“Neyney” and future artist

Braedon loves his Neyney. You guys might know her as Peyton. They are getting to be pretty close buds, although I think sometimes Peyton wishes they weren’t so close.

Like when Braedon tries to drink all her water on a hot afternoon.

Or when he chases her around with the foam roller, runs into her on purpose with his bicycle, or eats her treats. Peyton does have a way to get back at Braedon though when it comes to him eating her treats. She has been guilty of eating all of Braedon’s goldfish crackers out of his snack cup. Numerous times. How she can get to them without getting the lid of is a mystery to me. It must be that tongue of hers.

It is so nice to see those two play though. Peyton is so good and patient with Braedon, and when I say patient I mean she puts up with A LOT of his crap.

Today after church we took Braedon to the Children’s Discovery Museum that is downtown and about 2 miles from our house. We weren’t sure what time they opened and ended up getting there early. Here’s a picture of all the kids trying to break in.

The highlight of the trip.

Braedon getting to paint his own face. This is one of the things you can do there and it is for the kids to express themselves in a creative way. After he expressed himself on his own face, he thought it was a good idea to use dad’s face to express himself as well.

Look at that concentration.

The final product.

Future artist? Umm…I hope he’s really good at soccer.

30 weeks

I have been getting asked to post some more baby pictures, mostly by my mom, but Adi is already getting the second child treatment and I keep forgetting.  I remembered today and since Derek isn’t home I decided to just take care of it myself.  So you guys get the awesome self bathroom portraits. 

Yes, I know I am huge.  About a month ago as I was in the ice cream aisle at the grocery store putting some serious thought into the kind of ice cream that I wanted, one of the guys working there looked at me and said, “Wow you must be ready to pop any day now, huh?”  That comment actually got me to look away from the ice cream selection for a few seconds.  I just politely laughed a little and said, “Yeah, I still have another 3 months to go.”  I really just wanted to smack him though.

Similar to Braedon, this pregnancy has been going smoothly with no complications and I have been feeling great.  The only thing different about this one is that I went through about a 2 month time frame where when I worked out I would get so out of breath and found it hard to catch my breath.  I think this little girl was just sitting a lot higher than Braedon.  Early last week I felt like she might have dropped though because I am no longer breathless, my crotch bone is getting sorer by the day and I have to pee every 4 seconds.  Isn’t pregnancy fun?  One other thing that is different about this pregnancy is that I am craving red meat like crazy.  Last week I got a call from my doctor saying that my blood results said I was anemic.  I guess your body really does tell you what it needs.  Derek is liking that I am craving meat considering I am usually right on the line of being vegetarian. Other then that, not too much to report on the pregnancy front.  It’s all been pretty boring and uneventful, which is a good thing!

Best husband ever!

It really is the little things that Derek does that separates him from the rest. Those thoughtful deeds that brighten my day. Like yesterday evening when he biked home from work with one hand while carefully balancing a plate of leftover chocolate cake with the other (we all now how crazy I am for cake). Or this morning when he had to take the Jeep to an all day off site meeting and I was to be left car-less for the day with a 2 year old who always likes to, “go!” I woke up really wanting my Starbucks coffee, which I haven’t had since Sunday, but knew that I wasn’t going to be able to satisfy that recurring craving because I wasn’t going to have a car, and walking past the trailer park is never an option in my mind, no matter how much I want my coffee. Yes, directions to our house include, “once you go past the trailer park…” Knowing this I was a little cranky this morning, for no other reason except that I wanted coffee. Well my wonderful husband surprised me about 20 minutes later with an iced coffee on my doorstep! He is way too good to me. That or he just didn’t want to come home to a cranky Lacie. Now I’m sitting here enjoying my coffee…

with a side of Braedon. Is it sad that all it takes to make me happy is some kind of chocolate treat and/or coffee? I would blame it on being pregnant but we all know that simply isn't true. I wonder if I can bribe Braedon with having to stay home all day with a piece of cake. But the question is, am I willing to give up my last piece of cake?

Lots of play

Sunday afternoon we took Peyton and Braedon to the park.  Peyton got to swim and Braedon got to play in another water fountain.  It is so nice that the city has these things all over!

A lot of the kids will just stand around and play over one of the fountains.  Not Braedon.  He has to be running the whole time and will run through and around the fountains just doing circles.  He kind of reminds me of someone I knew when I was younger.  Always having to run everywhere without really ever stopping.  Okay, maybe that was me.

Water in the eye.

Braedon and I really enjoyed the teeter totter!  Did someone say cheese!?

