Not so good

I have decided that I am not very good at keeping my blog current. I faithfully go to my friends blogs and read theirs. Some update daily and some weekly, I am lucky if I update every 2 weeks. I cannot figure where the time goes most days. By the time I get Brady to bed I am ready to crash and the last thing on my mind is posting a new entry on the blog. Jamie often reminds me that I have not posted for a while. So to those who come faithfully to read my blog I apologize that I am so far behind and do not update often.

We have enjoyed a bit of sunny weather here in the northwest these last couple of days. This weekend was so nice that Brady and Jamie spent a good bit of time outdoors enjoying the sunshine. Brady managed to get his first fat lip and face road rash. I was inside, but the story goes that he was chasing after the basketball and fell down forgetting to put his hands down before his face slid across the driveway. He is okay, just looks a bit scraped. Some days I look at my child and think "what happened to you?" I really am a good mother. And as the mother of a VERY active boy I am afraid that I am going to see my share of stitches and emergency rooms. Great.

Brady also figured out this weekend how to climb up onto the couch and how not to get down. He tumbled a few times, but yet again survived. I think we move into a plastic bubble to keep the house baby proofed.

Hope all is well.

Communication

It often amazes me how we communicate. We use words, gestures and looks to get what we want or say what we need. I really wonder how we communicated long distance before email and phone, I guess maybe we did it the old fashioned way by writing a letter. I still try and write my grandparents once a month because they so look forward to the letter. I often think how much easier it would be to send an email, but they do not have it. How time has changed.

We are really dealing with communication issues now with Brady. He is trying so hard to get us to understand him. When he is hungry he walks to the cupboard where the crackers are and points and grunts or screams. He is getting his point across, I know what he wants. However, it is always not that easy with a 15 month old. Some days I strike out trying to figure out what he wants. We are both then frustrated.

I say now that I cannot wait until he can chat with me, but then I know what will come next. The series of never ending "why" questions. Oh well, something to look forward to I guess.

I will post more pics soon.

Snow day!

As a child growing up in eastern Washington I remember the words snow day! We loved hearing snow day. It meant no school and hopefully enough snow to sled. Snow was a big deal for us there. After moving to Utah, I remember the first snowstorm we had and sure enough we thought snow day. It snowed 15 inches and we knew there was no way there would be school. There was and we could not believe it. I cannot remember a snow day in Utah, we went to school no matter how much snow there was.

Today was a snow day here. I woke up this morning and saw the snow and immediately though "oh no." Now when I say snow, it was a skiff, less than an inch. Schools were canceled left and right and it was a huge deal on the news. I looked out and the streets were pretty much cleared off, a few patches of snow here and there. I went back and forth of whether or not to go to the gym, so I waited a few hours and then Brady and I ventured out. I do not worry about my driving ability in the snow it is all of the others. At the gym all classes were canceled - snow day. Brady and I did our work out and headed back home. It was snowing ever so slightly when we left. Somehow I managed to get behind the guy going 15 mph, I guess afraid of the snow. Now he should have stayed home.

It amazes me how snow does not phase one part of the country but basically shuts down another. I guess it is what you are used to.

On a good note, I loved seeing the snow. I just wish it would have been more and lasted longer. I miss the snow. The snow did not even last long enough for me to snap a picture.

Holy Tornado!

We do not live in the Midwest, so pretty much I figured we were safe from tornadoes. Guess I was wrong on that again. I thought that too living in Salt Lake, but we had one there about 7 years ago go right through downtown when I was working. Well yesterday we had one here. It touched down about 3 miles from our house and was on the ground for about 4 miles. I was watching the news, so I knew it was happening. Then the news said it was heading towards us. Do I jump in the bathtub with Brady or what? We don't have a basement, so I guess the tub is the safest place. I watched out the window to see if it was coming, luckily it did not. But it sure does scare the pants off a person. All I know is that I want no part of tornadoes. So I guess we will not be moving to the Midwest.

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.