DISCLAIMER!!!

Okay, today while I was out running errands I got to thinking about one of my posts from last night. You know the one about the fact that Brady was "rocking out" to Neil Diamond and Pat Benetar....well, let me just add that we were at the mall in the food court when he heard the songs, we were NOT at home!!!! As one of my good friends pointed out, making Brady listen to Neil Diamond could be considered a form a child abuse, so I didn't want to be accused of that!!!! Just for the record, I don't own any Neil Diamond CD's!! Well, now that I got that straightened out I can go on with my day! : )

WHAT'S NEW??

Okay, so it's been entirely too long since my last post as evidenced by how many entries I have tonight!!! We've had a lot going on and it's only going to get crazier in the next few weeks!!!

A little bit about Brady now at 11 1/2 months old:

• he is crawling like crazy and moves at a good clip!
• He has finally discovered that there is more to the house than the family room and kitchen, which has proved to be interesting because I still have breakable things on low shelves!! Don't worry, I've made mental notes to put those things up high in the new house!
• He LOVES to stand up and no longer needs a ledge to pull himself up...any flat surface, like the dishwasher will work!
• He is not walking yet and I think we still have some time before this milestone hits, which is probably a good thing at this time.
• He has 4 teeth now, two upper middle and two lower middle.
• He has a bit of a temper so that's going to be fun to deal with in another year or two... as many of you know, Alan and I are both pretty stubborn so we probably deserve this!
• He is getting more and more independent with each passing day
• He seems to really LOVE music.....yesterday he was "rocking out" to Neil Diamond and Pat Benatar....it's really cute, he starts waving his arm to the beat of the music and sometimes he even sways back and forth
• He will be getting his SECOND hair cut later this week....that boy's hair grows faster than Alan's, if that's possible
• He understands the meaning of the word "clap" and will clap if you ask him to....he also follows the phrase "good job" with clapping!!! It's really pretty darn cute, if you ask me!!
• He is eating pretty much any and all "real" food that we give him. He especially loves anything sweet.
• Brady brings more and more joy into this house each day and I can't imagine not having him!!! A day does not pass that I don't smile and laugh AT LEAST once!!!

On to the moving news. We are closing on the new house Feb 12th, which is right around the corner. We still have not sold our house, but we can leave it on the market for a bit longer before we officially have to accept ExxonMobil's offer, which was a very fair one. It's beneficial for us to sell it though so we'll leave it on the market as long as we can. We're very fortunate to be able to fall back on the company buying it though. Alan will be attending the closing alone and then later in the week Brady, my mom and I will head to Virginia. Then, in true "Alan and Beth" fashion, Alan will be leaving the country 5 days after I get there!!! Lucky for me that my mom works for my dad and he's pretty lenient on her vacation time!! : ) My mom will stay with me for a good two weeks to help me unpack and see what else we can get accomplished. It'll be good to have her there because she doesn't let me slack off!! We've got a long list of things so we'll see just how much we can get done.

As I've said before, we surely are going to miss all of our friends here. It's especially hard to be leaving now since "parade season" is just getting under way. That being said, we are coming home for the St. Patty's parade and the Chasco parade and of course, we'll be coming home again for Change of Command so you're definitely not getting rid of us! The friends we have made through our Krewes really mean a lot to us...I mean how many people can say they have over 100 friends!!??? We're really looking forward to spending time with everyone at Gasparilla this weekend!

We've got a busy 2 weeks ahead of us but I will try and post again before we leave because I don't know how much time I'll have early on in Virginia....I'll have to ask my mom for permission to post!!! : )

Until next time.....

SOCK FUN!!!

OH MY GOSH....this was SO funny. My parents, Alan, Alexander, Brady and I were all together to watch the Packer game (and yes, for ONCE I was actually rooting for them!!). Anyway, my mom left the family room to go somewhere in the house and on the way back she tossed this sock to Brady and he just went crazy laughing!!! So, she continued to do this and after awhile we were all laughing at him laughing that we were crying!!! I managed to get up and get these pictures, and they are some of the BEST pictures I have of him.....go figure. At least now I know what prop to use to get him to smile!!! Next time we do this we really need to get it on video so you can HEAR him...it's PRICELESS!!


