11 Months

Brigham hit this milestone while we were in Tennessee. The boy LOVES the vacuum and HATES for his face to be wiped. He loves food and wants whatever you are eating. He hates the stage 3 baby food meals (spaghetti and meatballs, chicken with mixed veggies, ect). The picture above is how meal time ends up when it consists of the food he doesn't like. He knocks the spoon away and clinches his jaw so you can't put any in his mouth. It is quite entertaining although messy. He will eat any table food we give him but he refuses to eat the baby food. He loves to carry around/chew on the Desitin tube and the sunblock tube. He hates when Mark barks like a dog.

I am starting the planning for his first birthday parties. We will have to have more than one because we can't have all our friends and family here at the same time since our house is on he small end.

He eats at least 3 containers or the equivalent a day and 3 6-7 ounce bottles per day. He will walk sometimes if you are walking with him and let go of his hand quickly but then sits down as soon as he can. I am beginning to wonder if he will walk before he is a year old. We still aren't sure if he says "mom" and "dad" on purpose or not. He jibbers all day but as far as we can tell, he still hasn't said anything that we consider his first word.

Brigham is a sweet boy that laughs at almost anything. The easiest ways to get him to laugh are to say "boo" or to bite his legs and feet. These are almost guaranteed to get him going. Sometimes he will even put his foot into your mouth so that you will bite him. He is very social and never meets a stranger. We love that.

Chattanooga

This past Thursday morning Mark and I loaded up the Jetta and took Brigham to Tennessee to visit with his great aunt and uncle and also his great grandma. We were on the road during his 3 hour afternoon nap time and he only slept one hour. He isn't a big fan of sleeping in the car. I think this is mostly because he is a belly sleeper and the car seat prevents any belly sleeping from happening at all. Luckily I was able to keep him happy and entertained and the trip there went smoothly. This was his longest trip to date and we were pleased with the results.

On Friday we went to lunch at a local diner and then got a tour of Magister. Mark requested a tour so he could put a place with the stories they tell of the company they run. By this point Brigham was beyond tired and he would yell then laugh over and over. Before finally heading back to their place we stopped by my grandma's since we were only 5 minutes away. This was the first time that Briggs and my grandma met. Brigham loved her coasters for some reason so we were all able to enjoy our visit! We had dinner prepared for us and enjoyed the rest of the evening staying home and talking and of course playing with Briggs and the dogs.

On Saturday we went to a zip line and high ropes course. Mark and I went first and my aunt and uncle took care of Brigham. It took us 2 hours to get through the course but it was a lot of fun. My aunt and uncle opted out of going through the course because it was so hot and since they can go anytime we just went on to the aquarium. After that, we headed home for dinner.

We came home Sunday morning in record time and Brigham did great.. It was a great trip and we look forward to going back for another visit!

The Boy is Growing Up So Fast!

Just had to post a quick note that today Brigham climbed onto our coffee table with no help and he acted as if he does it all the time. I couldn't believe my eyes! He wanted a pair of sunglasses that was on the table so he lifted his leg onto the table and pulled himself up, crawled to the glasses and had a seat as chewed on them. I guess we can no longer leave the room while he is in there! The battery was dead on our camera so I couldn't get a picture of it but I am sure I will have plenty more chances to get one. I feel so lucky to have Brigham and Mark. They are so much fun! I am just so blessed.

Update

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated in a month! I guess we have been busy around here. Mark is continuing with school and he is doing great! He is making all A's for the 3rd semester in a row. He will have a week and a half off starting Wednesday until the start of the fall semester. We have debated many things that we could do on this break but I think we will be going to Tennessee to visit my aunt and uncle next weekend. Ideally, I would like for us to be able to find an affordable bed and breakfast in Charleston in September for us to stay at for a weekend. We plan on going to Vegas in October when Mark has fall break. I still don't have a job for the fall and I don't really have any prospects. School is starting in our area over the next 2 weeks depending on the school and the school system. Hopefully I will be able to find a job somewhere working at least 30 hours a week.

Brigham turned 10 months old almost 3 weeks ago. I can't believe he is almost a year old! Since he turned 10 months his top two front teeth have broken through (this happened last week) and he crawled and took his first steps in the same day. This happened on this past Friday (Aug. 6th). He has been army crawling for a while and he had kind of crawled over the past month but suddenly on Friday he was crawling around our whole house. We couldn't believe it. Since then he will army crawl if he is in a rush and crawl normal if he isn't. He actually took his first steps on Thursday night. It was completely unexpected and it was only a few steps but he did it! I was the only one to see it though. The next night Mark was walking with him down the hall and let go and Brigham just kept going for 10-15 steps. Mark was the only one to witness these steps because I was in the kitchen. He has taken a few steps every now then since this but not as many as on that night. Hopefully he will be walking full time soon but I'm not getting my hopes up. He is pretty content as it is.

