Fun at One

As of this past Sunday, our little man is one year old! We celebrated on Saturday the 6th with a "Fun At One" themed birthday party at one o'clock in the afternoon. The Reeds (Tim, Sandy, and Casey Michael) came down from Tennessee to attend. Amber and Micah were there, Wes just back from deployment, and of course, Grandma Anna, and Grandma & Grandpa B were there. The festivities began with lunch, followed by presents, and finally ended with Bradley digging into his very own chocolate cake.

Bradley did great with all the people. He was passed from person to person and smiled and chattered away, earning applause anytime he did anything remotely cute. He bounced up and down, obviously excited when we sang him 'Happy Birthday.' His favorite present he opened was a bag of Gerber yogurt melts, and got upset when I sat the bag aside to open other gifts! Bradley received lots of clothes and toys, including some bath toys, a cross-stitched baby sampler that my mom has literally spent a year making, and a cute Mickey Mouse ride-on toy. His feet don't quite touch the ground yet, but he loves pushing the buttons and watching the propeller go.

We had a great time, and Brian and I are so thankful for everyone who was able to be there with us to celebrate, and for all of the gifts for Bradley. Thanks also to all our wonderful friends and family who called/texted B birthday wishes. For all you Facebookers out there (Facebooker, I don't even know 'er) I have pictures posted from the party. Here's a few to document the event though:

This is the invitation I created on Snapfish, although it didn't scan very clear:

Bradley with Grandma & Grandpa B

This is the best daggum picture we got of the three of us that day :o(

The birthday boy with his grandparents

Bradley with our good family friends the Reeds; Tim, Sandy, & Casey
A shot of the homemade cakes... I was pleased with them except the writing- it never turns out right- the pressure from those icing canisters is NEVER even! Grr!
Opening presents!
Let him eat cake!

After the cake, and the sink bath, a clean Bradley tries out his new swimming pool in the backyard with Grandma Anna
The party was seriously so much fun, and not nearly as stressful as I'd made it out to be in my head. It was just so great to get all those people who love Bradley in one place, and celebrate the fact that he is now officially a "Toddler" (according to my weekly Babycenter emails)! Thanks to everyone! We are blessed!

A few firsts

After months and months of protesting, we finally broke down and gave Bradley his first haircut on Sunday. I didn't want him looking too shaggy for his first birthday party (coming soon, to a Gulf Breeze house near you, this Saturday!), so we sat him in his high chair and Brian and I each took a turn snipping the long pieces of hair that cover his ears. Yes, we finally cut the "old man hair!" His locks are still long in the front and back, but I don't care. Here's a few pictures to commemorate the event.
It's also worthy to note that Bradley is sick in these pictures. He's suffering from his first cold, and luckily, his first illness in almost 12 months. Like a sweet boy, he shared his cold with mommy, so we're both suffering from nasal congestion and a cough, right in time for the party this weekend. Hopefully we'll both continue to be on the mend.

I also wanted to post a picture of Bradley drinking from his sippy cup, since he's lazy and usually won't hold it himself! This is proof that he can and will do it on occasion.

Palms Away!

Today I feel as though I became an official Floridian. Brian bought us a baby palm tree that we now have planted in our back yard. I have been wanting one for FOREVER, and he happened to see these on sale today for 6 bucks! You can't beat that! So here is me, lounging "under" my new palm tree before it is planted! Ahh, this is the life!

The Little One has a cold, and I decided that wiping snot and sand off Bradley's face together wouldn't make for so much fun in the sun, so we forwent the beach for a little time at home today. Brian did yard work, I layed out in the backyard and read in my lounge chair, and Bradley played in his pack-&-play in the shade. We had a grand old time listening to music outside and just hanging out. Brian even made me a fruity drink to sip on while we were at it! (Yes, it's ginormous, and no, I didn't finish it!)

Bradley at the back door!

I love this picture, because you can see all 3 of us in the reflection.

He is still such a happy baby, even with the sniffles.

Spending green on Red

RedBox, oh how I love you! You make it so cheap, and so easy to rent movies, something I once considered a rare luxury, but oh, the crap I have watched since visiting your drop boxes! Can I get an amen from anyone else out there??

