It’s been hard to see how many new teeth Braden has, as he hates it when we prod around his mouth. Brian counted eight on the top row (four new), and there appears to be about the same in the bottom row. At least with some molars, Braden is finding it easier to chew.

Braden can now say “bow wow,” and he’ll also respond with those words when you ask him what sound a dog makes. He can also say “darn it,” along with slapping his hands on his thighs, which he learned from his great uncle Chuck. It’s so cute to see him wind up as he gets ready to say it and act it out.

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Braden used to love bananas–in fact, he ate one every day at breakfast–but now he dislikes them. So basically he’s eating around 2-3 bowls’ worth of cereal in the mornings, it seems. On the flip side, Braden now likes strawberries, which he wouldn’t eat before. We don’t understand why his tastes have changed.

These toddler biscuit/cookies we found are his new favorite food. He will open the pantry door and point at them, often stomping his feet, until you feed him one. And he still likes ketchup, to the point that we will put it on various foods just so he’ll eat them.

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We did end up taking Braden to two Concerts on the Square this year. The first time he ended up playing with Brian’s former supervisor from DPI and his wife. They (fortunately) enjoyed his company.

The second time we were able to keep him from wandering as much, but in both cases we left at the half. We missed last year in which he fell asleep during the concert.

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Last update: Braden can sort of jump. After watching Brian do it a few months ago, he tried to imitate it but couldn’t get his feet off the ground (but he got the arm gestures down). Now he can sort of get one or both feet in the air (about 1 cm tops). It’s really adorable when he tries.

Journal going out, new skills, talking, teething

While Braden is still not talking, he can say a few words and does understand what we’re saying some of the time. Besides “uh-oh,” he yells “up!” when he wants you to pick him up or lift up to a place he can’t climb. Note: he can’t quite make the “p” sound, so it’s really more of “uh!”

We have heard him say “dog” (closer to “Doug”), and we think he knows he’s referring to us when he says “mama” and “dada.” In addition, you can ask him to point out his eyes, nose, tongue and bellybutton. Plus, you can ask him in both Mandarin and English to blow you a kiss. It’s super cute!

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We took Braden to the Mallards baseball game the other day. We’ll post a video soon of him acting shy around the dog mascot named Bonehead. Unlike the first game in which Brian took Braden, who only sat in the seats for one out, this time Braden made it through a whole inning before wanting freedom. He went all over the ballpark!

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We’re trying to figure out if we can take Braden to Concerts on the Square. Last year we were able to rock him to sleep, but he was much younger then and couldn’t run. This year may prove to be more difficult.

Journal going out, talking

We’ve had three events recently in which Braden has had the chance to interact with other kids his age. Kristin took him to story time at the library the other day, but Braden was horribly shy and clung to his mom. Last Wednesday, we went to Kristin’s department picnic at Hoyt Park, where he was sort of a bully by taking other kids’ toys. There was one cute moment when he reached out to another infant to shake his hand (or simply touch him), but the other kid didn’t notice.

Yesterday Kristin took him to story time again. At first he was shy and sat very still on his mom’s lap (a rarity), but then Braden became a wild and crazy guy, running around the library, getting his hands on everything and taking another girl’s toy. Kristin is not sure if she can ever take him back.

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We finally started measuring Braden’s growth. We are putting pencil marks on the wall with his height and reach. We’re anxious to see how much he grows month-by-month. As we previously mentioned, it’s noticeable how much more he can reach (he’s taller and has longer arms). Once, he could barely reach the first ledge in the bathtub (he would have to stand on his tippy toes), but now he can almost reach the second ledge (where all the shampoos are).

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While Braden is still not talking, he does understand what people are saying. You can ask him where his eyes, nose, tongue and bellybutton are, and he will point to them. He also recognizes many other words, such as “Elmo” and “Bucky Badger,” for example.

Journal growth, interaction, talking

Our house is getting less and less baby-proofed by the day. Braden really enjoys his new skill: climbing on furniture. Whether it’s a couch, bed, chair … you name it, he can climb it. We think he enjoys the sense of accomplishment for getting up there and sitting with the adults.

Speaking of new skills, Braden can occasionaly open our doors (we have the long handles vs. the knobs). He gets on his tippy toes and reaches for the handle, and sometimes he can grab it long enough to pull it down and open the door.

Braden’s throwing skills have improved as well. Brian loves the face Braden makes when he puts both arms above his head to throw–we’ll try to get a picture soon.

What Braden has not yet mastered is climbing down stairs while standing up. He used to “slide” down on his stomach, but now he prefers trying to walk down. His legs are a bit too short to do this, so we hold his hands and float him down each step.

