19 months old

Well, my little baby boy turned 19 months old on Thursday. It just seems impossible that he is closer to 2 now than he is to 1. WHAT?? 2 years old??!! How in the world does time fly by so fast?

He is at such a fun age right now. He is doing so many new things that I can't keep up with it all. He loves to be outside running around. For him, the hotter and sweatier he is, the happier he is....lol.

I have really started to see alot of his Daddy coming out in him recently. For one, he definately has his daddy's temper. If he can't get the lid off of something, he will throw it across the room and have a little meltdown. If he is ready to go outside, and I tell him we have to wait until after he eats lunch, he falls into a puddle of tears by door. We are working on this, but geez, how do you teach a one year old patience? Another one of Brent's characteristics that has really come out in Brody is their "concentration face". Notice Brody's tongue in the next few pictures. Yes, Brent will do this too when he is really concentrating on something.

Eating - He still eats pretty well, although he is beginning to get a little more picky than he used to be. He has recently discovered a newfound love for bread. Any kind of bread - garlic bread, toast, biscuits, muffins, rolls, hamburger or hotdog buns - he loves them all. If I let him, he would just eat the bun and not the meat inside. He also has discovered how much fun it is to dip. If we are out at a restaurant, he wants to dip his chip in salsa, his cucumber in dressing, or his fry in ketchup. But he has gotten bad about wanting to just eat the salsa, dressing, or ketchup, and not the food, so we are having to cut back on the dipping alot.

Stats - At his 18 month checkup, he weighed in at a whopping 26 lbs and was 30 1/2 inches tall. I can't remember the percentages exactly, but he was right in the middle for weight, and a little on the low end for height. But we already knew that, right? He is still a little short and squatty. They say that you can double their height at age 2 to see about how tall they will be as adults.....well lets just hope he grows alot in the next 5 months. Because right now he would only be just over 5 feet tall. Poor thing. I was hoping he would have a little of his Papa Don and his Uncle Ryan in him, buuuut it's not looking that way.

Overall, he is in great health! A few colds and bugs here and there, but I guess that is to be expected with a toddler just starting daycare. I just can't get over how much fun he is right now, and I can imagine that it will only get better. He is definately the light of my life, and I love spending every minute that I have with him. I have found that the hardest part of being a mom is having to leave him on the days that I have to work. Therefore I am a little (okay, a lot) stingy with him on the days I am off, but I guess that is a perk of being his mommy. I can be as stingy as I want. At least while he is little and not begging to stay with Papaw so he can ride fourwheelers, or stay with Noni so he can spend the night with Brookie (as he calls her), or go fishing with Poppy. So, for now, I am taking advantage of him being all mine (and Brent's).

BROOKE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Today was Brooke's 5th birthday party at the church playground. Mom also rented one of those Jumpy Castle things, which was a total hit. Brody even loved it! And the big kids did awesome looking out for him when he was in there.

I think he stayed on his belly more than his feet.

So, Aunt Tara to the rescue!!!

If we took him out, this is where he stood until we put him back in.
Until cake and present time, of course!! This was the Barbie Princess that Brody gave Brooke. He also gave her a Hanna Montana guitar purse on her real birthday Wednesday.

Licking her cake topper....

Just a few pictures I took tonight of him "fishing" in the living room.

A day at the park and the Union County Fair

Brody and I picked Brooke up early from school last Friday, and we stopped at the little park there in Strong to let them play. They had so much fun! And Brody is getting so much easier to take places like that. He can actually play on most everything, and he LOVES that he can do some of things that Brooke can do - like ride on these little bouncy things:


One thing that did make it a little difficult was that he wants to climb on everything. And he can be four or five rungs up in about 5 seconds. I guess I should just let him try it, but being the worrier that I am, I just imagine him placing a foot wrong and plummeting to the earth below, hitting every metal bar on the way down. I get these horrible thoughts in my head, and I just can't let them go. So....needless to say, this is about as high as I would let him go.

His favorite was, of course, the swings! And I have to admit, they are mommy's favorite too. I know that he is safe and secure, and he can't fall off or run off or anything else.

Now Brooke is quite the little monkey. She was up to the top of this thing in about 7 seconds flat. I expected her to take off swinging from the trees any second. Brody tried his hardest to join her up there - thank goodness the rungs were spaced so far apart. Again, this is as far as he got.
Silly boy.

Brooke going about 100 mph around this little bicycle pedal thing. I tried to put Brody on one and hold on to him while she pedaled them around....and I could hardly keep up.
Weeeeeee!!!!! (We made Brooke photographer for a few minutes)

On to the fair, which was last night. It was Brooke's 5th birthday, so we celebrated by taking her and Caleb (and Brody, of course) to ride rides and check out all the animals! (Her real party will be Saturday.) I didn't know if Brody would be able to ride anything or not, being that he is somewhat of short stature, and he did miss the height minimum by an inch and a half, but we were able to sneak him on a few rides.

Watching the little girls show their lambs in the livestock barn.

Riding the carousel! And Brody LOVED it this time! Even with me just standing beside him rather than on the animal with him.

Happy Birthday Brooke!
Playing with Brooke's little plastic sword that she won playing "Pick Up Ducks".

Birthday Shoutout - Layla and Mamaw A!!!

Okay, so I said we were done with birthdays for while, and technically we are, but I just got these pictures from Karen, so I am going to backtrack a few weeks.

A couple Saturdays ago, we went to Mamaw's pool for Layla's 2nd birthday. Who would've thought that having a pool party in August, that you would have to worry about it being too cool to swim? Well, none of us did, but that was what happened. It was one of those days when a storm was rolling in and it was about 75 degrees. We got in the pool for a little bit, but Brody and I were both too cool, so we only stayed for 5 minutes...tops.

He is doing sooo good with his swimming! I just put his little floaties on him, and he can swim around on his own! I always have my hand about 2 inches from him, but still. We are so proud of him!



Here are a few pics from once we got out and dried off. I think this pic is so sweet. And yes, that is drool running down his face. He was very tickled about something.
Playing with his Papaw


We also ate at Abe's for Mamaw Agnes' birthday last weekend. It was yummy as usual. Brody is such a little roadrunner that we couldn't get a good pic of him with Mamaw, but here a few good tries. Happy Birthday Mamaw! We love you!

Louisiana Boardwalk

So, today we went to the Louisiana Boardwalk in Bossier with Aimee and Eli. We really had a great time. Brent, Brody and I started off the morning at the doctors office (Brent has had a nasty encounter with poison ivy), but we were soon on our way. We arrived a little after noon, and had a yummy lunch at Fudruckers, then it was off to shop!

Brody was so busy watching everyone and everything going on at the restaurant that he could hardly eat, so I just put his chicken on his little tray and he munched while we shopped.

We spotted the carousel and decided that we would give it a whirl and see if Brody liked it any better than he did the last time we tried (at the Ft. Worth Zoo). And he did! I think it helped that I actually got on the horse with him rather than just holding on to him. But whatever the reason, he loved it today!


When we made our way to KB Toys we let Brody out of his stroller to stretch his legs and use a little of that energy.

He shot a few hoops....

Played in the ball pit....
Scoped out all the new toys on the shelves....
And shot a few more hoops....

Soon after, we finally headed home. It was about 5:00 and Brody hadn't had a nap all day. So, needless to say, he was out within 5 minutes of being in the car. He snoozed all the way home, while we listend to the Razorbacks pull of a season opener win (barely)!! Go Hogs!!