Morning Walk with Wrigley

Brody, Wrigs, and I went to Cocoa Village one morning while Daddy was at the station.  Brody loved walking Wrigley around the park, despite the fact that it was more like Wrigley pulling Brody around.  Nonetheless, we couldn't have asked for a better dog for our family.  I really appreciate having a dog while Brody is growing up.  I think he is more comfortable with animals because of him (sometimes a little TOO comfortable!).  We ended our morning at the swings.  What day at the park would it be without swinging?

Look Who's Walking!

Right before Brody turned 15 months, he took his first steps.  It was an exciting day in the Blade household.  He was very proud of himself, as were Mommy and Daddy too.  Ever since those first few steps, he's been thinkin' this walking thing isn't actually so bad.  Our little laid back man has turned over a new leaf.  Watch out world Brody is now on foot!  Here is a little video of our fearless man. 

Papa Clark comes to Florida

A little behind for this blog!  We ran into a problem finding a babysitter for Jackie's first week back to work.  Our usual babysitter was away in Gainsville getting her "baby" settled for his first year of college.  Jackie and I were going through our phones calling so many people without any luck to find a replacement.  A little venting to the parents and sure enough we had a plane ticket purchased for Papa Clark to be our babysitter.  It was pretty great for me because I was only working 2 days during the week that he was here.  During my days off, Brody and I took Papa to the beach.  Brody had to show him how much he loves the water and sand. Another day we drove to Orlando to have lunch with Aunt Jeanie, Michele, Nate and Kelseigh. My favorite "bonding" moment of the trip was all the boys going for a bike ride.  I was on the bike with Brody's seat while Papa jumped on the road bike.  WE GOT DITCHED!!  We only saw Papa as he was lapping us on the loop we were riding.  Ha!  Boys will be boys no matter what age when given the chance to go fast!  We cannot thank Papa enough knowing how much he doesn't like to fly AND he flew on his Birthday to come to Florida!!  Happy Birthday Papa!! 

 After church we took Papa to Grills for lunch.  Brody was so well behaved and loved sitting next to Papa to celebrate his birthday.

 Brody sure did get his reading time in with Papa.

How can you celebrate a birthday without some ice cream??  Brody was in heaven.  Jackie and I could not keep up with him and how fast he wanted the ice cream.  I can't believe he didn't get a headache!!!

Happy Grandparents Day!

We celebrated Grandparents Day this month at school.  All the kiddos' grandparents were invited to bring in a favorite family dish and enjoy in some activities to compare the past to the present.  My class had a blast.  It's times like these that make me think of the fun things Brody and his sissy will have showing off their grandparents at school.  You'd think that having them live over 1.000 miles away would stop them from coming to these special events, but our family is one blessed bunch with grandparents that travel great distances for their grandkids.  Thank you Granny, Papa Don, Nana, and Papa Clark for everything you do for our family.  We love and miss you all.  And we cannot forget about Papa Joe.  Happy belated Birthday on Sept. 9th!  We love you and think of you always.

Monkey See Monkey Do

One of the days while Daddy was at the station, Brody and I decided to make play-doh for the first time.  I wanted to make it just in case he tried to put it into his mouth.  I thought if he played with it on the floor on top of a cookie sheet there would be less association that it's food, as there would be if I put him in his highchair.  He was very skeptical about it at first.  He poked at it with a wooden spoon.  Then touched it with his finger.  Oh, there went the spoon in the mouth.  There went the bottom lip after I said no.

After a little consoling, he loved molding the play-doh into balls and throwing them.  Balls are one of his favorite things.  If I'm not mistaken I think he says the word "ball" better than "ma ma."  (Yes, I am having a hard time letting that one go)  I was all concerned about Brody putting the play-doh in his mouth that I completely forgot about Wrigley wanting to eat it.  Wrigs thought Brody was playing fetch with him. (However, Wrigley's definition of fetch is Brody throwing a toy and Wrigley taking it and jumping on top of the couch to tease Brody.  Brody then gets upset.  Wrigley jumps down and drops the toy.  The cycle then repeats itself.)  Anyways, Wrigley ate the ball that Brody threw and that was the end of the play-doh for the day.

It's a GIRL!!

I still can't believe we are having a little girl.  I'm definitely going to be in trouble in trying to resist in buying all those cute girl clothes and accessories.  Now, onto the hard part, HER NAME!!  We had a boy name picked out for our little one, but couldn't agree on a girls.  Let's just say, as in the show FRIENDS, "veto is starting to sound good."  One thing we are sure of, she is a little active one.  Brody was very calm, laid back, even yawning during his sonogram.  His sister, on the other hand, was a different story.  She was doing somersaults, covering up her face, and kickin' up a show.  Nonetheless, we are thrilled to soon meet our new bundle of energy!  We asked some of Jackie's fellow teachers where they had the 4D ultrasounds done and decided to not go back to Holmes (where we had Brody's ultrasound).  We arrived at the office just the two of us.  They told us on the phone that any children under the age of 7 would not be allowed in the room.  Fortunately, we had Papa Clark here with us visiting and stayed home with Brody.  So we're in the room I asked the tech when it came time to announce the sex, if she would just let us know when she could tell what the sex of the baby is and see if we could tell.  Sure enough you hear about those 3 lines and as soon as they showed up on the screen i exclaimed,  "It's a girl."  I then immediately turned to the tech to confirm.  An option we didn't have with Brody's ultra sound was to get a DVD of the session.  It was pretty great to watch the DVD and hear our reaction when we found out it's a girl.  Excitement doesn't even begin to describe the feelings i had in the office.  The craziest part is, we are only half way through this pregnancy and I said to Jackie.  For the next child, i don't want to find out the sex since we already have one of each now.  I think she still just wants to get through the second one before she even thinks about the third.  Weird!!  Anyway, here are some pictures of our baby girl.

Visiting Great Grandpa Al

While we were in IL, we visited Brody's Great Grandpa Al.  My grandpa kept commenting on how sweet of a boy Brody is during our stay.  Brody enjoyed the yummy crackers grandpa gave him (Grandpa EVEN let Brody double fist his crackers which made him Brody's favorite man).  Unfortunately, Brody was not old enough to have the jelly beans on his table yet.  He was one determined little guy in trying to crawl on the table and get them though.