Chuck E. Cheese

It took over 2 years of collecting tickets to get this!

Naked Brothers Band

Well, Brantley has been dying to watch the new Nick show - Naked Brothers Band. Last night was the premier and he was counting down. Well, the first 10 minutes we had already seen because all of it had been shown in the previews. Fifteen minutes into it, Brantley wanted to quit watching. So, I guess the show was a bust. We did end up sitting through most of it but we didn't watch then end. Oh well.

Da' Bears

Go Bears! It's been 20 years (21 to be exact) since the Bears have gone to the Superbowl. I actually watched that Superbowl because Jim McMahan was the quarterback. Brantley's bears hoodie is really small on him. We got it in October of 2005. I remember that because we got in while we were in Chicago. After we got it, we visited a pumpkin patch and Brantley ripped the sleeve. But, not to worry. A new sweatshirt in a bigger size is on it's way. Thanks Uncle Matt and Aunt Rosemarie!

Brantley Singing

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!

Can you guess what that headline is for? I was going to have everyone guess, but I'm so excited I couldn't stand the suspense myself. Brantley is reading!!! I decided to get the leap pad and phonics out again tonight. Before, he's never really gotten into it and I never pushed him. So, tonight he got bored with the leap pad and we moved on to the phonics. Then, he was bored with practicing the letter sounds so I got out the stack of books, we put the tapes away and we started going through them together. The first book was a success and I got excited. The fact that I was excited got Brantley excited. He was so happy to have read it by himself. We ended up going through 6 books. There weren't very many words that I had to help with and he did a great job sounding them out. I'm so proud of him. I told him if we can get through the whole first stack, I will get him a surprise. Any suggestions?

Injury Alert

I'm not very happy with my new phone. When the battery is low, it warns you once and then it's dead. Friday afternoon, I realized my phone was dead. I was able to turn it on and find out I had a voice mail. It was from the school nurse. I can only hope that had it been an emergency they would have tried my work number when they didn't get me the first time. The message said the Brantley was fine. He had fallen on the playground and had a big scrape on his forehead, but he was a alert and had gone back to class. She just wanted to let me know what had happened. Lawson said he saw it right away when Brantley got home. Brantley said he fell on the basketball court. Here's what it looks like...

Leaps and Bounds

Christmas break is over and it's back to the grind. Brantley seems to have grown so much over the last couple weeks. He got to spend over a week with his cousins and he had such a good time. He must of grown a couple inches because we no longer need the booster seat at home. That's right, Brantley is sitting right up to the table without his booster seat. He got up all by himself this morning and we have 30 minutes extra time.

For those football fans out there, Brantley was waiting the game Saturday when Tony Romo fumbled the snap and lost the game. Lawson was giving Romo a hard time and making fun of him and Brantley told him to stop. He said, "How would you feel if you were Romo and you made a mistake and lost this game?" Wise beyond his years.

Christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Santa brought Brantley just what he asked for, a guitar, and a few other things. Here are some pictures from Christmas morning and from Christmas with my family. Enjoy!

Christmas with Grandma and Pop (cont'd)

I took a few pictures of the present opening. Brantley got a builder sheet set from Uncle Matt and Aunt Rosemarie (with a much needed extra pillow case because Brantley gets those things stinky quickly!), a pinball machine and Titans pullover from Grandma and Pop. He didn't get to open anything from mom and dad yet. Mom got some lavender hand lotion and bath salts for relaxing in the tub. Lawson got some cool Nashville coffee. We also got a cool print with the Loveless Cafe on it. Pop got an Agatha Christie computer game for the book And Then There Were None. Grandma got a new dustbuster - which I found out that Brantley told her last weekend what it was. We have to work on the keeping secrets part of Christmas! Anyway, here are the pictures...

Christmas with Grandma and Pop

Since Grandma and Pop will be spending Christmas in Chicagoland, we celebrated with them today. We had a great dinner with filet, baked potatoes, salad, and rolls. Mmmm! Brantley of course just had carrots, turkey, and rolls. Lots of rolls. He's not much of a meat eater. I'm not sure I've ever gotten him to taste a piece of steak. More for the rest of us. For dessert, it was chess pie. Grandma made an excellent pie. Of course, we got to open presents too. Grandma and Pop's present was a 5 A rating by Brantley (A being the word awesome!) We got home and were going to put the batteries in it but something happened to the batteries. It looked like something had leaked out of them. I looked around and we only had 2 D batteries and we needed 4. Brantley just couldn't understand that we didn't have enough of the right batteries. But, not to fear, mommy had to go grocery shopping anyway so I picked up some batteries. He'll be playing tomorrow!

Holiday Party

Today was also the holiday party at school. They had a sing-a-long in the cafeteria. The whole school was in there. In Brantley's room, they had a waffle party. A couple of dads cooked waffles and the kids got to add all the toppings you could think of. The waffles were really good. They smelled so good, I couldn't resist. Then they had a book exchange. Here Brantley is with the reindeer he drew.

