Oops!

Today was one of those days that remind me just how tough little kids are. Most of the time Brady is pretty tough, he will take a fall and get back up and go. Rarely does he cry over it. I know it really hurts if he cries until I pick him up, then he is okay again. Well today was one of those days that challenged us all. Brady started the day off by taking a tumble off the couch (someone was suppose to be watching him, wonder who - Jamie?), he landed pretty much on his face and did not even cry. He just wanted back up on the couch again. Later in the morning he was in the bedroom with his Dad and somehow managed to run into the corner of the dresser as he walked by. Just a little cry again. Then the big one, Jamie and Dexter were wrestling and Brady wanted to join in, however Jamie did not know Brady had walked up behind them. He turned quickly and he and Brady smacked heads. Brady was flat on the floor. This time he cried for a few minutes and I can say that he finally got his first goose egg. Poor little man. He then was right back to playing again.

Two posts in one day for me, that must be a record.

Jailbreak!

We have had a jailbreak at our house - at least that is what I call it. Needless to say Christmas with a 13 month old is very interesting. I thought long and hard about how to decorate for Christmas with Brady. The first day that I set things out, he was into everything. I wondered how in the world would we manage a tree. There was no way we could possibly go without one or put a little one on the table. That is not Christmas (at least in our house). So we went out, picked out the tree, decorated it and placed some presents under it. I do not think that I was done putting presents on the ground before Brady was under the tree playing in the water. I managed to get him out of the water, just to have him tugging on ornaments, pulling off bows and tearing at wrapping paper. This was going to drive me crazy.

The solution for us was to get a gate to protect the tree. Yes you read that right, protect the tree. The gate now goes around the front of the tree from wall to wall so Brady cannot reach anything. However, he has found a new past time. Anything he can lift goes behind the gate to be opened on Christmas day. Sunday I could not find my strainer. Sure enough it was under the tree. The remote for the TV, under the tree. Who knows what else is under there.

So back to the jailbreak. We have had the tree up for 2 weeks now and the gate has worked perfectly. That is until today. Somehow the clever little man figured out how to sneak around the side of the gate and get to the tree. I found him pulling on more bows and throwing his treasures back out from under the tree. The look on his face was priceless. He knew he was not suppose to be back there, but he thought he had got away with one. That is until Mom found him.

I truly thought Brady was the only one I had to worry about with the presents and tree. I was wrong, that is what I get for thinking. Today we had to run a few errands and it was raining really hard (like usual), so we left Dexter inside. When we leave Dexter inside, I need to dog proof the house; put away anything edible on the counter he can reach, hide the trash and generally make sure things are out of his reach. We got home from our errands, I walk into the front room where the tree is and the gate has crashed down. Hiding around the corner is what Dexter was after. He found his 2 Christmas presents and had opened and eaten half of the treats. Will I ever win?

Happy holidays to everyone, we wish you well.

Living in the Northwest

I knew that moving to the Northwest again would bring days of rain. People would joke that there are 2 seasons here, rainy and not rainy. The first year I lived here it rained for 62 consecutive days, who would have thought that was possible. I had thought we were doing well this year, a bit of rain here and there but not much. That all changed in the last 3 days, we have had over 3 inches of rain. That is a lot of rain. Some days I think my fingers and toes are starting to web and for a minute today I thought Brady made some duck sounds. I wonder if you can buy a raincoat for a 1 year old? I enjoy the rain if it is a bit here and there on a day, but not a downpour all day long. But I guess that is why we have the beautiful green here.

We finally decided that Brady needed his first haircut. I absolutely love the curls in his hair, but it was getting a bit long over the ears. I figured I could handle cutting just a bit over the ears. So with scissors in hand and Jamie assisting (holding Brady still) I cut off the cutest little curls, of course I saved them for his scrapbook. This morning I looked at him and he looks like such the little boy now. Jamie still thinks he has a bit of a mullet, but at least it is a cute mullet!

No pictures this week, I will work on them for next time.