One Month Old

Wow, has this month gone by fast! It's amazing to think a month ago today we welcomed Bransen into the world. Time has gone by fast and I know it will continue to. The first month has been filled with smiles, tears, sleepless nights and an over excited big brother.

Sleepless nights. Bransen has his days and nights mixed up and we're hoping in the next month he gets them right. Ian usually does the last feeding around 10:30-11:00 while I sneak into bed early to get some sleep before Bransen wakes up in the night. He's been waking up around 2:30-3:00 and is usually up until 5:00-5:30 and then Brayden is up shortly after. Mommy is running on coffee, lots of coffee! He isn't too fond of a swing at the moment either. He likes his boppy and his vibrating chair and of course to be held and we love our snuggle time with him. Even though it feels like its far less with a demanding little toddler in tow! That's why right now I like the night feedings because it gives me a little alone time with Bransen to love on him.

Right now he has hazel eyes, although we think they will change to brown soon. He is very strong. He's always trying to lift his head and he pushes his strong legs when we try to change his diaper. He also looks more like the McDonald side of the family. He has my Dad's long toes and skinny legs and definitely has a lighter skin tone rather than the Barrette olive tone.

Brayden is a big helper! He likes to hold the bottle to help feed his little brother, he gives him back his pacifier when he drops it, continuously wants to give him kisses and likes to help with bath time. He gets overly excited to when we have to pry him away from Bransen and get his mind on a different activity. Everywhere we go he's sure to tell people that Bransen is his little brother.

Life as a family of four gets better everyday! Here are pictures from week one, two, three and four and a month!

Mommy/Daddy/Brayden Time

This past weekend we got to spend some quality one on one time with Brayden. My parents took Bransen for the day (he got some one on one time with Papa and Babci) and we took Brayden to SeaWorld. With the transition of becoming a big brother, which he has been doing great we thought it would be nice to be able to spend the whole day with him and be able to give him our undivided attention!

And oh did he enjoy it! We've been to SeaWorld several times but each time we go Brayden gets more excited about it. The whole ride there he kept saying, "we're going to SeaWorld" and when we arrived his face lit up. He enjoyed riding the rides much more than our last visit and got very excited to ride the train, I'm pretty sure that was his favorite, we rode it twice! We also got to check out a show. It was Just Kids Weekend and LazyTown was there. We had never heard of the show before but were able to record some episodes and get familiar with the show before seeing it live. We lasted about twenty minutes in the show and Brayden wanted to go play so back to the ride we went.

All three of us enjoyed our quality time together. We shared many laughs and made some great memories and are looking forward to doing it again!

Friday Morning Ritual

Every Friday morning Brayden, my Dad and I head over for some morning coffee, muffins and donuts at Dunkin Donuts. We've been doing this for a few months now and it's our nice quality time that we get to spend with Papa. The ladies that work in there are quite familiar with us also. Depending on the ladies, they usually know exactly what we want, unless we decide to switch it up and last Friday being Bransen's first trip there they were all excited to meet him!

Born a Jet

With both their Daddy and Papa being New York Jet fans these boys are sure to love the Jets. Come Sunday's their Jet gear will be worn and as Brayden already says "Let's go Jets! will be chanted throughout the house!

Deja Vu

While taking pictures of Bransen they made me remember taking similar pictures of Brayden in the same spots right about the same age! Although I think Brayden looks more like Ian and Bransen seems to look more like the McDonald side of my family, they also look alike!

Christmas X2

Santa sure was busy this year. Not only did he make his normal Christmas Eve deliveries, he made a special delivery to Papa and Babci's house and a delivery Christmas night to our house.

Christmas Eve Brayden spent the night with my parents, so this was going to be Santa's first spot. They left out milk and cookies and then tucked Brayden in for the night for the arrival of Santa. To much of Brayden's excitement when he awoke Christmas morning, he had many "surprises" as he likes to call presents from Santa. Knowing we were going to be released from the hospital sometime that day, the hardest part of the day was getting Brayden to wait to open them until we got to my parents. Once Ian, Bransen and I arrived we started our Christmas celebration. Bransen also received his Charlie Brown christmas tree from Papa and Babci.

Christmas night as we got home we knew Santa would be making a delivery into our home that night too. We tucked Brayden in and waited for Santa's arrival again. We had one excited boy the next morning. He ripped through presents with such excitement. We heard many "wows and woos" and luckily we waited to give him his Batman Cave until the end because that was by far his favorite present. Santa definitely thought Brayden was on the nice list this year.

Ian's parents also made a trip up to see us and we were able to have a nice little Christmas celebration with them later on in the afternoon.

Even though our Christmas was a little hectic this year, we made the best of it and most of all Brayden had a great time. The joy and excitement that the holiday brought him was more than we could have asked. Bransen enjoyed his first Christmas and next year we'll be celebrating two birthdays and Christmas!

Brothers.

First pictures taken as Brothers.