boys

9.29.14 + 365

One Year Old Brantley,

Mr. Man, you’re ONE! It can’t be that a whole year ago I made your dad stop at Speedway for a poptart on our way to the hospital because I had to make this one last moment about me. A few hours, several orange jellos, and one glorious epidural later we were holding you in our arms trying to decide your name. Your dad is thankful I finally realized Knox was a little much. Brantley Robert had way more meaning and fit your chubby little cheeks perfect. Who knew a tiny little human could teach two people so much? We didn’t. Of course you taught us the typical baby things such as: to be careful when changing a diaper, the fastest way to warm up a bottle with a screaming babe in our arms, how to bathe a baby in the kitchen sink and so on.

The things you taught us that I didn’t plan on learning are my favorite:
1. The exact spots in our floor that make a creaking sound.
2. Just how much it takes for me to throw myself on the ground, curl up in the fetal position and cry. If you’re wondering– It takes nearly two weeks of you being sick, trading days off between mom, dad, and your grandparents; then waking up, when I thought we were in the clear, to a fever that kept us from being able to take you to the sitter. Your dad let me throw my fit for about .2 seconds before he told me to stop being dramatic. 😊
3. Poop comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors.
4. How to walk our 80 lb. doberman while simultaneously pushing your stroller, by myself. We almost took a spill down the driveway during our first attempt but we didn’t give up. We are now dog and stroller walking masters. It’s still a better idea to wait until Dad gets home.
5. Target’s dollar bin has a new meaning. We browse that bad boy for a few minutes before finding you a new toy to keep you busy during our shopping trip. Ain’t no shame here. If it gets me 5 more minutes of looking at aisles of things I don’t need, you can have 2!
6. 12 month shots are THE WORST. Sorry, I missed the memo. I would have totally had your dad come (I told him it was no big deal) so at least one of us was a non-teary-eyed-mess leaving the doctor’s office.
7. We have to celebrate the little things! A diaper change without rolling all over? Dance party. A meal without feeding all your food to the dog? Dance party x2.
8. My love for you and your dad grows by the day. Seems impossible, right??? I don’t get it either but it happens.

Mister, I’m told this year is a big one. We can’t wait to see how much you learn and how long Paisley girl is going to lay still while you climb all over her like a jungle gym. You’re still stealing hearts, buddy. Keep it up until you’re a teenager😉. We love you big time!
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Adventures with Baby H- Single Mom Raising Two Boys

With two months of this parenting thing under our belt, Sam and I really feel like we are starting to get the hang of things. There is one thing, though, that continues to surprise me and that’s the truth behind this statement… “Your husband will always be your oldest and biggest child that needs the most adult supervision.”

One night after lots of swaying, bouncing and butt patting from both Sam and I, we finally got Brantley to sleep. I crawled in bed, rolled over to say goodnight and soon found myself hushing my husband. I’m not quite sure how he forgot we had just finally gotten the babe to sleep. I don’t even remember what he was saying but I do remember he was SHOUTING. He claims he wasn’t. After taking the shushing like a man he simply looked at me and asked, “How’s it feel to be a single mom raising two boys?” It was then that I decided I had never found one of his clever, witty come-backs to be more true.

Here’s just a few examples that prove my husband may happen to be the second boy I’m raising. Or maybe he’s the first and Brantley’s the second? 😉

Sam’s been working on Brantley’s basketball follow through since the day he came home from the hospital. When Brantley was maybe three weeks old Sam text and asked if he was ready to hit the courts and work on his left handed lay ups. “Nothing makes me more mad than seeing kids shooting a left handed lay up with their right hand.”

He’s looked for quad-runners to buy for Brantley. I have to remind him our son won’t be riding one of these for several years. He swears he got his first one at like two years old. I also have to remind him we live in a neighborhood, not on acres of land. Can we just see our kid roaming the neighborhood…on his four wheeler?

He’s been searching for baby wolf pack t-shirts (remember the wolf pack from The Hangover??). Our best friends are having a boy that will be 5 months younger than Brantley. Sam and Nick have matching wolf pack t-shirts. Apparently the baby boys need a wolf pack tee also.

One night while out at dinner Sam took the little skewer out of his sandwich, little pieces of napkin and his straw. Not only did he construct himself a little spitball spear, he wanted me to hold up a napkin, like I was trying to anger a bull, to see if his genius idea worked. It did and man was he proud of himself!

The boys were getting in some quality daddy-baby time one night while I cleaned up the house, did this and that since I have a hard time getting anything accomplished during the day other than watching as many tv episodes on Netflix as I can. I walked by Sam as he was singing the normal Conway Twitty to the babe and he asked me to join him in a duet. Really? A duet? No, you are nuts, I have too much to do. My mind automatically went to 3 years in the future when Brantley would be asking me to stop everything I’m doing and play with him. So, of course, we started on a duet. The only song we decided we both knew well enough to sing was the National Anthem. Turns out we need a little more practice with the words but we belted that song out like we were fighting for the championship on American Idol. If anyone would have tried to knock on our door to sell us something they would have thought we were whacked-out and turned right around.

Another night, as I was feeding Brantley before bedtime Sam waltzed in the nursery and held the monitor up (the part you watch the video on) to the camera part. They made that noise a microphone makes when it’s too close to a speaker. Sam’s face lit up. He must have noticed my dumbfounded look because he quickly responded with, “What? I wanted to see if they would make that noise.”, and walked out.

We went to Bravo for dinner for my grandma’s 83rd birthday. Bravo is a little more classy than our typical Skyline or Chumps. When Sam realized you can draw on the table this is what he drew. “A surprise for the waiter” he claimed. No further words are needed.

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Boys will always be boys, I suppose.