Fall is slowly creeping up and I can not be more excited about it. The holidays are fast approaching and this year is even more exciting since Braden is kind of getting the idea what’s going on. The house is decorated for Halloween – I’ve never seen anyone so thrilled to play with the gazillion pumpkins around the house.

We had a Halloween party with all of his friends…it is so fun to see them grow and engage in each other so much. Braden still has this awesome love for people, and you can see it in his smile. He also still loves to hug and kiss everyone. I feel bad for some of the little girls he wants to hug because most of them don’t like it! They run away crying – poor guy!

He spends a couple days a week with his dad having some pretty awesome adventures. They’ve been to the children’s museum, plane watching at the airport, parks and endless fun at the beach. I was lucky to be there for a beach walk the other day. Braden is such a beach bum! He really loves running into the water, getting his feet – even if it means taking a tumble.


Braden’s consistent words are mama, daddy, grandma, papa, bye bye, night night, hi, dog, duckie and a mash up of “iloveyou”. If you ask his dad, he’d probably say he says about 15 words…but I just think he’s hearing things 😉 Most of everything is nananananana?! He really tries to communicate with you, looking at you with such a question mark on his face, or a look of excitement. I cannot wait for a huge paragraph to fly out of his mouth. I am most certain I will just melt.
He knows where his tongue, teeth, mouth, nose, ears, eyes, hair, knees, belly button, hands, feet and toes are. He just recently became obsessed with blinking his eyes. So don’t be worried if he’s just blinking out of control!
He knows what an owl and a bird says, and he can hear a plane, motorcycle and helicopter from a million miles away. He will hear and see it before anyone else can. It’s kind of crazy how good his eye and ears are. He now understands that ears are for hearing and so when he hears these sounds he points his hand to his ear to “tell” you he hears something. It’s so cute. It’s even cuter because it’s not really something I intentionally taught him, just something he caught on to. Much like when he just knows to throw trash away. I never specifically taught him, he just really wanted to do it on his own. It’s true what they say – they learn from seeing and doing.
Which is also scary because I hope he doesn’t pick up any bad habits!!
Braden loves to go down his slide, play with his water table, walk to the mailbox to check the mail and “mow the lawn”. I love that the playing pretend phase is starting to come out. He’s becoming more and more fun. I just can’t believe how much they grow in a year. I’ve never been so proud to be a mom – his mom. I love obsessing over costumes, what crafts to make, planning play dates, finding the next adventure to go on, and of course the clothes.

As Braden is growing up right in front of my eyes, I can’t help but hope that I am doing a good job. I want to provide the life for him that he deserves and I’ve never been more certain that, that is my purpose in this life. I’ve had many dreams and goals to obtain but being Braden’s mom trumps all of that. The fulfillment of seeing his smile when he’s accomplished something new – will alway beat out any dream I have. He’s my little Braden. My son.

I LOVE YOU!
mama
xox