The Clan of Ross

More Pics Sent to Jeremy

2012-02-06T14:15:00.029-05:00

As I said in my last post, I frequently text Jeremy photos of what's going on at the home front while he is at work. Here are some more favorites.
Yesterday morning, I sent Jeremy this photo. Bradford was having a tantrum before he even had his first bite of breakfast. When I grabbed the TV remote, Bradford started chanting "Ernie! Ernie! Ernie!" I told him that Ernie wasn't on. Then he hasked for "Elmo! Elmo!" I once again explained that Ernie and Elmo were not on TV at that time. He was angry. For the record, Bradford has only been allowed to watch Sesame Street for about a month. I started allowing him to watch thinking that when Baby Deuce is born, Bradford can be happily occupied by Sesame Street for one hour each day, which would give me one guaranteed free hour to tend to things around the house- chores, meals, or just cuddling/feeding/changing/bathing Baby Deuce. Bradford was in a bad mood all day because "Ernie" wasn't on. This morning, he demanded Ernie again. Bradford is grounded from "Ernie" until further notice. If watching one show turns him into a monster after one month, he's not allowed to watch it anymore.

At about 10:30am, I sent this picture to Jeremy. If you look beyond the hideous floor, you can see a shattered glass mug. Two hours had gone by since I told Bradford Ernie wasn't on TV, and he was still angry. Like I said, the kid is not allowed to watch little boy shows on TV anymore. That glass mug was a souvenir favor from one of the Gettysburg College "Snow Ball" winter formals. When Bradford threw it on the ground and broke it, I cried. Pregnancy hormones do not mix well with mementos of college getting smashed in little boy fits of rage. When Bradford saw me crying, he started laughing. Bradford loves to break dishes. He's broken several glasses, a shot glass, bowls, and plates. These broken dishes were glass, stoneware, corelle, and even plastic. Nothing is safe. I'm so over little boy fits of rage. For the record, this behavior clearly comes from Jeremy's genes. Jeremy was, after all, the little boy who kicked a hole in the wall of his house because he didn't want chicken for dinner. Thanks, Jeremy. Really nice of you to pass on your anger management issues to our kid and then go off to work long hours leaving me alone with your angry spawn.

On Friday, I sent this pic to Jeremy with the message, "Awesome. Now he tries to stand in the cart." Yes, this pic was taken in a Target. Like I said in my last post, Jeremy gets a lot of Target pics.

Of course, Bradford isn't bad all of the time, and Jeremy certainly doesn't want to hear all about how rotten Bradford can be while he's working long hours. I sent this pic to Jeremy so we could share in G'burg pride how cute our son looks wearing a G'burg hat. Go Bullets!

Bradford was trying to wear my coat here. Obviously he ran into some trouble when he put his head in the sleeve.

In the "Weird Things Bradford Does" category of pics I send to Jeremy, would be Bradford's borderline OCD when it comes to his love of collecting like objects. On this day, Bradford collected several pairs of my shoes and organized them, by matching pair, in his bug chair.

Another "weird" pic. Post-nap, I found Bradford like this. It's how all the cool kids wear their shirts now I guess.

Steelers game day. Jeremy was working during the game. I sent Jeremy this pic so that he would know that Bradford and I were watching the game, and Bradford was wearing Steelers clothing. Jeremy could also tell from the pic that the Steelers had just scored and Bradford was engaged in the game based on this pic alone. Bradford can say "touch down," and when he does, he always throws his right arm into the air excitedly.

I sent this pic to Jeremy to show him that I caught the ghost in our house on camera. I've been telling him since we moved in that our house is haunted. I've heard the sound of someone walking up the stairs or running water or other strange noises when I'm home alone with Bradford. Our house ghost isn't scary though. The ghost doesn't make as much noise now as it did for our first year in the house. I like to think it's because the ghost has come to accept us as the living residents of this house and approves of our decorating choices. Maybe the ghost was more restless when we were new in the house because it was wondering if we were ever going to do something about our hideous kitchen.

Sometimes, Jeremy will get a pic like this that serves as a reminder that little boys are gross, but completely cute at the same time.

Here's another "weird" pic. Bradford took all of his toys out of this crate (as you can see in the background) and then sat in it.

Jeremy got this pic during one of our library outings. Bradford loves the puzzles in the children's section.

I sent this pic to Jeremy when he was working nights back in early September. It was before we announced that Bradford was going to be a big brother. I told Jeremy that Brodie obviously knew what was up since he, knowing dogs aren't allowed on couches, decided to snuggle up next to me and rest his doggy head on my belly anyway.

Sometimes Jeremy gets pics of Bradford's bath time shenanigans.

So many "Bradford is weird" pics sent to Jeremy. Here's Bradford taking things out of our recycling bin and standing them up on end.

In other recycling news, I sent this pic of our recycling bin to Jeremy with the message "Why is our recycling bin covered in slugs?" Strangest thing ever. In the month of October, our bin was plagued by slugs. I don't know where they came from or why they loved our recycling bin so much, but I was glad when they eventually moved on.

I always send Jeremy a pic of Bradford at his latest doctor's appointment. Here's Bradford at his 15 month check-up looking ever so cute running around in just a diaper, socks, and shoes.

Sometimes Jeremy gets pics of the weird things Brodie does too, like building nests in the shade.

And sometimes Jeremy gets pics of the weird things other animals do. One day I thought it would be fun to take Bradford to feed the ducks in a nearby pond. It ended up being a terrifying experience when the swarm of ducks and geese lead by this rogue in front jumped out of the pond and came after us demanding more and more bread. Bradford did not like that one bit. What happened to the nice ducks who would just float around in ponds calmly and nicely accepting bread crumbs when I was little? I'm never taking Bradford to feed the ducks again.

During pool-weather, I sent Jeremy a lot of pics of Bradford's swimming fun. I figured Jeremy would espcially like this pic because Bradford appears to be flexing his muscles.

Sometimes I'll send Jeremy pics of the projects I'm working on around the house, like when I painted this mirror.

Sometimes I'll send Jeremy a pic like this with the message, "Wish you were here."

Oh look, another Target pic. Bradford and "Mirror Bradford" having a play-date in the changing room.

Another bed-time sleeping photo for Jeremy. Bradford used to love sleeping like this with his butt in the air.

Sometimes I send pictures to Jeremy of Bradford eating like a dog, which he does often. He either wants to be fancy and use a fork, or revert back to the stone age and eat like a dog. Go figure.

I sent this pic to Jeremy a year ago with the message, "Bradford seems to have some type of a skin condition. Do you know anyone in derm you could ask about this?"

Jeremy used to get a lot of pics like this one of a 10 month old sleeping Bradford. Ah, those were the days. No tantrums and fits of rage that resulted in my things getting broken, just lots of blissful sleeping time. Jeremy can expect a lot of pics like this after Baby Deuce makes its appearance next month!

Photos From My Phone That I Sent To Jeremy

2012-02-04T00:47:00.019-05:00

I frequently take pictures with my phone and text them to Jeremy when he's at work. I love how it is a modern way of staying connected to each other during his long days and nights at work. There are, sadly, many days when he doesn't get to see Bradford at all due to leaving the house so early in the morning (he left before 5:00am yesterday) and coming home after Bradford's bed time (one night this week he got home after 9:00pm). Texting him pictures of Bradford, Brodie, or other random things like couches for sale is a way I can let him know that we're thinking about him, love him, and appreciate all of the long hours and hard work he does to financially support our little family. What did residents due before cell phones had cameras? They must not have known what their kids looked like at all.
So this happened Thursday morning. Bradford got into my make-up and applied liquid eye-liner. I promptly snapped a photo with my phone's camera and texted the picture to Jeremy. Later, when I showed the picture to Bradford, he pointed at his eye and said, "dirty." Good to know he recognizes that he didn't do a stellar job of making himself look presentable.

Sometimes, I send Jeremy pictures of Bradford at bed-time when he can't be there for story-time and to tuck him in. Bradford has recently started requesting books be in his bed at nap or bed time. The Ernie in the pic was mine when I was little. Bradford adores my old Ernie and even says "Ernie" with the cutest little boy voice ever.

Sometimes I send Jeremy pics of Brodie looking cute. I sent Jeremy this pic moments after getting home from running errands. Brodie is not allowed on our couches, as couches are for humans only. However, seeing as we are weeks away from the arrival of a new baby, it's time for Brodie to start up with his "big brother badness" like we saw prior to Bradford's arrival. Cue the counter-surfing, food stealing, trash hoarding, furniture climbing etc.

I sent this pic to Jeremy to illustrate how Bradford has recently become aware of the existence of Bloody Mary.

Sometimes I send Jeremy pictures of the weird things Bradford does throughout the day, like the time he tried to move the big rug in the family room.

And sometimes I send him pics I know will make him smile, like when Bradford was doing this in his bug chair.

Sometimes I send Jeremy pictures that show when Bradford is a terror, which I think make Jeremy secretly happy he's at work and not the one trying to buckle a little boy who is angry that it is time to leave the playground into his carseat.

Or sometimes it's a picture of Bradford having a meltdown at home with the attached message "It's not even 9:00am and we're already dealing with tantrums."

Sometimes Jeremy gets a picture illustrating the little streaks of independence and glimpses into big boy behavior. Bradford set up this little picnic himself.

Sometimes I send Jeremy pictures of Bradford's latest artwork. In this case, Bradford drew on his own face with a purple crayon.

Bradford and I love to go to Target. I sent Jeremy this pic back in December when Target had Christmas decorations in the store. The message I sent to Jeremy with this pic said, "I asked him if he wanted to go look at the Christmas trees and he said please." Yes, Bradford still cocks his head to the side every time he says please. Jeremy gets a lot of Target pics sent his way. Sometimes he'll text me back with a quick message like "while you're there, I need multivitamins."

Sometimes I'll send Jeremy a pic that requires a closer look. I think this pic was captioned "Can you find Brodie?" Brodie loves sleeping in the sun.

Sometimes Jeremy gets a picture with no caption at all. Just a cute image of Bradford.

Here's another cute image of Bradford that Jeremy got one day at work. Bradford loves the playground.

Sometimes I send Jeremy pics of our trips to the zoo (aka Petsmart). Bradford loves looking at all of the animals there.

And sometimes I'll take pictures of specific animals, like this guinea pig, and include a message like, "If we got this guinea pig, I would name him Harvey Dent."

Sometimes, when sending Jeremy pictures of our adventures about town, I'll send a pic like this and say, "Guess what store we are in."
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Stay tuned. More phone pics I've sent to Jeremy to come!

Hammer, Hammer

2012-02-03T09:12:00.016-05:00

I'm a couple weeks behind in what's been going on in our life, but since only about 2 people read my blog anyway, did anyone actually notice that I only had one post for the entire month of January? The last time I only had one post in a month was in September 2009 when we announced this.
We recently had an exciting nerdy homeowner weekend that started with this image of a couch I texted to Jeremy one day at work. It was being offered for sale at an extremely discounted price for two days (or less if their limited supply sold out) and would ship for less than $10. We've been wanting a sofa for our living room since we moved in, and I had my heart set on either a shade of turquoise or purple for our living room sofa. I also said I would never order furniture over the internet without having seen it in person. We're also poor, so our living room sofa dreams were indefinitely put on hold... until I saw this beauty for sale for a remarkably great deal, so great, that I decided I would break my rule of buying furniture sight unseen. I immediately texted the screenshot to Jeremy (who was at work) with a "What do you think? Should I order it?" I told him that it said assembly was required, and I didn't know if that meant we just had to put the legs on or if we had to stitch the upholstery on the couch frame ourselves.
He just said, "Does that couch look like what you want?" I said, "I think so." He said, "So order it." I love my husband.

Less than a week later, this giant box arrived at our house. The UPS guy was super nice and actually brought it in the house into the living room for me. Earlier that morning, a UPS freight truck (not a delivery truck) over-turned on I-95 south of Richmond. I joked with Jeremy that our couch was on that truck and was now in the woods on the side of I-95. That's what you get for ordering a super sale couch over the internet. When the box arrived, it was dented, busted in all sorts of ways, and we decided that our couch was definitely on that truck because that's the kind of luck we have. If you look closely at the box, it says that the couch was made in China for a company in Illinois. The retailer we bought the couch from was in California. Our couch had traveled from China to Illinois to California to Virginia. No wonder why the box was busted.

This is what the box looked like when opened. Jeremy was excited that there was going to be so much assembly required. I was happy that we didn't have to actually go so far as stitching the upholstery ourselves. When the couch was assembled, the scene was something like this. The giant couch box was now the favorite toy of one happy little boy. The couch itself fits perfectly into our living room and we are super happy with it.

It was instantly clear that Bradford was ready to live in the box for life. I eventually moved it down to our family room where it stayed for a week and took up almost all of the free floor space.

Bradford put all of his toys and Brodie's toys in the box. He took meals in the box. He shredded magazines in the box. He colored on the box. He would lay down in it, say "nah-nigh" and pretend to go to sleep. That box was the best thing ever in my life. Sure our family room looked like crap with a giant box in the middle of it, but it was a week straight of Bradford not messing with our stuff.

The day after Jeremy put the couch together, he decided to open up another box. He was in a furniture building frenzy.

Voila! We now have a new desk with a wonderful new feature: a cabinet for the computer with a child-proof lock on it so Bradford can no longer press the power button while Jeremy is studying or I'm writing blog posts. And that brings me to the title of this post, "Hammer, Hammer." With all of that furniture building in one weekend, Bradford learned the word hammer. He says it perfectly, and he always says it twice. He has a toy hammer that he loves to wave around too.

Last weekend, Jeremy's dad (Pappy to Bradford) and his lady friend Kim came for a little visit. It was just the occasion for our first group photo on the new couch. Bradford clearly wasn't in the mood for a photo-op when this was taken, but Jeremy's smile proudly boasts "I built this couch! I'm the best!"

2011 Christmasness

2012-01-06T13:46:00.012-05:00

This year, we played host to Jeremy's mother ("Bubba") and step-father ("Cappy") for Christmas 2011.

