25 Questions for the birthday boy

Yes, I promise to fill in the many missing pictures and events that have happened since New Years, but in honor of Brandon's 3rd birthday, I wanted to share a little more about him!


Here are his answers to 25 questions about some of his favorite things.  I plan to ask him and Brooke (starting when she's 3) these same questions each year on their birthday to keep a record of the things they are interested and to see how their answers change year after year.  My comments are in parentheses.

1. What is your favorite color?   
pink (we might need an intervention on this one)

2. What is your favorite toy?   
My SUV (his Little Tikes Cozy Coup)

3. What is your favorite fruit?   
Grapes and bananas

4. What is your favorite TV show?   
Little Einsteins

5. What is your favorite movie?   
Curious George and the Elephant (Curious George 2)

6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?   
Cereal and Milk

7. What is your favorite outfit?   
My Micky Mouse shirt

8. What is your favorite game?   
Hi Ho Cherry-O

9. What is your favorite snack?   
Fruit Snacks

10. What is your favorite animal?   
Monkey

11 What is your favorite song?    
Jesus Loves the Little Children (my heart is melting)

12. What is your favorite book?   
Dr. Daisy Book (a Daisy Duck book)

13. Who is your best friend?   
Trevor

14. What is your favorite cereal?   
Chex (actually Barbara’s Bakery Shredded Spoonfulls)

15. What is your favorite thing to do outside?    
Play with the squirt bottle

16. What is your favorite drink?   
Milk

17. What is your favorite holiday?   
Easter (he needed options for this one)

18. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   
Water and Gigi

19. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?   
Waffle

20. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?   
Cake and a cupcake and candles.

21. What do you want to be when you grow up?   
I want to pick baby Brooke up when I’m a grown up.  (We’ve told him only grown ups can pick up Brooke)

22. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?   
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blastoff (an activity I made up to teach him to count backwards)

23. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?   
Up and Down (Daddy lays on his back and Brandon stands on daddy’s hands and balances while he is lifted up and down in a chest press)

24. What is your favorite thing to do with Brooke?   
Go on an airplane to Mimi’s house. (interesting...)

25. Where would you go if you could go anywhere?   
Babcia and Dziadzia’s house and in their red car (he obviously had grandparents on the mind during these last 2 questions!)

New Years 2012

So when you have a 6 week old baby and you get back into town from being gone for 10 days the night of December 30th, what do you do for New Years Eve?  Sit on the couch and watch movies?  Nope.  Have 18 people over for a party!

Lots of happy girls (Brooke included at this moment).
Sarah, Erica L., V, Erica K., Stephanie

Erica K. and Sarah

We even had some special guests!  Trevor and Erica live in Portland, OR now, and they were supposed to fly out on the 31st but changed their flight in order to see us!  It was so great to have them here.

Sarah and Erica L

4 of our 18 guests were pint sized.  Here they all are with our 2 thrown in.
Tobey, Christian, Brooke, Brandon, Chloe, and Trevor.  Trevor did take a bath that day I was told.  :-)

Chloe: "Give me a kiss Brandon!"

Brandon: "Hey!  Aren't those my toys?"

"Yay!  I love having friends over!"

My party girl.

Sarah and Blain

Ok, someone is a little too happy.
Erica and Andy

Stephanie and Brandon

Dan and Erin - our neighbors across the street.

Joe and Liz (Brandon, Blain, and Trevor's mom)

Happy New Year everyone!

It was such a blast to celebrate with all of these people we love!

Christmas in SC 2011 (Part 2)

More Christmas happenings from our SC trip:

Brooke started smiling on this trip.  She actually smiled for the first time on KZ's birthday!

Brooke has a fussy time.  She's a perfect baby most of the day, and then between 8 and 10 pm it's like a little demon takes over.  Mimi figured out one way to calm her with gentle side to side swaying while hanging over her knees.  Whatever works, right!

Meeting Aunt Kiki! ( V's sister Christie)

Our happy girl!  "Mommy's Little Joy" as her PJ's say is so true.

Brandon was way more into the presents this year.  He was so excited about each one that we had to keep reminding him to open another one.

Brandon and Daddy at Christmas dinner.

Kiki and Drew (V's 19 year old nephew)

Where's Brooke?  Oh there she is - right where she alway is this time of night!  

Brooke meeting V's high school friend Cori!

Brooke also got to meet her new BFF Scarlett!  Scarlett is about 5 months older than Brooke.  She is Shelley's daughter, who is another of Valerie's high school best friends.

Shelley and V nursing our girls.  Cori felt left out, so she thought it best to hold a baby too.

"I like your face.  Can I touch it?"

Scarlett says, "Hey, what's in there?  More milk?

Mimi took Brandon to the playground one of our last days there.

A month later Brandon is still talking about this playground trip.  He asks daily "Go in Mimi's car to the playground and take pictures?"  I wish we could!

We had a great trip, and we can't wait to visit again.  We truly wish we could see all our loved family and friends more often!

Christmas in SC 2011 Part 1

A little belated (what isn't these days?), but here are some pictures from our Christmas in SC. We spent 10 days in Hilton Head visiting both of our families.  We got in on the 21st and first went to spend some time with KZ's parents because they hadn't met Brooke yet!

Brooke meeting her Babcia (KZ's mom) for the first time!  Brooke seems to like her!