For a scant $1.07, I can rent new movies, watch them that night, and return them to any Redbox location the next day- the closest drop point for us a gas station about a mile up the road... but really, I am renting movies at what cost?? I'm talking about the price you pay for renting crap movies because you're only spending a dollar on it, and there isn't really a movie out there you're dying to see, but rather renting movies out of boredom. I'm talking about the price of your time for renting said "crap movies." What if something comes up, and you don't have time to watch the movie? What if the mood changes, and you don't feel like watching a movie? Well too bad, you have to, because you already paid The Man, and the man (ie Redbox) owns your time. Unless you're one of those people who shrugs it off and vows to pay another dollar to watch the flick the next night. I'm not one of those people. I hate the idea of "wasting" that dollar, so I suck it up and watch the movie- the whole movie- no matter how terrible it is, no matter if I want to or not!

And let me tell you, we've rented some crap lately! Last weekend we suffered through 7 pounds with Will Smith... not some of his finer work. The storyline wasn't clear, the characters were never developed- even the main character, and they never even explained what the "7 pounds" was! But I couldn't turn it off. I had to know how it ended, and I paid my dollar for it already dog-gone-it. Marley & Me and Benjamin Button were both okay, The Caller was awful- worse than Nights in Rodanthe awful- Doubt was dull, and Jim Carey's Yes Man was just so-so. Where are all the great films that I missed out on in the theater, and why aren't they at my nearest Redbox?! Maybe there's a "blockbuster clause" that I'm not aware of where Redbox is only allowed to rent the B-movies, lest they steal thunder from the Movie Rental Giant?

Point is, I think you get what you pay for!

a Snarky Shoutout to the Divadomain

Here's a throwback to my very first blog post, with an updated list of words I love and hate:

Here is The List of words which you should never utter in my presence:

• Supple
• Moist
• Penetrate
• Cutlet (& cutlery)
• Breezeway
• Panties
• Thrust
• Slice (as in the verb, not as a slice of pizza)
• Shrapnel
• Penchant
• Chunky or chunks (when referring to food)
• Rubric
• Luncheon (and the the verb “to lunch”)
• Panache
• Secretion
• Folks
• Turd
• Hunkered

And these are a few of my favorite words:

• Ubiquitous
• Verisimilitude
• Quickly
• Cantankerous
• Zwoelf (german word for 12)
• Presh (short for precious)
• Cumbersome
• Plucky
• Snarky
• Cusp
• Crisp
• Copacetic
• Mogul
• Diminutive
• Penultimate
• Elicit

Happy belated birthday, divadomain- you turned 5 years old on May 25th!

2 years baby, 2 years!

(The title of this blog is a FRIENDS reference, so let's see if anyone besides Brian gets it!)

Last night Brian and I got to go on a real, honest-to-goodness, dress-up-and-go-out-to-eat, DATE! We were celebrating our 2 year anniversary of meeting and being together. (Thanks mom and dad for the Olive Garden gift cards- they came in handy!)

It's hard to believe that it was just 2 years ago that 8 (or was it 9?) of us girls packed our bags and headed south to Navarre for Spring Break 07, and it was there that I met my hot cabana boy at the quaint little beach bar near our condo. Who knew that'd he'd actually follow through on his word and come to visit me in Tennessee 2 weeks later, and that 2 years later, here we are married with an almost-one-year-old, living in Florida!

Life has crazy twists and turns, and it's been two of the most challenging but most rewarding years of my life. A lot of people haven't supported our relationship, and many still don't, but that's okay. To those naysayers out there, I want you to know publicly and unabashedly that I am happy. Brian is happy. We've made many wrong decisions in our relationship but we're committed to each other, and committed to working everything out. Marriage is a challenge for sure, but its payoff is equally ginormous. And don't even get me started on parenting! My heart just melts when Bradley smiles at me. It about killed me to leave him with our friend so we could go to dinner last night! He claps his hands now, and looks at me immediately for approval, so I laugh accordingly and tell him what a good boy he is! Anyways, I'll get off topic if I start raving about my precious boy!

Point is, it's the relationships that take the most work that give the most back, and Brian and I were thrilled to celebrate 2 years of being together yesterday. We had a fun day together being lazy around the house- he took the day off and surprised me by being home after Bradley & I got back from Kindermusik, and I had a bag of goodies waiting on me too. Plus, here's the kicker- he cleaned up the house while I was gone- so he definitely earned his gold star from me that day!

Like I put in Brian's card, here's to the next 2 years... 10 years... 20 years!

Risky Business

Doesn't the little man give Tom Cruise a run for his money??!!

