Brayden is 14 Months!

It's been a while since I've done a monthly post about my littlest guy, but I've been pretty busy and...well...exhausted.  We've had a lot of growing up going on in our house these days - on both boys' parts, and we're all pretty worn out.

I don't even know where to begin Brayden's update.  So much has changed!  This little man is full-out running around the house now, chasing his older brother and the cat.  He has a temper that is unmatched, I believe, and for this reason, I'm slightly terrified of what future tantrums will amount to.  Most of the time, however, this little booger is SO happy.  He is constantly smiling, chattering, and playing.  He ADORES Logan, and wants to do absolutely everything his older brother does.  Watching Logan's little shadow is quite amusing, especially when Logan gets to the point where he has had enough.  Brayden already knows how to push his brother's buttons...boy are we going to have our hands full in the years to come! 

He's still a pretty great eater.  He eats a much bigger variety than Logan ever did.  He's using a fork pretty independently, too, and gets mad when I try to do it for him.  He loves juice (though he doesn't get it all that often), Cheerios, green beans, bananas, and cheese.  He knows where each individual snack is kept, and will go to that particular cabinet or the fridge and point (and cry or whine) when he wants something to eat or drink.  His belly shows that he is well-fed, and I've started calling him "Buddha Belly."

Sleep is still a struggle, and I have a feeling it will be until we get him into a big boy bed sometime next summer.  We're at the point where sometimes two long naps during the day is too much, and on those nights he'll sleep for a while and then wake up for a couple of hours during the night.  He wants nothing but Mommy when he wakes up at night, so it's been pretty rough on me.  I've tried letting him cry it out, but he's made it to an hour and a half of tears (!) before I gave in.  He'll settle down if I go in his room and sit in the rocker, but starts screaming as soon as I try to leave.  The alternative has been (shame on me) to put him in bed with me.  It is the option that I like the least, but the only option that allows both of us to actually get some sleep.  It doesn't happen every day, and I don't think he's quite ready to drop one of his naps yet, but it's coming.

Probably my favorite new development is talking.  What a chatterbox this little guy is!  He babbles all day long, and has learned so many new words in the past few weeks.  Of course, like most babies, I'm pretty much the only one who can understand what he's saying, but I'm just so excited that he is finally able to communicate his thoughts and wants.  I'm going to attempt a list of the words he can manage, but I know I'll forget some.  Here we go: Mama, Dada, Bubba, Papa, Nana, nice (what he says when he pets Sophie), ball, cup, milk, more, nana (banana), fry, cookie, book, read, uh-oh, nose, toes, pee pee, poop, no, sock, shoe, car, boat, night-night, bye-bye, baby, fish, cold, stop, backpack, map, SpongeBob, and some blabber that sounds a lot like Look at that!, I did it!, and What's that?  He also knows a few body parts - nose, belly, toes, pee pee, and hair, and some animal noises - dog, pig, lion, monkey, and cat.

He goes up and down the stairs like a pro, loves to dig in the litter box (yuck) and splash in the toilet.  He loves to put on our shoes and steal Logan's love-love.  He takes every book off the bookcase shelves in the family room every. single. day.  He hits, he kicks, he pushes, and he bites - he's definitely a boy and he's a feisty one (wonder where he gets that from?)!  He is just plain TROUBLE, but we have a hard time getting upset with him because he's just so smiley and cute all the time.  He is most definitely our little goofball.  He loves to laugh, and most of the time we find ourselves laughing right along with him.  He's my cuddly baby, so he's always stealing hugs and kisses and snuggles.

It's hard to believe there are no more babies in my house!  I not-so-secretly love it, and I'm having so much fun watching both boys grow up right before my eyes.  Bring on the toddler!

Logan is THREE!

I have no idea when my last Logan update was, but I'd say he's probably way overdue.  We haven't had as many major milestones with this little guy - not like his brother.  But he's definitely done a lot of growing up in the past few months.

For starters, he is a GREAT big brother.  He plays with Brayden, and is extremely protective of him.  At the same time, though, they fight like anyone might expect brothers to fight.  Logan is possessive of his toys and doesn't like when Brayden is playing with something that belongs to him.  Of course, it's perfectly okay for him to play with Brayden's toys though :)  He has a temper that can compete with that of his brother, but in the end Brayden's will always win.  Logan is a three year old, so with that comes temper tantrums for a variety of silly reasons.  He spends quite a bit of time on our bottom step in time-out, but that consequence isn't very consistent depending on who's watching the boys, so it's not as effective as I'd like it to be.

Logan is a somewhat picky eater.  We often find ourselves fighting with him to finish a meal.  He goes without dessert more often than not (though it's not offered every night either).  I get really annoyed when I have to feed him to get him to eat.  He just has so many more important things to do than to sit down at the table and eat, I guess.  His current favorites are pierogies, spaghetti-o's, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  He still loves to drink milk.  He asks for Cheerios and orange juice every night before bed.  He's such a creature of habit, just like his mommy.

