Classic Brady

Maybe the title of this one should be 'Classic Foster' instead of 'Classic Brady' as I know he didn't come up with this on his own...

Tonight, Brady and I went out for a Cinco de Mayo date to Los Cucos. We had a lovely time and were able to beat the rush! Then when we got home, our neighbors were outside having a good chuckle about their chocolate lab who had nudged up against their freshly painted house today and given herself a beige stripe down one side. I talked to them for awhile while Brady rode his Gator. Eventually, when Brady ran up and told me he had to go 'pee pee', I figured it was time to excuse ourselves and head inside. I started walking toward the house, but turned around because I was puzzled as to why Brady wasn't coming along. Our neighbor was pointing down to Brady...or rather Brady's bare butt!!! He had pulled his pants down right in front of them (and their painted dog) and was going outside!!!! It was priceless! He wasn't even 5 feet away from them! Though I wanted to scold him a bit, it was too funny and I couldn't bring myself to say anything to him, but rather I focused on helping him get his pants pulled up before he got mosquito bites on his bum!

The scene looked like this, only outside.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Video Mania

I just got a new little Flip video camera. My intention was to use it for work, but I have this adorable subject at home, so it's easy to find things to video.

This morning, Brady treated us to a lovely concert (this one is a little long...probably only grandparents want to watch the whole thing)

In other news, my belly is growing what seems like daily. Here is a pic from this week.

We delivered May Baskets to the neighbor ladies on Friday. I explained the rules of how it used to work when my mom and I used to deliver May Baskets. So, I'm sure the neighborhood will be prepared with lots of kisses for Brady next year on May 1st!

Children's Museum

A couple weekends ago, we took Brady downtown to the Children's Museum and it was a BIG hit! Oh, except I don't know who liked it more...Brady or Daddy. They have all sorts of neat experiments setup, and almost all of it is hands on and very engaging for children (and adults alike, apparently!). There is even a huge outdoor water system where you can move valves around and damn water to see how more comes out the other side, etc. I felt relieved that my excuse of 'I'm hungry, we really need to leave' held water, something tells me if I were not pregnant, my request would have been denied!

It's a fun place and we can't wait to go back and see their expansion that's opening March 14th!

Playing Memory on the big board on the wall.
Checking out what's under the hood of a '65 Mustang with daddy.

Making an important call in the technology section.

Standing underneath the man made entirely of old phones.

Trying on a goofy hat.

The water diversion table.

Playing with daddy on the huge damn.

Sorry for so many pics, I just couldn't decide!

Happy 'Go Texan' Day!

Today is the rodeo kick-off in Houston, otherwise known as 'Go Texan' day. What that means is that trailriders will ride into town on horseback from far and wide, there's a parade, and a GIANT barbecue that thousands of people attend. The rodeo goes on for several weeks and has a major musical act as well as all the typical rodeo stuff each night. Proceeds raised all go to college scholarships for kids. The rodeo is one of my favorite things about Houston, and I hope to be involved with it on a committee someday when my family isn't so young.

Since today was 'Go Texan' day, the kids at Brady's school got to wear cowboy outfits instead of their uniforms today. Here's my little cowboy before school. On the way to school, we stopped at 'Wal-Market' (as he called it today) and got him a black cowboy hat. He looked absolutely adorable in his full gear and promised I could take more pictures of him with the hat once we got home from school. Unfortunately, the hat did not last through the day. When we picked him up, the hat was nowhere to be found. His teacher explained that it had gotten 'crumpled'. Oh well...

Goofy smile...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Once again, much has happened since the last time I posted. In September, we took Brady to Italy with us for 11 days! He was a FABULOUS traveler, and we couldn't have been more proud.

On the way there, the flight attendant came over to us right after take off to see what we had selected from the dinner menu. Brady didn't miss a beat, he immediately exclaimed, 'I want fish!' After awhile, the same lady came by with the appetizer cart...she asked him if he would like an appetizer, to which he threw his arms in the air and yelled out, 'I LOVE appetizers!!!' By the time we landed in Amsterdam, he had made several friends sitting around us.

