Brendan is ONE year old today!

Brendan turns one today. Its amazing how much he has changed in the past 12 months.

If you want to send him birthday wishes, you can email him at brendannbrown@yahoo.com and we'll put the emails in his scrapbook.

What he's up to these days:

• Walking and running all over the place. He has now learned how to stand up without pulling up on something.
• Babbling a lot and using a few words - mama, dada, night-night, dat (cat), no
• Lots of hand motions - waves for hi, bye, and night-night, raises his arms for touch down and loves to clap.
• Rocking and bopping to music - he loves to play with his musical toys, drum, maracas, piano, and when he hears music he starts bopping to the beat.
• If he doesn't grow up to be a muscian, he's going to be a soccer player - he loves to kick around his soccer ball and does pretty well for a kid who has just been learning how to walk.
• He points at everything and especially loves to point at balloons and airplanes.
• He loves to watch the school bus and trash truck. If he's inside when he hears the bus approaching (the bus stop is right next door to our house), he runs to the window with his arms up so that you will lift him to watch.
• Still growing. He weighs about 25 pounds (tripling his birth weight) and wears size 24 month clothing.
• Slowly expanding his diet - besides his favorite formula he likes to eat yogurt, cheerios, Gerber fruit puffs, and crackers.

Unfortunately Brendan is sick for his birthday. We're having a small celebration this weekend for him so he can celebrate with Grandma Leslie and Nicole and we've moved his party to next weekend.

Brendan's first Christmas

We were very excited to celebrate Brendan's first Christmas this year. He loved playing with the bows and didn't understand that there were toys in the packages. Though once everything was unwrapped, he's had fun trying out all of his new toys. Brendan got spoiled by Santa, grandparents and aunts - toys, books, bath toys and clothes!

Reading the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

Brendan playing with bows

Playing with his new soccer ball at the park

Going down the slide at the park

Trying out his new trike

Merry Christmas

Audra's wedding

This past Saturday, Rob's cousin, Audra got married. This was Brendan's first wedding and he behaved wonderfully even though it went past his bedtime. He loved bopping to the live music and running around with his cousins. Audra married Troy and he brings Sydnie and Brendan to the family so now we have 2 Brendans.

chilly weather

Its been chilly here this week but Brendan still likes to go play at the park so we've been dressing him warm - isn't his hat ADORABLE??

photos

Here's some new photos of our little boy

wearing his santa hat

sitting in his new chair

being a crazy baby

more crazy baby

its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We're excited for Brendan's first Christmas and our first Christmas in our new home. We're almost done decorating.

Our house at night

Department 56 Snow Village

our Christmas tree

balloons

Hot air balloons take off in this area every morning and evening. This past Sunday morning they took off really close to our house and we got a great view of them as they were going up - Brendan was excited and pointing at them as they went up

I won

I entered one of my digital scrapbook layouts in a contest and I won! (well there weren't very many entries but that doesn't matter - I still win a free digital kit)

http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/blog/?p=70

Brendan meets more grandparents

This past weekend Brendan got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Vollmer and Aunt Allison for the first time. They flew out from Florida for the weekend - Aunt Jessica couldn't make it because she has classes at Tulane. Christmas came early as he got lots of spoiling - his favorite toy is the Megablocks fire engine and he has lots of fun taking all the Legos out of the container so that he can play with the tub.

Tempe Art Festival

its COLD!!!!!!!

Two weeks ago it was mid-80s and we had to turn the AC back on after some nice mild weeks. Today we turned the heat on. And the water in our fountain froze last night.


