Big Steps

For quite a while now Brody has been figuring out his limits. He pulls himself up to standing and then holds onto the furniture and walks around it. He will move the dining room table chairs all over (and I have scratched floors to prove it), and he'll even hold onto the wall as he walks from one room to another.

BUT....finally this week, Tuesday, July 7th, Brody took his first real steps! It was so exciting, and slightly bittersweet because our BABY is now becoming a TODDLER! It seems so crazy.

Just one week shy of being 11 months and the little man is walking. He definitely still prefers to crawl, but he is getting braver by the hour. At first we could only get him to walk when we had him walk back and forth to us, but today he is letting go of us or furniture and walking off by himself. We just cannot believe it!

Summertime

I can't believe that June is nearly over! The summer has always been my favorite time of year and I think that it goes by faster each year. Not a whole lot is going on for us, and yet it seems a lot. Trevor is busy with work and I am busy at home with an ever increasing active little boy. Brody grows and grows each day. I am already forgetting the time when he was first born. I took a picture of a new baby in our ward for our newsletter and she made a few of the little grunts and sounds a newborn makes and it made me think, "Did Brody ever do that?" Of course he did, but I just don't remember it! Brody stands all by himself, but refuses to walk without assistance. If you let go and he knows it, he sits himself down and crawls to wherever it is he wants to go. He also has 6 teeth now. Brody is starting to dislike baby food more and more by the day. He just wants to eat what we have. He likes any sort of beans, potatoes, rice, cereal, fruit, and cheese! Yum yum.

Trevor, as I said before, has been busy with work. He has always enjoyed his job, and he continues to enjoy it. There is hardly ever a day where he comes home from work just really tired of it all. Of course, there are days when he gets annoyed by certain things, but overall he just likes work. Basketball camp is coming up pretty soon and he'll be gone for that, but we really don't have any traveling plans this summer. We won't be in charge of the 24th of July dances this year and that is a huge relief to both Trevor and me! Good luck to Kyle and Kristin Wahl.....

As for me, I am just enjoying life in general. Brody and I go to the pool during mom and tot swim time and really like it. Brody doesn't get super excited about it, but I think he enjoys it. I mostly think he gets a look on his face like he's too cool for it all. I have had a good time getting sort of reaquainted with my brother since his return from his mission. He has really gotten to know Brody and loves spending time with him. I am also in the process of getting a blog started for my ward's relief society. It is truly a work in progress and I'm sure there are websites for other wards that are ten times better, but we'll see how this goes for now. My calling is putting together the monthly newsletter for the relief society, but they asked me to try starting a blog as well. It mostly just has the information on it that my newsletter has or will have, but it may end up more detailed. You can check it out at: http://meadowswardrs.blogspot.com/

Other than that, we have been spending time grilling hamburger and hot dogs, going for rides in the car, and just generally hanging out. I can't wait for the 4th of July and the 24th this year. I fully intend on enjoying all of it this year and not hiding out like I did last year due to being huge and at the end of my pregnancy!

The R.M.

Well, he's not preparing for a mission, or on a mission, Elder Garner is actually a RETURNED MISSIONARY!!!!

Agghhhh! We are so excited to have this guy home! Two years seemed like such a long time, but it has really gone by fast.

At Spenser's last testimony meeting, he said it was just really emotional and everyone was crying. He was the second to last to get up, and he thought that it shouldn't be so sad. So as he got up in Portugese he said to everyone that he knew that he would have to give his all, but he didn't realize that included his hair! Everyone cracked up and he helped to lighten the mood. So is he different? Well, I would have to say that yes, he does have a little less hair, he speaks with an accent after two solid years of only speaking Portugese (minus the four times he called during the two years), and he is a LOT more spiritual....but mostly...he's still my little brother! He's the same Spenny as always.We love you, and are so proud to say that you Returned With Honor.

9 Months Old

Wow...Can you believe it? I am 9 months old. So much has happened in these last few months.
Each day Mom and Dad are more amazed at how much my personality has come out. I am SO much fun, they say. I am really good at playing games these days. If Mom or Dad say, "I'm gonna get you..." I take off as fast as I can. I squeal and laugh as I try to get away from them. It is a pretty fun game. I also think its funny when they scare me half to death. First it makes me jump, but then I laugh or smile really big. My mobility gets better and better everyday too. I crawl super fast and Mom SWEARS that if she walks into another room it doesn't take me much longer than 30 seconds to find her. I have also been pulling myself up to standing on just about everything....walls, tables, chairs, cupboards, and drawers. I really enjoy walking all around the furniture, especially the coffee table. I sometimes circle around it 6 or 7 times before I get bored and get down. I can't walk on my own, but as long as there is something to hold onto, I do pretty good.

