Brayden sings Lion King

Brayden's newest thing is to sing along with the Youtube videos he watches with Gpa. His latest favorite is from the Lion King. Watch and see if you laugh as much as I do (each time I watch it). He now sings while he's walking around the house - hilarious!

Short videos of happy boy

Brayden is walking non-stop now. Rachel and I took him for a walk in the stroller this morning. He was thrilled to go but about half way through our 2 mile walk he decided he should walk too. Such a big boy!

When we got home, the neighbor's sprinkler was on so he had a free bath.

Brayden's Finally Walking!

He's finally walking - yipee!

Random Survey...just for fun

(From my friend, Jeanette's blog)

1. First thing you wash in the shower? hair
2. What color is your favorite hoodie? pink
3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Of course!
4. Do you plan outfits? most of the time
5. How are you feeling RIGHT now? relaxed
6. What’s the closest thing to you that’s red? candle
7. What was the last dream you remember having? really don't remember
8. Did you meet anybody new today? yes
9. What are you craving right now? Glass of wine (but too lazy to get up)
10. Do you floss? yes
11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage? stuffed
12. Are you emotional? rarely
13. Have you ever counted to 1,000? no
14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? both
15. Do you like your hair? most days
16. Do you like yourself? Yes
17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? Yep
18. What are you listening to right now? Desperate Housewives
19. Are your parents strict? They were!
20. Would you go sky diving? not a chance
21. Do you like cottage cheese? yuck!
22. Have you ever met a celebrity? Yes
23. Do you rent movies often? No,
24. Is there anything sparkly in the room in which you are? my diamond earrings
25. What countries have you visited? Mexico, India, Malasia, Israel
26. Have you made a prank phone call? when I was a teenager
27. Ever been on a train? yes
28. Brown or white eggs? white
29. Do you have a cell-phone? Yes, my lifeline
31. Do you use chapstick? repeatedly
32. Do you own a gun? never have
33. Can you use chopsticks? yep
34. Who are you going to be with tonight? My husband and daughter
35. Are you too forgiving? sometimes
36. Ever been in love? definitely
37. What is your best friend doing tomorrow? working and going to school (both my daughters)
38. Ever have cream puffs? Yes but not a fan
39. Last time you cried? a year ago - when I saw my grandson being born
40. What was the last question you asked? "Did I send you a picture of my table?"
41. Favorite time of the year? Fall
42. Do you have any tattoos? Used to but was removed during a surgery
43. Are you sarcastic? very
44. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? nope
45. Ever walked into a wall? yes
46. Favorite color? yellow
47. Have you ever slapped someone? my mother when I was younger
48. Is your hair curly? not at all
49. What was the last CD you bought? can't remember
50. Do looks matter? to a point
51. Could you ever forgive a cheater? depends...
52. Is your phone bill sky high? higher than I like but not sky high
53. Do you like your life right now? Yes I do
54. Do you sleep with the TV on? No
55. Can you handle the truth? for the most part
56. Do you have good vision? no and it's frustrating
57. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? Hate, no. Dislike, definitely
58. How often do you talk on the phone? everyday, frequently
59. The last person you held hands with? Brayden
60. What are you wearing? Jerzey shorts and campi
61. What is your favorite animal? dog
62. Where was your profile picture taken? my kitchen
63. Can you hula hoop? one rotation, if I'm lucky
64. Do you have a job? not a paying job
65. What was the most recent thing you bought? chicken broth
66. Have you ever crawled through a window? no

Ear surgery and more

Since he hasn't learned how to walk yet, Brayden has figured out that the best way to take things with him is to carry them around in his mouth when he crawls.

Brayden loves tomatoes. Well, mostly he likes to squeeze them and suck on them and make a big mess.

After too many rounds of ear infections and ineffective antibiotics, Brayden took a trip to the ENT. His left ear was still very infected and he was in a bit of pain. Here is Brayden at the day surgery center at 5:30 in the morning, wondering what is going on.

Brayden in his gown in pre-op


He was extremely patient considering he was up for 2 hours before surgery, with no bottle. The nurse gave him a specimen cup to keep him busy. His look says "you want me to do WHAT with this cup?"

This is Brayden the next day - on his 1st birthday. He is feeling all better after having his ears cleaned up and tubes inserted. He is happy and mobile

And freaking delicious!

