Braden is ONE!

My goodness.  I just don't know how we went from this...

to this.

I guess I don't have any babies romping around this house anymore.  Because baby Braden--he's officially ONE.  (Although part of me thinks he may have actually turned one yesterday because of leap year.)  I love looking through the photo progression below!  It's so fun to see how he slowly morphed from a pudgy lump to a skinny little boy. And to see that he's grown about a quarter inch of hair in the last year.



The older Braden gets, the more obvious the differences between he and Finley become.  He's a little more cautious about his gross motor skills.  He loves to stand and practice walking--but only holding our hands.  He's not crazy about pushing the lion and has only pulled to standing on furniture a few times.  Finley loved to crawl through the coffee table, and Braden gets nervous once he gets up there. Finley never wanted to cuddle with us--I feel like he was always fighting to keep his head up and arching his back to escape.  But not Braden, sometimes he'll lay his head on my shoulder and relax.  And he'll let me hold him like a baby, cradled up against me.

He's a very sweet boy.  When he's tired or upset, like clockwork, he'll suck his thumb and put his other arm across his face and cuddle into my chest when I pick him up.  After a minute he'll be ready to play again, but sometimes he just needs to check in with mama.  I need to figure out how to get a photo of it, because it's far and away the sweetest thing he does.  As soon as he realizes I'm going to pick him up, he sticks that thumb right in.  It melts me.  He is a pretty easygoing kid--only fussy if he needs to nap or eat.  He lets out one little cry when you lay him down and then is out.  And I think he might sit in his high chair indefinitely because he likes to eat so much.  And drink water.  Boy, he thinks that is a TREAT.

(The B has met its match.  It's officially been gnawed on.)

He likes to scoot around and explore--and knows what is off limits even if he doesn't follow through.  He was scooting around the Chick fil a play place the other day and would scoot over to a wipe on the floor, look at us and shake his head NO before he picked it up.  He did that quite a few times.  And when he decides to go after Copper's dog food, every couple scoots he'll look back to see if we're watching... and then go for the dog food.  Gross.

He has a couple sounds he loves to make--da da, tuck-a-tuck-a, ba-ba and and l sound, and will only say mama when he's in extreme distress.  When I ask him to say mama he responds with dada.  Turd.  He loves to crawl around on the deck and really likes to go outside.

Braden hasn't fallen asleep nursing for a long time.  These days, he typically nurses for less than five minutes and then is ready to play.  He was so tired after BSF yesterday that he totally crashed while he was nursing--and I let him sleep in my arms for fifteen minutes before I took him to his crib. As he was laying there I thought to myself, this is probably the last time he'll fall asleep in my arms, how blessed am I to get one more chance to snuggle him and watch him sleep.  And then I cried. And resolved to have more babies--but not quite yet.  What a nice, cuddly way to welcome his second year of life.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of kissing his curly head, tickling his ribs or holding him tight while he sucks his thumb.  He's just a doll.  And Finley is pretty fond of him too. Even if his love is sometimes a little tough.