Like the Desert Missed the Rain

After attending Midway Baptist Church for almost a year, we made our membership official yesterday. It's a small church (for me) of fewer than 500 people, and your typical Ready-To-Sing church for all you current/former Brentwood Benson-ites. The pastor is a big Teddy bear of a guy who's a authentic Cajun from the Louisiana bayou. If you've never heard a Cajun accent before (and I hadn't before hearing Bro. Dennis preach) it sounds like a cross between a deep southerner, and an Australian! Plus he's always throwing french Cajun words in his speech too, so it makes for some entertaining sermons, as he is the consummate story teller!

Right now we are going through Psalm 23 verse by verse, and I LOVE this style of preaching, dissecting each verse. I know there's a name for this style of preaching, and I forget what it's called but I love it. It's pretty much the opposite of what Mike Glenn usually does, though I love his preaching as well! A few Sunday's ago, we watched this "Deep Thoughts From a Shallow Christian" video about Greed to open up the message, and I thought it was so funny I had to share it with you!



Yesterday Brother Dennis focused on verse 4 of Psalm 23,


Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.



He talked a lot about the valleys in our life, how they are inevitable, but temporary, why they happen, and how to get through them. Brother Dennis said, "You can't have sunshine all the time, and no rain or you'll have a desert." Such a simple statement, but it was so profound to me! I joked to Brian on our way home from church that we must be living in a tropical rain forest because we seem to be getting hit constantly with hard times, but in all honesty we are blessed. Listening to that sermon yesterday I realized I am so guilty of wanting to live in a desert, wanting warm sunny days (both literally, and figuratively) every day of my life. And I am subject to pout and complain when it rains (yes, again literally & figuratively).


Sure, I prefer the sun, but it's the rain that makes us grow. So to celebrate my new found respect for the rain in my life, I bought 2 hanging plants for $10 yesterday at Lowe's! What a great deal, huh? And I am striving to keep my positive outlook on life, no matter what the circumstance.

803-not just an area code for Columbia, SC

Last week we hit an impressive number on here. We celebrated our 800th post on the DivaDomain. To me that sounds like a lot! The blog turns 5 at the end of May, so if you count 5 years... 803 current posts... 160.5 per year... or a little over 3 blogs per week, and that's assuming I don't blog for the rest of the month (like that would ever happen).

No, I'm not Internet obsessed, but I do love my blogging, and wonder how different my life would look without this creative and communicative outlet. Well, maybe my life wouldn't look all that different, but things certainly wouldn't be "blogworthy," you wouldn't read about me eating chicken tendons, or things falling into a urine-filled toilet, or forgetting to wear a bra, and I undoubtedly wouldn't remember 3/4 of my twenties without the Diva Domain.

Plus with our newest family addition, you wouldn't be able to see all the cute things Bradley's up to. If you care about those sorts of things, we have new videos posted on the YouTube page.

Hope you are enjoying reading the blog half as much as I enjoy writing it. Here's to 803 more posts... at this rate, I'll be 33 years old when that happens- EEK!

A mouthful of tendons

Brian & I watched the Jim Carey movie "Yes Man" last week. It was a mediocre rental, but there was this one part in the film where they are touring a chicken processing plant. The tourguide uses the phrase "a mouthful of tendons" in reference to something not going right with the chicken processing, and this is what you might wind up with: a mouthful of tendons.

EW! Gross! Could there be a more disgusting phrase? (A "moist penetration of cutlets" might run a close second, or some other phrase out there with a handful of my least-favorite words, but still- you have to agree this one's pretty disgusting.)

Flash forward to yesterday. The 5 of us were enjoying the lunch that Brian had made. Brian had seconds, but couldn't finish the last few bites of his enchilada, so I offered to eat the remains. The last bite I took was a little too chewy, and not in a good way. I think I got a bad piece of chicken I said, and went to the trashcan to discreetly spit it out. You might say I had the dreaded mouthful of tendons!

What's worse though, is that then Brian asks me if the piece of chicken I just ate came from the side of his plate. Apparently, he tried the bad piece of chicken too, and spit it out on the side of his plate without saying anything, and so the tendon I was chewing was a piece of ABC chicken!!!

I was thoroughly grossed out, as was everyone else at the table. It was a long time afterwards before I quit thinking of the recycled tendon, and wanting to throw up. The moral of the story is, always trim the fat off your meat before you cook it!

Mama's Boys

Yesterday I celebrated my first "official" mother's day as a mom. I got a really cool Snapfish card in the mail on Friday from my mom and dad that had a picture of me and Bradley when he was one day old, and another picture of the two of us at Easter. I am constantly amazed at how much he has changed and grown up in a year. Bradley also got a tshirt from Old Navy that said I love my Mom from aunt Laura. The t-shirt made me cry because I realize how much I love this little person, and can only hope the shirt is tue and he loves me that much too.