I did escape out of my exersaucer not so long ago, and my Mom had to raise it up so I wouldn't do it again....well, I DID do it again, so she had to raise it to the highest setting there is. I have tried to harm myself in everyway possible. One day I followed Daddy into the bathroom, and while he was showering I got into a drawer and found a razor that I began to put in my mouth. Lucky for me, Mommy saw me and got it just before it hurt me. That same week I came over to Mom and had this plastic sheath....she had no idea where it came from until she found a knife on the floor! She was just glad that I thought the plastic was more fun than the knife. Mom knew that my luck wouldn't last forever, and about a week ago I was pulling myself up to stand on the alluminum screen door and burned my hands! Our house faces east, so the sun had made it SUPER hot, and Mom didn't know it. It took her almost an hour to figure out what was wrong. It was my first real owie, and it sure hurt! Mom cried nearly as much as me.

I still really like books. I love looking at them and I love having them read to me! Of course, my attention span isn't very long, so the reading doesn't last that long, but I do love them. I have a little plastic blue car that I really like right now too. I push it like its driving. Mom thinks that I'm "such a little boy." She wonders how I know what to do with a car....silly mom...EVERY boy knows what cars do.

I still try to say mom sometimes, but my newest thing is trying to baa like a sheep. It always makes Mom and Dad laugh when I do this. I also try really hard to say 'b' words like bye-bye, bum-bum, or ba-ba. I mostly just make the 'b' noise over and over again in a sort of whispered voice.

Everywhere I go I like to just relax. I cross my feet at the ankles just about all the time. I do it in the shopping cart, when I'm drinking a bottle, and even when I'm just sitting on the floor playing with my toys.

I still just have two teeth, and they really didn't bother me too much when they came in, but Mom and Dad are pretty sure that my two top teeth are going to break through any day now. These ones hurt lots more than the last ones. I'm still "taking it like a man," as some people would say, but I'm not my usual cheerful self that's for sure.

As far as my Mom, Dad, and the doctor is concerned, they say that I'm developing and growing right on target. Each day Mom and Dad think, "Where has the last nine months gone?" But they have enjoyed it all. In just 3 months I will celebrate my very first birthday!

First Words?

A few weeks ago amongst all the babble Brody speaks we started to hear Ma mom mom. It all tends to run together and we thought that it was just something new to throw in the mix of yayaya da da ya. Then we started to realize that often times when he would say ma ma mom it would be when he was reaching for me. Coincidence? We weren't sure. More and more Brody has been saying Ma ma ma, but we think that he does actually understand who mom is. He mostly says it when he's tired or hungry, but nearly everytime he reaches for me when he says it. We are convinced he knows who mom is, but now that he knows how to say that, he sometimes just likes to say it in his ongoing babble. A few mornings ago instead of the usual noises Brody makes when he is waking up I heard, "Ma ma mom mom..." When I got to Brody's room he was standing up in his bed waiting for me to get him.

We are pretty sure that Brody is saying his first words, but maybe we are just really reaching and only imagining that he is saying mom!

Editors Note

Not so long ago there was an incident where my son was spit on by his cousin. In my frustration I wrote out my anger on here. I really think that its necessary that I clarify a few things. I said some things like I could have caused "bodily harm" and that I could have "killed him" in that post. While I yes indeed did write those things, I did not in anyway actually mean them. That fierce protective anger was still running through me like an electric current at the time of my post. I would NEVER ever hurt that other little boy (or any little kid for that matter). The thought of me being the cause of harm to a kid makes me physically ill, but the problem with writing anything whether it be on a blog, email, letter, or a text, is that you cannot hear a person's tone of voice. I was being sarcastic, but I can totally see how that it might not seem that way.

There is that quote, "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me..." I think that that is not always the case. I think what I said, well wrote, was pretty hurtful, and for that I am sorry.

ExerSaucer Escape

Once upon a time there was this sweet little boy (not really all that little though to begin with) named Brody. This little boy was so good to his mommy. During the day when Daddy went to work mom would need a shower so the sweet little Brody would lay nicely in his bouncer seat or even in his car seat on the bathroom floor while she cleaned up.

