You are ALMOST two years old! My, my, how time flies! You turned 23 months old at the end of September, 2014. You started Mother’s Day Out “School” this month two days a week. You are in Ms. Kate and Ms. Angela’s class and you (and I) love it. Whenever you see your backpack or lunch kit you get so tickled and squeal high pitched and request to carry them around. Hah!  Rara came to visit at the beginning of the month and treated us to many meals out and even took us to a FroYo place that had an indoor playground that she crawled around in with you.

You’re getting pretty good at mastering your “cheese” face for pictures.  You scrunch your nose up and say “eeeeze!” – it’s adorable! Usually whenever you share your finished yogurt cup with George I have to assist you, but you’re much better at holding it yourself while he licks every last drop. During most meals you are very particular about which bib you want to wear: truck bib or fire truck bib. You usually request the same big for every meal, weeks on end.  Whenever you hear George walking down the hall (because of his nails on the wood floor) you get overly excited and retract your whole body and squint your eyes and clench your fists while giggling so hard (and sometimes crawling up me). You’ve gotten so good at throwing the tennis ball for George, too! It’s such a joy watching the two of you play together.   You call him “Yeorgie” in your own language and can sorta say ball, but it sounds like “baahhh.”

Beets and tomatoes seem to be the food of the month for you. You also enjoy noodles that you can stick onto your fingers (rigatoni). Well, you contracted “Hand Foot & Mouth” disease (virus). Yuuuuuckkkky! You had a slight fever for a day (with little to no symptoms) and then you broke out into a rash of blisters around your mouth, back of neck, back of legs, horrible diaper rash, and a few blisters inside your mouth. It was like you were a leper. We quarantined you at home for an entire week (no school, gym, public places, no guests, etc…) It was so sad and disgusting. Dad returned home from the rig the day you came down with it, which was unfortunate timing.  Thankfully you were non contagious and well enough to celebrate your cousin, Alexis’, 2nd birthday! You mostly hung out by the bubble machine/toy and ate your body weight in animal crackers, along with a whole cupcake.

You and dad hung out alone for a few days while I ventured off to Georgia for the Pursuit 31 Conference at the end of the month.  You and dad had a lot of fun and he even dressed you nicely and took you to your first ever “picture day” at school. Of course that would be scheduled for when I was out of town – hah! He did a great job taking care of you and y’all have such a cute and special relationship. Y’all spend a lot of time shootin’ squirrels that eat our flowers and gardens. The day after I got home we drove up to Kansas for your great grandpa Bobby’s funeral/memorial service. It was the first time for your Kansas family to meet you. Interesting how funerals will bring people together like that. For it being such a long time in the car (14 hours-ish total) and such a short time (less than 18 hours in Kansas) you did great! We told you everything was an “adventure” and you’d get so excited and respond “Yeah! Yeah!” while nodding your head agreeing to said adventure. It was a nice little trip for our family of three.

You are enjoying our frequent bike rides from our house around White Rock Lake. You get so excited when you see me wheel the bike out and love to put your yellow helmet on! We usually stop once during the ride to have a snack and feed the ducks/geese. We’ve also gone a couple “adventure nature” walks – one with the Parker family (your little buddy, Warren) and one with Dad and George. This kind of stuff is your favorite thing!

In other news, you can now pedal forward in your cozy coupe! You still love wearing your rain boots (any time) and now you love your new brown boots that look like Dad’s work boots. I did (what has been my favorite shoot so far with you) featuring you in your overalls and “construction” gear to use on your 2nd birthday party invitations. You were hamming it up and I barely had to direct you…. we had so much fun and made some really adorable images! I even threw George into a few of the shots and y’all are so cute together.

You are at such a FUN age buddy, we love you more than you know! Looking forward to celebrating your second birthday at the end of October.

 

#BradyShep on Instagram in September: