(13 months)

(a week late but we have had a crazy week at that. Lots of sickies around here!)

 Dear Brady,

Oh buddy, I looked at you yesterday in your adorable overalls and realized you are all toddler. My how you have grown up since you turned one!

Your vocabulary is growing each day. You say, ball, mama, dada, cat, tree (comes out eeeee!), uh huh, baba (meaning your sippy cup), baby, and leaves (comes out eves!) You love to be outside and watching the eees and eves is one of your favorite things to do! You still try to repeat a lot of what we say!

You will sign 'all done' even though it's your own version of the sign! You understand most of all that I say. You follow directions really well (when you want to!) You always go straight for our cell phones and the remotes but hand them right over to us!

You can point to your nose, your hair, your teeth, and your belly. You put up that cute little finger when we ask you how old you are.


You also are a dancing machine. You dance to your own music sometimes-in the high chair, the floor, the shopping cart! The whole world is your dance floor! You love to play 'hide and seek' even if you are just hiding around the chair and love to climb all over me! Chase is a fun game for you too! You just giggle with the deepest chuckle!

You crack me up with your current ball obsession that grows each day! Daddy got out his bowling balls for some reason and you ran over screaming, 'ball, ball!' over and over at the top of your lungs! You were so excited you didn't know what to do! You also think everything is a ball! Ornaments, cantaloupe-if it's round, it's a ball!

Everyday, you run around the house finding all of your balls! At the store, you find them quickly and you got so excited at Aunt Kim's when you saw all the 'balls' on her Christmas tree!

(not quite sure about this thing)

You also love anything long that you can carry. The broom, wrapping paper rolls, the swiffer! You try to carry mom's broom around and think you are SO big doing it. We even bought you your own broom and you will still try and use mommy's!

You mimic much of what we do. You will 'blow' your nose, try to put on your shoes, sniffle to smell something or when I say, "pew wee' during a diaper change, and 'wipe' up a mess with a paper towel. You are becoming such the helper! You also brush your hair and your teeth!

You are so proud of yourself when you sit down in your chair your cousin got you or on your stool. Sometimes you miss but you just try and try again. You'll also come sit in my lap and that makes mommy smile. Most of the time, you'll come book in tow and sit in my lap. Those are the small pieces of life that I life for!

(sitting on the stool mommy used to play with at your great-grandmas!)

I have to mention this to you too, buddy. You might find this quite embarrassing but it made mommy chuckle even though I am in for some trouble! You learned how to take off your own diaper! I put you down for a nap in just your shirt and came back to check on you. There you were, passed out, half naked!

This month you experienced your first snow on Thanksgiving. Granted, it was just a light dusting but you were so excited! Too bad your poor coat makes you topple forward and you dove head first into great-grandma's lawn.

(First snow. Poor kid was so tired from all the festivity and just took a tumble)

On one of mommy's days off, we took a trip to the park. You were so excited about the balls (acorns) you almost didn't notice all the fun stuff to do!

At your last dr appointment, you weighed 26 pounds and were almost 32 inches tall! You're a big boy! :) You love your milk and you would drink it all day and night if you had your way. It's so cute that you drink your sippy with one hand and rub your hair with the other.

You were so much fun on Thanksgiving, surrounded by our family and eating your first turkey meal (complete with a bite of pie!)

I am so excited about the holidays now that you are in our life! You look at the tree with your big eyes with excitement, joy and pure happiness and if you only knew that is what I feel when I look at you!