Brayden at 14 months

Brian and I had our 5 year anniversary this past weekend and we talked a lot about how much our lives have changed since sweet Brayden was born.  He is such a blessing and we are so glad that we are his parents and get to see his funny smiling face every day :)  Here is what Brayden is up to at 14 months

*Brayden is a great sleeper!  The first 9 months of his life we didn't get much sleep around here but now he is a professional!  He goes down around 7:30 each night and we don't hear a thing out of him until between 7-8 the next morning.  He is also still doing great with his one nap a day which usually averages about 3 hours, yesterday he slept for four!!!

*Brayden is just such an easy baby!  He is also still a great eater!  He will eat just about anything you put in front of him but of course his favorites are still sweeter things so we usually put his meat and veggies down first and then put his fruit down when he is almost finished.  His favorites these days seem to be bananas (still!  He ate a whole one yesterday!) mangoes, strawberries, cherries, grapes, and cheerios!

*He LOVES to be chased and tickled.  It is seriously the cutest sound in the world to hear him shriek with joy as he tries to get away from us
*He is almost running!  He can get around REALLY fast, he sometimes ends up going to fast though and ends up flat on his face!
*This baby is still lovin the water.  We spend a lot of time in the evenings in our backyard letting him play in and drink water from his baby pool and sometimes playing in the dirt...  He also enjoys going to our neighborhood pool and the pool at our gym is great for kids as well

*Brayden really seems to enjoy playing on the playground.  We take him down to our neighborhood playground in his wagon or his car and let him climb, slide, and walk all over the place.  It is just getting so hot that we can't stay out there for too long these days because his little face gets so hot and red!
*He loves to climb on things!  His favorite place to hang out these days is on the edge of the second stair, it looks really scary and freaks us out!  He also likes climbing up the stairs, tries to climb up on the couch, on the fireplace (which he gets so upset because every time we have to tell him NO over and over again) Anyway, Brayden will climb up on just about anything he can reach!

*Brayden really loves dogs, especially his dog Mia which he spends quite a bit of time each day trying to get his hands on.  He really likes his Barron grandparents dog Peaches because the poor thing is very old and half blind so he definitely has the advantage over her since she doesn't see him coming!  He loves his Aunt Christi's dog too and loves trying to get a handful of Nash's puffy white hair.  When he is in his highchair and hears the dogs next door barking he will get really excited and his eyes widen and he says "PUP PUP"!  It is so cute :)  One source of endless free entertainment has been petco, he loves to look at all of the animals there but especially the dogs in the "Doggy day care" that they have there.  He just looks at them through the glass and gets so excited.  Needless to say I think we will have an animal lover on our hands
*Brayden seems to be extremely observant.  We live somewhat near the airport and daily lots of planes fly right over our house.  Whenever Brayden hears one he tries to look for it, whether we are inside or outside.  When we are outside and he sees one he will watch it until it disappears from the sky.  He also looks for birds when he hears them and sometimes still tries to make a bird noise as well.  We are just so surprised at how much he seems to understand.  He follows very simple instructions and seems to recognize a lot of words and gestures that we say and do.
*Brayden has started pointing at everything over the past couple of weeks, he will usually point at things and say "dat, dat" over and over again

*Brayden has 11 teeth right now and his gums are bulging in a couple of places where it looks like more are coming

*Buddy got his second haircut after once again I was told in HEB how beautiful my daughter was, to which of course I just said "thank you so much :)" (he was even wearing a onesie with a tie on it, people are crazy!!)  He did much better this time but as you can see, he is still not a huge fan of haircuts! 

*This guy is into EVERYTHING!  He loves opening doors, cabinets, and drawers and emptying out ALL of the contents.  We will find him walking around the house with a brush, toothbrush, blender lid etc. and he looks like he has found a treasure!

He shook this container until it opened and then him and Mia shared a snack!

*By far, Brayden's favorite toy is his golf clubs.  We are amazed that he can actually hit the ball, he then chases it and hits it over and over again.  He has even watched us enough times that he knows to use the club to help him get balls out from underneath the couch.  Lets just say that Brian is beyond thrilled that Brayden has taken to his favorite hobby :)

Sweet boy is just so much fun, we are so looking forward to continuing watching him grow and change!

