Summer Vacation...

Jon had some time off last week, so Brayden and him decided to spend some time with his parents. Jon was pretty courageous. He decided that since we only have one car and I had to work, that they would take the train to South Bend and have his parents pick him up there. I tried about 50 times telling him it is not a good ideal to take a baby on a 2 1/2 hour train ride at 4 o'clock on a 90 degree day. But Jon decided he was brave and would try it out. I give him huge credit for being such a great dad. Well it didn't go as well as Jon thought it would go. First off, he thought Brayden would sleep. That didn't happen, so then he ended up with a crabby kid for half of the ride. Second, he some how ended up in the non air conditioned car for about half of the ride, so he spent most of his time cooling Brayden down with water. I asked him when he arrived if he would ever do it again and his quick response was NO! At least he tried.

Brayden had such a blast at Grandma Patty and Grandpa Dave's house!!

Grandma gave him rides around in the laundry basket

She also taught him "hog tie", he loved it.

Look at this face, it has mischievous written all over it!!

Grandma figured out that he liked to get into everything so if you look in the background you will see that grandma had to blockade him from the rest of the house because he was just too quick.

Daddy and Brayden enjoying their vacation

We got to enjoy the weekend at the lake house with the Amos Family. They are friends of ours from college and their daughter Kylie.

Brayden and Kylie

Kylie enjoyed her kiddie concoction, while we enjoyed margaritas.

Brayden had his first swim in the lake. He was more interested in trying to get the sand and rocks in his mouth!

His first official boat ride!!

Along with cousin Maddie, look at those beautiful blue eyes!!

Enjoying the wind in his face from the ride

Uncle Josh making me belly laugh

Overall, he really did miss his mom for a few days!! Actually I think I missed him a ton, it was the first time I was separated from him for just 2 days!

Oh, but what fun he had!!

Happy Father's Day!!

We have been very busy this week. Alright, well I take that back. Brayden has been busy exploring EVERYTHING in our house and we have been busy chasing him so that he does not get into everything. It is amazing how quickly he became extremely proficient in crawling and sitting up. So what is next on the check list, standing?

On Thursday night we laid Brayden down for bed and about 5 minutes later we hear this huge thud. Of course we were scared and ran immediately into his room. I walked in and started cracking up laughing at him. This is what I saw:

Brayden standing up in the crib for the first time and somehow during the stand he managed to tear down the mobile.

So out came the bummers (we thought those were helping him stand), and less than a minute later he was screaming because his foot was stuck outside the crib.

Then about one minute later he was standing up again on his own. Needless to say he spent the night in the pack and play until we were able to lower the crib down further.

Grandma reading Brayden a book.

Brayden got a kick out of the touch and feel book.

But his favorite part of reading books is eating them!
(We have had tons of discussions on how you have to be nice to the books, but for some reason he finds them very tasty)

Brayden delivering Daddy his Father's Day card. Sealed with a wet kiss!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!
I love you!!!

Friends...

This is my friend Benjamin, he is 10 months old. I have never met him because he lives in Virginia.

This is Benjamin's mom, Jennifer. My mom went to school with her.

Benjamin and I getting introduced to each other. I wasn't too sure about making a new friend.


I'll give him my typical introduction, a slap in the head.

Then Benjamin gave me his, a little tug on the shirt.

After our introductions we were the best of friends!! We even taught each other a few things. Benjamin just learned how to crawl the day he came up and he was showing that off to me. So I decided that after a few days of training, I can now officially crawl the right way. I also showed Benjamin how to be a big kid and hold his own bottle.

We had so much fun, Mom and I were sad to see them go.

Daddy and I

Trying to get a good view of all the toys

Auntie Lauren came up yesterday to play with me.

And so did Uncle Josh.

I have been keeping my parents pretty busy this week. I have learned to crawl the right way, but I can't decide if it is easier to do my army crawl or get on all fours and crawl. I love to go to things that I am not supposed to be into, like the fireplace and the coffee table. I have also learned how to sit up from laying down. So now when I scream and my parents come to check on me in the crib, I am now sitting up and laughing at them!! I love all the new things that I can do so I really don't want to sleep during the day because I want to practice them!

One of those days...

Have you ever had one of those days??

Brayden was not so happy on Friday

So we took 2 trips to the park...

Played in the sandbox

Took 4 walks totaling 5 1/2 miles walked

2 clothing changes...

and 1 girl scout cookie eaten.

Looks like things turned around.

Nope, he is just happy about eating the coffee table.

Brayden got his first official haircut today. He was such a great sport. He only freaked out when the two year old boy next to him wouldn't stop screaming.

Nice hair!!

On a different note, Brayden has been sleeping through the night for the past two weeks!! We couldn't be more excited. This is his "sunbathing" pose.

Brayden showed us yesterday that he has learned to army crawl across the floor. Looks like I will be making a trip to Babies R Us to baby proof everything in sight!!

Brayden's First Haircut