Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Brandon is 3

We began Brandon's 3rd Birthday like we have begun every one of his birthdays with our walk on the beach to throw flowers in the ocean for Noah. It is our annual present to Noah so he knows we remember him. It was a beautiful day, despite the cold. We had an amazing time and then hurried home for his birthday party. Mommy made Brandon a train cake this year (her first attempt at decorating a shaped cake) and we were lucky enough to have Uncle Chris, Aunt Sharon, Patrick, Grace, Olivia, Sophia and all the Grandparents over to celebrate our special boy. It's hard for us to see him getting so big. He's so smart, sweet and just wonderful. It seems like yesterday that we brought him home in a carrier that swallowed him up. There is no other love like this.

 

 

 

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Brandon's 3rd Christmas

Brandon's 3rd Christas was extra fun this year as he really got in to the whole holiday season, and opening gifts. He helped with everyone's presents and was so happy with everything.

 

 

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Preparing for Santa

Here is our big man making cooking with Mommy to leave out for Santa. Some cookies ended up with more sprinkles than actual cookie but from what I heard, Santa didn't complain.

 


 


When I was a little girl we used to listen to the radio and listen for the DJs to give us updates on where Santa was on Christmas Eve. I remember the DJs telling us that he'd be on the East Coast soon and we better get to bed. Now, through the miracle of modern technology, Brandon is able to track Santa's journey online through NORAD's amazing Google Earth inspired tracking system. He LOVEd clicking on all the places where Santa had been and seeing clips of Santa flying over cities in far-off countries. It was really amazing.

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Friday, December 19, 2008

Brandon and the Concrete

While playing ball in our backyard Brandon face-planted on to the concrete patio and ended up becoming our Rudolph for the season.

 

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Winter Wonderland

Tonight we joined our friends the Martins in St. Augustine and had dinner at a great restaurant called the Gypsy Cab company and then headed over to the St. Augstine Ampitheater for their Winter Wonderland. It was really fun to watch Brandon and Maeve run around in the elf village, see Santa Clause, and roast marshmallows in the open fire pit to make smores. YUM. We also played the fair-type games and "won" some treats and holidays pens for the kids. It was a later night for the boys and both Brandon and Alex were sound asleep in their car seats within 5 minutes of pulling out of the parking lot.

 

 

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Morningtime Cuteness

Every morning when Brandon wakes up he comes out to see me and we exchange a huge hug and say "good morning!" We chat for a minute and then go use the potty and get dressed. This morning I asked him "How are you doing today 'handsome'?" Brandon looked at me and scrunched up his face in a goofy smile and said "That's not right Mommy!" "What do you mean? I can't call you handsome?" He replied, "No Mommy! I'm Brandon!"

Read more...

More Wii Play

Brandon can play the Wii sports games almost entirely by himself now, figuring out how to point the 'finger' cursor at the right on-screen buttons and pressing the right controller buttons to select them. He knows how to start the game he wants, how to bring up the menu and click the Quit button in order to switch games, and even how to exit the game entirely to the main menu. He also knows how to switch clubs in golf, although sometimes he insists on teeing off with his putter, which doesn't work so well. He calls the driver "the hammer" for some reason.

Tonight he figured out how to change characters, and pointed the finger at mom's Mii. "Who's that?" he asked. "That's Grandma Jan" I told him. "I'm going to play Grandma Jan!" he said, as he picked her character. Then he proceeded to select the baseball game, and said "Grandma Jan likes to play baseball."

Read more...

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Playing the Wii

Brandon is becoming quite the golfing and bowling expert in Wii Sports these days. While I work on my form and try to actually golf and bowl, Brandon just swings the controller with ease and pretty much beats our best attempts.

A long time ago we created a Mii Wii character for Bran. He wears a green shirt. Bran loves the TV version of himself. Tonight, while bowling he was forgetting to release a button on the controller and therefore the Mii wasn't letting go of the ball.

Brandon's response was to say "Go Green Brandon!"

Like come on! Take your turn already! What are you waiting for?!

He's so cute!

Read more...

