Raisin' Bran and Amelia

Brannock hit the 15 month mark. He was the life of the party at the doctors office for his check up and just kept jabbering away to anyone who would listen. Everyone got a kick out of him! The pediatrician said he has a very good demeanor for a 15 month old. He weighed in at 27 lbs. 7 oz. and was 2 ft. 8 in. tall. 80th percentile all around now, big boy!

We are amazed with Bran's increasing physical abilities, vocabulary, and overall understanding of basic life skills/activities with each passing day. Brannock is so smart and is a boy with no fear.

The boy loves to eat. Lately his especially enjoys eating with a fork and spoon, even foods that should be finger foods.

Some words he is saying these days: Puppy, Buddy, Izzy, Woof, Moo, Mama, Dada, Duck (which he has started confusing with milk haha!), Ball, Coffee, Hot, Apple, Uh Oh, Stuck, Bird, Night Night, Help

Bran's favorite thing in the world is being outside. He would play outside all day if we let him.

Easter weekend was very busy. The babysitter and her girls did a great job of getting Bran ready by letting him try out their Easter hats.

Our first stop Easter weekend was Aunt Nikki and Uncle Jeremy's house for Easter with the Lude's. Bran had a great time playing outside with his cousins, searching for eggs, and even got to meet the Easter bunny,

Our next stop was Grandma and Grandpa Roelle's house. Bran enjoyed more food, an easter egg hunt, and a visit to the school playground right down the road.

We have enjoyed a couple visits to the zoo already this year. Bran is really enjoying it now. His first trip he was "woofing" at every animal. It was hilarious and everyone that heard him got a good laugh.

We also met up with the Burgers, McQuades, Wojnarskis, and Shanks at the Toledo Zoo. The kids had a good time, especially in the aquarium. We'll be adding two more babies to our group soon, and Bran officially won't be the only boy.

Busy days make for a sleepy Bran.

Go Cavs! LeBRAN is ready to shoot some hoops.

We spent Mother's Day at home just relaxing and playing outside enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

Columbus is full of parks. We have a whole list of new places to explore. We start with Amberleigh Park which is only a few minutes from our house. Bran especially enjoyed climbing out to the big slide and playing the musical instruments.

We finished out the month of May with a Memorial Day cookout with the Mayhills and Stimsons. Bran and Lily were the life of the party and had so much fun playing together (and especially interfering with the grown ups corn hole games.)

We also had a cookout at our house on Memorial Day. Bran got to play lacrosse for the first time, and had a great time chasing the big kids around.

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And Here Go The Toddler Years....

We have been keeping pretty busy since Bran turned 1. Brannock is loving toddler life and soaking up new experiences and words every day. We have had lots of family and friends visit (which I have gotten really bad at always remembering to get photos). His new favorite things to say are "p-shoo" (about his poopy diapers or stinky feet), "eww", and "uh oh". He also says "woof" for pretty much any animal. It's really cute! He will try to repeat about anything you say these days, and he even mastered the phrase "thank you". He doesn't always use it in context but it is adorable either way. And by far his favorite word is "Dada". We often hear him saying it repeatedly as soon as he wakes up in the morning. He is such a vocal kid, we honestly have given up on the baby sign language. He has really taken to wanting to verbally communicate what he wants, like drink, which sounds more like "dink". Bran loves milk and wants some as soon as he gets up, otherwise he is very crabby. Instead of him throwing a fit we have been trying really hard to just get him to ask for a drink. It's a work in progress but we are getting there.

We spent the first part of February passing around a stomach bug. Bran started it off by throwing up in his crib in the middle of the night. It was a total "mom fail" moment because he was screaming in his crib (very unlike him) and we could see on the monitor that it almost looked like there was some kind of wet spot. But in true Brannock fashion our amazing sleeper quickly soothed himself and went right back to sleep without another peep so we never checked on him. We felt terrible when we saw he had thrown up the next morning. There were pieces of orange (which to be honest hasn't been his favorite food since) caked all over the sheets, gross! So Bran spent the rest of the week with diarrhea, but acted fine. He is typically the best sick kid ever I swear. Unfortunately Mommy and Daddy picked up the same bug, so it turned out to be a pretty miserable week. We cancelled our Valentine's Day plans because we were all sick.

The sickness hadn't hit Daddy yet, he was working on trim.

I was feeling rough!

Mom's cutest crush on Valentine's Day.

Bran's cousin Gabe celebrated his 6th birthday in February, and we all got to play at Ohio Valley Gymnastics. Bran had a great time trying to run around like the big kids.

We stayed the night with Jeremy, Nikki, and Greer that weekend. Some of the cows were having babies so we headed over to the farm to check it out. Bran borrowed a pair of Greer's farm boots, they were so cute! He liked walking around in the dirt but was definitely holding on tight walking around on the uneven surfaces.

We got spoiled with yet another mild winter, and some unseasonably warm temperatures in February and March. It's hard to believe it's almost April and we never even got to play in the snow or try out the sled!. But on the bright side we have been enjoying a lot of sunshine. Bran absolutely LOVES being outside. He has actually started asking to go outside and sometimes starts to throw a mini toddler tantrum when we make him come inside. He quickly mastered walking on the sidewalks, and by the end of March finally conquered his fear of walking in the grass. All it took was throwing one of the dog tennis balls around in the yard! Now he is unstoppable.

We have been spending a lot of time with the Mayhills. Lily and Bran play so well together, even if they are both learning to share. We have enjoyed some cookouts and even "moved in" with the Mayhills for a few days while the flooring demolition was going on in our house. It was just like old times, just with a couple toddlers added in the mix.

Checking out the new floors during installation.

Nikki and Greer brought Grandma Lude to town to get surgery on her hand. It was a quick trip and I watched Bran and Greer during the procedure. They always play great together. I saw a small glimpse into Bran being jealous of Greer playing with his toys, but he quickly got over it. Greer is definitely more willing to sit still and will more than happily watch a show. Bran will have none of that silly sitting still stuff. It was funny to watch them eat together too, Bran sure is a little piggy in comparison! I can tell Bran is getting taller because Greer isn't towering over him anymore, and he has weighed more than her for awhile.

Bran has started to enjoy playing upstairs in his room more. Probably in part to us having to basically live upstairs for a week while the floors were being replaced downstairs. He often jumps and plays in his pile of stuffed animals. One night Joe and I were upstairs getting ready to give Bran a bath. I was getting some things together for his diaper bag. Bran had pooped and Joe got him changed and set him down naked for a minute before heading to the bathtub. Well that minute of being naked is all it took for him to take a seat on his big stuffed dog and take a big poop right on him. I only knew it had happened after I saw him running around with a leftover dingle berry on his butt. I guess he wasn't done pooping when Daddy changed his diaper, boy he got us good! Bran went straight to the tub, while I gave his doggy a bath and blow dry. What a night!

Bran and the puppy both cleaned up from the incident.

Bran is a boy with no fear. Another bath incident happened when I was downstairs getting ready to start some laundry while Joe was running the bath. Joe stepped away for two seconds to throw some jeans down to me and Bran made his move and went and dove right into the bath by himself still in his diaper. We heard the splash and instantly panicked. When we walked into the bathroom he was standing there in his (yet again) poopy diaper absolutely soaked. Minus a small bump on his head he was completely fine. But now we know we can't take our eyes off of the wild man for a second, especially around water! Sounds like it is time for swim lessons.

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