Bradley and Mommy on Mother's Day... you know I color coordinated on purpose!

Ann was able to spend Mother's day with us too, and our friend Amber and her son Micah came over for lunch since her husband is deployed right now. Brian cooked Mexican for us at my request, and he whipped up some amazing chicken enchiladas, rice, and beans. I told him now that the cat's out of the bag and I know he can cook, he's going to be getting kitchen duty more often!

Our spectacular chicken enchiladas: Mama's Boys: Brian & Ann, Micah & Amber, Bradley & me

Aunt Sarah comes to visit, & a family trip to the beach

Okay, so I am a week late posting this, but last weekend was a very eventful one at our house.

Bradley's aunt Sarah came into town from Seattle to stay a few days with us. She got in on Thursday night, and brought with her Bradley's first 1st Birthday present that he got to open. She had me intrigued because she emailed me prior to her visit and told me she knew what she wanted to get Bradley, and that it came in several different languages, and asked which language I would prefer. I told her German, and this is what she came up with:

Bradley's first set of wooden alphabet blocks, and all the numbers are spelled out "auf Deutsch" under the numerals, and on one side of each block there is a picture of a different animal, with each name in German as well. Kuddos to Sarah for a very cool gift!
As you can see, Bradley loved his gift.
Since it was the night before Brian's birthday (and Laura's too!) he opened his gifts that night as well. This is him opening the one from Bradley.

Friday we were in the car all day driving to and from Port St. Joe, FL where Grandpa Cimpher is in a nursing home. It's a 3 hour drive each way, so I spent some quality time with Dave Matthews in the car, and Bradley's Kindermusik cd when he got fussy. We celebrated Brian's birthday at a pizza place for lunch out there with his mom and aunt Bev, along with me Bradley and Sarah. This is my pitiful excuse for a homemade birthday cake. The icing wouldn't cooperate. It never does. So I jokingly told Brian it looked like Bradley had decorated his cake, although it's not quite bad enough to make cakewrecks.

After lunch we saw Grandpa Cimpher and took this "Four Generation" picture. I'm so glad we have these pictures for Bradley since I don't have any grandparents left on my side of the family.
And here's Bradley playing with aunt Sarah.
Saturday the weather was perfect so we went to the beach. (This is the day we had our near-brush with death with the shark.) We had a good 3 hours in the sun before Bradley needed to go home for his afternoon nap. We packed a cooler and ate lunch on the beach- here was my view while I ate my sandwich:

And here's Bradley and his aunt Sarah- check out her way cool vintage swimsuit!

Our little guy is such a stud! He wouldn't keep his sunglasses on though, so in this picture he's pulling them off!

I love this one because of all the different shades of blue. You can't see it, but behind the pacifier, he's doing Blue Steele.Here's our obligatory family shot. I'm going to keep taking these this summer until I have a good one that I like. This one's just okay.
I like this one even though we aren't looking at the camera.

Goodbye Sarah, come back any time!

This one goes to Eleven

Eleven months, that is! (Thanks to sister-in-law Sarah for the idea for the Spinal Tap reference!)

Every month I get nostalgic when the 7th rolls around, and every time I say I wish I could freeze him at this age. But really, this time- I can honestly say I have enjoyed this 10th month more than any so far. It's been full of milestones, and our little guy has so much personality now, yet he's still consistantly taking 2 naps a day, and leads a predictable schedule, which makes mommy happy!

Bradley's 10th month began with his biggest milestone yet- crawling! But aside from that, he can wave bye-bye now, clap his hands, boogie, and he's sleeping and eating so much better. He's trying new foods but still prefers his "baby crack" aka Gerber Puffs and lights up when he sees the canister. He's not too sure about the ocean and sand yet, but loves putting the salty seashells in his mouth. Actually, he's still at that age where he loves to put everything in his mouth. (That's what she said.) He stood on his own last week, and is cruising around, walking holding onto the furniture now like a champ. When I read to him, Bradley helps me by turning the pages which is so cute, and he has worn out his musical Fischer Price learn and play table so much that the speaker is blown on it! (Or that could be because he spit up directly on the speaker one day.) Yes, the little man is still spitting up, but just like not sleeping all the way through the night, it's a term I've come to accept. He lets me put saline drops in his nose nightly and that's something most kids scream over, so I think it's an even trade.

We haven't had any doctor appointments since his 9-month checkup, and won't go again until his 12 month checkup (holy crap, I'm about to have a one-year-old!) so I have no idea what the chunky monkey weighs except to say" heavy!

