These boots are made for walkin'...and other happenings.

So I walked into Janie and Jack the other day and stumbled across this pair of rain boots for $11.99 and decided they would be a cute buy for Braden. I had no idea that they would become his new favorite item of clothing. Now I know we are entering the independent toddler stage (as expressed the other day when Braden gently pushed my hand away from him as I was trying to help him drive his little lawn mower), but I wasn't prepared for him to want to pick out his shoes every morning. He loves these things and would wear them with every outfit if I let him. He opens up his closet door, drags out those boots and carries them over to me, plops in my lap and says "shu, shu."
We've had a busy few weeks and here are some pictures to remember it by:

Visiting the Pumpkin patch at my parents house -
Coco (or To-To as Braden calls her), Poppa and Braden and I -
Enjoying a box of Cheerios -
Balancing or dancing or something of the sort at the Children's Museum in Lexington -
Playing outside with Austin in the new house we bought Brady -
Mowing the lawn alongside of Austin -

For Halloween, Braden was the "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I took him to Davis Kidd for the Halloween story hour in the morning, where he loved playing with the balloons and with the trains. Afterward we walked around the mall as I ran a few errands (yes Ashley, I was that other mom who had her kid dressed up in costume before noon on Halloween) :) We were supposed to head to a Halloween Party that afternoon w/ my moms group, but Braden ended up sleeping through that party...and we decided to opt out of trick-or-treating that night since Braden is a bit young to really understand what was going on and instead went to eat at Pei Wei. Here is my little spider all dressed up -
Playing with the balloons at Davis Kidd -
Later on that evening, we made some desperate attempts to get Braden to stand still long enough to get a few pictures in his costume. Of course none of this could go down without a few snacks and a sippy cup -
By this point in the evening, Braden is growing a bit tired of the photo session -
"Please no more photos and get this hat off of me, oh and I'll take another cracker while you are at it..."
"Much better" -

I must say that 15 months has been such a delight. Braden is growing into such a sweet child. He is still so cuddly, wanting to sit in my lap and snuggle and yet growing more independent everyday. In those moments where he will let me hold him and read to him, I find myself looking at how big he is on my lap and trying to remember what it was like to hold his entire body in one arm, or in my womb for that matter. How could he have changed so much in 15 short months. It's amazing that one little person can add so much joy to your life...something I never could have grasped until I lived through it myself. I truly cherish this sweet time in Braden's life and thank God for the immense blessing of raising this child.