On Memorial Day, Brian brought most of his childhood toys home for Braden (and eventually Carson) to play with. It was like Christmas all over again for the kids. Braden especially like the Legos and the ninja turtles.

But the best moment was when Brian had to head upstairs, and Braden–who normally is too scared of the basement to play by himself–said he was going to stay put to continue playing.

Just to show it wasn’t a fluke, Braden went downstairs by himself the next day and played until he was eventually called upstairs for dinner. This is a breakthrough, since it means Braden is capable of independent play.

Now if we can only get him to sleep with the lights off …

Journal basement

When Brian was young, he used to build a lot things (e.g. the proton pack from Ghostbusters) with paper and a lot of tape. Braden has taken after his old man, making endless objects with those two materials.

Look what Braden made today. Yep, it’s a toilet, complete with a seat and the flushing handle. We didn’t know what he was doing until he said, “I have to pee,” and then sat on the toilet and pretended to use it. What a funny guy!

Journal creativity

Carson quickly went from walking a few steps before tumbling to walking in a zig zag as he tried to maintain his balance to walking just about full-time. He did this around the time of Braden’s birthday, meaning that he started truly walking about two weeks earlier than his brother did.

However, Carson still isn’t talking much (no “uh-ohs” like Braden), and he hasn’t perfected how to blow a kiss (he just leaves his hand on his mouth).

Also odd is that Carson can feed himself, but he can’t/won’t drink from a sippy cup without our help.

He does know how to kiss, though! If you pucker your lips at him, he’ll walk up to you and kiss you. It’s so cute!

Journal walking

How fast a year goes by! Carson turns one today, and we’ll have a family celebration this Saturday at our house.

We thought at this point he’d be fully walking, but he can only do about eight steps before falling. That means he’s about the same level as Braden was at the same age, despite Carson standing sooner than Braden did.

This week, Carson stopped breastfeeding (the last of the frozen milk was consumed yesterday) and has started drinking regular milk. So far, he doesn’t seem to be having the allergic reaction that Braden did, fortunately.

Kristin took Carson in for his shots and to have blood drawn. In both cases, he didn’t cry or put up a major fight, like his older brother once did.

We’ve tried to feed Carson vegetables, but he completely ignores carrots, cucumbers and the like. He’ll still eat corn now and then.

Carson dances more than Braden ever did. Sometimes when he hears music, he’ll start bouncing around while sitting. It’s really cute!

Journal birthday, feeding, walking

Carson went from eating three containers of baby food per meal to barely eating one, as he prefers to feed himself finger foods. That has increased the length of time and messiness of each meal.

We were feeding him one vegetable, one fruit and one entree container, but now it’ll be items like corn, black beans, fruit cups, small pieces of chicken and of course, puffs.

When we try to spoon-feed Carson, he bats our hands away with his left arm and looks angrily at us.

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Carson really likes climbing the stairs, hence the reason we put the gates up. We may put him in one corner of the living room where the toys are, but he’ll eventually make his way to the staircase to start climbing. He also gets mad if we take him away.

Journal feeding

In addition to three bottom teeth, Carson’s two front teeth are coming in, though there seems to be a bit of a gap in between. Still, his almost-five teeth are helping him eat. Carson is now at the point that he is eating at least two containers of baby food, plus other things like puffs (which he feeds himself), at lunch and dinner.

Carson drops a lot of his food, and if we’re not quick to clean it up, he enjoys crawling to the dinner table and eating food from the floor.

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Braden is really getting into Christmas. He likes to point out toys from catalogs and from TV commercials that he wants. He also knows there’s a Santa Claus.

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Carson loves to stand. He will crawl to an object, such as the Ottoman, and pull himself up. Braden never stood this much. We wonder if Carson will walk sooner than Braden did.

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Just recently, Carson started doing the scrunchy nose that’s prevalent on Kristin’s side of the family. It’s super cute!

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Brian realized that it’s been at least a few months since he was able to hold Braden long enough that he would fall asleep for his afternoon nap. Now either Braden skips his nap, or we have to drive him around in the car.

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Braden has pooped on the potty a total of maybe two times in the past four months. Kristin bought him a Jake and the Neverland Pirates ship that Braden loves and gets to play with only if he uses the potty. It’s not working.

Journal standing, teething

Braden picked out a Woody (from “Toy Story”) costume for Halloween. He liked it so much that he wore it around the house. And knowing how much Braden enjoys candy, we thought he would go trick-or-treating all night.

We were wrong. We took Braden on the loop around the house, but after about 4-5 houses, he got tired and wanted to go home. We had to basically drag him from house to house just so he could get some more candy.

We think part of the reason Braden wanted to quit was because he was SO shy going to each door to get candy. At least we got to meet some of our new neighbors.

Carson went as Curious George, by the way, but stayed at home with Kristin’s parents.

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We had a nice vacation in Cocoa Beach. Braden loved the beach and the pool. Carson had a lot of trouble sleeping, which is why we had 2-3 cups of coffee every single morning. Still, the boys were well behaved throughout the week, which included a day trip to Kennedy Space Center.

There, Braden attended his first movie, which also happened to be a 3-D IMAX movie! It was about the international space station.

Every time we went out, Braden would ask, “Can we go back on vacation?” This meant “Can we go back to the hotel?” We kept telling him we WERE on vacation.

The flight to Florida was relatively calm. Carson did sleep, although another baby woke him up. Still, Carson didn’t cry or fuss.

On the flight home, however, Carson was very antsy. That didn’t allow us any time to rest during the flight. Brian finally rocked Carson to sleep with  about 15 minutes left in the flight.

Braden was a good boy, watching his DVDs and eating a ton of snacks both ways.

Journal Halloween, vacation

Carson has finally been getting some teeth over the past few weeks, as his bottom two are starting to show. Looking back at our archives, Braden’s bottom two began showing when he was five-months old, about three months ahead of Carson.

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Carson is great at swatting our hands away, usually when we try to wipe his face but sometimes when he’s done eating.  He’s also much better at crawling, going all around the house now at will. Just recently he’s tried to basically stand up, grabbing a taller object and moving his legs toward it.

Journal new skills, teething

Carson learned how to crawl last Wednesday. He’s not great at it, and he stops a lot before he reaches his destination, but he’s definitely moving on his own now.

Braden likes to say, “Carson, how did you get over THERE?” the way we do. Sometimes he’ll pick him up and bring/drag him back to his starting position. Super cute.

Journal crawling

Carson is so close to crawling. He can go from a sitting position to on his belly and vice-versa. We’ve put objects in front of him that he reaches for but ultimately gives up on.

It’s interesting to watch him try, though. He’ll tuck in one of his legs like he’s about to push off on it, but then he doesn’t and usually goes back into a sitting position.

Once he does learn to crawl, we’ll have to un-retire all of our gates that we haven’t used in a while. Not sure how Braden is going to take to that.

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We did end up having six-month portraits taken of Carson. We dressed him up in one outfit that Braden wore just to see how alike the two are. Verdict: they’re brothers but definitely distinguishable. In the other set of photos, he’s wearing green overalls.

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We’re concerned how little fluids Braden drinks each day. We’ve previously mentioned that he no longer drinks soy milk. At breakfast, he usually has about a sip of water. Sometimes at lunch he’ll drink a little more, especially if it’s a juice box. At dinner, he’ll have another sip of water unless we treat him to some decaf soda. Before bed, he’ll have one more sip of water.

We have gotten Braden to drink chocolate milk, but he has a love-hate relationship with it, like he does with most foods. This means that some weeks he’ll love something, others he’ll hate it. It’s frustrating for us!

Journal crawling, photos