Brakston's first attempt at pudding

OK, this is my first attempt at adding a video using the new video camera that Boomer got me for Christmas. This is Brakston enjoying his sugar free, fat free pudding last week. He loved it, as I'm sure you can tell. His hair is much shorter now, it was getting so long.

OK, here's my first attempt at adding a video from the new video camera Boomer got me for Christmas. This is Brakston enjoying his fat free, sugar free pudding from last week

Happy 18 months Brakston!!! (and a snow day)

Today Brakston is 18 months old. That just seems impossible. This is a picture of how we are spending our morning since I don't have school today (in case you don't know, that's Thomas we're watching). As you can see, we have lots of snow here (10-12 inches).

Brakston is really starting to understand a lot more. He now goes to the fridge and asks for "milk," he says "eat" when he's hungry and usually tries to climb in his high chair, and the other day, he was signing "more" to me and I said "what do you more of?" and he then said "cheese." He's a bright little man. He finally says "Harley" which comes out without the /r/ or /l/ sound so it's kind of funny to hear. He has learned "cold" and says it when he touches his window or is close to the open fridge door. He says "nana" when he wants a banana and he has learned to says "pops' (grandpa Larry). He's adding new words every day and I have to really watch it now. Yesterday morning, I got up and was a little mad and said "oh no, Harley pooped" (in the house, yuck!!). Brakston then said "poop." Now it's become a favorite word.

He has two new bottom molars, his two eye teeth are coming in, and now, he has two top molars coming in as well. When they all are in, that's 14 teeth!!! We have also been bottle free for two weeks!!

Happy 1/2 birthday Brakston, mommy and daddy love you so much!!!!!!

Big Day

Wow, two major things happened tonight. 1.) Brakston went to bed WITHOUT a bottle for the first time ever. Yippee!! 2.) WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD FOR A WHOLE WEEK IN JUNE---YIPPEE YIPPEE YIPPEE

I got an email from our adoption agency this afternoon that they were sponsoring a trip for their families, right now there are over 60 families going....I'm so so so excited. It's June 13th-20th. My friend Nichole and I are driving down on the 12th with Brakston, and Boomer is flying down on the 16th and will drive back with us. You cannot beat the prices right now (stay four nights, get 3 free, buy a 4 day hopper pass, get 3 more days free, which the park hopper passes don't ever expire.) We also got a discount for going with a group. I can't wait to meet other families that used our agency. Now I'm so motivated to keep eating healthy and working out (six pounds gone, many more to go)

Yippee!!!! And a two hour delay tomorrow, makes for a good day!!

What's wrong with this picture??

I was working in the office yesterday. I had the gate closed so I could keep an eye on the children (Brakston and the dogs). All of a sudden, I noticed it was very quiet, I turned around, and my son had strung six pairs of plus size thong panties around his neck like necklaces (I was getting ready to list them on Ebay in case you're wondering). Hope it doesn't scar him for life.

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

Random thoughts....

First, I still don't have pictures from the Gatlinburg trip. They are on Boomer's camera and we're in the process of switching computers so he hasn't uploaded anything, maybe after the holidays. Gatlinburg was a blast and my dad finally got to hold Brakston for the first time (Brakston had been scared of him). We had a lot of fun and tried many new restaurants and went to a petting zoo. Brakston loved the goats!!

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We stayed in French Lick for two nights at the hotel and Brakston enjoyed swimming and spending time with all of his cousins in French Lick and Bedford.

We have been getting ready for Christmas around here. There's not a lot on the Christmas tree this year, Brakston likes to take off the ornaments he can reach, so we have a few up high. It makes for a funny looking tree.

We have started packing for Florida. We leave the day after Christmas and return on January 4th. We're going to Disney World, I can't wait. And, it's 70 degrees in Daytona right now, much nicer than here!!!

The pictures are from our latest photo session. Brakston did great!!

Happy Holidays