Merry Christmas!

We decorated cookies yesterday. If you look closely at Brody's face you will see the life of a 2 year old! One minute he is crying because the cookies and sprinkles weren't on the table fast enough and then the next he is so happy to be decorating cookies!

We tried our best to keep him from licking his fingers too much while decorating! But I guess anyone who eats a cookie decorated by a 2 year old should know it probably comes with some germs!

The finished product! I think he did a great job decorating! Hopefully some people will want A LOT of sugar on their cookies!

AHHH! Finally he got to enjoy one of his masterpieces!


Last night I just had to get a picture of what Brody takes to bed each night! He must be a farm boy!

What a Great Time to Be Two!

Sorry for the delay in posting this time. It seems like December is flying by! Jim was traveling all of last week and a day this week, so it seems like the night is over before I realize it! I have so many pictures to share!

After Thanksgiving we had some great weather! We were able to go for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the warmth and even got the house decorated with our Christmas stuff.

Brody really enjoys being in charge of everything right now! He rode halfway down the road in his wagon and then insisted on pulling the rest of the way!

I put the decorations out on the front porch, which include some deer. Brody had a great time riding them and then feeding them. That seems to be another one of his recent obsessions. He feeds a lot of his animals and we even pretend eat different things off pages of books. He is always entertaining!

Jim even broke down this year to buy a blowup bear for the porch!

The following weekend we went to get our Christmas Tree (of course this weekend we had just gotten a foot of snow and it was 30 degrees out!)

We decided to let Brody pick out our tree each year. Unfortunately, the snow was too deep for him to walk around. So he pointed and we took him to the trees he wanted to see. He ended up picking one of the best trees that we have had!

That same weekend Santa came to Rockford in the Santa Parade. Brody had a lot of fun seeing the Fire Trucks and Horses.

His favorite part of the whole day was being pulled in the sled and dragging his arms through the snow! It was so fun to watch him see snow for the first time when he could play in it and tell us what he was thinking!

We also took Brody to see Santa. While we were waiting in line Brody seemed like he was excited to see Santa. He watched all the other little kids get a candy cane from him and even told us that he was going to ask for a Pig and Horse for Christmas.

When it came time for Brody to sit on Santa's lap - he changed his mind! As you can see in this picture he was clinging to my vest trying to stay away from Santa!

He did at least tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas and was excited to get a candy cane at the end.

After that traumatic experience, it was time for a nap!

We had to make sure to get a coordinated picture with dad! My two polo guys!

I think Brody's favorite part of the Holiday Season is all of the Treats!

Thanks Felicia and Chris for the great gift! Brody was so excited to find the snowman cookies!

I wanted to start the tradition of making a gingerbread house together each year. I quickly learned this year that I am to much of a perfectionist to make a gingerbread house with a 2 year old! I think next year I will just put the house together for him and then turn my back until he is done!

In follow-up to the last blog...Brody is still taking off his pajamas! We did have a few nights of him taking off his diaper too! I will leave you with two of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Since Jim and I have known each other we have only missed 1 or 2 Penn State vs. Michigan State Football games. We are lucky that they always fall the Saturday before Thanksgiving so we can follow them to Pennsylvania or Michigan and have our Thanksgiving with the local family! This year my dad was very generous and got us tickets to the game and volunteered to watch Brody for the day.

If you look closely you will notice that Jim put Blue hair gel in Brody's hair that day. He said he had to make sure that my parents didn't turn Brody into a MSU fan!

Oh how Grandma and Bobo spoil Brody!

After the MSU loss my mom did her best to try to get rid of all of Brody's blue!

Brody has taken on a lot of "odd" behaviors in the last few weeks:

1. An obsession with sleeping. We pretend sleep numerous times during the day, and the only thing to wake us is tickling! If you aren't paying close enough attention and Brody decides to start sleeping, you will hear "Brody sleeping, mommy tickle?" The best story from Thanksgiving dinner was when my mom was saying grace and everyone bowed their head - Brody starts yelling "Mommy sleeping, wake up mommy!"

He even pretend sleeps while eating!

2. He started undressing himself or putting his socks on his hands after going to bed. During the last 2 weeks we have been finding Brody with his pajamas completely off or mostly off each morning. We started dressing him in his two piece pajamas to try to keep them on - so he moved to taking his socks off and putting them on his hands!

