Walking

Briggs is getting better at walking by the day!!  Here a little video montage from Tuesday, September 4th ...

Today when I picked him up from daycare he walked about 5 feet to greet me!!  Watch out world!!!

11 Months

Just one more month and we get to celebrate a whole year of Briggs Monster!!  WOW!!  This has been another great month full of surprises and milestones, let's recap ...

You kicked off the start of 10 months old by learning how to wave bye-bye.  The teachers at daycare (especially Ms Susan) worked really hard with you on this one and FINALLY you've got it down pat!!  Now that you have that figured out, you love to show off your skills!!  You are a pointer too.  Pointing at everything and nothing all at once!!  When you first wake up in the morning and come down the hallway you always look super crabby and shy away from the lights, but you immediately start pointing at mommy, daddy, Logan, or whatever catches your eye!

This month has been all about cruising!  Now that you have figured out how to move around the house, you are EVERYWHERE!  As long as you have a hand on something, you will walk all over.  This cart has been perfect for cruising up and down the hallway.  Just this past weekend, you were actually taking a few steps between mommy and daddy completely unassisted.  You were so excited!!  Your balance is getting better and I'm pretty sure you'll be walking soon!!

You and daddy LOVE to play rough!  You prefer to be dangled upside down, tossed around, held up high and giggle when we pretend to drop you!!  You and daddy have several games you play and this video shows exactly how well you know how to manipulate your daddy!!

We made two trips to Summerville this month.  First to visit with Grandma Kitty when she went into the hospital and then again for our much-too-short summer vacation.  On our first trip home you spent some time hanging out with Aunt Krista.  I love this picture of you pretending to be Uncle Rick!

Of course we made some visits to see Nana and Pop so they could show you off at their assisted living home.  You were very pleased to show everyone the proper way to use a walker!

Between our two visits, Granny Brenda & Grandaddy Doyle came up for a weekend to stay with you so that we could attend Henderson & Ellison's wedding.  I'm not sure who had more fun that weekend, you or Granny Brenda!

 

We had a great time visiting friends and family while we were in Summerville, but of course there is never enough time.  Here are some pics from our fun ...

August 21st was the first day of school for all of the kids in the Clemson area.  With kids moving out,  this is also move up day at the CEC Daycare too.  Moving from the infant to creeper room is based on developmental indicators, not the calendar, but it just so happened that you were ready to move up this week too.  Leaving the Infant room was a little sad because we will miss many of the friends we made there (especially Ms. Amanda and Ms. Susan), but the new Creeper room is very exciting!  So many big boy toys and so many friends who are ready to play!!  You have just loved the change and were more than ready for it!!   Your new teacher is Ms. Farhana and I am really impressed with the schedule she keeps and how well you have adjusted.  We eat breakfast before we leave the house, then you get a snack around 9am, lunch is at 11am, then everyone takes a nap from 1 - 3pm.  Another snack and then it's time to go home.  Of course all the time in between is full of fun, reading and playing!!  You love the playground and all your new friends.

It is impossible to hold you down to get a real good look, but there are lots of new teeth coming in!  You have had two top and two bottom teeth for awhile now.  I know for sure there are two teeth poking through and I'm pretty sure two more are right behind those.   Speaking of impossible to hold down ... diaper and clothes changes have become a nightmare.  You hate to hold still.  We have a trick that tends to work pretty well ... Elmo videos on the iPad.  We have a few favorites that will help to buy us a minute or two.  You just love Elmo and singing Elmo is just mesmerizing!!

You have completely figured out the routine around here at night.  When I'm just about done making dinner you'll start complaining and climbing your highchair.  When you are done eating, you'll start dropping your sippy cup off the high chair onto the floor.  Then, as soon as daddy starts running the bath water, you take off full speed down the hallway.  You really like to get in the tub while it is filling up so you can put your hands under the facet.

Then there are the bath toys.  We have about 10 different squeeze toys for the bath.  Most nights it is daddy's job to give you a bath and I just love the stories he makes up about the toys.  The regular theme is that Sheriff Duck is going to arrest someone, usually Purple Duck.

Nightly baths are an ABSOLUTE MUST.  During dinner your hands are always all over the place and you prefer to feed yourself.  Your hands go behind your head, in your hair, fingers in your ears and of course in your nose.  This means that whatever we are eating (lasagna, bananas, sweet potatoes) all wind up where they probably shouldn't!!

Stunt Man

Briggs-a-potomus has had plenty of slips, falls, and minor accidents in his 10 months of life.  However, he has recently had his first real injury.  This one actually drew blood.