Fun Dinner Conversation

Tonight for dinner we made Brandon some Alfredo noodles with chicken. We made a big deal about it being "new mac n cheese" since anything with the word "new" attached to it grabs his attention and holds it for at least a nano-second longer than normal. Well I guess it was too hot or he didn't expect the chicken chunks, but he started chewing and then immediately spit it back out in to the bowl. When we asked what was the matter he said "I pooped it out my mouth." While I tried very hard to conceal my laughter behind my hand, Joby calmly showed Brandon the chicken, blew on the food and then asked Brandon to try it again, which he did. He ate several bites of the food before declaring himself done.

I guess I have failed as a mother to teach Brandon the difference between pooping and spitting something out. That problem is in the process of being corrected.

Read more...

Saturday, November 8, 2008

October in Review

Brandon celebrated his third Halloween dressed as a Dinosaur! It was a perfect theme for him. Anyone who has spent any amount of time with him in the past year will know that his favorite music CDs are from a woman named Laurie Berkner. There is a song called "We are the Dinosaurs" and it pretty much was Brandon's theme song for most of the year. It took us several attempts to get him to try on his costume before Halloween. Joby finally had to hold him down and put it on him. We sound cruel! Brandon sobbed and sobbed about wearing the costume... until we held him up to the mirror and then he thought it was really funny. He laughed while crying. It was very funny. But by Halloween we couldn't get the costume on him fast enough.

Halloween was especially fun for us this year because Brandon really figured it out. By the third house he looked at me and said "Now we go to the next house and get more candy?!" Yeah, it was adorable. He also wouldn't let us help him carry the pumpkin when it got too heavy. He dragged it before considering letting anyone else hold his loot. He's truly a Messer.

On another note we visited a Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze early in the month and Brandon delighted in examining all the pumpkins. He was especially fond of the ones with all the bumps. It was also our first experience with porta-pottys... something I don't particularly look forward to experiencing again. He just couldn't comprehend why the people before him didn't "flush" and left us a big mess. While it was cute it was not the highlight of my day, despite getting a note in his blog. :)

Read more...

Sitting in Time Out

As many parents do we have incorporated "time out" in to our parenting tool box in recent months. It does work fairly well although now we do have Brandon doing something borderline wrong and then stating "Don't put me in time out!" Sometimes it's cute. Mostly it's not.

The other night Brandon and Daddy were sitting on opposite sides of the coffee table rolling a car back and forth to each other, crashing, and generally having a good time. Then Joby moved around the table to sit next to Brandon. Well Brandon didn't like that. He said "No Daddy! Sit over there!" And Joby said "No. I want to sit by you now Brandon." And Brandon responded "GO SIT IN TIME OUT, Daddy!"

I guess Daddy wasn't listening to Brandon and Brandon thought he was making up the rules.

Read more...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Reading to his friends

Today Brandon decided to read to his friends. He collected one of his favorite stories, Mickey Mouse and Nicholas Bear and enjoyed some great story time. He actually pretended to read to them and engaged them in the story by asking them if they understood and to point to pictures on the page. It was so cute.

 
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I made Mommy real happy!!

Brandon definitely knows to use "please" and "thank you" when he asks for things. But like all 2 year olds he is in a bit of a bossy phase. So we are often saying "If you ask nicely..." or "You have to ask nicely first..." Well it much be sinking in - thankfully - because today after his nap he came up to me in the kitchen and said "I'd like to have some juice please Mommy." I was so excited I knelt down and hugged him and said "Thank you for asking nicely Brandon! I'll get you some juice now. You made me so happy!" Ten minutes later Joby arrived home and Brandon, in his usual fashion, ran to the door to see him. This time he announced "I made Mommy real happy! I asked real nice." Joby, of course, rewarded him with big hugs and kisses. It was so sweet.

Read more...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

After My Nap

Brandon now arranges time in his head based on his naps. A nap is an actual nap or "night-night." I guess for a while we'd tell him "we'll go do this after your nap." or "Grandma is leaving after your nap." or "We're going to the gym after your nap." These things were all true and a way for us to help him understand that napping was not an option. Now I say things like "We'll do that later." Well anything with the word "later" in it results in an immediate response from Brandon "After my nap."

Read more...