Soon Brody tired of this. Often times crying or just small tantrums would start once the baby had been in his seat for longer than 5 minutes. Mommy had to do something different if she ever wanted to take a morning shower again.

So Brody was then put on a blanket on the bathroom floor with toys to keep him occupied. This was a great solution until Brody learned to scoot. Soon Mommy was having to shut the door to keep him inside. It still wasn't too hard.

Then Brody really learned to move. The army crawl was now his mode of transportation, and he was VERY good at it, and VERY fast. So fast his parents thought he would never crawl the correct way. The army crawling soon led to the bathroom trash can being knocked over and on more than one occasion Mom had to get out of the shower dripping wet to stop The Brodester from getting behind the toilet(ew!). Then he defied all odds and after nearly 3 months of the army crawl, Brody busted out the normal crawling. He was now moving faster than ever before, and into everything the second his parents weren't looking....well actually sometimes even when they WERE looking.

Then one day a friend lent the family a baby jumper that hangs from a doorway. This was great. Not only did Brody have fun jumping, but it kept him in ONE place the whole time. He couldn't get into anything while Mom showered. BUT like all things in Brody's world, it soon lost its interest. Mom and Dad purchased an exersaucer that Brody really loved. Mom was able to alternate between jumper and exersaucer. It was happy on all accounts.

On this very morning though, Brody decided to make an escape. During Mom's shower she noticed that the normally very talkative and noisy Brody was suddenly quiet. She opened the shower door to find that the little man had simply found his pacifier, but was still playing nicely. So Mom went about the rest of her hot shower in peace and quiet. Not worried at all about the stationary Brody.

Imagine the surprise of Mom when she came out of that shower only to find the exersaucer very much empty of a baby. She panicked for a short second until she saw Brody sitting on the floor with Dad's nightstand door opened and change out of a cup spread all over the place. The only explanation Mom could think of was that Brody had dived out of his seat head first! Not one single peep came out of him though. He had fallen out and gone about playing. Luckily for her, he kept his pacifier in his mouth the entire time....had he not, quarters, pennies, nickels, or dimes could be floating around in his belly right now.

Moral of the story: do not EVER think that your kid is in the last place that you put him....even if he is strapped in!

Almost Home

I just can't believe it...my little brother Spenser will be returning home after a two year mission in Brazil in about 30 days! It is so crazy. These two years have just flown by. He will not believe all the changes in his world. When you serve a mission in another country you kinda become extremely far removed from whats going on back home. I'm sure he is aware of the economy and all that is going on, but I don't think he knows the extent of it all. Not only is that different, but he is going to be meeting his only nephew for the very first time! I cannot wait for him to meet Brody! Spenser is closest to my age out of all the siblings. It really was just he and I for quite a while before the other two came. I would have to say that he and I definitely had a love/hate relationship growing up. I think for the most part we liked each other, but there were times when not much love was involved.

Every childhood memory I have is linked to Spenny. When we were little we shared a room and he slept on the top bunk. One day he and a friend decided to see if my barbie van could fly off the top of the bunk. Of course it didn't, and they broke the wheels off the van. That was not a day that I liked Spenser.

Every Christmas Eve, after we no longer shared a room, Spenser would come sleep in my room on the floor. After the two other kids came along and were a little older they would sleep in my room as well. I don't know how or why this tradition started, but we did it pretty much every year until I no longer lived at home.

My senior year of high school was Spenser's freshmen year of high school. I drove him to school everyday. He wasn't old enough to drive, but sometimes in the morning he would go start the car for me to warm it up. One of the very last days of school that year was my birthday and Spenser kept pressuring me to hurry up. I couldn't figure out what his deal was until I got in the car. As soon as I was in he pushed play on the cd player and he had that song, "its your birthday" by like 50 cent or nelly (i can't remember). That was a good day for us.

Often times when Spenser and I would fight he would scare the crap out of me. I would lock myself in my room afraid that he was going to stab me with a butter knife. Why I thought this, I don't know, but come to find out he thought that I was going to stab him with a butter knife so he would go in his room and lock his door! Now that is funny.

When I graduated high school I guess Spenser cried a little at the graduation ceremony. I had no idea of this until one day after when he was mad at me and told me that he didn't know why he cried for me, because he was glad I was leaving. I guess he didn't like me that day.

I can't wait! The time is almost here for Spenny to be home. Now I really feel like the countdown has begun. I can't wait to make new memories as adults now. I can't believe that we are no longer little kids ourselves. Time flies.