Swimming with Sharks

Saturday we had a great afternoon at the beach. The weather was perfect- sunny and low 80's, and the ocean was finally warm enough to enjoy. Brian's sister Sarah was in town visiting, and our friend Amber and her 8 year old son Micah met us at the beach. At one point Sarah offered to watch Bradley under the umbrella so I could go get in the water with Brian. This was the first time this year the water has really been warm enough to get in, so we took advantage of it.

It was high tide, so the water was really shallow for a long ways out. Brian and I waded out to what I consider to be pretty far, but the water was only waist-high. We stood there for a while jumping through the waves when all of a sudden Brian says very matter of factly,
We need to go back now.
Why?
I asked him, quizzically, because we hadn't been out there very long, and the water felt sooo great! Again, very calmly he just repeated,
We just need to go back.

Well then it dawns on me that he's seen something in the water, and I need to not ask any more questions and get back to the shore as quickly as possible. We start to walk/wade our way to shore, and I don't dare ask him what he saw until I am safely on the beach. We make it almost all the way back and then I start to panic as the undertow is strong and I'm having a hard time getting out of the water as quickly as I'd like, so then I started to hyperventilate!

To Brian's credit he stayed calm the entire time and encouraged me that we were almost there. Finally we make it up onto the beach and I ask him what he saw. Sure enough, he saw a shark swim by about 2 feet in front of us. Not a big one he said, but a shark nonetheless. I don't play around when it comes to ocean wildlife, and if it happened to be a baby shark, that means the momma shark isn't too far off. So that effectively ended our time in the water!! I spent the rest of the afternoon there helping Micah build a sandcastle!

Omelet Italiano

As one who only knows her way around a kitchen by proxy, I am quite pleased with myself for creating a fabulous breakfast this morning. While Bradley dined on organic banana and pear juice, I created what I am calling an Italian Omelet. I sauteed some onions, shredded a few fresh basil leaves, diced some tomato, and threw in a generous helping of mozzarella cheese to glue it all together, and it was, as Rachel Ray would say, YUM-OH!

I was going to add some meat to the mix, but the veggie combo seemed like enough this morning, although I suppose if you wanted to crank it up a notch, ala Emeril, you could add pancetta and make it super Italian, whereas I was going to use plain old deli ham. My only other complaint was that the mozzarella cheese was a little too mild to cover all of the "eggy" taste of the omelet, so I would try a bolder flavored cheese next time to balance everything out. Again, I'm grabbing at straws here, and am by no means the cooking experts my sister and mom are, but I would suggest maybe asiago cheese? I'm up for other opinions though.

Anywho, you can tell I've been watching a lot of the Food Network lately! Every now and then I get a hankering for a good omelet, and having just purchased fresh basil for another recipe, I figured I would innovate a new way to use the herb since I rarely use all of a fresh herb before it goes bad. Look at me being all thinky. So don't be jealous. I may have spiders, but I also have fabulous breakfasts.

Lexington, spiders, and roses, oh my!

Enough with the drama... what happened, happened, and I'm ready to move on.

I miss Lexington so much, and am glad to have made the trip although it was done and over far too quickly. I tried to purchase beer on our way up that morning at a gas station to bring to the BYOB Keeneland tailgate, and was told, "you're in a dry county, hun, you'll have to go 30 or 40 miles up the road to buy alcohol." Right. Dry counties in Kentucky- I had completely forgotten those existed!

The weather was great for Keeneland. In fact, I got more sun that Saturday in Kentucky than I have the whole time I've been in Florida this year! It happened to be the Delta Zeta Alumni tailgate that day, so I was able to see many of my sorority sisters that I'd lost touch with over the years (besides the occasional Facebook stalking to see what they are up to).

There was even an unexpected guest to our tailgate tent that day... a poor drunk fraternity guy who, no joke, had his name engraved on a brass plate on his belt... R.M. Donahue. (He must be a Farmhouse, one person said) The kid was so hammered he didn't talk, but stumbled around and slumped over on our cooler while several of us tried to find the people he was with, and kept making guesses at his name: "Ryan? Richard? What's your name? Do you have your wallet on you? Where are your friends?" Meanwhile, poor drunk Mr. Donahue had the awful sense enough to try and grope the ladies who were trying to help him before his friends discovered his whereabouts several minutes later.

