Chairs

Lately Bradley has been finding places to sit that are just his size. He has claimed his papazan chair that was formerly a great place for his stuffed animals. He sits on the small step we have between our living room and office area. He thinks the one-step stool my grandpa made me is his place for standing or sitting or pushing around. Over Easter, he liked the steps at my aunt's house, the fireplace hearth at my grandparent's house, and the small chair at my in-law's house. It has been fun to watch his ingenuity. But, today, he discovered a new place to sit . . . . . my lap! You must understand, I do not have a cuddly boy. Even when he is hurt, he does not like to be hugged and cuddled, so it is a great moment for me when he wants to chill rather than wrestle or climb on me. This is how it happened. I was sitting Indian style on the floor, which he wasn't very fond of because it made it difficult to for him to climb over me. Well, I picked him up and plopped him in my lap, and he stayed. He didn't stay for very long, but he had fun getting up, walking around, and then coming back to my lap. He even decided that the best positioning was when my hands were on my knees so my arms could be like the arms of a chair. What a great discovery. Bradley gets a new place to sit that is just his size, and I get a little bit of cuddle time with my very busy growing boy. What fun!!

Just for fun

This is one of my favorite videos of Bradley. It was filmed in September 2007 so it is a little old, but I think it is very funny. Needless to say, Bradley was and sometimes still is a big fan of his jumper. According to Brian, the best part is the first 30 seconds, so if you have a short attention span, you can stop it when he starts to cough. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!!

My good little shepherd

We had cereal for breakfast this morning. Bradley had Trix. In the process of eating he dropped one half-eaten orange Trix onto the floor. Being the good shepherd that he is, he forsook the rest of his cereal and insisted on recovering the one on the floor. It was a great little metaphor moment until after eating the orange one and a few others, he left the rest of his flock of Trix to drown in the milk while he went off to play with his books and toys.

Easter Fun!

We had three fun egg hunts for Bradley this Easter week-end. The first was with the Bradley side of the family, the second with the Hyer family, and third with the Ekstroms. It was busy, but really fun to see so much family in one weekend. Despite practicing at home before all of the egg hunts, Bradley didn't really get into looking for the eggs. Here are some pictures of our fun.

2008 Hike(ish) #2

We had a busy weekend. It started off Saturday morning with a short hike with some of our friends. Because we had other things going on that day, we decided just to stay in the foothills up the street from our home. It was really nice, but kind of surprising how much snow was still on the trails. Here are a couple of pictures of our adventure.

Actual Footage

We finally caught Bradley walking on video. He's still trying to figure out if he likes it better than crawling, but it's fun to see him learn. Here it is!

Yeah, Finally!

**Edited** a picture of Sandra was added

My brother Steven and his wife Shiree finally welcomed their little girl into the world yesterday. Little Sandra Sue was born at 7:10pm EST on March 14, 2008 (almost a whole week late). She weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, I don't know the height yet. We are so excited for them. Congratulations!!! Here's a picture of the happy couple taken at New Years. Also a picture of the new addition!

Three generation barber

Bradley went to the barber for his second time today. Gary from Oakridge barbers has been the barber for Brian's Dad, Brian, and now Bradley.

Here is a before picture:

During:

and After:

I love this!

Bradley really likes his books. I love to find him in his room looking at his books and making noises like he is reading them. This is how I found him today. Seriously, I love this!!








(Sorry for the different colors in the pictures. One was taken with the flash. I have had my camera for three years, but I am still trying to figure it out. Just call me photo-challenged.)

Dusting off the Pencils.

I have been a closet artist pretty much since I discovered the talent. Very few people beyond my family and my art teachers and classmates have ever seen one of my drawings. Even more than that, I really haven't done much in the last 10 years. Well, today I pulled out my colored pencils, found some inspiration, and drew another picture. I don't think this has opened the flood gates, but it was good to get caught up in a picture again. Here's a photo of my drawing today, not the greatest quality, but Enjoy!

Go Fish!!

I'm sorry that this blog is becoming the life and times of Bradley, but he is just SO funny. This is what he decided to do tonight. Caution!! Laughing guaranteed.

Bradley can walk!

Lately we have been trying to coax Bradley into taking a few steps on his own. We have tried all types of bribes and Lesa has gotten a few steps out of him for Pepperidge Farms Gold Fish.

Today I was laying on our couch working on the computer and printing some pages on our printer across the room. Bradley started crawling over there when he would hear a page print, grabbing it off the printer and crawling with both knees and only one hand because he was holding the paper up in the air.

It was great! I was quite happy about this new thing he had learned. I didn't have to get off the couch, he would retrieve my pages every time. Well after a few trips he started getting tired of crawling with only one hand so he decided to just walk it over to me!

We tried filming it with the camera but on those trips he would stumble and just crawl but we were able to get one picture of him half way across the front room floor.

Why do we buy toys?

Bradley was really independant today. He didn't really want me around, he just wanted to play by himself. Here are some pictures of what he did and some of his favorite things. It really begs the question why we buy toys for him? At the end of the day, we had messes all over the house, but all of his toys were still in place.

Here he is playing with his pacifiers. Notice he has one in his mouth, and another in his hand. Sometimes choices are just too hard and it's best to keep your options open.

This is Bradley's room after he finished playing. He does have a little bear out, but other than that you are seeing his blanket and his books. This is the closest we got to regular toys today.

Bradley is playing with a video in this picture. If you look closely in the background you will see that he has stacked the DVDs into quite a nice leaning tower. Yes, Bradley did it all by himslef. He seems to like to stack things, but would rather stack DVDs than his blocks.

Jello, Jello molds, bread, chips, and baskets. Need I say more?

More helping in the kitchen. He discovered he can open the drawers and reach the pots and pans.

While he wasn't helping in the kitchen, he decided to pull out the printer paper and all of my envelopes. I was less than thrilled about this development. Oh well, I guess it did keep him busy and let me make dinner.

Bradley had a really busy day today. Now if only I understood the thought process behind all of this entertainment. What a crazy kid.

One more picture

I guess the blogger brain was really a temporary side effect of starting a blog (see post below). I haven't had any ideas of things to post today. So, Brian wanted to add one more picture from our hike on Saturday. It was taken without my knowledge, but that is probably why he likes it. I didn't have time to hide or make an "I hate having my picture taken" face. Here it is.

2008 Hike #1

Brian is really excited about hiking this summer. He has been planning which hikes to take for at least a month. One of the benefits of living where we do is that we have very quick access to trails all around us. Today we decided to try a trail on Antelope Island. It was a fairly easy hike, excellent for the first hike of the year. It was pretty flat and followed the coast line of the Great Salt Lake. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

This is us at the trail head.

Here we are on the hike.

We all had fun, but none of us as much as Bradley.

He was very serious about his adventure.

He loved looking at the horses that were on the trails.

The rocks that they estimate are about 500 million years old, and were once covered by Lake Bonneville.

And the water of the Great Salt Lake.

We really enjoyed our morning out. We made it just in time, too. Almost as soon as we got home a storm blew in and it has rained or snowed (big flakes even) ever since. Only in Utah can you enjoy a hike in 50 degrees and a snow storm in the same day.

Blogger Brain

Another reason I have been reluctant to start a blog is that I didn't think I had anything to say. But since I committed to this blog, I find myself constantly thinking about how I could write about my current situation. What could I write about making the bed? Could I make brushing Bradley's teeth funny? How could I wax eloquent about cleaning the house? I hope this is just a temporary side effect, I think I might go crazy if my mind is always running in a narrative.