In case we forgot to mention: Braden is able to take his own soiled diaper, put it in the Diaper Genie and rotate the cylinder.

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More TV, less food. Braden is starting to enjoy watching TV. He’ll just sit there on the floor and silently watch the screen despite not completely understanding what’s going on. On the other hand, Braden is starting to eat less, if you can believe it. He no longer will finish an entire banana (plus cereal) at breakfast. In fact, when Braden’s done eating a certain item, he’ll either throw the leftovers on the floor or at you.

Journal feeding, new skills

This picture is priceless! We took Braden to a UW softball game, and every time Bucky Badger walked by, Braden would stare and point. Check out the photo album to see pictures of Braden stare at him, like this one. Absolutely adorable!

Journal going out

Braden likes to get his way–or put in another way, he hates it when he doesn’t get his way. If he’s playing with an object and you take it away, he will throw a fit. If you pick him up when he wants to be put down, he will kick his legs and flail his arms. Kristin’s book confirmed that the “terrible twos” actually starts at 15 months, which is exactly how old Braden is.

Besides his demeanor, Braden also is changing physically. For one, his face is changing (Brian says he looks noticeably older). He is going from new-born cute to infant cute, if that makes sense.

Braden also is taller. We have noticed he can reach things he couldn’t reach before. This is going to add an extra layer of difficulty in baby-proofing the house.

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We are constantly amazed how quickly Braden can learn things. For example, he will take his soiled diaper and put it in the Diaper Genie, then flip the handle over. It was quite the sight to see the first time he did it.

Today, Brian was doing some jumping exercises. After Braden laughed for a while, he began crouching and trying to jump, though he was only able to straighten up (still super cute!).

He can almost feed himself with a spoon, though he keeps flipping the spoon upside-down before it reaches his mouth.

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Braden added another sleeping position to his arsenal: arms behind the head. It totally looks like he’s just relaxing. We’ll get a picture soon.

He’s getting close to being able to put himself to bed. We usually just rock him a little bit, to about 10-25% sleepy, before putting him down. Prior to that, he had to be 75-100% asleep.

Journal new skills

Brian won a trip to Branson, Mo., and so we took our trip there this week. We left Saturday and stayed overnight in Litchfield, Ill., about halfway of the nine-hour drive. That was the easiest drive of all, as Braden napped most of the way, then we stopped for dinner, and then he watched a DVD until we got to the hotel.

We got to Branson (after a lunch stop in Springfield, Mo.) about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. We didn’t waste any time: after checking into our hotel, we briefly shopped, did a duck ride (a tour of Branson and a lake while riding a duck) at 4 p.m. and then went to Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner show at 5:30 p.m. Braden was so focused on the horses that he stayed put in our laps for 95 percent of the 1.5-hour show (thank goodness!).  We decided not to push our luck any further and headed home after the show (though we took a scenic route by the historic downtown on the way).

On Monday, we discovered that the theme park called Silver Dollar City was closed Mondays-Tuesdays, which really made us sad (that was supposed to be our entire Monday). So instead, we went to the new downtown and the old downtown to shop/sightsee, then we had lunch at a seafood place on the lake. Braden didn’t nap at all in the morning, but he finally fell asleep in the early afternoon, which is when we decided to take a winery tour (he slept the entire time).

After he woke up, we went to the Shepherd of the Hills park to try to do some horseback riding, but we couldn’t find where that was taking place. Instead, we climbed to the top of Inspiration Tower, which is 230 feet tall and has beautiful views of the entire Branson area.  For dinner, we went to a steakhouse that had just one waitress, so dinner was very slow and Braden was getting fairly antsy at the end. From there, we went to a 50s diner and had some dessert (Braden ate a waffle cone), then we tried to ride some go-karts but found out Braden was too short (36-inch minimum height). We retired for the evening at that point.

On Tuesday, we took a two-hour scenic train ride through the Branson area that wasn’t as scenic as described, though the experience was still fun. Braden couldn’t sit still for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time, so we took turns letting him wander throughout the entire train. Of course, Braden fell asleep AFTER that long train ride, so we decided to visit another winery while he slept.

We went to a buffet for lunch that a local couple recommended. It was easy grabbing food for Braden and not waiting for a waiter. Also, with a buffet, Braden got a lot more variety, which is helpful as he often gets tired of eating the same thing too long. We then went to a park so Braden could burn off some energy before we went to our 3 p.m. show–the Shanghai Acrobats. Braden was a bit fussy in the first half, so each of us missed parts of the show as we tried to rock him to sleep. Brian finally succeeded right about the time of intermission; Braden slept the rest of the show.

