Raisin' Bran and Amelia: January 2017

Wow, 11 months old already! Bran is quickly approaching the 1 year mark. He is full of personality and constantly on the go, and we aren't even walking yet. I think his moto is to "Eat Hard, Play Hard, and Sleep Hard". I fall in love with his silly antics, jibber jabber, and sweetness every single day. Brannock is a genuinely happy and lovable little boy.

Weight: I didn't actually throw him on the scale this month. Probably somewhere in the 24-24.5lb. range. He also got 6 more teeth all at once. Aside from a little extra drool, he took it like a champ.

Sleeping Pattern: Bran is an amazing sleeper. Just let the little guy curl up in his crib, or on Daddy apparently. I can't tell you the last time Bran was willing to take a nap with his mama.

Feeding Schedule: Bran eats anything and everything we eat. It is great! The boy loves to eat and is always so happy. We love that he is not picky. Bran is also only having a bottle in the morning and at night now. He drinks from sippy cups the rest of the day like a big boy. The dogs are still always close by at meal time even though usually Bran doesn't like to share his food (he's hungry!). But he has decided to hold a bite of food to the side so Izzy can take a quick lick before he eats it. It is so gross!! But they seem to think it is hilarious.

Changes This Month:
We have been quite surprised that Bran has not started to walk yet. We are seeing a huge difference in the amount of time he is spending on his feet instead of crawling around though. He is cruising along anything and everything he can get his hands on. Towards the end of the month Bran was standing independently for short periods of time. He would also take one or two steps (without really realizing he was doing it) to get from one object to another. He completely refuses to walk from Mommy to Daddy. He will walk laps around the house holding onto a hand (or finger).

Bran wants to climb on everything. Our crown molding project has continued, which has only given Bran more time to get even braver with the ladders. We keep them safely put away or laying on the floor to prevent any unmonitored climbing up ladders. Brannock gave us a big scare one day when we forgot to close the gate at the bottom of the stairs. By the time we realized where he had gone he was all the way upstairs! Needless to say we have to be very careful to keep the gates closed because Bran has no fear.

Bran has also taken an interest in helping Mommy out with chores. More often than not this ends up making more work for Mommy.

Bran officially outgrew his infant car seat so we upgraded to a new one. He really enjoys the extra room. He also upgraded with the babysitter so now we don't have to lug the car seat around anymore.

Brannock's vocabulary continues to expand. We have found that he doesn't necessarily hold onto words from day to day, but he loves to try to mimic sounds and words. He uses "mama" whenever he wants something. He has also has learned to say "hi" and wave. The babysitter counts to three with Bran all the time. So now he has learned to say two after you say one. It is pretty funny because Joe and I have also taught him to hold up one finger to get ready for his first birthday. So he often holds up one finger while saying "two"! haha . Another fun word he often tries to say in a whisper is "peek a boo".

What We Have Been Up To:

December was such a busy month. Between work and travel I think we all barely sat still (and we were all worn out!). The best part of this month was definitely celebrating Christmas with Bran, The entire month just felt more magical. Bran loved all of the decoration, especially the lights. He was timid around the "pokey" tree at first, but that was short lived and he quickly realized taking his walking toy over by the tree gave him a higher reach. The bottom couple branches of the tree had very few ornaments on them by the end of the month. But I was really happy he was careful enough with the tree we could trust him without having to block it with a baby gate.

We met our friends the Oldendorps at Zoo Lights. It was very cold and busy, so we didn't stay long. The lights were pretty but it will probably be more fun when Bran is a little older and can enjoy the lights more.

One of our favorite things this month was listening to Bran go "ooo" everytime he saw lights. It started every morning when we brought him downstairs (Daddy had the lights on timers so Bran would see them as soon as he woke up). It was the cutest thing and it makes me sad to think he may not "ooo" like that again next year,

We were going out of town so we had a quick Christmas together as a family the morning of Christmas Eve Eve. Luckily Santa got our request to drop gifts off early since we would be going out of town. I can't remember why exactly (it was either frequent diaper changes with an inpatient baby not wanting to get dressed again, or Bran swimming in the dog water) but Bran ended up opening up presents in just his diaper. That in itself was a gift because Bran loves to run around half naked. We hadn't put together any of his gifts so in Bran's eyes he received boxes for Christmas. He enjoyed that and took advantage of climbing on them. Izzy was also the perfect helper for Bran. She helped Bran open gifts by tearing back some pieces of wrapping paper and was even nice enough to shred all of the discarded paper (her favorite thing to do).

We had our first Christmas visit with Great Grandpa and Lil. Brannock did pretty well opening gifts with a little help. He really enjoyed playing with a toy fire engine that rolled along the floor as you put balls in it.

Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Roelle's house with the family. Bran's favorite part was dinner, but he enjoyed everyone being on the floor with him in the living room playing and opening gifts as well. Bran was even a trooper and stayed up until 8 p.m. to hang out with everyone.

Christmas morning we just hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Roelle. It was a pretty calm morning for Bran, and he enjoyed having some down time to play with his new toys. We left that afternoon to drive down to see Joe's family (which meant a much needed long nap for Bran in the car). We spent Christmas evening visiting with Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Nikki, and Greer. We also stopped by Megan's house to see some more family.

Bran playing with Grandma Roelle on Christmas morning.

Trying out Zane's new sled.

Bran-11 months, Zane-1 year

Bran-11 months, Greer- 18 months

The day after Christmas we had our last Christmas celebration with the Lude Family. Joe's family is so much bigger, I think we almost lost Bran in the presents! It was a busy but fun day.

Sadly somewhere in all of the Christmas chaos we completely forgot to take a family picture. (Mom Fail!). But luckily we had some professional photos taken, so these can count right?!

We rung in the New Year with another visit to Elyria. Bran spent New Years Eve sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's house while Joe and I watched a very sad Buckeye loss to Clemson in the college football playoff at Aunt Renee and Uncle Aaron's house. Grandma also watched Bran on New Years Day so we could go to a friend's wedding.

Happy 2017! We are so excited to see what fun this year will bring to our little family! 2016 was a great year, it is hard to imagine 2017 topping it but we'll do out best. We'll start it off right by celebrating Brannock's first birthday.

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