18 Months Old!

Brady turned 18 months old on Saturday. We had a very busy weekend and this is the first chance I've had to post.
The 18 month checkup was yesterday morning and went just fine. Only one shot to handle, so it wasn't too bad and B did just fine.
Here he is hanging out in the car seat before I took him to day care.
And here he is enjoying one of his favorite activities - playing with the remote! He knows exactly which remote turns on the TV and he pushes the buttons until he gets it to turn on. It's great fun. Especially when he finds the volume button and pushes it up, up, and up!

He almost looks just like a little adult here. If only he was sitting on the couch while trying to turn on the TV.

At 18 months of age, Brady weighed in at a whopping 21 pounds and 8 ounces (3rd percentile) and is now 30 3/4 inches tall (10th percentile). Still pretty small, but he's on the growth chart and we're happy for that.

He is a very, very active boy. Loves to play outside and get dirty and sweaty. He loves to throw the baseball, golf ball or any other ball he can get his hands on, although he doesn't really know how to aim yet. Still loves to play with the remote, the cell phone and other "adult" stuff that he sees Mom and Dad handle. He is starting to use a fork to eat; again, the aim isn't great but we're getting there.

He has 12 teeth in the little mouth and is still a good eater and doesn't refuse much in terms of food. He loves to play chase and run around. He also makes great, big splashes in the bath tub and just laughs and laughs at himself. He takes one nap a day and it's usually about 2 hours long in the afternoon. He sleep about 11 hours at night.

AND, he's already started with the Terrible Twos. He's got quite the independent streak and wants to do thing by himself. And he knows how to throw a tantrum indeed. I'm sure we have all kinds of "episodes" in our future!

Black Eye, but still happy

Little B got his first black eye a couple of weeks ago. Black Eye isn't really the right term. More like a black spot underneath his eye. He took a nose dive off the couch and hit the corner of a box. Cried a couple of seconds and then went back to playing. Can't keep that kid down!
I tried to take a picture of his little mishap; you can see how well that worked for me.
It's right there underneath the right eye.

The first of many, many injuries I would guess. He is all boy.

Physical therapy

So, Physical Therapy. Yep, just one sentence with two words. Physical Therapy. It's what I've been doing twice a week for a few weeks now. I had some pretty bad shin splints in my left leg and then the pain radiated around to my calf. Once the pain was so much I couldn't run, I gave in and started visiting the friendly confines of Maximum Performance Physical Therapy on a regular basis (I already visit on a regular basis for the fitness portion!).

The diagnosis was a raging case of tendinitis in my calf and some shin splints. The shin splints healed rather quickly once I stopped running. We're still working on that left calf, but it's improving.

I get to stand on a wobble board similar to the one below on one leg and do balance exercises. Front to back 15 times. Left to right 15 times. Rotate clockwise 15 times. Rotate counter-clockwise 15 times. On both legs. 3 sets each. Apparently I need some work in the balance area.
Next up is some one leg balance work on the BOSU or some other wobbly surface.

And then more one leg balance work on a balance beam. But not a regular balance beam. Not, this fun little number is made of foam and stays on the floor because you wobble all over the place. Let me tell you, my wobble skills are MONEY after all this work.

And after I do all my exercises, I get a little massage, ice and ultrasound to finish up and get that healing started. I'm starting to really dig the ice and ultrasound with my friends Jenny and Trebor, but the massage really isn't that pleasant. This is why my calf looked like on Monday after a particularly strenuous massage courtesy of a physical therapist who shall remain anonymous. Needless to say, he put a little "oomph" in getting out all the knots along my calf muscle.

Every little red spot is a bump in my muscle. That's not really a good thing since it's supposed to be long and smooth. Hmmm, Houston, we have a problem.

But, fear not. While the picture looks bad, the massage only hurt while in progress and afterwards I felt great. The calf pain is non-existent except for those massage sessions, so the leg is healing. I got clearance to run a whopping half mile this week and I did it with no pain. I'm hoping they'll let me do a full mile next week.

Moral of the Story: Stretch your calves and when you hurt, go see your friends at Maximum Performance.

