One

On Friday (June 8) my little man turned one.  We made it!  As I've mentioned before, somehow the first birthday feels like a finish line to get to mostly because I think the first year is the most challenging (at least for now I'm saying that).  A lot of the challenge comes from the crazy schedule you are often under due to nursing. Now that he's one, I can officially give him cow's milk.  I say "officially" because I've already given it to him a few times over about the last six weeks just to see what would happen.  He liked it but didn't necessarily chug it down.  Since I'm still nursing about five times a day, I would like to put more focus on the cow's milk and reduce the nursing.  This is definitely more often than I was nursing the girls at this age but I've kept it up due to his small size.  We go for his doctor's appointment tomorrow so I'll see what the doctor has to say.  I finally got an appointment with one of the few male doctors at the practice so we'll see what his perspective is compared to the doctor we saw at nine months.

The girls pretty much took all the party planning out of me so for Brady's birthday we kept is small and didn't really do an actual party or anything.  We just had family over which included Aunt Wanda, Ron, Elaine, David, Yully, Tiffany, Anthony, and Megan.  I made dinner and then we had the cake for Brady and brownie delight for the rest of us.  The cake was a dud.  He didn't cry (like Calleigh did) but he basically had no interest in it at all. Of course, that could be because it was almost 8:00 by the time we got to it and he was probably pretty tired.  

New toy.  It's nice to have some boy toys around.

The next morning it was off to Sabbath School and church.  As our usual, Duncan stays in the car with a sleeping Brady until he wakes up (usually after about 15 or 20 minutes) and I go in to church with the girls.  We had just slid into the back row when I looked a few rows up and saw a girl with, what looked from the back, the same exact dress I had on.  Ahhh!  I was teaching Sabbath School and she has a daughter that would be in the class and I just didn't want to be standing up in front with a matching dress.  I slouched down in my seat while I quickly texted Duncan to bring the car around because I was going home to change.  The girls were none to pleased to be ushered out of church as quickly as they had entered but I was not to be deterred.  I switched places with Duncan and then took the 45 minutes round trip drive back home to change.  At least Brady slept the whole way back home.  The topping to this story came when I got back to Sabbath School and Pastor Barb, noticing that I didn't have anyone assisting me up front, asked the girl with the matching dress to help me up front.  Oh, wouldn't that have been a hoot!!

Saturday evening we went to the Z's house for a get together but then the girls ended up going out for a late dinner to the Melting Pot to surprise Tangie for her birthday.  It was a lovely time with Tangie, Heather, Lisa, Kelli, and Amy.  Also nice was that Duncan took the kids home and put them to bed himself and I didn't have to do anything.  Always a bonus!

A giant moth lands on Brady at the Z's

This morning was the first day of Vacation Bible School (VBS). It's at the Markham Woods Church which is about a 25 minute drive away and since it starts at 9:00, it is a mad dash to get out of the house.  I was just finishing ironing Calleigh's shirt so that we could leave with a comfortable cushion to make it in time when Aubree yells, "Brady just pooped on me!"  I walked over to the two of them and sure enough, Brady had poop seeping out of the outfit which I had just put on him.  To get the outfit off, which had to be taken off over his head, the poop basically smeared over his entire body.  No time for a tub at this point so I had to use like 15 wipes to do a quick wipe down, wash my hands, and get out of there.  My apology to anyone who saw us today and wondered where that smell was coming from.  It turned out that we got to VBS with like one minute to spare (I have a thing about being late for things so a tub was just not an option).

The age for VBS is four so Aubree had to sit it out again this year much to her chagrin.  To make up for it, I took her to the Science Center where we renewed our annual pass.  Then it was back to VBS to pick up Calleigh at noon where Aubree promptly told Calleigh what we had been up to in her absence.  This set Calleigh off into a round of tears during which time she managed to squeak out that she didn't want to go to VBS any more because "I want to spend more time with you."  It was kind of sweet in a way.  Nonetheless, she did enjoy herself and Duncan was finally able to finagle information out of her during supper tonight.  She's in a group with Braelyn, Marley, and two boys she doesn't know named Noah and Logan.  The theme this year is "Sky" and the mascot is an eagle.

We do have some other big news.  We are under contract to purchase a house!  It all happened kind of fast because the house is being built and in order to be able to select options for the house we had to make a quick decision if we wanted things to be how we wanted them.  We went back and forth and finally made the decision to purchase it on Wednesday of last week.  Duncan and I had to make two trips to the design center while Grandma and Grandpa stayed with the kids.  Needless to say, it was a very busy week last week in the evenings as we were consumed with house stuff.  That will continue to be the case since the house could potentially be finished in July before we leave for Nova Scotia although we hope it won't happen until after we get back.  We looked at various houses in different towns but in the end, we ended up in Ocoee in the same neighborhood as our pals the Isidros.  The irony of use making fun of them for years for living in "Tampa" is not lost on me.  It is a wonderful neighborhood and what you get for your money is really great but the downside is that we're about 30 minutes west of where we live now which means we are about 35 minutes from Ron and Elaine.  I'm really distressed about that part of it but we are bound and determined to make sure we continue to see them frequently.  We are obviously very excited about the move but then the reality hits of just how much you have to do to make it all happen including getting this place prepped for renters.  It's a little overwhelming but one step at a time.  I'll get a picture next time we are out to look at the house.

Okay, I'm going to end here because I have a thousand and one things to do.  Have a great week.
 

Sitting in the "car" for the first time.  We've never done it before because it only seats two.  As expected, the girls fought over the second seat the whole time.  

This cracked me up.  She was on her play phone talking to someone.  I just loved how she had her leg crossed.

The container is just as fun as the actual toys.

This dress used to be Aunt Kristin's or Aunt Angie's and now fits her perfectly.  

And to think this whole time I thought this need to be refrigerated!