At 10 months he is still napping 2 times a day. His morning nap is from about 10-12. Occasionally he goes to sleep earlier if he was up late the night before. His afternoon nap is from about 2:30 or 3 until 6. Bedtime is 8:30. He gets 3 bottles that are 7oz a day mixed with a tablespoon or so of baby cereal. He gets prunes every morning and a vegetable for lunch. For dinner he gets a fruit or vegetable and maybe some of what we are having. He has become a pro at the sippy cup. We no longer have to hold the cup for him. The little man LOVES water. He drinks it in the shower, bathtub, pool, wherever he can get it. He is a sweet happy boy that we just love to pieces. His 1st birthday will be here before we know it and I have all kinds of ideas in my head for things to use for our celebration. Hopefully I can get everything made that I want for him.

Last week I watched Carolina for a couple hours on 2 days. Brigham loves her. He just get enough. His favorite thing to do is take her pacifier away from her until she starts crying then he tries to put it back in her mouth. These attempts were usually unsuccessful so I would help him. When she stopped crying, he would take it away again. This is his new favorite game I guess.

He also gave her lots of kisses/licks.

This picture doesn't do this moment justice. The boy LOVES to eat. If he sees you with food or a drink, he will climb all over you to get some. He eats anything we give him and can never seem to get enough. He gets so excited about it too. It is so funny to watch him.

Baby Showers and What Not

I have spent the past couple weeks preparing for 2 showers that I was throwing for Scarlett this week. There was so much I wanted to do but I wasn't able to accomplish. I made sweet Carolina a diaper cake, quilt, and mobile for her room. It was my first time making a diaper cake and mobile and both were fairly easy and didn't take much time at all! We went with a bird theme for the showers and I would have liked it to have been a little more obvious that we had a theme but who really remembers these things anyways? I made bird nest favors by shaping no-bake cookies into a nest shape and putting a Jordan Almond in the nest for the egg. I made cupcakes for the Saturday shower and toasted coconut and placed it on the cupcakes to look like a nest with 2 Jordan Almonds in the nest. The mobile consisted of 4 birds (that Mark drew the template for) that hung by a ribbon. I didn't get a picture of it but if I must say so myself, I thought it was pretty darn cute. It hung on our dining room hanging light for 2 days and I grew quite fond of it.

In other news, Brigham isn't so fond of crawling anymore. He prefers to walk everywhere. The only problem is that he can't walk unless you are holding his hands so we spend a lot of time walking around our house and it gets quite boring. He is also bored with his toys. I need to go yard sale-ing to get him some new stuff. Hopefully I will be able to score some this Saturday. Last week Brigham wasn't his usual sweet self. He was cranky and not very fun to be around. Turns out, (we assume) that he was cranky because he was off schedule. We were out late a lot last week and the week before and it just totally jacked him up. This last week was much better and we were all happier. We only kept him out late twice. Once was Monday night for fhe and this is the case every Monday that we aren't hosting. The second time was last night when we went to dinner with Nate, Scarlett, Carolina, Daniel, and Katelyn. After dinner we went to my very favorite place, Yoforia. It is a fabulous frozen yogurt place. Brigham was his normal, social self and was making friends with the dogs and strangers that were getting yogurt also. Everyone was watching him and commenting on how cute and funny he was and how he looks exactly like Mark. I thought that was funny because just hours before, our neighbor was telling Mark that Brigham looks exactly like me.

Brigham's newest skill: Pulling himself up. He has been doing this for about 2 weeks now. I love going into his room in the morning or after nap time to see him standing up waiting for us to rescue him.

Here are some pictures from the shower today at Nate and Scarlett's. I don't have any pictures from the shower earlier in the week.

That is my very favorite picture of Scarlett from today and possibly ever. ( You can also see my diaper cake lingering in the background.)

We love you Scarlett and Carolina and we are so grateful that we were a part of the celebration of Carolina's birth.

The New Toy

Mark converted an old diaper box into a "wagon." Brigham was a little confused at first but he eventually enjoyed himself.

Fourth of July Celebrations (in reverse order)

Watching the downtown fireworks from the top floor of the Midtown Target parking deck with friends and family. Brigham was absolutely mesmerized by the fireworks. This is our friend Dustin's mom holding Brigham. He sat with her till the end of the show.

This is the cake I made for our dinner with some friends and family before we went to watch the fireworks. I had to wait for the cake to be cut before I could find out if it worked and actually looked like a cake. It started to look a little mutilated by the time I got a picture of it.

The next few pictures are from the Indian Trail parade on July 3rd. It is the parade I grew up going to and Mark indulges me each year by continuing the tradition and driving the 30 minutes it takes to see it each year.

Mark's caption for this picture is "He is learning young." This picture has nothing to do with the fourth of July. It was taken July 2nd. I am just too lazy to put it in its own post.