CHRISTMAS!

I know this post is late, but things were sort of hectic around here! My parents and one of my Aunts were here for 9 days, so time just seemed to get away from me, I guess!!! We got to spend Christmas Eve with Brady's Uncle Eric, Aunt Pam and cousins Preston and Ashley!! Christmas Day was spent with my parents, Aunt and brother in the morning and then the rest of my family came over for Christmas Dinner, so we had a total of 15 here!! Needless to say, Brady had a great time celebrating with all the family!! Being the good boy that he was all year, he ended up getting a TON of presents....a word he quickly learned!!! He did get a bit overwhelmed at one point, so we actually saved a few gifts for him to open later, which he gladly did. He was also a great help passing out the presents to everyone too!

Here are some pictures of Chrismas morning ( I was very bad and didn't take any pictures Christmas Eve or later in the day on Christmas)

Brady in his bounce house!

Playing his new drum...and lovin' it!!

Using his new lawn mower, which he LOVES!!(of course, because it's the loudest toy we gave him!!!)

Brady's reaction when we first saw all of his loot!!

All of Brady's loot!

A FEW FUNNY THINGS!!

I thought I would post about a few funny things that Brady has been doing lately!! My favorite thing is his pretending to sleep!! He even snores!!! Yesterday we were at AC Moore (which is like a Michael's or Joann's) and the check out lady starting talking to him and I guess he didn't want to talk to her because he put his head down, closed his eyes and started snoring!!!! TOO FUNNY!!

If Chelsea gets too close to me, he comes over and BACKS into her to make her move out of the way!!! This gets very tricky in the bathroom!!! The other thing that he is doing to Chelsea, which isn't particularly funny, but worth noting, is when she's laying down, minding her own business, he walks over and scoots his feet under her, which of course makes her get up and move!!! Poor thing!! Obviously, Alan and I are working on this!!!

I'm not sure if most almost 2 year olds fall a lot, but Brady does. I'm always asking him, "are you okay?", so lately when he falls, he immediately says, "K" before I even have a chance to ask!!

He dances to music randomly!! Meaning, he'll be playing in the family room and a commercial will come on and he'll stop what he's doing, dance for the duration of the commercial, and then go back to playing when it's over!! Also, when we're at the mall and we go by stores like Abercrombie and Fitch who have their music BLARING (I must be getting old, to say that!!) he dances (as much as he can in the stroller) for the walk by and then immediately stops!!! I really need to get some of this dancing on video because it has "improved" since the last time I uploaded video with his dancing skills!

This is just today...his butt is itchy ( I think it's dry skin), so I put some lotion on him and told him that mom made it better, so now he's walking around scratching his butt, saying "boo boo" followed by "mom"!!!! It's really quite funny!!!

And just the past few days, all animals growl!!! Last night we were looking at a book and I asked him what the horse says and his response was, "roar"!!! 

Brady is still LOTS of fun as you can see, but we are definitely approaching the terrible two's and I am NOT looking forward to that! He's quite stubborn and definitely knows what he wants, so I think we've got some interesting days in front of us!!! He continues to talk up a storm and amazes me with his association of things....for example the other day he was playing with a Happy Meal toy and he pointed to Ronald McDonald, so I told him who it was. Well, he proceeded to put the toy down and go over to his other toys and he came back with his Old MacDonald tractor and animals!!! Often when I'm talking to my mom and I tell him I'm talking to Grandma, he then says, Pop Pop (which is what he calls my dad)!! On at least 2 occasions I have been talking to Alan and I've said, "your dad" to him, and Brady will say, "Gung Gung" (which is what he calls Alan's dad)!!! He also knows which friends belong to which mom... If I tell him we're going to meet Kayla and Kyle, he'll say "Kristi" or if I say we're going to see Blake, he'll say "Margi". I have no idea if this is normal or above normal for an almost 2 year old, but nonetheless, it completely amazes me that he comprehends all this!!! I do talk to Brady A LOT, so maybe that is part of it, I don't know, but whatever it is, I think it's amazing!!!Of course all of this means, that I've REALLY got to start watching what I say in front of him!!!

I NEED/MISS MY MOM!!

You see, my mom usually helps me decorate for Christmas at least the first year we're in a new house, and as you all know this is our first year in this house, but my mom is NOT helping me!! Now, granted we live a lot further away than we have in the past so it's not so easy this year, but I NEED HELP!!! This is a big house and this year we have to keep in mind that there's a little someone who lives here that is VERY interested in things and likes to touch most of those things, so that kind of eliminates some of our decorating possibilities. Not to mention that we started off the holiday season by realizing that the tree we've had for the past 3 years, that is AWESOME, that we both LOVE, didn't fit in this house!!! So, I actually bought 3 trees and we picked the best one, but it still doesn't fill the shoes of our old tree!! Anyway, back to my mom, I wish we had planned better so that she could have come up here to help me out. She's one of those types who doesn't allow any breaks until the job is completed (if she were here, I CERTAINLY would not be on the computer right now!!) and makes me get things done.... there is no procrastinating  when she's around!!! To prove my point that it's not as easy without her I've included some pictures of my disastrous living room and undecorated tree!!!

bins, bins and more bins, everywhere!!

My goal is to have it all cleaned up today!!! So, I guess that means I need to get off the computer and go get to work!!!