The Week in Review

This week Braxton rode a city bus for the first time. He and Brock rode to the Mall of America and walked around "like a big boy" (without a stroller). Here is a photo of him snacking on raisins near the amusement park in the Mall:This week Braxton had a babysitter (non-relative) for the very first time. Our neighbor Mikah graduated from a Babysitter Class this summer and was excited to watch him (and Brock and I had a blast going to a friend's dinner party!). Here is Mikah: My sister Denise came to visit ("aunt airplane"). The battery in my camera died so I didn't get a photo of her and Braxton...but here is one of her solo:
Here is a photo of Braxton watching Elmo:And one last photo of Braxton being naughty (but hilarious!):

Photos at home

Braxton is doing great. Here are some new photos of him looking cute. This first photo I took yesterday at 6am...the weather is getting cooler now and I thought it was cute to see him in pants again after wearing shorts all summer. Playing with his construction hard hat (a gift from our neighbor) and Avery's ball (it was accidentally forgotten in Iowa and will be reunited with Avery soon):Playing with shadows on the deck:Practicing his animal sounds:Reclining in the pool with a plastic floating turtle in his mouth:And finally...three photos of him on the deck drinking watered-down cranapple juice from his sippy cup:

Iowa

We traveled to Iowa for Dawn's funeral this weekend. Braxton endured the hot weather well and loved playing with his cousins (although he was afraid of the fireworks). Here are a few photos:

Aunt Dawn

Tuesday night we drove to Iowa to be with Brock's family. Braxton's aunt Dawn passed away this week--the funeral will be Saturday the 21st. Here are two favorite photos of Dawn.

A photo of Brice & Dawn in 2005: A photo with Dawn and Braxton last summer:

A thinker

Our little boy is growing up...even the way he plays with toys has changed. As he plays now, you can see that he's thinking. He has gotten really good at stacking and balancing.

The Chase

Braxton started talking up a storm yesterday. He's talking gibberish...but thinks he is speaking English.

And one more video...this very short and very dark video makes me laugh. It is a glimps of the chasing and playing that happens in my house just before the bedtime wind-down.