April 14-21, 2009

The last week has been fun filled for our little man. Brayden and mommy spent the first two days of the week in Toronto finishing their Easter visit with the Deffners and DeRooys. Daddy was very happy for his family to come home on Tuesday, only to have momma leave again on Wednesday for a four day business trip to Arkansas. On Thursday, daddy took off of work and stayed home with Brayden. In the morning, we went to Buy Buy Baby and bought a beach tent for the summer! So now we are officially ready to go to the beach as much as possible ;) After a little shopping, we went to Seneca Creek Park with Amy, Cole, Jake and Maya for a little afternoon fun. Jake and Cole had most of the fun as I helped them both on the zipwire and taking them down the big swing. I also got a chance to swing on the tire swing with Maya and Brayden, with my little man falling asleep as usual. We also took the kids down to see the geese and almost got attacked by a giant swarm of bees! In all, we had a great time with the Garvers and can't wait to do it again!

Continuing the busy day, Daddy and Brayden went to dinner with Bryan and Jack at Glory Days. After a long day at the park, Brayden slept for a large part of the dinner, but eventually came out to play with his little buddy. The Dad's are slowly making dinner out with the boys a ritual when momma goes out of town. Daddy loves his steak and cheeses and french fries, and knows that the Farmer's love them some Glory Days!

On Friday, Brady got to spend the day with Grandma Reiner and his Aunt Jessica who drove all the way from Annapolis to babysit. They brought a new izod overall outfit, which although a little big on him was absolutely adorable! Aunt Jessica got a full day of feeding, changing, playing and oogling over her little nephew. To finish out a long couple of days, Brady and Dad went to Rio Grande to meet Tim & Meaghan. While waiting for a table, Brady was a great boy in his stroller and was kicking on demand and handing out smiles like they were Halloween candy. He did great all through dinner but ended up pulling an entire glass of water on Tim's lap at the end!

On Saturday, with the weather outside beautiful, sunny and warm, Daddy took Brayden for a lengthy two hour walk through Germantown and then went to dinner with Nana, Pop-Pop and Poppy. Brayden got his first handful of spaghetti from daddy's plate and played with the 18 month old at the next table.

On Sunday, Mommy was home so the three of us went to Seneca Creek Park. While Brady slept, mommy and daddy had a picnic in the woods and looked over Brady's baby books to date. Momma has done a great job so far with keeping track of everything. We then took Brady on a hike through the woods in the baby bjorn. He actually stayed awake the whole time! We saw lots of turtles, ducks and geese. We are sure that Brady will love the animals when he is a bit older and can point and tell us what they are.

Finally, on Monday, Brayden went for his 6-month check-up and shots. He was so brave and only cried a little bit when he got them. We also found out Brayden's height and weight. He is in the 50% percentile for weight at about 16 pounds 5 ounces and he is in the 97th! percentile for height at 28.5 inches. He is already taller than daddy was at 10 months...we may have a future basketball star on our hands!

Once again, I hope to keep updating the blog as much as possible and do plan on adding our favorite past pictures and videos so everyone can see.

Justin

We are live!

Ok, so after 6 months of constant reminders, I am finally starting a baby blog for Brayden! For those of you on Facebook, you know I am obsessed with uploading pictures, so hopefully I will be as diligent in updating the blog on a regular basis. I am also going to go backwards in time and try to update the last 6 months the best I can. Right now, Lenore and Brayden are in Toronto, CA with Lenore's family for Easter. From what I hear, they spent Saturday at Uncle Addy and Cheryl's house with among others, Omama (Lenore's mother) and Opa Don (Lenore's stepfather). After an afternoon with the De Rooy clan, Lenore headed back to Uxbridge to spend the night with the Grandpa Ray and Grandma Lorna. Brady was also lucky enough to share his cousin Benny's second birthday as Jess and Andy came down from Quebec for the holiday's. Heather, Kim, Karen and Andrea (Lenore's friends) also made guest appearances, although it was already past Brady's bedtime. Today, Lenore spent the day with the Deffner's again, with Amy and Jay stopping by for a few hours to visit their favorite "nephew." Although Daddy is enjoying his "free" time, he misses momma and his little man very much. Hopefully he won't grow too much in the four days he is gone!

Cherryblossoms in DC - April 5, 2009

Although Justin has lived in the D.C. area his whole life, today he joined Brady, Oma and Opa (Lenore's grandparents) for all of their first visit to the Cherry Blossoms downtown.  Although there was  a little nip in the air and a ton of wind, we had beautiful blue skies and a perfect day. We walked around the entire tidal basin, losing Oma along the way as she scooted forward with Brady's stroller through the crowds. We enjoyed salami sandwiches and bananas (with Brady feasting on momma's milk) by the water and under the blossoms. After lunch, I decided to play with Brayden and got some amazing shots lifting him up to the blossoms. We got tons of giggles, smiles and some amazing pictures. We also walked around the monument and Oma and Opa got a distant view of the White House. Brayden was a trooper as he spent most of the day in his stroller and the other part in Mommy and Daddy's arms. After a long day, we had a sleepy boy, sleepy grandparents and a sleepy mommy and daddy ;)

Weekend in Virginia

Only five months after our anniversary, we finally were able to get away for a weekend at a bed & breakfast in the Virginia wilderness. Of course, we brought our beautiful boy along as we could not leave him alone. We left on Friday and spent the night in a "Microtel," which is is true to the name, as it is really a small version of a hotel. On Saturday, we decided to take a detour to Charlottesville and visit Thomas Jefferson's residence, Monticello. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for March as it was almost 80 degrees! We had a great day taking Brady through Jefferson's home, although he lasted only a few minutes in the baby bjorn before he fell asleep! He is such a good boy and cooperates everywhere we go.



We got to our bed and breakfast around 4 and arrived just in time for wine and cheese. After a quick nap, we had a romantic dinner where we got to switch turns with Brady as he was extremely tired and wanted to be walked around, so we got to eat dinner in shifts! We were happy to have him there and dinner was fantastic. Our room was amazing as it had a large bed, fireplace and jacuzzi on the deck.



On Sunday, we had a fantastic breakfast of fresh blueberry pancakes, eggs, bacon and danishes, it was amazing! Brady didn't have a good night of sleep so he slept through breakfast! After filling our bellies with wonderful food, we decided to take advantage of the surroundings and give Brayden his first hiking experience, which was also Daddy's first carrying him uphill. Once again, he slept most of the way up, but he enjoyed the weather and looked great doing it! Mommy and Daddy (and Brady) all had lunch in the middle of the forest and had a great time spending the day together.



Our weekend in Virginia was a true success and a fantastic time!

Brayden Arrives!

On October 15, 2008 at 10:34 PM, we welcomed our beautiful baby boy, Brayden Chace Reiner to the world. He was a healthy 8 pounds and 20.75 inches in length. After a long birth and a short visit in the NICU, mommy and Brayden were able to meet at 2PM on the 16th!



Below are some more of the first day pictures of our baby boy, including pictures with Momma and Daddy!