That's One Small Step for Brady....

With Brady's 1st birthday just around the corner, I have found myself making a Brady timeline in my head. I think about the day he was born, the day we brought him home, his first bath, the first time he smiled, rolled over and laughed. For only being on this earth a short time, he sure has many accomplishments under his belt, and while they are small to most, they are those which I will never forget.

Now, I know many people think their child is a regular Einstein, as you here them say, "You should see Little Johnny do this", or "Little Suzie just catches on so quickly". You always find yourself just nodding your head usually thinking "I saw your child eating his own boogers yesterday". Well I am now one of those parents, but this time it's really true. Brady is a work of pure genius for his age. He does very well to make connections. As you will soon see, Brady does this trick where he will "love the baby". You tell him to do this and he will find the closest stuffed animal and snuggle up to it. I videoed him doing this. I then showed him the video. He watched carefully and saw himself loving the bear. He watched the camera, and then looked for the same bear in the room, and again, went to love on it. Not because I told him too, but because he made the connection between the video and the bear on the floor. Pure genius!!!! In the bathtub he has identified several of his bath toys by name, such as "Brady find the boat" or "find the turtle" in which he will usually stop what he is doing and find that toy and hand it too you. Need I say more...and that is not even all of it. What I'm trying to say is that my baby is intelligent, but please, if you see him eating his own boogers, call him out on it.

Now the moment you have all been waiting for...Brady's first steps!

Brady's First Christmas

Well, Brady survived his first Christmas as our child. He is still not old enough to realize what all a Christmas in our family consists of. It consists of moving from place to place every day for a series of at least 4 days or more.

Now Adam and I never once thought of ourselves as Christmas professionals (we may never achieve that), however we were accustomed to the hectic schedule and to the fact that we need at least 2 days to re cooperate from the travelling, food, and family stimulation (no offense to anyone). Now that we had an almost 1 year old to tote around, this was an entire different ball game all together.

For all of the different places he had to go, and meals he had to eat, Brady I feel did better than we did. Brady's first Christmas schedule was as follows:

Day 1: First Brady and I drove to McLeansville for a small get together with my brothers, their families and mom. After a few hours we all headed to Greensboro for lunch at Dad and Jill's. There Adam joined us after having to work a few hours that morning. All the cousins had a great time together which caused adorable chaos.

From there Adam, Brady, and I continued driving to Burlington to spend the night at Adam's Dad's house. On the way though we stopped back at Mom's house to visit with all of the Arnolds that had congregated there for their Christmas bash. Once in Burlington we had a wonderful meal at Ma's house before finally hitting the sack Christmas Eve at Ronnie and Denise's house.

Day 2: There, Brady woke up to his first Christmas morning. He enjoyed all of his gifts, but not as much as the Christmas trees.

Later that day, we headed off to Yancyville to Denise's mom's house (Adam's step grandmother). From there it was back to our own little house to regain our second wind. Christmas for us, was only halfway over.

Day 3: The next day we headed to Roxboro, for Christmas with the Bradshers (my Mom's side of the family). There, all six little cousins were all together for the first time. Again, there was much excitement as the little ones ran around, soaking up all the attention. Brady took a fancy to Jade and they spent a good bit of time on the fire engine together. Jade who is over a year old, let her 11 month old cousin push her around. Brady, who has just been learning how to walk behind something, was more than happy to push her around.

Jade has a brand new, 5 week old baby sister. Adam was dying to get his hands on her and she quickly fell asleep in his arms. Now, last time he held one of my cousins brand new babies (Jade to be in fact) I became pregnant with Brady. As wonderful as that was, I'm hoping this will not have the same effect as of yet.

After a long but good day, we headed back to our home, to prepare it for the final day. On Sunday all of the Hortons (Adam's Mom's side) would be coming for lunch. Why our one bedroom, one bathroom house got chosen to seat 14 people, I will never know, however it was absolutely wonderful, and I'm just glad everyone gets along. Katie and Deboranell were wonderful cooks and there was much entertainment with Izzy, Brady and Cy and Kristina's new puppy. Joe, was kind enough to come over and take a photo of our handsome crew. Unbeknown st to half the people in this photo, most of them were standing in dog poo.

Our Christmas was finally technically over (Brady and I had one more casual stop on Monday night). We survived our first Christmas with a baby. Although we were very tired and our pants felt a little tighter, we loved every minute with every person. Just maybe perhaps, we will host more Christmases at our house especially since Santa will come to see Brady next year. Until then we will rest and prepare ourselves for it...I have a feeling Christmas for us, will not be getting any easier. Happy New Year everyone!