Dalton Bradley

Happy 7th Birthday Dalton!!!

How quickly they grow. I used to shrug off older people telling me that, but now I really understand that it's true! You have to savor every moment of their little lives; they grow so gradually that you don't even realize it's happening. I always think of the movie Finding Neverland, where Johnny Depp says, "Little boys should never be put to bed, because when they wake up they're a whole day older. "

So here are some random pictures from the life of Dalton, about one per year.

Happy Birthday to Dalton, happy birthday to Dalton . . .

Here is a little update on our firstborn son as he rings in his lucky 7th year!

favorite color- back to BLUE, the original favorite (he went with green for a couple years out of

loyalty to his buddy Aidan)

favorite food - corn on the cob

favorite toy - legos, especially the new bionicle and underwater explorer sets he just got

favorite place - zimmer museum, disneyland

favorite movie - Pirates of the Carribean #3 "which I haven't seen, but I know must be really

cool!"

favorite thing at school - "take away", aka: subtraction (go figure!)

favorite sport - baseball (with dad at the park by our house and Dodger games)

favorite book - How I Became a Pirate

favorite scripture story - Ammon and the Sheep thieves (dismemberment? of course it's a fav!)

Seven Years. Also an anniversary of a different kind.

Seven years ago today I became a mother. Our lives were changed when Dalton was born. How do you even begin to express or comprehend the significance of this? The beginning of a new life? the beginning of a new part of yourself? an entirely different way of living and thinking? I remember sitting in the hospital hours after giving birth and feeling the weight of the parental mantel falling on me. It was actually a tangible experience, for me. I can recall the dawning of realization of what it truly means to be responsible for another life in every way - and honestly, it was stressful!

AAAaaahhhh, parenthood.

Well, I'll post about the festivities later. For now, I'm just happy to be Dalton's mom.

California Dreamin'

On Saturday we all headed out to one of my favorite spots, the beach - a place I've been missing because I didn't get to spend much time there over the summer. (I was rather huge pregnant and then purdy busy with a newborn) Well, since it's clearly too chilly now to do the waterplay, it's time for other kinds of fun - like strollerblading. It's been years since I got Darren to put on his rollerblades, so this was a treat.

Baby Davis and I enjoying the sunset by Venice playground.

Mom: "Dalton, look at me and smile."
Dalton: "Not now mom, I need to watch the road."
He's learning bike path ettiquette.

Dane and Davis all snuggly in the stroller. Dane was pretty upset at first that he couldn't ride his trike (holy smokes, that would take forever!), but we finally convinced him it would be more fun this way. He sure doesn't look like he's having fun, but that's only because he's almost asleep. Just a nice side effect of a stroller ride.

So nice that Dalton can ride his bike. He was cranky earlier in the afternoon and was in such a better mood as we got going. Reminds me of that part in Legally Blonde when she says "Exercise gives people endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. And happy people just don't kill their husbands. They just don't." Classic.

Goodbye Halloween

It's been done for days, but here are the boys in their costumes.

1. Davis the "Jack-o-Lantern", minus the interior candle - although he does have a radiant inner light ;). He wanted to be Freddy Krueger, but I thought it might scare Dane.

2. Dane, aka - "Harry Potter". I had to take away the spectacles a few weeks ago to keep him from breaking them (from constant handling), so he hasn't been impersonating the wizard lately. (phew!) But when his Harry alterego reemerged, it was very cute.

3. Dalton as "Indiana Jones". Not a lot of kids knew exactly who this was this year, but I'm sure with the new movie coming out next year we'll see Dr. Jones a lot more. Now that Dalton is tall enough to ride the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, he thinks he's pretty cool (although the ride freaked him out a little).

4. Darren - Daddy gone Mummy. We had our friends the Merrells over and all the boys (they have 3 as well) mummified their dads. This is Aaron and Darren hamming it up for them as they all ran away screaming.

Goodbye Halloween! See you next year.