Brady Is Just As Cute

My life seems to be mostly consumed with Hadley.  Feeding, changing diapers, rocking her to sleep...typical life of a mother with a newborn.  But Brady is still here and just as cute (and bossy) as ever! He is such a funny boy.  I should start writing down the funny things he does and says.  Maybe I'll make a list and add it in here later.

 Here he has overtaken Hadley's chair.  Can't say I blame him since it has the vibrating function on it.  Why don't they make adult sized seats like that?

 He really likes Spiderman.  He got this stuff for his birthday and every once in a while puts it on.  Mostly he just does the spiderman fingers though.  He's pretty proud of himself because he can do his fingers like that all by himself now!

 This is actually the arch that goes above Hadley's play mat.  It has been repurposed to a fishing pole.  And he likes to catch his fish and bring over the pretend fish to Hadley.

 Lori gave him this helmet so it didn't come off for quite a while.  He loves to kick and Grandma bought him this ball to play with.

At the end of the day, this eventually happens.  It sometimes takes hours for him to actually go to sleep.  He runs me ragged some nights (and days).  Even though he's a pretty good boy, he is definitely a 3 year old and has the energy of one!  I couldn't resist this picture.  Love him!

Brotherly Love

 Brady keeps impressing my with how natural the brother mindset is to him.  He is such a great helper and more and more lately he has wanted to hold her and "play" with her.  He is always so gentle and he is also pretty patient when it comes to feeding (which is pretty much always) and realizes my limitations when I am caring for Hadley.

 When Hadley was only about a week old I laid her on the floor and ran to do something real quick.  When I came back this is what I saw and it melted my heart.

This is the proud big brother holding his "Hat-we"

As a first time mom I may have been appalled at the sight of a 3 year old's finger shoved in my sweet baby's mouth.  I was a little concerned at what was going on when I saw this at first.  I had been working on dinner and she was kind of fussing so I heard Brady in there playing with her.  I went to check on her and found him like this.  He said "I'm making her happy like you do, Mom!"  He was so proud (and she was calm) so I said "Great job" and finished dinner.  Even though that didn't last long because he soon realized it's not that fun to have a baby suck your finger forever.

This morning Hadley was playing on her mat and Brady decided to join her.  Was there room?  Not really, as you can tell.  But still pretty cute.

Cousins

Hadley and cousin Lilly were due about a month apart, but since Hadley joined us early and Lilly a day late, they are only 9 days apart!  It is fun watching them grow together.  Lilly was about 2 pounds bigger at birth and Hadley is doing her best to catch up but still a little over a pound behind.  They are both sooooo adorable!  Grandma has taken about a million pictures of them together.  We are trying to get one of them looking at each other, but they are never looking at each other at the same time.  Also they are rarely both awake, not eating, and happy at the same time.

 This was their first meeting and for some reason it won't let me flip the picture.

This one is last Friday.  Mom is watching Lilly since Kirsten went back to work and I strained a muscle in my back so we have spent a good deal of time over there lately.

This is Sunday in their matching dresses :)  Man they are just the cutest!

2 months

 Here's our happy 2 month old!  Couldn't get a huge smile this time, but she is probably the smiley-est baby ever.  Even as a newborn she would smile in her sleep a lot, but now it is generally directed at someone...or something as she seems to love clocks and curtains.  The clocks I'm pretty sure she loves so she can count down until her next meal.  She eats all the time still.  Nights are getting much better. She usually gives us about a 5 or 6 hour stretch most nights although there are still some rough ones in the mix.  

Her 2 month stats are: Height 22 in (21%)

Weight: 9lbs 13 oz (10%)

Head 38.4 (48%)

So she is still tiny, but growing!

Shots were terrible.  I hated them every time with Brady, but he cried during and immediately calmed down when I picked him up and didn't really affect him otherwise.  She screamed bloody murder and took quite a while to calm down.  It was a struggle to even get her to eat after because she was so upset.  And she had a fever that night, which meant more snuggles for me.  Even through the torture, I got some smiles that night.  She smiled at Brady all day, but I was being punished for a while I think since I had to hold her arms down during shots.  Here's my smiley girl!

Hadley's Blessing

 We blessed Hadley on May 4 and were lucky to have the whole Bell family make the journey to Columbia to join in on the fun.  Brady was thrilled to have his cousins to play with!  The weather was perfect and it was fun to see everyone.  Hadley wore the dress that my sisters and I were all blessed in (and Lilly just a few weeks before!) which was made from my mom's wedding dress.  She looked so pretty and did great through the blessing.  We sure do feel blessed to have such a sweet girl in our family!