1 Year Old (and 2 weeks!)

2 weeks ago my sweet little baby turned one! It was a bitter sweet weekend for me. I also had to go back to work the Monday after his birthday so to say I was a bit emotional would be an understatement haha. There were quite a few tears shed by me. But it was a lot of fun! We had a little birthday party for him with a few of his baby friends and had a really good time. He is growing up so fast! Here are a few things about Brady at 1 year old! (And then a huge picture overload!)

• Finally sleeps all night for 11-12 hours! 
• Started napping just once a day. Now he will nap for at least an hour instead of two 20 min naps! 
• Still loves to be outside and go for walks. And LOVES his new trike he got for his birthday.
• Really likes the swings and is starting to crawl around the rest of the park and test out the slides
• Likes the spray park
• Favourite foods are Raspberries, fruit/veggie squeezies, Grilled Cheese, Mac and Cheese, just cheese in general haha
• Favourite snacks are Gerber puffs, arrowroot cookies, goldfish, teddy grahams and the occasional bite of ice cream
• Favourite book is called "That's My Daddy" It's the only book that he will let me read to him all the way through every time we pull it out. 
• Likes it when I take his finger and point to things and name them.
• Can take a few steps on his own here and there but is not full on walking yet. He is getting close though! 
• Does his scrunched up nose face all the time. He thinks its pretty funny!
• Knows how to fake laugh and fake cough
• Is always so happy and on the move. He is started to get to a point where he will sit and relax for a minute or two, but generally he is go, go, go!

I could say a million things about this little boy. I am totally in love with him and am enjoying every second I get to spend with him!

His party was Mickey Mouse themed

The last minute cake I made him to smash up. He HATED getting the icing on his hands!

His birthday shoes from Daddy

We survived my first day of work!

Playing in his graham box (I had no sand)

Homemade finger paints in the bathtub. (It was way too slippery!)

He's very musical

Snacks at the park

Hanging out at Walmart

Just so cute!

Mommy-son picnic lunch date at the park

Mini-Pete

Spaghetti night! 

Walking around on Canada Day

Watching the parade (It was lame)

Brady's scrunched-up nose face

YUM! Ice Cream!

Haha! I just love this picture!

Playing bucket head with Daddy

Peek-A-Boo!

A Good Day For Good News!

Congratulations to Cody today for challenging and PASSING his first year parts apprentice exam! He was pretty nervous but we are happy to finally have that out of the way and under his belt! Time to plan for year 2!

10 Month Update

The last couple months have been pretty exciting and exhausting. We travelled home for Uncle Steve's wedding and had lots of fun. Brady had a hard time with the trip this time and when we got home he was sick with what I think was Roseola for a week at the same time that he was teething! It was a rough week. But now he is all better and back to his very active crazy self! Here are some things about Brady at 10 months!

• Is crawling everywhere...and fast! 
• Likes to climb up and on everything
• Pulls himself up on whatever is available so he can stand, the coffee table, couch, the wall, baby gate, you name it he can use it to get up.
• Can climb the stairs. I always have to be close by though to catch him when he decides he is done and just lets go and falls back! We still have to work on getting back down
• Finally has one little tooth poking through! And has been much happier since! 
• Loves grilled cheese sandwiches, raspberries, grapes, cheerios and breadsticks (especially garlic)
• Doesn't really like spaghetti but will eat some macaroni and cheese
• Is a huge momma's boy
• HATES sleeping. We are currently pursuing sleep training because he doesn't know how to sleep without nursing (and also because I can't reach his mattress anymore since I had to move it down so he doesn't climb out! #shortgirlproblems)
• Loves to be outside and go for walks, and does like the swings but we haven't put him in them since being at home because there is still too much snow!
• Thinks the dog and cat are the funniest things ever
• Likes to play in laundry baskets and rubbermaids
• Loves swimming
• Is afraid of the vacuum and bolts the other way crying anytime I turn it on. He's not a fan of anything that makes loud noise, my hair dryer included.
• Always tries to kiss all the other kids and me but still refuses to kiss his dad! (must be the scratchy whiskers!)
• Likes watching tv and looking at books 
• Loves playing with remotes, phones, the ipad, and pulling on every cord, basically everything he is not supposed to play with
• Has learned to scream when he wants something, not a trait I hope will carry on too much longer
• Keeps me super busy all day running after him and carrying him away from the same things over and over again

I could probably go on and on! I sure love my little Brady boy!

One of his favourite toys is his music table

Getting so big!

With Uncle Steve at his wedding! Congrats again to you and Payton!

The Easter bunny came early at Grandma Struyk's house

"I'll get you, you wascally wabbit!" My child looks like Elmer Fudd...

Loving his grilled cheese for lunch

Best Friends!

Swim Lessons and Everything Else

Today was Brady's first swim lesson! It was lots of fun. We learned to blow some bubbles, sang songs and Brady went under the water for the first time! I have been a bit unsure of dunking him under the water but he loved it! He's definitely a little swimmer! 

We have been going swimming a lot lately. Every Tuesday and Thursday there are baby and me aquafit classes at the pool and I try to go as often as I can. It's fun because I can get a good workout and Brady gets to sit in a little fish boat and float around in the water. He enjoys every minute of it. And now we get to go to his swim lessons twice a week. And then we try to go swimming on weekends so Daddy can get in on the fun. I want to take some pictures at the pool but I keep forgetting to sneak my camera in. 

We have been lucky to get a bit of a break in the cold weather here so we have been taking full advantage of it by going on lots of walks. I can't wait for spring when we won't have to get so bundled up and can walk up to the park! It's only a block away and has a spray park so I imagine we will be spending a lot of time there this summer!

