Readers' Party

Brady's class hosted a readers' party at the end of the year. All of the kids got to share the books they had written; this is Brady reading his story: Goofball.

Haircuts

We've never done the "summer" haircut thing with the boys before this year. Brady decided in the fall that he wanted a haircut like Papa's and we managed to delay him until this, more appropriate, time of year.

Before:

During:

After:

We didn't really know what we were doing; we should have started out with a longer guard all over so he could have a "mohawk" for the weekend. Next time...

Rudy wasn't too sure at first, but wanted to join in after he saw Brady's results.

Before:

During (giggles!):

After (don't you love the pose?!?):

Handsome boys, all ready for summer!

Wildlife

We're living in quite the nature preserve lately. We haven't seen the black bear in a few years, and no foxes yet this year. We do have hummingbirds, rabbits, a robin's nest, and giant woodpeckers AND we found this little guy in the boys' new fort:

Alternative Medicine

James took both boys to bed a few weeks ago when I was out for the evening. When one of us takes both boys, we usually let each kid pick one song, rather than singing two to each of them. For some reason, Rudy does not like hearing Frere Jacques lately, but that's what Brady picked for his song.

Rudy got pretty upset, crying "I don't want to hear that song."

To calm him down, James said, "OK, Rudy. Close your eyes." You know, because closing your eyes pretty effectively blocks all sound...Rudy quieted down, closed his eyes while James sang the song, and then picked his own song.

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Yesterday, Rudy's eye was bothering him; he must have gotten some sunscreen or sand in it. After making him blink and blink and blink and looking around for some speck, he wasn't any better. I handed him his cup of water and told him to take a drink. He did. He was all better. Again...because a drink of water soothes scratchy eyes.

Day trip

We made a spontaneous day trip to the beach today...

Fort Papa

Brady really wanted to built a fort this weekend, so Papa stepped up to the plate and helped them construct this wonder.  They love hanging out in it.  Unfortunately, so do the ticks; I've had to pick about a half dozen ticks off of them in the past few days.

More tee-ball

Brady with Coach Mike:


His serious face:

Happy face:

Boredom in the outfield:

At bat:

Picture time:

Strawberry Abundance

We took advantage of another beautiful day on Friday to head out to the strawberry fields. In less than 45 minutes, we'd picked over 40 pounds of perfect red berries. Well, maybe 39 pounds of perfect red berries and a few ounces of slightly under-ripe or bruised ones from the boys ;)

Brady, still working his Herb-the-gardener act:

So far, our bounty has yielded us 15 jars of strawberry jelly, two nights of strawberry margaritas, 1 strawberry shortcake, 1 strawberry shake, 12 strawberry popsicles, and several bags of frozen whole berries and berry puree. YUM!

How Does Your Garden Grow - pictures

Brady, as Herb the Gardener:

Playing the banjo: (When I told him after that this was my favorite part, he felt he had to clarify that it wasn't a real banjo!)

With his teacher:

How Does Your Garden Grow - movie

Brady was "Herb, the gardener," the star at the Kindergarten musical. He memorized his parts almost completely on his own and was so excited about the big premier last night! When we were leaving, the drama teacher from the high school asked him if he would be in the drama club in high school :)

Part 1:



Part 2:

An old collection of What says...

Here's a "redonkulous" [new word in Brady's vocab!] compilation of old Bradyisms. We've had these stored in various emails and documents; most of them are from James...

From way back in 2006...

(remember, he's only 2 or 3 years old!)

After we saw a bear in our yard, Brady and James went out to pick tomatoes. James carried a big rock with him.

James: This is a big bear rock.
Brady: Can I carry that big bear rock?
James: No, it's too big for you to carry.
Brady: I'm a big brother now. I can carry a big bear rock.

Later, they picked up some little rocks and James said they would use them to scare off bears.
James: It's not safe for bears to be in the neighborhood. They might be hit by a car, or chased by a dog...
Brady: Or a rock might hit them in the back...

August 2006

After our anniversary dinner, Kelly and James went to the Omni where Dave and Jan were staying. We needed to pick up Rylan before heading home. Brady was spending the night at the hotel, so we all started trading goodnight hugs and kisses. The last person James said goodbye to was Dave, so they just shook hands and Dave, very matter of factly, said "Happy Anniversary." Brady then came up to James with his hand out. James stuck out his hand too; Brady shook it and, in his best Dave-voice, very seriously said, "Happy Anniversary." He did the same thing to Kelly.

We were brushing Brady's teeth before bedtime and Oma and Papa's house. They have a ladybug windup toy from the movie A Bug's Life on the counter. I'm brushing Brady's teeth when he pulls the toothbrush out.
Brady: What’s this bug?
James: He’s from the bug movie you watched. Continue brushing.
Brady pulls out the toothbrush: What’s his name?
James: I don’t remember. Continue brushing.
Brady again pulls out the toothbrush: What his name?
James: I don’t remember, buddy. Continue brushing.
Brady takes out the toothbrush again: What’s her name? She’s a ladybug.
James: That’s right, she is a ladybug. But I still don’t remember her name. Sorry. Can we finish brushing your teeth now? I put the toothbrush back in his mouth in an effort to muscle through.
Brady removes the toothbrush one last time to say: It’s kind of hard to talk.