The next day was Krzysztof's birthday (the 22nd), and it was almost 80 degrees out!  We took Brandon to the beach that is about a mile from my parent's house where I grew up.

He loved filling his new "Curious George" pail with shells.

Brooke's frist time to a beach!

Later that day we went sailing.

More snuggle time with Babcia.

So many kisses!

Brandon looks like he knows what he's doing.  His Papa (V's dad) had to keep close watch over the super button-pusher.

Oops!  Someone is getting away!

KZ and V's mom Pati.

KZ's dad getting his share of Brooke snuggles.

Miss Brooke had the blowout of the century while we were on the boat.  (KZ classified it as a "Class 6, which is on his scale of 1-5).  Poop in the armpits.  That's all I've got to say.

After conquering the diaper, we finished up a beautiful day on the water with this sunset.  Later that night KZ and V went out for our first dinner without kids since Brooke was born.  It was a great day!

Brooke's first weeks (and Thanksgiving)

We've really been enjoying this newborn stage with Brooke. It's amazing how much more relaxed you feel about parenting with the second baby. We just love to hold her and have her sleep snuggled up on one of us (which works out well because she would prefer to be held 100% of the time).

Brandon has been adjusting well to having a baby around too. He showed some jealousy signs initially, but lately he's been going up to her randomly and kissing her head, and he'll say "What's the matter Baby Brooke?" when she's crying in a really sweet voice, and he'll try to rock the swing or bouncer if she's crying in it.

We've had lots of friends visit us since Brooke has been born, and we remembered to get pictures with some of them.

Andy and Erica were the first friends to meet Brooke. This was 2 days after she was born. We were kind of jealous of how this picture turned out because it looks like it could be a family photo of them...

So we got one too. We shouldn't have. It looks like we can barely open our eyes. You think you can hide sleep deprivation, but you can't!

Brooke got her first bath at home in the kitchen sink. She pretty much hated it.

My mom got a baby doll for Brandon and gave it to him while we were in the hospital. I wish I had a picture to post of Brandon with his doll. He loves to feed it a bottle and hold it. Sometimes when I'm nursing he'll go get his doll and hold it in his lap. I bought Brandon a little baby doll stroller for his baby because he loves any kind of push toy. One of the first days he had the stroller the above happened. Can you see it? He buckled himself in the stroller and then got stuck with it hanging around his waist!

I love this silly expression on Brandon. It looks like Brooke likes it too. This is the face he will make after saying "Funny baby!"

Krzysztof nicknamed Brooke the "lizard" right after she was born because she instantly started sticking her tongue in and out. She still sticks it out sometimes, but not quite as much.

Some of you might remember how we weighed Brandon in this bowl on our kitchen scale. We did it with Brooke, and she liked being in the bowl as much as Brandon did! I guess it feels kind of womb like. I'm pretty sure that's what Brooke is remembering because only in the womb should anyone's leg and foot be in that position. Brooke lost a couple of ounces in the few days after birth but not nearly as much as Brandon did because this girl loves to eat!

Our sweet sleepy girl.

This is the first time Brooke was held by her Papa! Papa (my dad) got here the day before Thanksgiving.

Brooke loves her Papa so much she decided to sing about it!

Brandon has been doing a great job entertaining himself by reading books and playing with his toys for short periods of time during the day, which is so helpful. I love to hear him read his books. He has an unbelievable memory.

Krzysztof's college friend Paul (who currently lives in Arizona) was in town for Thanksgiving.

Paul came over for a visit with his wife Megan and their daughter Katie.

On Thanksgiving Day, Krzysztof brewed 15 gallons of beer. He took advantage of having my parents here to help with the kids and cooking to do some things he wanted to do like brewing and house projects.

Brandon spent a lot of time doing this over Thanksgiving weekend. This is his Papa's iPad. It's amazing how toddler friendly those devices are. There are so many cool apps for kids, and Brandon would have been happy playing them all day.

This little ball pit is an early Christmas present from my parents, and Brandon has loved playing in it.

Note the "I'm Thankful for my Family" bib. Funny story: Brandon wore that bib when he was 5 months old for his first Thanksgiving. He didn't wear it last year, and he wouldn't have remembered it. I pulled it out to put on Brooke for a picture, and as I went to put it on her neck, Brandon said, "No bib on baby. Brandon's bib." He threw a fit until I put the bib on him. He didn't take it off the whole rest of the evening. I took it off of him before he got ready for bed, and he said, "No bib on baby." That was the first time he actually verbalized some jealousy towards his sister, and we found it very amusing that it was over a bib. I wonder what's going to happen when she can start grabbing his toys!

Brooke has definitely gotten cuter and cuter as the days go by.

Our friends Brandon and Stephanie came by to meet Brooke and bring us a meal.

After they got pictures with Brooke, Brandon said he wanted his picture with them too.

Here is Krzysztof's brother Stefan holding Brooke for the first time.

My big Spartan and my little Spartan dressed up for the game.

Krzysztof watched the game holding Brooke like this for a long time, and when he put her down, Brandon climbed up in his lap and sat there for about 20 minutes. This is unheard of behavior for our busy toddler. He is not a snuggler and never sits in our lap for that long. Yet another example of his adjusting to having a baby sister, but we'll take some extra snuggles from our boy any day!