Yogurt Paint.

I stumbled upon this genius idea to mix yogurt with food coloring on some stranger's blog. It comes into great use if you have one of those kids who tries to eat the paint instead of actually painting... sadly we have one of those kids. In addition to snacking on the paint he is also a smearer... he just smacks his hand into the colors and smears it around viciously until paint splatters the walls around him. So again yogurt paint could come in handy... its edible and washable. Whoda thought?



These two.

She has figured him out... but those others, they are still oblivious. 

He is her link to snacking in between meals.

And boy does she know it.

These two have got a great thing going on.

Who am I to intervene?

My first Halloween Costume.

We don't call Khage our little chicken. We don't have an obsession with poultry either. This costume choice came about before Khage was even a thought. There is history behind this costume. When I worked at Albertsons, years ago, we sold Halloween costumes. And because it's Albertsons and very few people go there for costumes, we ended up stamping them more then half off and throwing them in a cart hoping to get them out before Halloween was over. This was four years ago mind you. I was not married, Brad and I were just friends, and I had no hope of having children in the near future. But after some persuasion by a dear friend of mine I bought a few and threw them in a box to hide in my closet until they were needed or found. This was one of those costumes.  It waited patiently all those years to finally break out of that box and play dress up with our sweet little boy. Here it is making its grand debut as Khages First Halloween Costume.  

Oh dear, look at that poor little snot nosed boy.

Dot Mobile.

 I spent two days of my life tracing and cutting out card stock circles. I wanted to make a paper mobile for Khages room... yes he is ten months old and no he wont lie on his back in his crib content at staring at bright colors floating softly in the fan induced wind. But, he needed some colorful decor above the chair in his room and its just about the cheapest thing I could find to make on pinterest. Costing me a total of like five bucks... not even if you count all the left over card stock I have for other projects. The instructions required jewelry pliers and fancy Martha Stewart circle punches in two different sizes. I, so cheaply, did it without those items and went old school with tracing and cutting out 200 circles myself and using a tack to punch the smaller holes. Oh yes, back off Martha or else I will shove you with my poor carpal tunneled hands.

Its definitely not perfect but I think that only adds to it's charm. And Khage just loves to stare at it while he drinks his bottles. I think it's darling and it adds a nice POP of color to his room.

Materials

Cardstock (5 8.5x11 pages of 4 colors)

Embroidary Hoops (8 inch & 5.5 inch)

Jump Rings (8mm)

Needle Nose Pliers (I used two pairs of tweezers)

A tack (I used this to punch tiny holes in the top and bottom for the jump rings)

Glue Gun

Fishing Line

Ribbon

Directions

Trace and cut out as many circles as you can fit on the cardstock. My circles were 1.5 inches. Use the tack to punch holes in the top and bottom of every circle. I put cardboard under the circle to be sure the tack punctured all the way through the cardstock. String the circles with your pliers in various lengths, or go ghetto and get your tweezer like I did. This will take up most of your time. Hot glue your top circles to the embroidary hoops, fitting 16 circle on the larger hoop and 9 on the smaller one. Tie three pieces of ribbon at various lengths to the smaller hoop and let them dangle (I cut the bottoms of the ribbon in upside down V's for visual appeal). Connect the smaller hoop to the larger hoop with fishing line at three equidistant spots. Then do the same with ribbon or fishing line to hang the mobile to the ceiling. Using ribbon for this step looks lovely but it wont spin as well as it could with fishing line.

Now hang it & let your baby enjoy it!

Ten Months

A few special facts about our little baguette:

He gives the most adorable open mouth kisses ever

Sometimes when I make Wilbie say arf arf, he will make doggy sounds too

He is finally holding his own bottle when he drinks his milk

It is getting very hard to keep him quiet and still during church

He hates to eat vegetables and loves black beans

I bonk his poor head while trying to get him into his carseat at least twice a week

He is so easily frustrated

All day he rearranges the chairs in the kitchen

One of his favorite toys is a plastic rake

If we brush our teeth he will always want to brush his too

He tries to eat the binding off all his books

His feelings get hurt if you tell him NO

Playtime in a fort never gets old to him

He is so proud that he can scoot backwards on his belly on the tile

It drives him mad if he cant get the lid off his toy box

He makes the most loveable baby mumbles when hes tired and sucking on a pacifier

If he is in our room without supervision he is surely playing with Daddies church shoes

He puts his play phone to his ear and acts like hes talking to someone

He can climb into his wagon on his own

Looking at pictures always makes him smile... ecspecially if they are of him

&

He is definently the main reason our lives are filled with such happiness. He makes the hard days easier, the boring days fun and the smallest moments memorable. He is our world.

The Vegetables and the Vacuum.

This little chum. He refuses to eat his vegetables or anything that's not fruit, cheese, cheerios, black beans or chicken. So help me if Khage turns into a picky eater like his Daddy, I will flip out!

