Brady: 9 Months Old!

Brady is 9 months old!

This month Brady finally started to eat some baby food!  He never liked the rice or oatmeal cereal, but now will eat a few select pureed foods.  He likes peas, carrots, and of course all the fruits.  He'll also start to eat some puffs.  But really, he still just prefers mama and doesn't always want baby food :)

Getting big enough to wrestle with Daddy and Jack! 

This month was all about his first Christmas season.  He loves the tree and the lights.  He's not crawling yet but will roll everywhere.  He's starting to babble more and I just love his baby laugh!  He's wearing 18 month and 18-24 month clothing.

At his 9 month visit he was 30.5 inches (97th percentile) and 23 pounds 10 oz (95th percentile).

Recent Milestones

New Things I can Do:  roll all over the floor, babble "dadada", "mama" and "bababa".  Eat some baby food! 

Favorite Things: pacifier, his feet, his very hungry caterpillar toy, he loves to play with balls especially to play catch

Places I Went: Breakfast with Santa

Special Events and Holidays: Brady's first Thanksgiving

More pictures of our 9 month old! 

Does this onesie make me look chubby? 

Breakfast with Santa

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we took the boys to breakfast with Santa along with my brother and his kids.  It was held at the hotel that my parents and brother stay at when they visit us.  It included a really nice breakfast, cookie making station, ornament making station, and of course, a visit with the big guy!  I hope this turns into a yearly tradition!

Brady meets Santa! 

Both boys were a little unsure... would not crack a smile!  

Thanksgiving 2013

We hosted our second Thanksgiving this year!  It is turning into a really nice tradition for our family. We love having everyone up for the weekend.  The menu is starting to solidify itself: a combination of traditions from my family Thanksgivings, James's family Thanksgivings, and a few new recipes I have tried!

This year James made sure we had a full bar and made a drink menu complete with a drink named after each (adult) guest.  Some examples included: "The Collster" (Long Beach Iced Tea), "The Megster" (Italian Margarita), "Daddy's Cherry Coke" (Cherry infused whiskey, coke, with whiskey soaked frozen cherries), "Lynn's Libation" (an Old-Fashioned... Mom loves ordering those in Wisconsin), "Scotty's Speakeasy", and "Amster, The Nutty Irishwoman" (coffee with whiskey, amaretto, kahlua).
Come visit us next year and you may get your very own beverage named after you!  :)

Brady's First Thanksgiving! 

Brady and Grandma Kane 

My brother Scott and his kiddos 

The Doherty cousins: John, Jack, Brady, Annette (it is nearly impossible to get a picture of all 4 of them looking at the camera!) 

The Kanes! 

The Doherty Family 

Important conversation with Grandpa 

Doherty sisters! 

After dinner that evening, we surprised my Mom with her 60th birthday present.  A few months back, we emailed her friends and family asking them to mail me a memory of her.  The response was overwhelming!  We received letters from many people including her elementary school best friend, her college best friend, long-time friends from work, our friends and family scattered all over the globe, as well as a very touching letter from my dad.  We placed them all in a box for her to keep.  She immediately started crying and really enjoyed reading through all her letters.  (Good job, sisters!) :) Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

Brady: 8 Months Old!

Brady is 8 months old! 

He continues to be such a good baby!  He will sleep for about 11 hours with two big naps during the day.  He still doesn't like much food besides the Mum-Mum crackers (rice crackers) and sometimes he'll let us feed him some baby foods.  But mostly he just loves his mama!  He's wearing 12-18 or 18 month clothes.  Some 18-24 month is fitting him too.  

Mommy's helper at the store 

All smiles after a nap 

Loving bath time!  Love those rolls :) 

This month I took Jack and Brady to Union Pier, Michigan for a weekend visit with my mom's side of the family: my Uncle Roger, my cousins Elizabeth and Heather and their families, my parents, Colleen, and Scott were there too.  It was a great weekend spending time with family at my mom and Uncle Roger's vacation rentals, Elephant Walk Cottages 

Aunt Colleen 

Uncle Scott

Brady and I also got to stop by my friend Anne's house for a visit and meet the newest Dudley: Baby James!  

Only 7 months apart, I can't wait for these two to be great friends when they are older! 

Recent Milestones

New Things I can Do:  roll all over the floor, babble "dadada" and "bababa"  (maybe I heard a "mamama" this month??)

Favorite Things: mostly the same as last month: pacifier, his feet, his very hungry caterpillar toy, his light up "bee" that plays music, tickles from Dada, playing with big brother, and snuggles from Mommy

Places I Went: Michigan for a get together with my Voegele relatives and to meet my new friend James Dudley! 

Special Events and Holidays: Brady's first Halloween

Brady at 8 months! 

Getting harder to take a picture with Peter! 

Halloween 2013

Right now, Jack's favorite movie is Wreck-it Ralph.  He asks to watch it almost every day.  So his Halloween costume was easy this year: Ralph!

And I'm going to coordinate these two as long as I possibly can, so Brady's obvious costume was Ralph's counterpart in the movie, Fix-it Felix!

Jack "wrecking" Brady (we had lots of discussions that you don't "wreck" people...)

"I'm gonna wreck it!"

They wore their outfits the weekend before Halloween for these pictures and then to daycare on Halloween.  Jack loved to "borrow" Felix's "fix-it" hammer so really Brady didn't have his accessory most of the time!  We had planned on walking them around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating, but it was really cold and raining.  So we stayed inside and Jack handed out candy with James.  He loved running to the door whenever the doorbell rang.  Maybe next year he'll make it out for his first trick-or-treating!