7 Months!!

Braden is 7 months old today and since I just posted a bunch of pictures for Easter, I thought I would just give updates on the past month. This last month has been so much fun! Braden has now become a pro at sitting up. It was kind of an over night occurrence and he seems to love feeling like a big boy sitting up all by himself. He is also doing much better with baby food. We haven't introduced much since it took about 3 weeks to get used to oatmeal cereal (he prefers it over rice cereal). He has tried squash, sweet potato, green beans, and pears. He no longer shutters and gags with every bite, so we are making progress!

Braden still LOVES to be outside and to go on walks. We are looking forward to spending lots of time outside this summer and just got him a new swimsuit to wear to the pool! And, as mentioned in my last post, I really think we need to get him some shades as well. Braden loves his books. We got a new book this past month called 10 Tiny Tadpoles and Braden loves it! He squeals with excitement when he sees it and kicks his legs through the entire book. He also still loves the Dr. Seuss books that we read.

Unfortunately, we are starting to hit that stranger danger stage. It's not too bad yet, but he definitely is aware of who has him. Luckily he will still give pretty much anyone a smile as along as Jason or I are holding him. He also can be quite silly and has started to cry when we leave the room. Funny boy!

Braden is such a sweet baby and we are having so much fun with him. We are trying to teach him how to give kisses. He doesn't fully get it yet, but he is learning and watching. Today he slobbered my cheek in what I think was an attempted kiss! Progress. We feel so very blessed to have such a sweet little guy in our home!

Easter

We had a great Easter this year. It was a beautiful sunny day here in L.A. Church was really nice. There were excellent talks and musical numbers that really invited the spirit. After church, we went on a walk and snapped a few pictures of Braden. Then we had a really nice dinner with some of our best friends here. Just a nice relaxing Easter.

There's a nice neighborhood across the street from us where we like to take walks and where all the yards are kept up, much nicer than the parks around here. So, hopefully no one cared, but we borrowed a corner of someone's yard so Braden could play in the grass. This was the first time he's really felt thick, green grass. It was cute to watch him explore and feel the blades.

We ran into a little girl in our ward who was insistent that Braden wear her sunglasses. I didn't think they would last more than a few seconds, but it turned out Braden didn't mind them at all. He didn't reach for them once. I guess this means we need to get him some shades for this summer!!

Me and my sweet baby boy on his first Easter.

I love these purple flowers that line the gate of our apartment complex. I have wanted to get a picture of them since we moved here. So, I finally did. This was on our walk too. Braden absolutely loves being in his carrier, especially outside!! No matter his mood, if we put him in the carrier and go outside, he kicks his feet and is happy the entire time. What a cutie!

Life with our six month old

I keep saying that I am going to be better at keeping up on my blog. However, life is crazy and I am still no good at it. At least this time I have a little bit of an excuse. Two days after my last post, I had a kidney stone that took me down...hard. To sum it all up, I had three trips to the E.R., was admitted to the hospital twice, had two surgeries with two stents placed, and was dealing with lots of pain!! Fortunately, I think the whole ordeal is almost over! I still have a stent in, but hopefully it will be out soon and the whole thing will be just a bad memory! :)

Although this whole kidney stone experience was no fun, I do have to count my blessings. First of all, I am so grateful for a sweet husband who took an entire week off of school and clinic to take care of Braden and I. And not once did he complain about it or make me feel bad about him missing so much. Also, we are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends here who took great care of Braden. It's at times like this that I really wish we had family close by. However, my friends really were amazing and helped us out so much! The other huge blessing was that Braden was an angel through it all. I was worried how he would behave being passed around from one person to the next, but from what I was told he was great! (unless my friends were all just being nice and telling me that so I wouldn't worry!) Braden also had to be on formula for several days, which he had never had before and I was a little worried he wouldn't like it. But, he took it without batting an eye. Then he went right back to breastfeeding with no problem at all. For this I was so grateful!!

Enough of the boring stuff and on to the fun stuff! Braden is now 6 1/2 months old and SO much fun!! He really has become such a fun baby! In this picture above he wrapped himself up in this blanket a few days ago and couldn't get out. I thought it was pretty funny.

At his six month check up Braden weighed 16lb 4 oz and was 26 in tall. He is still 25th % for height and weight but is growing steadily. He is close to sitting up, but still face plants if you don't help him. He always wants to be sitting or standing now and gets bored if he is laying for more than a few minutes. He is definitely a social guy. He loves being out and about and especially loves all the attention he gets from people. He will smile for almost anyone and he is always getting comments about his big blue eyes. He has become so much more coordinated and loves inspecting everything he can get his hands on!! Braden is also still really ticklish and it is pretty easy to get him to laugh now days. We no longer swaddle him, which has brought on a whole new way of sleeping. He used to never move when he was swaddled. However, now he is ALL over the crib!! I will have to get some pictures of it. He still usually wakes up once a night and takes 3-4 short naps a day.

