8 months

Tomorrow it will be 8 months that we've been home with Brakston. I reminded Boomer of that on Saturday (the 13th is our Gotcha Day, when he was placed into out arms forever) and he said, "why are you still counting, it's indefinite now." I guess he has a point, but I'm going to keep counting until we hit the year mark, and then we'll celebrate our Gotcha Day every April 13th. In just two weeks, he will have been home longer than he was in Guatemala. That seems amazing to me. I've found myself crying a lot lately, not out of sadness, out of sheer, overwhelming joy. I love Christmas and having Brakston home this year has been wonderful. He opened presents Saturday with Nana and Pops and he understood what to do and soon as he saw the box of trains, he was asking for us to open the box. He's a smart cookie!!

The two of us went shopping on Friday and had lunch at Chick-fil-A. It was fun just the two of us. On the way home, he would say "mama?" and I'd say "what?" and he'd just laugh and a few seconds later I would hear "mama?" We played until he fell asleep. I don't think there's anything I like hearing more than "mama", even if it is a hundred times a day!

I don't think I have words to express how thankful and grateful we both our this holiday season. Brakston has brought us so much love, joy, and sheer happiness. He amazes us with something new everyday. On Friday, while we were out, we were in the Target parking lot and he just started belly laughing (I had just driven over a speed bump) and I thought, surely that wasn't funny, but then I went over the next one, and he did it again, and then signed "more." Boomer went out with us later that night, and he took him back to the Target parking lot and he did it again. I think we have a future daredevil, roller coster loving, thrill seeker on our hands.

Brakston now signs more, eat, drink, please, thank you, and all done. He has added cookie, cracker, horse, quack, moo, cheese, nana, boppa and many other words to his vocabulary. Every time he sees me pick up the phone, he says "boppa?" I guess he thinks I talk to my dad all the time. He picks up his phone and says "hello" and yesterday he was playing with his phone and said "hello.........boppa?" It was just too cute. His favorite thing in the world is Thomas the Tank Engine and will only watch Thomas DVDs, nothing else. I think his favorite word is "hot." He doesn't tolerate anything hot in his mouth, he prefers his food luke warm at best. He's learned to apply hot to different situations and says "hot" when he gets too close to the space heater in my office. Brakston also loves to dance, I think his cousin Grant told him what to over Thanksgiving because he dances just like Grant.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Holiday Season,

Heidi