Brian and I also got to run over to where Katie (of Beth & Katie, aka "the twins") was tailgating and hang out with her for a little bit. She looked fantastic and it was great to see her. Plus that Bourbon slush they had there was delish! Ellen met us inside the gates at Keeneland, and the place was such a madhouse that the three of us kept getting separated, and we spent our whole time at the races fighting crowds. I barely saw a horse, much less saw them race. I placed a bet on 2 races, having no clue about the odds, so I went with the "red horse" and the "pink horse" (naturally) and lost them both.

After enjoying a much too brief visit to Keeneland, it was time to head over to the church for Sarah and Braden's wedding. The bride looked amazing as usual, and the reception was a blast. Anyone who knows Sarah Scott knows that her wedding reception was going to be one big dance party. I didn't get any pictures with Sarah with my camera, but here's a shot at the end of the night with Lana, Rhonda, and the hydrangea!

Where was Bradley during all this you may ask? He spent the day/night with Grandma and Grandpa B in Tennessee. They loved having him there, and from what I understand, he went for a wagon ride, sat outside on the swing, and had a very eventful trip to Target where he racked up some new toys and clothes.

Bradley was an angel on the car ride home. I know these trips are going to be more difficult as he approaches the toddler years, but so far the 7 hour trip has been a breeze.
In other Bradley news, today was a first. He found his way over to the dogfood bowl and helped himself. I caught him mid bite and scraped the brown kibble from his mouth and wiped it out with a washcloth, but the damage had already been done. I guess I should just be glad he's taking the initiative to self-feed!

On the domestic front, I saw and smashed one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my backyard yesterday. I'm going to pretend he was living all by his lonesome and there are no more of him in the world. Let's hope. This picture is blurry but I'm grotesquely fascinated with this 8 legged monster. And besides, I'm creeped out by seeing it so you should be too.

And finally, to conclude: something pretty to look at. My pink rose bush is all in bloom again, so I cut some of the flowers and arranged them in bud vases on my dining room table. Even though they are shedding their petals already, they make me happy just looking at them. And this is to make up for the ugly spider picture so you'll keep reading my blog.

Bradley's First Easter

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Crawly McCrawlerson

Guess what?! The day I never thought would arrive has finally come (insert witty outlandish daydream here)... no, not that! Bradley is finally crawling!! Finally, at age 10 months and 3 days. And since I'm not going to be one of those obnoxious moms on Babycenter who announces to total strangers that her DS/DD is crawling (That's dear son or dear daughter. Get with the lingo), I'm announcing it to YOU! Yes you, friends and family, and silent lurkers alike.

I am one proud mama today. Seriously. Who knew that I would be brimming with pride over my son traversing two feet on his hands and knees? If I am this bubbling with pride over this, just wait until he wins the Heisman trophy!!

Bradley at the beach

It's been cool here lately, but this past weekend we were able to take advantage of the nice weather and hit the beach- well, the fake beach anyways- but we had a few hours of sun and sand nonetheless!
Bradley loved the sand, and was content to sit and play in the shade. I took him to the water's edge and put his toes in, and Brian got his wish of finally getting a picture of him and Bradley on the jet ski.

10 month tidbits

Today Bradley is 10 months old. To celebrate the occasion you can hop over to YouTube and check out the new channel devoted to all things Bradley, complete with a video created today to commemorate his 10 month b-day. Yep, we've gone and created an account to post all his videos. Before you know it, clips of him bouncing and spitting up will be going viral. This is the channel the world has waited for.... or at least our family anyways.

No doctor's appointment this month, so no official measurements, but here are a few 10 month tidbits:

• Eating 3 meals of solid foods a day (fruits, veggies, & oatmeal) and still nursing
• Eliminated a nighttime feeding on his own, so he sleeps for 8 hours, eats, then sleeps for another 4
• Still scooting backwards and getting stuck under furniture constantly
• Always wants to play standing up, and tries to pull up on everything
• Still has just the 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom)
• LOVES Gerber Puffs to self-feed- I use them as a distraction while I get his real food ready, or in between bites so we get to eat our dinner too. I've heard one mom refer to them as baby crack, and I'd have to agree. Bradley knows what the Puffs can looks like, and lights up and laughs when I ask him if he wants some.

Speaking of the Puffs, I sing "Puff Puff baby" to Bradley to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby," which he loves. That makes me the Puff Mama, and Brian the Puff Daddy, or Diddy for short.

Presently pontificating

Most of the blogs these days are about Bradley... but this one's for me.

I am a present. I don't know if you know that about me, but I am. This was a keen observation made by my friend Stephanie about me yesterday while she and I were hanging out, and our rugrats were playing on the floor.

