Crawling!

Brady is officially mobile.  We were starting to wonder if he was ever going to crawl but of course he decided to start crawling on his own timeline.  The evening before his 10 month birthday, he started leaning forward and getting into the crawling position from sitting.  It seemed like he had his legs almost tangled up underneath him and slowing just started dragging himself forward.  And now that he figured it out, there is no stopping him.  It is so cute to watch because now if he sees something he wants or as soon as he sees that the baby gate has been left open he starts crawling as fast as he can and then shows his frustration with Mommy and Daddy when he doesn't get what he wants.

The first video is from March (7 months old).  He started pushing up and we thought he was going to crawl any day then, but he took his time to perfect his moves.

This video was his first crawling debut on May 31 (day before his 10 month birthday)

Visit from Katie's parents - May 2013

For the weeks of May 13 and May 20, we had quite a lot of activity going on in the Mowry household. Charlie had back to back week-long trips for work, so Katie's mom decided to come visit and help out with Brady and Griffey for those 2 weeks.  And it was perfect timing to have the extra help because Katie came down with a terrible stomach virus that lasted 4 days.   So Grandma Carico did what she does best and took care of Brady to help prevent the virus from spreading to him.  And good thing because he never caught the virus.  Katie had all these plans of projects that she wanted to get done with the help of her mom, but unfortunately the virus kinda put things on hold.  The weekend in between Charlie's two trips, we got to have 2 nights out while Grandma Carico babysat.  On friday night, we went to our first dinner and a movie since before Brady was born.  We ended up eating at this crappy little restaurant called El's Kitchen across the street from the theater....definitely would not recommend it.  However, we put our bad restaurant experience behind us and walked across the street to the theater to see Iron Man 3.  We both gave it two thumbs up.  On Saturday evening, one of Katie's friend's from college who now lives in London was in town visiting with her boyfriend, so we met them and bunch of her friends at a street festival in Lakeview.  Chicagoans love their street festivals and there are many to choose from.  The one we went to was called May Fest and had a band called Two White Crew....which played some great cover songs from our high school days and it was really fun to see Shannon.

Katie's mom actually shared a ride up to Chicago with one of their family friends who also has a daughter that lives in Chicago so Bob, Katie's dad, drove up by himself during the 2nd week to hang out with Brady and take a very tired and worn out Grandma Carico home.

When Grandpa Bob got here, we all went out to D'Agostino's for pizza over on Southport Ave.

It was so nice having Grandma Carico stay with us for 2 weeks and help take care of Brady while Katie was sick.  We just hope that we didn't wear her out too much.

Mother's Day - May 12th

Everyone told me that becoming a mother changes your life, but I never fully understood the depth of that statement until last August 1st when Brayden Stephen Mowry came into our lives.  I remember during those 9 months of pregnancy speculating about how our little baby would look and his personality and how things would change in our lives.  However none of my speculations even came close to true,  he is so much cuter than I ever imagined and Brady definitely wins the best personality, he is the happiest and most easy going baby.  I felt so grateful when he was born a healthy baby boy and every day since have enjoyed every minute of seeing him grow.  I have quickly learned that there seems to be an endless amount of things to do like cleaning bottles and laundry.  My free time has gone from being able to take long trips to the mall for myself any time to carefully selecting and scheduling a brief shopping trip for myself.  But even though there seems to be so much work that goes along with parenting, I never knew how awesome it would feel when he smiles up at you or giggles into your neck and makes the long 9 months of pregnancy, the 17 hours of labor and the endless diapers all worth it.  

For my first Mother's Day, I wanted to spend a relaxing day with my 2 favorite boys, so we decided to go to the Lincoln Park zoo for the first time.  Brady seemed to really enjoy looking around at all the animals and it was really fun for us to watch his reactions.  It is extremely nice to be so close to a zoo and we were surprised to find out that admission is free, you just have to pay for parking.   Brady and Griffey even surprised me by getting me flowers and a nice card (with the help of Daddy of course).

Reds vs Cubs - Friday, May 3

On Friday May 3rd, Charlie decided to take the day off of work and bring Brady and I to the Reds vs Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  We had a rough start to this week because Brady got sent home from daycare with a stomach virus and then passed it to Katie so by Friday Katie was really ready to get out of the house and enjoy a nice afternoon...however the Windy City had another idea and decided to bring winter back.  Even though it was rainy and 40 degrees, we tried to go to the game anyways and just bundled up.  However, after 2 innings it was too cold to sit there with Brady so we walked home and watched the rest of the game on TV...lucky for us we only have to walk a short 2 blocks to get home.

On Saturday Charlie went to the game with one of his high school friends and a college buddy and the weather cooperated much better for them.  And I believe the Reds swept the Cubs that series so that made Charlie (and Brady) very happy.

Park: Wrigley Field (2nd time)
Friday, May 3, 2013

Score: Reds 6, Cubs 5

Winning Pitcher: Mike Leake

Brady's Reds record: 2-0

Brady's Home team record: 0-2