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.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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.)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 :)

Bible Study

After spending Saturday morning at an early t-ball game and then working in the yard, the kids disappeared for a bit. When James went to track them down, he found them each in their own rooms having some self-imposed quiet time and reading their children's Bibles...

DC for the day

We headed up to DC for our semi-regular trip. Brady has been learning about important people at school, so we took some time this trip to actually visit a few of the monuments.

We went to the Vietnam Wall, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, and the Washington Monument. We didn't plan far enough in advance to get tickets to go up in the monument...next time.

Watching the monument "move," or at least that's what it looked like with the clouds moving above it. (Don't worry, that is a skort I'm wearing and you're not seeing anything indecent!)

We also took a leisurely stroll through the art museum. Here's our very own Thinker:

That night, we went over to Yeoanny and Angie's house for a great dinner. Brady and Rudy loved playing with Abby and Nick, and we got to meet the new baby. Yeoanny was James' best friend growing up and the best man at our wedding. We're so lucky to have friends who have been in our lives so long!

We stayed in a hotel in NoVA that night and hit Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum Sunday morning.

The kids' favorite parts? Brady's was the Lincoln Memorial. Rudys...staying at the hotel. (Actually that was his favorite favorite favorite part, and he decided that before we even visited anything else!)

Look what I grew!

I can hardly believe it...I have a proven track record of buying clearance plants and seeing their demise in less than a full growing season. These plants are immune to my ineptitude, though, and have gotten huge and beautiful in the past few years. (Full disclosure, though, I think I did pay full price for the clematis plants!)

These evening primroses I did not pay full price for. I think I got two plants for $.10 each on clearance. They've now taken over almost an entire bed, and a I've even had enough to pull a few to pass on to a friend!

Tee-ball

Brady had his first tee-ball game this week.

Both the league and this particular team are somewhat lacking in organization, so I was pretty irritated after the first practice. (Really...15 kids on the team and you have them run the bases one at a time?!?) I was all up in my irritation when Brady ran over at the end of practice and said, "Mom, that was awesome!". Um...keeping my mouth shut!

Anyway, at the "game" : Each kid gets to bat until they get a fair hit off the tee. Then that kid runs to first and advances around the bases with each subsequent hit. As you can imagine, it's not exactly a nail-biter of a game. :)

Warming up:

Looking pretty confident...

First time at bat:

Safe at first

and second...

and heading toward third...

Brady got to play shortstop:

And, here's Rudy, entertaining himself with some funny faces...

And...here's what James has to say about it:

So Sisyphus was the guy who had to roll the rock up the hill, and Tantalus was the guy who couldn't reach the the water or the grapes. What was the name of the guy who had to watch t-ball practice?

So, even though we're not thrilled with the experience so far, we're not coaching so we're going to put on my happy face and thank the coaches for their efforts. And I'll reconsider coaching in the spring (or, better yet, work harder to convince James to coach next spring)! I'm sure Brady is still learning...teamwork? Commitment? One of those important things, I'm sure...

Fundue

The Melting Pot had a kids-eat free special, so we took the kids as a very special treat. Saying that they loved it might be a bit of an understatement. They liked everything about it...the dipping, the cheesy-goodness, the saucy accompaniments for the main course, and obviously the chocolatey deliciousness!

I love this picture...it looks like James is pretty peeved that Rudy is eating all the chocolate :)