Braydon's 18 month well baby check

After a few reschedules, today was Braydon's 18 month well baby check up. His new measurements are 32 lbs, 35 inches tall. He is in the 97th percentile for both his height and weight.  The Doctor showed me the chart of Braydon's growth and weight and it showed that at this period in his life he should slow down a little. He also suggested that we start thinking about how we plan to discipline him as he gets older.  Basically he said that we look at it now because he is getting to the point where he knows that he shouldn't be doing certain things and he does them just to get a rise out of us.  It helps that the Doctor has a son who is two months older then Braydon! Braydon also got some shots today and blood work done.  I think the worst part was the blood work because they pricked his finger and then we had to wait while he dripped enough blood into the vial. 

There was one shinning moment at today's visit and I guess I just thinking it was a funny moment, well actually there were two.  The first was the fact that any time someone walked by while we were waiting for the Doctor Braydon would wave to them, and it's not a normal wave it's more of a parade wave!  The second was when he was getting his shots and he looked around at everyone as if he was taking a picture and remembering that they did this to him.  We'll see if that is really what he was thinking when we see one of the nurses who is a friend of ours outside of the hospital.  All in all Braydon had a good appointment and he is maturing nicely.  Now if only he would stop throwing tantrums!  Guess it will be a while before that happens!

18 month dental visit

This morning I took Braydon to his 18 month dental visit.  It only involved the dentist brushing his teeth and putting some "vitamin" paste on his teeth.  He cried during the whole procedure. The Dentist basically told me I do not brush my son's teeth properly.  I do the best I can considering he is a child and doesn't want me to go near his mouth, nose or ears.  Braydon has all eight teeth on top and has one more molar on the bottom coming in and then it will be time for his two year old molars to come in. The Dentist also mentioned that I should try to break his habit of sucking his thumb.  Really, you expect me to be able to curb that when my own parents had a hard time doing that with me?  Plus isn't 18 months a little too early to expect him to be over that? 

Halloween

http://picasaweb.google.com/thehughesfamily1/Halloween2010?feat=directlink

This year we went with a Star Wars theme.  Chris was Darth Vadar, Braydon was Yoda, and I was Princess Leia.  We were a big hit around the neighborhood everyone wanted to take pictures of us.  Braydon even kept the head piece on all night, and he never keeps anything on his head. At the end of the night though he was warm, as were we all, and he was just standing there waiting for me to take the costume off him.

We took Braydon trick-or-treating to a few houses and he was really good when the people would put the bowl in front of him.  I told him he could only take one piece and he did!  He even put the piece in his trick-or-treat bag, he then would get made because I wouldn't let him eat it right away.  I ended up giving him a few pieces along the way though.

There were a ton of trick-or-treaters this year, more then last.  We bought four big bags of candy and ran out, luckily a friend was around and has four more bags we could give out.  Those bags didn't last long either and we ran out and had to turn kids away.  I think Braydon had a good time, I know Chris and I did.  Now to think of what theme we will do next year.

WAH!!!

Here is a picture to prove to everyone that Braydon isn't always happy.  He is starting to throw tantrums quiet frequently.  These tantrums don't last very long but he is very dramatic when he does them.  This one pictured here only last a few seconds, I think it was because he had unplugged my laptop and I told him not to do that. 

Braydons First Year

So I've been doing a little cleaning on my computer and came across this video.  I then realized that I never shared it with anyone other than Chris.  So here is a video I made of Braydon's first year. I think I may continue doing this for him, since he loves having his picture taken it shouldn't be to hard.

Laughing at Braydon

Braydon is the source of a lot of the entertainment in this house.  The other day he was playing with his toys and decided to sit in his toy box.  All of a sudden our front door opened and Chris came in.  Braydon got all excited and couldn't get out of the box.  He was just squirming around and getting more stuck.  Instead of helping him out of the box I ran and got the camera because I was laughing so hard.  He finally figured out how to get out of the box and run over and say hi to his daddy, but I was still laughing at him being stuck.

Paris

http://picasaweb.google.com/thehughesfamily1/Paris?feat=directlinkFor my birthday Chris wanted to take me to Paris, well actually I wanted to go to Paris and Chris said that would be my birthday present.  So a month later we went to Paris!!  This past weekend we had a wonderful friend (Karen) watch Braydon so Chris and I could spend the weekend enjoying Paris just the two of us.  We fly in on Thursday afternoon and after two hours in transit (one hour delay from our shuttle and an hour to get to the hotel due to traffic) made it to our hotel. Since it was dinner time we headed to Hard Rock Cafe, we have to go to one if the place we visit has it.  We enjoyed our dinner and several drinks and then headed to Starbucks for a mocha before heading back to the room to call it a night.

On Saturday we began the day with an open air tour bus ride.  We saw Notre Dame, the Effiel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and several other sites.  We had baguettes for lunch and ate dinner at Les Relais de l'Entrecote (the best steak frites place).  After dinner we shopped on Champs Elysse and had nutella crepes.

Sunday we spent the morning at the Louvre, and I was very impressed and surprised.  Chris is not an art person and just gave in to my desire to go, but he even admitted that he enjoyed himself.  The rest of the day we wandered into little shops and enjoyed are last day in Paris.

We said goodbye to Paris on Monday afternoon and went back to our lives in Sicily.  It was nice to come home though because I really missed my little boy.  The next trip we have lined up is Munich in December.  After that trip we don't know what places we will visit.  Some of the places in mind are Prague, London, Ireland, and I would like to go to Spain and mainland Italy.