No snow here but for fun you can make your own snowflakes: http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/

11 months

Today Brendan is 11 months old, just 1 month away from his first birthday!

updates:

• He's walking all over the place. He doesn't like to be held as much as he would rather be down and exploring either by crawling or walking. He is just starting to be able to get in a standing position without using something to pull up on.
• Loves to wave hi, bye-bye and good night.
• Says mama, dada, and night night.
• He has started pointing at everything.
• He's got the beat - when ever he hears music either on the radio or from one of his toys he starts to bop to the music.
• His favorite toy right now is the block sorter and he's getting pretty good at getting the blocks through the slots (though we have to show him which shape to put it through).
• He likes us to read him books. His favorite nighttime book is Time For Bed.
• starting to feed himself a few foods mostly just veggie puffs and cheerios. Besides formula, his favorite foods are yogurt, pureed fruits and vegetables.
• He keeps growing and is at least 25 pounds and wearing size 24 month clothing.
• He loves the holiday deocrations and lights. He especially likes the large blow-up characters that a lot of our neighbors have in their yards and he waves to them when we go out for walks.
• He doesn't like to wear socks or hats - he's always pulling them off even though its chilly.

Brendan doing his crazy baby routine

Santa, for Christmas I want...

Brendan's first visit to see Santa. This Saturday Rob and I took Brendan to see Santa. Brendan dressed up in a fancy outfit for the occassion. He liked looking at all the decorations while we waited in line. He walked right up to Santa with me and then paused about 2 feet away not sure about this big man in a red suit with a beard. After Santa said hello and smiled at him, he decided it was ok to go sit in his lap.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of yummy food - we sure did! Rob, Brendan, Nicole and I spent Thanksgiving at Aunt Annette's and Uncle Ron.'s home We were joined by Pat (Brendan's grandma), Audra (Rob's cousin), Troy (Audra's fiance), Lavoy (Audra's daughter), and their family friends Mike and his wife. Brendan ate a spoonfull of mashed potatoes and a few bites of pumpkin bread and washed it down with a bottle.

Brendan at play

Getting up from his nap

Phoenix Zoo

Last Thursday, Brendan, Nicole, and I joined my MOMS club for a trip to the Phoenix Zoo. This was Brendan's second trip to the zoo and since he was less than 1 month old the first time, this was his first trip where he noticed the animals. He liked the animals that made lots of noise like the Howler Monkeys and his favorite part was the petting zoo.

catching up

Its been awhile since I posted so I have a little catching up to do.

Our wedding anniversary was November 6th so to celebrate Rob and I went away for the weekend (Nov4) - we didn't go to far, as we just went to Scottsdale and stayed at the Four Seasons resort Saturday evening. It was my first evening away from Brendan and Pat (Brendan's grandma) with the help of Nicole took care of our little boy while we were away. Saturday we spent the day shopping, went to the zoo (thanks U. Ron and A. Annette!), and ate a few relaxing meals. Sunday morning we had a wonderful breakfast on our casita patio and then massages at the spa - Rob tried the aromatherapy massage and I tried the hot stone treatment.

view from our casita

This past weekend Brendan has a playdate at Chase's home - for photos, check out the Fredrickson family blog that is linked on our site.

Brendan is doing better at walking - he can make it about half way across the playroom before he crashes down. He is also doing really well at walking and just holding onto one of your hands - when we went to Chase's house on Sunday Brendan walked from our car, up to his house and in, though it does take a lot longer to get anywhere.

Happy Halloween

Brendan is going to be a dinosaur for Halloween. Today he's going to go trick-or-treating at Rob's work and then tonight we'll go to a few neighbors and then hang out at our house to greet the kids and give out treats.

10 months!

Brendan is 10 months. He's growing up fast and no longer our little baby.

• This past month he started walking with the help of his push carts and will take a few steps unassisted - his balance isn't very good yet but he's working on it.
• He babbles mama and dada all the time and if you tell him to wave bye bye he'll wave.
• He starting to drop naps so instead of 3 naps its usually just 1 or 2. And he's starting to move his bedtime back 1 hour to 730 or 8.
• His favorite food is yogurt. He's still eating pureed baby food and doesn't care for anything with any texture. He will self-feed fruit puffs and he's getting better at getting them into his mouth. He loves his formula and his recently added another bottle to his daily intake - I'm expecting a growth spurt soon.
• He loves cars and trucks, girls, and anything with water. His still loves his ball pit, maracas and his new favorite is his blocks.
• He laughs and giggles all the time especially when you chase him, tickle him, or play peek-a-boo.
• He's got 4 teeth and 2 more are working their way down.