Happy 2nd Birthday Brendan

Our little boy turned 2 today! Its amazing how much he has changed. Every day he learns new things.

What he's up to:

• Very social and says Hi to everyone he sees
• Continues to add new words and signs everyday.
• His favorite thing is motorcycles - he loves to see them when we're driving around. He also loves dinosaurs and trains. He's such a boy!
• loves to play outside
• Still a great sleeper with bedtime around 630. He loves his nighttime routine changing into his pjs, brushing his teeth and reading a book.

Today we celebrated his birthday with a party. The theme was trains - he was dressed as a little conductor and all the kids had conductor hats and train whistles. We had a Thomas the train pinata and the kids colored Thomas coloring pages.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Brendan had a great Christmas - this year he was excited unwrapping his gifts and playing with his toys - last year he was mostly interested in the bows. Being the only grandchild of 4 sets of grandparents he got extra spoiled - he even had to take a nap before finished unwrapping all his gifts. The big hits were tools and remote controlled cars.

Christmas morning

first glimpse of the tree and presents

time for some grilling

wearing his frog boots and fixing his car

Brendan was very excited to go see Santa this year but didn't want to sit on his lap.

Last week we hosted a cookie party for Brendan's friends and their families. These are Brendan's cookies - he had to also taste them.

new pjs

its getting cold here in the evenings so we had to get Brendan some new pjs - after he put them on he decided he needed to run around being silly.

its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Our outside lights are up and we've decorated inside - the only thing left to do is to get the tree! Brendan loves to help Rob turn on the Christmas lights each night.

Here's a cool link to a map great light displays in phoenix
Holiday Lights 2007

Tonight Brendan and I went to the Frys Shopping Center holiday celebration - there was santa, a few clowns, K-9 police team, fire engine and holiday music. And lots of treats, which was Brendan's favorite part. He liked seeing Santa but wasn't up for sitting on his lap. The K-9 connection people thought Brendan was adorable with his Santa hat so they asked if they could put his picture their website:

http://www.thek9connection.org/imgbig.asp?id=fiorellas-5.jpg

http://www.thek9connection.org/imgbig.asp?id=fiorellas-4.jpg

23 months

only 1 more month until he turns 2!

What he's up to:

• loves to spend time outside, going for walks, and going to the playground


• loves to pretend to talk on the phone


• starting to learn to says his numbers and sing the alphabet - but each time he has a different version


• continuing to expand his vocabulary - his favorite word seems to be mess (and he's always making one). Learning to say his name ("rendan") - instead of "de-do" which is what he used to call himself. Now "de-do" has become our nickname for him.


• likes to dip his food - ketchup, syrup, soy sauce


• loves motorcycles - when we're driving around he keeps asking to see "more" - living in Phoenix, motorcycles are pretty common


• he's a greeter - everywhere he goes he says hi to everyone. And when we're at an activity, he runs over to say hi when someone new arrives.


• used the potty - he asked to use it and went! no repeats though and we're not pushing it yet. They teach it at his preschool he's starting in January.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving at Rob's cousin's house - we ate lots of yummy food and Brendan had a great time playing with his cousins. This morning he helped me bake some cupcakes (banana with cinnamon cream cheese icing) to bring for dinner - he was great helping using his learning tower (our most recent Craig's List find). He helped place the cupcake liners in the pan, dump the ingredients in the bowl and mixed everything up. He didn't understand though why he couldn't eat them right away. His favorite thing at Audra's was playing in the Barbie jeep with his cousin Cassie - maybe Santa needs to bring him his own jeep.

Brendan's becoming a big boy

Brendan's recently decided that he likes to sit in big people's chairs at the dinner table rather than his booster seat. He also likes to ham it up for the camera.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Last night Brendan decorated his pumpkin:

This was Brendan's first year for trick or treating - he went with his friend Simon who lives next door. Brendan was a dinosaur and Simon a fire fighter. He wasn't sure at first what he was supposed to do but he quickly caught on and managed to come home with a basket full of candy. He loved seeing all the kids running around the neighborhood.

22 months

Brendan is 22 months - getting closer to his 2nd birthday!

What he's up to this month:

• His favorite thing to do is play outside (in the backyard or playground) or to go for a walk around the neighborhood. His playroom and toys are often ignored these days - if he is playing, he plays with things around the house and pretends they are phones or microphones. His favorite toys are his phone, balls, cars, playdough, play food and books.
• Loves music bopping to it, running around dancing and skipping, and singing.
• Every day he amazes us with new words and signs. His favorites right now are cooking, cookie, cycle (for bicycle or motorcycle), and shirt.
• Still a picky eater but slowly adding new foods - his newest is pizza. He still loves fruit and pretzels.
• Wants to be a big kid. When we go to the playground in the evening there is a group of boys around ages 5-6. He runs behind them imitating what they are doing.
• Still loves to clean, swiffer, and throw away things in the trash and he's usually good about putting away his toys when he's done playing.
• Early to bed and a great sleeper but he's pushed back his bedtime closer to 630 or even 7.

Nicole, our au pair, will be going back home in January to start college so we've decided to to try 3 days/week preschool. Chase (Fredrickson family blog) will be in his class, too. We enrolled him this week and when he saw the classroom he ran over to the toys - when I told him we were leaving he was upset and wanted to stay and play.

Brendan loves pumpkins

Brendan loves pumpkins, or "pumpkies" as he says it. He loves to walk around the neighborhood to find the pumpkins and other Halloween decorations. He also does a great ghost "boooooo" when you ask him what a ghost says. He loves all the lights and decorations though he is a little afraid of those that make scary noises especially my new Department 56 ghostly mansion.

our house:

Brendan's pumpkin flashlight - he loves to walk around shining it on the wall and ceiling

pumpkin head:

catching up with some photos:

taking a break from cleaning

Brendan and his microphone

21 months

Today Brendan is 21 months old



What he's up to:

• talking more and more every day. He still signs but will often say the words and sign it as the same time.
• loves art projects (and getting messy)
• loves to dance, make music and play with his microphone
• loves to play outside and now that the weather is cooling down we've been spending a lot of time outside playing in the sandbox or going for walks. Brendan always needs to find a stick to take with him on his walk and we have a little collection outside the door (when we get home he has to leave them by the door).
• very friendly - says hi and bye to everyone he sees
• starting to try more foods - this week it was Mexican, tacos and taquitos
• learning his colors - if you ask him to bring you a certain color ball or monkey barrel of monkeys) he'll bring it to you
• counts to 9 though he usually skips 1 and sometimes 2 (and two used to be his favorite number)
• working on his alphabet - on good days he knows about half the letters
• first major bruise - he fell earlier this week and the playground hitting his nose on the step. He has lots of bruising on his nose and under his eyes. Nothing is broken and he's already starting to heal (though mom and dad haven't gotten over it yet).

photo post

The cake and chocolate business has been going great so its been hard to keep up with the family blog - here's a few photos to catch up.

He loves music and we caught him using my curling iron as a microphone. We've since bought him a toy microphone which he loves.

He also will turn anything into a phone - here he is talking on a remote

Checking on Sara-cat

He loves to 'read' his books

Brendan has a little tent in his room the he likes to play in or read his books (and it was an awesome Taget bargain on clearence for $7!)