Cabin

We visited our cabin on the Gunflint trail on Monday. We weren't sure what Brady would think of the boat ride, but the minute he saw the boat, he grabbed his life best and was ready to go. He looked diligently for moose, but alas, they were elusive once again.

Back hoe!

If Brady was viewing this picture with you right now, he'd be yelling, "back hoe! Back hoe! Back hoe!"

Day Off

When it rains, Brad gets a day off. We took advantage of this drizzly afternoon to go explore the Temperance River Park and then stopped off at a playground.

Making Muffins

Sometimes you get tired making muffins and vacuuming and need to take a nap with a good friend.

John

Here's two pictures from the Behling family visit. I guess we should have taken more pictures...

Words

I am frequently asked what English words Brady is using. He understands a ton, but doesn't use a lot yet. He's finally seeing the utility in it and has been trying to learn more words now.

His first spontaneous word was Tsessebe (Sess (pause) A (pause) Gee). His second reliable word was backhoe. He also says hi, byebye, I see you, how are you, help me, again, more, I love you, grandma, and Alex. He knows and uses the signs for more and all done.

New Condo

We moved into a different condo at the Chateau yesterday. This one is much bigger and nicer than the last one. It's small, but I think we can make it work here.

The one thing that's missing from this condo, is a bathtub (well, it could use blinds too, but I won't quibble here). It has two nice showers, but no tub. So we had to improvise (see below). I have an almost identical picture of our niece Alex, from when we had no tub at the lake (you're in luck, Alex, I don't have that picture here).

We tried to start swim lessons in the Grand Marais pool, but they don't let the parents come with (in fact, they ask you to leave), so that isn't going to work out for us right now.

John, Tabitha, Maddy and Heesoo come tomorrow for a visit.

I'm missing lots of stuff since I don't blog every day. Also I don't have pictures from my Dad's visit or my mom's visit, so I'll have to blog about them later.

Cousins!

Aren't cousins grand?

You're Still There?

I see that 48 people checked our blog yesterday. Yesterday? That's crazy!

We've had 4123 blog views overall! Thanks for taking an interest in our family! We are glad to hear from people that they are enjoying it.

Cooking

Brady Wenhong loves to help cook. This night he was helping me make garlic bread (which he loves). One time he ripped the slice off the loaf and the bottom came off the slice. He was upset, and I quickly popped the piece in his mouth. From there on, he ripped the bottom off each slice of bread and popped it in his mouth. :)

Wagon

He also enjoys his wagon.

Gifts

Here are some pictures of Brady last week enjoying some of his gifts from the wonderful ladies of the elementary school special Ed staff. He, in Brady Wenhong form, ignored them as they gave them to him, but began playing with them immediately when he got in the car to leave.

Comfortable

I'm gonna guess you feel comfortable with your new family when you decide to eat your veggie pizza naked.

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures. One is of him on his new bike from the ladies at the elementary school. The rest are of us on the north shore.

We have moved into our new summer place at the Chateau LaVeaux in Tofte. It's about 25 minutes south of Grand Marais.

Brad went back to work. So far I have been keeping him busy in Grand Marais and not going back to the condo. I'm pretty sure Brady will be very upset when he realizes Brad is gone all day. But then again, I can't drive around and shop all day, every day, all summer. Okay, I could have in the past...

Enjoying Home

He's gone to bed twice in a row now without incident. It's a major victory. Tonight it was by nine!

Brady Wenhong had kind of a tough day. He's been so happy every day (except when out in public), that I guess he deserved a tough one. I think we took on too much today and need to back off a bit. Once he catches up on sleep, I'm sure it will be better too.

Note in the picture below how he prefers to ride in the stroller.

Pictures

I'm afraid I haven't taken many pictures since we've been home. Here's a shot of Brady showing his video to Brad's parents, and one with Tsessebe. The Tsessebe shot was supposed to be a very cute hug, but nobody could hold still that long.

I'm Back

I've been asked by a special friend at school to keep blogging, so I'll try.

We've had a few rough nights this week. The first night Brady went to bed at 3:30. The second night at 1:00. We thought we had him turned around (not the first time he proved us to be fools) so we put him to bed at 8:00 the next night. He woke up at 11:00 and was up until 4:00. He did the same thing last night. So today we got him up early, kept him out in the sun most of the day and kept him up until 9:30. We'll see.

Even though he was exhausted, we had a really fun day. We took Amery's newest American citizen (well, I'm assuming that) to the Memorial Day parade and ceremony in town.

Then he had lunch at Dairy Queen (I know, I know... He did have a banana and milk with his chicken). We ran into tons of people from school who have been following the blog and were do excited to meet Brady. He, in usual public form, was less enthused.

Then we went to the school playground for a few hours. He met my friend Janice and warmed up to her quickly. He was talking and smiling. When she left he wanted to go find her.

We also installed a car seat in Brad's truck, threw grass at the neighbors (they started it), made a trip to Alco, and played with lots of toys. We had to stay busy or all of us would have fallen asleep.

He's currently asleep, and I better go to bed too, in case he is up in the middle of the night again.

I've attached a picture of Brad and Brady sharing ice cream at the DQ. Tomorrow I'll try to upload some pics from the camera.

We're Home!

After three grueling flights, we're finally home. Brady slept most of the last two flights so he's still on China time. Brad didn't sleep at all (due to a little guy stealing all this seat room). So I took the first shift last night. Our house looks like a tornado hit it because I let Brady walk around and check everything out. At 3:30 AM he climbed in his bed with Brad and fell asleep. It's 11:30 AM now and they are both still asleep. I feel like I should wake them up to start getting back on the time zone here, but they look so cozy in there.

Here's a couple of photos of the newest US citizen. I meant to change him into a little red, white and blue outfit I bought him, but you know how that goes...