And... once again his CHEESE face!  Crazy boy!

Brayden's first trip to the beach!

Brayden absolutely LOVES playing in any type of body of water, puddles, pools, baths, toilets, etc.  So we just figured that he would have a blast playing at the beach...  Here is a video of his first venture into the ocean:

Sweet boy was so excited but after that face full of salt water he was scared of the water the rest of the time.  He did however enjoy playing in the sand and watching the dogs and birds.  Here are a few pics from Brayden's first beach trip:

I am sure that Brayden will get many more chances this summer to enjoy the beach!  

Napa Trip

So this is the most pictures Brian and I have taken by ourselves since little B was born!!!  We went with our great friends the Papes to the California "wine country" to do a little wine tasting and have some couples fun minus the babes!  Brayden stayed with his Grandma and Papa Barron and couldn't have done any better. This was our first time to ever leave Brayden overnight so it was a huge step for us. We were definitely nervous/sad to leave him and the whole time we were there I think Brian was waiting for me to break down and cry!  I am very proud to say that I did not but I think we were just so busy that we didn't have much time to sit around and be sad!  We were advised by a friend to hire a driver and they recommended a great one to us.  She drove us around for two days and it was awesome since she's a local she knows of all the great spots to hit!  We got in Thursday evening, just in time to go into town for dinner.  We went to an Italian restaraunt called Bottega which had great ambiance and wine!  Here are a couple of pics from Thursday night

1st glass of many from the trip!

Our first full day, Friday we spent the whole day in Napa Valley. It was Meredith's  30th birthday so we definitely had an excuse to start drinking at 10 in the morning!!! The weather was absolutely goreous!  Seriously 75 degrees, sunny, and perfect during the day and a little cool in the evenings and mornings- couldn't have asked for better.  After a couple of glasses of wine Brian and I actually contemplated selling everything we own and moving to California-it is seriously that fabulous! First stop, Robert Mondavi for a tour, a little bit of wine education, and of course wine tastings!!!

10:00 AM, first stop Mondavi

Row upon row of wine barrels
Everything about this place was stunning

First tasting of the day!

After an hour tour, we earned some wine!

Next stop, Cakebread winery.  Very pretty and great wine!

Buddies even have on the same shoes! :)

 

Defintiely not listening to a word our host is saying-oops!

Stop #3 My favorite of the whole trip Frogs Leap, beautiful property and a great big porch to enjoy delicious wine and cheese!

Such a cozy place, could have spent the whole day here!

That's a lot of glasses!

And leave it to our guys to find a game of corn hole!

 The next place we went after lunch was definitely the most unique of our trip and Brian's favorite.  We went out to this guy's property/vineyards and tasted his wine at a patio table in the middle of the field beneath some beautiful shade trees.  He started up this winery-Trespass and is still in the process of building his tasting room.  It was really cool to hear his story of starting up a wine business and to taste his delicious wine.  We loved supporting this small/startup business and definitely brought some of his wine home with us!

Can you tell the guys were really interested in what he had to say???

I love this pic, he had stunning views!!!

 We went to one or two more wineries on Friday but the pictures started getting a little sloppier :) so I am going to go ahead and omit those!  So on to Saturday!  We spent all day Saturday in Sonoma which had a totally different feel than Napa.  We were all dragging a little bit Saturday morning but our first stop was definitely a pick-me-up!  These pictures don't do this place justice, it was seriously like a castle and had the most beautiful views.  And the best part about Domaine Cardonas was that their specialty is champagne-yay!!:)

Made a few more stops at some small local wineries and then on to another winery that also resembled a castle!  This was the perfect place to stop at lunchtime, they have a deli and massive grounds to picnic.  

Naptime!

By midday on Saturday, every wine started tasting the same and we were all done drinking and tired!  We had a super casual dinner and got to bed early for a long day of travels on Sunday.  We all definitely missed our little ones but it was so great to get away and have some time for ourselves!  Brian and I are definitely "wined out" right now but would love to get back to Napa one day!