He Can Get Out!

Soooo in January of 2010, in the funniest way, I found out Brayden can now get out of his CRIB!! One morning, I woke up and had a little face looking at me nose to nose around 6:00am.

After the initial shock, I immediately took him to his room, placed him back in his crib and asked him to show me how he got out. Turns out, he climbs over the side and lets his legs dangle over until his toes reach his toybox which sits directly next to his crib. ha! How clever! lmbo!!

Time to change over to his toddler bed ... :)

What's the Haps ...

As we know, little ones move from one thing to another pretty quickly, so I thought I'd keep you up to date on what Brayden was "into" in 2009.



"Emmmooo" is what he calls him. The Elmo era really began in 2008 and spilled over into 2009. He couldn't get enough of this lil' red fella. There is a DVD he has called "The Best of Elmo" and I tell ya, he could watch it over and over again and even repeat skits verbatim. There's one where Elmo is teaching the number 5 with a hip-hop theme so for a time when I said give me high five he would say "yo FIVE, no JIVE, yo FIVE" ... too funny! Yeah, Brayden, loved him some Elmo.


Now what kid doesn't have a Mike era. lol. Brayden's song of choice is "Beat it" and for MONTHS, "Beat It" was the cure-all and could trump any tantrum. He'd be hollerin' upset about somethin' then all we have to do is say, "want to listen to beat it?" and the tears slowly begin to disappear. The funniest part is when he starts to sing. He says (high voice) "beat iiitt", (low voice) "beat iiittt", (high voice) "beat iiitt", (low voice) "beat iiittt" ... "dooggonnitt", then kicks his leg like Mike. Way too funny ... :)


Then we moved into the age of Mickey (which was the theme of his birthday party this year). During Christmas there was a Mickey Mouse blow up fixture in the yard of one of our neighbors. It was Mickey sitting next to Minnie sitting inside a present. When Mickey stood up out of the present, Minnie went down in the present, and vice versa. Brayden seemed to think Mickey bumped his head when he went down in the present so ALL during the holidays he would say out the blue, "Mickey Mouse bumped he head" ... lol. If you didn't know the story, you wouldn't know what the heck he's talkin' about. lol. We would have to drive by this house at his request EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. lol Meeeska, Mouskaa, Mickkeyy Mouse!



These days all the characters on Yo Gabba Gabba are his very best friends. He makes references to Muno (my personal favorite), Foofa, Brobee, Plex, Toodee, and of course, DJ Lance Rock. Muno can dance his one-eyed tail off. ha! Brayden sings "Keep your hands to yaself" and "There's a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy" ... :) For Christmas, he got a Yo Gabba Gabba jam box and a "best of" dvd. This is another that he can watch over and over again, trumping "The Best of Elmo". lol. This year I'm definitely taking him to see Yo Gabba Gabba live ... check it out if you have a little one (http://www.yogabbagabbalive.com/). I'm looking forward to it. ;)

Last, but not least, Brayden is already a basketball and football fanatic. Every week you can guarantee we're watching some kind of games. Brayden gets in front of the TV and says "GO BOY! GO BOY! He definitely loves sports and (if he so chooses) I can't wait to have a jersey on with "Simmons" on the back rooting him on at his games. :)

Fun in the Sun

Here are a few pictures I found on my camera we took of the kids playing in the backyard at my Mom's last May. (Brayden was about 18 months here.) Mom bought all of these water toys 'cause the boys love to play in water in the house. We hoped that by getting the water slides and water tables it would keep them out of the sinks and toilets on the inside, which it did. lol. Cousins JJ, Jordyn and b had major fun in the sun last summer.

Nap Time

Now look at my baby. He falls asleep with his arms propped behind his head like this often and I think it's so funny every time I see it. lol. When I stepped in to check on him during his nap time, I figured I'd snap a couple pics. He's definitely my little big boy. Night Night Brayden ... :)

Here are pics from nap time in Austin .... :)

Still Not Cool ... lol

Some of you may remember that last year, Brayden went to visit Santa for the very first time at Collin Creek Mall in Plano and, uh, he and Santa were not cool. He had a fit everytime I tried to sit him on the couch so I eventually ended up having to sit WITH him to get a picture. lol

Well, this year, Brayden spent the week of Christmas with Brandon and he took Brayden to visit the north pole. We figured hey, he's a little older so he should be getting used to the idea of Santa Clause, who he is, and being around him. Boy were we wrong. He is STILL not cool with Santa. lol. He did stand next to him by himself, but as you can see, Santa is having to LEAN in to get in the picture with Brayden. That's as close as he would get before running back over to his Dad. ha!

Brayden standing by himself was marked improvement though .... :)

Merry Christmas!!

American Baby Contest

Back in the summer, I entered a few of Brayden's pictures in a contest called American Baby. I didn't think any more of it since I hadn't heard anything, but last night, there was a priority package on my doorstep sent from American Baby Contest and in it was a plaque with his picture framed next to a first place ribbon, a semi-finalist certificate and a check for $50.00!! They judge pictures that were submitted quarterly and he won FIRST PLACE BOYS for the month of August which also means that he is a semi-finalist for the grand prize of $2500.00!!

I can't tell you how proud and EXCITED I was! It was about 1AM when I opened the box, then I immediately sent Brandon an email telling him about what Brayden won. It just so happened that he was up and called back. We were like, "THIS IS SO COOL!!". What an awesome experience for both baby and parents especially since the contest is judged by a group of parents and not votes received on the internet. A group of people thumbed through dozens and dozens of pictures and chose our little boy for first place!! Awesome ...

Here is the link for where you can find him on the internet:

http://www.americanbabycontest.com/latest_Winners_Boys_August_09.htm

Woo!! Woo!! Get it Brayden!! :)

Gettin' Cut

Some of you know that Brayden got his first hair cut just after his first birthday in '08. He gets hair cuts mostly with his Dad in Austin and others with me with his "Uncle Charles" (Charles Smith) here ... :)

I'll tell you now, he is not the easiest to cut. lol. He gives Charles a hard time, but we manage to make it through okay. Here are a few pics from our trip to the barber shop. :)