On a totally normal Monday evening...

... we go on stuffed animal picnics with our friends. Yep, you read that right. Brayden's friend A saw something on TV about taking picnics with your pet. In her busy little mind she decided that meant we should go on a picnic with our stuffed animals. So that's what we did.

Brayden picked "Primo Bear" to go on the picnic with him. Brayden also thought he may need socks.

The kids and their animals

K sharing his cookie with his bear

"Baaaaaall"

 

A few of my favorite things...

In the last few months Brayden's personality has really developed, and with that he has decided what he is interested in, for the time being at least. At the top of his "likes" list lately has been firetrucks, ambulances, dinosaurs, cars, cooking, "driving," and airplanes. Today one of the volunteer fire departments near us allowed kids to explore the inside of firetrucks as a part of fire prevention week. It was a GOOD morning for Brayden and his friends!

Driving the firetruck was definitely Brayden's favorite part

 

 

 

K's favorite part was the stretcher in the ambulance... ironic?

  

 

 

"Photo Shoot"

The boys (Brayden and buddy K) are 17 months old. Aunt S has been complaining for about that long about the uneven number of K and A pictures throughout her house. I have not had Brayden's pictures taken for about 10 months. However, our favorite photographer is currently unavailable since recently moving and welcoming her sweet baby girl. So... we decided to try to venture out on our own hoping to take pictures of each others family. It was hot and humid (you'll see our hair) and the boys were tired (Uncle B included), but I think we did fairly well on our attempt at being photographers. It was much harder than it looks! Here are some of my favorites so far...

Following their leader

Butterfly kisses

The only way to keep the boys calm was to give them sticks. Safe, I know...

1st Date

As I've mentioned before, Brayden has a girlfriend, A. The two of them get along great because they have such similar personalities and have seemed to gravitate towards each other from the beginning. A. is the only one who calls Brayden "Brady" (or a variation of that) or Brayden Kennedy, in a loving way, not my usual get-your-butt-over-here way. Last night she also referred to him as "my duck" after they performed their famous post-dinner duck routine where A. sings/dances/quacks and Brayden quacks/dances as her back-up. I like to believe they'll get married one day (I know, wishful thinking), but A.'s parents believe they have entered the "friend zone." Either way, last night they had their first date night. Truthfully, they were just kicked out of the main table because of a lack of space, but they didn't mind.

The two of them worked together to clean their table off prior to eating. While setting the table up I asked A. if she wanted to sit next to or across from Brayden. She decided to sit next to him. While waiting for dinner, Brayden, A., and K. (A.'s brother who is Brayden's age) were playing musical chairs. A. was rather upset when K. would take Brayden's assigned seat. Poor K. I jokingly asked A. if she would like some candles for mood lighting. Her response: "That'd be good." Clearly this did not happen, although A.'s plastic wine glass of milk totally did!

Once dinner was ready the two of them sat at the table the entire meal and ate very peacefully. I was afraid Brayden wouldn't sit or eat. Instead A. helped him get food in his spoon when needed, wiped his face when needed, and yelled something about Brayden's "yucky drooly hands!"at which he also yelled "yucky!" We thought the "yucky" comment meant the date was going down hill but their baby, Baby Bella, joined them later at the table and all seemed well!

Here are the two love birds, or best friends...

Note the high chair for the MIA Baby Bella... parents of the year right there

Airplanes

New obsession: Airplanes

Brayden's, not mine. Any engine/motor sound we hear (other than a car; he has those down) is an airplane to Brayden. He heard a lawn mower the other day at the pool and was looking everywhere for an airplane. I tried to tell him it was a lawn mower to which he just screamed at me "AIRPAAAAANE!" If he knew "duh" I'm pretty sure he would have said that, too. So we went to the airplane observation park by BWI today so he could see an airplane is not in fact the same as a lawn mower.

Needless to say he would not look at me for a single picture.

You Are My Sunshine

The day Brayden was born Granny gave him an elephant that sings and dances to 'You Are My Sunshine'. He hasn't shown too much interest in it until lately, now that he knows how to turn it on, and most importantly off (it's VERY loud). Granny sung this song to Brian when he was little and I have been singing it to Brayden since the day he was born. It has become our song and I will explain to him when he's older how much it meant to his daddy, as well. He has been attempting to sing along lately, but he only knows the words sunshine, happy, grey, and away. I have been trying to capture his full sing-along and dance on video but this is the best I could get from a very wound-up little boy this morning. He's not performing to his full potential, but I think he's still pretty darn cute, minus the attempt to climb on the table.

Vacation

This year we went on vacation to the Outer Banks (Corolla, NC) with some great friends! 

Poor Uncle B trying to pack all our junk

 

I couldn't figure out how to rotate this video. It is A, B, & K performing "Duck" in what became a nightly after-dinner show.

B kissing A, his girlfriend