Bradford was all too happy to have some different people to show off his latest tricks (i.e. tantrums) to.
Christmas Eve Day we went for a nice, long holiday calorie burning walk in Hollywood Cemetery, which you might remember from this post. It was fun seeing the different ways people had added some holiday flair to the cemetery. We also enjoyed sharing the urban legend of "The Richmond Vampire" and the tomb of W.W. Pool where the vampire supposedly hides out. Going to a cemetery may not be the usual way people spend their Christmas Eve day, but it works for us.

Bradford enjoyed opening up his presents from Santa. He opened them while squatting, standing, laying down, and sitting. The novelty of opening presents quickly wore off, and Bradford had no interest in opening the majority of his presents. He was perfectly happy to play with them completely wrapped up. Obviously this child is good with just 5 presents.

The day after Christmas, we headed to Colonial Williamsburg for another nice, long, holiday calorie burning walk and dinner at a tavern. We were joined by my parents ("Mina" and "Billbo") and my brother Andrew, so we had a nice group of 8 people (including Bubba and Cappy) and 2 dogs, Brodie and Mindy. Mindy opted to sleep in the car for most of the day, while Brodie was happy to walk around Duke of Gloucester Street sporting his jingle bell collar. Bradford thought he was the coolest kid in town to have a dog wearing jingle bells walking along with him. Bradford loved the horse-drawn carriage. He also loved running around collecting shells and rocks.

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of year at Colonial Williamsburg due to the holiday decorations. People come from all over the country to get a taste of how the Loyalists and Patriots decorated their homes and businesses with elaborate wreaths and garlands made from natural materials (fruits, shells, plants, etc). Pictured above is Chowning's Tavern (opened in 1766) where we feasted on a tasty Colonial dinner.

Bradford was too hungry for dinner at Josiah Chowning's Tavern to bother to pose with Jeremy.

A few bites into dinner, a fife and drum parade strolled down the street outside. Bradford was frightened by the drums and spent the rest of the meal sitting in my lap.

The meal wasn't a total loss for Bradford. He discovered a love of ketchup, as his face shows.

Legendary Santa

2011-12-20T14:10:00.005-05:00

During "The Week of Fun," we took Bradford to meet Santa Claus for the first time. We decided that we would only take our kids to see Santa if they wanted to go. Since Bradford can actually say, "Santa" and "Ho Ho Ho," we took that as consent that Bradford wanted to meet Santa, and so we took him to meet Legendary Santa. Everyone in Richmond knows that Legendary Santa is the real deal. He is, after all, the "same" Santa I saw as a kid. This also happens to be the 75th anniversary of Legendary Santa.
While Bradford was perfectly content to sit on Santa's lap, not once did he look at Santa. Poor Santa tried to engage Bradford in conversation, and even man-handled him a bit to try to get Bradford to look at him, but Bradford wouldn't budge, probably because he is on the "naughty list." Also of interest, Bradford's double fists.

December 1984. My first trip to see Santa. I was Bradford's age, and clearly I did not want to meet Santa. You can see in the photo that, like Bradford, I rocked the "Santa fists" too. Some things don't change though- Legendary Santa sits on the same "Santa Throne" and perches his hat on the same side of the chair after all these years.

The Week of Fun

2011-12-12T16:40:00.018-05:00

Jeremy just had a lovely, much-needed week off of work. In contrast to our usual marathon road trip vacations, we happily opted to stay at home and enjoy what we officially dubbed "The Week of Fun." We made plans to do something fun every day, and we had so much fun that we neglected to take pictures of all of our fun.

We started our week of fun by going to the Richmond Christmas Parade. This parade is the real deal, and lasted a full two hours. Jeremy was impressed with the variety and pageantry. I told him we do things like parades proper in the "big city."

The parade featured local celebrities like Mayor Dwight C. Jones and big time celebrities like Curly from the Harlem Globetrotters (who was joined by two other current Globetrotters). Jeremy got to shake Curly's hand. Noted celebrities missing from the parade included the cast of Spielberg's latest film, "Lincoln," (filming now in Richmond!) starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Oh Spielberg, I'm glad you've recognized the awesomeness of Richmond and chosen it as the place to film what will surely be one Oscar-bait worthy movie, but is it too much to ask for a float in the parade?

Last year, Richmond's Christmas Parade made national news when Rudolph got stabbed in the forehead by a traffic light. Hit up Youtube for your choice of videos documenting the massacre. One year later, Richmond celebrated the humor of the situation by parading the same notorious Rudolph around, this time with the addition of a bandaid. And so it was that Bradford and other small children of Richmond came to see Rudolph as a holiday treasure noted not only for his red nose, but for his bandaid as well.

When the Rudolph balloon came by us, Bradford was granted the honor of holding one of Rudolph's ropes. I'm sure he will cherish the memory.

Nerds of Richmond sported their Star Wars finest. Even bad guy storm troopers felt the Christmas spirit.

Chewbacca!!!! Oh and look, it's fat Han Solo.

On Thursday, we headed to the Children's Museum for some fun with Bradford. He loved playing in the playhouse kitchen and enjoyed setting and unsetting the table about 50 times.

Bradford fell into a daze while spinning this wagon wheel around. I think he looks like a cute little pioneer.

Saturday night we went to the annual ortho fancy holiday party. The group pictured above are the PGY-2 ortho residents (aka Jeremy's ortho residency class) and the group below are the significant others of the docs and One Big Fat Fatty Preggers McGee.

The highlight of "The Week of Fun" was that my dear friend Carrie got engaged to a wonderful guy! Two of our "Week of Fun" events involved hanging out with these two: a going away party for Carrie's sis one night and a double date another night. We are so happy for Carrie and Josh!

Other highlights from the week of fun include playgrounding with Bradford, dinner and toddler flirtation with our friends the Bishops and their daughter who is about a year older than Bradford, Jeremy's first trip to library story time to witness how Bradford is no longer a good story-time guest, holiday shopping, holiday decorating, ortho night at the bar, watching movies, sleeping in, and otherwise enjoying a week full of fun and quality family time.

Happy Birthday Dr. Ross!

2011-12-02T14:02:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, Jeremy celebrated his 29th birthday. He spent the morning doing things he doesn't love (getting up at the ass crack of dawn), the afternoon doing doctor stuff he likes (including tending to a 90 year old WWII veteran), and the evening doing the things he loves (eating the dinner of his choice: lasagne, drinking beer, hanging out with his wife & kid, and falling asleep on the couch while his favorite comedies ran on the TV.)

Bradford worked as the official taste-tester while I baked Jeremy's cake (red velvet) and cooked dinner (lasagne). Side note: Bradford started to say "please" over the Thanksgiving weekend. Every time he says it, he cocks his head to the side like in the picture above. He says "teeeeeees." So cute.

Jeremy requested red velvet cake. What he didn't know is that my recipe suggests topping the cake off with shredded coconut. Jeremy hates shredded coconut. I substituted mini chocolate chips and the cake was a hit.
Since 2012 is a leap year, Jeremy will get to enjoy one extra day of being 29. How lucky is that? He gets 24 bonus hours to put off the dirty thirty and celebrate being a twenty-something just a little longer than folks like me. Happy Birthday indeed!

Thanksgiving and Leaves

2011-11-30T15:40:00.014-05:00

We enjoyed a deliciously wonderful Thanksgiving in Richmond this year at my parents' home. We were joined by some out of town guests like my dad's brother and his family (aka "The Lynchburg Baldwins") and my brother Doug & sister-in-law Jaime.

Bradford was so excited to see his Auntie Jaime and Unkie Doug. He was the only person who didn't ask them about the Penn State scandal and their thoughts on Joe Pa (Doug and Jaime are both Penn Staters who live in the State College area).

The calm before the storm. My mother even made a place card setting for Baby Deuce. Bradford sat at the "children's table" in the corner (aka his high chair).
The grown-ups: Uncle Steve, my mumsy, Aunt Leila Lou, and my pops.

Bradford waited calmly for his Thanksgiving feast. He was pretty excited for his first Thanksgiving dinner where he would be eating the same thing as everyone else and not baby food mush out of a jar.

Bradford's share of dinner: cornbread pudding, sweet potato deliciousness, creamed carrots, turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans. He cleaned his plate up and had seconds, and even some thirds just like the rest of us. I should also add that our turkey this year was The.Best.Turkey.Ever. It was honestly perfect and the most delicious turkey I have ever had. Thanks Mom!

The kids: Isabel, Andrew, Jaime, Doug, Heather, Bradford, Jeremy, Ella V, and Fletcher

Moving on from Thanksgiving, you've got to burn the extra calories some how. Looks like raking leaves is the trick.

Bradford and I made a big pile of leaves in the backyard. He loved it. I would like to add that all of these leaves came from the big oak tree in our neighbor's yard. If it wasn't bad enough that they leave their dog and cats outside 24/7 regardless of the weather or that one of their cats died in our front yard last spring (reporting the cat's mysterious death was the first time we ever met them after living here for a year), they have a giant oak tree that has the audacity to drop all of its leaves in our yard. Oh well.

Bradford likes to carry this bucket around the yard and collect pine cones, sticks, rocks, holly leaves, or whatever the object of his desire is on a given day. This day, he was collecting small sticks which he loved to play with in the leaf pile.

I felt like I needed some cool mom points, so I got into the pile of leaves with Bradford. Now Bradford can never tell his future therapist that he had a rotten childhood because his mother never played in the leaves with him. I have photographic proof that it happened at least once. Technically, Baby Deuce can't say I never played with him or her in the leaves either since I was pregnant when this was taken. Two birds, one stone folks! Truth is, it will be harder to get a photo of Jeremy playing in the leaves. He declared war on Nature last weekend, so I don't think he'll be embracing the fun of a leaf pile any time soon. That's Jeremy's battle with the kids though, not mine. I did my fun parent part.
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Video: In Wich Bradford Plays in the Leaf Pile

Meet Baby Deuce

2011-11-22T10:25:00.012-05:00

Since I'm 24 weeks pregnant, I guess it's about time we posted some photos of "Baby Deuce" on here.

It is clear from this photo that Baby Deuce is a future celebrity. Back-off, paparazzi! So much for the thrill of the 3D ultrasound since Baby Deuce is making sure no one gets a good pic.

Baby Deuce at 12 weeks. Our first view, and wouldn't you know, Baby Deuce is blocking its face with its hand again.
Baby Deuce is a lazy lounger. The ultrasound technicians thought it was hilarious how stretched out Baby Deuce was at 12 weeks.

Here's Baby Deuce at 20 weeks. Not much to see since Baby Deuce is shielding its face yet again.

A close-up of Baby Deuce's face at 20 weeks. Kind of skeletal looking.

Today we had a third ultrasound (because Baby Deuce was very lazy and uncooperative at 20 weeks) and got some much better pics. Above is a side-by-side comparison of Baby Deuce and the Rosslet (aka Bradford). Do you think they look like siblings?

Please note that once again, at 24 weeks, Baby Deuce's hand is lurking around its face.

Baby Deuce looks a lot cuter at 24 weeks than it did at 20 weeks. Although I'm detecting some attitude. Is that a loser "L" sign the baby is flashing at the ultrasound camera?
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Game Time! So who does Baby Deuce look the most like at 24 weeks?

(clockwise from top left) Wolfman, Ra from Stargate, Tom Brady's biceps, or Casper. So who's the Baby Daddy?
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In other news, Baby Deuce is measuring TWO WEEKS bigger than the average 24 week old baby. At 20 weeks, Baby Deuce was measuring 6 days ahead of schedule. Lord help my uterus, for it looks like another giant baby is on the way. Also, it should be noted that Bradford was only measuring 3 days ahead of schedule at 22 weeks and was 11 pounds, 8 ounces at birth. Baby Deuce is measuring TWO WEEKS ahead of schedule which means it will probably be 30 pounds. Michelle Duggar may have had 20 babies living in her uterus, but I think that my uterus will be as stretched out as hers by the time my second child is born. Donations towards my future tummy-tuck are gladly accepted.
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For Bradford's ultrasound pics and Baby Daddy options, click here.

Howdy Halloween

2011-11-01T14:03:00.009-04:00

Bradford dressed up as a cowboy for his second Halloween. We got him the hat in Durango, so obviously it's the real deal. Bradford wasn't overly fond of the hat, but he loved the bandana and has tried numerous times to put it on himself. Brodie wasn't into the hat either, but he's better at following directions than Bradford, so he stayed still long enough for a photo-op. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

2011-10-30T16:13:00.005-04:00

Usually when Bradford does something worth filming, he stops doing whatever it is he is doing as soon as he sees the camera. In spite of the fact that he is video camera-shy, he loves watching movies of himself. Here are some of our favorites from the last few months.
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Video: In Which Bradford Hugs an Inflatable Cat at a Halloween Carnival (Dressed as a Cowboy), Starts Dancing to "Party in the USA," and Walks Off

Video: In Which Bradford Plays at a Playground, Finds Jeremy, and Walks Off

Video: In Which Bradford Figures Out How to Open Brodie's Food Bin, Feeds Brodie, and Brings Me a Dried Up Leaf He Found on the Floor

Video: In Which Bradford Blows on my Leg, Laughs, and Falls Over

Bradford at 18 Months

2011-10-22T11:11:00.011-04:00

Bradford hit the 18 month age milestone earlier this month. He continues to be a very physical child, as he chooses to focus his energy on climbing, running, spinning in circles, dancing, jumping, crawling under things, and even moon-walking. One of his favorite games is collecting like objects. The picture above captures him on a day when he decided to collect leaves in the yard. Some days he collects rocks. In the house, he'll collect coasters, Brodie's bone toys, or take all of the magazines out of my magazine rack one by one and move them around the room making magazine piles on the couch, the floor, Brodie's bed, etc. As such, his collecting habit has me cleaning our family room about about a dozen times a day. As for Bradford's verbal skills, he says a ton of words, but they are in his own language. The one thing he says regularly is "uh-oh." He'll throw or drop stuff on purpose and then say "uh-oh." He can also say "bye," but he doesn't do this very often. He's getting very good at imitating words and sounds we make, though some sounds/words are more interesting to him than others. When we found the turtle in our yard, he would say "tur" and then that turned into "tur-tur" every time we said "turtle". The other day he reached for a dirty diaper I was getting ready to tend to and I said, "No touch. That diaper is dirty." He said "der." So I said "dirty" again and he said "der-da". I think we spent the next 5 minutes saying "dirty" and whatever verbal variation Bradford would say. Bradford is also fond of imitating people when they cough. This gets embarrassing when we are in the grocery store and some old lady starts coughing and Bradford starts fake coughing in response. In this festive fall time of year, Bradford is attracted to pumpkins, gets excited whenever he sees one, points at it, and says "Dozer" or something similar sounding. As much as we say pumpkin over and over, he'll say "dozer," "dah-zah," or "doz-da" over and over again.
At Bradford's 18-month check-up, he weighed 29 pounds and measured 34 inches tall. That puts him in the 90-something percentile for everything (including head size), so he's still keeping large and in charge for his age group. I was surprised that his weight was in the 90th % because he's very lean, but I guess since he's so tall the weight is relative.

