Things I love

1. I love that Brandt lifts his shoulders up to his cheeks and gives me big smiles.
2. I love that Lucy makes me little notes and writes "Lucy to Mommy" most of the time without spaces.
3. I love that Brandt follows me around the house, even to the bathroom, and at times brings a book and turns around for me to pick him up on my lap on the toilet. Makes me laugh.
4. I love that Brandt and Lucy can play together already.
5. I know someday I will love that Brandt hangs on my leg or keeps tapping my leg when I am trying to make dinner all while he is crying.
6. I love that Brandt cries when Lucy cries
7. I love that Lucy consoles Brandt when he is hurt.
8. I love that Lucy loves to learn and that her little mind is always going
9. I love that Brandt now goes to the door and looks out the window when I say Daddy is home, go to the door. Tonight, Michael just stood outside for minute listening to him squeal with excitement.
10. I love that Brandt snuggles with me for a few minutes in the morning.

Just for you Mom :)

Lucy's new thing right now is playing pbskids.org on the computer. It's fun to watch her little hand maneuver the mouse. We've also started a chore chart in attempt at helping more around the house. Her duties include brushing her teeth (morning and night), making her bed (which at first was very upsetting to her that she couldn't make it perfectly and now she has finally settled on doing her best), working on memorizing verses (we usually do this at lunch and I chose John 3:16 to be the verse to start with), setting the table at dinner, cleaning up toys, cleaning up crayons, and putting clothes in basket at end of day. So far, she is excited about this, so hopefully the newness won't wear off. I'm still trying to decide on a reward system for completing her chores.

Brandt is up to walking around the house carrying things, especially books, and he'll hold the book out to you. He'll just keep walking around the circle. Lucy will run around, saying she is exercising, and Brandt will chase after her. He is also trying to say so many new words like cracker, bubbles and Papa. He also amuses us all so much with the nodding of his head to questions. He just nods away. I love that he is agreement with us because before we know it, it will be no. He loves to be chased, but he gets so excited he can't seem to keep his balance and just keeps falling over. It's pretty funny to watch. He giggles and gives out little screams when you catch him and tickle him. This is such a fun age.

I made black bean burgers last night for dinner, but I put them in little heart dishes to cook in the over because they fall apart easily. Well, Lucy asked what was for dinner and I said "meatless meatloaf because I made it out of beans, so I guess it is beanloaf". How gross does that sound, but it was really good. Well, when Michael walked in the door, Lucy yelled to him, Mommy made beanloaf. Now doesn't that make you run to the table, or maybe run out the door. I love that she eats anything... she liked the name and mentioned the "beanloaf" several more times during dinner. I just laughed every time and she would just look at me like what is so funny. Brandt liked it too, but he liked the brownies afterwards even better... you never saw a baby eat a brownie so fast.

Now those are stories only a Grandma could love :)

Uh, Oh

We are finally saying uh, oh. Brandt would repeat me with an uh and then an oh after a pause, but today he said uh, oh as he was chasing a ball down the hall. It was so cute!

I think it is safe to say that we have a walker. He doesn't crawl too much anymore. He will walk, fall down, get back up, walk, fall down, etc... but he keeps going. He is wearing little shoes, and is very proud of them. He'll stick out his foot to show you them. His foot is bigger than Lucy's was, though, so this kind of messed up my plan for shopping ahead on shoes. He is wearing the shoes that I thought he would wear next fall. I thought that was one of the benefits of the second child is that you didn't have to guess on sizes for the following year, but apparently I was wrong once again.

As for Lucy, she is really into Valentines Day. She didn't want to take down her tree upstairs, so we decided to make it a Valentines tree, and she has been busy making hearts for her tree. It is fun because my Grandma Lucy used to do the same thing.

Books

Brandt all of a sudden wants to sit and read books. It's very exciting because before I would read and he would just keep playing and look my way every now and then. He has a favorite book. He finds it and brings it to you. It's so cute watching him walk with it, and then when you ask him if he wants to read that book, he nods his little head. If you are sitting on the floor, he'll bring the book and climb on your lap. It's funny because Lucy loved this same book when she was younger. I think between Mike and I yesterday, we read that book 30 times!!

