9 and 10

So I never wrote a 9 month blog post about Braxton, so I am doing a 9&10 month post since he will be 10 months old on Tuesday. These are the numbers from his 9 month well visit:

Height: 29.25 in, 75%
Weight: 21 lbs 5 oz, 57%
Head circumference: 17 in, 41%

Sitting in the chair at the doctor's office. Lovely phone picture :)

This picture makes me laugh. Wearing Daddy's earmuffs.

Braxton loves our Christmas tree. Too bad he can't crawl to it...

What a goof!

Pulled himself up to his dresser. I love his stance here, especially the potbelly.

Sitting with his feet crossed. He does this quite frequently.

Obsessed with zippers, buttons, and sweatshirt strings. Here he is eating my zipper.

Helpful, as always :)

Pulled himself up in the laundry basket. Little stinker!

In his adorable Sunday suit!

Here are some new things Braxton has started doing lately:

Shrieking like a little girl (thankfully this is phase passed quickly!)
Pulling up and walking along furniture
Crying when Mommy leaves the room, even when Daddy is playing with him.
New foods this month: scrambled eggs, cheese, black beans, tomatoes
Saying mama all the time
New favorite song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Practicing for Christmas...

Everyone knows that the best part of Christmas is the boxes, right? Well, at least it is to this guy...

Ahh, the look of pure joy. :)
Love those baby blues!

So long, farwell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye...

to Braxton's helmet. That's right, Little Man got his helmet off on Tuesday.

Sitting at Dr. Dave's waiting to get his measurements taken.
Yes, that is a nylon on his head. :)

Handsome Boy's first picture sans helmet.

"Mama, enough with the pictures!"

Braxton only had to wear his helmet for two months.
We are so glad to be done with his helmet and PT.
Grateful that B's head and neck are better!

This Mama

loves her black bean and green boogie-faced little boy.

Even when he is sick and messy, I still find him absolutely adorable!

A New Skill...

My little guy is rapidly becoming a big boy. His latest trick is pulling up on furniture, standing, and carefully side-stepping around the ottoman. Check him out!

Side-step along the couch. Steady... Ok, I've got my balance!

Ooh, look! A toy! I'll take that...

Oh shoot! I dropped it...

I'm stumped. How am I supposed to get it?!

Family Update

The past month has been extremely busy. Here is a break down of what the Carsons have been up to...

Kyle:
Last month, Kyle had three fly-out visits with accounting firms to interview for internships. He interviewed with Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and KPMG. He was gone Thurs-Fri for three weeks in a row. Yes, I made 6 trips to the airport last month! It was lonely here in Provo without him. His interviews went really well, and he received offers from KPMG and EY. After much prayer, fasting, and a temple trip, Kyle finally signed with Ernst & Young. His internship will be June-August in Atlanta, GA.

Kyle is also busy with school. He scored at the top of his class for a test and so he has been holding study sessions for the other students in his class, at his teacher's request. At the last review, he presented 10 sample questions that he wrote for the class to answer together. Turns out all of those questions were on the exam, just worded a little differently. Kyle also got a perfect score on that exam. Seriously, who does that?! My husband is awesome!

Lindsey:
I have been busy taking care of Braxton and keeping up with my housewife duties. Braxton has had a lot of appointments lately- PT and orthotics- so we have been running around all over. Since I graduated, I have started planning out my meals a week at a time and making dinner every night. By doing this, I have cut our grocery bill almost in half every month. Except for November because Kyle came with me on a Costco run. Epic Fail. Also, I am going to make Braxton's Christmas stocking this year and have been busy brainstorming ideas.

Braxton:
Our little buddy has been growing like a weed. He is much more mobile than he was just two weeks ago. He loves to stand against our furniture and play with his toys. Also, his new favorite food is Cheerios. He ate 3 handfuls of them yesterday! He had a physical therapy appointment on Monday and his torticollis is officially GONE! So we are all done with PT, unless his pediatrician recommends continuing (because he is behind on his gross motor skills). We will find out at his well visit at the end of the month. He had his second helmet appointment on Wednesday. His flatness is down to a seven (started at a 10) and he is showing lots of improvement. His next appointment isn't until December, but I am praying really hard that his helmet comes off before we go home for Christmas. They normally end treatment when the score is in the 3-5 range.

So that his basically what we have been up to. We are all doing well, and life is really good right now. We are very relieved and very grateful that Kyle has an internship this summer, especially in this economy. Oh- and what kind of lame post would this be without a picture?!

Love my cute boy!

Halloween Festivities

I am so late in posting this, but October was a busy month for us with all of our Halloween activities. For Mothers' Group, we took a trip up to Gardner Village. We walked around and looked at all the shops and the cute (over-priced) decorations. We also completed a witch scavenger hunt which earned us free cookies. Win!

All of the moms and their babies.