This past week Braden finally got to meet his Great Grandma and Grandpa Grattan. Grandma had so much fun playing patty cake with him and singing to him. We even caught Grandpa carrying him around and playing with him. ;) We hadn't seen them in a long time and it was so nice to get out of L.A. for a quick break.

Not the best picture of everyone, but the only one I got of them all together. It's so nice being in California where we can visit them occasionally!

We don't have a highchair yet, but we will definitely be getting one soon because Braden loved sitting in it at Grandma and Grandpas. I think he felt like such a big boy!


A couple weeks ago Falycia and Kirk came to visit, which was a blast!! We did all sorts of fun stuff including a super windy trip to point dume up in Malibu. We bundled Braden up pretty good, but we weren't able to stay that long because the wind was blowing sand everywhere!

Braden got spoiled by his aunt and uncle the entire time they were here. Unfortunately we did a horrible job taking pictures while they were here...I guess we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures! We miss them already and really hope we can live close some day. At least not across the country from each other!

One fun thing we were able to do was go to Sea World. Falycia and Kirk had never been before and they both loved it. Braden did too!! He was so good all day long and loved taking it all in.

This past month we started Braden on solids. This was just before his first taste of rice cereal. We thought it would be a big hit because he loves to nurse and he is always watching so closely as we eat. However, this wasn't the case at all. He really didn't like it! He closed his eyes, did a whole body shutter, and gagged with almost every bite. Then he started holding the food in his mouth until it mixed with his saliva enough to just run out all over!! Funny kid. Needless to say, we are still working on it.

Ha!! His face says it all!

This picture just makes me laugh. One of the best dear in the headlight pictures right?! Braden loves hanging out with his friend Evalyn. They are about 7 weeks apart and are quite the little pals. This is usually how it is...Braden doing his own thing and Evalyn totally intrigued by Braden. She likes to touch his head or laugh at him when he cries. It's pretty funny. We are so grateful to have such good friends here.

Braden still LOVES his baths. Sometimes he will play for 30 minutes just splashing and having a grand ole time! He also loves being naked, which is why he almost always cries when he has to get his pajamas on! But, he loves being read to before bed. He usually kicks his feet and screams in excitement. I hope this love for reading continues!!


Jason was on spring break this past week and we decided to stay in California this time and do things close to home. One thing we did was go to the famous Santa Anita Park and watch the horse races. Kinda random I know, but super fun. We loved watching the horses and were amazed by how fast and strong they are. I'm afraid both Jason and I want to own race horses now! ha. And of course Braden loved it because we were outside and there was so much to see!

This was before a race. We didn't get any good pictures of the races, just video. The race track is in a beautiful part of L.A. It was kinda foggy that day, but it backs up right into the mountains and was super pretty.

Jason and Braden just hanging out in between races. Next time we'll have to figure out how to bet on the horses and win some big money, right?!

On a side note, I had to include a picture of our trusty little scooter. We bought this scooter back in Provo, about 5 years ago. We had so much fun riding it in Utah and have lots of good memories on it. However, L.A. traffic is just too scary and we weren't using it anymore. So, we decided to sell it. Hopefully the new owner will take good care of our little scoot. On a happy note, I think we are going to get road bikes instead. There is a nice path along the beach where we can ride. And who knows, maybe we'll start looking into some triathlons too!!

5 Months Old

I can't believe my baby boy is 5 months old today!! He is growing so fast and changing so much every day! I haven't been very good at monthly updates, but I am going to try to be better at documenting his milestones. I don't have his current height or weight. But according to our bathroom scale, he weighs about 16.4 lbs. At his 4 month appointment he weighed 14 lb 5 oz and was 24 3/4 long. He was still 25% for height and weight and 50% for head circumference.


One day before turning 4 months, Braden learned to roll from his stomach to his back and was pretty good at it for two days. But he must have forgotten that he learned this new skill because he hasn't done it since!! However, two weeks ago, he learned how to roll from his back to his stomach. He is quite good at it, but only to his left side...I'm sure he'll be rolling all over soon!




Braden does lots of funny things. My favorite thing he does right now is making noises. He loves to just scream and be heard. He also loves to play a little game with Jason or I. He will make the noise "bah", then we do, and he does...back and forth. Then he gets a huge grin across his face. It's adorable! He is also extremely ticklish. You can almost always get him to giggle when you tickle him. He still loves his baths and especially loves being outside. We took him on his first hike this month to Will Rodgers State Park and he loved it.
Our little guy is quite the drooler too. I see no signs of a tooth coming in, but he is always covered in drool! He has been sleeping pretty well at night, usually only waking up once to eat. However, he's not the best nap taker. He takes 30-40 minute naps about 4-5 times a day. But I will take the short naps as long as he sleeps well at night! Braden also loves to be read to as well as watch t.v. (which we try to limit). Other random things about Braden: we still swaddle him at night, he is in size 2 diapers (soon to be size 3) and he wears size 3-6 month clothes. He loves rattles and music. He has also been quite the traveler having been to Georgia at 5 weeks, Utah at 10 weeks, Spokane at 3 months, and Seattle at 4 months!!






