Happy 10 Month Birthday, Bri Guy!

Ahhhhh!! I am so behind! Brian turned 10 months on January 24th. Only 2 more months before he hits the big #1! He is at such a wonderful age right now... he's so much fun! He always has been, and continues to be, our little explorer. He is always looking at everyone, scoping everything out, and getting into as much as he possibly can. His swim instructor said that I'm going to be in trouble when he starts to talk because he is going to be the "why?" and "what?" kid... :) Awesome. He is turning into such a little man so quickly! He is flying up the stairs (with our supervision, of course), cruising all over the furniture, and doing laps around the house with his walker. He'll be walking in no time at all! Scary! His top two teeth just came in (thank God!), and it has been a long, painful process!! Hopefully his other teeth don't give him as much trouble from here on out! He's loving his solid food - his faves right now are waffles, pancakes, yogurt, cheese and baby goldfish! He is not a picky eater AT ALL, and I hope it stays that way! It makes my life a lot easier :) Yesterday, he finally started clapping his hands! I started singing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands" and he did it! It's SO cute! I took a video of it, so I'll post that soon. :) Brian's been doing really, really great and we couldn't be happier! Happy 10 Months, Bri! :)

9 Month Pictures

I know, they're being posted late (sorry!), but here are some of Bri's 9 Month Professional pictures! :)

When Mommy's away...

I was on the phone and turned my back long enough for this to happen. It was so cute, I had to let him play!

Happy 9 Month Birthday (just a little late!! LOL)

Ok, so I'm a wee bit behind on posting Bri's 9 month pictures! Sorry! Brian turned 9 months on 12/24/09. With the new year here, it makes me teary-eyed to think that Brian will be a year old in just a few short months. These 9 months have FLOWN by. I can honestly say, though, that I feel very good about how much I have soaked every moment in, despite the sleepless nights, colic and teething. I am not looking back on the past 9 months and thinking "wow, I wish i would have done this more" or "I wish I would have just soaked that in longer". I have really cherished every moment and am very thankful for that. The past nine months, I have watched Brian learn and experience new things every day. I am so proud of him and thank God every single day for blessing us with this perfect baby boy. :)

New things he's doing - saying mama, baby, dada (occasionally), and he's trying to say ball and pretty (of all things!!) It's so funny when you say "ooohhhh, pretty" and he tries to say "pretty" back to you!! He ooh's at most things, which is adorable. He's completely mobile now (even climbed a few steps this morning). He's getting more stable on his feet and is walking around his toys and getting the hang of his walkers a lot better! He'll be walking in no time... SCARY! He loves reading... he'll crawl and get a book and bring it back to us to read for him! He's doing flash cards and starting to be able to pick out the card that I ask him for. :)

In a nutshell, he is doing soooo well. I am super proud of the things he's learning and love to watch him be the little explorer that he is. The only thing that I am not too fond of right now... is that he's growing up WAY too fast :(

Happy 9 Month Birthday, Bri! Thanks for making Mommy and Daddy (and everyone else!) so incredibly happy.

Water Babies!

Today Brian started his water babies swimming classes! A neighbor of ours, Nicole, signed her son Luke up, too! It will be great for Nicole and I to hang out, and definitely for the boys to play! Brian had a GREAT first day! He did so well... a little too well... LOL He didn't have any problems with being dunked and swimming under water (although Mommy had a VERY difficult time watching it) But, I was very proud of the way he handled it... never cried or fussed ONCE! Matter of fact, a couple times, he came out of the water smiling!! I'm very excited about the next six weeks of class and will likely just continue them every week for a while! Hopefully I'll get some better pictures in the next few weeks! (P.S. Brian was exhausted after swimming, so I had to post a picture of him wiped out!)

A very special gift....

My mom and dad spoiled Brian so much at Christmas, and he got a lot of really great toys. But, they got him a very special gift, which I just LOVE. My cousin, Christopher, is a very talented artist and my mom commissioned him to do some paintings for Brian's rooms. We all love monkeys, so she had him paint 3 different monkeys (each one representing me, Vahe and Brian). They are so special, and we hung them up the morning after we got home! Here are a few pictures of the new paintings... so cute!

Brian's First Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! That saying was so true this year, as we got to share Christmas with Brian for the first time. Everything was just more exciting this year, because Christmas really is all about the kids. It's been a long time since we've had one in our family!!

Our Christmas travels started out in St. Louis. Brian did pretty well during the road trip, and thanks to a neighbor, he was able to watch Baby Einstein videos and Finding Nemo on the way. What would we have done without the DVD player?!? That kept him quiet for a lot of the ride, considering he didn't feel like sleeping much at all in the car (bummer!) Due to an unfortunate circumstance, Christmas in St. Louis was a bit subdued, but we had a wonderful time visiting with Vahe's family. Brian especially loved all the time he got to play with his cousins. I think his favorite, though, was watching Grandpa Ayvazian's train in the basement. He loved it! :)

We then came home for a couple of days and had our little family Christmas before we left for Chicago. It was a lot of fun seeing Brian open the presents that we had picked out for him. I have to say, though, he was much more interested in the paper and tissue paper than the gifts. Vahe and I thoroughly enjoyed it, though! :)

Next, we headed to Chicago on Christmas Eve (which also happened to be Brian's 9 month birthday... pictures to come of that! Sorry, I'm a bit behind!) We caravanned with Mom and Dad and overall it was a pretty smooth ride into the city. It was snowing in Chicago, which was perfect for Christmas! I was SO excited to be there with all of our family, and they were equally as excited to share Brian's first Christmas. On Christmas morning, Uncle Dave dressed up as Santa, so Brian got to sit on Santa's lap and get some presents. TOO CUTE! He was, of course, spoiled ROTTEN by my family. We were thinking we were going to need a U-Haul on the way home! It was really special to be with all of the family. They just couldn't get enough of Brian!!! He got to meet his cousins on my dad's side for the first time and he got to hang out with Aunt Bridget and her family. It was a lot of fun! But, Brian had had enough of traveling and was just so overwhelmed that we decided to go home on Sunday. The drive home was BRUTAL, but we made it home safely. :)

As special as Christmas was this year, it's only going to continue to get even more special as the years go by. I can't wait until next year when he can get more excited about his gifts and maybe has a better idea of what is going on! :)

Happy 2010, everyone!

Love
Lauren