I've spent most of this past week preparing for the 3 room face lift. I have been packing and moving boxes (with help from Harvey, of course), moving furniture, taping walls, buying paint, pulling staples out of the walls (left overs from Valerie's high school wall decor), pulling surplus nails from the wall, and finally patching holes.

And for everyone who thinks I can't follow instructions, let the record stand that I can (I just chose not to most of the time). Our 1970's vintage house came complete with an intercom system. The only two remaining pieces were in 2 of the bedrooms and left big holes in the walls. I went from this...

To this. I marched myself down to Home Depot, bought hole patching kits, and off I went to filling holes. I'm still waiting for the stuff to dry so I can sand and start the painting. Finished product TBD

Finally - new pictures!

Brayden has been sick with an ear infection, fever (off & on), runny nose and just generally feeling cruddy for most of the last two months

You can see that he is still sick by the rosy cheeks and nose

However, when the fever does break several times a day, he is mobile

Being sick has certainly not kept him from mischief - he loves to play with Tootsie's crate

The boys are trying to figure out what to wear to go out on the town
Saturday he was feeling better so off we went for his first trip to IKEA. He and Gpa had a grand time, playing with the toys

He was feeling pretty silly, checking out the big boy bed

Then he and Gpa got more silly with the hats. Brayden tried on the birthday hat, knowing that his birthday is just a week away! And Gpa, well, who knows why he wanted to look like a chicken?

Brayden wants to know "do these orange spots make my butt look big?"

Afterwards we went to TGIF for dinner. Here Brayden is having his first taste of steamed broccoli, which he seemed to like, but also wanted to share with his mommy (who was taking the picture)

And finally, Sunday morning we began moving boxes out of Harvey's study/Brayden's new room. He wanted to help (please excuse the look on my face - I was just back from a 7 mile run just before we took this picture)

Today I'm foggy headed from whatever it was that Brayden had the last couple of weeks. It could just be the Oak pollen, which is falling down in buckets from the trees. I'm sure that running through all of the dust and tree turds is not helping with the congestion. Yesterday I didn't feel as bad and was able to run 7 miles. Today I felt worse and was only able to motivate myself to run 4 miles. This spring time weather in Austin does make it much easier to run - it's been beautiful. I dread the start of summer, but have no choice. Running group starts backup this weekend, after a 2 month hiatus. I'm anxious to get back on track with more regular running.

Things are looking up with the job hunt. I have a few irons in the fire, including an interview later this week. There are tons of jobs out there, just not ones that I want to do, or ones that seem decent but pay about 1/3-1/2 what I was making before. Not that I've had any offers, just a few good prospects I'm working on...that's all I'll say about that so as not to jinx anything.

So much for spare time!

Rachel has announced to me that I suck at keeping up with my blog. I thought that for sure with being unemployed, I would have all sorts of time, but it seems that fate would have other plans.

Last week I managed to run a little, though not as much as I wanted to and pack a lot of boxes (again, not as much as I wanted to). I did get to run in a half marathon in Bastrop, though I wasn't feeling all that energetic to start with, and it was ridiculously hilly, so my time sucked, but at least I finished. This week, Brayden's been sick with the same ear infection he's been fighting since February, so I've been making daily trips to the doctor with him for the past 3 days. He's on his last chance with antibiotics - which came in the form of two shots, simultaneously in his biggest muscle (thigh), 3 days in a row. Needless to say, he's been pissed. The first two days I was able to take him to daycare after. Today he was running a fever all day so we hung out together. He was feeling bad all day so mostly he slept on me, which kept me from doing much of anything else, including playing golf with Harvey in the afternoon. Tubes in the ear is the next step.

I did have a couple of hours while Brayden was in his bed to job hunt. There are tons of jobs out there - just none as appealing and interesting as the last job I had. I did receive potentially good news tonight about a job, but I'm not going to jinx myself by talking about it until I know more. Oh, and there's the other job prospect that I have a meeting on next week. Both of these jobs found me, which is always a great feeling.

Valerie booked her tickets to England for the summer - she is doing a semester abroad there. Being the summer session, it's short but she'll have plenty of opportunity to travel the week before classes start and on the weekends. Rachel continues to kick ass in school, setting the curve on both tests she's taken.

Hopefully Brayden will feel better soon so that I can post some updated pictures soon. Believe it or not, he'll turn one next week!