Excercising Mind, Body, and Soul

Recently, Brady has become fascinated with all things Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. While the Double Jeopardy sound used to scare him, it now rouses a round of applause from his chubby little hands. Since Wheel of Fortune has A LOT of clapping, Brady is pretty busy that entire half an hour. My favorite part of watching him entranced in Pat and Vanna is that he plays along as if he's the next big winner. As the contestants yell out their letters, Brady repeats them. Tonight, we got a lot of "T" and "I," but he tries his hand at just about anything. He then claps. And claps some more. He takes commercial breaks to throw a toy over the gate at whatever poor dog has chosen to lie there, but when the show is back on, Brady is ready to roll. Or walk...

Trying a new look for his future stint on Wheel of Fortune

This Monday, when most kiddos started school, Brady started walking. Well, sort of. He's taken two steps before, but has always resorted to crawling because it gets him to his destination (usually food) quicker. But this week, he showed real interest in the whole walking thing. As of this evening, we're up to 8 consecutive steps before he throws himself onto whatever it was he was seeking, or falling on his nicely-padded behind. It's hilarious to watch; he has no idea what he's doing and the look on his face is priceless! There is such concentration and effort! I've been trying to film it, but I'm not quick enough. By the time I press record, the show is usually over. He definitely enjoys the sensation of walking upright; so much so that he officially refuses to crawl. Well, let me rephrase: he refuses to crawl on his knees. He's perfectly willing to walk on his knuckles like an orangutan.

Back to school = the park is all Brady's!

In addition to the mental and physical sweat Brady has been working up, he's managed to awe his simple mother, too. Just when I seem to take for granted how awesome the kid really is, he kindly reminds me. Today on our walk he was pointing out the usual suspects: tree, doggy, "blue" (AKA: sky), etc. He then looked straight up and pointed. He kept pointing so I start running through the list of things he might see. Birdie? Airplane? Cloud? The kid looks me square in the eye and says, "Jesus." Not gonna lie, I teared up. I had no response. None. How in the world did he make that connection?! It's probably a coincidence or something, but seriously--JESUS?! I wiped my nose and we went home to cuddle.

Perfection.