BIG News!

I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last posts. Brooks is now 100% pacifier free! Yeah! We thought it was going to be so hard because he loved his pacifier but it took one stern talk by Opa (not really that stern) and he gave it up for good. Now he says, "No soose (pacifier), Opa, no soose!" It is so cute. He didn't even have one bad night or one tantrum when we put him to sleep without it. He understands that it is for "babies" and he is a "big boy". We are so proud of him and love that he talks more now. I suppose it helps that he doesn't have that thing hanging out of his mouth all the time! Yippee!

More Orlando Pictures

I wonder if Brooks got his daddy's eyes? Hmmmm...

Oma LOVES her grandkids and would do just about anything for them. We had such a great time being with Oma. It was fun to have some uninterrupted time with her.

Brooks loves to give his cousins cuddles. We didn't tell Brooks to put his arms around his cousins. He just asked them to "cuddle" and we were able to snap a picture. He is such a lover.

On the flight home Brooks enjoyed listening to my ipod.

What a fun trip and so glad we were all healthy for the entire week. It was nice to get away and as always is so nice to be home. Love.

Sleepy Brooks

As I mentioned in my last post we spent an entire day at the water park. Brooks did great, didn't show any signs of needing a nap and was full of energy. Before we left we changed Brooks out of his swimsuit and got him all cleaned up for the ride home. Opa put Brooks on his shoulders as we walked out and within 1 minute Brooks was sound asleep on Opa's head. Below is the progression...

Mickey Mouse!

We are back from a great trip to see Mickey Mouse! The weather was amazing and the week flew by! Greg and I can't get over what a good boy Brooks was on the entire trip. We found ourselves saying things like "Can you believe how good Brooks has been?" or
"Wow, I've never seen Brooks behave so well" all week long. We are so proud of him. Brooks really enjoyed the water on this trip. We spent a whole day at Aquatica (the Sea World water park) and Brooks had a blast. He went down slides all day, over and over again. Kids love repetition, and the water park was no exception.

Brooks was a very happy boy to be "free" in the kiddy pool! We don't feel too bad that Brooks missed his YMCA swim lesson this week! I think we made up for it by swimming everyday and spending countless hours in the pool.

When Brooks would get off the slide he would run to his Oma with great excitement. I was able to capture his face as he told Oma all about it! Pure joy, I love it.

Brooks is always great buddies with Opa, but this week was extra special. Opa and Brooks had a lot of time to bond and most of our pictures are of Brooks and Opa because of all of the time they spent together. It was very meaningful to us.

Here is Brooks going down the pink slide. I am surprised this isn't a picture of him going down the yellow slide because that was his color of choice all day! We had a blast.

Greg and I loved that we were both able to run outside every day and enjoyed being able to put on shorts and a t-shirt and be out the door with no hat, mittens, jacket or face mask. It was glorious. We brought the jogging stroller and Greg was so sweet to push it a majority of his runs. He continues to train for Grandma's Marathon and he didn't miss a beat while we were gone. I am getting a little bit bigger and slower, but I still enjoyed running outside and moving my body. I am slowing down to around 10 minute miles outside now, but it makes me feel so energized that I don't want to have to give it up.

The trip was a blast, but we are both happy to be back and are both happy to drink Duluth water again! I forget how blessed we are to have cold and yummy water to drink! :)

Baby Sister...

Brooks is going to have a sister! WOW! Everything looks perfect on the ultrasound and it was fun to see her move. The tech made a couple comments about how active she is. She just wouldn't hold still. It was fun to see her suck on her hand, pick her nose, and try to eat her feet. She was just a wild woman inside my belly! It was great to see and Greg and I are both adjusting to the idea of a girl. It is hard to shift our mindset, but we are both thrilled that we will have a SISTER for Brooks.

We met with the doctor afterwards and he said that everything is great. I gained 2 pounds in 5 weeks which is great for me (remember: 75 pounds the first pregnancy). I have now gained 11 pounds and am excited that all of my exercising is paying off. I will be happy even if I gain 50 pounds (which is a lot)!