Last week I got a call from daycare around 11am.  "Everything is fine, no worries.  Just wanted to let you know that Briggs got a good scratch on his nose."  Appears that he slipped into the supply closet where the teachers keep all sorts of things, but in particular, toys.  Briggs was reaching up for a container of toys and brought the whole thing down onto his face.  No big deal to him, he didn't even start crying until they took the toys away to put them back!!

This is now the third time that we've gotten an "incident" report.  The first was because he got a good goose-egg from bumping his head on a crib and the second was because he got bitten by another child on the playground.  I'm sure these are just the first of many reports we'll be getting!!

I'm starting to believe that Briggs is planning to be a stuntman when he grows up.  For starters, he LOVES to play rough.  He absolutely loves it when David holds him upside down, tosses him in the air (also upside-down), holds him by his legs, or bounces him off the couch.  His goal is to go head-first off of the couch and the ottoman, luckily we haven't had this happen ... yet.

One more piece of evidence.  Briggs' favorite book is "Go, Dog. Go!"  And his favorite page in the entire book is the last page, the "Dog Party".  On several of the pages we point out the mommy dog, the daddy dog, and the Briggs dog.  On the last page in particular,  Briggs always, ALWAYS points to one specific dog.  Yep, the one coming OUT OF the cannon!

Briggs Dog!

10 Months

Here we go, we have reached the 10 month mark and I'm only 10 days late in writing the blog.  And my excuse, is you Wildman Briggs have kept me worn out!!  This has been a fun month.  Now that you have mastered crawling and pulling up, you are cruising around EVERYWHERE!  The 9th month started out with you mastering the crawling skills and learning to pull up.  We entered this 10th month with a fella who is thinking about walking.  This is all just wild.

At the start of this month you developed the BEST new grin!  I think it is your attempt to mimic a face your daddy makes.  Regardless where it came from, it is hilarious!!

 You are truly on a schedule now and I try my best to get things done in the short amount of time that you are down for naps or after we put you down at night.  That doesn't leave much time though!!  You not only follow a schedule well, but you KNOW your schedule!  When it's time to eat you'll let us know, when it's time for your bath you'll crawl down to the bathroom, and once your pajamas are on you'll help brush your teeth, and then within moments of putting you into the crib you're out cold!!

You are now wearing clothes that range from 9mo - 12mo, depending on the brand.  However, you are nearly impossible to dress or even to change a diaper.  You squirm, wiggle, scream, twist, contort, slide, slither, toss and turn to get away!  We have learned that it's best to give you something to distract you, but this doesn't buy us all the time we need.  Just today I managed to change your diaper while you were standing up at your toy box!

This month you moved up to the covertible-style car seat since you were quickly outgrowing the baby seat.  We are struggling a bit with the new seat since it does fit well in my car as a rear-facing seat.  You are an awesome eater now and are really doing well at grasping your own food and getting it into your mouth.  This also means you smear it into your eyes, ears and hair!

Another first this month, your first haircut!  I have been begging your daddy for months to let me cut the hair around your ears.  He finally agreed, but I'm not so sure he'll let me do it again anytime soon.  You were not the best client, so I snipped the hairs quickly and the results were not my best work.

We have found several videos on youtube that you enjoy, mostly Elmo.  These are a quick way to get your attention, especially when we need to distract you from something else!!  Also a great way to get you dancing!!  This is one of our favorites ...

We got the news this past month that you'll be moving up soon at daycare.  August 21st is move-up day for all the bigger kids and it is also going to be move-up day for you and your buddy Chase.  You'll be going into the "creeper" room.  We are pretty excited about this since you have certainly outgrown the baby room.  We made lots of good friends there and we are certainly going to miss your teachers, so it's a good thing that it is right next door and you'll still be sharing the playground with them!!

9 months

Briggs man you have had another SUPER BUSY month!! In your 8th month of life, you have become an even cooler little dude and are really starting to share that awesome personality!

Overall the highlight for this month is that you are now fully mobile on your knees! Early on you started on your belly and would reach...reach for toys you wanted. That transformed into you getting onto all fours and rocking back and forth. By mid-month I spotted you taking a step or two with your knees and then of course, I left town for a work trip and that was all the motivation you needed to take off!! Now you have mastered crawling and are unstoppable!! Your poor knees, as well as the tops of your feet and big toes, are RAW! When I pick you up from school, you are FILTHY!! You are ALL over this house. You will come crawling to us, straight for what you are interested in and tonight you followed me down the hallway to get your bath!

