I've Been Simponized!

Oh no, I've been simpsonized! Too bad I have since shaved the goatee. Has anyone seen the movie yet?

Brady Vision: Summer Fun

My Goatee: Save It or Shave It?

Calling one, calling all, it is time to vote. What should I do with my goatee?

Save it, or shave it?

Its Potty Time!

Last week, we took Brady in the pool, and when he got out, we took off his swimsuit and diaper and he was running around the deck completely naked. All of a sudden, he let out this squeel of delight. We looked over, and he was peeing on the deck, and had just realized what he was doing. Now he thought it was funny to run across the deck, stop, and pee.

It got Erica and I thinking....

We did some research....

We've decided to start potty training Brady. Our hope is that by age 2, he will be completely potty trained. As lofty as this might sound, it is actually the average age. So, we went out and bought him a potty. He thought it was the best. This week we plan to just let him "explore" it, no strings attached. Next week, we'll start to let him test the water out. The potty we bought will eventually attach right to the regular toilet, and the bottom half of it will become a stool. It plays music too! Now all we need to do is stock the basket in the bathroom with Wiggles magazines and he'll be ready to "go".

PS: Did you see my gotee?

Hey good lookin', what ya got cookin'?

Brady loves to watch us cook in the kitchen. Lately we have been giving him bowls and spoons and measuring cups and he "helps" us make dinner. HE LOVES IT! Who knows maybe he'll be be a famous chef one day like Emeril or Alton.

1998 Ford Exploer XLT For Sale By Owner

I'm selling my car. You can view an ad on Craig's list:

http://nh.craigslist.org/car/374240558.html.

Why would I sell my car, you ask? I'd love to tell you it is because I am finally getting my F150 extended cab pickup, but alas, I am not.

I'm actually going to purchase a minivan. Can you believe it? I can't either, but right now, to run her daycare, Erica needs to be able to transport kids back and forth to preschool. Can't do that with a car that doesn't have a third row seat!

A more useable basement

Brian had Friday off and seeing as I have day care kids at the house we really can't do anything like go on a day trip. So of course brian has been finding projects to tackle. The other day he decided to tackle the basement. Anyone who has seen it knows that there was a bar smack dab in the middle of the room making the room not very user friendly. Brian decided to rip the bar out and rearrange the room. This has made for a much nicer room. Unfortunately there was no carpet under the bar so there is hole where the bar used to be but He has some solutions up his sleeve for that problem. This will also give me more space for the kids to play. Especially if it is a rainy day.

Fun with finger paints!

The other day I decided to have the kids try finger painting. Not an easy task with two kids under two and a three year old. However, I have to say they all did a wonderful job. Brady managed to cover himself with paint and Jordan ate a little of it but, but all in all it went well. Thank goodness Shanna was here to help out! Cleaning up was a little tricky, but we managed.

A Fun Day At The Beach

Today, we took Brady and Mackenzie to the beach in Ogunquit Maine. We let them run down tot he ocean, and they had a blast. Brady had no problem running straight for the water and jumping right in. He even got flipped right over by a wave at one point, got completely submerged in the water, but he got right back up. As you can see from the pictures (including the one with my shaved head), everyone had a blast! Brady ended the trip by taking a nice nap int he car.

Brady's Security "Blanket"

We can't seem to separate Brady from keys...not just any keys either, but our car keys. When he gets up in the morning, the first words out of his mouth are usually "I want keys, I want keys." Erica and I can't really figure out exactly when this began. Just a month ago, we used to give him our keys when we went into a store to keep him amused. He liked to try to take the keys out of my hands as I strapped him into his car seat. But in the last couple weeks, he wants the keys all the time. He knows where they are kept in the house, and if they are in my pocket, he will go right in and help himself. Yesterday, Brady had my car keys and I watched him hide them under his crib. I quickly removed them when he left the room, but a little later, he was under the crib looking for them. Later that same day, Brady "lost" my keys somewhere int eh house. It took Erica and I twenty minutes to find them. That was the end of the keys. We had to make Brady his own set of keys and put my keychain on them.

BTW: We tried the plastic toy keys. He wanted nothing to do with them.

My Summer Vacation

So far, my summer vacation is going great! I get to go to the park to play on the playground almost every day. My favorite thing to play on is the rickity bridge.

Today, Mama had a new friend come over to play. His name is Jordan, and he is just about my age. Mama siad Jordan will be coming over to play every day this summer. We had lots of fun today playing with the toys in the toyroom, reading books and singing songs with Mama, and watching the Wiggles together. I included a picture of us having lunch below.