Bradford is toddler tantrum city these days. Thankfully, he hasn't had any public blow-ups, so everyone he meets on the streets still thinks he is the cat's pajamas. However, at home, things are a different story. When he gets upset, his usual tantrum outbursts are physical, and he'll pull cords out of sockets (always the heat-source ones for poor Bloody Mary), knock over his high-chair, or flip his stride-to-ride dinosaur over. Then he'll decide he wants to ride the dinosaur and gets mad that it is flipped over, so he'll go pull the pillows off the couch. We're working on anger management big time these days and have started time-outs. 10 seconds standing in a corner, facing the wall, with his hands held behind his back criminal-style.

Bradford loves watching football. I guess it's part of the whole "mimic Daddy" thing toddlers do, but even when Jeremy isn't around, he claps and cheers. Last weekend, Jeremy was at work during the Steelers game, so there was no way he was copying him. When I turned on the game and Bradford heard the "Ba-da-bup-bup-ba" of the NFL game music begin, he started clapping. When the announcer said "Steelers" he clapped. He claps at touchdowns. He also claps for the "Patriots" too, so obviously he's learned a thing or two from me. I know Jeremy's heart swells with pride that his son who loves to dance more than anything gets excited about football. I see some serious father-son bonding happening on Sundays in the future.

Bradford and I go to story-time at the library every week. It's targeted for the pre-school age group, and each week there is a different theme such as fall, dogs, trucks, weather, hats, etc. In addition to stories, there are also poems and songs that fit the theme too. We've been going since Bradford turned one, and it's fun to see him grow more interested each week. He'll sit nicely in my lap for 45 minutes straight which is unbelievable since he won't sit in my lap for 5 minutes anywhere or anytime else. I think his favorite part of story-time is watching the "big kids" (i.e. the three year olds). After story-time, he runs off to the section of the library where there are puzzles and grabs one. He'll take a few pieces out and then go on to mess with the puzzles that other kids are doing. Last week he pushed one girl, tried to pull the hair of a boy, and scratched the face of another girl. These kids were all older than him. Clearly it was time to leave the library. It's also time Bradford starts talking because I don't think it is fair that I have to be the one to apologize just because Bradford is too lazy to learn how to talk himself.

Bradford likes having an Altoids tin in his pocket. I don't know where this came from, but it's pretty cute. I gave him an empty tin to play with a while ago. One day recently, I saw him trying to put it in his pocket. I asked him if he wanted help and he brought it over to me. I put it in his pocket, and he went about playing. Now, he just brings the Altoids tin over to me whenever he finds it in his pile of toys, and I put it in his pocket. He's not interested in putting anything else in his pocket which makes me wonder what it is about an Altoids tin that makes it so exciting to have in his pocket. Jeremy and I don't walk around with Altoids in our pockets, so he's not copying us. It's just his own cute thing.

I had my parents find my old dolls in their attic last week so that we could give one to Bradford to practice being a big brother with. Bradford held "the baby" like a natural. He would touch the doll's eye and then make the doll's hand touch his eye. He did the same thing with his ears, mouth, and nose which was super cute. He even cuddled the dolls. The doll in three of the pics I think is the one that I had named "Lettuce" as a child. Hopefully, Bradford will be a doting big brother to "Baby Deuce" in real life, just like he is with "Lettuce."

Durango Wedding

2011-10-05T09:26:00.030-04:00

We just got back from a great weekend in Durango, Colorado.

We were there to celebrate the wedding of Jeremy's college buddy Matt. Matt was one of Jeremy's groomsmen (as seen in pic above), and Jeremy was excited to be one of Matt's groomsmen.

Oh look, it's the Rockies.
And we're in Durango (elevation 6512).

Here's Jeremy posing like an old-timey dreamboat inside of our historic, old-timey hotel.

At the rehearsal, Matt and his lady-love Peggy taught everyone how to two-step so we could dance like cowboys all weekend.

All the guys together for the first time in a year. (L-R Greg, Matt, Kyle, Jeremy)

There was a pinata at the rehearsal dinner. Bride-to-be Peggy was the first to swing.

Here I am with some of my pinata loot (which included mini bottles of booze for Jeremy, candy, a train whistle for Bradford, lottery tickets <$3 worth of winnings>, and this lovely purple spider which made for an excellent "fascinator").

After the rehearsal dinner, we headed to the Wild Horse Saloon for some wild west late night fun.

Saturday morning, we wandered around town and found the old-timey photo place where Oprah and Gale had some fun during their famous cross-country road trip.

Big time stage coach.

Jeremy's dream come true: a gang of saloon hall floozies riding right up to him.

Seeing this couple walking down the street lead Jeremy and I to the conclusion that Durango is like a wild west version of Gettysburg. In Gettysburg, you see people wearing Civil War era uniforms and dresses walking down the street any day of the week. In Durango, you see people dressed in wild west finery. We just wore our usual 21st century attire.

This is the hotel we stayed in: The Strater Hotel. It was built in 1887 and is decorated in that Victorian Wild West style and furnished with antiques. It was a pretty awesome place to stay.

Check out this dreamy cowboy .

Of course I snagged a trash can pic in Durango.

Jeremy, just before the wedding, snapping his suspenders.

What an amazing backdrop for the wedding.

Seriously, what a beautiful place for a wedding!

During the reception, a steam train just happened to roll by.

Everyone's place cards featured a photo of the guest and either the bride or groom. Jeremy's picture was taken last year at the guys' 5th year reunion at Gettysburg (with Bradford in tow). My picture is Peggy and me at Kyle & Jess's wedding rehearsal dinner last year.

Here we are.

The groom and his G'burg groomsmen.

G'burg groomsmen and their wives and wife-to-be. (Jeremy & Heather, Greg & Melissa, Kyle & Jess)

Congratulations Matt & Peggy! We had a fantastic time and enjoyed the excuse to visit Colorado for the first time.

The Tale of the Turtle

2011-09-29T14:29:00.012-04:00

So remember when Hurrican Irene blew through our backyard, knocking over a giant pine tree that split the power lines and destroyed our new fence? Last week, a tree crew of five people came to remove the tree.
So now we're just waiting to have the fence fixed.

"I'm a turtle. Oh look at these pine needles. What a lovely place to walk. Oops I tripped. Now I'm stuck in a fence. Uh oh."

Yes, that's a turtle stuck in our squished fence. I don't know how long it was stuck there, but it was, thankfully, still alive when I came across it this afternoon while playing with Bradford in our back yard.

We freed the turtle from its fence prison and sat it down in some moist mulch to cool it off since it probably got pretty toasty and thirsty while stuck in the fence.

This was when Bradford noticed the turtle and took interest.

Every time he walked by he pointed out the turtle.

And then Bradford sat down next to the turtle and pointed to it some more. So cute. We eventually moved the turtle back into the wooded area near where we found it. Hopefully it won't get stuck in the fence again.

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Video: In Which Bradford Points Out the Turtle While Collecting Rocks

New Shirt, New Status

2011-09-13T09:25:00.006-04:00

Bradford recently got a cool, new t-shirt that he wants to show you.

Bradford the Big Brother: Coming March 2012

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-29T10:55:00.017-04:00

An earthquake and a serious hurricane in one week. Wow. Unlike earthquakes, Richmond does have some experience with hurricanes, especially ones that have "I" names. Hurricane Isabel hit Richmond hard back in '03. Looks like Irene is leaving her mark in much the same way. We lost power Saturday afternoon and didn't get it back until early this morning, or maybe it was late last night. It actually boggles my mind that we have power considering that there are broken powers lines everywhere in our neighborhood (I counted 4 within a mile of our house). My parents still don't have power, and they live in a neighborhood with underground power lines.

There are fallen trees everywhere. Some have blocked roads, making it tricky to get around. Some fell on power lines. Some fell on houses. One fell on our new fence.

One of many damaged power lines in our neighborhood.
This house in our neighborhood had not one, but two giant trees fall across their driveway.

This house is on our street.

This is one of two fallen trees in our backyard. We're wondering when/if it is finally going to fall all the way down and squish the fence on that side of the yard, taking out the power line that goes directly to our house.

This is the other side of our backyard. See those broken power lines tangled up everywhere and laying on the ground? You can thank a giant pine tree for that.

And there she is, the giant pine tree that fell to her death across the power lines and right on to our new fence. The nicest thing I have to say about that tree is that since it is a pine, it smells nice.

The view from our patio. We didn't used to be able to see that house back there.

Check out that fence post in the pine tree rubble.

Brodie isn't too happy about the fact that down power lines means he has to be on a leash at all times.

There's Jeremy, checking out the damage on the tree. It's pretty big, right? Jeremy didn't feel the need to smile in this photo. He's not even happy that the tree smells nice. We don't even know if the tree was legally ours pre-hurricane or on the property of the people who live behind us. This is going to be a pain to deal with, but happily, our home and cars weren't damaged by trees. It definitely could have been a lot worse.
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Update: My parents finally got power Tuesday at 5:00pm. As of now (Wednesday night), it appears that we are one of three houses on the street with power. How weird/lucky is that? No one across the street has power and our neighbors and every house beyond theirs down the street doesn't have power. No word on when the power company is going to repair all of these damaged power lines.

So There Was an Earthquake Today...

2011-08-23T20:19:00.006-04:00

The big news on the East Coast today was that there was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter of it was about 40 miles from where we live, so obviously we felt it big time. Here is our dramatic earthquake survival story:

12:30 pm: I begin making dinner. (Yes dinner. Jeremy works nights now, so we eat "dinner" in the middle of the day.) What's on the menu? Thai noodle stir-fry. It was delicious.

1:15 pm: I wake Jeremy up from his "nap" to eat. I wake Bradford up from his nap as well.

1:25 pm: We start eating our delicious squash, carrot, peppers, and chicken Thai noodle stir fry with ginger sauce. Bradford downs a PB&J and a string cheese.

Some time after 1:25: We finish eating and continue to hang-out on the couch, watching TV.

1:51 pm: The earthquake hits. The house is rumbling, shaking. It's loud and obvious. At first I think it might be a jack-hammer or something on the street since there's been a lot of road work in the area lately.

A few seconds later: I realize that it's not a jack-hammer or road work and look to Jeremy and say, "Is that an earthquake?" He agrees it must be. I grab Bradford from his high chair and Jeremy grabs Brodie. Bloody Mary, sorry, but you are on your own in your 10 gallon glass world. We gather in the back hall closet. It occurs to me this is our "tornado spot" and we don't have a home plan for an earthquake*.

Some time after the earthquake stops: Jeremy asks me if I can tell if it is over. His legs are shaking from wrangling Brodie (who was absolutely terrified) and he can't tell if it is his legs or the ground throwing him off balance. Bradford is laughing and clearly thinks this earthquake is the greatest thing to happen to him since he finished his PB&J. I break the news to Jeremy that I think we were supposed to go outside for an earthquake, not cower in the center of the house in our "tornado spot."* He agrees we both had a disaster situation blond moment. At least our "tornado spot" is 10 feet from the back door, which leads to our big, open backyard. If the house had gotten too "shakey" we would have gone outside.

2:30ish: On his way back to bed, Jeremy notices that all of the pictures upstairs are askew (weird since everything downstairs was fine). He also notices that a box of medicine fell off a shelf. I notice that in Bradford's room, his box of wipes fell from its perch. Jeremy decides to take our "his and hers" Gettysburg diplomas off the wall from where they hang over our bed. He's worried that an aftershock will send his B.S. and my B.A. flying down on his head while he sleeps.

2:45 pm: I leave for field hockey (I'm a high school JV coach). We have a scrimmage today. In addition to Bradford, I decide to drop Brodie off at my mom's for babysitting. Should there be an aftershock while I'm at our scrimmage, I'd rather Brodie save himself from a major freak-out by being in the company of familiar faces. Bloody Mary, still on your own.

All afternoon and evening: Nothing happens, well not really. Apparently there was an aftershock at 2:46pm measuring 2.8 and one at 3:20 measuring 2.2. I don't know anyone who felt either of these in Richmond. (Oh, and our team did awesome at their scrimmage today.)

8:05 pm: Just when I was settling down into my nightly routine of watching trashy TV shows, an aftershock hits. Apparently it was a 4.8 magnitude. It didn't last very long or feel very intense, but it was big enough to notice. Let's hope that's it for our earthquake adventure.

* According to the FEMA website, we actually did the right thing by staying indoors and hanging out in the closet doorway, sort of. I still think that should this ever happen again, we'll go the extra few steps to the back door and hang out in the backyard. Take the time to read the earthquake tips. Those of us on the East Coast don't grow up with earthquake drills and could use a refresher.

Pool Pics

2011-08-03T21:04:00.010-04:00

We've been having a lot of fun playing in Bradford's pool lately.

This is a pic of Bradford giving my leg a hug. Sometimes he has spontaneous moments of affection that are just so dang cute.