Laughing in the bathtub

Brady still loves bath time and thinks it's just great to get wet and make a watery mess. He's become quite the splasher, forcing mom and dad to take cover when he goes wild. Here's a short video of the laughter and splashing.

The garden begins

Well here's how the garden looked last night. I've had some requests for pictures and I aim to please, so here you go! The nearest box has spinach, lettuce and swiss chard in that upper left corner, zucchini in the middle and then tomatoes and peppers lining the right side.
The back box has peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and that's it. The rest of it is reserved for cantaloupe and yellow squash.
The nearest box was primarily planted on 4/21 and is already growing like gangbusters.
Here's a closeup of the peppers and tomatoes in the nearest box.

And here's a closeup of the spinach, lettuce and swiss chard. Time for salad!

And yes, it's all crammed into that little space per the instructions of Square Foot Gardening. I have faith it will turn out well and of course, I will keep everybody updated.

On a positive note, I also have several pots with herbs, strawberries, cherry tomatoes and a jalapeno pepper. the first strawberry is beautiful and red and ready to be picked. And we had fresh basil in our spaphetti sauce the other night. Delish!

The Hairston's

A little late, but you get pictures anyway. A couple of weekends ago we traveled to Columbia, MO for baseball. While baseball wasn't fun (rain outs, losses), we had a great time seeing the Hairston clan. Casey and Neisha used to be our neighbors in Manhattan. They have since added to their family in the form of Harper, 3, and Reid who is 1. Brady and I spent a lot of time at their house since it rained the entire weekend.

They have a play room off the kitchen that is fantastic. Makes me want one! Brady and Reid playing - they got along pretty well. No drama or big fights, so that was good.
Harper is adorable. So cute. And Brady loved to get in the tent and play.

They have a slide and I have decided we will need one of these for our house - it's a must when you're stuck inside. Brady loved it and went down that thing all weekend long.

More playing.

Harper & Brady enjoying the swing and slide. Why didn't they make stuff this cool when I was a kid?

It was a great weekend and despite the near-flooding we had a great time. We're so blessed to have great friends like Casey and Neisha.

And on a side note, I went to a Thirty-One designs party with Neisha and I now have a new obsession. Don't worry - I think I'm actually going to break down and have a party for this company as I found out my friend Michaela is a consultant. They've got some really cute stuff. so I'll be trying to introduce all of you to it as well!

Watering Can

The kid does love to play in the water. This is my favorite picture right now.
Anything to get his hands on some water!

Brady helps to garden

So we have been spending a lot of time outside lately. Brady LOVES to be outside and still throws quite the tantrum when we make him go inside. Alas, I'd rather have an "outside" kid as opposed to an "inside" kid.

He's been sooooo helpful with the gardening lately. He would like to help more, but I've discovered that water is a good distraction for him!

Let's see how far I can put my arm into the watering can.

We even bought him his own stuff. He's got his own little watering can, shovel, bucket, rake, hoe and shovel.

Garden!

So, here's a picture of our 2 square foot gardens. This picture is dated--I've got stuff planted and growing now. But this was the start of it. Two 4 foot by 4 foot containers ready for some vegetable growing!

The containers sit on a ledge behind our garage that gets a lot of sun during the day. I'll post updates as we go, but this is the beginning. The squares are marked off into one foot sections.

I'm growing tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, lettuce, spinach and swiss chard. I also have some containers that have herbs in them along with another tomato plants and strawberries. Oh, and I have 3 little strawberries already growing. Not red yet, but getting there.

Happy Growing!

Book Review - Square Foot Gardening

So, the most recent book I completed was Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Oh my gosh, loved this book. In fact, loved it so much that we have our own square foot garden at the house now.
The whole square foot garden concept is pretty neat, especially if you like to garden but don't have the big, flat area to do it in. I'll spare you all the details (after all, I know you can read!) but the gist is that you build squares, no larger than 4 x 4, and plant your garden in these square containers. You don't have to plant in a single row and actually, single-row planting is wasteful and inefficient. You put in the Mel's Mix (compost, vermiculite & peat moss) and Voila! You grow glorious, beautiful plants.

I do think it's a really good idea. Especially if you want to eat food that you grow yourself. Stay tuned for details on our own square foot garden!