Dentist

Brantley had his 6 month check up today. He went back all by himself. They took xrays and cleaned his teeth. He didn't look like he enjoyed it all that much, but the dentist gave him an A+. He said we still need to keep an eye on the cross bite situation which led to the thumbsucking at night discussion. Brantley doesn't want to suck his thumb, but he does it in his sleep. We have to get him to stop before his permanent teeth start coming in. The dentist said he should start losing teeth in the next year. He recomended Mavala Stop. I told him the stuff we tried didn't work - Brantley just woke up with a bad taste in his mouth. The dentist said this stuff tastes really bad. I hate to do this, but Brantley has to stop and he can't do it on his own because he doesn't know he does it. The other problem is knowing if he has stopped or not.

Gingerbread House

Today at school, Brantley's class worked on gingerbread houses. Actually, milk carton and graham cracker houses. The best part was the Grandma and Pop came to help Brantley with his. I heard that Pop got to help a little with Brantley's house and Grandma did her part by helping the other kids and giving praise for their wonderful houses. Here he is showing off the finished product.

Cassanova

Last night was the annual firm Christmas party at the Country Club. So, I was all dressed up, hair done, and even makeup. Brantley was in the bathroom and I walked by. He says, "Mom, you look pretty." He said something about my hair and even said, "Your eyes are pretty." He already knows just what to say. I guess it helped that I was wearing his favorite color (now that I want to be flashy!) He'll have some girl wrapped around his finger when he gets older.

It's been a while

Well, as you have noticed, I have not blogged very much lately. The past few weeks at work were rough on me, and for those that don't know, I had surgery last week. Unfortunately, I've also been working at home while recovering from surgery. My mom came to take care of Brantley for a couple of days. He didn't know I was having surgery until after I had it. He understands doctors and hospitals now and I didn't want him to worry the whole day about me. He's been very concerned with me since. The surgery went fine and I came home that afternoon. I'm proud to report that my lower back which has tortured me for some time has not hurt a bit since the surgery! (The surgery was not on my back, but very much related.) I can lean over the sink to brush my teeth with no pain now. Just try brushing your teeth without being able to lean over the sink! My back pain had overcome my life and now it's gone. It's gone!! It's gone!! I can not tell you how happy I am! Now, I won't be telling Brantley mommy can't do something because her back hurts. I probably still won't be picking him up anymore, though, since he weighs about 45 pounds now. He's getting so big. He's trying to write sentences now, even though he still doesn't seem to have an interest in learning to read. The other new thing is that he loves taking showers now. I guess he saw Nathan take one and decided it was a big boy thing. It's easier for us, so what the heck. Oh, one more thing. Brantley was sitting on the couch next to me a couple days ago and said, "Have you lost weight?" Wonder who told him to say that?

The LOOT!!!

Halloween

I'm sitting here listening to The Monster Swim (by the same guy who did the Monster Mash) waiting for kids to come by so I can give them candy. Lawson took Brantley out this year. I did it the past couple years so I guess I can give out candy this year. I think it's even more fun for Brantley this year because he's running into his friends and I actually know a few of the kids coming by. I think he's going around with Xander right now. One of the things I have come to love about Halloween is carving pumpkins - now that I actually know how to carve them. Brantley helped me with this one the other day. At least he did for about 5 minutes, then he asked if he could go watch his show. Normally, I carve several but I've been working my tail off this month and just haven't had the time to carve them. I hadn't really planned on carving any but I gave into the urge. This next one I carved in about 5 minutes after I got home today. I meant to leave work at 4:00 and that turned into 5:00. Then it took me 45 minutes to get home., as opposed to under 20 minutes normally. Luckily, Lawson had already gutted the pumpkin so it was ready for carving. Not bad for a quickie!

Happy Halloween !!!

Weekend Events

Man has it been a busy weekend. First we had soccer yesterday morning, then we went to a Halloween party at the house of one of Brantley's classmates and today we went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. We learned that the Halloween party was hosted by the parents of triplets, one of which is in Brantley's class. Brantley didn't want to wear his costume so he was the only one not wearing a costume. That was okay though, because some of the kids ruined their costumes. We had a great time. I picked this picture so you can see Brantley without a costume. But, I also want to draw your attention to the mom dressed in pink. Don't you think that costume is a little inappropriate for a family Halloween party? She wasn't leaving much to the imagination. Then today was Chuck E. Cheese. Let me tell you what I hate about Chuckys. Parents let their kids run amuck and Brantley gets run over. Brantley dropped his tokens and his classmate and another kid helped him pick them up while helping themselves to some of his tokens. Brantley can be playing a game and another kid will come up and start playing it and not letting Brantley play. It's quite annoying. At any rate, Brantley actually hugged Chucky this time and danced with everyone. Check out Brantley's moves.

GOAL!!!

Today was the next to last soccer game. And, despite missing practice this week due to weather, the team played great! Brantley scored his first and second goals. We were so proud of him. I didn't get the first one on camera because Grandma and I were chatting and not paying attention. But, daddy did get our attention just in time to see the goal. He took it all the way down the field. Awesome control! So, I had the camera ready every time he got near the ball after missing the first goal and I got his second goal on camera. I threw the camera down to cheer so you don't get to see him throw his arms up for the goal. Great game!!! Here is Brantley's recap of the game.