Happy Labor Day

We decided to take a little day trip up to Prescott in search of cooler weather. They had a street festival going on in the main square and Brendan had a lot of fun walking around, bopping to music and seeing all the puppies.

Then we got back it was time for some coloring (Brendan's current favorite activity)

future Simply Sweets employee???

This week's MOMs club activity was cookie decorating. It was held at Souflez, a local dinner prep and cooking classes business. Each child got 3 cookies to decorate, icing for the cookie, icing bags to decorate and sprinkles - they also got to decorate their boxes with crayons. When the cookies were put down in front of Brendan he wanted to eat them but we did get him to wait. Instead he tasted the icing and wanted to just eat it directly from the icing bag. Once he figured out how to pipe he was proud of himself and had fun. At the end of the class, we did let him eat one of his cookies.

20 months

20 months - he's almost a 2!

What he's up to these days:

• adding more words and signs every day which makes it easier to communicate with him.
• loves to color! he spends a lot of time each day sitting at his little table and coloring. He'll hand you a crayon so that you can join him. He also likes markers - we use the cool Crayola colorwonder ones that only work on their special paper.
• says Hi to everyone
• loves to clean - use the swiffer, sweep, and dust. He also will find the small piece of trash on the floor and keep saying "yuck" until you take it from him.
• Starting to try more foods though mostly sticks with his regular foods. He has started eating cheese and a few bites of carrots and tomatoes (vegetables!). And he LOVES bacon.
• loves dancing to music - he keeps adding new moves!
• calls himself "de-do" - not sure how Brendan translates to "de-do"
• he knows about a third of the alphabet and his favorite is O - he always points it out when he sees it in a book or on a piece of clothing.

Ocean City

Last week Brendan and I traveled to Ocean City, NJ for a little vacation and so that Brendan could spend sometime with Grandpa and Grandma Vollmer, Aunt Allison and Aunt Jessica. This was the first time he got to meet Aunt Jessica and he also got to meet his Great grandma Vollmer (Ranny). This was his first plane ride and he did great - he's in a very social phase and had to say hi to everyone in the airport and on the plane. It rained most of the week but he did get some playtime at the beach - he loved the sand and the birds.

swiffering boy

Brendan loves to use the swiffer mop (and we don't mind that this is one of his current favorite 'toys') - he loves to zoom around with it and is even very thorough getting under the furniture and in the corners.

On weekends Brendan's eats his breakfast at his little table - waffles and fruit!

August calendar:

photo post

catching up with some photos from July

19 months

He's so much like a toddler these days and no longer a little baby:

• He likes to sing along to his CDs. For Old McDonald he sings e-i-e-i-o over and over.
• He loves to be chased. He also likes to run and hide from you when its time to get his faced wiped he'll run under the table or before bed he runs into his room and hides in the closet.
• Starting to put a few words together - all-done bath, more water (when he wanted to get dunked in the pool). And loves to point out things that he knows the words for.
• Starting to eat a few more things - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cream cheese on a bagel. Loves all kinds of fruit - though his favorite fruit changes every few weeks. Currently its raspberries and blueberries.
• Starting to learn a few letters. His favorite is O and likes to point it out when ever he sees it. Sometimes he also knows A, B, and L. Still has a lot more to learn to keep up with Nathan (Held family blog) and Andrew (playgroup friend) - they know the entire alphabet!
• Loves to be a little helper - if you give him something to carry or to take to someone he gets the biggest smile on his face when he finishes his task.
• Loves to clean - dust, sweep or use the swiffer mop. He's obsessed! he'll say "clean" and sign clean to ask for a dust rag or say "sweep" for the broom. Not sure where he learned this from.

our little soccer tot

Here's a few photos from Brendan's Soccer Tots class. He likes to kick the soccer ball but is a little young to follow some of the activities. He loves the obstacle course, kicking over the cones, and foxes and farmers (a game of chase).

One of his favorite parts of class is at the end when they all get their stamps from Coach Adam.

They call the goal "the monkey house" - Brendan loves to go in it because of all the soccer balls.

news

There's a new blog link on our 'blog and family website links" list - The Liu family. Leslie and Steve recently welcomed their new son Ryan into the world a few weeks ago. Leslie was a college roommate through most of college and I met Steve my first year of school.

Also, Brendan has a new cousin (second cousin) - we haven't met her yet but she looks like a cutie on her baby announcement.

In other news, Brendan had his 18 month check-up. Checked out healthy and he impressed the doctor when she asked him to look at the zebra on her stethascope and he signed zebra.
weight: 26.6 pounds, 50-75 percentile
height: 33 3/4 inches, 90 percentile
head: 19 inches, 75 percentile

These days he's mostly wearing size 2T clothes and few tops in 3T.

posing for the camera

Brendan likes to pose for the camera and LOVES to see pictures of himself after we take them

some pictures from Thursday morning hanging out in the playroom

doing some reading (he likes to go through books and point to all the pictures that he knows the words to):

Some pictures from today (Saturday):
Brendan and Brendan Brown Bear (his bear that we made for him at Build a Bear on for his birthday):

Sitting with his monkey watching Signing Times:

Wearing Daddy's hat:

Ready to go in the pool: