14 months, 1 week

It has been a busy week around our house! Over the past week it seems like Brody has done several new things every day! He will now give a kiss on demand when Mommy says "Where's Momma's Kiss?" he will lean in and kiss her, often licking her in the process. He has also started to help with singing the ABC's. For every pause in the song he adds in his own letters/sounds, it is really cute! He has started walking on his knees, and will go from one end of the room to the other (this also is really cute to watch). He continues to enjoy sorting objects and is starting to build with his connecting blocks. He is taking more and more steps everyday and is getting stronger with his walking. He is really becoming a "Mommy's boy" and has to be around Mom all the time or he is not happy (which we had come to expect this would happen since he is with Mom all the time). He is giving hugs and has an uncontrollable laugh that would melt any Mom's heart for sure! He loves to be tickled on his sides and on his feet. He is talking all the time, just in his own little language that we wish we could understand! :) He does continue to say a variety of understandable words, the newest one being "Hi-Ya." Brody has also shown a real interest in the computer and now mimics Mom and Dad by pressing the keys and watching the screen. He is definitely very observant and very curious!

Daddy has officially been gone for 5 days now. Mommy and Brody have enjoyed some alone time together, which has been nice. We have had temperatures in the 90's over the past few days so we haven't done much outside. We went to the park on Saturday night when it was a little cooler. Brody had ice cream twice this weekend. Mommy gave him a plain cone with no ice cream in it just to try and he really liked it. Brody and Mommy also went out to dinner together. It has been nice to spend some alone time together but we are definitely ready for Daddy to come home!

On Thursday Mommy took Brody to the doctor because he had been pulling on his left ear and was actually refusing to eat which is not like him at all! He wasn't running a fever but did end up having the start of an ear infection. :( The Doctor saw some fluid behind his ear drum which is usually what leads to an ear infection. He has been having some trouble sleeping over the past few weeks but now that he has taken the medicine he seems to be sleeping better. Poor guy, it is so hard to tell with him at this point because he continues to be teething like crazy and many of the signs he shows with an ear infection are similar to teething signs. It has been 4 months since the last ear infection and also since he got his last tooth so we are really starting to believe that teething and ear infections go hand in hand, especially when they get several teeth at the same time. The only ear infections he has had have been when he is going through a spurt of getting several teeth. He now had two molars on the right side of his mouth and had been chomping on his fingers on the left side of his mouth so we are sure those molars are not far behind. He now has a total of 9 teeth!

We got water in our basement yesterday which is the second time in two weeks. Unfortunately for Mommy, both of these times have been when Daddy has been out of town! It has been frustrating to say the least because not only are you home alone with a 1 year old, but then this water problem is added on top of it! Mommy has gotten it cleaned up all on her own both times and managed to keep Brody entertained while doing so. Over the past few months we have come to the executive decision that as of next Spring we will be putting our house on the market. This will give us enough time to do some fix up projects around here that we want to do before we sell. This decision was made due to the fact that we are running out of room and have hardly any storage in our house right now. The water problem (which anyone who knows us knows this has been ongoing since we moved in here) just adds to the need to move, but isn't the main reason why. Now we just hope our house will sell!

We are looking forward to a relaxing Memorial Day weekend coming up! For the first time in years we have no real set plans so hopefully the weather will be nice and we can get out and enjoy some time as a family! Hope everyone is doing well!