Video: In Which Bradford Puts a Bucket on His Head, Finds His Belly Button, and Brushes His Teeth

Summer Road Trip Part Six: Visiting Friends

2011-07-18T21:29:00.007-04:00

With our time on the North Shore of MA over for the summer, we packed the car in preparation for the long drive home and headed west. Bet you thought we would have gone south. Just a slight detour on our road trip.

We went to Worcester to meet up with my friend Sara for lunch. Sara and I met in New Jersey during the fall of 2004. It was my first travel season at Randolph-Macon, and we were both on the same college fair circuit. We hit it off through sharing a love of the same TV shows, afternoons spent shopping, and mocking the poor fashion choices of teenagers. I once even used Sara's parents' home as a hotel during my travels. How cool is that? I met her in NJ, we shared a few laughs, and a year later her parents hosted me in MA (Sara also happened to be using them as a hotel at the same time so it was extra fun. Oh, and her dad is named Bradford.)! We also once shared the same hotel room in Long Island when we were doing a college fair there. So even though I left the college admissions world 4 years ago, we've kept in touch and have dreams of our super smart husbands (her husband is a lawyer) finally getting through the grunt years of their careers and making billions of dollars so that we can get private jets to hang out in Paris together eating bon bons and shopping for the day while our nannies shuttle the kids to and from school stateside. HA! Too bad we aren't really like that. Mostly too bad that our husbands won't make billions. Bradford helped himself to Sara's apple. It was a good thing she didn't want it anymore. Bradford had never eaten an apple like this before. It was funny to see him jump right in and eat it like a big kid. After lunch in Worcester, we headed south to Connecticut to spend the night at the home of our friends Arielle and Dan. Arielle was in the same UVA Med Wives group I was in, as her husband Dan was a UVA Med classmate of Jeremy's and is now in residency for ophthalmology (Eye ball stuff. Gross. Also, yes, I did Google ophthalmology to make sure I spelled it right). One time while Dan and Jeremy were on an away rotation together in Roanoke or Salem (same thing as far as I'm concerned), Arielle and I decided to play "Fancy Doctors' Wives" and took turns hosting each other for fancy dinners. It was fun to catch up with Arielle and Dan, and Bradford had a great time checking out Dr. Dan's fancy new ophthalmology lenses equipment. I look forward to the next time they make their way down to VA :)

Next we headed to NJ to stay a night with my friend Emily. You might remember when she came to visit us last summer. Emily's parents (whose home I used before as a hotel during my R-MC travel days) were super excited we were visiting (mostly because they wanted to play with Bradford). Emily has a long term plan of ditching the Garden State Parkway and NJ Turnpike for lovely, historic, charming, fabulous Virginia. Maybe even Richmond! I think she was sold on the bright colors people paint their front doors here. (She wants to paint the front door of her future Richmond home lime green.)
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So nice to visit with friends to break-up the long trip home! So nice to come home to my husband, who was so lonely without us that he took on a few painting projects while we were away to pass the time. I now happily reside in a home with a turquoise front door! Love it! Love living in a city where people often use fun colors to paint their front doors. Maybe I'll do a future blog post featuring some of my favorite brightly-painted Richmond doors.

Summer Road Trip Part Five: Hanging Out With Gigi and Big Mac

2011-07-17T18:00:00.016-04:00

Bradford and I enjoyed our time hanging out with Gigi and Big Mac around the North Shore.

We went to Rockport one day for lunch, where Bradford posed with Motif #1.

We went by Gigi and Big Mac's old house, which they built and lived in for 35 years. Bradford didn't seem as excited to stop by as I did.

Come on and smile Lil B! This is the best house in the world! I spent much of the first 18 summers of my life here and many Christmases. This is where all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins would gather at the countless family parties and dinners my grandparents hosted through the years. Bradford's great-great grandparents even hung out here. I guess Bradford is too young and crabby to get what this house means to me and my family. As far as Bradford is concerned, the apartment where Gigi and Big Mac live now is where they've always been. He thinks the hallway is super fun to run around in.
We spent an afternoon at the Manchester town beach.
I guess the beach-combers took a long Fourth of July holiday because there was a ton of seaweed on the beach. Bradford and I had a nice walk down the beach to play on the rocks for a while. The yellow arrow in the pic above is pointing at where our beach chairs were set up. The red arrow is pointing at the beach club that my grandparents used to belong to, where I spent so many summer days as a kid.

Bradford loved playing around the rocks. Check out the video below for some footage of him playing with the sand.

He liked this washed up log thing.

Sitting on the same rocks I climbed as a kid.

We found the blue boat in B's hands on our walk. Beach-comber win!B off on a beach adventure.

Bradford and his great-grandparents.

The morning we left, Bradford wore his MacLeod kilt so his MacLeod great-grandparents could see him in his Celtic cuteness finery.

A nice trip to see Gigi and Big Mac!
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Video: In Which Bradford Plays With Sand

Summer Road Trip Part Four: Fourth of July

2011-07-15T11:18:00.015-04:00

Along with many other folks on the North Shore, Bradford, Gigi, Big Mac, and I headed to Marblehead to have a Fourth of July picnic lunch and watch the boats go by.

See that picnic table at the base of the light house? There's a baby in a stroller at the end of the table. Bradford made friends with that family and baby, along with every other person, dog, and basically anything with a heartbeat that afternoon.

Fueled with lunch and cookies, Bradford went off in search of adventure. No matter where he wandered, he always made his way back to Gigi and Big Mac.
(Side note: My grandmother once famously stated rather loudly "Don't ever take a picture of me in a wheelchair." So in case anyone looking at this pic thinks Gigi is in a wheelchair, they are mistaken. It's just a fancy lawn chair. I'm sure I'll hear about this in 6 months when she gets around to looking at my blog. I love you Gigi, awesome lawn chair and all!)
He turned the base of the lighthouse into a giant play pen.
Here's Bradford engaged in one of his favorite past times: picking up rocks. Perhaps he will one day become a gemologist, just like his Great-Aunt Robin.

See all of the sailboats? There were some races going on.

So many boats! Love Marblehead. For dinner, Bradford and I headed over to my Aunt Robin and Uncle Alan's. Bradford finally got to meet cousin Meredith, who was away at college and missed out on meeting him when Bradford made his North Shore debut last year.

Bradford with the "Bunny Family": Uncle Alan, Aunt Robin, Meredith, and Courtney.

My Aunt Robin is a little extra sentimental these days given that she is about to become an empty-nester in a little over a month when Courtney starts college. Bradford pretty much made her entire year when he snuggled up to her an fell asleep in her arms.

27 pounds of tuckered out cuteness. Bradford slept through the Boston Pops concert and fireworks on TV.

When it was time to go, I put sleepy Bradford in this chair for a minute to grab my purse and his diaper bag. He just rolled over and made himself comfortable.
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HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY !!!

Summer Road Trip Part Three: Pool Party

2011-07-14T17:41:00.013-04:00

The next stop on our road trip was an all-day pool party at my Uncle Scott and Aunt Gioia's house. Lindsay and I not-so secretly plotted this as an opportunity for our grandparents (Gigi and Big Mac) to be together with both of their great-grandchildren at the same time.

Here's Gigi meeting baby Norah for the first time. It's a pretty special moment to introduce your baby to your grandmother. I remember what it felt like last year, so I was really happy to be a witness to Lindsay's introduction of Norah.

And here's Big Mac meeting his great-granddaughter.
Cousin Picture! First cousins Lindsay, Heather, Alex, and Cameron. Second cousins Norah and Bradford.
Blooper Reel Pic. You know I love a good blooper.

Bradford and I were the first ones in the pool. This kid loves him some swim time.

Alex and Cameron joined us while Big Mac served as lifeguard.

Bradford's sweet post-swim hair.

Alex is learning to play the banjo. Bradford thinks this is awesome. Apparently Bradford was a little Appalachian banjo-lover in a past life because the kid loves him some banjo music. He loves to dance, but I've never seen him move to music like he did to the banjo.

Here's Bradford with his Great-Uncle Scott. Bradford also really liked the fish in the tank behind them.

Group Pic! (L-R: Heather, Bradford, Lindsay, Brendan, Norah, Big Mac, Cameron, Gioia, Scott, Alex, and Gigi in front)

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Great day hanging out together with great people!
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Video: In Which Bradford Rocks Out to Some Banjo Music

Summer Road Trip Part Two: Baby Norah

2011-07-12T13:40:00.018-04:00

For our next stop on our summer road trip, Bradford and I headed up to northern Massachusetts to visit my Cousin Lindsay, her hubby Brendan, and their baby girl Norah.

Norah is Bradford's second cousin genealogically speaking, but the first cousin of Bradford's generation. It was kind of a big deal for them to meet up.

Lindsay and I are 11 months apart in age. Bradford and Norah have 13 months between them. Getting a cute photo of the two of them together was not an easy task. I don't know how our moms got photos of us together 29 years ago. I'm thinking tranquillizers were involved.

Bradford looks cute in their back yard. That is all. Bradford and Brendan had quite the Bromance going on. I don't know if it was the beard or just the realization that they are kindred spirits, but Bradford thought Brendan was the bee's knees. No one should drink alone. Can you find the chihuahua? Poor Josie the chihuahua almost lost a leg to Bradford's curious bully hand. I hope she considers the cheerios and hot dogs he tossed her way enough of an apology. Bradford looked pretty precious at bed time.Lindsay asked me if I remembered what it was like to hold a baby this small. Norah was about 10 pounds here. I said, "Bradford was never this small." Norah is precious. I loved holding her. We went to the Eric Carle museum of children's picture book art. We got yelled at for taking this photo in the gallery. In the arts and crafts room, we made a B.Norah and Lindsay made a bird. Norah wasn't as excited as Lindsay to have her picture taken next to the giant hungry caterpillar. At the museum, Norah had her first visit to a public restroom. Kind of a big deal for any girl.To cement their Bromance, Brendan showed Bradford his tractor. Bradford doesn't care about trucks or tractors (yet), but some day he might, and the fact that Brendan has all kinds of trucks and tractos will give Bradford even more reason to think Brendan is the cat's pajamas.
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Part three coming soon!

Summer Road Trip Part One: Doug and Jaime's

2011-07-11T18:01:00.014-04:00

Bradford and I just got back from an 11 day road trip visiting family and friends. Yes, you read that right, another road trip. It was our third road trip since the end of April and our fourth since Thanksgiving. I think we'll leave the car parked in the driveway for a while now. Maybe a year.

Our first stop was to the land of Joe Pa to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Bradford wasn't too impressed when he met a mulleted Joe Pa in State College.

He was much more into playing with giant foam fingers with Auntie Jaime and Uncle Doug.
Doug showed off his grilling skills with a rack of ribs. Pretty impressive. Very delicious.
Bradford found one of Unkie Doug's naughty magazines. Bradford always enjoys hanging out with his Unkie and Auntie and canine cousin Daisy.
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Stay tuned for more summer road trip adventures!

Just Dance 2

2011-07-10T10:02:00.006-04:00

A friend recently introduced me to the Wii game "Just Dance 2." It was so much fun that I went out and bought it the next day.

Bradford enjoys rummaging through our Wii cabinet to steal controls, so one day I wondered what he would do if I strapped a control to his wrist so I could have someone to play with.

Even though we enjoy games, Jeremy and I are both anti-video games for children. Bradford won't be allowed to have a video game system, so I hope he enjoyed his 5 minutes of game play while his mother conducted an experiment. How high of a score can a tot get in Just Dance 2 while basically walking around the room, totally oblivious to the fact that he is "playing" a game?
We did the Monster Mash which is surprisingly hard. I can get over 9,000 points doing a high energy Bollywood number, but the Monster Mash gets me every time with its slow Frankenstein moves. Bradford did pretty well all things considered.

When he realized he lost, he was really upset.

Wow. Tantrum city. No more games for this kid ever. Time for a nap!

A Night at the Children's Museum

2011-06-22T17:32:00.015-04:00

Last Friday was "Target Night" at the Children's Museum of Richmond. Target generously sponsors the evening providing $1.00 admission for everyone, or free admission if you are Bradford and cute enough to not be charged a penny.

The night went something like this: Bradford found something to hold in each hand and went off in search of adventure, totally unconcerned with where I was, the big kids running and screaming everywhere, or the new surroundings. He's going into the "school" in the photo above.

He enjoyed the abacus.
I think this picture captures what might be Bradford's first attempt at cheating. He was looking at the big kid in the desk next to him, watching the big kid do a puzzle. Bradford's puzzle was about letters. The big kid's puzzle was about colors. I'm not expecting a good report card since I don't think copying the wrong "test" will exactly be A+ material. That's okay though. We can't all be as smart as Jeremy.

Now Bradford is in the "hospital" getting an "x-ray."

According to the cool digital height measuring chart thingy, Bradford is 2' 8" with shoes on. I thought this measuring thing seamed accurate until Jeremy got on it and was measured at 6'1" with shoes on which we know is not true since Jeremy doesn't wear 3 inch heels.

Bradford was enamored by the red dinosaur mascot thing. In case you can't tell which kid he is, he's the blond one down in front.

Here's Bradford walking off after the mascot who was oblivious to the little boy following him around.

Bradford picked up a cucumber and a lemon in the "grocery store" and paraded around with them for a while. At one point he picked up a pizza slice in the "cafe" and a syringe in the "hospital" and carried them around too. I think that was the funniest, but I didn't get a picture.

There's a lot of outside play space too with kayaks, musical instruments, and other cool stuff. Bradford and I found this secret area for "Ages 3 and Under Only." We were the only ones there. As usual, Bradford found something for each hand and walked off by himself.

Bradford even found time to play in the sandbox. Did I mention that it rained that evening? It was raining even as we entered the museum. Bradford didn't mind playing in the wet sand, so I didn't either. It was all part of the amazing fun we had Friday night.

Requiem for a Rum Cake

2011-06-14T21:33:00.010-04:00

Once upon a time, Jeremy and I were young newlyweds romping through the jungles of Jamaica on our honeymoon. We bought a variety of souvenirs, including a t-shirt for future offspring to wear and a rum cake. We chose the "Blue Mountain Coffee" flavor because coffee and rum and cake seemed like a tasty combo.