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Waking Up

After today's nap I heard Brandon roaming around his room with his newfound freedom of getting in and out of bed on his own. Well I finally heard him start to play with the doorknob so I went to investigate. I listened at the door and finally decided to go in. Brandon was standing on the other side of the door and when he saw me he completely melted down. He ran back to bed (even though I told him it was ok that he was up) and told me to leave the room. That he "wanted to do it." So I left (and left the door open) and he got out of bed and closed the door again. I heard him in the room sniffling for a minute and went to sit on the sofa. A couple minutes later I heard the door open again and a very happy Brandon trotted over to me on the sofa and declared "Mommy! I woke up and found you!"

He was quite proud of himself.

Read more...

Another Conversation with Daddy

Somehow at dinner last night we began talking about Brandon's hair.

Joby: What color is your hair Brandon?
Brandon: My hair is brown Daddy.
Joby: Very good Brandon. What color is my hair?
Brandon: (thinks a few moments) Black!
Joby: Really?! What color is Mommy's hair?
Brandon: (looking at me and thinking hard again) Ofver (other)Black!
Joby: Wow! Brandon, what color is Alex's hair?
Brandon: (now with his hand on his head in a semblance of scratching while thinking) Silver!

So we had to explain dark brown and Alex's blond hair to Brandon. I just thought it was the cutest thing for him to fill in the blank with an appropriate-ish color for blond when he didn't know the word.

Read more...

Saturday, June 28, 2008

A Big Boy Bed

 
We are traveling to Baltimore in about a month to visit my sister and her family and we decided that Brandon is too big to sleep in a pack-n-play anymore. This decision led us to transition Brandon from his crib to a toddler bed. The theory is that we'll have time to make him more comfortable before he has to sleep in a sleeping bag on an air mattress or something like that. We'll see if this theory is correct in a month. :)
 
We let Brandon help transform his crib and he was so excited to crawl up and down out of the bed himself. Afterwards, during dinner he kept asking "I go play in my bed now?" And I told him that his bed is for sleeping in, not for playing in. When Joby took him in for the night he let Bran crawl in by himself and so far, an hour later, we have not heard one peep out of him.
 
Tomorrow morning is the real test though. Will he get out of bed when he is ready or will he just sit in bed and call for us? I'm not sure which one I wish for. Most days I enjoy the last peaceful moments of the morning after I have showered but before I get the boys out of bed. But I also look forward to hearing the pitter patter of feet in to our room and hope he'll crawl in to bed with us every once in a while... before we inevitably hear "Good morning! Let's play train tracks!"
 

Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Monday, June 23, 2008

A Conversation with Daddy

Joby: Brandon, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Brandon: I get a car!
Joby: What kind of car do you want to drive? A fire truck?
Brandon: Ahhh kayyy!
Joby: Or a big black truck like Grandpa Joe?
Brandon: Ahhh kayyy!
Joby: Or maybe a big black fire truck?
Brandon: ... I go racing! I need a helmet, put on my head!
Joby: What kind of helmet?
Brandon: I be a firemaaaaannnn!
Joby: You're going to be a fireman?
Brandon: I get my coat, ride fire truck!
Joby: A coat? What else will you need if you're a fireman?
Brandon: .... Shoes!
Joby: What kind of shoes?
Brandon: Red shoes!
Joby: And what kind of car will you drive when you grow up?
Brandon: I drive Mommy's car! Go real fast! Come on Daddy! (runs
to the front door and starts to turn the knob) Let's go find fire
truck!

(as a side note - Mommy does not drive that fast!)

Read more...

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Love for a 2 year old

I asked Brandon, "Do you love Mommy as much as Mommy loves you?" Brandon replied, "I love ice cream. I love cupcakes. A really big piece."

Read more...

Saturday, April 12, 2008

A Day out with Thomas

 

 

 

 

We took Brandon to meet Thomas the Train in Tavares, FL. It was so cute to see his face when a life size Thomas pull up with a bunch of coach cars behind it. We spent the day going through the hay maze, watching a magic show, riding on Thomas and then... eating ICE CREAM. We weren't sure what Brandon liked better, Thomas or the ice cream. The event was really nice, well put together, and everyone was so friendly to the kids. We, of course, spent another small fortune on Thomas merchandise, but whatever, it was a good day!
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Eggs

 

 

 

 