Yesterday I am feeding him, Khage not Brad, sweet potatoes and he is using all force necessary to evade that spoon, ducking and weaving with lips tightly sealed. But I am determined, so I get another spoon full, airplane it towards his face, he smacks the spoon away, I woosa, wipe up most of the mess, and give it a few minutes before I try again. Hoping persistence is the key. After five failed attempts, and sweet potato chunks everywhere but in the kids stomach, I figure I will get the vacuum and knock out some house cleaning in between bites. I return to the kitchen to plug in the vacuum and Khage starts to get all stir crazy. Hes wiggling and trying to move about to get a clear view of the vacuum. I ignore his weirdness and spoon up some more potatoes. This time he happily takes the bite... and immediately opens his mouth for another... all the while looking around me as to not break eye contact with the vacuum. He finishes off the potatoes like they are his favorite meal in the world and I smile proudly because I finally beat him in a battle of the vegetables. I take him out of his chair and he then hightails it towards the vacuum. That's when I realize he ate the sweet potatoes for one reason only, not because he finally thought to himself "maybe I should mind my mommy" but because he thought to himself "if I eat these nasty things she will let me out of this darn chair so I can play with the vacuum."

I have known for some time that he has had this long distance thing going on with the vacuum. I say long distance because I avoid vacuuming when hes on the floor because he loves to play with it and it always ends in him knocking it over. I have this returning fear of him getting stuck underneath the fallen vacuum for all of thirty seconds before I save him. I dunno, it could be traumatizing.

But I figured I would reward him with some vacuum play time, under my supervision of course, since he ate his vegetables.
What can I say I'm the fun mom!
And after that I locked him and his long johns in his room while I mopped the house.
You know, because I'm the fun mom.

.

Pumpkins Smumpkins.

I was going to write a big long post about how frustrated I am with the high prices of pumpkins this year at the pumpkin patch. I was gonna say something along the lines of how upsetting it was to go to a pumpkin patch and leave without pumpkins because we couldn't stomach paying that much money for a vegetable that we planned to leave on the porch. Stupid pumpkins smumpkins.

But, after looking at that adorable picture of Khage and his Daddy holding hands, this all just seamed so insignificant and a change of topic may be in order.

Then again I am finding it very hard to forget about the three pumpkins for fifty bucks. And its not like we wanted to get one of those record breaking pumpkins that you see on the news with the farmer whose standing next to it and the thing is freaky bigger then him and hes got all five of his grand kids sitting on it with the biggest smirks of their lives and the dog to the left looks all scarred because he has no idea what that big orange thing is...

This rant of mine has run its course.  

Lets get back to my little smumpkin.

Romping in the mud and rain.

Finally it feels like fall. It did just officially turn into Fall a few short weeks ago, but we have been waiting for this kind of weather for months now. We celebrated the long awaited rain with some time rompin in the mud. We got Khage all booted up in his fall apparel so he wouldn't catch a chill and we headed for the empty field around the corner from our house.

He was more then willing to wear his owl head gear and I thank my lucky stars because I know how frustrating it can be to try and keep your babies warm when they refuse to wear the required attire. It was funny to see him watching his hands covered in owl mittens, he could not figure out why he couldn't grab anything. And he looked darn adorable and I could have eaten that face for lunch.

Only one three-wheeler is running, so one of us had to pull Khagey with the bicycle. It doesn't sound too bad but coming home there is quite the uphill climb so Brad courageously took on that battle.

We didn't get any pictures of us flying through the muddy marshes but we all had a great time. Including our little Khage who is already a professional rider; whenever we step on the gas he immediately throws each leg around the gas tank in preparation for a ride.  

As Brad took Khage around the field, driving slow and cautiously while he held Khage tightly around his full belly, it made my heart smile. The two of them together, doing what Brad loves with the little person he loves the most really just warms me right up. I thought I loved Brad plenty before we had a child and now I see Brad as a father, through Khages eyes, and it only makes me love him so much more. 

Fun In the Sun.

Last Friday we took a blanket outside and played around on what used to be grass while we waited for Daddy to get home from work. And now that the weather is cooling off, I am running out of excuses to keep this baby indoors. I try and let him just roam free and explore, but its hard knowing that the minute he gets more then arms reach away he will be shoving what ever he can find into that mouth for me to later find in his dirty diaper. I am doing my best to not be that hovering mother who is always super paranoid and looks at everything like a possible safety hazard... but this kid sure makes it hard.

 Can we all take a second and awww over those little leg creases. They are just one of the many baby body rolls that I will miss when my baby is replaced by a toddler and slowly walks off his baby chub.

Then finally Daddy got home and our weekend officially began.

And this is the main reason why Daddy will always trump Mommy in the fun department.

Pals, Chums or Buddies.

I don't boss any of you around much. So I hope you wont find me rude for doing so now, but as parents we just gotta look out for each other.

Have you heard of these Pillow Pets?