Our biggest accomplishment lately has been potty training!  I'm so proud to announce that this little guy is officially trained!  I had started trying to get him trained at the beginning of the summer when I was off work, hoping that he would definitely be done by the time I went back to school and Todd's dad wouldn't have to deal with it.  We had no luck throughout the summer, and I was pretty discouraged.  Then, one weekend in September I decided we would try big boy underwear just for a day to see what happened.  We had one accident that morning, while shopping at Target.  I explained that we wouldn't be able to stop at the library after we finished shopping because we had to go home and change his pants.  He was pretty disappointed, and has only had a handful of accidents since then.  We had a period of a few weeks with poop accidents, but he's since gotten the hang of that too, and we've been accident free for about three weeks or so (knock on wood).  I'm so proud of my little man!

TV has, unfortunately, become a huge part of Logan's life lately, and he will surely let you know if you are interfering with one of his shows!  Among his favorites are Dora, Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomi (my personal favorite), Backyardigans, Olivia, and Blue's Clues.  I'm not really crazy about Olivia or Blue's Clues, but they are all that's one during the hour between Brayden's bedtime and Logan's bedtime, so he watches them.  I guess it could be worse.

I'm starting to teach Logan how to spell his name, and he has the first three letters down.  He usually says L-O-G-M.  He can recognize a lot of the letters of the alphabet, but not all yet.  He is starting to recognize numbers too.  He knows several shapes and all of his colors.  His vocabulary is ridiculous, and I often find myself asking, "Where did he learn that word?"  Papa does a great job baby-sitting, and I know Logan is learning a lot from him.  For that, I am so grateful.  The three of them (Papa, Logan, and Brayden) are three of a kind and it's so great to see such a great relationship blossoming between them.

I feel so lucky to have two wonderful little boys.  I don't always feel like I deserve it, but I'm definitely counting my blessings these days!

Milford Memories

The past two days have been difficult for me - more difficult than I ever would have imagined.  Yesterday my parents loaded a moving truck full of their belongings and left our Milford home forever.  Today they turned over the keys to that house and officially gave it away.

Fourteen years ago when we moved into that house, I was furious.  I hated the house, and I hated everything about Milford, Ohio because it wasn't what I knew and it certainly wasn't where I wanted to be.  Our move from Cary, North Carolina to Milford, Ohio took place during my junior year of high school, and it was absolutely the most difficult thing I've ever had to endure.

I realize now that the move to that house had a huge part in making me who I am today.  Had my family stayed in North Carolina like we all wanted to, my life would be drastically different, and I'm sure I wouldn't even recognize myself now.  Without that move, I never would have attended Miami University.  I never would have met my husband, and we never would have created the two beautiful boys that I now love more than anything in the world. 

Ultimately, I am thankful for that move.  I'm thankful that I got to spend so many years calling that house "home."  My parents are moving to Columbus, which I am happy about.  It's closer than Milford (Cincinnati), and now I can visit my parents and my sister all in one place.  I'm excited about this new chapter in my parents' lives.  But with the change comes a flood of memories - memories that have brought me to tears more than a few times in the past few days.  Memories that I ache to hold onto.  For myself more than anyone else, I'm making a list of those memories.  They aren't ranked in any particular order, just the order that they come to mind.

1.  This is the house in which I announced to my family that Logan was going to be a big brother (Christmas 2009).
2.  This is the house in which my sister and I hosted Dawson's Creek parties every Wednesday night for our friends in high school.
3.  This is the house in which my parents finally let us have a trampoline (our consolation prize for the move), and we spent hours on it with our friends.
4.  This is the house in which my mom stayed up and waited for me to come home - no matter how late and no matter how old I got.
5.  This is the house in which I attended prom (May 1999), graduated from high school (May 1999), and graduated from college (May 2003).
6.  This is the house in which I lined my bedroom walls with "Got Milk?" ads, but realized I would never have more than Kayla or Renee.
7.  This is the house in which I spent countless hours studying for AP Calc with Jenny and for AP Bio.  To this day, I still have no idea why...
8.  This is the house in which 4 month old Logan stayed up all night, wide awake, and my mom stayed up with him so I could get some sleep (January 2009).  (Thanks Mom!) 
9.  This is the house in which I went from being a stubborn teenager with an attitude to a stubborn adult with slightly less of an attitude.
10.  This is the house that I called "home" when I needed a break from college life.
11. This is the house in which my sister and I, freezing to death from the harshness of a looming Ohio winter, spent moving day at Pizza Hut, just to stay warm (November 1997).
12.  This was the house in which I realized that my sister was my best friend, and that my parents were not the enemy.  This was the house in which I realized that my family meant more to me than anything else.

I have grown to love that house, and I think the hardest part of leaving it was never getting to say goodbye (which I know sounds dumb).  I left the end of my childhood in that house.  My parents will never have another house that I could (at some point) call mine, too.  From now on, their house will be their house and never, ever our house.  The circle of experiences I've had since that day at Pizza Hut in November 1997 has come to a close, and perfectly.

Here's to new memories...and being able to write a similar post about my house sooner than later!  :)