Good Friday Peeps

It's become somewhat of a tradition that I make some chocolate-covered bunny peeps on Easter. (Which you can read about HERE.)

This year, we decided to let the cousins have a taste of the treats!

Bradley and Maria dug right in, but Lucy wasn't too sure.

After a few bites, I took away Bradley's peep... so he took Lucy's!

She didn't seem to mind too much.

But after Bradley took a few bites of Lucy's peep, I took it away too... and Bradley wasn't happy!

It's just not fair!

Don't worry, Bradley, you can have two more bites next year!

Bradley Month 8

What a month!

Clearly, Bradley is as cute as ever!

Still has two teeth, but his sleeping (or lack thereof) makes me think more are on the way soon!

Bradley is a mover! He doesn't crawl in the traditional sense, but he army scoots all over the house! He's gotten up on all fours and will "pre-crawl", but with no forward motion. After a few seconds of that, he goes back to the army scoot.

He loves to play with new toys and will spend quite some time looking at and exploring any new item that I put in his path! (I took a third of his toys and put them away for a month so that they'll be "new" again... hope it works!)

He's learning how to make new sounds and loves to blow raspberries (he also loves it when we blow raspberries back!). He's also doing a lot of "dadadadada" which is so fun! I often hear him practicing these new sounds in his crib when he wakes up.

He still eats like a champ, although I think these teeth are making him more sensitive to hot and cold.

We have loved learning more about his little personality! He loves to giggle and smiles all the time. He charms everyone at the grocery store! He's also very observant and will sit quietly on Mama's lap while checking out a new environment. I often catch him appearing to be deep in thought.

We love every bit of this little boy! (But, Bradley: please get those teeth through soon... mama needs her sleep back!!)

More Easter Cute-ness

Warning: it's about to get real cute real fast.

I warned you.

Sweet Aunt Laura played Easter Bunny this year and Bradley was so excited to search his basket!

He loves his bunny book:

And I can't get enough of those bunny ears!!

Lucy likes them too:

As does Ms. Maria!

(Seen here reading with Uncle Justin)

Bradley, you keep looking so cute and I just might have to make let  you wear those bunny ears year round!

Easter Photoshoots

All we wanted was a fun photo of the three cousins smiling. Is that too much to ask?

Yes.

It all started on Good Friday where the family was enjoying a crawfish boil in Jeremy's hometown.

Not great.

Then, on Easter, we put ears on the kids. Considering they haven't passed "take a photo 101" I'm not sure why we thought that adding props would help...

Bradley looks scared here:

After failing "take a photo 101", being pushed into "take a photo 102" (with props) they were then accelerated once more into "take a photo 103" (props AND on a spinning chair).

Seeing the photos is one thing... imagine the noise!

While Jojo, Laura and I were battling our children for a good shot, the peanut gallery watched on:

Not impressed.

But! Just when we thought all was lost... we were able to get one mediocre photo of the three cousins!

Worth it?

Bradley and the Bluebonnets

Taking photos of your child in the middle of a Bluebonnet patch is kind of a big deal here in Texas.

I remember many trips to and from Brenham where we stopped on the side of the road for an "impromptu" photoshoot.

Ah the naivete of youth... Now I realize those "impromptu" trips were carefully orchestrated, as bluebonnets only bloom for a few weeks each Spring. (And my brother and I "just happened" to be wearing coordinated outfits...) Finding these elusive flowers is a HUGE ordeal. Plus, there are BEES and SNAKES all over these bluebonnet fields!! Yikes!

Not one to give up easily, I found a spot inside the Houston city limits (and hedged my bets against the wildlife) and was ready for some amazing photos of my little darling with his state flower.

What I got? What this:

I drug along my pal Sarah and Bradley's pal, Joey. Sarah is "not from 'round here" and didn't understand the importance of bluebonnet photos. I was excited for her to see for herself how wonderful this Texas tradition is.

Yeah.

Somehow this beautiful Texas tradition turned into a two hour disaster. Complete with heat, bees, drama at the smoothie shop, Houston traffic and a few melt-downs (I'd rather not admit to share if the melt-down was by me or my baby...). Seriously, it took me a day to recover.

But! All is not lost. Thanks to photoshop and a random stranger that Bradley decided to smile at (where were those smiles for Mama, buttercup?!?) I was able to capture this gem:

and this one:

ok... one more:

Trust me... those photos are not indicative of the time we had at the bluebonnet fields.

But I'm sure 30 years from now Bradley will be taking his own little darling to the bluebonnet fields... blissfully unaware of the ordeal it truly is...

Easter Bunny

Look what I found in my Easter basket!

So originally I was going to pick my favorite and just post one photo.

Yeah... like THAT was going to happen!

How could I not show this one, too:

Or this one:

Or this one?!

Bradley Danger, you have my heart!

Bradley Month 7

This little boy gets cuter and cuter!

Big milestone for this month: two bottom teeth!

Chris and I noticed the little guys sprouting up one morning and Chris proclaimed, "no more gummy grin!". At which point I burst into tears. I can't handle my little guy growing up!

He is also sitting up quite well and will spend a fair amount of time sitting in the kitchen surrounded by his toys.

He's starting a bit of an army crawl (or scoot?) and can actually move towards a direction with purpose. Unfortunately the direction he usually wants to move is towards something dirty or dangerous. Fortunately, however, he's not very fast... yet!

Bradley is still sleeping 7am-7pm almost every night (with an 11pm snuggle with mama time that I sneak in for). The biggest exception to that is when we're out of town. He does NOT enjoy sleeping in the pack-n-play if Chris and I (mostly me) are also in the room. So that's made for some interesting sleeping arrangements when we visit friends/family!

He's full of smiles and definitely recognizes familiar faces. When Chris or I walk into the room he lights up-- I LOVE it!! He also loves peek-a-boo and will giggle over and over again. Love. It.

Every month seems to bring it's own new joys and although I'm also sad to see certain things go away (like my precious gummy grin) I know that they will be replaced with more fun milestones!

Hanging Out on the Compound

St. Patrick's Day weekend ended with a chill day on the compound.

While Lucy toddled around the lawn:

Jeremy serenaded us on the guitar:

And Maria played the washboard:

While Chris and Bradley enjoyed the music:

A fun ending to a great St. Patty's weekend!

Bradley's First St. Patty's Day

Bradley joined his cousins in Baton Rouge for a full weekend of St. Patty's Day parades, green beer and sunshine.

He was very excited:

After walking to a great spot, we were ready to watch the parade:

The papas hoisted up our babies for a chance to catch the goods:

The babies gathered quite the loot!

(In reality, we were catching everything we could in order to ensure these hard pieces of flying plastic didn't get near our babies... parades are much more stressful with the little ones!)(Also, as a first time mom, I totally brought sanitizing wipes and wiped down the throws before I let Bradley touch them.)

Bradley enjoyed some green beer:

While Lucy enjoyed her cigar:

 After the parade, the stroller brigade walked back to Jeremy and Jojo's:

My little leprechaun was tuckered out after a full morning:

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Bradley Photo Shoot

The weather was nice and the baby was (as always) adorable... so I thought I'd head to the backyard for some snapshots!

The clear winner in a file of 133 photos:

Photobomb!

Not a fan of rolling onto the grass:

And my second place favorite:

I love capturing every expression of this handsome little man!