Thank God this dirt wasn't from my floors!

We have somewhat Briggs proofed the house, but you keep showing us things that we need to work on. We had to go buy a super-duper baby gate for the steps down into the other living room. Every day you head straight for Logan's water bowl and love to splash in it. We have added bumpers to the coffee table and those are your favorite teething tools!  You love to pull up to your knees and bounce on the table, chairs, my legs ...

Ok, you may hate me for this one day, but OH WELL!

I was shocked the other night when we were getting ready for bed, I spotted a top tooth peeking through!! It has been quite awhile since those bottom teeth came in and there have been many times I thought you were about to sprout a tooth and here this one came totally unannounced!

You have continued to babbled my name and you made your daddy super proud when you added "dadadada" to your vocabulary! I have even heard byebyebye a few times too.

You are a great eater and we have added lots of textures as well as meat to the menu. You are a pro now at grabbing Cheerios and puffs, about half land in your lap, but you are able to get a few into your mouth!

This past weekend we went for your first swim in a big pool! You weren't that excited about the pool, you much preffered the naked drying off that followed!!

8 months, oh my!

Well 7 months came and went pretty quick and here we are now at the 8 month mark!  This has been another busy month for you Briggs man!  So much progress this month, but I have to say the highlight for me is that I have now heard you say Mom!  At this point it is really just a sound to you, but it is the best sound in the world to me!  Your dad is just a teensy bit jealous, so I'm working hard on Dada.  Hopefully soon enough he'll get to hear that precious voice call his name!

You are now a pro at sitting up and now you are starting to think about crawling.  You reach and stretch and wiggle your way to your toys that are just out of reach and I know it won't be long!  You actually can push yourself backwards pretty good and just yesterday you spun yourself in circles.  We aren't quite ready for you to take off, so I'm not encouraging it too much!!

Now that you are so good at sitting up, we've moved from sink baths to the big bathtub.  Of course this gives you a much better opportunity to splash and now we've got lots of toys for the tub too.  Your giant rubber ducky is a favorite for the tub and the pool!

This month you had an upper respiratory infection, so we had the chance to check in at the doctors.  You're up to 18lbs, 6 ounces and are now 27 1/4 inches long.  I'm not surprised at the weight gain because you eat like a champ!  Most of the time when we sit down to eat you will easily scarf up your oatmeal and at least one, if not two, veggies!  You still love sweet potatoes, but also really like carrots, peas, and squash.  We are trying to introduce more textures, but you aren't a big fan.  You gag and make a big deal about any bit of texture.  We've tried puffs and Cheerios and you just aren't into them yet.  You love playing with them on the highchair tray, but they aren't so great in your mouth!

You are really starting to fight your naps, especially the later afternoon nap.  Most of the time you'll give in and fall asleep about halfway home from daycare, so I'll either drive around or just sit in the driveway with you.  I don't dare move you and ruin it!!

Most of the time you can bet that you'll be sitting on the floor in the living room playing with your toys.  (This picture is from Memorial Day when you brought all your toys to my work)  Right now, your favorite toys are your monkey, your blocks, and a globe ball.  There are plenty of others that catch your eye from time to time, but those by far get the most attention. You have a couple of interactive type toys like the coo-coo clock, the zoo, and elmo's piano that you like to play with.  Just recently you've started bouncing/dancing when the music plays!  I love it, so cute!!  On Sunday you even started dancing during a commercial that had a good beat.  Aside from your toys, you also like to play with my curtains.  In the afternoon the sun comes through the front windows and you are so amazed by the shadows.

Of course, you still are in LOVE with the ceiling fan and will do whatever it takes to get people to lift you up to pull the strings!  I'm always a sucker for it too!!

And no doubt about it, you are the happiest baby!  We love to get you giggling, it is absolutely infectious!

Daddy loves to get you going after bath time.  You are quite a ham at this time in the evening and you love it when we kiss you in your armpits, on your back, and your belly!

My First Mothers Day

This picture was taken at Easter, but given to me as a Mothers Day surprise!
I absolutely LOVE it!

We spent my First Mothers Day in Summerville visiting with all the family.  I believe it had been 3 months since the last time we were home, so Briggs was quite a site for most of the family!  He made his rounds and visited everyone and of course showed off!  

The sweet girls at daycare surprised me with a plate that has his little handprint as well as a super sweet card that had a picture of him sitting on the playground at school.  Both have gone directly into my corner cabinet for display!