BIBLE and PUZZLES

Brandt's new word is "Bible." He said something today that sounded like Bible, so I said, Bible and he kept repeating it. So I went and got his Bible and kept pointing to it, telling him Bible. He was saying it over and over and very clear. I think it's pretty cool that his first 2 syllable word that has different sounds is Bible. It may not have been what he was saying, but it is for sure now. He also has been getting quite animated with nodding his head for yes and making funny faces. He also loves to make people laugh. If he does something and you laugh; he will keep doing it over and over again. The other night, unfortunately, it involved rubbing pizza through his hair, but my niece sure thought it was funny.

Lucy loves puzzles. She got a couple for Christmas and one of them was 63 pieces that was an I Spy puzzle that had pictures of little things all over it. Well, we had done it once together, and the other day when I went to take a shower she wanted to do the puzzle again. I got it out, figuring she would try it for a while and then wait until I could help her, but when I got out of the bathroom, she was coloring and the puzzle was completed right next to her. I was so amazed and proud that she worked at it until it was complete. That's pretty good for a 3 year old if you ask me!! Well done, Lucy.

Walking

On Tuesday, January 5th, I was sitting on the floor and Brandt was standing by the ottoman and all of a sudden he was standing by me. I thought, did he just walk. I stood him up, backed up a bit and said, come here Brandt and he took 2 steps to me. I started screaming. Lucy and my nephew Mason were hollering too. My other nephew, Riley, runs down stairs, wrapped in a towel because he had just gotten out of the shower and asks what is going on. We told him that Brandt walked. So we all went to hurry Mike out of the shower so he could see Brandt do it. Once Mike was dressed, he stood him a ways back from me and told him to walk to mommy. We thought he would take his 2 steps and fall down, but he walked 5 steps. We were all excited and Brandt just starts clapping away because we were saying good job. It was very cute. He didn't walk again for a few days, so we still haven't caught him on video. He seems to just sit down when we get the camcorder out. It's bitter sweet, just like all of growing up, he's learning something new, but soon my baby will be a toddler.

I am so proud of you, Brandt! You are achieving your milestones at your own pace and with grace! We love you.

Christmas Time

December was a busy month that included a quick trip to Branson to enjoy one last visit to Silver Dollar City for the year. It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up and had a great time. We stayed in a hotel with a indoor pool, so Lucy enjoyed swimming in the middle of winter, so did Brandt. We were then home for a few days before we left for Dallas to go to my sister-in-laws graduation party and have Christmas with one side of the family. It was a fun weekend and it was nice to have everyone together to celebrate. Lucy and Brandt came home with too many toys. Here's a picture of Lucy and her cousin, Gracie. I hope they will always be good friends.

Brandt also had his first haircut from Grammy because I grew weary of everyone giving me a hard time about Brandt's mullet. As you can see, he felt like Samson and his strength was cut away. Actually, he sat just fine for his haircut.

We came home the Monday before Christmas, had our family Christmas, and then flew to Wisconsin the next day to be with my family. Lucy was very excited about being on an airplane, but it was a very bumpy flight and Lucy got very sick. She kept saying she was just tired, but she didn't want to eat anything, not even during our layover. I was so afraid that she was getting the flu. She started acting better before we boarded the plane, but once again, it was a bumpy flight, and Lucy would fall asleep and just wake up crying. The poor girl didn't know what to do with herself and I had no idea what was wrong. Once we landed and were walking to baggage claim, Lucy started acting better, and Mike put it together that Lucy had gotten air sick. So thankfully, the next morning, she was back to her normal self. Brandt did great on the planes... he made friends with all the passengers and flight attendants by waving and talking to them.

We had a great time in Wisconsin. We were able to go sledding a few times, and even went on a toboggan run that was made of ice. Lucy's comment before we went was "I'm not so sure about this" but loved it after we were done. We spent nearly 2 weeks up there and had a great time of staying up late playing Phase 10, playing in the snow (Lucy wanted Michael to build her an igloo), eating, shopping and I think eating some more. Brandt loved having Grandma and Uncle Jason walk with him around the house and playing on the steps, to which he surprised me by coming all the way down ours when we got home. We got to see some friends and just enjoyed being home. Michael even got to use a snow blower for the first time, which he seemed to have fun using.

My Mom had the kids decorate the tree this year. They made ornaments and hung candy canes.

It was too cold for Brandt to go sledding with us (15 degrees and less) so Michael pulled him and Lucy around the street and yard. Brandt liked it a lot!