Braden’s dentist has noted that he has been slow to lose his baby teeth. Now, in the past month, he has lost four. One he accidentally swallowed during dinner, one he lost in the park during football practice and two he pulled at home.

According to Braden, he has at least one baby tooth left. Also, the tooth fairy has been negligent in putting money under Braden’s pillow.

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Over the past year, Braden has been obsessively parting his bangs (to the left). When Braden was younger, Brian would part his hair, but Braden would inevitably move it straight down his forehead. These days, you can see him part his hair everywhere–while waiting at the bus stop, during football games, while on his phone, etc.

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Speaking of the phone, we got Braden a smartphone for Christmas (it’s Brian’s old phone). Like his mom, Braden is continuously on it, texting friends (many of whom are a year older and have had their phones for longer), playing games and watching TikToks videos.

We also like that Braden carries it around so that he can contact us in an emergency. Sometimes he has to ride his bike to football practice while we are at Carson’s Little League games, so he texts us when he has arrived at the park and when he gets home.

Journal technology, teething

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

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

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

Braden really enjoys standing. For example, his favorite spot is the window, where he’ll grab onto the ledge and pull himself to a standing position. He does this easily with any object (stairs, coffee table, etc.). Some times he’ll let go just to see if he can stand without any aid (and he will for a few seconds!). As a result, Braden’s arms and legs are getting pretty strong. We’re certain he’ll be walking soon.

Braden’s only difficulty is sitting down again. He usually just lets go and falls on his butt, which is obviously padded by his diaper.

With Braden so mobile, we’ve really been trying hard to baby-proof the house. Brian installed gates to the stairs and cabinet locks, while Kristin has installed socket protectors everywhere.

Braden also likes chasing and being chased. If the latter, he’ll stop to make sure you’re still coming after him. With all the crawling, he’s starting to get some rug burn on the top of his feet. We would put socks on him, but with our wood floors, it would too slippery for him to continue trying to stand.

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Braden’s front two teeth are coming in. That makes six visible teeth in his mouth. Now instead of just baby food, we’re giving him other foods like bananas, cereal and other non-mushy foods.

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As previously reported, Braden can say “Hi dad” and “da-da.” He just added “ma-ma” the other day, much to Kristin’s happiness. Still no luck in getting him to say, “May I help you with some more chores, father?”

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Happy 9-month birthday, Braden!

Journal crawling, teething, walking

Last Wednesday, Braden started shrieking in the morning. It’s high-pitched, and he’ll continue it for quite some time, but it doesn’t signal anger, hunger or tiredness. We just think he’s simply trying to talk.

He unfortunately did it all throughout Kristin’s birthday lunch at Restaurant Muramoto, and he has been shrieking every day since. Braden has now increased the challenge of taking him places, especially restaurants.

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We hate to mention this, but here goes: Ever since we added one meal of solid food each day, Braden’s poop has solidified a bit. Brian swears he’s now done changing poopy diapers.

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Lastly, Braden’s two lower teeth are coming in nicely and are really starting to show. Now if he could just grow some hair …

Journal diapers, new skills, teething

As previously mentioned, we took Braden to Kristin’s family’s cabin up north near Summit Lake (about an hour north of Wausau) last week. We took Braden to the beach (he ate some sand), to the lake (he didn’t swim much) and on the boat (the lifejacket seemed to annoy him). With all the family there, we had plenty of babysitters.

Unfortunately, Braden slept poorly, especially Wednesday night. That made for some groggy mornings for us.

Check out the photo album called “Maywood.”

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Did we mention that Braden is teething? He has two lower teeth coming in. Now when he bites you, it hurts!

Braden does NOT like it when you try to look for his teeth–in fact, he will swat your hand away (very cute). You can only see them when he cries.

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We are trying a new system for putting Braden to sleep. Instead of rocking him, we are just letting him cry himself to sleep (Kristin’s book, which she follows religiously, suggests this method). We let him cry for five minutes, then console him, then 10 min and one minute, then 15 and one, then 20 and one and so on. He actually fell asleep after the 15-minute mark last night.

Journal sleep, teething, vacation