We went home to rest a bit before dinner. We found a resort on the far west end of Branson up on a very high hill–it overlooks Branson on one side and has a lake on the other. Just beautiful! We were the only ones in our area, so it didn’t bother us as much when Braden got noisy.

Braden had some trouble sleeping that night, but instead of just crying, he simply rolled around his crib while “talking” or standing up from time to time. After nearly an hour of this, Brian finally caved and rocked Braden to sleep.

Wednesday was a LONG day. We left just after 9 a.m., and with three stops (lunch, gas, dinner) and two road construction delays (the one in Illinois lasted almost 30 minutes), we finally got home around 8 p.m. We felt really bad for Braden, who slept little but ate a lot. He was in such a good mood when we got home; we’re not sure he’ll ever get in a car again!

Please make sure to check out the photos!

Journal vacation

The other day, Brian handed Braden his milk, and Braden took it while responding “thank you.” It was so stunning that Brian thought he imagined it. Fortunately, Kristin’s mom was there to witness it as well. Unfortunately, we have been unable to get Braden to say it again.

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Braden can now stand up with needing the support of an object (wall, table, chair, etc.). If he’s in the crawl position, he inches his hands toward his feet and then pushes himself upright. He likes to stand so much that he refuses to sit while taking a bath. (As an aside, it’s fun to watch him stack his toy sports balls on the shelf/ledge of the shower, especially when he’s on his tippy toes.)

He’s also able to walk more quickly, almost running (but not quite). One thing we’ve enjoyed doing is to chase Braden. In the past, he’s crawled away (either on the floor or up the stairs). Now he walks very quickly away with a big grin on his face, and when you catch him, he lets out a big squeal. So cute!

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We considered taking Braden to an Easter Egg Hunt, but we still felt he was too young. Instead, we “hid” an Easter Egg basket under his high chair and planted him near it to see if he would find it. Indeed, Braden found it rightaway and started pulling out all the eggs and fake grass from the basket.

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Poor Braden had a small cold, which he probably got from Brian. Braden’s obviously too young to understand how to blow his nose, so we had to give it a light squeeze with a tissue paper; Braden hated this. The cold went away after about a week, fortunately.

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We think Braden likes (cheeseless) pizza. We made some homemade pizza the other day, including a pepperoni pizza for Braden. He picked off the pepperoni, then licked the sauce off before eating the rest of the pizza. It’s only slightly less messy than when he eats spaghetti.

Journal sick, standing, talking, walking

Right before our very eyes, Braden is now consistently walking instead of crawling to get to where he wants to go. We are just amazed at the ability for babies to learn skills that aren’t taught.  We were in a shallow (half-foot) pool this past weekend, and it was fun to watch Braden “wade” through the water.

Fortunately, Braden has not yet developed the ability to run. THAT will be immense trouble for us when he does!

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Kristin took Braden to the zoo the other day. Braden seemed to really enjoy it, as he was fascinated by the animals and kept pointing at them (while grunting).

Speaking of pointing, Braden is getting a lot bossier now. When he wants something, he will point and either grunt or say “da.” If he doesn’t get what he wants (e.g. the TV remote), he’ll sometimes sit or lie on the ground and throw a short, mini-fit.

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Braden is really starting to understand words. One example is that he understands his name, so if you say it, he’ll look at you. Another example that Kristin discovered is that she asked him to bring her a book, and he walked across the living room to his play area to retrieve one for her.

Brian likes to say “where’s the banana?” (Braden’s favorite breakfast food), and Braden will point to the kitchen and grunt.

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Following on the previous topic of food, we’ve noticed Braden is eating less and less now (no longer the bottomless pit of yesteryear). We figure this is going to start to be a problem at restaurants soon. Previously, Braden ate before, during and after we ate. But now, he’s full by the middle of our meal, and then he becomes antsy (meaning he wants to run around).

We figure we will have to go out more frequently now before we can’t for a couple of years.

Journal bossy, feeding, going out, walking

Brian’s grandmother is in town, so we finally got to introduce her to Braden on Friday. After being a little shy at first, he eventually walked a bunch for her and even gave her a kiss. That night, Braden ate more for dinner than Brian did! Unbelievable.

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This morning Braden took about 15 steps. In case we didn’t previously mention, he also likes to say “uh-oh” a lot, and he frequently points (and grunts) when he wants something.

Journal four generations, talking, walking