"You're My Best Boy"...

...those are the words I always share with Brady, to which he replies "and you're my best Mom."  *heart melts*  There were days during my latest pregnancy that I often wondered if I would be the Mother of 1 girl and 2 boys or 2 girls and 1 boy.  I think the Lord knew exactly what he was doing.  Brady is my one and only.  A son has a very special place in a mother's heart and I am so thankful for that relationship.  Eight years ago, this little man came into our lives.  It's so hard to believe how fast they grow up.  I look back at pictures from just a couple of years ago and I stare in wonderment at the little boy who is quickly approaching the teenage years.  This last year has been a challenge.  I'm not sure if it is the change from being the "baby" of the family to being the middle child AND the only boy.  Or if it is just he's at an age where he is being exposed to more things (and behaviors) and flirting with the boundary line. 

Brady, you are goofy and silly and witty and shy.  You don't like to be the center of attention unlike your older sister.  You are timid and fearful of trying new things and you definitely are not a daredevil.  You started taking guitar lessons from Poppa this year and seem to really be enjoying it.  You have never really been into music, but your bright blue guitar has peaked your interest more so than anything else.  You listen to songs on the radio and ask questions about the instruments you hear playing.  Of course your Daddy just beams with excitement when you make observations about acoustic vs. electric guitar sounds.

Brady you are an amazing little boy and I pray that the Lord will continue to direct us to teach you to be the man He would want you to be.  Happy birthday, Bub! We love you very much.

Months 6-9

I can't believe how these last few months have flown by.  You are learning new things every day.  You are growing (although not as much as we'd like to see).  At your 9 month check up you tipped the scales at 14 pounds 11 ounces, which is just barely on the growth chart at 1%.  You are 26" long which is a whopping 7% on the growth chart and your head cir. was 17 1/4" which is 44%.  So we have determined that you definitely have a biggie ole noggin for that growing brain of yours.  You are very active.  Just after your 5 month old post, you started crawling and have not slowed down since.  You mastered the stairs last month as well.  You now venture all over the house looking for things to occupy your busy little hands.  Your favorite thing to do is crawl into your room and take EVERY SINGLE book off your book shelf.

We still battle the "spitty baby".  We took you to a GI specialist in Dec. who classified you as "failure to thrive."    This made me so angry because they measured you wrong and wouldn't go back and take a second measurement.  They wanted to run all kinds of tests to rule out diseases like cystic fibrosis which you clearly don't have.  They also wanted me to stop nursing and put you on formula full time, I told them I was not willing to do that so instead they told me to supplement each feeding with a bottle of formula that was mixed at 24 calories per ounce instead of the standard 20 cal/oz.  In addition to that they wanted me to add a calorie booster to your solids twice a day.  Needless to say we decided to get a second opinion.  We went ahead and did the calorie booster and formula supplementing and 3 weeks later we met with another doctor.  In 3 weeks you had gained just under 2 pounds.  The new doctor said you're gaining too much weight too quickly and to take you off the calorie booster.  Other than that he said you were perfectly healthy and not to worry about the reflux.  You should outgrow it by the time you are a year old.  In the meantime, we took you off the calorie booster as the doctor suggested and within a few short days, you stopped sleeping through the night.  You cut your first tooth during this time so we didn't know if it was the teething causing you to wake or if it was a growth spurt.  Pretty much the entire month of January, we adjusted many different things to get you back to sleeping through the night.  We finally called the GI specialist (the one we liked) back and asked if maybe you needed to go back on the calorie booster.  The nurse said it wouldn't hurt to try so I promptly ordered a new can.  We started adding a little to your food at night only and it seems to be doing the trick.  We've got our sleeping baby back.

Kinley's Tricks

• Clapping
• waving
• says "bye"
• gives high five
• plays peek-a-boo
• climbs stairs
• pulls up to standing position
• fake coughs/sneezes (I do have video of this and I will try to post it later)
• plays "night night" (this is where she lays down and pretends to be sleeping, but then pops up and you have to yell "wake up wake up"
• throws a ball (it's more like drops the ball)
• drinks from a sippy (hooray)

I blinked...

...and 3 months passed by.  So I'll try to catch you up.  We went to Georgia for Thanksgiving and then blah blah blah had 20 or so people over for Christmas then yada yada yada and now we're coming up on the February birthday boys!  In the meantime, Kinley began crawling shortly after her 5 month post.  And within a week or so of crawling, she started pulling up on furniture.  And just recently she has managed to climb up the stairs in an effort to find her Bubba and Sissy.  So the baby gate has been placed, however, it doesn't fit properly with the baseboards, so I will give her another month or so before she figures out she can actually go under the baby gate to access the stairs.  I owe you pictures for her 6-9 months.  Yeah yeah yeah, I'll get a round tuit!

Kinley got a new swing for Christmas, so she got to try it out the other day.  At first she didn't really like it, but once Abbey and Brady got on their swings too, she thought she was big stuff!