This is the first year we dyed Easter Eggs with Brandon. It was a lot of fun. He wasn't quite sure why we had to be so careful with the eggs but he got the hang of the colors, etc. The next day we had a small Easter Egg hunt for him in our yard. He enjoyed that a lot!
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Monday, March 17, 2008

Magically Delicious

 

I bought these jammies for Brandon for St. Patrick's Day. It was so cute because after Joby got him dressed he came running out to tell me he was Magically Delicious!
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Monday, March 10, 2008

Meeting Aunti P

 
 
 
 
Brandon got to meet my Aunt Priscilla this month. We had a very fun filled week when she was here!! She let Brandon feed the giraffs at the zoo and they played, played, played. For days after she left he aske me if we were going to Grammy's house to see Auntie P!

Posted by Picasa

Read more...

Monday, January 28, 2008

Chatter, Chatter, Chatter

Brandon talks more than I do now (hard to believe but it's true!) and man does that little boy LOVE to sing. We bought him a little CD player for his play room and showed him how to turn it on and off. And we have a bunch of kids CDs for him to play. His vocabulary has doubled (which is scary) in about two weeks from just singing, singing, singing. At two he's already singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Row, Row, Row your Boat, most of the ABCs, and a few other songs that are originals to the artist that have words like Doodlebugs, Burrito, Dinosaurs, Violin, etc. (By the way all you moms out there - The Laurie Berkner Band is a GREAT kids group. Such fun songs. Brandon asks to listen to her every day.) He makes me laugh so much. We've made up dances to a lot of the songs and it's so much fun to watch him initiate them now. If he's playing by himself and I hear the music I sometimes peak and discover him doing the moves to the songs even when no one is watching. I LOVE IT!

I also discovered today how much Brandon wants to help me out. And by "help me out" I mean "not so much." I was nursing Alex on the sofa and we were watching Little Einsteins on TV together. I saw Brandon go over to the coffee table and pick up one of Alex's clean diapers and turn it over in his hand, then look over at me, smile, turn it over in his hand again, then look at me again and say "I help you Mommy!" And off he ran. I called to him several times to stop, to no avail, what 2 year old on a "help Mommy mission" is going to stop for Mommy? Then I heard the Diaper Champ pail turn over. Then Brandon ran back out to the family room and he looked at me, smiled, and said "All done Mommy. Diaper TRASH!" At which point I couldn't help but say "Thank you," send Joby a text message about what just happened, sigh because diapers are expensive enough without him wasting the clean ones, and laugh because my 2 year old is so funny and smart all at the same time.

And lastly - Brandon had his 2 year doctor's visit last week. He was 30 lbs and 33 inches tall. We brought a few books to entertain ourselves while we waited. Well when Dr. Chally came in he insisted on showing her his books. He then proceeded to "read" her every color in one of them (it's a book about colors). She was floored. So she took the book and randomly flipped pages (in case he had the order memorized and didn't really know his colors) and Brandon still got all his colors correct. She just looked at me and said "How did you do that? How did you get him to learn his colors so fast?" I was sort of surprised. I told her we colored a lot and what else is there to talk about when a child just scribbles with a crayon? And we have lots of legos and always talk about what colors they are with him when we play. Well - she told me that she looks for children to know about 3-4 colors at their 3 year old visits and that is was extremely unusual for a brand new 2 year old to know so many. So Brandon knows these colors - Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange (which sounds like Ocean when he says it), Purple (the most fun one to say for him), Brown, Black, White, Pink and Gold. (Last week he said "Aqua" at my mom's house for that color crayon but he hasn't repeated that yet). I find it hard to believe this was a big a deal as the pediatrician said. I feel like we just play with Brandon and haven't tried to push any sort of learning on him at all. We just have a lot of fun, act silly, sing, dance, etc more than anything else. So it was a really cool visit to the doctor that day, despite getting three shots at the end. :)

Read more...

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Playroom

 

We finally moved all the toys out of our family room and made the front living room a playroom, our plan all along when we bought the house. I had painted the walls the week before Alex was born and just recently added the boys names. It turned out really cute and Brandon just loves to put on his music (note the little white boombox in the corner under the table) and play with his trains or blocks, read his books or whatever. I caught him playing with his magnadoodle yesterday.
Posted by Picasa

Read more...

The Life of Brandon

Back to TOP