Walking, talking and first haircuts!

Brody is 11 months old and getting cuter by the day. He took his first wobbly steps about 2 weeks ago, and quickly he got the hang of walking across one side of the room to the other. He still hasn't figured out how to stand from just sitting (he has to pull himself up on something), but I know once he figures that out we'll be chasing him all over the place! :) He's so proud of himself when he's walking -- he gets the biggest grin on his face and always "falls" into me for a hug when he walks over to me. I love it!

Brody has his first haircut today and it was a complete disaster! They had me sit in the chair and hold onto B. The minute they put the cape on him it was all over. Instant screaming and tears -- it was awful. I felt so bad for him, but I had to hold onto his head to keep him from moving. Thankfully the lady cutting his hair was quick and efficient. The front is a little crooked, but I'm ok with that. I'd rather have crooked hair than war wounds from the scissors! I had a feeling he wouldn't like his first haircut...I just didn't realize how bad it would be! We had to take pictures after the fact, but that's ok. We still have the memory :)

Brody's 1st Halloween...2 weeks late! :)

I seem to be pretty good at updated about 2 weeks after the "milestone" happens. And that reminds me....I never updated after Brody's 9 (and a 1/2) month appointment. He's perfectly healthy, weighed in at 21lbs 10oz, and 30" tall! He's in the 75th percentile for weight, and in the 90th percentile for height! Last appt, he was only in the 75th percentile for height, so he's made a jump!

Our little monkey was a monkey for Halloween....how appropriate! He hated his costume, but we put him through the torture anyway :) I invited my parents and both sets of my grandparents over for dinner and it was a great time. I love having all my family in one place with Brody to celebrate :)

9 Months Old! (2 weeks late....again)

For some reason, I'm always 2 weeks late when it comes to posting Brody's monthly updates. I can't believe he's 3/4 of a year old already. He's turning into such a little man with a personality to boot, and I love it! I never, ever knew parenthood could be so rewarding this early on.


I don't have any "stats" updates since B's 9 month appointment isn't until later this week. I know he's over 20lbs, since I weighed him on our scale a few weeks ago. I weighed myself (ugh) then held Brody and got back on the scale. It said he was 21.6lbs, so we'll see how true that stands! He's wearing 12-18 month shirts and 12 month bottoms. He's a solid little guy!

Brody began crawling at about 7 months and shortly started "cruising". He's still cruising all over the place and he hates sitting down. If he can pull himself up onto something, he's doing it...whether it's sturdy or not! This has led to a few bumps and bruises, but it's bound to happen. He's only stood by himself a few times, and it was only for a second or two. I have no doubt that onces he gets his balance and learns how to stand, he'll be walking in no time! However, I'm going to enjoy every day until then! :) Brody is constantly on the move, whether it's crawling or crusing. He's always trying to go somewhere!

He's gotten very verbal over the past week or so. He's still saying ma-ma-ma-ma, da-da-da-da-da, ya-ya-ya-ya and so on. But I swear I've heard him say "dog" and "no". It's quite possible I'm imagining things, but I swear I could've heard that! He likes to scream/squeal as loud as he can out of nowhere too. It can be pretty embarassing if we're out and about, but hey, he's just using that voice he's learning he has! He gets SO excited when we clap and cheer for him, but he's not really clapping on his own yet. We've almost got the waving thing down too! We work on it every day when I drop him off at daycare :)

I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but Brody LOVES the TV show Little Einsteins. He can be throwing a mini temper-tantrum and as soon as he hears the theme song, he stops and turns towards the TV. It's so cute :) And, it gives momma a few minutes of relief!

Smaller Jeans.

Here's my moment of confession. I was overweight when I got pregnant. Then I gained 53lbs during my pregnancy. I lost 36lbs within the first few months, but I was stuck at a number. Then I lost 11 more pounds and was stuck at THAT number for quite some time. I just started doing Weight Watchers (yes, again) and I'm proud to say that I've lost 18lbs in the last 7-8 weeks!



