And we're off...

Braden's Baby Dedication

We had a crazy weekend filled with lots of family and friends in town for Braden's baby dedication at our church. We had him dedicated Sunday morning and then followed that by having everyone over to our house for a brunch afterward. Of course, me being the not-so organized-overly stressed-from trying to cook and clean way too much-with a very clingy, needy 9 month old mom that I am forgot to bring my video camera to video his dedication. Oops...sorry baby...maybe one day we'll remember to video some of the milestones in your life. We had a great weekend with those we love so dearly and I take great honor in dedicating Braden's life to my Almighty God. I pray that I can live up to all that I committed to during the dedication...to diligently study His Word so that I can teach Braden about Christ, to model Christ in my own life so that he will watch me and see Christ, to remember my marriage covenant and be faithful to it daily. My son's life is delicate. I realize this more and more everyday (especially on days like today when he falls and splits his lip open). And he is a sponge...soaking up everything and anything in his environment...the good, the bad, the ugly. Lord I pray that you will make me like You, so that Braden can see me and know You.

Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Being dedicated -

Here is Braden smoothing out Miss Shellye's hair during the dedication and laughing if you notice

Wallowing in his church clothes after the dedication - The Madison family (minus Uncle Tyler) - Playing w/ Graham during the brunch -

We also managed to catch a few innings of the UK/Vandy Baseball game and I got to spend a few hours w/ one of my best friends Kelley, her sister Kacey and their one year old babies. Kelley lives in FL and was here watching her brother play for UK -

Braden enjoying himself at the tailgating party before the game -

Reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear on the way home from the game -

Nine Things About My Nine Month Old

1. Braden's favorite thing to do is stand, stand and stand some more. As well as walk around from room to room (using my assistance of course) with a smile of absolute bliss. While this is good times for baby, this is hard times on mommy's back.

2. We are not crawling yet and I'm trying my hardest not to worry about it. Braden has mastered scooting in a circle on both his butt and his tummy and has also figured out how to get on all fours from a sitting position, but as soon as he gets on all fours his feet shoot out from underneath him and he lands on his tummy. Very frustrating I'm sure!

3. He loves using his pincher fingers to eat bites of cut up fruit, avocado, veggies and cheerios. It should also be noted that he loves to use his pincher fingers to pick up every tiny piece of lint, hair and dirt that is left on the floor. He also has realized that he can use his pincher fingers to grab his "little guy" in the tub. We are working on putting an end to this :)

4. Braden HATES and I mean HATES getting his diaper changed. Now this is a new issue for him b/c when he was tiny he LOVED being on the diaper changer...in fact sometimes if he was fussing I would put him on the changer and he'd stop crying. Bizarre - I know! So now we avoid and dread diaper changes at all cost. It is all out war as he is arching his back, lunging off the table, flipping over and screaming bloody murder, trying to grab every Desitin bottle, wipe and diaper that is in reaching range for him. We are talking to the doctor today about how to handle tantrums on the changing table!

5. Okay, this boy gets up with the chickens! Lately it's been before 6am which is excruciatingly painful for me. He doesn't get his last bottle until about 8:15ish which means he's only sleeping about 9.5 hours at night. Wow! How does he do it? I need about 9 hours of sleep a night which means that Austin and I don't get a whole lot of down time together after Brady is asleep. Now he doesn't make a peep for 9 straight hours, but once the clock hits 5:58am, he's rarin' to go. Here's the funny thing though - sometimes he lays in there and talks and plays for 45 minutes, sometimes like yesterday, he lays there for 30 mins and then passes out and goes back to sleep for another hour and sometimes he will sleep straight through for 10 hours. There is ABSOLUTELY no rhyme or reason about his mornings. But very rarely these days do we make it till 6am w/o hearing him cooing in the monitor first.

6. My boy has 6 teeth. Two on bottom and four on top. I can see the whites of another one on his bottom gum so I guess those are next.

7. Some of Brady's favorites: riding in the stroller, flipping the pages of books, banging on anything that is loud and obnoxious sounding (particularly pots and pans), brown puppy, his musical table, Tyson and pretty much anything that involves the outdoors.

8. Little man has suddenly become fearful of strangers. Now this is definitely a new phase for my normally social little man. He likes to smile at strangers from afar, but if you are a new face you better not try to hold my boy or he will most likely start crying.

9. And here are the 9 month appointment stats:

Height: 30 inches

Weight: 20 lbs 15 oz

Toother update...

Tooth number one is through, tooth number two is through, tooth number three is now bleeding and tooth number four, well I'm just hoping it will be here any minute. Braden's had a pretty good week though besides a super short 40 minute nap this afternoon, an early morning which started at 5:55am - yuck!, some really rough diaper changes (which consist of me pretty much wrestling him to the ground while he's screaming and arching his back and clenching his fists and trying to roll off of the changing table - i feel confident though that this is unrelated to the teeth and just a new daily battle we are going to have to face. I mean why change your diaper when you could be playing?) and a super clingy, fussy day on Wednesday. I'm just SO thankful for some nice weather this week which has definitely kept him distracted from what could have been some looooong days inside. Braden LOVES being outside so no matter how fussy he is he usually perks up once he gets outside.

In other news, he's learned how to point and his new favorite thing is clapping his hands when I sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands." As you can see he also loves to read stories to Elmo.

Why is it...

that I spent 9 out of the 10 hours Braden was awake today doing everything I could to make him happy and soothe him since he was so extremely fussy and Austin walks in the door and within a matter of minutes he has Braden cackling with laughter? This is one of life's many mysteries...

Oh and ps...one of the 4 toothers finally popped through. Hooray...only 3 more to go!

Teething x 4

Yep....that's right...not one, not two, not even three, but four teeth are coming in right now. Let's just say Braden's upper gum looks like a war zone and he's not too happy about it. He's been a little clingy lately (by clingy I mean uninterested in his toys, clawing at me, crawling all over me and fussing if I sit more than 2 feet away from him) but I just assumed it was because we had been visiting the grandparents and he got a little spoiled being held. We headed to our Wednesday play date this morning and when we got there the crying began. Now Brady is a little wary of new faces (we're trying to work on that), but he seemed particularly timid and clingy. It doesn't help that he bonked his head like 4 times over the course of the day, but he clawed and clawed and clawed at me the whole time we were there . The only thing that would satisfy him was if I let him take my hands and walk. So off we went...we walked the whole house about 5 times over and then the screaming began and nothing would satisfy him. After screaming the whole way home I finally took another peak in his mouth and whoa momma...those gums are so swollen and you can actually see four of his teeth trying to come through. And I feel HORRIBLE for being so darn frustrated with the little guy. I guess for now we will work on breaking the clingy-ness (I don't think that's even a word, but I'm coining it) another day and for now I'll do whatever I can to help my Braden w/ these darn toothers.

Pictures from the Bluegrass

We had a great, busy week at home and little Brady did awesome with his naps and his nightime sleep and as usual my worrying wasn't even worth it. He even did pretty good in the carseat considering he only slept about 40 minutes of the 4 hour drive home. Let's just say there was a lot of entertaining going on in the back seat. Here are some pictures of the week. I still need to post some from Jackie's surprise party. Enjoy.

Shopping with Granny Coco...
Aunt Shannon and Coco
My sweet sister and I and baby Brady
Digging in the rocks with Coco
I love this picture. Braden and Coco, discussing life and looking at the lake at my parents house.

Aunt Jackie and Uncle Andrew
Driving with Poppa

Cassie and I at her shower.