We can't wait until mid July to meet our little princess! I think I already blogged that we will have a C-section. The doctor told us that the first week of July was too early (we tried :)!), so we will be happy with the 3rd week of July. We are praising the Lord for this miracle.

What we've been up to

Brooks got some crafts for his birthday and has really enjoyed creating art. He loves to glue things on paper, put stickers on paper and color with markers (the markers we got only color on the special paper)! I think he looks so old in this picture. He concentrates so hard when he is working on his art. Brooks has also developed a love for play-doh! We love to play it every day!

We have started to work on potty training Brooks. It is not working well at all so I don't think he is ready. We might continue to try, but we might back off a little bit and try again in a couple of weeks. A typical potty training day is really hard. It consists of having Brooks run around the house and play with no diaper. I ask him if he needs to use the toilet pretty often and he usually says no. After about an hour I see that Brooks is doing the potty dance with his knees together and a really funny face. I ask Brooks if he needs to use the toilet and he says "yes". We run to the toilet and Brooks sits on the toilet for one second and says "all done" (there is nothing in the toilet)! Then, he asks for "gum" because Ti-Ti told him he can have gum if he goes in the toilet. He has never successfully gone in the toilet (and can't chew gum anyway) but also has never gone on the floor. After about 3 or 4 hours I have to put him in a diaper for nap. He is soaked when he gets up from nap and also has a dirty diaper. I can just imagine what he is thinking when I finally put his diaper on..."Oh Mama, thank you so much, now I can quit holding it!" Oh well, we'll keep trying!

Here he is sitting the wrong way on his baby toilet. He usually sits on the big toilet during the training, but once in a while sits on this little one that his Auntie bought him. It is a pretty cool toilet (flusher, toilet paper holder...) so he mostly plays with the toilet which isn't what he is supposed to do. We finally put it away and are working on just using the big toilet for now.

Looking out the window on a potty training day!

Brooks enjoys reading while he uses the bathroom. He likes to look for his Daddy on his "go-go" (bike) in the bike magazines. Too cute. (By the way, this is Steph in the picture, not me. We look a lot alike when I am not pregnant. I am currently way bigger than Steph and this is SO not me!)

Tomorrow is the big day...will Brooks have a sister or a brother? Can't wait to know. I hope the baby cooperates during the ultrasound.

Not Small...

We had Brooks' two year check up on Monday and let me just put it this way...my child is not small. Brooks weighed in at 36.6 pounds putting him off the charts for weight. The good thing is that he is 38 inches tall which also puts him off the charts for height. At least he is proportioned! I recently picked up another two year old (about 5 days younger than Brooks) and I think she must have weighed 10 pounds less than Brooks. It would be so much easier to have a child who was a little bit lighter...pretty soon I won't be able to pick him up and carry him into the grocery store! Yikes! I love every inch of his chubby little body though! I will post some pictures soon. Brooks is finally feeling better, so we've got some cute ones to share.

Party for Brooks

We had a party for Brooks yesterday. We went with a fish theme. It was really nice to see all of our family. Brooks got lots of nice presents, but more importantly had a fun time being the center of attention. At first, he just cuddled in his Auntie and Oma's arms and told people "I'm shy". He got over it pretty quickly though and enjoyed his day.

Here is Brooks having breakfast in bed for is birthday. He is actually in our bed having his breakfast. He has breakfast in our bed every morning, so it isn't anything different other than the hat. He doesn't typically like to eat breakfast, so usually he just has a granola bar and juice each morning.

Here is one of the cupcakes that we did for his party. My sister Steph is an elementary school teacher at heart, so she was a huge help to me. I have never been very creative so I appreciated her a ton. This is a twinky, fruit leather, a chocolate cookie and of course a cupcake. Pretty fun.

We served the adults real food, but the kids got mac-n- cheese and hot dogs. Another Steph idea!

Brooks was trying to tell us he is "2" but he has a hard time getting just two fingers to cooperate, so it looks more like he thinks he's 10. He does say "I'm 2" when asked how old he is.