8/28/06

It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m laying on the floor scrubbing vomit out of the carpet. Brady is in our bed ostensibly recovering from having thrown up all the way down the hall from his room to ours. He sits up and says,”You’re really big, daddy. Almost like Mac in the cars movie. What’s your favorite car from the movie feeter [theater]?”

5/1/06

When we moved into the new house, Dave was putting screen in the floor vents to catch anything that little people might drop. He said, “I need some more screen”.

Brady said, “There’s some more screen.”

“Where?” we asked.

“Right there on the television.”

9/14/06

Brady and I were playing blocks and I asked him what he wanted to make. “Maybe a ship”.

I said, “OK, what kind of ship do you want to make? We can make a sail boat, or a ski boat like Popsie’s.”

Brady: “Or a rocket ship . . .”

9/18/06

We were eating trail mix with Craisins in them (cranberry raisins).

Brady: What are these?
Me: Craisins.
Brady: I call them red raisins. What do you call them?
Me: Craisins.
Brady: I call them red raisins. What are craisins?
Me: They are like raisins but they are made from cranberries.
Brady: What are cranberries?
Me: They are red berries. Sometimes you have cranberry juice to drink.
Brady: Maybe if we pour from cranberry juice on the ground there will be some red raisins next time.

Remote control: “TV picture show-er-up-er"

Windshield wipers – “windshapers”

Brady and I walked out the front door to play outside. I asked him what he wanted to do. Brady looking intently at his watch-less wrist and said, “Hmm, I think it’s time to blow some bubbles.”

10/2/06

We have been having trouble getting Brady to stay in bed. He goes through all the usual excuses like, “I have to go potty”, “I can’t find Hop”, and “Cover me back up”. In the past he has warped cause and effect for his own purposes and told me that he got out of bed because he stubbed his toe on the door. However, on this date, he used his most creative excuse so far. “Mommmmeeeeee. My fingernails are too long!”.

10/5/06

Last night Brady wanted me to tell him a story about a horse that lived with pigs. The horse’s name was Milky, the mommy pig was Orky, the daddy pig was Soppy, and the piglets were Dippy, Max, and Sear Cub. (Brady picked the subject and all the names.) Orky had piglets on a dark night and when she woke up one of them was white with long legs and a long snout. Milky the horse grew up with the piglets until one day the farmer put him in the stable. He was really happy for a while with the other horses, but finally went back to live in the pigpen b/c he missed his family.

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2007

J: Brady, you need to have some fruit before you have more bagel. You can have half a banana, a clementine, blackberries, raspberries, or grapefruit.
B: Um, i'll have some CoCo puffs.

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2008

Last week, while Rudy was napping, Brady and Kelly stretched out in front of the fire and played "Fortunately, Unfortunately" for about an HOUR. For 4 years old, Brady had some very creative problem solving skills. Many of his solutions involved Mommy magically having something in her pocket that would save the day (i.e. - Unfortunately we forgot to pack snacks and were hungry. Fortunately, Mommy had some in her pocket...Unfortunately we got lost. Fortunately, Mommy had a map in her pocket.)

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2010

Rudy was hiding in the bathroom linen closet last night so Brady and James were “wondering” where he was. James said if we couldn’t find him we’d have to get a new kid.

Brady said, “Where do you get a new kid? Oh, you’ll have to go back to the hospital and get one. No, you could just take that medicine!”

James said, “What medicine?”

Brady: There’s a medicine you can take so you’ll have another kid.

James: Really, where did you hear about that?

He said, “There was a commercial on TV.”

The next day, we had some Q&A with Brady at dinner, where we learned that this "vitamin" could get you a baby, and had something to do with 6 days. (He wasn't really clear on whether that 6 days was how long it took, or something else). We finally figured out that the commercial was for a pregnancy test that allowed women to find out the results 6 days earlier. [Which, of course, then led to a discussion about pregnancy tests!]

Unique words, still in his vocabulary: spectalee-ar, binoclee-ar

Lately we've heard a lot about "versing" from Brady. As in "Who are we versing this week in basketball?" and "If the Steelers were versing the Orioles, who would you cheer for?"

Mothers' Day Hike

My mothers' day started off with a lovely breakfast of cinnamon rolls and fruit-and-yogurt parfaits. We decided to head off to the mountains for a hike. It was a little chilly still, but we enjoyed a great new hike up to Humpback Rocks. As always, the boys were great hikers.

The views from the top were amazing...almost 360 degrees!

Rudy's grumpy face:

View from the parking lot...we hiked all the way up to those rocks!

All worn out:

We finished off the day with shish-kebab dinner and margaritas with friends...overall, quite a nice day to be Mom :)