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!