 4 month old, 7 month old, and almost 4 year old. It has left me little time to think, care, or want to blog. My days also haven't consisted of much other than feeding, changing, and rocking babies with a few activities with Brady mixed in, which isn't always exciting blogging material. :)

Brady did get out and see a play, Peter Pan on Thursday with my sis and Noah.

Anyway, Brady has been super funny lately. We have been in a very well-behaved stage for the most part. It is easier to soak him in and enjoy him when I don't have to scold him what seems like every second. :)

Here are a few Brady funnies as of lately.

Conversation on the way to church one night.
Me: Brady, please don't be so wild when we get out of church.
Brady: Mom, the church isn't the building, its the people. 
(At first I had no response. Later we talked about how he was right, but we need to respect the building and the people inside walking and talking. I am always afraid he will get so wild, not pay attention, and knock a little, old lady over.)
 

Brady playing with his "cell phone" laughing very loudly.
Caleb: "What is so funny?"
Brady: "Taylor just sent me a text?"
Me: "Well what did it say?"
Brady: "It said there was a turkey at crocodile place."minutes later...
Brady: "Taylor just sent me another text, it says, no turkey it got runned over by the car."

Brady was about to throw a fit and I asked if he wanted to spend some time in time out. He quickly turned and said, "I will straighten up! I will straighten up!"

When I picked him up from seeing the play, he said, "Mom, the pirates were a little scary, but I was so brave. So, they didn't scare me."

One night, Caleb asked Brady if he ever got tired of talking. Brady quickly replied, "No".

Out of the blue...
"I like my bathtub!"
 
We were at my parents house and Noah was playing with a lamp. I told him we better not play with that or Poppy and SueSue would get us. Brady, without missing a beat, said, "Poppy, will knock you out!" 

 

 

I locked myself, Brady, and Presley out of the house and car last night. While we were waiting on someone to rescue us, Brady tried to pick the lock and repeatedly said he was trying to cheer me up. I wasn't upset, but it was really cold out and I didn't want my babies to be cold. Then Brady said, "Mom, look at all these stars! If we weren't stuck out here, we would never get to see them!"
              

 

 -Who is this kid??? And how did I get so lucky to be his Mommy????



That is all I can think of for now. He definitely keeps us on our toes. I can't imagine life any other way!

Nightmare?

Brady woke up this morning while I was feeding Presley around 5:30 am.

He climbed up on the couch with me and uttered something about a bad dream.

He quickly said, "let me tell you about it".

Of course I insisted he do tell me all about it.

He began retelling all the details of his bad dream.

"We were here, in this house! Daddy got up to get ready for work. He told us bye, then he went outside and he took your car to work."

...awkward pause...

"That was it, that was my bad dream."

I am not sure which part of that dream was bad, but I hope his bad dreams stay this innocent and sweet for a while longer. :)

Being Kind

For a while now, we have had a problem with Brady being nice, particularly to my grandparents, his great grandparents. I am fortunate to have 2 living grandmothers, 1 living grandfather, and a bonus living grandfather(my grandmother remarried after her husband passed). They are all crazy about the great grand kids. It is such a blessing to for Brady and Presley to have so many great grandparents living and in good enough health to have a relationship. However, Brady is not always nice and friendly to them. That is really all they want from him, a hug, kiss, and some attention. Of course it was worse when Brady was tired, hungry, or trying to play, but that is not an excuse to be unkind to anyone. Ever. Period. (With this I have tried to make sure I am living the kindness I expect from my children. I am not perfect. Raising children reminds me of that every day!)

So, Brady and I came up with a plan. We made a "Nice Chart" and some ground rules. Caleb and I would be on the watch for acts of kindness by Brady and each act of kindness earned a sticker. We set a goal of 20 stickers and then a prize of picking out a toy at Toys-R-Us. It took Brady a couple days to really comprehend the deal, but once he did he had an amazing transformation. Along with each sticker, we wrote down what he did that was nice and talked about why it was nice. He began requesting to give the great-grandparents a hug instead of the other way around. He also doesn't expect a reward, it has just become more of habit. This has been very helpful in communicating exactly which acts are nice and which are not. We tried to keep it all very positive and not focus on the unkind moments, but the kind moments.

He finally put his 20th sticker on his chart and today we took our special outing. I let him pick where he wanted lunch and then we went to Toys-R-Us for his prize.

He chose Chic-fil-A which worked out perfectly because it was really hot today and he got to burn some energy in the play place. While we were eating, he looked up at me with his big blue eyes and said, "Thank you Mommy!"

He decided he had played enough and was ready to go so we headed to Toys-R-Us. Brady was so funny shopping for his toy. He took it very serious and wanted to be sure to make the best decision. This is what he finally settled on.

We made a quick trip to Wal-mart and then came home for a nap. Little Presley slept the entire time we were out! So nice!

Here is my sweet girl today! She loves her play mat!

 Note: I stole the chart idea from a friend of mine. I wish I would have thought of it on my own. It really does take a village.

Haircut

Things are looking a little different around here.

Before. Obviously it was beyond time!

 

I cut Brady's hair the other night. I usually trim it up. Then every so often I take him to a professional to shape it up.