LOOK at that smile!!!
Could it possibly get any bigger.....

YES, it can!!!!

FILING FOR RE-ADOPTION

Even though Brady is already a US citizen we decided that we wanted to officially re-adopt him so that we could get a Florida birth certificate and legally change his name. We've talked about doing this pretty much since we got home, but of course we've just gotten around to filing.(we do already have a social security number for him but it's in his Chinese name until we legally change it) My dad is helping us with this, which is nice because I'm assuming that means we don't have to pay attorney's fees!!! : ) THANKS DAD!! Anyway, we've heard this is a pretty easy process and doesn't take very long so we're hoping to have our hearing in the next two weeks. In the long run, this will just make things easier for school registration and soccer sign ups when the time comes. On a side note, Brady, my parents and I went out to lunch after we finished signing all the papers and we happened to run into (almost literally) the judge that my dad was hoping would get our case, so he was able to give him a little heads up of the case!!! FATE???? Hmmmm.

Helping Grandpa with some important papers!!

DINNER WITH FRIENDS!

On January 11th Brady and I went out to dinner with my parents and a bunch of their friends... some who've known me WAY too long!! : ) I didn't realize it until that night, but it was the first time any of them had met Brady (I can't seem to remember who has met him and who hasn't.. it must be the mommy brain thing!!) even though they have all followed this journey every step of the way. So, he met Dr. Claude(my eye doctor since I was about 16 or so) and Sue, Bob and Lorena and Paul and Pat. Brady had a great time and did a great job meeting everyone!

Brady and Dr. Claude
Brady and Sue

PLAYOFF TIME!

Brady wasn't overly interested in the Bucs vs. Giants Playoff game, instead he was much more interested in playing with his toys, which is a good thing. The most "difficult" thing we've had to deal with since bringing Brady home is his need to ALWAYS be with one of us. I couldn't even get up to go into the kitchen even though he could see me the entire time. As soon as I got up he would start crying. If we weren't playing with his toys with him he wasn't interested in them either. But NOW, he is doing a great job of playing by himself and he doesn't get upset if I go into the kitchen....he will, however, come crawling after me, so I've had to barricade him in the family room!! I will say that having someone always with him during the holidays did set us back a bit, but now that everyone has gone home I think we're back on track.

He definitely likes his Little People farm, especially the animal sounds and the music it plays.

The animal puzzle is another favorite!

He hasn't figured out that when he sits on the puzzle it's harder to get the pieces in and out!!

He likes to take toys out of his toy chest.....now if we could just get him to put them away, we'd be all set!!!

WHERE'S DADDY??

Brady isn't quite walking yet, but he LOVES standing and as you can see from these pictures he doesn't need much to pull himself up. Alan went onto the lanai for something and Brady had to see where he went and what he was doing!!!

"Daddy come back"!
"Daddy? Where are you"?
Not sure if he's waving to daddy here or if he's getting ready to fall down to crawl somewhere.

FIRST TAILGATE PARTY!!

On December 30th Brady got to go to his first Bucs tailgate party! Since bringing Brady home I've gone to all of the home games with a friend while Alan stayed home with Brady to get in some quality bonding time. My brother was in town for the holidays which meant my mom was giving her ticket to him so we had a babysitter!!! : ) SO, we all went to the tailgate and then grandma and Brady went back to our house to watch the game on tv. I think my mom and Brady were the smart ones because the Bucs sat most of the starters so it felt like we were at a pre season game!! (Lance this is the ONLY reason your Panthers won!!!)


Brady with "aunt" Donna
Hangin' with Grandpa
Getting into trouble with Grandpa and "uncle" Donny
Still hangin' with Grandpa!