I was planning on making my triumphant return to blogging on August 1st, but this past week has for some reason flown by, so here I am on August 10, ready to get back into the groove. While I have been reading and commenting on others' blogs, I have not posted for over a month, as my friends and family have graciously (and not-so-graciously) have reminded me.

Besides going on vacation in July (That's Brady in our Park Home on vacation waiting for me to get him out of bed), I have been trying to gets things in order around my house. It seems there is always so much STUFF that is EVERYWHERE. We have also been trying to keep up with Brady, who has gone with leaps and bounds motor-wise. Here are the top ten things going on with Brady:

1) He is an active crawler, not content to just sit, he moves to toy and toy, crawling all over the place.

2) He is cruising along furniture and walking with his walker FANTASTICALLY! I have the walker in my trunk so he can walk into playgroup on Fridays and walk into his doctor appointments at the hospital now. Sometimes he just stops and looks around, but he usually gets going with a nudge :):)

3) Brady is doing much better eating, although he still does great one week, lousy the next, etc. He is now loving Pop-tarts, chocolate milk, endless graham crackers... and of course, Pepsi! He has YET to hit that 20lb. mark though. Last week he weighed in at 19 lbs 13 oz.

4) He has been able to see his WS friends this summer - we were fortunate and excited to visit Clare and Michaela at their BBQs, along with seeing Coleman for music therapy a few times each month and Lucien for play dates. We also got to meet Arianna and Michelle, which was great. Tom and I are both happy to be so close to such fabulous people. We are enjoying all the time we are spending together. This Fall we're looking forward to more gatherings! (He's in these pictures with Sawyer playing with the blanket at Clare's house.)

5) Brady intermingles with his cousins like one of the gang - they are 1-1/2 years younger that him, but he intermingles with them just the same! It's cool to see them play.

6) We're getting ready to go to an Augmentative Communication program at Children's tomorrow, which is a two-hour clinic that will assess Brady's communication skills and his needs. Apparently I will get a big report that will be great for school that will showcase if he needs any equipment.

7) We also have Brady's first-ever cath this week on Thursday, with a full day of testing on Wednesday. We should have answers on Thursday on when they will do heart surgery.

8) We have two months left before we start preschool. His Early Intervention OT is going to be working at his preschool, so we will have a great transition there - I am so LUCKY this has worked out! We will hopefully get his plan in a month so I can see how many days they recommend.

9) Brady wears soft splints on both hands to keep his thumbs out, and it has really changed his playing abilities, very quickly.

10) He is enjoying time with his 10-year old brother (Michael had a birthday - double digits!!) and getting along with the dog (yes, we still have her... so far!)

I am planning on challenging myself to blog every day in August like I did last October... let's see if I can do it!