 

He normally doesn't mind getting it cut, but the other night he wasn't interested. It was tougher than normal to get him to sit still. About midway through, Presley started crying. I rushed to finish up on a squirmy kiddo and a screaming baby in the background. I am anything but a professional when it comes to a hair stylist, by the way.

 

Needless to say, I made a little mistake on one side and cut quite a bit off. I tried to comb it over, gave Brady a bath, and hoped it wasn't too noticeable.

 

Caleb came home.

 

It was noticeable.

 

I believe his exact words were "it looks good, but...

 

...what happened here?"

 

After much debate, we decided to just cut it all with the highest trimmer setting.

 

Now Brady looks like this...

 

 

Brady asked if his eyes are still blue? They are. He went on. I cried. Caleb got quiet. 

 

I just can't believe how different he looks. Brady's long hair is one of my favorite things! I have never ever cried over my own hair cut or color and I have made some dramatic changes over time. I never dreamed I would get that upset over my child's hair, especially my little BOYS!

 

I come to the only logical conclusion I know, parenthood makes you crazy!

 

It is growing on us. Brady doesn't care. I know it has to be cooler!

 



Clean your room...

I asked Brady today to clean his room.

He replied with "okay, then can I play the Wii?".

I told him if he cleaned his room, yes he could play the Wii.

Cut to a few hours later and his room was still not clean. (Not that I expected it to be really, after all, he had spent a total of approximately 5 minutes in his room over a 2 hour period.)

I asked him again to clean his room.

Same conversation about the Wii followed.

I went into another room and returned to find Brady sitting on the couch.

He looked up at me with a sweet grin that usually means I have, am thinking about, or going to do something you aren't going to like, but I am so stinking cute maybe you won't care. You know the look. It is a dangerous and incredibly frustrating look, sprinkled with a bit of cuteness.

The words that followed that all to familiar look were something along the lines of "I don't want to clean my room so I locked the door."

Not comprehending the statement, I immediately went to his room.

I went to turn the knob, but to my surprise it would not turn.

Comprehension sinking in, I asked the question, "Did you lock your door and then close it?"

"Yes, I did, because I don't want to clean my room." in a normal, matter of fact voice.

The words that followed I can not repeat, because I am not quite sure what they were. Not that they were bad words, I was so mad, I am just not sure what they were. I know there was a lot of big trouble, never ever do that, and what were you thinking. I believe a few dramatic now you are never going to be able to get in your room agains were involved.

I tried to break in, but my 9 month pregnant angry self has zero patience. It left me frustrated.

Fortunately, Caleb was on his way home and he quickly worked the lock.

Here we are at the end of the day and the room has yet to be cleaned, no one has played Wii, and I am certain Brady has officially declared mommy crazy!

I know one thing, I am not cleaning that room.

Caleb always says I am not sure which one of us(me or Brady) is more stubborn.

Moral of the story: Remove all locks from interior doors, except from Mommy and Daddy's room, before having children.

Unfortunately, I have to give the little guy credit for not throwing a fit or acting out. He saw a solution to his problem and found a creative way to fix it. As much as I hate to admit it, it was pretty genius for a 3 year old.

T-Ball Tournaments

Monday night we had game one of our T-ball tournament. Brady's little team was the #3 team out of 6. Two of the teams dropped out of the tournament.

(Caleb had to work late both nights so he missed both games. :(  I kept him updated with texts and calls.)

We played the #2 team. This team has been our toughest, because they have one kid that gets all our kids out at first base. We just knew we would play them first in the tournament, and we did. Ha!

Our little team did so good. They lost 9-6, but they didn't go down with out a fight. The last time we played them we lost 15-0 and didn't even get through our entire lineup. All the parents and coaches were so proud of the kiddos.

Tuesday night we played game 2 against the loser of the other game. The team we played we have beaten twice. However, we were totally off our game. Games two nights in a row is tough for the little guys.  They were tired and just not feeling it, I guess.

Brady on the pitchers mound. It is the only position he pays any attention to in the field. Ha Ha!

We were down 10-2 and got one more chance to bat. The first 2 batters got out. Then we miracously scored 5 runs before getting the 3rd out. They turned it on.

We lost 10-7 putting us in 4th place in the tournament. They got a team trophy and were so proud. They were the only team to get a trophy this night, because the other teams will continue playing.

They were so cute getting the trophy. They were so excited!

Brady told us when we got home that his team won the tournament because they got the trophy. Ha Ha!

He also told us that his team showed those blue guys what they could do with a bat. I believe I heard his coach say that to the team before batting. So funny!

This ends the season for Brady's first t-ball team. The coach wants to play in a couple other tournaments the end of this month and next month. I am not sure how much we will be able to participate due to Presley. They will also have a team party sometime in July.

Overall, I am so proud of our little team. They have come A LONG way since that first practice. They have all learned so much and improved greatly. Brady loved it. It has been a really good experience for all of us. Hopefully next year Caleb will be able to make it to more games.

The World According to Brady...

