13 months

Seems like he just turned 1 but he's already 13 months.

What he's up to these days:

• Instead of walking these days he's running all over the place. No more crawling for this little guy.
• Discovered fruit! he loves bananas, grapes, oranges, apples, mangos and peaches. This adds to his short list of favorites - oatmeal, yogurt, cheerios, crackers, toast and puffs. No meat, cheese, or vegetables but we keep trying. He's starting trying to feed himself using his spoon. He puts the spoon in his food and then scoops out, up and over into his mouth with the spoon going in upside down - since its been oatmeal or yogurt it sticks to the spoon.
• His new word this month is "uh-oh".
• Still loves music. He now claps and sings along with the CD from his Music Together class.
• He cracks himself up. He thinks sneezing is funny so he'll do a fake sneeze and start laughing. He'll also stand on his head to get a different view of the world.
• Current favorite toys - weebles weebelot castle, Playskool Swing 'N Score Baseball, Melissa and Doug stacking construction vehicles, quatro legos, popper push toy, babystyle soft blocks classic cruiser.
• He'll give kisses and sometimes hugs.
• Loves to go for wagon rides around the neighborhood.
• Loves to take his bath and play with all his bath toys.
• Loves to play outside in his sandpit and has finally stopped trying to eat sand all the time. Occasionally he'll try to eat a rock.
• Loves balloons and airplanes

photo update

We haven't had a blog entry in a little while so here are some photos of the little boy

first haircut

Rob took Brendan for his first haircut today. They went to a place called Little Chops and after they went to Dairy Queen - Brendan liked Rob's chocolate shake.

Brendan also had a playdate this morning with Chase

playing around

standing on his head

Saturday morning it was cold out but we decided to go for a walk to get out of the house for a little bit. We bundled Brendan up in his little hat and popped him in my Ergo carrier.

playing on daddy

Saturday afternoon we took Brendan to his first Music Together class. He liked the part where he got to play with musical instruments and he did a little dancing, bouncing on his knees and moving back and forth.

Brendan's birthday party

We had Brendan's birthday party last Saturday. We invited family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and his playgroups and we had almost 50 people at house - the most we've had in this house! Brendan had a great time with all the kids. We had a pinata which was a big hit with all the kids. And of course there was a cake - I challenged myself to do a stacked cake and it turned out pretty well. This time we offered Brendan the white cake (white almond sour cream) but he still didn't want to eat it.

then and now

1 year checkup

Brendan checked out healthy at his one year checkup. He cried a little when he got his shot but when he was getting his toe pricked for an anemia test he was giggling because it he's ticklish on his feet.

weight: 25 pounds, 80%
height: 31 inches, 85%
head: 19 inches, 92%

celebrating Brendan's birthday

We post-poned Brendan's party because he was sick but we still had a small celebration over the weekend. Brendan opened a few gifts and we had some cake - he had fun making a mess but didn't eat any of it. We'll give him a different flavor to try at his party this weekend.

riding around the house in his new wagon

our backyard is finished

About 2 weeks ago we finally got our backyard landscaped - its so nice to look outside and see grass and plants instead of dirt. There's a large area of grass for Brendan to romp around in and a large sandpit which is the future location of a swingset.

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.