Last Saturday, Mama and Dada took me to Plaistow's Old Home Day. I had funnel cake, went in the bounce-house, and performed in a concert with Wayne From Maine. It was a lot of fun.

Talk to you all soon!

Love,

Brady

Home Improvements: Summer 2007

I'm taking my first week off during the summer since I was a junior in high school! Believe it or not, I have always managed to work every summer without time off: Market Basket (1 summer), Bake-N-Joy (2 summers), TD BankNorth (2 summers), and Cedardale (6 summers). At my new job at Sanborn, I get four weeks vacation time to use whenever, so I opted to take one complete week off this summer, and take several Fridays off to make for some nice long weekends.

Anyways, since Erica is now running a daycare at the house, we can't really go places, so I have decided to dedicate a couple days to two projects that have been on my to-do list since we bought the house. The first was to re-seal the driveway, which I have included a picture of below. I did this today, and it took six five-gallon buckets of sealer just to get the two coats. That was more than I expected, but the driveway needed it bad. Keeping the driveway sealed prevents water from getting into the pavement and deteriorating the driveway.

My other project, which will be much larger, is to refinish our deck. My plan is to pressure wash it, paint all the railings, and stain the decking with two coats of a dark weather-proofing stain. This will help keep the wood smooth and make it last longer. I included a picture of the back deck before, and the finished small front deck which I did today. I used a very dark stain on the floor which I think makes the whole thing pop. The back deck will take me quite a bit longer to do, especially since some of the railings need to be painted white for the first time, so they will need two coats of paint and a coat of primer. It is also about twenty-five times larger!

I guess I have my work cut out for me!

I Love the Summer

Brady's favorite past time has become playing in the pool. He is always eager to put on his bathing suit and ear plugs and splash in the pool!

Spending time with dada in the pool

Brady's other past time has been spending lots of time in the bath because we are usually playing outside most of the day! He also enjoys combing his hair and brushing his teeth! In this picture he is sporting his new hair cut from Auntie Shanna (although you can't see it very well) Thanks Auntie Shanna! Wuv You

Summer Update 2007, by Brady Stack

Hey guys, its me, Brady! I'll bet you are as excited as I am that summer is here. Every day when I wake up, I pull the shade up in my room and start jumping up and down in my crib. When Mama or Dada comes by and opens the door, I say to them, "I wanna go outside." I love playing outside. This past week, we went in the pool. This is so much fun. I remember going in it last year too. I hope I can learn to swim this summer. It is nice to have Mama home with me all day now. She is on summer vacation, and she told me that I am going to have a friend my age coming tot he house every day this summer to play with. His name is Jordan. I'm looking forward to that.

Do you see the picture of me in the tree? Dada told me that when I get older, we will build a tree fort together. That will be so much fun. I'll get to play in it with my brother *&$#@+&$. Sorry, Mama and Dada said I couldn't actually tell you what the baby is going to be called, it is a surprise.

That's all for now!

25 week check up

I had my 25 week check-up today. Everything was pretty good. My blood pressure is a little high (borderline) So I go back in 2 weeks for a blood pressure check and glucose tolerance test. If it is still high in two weeks the Doctor suggested going on medication. I would like to avoid this. I asked if i exercised if it would help. Dr. White said possibly, so I'm going to do my part. I went downstairs tonight and walked for 30 minutes. Hopefully it will help, but he did say that it is sometimes beyond our control during pregnancy. Other than that the heart rate looked good and I'm measuring on target.

A sad good bye

As of tomorow at 3:00pm I will officially be done working outside of the house. It is actually very sad for me. I complained about my job as everyone does, but I will truly miss the children that I have worked with. I have spent nights up thinking about different ways to get through to them and different strategies to try to get some of them to speak. They have all made gains in their own ways and I'm proud to say that I had something to do with it. EVERY child is a gift no matter their disability. I guess I can now focus on my own children for a little while. However I still would like to stay in the field of special ed/autism by doing some consulting work. We'll see what comes my way.

New Pictures

We had some new pictures of Brady taken recently. Here are some of the highlights. Next time we go to get pictures, it will be of both boys!!!

Washington DC 2007

This past weekend, five twenty-somethings took forty high school students to our nation's capital. Sanborn's band director (Joe Widman, a high school friend of mine) asked me to go with him and three other Sanborn teachers. All of us, under the age of thirty, found it a bit ironic that we were in charge of a trip liek this. But, it was an overall success. We took a plane from Manchester NH, stayed in a hotel near the pentagon for two nights, and traveled in and around DC via the Metro.

Just the Mama and The baba for the weekend

So Brian left Saturday morning for DC with the band, leaving Brady and I to fend for ourselves. We had fun. On Saturday we did some shopping and then went to the park that was just the right size for Brady. He was able to climb up the steps to the slide and bridge all by himself! We had lots of fun but it was hot and Humid so we stayed for about an hour. That night, My parents came over (A.K.A Grammy and Pappa) They played with Brady until he went to bed and then they stayed and had dinner with me. It was nice to see them, I feel like time is going by so fast that we don't get to see them as often as we would like. Thank goodness they came over too, because we had a big thunderstorm while they were there and I certainly would a have hated to be home alone for that one.

On Sunday We went and visited my sister and Mackenzie and Uncle Dave. We had lots of fun. It's nice that Brady and Mackenzie are at an age where they will play together.

Brady did have some difficulty with understanding that dada wasn't going to be home every time we returned home and he would point to our wedding pictures and say "where's Dada?' He didn't really understand. Brian came home Monday night, Way to late to see Brady but they were reunited tonight after Brian came home from work, and Brady was a happy boy! Here's to hoping Dada doesn't have to go away again any time soon!

22 weeks all ready

Ok so I haven't been the best at blogging about this pregnancy, but then again I wasn't with Brady either. I'm over the morning sickness and feeling pretty good. I get tired more easily this time around but keeping up with Brady would wear anyone out. I've already been having braxton hicks contractions which is normal just annoying at times. I definately think I'm more emotional this time around, but you know what they say, every pregnancy is different. I can feel the baby move all the time now really strong kicks and what seems like constantly just like Brady, so I'll have two active boys running around! I shouldn't have any problem losing the baby weight this time around! That's all for now. I'll post a picture soon.

Miss you Uncle Jason (by Brady)

So Uncle Jason came home to see me, that's right just me! okay, well maybe some other people too but boy did we have fun. I hadn't seen him in a while but I thought we looked a lot alike. Uncle Jay was great at letting me run around and get into trouble (but not too much.) I love you Uncle Jay and can't wait to see you in August!

I Can Get Into Everything!!!

Guess what I figured out this weekend: I can get into just about anything! This afternoon, I was playing in the breezeway. Dada left the door to the garage unlocked, so I helped myself to it. I ended up playing in the garage before Mama and Dada realized I had escaped and came running out after me. They thought I was going to run out into the street! Now they put some plastic thing over the doorknob, but I'll figure out how to take it off tomorrow, have no fear.

I've also started putting small sentences together. I might say something like, "Dada, go? Coat!" or "More 'crackie', please!" Mama is trying to teach me how to say thank you. Although I can actually say the word, I'm not really sure what it means.

Let's see, what else is going on in my life these days? I love going outside to play in the yard. It is the first thing I ask to do when I get up in the morning. I also like playing hide and go seek. Just tonight, I snuck upstairs when no one was looking, and hid behind the chair in my bedroom. Dada had to come looking for me. What a silly guy that Dad is!!!!

That's all for now. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Love,

Brady

Opening The Pool

What should have been a one-hour project was, of course, not a one hour project. I decided to open my pool this weekend. The cover came off in about two minutes, and I had the whole filter assembled and turned on in about twenty minutes. Then of course, came the problems. I had three leaks in various connections, which required three separate trips to Namco Pools in Salem, but they are all fixed. I also had to change the sand in my filter, because the water wasn't clearing up. So, I've started doing that, but ran into darkness tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap that up tomorrow and get the pool running for good! Yeah summer!

The Swingset Is Done!!!

Well, thirty-some hours later, and we have a brand-new swingset in our backyard. David, it is ready when you are!

Clean Bill of Health

We got GREAT news today. Brady had his kidneys re-tested today at MGH (you may remember, he has been taking preventative antibiotics every day since he was three months old when he was diagnosted with a kidney reflux). The tests shows his kidneys are functioning completly normal!

Yeah!

Another Room Finished

Over the past few weeks, Erica and I re-did our upstairs bathroom. We stripped the pink wallpaper, took out the fixtures and the vanity, and put in new ones. We added wainscotting and a fresh coat of paint, a nice dark green. It looks like a whole new room!