Time for a few Brady stories. He keeps us on our toes and laughing all the time. You never ever know what is going to come out of that little mouth. :o

We always ask Brady what he learned in Bible class after it is over. Wednesday he replied, "Jesus was washing his friends feet. But Peter said don't wash my feet. Then Jesus said you better let me wash your feet."

 

Brady asked me last week why I was walking like a penguin. He proceeded to laugh hysterically afterwards.

 

The other night Brady said, "When I grow up big, I am gonna smoke just like my Papa!"- That one didn't go over so well. Apparently he spent the next day telling Papa how yucky smoking is and it is what is making him cough all the time.

Brady asked me if we had diapers for the baby, I told him we had some. Brady quickly said, "Diapers- check!" 

He said after seeing a Chuck-E-Cheese commercial the other day, "when my baby is born, Poppi and Sue Sue are taking me to Chuck-E-Cheese and they will let me ride the cars ride".  He totally made that up.

We met my friend Brandi last week for dinner while Caleb went to a concert. Brady sat as close as humanly possible to Brandi during dinner. He looked at her and said, "My daddy told my mommy my game was at the school with the rocket ship, but when we got there no one was there. Then my mommy cried and cried and called daddy and told him to tell us where the ballgame was. Then daddy told us where to go and we made it to the game. " Unfortunately this was a very accurate account of our trip to one of Brady's games one Saturday morning. He has started telling everything!!!

That is all for now. I am sure there is more, but it so hard to remember everything. Especially since he talks non stop all day long.

All About Brady

I did a quick questionnaire with Brady a few months ago and I thought I would do it again since we are just a couple of months away from adding a new baby to our family. I hope to do this in a few months after she is born to see if his answers have changed!

I also have seen several Meet My Mom and Meet My Dad questionnaires on Pinterest and thought I would throw those in as well!

1. What is your name?         B-R-A-D-Y,  He spelled it out!           

2. How old are you? 3
3. Where do you live?  Murfreesboro
4. What is your favorite color? Purple
5. What is your favorite animal? Snake
6. What makes you happy?  my snake
7. What makes you sad? I don't know, but you know what makes me mad? That Kayla(Brady's aunt) left her car at Gigi and Papa's, because she is not supposed to do that.
8. What is your favorite toy? cars
9. What is your favorite food? Macaroni
10. What is your favorite song?         ABC's

11. Who is your best friend? Grady
12. What do you want to be when you grow up?(added by request from my mom:)) A man just like my daddy

Meet My Dad.

1. What is my daddy's name? Caleb

2. What does daddy do for fun? baseball

3.  What does daddy do at work? make money

4. What is daddy's favorite thing to eat? Strawberries

5. What is daddy's favorite thing to drink? Tea

6. How old is daddy? 2

7. What is daddy's hair like? brown

8. What is daddy's favorite thing to do? look at the computer

9. What is your favorite to do with daddy? play baseball

10. What makes daddy the best? he plays ball with me

Meet My Mom.

1. What is mommy's name? Amber

2. What does mommy do for fun? clean the kitchen

3. What does mommy do at work? make money

4. What is mommy's thing to eat? Macaroni too!

5. What is mommy's favorite thing to drink? Tea

6. How old is mommy? 2

7. What is mommy's hair like? brown

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do? watch t.v.

9. What is your favorite thing to do with mommy? clean the kitchen

10. What makes mommy the best? the baby

Birthday Celebrations

December 23, 2011

We started the day off with letting Brady open one gift as soon as he woke up. Brady was so sweet when he woke up. He yelled, "Its my birthday, today!" He was so very excited!

He got this little playdough set. He loved it!

I made him banana pancakes, his favorite breakfast. I don't like pancakes, but Brady told me they were
de-wicious(delicious)!

After that Brady and I just had a normal day at home playing, cleaning, and nap time.

I made cupcakes for Brady's birthday dinner while Brady was napping.

Around 6:30 we met my parents,my brother, Caleb's parents, Caleb's brother and his wife, my grandparents, and our friend, Taylor at Brady's restaurant of choice, Chuy's.   Noah was sick so Amy, Bryan, and Noah had to miss. Brady was really concerned about Noah.

He was a little excited.

We enjoyed yummy food, great company, fun gifts, and cupcakes. The waitress took one cupcake and lit the candle and they all came and sang to Brady. I wish I had a picture of his face.

Brady was so, so good. I think he really had a great time. He told everyone thank you and went around and gave everyone hugs. He was really, really good. I was proud. (He hasn't been that good since. We have to get back to some sense of normalcy, I think.)

This was a super easy way to celebrate his birthday on his birthday. No mess, no cooking, no clean-up, we could just all enjoy it. It was nice especially since the days following were so crazy.

We will be having a belated birthday party with Brady's friends some time in January. It is just too much in December. More on that when it happens.

Happy Birthday, Brady James!!!

Brady is 3 today!!!

It seems like only yesterday, we were walking into the hospital anxious to meet our sweet baby boy. 

He has been a huge blessing in our lives. I honestly don't know what we did without him. 

We love him more and more each day, even when we don't think it is possible to love him more. 

Happy Birthday sweet boy.

2008

2009

2010

2011

I will share our full day in a later post! 

Happy Birthday, little monkey! Hope you have a wonderful birthday!