10 months old!

I can't believe Brody is almost 1 year old. He turned 10 months on January 10. He is crawling (very quickly) and with much determination. He sometimes grunts and gets this look on his face like "you better get out of my way". He loves to eat and would rather eat what is on our plates than what we may have made for him. He loves the water. We have him in swim lessons and he swims in the bath tub every night. He is very happy and laughs and plays with his mommy and daddy all the time. He has 4 teeth and is very proud to show them off.

Our days of quiet dinners and shopping while he sleeps in the carseat are long over. But we are having a blast.

Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas in Idaho with all of Brody's grandparents, aunts and uncles. There was a ton of snow and we had a pleasant time. Unfortunatly, we all got sick right after Christmas and spent the last 4 days comforting Brody and each other. It was nice to be home but we were very ready to get back to our normal routine. And the sunshine!

Brody turns 9 months

Brody turned 9 months on December 9th. We just went to the doctor for his check up. He weighs 20 lbs. exactly. He is in the 50th pecentile and is doing great. He has two little teeth on the bottom and is working on his top two. He gets around very efficiently by doing the one arm-one leg military crawl. He is such a sweetie.

And such a boy!

December in Monterey

Drew, Heather and Brody. Seaside State Beach. Brrrhh....

Thanksgiving

Drew, Brody and I went to Palm Desert for Thanksgiving. My mom, dad and brother picked us up in the RV and we all drove south together. Brody saw his great grandparents Tom and Jemima Davis and his great grandpa Jim Kempthorne.

My mom made a huge turkey dinner and we all gathered at the house in Palm Desert. The grandparents, my Uncle Mark and my cousins Kris and Melissa were all there. Kris's daughter Kylee is 5 and she and Brody had a wonderful time. They went swimming, played in the RV and Kylee introduced Brody to fairies and barbie dolls. Brody just wanted to eat the wings and the heads of the barbies. Brody loves older kids. It is so much fun to listen to him squeel.

Jeff and Melissa left early for LA and we stayed and hung around Palm Desert for the weekend. I love southern California. Monterey is so cold!!

Baby's First Halloween

Brody was a labradoodle puppy for Halloween. We had a pot luck with all of our neighbors in the front of our house. We had a grill, a fire pit and lots of candy. Kids came from all over the Monterey area to Ft. Ord. It was incredible to see so many kids in costumes. Brody did great and was ready for bed as soon as he had dinner.

His dad,on the other hand, stayed up till 2am talking with the boys. They had a great time too!

Brody's First Camping Trip

This weekend we took Brody and the dogs to Big Basin Red Wood State Park. It is about 30 miles east of Santa Cruz. It was beautiful. The weather forcast predicted high 70's and low 80's. What I didn't factor in was lots of shade, breeze and cold nights! We had a tent cabin that was half wood half canvas. It had a wood burning stove which helped but camping with an infant is a lot of work. Especially in the fall!

We had a great time and I think Brody enjoyed it too. He loved his kelty backpack and I also think he loved sleeping between his mom and dad. Well, at least for the first night. The second and third night I kicked Drew to the other bed because I was afraid Brody would get stuck between our sleeping bags.

California is also not very dog friendly. There was only one trail we could take the dogs on and they had to stay on leash. But it was still beautiful. We made breakfast ever morning and cooked up stakes and brauts at night. Brody ate some beef and macaroni concaucsion and all was good.

Brody is a trooper but by Monday morning he wanted nothing more to do with the tent cabin or the sleeping bag. I don't think he understood why his parents would chose to be cold and stay in the same room for 3 days. But he will learn!

Needless to say I think the neighbors camping next to us were glad when we pulled away at 9am.

Oh, and the first night we were there Drew almost blew us up. He bought a lighter at the ranger station. After we started the fire in the wood burning stove he couldn't find the lighter. After a loud explosion and small fire we found the lighter. It was on the stove. Thats my little army ranger!