3. He is still a stubborn eater! Jim made a GREAT Thanksgiving dinner at my parents yesterday. Although Brody had everything to choose from he ended up with a Peanut Butter sandwich! We have found that he likes Chef Boyardee pastas, but not all of them. We have given him the macaroni noodles with meat sauce and he will sit there and pick out all of the tiny pieces of meat and just eat the noodles! What a crazy kid!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We are thankful to have so many friends and family to share our Brody adventures with!

Sports filled weekend!

Brody has taken a liking to many different things in the past few weeks. His favorite toys seem to be things that I can buy for $1 or less. In this picture he is having the time of his life in a box Jim got in the mail and his rake and butterfly net! He really enjoys coming up behind you and putting the net over your head!

This weekend we had the opportunity to take Brody to two of his "first" sporting events. On Friday night we went to watch the local hockey team play in Grand Rapids with some of the students from Ferris. It was a bit of a risk since the game started at 7pm and that is Brody's normal bedtime. Brody was so amazed with all of the people, music and sounds that he experienced. There was a man with a cow bell sitting in the deck above us and Brody would just stare at him as he played the cowbell. He also loved the beginning of the game when the lights were off and the Zamboni came out with it's lights on. Brody lasted until about 8:15pm when he said he was ready to go home to go to bed. This is the only picture that I got of him (it wasn't a very good one but he was READY to leave!).

It was a GORGEOUS day in Rockford on Saturday. Our neighbor was playing in the Rockford High School Football Play Off Game on Saturday afternoon, so Jim thought it would be another great experience for Brody. We participated in the "tunnel" that the football players ran through at the start of that game and Brody was excited to have his own balloon.

If you look closely at the picture you can see Brody's face through the balloon.

Brody did pretty well at the game, considering that it was during his typical nap time and we had kept him up a few hours past his bedtime the night before. I only sat in the stands with him for about 15 minutes before we went exploring. He had a great time watching all of the people and digging in the dirt around the field. Unfortunately, Rockford ended up losing the game to Holt.

He have has some funny stories with Brody recently. One of his best sayings is "Mommy, all done crying". At daycare the teacher found some of the stick horses (a stick with a horse head on the end) that kids can ride around on. I went to pick Brody up last week and he was just riding in circles on his horse while all the other kids were running around using them as weapons. His teacher said he had been riding the horse around all day. I found out that she got it at the dollar store and off we went right after I picked him up to get one. When we got in the car I asked him what he wanted to name him, he said "neigh". The next day I took him to day care and he said "Mommy work" and I said "yep, what is Brody going to do" and he said "Ride my horse!". He makes me laugh everyday! I will try to get some pictures of him on Neigh this week to post next week.
The last story I have is from today. I went to pick him up and his teacher told me that Mackenzie (his "girlfriend") was sitting next to him at lunch and was telling him "No thank you" because he was doing something he shouldn't. The teacher said Brody turned to Mackenzie and said"Kiss, Kiss" and she stopped and gave him a kiss. His teacher said she told him "Brody someday you are going to make a great husband - you know how to divert a women's attention!" That's my blue eyed boy!

Halloween

This week started with Brody asking to use the biggest spoon in the drawer to eat dinner with! At least I always know I will find comic relief at home!

Brody had a great time trying out Trick or Treating on his own for the first time. He started saying "Trick or Treat" on Halloween, so Jim and I were hopeful he might say it when we headed out. He wasn't in the mood for posing for many pictures that night, so I apologize for only having a few. We headed to a nearby neighborhood and went to a few houses. As we walked up to the doors Brody would say "Trick or Treat" but as soon as they opened the door he froze.

He said he was ready to go home after about 6 houses and then got in the car and realized that everyone had given him "treats"! After that he kept asking to go Trick or Treating again. I think his favorite part of all of this has been that after dinner each night he gets to have a treat!

Pumpkins and Potty!

Brody trying to fill dad's shoes!

Brody and I had the opportunity to go and visit my good friend Barb and her two daughters this weekend. We went to Boo at the Zoo on Saturday night in Detroit. It was a lot of fun to walk the kids around and look at all the different animals they had made out of pumpkins. I think Brody's favorite moment was seeing a life size Shrek blowup figurine (he has recently become obsessed with Shrek movies!).

Last Monday night we carved our pumpkins. At first Brody wasn't sure what he thought about the slimy insides - but as you can see he quickly started to pull them out!

The most exciting news this week is that Brody used the potty this morning! I think it is pretty funny how much having a child revolves around them peeing or pooping - I can remember 2 years ago writing posts about how much Brody was or wasn't going to the bathroom and now I am posting that he was able to go on a potty!