Choo-choo train

Here comes the train!!!

Brady got to ride on the New Jersey transit train from the Red Bank station to New York City! It was his first train ride. It's about an hour long ride and he has done great both times! He likes it because it's jiggley and wiggley.

Brady waiting for the train to take him to the Mets game Sunday.

Seaside

Jeremiah was craving real, fresh seafood so we went to dinner at an open air restaurant on a dock at Point Pleasant Beach. Brady had a good time hanging out with grandma and grandpa.

Pete got Brady some plastic toy keys and he loves chewing on them! He offered to drive home, but his legs aren't long enough so he has to settle for driving in his stroller!

This seagull had its eye on Robin! She's notorious for being a bird target. Luckily this one didn't mark her!

Brady jump up

Brady got to try out the Johnny Jump up for the first time at Grandma Robin's house. We took his onesie off because he has been such a slobber monster lately and he was soaked to the bone.

Brady had a good time swinging around and playing in the jumper.

We think Brady is getting ready to teethe. Besides the slobbering, Brady has been chewing on anything and everything he can get his mouth around! By the time he was done with his jumping session the jump-up was covered in slobber!

Meetin' Pete 'n Hattie!

Brady and Jeremiah knocked on Pete and Hattie's door. For the past six months Pete has been asking Jeremiah when he was going to make it out to Jersey again and Jeremiah kept saying he didn't know. We decided to surprise him with our visit!

Hattie loved Brady. She said she never expected to have a baby in her house!

Pete couldn't believe his eyes when he opened the door and saw J and Brady standing there. I think it took him about 30 minutes before the shock wore off and he realized we were actually standing in his kitchen where we last saw him almost 2 years ago!

Brady likes Pete and his funny New York accent!

Baltimore buddies

We stopped in Graysonville, Maryland on our way to Jersey and spent the night at Gerry and Irene's house so they could meet Brady and Jeremiah could hang out with Big Gerry in their "pool hall."

Big Gerry, Jeremiah and Brady hanging out in Maryland. Three Dale Jr. fans.

Brady's second cousin Valerie took a break from studying the drivers manual to feed him. She had her drivers permit exam the next morning...she said she was going to score 100% and she did!!! Brady is good luck!

Brady was full of slobber and smiles for Great Aunt Irene!

Traveling tales

Brady got to go on his first airplane trip Friday! It was kind of a crazy day. We got to the airport around 8:30 a.m. for our 10:30 flight and found out that we had been moved to an earlier flight that was going to leave at 9:30. We were really excited because it was going to put us into Baltimore an hour earlier. We called Robin and told her to get going since she was driving from Jersey to get us. Little did we know what lied ahead for us! We ended up bording the plane and sitting at the gate for two hours and then another 40 minutes on the runway before taking off because there were storms in the Chicago area. By the time we got to Chicago our flight to Baltimore had been cancelled and they rescheduled us for a later one. All in all we borded the plane an hour earlier than planned and got into Baltimore an hour later than originally planned. Brady did awesome on the plane though - he didn't cry at all.

We had about a two-hour layover in Chicago so we decided to grab a bite to eat. Brady thought sitting in a highchair was a lot of fun!! He giggled and smiled a ton!!! When we got done eating a lady came up and said, "You guys came from Kansas City right?" We said yep. She said: "Wow, what a great baby. During those two hours at the gate I didn't even hear him make a peep. I think the adults were all more impatient than him, that's great!"

Jeremiah and Brady waiting for our plane to arrive in Kansas City. We flew on American, but a giant Southwest plane rolled past the window while they were looking out.

Brady at 6:30 a.m. saying, "Geez Dad, put me back to bed!"

Brady took a nap on the shuttle from the Thrifty place we parked our car at to the airport.

Brady people-watched while Daddy called Grandma to tell her to get to Baltimore...we were on our way!

4 months, 4 shots

Well Brady had his four month check up Tuesday even though he's really pretty much four and a half months old. He'll be 18 weeks old tomorrow...but by the calendar he turned four months on Tuesday (Sept. 18). Anyway he's doing great! He is still growing - 15 pounds 12 ounces now and 26 inches long. She said his height has slowed down in proportion to his weight to which I replied, "Well have you seen how short the two of us are? He's in trouble!" She didn't laugh. I don't like that doctors office and I am pretty sure we're not going to go back there. They have sort of rubbed me the wrong way since the first time we took him there. It's just annoying to me. We're not crazy paranoid parents who call every time he sneezes, but occassionally we are going to have a question like I'm sure all first time parents do ... and when that time arises I don't want to be treated like I'm some kind of idiot. Yesterday he got four shots for different vaccinations and today I noticed that one of the places where he got one was pink and had a knot under the skin. So I called to see if it was normal. I figured it was since he didn't have a fever and since when I put a little pressure on the site he giggled instead of screamed, but nevertheless I figured since we're going out of town in a couple days I better call just to be safe. So the lady who answered the phone - the "hag at the front desk" as Jeremiah named her was rude to me and said she would have someone call me. So the nurse that called me back was like, "Um, that's normal." She acted as if I didn't need to waster her time. I said, "Well, I figured that, but it didn't happen last time and I just wanted to make sure." She was snippy and hung up after saying goodbye. So I don't want to go back there. The only reason we were going there instead of to the guy who was the Dr. on call when Brady was born is because it's closer. I'm willing to pay a few bucks in gas money to get quality service though. And get this: ok. so most pediatricians like to explain things that are important in developemental stages right? Apparently not this one. She gave us a chart on feeding infants solids. No recommendations, no specifics ... a chart. I'm sayin, if this were my second child or something ok. But it's our first and they should provide us with a little more that a chart. Luckily I lived with Jenn when Logan was a baby so I pretty much know what we need to do, but it would be nice to have a Dr. who showed a little interest.
I'm through complaining. I'm going to try to get Brady in to see Dr. Monzon in Olathe for his six month checkup in November. Ok. One more gripe. I wanted to tell the nurse today to shove it because unlike a lot of parents who have kids who get stuffy noses and small colds and rush them to the doctor for unneeded antibiotics we made it through Brady's first cold without their help. Last week he was pretty snotty and stuffed up, but we stepped up to the challenge and brought out the nose sucker we stole from the hospital (well, we took the one they had been using on him and found another in a cabinet in the bathroom and figured we would be charged for it anyway so we smuggled it out), plugged in the vaporizer and pow...three days later all better. Don't treat me like I don't know what I'm doing..I am mother hear me roar dang it!!!

Back to scrap!!

Scrapbooking that is!!! Ah, I'm a genious. I have been talking about getting back into scrapbooking, but I've decided it's pretty expensive with all the paper, stickers, die cuts, photo printing costs, fun scissors, etc. Not to mention the time and mess associated with it. I can fill up a whole table with scrapbooking stuff. That doesn't make it easy when you have a baby to watch. So I came up with an idea - create a scrapbook using photoshop, the internet and my printshop. Below are the results of my first three pages. I figured I can go on Google images and find any kind of pattern I would like to use for background paper and any kind of sticker I could ever imagine. And it's free!!! Then I can add a few comments, make a headline, copy and paste my pictures I have taken with our digital camera and viola - instant scrapbook page!! Now the only cost I have is printing the pages - which I can either do at home on our printer or upload to Walgreens and go pick them up - and buying an album that holds standard 8.5x11 pages! I'm pretty excited. Plus, since there's no mess to clean up I can pop out pages pretty quickly. I figure I'll try to do one page per night after Brady gets to bed until I get caught up. (Since we're going on vacation and I'm already pretty backed up as it is, I will likely never get caught up...but it's good to have a goal!)

Favorite things

These are a few of Brady's favorite things:
1. Baseball. Wherever Brady is laying or sitting he will turn around 180 degrees to watch.
2. Al the Alligator. His buddy Al has some crinkly areas, some fuzzy areas and he's got rattles in him. He's cute - and apparently yummy tasting. Brady likes to try to eat him.
3 and 4. His paci. Brady loves his pacifier and playing his favorite game: "I'll spit it out and make Mommy put it back in." He has started to grab the paci out of his mouth and wave it around. Then he'll try - mostly unsuccessfully to put it back in. He gets close usually.
5. Rolling around. Brady doesn't like to sit still very much. He loves rolling around on the floor from his back to his belly. Once on his belly he'll turn around in a circle till he gets bored.
6. Tickling! He loves to be tickled.
7. Eating. Brady likes milk a lot and he's learning to like cereal too!
8. His pooh play-gym thingy. He likes to lay under it and bat the toys around.
9. Bathtime. Brady is starting to enjoy bath time a little more. He sort of splashes around, but there really isn't a lot of room in the sink for him to do much splashing!
10. Mommy and Daddy. He likes us a lot. This morning when Jeremiah got home from work he smiled at Jeremiah and when I got home tonight he grinned really big at me and giggled.

Story time

Brady listened while I read "Curious George and the Puppies" tonight.

He liked looking at the pictures of George and the man in the yellow hat and seeing what kind of mischeif George was going to get into.

George and the man with the yellow hat and Mommy and the baby with the blue pajamas!

PIGGIES!!!!

Tickle time!!! Brady has the cutest giggle. He cracks up during diaper changes when we tickle him! Jeremiah had him going good the other night.

Brady has figured out that he has piggies! He loves to grab them and pull them up to his head! Stacey reminded me how I used to suck on my big toe after I got out of the bathtub when I was like five! Like Mommy like son!

Roly-poly. We have to be careful now when we change Brady because he's so squirmy. He loves to roll around so we have to make sure we're always right there so he doesn't roll off the dresser!

Nummy nummy...cereal in my tummy.

Yummy. Yummy. I love cereal!!!

Brady did really good the first time we fed him cereal...he opened his mouth right up when he saw the spoon coming towards him. He tries to grab my hand and pull it to his mouth which sometimes mean the cereal goes flying!!

We started with rice cereal. We'll be on that for at least a week...adding more each day. For now it's pretty watery, but we'll keep bulking it up. We go to the doctor next Tuesday for Brady's four-month check-up and shots and she'll tell us what kind of plan we need to have for introducing foods.

Fun pictures of little man

Brady was sleeping like Mommy and Grandma Joyce - partially on his belly with one leg hiked up.

Brady after bath time tonight - happy to be clean - even if it was only for 15 minutes...he spit up of course just moments after getting into his pjs.

Taking a nap with his burp cloth.

Brady got to try out the high chair for the first time today! We brought it upstairs because we thought it might make it easier to feed Brady his cereal, but we didn't realize just how big it really was! I was in the middle of cleaning the kitchen and dining room when Brady woke from his nap and got hungry so I used the tray and his burp cloth to prop up his bottle so I could finish. It didn't phase him one bit!

New York, New York

We're gonna be in New York next week!

I am sooooooooooooooooooooo excited! I love it! I want to live there. I find myself strangely drawn to watch every minute of 9/11 coverage. Jeremiah thinks I'm nuts. He can watch it for a while then he likes to watch something else. I'm obsessed with it. Every year since it happened I spend the whole day, and usually a few days after, looking at pictures and reading stories. I think my obsession stems from never having seen the WTC in person. The first time I went to NY was in Dec. '01 for New Years. We went to Ground Zero which was still being deconstructed. For the most part it was still boarded up so we couldn't get a good look down into the footprints. There were memorials everywhere, at the site and in the train and subway stations. There were still mounds of dust and dirt against abandoned store fronts and hand-written memorials on all sorts of structures, plywood barricades, offices, sidewalks...It was surreal. But that's the New York I know...not the New York Jeremiah remembers. He's been to the WTC, in fact he was at them a month before 9/11. We have a picture of him with his friend Pete at the top of them. I'm fascinated with it. I think partly because I just love the city and partly because I can't even fathom the enormousness of the buildings. They had to be three times the size of any highrise around here. I for one am excited that they are going to rebuild some big buildings again down there. I like the idea of having a memorial, but I really think we should also show those freakish cave-dwelling reject terrorists they might be able to knock us down, but we will get back up every time.

(The plans for the site)

I was talking to Jeremiah about it today and we were saying that at least one good thing came out of that day...our family. On the night of 9/11 after I got home from a long day of working - I was still a reporter then and had to do several stories about the local impact - I came home and called Jeremiah to see how he was holding up. I knew he was from New Jersey and had a good friend, Pete, who lived in the city. We decided to get together that weekend...which actually ended up being our first date at the SEMO district fair! - a far cry from life in the big city!
It was three months later that I visited the city for the first time. It's been two years since we got to go last. Our plans last year were thwarted by Betty the Blob. I'm looking forward to this year, and every year to come. I'm excited to know that Brady will have the opportunity to visit the city and experience it and all it's changes as he grows up.
As for me, I'll continue my obsession with it...savoring everything about it, the sights, the sounds and even the not-so-great smells like, as Robin says, "South Street PEE-port."

One little monkey

Brady's getting so good at sitting! Sunday he was sitting up and he started to lean forward and he caught himself by putting down one hand. Now he sits like this for long periods of time - ok, 2 minutes max. Today he sat for a while and looked at his monkey before he tried to eat its head!

Last night Jeremiah put Brady on his back in his crib to go to sleep. When he went in to check on him he was on his belly. So he flipped him back over and left the room for a few minutes. The next time he went in little booger was on his tummy again. Finally Brady got fussy so Jeremiah got him out till I got home from work. When he finally went back in there he stayed on his back and side for the rest of the night. Before we went to bed we read the "Week 15" chapter of "Your baby's first year week by week" book we have and it said your baby might start to roll from belly to back this week, but he won't start rolling from his back to his belly for several more weeks. WRONG!!! He's been rolling from his back for the past three weeks already!

Frosty Paws

Holly and Amber enjoyed some yummy doggy ice cream Monday night after a long day of running around in the yard! It was the last of our "Frosty Paws" ice cream. We figured they better eat it before it gets too cold outside!!!

Poker pals

Jeremiah played poker with Jeff, Brandon, Derek, Brian and Lisa after the bbq Sunday. It was the first time Jeremiah was able to pull out his poker set that I got him for Christmas so he was excited to break it in!!

Labor Day fun

We had a barbeque at our house on Sunday to celebrate Labor Day. Jeremiah went fishing with Jeff and the boys - Brandon and Derek. They didn't catch anything, but that was ok...we weren't planning on having fish for dinner! We stuffed ourselves with ribs, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, green bean casserole, deviled eggs and baked beans. YUMMY! And we even had cookies and apple pie for dessert! Every day should be a holiday.

Aunt Jenn tried to get Brady to smile, but he was just too tired!!

Brady loved standing with Aunt Stacey!

Brady left a little something on Aunt Lisa's shoulder before heading to bed!!!

Brady had fun with his cousin Lacey. They played until he was all tuckered out!
Getting sleepy.