The Daniels

Friday, February 5, 2010

Braden's 6 month pictures and recent developments

We had Braden's 6 month pictures taken on 1/12. He was all smiles....then we put the balls in front of him. He was so serious about picking up the balls it was tough to get more smiles out of him. Playing is serious business! But, he's such a happy guy we were successful; and also managed to get a couple of "surprised" faces.

Braden sits up on his own quite well now. We're going to have to stop using the Bumbo seat soon as he is figuring out how to get out of it. The little guy will be mobile in no time! He's just now starting to show some interest in crawling. He still prefers to be standing or walking with assistance from mom or dad; however, he's figured out that if he wants that toy 3 feet away, he's going to have to figure out how to get there without help. :-) He tries to go from a sitting position and then LUNGE for whatever it is he wants at that moment. That gets him a foot or so closer but he ends up on his stomach. He's starting to try and get his legs under him and his little butt up in the air so we're working on crawling. He also tries to pull himself up to a standing position on the couch if he's on his knees by the arm. Too cute. The little guy just wants to go, go, go! When he finally does get mobile, Marty and I are in BIG trouble!!

Lastly, Braden has another tooth! His top right front tooth came through on 2/3. The left one should be a couple days behind it.....hopefully. I knew it was really close but couldn't quite see it. So, I got brave and stuck my finger in his mouth and felt the tooth. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone and put my finger in his mouth again to check the other one and got bit! He really bites hard!! :-) Those 2 bottom teeth will definitely be serving their purpose soon, ouch!

Dad loves giving Braden new foods to try. He had a piece of pizza crust the other night to lick. Then he got a big piece of ham that he was trying hard to chomp on. It's fun to watch his faces and see him chomp away. Braden decided he wasn't ready for bed at his usual time after dad gave him the ham. He was in his jumper going crazy, jumping up & down and bouncing forward & backward like the most hyper kid in the world. Dad said he was on a "ham high!"

Other than that, everything is going great for us. Braden is growing like a weed and changing constantly. He's always good for several laughs. Marty has been staying busy at work. He just recently made a quick 3 day trip to Managua, Nicaragua to perform a crane inspection. So, the brat gets to add another country to his list! :-) He took some pictures, I'll try to get them and share with you all soon. It looks like a pretty country and definitely makes me want to go fishing! I'm staying busy with the little guy, work and school.

Sorry, the resolution on these isn't great!

Braden wears dads favorite outfit!

Yes, mom dresses Braden in his Huskers outfit occasionally. But he also gets to wear his CU clothes! This kid is going to be torn!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

So many changes in such little time!!

Well, we have a lot of developments to post just since December! First of all, Christmas was absolutely wonderful! Having a baby to celebrate the holiday with is such a blessing! Watching Braden open gifts, try to eat the wrapping paper of course, and either smile with joy or see his eyes become as big as paper plates in awe was so much fun! Marty and I were certainly more excited than he was this year! :-) The lights on the Christmas tree and the music in the background were all Braden needed to be quite content.

Unfortunately I got the flu Christmas night. I locked myself in the bedroom until Saturday evening. Marty got it on 12/28 and in turn locked himself in the bedroom. Whatever we did worked because Braden managed to stay healthy which was our main goal! Yeah!

Grandma Phyllis was going to spend Christmas with us but unfortunately the weather poo-pooed those plans! She'll be out to visit soon and enjoy the stock show with us. It should be fun for her to see how much Braden has changed since Thanksgiving! And of course, Braden will have a great time hanging out with Grandma. She always spoils him. I mean, shows him tons of love! :-)

Speaking of changes......Braden seems to continue to develop new skills quite rapidly these days! We've had a few exciting developments recently. He finally has a couple of teeth! He had been working on the bottom 2 middle teeth since his 4 month check up. The right one came through on 12/27 and the left one showed up on New Year's Eve. Yeah teeth! They're not too far up yet but are starting to look really cute. So, we got through those and he started biting and drooling again like crazy! My untrained, first-time mom fingers have been unable to detect any additional teeth but based on his signs, I have been sure that he's working on more. So, we went to the doctor on 1/12 for his 6 month check up and I asked the doctor what she thought. She shined her pen light on his top gums and we were able to see the outlines of his top 2 middle teeth. She thinks they'll come through in about 3 weeks! Yeah, more teeth! :-) I'm definitely much more excited about these things than Marty. He thinks, okay, so he has teeth. I think, we can feed him table food that he can CHEW before too long! I know, I'm such a dork sometimes. It's exciting to see our little boy growing up!

The last exciting news we have is.....................Braden is sitting up by himself!!! Woo-hoo! For about 2-3 weeks now we have been able to sit him on his bottom and he would sit up, but only briefly before falling over. In just the past week he has come a LONG way. He sits up on his own for several minutes, reaches for toys, plays, etc. We still have to be near, if he reaches to the side too far for a toy he's likely to do a face plant. But, for the most part, he's got the hang of it. It won't be long before this new skill is mastered! Did I already say how fun it is to watch him grow and change? We're constantly amazed by him! Kind of makes you want another one.........................Ha, ha! Not yet at least!!

I'm still trying to figure out how to post videos on here! Apparently it's not that easy. I'd really like to get a couple of them on here. We took video last night of Braden laughing like crazy. I was feeding him and telling a story about how he "blew" carrots all over me the night before. I imitated the "pbbbbttt" sound and suddenly he was cracking up. It was too funny to not get the video camera out. So, if I generate some more brains in the near future and get it figured out, I'll be sure to post that one!

The following pictures were taken Christmas Eve.

Heh, heh, heh! Look at ALL these presents!! And they're all for ME!

Can I open this one next?

Eeewwww! This paper doesn't taste good AT ALL!

All that work and it's clothes! Where are the toys?

Okay, I really like the clothes. I was just hungry! I need energy to open all those fun presents!

What do you think is in THAT package? Looks pretty good to me!

Can I open the big bag now?

What the heck is THAT?

Look! A new toy I can CLIMB on!

The pictures below were taken Christmas morning.

Do you have the camera ready dad?

Yeah! A new book to read at bedtime mom!!

A front-end loader! Dad and I can play with this!

Whoa! It's bucking me off!

8 seconds? No problem!

Christmas Day. Dad decides to give Braden a pretzel. And of course, nurse mom was freaked out the whole time he had it; worried he might choke on it. But, mom kept a close eye on him while dad took pictures and laughed. Braden really enjoyed licking all the salt off the pretzel and all went well.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Braden spends the day with Angie

December 12, 2009

My girlfriend Angie watched Braden for the day so I could catch up on some work. She took him to see Santa which was good fun for Braden. Unfortunately I can't share the picture on here but Santa looked like he was on crack in the picture anyway! :-) Angie got him a little hat from the shopping center with antlers on it. Of course I had to take pictures of him in it! Marty said I was picking on him!!

Of course he has a Santa hat too!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at the ranch in NE. We were finally able to meet Tami & Kevin's little guy Dominick who is just over a year old and Keri & Roger's boy Tanner who was 10 months. It was a lot of fun having 3 babies to play with! There was a lot of family that was able to make it back for the holiday. It was so great to spend the weekend with everyone. It made Braden's first Thanksgiving a really nice one!