Size Compared To...

A lot of people have asked us how big Brant is. He seems to appear small to many folks but he looks HUGE to us!! When you see a baby at 2 lbs, all of a sudden 5 lbs looks very big. :)

I thought one way I could show everyone his size would be to compare him to random household items..and maybe that would help out. :) I sure wish I could have done this when he was only 2 lbs in the NICU b.c that really would have blown some folk's minds. Pictures alone would not have done his size in the NICU justice...you actually needed to have seen him up next to something else. Too bad I could not have taken random objects and stuck them into his isolette back when he was first born. :)

Our sweet little man... His head compared to an iPhone.. And compared to a large Honeycrisp apple... :) His body compared to one of those Scripto candle lighters. Compared to a medium sized banana.. Compared to a tube of toothpaste....And finally compared to a bottle of wine...I could have compared him to lots more things but you get the general idea! HA! :)

Dirty Laundry

We have had a little extra dirty laundry lately... :)

Tool Time, Fast Cars, And Loads of Balls....

Braden has been having a lot of fun lately with some of his new toys!! :) Balls are such a huge hit in our house...especially LOTS of balls! :) It's tool time folks! :) My new car!! Love it! Thank you Uncle Andy!Gotta check under the hood... :) Braden loves to play..and we love to watch him! :) Good times! :)

Mimi, Popple, And Their Grandsons....

My parents came into town to see their grandsons the weekend of March 26th. Of course the boys loved it and were spoiled to pieces!! :) Braden bawled his eyes out when they left on Sunday. It kind of broke my heart. :) I think he is ready to go and spend a week with them at this point!! HA! When can we set that up Mom and Dad? LOL! :) But in all seriousness.....it was awesome to have them here and we had a great time. They were also very helpful with everything that we needed (since Brant had just come home earlier in the week). You can tell by this pic that Braden was a happy little boy. :) He loved watching TV with his Popple. :) Cool little dude was getting ready for his Saturday adventures. :) Mom, Dad, and I took Braden out to the Austin Rodeo, and he thought it was a pretty cool deal. I think he had a great time...and of course I loved watching his reaction to everything. :) In the petting zoo..... I was so surprised that Braden wanted to stand off to the side and observe. The last one that we took him too he was all over the animals. :) There was a kangaroo in there! What? Deer, goats, sheep, and then a kangaroo? :) Checking out the John Deere tractor.....We headed over to the Livestock show and what a treat!! Braden was able to see all of the animals that he makes sounds for daily. :) He got to see pigs, cows, sheep, goats,chickens, roosters, bunnies, etc all up close and personal. :) I think the cows were starting to bore him here b.c they did not do anything. HA!A Longhorn!! WOW.... Even though we are Aggies, he could appreciate this huge animal. :) This cow is kinda cool!I LOVE bunnies!!!Wow..this cow is really close to me! :) Time for the fairgrounds! :)

Look at me go! I am wearing Popple out! :) I want one of these. :) Our parents are always so sweet when they come and they let us go out on fun date nights!! We are oh so appreciative of that. :) This time we headed to another new restaurant to give it a whirl and a thumbs up or down. This one got a thumbs up like most of the others that we have been to lately. All of these new places to eat in Austin ROCK!! We love it! :)

We headed out to TNT....better known as Tacos and Tequila. :) Mmmmmmmmm...they had the BEST margaritas!!After some tacos and margaritas we thought it was time to head down and check out Gourdough's. One word-YUM! :) Simply put...it is a donut trailer on steroids!! These donuts are INSANE! :) The menu had the coolest things on it....and they were so good! Very rich but very good!

This one was called "Mama's Cake" which is yellow cake batter filling with chocolate fudge icing. Um, ok!!And this one was "Bring on the Heath" with cream cheese icing and heath bar chips. Scrumptous! :) Way too much for one person to eat but it sure is fun to taste them! :)

Thanks for a fun weekend Mom and Dad. We loved having you here and cannot wait until you come back again soon! :)

19 Months........

Yes, another month has already passed by...and now our little man Braden (Brant is our SUPER little man) has turned 19 months. :) We are creeping closer and closer to 2 years old every day...and my sweet baby is turning into a little boy. It kind of makes me sad in a way...but at the same time, I LOVE this age that he is at right now. It is just a blast! :) It makes being a mom so much more rewarding. :)

Here is what is going on this month with Mr. Braden:
1) Thinking he is probably around 30 lbs, however, he has taken a slight hiatus from eating these past few weeks..so he may have actually lost some weight. :)

2) He is moving quite comfortably into those 2T clothes. He can still wear some 24 month clothes, however, the pants and shirts just seem a little short at this point. :)

3) He still LOVES his preschool. He is also still learning like crazy and does come home with something new daily. He does not seem to want to leave school in the afternoons when we come to pick him up. He is having too much fun. :)

4) He has been getting upset when playdates are over with his friends. I mean wailing, red faced, super duper upset when it is time to say goodbye. He has also been getting really upset when folks like my parents leave town. Wow.....I almost want folks to leave while he is napping to prevent our neighbors from staring out their windows. HA!

