2.5 years old....already!

Sweet Boy Braxton,

Where do I begin? I honestly can't believe that you are 2.5 years old today. You have been such a wonderful joy for your daddy and me. In the 2.5 years that you have blessed our lives, we have already been through so much together. I will never forget pneumonia and bronchitis at 8 months old and having to give you nebulizer treatments every 4 hours. Trips to the cardiologist . You have such a big heart, but at the beginning it had irregular beats and a few holes needed to close - but it's perfect now!! Ear infection after ear infection that led to tubes in both ears at 14 months. And then the show stopper - a broken leg at 19 months. We still don't know how that one happened.


Here are a list of a few of your favorite things right now:


Television:
Dora
Diego
Cues Cues (Blues Clues)
Max and Ruby



Color:
Yellow is ssoo at the top of the list
Geen (yes, that's green) is following close behind



Movies:
Monster's Inc.
Jungle Book
Finding Nemo


Food:
ANYTHING that is not good for you
Nuggets
Pizza
Mac & Cheese
Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches
Hot dogs



You can tell me that green means go and red means stop. If I drive too fast, you tell me to slow down and if I don't the police are coming. Your favorite books are still Peter Rabbit and Santa Claus, but now we add in a new Dora book too. I love reading them to you because I will stop and you fill in the words. You are such a smart boy!! You have worn the same bead bracelet on your arm now for 2 weeks straight and I do mean straight, which means we play, shower and sleep with it on.

You count from 1-11 and then jump to 14. You actually count things on pages in a book and almost always get it right. You can sing your ABC's and sound absolutely adorable doing so. Every once in a while you might miss one or two - but you always remember to sing the part about "next time won't you sing with me!" I have got to get this on video along with our nightly prayers.

Speaking of prayers, the best part of my entire day is when I am tucking you in at night and turning out the lights I say "I love you goose" and you then say " I love you too mommy!" Every once in a while you will beat me and tell me first and it means even more to me then.

I absolutely love on weekend mornings how you crawl in the bed with us to hopefully go back to sleep if it's too early or to watch TV. You love to put your sweet little hands on my face or climb on top of me and kiss me. I love that when you find something that amazes you, you pull my arm to show me too! I love that when you are watching TV, you pat the couch and say sit mommy with me!

I tear up as I type this because you are growing up way too fast. You are one of the best things that could have ever happened to us and you will never know how much we love you - but we will sure try to show you.

I love you with all my heart goose!
Mommy

Chalk Angels!

It started with this.....




Chalk angels on the porch....how funny is this?! Braxton asked his daddy to write his name in chalk on the porch and that was only the beginning. Braxton had a blast doing this and it was super cute to watch. He didn't want to stop with just one chalk angel either.

Road Trip!

A Day at the Park.....


Soon enough sweet boy - you will be driving!

Smile Cam!

WEE...watch out Lexi Lou is coming right up behind ya!

March..March...March!

This kid couldn't get enough of the wall climb - no doubt..he's my little monkey!

One...two....three....JUMP!!

I'm gonna get ya!!!

Cheese - Happy Birthday Papa, we love you!

Papa and his girls!

Pretty cute helpers you have there Papa helping you with all those candles!

CHEESE Gigi CHEESE!!!


So Rhett....how's dinner coming along?

What a great weekend!! I had been looking at the calendar to plan a trip down south to Charleston. July was the last visit and the next one up would be Thanksgiving. Yesterday was Papa's birthday so after a little twisiting of my arm (ok, so all Les had to say was "want to come down for the weekend") Braxton and I decided to take a road trip and give daddy a free weekend to do whatever manly things he wanted too!

Braxton was such a great traveling buddy. We played how many trucks/motorcycles/school buses can you find for about an hour each way and then popped in a movie. This weekends choices were Finding Nemo going down and Diego's Halloween special coming back - no real suprise there!!

We were able to see everyone and spend some really nice quality time with each person without feeling very rushed....and we had tons of fun too!

The weather was perfect - Fall is in the air and I LOVE IT!!!