So yesterday was great and Brooks seemed to do well. Today he woke up really sad and not himself at all. He was crying about everything and seemed really clingy to us. We brought him to church only to leave with him 20 minutes later. Brooks is now sleeping. He has a temperature and is burning up. He only wants to be held and cuddled. It is so sad. He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 2 year check up, so hopefully he is better by his appointment. If not, I guess there is no better place to be than in the doctor's office.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Brooks!

Today my sweet angel turns 2! I can hardly believe how fast the time has passed. My buddy is so grown up. He speaks in sentences, is healthy, active (understatement) and happy. Brooks has blessed our lives in a way that we can't explain. We can't imagine life without him and it has just been two short years since he joined our family. My older sister Steph said to me this morning "I can't believe Brooks is two! It makes me so sad. I guess it is time to have another one!"

With a new baby on the way, it is hard to imagine loving someone as much as we love Brooks. We know that we will be able to, but it is hard to fathom that the amount of love we have for Brooks will be duplicated when the new baby arrives. Brooks has given us such joy this past two years.

Brooks today, 2 years old (3T outfit).

Brooks one year ago today, 1 year old. (24 month outfit). I can't believe how much has has changed.

Brooks the day he was born. Amazing.

Brooks loves Thomas so much. He like to make tracks anywhere he can. In this case, it was below the sofa table. I just stare at his hands and am in awe of how big he is. He is very coordinated and able to do so many tasks that we never thought out little boy would be able to do. Greg and I were reminiscing last night about how we used to think it was the coolest thing in the world when Brooks would bat at the toy above his car seat. We would turn around in the car and just feel so proud that our baby could bat at an object. Wow, times have changed.

We love you, Buddy. You are the biggest blessing that the Lord has given us.

XOXO

Mama and Daddy

Big, Big Boy Bed!

We finally ordered and received Brooks' big-big boy bed. He moved into a toddler bed at around 18 months, but we wanted to transition him to his "final" bed long before the baby arrives. We ordered him a bedroom set a couple of weeks ago and it was delivered on Friday! We had a chance to put the bedding on tonight and started to get his room situated. Once it is completely done we will post some pictures. Before we were able to arrange the furniture, Brooks had to take a few minutes to get excited and lay in his new bed. He isn't sleeping in it tonight because we still have to child proof his new room (he is moving to the bigger room to make way for his baby sister/brother). He seems to love his new room. If you couldn't tell we are doing a nautical theme. It should be cute.

I'm not proud to tell everyone that Brooks is addicted to TV. Of course we control it as much as we can and think we should, but sometimes I wish I was that "super" mom who never let her kid watch TV until they moved out and went to college. That just isn't the case in our family though. I do love that Brooks watches TV for selfish reasons. During TV time is one of the only times I can get him to hold still and cuddle me.

We had our cousins over on Saturday and as always had a blast hanging out with them. Here is Maggie. She did this all by herself...tail and all! She "snuck" out of the house with her swimsuit under her clothing and was really proud of herself when she announced she had it on.

Another peaceful moment...WATCHING TV of course! Don't worry, he doesn't watch that much TV and what is watches is limited to Elmo and the Wiggles. It just seems that we get really cute pictures while he is watching TV. Maybe because that is the ONLY time the child holds still.

Brooks turns 2 on Friday! We are going to go to lunch to honor him and then on Saturday he will have his family party. It should be fun. I am sure he won't remember a thing, but it is still really fun to plan. We are going with a fish theme this year since fish are on his list of favorites (also making the list: TV, the moon, Ka-Ka, Jo-Jo, Thomas the Train, Elmo and the Wiggles)!

Two weeks from tomorrow we find out if we are having a boy or girl! Wow, I can't believe we are already half way done with this pregnancy. I am still working out a lot and trying to be as active as possible. Greg has to remind me that I am not getting fat, I am just growing a baby inside me. It was a struggle for me last time and is again this time. If you are a praying type, you could pray that I don't get depressed. It is hard to be a good mommy when I am down about my weight and how I feel. There are lots more important things to pray for as well...but if you have the extra ten seconds I would love a prayer! Thanks!