Today I took Braedon to a sports complex in San Jose that was huge.  They had multiple indoor soccer fields (where he is able to start classes!), ice hockey, baseball, and the reason we went there today…bounce-a-palooza!  They also have open play where little kids can come and bounce, run, jump, slide, and crawl on about 7 huge blow up structures.  Braedon LOVED it!

Yes, he was pretty much just a blur the whole time.  There were signs on all of the structures saying that if you’re pregnant you should stay off the equipment.  However, the slide was way too tempting so Adi and I may have broken the rules a couple of times.  Braedon told me to!

Dominating the obstacle course.

Learning to climb!  He was running around constantly the whole time we were there and finally after about an hour and a half of pure activity he laid down on the mat and said, “nap!”  Mission accomplished!

Not an artist

Everybody already knows how in to cars, trucks, and jeeps Braedon is.  He has now started asking me to draw him these things.  Um, yeah.  I can’t draw. Period.  Especially vehicles.  When I was younger if I ever did sit down to try and draw something it was usually a flower, or a tree, or a box I would call a house.  Yesterday morning as I was eating breakfast Braedon came up to me with his etch a sketch and asked me to draw a truck.  I drew my version of a truck for him and handed it back.  He looked at it and replied with a long, drawn out, “Uh Oh.”  He then handed it back to me.  I asked him if that was good enough and if he could tell it was a truck.  His reply was, “No way!”  I guess I’m going to need to start practicing my drawing skills pronto.  Especially if my skills aren’t good enough for a two year old.

Fire truck

When we are out and about, every time Braedon sees some kind of emergency vehicle with lights such as a cop, ambulance or fire truck, he has to create his own sound effects and act as the siren for that vehicle.  He loves pointing them out and he loves making a siren noise to go along with them.  I think he does a pretty good siren.  Others look at him like he’s weird.  There is a fire station pretty close to our house that we end up driving by on a regular basis and most of the time there is a firefighter out cleaning a fire truck.  Today we decided to stop so Braedon could check out the fire truck up close.

The fireman was very nice and let Braedon sit in the drivers seat and “drive” the fire truck, get in the backseat and look around, try on a fire hat, and ring the bell.  With most things, Braedon loves to watch from a distance.  The first time Derek put him up in the seat he flipped out and cried.  He wanted nothing but to get down.  He eventually warmed up a little bit and really did like checking out the truck. 

He thought the bell was pretty cool.

Before we left the fireman gave Braedon a few stickers that said junior firefighter and he promptly put one on his shirt and wore it proudly. 

Our next stop today was to the YMCA so we could get a membership.  Shortly after we got there we took a tour to check out the facilities and the first stop was the Kid’s club where Braedon will stay while I work out.  He walked right in like he owned the place and ended up staying and playing for the rest of the time we were there.  I’m glad to know that Braedon will have no problems adapting to daycare again!  For those of you who have been reading for awhile or know Braedon, he really struggled with daycare at the YMCA for awhile in Ithaca, but eventually began to love it to the point where he didn’t want to leave.  I was a little worried about how he would do here since it was a new place, but no problems at all! I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised considering he walked right into daycare at church no problem too.  I’m excited to take spin classes again!!  You know where Braedon and I will be Monday.

You will never guess where our third stop of the day was.  Happy Hollow of course to see the goats.  Yes, this was two times in one week.  Braedon will wake up from his naps talking about the goats.  No pictures because if I took pictures every time we went to Happy Hollow my computer would be full of goat pictures. 

Regressing?

Maybe.

Now on to some fun stuff.  This morning I took Braedon to Happy Hollow, which is an amusement park and zoo for little kids.  Braedon’s favorite thing to do there is visit the goats.  The very first time we went he was afraid and didn’t want to be put down, but as he got more comfortable, he got more brave.

Fast forward to today, our third time visiting the goats.

He immediately walks right in and gets down to business.

His favorite things to do with the goats include brush them, feed them, pet them, hug them, and chase them around saying, “hi goat” over and over again.  For some reason the goats always run into there "safe” zone when Braedon comes a running.  The safe zone is where they can get away from all the little goat chasers and rest.

Sneaking up on his next victim.

Caught in action, which isn’t hard to catch, saying, “hi goat.”

Happy Hollow also has little rides for kids Braedon’s age as well as daily story time and puppet shows.  Today I took Braedon to the story time and puppet show as well and he really liked it.  The guy telling the story was very animated, which was good for keeping Braedon’s attention.  Good thing we bought a membership because I have a feeling we will be torturing, I mean visiting the goats at least once a week.

I’m sorry goats but yes, the Baeo will be back.