Story Hour at the Library

The past two weeks, Braylon and I have gone to story hour at our local library.  It could be lots of fun if only Braylon understood the concept of sitting still and quiet.  I'm hoping he'll catch on after a few more visits.  Since the librarian says it takes them about six visits to get the hang of it, I don't feel so bad.  He has only been twice, and he is definitely not the only one who can't sit still and quiet.  They do songs, sign language, puppetry, dancing, read three books, then do a craft at the very end that relates to the theme of the week (we skip out on the craft part for now).  Here's what it's like taking a one-year-old to Story Hour:  He will play with the toys for a few minutes, sometimes invading other kids' space as they play.  They start singing songs, talking with a puppet, and then the story begins.  He will sometimes go along with the songs, but most of the time he's too busy crawling around.  He just gets so excited with all the other kids around.  The first time we went, he crawled out of the children's area  about ten times with me chasing him and dodging other moms and children.  Today he only did this about four times- progress I guess.  Today he also crawled to the front and pulled down one of the library books from the eisel, touched a strange woman's toes in admiration of her turqouise nail polish, patted a little girl on the head and touched her bracelet as she scowled and turned away from him, and grabbed a stuffed animal out of a woman's purse.  He then screamed when I scooped him up, took away the toy, and apologized to the woman.  This is all going on while the librarian is reading the story to the other kids.  I try sitting in a chair with him in my lap.  He squirms to get down and screams/whines when I won't let him.  We hung in there for about 20 minutes today, then left early because it seemed hopeless.  The one plus side to this is that I made a new friend who is a mother of twin boys.  I guess you can also say it is good to see Braylon interact with other kids.  He will get the hang of it someday soon....HOPEFULLY : /  Here's the little rascal on the way to story hour. 

New Haircut- I apologize, Braylon!

Braylon got a haircut last night.  He definitely needed it with it starting to heat up outside!  No more Justin Beiber hair for a while :/  I'm very sad, because it is VERY short and it was not intended to be this short.  But oh well!  Thankfully his hair grows pretty fast!

He was scratching his head afterwards...probably wondering where all his hair went!

here's the before

Aquarium

This past weekend was beautiful, so Braylon and I headed off to Houston to meet Gramma Dar at the Aquarium.  Despite feeling a little under-the-weather, I think he enjoyed it.  The rides didn't impress him too much, but he did like the splash pad (until a big kid came running & knocked him over) and the tiny bounce house.  I didn't get too many good pictures inside the aquarium, because it is pretty dark in there.

On our way to Houston

On the train-  I wonder what he's thinking.

Leaving the aquarium- bye-bye.

And he's out as soon as we hit the highway.

Around the House

Here's some pics of Braylon this past week playing outside...

FYI

I forgot to mention that if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, you'll see the Playlist where you can pause or mute the music in order to hear the videos.

HILARIOUS

If any of you have been around our dog, Duke, you know that he loves water.  He will swim in our pond, splash up the water with his paw, and snap at it like he's trying to drink it.  He will also do this for HOURS with the water hose and a sprinkler.  Braylon caught on to this today when he started splashing in the dogs water bowl.

Helping Daddy Mow

New Crawl

Check out Braylon's new crawl:

And this next one just makes me laugh.  I think he likes Adele:)

12 Month (+ 2 wks) Check Up

Braylon had his 12 month well-baby doctor's visit today.  He did so well sitting still and letting the nurse and doctor do their thing....until the very end.  The doctor was trying to explain all the shots to me, and Braylon had enough of sitting still and quiet.  He whined and wiggled to get down.  It can be exhausting trying to restrain a one-year-old determined to move as he pleases.  He got four shots, one in the arm and three on his thighs.  He didn't cry on the first two, but got all red-faced and unhappy on the last two.  It was so sad, but when we got home, he was just as happy as he normally is.  He only napped for an hour and a half also, so apparently they didn't phase him as much as I thought they would.  Here's some things that I would like to remember about the little guy as he grows up so fast:

Weight:  23 lbs 13 oz (50-75 percentile)
Height:  32.5 inches (95-100 percentile)
Head:  18.25 inches (50-75 percentile)

• took first steps, but hasn't converted to a "walker" yet
• words he speaks-> no, Dada, Momma, tree, dog, Nana
• waves hi & bye, shakes head "no"
• can point out nose & eyes on someone else, not himself
• when asked, he can usually point out a bird, dog, tree, bear, bee, and ball in books
• can get a little attitude when he gets mad
• loves to sing, dance, throw the ball, and read books
• will cry when we go outside to let the dogs out, and then have to come back in because it's too wet/muddy
• loves to be outside, has become obsessed with crawling up & down our porch stairs
• definitely a "Daddy's boy"- gets excited when Daddy gets home from work, gets upset when Daddy has to go outside or leaves without him
• he is very friendly- smiles at strangers, loves to interact with people, especially kids
• starting to just take one nap ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 hours--gets very tired around dinner time if he only sleeps 1.5 hours
• favorite foods-- salmon, strawberries, bananas, potatoes, broccoli, peas, green beans




Back to his normal, happy self after the shots



He likes to play chase, and will laugh hysterically when you crawl after him.



Playing in his tent



Playing in his tent yesterday- he even went in and laid down on his pillow pet :)

You Are My Sunshine First Birthday cont.

Nana & Papa

Balloooooons!

Aunt Bonnie

The kiddos got bubbles, stickers, and filled up their goodie bags with some treats before they left.

The cards hanging on the right were for all the guests to leave Braylon some "words of wisdom" to read some day.  That was my favorite part, along with him crawling to the money to see what he'd be when he grew up.

This banner said "Happy Birthday Braylon"

We also hung pictures of Braylon for each month of his first year.

Hand-painted sun with "May the sun light up your life like you light up all of ours" written around the edge.  Each of the sunrays(triangles) had different things about Braylon written on them.

Birthday Party Photos

Click Here to view more birthday party photos.

First Trip to the Library

Our public library just got remodeled so Braylon and I went to check it out today.  I hadn't been in so long that they had to give me a new card, because I was no longer in the system.  Anywho...Braylon and I had a good time in the new Children's Area, and even made some new friends.  Braylon just crawled right up to this woman who was in the play area playing with her twin boys, Jackson and Liam.  The lady commented on how cute and friendly Braylon was :)





First Steps

Braylon took his first steps last night!  He took four more steps tonight and would walk at least 10 steps at a time while holding on to my finger.  I'll try to get a video of it soon, but here's just some pictures from today to look at....since that's all you people care about :)

Playing with his new blocks after coming inside from a ride in the wagon.



On our wagon ride this morning, we were learning all about nature- trees, leaves, the wind blowing, and pinecones.  I handed him this pinecone and he held it the whole ride. 



Listening to the wind and checking out the trees



He set his pinecone down in the cup holder for a couple seconds, then picked it right back up.

Yesterday's wagon ride