Happy 27th Month Birthday, B!

***  This post comes exactly one week late!  Time flies! ***

Dear Brayden,

My inquistive little man.  We are officially in the “What’s that?” phase.  I knew it would come, but I could never imagine just how funny you are and how cute you are when you ask.  You hear a noise outside, “What dat?”.  We’re reading a book and you point, “What dat?”.  Even when you know what things are you will sometimes still ask.  One of the funniest times was last week when we were at the zoo with your best buds.  You were holding Kylan’s mommy’s hand and you heard a train.  You looked up at Kathy and said, “What dat, Kathy?  Choo choo Kathy!”.  It was really, very cute.

You still LOVE art and are so proud of all your creations.  You will start a project and tell me that this one is for Meemaw and that one is for Nana.  You love giving your artwork as much as you enjoy creating it, which I love to see.

You also still love singing and love learning new songs.  We learned a new song at your preschool class and you made up your own words.  You said, “Teddy bear, teddy bear touch your butt!”.  Aren’t you a little young for those types of jokes?  It still made me laugh so hard and now I encourage it.  Probably shouldn’t, but I do.  You have a nursery rhyme book and you make Daddy and I sing all the songs to you.  Your favorites are  ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald (which we sing as Old McBrayden), the theme song to the Wonder Pets, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  You’ve also made up your own words to the Thomas and Friends song.

You are my little bud.  We’ve had a few days this month where I’ve had to run a lot of errands, which means a lot of car time for you.  Whenever I look back at you I say, “I love you, Brayden”.  And you say, “I love YOU!”.  And then I say, “No, no, no I love YOU!”.  This can go on for awhile, but I love it.

I love seeing your personality develop more and more every month.  Right now I think you have the best of both my personality and Daddy’s personality.  Okay, maybe you got a little of my stubbornness.  Just a little.  But, I think you’re getting Daddy’s book smarts, which makes me very happy!  A few weeks ago we were “exploring” in the neighborhood and I asked you what do we do when we want to cross the street.  You said, “Look left.  Look right.  Look left again”.  And you even looked the correct directions!  You are a genius, I tell you!  I love how you surprise me with all the things we’ve been teaching you.  You area actually listening!  You can count to twenty on a good day and can even count backwards.  You can sing all of your letters, but you can’t always correctly point them out.  We’re working on that!

Brayden, you have such a kind heart.  I’m so proud of you whenever you learn something new, but I’m the proudest when you tell someone you love them out of the blue, when you give me a big mooch without me asking and when you say something kind to someone.  I hope your heart is always as big as it is now.  And I hope you remember that you are never too old to hug and kiss your Mommy!

Love you with all of my heart, Brayden Bug!

Mama

Race Day

On Saturday I ran my very first race.  A 5K.  I didn’t start off with a small race.  No.  I ran my first race with over 28,000 people.  It was a bit crazy.  And overwhelming.  And scary.  But, I didn’t trip.  And I did finish!  And I was able to reach my goal of raising $1000 for women’s cancer research thanks to so many of you!  THANK YOU!

My official race time was 34:04.  Although, I clocked in at around 32 (forgot to stop my Nike +) and I swear it was over a 5K.  My Nike + says I ran just under 4 miles and I checked it at the track last night and it’s only off by about 2/10 of a mile.  I don’t know what’s up with that.  I’m just saying, I think they were lying when they said it was a 5K.

The Revlon Run / Walk was very emotional.  It was hard running past people with signs and pictures on their backs of loved ones lost too early and loved ones who are fighting for their lives  right now.  And it was also encouraging to see so many survivors there.  I’m not going to lie.  I shed a few tears.  It was all very overwhelming.

The main reason I was there was to run the race in memory of my BFF’s mom.  I wanted to run in her mom’s name, but also to show Michelle that I am supporting her every step of the way.  Michelle and her family unfortunately couldn’t be there because she got super sick the day before.  I know she wanted to be there more than anything.  I hope I was able to make her proud!

Brayden wanted his own sign.  He looks thrilled, doesn’t he?  Waking up at 5:45 apparently isn’t his thing.

I’m not a fan of being at the Coliseum, for obvious reasons (that team that plays there who wears red and gold) but it was pretty cool running through the tunnel onto the field.  A drum team playing for you.  People cheering.  The Olympic torch lit.  Pretty rad.  I got goosebumps.

And Brayden is still looking thrilled.  Totally unimpressed with his Mom.  He fell asleep about 15 minutes later.

I didn’t run as well as I hoped.  I started out too fast.  Bobbing and weaving around the walkers and getting caught up in the whole race thing.  But, I’m happy I did it.  Not sure I will be doing another race anytime soon, but it feels good to get one under my belt to prove to this girl who couldn’t run for a minute straight 3 months ago that I can do it!

Thanks again for all of your support!