Well, it was over three years ago now that we bought our rum cake, and yeah, we kind of forgot to eat it.

We moved twice in the time since we bought this rum cake, which means it called three kitchens home. In one of the moves, it picked up this nice big dent.
Yes, that best by date is 03-10-08. Oh come on you simple Americans, it's not really as old as you think. Jamaica marks their dates like the rest of the non-American world with a day-month-year format. So really, the rum cake was best by October 3, 2008.

This is what the cake looked like when we opened the box. What's that dark spot? What's that white stuff? I guess best by dates mean something after all.

The rum cake might be hard as a rock (except for the dark portion of the cake with white spots which was oddly enough, soft), but maybe there is tasty life in it yet. Nothing some ice cream, rum, and caramel sauce can't fix, right?

To eat the rum cake or not to eat the rum cake? That is the question.

Dare me to lick the questionable part of the cake? Is that mold or is it just the most delicious part of the cake?

Doctor's verdict: Probably best not to eat it.

Descendant of the Medici?

2011-06-06T13:23:00.003-04:00

If you know me, then you know that I love Florence, Italy. As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise that while Bradford was napping today, I picked up a book on the art and architecture of Florence to flip through. When I came across this portrait of a young Medici boy, I couldn't help but notice that it reminded me of a certain someone.

(Portrait of Giovanni de Medici as a Young Boy, 1545, by Agnolo Bronzino)

Aside from the ever-so-Italian brown eyes, this could be a portrait of Bradford... if Bradford dressed like a 16th century wealthy Florentine. I happen to think it's a look Bradford could totally pull off.
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Due to the obvious similarities of Bradford and young Giovanni de Medici, I think the most logical conclusion is that Bradford is a descendant of the Medici family, most likely some Medici's illegitimate child. There were tons of illegitimate Medici offspring, some even went on to become Pope (here's looking at you Pope Clement VII), so it's not too hard to believe that one fell through the cracks and made their way to Sweden, Scotland, or England to pass their Medici genes on to my ancestors. Obviously the Medici heritage comes from my side of the family, as I am the one who is so in love with Italy, Florence, and the Medici family. Jeremy doesn't know the Medici from the Pazzi, so obviously he can't be responsible for Bradford's Medici roots.
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As for young Giovanni de Medici, he was made a cardinal when he was just a teenager (fitting since he looked so good in red). He didn't do much else after that because he didn't live to see age twenty.

Yard Work With My Pet Human

2011-05-23T16:42:00.004-04:00

If you use your son's stroller as a wheelbarrow while he is in it, you just might be a redneck.

Video: In Which Bradford Walks and Falls in the Yard

Grandma's Book

2011-05-19T15:32:00.011-04:00

Shortly before Easter, I was in Michaels looking at the aisles upon aisles of fantastic arts and crafts inspiration and searching for an Easter basket for Bradford. In their Easter section, they had some Easter themed books for sale, including Clifford the Big Red Dog's Easter and the Berenstain Bears Easter (both of which Bradford got in his Easter basket). One of the books they had was a new paperback edition of "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes." When I saw this book, I had a flash of nostalgia for a forgotten book from my childhood. I flipped through the pages recalling the beautiful illustrations and remembering the story of a little country bunny who dreamed of growing up to be an Easter bunny. I called my mother from the store to ask the fate of this forgotten treasure. She said she thought the book was orginally my dad's mother's book, and that it was most likely up in the attic in the box of my books that I had been begging my parents to unearth for a year.

(Grandma and me, 1982)
Recently, my parents unearthed my box of children's books from the attic, and my mother dropped them off today.

When I opened the box of books, the very first book visible upon opening the box, was "The Country Bunny." You couldn't see any of the titles from the other books in the box, just this one. It sat on top as if it had been pulled from the stacks of books and selected to rest on top of the others in a special position. It was a treasure.
What made it even more special was to see that the book was a gift to Grandma from her mother.
I got chills thinking that just a few weeks ago I saw this book in an unexpected place and remembered it for the first time in the 20 or more years since I last read it, and now here it was on the top of my boxed up books as if my grandmother, knowing I was looking for it, had found it for me.

Grandma died when I was 6 years old, right before I started First Grade. At the age of 59, she lost her battle with lung cancer. She never knew that I grew up to be a woman who shares her interests in art and literature.

Even though she never lived to see the woman I've become, her presence has been felt along the way, and she has never been forgotten. It makes me happy to know that although my son will never have the opportunity to meet Grandma, he will get to know her through things that were hers.

I can see why some people love Kindles, Nooks, and the like, but I don't. Call me old-fashioned, but I love holding a book, turning the pages, experiencing the illustrations, and smelling that wonderful old book smell. It means a lot to me that I have a book that not only I loved as a child, but my grandmother did too. Bradford will get to hold this book, turn the pages, and look at the pictures just like generations of his family did before. That experience bonds us all together, whether we are living or passed on, and that's not something you experience with modern technology's spin on books. You certainly can't find the hand-writing of your son's great-great grandmother in a Kindle or Nook either.

Another Spring Break? Don't Mind If I Do....

2011-05-18T17:00:00.019-04:00

A while ago, my friend Carrie asked me if I wanted to go on a trip with her. I asked what she had in mind, and she suggested the Outer Banks, where her family has a time share. Count me and my pet human in on that. So last week, Bradford and I ditched Jeremy and ventured south to Kitty Hawk, NC for another Spring Break trip.

On our first night in town, after dinner, we headed to the grocery store to stock up on sundae supplies.

We attracted a few stares for some reason. Maybe it was our matching shorts that turned heads. Maybe it was our aisle dancing that caught people's eyes. Maybe it was the cute baby along for the ride. Who knows?
What I do know is that at that Harris Teeter, they have video surveillance of the embarrassing things aisle. So don't buy your Depends, tampons, condoms, or pregnancy tests there folks.

We didn't mind having our cart full of sundae stuff caught on camera.

Little boy in a giant chair.

That's a Dunkin Donuts in the background. It made for a tasty breakfast.

I'd like a giant chair for my backyard please. No wait, front yard. I'll be so southern sittin' on my giant chair watching the world stroll by. I just need to build a giant porch on to my house to match the giant chair.

So we decided to try chocolate soda. Bad idea. Carrie thought for some reason it would taste like a Cadbury egg because the bottle said something about it having egg in it. It was gross.

Good idea, however, was making giant sundaes. What is it with me and making giant sundaes with friends?

We went to the pool one day. Bradford loved it of course.

Just look at those sweet swimming moves!

And yes, we did make it to the beach. Bradford managed not to eat the sand this time around. However, he did try to eat some shells and maybe a rock.

We had a good time playing in the waves even though the water was really cold.

And we enjoyed a quiet walk on the beach too.

Relaxation is what it's all about. Thanks for inviting us to join you, Carrie!

Spring Break '11: Time to Say Goodbye

2011-05-06T15:27:00.012-04:00

With the wedding over, and work looming for Jeremy on Monday at the ass crack of dawn, we were down to our last hours in Clearwater. Sadness.

Saturday morning there was a brunch for all of the guests. I like to call the above picture "Bradford Squared." Pictured with my Bradford is Bruce's Bradford, that is, his brother/Best Man is also named Bradford. It was kind of a big deal for our Bradford as it was the first time he had ever met another Bradford. After breakfast we headed back to our room to get ready to check-out. Sigh. From our balcony, I could see a pirate ship sailing by while we were packing.
We headed down to the beach for a laast hurrah with everyone before hitting the road again. Bradford managed to not eat the sand this time around. Mostly, it was because we put his pacifier in his mouth so he was a little distracted.

We drove about 4 hours north to Jacksonville to spend the night Saturday. As we left the hotel, Bradford decided to push our luggage out to the car. I like how you can see Jeremy directing him on what to do. This picture was taken at 6:19 am. *ouch*

Bradford was a champ for our long haul home from Jacksonville to Richmond. Whenever he fussed, we tossed a handful of snacks back at him. Thanks to our trusty baby-view spy mirror, you can see him tossing some food in his mouth in the pic above.

Most of the trip, Bradford slept. We engaged him in converation, songs, and games when he was up for it. He's playing "so big" here.

Bradford also occupied himself by playing with his feet. It's amazing how many hours a child can be entertained by watching himself play with his feet.
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So that about wraps up our Spring Break '11 adventure. We had a great time, and we're so grateful to Bruce and Courtney for giving us an excuse for a vacation!

Spring Break '11: Clearwater Part Three: Wedding!!!

2011-05-04T21:02:00.016-04:00

It's wedding time!

So here we are before the ceremony. As Bruce and Courtney are another Gettysburg alumni couple, we decided to pay tribute to them by coordinating orange and blue wedding attire because we knew they would love it. Jeremy even wore his Vineyard Vines Gettysburg tie, which just screams "Bruce & Courtney Couture."

Here comes the groom. Rather dashing I say.
Here comes the bride and her father. In the background you can see the white tented area where the reception was. That's our hotel in the background. You can even see the balcony of our hotel room. It's that one on the top floor.

Do you? I do. Do you? I do.

Blah blah blah, "Kiss her already!"

So it was a slight challenge to figure out what kind of shoes to wear to a wedding on the beach in the sand. Have no fear, that's what Sperry topsiders are for! That and being on boats I guess.

Here's our table. Right off the beach. Lovely.

Here's the cake. Beautiful and delicious. The personalized frosted details of the cake included a skull and crossbones, a Gettysburg "G," and a portrait of "Pleebus" the monkey. Pleebus travels with Bruce and Courtney on all of their adventures and gets his picture taken wherever he is.

Bruce and Jeremy in the photo that was PG rated.

What would a beach wedding be without a beautiful sunset as a backdrop?

So the elephant in the room was that Kate Middleton and Prince William stole Bruce and Courtney's wedding date. As such, it was only fair that I loned Courtney my "Princess Diana/ Princess Catherine" ring for a "suck-it!" photo-op. Courtney wears it well.

Here's all of the Lambda Chi Alpha guests with the new Mrs.

There's my ring. Also, there's the burn from where I neglected to put sunscreen.

Congratulations Bruce and Courtney! It's was a lovely wedding and we were so glad we could come and be a part of the celebration! XOXOXO!

Spring Break '11: Clearwater Part Two: Dolphins!!!

2011-05-03T22:58:00.022-04:00

Friday morning, we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, home of the famous dolphin "Winter." A movie about Winter, "Dolphin Tale," starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr., Kris Kristofferson, and Winter herself will be released in September. I learned about Winter last year and was so excited to be able to visit her in person. She's such an inspirational little soul and I absolutely love her little dolphin self.

Here's Winter playing with one of her trainers. You might be able to notice what is so special about Winter in this photo. She has no tail. When Winter was about 3 months old, she became entangled in a crab trap line and lost her entire tail, along with two vertebrae, as a result of the ordeal. She was rescued and sent to the Clearwater marine Aquarium where she has been living quite happily ever since for the last 5 years.

We just happened to be visiting at the same time that a team from Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics (a leading human prosthetics company that created a prosthetic tail for Winter) was visiting. The team from Hanger noticed our enthusiasm for Winter (or maybe they just noticed our cute child) and offered to let us hold her tail and have our picture taken with it. Awesome, right?!?! One of the reasons Winter has a prosthetic tail is to help her swim like dolphins do (up and down motions). Because of her tail loss, she learned to swim like a shark (side to side motions).
There are a few other rescued dolphins that live at the aquarium too. Pictured above is Panama, Winter's "roommate". Panama is estimated to be in her 30s, so she is the senior citizen and "mama" dolphin of the bunch. Panama was rescued in 2000 after she was stranded near Panama City. She was treated for anemia, sunburn, and an infection. Her teeth had been worn down and she had become a "begger dolphin" (i.e. dolphins that hang around boats looking for food fed to them by humans). Even though she responded well to her treatment, it was determined that she was not suitable to be released back into the wild.

It was amazing how close we could get to the dolphins. Bradford could actually see them. He probably thought they were weird dogs. Jeremy and I could have watched Panama and Winter all day, but there were other dolphins, sea turtles, nurse sharks, sting rays, and sea otters to see too!

Here is baby Hope, the newest dolphin to join the aquarium. She was rescued in December when she was about 2 months old (just like Winter!). She was even rescued by one of the same people who rescued Winter. I don't think I had ever seen a baby dolphin before.

Hope loved playing with this water dog toy. While Jeremy and I were watching Hope's super cuteness, Bradford was more interested in watching one of her trainers sweeping some steps. We decided this is why kids under 2 get free admission places because clearly they don't get anything out of the experience. Don't worry, that's not a real shark.

We made our way back to Winter to watch her rehab session which turned into a tricks show too. Winter gets massages as part of her therapy. Such is the life of a movie star!

Here is Winter waving and playing with a ball. She loved playing with the ball. Panama was quick to remind everyone that she could do tricks too.

The boys, looking at some sting rays.

Lil' B and me checking out the nurse sharks and their giant fish friends. Nurse sharks have really pretty eyes and like to cuddle each other.

Here's an under water view of Winter. Seriously, how cute is she?

Here's Nicholas. Nicholas is six years old and was rescued on Christmas Eve when he was about six months old. His mother and he were stranded and were badly sunburned. Nicholas' mother passed away within a few days of the rescue, but little Nicholas recovered amazingly well considering that he had not only lost his mother, but suffered severe burns on over 30% of his body.

While at the aquarium, we found a Pharaoh turtle.

I couldn't resist this trash can photo-op at the aquarium.
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After the aquarium, we went to the resort pool. We have no pictures of this because all three of us were in the water playing together. Bradford loved the pool. He laughed and smiled the whole time he was in there. I think it was the highlight of vacation for him.
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Next up, Bruce and Courtney's wedding!

Spring Break '11: Clearwater Part One

2011-05-02T19:59:00.015-04:00

For our first road trip-free day in Clearwater, we went to the beach.

How cute is our pet human's shadow?

Bradford loved-loved-loved the beach. The sand, the waves, the wind- everything made him laugh and smile. Luckily, this experience on the beach was much more enjoyable than when he first felt waves splash against him last year. To be fair, he was only one month old back then and the water was cold. This time around, Bradford was ready to party.

If he could, I'm sure he would have run down the beach screaming "SPRING BREAK WOOOOOOOOOO!"

After playing in the water, it was time to test out his new beach toys. More interesting than his toys was the sand itself, which apparently looked delicious. That's right, Bradford started to eat the sand by the handful. Gross.

Love his happy little beach face. Cuter than this was when Bradford decided that the sand looked like a nice place to bury his face. He quickly realized that was a bad idea and pulled his completely sand covered face back up crying. There was not one inch of his face that was not entirely covered in sand. The bad mom voice in me said, "He looks like a sandy Casper the ghost. Take his picture!" The good mom voice in me said, "You better clean his face off quickly! Don't want to get any sand in his eyes!" Good mom voice won. We cleaned his face off and decided to call it a day.

Back in the hotel room, Bradford passed out, completely exhausted from the beach fun and stomach full of sand.

After we cleaned ourselves up, we headed to a cocktail party for the wedding guests with Bradford in tow.

The Mr. and Mrs. to be, less than 24 hours to go!

Yeah, we are the classy couple who parks their kid by a bike at a bar.

The wedding weekend was a reunion of sorts for Jeremy and many of his fraternity brothers. Bruce was Jeremy's fraternity little brother and roommate Jeremy's senior year.

Bradford was a champ at the late-night party. When he started to cuddle his blanket like this, we knew it was time to head home for the night.
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Stay tuned for Part Two in which we get to hang out with dolphins!

Spring Break '11: Savannah, GA

2011-05-01T23:26:00.021-04:00

Well it seems we found ourselves on yet another road trip. While usually our road trips take us north on I-95, we opted for a twist this time and headed south. Why bother take the easy way out and fly when you can drive over 800 miles with your pet human in tow? And so it was that we headed to Clearwater, FL to attend the wedding of our dear friends, Bruce & Courtney.

We stopped half-way in Savannah, GA where we ran into Paula Deen (or at least a cardboard cut-out of her). You might notice that Bradford is holding our umbrella. This was an on-going battle for the day in which he insisted on holding the umbrella. Luckily we never ended up needing it.

We were excited to have lunch at Paula Deen's butterlicious restaurant "The Lady and Sons." We got there at 2:30 on a Tuesday and still had to wait 20 minutes to be seated. I've heard that the wait can be hours for dinner. I'm glad we were there for a late lunch and only had to wait a little while. The restaurant isn't that big, but it oozes Southern charm. We passed on the all-you-can-eat butterlicious Southern comfort food buffet in favor of the "Savannah Meatloaf Sandwich" (Jeremy) and the "Sho-Nuff Vegetable Sandwich" (me). Instead of the usual basket of rolls, you get served hoecakes and some fancy delicious roll biscuit thing that I forget what the name was. We washed our meal down with some of Paula's mint iced tea. The meal was awesome and the service was great.
After lunch, we decided to burn off our butterlicious lunch calories with a walk to the Savannah riverfront. Here we are posing for a trash can photo on the river walk. I love that Bradford is totally getting into the posing. You can see the famed Talmadge Memorial Bridge in the background.

Remember what I said about Bradford wanting to hold the umbrella? Here he is trying to steal it from Jeremy.

There were trees growing out of the wall here.

Inside one of the riverside stores, Bradford made a wish that he could be "big." So far he is still a little boy.

I think this photo is what Heaven might be like for my dad. An old-timey candy store with a train inside. Throw in a baseball field, some dogs, and some historic military stuff and he's good for eternity.

For dinner we went to the "Pirates' House" restaurant. Real pirates used to hang out there. Some died there and haunt the place. When we went, a Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator was there entertaining the diners. At one point he said, "Can I have everyone's attention please?" Bradford responded with a big "Eh!" at his loudest possible volume. Everyone except Captain Jack laughed. Captain Jack said "Hush up you!" Bradford was quiet for the rest of dinner.

The next morning, Bradford played with the window curtains in our hotel room while staring at himself in the mirror. It was precious.

Before heading back on the road, we drove around Savannah for a little sight-seeing by car and saw many of the city's famous squares. We stopped at Chippewa Square, which has become a must-see stop for tourists. Why? It's famous for something that has nothing to do Chippewa Square itself, the deceased of the Battle of Chippawa it honors, or the statue of Savannah founder James Oglethorpe. Does it look familiar to you?
How about now? Yep, Chippewa Square is where the famous bench scenes from the movie "Forrest Gump" were filmed. The bench Forrest sat on was a movie prop now in a museum, so we couldn't sit on it. That's okay though because we've had a Forrest Gump bench photo-op before.

Along our drive to Clearwater, we drove through Bradford County, which is famous for being home to Florida State Prison. I got a kick out of seeing so many businesses and landmarks named after our pet human. Bradford seemed to enjoy the county that shared his name which was evidenced by the fact that the second we left and drove into Alachua County, Bradford had a tantrum. Um, kid, we didn't drive all of the way to Florida to just hang out in Bradford County.

Once we finally made it to Clearwater, we were lucky enough to be invited to have dinner at the rental home of Courtney's parents. Aside from being super awesome friends, we are pretty sure that we scored the invite because Courtney's mom reads my blog and wanted to meet the baby she's read so much about. Thanks for being cute Lil' B! Spaghetti and meatballs totally hit the spot, and it was nice to be able to spend some extra time with the Bride-to-be and her betrothed.
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So that wraps up part one of our Spring Break '11 road trip. More to come soon!

Easter Weekend Fun

2011-04-25T14:03:00.014-04:00

We had a busy Easter weekend here. Jeremy's mother came to visit, and together with my parents, we all had fun celebrating Bradford's first Easter. Kind of funny thinking of it as his "first" since he was over a year old, but I guess that's what happens when you are born a few days after Easter one year and Easter is late the next. So our little guy was 1 year and 16 days old when he first received an Easter basket.

Saturday we went to the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game. I would like to take this moment to point out how Bradford's hair is sticking straight up on its own without hair product or wind assisting it. His hair was like that when he woke up and remained that way all day. Precious.

Outside of the stadium, Jeremy got hugged by the Easter bunny.
Here's Bradford with his grandparents at the game. (L-R Jeremy's mom "Bubba" and my parents, "Mina" and "Billbo")
Bradford was way more into the game experience this year. Although to be fair, he was only 3 months old when he went to a game last year.

We had great seats along the first base line, perfect for watching Nutzy the Flying Squirrel dance.

Just minutes after this picture was taken, a foul ball came flying into the stands and hit a guy sitting right behind us. Lucky for him, he wasn't hurt badly. Lucky for Jeremy (who had been sitting directly in front of the guy), he was away from our seats getting dinner, so he didn't get hit himself or soaked by the man's full beer that spilled when the guy got hit. Lucky for Bradford who was sitting in his stoller, I threw my legs and any spare body parts I could over his little body so he would be safe from flying balls and spilled beers. The guy who got hit explained that he didn't see the ball coming because he was distracted by Bradford's supreme cuteness and had been looking at him, thus breaking the cardinal rule of baseball, "Never take your eye off of the ball." For those of you who are worried that the man's beer was spilled everywhere, don't worry, the stadium comped him a free beer.

Sunday, we headed to the annual "Easter on Parade" on Richmond's famed Monument Avenue. It's not a parade in the sense that bands and clowns go marching by on floats. It's basically a large street festival where you are the parade. There is an annual Easter bonnet contest for people and dogs. There are large, beautiful, historic homes that line the street, and every other house has a band or a party on their porch.

Brodie went too. It was hot. A few times he just laid down in the shade on the street as if to say, "Hey folks, it's hot. I need a little break."

Lots of people turned out for the event. As far as you could see, there were people there for the parade.

At one point, Bradford decided he wanted to walk Brodie.

After the parade, we posed for a quick family photo at our house. Then it was on to Mina and Billbo's house for Easter dinner.

Bradford had just a few bites of his fancy Easter dinner before throwing his entire plate of food on the floor. Wow. Sorry Mom.

And here's one last photo of Bradford on Easter, playing in the grass, which needs to be cut. Time to get to work, Jeremy!

A Very Grown-Up Anniversary

2011-04-19T15:36:00.009-04:00

One year ago today, we found out that our bid was accepted on our home, and in a matter of weeks, we would become home-owners.
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I took the picture below today. See how pretty our azaleas are? A year ago, those same azaleas were in bloom looking ever so pretty saying, "Hey guys! Don't you want to live here? Look how pretty and inviting we are!"

Our house-hunting adventure was a marathon experience. Bradford was 10 days old, which meant that I was 10 days out of what Jeremy likes to remind everyone is "major abdominal surgery." We were in a rush to buy a house because we didn't want to miss out on our Obama money for being first-time home-buyers. We toured 8 houses in one day, and 3 of them we toured twice. We found out that our favorite house (our house) was also the favorite house of another couple who were putting in a bid for it that night. We scrambled to get a competitive bid in that night. The next morning, we got the call that the owner accepted our offer along with every condition we asked for. So with 11 trips through 8 houses with a newborn and a bidding war all in one day, we were really lucky with how things turned out.

As for our top three houses, the ones we liked but didn't buy were located in the same neighborhood on parallel streets. Jeremy played the "good, protective husband and father card" and did an online search to find out if there were any sex offenders nearby. Turns out there were a ton near those houses. Yikes! At this point, we had already decided we liked our house in the pervert-free neighborhood better (thanks to living a short walk away from an elementary school and within a mile of both a middle and high school, sex offenders are hard to come by in our neck of the woods), but it was a factor that further cemented the feeling that this house was destined to be our house.
One of the other homes we liked was beautiful. Every room was pretty and tasteful. It's flaws were that the kitchen floor had a weird concave slope to it. The family room and the laundry room had signs of past flooding/leaking. The family room also had mold hiding under the carpet and behind the baseboards. We thought that as beautiful as that house was, the flooding and mold issues were outside of our budget for what the upkeep and repair would be, especially since the water-damage appeared to be a function of drainage issues due to the home's location, and not an "easy" plumbing issue. Also, the yard was full of bushes. Tons and tons of bushes. In order to make the backyard useable to a dog and little boy, we would have to spend eternity ripping out the bushes and doing major landscaping. After spending a few hours trying to remove just one dead azalea stump the other day and ultimately quitting, I'm so glad we didn't end up in that house.

The last house was one that we were intially really excited about. Of our top 3 homes, it was the only one with 4 bedrooms and a garage. As we toured the house, we could feel our excitement fading. The house had a very frumpy grandmother feel to it, which I guess makes sense considering that a grandmother lived there. We also learned that she recently had passed away. Objects in the home had post-it notes with family member's names on them. Tanya got the bedroom set. The house smelled funny. There was a weird stain on the family room rug. Naturally, we got the idea that the grandmother died in the house (most likely in the family room) and wasn't found for a few days (perhaps explaining the stain and the smell). Once we got on that thought-train, we thought maybe the house was haunted.

Our home's major flaws were cosmetic details, like hideous paint on the walls and 5 different colors of trim throughout the house. Remember how our kitchen used to look? Well this was the dining room (this is a pic from the real estate listing, so it's not our stuff). It looks like a ketchup and mustard inspired paint job in the photo, but really the bottom half was a nasty brown color. The day we moved in and saw the true colors of the room, Jeremy and I looked at eachother and decided that there would be no waiting to redecorate. The dining room's colors were detrimental to our happiness. We bought new paint immediately. So fast, in fact, that we never got around to taking our own "before" picture. But aside from the ugly color choices, this house was perfect and had the best yard of any of the 8 houses we toured. We loved it.

One year after deciding this was "the house," we couldn't be happier that this was where we ended up. Now look to the bottom-left of the above picture to see our fence, purchased with part of our first-time home-buyer money. Brodie approves.

And for those of you who only read my blog to see pics of Bradford, here he is, happy playing in the front yard, digging in the mulch and ripping leaves and flowers off of the plants. Baby Destructo at work.

Bradford Turns One!

2011-04-11T09:51:00.023-04:00

Bradford's first birthday was packed full of fun.

We went to Target. We went to the library. The English major in me just loves these pictures of Bradford standing by loads of books. Here's Bradford picking out one of the books we checked out. Bradford's favorite part of the library was this toy.

After the library, we went to the grocery store where I got a strange look from a man most likely thinking, "Who takes pictures in a grocery store?" Obviously he didn't notice Bradford's sweet "Birthday Boy" blue ribbon.

After the grocery store, we made a quick stop to Hallmark to visit Mina at work. Lucky for Bradford, she gave him a special birthday balloon.

Here's Bradford posing with the first of our azalea blooms.

Birthday photo with Daddy.

Birthday photo with Mummy.

Just before dinner.

Birthday dinner: spaghetti with sausage

No, that's not spaghetti and meatballs, it's Bradford's birthday cake. Amazing, huh? I'm pretty proud of my culinary prowess. Best homemade first birthday cake ever!

Requisite "grabbing at cake" photo-op

I guess the cake was a hit. The kid looks pleased!

We went on a special birthday outing to Colonial Williamsburg.

Bradford and I got in trouble with the law.

Such a cute birthday boy. Such a great time celebrating his fabulous first year.

Video: In Which Bradford Eats Some Birthday Cake

One Year Ago Today...

2011-04-08T22:19:00.006-04:00

One year ago today...

...a little boy was born.

At the age of 28, I became a mother, even though I look like I'm 16 in this picture.

Jeremy got a reason other than his 80+ hour work weeks to wake him up before the ass crack of dawn.

Brodie happily handled the transition from "only child" to "big brother" more perfectly than we could have ever hoped.

One year ago today, we became a real family.

Stay tuned for pictures of Bradford's first birthday!