So, if you don't feel like doing the math, that's all 53lbs of baby weight = GONE, plus another 12lbs! Granted, I have a ways to go, but it feels SO incredibly good to see the scale consistently going down, having the baby weight gone, and finally being able to buy clothes in smaller sizes, instead of slowing going up in sizes!


I had two people in my office today tell me that I look like I'm losing weight. Yayyy for people noticing! Here I come size 8's!

8 Months Old...already?!

Ok, so he's closer to being 8.5 months old, but I'm a little behind the times! My gosh...my little monkey-butt is going to be 9 months old in two weeks. I know people say it all the time, but seriously, where is the time going?!


Brody is on the move from the minute he wakes up until the time he goes to bed at night. He's crawling all over the place and that kid can move! He pulls himself up into the standing position on anything he can get his sticky little fingers on, including our pant legs. If I'm standing next to Brody, he'll pull himself up using my pants, and then he'll look up at me going "Ba ba ba ba baaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" It's way too cute. He LOVES to cruise along our couches too. The way our living room is set up, he can cruise from the end table, along one couch, across the baby gate we have in between the couches, then down the loveseat to the window. He'll peer outside for a little bit and then he'll cruise back to the other side and repeat the whole process. He's finally started to really babble and it's adorable. Last night, as he was doing his cruising around the living room he was saying "Da da dadadadaaaaaaaa ya ya ya yayayayaaaaaaa ba ba ba babababaaaaaaa". Then he'd stop to blow some raspberries, click his tongue and give me a big ole smile. Speaking of smiles, Brody now has 4 teeth! He has three on the bottom and one of his top front teeth made its appearance. I really need to get a picture of his crooked little smile before his other bottom tooth and top tooth come in. I can see both of them, so I know it's only a matter of time before he has 6 toofers in there.

Brody loves to play with anything that he can use to make noise. He'll grab a hard plastic toy, carry it in his little hand while crawling over to something he can bang it on. The floor vent, his Fisher Price table, the end table...anything. He gets the biggest grin on his face like he's so proud of himself for making noise. He's into everything...nothing is safe anymore! I can't even cuddle with him on the couch with him trying to crawl over me to reach for the remote or a pop can on the end table. He loves to crumple paper or magazines, and especially enjoys using an empty water bottle to squeeze and make noise with or just to chew on.

We're still giving Brody baby-food purees three times a day and he's drinking about 25oz of formula as well. I weighed our little man the other day and he's not so little! He's already a whopping 24lbs! He doesn't have the rolls like a lot of other babies do, he's just a solid little guy. He's easily wearing 12 month clothing! We're still working on table food...he's not really a fan. He'll feed himself his puffs and pieces of toast like they're going out of style, but he's still trying to figure out the texture of pasta or cooked veggies. I only really give him table food at dinner because I just don't know what to send with him to daycare. He does get puffs during the day, but I'd like for him to be able to experiment with more normal foods.

His sleeping patterns are still great. He's finally stopped waking up once in the middle of the night! Granted, it wasn't bad, he'd just wake up and stand in his crib, "talking" until I came back into lay him down and give him his binkie. Now we put him down for bed around 7:30-8:00 and he'll sleep all night until about 7am when I wake him up to be fed and dressed for daycare.

The highlight of my day is still when I pick up B from daycare. As soon as he hears my voice he gets the biggest smile on his face and will start making a mad dash for me...as fast as his little legs will let him crawl. He'll reach for me and I swear he gives me a hug :) Seeing that almost makes going to work every day worth it. I'd still rather spend my days with him, but momma's gotta make the money!

It's so crazy to think I need to start thinking about planning his 1st birthday party!

Why sit when you could stand?

It wasn't long after Brody started crawling that he began to pull himself into a standing position. In his crib, on the furniture, and on the baby gate between our living room and kitchen. I had been wanting to buy him one of those tables with the toys on them, but couldn't bring myself to spend the $50+ they can cost new. Luckily, when I was at Once Upon a Child picking up a few more summer outfits, they had one for sale! I scored it for $17 and it's in practically new condition! Brody LOVES it! I wish I had gotten a picture of him crawling underneath it when I first showed it to him -- it was too cute :)