The Secret is Out

The Secret’s Out!

“Froggy” is an important part of our family. For those of you that don’t know, froggy is Brayden’s lovey that he feels comforted with at bedtime and any other time when he gets stressed.

We take him everywhere with us and if he were lost it would be the end of the world as we know it. So knowing that I have made myself stock up on back up frogs that I rotate out every week. I wash them ad rotate them weekly so that he doesn’t get attached to one specific one. I lost one for a day once and it was NOT pretty.

Well, today Brayden found my stash of froggy! He was confused at first when he opened the closet to find four other frogs, but then he was beyond happy!

Once he had them all in his little paws, he was not going to give them up without a fight. I let him play with them and take them to bed with him for his nap and then I snuck in his room while he was sleeping and took all but one away.

Peace has returned to the Robinson house and our secret is safe once again.

- Sue -

* As you can see here, he is gripping onto 3 of them at naptime.

River rock throwing

On the agenda today? Rock throwing at Falls River!

Heather’s son Brady has this strange obsession with rocks and Brayden has a strange obsession with water…so combine both and you have two happy boys!

Heather, Tuan, the boys and I went to Falls River damn and let them run around at the playground and then we took them down to the water and let them throw some rocks.

Didn’t think much of it when I was going, but when we were there, these boys were in heaven. Who knew?

The weather was warm so we didn’t stay long, but while we were there, they were so busy, so serious and SO cute!

- Sue –

* Why is Brayden dressed for a safari! He can't even see!
* The big guy ready for some fun!


*Rock throwing was serious and amazing!

Playdate!

*Heather and I will all the kids: Evan, Addie, Brady, Landon and Brayden

Whenever Brett is out of town I try to make a huge effort to have things planned on a daily basis so I don’t get bored or lonely. Well who can be lonely with great friends like theses!

Brayden and I hosted a play date/happy hour at our house last Friday and it was so much fun…well not for Brayden.

Brayden is more of an introvert and can have a hard time with large groups, especially large groups of kids playing with HIS toys. Even though he sees these guys on a daily basis, it was still a bit too much for him to handle. So while the other kids played he mostly stayed in my lap and needed a little help from his binky and his froggie. No big deal, I think he still had some fun!

Everyone played, jumped on the trampoline and completely trashed the playroom…in a good way! Too much fun! Everyone stayed until all the kids were at their breaking point and some stayed for dinner and drinks after the rush had gone.

Brayden of course had to leave the party early because he goes to bed WAY earlier than anyone else on the planet. He did get to keep playing with his friend Addie because they took a bath together that night. They were so cute in the tub together and were mesmerized by all the toys!

After the bath it was off to bed for Brayden and downstairs for me to continue enjoying the party. Since Brayden was in bed already, Brady offered to help take care of Champ. He was so cute and took his job of feeding this giant dog very seriously.

Once that was taken care of it was dinnertime for us and we relaxed while Brady and Addie played.

It is hard when Brett is gone for so long, but it is nice to know I have made some amazing friends that will adopt me as their family when I need it.

Thanks guys!


- Sue -


* Landon, Addie and Evan having fun on the trampoline
*The playroom after the rush of kids!
*Heather/Evan; me/Brayden; Robin/Landon; Amy/Addie
*Addie and Brayden in the bath
* Brady and Heather taking care of Champ

Don't help me, I'm warning you...

Brayden gets very mad when you try to help him eat his food. He used to like to have you feed it to him while he tried to pick it up himself, but now…NO WAY! If you get in his way, there will be food flying, forks thrown and lots of whining.

“Fine. Let him do it then.” you say to yourself.

It would be fine but he is at the in between age where he wants to do it himself, but he can’t, so he just gets really pissed! UGH!

With that said, dinner tonight was fab-u-lous! He finally figured out how to eat with his fork and was able to eat his whole dinner on his own. Plus, with the new sippy cup in his lap, he was on cloud nine!

Wish you all could have seen him tonight. He was SO happy and SO proud of himself.

Such a great night!

- Sue -

"Choo-choo!"

