A Summary of our Autumn Adventures

On the eve of Thanksgiving, I'm realizing that this fall (how has it come and gone already?) has passed in a blur of pumpkins, mountain getaways, and getting ready for Baby Boy2!

Grayson greatly enjoyed all things pumpkin this season! Trips to the pumpkin patch were an almost daily request, and having a collection of little pumpkins to play with around the house hardly satisfied him. His first time trick-or-treating for Halloween was met with great excitement for all involved! It is one of our best and most fun family memories to date, seeing him so excited running from house to house with all the kids in the neighborhood. He dressed as a Ninja Turtle, and kept referring to himself as a "turtle man." He didn't care about the candy ("Good boy," says Mommy!), but he really liked seeing the other kids and surveying the neighbors' decorations.

 Shy Turtle Man at play class...

All ready to trick or treat!

For our fifth wedding anniversary, we took a family getaway to Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains! We rented a little cabin for the weekend and just relaxed with daily walks to see the ducks on the lake and trips to the local parks and zoo. It was nice to just be together as a family without the chores and concerns of home!

From unpacking the infant gear to rearranging furniture in the boys' room, we're almost all set for Baby Boy2 to arrive. (While the kiddo does have a wonderful and stately name, we're keeping it mum until the ink is dry on the birth certificate.) The doctors are still saying everything is holding firm, and he's growing well - right on track for his due date and not a day sooner (to this mama's chagrin). Grayson continues to be enamored of any and all babies he comes across, and he gets excited anytime we talk to him about this baby brother. Now, all that's left to do is wait for our sweet second born to arrive!

Baby Boy2 at 30-weeks

Practicing for Baby Brother

A big boy bed!

A face! (But still no name...)

Well, our perinatologist keeps telling us that everything looks beautiful, so we're still hopeful that I'll be able to avoid a bed rest order this time! It's a relief every four weeks when he says it, so we're just keeping on keeping on and hoping the positivity continues. We just can't wait to meet him! He's a very active little guy, and my belly has been bouncing around both subtly and visibly. It's a little scary to think he's even more active on the inside than Grayson was, given how active on the outside Grayson is these days.

Speaking of Grayson (and speaking, for that matter), he is just a joyful toddler! He's busy-busy all day long with toys, books, the puppies, and art projects along with our many weekly trips to the park to play with friends (whose names he is beginning to learn). His vocabulary has taken off by leaps and bounds, and we can actually have conversations with him now! He's learning to count, starting to sing, and picking up new words and phrases a mile a minute. It's really fun and fulfilling to watch him grow and learn so much each day!

Our perinatologist appointment this morning gave us some great pictures of Baby Boy2's face! He's looking pretty cute, if I do say so. Here's a couple of those shots plus a couple recent pictures of Grayson!

His sweet face...

Profile shot...

Waving hello!

Listening to the ocean in a sea shell...

Playing in his spiffy new sand box...

"Riding" his bike (while sipping juice, of course)...

Baby Bridges #2 is a BOY!

It's official! We had an anatomy scan yesterday, and they were able to see very clearly that we'll have a strapping set of brothers come January. Baby #2 is kicking and wiggling and looking very healthy in there, so it was all good news at the appointment yesterday. And it's really nice to know who is in there and start to make sense of this two-kids thing! It feels very concrete now.

In seriousness, I'm so thrilled to give Grayson the gift of a little brother! It would have been just as thrilling to give the gift of a little sister too, but there really is something special about brothers. Let the fun begin!

Bridges Brood Expansion!

Well, this is happening! A new baby (gender yet to be discovered) will be joining our brood round about Christmas this year. The official due date is January 5th, 2014, but if Grayson's birth was a hint at the future, we'll be expecting an early arrival. We aren't sure yet if there will be similar complications, but my doctors (I have two now) are keeping a close watch with extra ultrasounds to catch anything that starts to happen.

Here's our announcement:

Catching up!

I'm a little behind, but we've been traveling, had visiting aunts and uncles, and this toddler has been keeping us plenty busy in the down-time.

Grayson is jabbering away, and we're starting to get some good communication from him. He's good at getting his point across, for better or worse, using the few words that he does have, and he certainly understands a lot, too. Naming animals and making animal noises are a big part of each day, and he's mastered the sounds of most of the zoo - fauna both real and fictional/extinct, roaring especially!


Grayson is proving to be a very playful, happy toddler! He loves to play outside, go to the park, and play ball with Rosie. Those two are pretty cute together. She's happy to have a playmate that shares her energy, and he is very excited to play fetch and tag with her - at least until she gets too jumpy. He thinks she's showing off because he's still learning how to jump.

Noteworthy events:
We took Grayson for his first meeting of the mouse on a Mother's Day trip to Disneyland! Brant and I had a great time just watching his face light-up (or get concerned) on rides, when he saw characters, and mostly smiling at other people. He's a very social guy, after all.

In May, Grayson's Uncle Jordan graduated from college, and we traveled to St. Louis to attend his graduation. Gray continues to prove that he is a wonderful flyer! While there, we also visited the St. Louis Zoo - another great day for our animal lover!

For Memorial Day weekend, Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Micah came to visit. We had fun seeing them and spending some time at the Huntington Library Botanical Gardens! Outdoor fun was definitely had with so many gardens to run around in and enjoy.

Springtime is Slash-time!

Grayson has been greatly enjoying the beautiful days we're having here lately, and we've been playing outside often - most of each day, in fact. Going to the park, taking walks, and we got a backyard climber with a slide and a water table a few weeks ago, both of which Grayson is just loving. As soon as we head outdoors, he goes straight for the water table so he can splash in it - usually splashing the water out to the excited puppies. They all have a great time, and Grayson just laughs and laughs! It'll be a lot of fun this summer as the days get hot.

I recently also joined the local Mom's Club, which is a group of stay-at-home moms that meet at parks or people's houses for play dates and occasionally do mom-focused activities like a book club or mom's night out. I've met some nice ladies, and Grayson is enjoying playing alongside the other kids! There are a lot of little boys in the group, mostly a little older and a few a little younger, but he's holding his own and enjoying it. It's also wearing him out for me, which is welcome!

Grayson's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds lately, as well! It seems like he adds a new word each day - still his toddler version of a 'word', but it's clear what he means in context, and he gets very happy when I understand him. He also has learned several new animal sounds - elephant, monkey, snake, sheep, pig... it's cute to watch him look at a book and say the sounds that go with the pictures. I'm making it my mission to get him on camera reading Dear Zoo. 

A few recent pictures...

One Year Portraits

I'm a little over a month late to get Grayson's first birthday portraits done, but we went today. It went... okay. About halfway through, he really wanted to go play with the wall of fun toys in the waiting area, and he was not very pleased that I wouldn't let him. So, we got about three more pictures after that and had to call it quits. At least we got a few cute ones! Here are those along with a few of the funny faces...