Come Aboard.

Boy do I have a lot of catching up to do. I come to the realization that I may not be superwoman. (Even though, I think if I had a couple hours more each day, it might be possible  

As you all know, it has been a LONG time since my last post. I have been extremely busy at my work and the home weekend schedule is plastered with events that I hardly find time to breathe these days.

So I would like to first apologize to all of you for not keeping you updated in Brody-land, and a second big apology to my amazing daycare provider, Jessica, for my frequent ‘after 5:30 p.m. pickups’ that I notice myself doing a lot lately.

As for Brody, he turned 10-months-old and just an amazing little man. And yes, he is definitely a red-head….or so I have been told ‘a Ginger.’ Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine myself with a red-headed child. I am still getting use to it, but am starting to love that he is unique this way….and guess what is coming next?

Curls! I don’t know for sure, but his hair is growing longer and longer each day, and I swear there are a couple curling up. I am not the only one that noticed. Tim, Brody and I were hanging out in our front yard one weekend while I was watering the flowers, and a family rode by on bikes and the mother said, ‘adorable baby GIRL!’  WHAT?!

Tim and I turned our heads…..looked at Brody up and down. He was wearing a crew shirt and jean overalls. Total boy clothes. Tim said, ‘He’s a boy.’ She politely apologized and said, ‘I didn’t know with those beautiful curls.’ Oh my. I am going to have to wrap my head around all this later.

Not only was he called a girl, but earlier that day Tim, Brody and I went on the Parade of Homes tour. The Parade of Homes is an amazing event where a ton of ’show’ models of homes are open to the public to view. We spent the day that Saturday driving around Okemos, East Lansing, Dewitt, Grand Ledge, etc looking at these beautiful homes to get ideas and look at the different builders in the area. Well, at one of the last homes we visited we started talking with this cute older couple. The lady went on and on about how cute Brody was. Then the gentleman says, “He is definitely a meat and potatoes boy, now isn’t he?” (Side note: Brody is still only 30% in weight, but I think it is the chubby cheeks that are deceiving

So in short, in one day my precious boy was called a “chubby girl.” . Too funny.

Cool things about our little man:

• He is a speed demon crawler. If he knows you are trying to get him, he laughs like crazy and books it to the other side of the room.
• His two bottom teeth are almost fully in. Teeth really make a baby look older.
• He stands up on everything and walks from one side of the room to the other, as long as he has a hand on a wall, couch, etc. Only a matter of time, until he balances all on his own.
• He loves food!!! Real food, not just the pureed stuff. He grabs the pieces of food with his thumb and finger and alternates hands. But beware of giving him a pile of cut up food. He will try to stuff it all in his mouth at one time. Still working on that one.
• He is tall! Last time at the doctor, he was 95% in height, while only 30% in weight and head.
• Bubbly personality. He smiles ALL THE TIME and isn’t shy at all. He is hardly ever sad, and just an all around happy little dude. We feel very fortunate on this one.  

Our recent adventures:

photo courtesy of Dave Oberlin (amazing photographer, and friend

Memorial Day Weekend – We spent a long weekend up in Grand Haven on our boat. This was Brody’s second time on the boat (the first time was when he was one-month old up in Traverse City). Brody was fabulous! He slept like a baby at nights and found many fun things to do during the days. He was especially excited that he got to play with a lot of other babies. Our friends Dave and Angie came with us on their boat with their son Boden. Our friends Mark and Suzy came by the marina with their girl Bailey. We also got to see baby Lauren O’Brien for the first time. She is the baby to our friend Mike and his fiance Tara. Boy how things change in just a couple years.

Brody loved being at the marina, the mornings we walked down the pier with the stroller and through downtown. On Memorial Day, Brody got to see his first parade. Plenty of things to keep him occupied, especially the bands, the boy scouts, and the fire engine.

One crazy episode we encountered is with our black lab Hunter this weekend. While trying to jump from the boat onto the dock, he slipped and only his top half made it. He landed pretty hard on his belly and I did what I could to move his bottom half back onto the dock so he didn’t fall in the water. He didn’t act like he hurt himself, just looked a little scared. I continued to take him to the dog walk area to let him go to the bathroom. Everything seemed fine, until he started urinating PURE BLOOD, then started puking! I freaked out. Tim went out fishing that morning with some buddies on the fire department and with bad service, didn’t answer his phone. I was literally stuck at the marina, by myself, on a boat, with a baby, and a bloody dog. Our truck was at the boat launch hooked to our trailer. And remember, it was Memorial Day weekend…on a Sunday….in Grand Haven. Not the place for emergency care for animals. I was seriously at the point to call every cab service in town and say….by the way do you have a car seat and allow dogs?

I will speed through this. I realized Angie was on her boat, but Dave had the truck at Mike’s over at Spring Lake. He too wasn’t answering his phone. We called Mike’s neighbor Bill who ran down to Mike’s to get Dave to come back with his truck. He came. I called my coworker, Amy, who got me a number to a local vet. They were closed but directed me to a Emergency Vet Clinic in Grand Rapids. They were open. I loaded up Dave’s truck with myself, Brody, blanket and bloody Hunter. Just then, Tim came back and jumped in. We drove to our truck and then off to Grand Rapids. They did a physical and an ultrasound to see if it was internal bleeding. Luckily, he just bruised his bladder and broke a blood vessel. After 24 hours of bleeding, some pain meds, and a heavy dose of pets, love and treats…he is as good as new.

Chili Cook Off – This past Friday, we took Brody to the Board of Water and Light Chili Cook Off. It is a big event downtown Lansing that brings in thousands of people and plenty of Chili from many different restaurants, businesses and organizations. We went down to support the Lansing Fire Department and their award-winning chili and salsa. We didn’t stay for all the awards, but they did take home 1st place that evening for best salsa. They had the engine from Tim’s station down there with the ladder up to throw free stuff to the chili-eaters. When they throw stuff they put on the fire sirens…..AND BRODY FREAKED. Sirens are something that this boy is going to have to get use to down the road . Crossing fingers.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

These past couple months brought baby birthdays galore. Boden turned one in May. Unfortunately Brody caught a nasty bug right smack dab in the middle of the ’swine’ flu scare. He was coughing up a storm, had two ear infections and had a fever. With that, we had to skip Boden’s ‘moose a. moose’ birthday party. Once Brody got better, we went over to visit the big boy for an after celebration. Another one of Brody’s friends, Cameron turned one a couple weeks ago. And this past weekend we spent Saturday at Morgan’s 1st birthday party at Mark and Nicole’s new house in Farmington Hills. Love it! They have the perfect back yard for children and such a wonderful neighborhood.

Next up

We have back to back events going on each weekend in June, so no more boating until July (well besides Tim fishing right now in Grand Haven). The rest of the summer brings weekend trips on the boat, a birthday party for Brody, a couple weeks on the boat for the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, two weddings (& Tim with two bachelor parties , more weekends on the boat, then about 10 days in North Carolina. Whew! Brody better like boating, eh?

Thanks for listening, hope everyone is doing well. More photos are available in the photo gallery.