I loved her insight, and heartily agreed. Stephanie is one of those people who have their hand in everything it seems, and she knows everyone, and makes friends easily. She is my idea of a supermom. It also seems that Stephanie is a good judge of character, and she's having a tough time figuring me out... because I am a present.

Here's what I took that to mean: all wrapped up in a pretty package on the outside, but the best part is what's inside the box. And I readily admit I'm not one to open myself up completely to new people. It takes me a long time to warm up to people and let them know the real me. But once the bow is loosened, and the paper torn off, that's when a person gets to know the real Amanda. Where the present part comes in is that once you are in, you are in for life. I will be loyal and trustworthy, and a great listener. I, am a present. Guarded? Definitely. Too cautious? Perhaps. But I'm happy with who I am, and patiently seeking the next friends I will open myself up to.

new season, new leaf

Spring is here, the weather is getting warmer, Bradley is getting more mobile, and I'm making every effort to get us out of the house more. When Bradley was a newborn (and for many months therafter) I was so overwhelmed with being a brand-new mom, not to mention being a new wife in a new place, that I sort of spun my wheels every day trying to accomplish menial household tasks, and never getting "enough" done. This led me down a spiral of shame for not accomplishing more, and left me feeling guilty about wanting to pursue activities and friends outside the home when I had so much left to do here on a daily basis.

No more. I have turned over a new leaf. Bradley and I are still doing Kindermusik once a week, but I've also got my brand-new library card, and have several opportunities looming in the background through church activities and military spouse's clubs. I vow to get out of the house and make new friends in order to keep my sanity! I'm researching yoga classes in the area and have just started to get to know my neighbor 2 houses down who's also a stay at home mom who has a little boy 6 months older than Bradley.

I refuse to get bogged down by all the "stuff" I have to do and base my self esteem on what I accomplish each day, because at the end of the day, I know it is so much more important to spend quality time with Bradley than keep a clean house if I have to choose.

Reality Bites (and HITS)

In the wee hours of the morning as I was snuggled in bed sleeping, I was petting Lego, one of the dogs we are currently watching for our friends Wes & Jess while they are gone. As I pet Lego, he bit me suddenly, causing me to act swiftly in popping him good on the bottom. And pop him good I did, only as my hand made contact with the dog I became faintly aware of my surroundings, and then heard a bewildered Brian say, what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks??!!

Yes, it turns out my incident with Lego was a dream, and in real life, I slapped the heck out of a sleeping Brian! Whoopsie! I apologized profusely to my husband, but couldn't stifle the giggles that came pouring out as I did. It was just too funny not to laugh, and also too funny not to share, so there you go!

things are looking up

Finally, we have some sunshine here after 3 days straight of nasty thunderstorms, and what am I doing? Sitting inside blogging! Typical. I do plan on taking B for a walk once he wakes up from his afternoon nap though, so my fair share of the outdoors is coming.

The ncaa tourney is still going on (I picked 6 out of the 8 teams left correct- how am I doing in the family brackets, mom?) but I am barely paying attention to the games. It's far more exciting to stay caught up on all the news surrounding Kentucky firing 2-year coach Billy Gillispie! In Kentucky a season without a national championship is a failure, and this latest coach just led our team to its second worst season in school history! That doesn't bode well for those in Wildcat country, so see ya later BG!

In Bradley's world, things are looking up... because he's started to pull up on furniture, and us, and anything he can get leverege on to prop his chubby legs to a standing position! He still hasn't mastered the forward motion of crawling so maybe he'll just skip that phase altogether and go to walking, who knows. Here's the little guy standing around on the job:

I did catch him in quite the predicament this week though- Bradley managed to scoot himself backwards on the floor in his room until he was under his crib and stuck! Luckily I snapped pictures and rescued him before he got too far under his bed!

Trying to stand up on his own

Oh, you wanna know how he rolls? That's how.

A big shout out and thanks to Ellen who sent Bradley his first UK baseball cap! Of course it's enormous on him right now but he'll grow into it in no time I'm sure. He wore it while playing in his room this afternoon anyways because he just couldn't wait to wear it! ;o)

Ari, we bought the Battle of the Sexes game yesterday and are returning it today because in short, it sucked, but playing it last night did make me laugh and think about Claude naming Old spice as one of the spices in All Spice.

The rest of our Saturday will consist of going for a walk, grilling out, and probably watching basketball on tv tonight. Brian's mom, Grandma Anna, is coming tomorrow to spend the day with us so that will round out our weekend nicely. Hopefully the rain is really and truly gone because I thought I was going coocoo for coco puffs there for a minute, and hope you out there, wherever you are, are enjoying your weekend as well!

