Kyler Brandon

My biggest little man is 3 today. Oh I love this kid. Oh I love this kid. He is everything i could have ever wanted in a boy.
He is crazy busy. He never stops moving.
He loves dogs, chickens, horses, cows, ok every animal, even exotic ones like Macaws and red eye tree frogs (thanks Deigo for teaching him about them).
He loves playing in the sand box mostly digging and burying his feet.
He loves riding his power wheels 4 wheeler. He loves Daddys tractor and riding in it is his favorite pass time, even the lawn mower 'tractor'. We are storing Gma Jo and Papas 4 wheelers right now, and have gotten out on a couple rides around the block. His idea of the best night ever. He doesn't even bat an eye at wearing the helmet. What a good kid!
He loves Deigo. We had a Deigo bday party theme for him yesterday and he was so excited. He also really likes Boots (Doras side kick), but Dora has a really annoying voice, so we don't watch it much. He often plays 'animal in trouble' and goes about saving the animals in trouble, just like Deigo and Alicia.
He loves all his friends that come to play everyday. He has a built in play group! :) When they don't come he is lost and  really sad. He never has had to play by himself so he kinda struggles there. He talks about all his friends and loves them all to death.
He is the most social little kid ever. He loves talking and playing with all kids. So friendly.
He is also a very sensitive little boy. If someone gets hurt he is right there with them trying to make them feel better. If he sees someone crying it breaks his heart and he wants to make them feel all better.
He often practices his sad face in the mirror. