Birthday Boy

Brady is 1 today!! This morning Brady woke to my singing voice "for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow...." and followed by IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!! Officially he didn't arrive until 11:17pm, a time that is sure to be engraved into my brain for many years to come. This birthday business is pretty much nonsense to Brady. He's certain that everyday should be a celebration of his birth and boxing it into a 24 hour time period is ludicrous. I'm going to quote him here "I'm a pretty big deal." You can see from the video that he is fond of himself. He hands out the high fives and kisses like they're going out of style. You'll even catch a snippet of the "machine gun" laugh, a Brady original.

My dear friend Mindy is getting married tomorrow so we will be engulfed in wedding activities instead of birthday bliss. Brady is holding a small grudge against Mindy and will consider forgiving her depending on the quality of her birthday gift to him.

The 1 year mark is a big one for us! We've gone through a lot this past year and we want to thank all of you for your support and love. We look forward to continuing the Adventures of Brady for many years to come.

Lawn Boy, Cute and Claire

The Human Mower

"I've got style yes I do, I've got style how' bout you?"

She's back!

Brady and I spend a lot of time in the yard. He loves to watch the leaves blow and it gives him an opportunity to work on his tan. Of course its futile to attempt bronzing himself when I'm around because we lay under the trees in 100% shade on cloudy days. Kidding! Believe it or not I do allow some vitamin D absorption.

Besides watching the trees blow Brady loves to pull/mow the grass by hand. I've informed him that its not necessary and that we actually pay a nice man to handle our yard maintenance, but he insists on manually manicuring the lawn. Something about precision and decreasing his carbon footprint. Ahhha! Well, mow on my little billy goat, mow on!

Brady's hair was bang'n today so I took a picture. He obviously comes from some good stock!

Over the weekend Claire and her parents came to Omaha for a visit and to offer some camaraderie for our first Parent's network event. We hit a swim park in Council Tucky. The event was great and we met a couple of other families that were incredibly sweet.

Typically when Claire comes over she makes a bee line for Brady and hugs and kisses him, but this visit there was a drive by hug and then on to running for the street. Since her last visit Claire has discovered her wheels! She is cruise'n. She left Brady in the dust. Jeff had a man to man talk with Brady and told him this is the way the ladies work and he better get used to it. Brady said "nonsense, she'll come back around." He plans to lure her back with candy, sweet nothings and a haiku poem he wrote yesterday. I tell you he is a young Casanova.

Gus, tri and new perch

Brady, Dad and baby Gus

"Hey, that guy has a belly like me"

The lookout

We like to keep a busy schedule so I'm writing yet another "multi post." Our neighbors and friends welcomed baby Gus to the family last week. Brady's pretty pumped about it because now we will stop calling him "baby Brady" and he is finally bigger than somebody. Brady is looking forward to rough housing him soon. He already tried to knock him out of his bassinet. What a bruiser. Congrats to the Johnson family!

We also attended the Papillion Mayors Triathlon to cheer on some friends. This was Brady's first event and as you can see from the picture he was quite taken by all the spandex. As far as he knew, onesies were for babies only, but it appears adults like to fashion them too. Congrats to Ryan, Gerald and Adam for taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Big thumbs up!

Brady has been enjoying a new vantage point about 6.5 feet higher than normal. Its a bit scary and he even asked one of the triathletes if he could borrow their helmet as a safety precaution. In the end he just decided to "gently grasp" some of Jeff's long locks for security. Thank god Dad has been growing out his tresses otherwise Brady would be SOL.

Reflection

Next week Brady turns 1!! Many people have asked us if time flew by and I say "yes and no." In the beginning we were desperate for the year marker to come and GO because of all the health issues related to Brady's age. The waiting and holding our breath made time creep by. On the other hand since Brady has had a few healthy months, and things seem to be improving greatly, time has zipped past us. He has seemingly changed from a baby into a little boy overnight. I swear he'll be shaving soon.

This past year has definitely had its ups and downs (no pun intended). Many parents of children with DS say that if you make it through the first year you are golden. I would like to upgrade that to platinum. Brady has enriched our lives. He has warmed multiple hearts with his smile and expressive face.

I didn't know what to expect when I became a parent and I really didn't know what to do when I found out Brady had DS. Over the last year the answer became so simple and apparent; Love him and everything else will fall in place.

My hopes for the next year aren't too complicated; I hope he crawls, I hope he walks, I hope he talks/signs and I hope he continues to thrive. A list not uncommon for many parents. Brady's hopes for the next year; a bigger bed, more ladies, later bedtime and a couple of teeth so he can ditch the puree crap.

Play

I think Brady and Bill have made great strides towards developing a working relationship. Since Brady's arrival Bill has been a bit sullen and resentful. He longs for the days when he was the primary focus of the family and yearns for a time when his food bowl was always filled (on time). Most of the time he scurries off when Brady enters the room. A behavior Brady ignores and thinks is immature. BUT lately Bill has turned a corner. I think he has realized that if he is going to get any attention he is going to have to share the spot light with Brady, or as seen in the video, try and steal the show. Bill has decided to put up his furry little paws and fight. He's taking Brady on head first even if it means losing some fur and getting his tail pulled. These are the prices a cat must pay when he has rudely been moved to last place in the attention race.

By the way, this is how we play "catch" with Brady. It appears to be more of an ambush, but he thinks it great.

Success

We are now on day 5 of the Ferberization. Brady has adjusted well. We correlate the level of success with the number of minutes spent crying (by both Brady and us). To both of our delight the number of tears and the number of minutes have greatly decreased since day one. I'm thrilled because when I initially began reading the book there was one bit that really stuck out to me... the "What to do when things aren't working" section. I had a sinking feeling that that portion of the book was going to be highlighted and read through at least 50 times. Well, toss the highlighter out the window, we Shannon's have made it!

When I began typing this post I put Brady down for a nap. He began his typical fuss pattern and I started the timer. Today the wait times are 10, 12 and 15 minutes. Over the past 4 days Brady hasn't even made it through the first waiting period. He zonked out in under 5 minutes flat. BUT since I started typing a brag story Brady decided that a bit more protest was needed. He just has to bring me back down to earth. He has now been crying for 16 minutes and 11 seconds. It's a war of the wills! Only 4 and a half minutes until his next comforting visit. This is tough! Brady isn't a fair fighter. He sticks his bottom lip out and cries "mama." Totally unfair. Maybe I should rename this post "work in progress."

Well, it's been 23 minutes and 14 seconds and Brady finally fell asleep. Thank GOD! It appears that he was testing to see if we were still sticking to the method and the answer is a big fat YES. I would like to add a few more things to the Ferber formula:

1. A bottle of wine

2. A 3rd party immunized to your child's cry

3. Ear plugs

4. Another bottle of wine

Ferber-ize

WHAT?!!! THE?!!!! is Brady's first phrase. I know most babies start with Mama or Dada, but considering the last 48 hours Brady wanted something with a little more impact. Jeff and I have implemented the "Ferber method" to help Brady learn to self sooth and fall to sleep on his own. Due to the fact that Mr. B has been nursed to sleep and has had full access to the 24 hour boob buffet we knew that drastic action was needed to curb this habit and appetite. It is a painful process for all involved. Our poor guy cried for a full hour last night until lulling himself off to sleep land. The process involves a series of progressive waiting periods specially crafted to retrain the most stubborn of babies. The long term benefit of this process is huge, but the short term is not all roses. As I dissected a 45 minute "retraining" period with reassuring words and touch I became especially productive. It drove me batty to simply listen to Brady cry so I cleaned the house, took out the trash, watered the plants, rearranged the basement and took a shower. I decided to embrace the stress!

Today marks day 2 of the recommended 7 day retraining process. Brady didn't even make it to round 2 of the process tonight. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the method, that means it only took him 5 minutes to fall asleep...on his own...without nursing or being rocked. And now we are saying "What??!! The?!!"