Saturday Leslie, Rhett and I took Braxton, Cameron and Lexi Lou downtown to waterfront for a picnic and then to the park. It was such a good time. The kids had a blast at the park, not sure that Rhett ever ate lunch since all 3 kido's kept being daredevils heading towards the water:)

We even got back in time Sunday for us to share some good times and weather with daddy. Bryan and I took Braxton to walk the loop at the beach and played at the park here.

It's not very often that I can get a ton of good pictures - this weekend was the exception..check these out:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!!! We love you!

This past weekend we had a great trip to the aquarium in celebration of our buddy Rylan's 3rd birthday! A party at the aquarium was a fantastic idea. They had arts & crafts, where the kids got to paint their own t-shirts using sea life stamps. They had a blast doing so, and so did the mommies and daddies. What I liked best was they even provided t-shirts to cover their everyday clothes (I wish Gateway did the same thing)! After painting shirts, one of the employees did circle time with the kids and brought out a few sea life for the kids to touch and see up close. In case any of you were wondering, Braxton has NO FEAR!!! He was right up there interacting and touching everything. Here are a few cute pictures. I also included one of the cake since it was so cute.....Happy Birthday Rylan!

My little boy...is not so little anymore!

This weekend marked a HUGE milestone for us. As many of you are aware we have been in transition from crib to big boy bed, but the crib has remained up and was always an option. Not anymore! We decided to take the crib down! At this point we have pushed the mattress that was in the middle of the room up against the wall until we make the final decision on a BBB (big boy bed). For some reason moving the mattress up against the wall makes it a better trampoline:) Braxton jumped like crazy!
His room does look very bare right now due to not having a real bed in there yet, but that will come.

In the meantime I snagged a picture of him napping Saturday. He is even funny while he is asleep.

Hello...

So we were on our way home from "school" yesterday and Braxton was playing with his Cars telephone. What I love about this phone is that he played with it about 9 months ago and hasn't seen it since, so all of a sudden it's like a new toy! So I am driving down the road and I hear from the backseat "Hello, How are you doing?" I was completely caught off guard, because I have never heard my (almost)2.5 year old son ask how anyone is doing. I started chuckling and then asked him who he was talking too and he proceeds to tell me "Aunt Lolie" really....uhm, that would be me. I asked who Aunt Lolie was and he said "you mommy!" That's my funny boy!!!

"Braxtonisms..."

This kid amazes me!!

Here is a run down of a normal night at bedtime at the Carpenter's. We are still making the adjustment to the big boy bed. We start off with a few books. Right now his favorites are "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (Hey - they are his favorite picks;) So we read the books and say our prayers, which I am going to have to get on video, it is really too cute! We then tuck him in and say good night. Normally Braxton will get up at least once when you put him to bed and then somehow he normally finds his way to our room every morning around 5:30. This morning I had to go in and wake him up for school (does that ever happen on the weekends - nope!). He slept ALL night in his big boy bed! So this was our conversation this morning....

Me: "Braxton, I am so proud of you. You slept in your big boy bed all night. That makes mommy so happy!"

Braxton: "Mommy, you sleep in your bed too, that makes mommy happy!"

Me: "That's right, mommy slept in her bed and Braxton slept in his bed."

Braxton: "Mommy, I so proud of you!"

Somehow he also knows all the names of TV shows on noggin too. We usually don't watch a whole lot of TV, so that's why it surprises me even more. I was on the phone with Aunt Sessie the other day and Braxton came up and said "mommy, tamote (for remote) cues cues is on!" Really buddy - Blues Clues is on! WOW!!! He then asked about Gamma Gamma - which I had never even heard of, sure enough it's a real show. Of course the other favorites are Dora, which he requests every morning and afternoon and "Go Diego Go." He also knows who "Lightning McQueen" is and has never watched CARS!! Do he and his buddies already talk TV/Movie Talk at school?

Another thing I have noticed is isn't it funny how we all understand our own children's lingo?!?! I was talking to a girlfriend at the gym last night and Braxton was asking where her son Aaron was. What you have to understand is that I think Braxton talks very clearly and can understand every word he says, where others give that blank "what did he say" look.

Until next time...