Over the past few weeks I have been working very hard with Brayden to get rid of the bottles, forget them and move on to the sippy cup. I cut him off could turkey a couple of weeks ago and he didn’t really seem to notice. However, the sippy cup that he likes looks exactly like a bottle and leaks all the time!

Anyway, he has finally grasped the concept of the sippy and has started to forgo drinking his milk or water. Instead he likes to squeeze the tip and pour all of the liquid out all over the place! This drives both Brett and I nuts! So for that past few days I have been on the look out for a new sippy cup (to add to the millions we already own) that won’t spill if he plays with it.

On a quick grocery trip today at Target we were browsing the sippy isle when he started to kick and squeal! I didn’t know what he was all excited about until he ripped his binky from his mouth and started saying “choo-choo, choo-choo” over and over again.

Low and behold, there on the shelf was a sippy cup with Thomas the Train on it! It was exactly what we were looking for. Spill proof, hard and insulated. No mess with this one I thought if I could only get him to drink out of it.

WELL, if I had know that all it would take was a Thomas the Train sippy cup to get him to forget about bottles and be the happiest baby I have every seen, I would have saved a lot of time, energy and money on a million other kinds we tried!

He was so happy with his new big boy cup. He would hug, kiss and point at it and say sweetly “choo-choo”. He downed all 9 ounces the moment I gave it to him and I even had to pry it out of his little hands during bath time. He was just so proud and so happy with himself!

Good times for Brayden!

- Sue -


P.S. Another purchase at Target…our very own “Time Out” mat! HA! We’ll see how this pans out…

Museum of Life and Sciend in Durham

This past Monday Brayden and his friends made a trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. The weather was cool and drizzly so it was the perfect day to go do something different.

Brett and I had taken Brayden there once before for my birthday, but this time he was way more into it and was running all over the place.

When we first got there we decided to do the Butterfly House first because they were releasing the butterflies and we wanted the boys to see that. They loved looking at all the different butterflies flying around them and seeing all of the birds and pretty flowers.

After that we hit up the rest of the outdoor scenes before it started to rain. This included bears, wolves, wet lands, lemurs, sail boats, farm animals, a giant sand box, drums, bells and a huge playground. The outdoor sites themselves are and all day affair. Brayden loved looking at all the animals and he also got a kick out of the drum section. His favorite exhibit though was still yet to come.

Once we finished the outdoor sites, we had lunch to refuel the nap deprived little ones and headed indoors. Inside they have a variety of exhibits aged towards older kids, but they have a section specifically designed for their ages. This was where Brayden really got into it. There is a ball section that he LOVES and would spend hours there if I let him.

He loved watching all the balls come down the wall and drop into the buckets. He would get so excited and try to do it himself. After a couple of tries he figured it out and off he went, over and over and over again.

After he had fun at the balls we decided to leave since it was past 3 pm and none of them had napped yet. I think all and all it was a good time! No meltdowns (although he completely fell apart once we got home!!) and even the mommies got into it.

Brett and I had loved this museum so much the first time we went that we decided it would be worth getting a membership and coming back more often. So now we are proud members of the Museum of Life and Science!

- Sue -

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Today was a fun day and Brett and Brayden made it very special for me. I was greeted in the morning with tulips and cards! I was supposed to get breakfast in bed, but I came down to early and ruined it. Oh well, next time we will plan for that one.

Nothing too exciting was on the agenda because our plans had to change because it was raining. We were going to have a late afternoon trip on out boat, but it was too rainy to even think about it. So we improvised with a little Mother’s Day arts and crafts.

Brayden painted me his first finger painting picture for Mother’s Day! He was so cute. He was very apprehensive about touching the paint so Brett and I had to help it along a bit. Once he got into it though, he was painting away!

To our surprise he wasn’t even that messy and the clean up was no problem. After the painting was complete I labeled it and hung it proudly on the wall in the playroom. I bought 2 canvases at the store so we could do the same thing next month for Father’s Day.



Hope everyone else had a fabulous Mother’s Day!

- Sue -