1st Dinner at the Rainforest Cafe

We all needed a family dinner night out, so we went to the new Rainforest Cafe at the Galleria.  Brayden enjoyed watching the animals, finding hidden ones in the trees and even ate his first hot dog!  It is so much fun for Danny and I to see these new things again through a childs eyes...what a blessing!

Bubbles...Bubbles...

Brayden has found the fun involved with a bottle of bubbles!  He likes to stick his fingers in the bottle, catch the bubbles, watch them float away, and just this week learned how to blow them himself!!!

1st Family Bikeride

Shannon got a new bike for Christmas and we bought Brayden a new bike trailer...we were waiting for the perfect afternoon to go on a bike ride and we picked the perfect one!!! We had a fabulous time excercising together and finding a new playground.

Feeding Myself

Brayden has been feeding himself with a spoon and fork for a few months now, but just in the last few weeks, he was become pretty efficient with both. 

Brayden's 1st Donut

Brayden had his first whole donut this morning and LOVED it!  He wasn't too sure at first, but then dug right in. 

17 Months!

17 Months old! 

WOW! 
I have always felt like 18 month olds are such big kiddos...and you are almost there! 

Since this is my record of Brayden's growth and accomplishments, here is the list we have so far for his 17th month! 

- Sleeping the same- usually asleep by 7:45/8:00 p.m. at the latest (you are tired around 6:30 p.m., but we try to wait up for Daddy to get home from work) and are sleeping all the way until 7:!5/7:30 a.m.and wake up talking!  Mommy is loving it
- You are still trying to figure out your nap time, we are trying very hard to only do one nap in the afternoon
- You are still eating very well!  You LOVE to eat off of our plate and that is about the only way I can get you to eat meats.  You love any type of beans and peas, most fruits (especially bananas), any carbs (noodles, crackers, potatoes), and most other veggies.  We bought our last set of Gerber Graduate meals and you are now eating off the kids meal or from Mommy's plate
- You still like to sleep with a blankie or Taggie blanket
- You are starting to hug on stuffed animals and smile the cutest way when you do
- You realize when you or anyone around you burps or farts (and you laugh and smile:))
- You take your socks off all of the time, and have learned how to un-velcro your shoes in the car
- You can brush your own teeth with a little bit of assistance
- You hear the kids down the street playing outside and you want to play all of the time!
- You enjoy climbing anything!  Especially ladders (so scary!)
- When you hear the doorbell ring, you get SO excited and run to see who has come to visit you
- You love playing in your wagon and on your slide- your ball pit tunnel is lots of fun inside
- You like chasing the kitties around the house
- You can tell us where your head, tummy, toes, nose, ears and mouth are
- You still love to crunch on ice

And I have decided to only add each month the new words you have learned to say...
- Ice
- Green
- Bye Bye
- Hi
- Paw Pa
- Uh oh
- Go
- Cracker
- Rock

We are so proud of you and all you are learning and accomplishing!
Love always,
Mommy and Daddy

Who does Brayden look like?????

We think when Brayden puts on his Daddy's glasses and grins, he looks like the little boy from Jerry Maguire, Jonathan Lipnicki. 

And for those of you, like me, that still picture that little boy the way he was in the movie...this is him this year!  Goodness!

Random...just catching up

A few random pictures that didn't justify their own individual posts...


Two cutie pies :)
Seems we never have many pictures of Brayden and Mommy :)
I learned from a blogger friend, Brittney, that magnetic letters do really well on cookie sheets- so I have been keeping my eye out for Target or the Dollar Store to have magnetic letters- and Target has them for $1 this week! Brayden doesn't quite get the jist of spelling yet, but we spell out his name, organize and sort by color, and his favorite is to see how many he can hold at one time! Since Brayden was about 6 months old, he has liked sucking on lemons or limes- I finally got a few cute pictures of it

Brayden has found that he loves playing with adult shoes- he either walks around the house in them or wears them on his hands :) In this picture he has my flip flops on his hands- too cute!

We were all 3 sick the week after Christmas (B and I were sick the week of Christmas too)- so after 5 days of being inside, we let him play on his slide outside one afternoon for about 10 minutes- he was so upset when we took him in, that the slide is now in the middle of our living room until it warms up outside :)

Haircut #3- we were not so pleased with this one- oh well!He was ready for dinner and bedtime, and the only thing I could find to get him to sit down was his very 1st lollipop- he LOVED it!

New Years Eve and Day

Danny and I celebrated New Years Eve by ourselves :) My parents had offered to come babysit, so we took them up on that offer! Then Dad called early that morning and said that he was only working half a day, so "could" they come earlier so we could go to a movie...you bet!

So...we went to see the 1st movie we have seen since Fireproof when Brayden was 6 weeks old. We saw Blindside and loved it! Danny got the book for Christmas and read it in a week!

We then had reservations for dinner downtown at a new restaurant, So Vino, but after getting out of the movie, we decided to just head to a casual dinner at Japaneiro's in Town Center and walk around for Sugar Land's NYE celebration. One slight problem, as usual, I didn't bring a jacket and it was in the 40's, so we headed home early. Watched Dick Clark (poor thing) and the ball drop with my parents and all headed to bed early.

New Years Day, tradition sayswe have Ham, Black Eyed Peas (for good luck) and Cabbage (for money). Brayden enjoyed his New Years Day meal as well :)