9 month photos

Here are Bradley's 9 month pictures, taken by Franklin,TN photographer Wendy Tate.

The Murdochs

Laura and George are now married! It's been too crazy to post anything else, but stories and pictures are coming soon. Congrats, kids!

**update** here's a link to the page of Laura & George's photographer, Andy Mullins. There are a few pictures up here, and more to come.
http://murdochwedding.mullinsimages.com/

The worst film of 2008

It is official.  Laura & I watched what must have been the worst film of 2008.  I dare you to find a worse one than Nights in Rodanthe.  Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, I saw previews for this movie a long time ago and saw Richard Gere and Diane Lane, got all misty-eyed at the preview, and thought, I must see this movie.  Man am I glad I didn't pay money in the theater to see this!!

It was so bad, I hardly know where to begin.  So let's start with the plot.  The book was cheesy and far-fetched to begin with.  It's a far cry from the brilliant romance of the Notebook, and even while reading it I thought it was a waste of my time.  So that should have been enough to keep me away from watching the movie.  But the 2 costars drew me in, which is what I believe the movie producers expected, because nothing else would.  They apparently blew their whole film budget on attracting these 2 stars, and all I can say is Gere and Lane must have been hurting for work.  James Franco plays a small role, and if I were him, I wouldn't even list this film on my resume' lest it get out that I had anything to do with this movie monstrosity.

Significant changes were made in the plot line from the novel to the screen to make the film version work.  They didn't work, however.  One scene was created that wasn't in the novel at all, and it included a ton of "extras."  Laura remarked, "they could have cut this whole scene and used the money they saved from hiring all those extras to make the whole movie better."  I laughed hard, and couldn't agree more.

There is one fake hurricane scene that is so ridiculous it made me chuckle, and this picture was a far cry from being an intentional comedy, yet it succeeded in making Laura & I laugh.  There are several other awkward scenes where you actually feel sorry for the actors saying the lines.  The only gratification in the movie was seeing the ponies (another budget blower, I'm sure), but I won't ruin the significance of them in case you decide to rent Rodanthe on a Friday night when you need a good laugh.   

Even if you are a Nicholas Sparks fan, you will find this movie cheesy, totally unbelievable, and a total waste of your precious time.

9 months old!

Today is Bradley's 3/4 year birthday... in other words, he's 9 months old.


He goes to the doctor on Monday, so I don't have his official weight/height, but so far Bradley's been tracking along the 50th percentile for weight. I have a hunch he's a little short for his age though, because my little chunky monkey has a gut, so he has to make up for that extra weight somewhere! Other mile markers at this point:

• He's up to eating 3 small meals of solid foods a day, plus still nursing 6 times.
• Loves to stand when supported, and practices walking with me holding his hands
• 3 1/2 teeth have popped through- 2 on the bottom, one on top, and another will be coming through any day. Still no pics of these though, because the little booger won't open his mouth up long enough for me to snap the picture
• Scooting backwards using his arms (as you will see in the video below)
• Favorite toys are still his exersaucer and stackable rings
• Still not sleeping through the night. He goes down for 4 hour stretches and then wants to eat. I've given up thinking things could be different in this realm.
• Loves to be outside, especially swinging and going for walks
• Babbling a lot, but no real words yet. Surprise, surprise though, Bradley loves the sound of his own voice, and thinks everyone around him wants to listen to him squeal and holler! (hmm, a child that loves to talk... I wonder where he gets that?!)

This is a short clip of Bradley bouncing while holding onto his crib- he was mighty proud of himself!!

Here's Bradley at 9 months, demonstrating his scooting backwards across the carpet!

the Sideshow

I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that I undertook the project of creating a slideshow for Laura & George's wedding rehearsal/reception. What it's turned into however, is a sideshow!

I have worked tirelessly on creating this collaboration of pictures and music for over 6 weeks now, and it's getting a bit ridiculous! Who knew that making one of these things would be such a fiasco? But when you're gathering pictures from multiple places, scanning old pictures, employing no less than 3 computers, and 4 different slideshow programs, and trying to add mp4 files to programs that only accept mp3 formats, using programs that only allow you to add one song when you need many, and every time you re-save the pictures they get out of order, or you have different numbers of pictures saved in different places, it's all kinds of fun let me tell you! I'll spare you the rest of the details, but I am a firm believer now that Heather's husband Jacob is a genius, and my work here is finally done. You people coming to the wedding better OOH and Ahh and chuckle over this production while it's playing like there's no tomorrow!