Tuesday, June 26, 2012

On the Move


Jack and Brady, May 2012

Last month, my oldest nephew introduced Brady to the world of bikes.   We didn't realize Brady enjoyed sitting on the bike so much, we thought it scared him, and certainly he is too young to be on a toddler bike.  Well, we were mistaken.   He gets excited every time he sees a bike or anything with wheels - and in our town that is all the time - and more than once he has found himself on one.


Grandpa and Brady, Father's Day 2012


He had the motion down and everything!


Now he thinks he is ready for a big bike
 

And whatever Brady does, there is someone else who wants a ride too....


Big Cousin Ben - "How does the horn work?"


Getting a little help from her brother


Faster, faster, lets race Ben!



Thursday, June 7, 2012

7 Months



My, oh, my this month went quickly!  I know its just a number, but 7 months seems so old to me...how did we get closer to their 1st birthday than this day...


Our world changed this month.  I am now greeted in the kitchen and bathroom with roaming, curious crawlers.  Rooney has mastered crawling and is already moving towards the inevitable walk.  It seems crazy to write that in a 7 month update, but I found her two days ago standing, holding on to the bouncy seat.  She isn't strong enough to pull herself up on anything, thank god, but the gentle incline of the bouncy seat allowed her to walk her hands right up it and before I knew it she was standing there smiling and so proud of herself.  Brady is still working to find his knees, but that doesn't stop him and while it takes a bit longer he still covers the same ground and was the first to greet me in the bathroom, much to my surprise.  Check out his army crawl skills...



For months, I anxiously awaited R&B interacting with each other.  A few months ago, they started noticing each others presence, laughter and cries, but truthfully it wasn't interaction.  Over the past month, they have started having "conversations" with each other and actually playing with each other...well more, one baby steals the other baby's toy and they go round and round stealing the same toy away from each other.  It seems in playing, eating and just about everything else they do there is already some serious competition.



Rooney continues to be our little spitfire.  She was introduced to lots of new people this month and it seemed everyone called her a "busy body" within minutes of meeting her.  She really only sits still when she is cuddled up to me...and Auntie Amy.   She is a mama's girl without question and no one else can console her if I'm within sight.   However, Tuesday night she made her father so happy he almost cried.  When he walked into the apartment from work she looked up and said, "DADA" with a huge smile on her face....while we know when babies are supposed to talk, Lee and I have convinced ourselves she understands that Lee is Dada:)  Over the past month, she has become an expert at pulling my hair.  She knows just how to grab the small hair on my neck and right around my temple. Ouch.  But I forgive her for causing me pain because she usually pulls the hair when she is leaning to give me a big hug and a typically juicy, open mouth kiss!

Rooney continues to be a long, skinny girl, weighing ~16lbs (25 percentile) and 27 inches (75 percentile). 

Brady, our happy little cautious guy, seems to have come out of his shell this month.   He is such a happy baby...with a bit of a temper (especially when his bottle isn’t ready when he’s ready for it, like at 3:00 in the morning).  While he is smiling most of the time and doesn't frequently get mad, watch out when he does.   One afternoon, he was taking a nap in this crib and I was feeding his sister on the couch.  I heard him start to whimper and I hoped he would self soothe right back to sleep or cry a little and fall asleep or just play in his crib until I was finished...nope he started crying and quickly grew so outraged by being alone in the crib that he hyperventilated on me!  Note to self, the cry-it-out method will not be used on him.  I prefer breathing over sleeping!

Brady babbles all day and still is such a thinker, it amazes me how he studies things.  I can't wait to hear what he is thinking about when he is staring at things.  I am afraid we are in for a lot of "WHY" questions from him:)  Like his sister, Brady is very affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses - he even goes so far as to reach around our necks with both arms and grabs us by the ears to pull us in for his own version of juicy, open mouth kisses. And being a typical little boy he finds absolute amusement in burp and fart noises - fake and real - and somehow knows to giggle when he hears them. One item that he sees somewhat frequently that he always finds so fascinating is a glass of red wine.  Without fail he drops everything and focuses on the glass...it made us laugh until last weekend when I found him trying to pull bottles of wine off our wine rack.  Clearly, we need to do a better job baby proofing!

Brady seems to be on a growth spurt right now, which means he eats all the time and my arms are really sore from the extra weight!  He weighs ~17 lbs (25 percentile) and is also 27 inches (75 percentile).

This month both babies tried many new foods.  Rooney will eat any food you put in front of her.  And makes it known that any food I am trying to eat is fair game for her too.  Brady gives us many nasty faces whenever he is introduced to a new food item, but always warms up to it eventually.  The only food he liked for the first time was the potato from the inside of a samosa!  He was all smiles and clearly it was not a new flavor to him....thank you Mrs. R for introducing him extra early to Indian spices. 

I will stop rambling now....


Out for a stroll in her big girl seat
Modeling a white goatee

Rooney's sleep position of choice

This #7 is yummy
Brady going in for the steal...
Grr
Happy Girl
The reason NO has become my favorite word