Its A Boy (At Least It Will Be)!

Erica and I are happy to report that by October 1st, Brady will have a new brother.

Adventures in Fatherhood: Building a Swingset

A swingset can't be that hard to assemble, right? Wrong! This past weekend, Erica and I took advantage of a deal at Toys R Us and bought Brady a swingset. After bringing home all the boxes on the flatbed trailer, we quickly got all the pieces out of the box and spread out in our garage. Then, we started to look at the 40-step manual. Amazingly, none of the 10,000 wood pieces are marked. In the directions, it is referred to as the "front/back swing side support", or the "sandbox front". It is up to you to find the dimensions of that piece in the glossary, and then serach through all the wood until you find that very piece. Needless to say, it is a time-consuming rpocess. The result of our seven hours of work on Saturday can be seen in the picture, and we are only in the middle of step five. I included a picture of what it will look like when we are finished...thirty years from now. Oh the adventures of parenthood!

The Moss Just Got Greener for the Pats!

With the addition today of Randy Moss to the receiver corps, Brady should have plenty of talent to throw to next season. Nice pick-up, NE!

Try Something New: GRILLED pizza

Yep, you too can use your outdoor gas grill to make pizza. I had heard of this being done, but now I am on a quest to perfect this pizza cooking method. I tried it tonight for the first time. My experiment produced an ok pizza, although it was a little burnt on the bottom. The following is my revised recipe (I'll put up any revisions after I test them).

1. Pre-grill prep: Start with a pizza dough (store bought is fine...Shaw's makes a great one). A baseball-sized dough ball, when stretched out, will yield a perfect personal-pizza size (and make it easy to flip). Brush both sized of the stretched-out dough with EVOO. Get all your toppings together, and take everything out to the grill.

2. Grill the dough: Start with a ripping-hot grill, but make sure you only light part of the grill. Put the dough down on the hot side of the grill. In a couple of minutes, the dough will be cooked enough for you to flip it. When you flip, place the dough ont he cold side of the grill. Now, add all of your toppings, cover, and let cook for about five minutes.

3. My favorite toppings always start with a simple red sauce, a four cheese blend (mozzarella, jack, parm, and romano), and oregano.

Enjoy!

Summer Tease!

For the past two days, we have been enjoying 80+ temperature days. It has been a great break from winter, and it is hard to believe we had a snow storm just two weeks ago (not even). I made the most of the weather....and my yard is ready for the season. I got the grass dethatched, raked, mowed, and fertilized. All of my planting beds have been edged and I just spread 8 cubic yards of mulch in various beds around the yard. I sprayed for ants, and I rebuilt all of my stone walls. Yep, I was busy. I wonder how many calories I burned....

Biggest Loser

I know you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats to find out how I'm doing in Sanborn's Biggest Loser Competition.

Well, I'm in first right now, down 14 lbs. 22 more to go to reach my goal!

18 Months Old Today!

Brady is officially a year and a half today. My my my how the time flies by! Every day, he is adding new words to his vocabulary, and he is learning to do many new things. He is recovering well from his operation. We go in next month for his kidney test, and that will tell us what happens next as far as his kidneys go.

Update on Brady and baba 2 (by Erica)

So it has been one week since Brady's surgery and he is doing fabulously! Although it still looks really sore he is doing so well. Pretty much by the day after the surgery he was down running around. He has had some days that we can tell he has been in a little pain or possibly itchy but he has been such a trooper! Brian and I count our blessings every day because Brady is such a laid back kid. he just goes with the flow! I wonder where he gets that from. Certainly not from me!

As for me I have entered the second trimester. I'm 14 weeks along today. I have had a little more nausea this time around and possibly a little more tiredness (however last time I wasn't chasing around a 1 year old either) I still find it hard to believe that we have a second child on the way. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time, but I guess that's normal. I can't wait to start to feel movement. I remember with Brady how active he was, we'll see if this one is as active.
That's all for now. Both kids are doing well and we hope will continue to!

Biggest Loser

So I've decided to join Sanborn's Biggest Loser competition. The winner takes home $250 and bragging rights for the whole year. People from all over the School District have joined in.

So far so good, after two weeks I've lost a total of 8 pounds. My goal is to lose 36 pounds between now and the end of the competition, May 29th. It may be a bit ambitious, but who knows, right?

My strategy is really not to make too many drastic changes. I'm running two miles every morning and eating better, that's it.