Brantley: 13 Months

Brantley,

I haven’t written on this blog since your birthday post but I have been writing notes each month about the little developments we see day by day and wanted to let you know we won’t forget them. So it’s my hope and plan that I can continue to write monthly to highlight our most memorable moments and developments. I know your Mimi, Grandma, and Aunt Laurie will read these, in addition to a couple of your (favorite) cousins, but for the most part, I want to write these little notes and memories so that one day your Daddy and I can read back through them, remembering each milestone through tearful smiles and celebrating your life one moment at a time.

When we found out we were having a boy, everyone told me boys love their mamas and you are just now starting to show us that sometimes you just need your Mama. You’re also a little more hesitant to be passed off to other people and when you don’t want to leave my arms you tuck your head down onto my shoulder or in the crook of my neck and hold on tight. I eat it up every time.

You got musical instruments for your birthday and YOU LOVE THEM. Other than the busy board that Papa built, your musical instruments are your favorite toys. It’s taken a couple weeks for you to learn how to play each one – the tambourine and drum sticks were obvious but the triangle took a little longer – but now our “family band practice” has become a nightly ritual that involves a lot of banging and loud, loud noise. Poor Shadow.

This month you finally started crawling! At the beginning of our week at the beach house you were army crawling but by the end of the week you started to show some attempts at crawling with your belly off the ground. Cousin Clint says we should knock you down and capitalize on your perfect army crawl by dressing you up in camo and posting you all over YouTube but I think we’ll wait on total domination of YouTube at least until you start talking.

Our bedtime ritual now includes a new favorite song, “You Are My Sunshine.” We sing it every night before bed with your Shadow blanket tossed over my shoulder and your lovey cuddled in tight. These memories may be my favorite of all.

We will have lots of wonderful memories from our week at the beach house with family. Other than Clint’s obsession with your current method of traveling across the floor, we’ll also remember long afternoons out on the beach with you and Shadow, huge family dinners in the evenings, and early mornings with your Papa and PaPa who were usually the only ones awake when we were up with you at 7am.

At the end of the month, we went to the annual Houck family reunion and you LOVED your first boating experience! You weren’t so thrilled with the life jacket and screamed whenever we tried to put it on you (parents of the year). You also took a liking to your Aunt Jane at the reunion lunch because she had a bag full of grapes and once you made that discovery, her lap was the only place you wanted to be for the rest of the afternoon.

Lately you’ve been sleeping with your legs crossed, just like you did when you were in my belly.

Oh, and you think biting people is hilarious.

Love you,

Mama