Home of Douglas Loots

Brayton is transition.

As I am writing this, it’s 11pm, and when Brayton wakes up tomorrow morning he will get to add his 3rd bug sticker. Not a peep out of him when I put him down for bed tonight. I made sure to remind him when we were reading books.

Today is Independence Day, the 4th of July 2008. Today, Uncle Matt and Aunt Audra invited us to attend the Urbandale parade with them and some other friends. We arrived at the spot where we would watch the parade at about 10 AM. It was a nice and shady spot that Uncle Matt had staked out some time before we arrived. He couldn’t have pick a better spot. We were at the very end of the parade though so we didn’t see any actual parade until about 10:30 or so. The fact that there was no action going on for almost a half hour was more than Brayton could bear. Good thing Matt and Audra were there to entertain him until the parade got to us.

Once the parade stared going by, it was okay for about the first couple of floats and cars that drove by. Brayton was quickly getting bored with the entire parade thing, and Uncle Matt and I were getting physicall tired of tossing him in the air.

That is UNTIL, they started throwing candy. Then we stayed for the next hour and watched every float go by with Brayton wondering if they were going to toss candy. Brayton did so well, he picked up enough candy to last well into the fall, and was such a good boy sharing all of his candy with Lauren and the other kids at the parade. It was lots of fun watching him get so excited about the candy.

Lauren on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about the candy (except when I gave her a little Dum Dum sucker). The most exciting part of the entire parade was any time someone with a dog would walk by she’d immediately say “puppy” and point her finger. There was a whole float dedicated to dogs, I don’t recall if it was the animal shelter or some animal boarding house, but a float with about 25 dogs went by. Lauren was bouncing on my lap she was so excited.

I have to admit, I had a good time too.

Summertime is the best time of year. We like it because it presents the opportunity to get outside and do lots of fun activities.

We love to garden, and part of the fun of gardening is getting to water the flowers. Brayton loves to help dad with the garden. Earlier this year, when we planted the garden, Brayton was right there beside me putting the seeds in the ground and putting the fence up. We also tilled the border of the yard inside the fence this spring and planted sunflowers and lots of native Iowa wildflowers.

Now when I come home, we get the opportunity to water the flowers. Brayton has his little watering jug while I get to hold the hose. He loves to run under the water and get all wet. Gardening is one of our favorite activities, and it’s nice that everyone gets to participate.

In the past couple of days, Lauren’s really begun to take off in terms of being able to stand and speaking with intent.

Tonight prior to bed she was in Brayton’s room playing with B’s toys. She stood up and took her first steps (at least that I have seen). Colette has seen her do this in the past couple days, but tonight Lauren stood up and walked from the play table past Brayton’s bookshelf and over to Brayton’s blue chair. All assisted of course by the objects she could hold on to, nevertheless she made it about six steps. It was very special for me to get to see this, and it’s been wonderful watching my little girl grow.

Lauren has also been talking more and more. Of course, as I’ve written before, her favorite word is “ball.” But, recently she’s been very fond of “puppy”. Every time we see a dog, she says “puppy” or “pup.” She says “bye” to me every day when I leave for work. She also loves “Bob” our fish. She is really getting her “B’s” down well.

Here’s a quick little video of Lauren standing up playing and talking a little bit. Watch her look around for the “puppy” when Colette talks about a puppy. Date of this video is July 1st, 2008.