Despite being only seven and four years old, respectively, Braden and Carson can really eat. A typical evening will see them eat dinner, and then about 1.5 hours later they’ll have a large snack.

Braden can wolf down an entire sub in about 10 min. and then will eat part of Carson’s sub. He usually eats two bowls of cereal (without the milk) for breakfast. After playing sports is when Braden gets especially hungry.

Tonight, Carson showed his eating prowess. For dinner, he ate 10 chicken McNuggets (Braden ate nine and a hamburger). About half-an-hour later, Carson claimed he was still hungry, so he had a second full dinner of General Tso’s Chicken (he calls it “red chicken”), lo mein and a dumpling.

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How fast a year goes by! Carson turns one today, and we’ll have a family celebration this Saturday at our house.

We thought at this point he’d be fully walking, but he can only do about eight steps before falling. That means he’s about the same level as Braden was at the same age, despite Carson standing sooner than Braden did.

This week, Carson stopped breastfeeding (the last of the frozen milk was consumed yesterday) and has started drinking regular milk. So far, he doesn’t seem to be having the allergic reaction that Braden did, fortunately.

Kristin took Carson in for his shots and to have blood drawn. In both cases, he didn’t cry or put up a major fight, like his older brother once did.

We’ve tried to feed Carson vegetables, but he completely ignores carrots, cucumbers and the like. He’ll still eat corn now and then.

Carson dances more than Braden ever did. Sometimes when he hears music, he’ll start bouncing around while sitting. It’s really cute!

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Carson went from eating three containers of baby food per meal to barely eating one, as he prefers to feed himself finger foods. That has increased the length of time and messiness of each meal.

We were feeding him one vegetable, one fruit and one entree container, but now it’ll be items like corn, black beans, fruit cups, small pieces of chicken and of course, puffs.

When we try to spoon-feed Carson, he bats our hands away with his left arm and looks angrily at us.

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Carson really likes climbing the stairs, hence the reason we put the gates up. We may put him in one corner of the living room where the toys are, but he’ll eventually make his way to the staircase to start climbing. He also gets mad if we take him away.

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We are still amazed by how much Braden can eat. On Thanksgiving morning, he ate about three full bowls of oatmeal. We were worried if he was going to be able to eat Thanksgiving lunch (with Brian’s family) and Thanksgiving dinner (with Kristin’s family) … but he did.

At our first Thanksgiving meal, he was offered some cocktail wieners but adamantly refused them. After Brian got Braden to try the sauce, he ate about eight of them!

When we go out to eat, he likes to order now (if he’s not too shy with the waitress). He’ll either ask for chicken and french fries or hot dog and french fries, though sometimes he asks for chicken AND hot dog. Coincidentally, we were eating at the Madison Club for dinner last week, and they gave him sliced hot dog as the amuse-bouche, before his entree of chicken strips.

Despite all this eating, Braden has not grown in the last two months. Brian measures his height at the beginning of each month, but Braden has stayed the same from October to December.

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The other day Braden climbed into his stroller and wanted to be pushed around. That made us realize that we have not gotten him to ride in his stroller for several months. In fact, we couldn’t even remember the last time he (willingly) rode it.

At least he still rides in the grocery cart. He likes being handed the food, which he then throws into the cart. On quicker shopping trips, he likes to carry the basket.

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We like watching Braden play with his toys. He’s at the point where he’ll have his toys talk to each other. For example, he may have his crocodile chase another action figure, who will say “don’t eat me! don’t eat me!”

Braden also enjoys reading through the Toys ‘R Us catalog. He tells us every toy that he wants. We think he’ll LOVE Christmas this year.

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Another one of Kristin’s cousins, Gretchen, just gave birth to her second child, Addie. Congratulations to Gretchen, Todd and big brother Bennett!

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Hope you  like our Christmas card this year. It was extremely fortunate to have Braden look into the camera (set on “auto”) AND smile at the same time all five or so times we took this picture.

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You can pretty  much ask Braden any question and he will respond with “un un” (no). Even if he really means yes, he will still say un un. This has been going on for about two months now. As of this week, he’s starting to say “no,” which is cute.

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Braden is getting better at jumping. Previously, he could only leap one foot at a time, but now he can take off from both feet. He also can march in place (just like Brian did in the UW marching band).

In addition, Braden is starting to give “zerberts” or “razzberries” (he lifts your shirt and blows on your stomach).

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Braden’s new favorite food seems to be raisins. He likes to take a huge handful and stuff his face with them. If any fall on the ground, he knows to blow on them first (to get rid of any dirt, dust, etc.) before eating them.

Kristin tried to feed Braden a grilled-cheese sandwich (with fake cheese) the other day, but he hated it. However, we suspect if we topped it with his favorite condiment–ketchup–he would have eaten it.

Speaking of eating, Braden doesn’t always want to sit in his high chair. For example, at breakfast, he usually eats at the coffee table in the living room or in his play area. Otherwise, he likes to sit on a dining chair like mom and dad.

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Our house is getting less and less baby-proofed by the day. Braden really enjoys his new skill: climbing on furniture. Whether it’s a couch, bed, chair … you name it, he can climb it. We think he enjoys the sense of accomplishment for getting up there and sitting with the adults.

