It Takes A Village

We took a big trip to Hawaii over Thanksgiving. By "we", I don't mean the 3 of us. Bradley took a huge entourage with him, which was good, because mommy and daddy need all the help they could get. A big mahalo to the entire ohana for their helping hands. This is Bradley's last vacation for a while. A new family rule came out of the journey - nobody goes on vacation unless they carry their own luggage. (Good thing my dad doesn't apply that rule, or my mother would never get to go anywhere.) Thanksgiving week was extra special this year since Bradley got to see all of his forbearers in just a few days.


As you can image, with a big trip like this, there were many first for the little one.
1st real vacation
1st (& 2nd) tropical island
1st time in the Pacific Ocean - he really like jumping the waves
1st tan line
1st luau
1st cab ride & 1st limo ride
1st time getting air sick - thankfully that was toward the end of the flight
1st time walking on a moving side walk - he loved it, we must have rode it 40 times

During the trip he started talking more and is more comfortable laying and sitting on a real bed. Before he used to crawl off the bed he second you set him on it.

I will post more pictures later, but here is a short video for now.

Look Out Emmitt

Christmas came early this year for Bradley. Great grandma gave him a singing bunny before Thanksgiving. He likes to dance to the music and he uses Pooh bear as a partner. Click here for video.

Report Card

We had a parent teacher conference today and got a real report card from school.

Some of the categories he is doing well in are:

• Playing interactive games (i.e. chase)
• Separating from parent easily

Area for improvement:

• Talking (multiple words)

A couple categories that were not on the report card that I feel Bradley excels in are:

• Giving orders
• Closing doors
  
• Jumping into the pool, and now jumping off the top stair

No, No, No

Brad has been talking a little bit more lately. His favorite word is "No", which is usually expressed in triplicate. He will also occasionally say "Ya". There are unconfirmed reports of him saying "poppy", "grandma", and "football".

I Plead The Fourth

For the longest time Bradley has only had 3 lower front teeth. Well, finally, the fourth one started to come in this week.

New Talents

Bradley has reached a couple of developmental milestones that I would have rather avoided.  First, he can unzip things.  This means that he can now undress himself, as he did last Saturday morning.  The other new thing is that he can reach the faucet in the bathroom and turn it on.  We have a little stool for him, but it is not tall enough to reach the faucet.  I don't know how he hoisted himself up there, but he did.  What's next? Climbing over the gate?!

Big John

Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-Grandma came for a visit this weekend. We took them downtown on Sunday to show them the big city from the top of one of the biggest skyscrapers. You know that Bradley loves to do chores, so we let him help clean the windows.

While we were there, Bradley ran into his twin sister. They just stood there next to each other for a while. I don't think they ever made eye contact.
We stayed for sunset and looked at the trains afterward.

De-lic-ious

Some people like to dunk donuts in coffee. Others go for Oreos in milk. Personally, I like an occasional graham cracker dipped in a peppermint mocha. Bradley has a more refined palette. Tonight he was dipping cheese crackers in pureed green beans. He also tried Teddy Grahams in green beans, but that wasn't as satisfying.

This happened when we were out to dinner at Rock Bottom. When the check came, Bradley immediately grabbed it. A most gracious offer, but it rang hollow since he didn't bring any cash with him.

And in This Corner

At 33.25 inches, 25 lbs 7 ounces is Bradley "The Branch", undisputed cutest baby in the world! His weight is at the 46th percentile and the height is 78th.

Over 1 Billion Served

Not quite yet, but today saw the 1,000th visit to the blog. In an effort to hit our goal of 1 billion served, I realize we must expand globally. Therefore, a translation tool is now available. This is on the lower right side of the blog. Please tell all your friends, especially the ones in China and India.