Another Tooth!!

Dear Brantley ~

I discovered a new tooth on you today!! It's the one just to your left of your top left front tooth. Every new tooth gives your smile a whole new look. I love the adventure with the teeth (although I don't like the pain you have to go through with each one). I'll try to get a pic for you when I can, but you don't like for me to look at it right now. 

You are such a good little tooth brusher. You get so excited when it's time to brush your teeth. You always let me brush them first, then you grab the brush and chew on it for awhile and suck the rest of the toothpaste off. You smile and giggle the whole time.

You got your belly filled up on leftover chicken spaghetti, so it's time (actually passed time) to get you to bed. You have a big day of school tomorrow! Your favorite bedtime books right now are Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss and Llama Llama Nighty Night. I usually read them to you in that order. I may try putting Asher in there with you again tonight. We'll see how this goes. :-)

I Love You So Much!

Mommy

Outside at School and Messy at Home

Dear Brantley ~

Today was a school day for you, and your teacher said you had a great day! I can't remember her name. It's Miss Jolie and Mrs. Kasey's mom. You've been real shy with her ever since you moved up to her class. Today she said you really started breaking out of that shyness. It was a beautiful day, so you got to be outside quite a bit. You attempted the slides on your own today, and you loved them!! She said you got pretty confident and started to go after the bigger slide, but she stopped you because she was afraid you would hurt yourself. I was so excited to hear you were having a lot of fun and coming out of your shell!

When I got you home I decided to let you have a little messy fun. We started by me painting your hands green and doing a handprint St. Patrick's Day shamrock craft. Since that left me with a lot to clean up I decided we'd just continue the mess. I got out a bowl of Jello I had made a few days ago and I put it on your highchair tray. At first you were very careful with it like you normally are.

Then you started to realize that I was going to just let you have fun.

Then you really started getting with it and having a ball.

I decided, why not add supper to the fun? So I plopped some chicken spaghetti down for you. I gave you a spork, but you had no interest in using it since you were getting to have fun with it.

And this was the final result before I rushed you to the tub for a nice, long bath.

I'd say you had a good time! Haha! We played and played in the bath, and you had a blast in there as well. Overall I'd say you had an awesome day! Let's see what fun we can get into tomorrow!

I Love You So Much!!

Mommy

Mommy & Me

Dear Brantley ~

You and I go to a Mommy & Me dance class on Friday mornings at Page & Co. in Cabot. Liz Coker teaches it, and Addison is always there. You're always the youngest one, and you're the only boy, so you are pretty shy in the beginning. You won't let go of me for the first 10-15 minutes, and it's only a 30 minute class. By the end you start getting more comfortable and you start to have some fun. Today you held onto my legs as I walked across the room to put my phone and keys down and then back. Mrs. Liz took a pic of you because it was so cute. 

By the end, though, you were having fun going through the tunnel.

You're still trying to learn how to feed yourself with a spoon. Today you were trying for awhile, then you just got frustrated and started sticking your hand in your mashed potatoes to feed yourself with you hands. Haha!

I Love You So Much, Sweet Pea!!

Mommy

Learning to Read

Dear Brantley ~

I bought Your Baby Can Read for you when you were born. We've worked on the flashcards off and on for awhile, and you love watching the DVDs. Yesterday I was clapping and telling you to clap. You looked across the room, saw the flashcard that says "clap" (not the picture... the word), walked over to it, picked it up, carried it to me, and handed it to me. I was amazed. So today I decided to test that. I laid out several of your cards like this:

I asked you, "Where's clap?" You picked up the one that says clap and handed it to me. I praised you and then said, "Where's hi?" You picked up hi and handed it to me. I praised you and then asked, "Where's tongue?" You picked up tongue and handed it to me. I sat them all back down and asked, "Where's clap?" You picked up clap and handed it to me, and then you walked off. Wow! Brantley, you will be 14 months old tomorrow! Do you realize how incredibly awesome that is??? I am SO proud of you! You are awesome!

Today was my first shot at putting you and Asher down for a nap at the same time in the same room. It only lasted 45 minutes. You woke up with a dirty diaper, got noisy, and woke Asher up. So I hung out with y'all in your room for about an hour because Daddy was napping, and I didn't want us to wake him. After about an hour I took y'all downstairs. You were in such a good mood. I got you a bath, and you just played and played. You never want to get out of the bathtub. You love your baths!

Another big thing of yours right now is opening and closing the refrigerator. Every time I get you some juice I hold you on my hip so you can help. I tell you to open the door, and you open it. I get the juice out, and you always close the door on my arm before I get it pulled out. Haha! Then I get it out and tell you to close it, and you close it. I get your juice, mix some water in it, and then have you open the microwave door. I put the juice in, and then you close it. You do the same when we put the container of juice back in the fridge and when we get the sippy cup out of the microwave. Today you started trying to put the lid on the sippy, too. It looks like we'll be working on that one tomorrow. :-)

You and Cleo have become so close. She was real skiddish around you in the beginning. I used to always tell her you would be her best friend someday. When you started picking up your food, she started to figure out what I meant. You started throwing food to her. I got onto you for it, and then you started sneaking food to her. She absolutely adores you now, and you love climbing on her and laughing at her. Today you were wallering all over her as you drank your sippy. She was loving it. Of course, by the time I grabbed the camera you had quit so much cuddling, but it was still cute.

Tonight you ate Butternut Squash & Brussels Sprout Frittata. You devoured it! I love your healthy tastebuds! I hope that continues as you get older.

Tonight is Asher's first night in the bedroom with you. I am so excited to see how it goes. I think it will be so neat for y'all to sleep in the same room together. Speaking of sleep, I'm exhausted. I'm heading to bed.

I Love You So Much!!

Mommy

Walking and Loving

Dear Brantley ~

Tonight you hardly crawled at all. It has been the longest transition from crawling to walking of any baby I've ever seen, but I think you are officially primarily walking. You took your first steps so many months ago. You have a mind of your own, though. You want to do things on your time, not anyone else's. We had no doubt you would be walking full time at 8 or 9 months, but you just continued to walk some and crawl some. Tonight you were all over the place on your feet, not your hands and knees. I think you've finally decided it is much harder to carry things when you crawl than it is when you walk.

Today Asher was in his bouncy seat watching tv. Your "recliner" was next to him. You went over to it, climbed into it, said "Asher" a few times, sat facing the tv, and reached over to pet Asher. It was so sweet. You haven't quite figured out why you can't hit him on the top of the head over and over, though. Haha!! You are so sweet and such an awesome big brother!!

This morning I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. You were in there with me. You kept talking to me in your language, and I would repeat every word you said. I tried to trick you and throw in a "Mama" so you would say it back to me (because the only time you ever say it is when you're upset). You looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Dada." Then you started laughing so hard. You are such a little stinker!! You knew exactly what you were doing!!

Yesterday you weren't feeling good. I think you're teething, plus you have a cold. You were really fussy yesterday morning, which is very unlike you. You, Asher, Daddy, and I cuddled up together in mine and Daddy's bed for a large portion of the morning. You and Asher are so incredibly sweet together! As soon as we put both of you between us, you laid over on Asher. Then he started reaching out and touching you, which is huge because he's just starting to learn control of his hands. Y'all ended up cuddling between us for quite a while.

Later in the day you two chilled in your chairs next to each other watching tv.

I can't even begin to explain to you how much I love you boys!!!!! You two and your daddy are my world!!

I Love You So Much!!!!!

Mommy