Leather Anniversary

2011-04-06T20:13:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, Jeremy and I celebrated our third anniversary. Three years seems like nothing compared to my grandparents who have been married for 60 years. Here's hoping Jeremy and I enjoy that milestone together one day... April 5, 2068 to be exact. Mark your calendars, or better yet, mark our grandchildren's calendars.We haven't ever exchanged anniversary presents. There's always been a big life event around the time of our anniversary that we've always decided worked just as well as an anniversary present. For our first anniversary, we figured that instead of giving each other a present, our money was better spent on a trip to California to go to a friend's wedding. We didn't exchange any gifts for our second anniversary either because we figured we would be busy taking care of our newborn baby, and that was a better present than we could ever wish for. That didn't happen, and it seemed like we would be in the hospital with our newborn baby. That didn't happen either, and so it seemed like we were never going to have our baby- until he showed up 8 days late, 3 days after our anniversary. This year, we decided to revisit our first year anniversary gift idea, and will be using a trip to Florida to see our friends get married on the beach as our anniversary gift to each other.

Even though we don't give each other anniversary gifts, that doesn't stop others from giving us anniversary presents. We're looking at you President Obama! Here's Bradford modeling with what part of our Obama money bought us. See ya later!

Choppity Chop Chop

2011-03-31T16:05:00.007-04:00

When people point me out to someone that doesn't know me, I'm pretty sure they usually say, "Oh Heather, that's the girl with the really long blond hair." Well folks, you are going to have to be more creative when pointing me out now, because that won't do anymore. You'll have to settle for, "Oh Heather, that's the girl who used to have really long blond hair."

So here I am minutes before the chop with Bradford in tow for his first salon experience at Red Salon. Wish I had brushed my hair prior to the photo.

And here I am shortly after the cut at Carrie's house for an impromptu visit. And this pic has nothing to do with my new weave, but it's a shark tooth Carrie found. Crazy big, right!?!?!

And back to my new haircut. Here's the hair that will be donated to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Me Likey.

And because I love a good before & after, here you go.

The Terrible Eleven and Half Months

2011-03-28T11:34:00.016-04:00

Why bother wait for the Terrible Twos to hit when you can be terrible before you've even had your first birthday?

On Thursday night, Bradford did this while I was making dinner. Poor plant. In December 2007, Brodie did this while I was at work and Jeremy was in class. Given this crime scene, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that...

Bradford did this while I made his breakfast Saturday morning. See the crocodile tears? I don't get it. I'm the one that should be crying- or maybe Jeremy since he'll be the one to replace and install new blinds. We'd even taken "baby-proofing" measures to shorten the cords so that little hands and heads couldn't reach them or get tangled in them. It should be noted that Bradford can't reach the blinds unless he has something to stand on. His favorite "foot stool" is that orange and blue soccer ball. I'm sure he was standing on the soccer ball, holding on to the blinds, lost his balance, and the blinds broke as he fell. Baby Destructo strikes again.

Other recent Bradford badness not pictured includes Bradford tipping over and spilling Brodie's water dish all over the hallway and picking up my mug of tea (thankfully cold) and dumping it all over me and the couch this morning.

Now on to the cuteness that balances out the badness. When he's not trying to break the window blinds, Bradford's new favorite game is putting a toy on the window sill above the play pen. I like this game a lot better than breaking the blinds. He'll put a toy up there, look at it, take it down, look at it, and put it back up there. Most often he does this with his little Steelers figurine (pictured above), but he'll try other toys to, including this:

He couldn't lift this, but he decided it had some use anyway. He turned it into a ladder/foot stool so he could better reach the window sill to put another toy up there.

And now for videos of Bradford's cuteness.

Video: In Which Bradford Puts a Toy on the Window Sill and Later Walks Around His Play Pen With Another Toy Pushed Against His Face

Video: In Which Bradford Holds Leaves While Standing in the Back Yard While Birds Chirp
Video: In Which Bradford is "So Big," Claps on Command, and Babbles Something

Bradford is 11 Months Old

2011-03-08T18:03:00.012-05:00

Lil' B turned 11 months old today!

This is about as interested in his monthly photo shoot today as Bradford got.

Bradford has spent much of the last month working on his "physical therapy" learning how to walk. This dinosaur walker thing is great for that. Bradford also likes to roll it on top of himself and play with the underside. A future mechanic in the making?
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Bradford has had a lot of play dates in the last month.

His first Valentine's Day date was with Ellie. Bradford was a total gentleman and pushed her chair in for her.
He had fun playing on the playground with Emma (who was his very first play date back when they were just a couple weeks old).
And just yesterday Bradford met up with his buddies Brayden and Nolan.

Bradford's top two teeth are coming in.

Well this has been a quick year. It's hard to believe that next month Bradford will be 1 year old!
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Video: In Which Bradford Uses His Dinosaur Walker Shortly After Taking His Pants Off

Video: In Which Bradford Plays Peek-A-Boo

Hollywood

2011-02-28T08:54:00.017-05:00

Since it was Oscar Sunday, we decided to spend the afternoon in Hollywood....

Hollywood Cemetery, that is. Opened in 1849, Hollywood Cemetery is one of the most historical and famous cemeteries in the country. It is also one of the top tourist destinations in Richmond. While not the final resting place of any Hollywood stars, it is where you can visit the graves of two presidents (Tyler and Monroe), 25 Confederate generals (including Stuart and Pickett), Jefferson Davis (the President of the Confederate States), and more than 18,000 Confederate soldiers.

You can see views of downtown Richmond and the James River from Hollywood.

Oh look, there's a Baldwin. I wonder if we're related.

The final resting place of President John Tyler.

And just a hop, skip, and a jump away is President James Monroe. Pretty cool that two presidents are so close together. (You can see John Tyler's grave in the back left.)

Bradford was really impressed by Monroe's tomb. He kept looking up to the top of it.

Hollywood Cemetery has a lot of legends and folklore connected to it, including "The Richmond Vampire." This was about as close to seeing the Richmond Vampire as we got.

Here's a ghostly sycamore tree in the middle of the cemetery.

Here's J.E.B. Stuart for you military history buffs.
There's another Hollywood legend about this iron dog. It is said that he keeps watch over the little girl who is laid to rest at his side. People have reported that the dog appears to change position. Some lore states that the dog has even come to life to chase off baddies up to no good in the cemetery.
Here's another shot of the iron dog.

A strange place to find a collection of Silly Bandz.

This granite pyramid was erected in 1869 as a memorial to the more than 18,000 Confederate soldiers buried within the cemetery.

And here's a family "trash can photo" by the pyramid. Thanks to the ghost who took this picture (by allowing us to set the camera on their stone with the automatic timer on).

Sayonara Ugly Kitchen

2011-02-21T10:18:00.016-05:00

We've got some exciting news, folks! Our hideous kitchen is no more! We just had a nice staycation this past week on account of Jeremy having time off from work. Aside from lazy mornings every day, we used the time to fancify our kitchen. This makeover was a long-time coming. We painted the dining room, living room, and Bradford's room right away when we moved in. We didn't have time to redo the kitchen before Jeremy started residency, so we've had to make do with its monster ugliness for the last 9 months.

When we bought the house, we called the kitchen "The Steelers Kitchen" because it was black, white, and golden yellow. Sure those colors look nice on Big Ben, but they were horrible in our house. Worse, the trim in the kitchen was also yellow. Not a nice, pretty butter yellow, but a hideous dark, dirty, old pee yellow. I realized after the Super Bowl, while we were discussing the reasons why the Steelers lost and broke Jeremy's heart, that it was most likely our kitchen's fault that the Packers won. You see, the kitchen isn't really a "Steelers Kitchen," it's a "Packers Kitchen." The green shelf pictured above proved it. Our kitchen was apparently green everywhere before it was turned yellow. Also, the wall space that isn't yellow isn't white like you might think, but is actually greenish shade of off-white which doesn't really present so well in photos, let alone, go with gross yellow. So the mix of green and yellow in the kitchen was obviously the catalyst to give the Packers victory and make Jeremy cry. As soon as I presented this theory, Jeremy said that we should go pick out new paint colors and spend his vacation week painting. Who knew it was so easy to get your husband to spring for a makeover? I'll have to remember this...

Previous owners of our home took a lot of short-cuts. They painted around things (like the stove) and painted over things (like wall paper). Oh look, there's that old green peeking out from under the yellow. We don't have the budget for a total kitchen makeover, so when choosing new paint colors for the kitchen so heavy on black and white, we wanted to make sure that "new paint" choice would match. Green and yellow were poor choices for a kitchen with white cabinets, swirly black and white floors, and black with white speckles counters. (Kind of sounds like I'm describing a carnival fun house now) BEFORE: Very faint mint-green walls, dark yellow back splash, dark yellow trim, green shelf. Gross kitchen that always looked dark and dirty. BEFORE: Oh look, there's the swirly black and white floors. Seriously, why do people paint trim anything but white? Previous owners also painted part of the window frame. That will be fun when we get around to replacing that window. DURING: Everything is primed. Kitchen looks a million times better already. That shelf is going to need several coats of primer.

DURING: Not sure why there is a pinkish glow here, but maybe it's just the kitchen's way of saying, "I'm really excited about the new colors you've picked out for me!"

AFTER: Walls are all a clean, crisp white except for the back splash area which is now candy apple red. All trim and the shelf are white.

AFTER: The floors, cabinets, and counters all look so much better with the white and red wall colors. Now the kitchen has kind of a retro look to it, which is fitting for a home like ours built in 1958. I'm in love with how my kitchen looks now! * So here's a before and after mashed up together for you:

LOVE IT! I think our food tastes better already.

Bradford is 10 Months Old

2011-02-08T18:37:00.015-05:00

Bradford's first Super Bowl was Sunday. We went to a party at my friend Carrie's house. You can see from the photo which team the Ross Clan endorsed. Obviously this photo was taken before the game started because Jeremy is happy. That's all we'll say on the matter.
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In other news, Lil' B is 10 months old today. Holy Smokes!

Is that a polar bear cub in my house? Maybe it's an Ewok. So like I said last month, Bradford moves around way too much now for his monthly photo shoots. So here is Bradford, a 10 month old blur of cuteness. Bradford prefers taking naps in his play pen to naps in his crib. You can see here that he fell asleep while playing with his "Dr. Daddy" Curious George. Look at his chunky little fingers on Curious George's stethoscope. Precious! Standing up like a big boy. I love how grown up he is now. Won't be much longer before we're kicking a soccer ball around the yard together!
Check out his chompers! Bradford bit my finger at the Super Bowl party. Witnesses can attest to how loudly I screamed ouch and to the mark he left on my finger. Caution folks: baby teeth are sharp! Friends, family, and other random people are always saying things like how Bradford is always so happy and always smiling. Don't be fooled folks. Bradford is no different than any other baby. He has his tantrum moments too. Believe me, it's not all smiles. But doesn't he have the cutest little melt-down face?
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Video: In Which Bradford Feeds 90% of his Cheerios to Brodie

Video: In Which Bradford Discovers the Springy Door-Stopper Thingy While Dressed in His Polar Bear Winter Weather Finery and Brodie Makes a Cameo Appearance

Love/Hate This Week in My Life

2011-01-31T13:15:00.006-05:00

I LOVE this:

I scored this antique wash stand at a local antiques mall this past weekend. It's exactly what I've been looking for- something nice enough to be in the living room, but funky enough to serve as a TV stand to this beauty that Jeremy and I won last year. Hearts to the antique vendor who found this treasure wherever they did and sold it to me below asking price!

I HATE this:

(Please note I absolutely adore the child. It's the nastiness on his sweatpants that I hate.) Bradford picked up some awful germ a week ago. He had a 24 hour bug "a plague of both ends" as I call it last Monday. The next day I had it. Worst bug I've ever had. Jeremy had it the day after that. Today marks one full week since Bradford had the bug, yet he is still having gross poop. Every single one has been a blow-out. 2-3 blow-outs a day for one week straight. Darts to the person who let their child with a plague of both ends go out in public and sit in restaurant high chairs or Target shopping carts, leaving their horrible germs behind for poor little Bradford to catch. I hope the end of this poo germ is in sight. I mean, how does it even happen that the blast of a nearly 10 month old's poo becomes so powerful that all of the poo lands on the back side of his pants and none of it stays in the diaper? All week long folks!!!!!!!!!

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(And in case anyone is worried about Bradford, he is basically oblivious to his gross poo. He's eating normally and spends his days laughing and playing as usual.)

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

2011-01-14T12:05:00.005-05:00

It's a universal truth that it is absolutely hilarious when someone falls down (provided they aren't elderly, disabled, and/or get injured in the process, because you would be a jerk for laughing then). When a baby falls, it's not only funny, but completely precious. For all of you who enjoy watching a good tumble, I give you video footage of some of Bradford's best falls.
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Video: In Which Bradford Falls While Learning to Sit (9/3/10)

Video: In Which Bradford Falls While Dressed as a Hobo (11/19/10)

Video: In Which Bradford Falls While Jumping in His Bed (1/13/11)

Bradford is 9 Months Old

2011-01-10T10:34:00.020-05:00

Lil B turned 9 months old on Saturday, January 8th!

Okay, so this isn't Bradford, but doesn't Brodie look so handsome in the morning light of our living room? Alright, back to what Bradford's been up to...

He is so much more of a little boy now than ever before, and we love how grown up he has become. His first tooth broke through his gums on Dec. 27th. His second tooth broke through on Jan. 9th. If you look very closely, you might be able to see the tiny specks of his first teeth.

I had a very hard time getting a "9 Month" photo of Bradford. He's too energetic to sit still for more than 1 second. The child is always moving now.
On Saturday, we went over to our friend Amanda's house to help her with moving/ grab her left-over pantry food freebies/ bid her "see ya later" as she is moving to Seattle today. We had fun putting Bradford in her old doll cradle. He wasn't so happy. We'll miss having you close by Amanda, but we are so excited for the happiness this new chapter in your life will bring for you.

Bradford had his first haircut on his 9 month birthday. Just a little trim over his ears. He was starting to look like an unkempt old man.

The Ross boys like to gang up on their dad.

We recently took Bradford sledding, and by sledding we mean took Bradford to watch other people sled. He's my little polar bear baby.