I am sure you have. We live like the Flintstones, without cable, and yet I have heard about these things. And because I am the cool Mom who stays on top of the must haves I tried to convince Brad that our little BamBam needs one of his own. At ten months old he is happy to play with his toothbrush, and to me thats an even better reason to get him one for being a boy happy with the simple things in life. But, sadly Brad is a snooze and doesn't get excited about petty things like stuffed animals that double as pillows, so he didn't think it was necessary.

But necessary or not Mama wants her baby to have this pillow. And I intended to buy one once Daddy was MIA on the next shopping trip. But before I even had the chance to go behind my husbands back, I stumbled upon a Pillow Chum. Or was it a pillow buddy, mate or palsy?

Now Costco is selling these pillows for 17 bucks and they are literally the size of 4 Pillow Pets. If any of you have checked out the price of the original Pillow Pets they are going for at least 20 bucks and they are tiny. Now that just drives me mad. So as my way of sticking it to the big man in his cool swivel chair, with his mahogany desk and that great view up on the top floor of the Pillow Pet factory and practically robbing people, I bought one! And because I am taking a stand against crime... how mad can Brad really be?

 It may be bigger then Khage. But like a good sweater that I bought him on discount a season early, he can just grow into it.

And consider that my service announcement for the month. Now go get your baby a mondo Pillow Pet knock off.

The Name Explained.

Some of you may have noticed that our blog went and got itself a makeover. Kudos to you for being observant. In addition to a fresh face... a new name has also been created. As you may already be able to tell our location {bradleyandjamee.blogspot.com} is still going to be our home sweet home on the web but we thought we could really do without the blasting of our last name all over the internet. There really are some freakos out there and I would just rather stay off their radar.

Bringing Up Baby is what you can call us now. And this name is personal on a not-so-personal bases. It was actually chosen from a film in which Bradley and I both enjoy. Which is really quite a miracle because when it comes to movie night at our house it entails allot of flipping through Netflix for 45 minutes before we just resort to reruns of The Office.

So Bringing Up Baby is an old black and white movie starring Carey Grant and Katharine Hepburn. Not my favorite Hepburn... shout out to Audrey... but the girl still can act. The movie is a romantic comedy, but an old fashioned romance so its not filled with a bunch of lamo lines that are sickening to Brads ears. And not to mention, but I will anyway, that Carey Grant is a swoon!

The silly thing about this film is that Baby... which the title is referring to... is actually not a baby at all but a pet leopard.

Yes, I said a pet leopard.

This is around the time where you have decided to not rent this film at all and maybe stop reading this post all together but I am telling you its good fun... just rent the movie.

Anyway, that is why we chose that title because it totally applies to our new role as parents raising our little wee and it is backed by some enjoyable moments we shared together as a family of two before our tv became the box that spits out episodes of The Backyardigans and Phineas and Ferb. Wait who am I kidding, Brad was watching cartoons way before Khage ever came along.

Join me on a quick walk down memory lane: When Brad and I first became friends that was one of my favorite things about him. I never knew anyone over the age of eight who could quote Disney movies so well, then Brad came along and threw me for a loop when he knew all the lines to The Jungle Book, The Lion King  and Robin Hood. Can you tell I am smiling right now?

So for the few of you that were curious about the recent change, there it is plain and simple.

Hakuna Matata.

Our family in the wilderness.

Bradley and I have such dreams of being one of those outdoorsy families. You know, the ones that are always shoving the kids into the car for another exciting nature adventure? We want our children to grow up and look back on their childhood with such fondness over the memories we shared as a family in the woods. Together setting up tents, conquering mountains, fighting over the lucky fishing pole and laughing over a campfire while mommy plays a little tune on the guitar...

Note to self: learn to play the guitar.

Note to Brad: find a lucky fishing pole.

And now I know what your thinking, How exactly are you going to trek it in the woods with a ten month old? What ever will you do? This is close to impossible.

Calm down please. We have this under control.

Brad was the first one to give this baby backpack a go. Don't let Brad fool you, you can tell you have a baby on your back... he just makes it look so easy!

We did let the poor guy out for a little time to explore and consume a few handfuls of dirt.

What a chummy boy!

 A few years ago was the first time Brad and I tackled this mountain hill. It was on Valentines Day and the weather was a bit cooler. I remember having a stick fight and climbing my first tree. It was very surreal to remember that day, the same two people but living incredibly different lives then compared to now . Our biggest concern that day was making sure Subway didn't forget to include those little mayo and mustard packets with our sandwiches and now we were consumed with such different concerns; is Khage's milk staying cold, should I reapply sunscreen on that delicate baby skin, should we take a break so he can stretch those little gammies?

We managed to get a similar picture in the same area as we did more then two years ago

One thing hasn't changed that's for sure, we still to this day have so much fun together.
To see more of our first adventure on this here mountain hill click me.

So that was the first of many family hiking trips to come. I cant wait for Khage to be old enough to beg us to take him camping in the great outdoors.

I will leave you with this following picture.

He says that's his Michael Jackson. I don't know about that nonsense, but I sure do love that man.