Help...

Braden has decided that he wants to practice getting into sitting position when I lay him down at night. I mean what better time to practice right? After 30 minutes of screaming and me going in every 10 minutes to lie him back down, pat his tummy, tell him I loved him and reassure him, only for him to lose his breath from screaming so hard, he finally fell asleep. Boo...I feel like a terrible mom for letting him cry, but I wasn't sure what else to do. It is awful to hear your child screaming, but he had been fed, he was dry, he was tired and it was way past bedtime so I was out of options. Of course Austin wasn't here tonight so I was on my own for decision making. I hope this is just a phase...we'll see how it goes for naps tomorrow. I've heard horror stories from my friends who've said that their babies will scream the entire time through naps b/c they keep sitting up and can't figure out how to lay back down again and get settled. I've also heard that usually after a week of this, things get better. Anybody have any ideas? What worked for you?

So this is what crawling will get you...

Let's just say that after Braden was done shredding all of the toilet paper, he decided to pull up on the toilet seat and then proceeds to suck on the toilet rim. Nice, huh? All of this happened in a matter of a few seconds when I had turned my back just for a minute to grab something. On another note, I had always thought that Braden would be a little more independent when he started crawling. I mean he's always been EXTREMELY clingy and I just kept thinking that this was a phase and that once he could crawl and get around on his own that he would be off exploring and wouldn't want to climb all over me anymore. Wrong!!!!! Now he just crawls after me wherever I go. And although it is endearing, I have to say that much of my day is spent w/ me being frustrated about the fact that I have every colorful, flashy, musical toy a child could want and yet he bypasses them all w/o even looking at them and is crawling toward me, trying to pull up on my legs so that he can be carried around. What the heck am I supposed to do about that? If I pick him up, cuddle him for a minute and then put him back down to play he starts fussing which escalates to screaming and then we are both just frustrated. If I walk out of the room, he's crawling after me...I have no idea what to do about my clingy baby. Any of you other moms out there who read this blog have this problem? Any suggestions? It's to the point that I can't even take him to nursery w/o him fussing and insisting on being held the ENTIRE time. I'm hoping that this too is a phase that will pass, and I know one day I will miss all of those moments when my little baby just wanted to be held, but in the thick of it I can't seem to think like that. Anyway, I'll leave you with a few other random pictures of my little guy:

Braden loves him some washcloth in the tub

Braden is so skinny (probably b/c he's recently decided that he only wants to eat fruits and cheese...no veggies or meat), but he had such a pot belly this day that we couldn't help but take a picture

Umm, is this bad table manners?

Hallelujah, we are going on a date...

And that's all I have to say about that.