5) He is getting very good at talking in complete sentences.....or very close to them. We feel like he speaks pretty darn audibly at least 75-80% of the time. There are not too many occassions when we have to look at one another like "What is he saying?" :) He will say things like "Where did Mama go?" and "Where is Baby Brant?" It is very cute and so awesome to hear him talk like a little boy. He has the sweetest expressions and I love hearing his sweet little voice asking me things. :)

6) He has mastered most of the signs on all of the potty training lists, however, I don't think we are ready to start trying within the next few months b.c of two reasons-a) we have a newborn at home b) I would have to move him into a toddler bed so he could get up at night. I think we will still wait awhile. :)

7) He can be so incredibly lovable if he wants to. :) It is so cute!! He has been loving on his baby brother a lot!! :) We are very happy to see that. He is a little rough but it sure is precious. :)

8) He loves to play, play, play....anywhere, anytime. :) Mr B....you are so awesome and so much fun! We love you!

Here are some pics of Braden at 19 months! :)

Opposite Day....

Just a quick story... Chris and Braden were in the car coming home from school yesterday, and they were talking about all that Braden had done at school that day. Pretty typical for the drive home. Well we have been reading a variety of books to him at night..and a couple of them have been about opposites. Chris just randomly asked him "Do you know what opposite of "quiet" is?" He just said "loud". WHAT? Are you really 19 months old? :) So Chris thought it might have been a fluke and tried a few more. "Do you know what the opposite of "day" is? Braden said "night". Chris decides he is going to trick him now. :) "Do you know what the opposite of "wet" is?" Sure thing...he says "dry". So this went on for a couple more times, and by then the boys were at home...and Chris was running inside to tell me the news. HA! :) I just cannot believe how much this little man picks up. It seriously amazes me!! :)

Welcome Home Brant!!!

Disclaimer: I want to apologize in advance for the fact that I cannot get the paragraph spacing to work on Blogger today. Sorry for what seems to be a lot of weird context in the same LONG paragraph!! :( I think most people know by now that our sweet little man Brant got out of the NICU on Monday, March 21st...exactly 5 weeks from his birth date. :) I have been behind on updating the blog since we have been taking care of a newborn...but I just wanted to be sure everyone knew that our precious little blessing was home with us. :) We have been adjusting to our new normal these past few days, and we LOVE it! It has been awesome having our entire family of four under one roof! We are thrilled to finally be able to say that!! We are thankful to all of the doctors and nurses that took care of Brant during that 5 weeks. He looks like a completely different baby b.c they really helped him to grow and get healthy during that time. The staff was amazing and he was in such good hands. We were so grateful for that. He was discharged from the NICU at 4 lbs 2 oz...so almost 2 lbs heavier than he was when he was born. :) I never anticipated that I would bring home at 4 lb baby but I am just glad to have him with me. I know that he looks small to most folks that meet him but he is huge to us!! Now that I have seen a 2 lb baby, I know that he is chubby. HA!! We are so excited to start our life with him now that we are all home. We know that we will have a few adjustments due to him being a preemie but overall we could not be more thankful for his health. God is so good! :) We also want to take one more chance to thank everyone for their amazing prayers. I know that we would not be where we are today without those. :) The discharge was the easiest I have seen in a hospital, and we were in and out in about 2 hours. What a wonderful feeling to walk out of the hospital with Brant….with no nurses trailing behind, no cords to monitor his vitals, no beeping from other baby monitors, no bright lights, and no other craziness. :) We were finally the family that got to pull our car up in the front of the hospital and load our baby up in our car. HOORAY!!! Just a couple of pics from our discharge day and the couple of days following. Thumbs up!! :) Just holding him before the doctor came in to let us go........ Chris is very happy to get his little man home!! Putting him in the carseat inside the NICU nursery. We had to buy a special preemie car seat for him so that he could pass his carseat study and go home. We can change him out to a new carseat in a few weeks. :) Fun blanket with his name and birthdate...Bye hospital!! You have been great to us but coming up here anytime in the near future again will be too soon! :) Bye NICU!!! We will see you all at the annual reunion! Brant's first time in the elevator. Almost free!!Almost to the car...yay!! :) We made it!! This is Brant's first time outside since birth. :) First time to see the sun. :) We are so happy to be going home...... Dad has to make sure everything is perfect before we head out. :)We made it home!! Look how small I am compared to my carseat! :) All of my boys together....I love them! :) Milk coma... :) I think he likes being home! HA!I'm the little brother. :)