Three of the kids
Braxton always tries to grab his friends.

Braxton on the hay bail. Little Stinker wouldn't smile for any of the pictures.

Me and my boy!

Haha, told ya! Tryin' to grab his friend.

Brax on the cute wagon. He loved the pumpkin!

Later in the month, we had another Mothers' Group activity where we had a little Halloween party with the kids. We dressed them up in their costumes and ate caramel apples. Yum!

All the kids in their costumes. Meet TinkerBell, Ghost, Mickey, Jimmer, Duck, and Cow.


Kyle and I also took Braxton on a trip to the grocery store to pick out pumpkins. I think it was more fun for us than it was for Braxton. I tried to get him to play with the pumpkin guts while we were carving, but he wouldn't even touch it. Here are our pumpkins:

We obviously are not artists...

All lit up with candles

Our ward also had a Halloween Party the Saturday before Halloween. The Sunday School was in charge of putting it on, so Kyle spent a lot of time planning, delegating, setting up, tearing down, and cooking lasagna.

We dressed up as a family this year. Braxton wore his duck costume again and Kyle and I went as duck hunters. It was quite a hit! Sadly, I didn't get a single picture of all of us together at the party...

Only picture from the night... in the mother's lounge right before Brax went to bed...
If anyone has pictures of us at the ward party, would you please email them to me? Thank you!

Cutie Braxton in his costume...

Waving hi!

Best part of the costume- butt padding

Kyle had to work on Halloween, but they had a little party at work. So Brax and I tagged along. Kyle wore his gangster outfit instead of matching us again. He wears this costume every year.

Our fam bam

Braxton was one sad and sleepy duck when we got home.

So that was October in a nutshell. We had so much fun and are so grateful for wonderful friends and a great ward that we got to celebrate with.

He Speaks!

First words. Ma ma ma. Awesome. I pretend like he knows that is me. :)

For Alena

Astronaut baby

Another month has passed...

And Braxton is now 8 months old. It is crazy to think that he has been alive for as long as I knew I was pregnant with him. The past 8 months have flown by, but it felt like I was pregnant forever! Braxton is such a sweet little guy. Here are some pictures from the past month (in random order) and some developmental updates.

Playing in the leaves at Kiwanis Park. The lighting wasn't the best, so I will have to go back and take more pictures. And he didn't even put the leaves in his mouth. Miracle!

Playing with the vacuum attachments while Mama cleans.

Wired! This picture was taken at 10:30 pm, three hours past Braxton's bedtime. He got ahold of a sugar packet that day when I was at lunch with Auntie Kels, and ya... This was the consequence of that.

Playing in his walker/exersaucer thing. I love the silly face he is pulling. He has big eyes like Mama.

Nakey babe ready for his bath. How could you not want to snuggle this?!

Eating the newspaper ads. Yum.

Showing off his TWO teeth!
Sucking on both sets of toes in the bathtub. Brax is a champ at yoga.

Just playin' in the laundry basket.

Braxton has had quite a busy month. He is growing and changing so much. I don't know what he weighs, but he is very chunky right now. He normally gets really chubby right before he grows, so he will probably shoot up pretty soon. He is in between clothing sizes right now. He is mostly in 6-9 mo. clothes, but still fits in quite a few of his 3-6 month clothes.

A couple milestones this month:

• rolls from his back onto his belly over both shoulders (still working on belly to back)
• reaches for toys that I hold in the air while he is on his tummy
• pulls to a stand when Mama or Daddy hold his hands. Still working on pulling up on furniture
• laughs like crazy when you play tug-of-war with him
  
• loves to stand against the couch and play with his toys
• got his helmet this month
• got his two first teeth (bottom)
  
• eats ham!!! The first meat he will actually eat and not spit out.
  
• favorite toy is his little race car that we got in a cereal box. Win!
  
• is back on three naps a day (got way too grumpy with only two)
• Yells "maaaaaaaaam" when he cries. I like to think that he intentionally calls me that. But he only does it when he cries. Darn.
  
• Bedtime has been moved up to 7:00 pm, and he sleeps a lot better now. About 7 pm to 8:30 am.
• Can go from sitting to on his tummy (as of today. We'll see if he can still do it tomorrow)
  
• Eats solids 2-3 times a day and nurses 5 times a day.
• New foods this month are ham, blueberries, and cheese.
  
• Has started making this adorable closed-mouth smile (see naked pic.)
• Cries when I take things away- usually my phone or the keys
  

I think that is all. I always get so emotional writing these posts, thinking about how much my baby has changed. And he has really developed a lot this month. He still has the sweetest temperament and the goofiest personality. He is a little angel baby... most of the time. :) I feel so blessed to be Braxton's mom. Being a mom is the greatest blessing and my highest priority. It is so hard and so rewarding. We love you, buddy!