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.

You be the Judge

Everyday we have people telling us who they think Brody looks like. Sometimes people think its me, but most of the time people think that Brody looks like Trevor. I have to say that for the first day or two of Brody's life I thought that he looked a heck of a lot like the baby pictures I had seen of Trevor's nephew, Grant. Then for about the whole first month or two of life I thought Brody was all Trevor. I didn't think there was even one single ounce of me in him at all. Most people say he looks like his daddy, but has his mommy's eyes. As time goes on though....I think he looks more and more like me and my siblings. It definitely changes on a daily basis. There are certain facial expressions and the way he sleeps that are just like Trevor, but I don't know I guess you have to decide for yourself. There are really no pictures of Trevor as a baby so its hard to compare, but I do have this one. It was part of a family picture taken. It is the one and only baby picture I have ever seen of Trev. The next one of him is at like 4 years old and it is like a school photo or something. I am not quite sure how old he was in this one.

Here's another of Brody to compare it to.

Last picture is of me. It was taken at Easter time when I was 9 months old, so just a month older than Brody right now. You be the judge now....does Brody look more like his Daddy, Mommy, or just a really good mix of the two of us.

One Protective Momma

From the moment Brody entered this world a whole new me has appeared. I always figured that I would be the protective type of mom, but I didn't realize that it would run like a strong electric current throughout my entire being. It could definitely be compared to that of a momma bear protecting her cubs. Mess with my kid, you mess with me.

I absolutely HATE being told how to raise my baby more than anything. You know, I know I have only been a mom for 8 months now, but I am positive that I am doing everything that Brody needs. I feel like it is completely natural to be a mom. I also believe that only a mom knows whats best for her baby. Each kid is different and everyone parents differently. I don't like being stopped and told that my kid shouldn't have a pacifier, or that its too cold and he should have on socks, or whatever....I'm the mom, I am doing okay thank you very much. Being a mom is my full time job, I do not come to your work and tell you what to do. Whether you've been a mom for 5 minutes or 58 years, everyone thinks they're an expert.

This Easter was Brody's very first, and I was pretty excited about it. Trevor and I...or maybe I should say the Easter Bunny got an Easter basket for Brody despite the fact that he's too little to have any of the treats that go in it. I mostly just wanted him to have a basket and to pull out the grass and play with the plastic eggs, and that's exactly what he did. The second he saw the basket he started crawling right to it. He had lots of fun. Our Easter plans weren't that big really. We ate lunch at my Aunt Gina's house with the few relatives that were in town. All of Trevor's brothers were home and we were able to spend some time with them out to dinner that night and then lunch at Trevor's parents on Sunday. That is when the protectiveness came out.

Like I said before, everyone parents differently and I am SURE that there are things Trevor and I do that some people may not like, but there are things that I would never do with mine. On Sunday when we were at Trevor's parents house we were waiting for lunch to be ready when one of our nephews walked up to Brody while he was sitting on my lap and just SPIT right in his face. I don't know that I have ever been so mad in my whole life! If he had not been moved out of the room I am not so sure that I wouldn't have caused some bodily harm to that 5 year old. I don't think I have ever wanted to kill a little kid until that moment. I was so angry. I know that if my kid had done something like that, excuse the term but, there would have been hell to pay. He for sure would have been swatted and definitely been put in time out or something, but our nephew got talked to in another room and then had to say sorry. That is how those parents chose to handle things, and really and truly that is there prerogative, but when your kid starts to hurt other people or damage other peoples things, I just think there should be more punishment than that.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of Sunday pretty ticked off, and then all day Monday every time I thought about it I would just fume. The more people times people tell me how to parent my own kid the more I realize how offensive it is, and I try not to tell others how they should do things so I didn't say one word, but I don't think I can promise to always bite my tongue if ANYONE ever hurts or does anything to my baby. I think that I will always be an extremely protective mom.