Speaking of new skills, Braden can occasionaly open our doors (we have the long handles vs. the knobs). He gets on his tippy toes and reaches for the handle, and sometimes he can grab it long enough to pull it down and open the door.

Braden’s throwing skills have improved as well. Brian loves the face Braden makes when he puts both arms above his head to throw–we’ll try to get a picture soon.

What Braden has not yet mastered is climbing down stairs while standing up. He used to “slide” down on his stomach, but now he prefers trying to walk down. His legs are a bit too short to do this, so we hold his hands and float him down each step.

In case we forgot to mention: Braden is able to take his own soiled diaper, put it in the Diaper Genie and rotate the cylinder.

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More TV, less food. Braden is starting to enjoy watching TV. He’ll just sit there on the floor and silently watch the screen despite not completely understanding what’s going on. On the other hand, Braden is starting to eat less, if you can believe it. He no longer will finish an entire banana (plus cereal) at breakfast. In fact, when Braden’s done eating a certain item, he’ll either throw the leftovers on the floor or at you.

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Right before our very eyes, Braden is now consistently walking instead of crawling to get to where he wants to go. We are just amazed at the ability for babies to learn skills that aren’t taught.  We were in a shallow (half-foot) pool this past weekend, and it was fun to watch Braden “wade” through the water.

Fortunately, Braden has not yet developed the ability to run. THAT will be immense trouble for us when he does!

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Kristin took Braden to the zoo the other day. Braden seemed to really enjoy it, as he was fascinated by the animals and kept pointing at them (while grunting).

Speaking of pointing, Braden is getting a lot bossier now. When he wants something, he will point and either grunt or say “da.” If he doesn’t get what he wants (e.g. the TV remote), he’ll sometimes sit or lie on the ground and throw a short, mini-fit.

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Braden is really starting to understand words. One example is that he understands his name, so if you say it, he’ll look at you. Another example that Kristin discovered is that she asked him to bring her a book, and he walked across the living room to his play area to retrieve one for her.

Brian likes to say “where’s the banana?” (Braden’s favorite breakfast food), and Braden will point to the kitchen and grunt.

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Following on the previous topic of food, we’ve noticed Braden is eating less and less now (no longer the bottomless pit of yesteryear). We figure this is going to start to be a problem at restaurants soon. Previously, Braden ate before, during and after we ate. But now, he’s full by the middle of our meal, and then he becomes antsy (meaning he wants to run around).

We figure we will have to go out more frequently now before we can’t for a couple of years.

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We are working hard to get Braden to walk. As we and our family have noticed, he can stand for about 8-10 seconds at a time, but only because he forgets that he’s not holding on to something (very cute).

Usually we sit a couple feet from him while he’s standing (holding or not), and he can take a few steps toward us. The other day, Braden set a personal best with eight steps before falling face forward onto us. Wish we got that on video!

We were told by another parent that the one-year-old mark is a magic number, and that he’ll just suddenly be able to walk after that. We can’t wait, as it will (hopefully) make life more convenient not having to carry him everywhere.

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Braden now knows how to get down from places. For example, if he’s on the couch, he reverses himself and slides off feet first. He has transferred this skill to the stairs, so now he can go both ways. Babies are so smart!

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We’ve been ordering off the kids’ menu at restaurants now. It’s neat to see Braden eat burgers, chicken tenders, etc. He no longer likes carrots, and we still can’t get him to like strawberries or blueberries. And when Braden gets sick of an item or is full, he gets mad and slaps his hand onto the table. He’ll also drop the item to the floor–so damn cute.

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Braden is still pretty bald, but he’s been growing a lot more hair on the back of his head. We swear some of it is blond!

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We are constantly amazed with the new skills Braden learns. One day Kristin’s sister was babysitting, and when she went to check on Braden in his crib, he was sitting up. We both soon witnessed how he gets up on his own: first he rolls to his stomach, then he walks his hands toward himself until he is upright.

Braden’s crawling has improved, too. Instead of dragging his legs with him (like an accident victim), he can now move his right leg as well. He’s actually pretty fast, so we really have to keep a close eye on him. Unfortunately, the gates we bought don’t fit our stair system (in fact, we don’t think any gates will fit), so we’re not sure what to do. Once we get our new furniture, we’ll create an enclosed play area for him, and hopefully that will help.

We once said that we thought Braden would walk before crawling–well, he was close. Braden can now stand if he rests his hands against something. For example, he can stand facing the couch.  He seems to enjoy it!

Lastly, Braden can shake hands and give high-fives.

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We are now feeding Braden two meals of solid foods each day. The hard part is knowing when to stop–he seems like he could eat indefinitely. When we went to dinner at Fitzgerald’s, we fed Braden almost the entire time we were there!

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Yesterday (March 3) was Braden’s one month birthday already–how time flies! We can’t believe that a month ago at this time we were in the hospital.

Braden is now more than 10 lbs. Kristin found out from the lactation specialist that we’ve been feeding him too much. Apparently he’s not always hungry when he cries; some times he just wants to be held. So now we’re cutting back a bit.

Today (March 4) is the 10-year anniversary of our first date. On March 4, 1999, we had dinner at Paisan’s (when it was at University Square 4), then we rented “Happy Gilmore.” We also made plans to see each other over spring break, which was the following week.

If someone had told us back then that 10 years later we’d be married, own a home downtown and have a one-month-old baby … wow!

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