Bradford spends most of his days standing, bouncing, cruising, pulling up, squatting down, and crawling around.

Bradford is trouble when it's time for a diaper change. He would much rather crawl off of his changing table, steal the wipes, and make you think it would be easier to diaper an alligator. Even with the extra physical challenge Bradford throws our way, we're still cloth diapering him (except when we are on the go). I've had enough of his naughty diaper-changing shenanigans, so I can't wait to start potty-training him. He's already got a potty too.

Bradford likes to wave and clap now. He's not very good at either yet, but it's still pretty cute.

Joy of our life!
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Video: In Which Bradford Claps

Video: In Which Bradford Performs a Dramatic Monologue

Crafty Christmas

2010-12-30T16:33:00.035-05:00

I love homemade gifts, especially when they are totally great personal things that turn out so nicely that you are proud to say "Hey, I made that!" and the gift recipient says with honest amazement, "No way! This is awesome! You are a superstar!"
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Since I had some extra time on my hands this year on account of being employed as Bradford's personal assistant, I decided that this would be the year that I would attempt to make a totally amazing homemade gift for my family members.

For as long as the show has been on the air, my mom has watched "Days of Our Lives." I remember watching the show as a kid with my mom and brothers, and the watching of certain episodes (i.e. the annual decorating of the Horton family Christmas tree episode) were as much a family tradition as the hanging of our stockings by the chimney with care.

Everyone in the Horton family had an ornament with their name on it. Usually flashbacks of that character/family member coincided with it being hung on the tree. We'd all shed tears at the characters who had passed away (here's to you, Grandpa Tom and Great-Gran Alice!) and longingly wait for absent characters to come back from the dead/ loony bin/ Africa/ prison/ boarding school/ Stefano's evil clutches as their ornaments were displayed.
It was the type of simple family ritual that you love. One that makes you think, "Hey, all we need is some flashy name ornaments of our own! Then we can all gather together at Alice Horton's (I mean Mom's house) and eat some of Alice's famous doughnuts (I mean Mom's homemade cookies). A few years ago (maybe when I was in college?) I remember my mom saying that she wanted some Horton-style ornaments of her own. So this year, I set out to make them.

I had all kinds of plans rolling around in my head of how my ornaments would look. Embellishments, details, colors, etc. all flashed through my head. I went to the craft store (armed with a baby who had just had the blow-out of his life) and bought all kinds of crazy supplies for ornament making. Sure I might have been a little white trash with my super poopy baby who was wrapped in a blanket so as to hide the drippy poo stains on his pants, but I had all of the equipment necessary to make the most amazing ornaments ever!
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Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time to make them as I planned. We were out of town for a week over Thanksgiving which set me back. A plague of bodily fluid out of both ends hit Bradford. Jeremy and I had some kind of stomach virus too. I was running out of time to make them. I had to scale back my grandiose ornament plans and modify the designs a bit so that I could pull off The Great Christmas Craft of 2010. Finally, on Christmas Eve day, I finished all 15 ornaments (10 people, 5 dogs) that I had set out to make by Christmas.
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Let's start with the dogs. Yes, I made ornaments for my dogs.
Daisy, the newest canine addition to the Baldwin family. Adopted hound-mix daughter of my brother Doug and sister-in-law Jaime.
Hannibal, my first dog, a German shepherd/ black lab mix.

Buckley, a dalmatian.

Mindy, our border collie.

Brodie, our beagle/basset hound mix.
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Each dog ornament had a bone painted on the back.
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Now for the people. A little more work involved with them.

My grandmother "Gigi."

Gigi loves Paris, so I painted an Eiffel Tower on hers.

My grandfather "Big Mac." (His letters are painted in the colors of his beloved alma mater, Amherst College)

Big Mac loves sailing, so I painted a sailboat for him.

My brother, Douglas. He's a veteran of Iraq, so he got patriotic letters over a desert camo background.

I painted an Army star on the back of his since he is in the Army National Guard.

My sister-in-law Jaime.

Jaime is famous in our family for her pies, so naturally I painted a slice on hers.

My dad, whose grandfather name is "Billbo." I debated whether I was going to make my parents have their real names or their grandparent names on theirs. I opted for grandparent names since they had a lifetime of Bill/Merrill ornaments, why not have the novelty of Billbo/Mina ones?

My dad loves trains. I know he likes locomotives, so I Google imaged them and painted one.

My mom, "Mina".

My mom is from the North Shore of Massachusetts. One of the most well-known towns up there is Rockport, which is famous for "Motif Number 1" a fishing shack famous for being the most painted building in America. So here's a little reminder of "home" for her.

My brother, Andrew.

Andrew is something of a self-appointed "President of Red Sox Nation, Midlothian Chapter" in the family, so he gets some red sox of his own to carry on the mojo in the off-season.

Bradford, my bambino.

Polar bears are my favorite animals. Bradford is my "Little Bear."

Jeremy, my husband. His letters are "glorious orange and blue," the colors of our alma mater, Gettysburg College.

Jeremy loves (no) LOVES the movie "Ghostbusters." The weekend we met he wanted to watch Ghostbusters with me after he walked me home. He fell asleep 5 minutes into the movie. He gets Slimer on his ornament as a celebration of one of his favorite movies and a tribute to Memorial Day weekend 2004 when we met. I'm pretty proud of how Slimer turned out. When asked what he thought I was going to paint on his ornament, Jeremy said, "A bone? Maybe a steak?"

Heather, myself. I was running out of steam here, so mine's kind of boring compared to the others I made.

I painted the Florentine "fleur-de-lis" on mine. I studied abroad in Florence, Italy in 2002 and it's pretty much my favorite place of all time. My parents and brothers came to Florence in time for Christmas that year too, so this ornament is also a reminder of the Christmas I spent in Italy.
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This concludes my report on The Great Christmas Craft of 2010. Jeremy thinks I might as well make ornaments for a living now. Your thoughts? Which ornament is your favorite? Would you give up the Benjamins (or maybe a Jackson?) for an ornament made by me?

Christmas 2010 Slide Show

2010-12-29T12:26:00.005-05:00

Our first Christmas with Bradford was wonderful. Here's a little slideshow of some of the fun we had. Click on the pictures to zoom in for a better look.

Snow Day

2010-12-16T15:08:00.012-05:00

It's a snow day here in Richmond. School's out and the grocery stores are empty!

Here's our house.

Our Cav gnome is getting buried.
While this is not technically Bradford's first snow, it's the first snow I've taken him out to play in.
Brodie always looks like a regal beagle in the snow.
My boys kept me company while I shoveled the driveway.

A spy.

Bradford thought maybe he should help shovel.

So I thought "why not?" and I put the kid to work.

Then Bradford made his first snow angel. After a couple minutes in the snow, Bradford, Brodie, and I headed in for some warm, dry clothes and some snow day snuggling.
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Video: In Which Bradford Makes a Snow Angel

Bradford is 8 Months Old

2010-12-10T14:40:00.007-05:00

Bradford turned 8 months old on Wednesday.

We've been busy decorating our house for Christmas lately. Here's Bradford's first Christmas ornament. It was a gift from my mom's college friend Judy.

Bradford got a special "8 months" birthday present- his Christmas stocking, hand-made by Mina. My mom is famous for sewing stockings for family. Bradford's stocking even has little dog buttons on it which Bradford loves.
Around Thanksgiving, Bradford started making this crusty "Grumpus" face. It's the face he makes when he sniffs in the snot from his runny nose.
At 8 months, Bradford's main "stupid human trick" of note is giving a high five. He would rather stand than sit, which is made complicated by the fact that he can't stand on his own yet. Bradford also loves to "walk" with help.

Today, I came in to Bradford's room post-nap to see that he had pulled himself up in his crib. He was smiling, just waiting for me to notice. It's cute how proud of himself he is.

I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of this from now on!

Elf Yourself Part 2: The Charleston

2010-12-07T10:56:00.001-05:00

I like how this is all "old-timey".

Elf Yourself Part 1: Hip Hop

2010-12-07T10:19:00.002-05:00

The highlight of this for me is when Bloody Mary and Brodie do "the worm".

Thanksgivingness

2010-12-06T14:31:00.018-05:00

Thanksgiving 2010

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Jeremy and I consumed these delicious Pilgrim cookies. Super tons of chocolate frosting. Delicious. Of course, Jeremy always has to ruin the culinary magic by reading the nutrition label. Whatever. I ate all of mine and the last bit of Jeremy's.

We spent Thanksgiving in North East, PA (which is actually in north western PA) at Jeremy's mother's home. Bradford enjoyed spending time with his grandmother Bubba.
Here are the boys carving the Turkey- "Cappy" did most of the work while the Ross boys pretended to help.

We took a little afternoon trip to go check out Cappy's new boat. Bradford sat in the Captain's seat. He wasn't really into the experience. I guess boats are cooler when they are in the water though. Dry dock isn't as much fun.

Our family on Thanksgiving, minus Brodie who spent the holiday at Mindy's house and Bloody Mary who kept watch at our house.

I know you are all just dying to know what Bradford had for Thanksgiving dinner. Squash, green beans, and pears. Or maybe it was apples. I forget.

Bradford eating his fancy meal with a little help from Bubba.

Friday night we headed to the town center/downtown of North East, PA. By downtown I mean a town green surrounded by a few mom and pop shops and restaurants. This is small town America folks. They light the town tree and then Santa rides around the town green on a fire truck. Sirens and lights blasting. You can't tell, but underneath all of the coats and blankets, Bradford had on his Santa suit.

Later that night, Bradford got to open up his first Christmas present- a farm-themed activity center.

Cappy made it clear that he adores Bradford by letting him wear/play with his Captain's hat. No one else gets to even touch the hat.
And here's Bradford, waving good-bye to Cappy and Bubba. Thanks for the turkey folks!

After our visit with Jeremy's mom and step-dad, we headed to State College, PA to spend some time with my brother Doug and his wife Jaime and their canine daugher Daisy. The boys were excited to watch the Steelers game together.

We made a freaky pyramid for the half-time show.

Here's little miss Daisy.

Unkie Doug, Bradford, Auntie Jaime, and the Nittany Lion. We Are Penn State!

Before coming home, we had one more stop on our Thanksgiving road trip. We had a nice visit with Jeremy's dad and his special lady friend Kim. Bradford had a good time showing Pappy his tricks.
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Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Dog Attack Butt

2010-12-02T18:38:00.004-05:00

Today I randomly decided to look at the stats for my blog, including what keywords people have used to find "The Clan of Ross" in Google. Most people who have stumbled across my blog in cyberspace have used "Clan of Ross" or "Ross Clan" as keywords, no doubt looking for Scottish clan stuff about their family ancestory and decided, for whatever reason, to stop by and read a post or two of mine along the way. Someone found us with "Heather, Jeremy, Bradford", which I assume was done by someone we know who didn't have our blog site saved as a favorite on their computer like our parents do. However, there have been some strange things people have typed that have lead them here.

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I'm looking at you "marble wedding cake" searcher. I'm guessing your search took you here.
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And there's also you, "stork delivering baby" Googler. Did you find what you were looking for here ?
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One day, someone decided to be a bit more verbose in their search and typed "leopard gecko legs stretched out when lying down". I wonder if they shed a tear while reading this .
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As for the most interesting search words of all....
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Who in the world out there typed "dog attack butt" and found my blog in the bowels of cyberspace?!?! To you, Mr. or Mrs. Googler in search of "dog attack butt," what were you looking for? And what on Earth about the blurb that popped up on Google about my blog made you think "This random girl's blog that is mostly pics of her baby looks like a great place to find out more about dog attack butt!" Whatever it was, I doubt you found it here where you initially landed on my blog.

So here you go, Mr. or Mrs. Dog Attack Butt- a little something I found using Google's image search just for you. Thanks for stopping by.
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(Because of this post, my blog is now the #1 thing to come up on a Google search for "dog attack butt")

Jermajesty's Birthday

2010-12-01T23:47:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy and the best doctor in the world!

You are the best, Jeremy! I love you super tons.

Fall Sunday in Our Yard

2010-11-15T12:03:00.007-05:00

Sensory overload.

I love our Japanese Maple.
Gorgeous.

Cute.

Holly berries are out in full force!

Bradford climbed a tree for the first time.
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And in other news, the Patriots were victorious in Bradford's first ever Patriots vs. Steelers game. Happy Mummy. Sad Daddy.

Lil' B is Seven Months

2010-11-08T20:12:00.013-05:00

So Bradford is now seven months old, which means that this is the first "birthday" where he is now closer to being 1 year old than he is to the moment when he was a brand new human in the world.

The time is flying by, but it doesn't really bother me. Why would I mourn the newborn days when I've got a little boy to blabber his "dah dah" and "bah bah" and "unga" and "ny-na" sounds to keep me entertained with while I fold the laundry? Newborn baby Bradford was a lousy laundry buddy. Big boy baby Bradford sings and laughs and that wins any day.

As a 7 months old birthday present, I got Bradford this big play-pen. It's been a life-saver. Bradford has tons of safe space to sit, play, and crawl around. He's very content to be surrounded by his toys.
He's also grown quite fond of the screw driver from the tool box set he got from Nana.

This picture is from the blooper reel of Bradford's 7 month photo shoot. I'm sensing a pattern here. Blooper it may be, but it's one of my favorite pictures of Brodie and Bradford to date as it so perfectly captures their relationship and how fascinated Bradford is by Brodie's every move. This t-shirt is the very first thing we ever bought for "Baby Ross". We bought it on our honeymoon in Jamaica (April 2008)- more than a year before Bradford took up residence in my belly. We weren't planning on having a baby any time soon, we just thought it would be a cool thing to buy.

Jeremy and "me" at Sandals.
(In case anyone actually thinks I posted a topless photo of myself, you are sadly mistaken. This picture is a poor photoshop reference to a photo from the TV show "The Office")
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Seven Months Old Video: In which Bradford is amused by a box, then Brodie, then the box, then Brodie, then the Box again.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T17:30:00.003-04:00

Trick or Treat!
Smell our feet!

Cutest skeleton on the block!