Last weekend we went out to the Winter Play festival out on the river Snye. They had skating, snowboard demonstrations, snow and ice sculptures and other things there. It was actually pretty lame but a nice excuse to get outside. This is one of the sculptures they had there. Some of them were pretty impressive.

I am definitely ready for some warmer weather! It will be so nice to not have to get Brady all dressed up whenever we go out. He is starting to get some pretty crazy hair, usually after he's been wearing his toque. Here's a few pictures of what happens after I pull his hat off...

I'm afraid he's going to have hair like Cody, super out of control. But for the most part it reminds me of my Dad's hair because it naturally combs over to the side like his. Brady is starting to get bigger and bigger every day. He still hate sleeping and has a hard time doing so at night. But other than during the night he is always such a good little boy and so happy. He LOVES to give kisses. He used to only give me big open mouth kisses but has now started trying to kiss everyone. At book babies on Friday he kept trying to grab whichever kid, boy or girl, was close to him and pulling them in with his mouth open and ready! The first little boy he did it to was our friend Harrison and everyone thought it was so cute and then later on he tried kissing a little girl and she starting crying. And then when we got home he spent a good 15 minutes trying to kiss the kid on the huggies box haha. It was pretty funny. He's one loving little boy! 

Brady is enjoying his solid foods and almost refuses most purees now. He wants to eat things that he can either feed himself or that he can chew on. He still doesn't have any teeth so I imagine part of it is that it feels good on his gums. 

I like to get him all dressed up for church because its so cute! But he's starting to get to be a handful and by the time its relief society he's pretty restless. 

He still thinks bath time is the best and is starting to have more fun playing with his toys. He splashes and flips around like its nothing and I'm usually soaking by the end. But it's lots of fun!

Brady loves to play with his toys. He is starting to actually play with them instead of just holding them up and looking at them. He has a carousel toy that someone gave us and when you push the top down it spins around so he just likes to sit there and hit it over and over again. He also loves to stand next to his music table and play all the different instruments on it. 

Brady isn't quite full on crawling yet but is really good at rolling and spinning around the whole house. He can get anywhere he wants to. Just on Saturday though he started to pull himself forward a little bit so I imagine he will be crawling by next week. I guess it's time to invest in some baby gates.

Cody is still working days and we love it! He is about to start a new shift sometime soon so he will be done work at 4PM and have 4 days off at a time. I think it's going to be so nice! We will be able to have dinner earlier and still enjoy an evening afterwards. I am looking forward to that. 

I only have 3.5 months left on mat leave and I'm not really looking forward to going back, but I don't think I'll be working a whole lot. It is pretty hard to find day care up here so I will probably work sometimes when Cody is off. But I am sure enjoying my time off with my baby boy! 

Mad because I wanted to take pictures and he wanted to go play

Ready for bed!

And one of Ruby because its her birthday!

Da-Da

Watching cartoons. He'd rather play with the remote than his toys...

For the past couple months I would say to Brady "say dada" or "say mama" and he would just laugh and laugh. Well for a couple days now he has been babbling and starting to try new sounds for himself. Yesterday he was starting to try figuring out how to put it together and would whisper something close to ada. And today he did it! He can full on say dada! He has done it a few times today and if I catch him quietly babbling I tell him to say dada and sometimes he will instead of laughing. Now to work on mama!

Quick Update

Just thought I'd write a quick update and catch up a bit on the holidays. This year we were able to go home for Christmas. It was the first time in a few years we have been home and it was lots of fun. We spent lots of time playing games and visiting with everyone. It is always so hard to fit everyone and everything in that we want to see and do in our short visits but we were grateful to be able to be home and see our families. 

This year was Brady's first Christmas and unfortunately we did a really poor job of capturing it. The only photos we have I stole from Em (thanks!) and anyone reading this has probably already seen them. Sorry! It was a good Christmas though! Brady got way too many toys and had no idea what was going on but he had fun! 

Big Blue Eyes

On boxing day we had Brady blessed by my Dad. It was really special and I'm so happy we were able to get it done while we were there. Brady did really well through the whole blessing and didn't cry until the end when we were trying to get some pictures. Then it was all tears. We are grateful that he was able to have his Grandpa bless him and though I can't remember everything that was said, I know it will benefit him as he grows and goes through life.

Cody and Brady right after his baby blessing

Our new years was pretty boring. We went to Lethbridge only to find that everything was closed so we got some pizza and spent the night fighting sleep so we could say we made it to midnight. It was pretty sad but we did it! It was the first new years that we have been able to spend together without one of us working so it was nice to enter this new year as a family.

Brady and Tyler in their super cute Christmas PJ's

And of course I couldn't blog without an update on my baby boy. Brady is almost 7 months now and he is definitely growing. He is almost big enough to move out of his infant seat and into the next car seat. Brady can now sit on his own and plays with toys. He will drop a toy to the side and recognizes where it went and will try to pick it up again. He is not crawling yet but is starting to push himself up on his hands and legs. And he is always talking!

Gnawing on some watermelon

Brady has been eating solids for over a month now and we are still slowly introducing new foods. He loves peas and beans. He used to love plain rice cereal but since we started giving him foods with flavour he won't eat it anymore so I mix everything with it and that seems to do the trick.
He used to be an awesome sleeper but for the past month has turned into a terrible one. The past two weeks he has been getting up every hour (2 if he's having a good night) screaming and has a hard time going back to sleep. It has been very trying for my patience and I admit I wake up some mornings feeling pretty guilty for getting upset. I'm working on figuring out what is bothering him and I have some ideas but I look forward to his doctor to get back from holidays!

And 7 months later the very first outfit we bought for Brady finally fits! Haha we bought it when we found out I was pregnant and even though it says size 0-3 months, it is just barely starting to fit him. It's still even a little baggy. Either the size on the onesie is wrong or we had a very vague idea of how big new babies are!