To sum it all up, Braden is the center of our world. He makes each day more fun and exhausting than we thought possible. We still feel so very blessed that he is a part of our family. We are excited to continue to watch him change and grow, especially during this first year!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with family and friends in Spokane! We were fortunate to be able to spend about two and a half weeks in Spokane and enjoyed every minute of it. It was packed with lots of family time playing games, eating and having parties!! It was especially fun having Braden celebrate his first Christmas as well as meet a lot of family that he hadn't met. We were also lucky to see lots of friends from home. I don't know how I didn't take any pictures of my friends. But it was so fun to see Melanie, Kristi, and Michelle. We also had a fun get together at the McCoy's house with a bunch of our friends from high school. It had been a while since I had seen some of them. So this post is a flood of pictures, but believe it or not, it was just a fraction of the ones we took!!


These were Braden's first Christmas jammies and I loved them. They have little reindeer on them and were just fun! Oh, and that is Freddy the firefly he is holding. He has been Braden's favorite toy and is becoming even more fun now that he can hold him.

Aunt Amy loving on Braden. One of the first things we did in Spokane was head to Amy's house to do some holiday baking. We made tons of holiday treats and had such a fun day together. I just wish I lived closer to do these kinds of things with my sisters more often.

We also wished we lived closer so that Jason could have more sword fights with the kids. Jason is such a good uncle and I think he loves playing with the kids as much as they love playing with him.

Kade takes his sword fighting pretty seriously. Unfortunately he didn't make it through this battle!
Cute cousins making Oreo truffles...yummy!!! They dipped so many, I think they were a little sick of it by the end. But they were good sports about it!

Josh and Aunt Becca baking away!!

One night we had a sleep over with the Thomson kids and Braden. I didn't have to take care of Braden much with Abby and Ellie there. They were so good with him and were so eager to help change his diaper and entertain him. And Braden loved every minute of the attention!! What sweet girls!

Weston was also very sweet with Braden and kept him asleep while he held him.

More cousin fun! Mary was a little natural with Braden. Every time she came over she was so excited to hold him. I think this is a really sweet picture of the two of them.

The Thomson kids with Dad at our Christmas party. We had such a fun night eating lots of great food, playing with the kids, and exchanging presents. Becca also shared a Christmas message that made the night extra special. Thanks Becca. :)

It was so fun to see these two together. Emmett and Micah were hilarious. They are only two and a half months apart and are both so dang cute!! They would babble back and forth and went around pointing at stuff and showing each other things. I guess there was something cool about the edge of the fridge!!

We had tons of yummy sugar cookies, thanks to Katya. She spent one whole afternoon cutting them out and baking all of them. Then we all decorated them and enjoyed eating them. Thanks Katya!

Amanda and Katya busy decorating the cookies!

This picture was just to cute not to post!! Mae just might have been the most festive one out of the entire family. I loved listening to her sing Christmas songs over and over!!

Mom making Christmas breakfast in her new kitchen! Our traditional cheese blintzes tasted extra good this year since they were made in mom's new kitchen!! ;)

Braden, so excited about his first stocking!! He was even the first one up...I guess he was every day. But we like to think it was because he was excited about Christmas!

Austin in his new Thomas jammies Christmas morning. What a cutie! He's definitely a mama's boy but he finally said my name the day they left. woohoo!

Braden just chillin' with Uncle Kirk.

Jason and Kirk, hanging out at the family Christmas party. I think they enjoyed talking dentistry for hours and catching up a bit. It had been almost two years since we had seen them. We miss them so much being on opposite sides of the country!! Who would've thought we would be in L.A. and they would end up in New York for school...crazy!

Falycia and I. It was so good to be together. I just wish it could've been longer. The time flew by, but I am so glad they were able to come home!!

Dad, Jason and Braden at the family Christmas party. Braden loved hanging out with Grandpa.

David and Jeff just waiting for dinner to start!

Some of the cousins- Mae, Micah, Anya, Kade, Braden, Katya, and Emmet. Man we miss these kiddos!!

Micah was so fun to have around. He is so full of life, has SO much energy, and is such a sweet boy. Braden watched him very closely. I'm afraid he was trying to learn all of Micah's skills and is going to keep me very busy in this next year or two!

Our trip was so fun and it was especially hard to come back to L.A. this time. We miss family a lot and can't wait to see everyone again. However, we hope some family will come visit us in our last year and a half here. :)