We had many lovely adventures while we were there, probably the most memorable for him was the 4 hour train ride through the Alps to go see his friend Lucas in Switzerland. The boys were joyfully re-united, and Brandon and I had a fun time seeing our old friends as well. We're sad they live so far away, but Geneva is a beautiful place to visit for sure!

Then in early November, we travelled to the ranch. What made it extra fun this year was that my sister, Ivy, and her family met us there. Her daughter is only 10 months older than Brady, and they had an absolute blast between making snow people, riding 4 wheelers, and working in the tractor with Papa. We all had a wonderful time and were sad when it was time to get back to reality.

The picture I've posted above is Brady's first school pic. I can't believe he already has one of these! We called them Pony Pictures when I was growing up. He's really doing great at his school, and seems to really love it. In fact, when we went around the table on Thanksgiving to say what we were thankful for, he thought about it for a minute, and then a slow smile spread over his face as he told us that he is thankful for Ms. Jessica. His teacher!!! Right when she started there, he told me one afternoon in the car that he thought Ms. Jessica was 'pretty and shiny'. His first crush!

He's full of funny sayings lately. The other day, we were getting ready to leave, but couldn't find his shoes. I finally found them upstairs and called out, 'I found them!' As I came down the stairs with the shoes, Brady said, 'Mommy, you are Super Duper!'

Yesterday, we were driving to the store and he told Brandon and I that it is now 'Christmas On Time'. (ChristmasTime)

The biggest news of all is that yesterday he proudly announced that he only wanted to wear undies...no more pull-ups. I knew this day would come, and I was very thankful it came over a long weekend, so we talked through what wearing undies today would mean before bed lastnight. He was very excited this morning to get rid of that pull-up and get to the undies. Unfortunately, the dots weren't quite connected between wearing undies and having to go to the potty when you have to go... He's never been a kid that goes through tons of diapers, so even though we had 3-4 accidents today, I really think it could have been much worse. He did go #2 on the potty, so I think that's a good thing! He'll get it!

Well, that's what's new here! Hope all is well!

Hurricane, Lake Week, etc.

Unfortunately, I've been a bit remiss about putting up posts lately. There's a lot to catch up on! In August, we met my entire family for a week at Big Pine Lake in MN. We had a ball, and I had so much fun introducing my guys to the ways of MN lake life!

More recently, we encountered Mr. Ike, the hurricane. We were home for the storm, and it was pretty scary (although Brady and I slept through the worst of it when the trees were actually coming down). Then the next day, we decided we would just get out of dodge. So, we headed to Austin for a few days! When we returned from Austin, the power came back within a couple hours, so the timing couldn't have been better! We feel very thankful to have come through this without any major damage as we've seen several houses with trees through the roofs, cars smashed, etc.

Sorry, I always forget which order blogger puts the photos in. I need to get packing for Italy, so I don't have time right now to put these in the right order. So, you're seeing Escape to Austin, then Ike, then the lake!

Brady was chosen to ring the bell at sunset at The Oasis. This is a tradition, and they chose him out of all the people there!!

High fivin' daddy while enjoying sunset overlooking Lake Travis.

Big tree uprooted in our backyard!

This is our backyard after the storm. It rained for probably 12 more hours after this (we left for Austin), and there was a thunderstorm this night!

This is my whole family with 'the pig' that the men roasted! Crazy!!


Chris, Brandon, and Ken with the pig!


Cousin Allegra and Brady with their turtle before Perham's International Turtle Races .

Captain Brandon (look-out!!!)

Brady and I with Chris holding what I thought was a HUGE Northern (we threw it back-not huge for a Northern)

Brady with Madelyn and Io playing with Madelyn's

A New Era

It's a new day at the Foster's. Brady has started potty training! A couple nights ago, Brady and I watched, 'Once Upon a Potty for him'. Brandon was out of town and I figured we would watch the video several times before anything would actually happen. WRONG! Brady really enjoyed the video, and after watching it once (it's only about 10 mins long), he said, 'I want to do it.' So we got out the potty chair and he sat right down and did it! Funny how proud a parent can be of something like this!

Here's a pic of him in his 'big boy' underwear. He's really jazzed about his McQueen pull-ups, too. Who knows how long this process will take, but I'm just glad we're off and running!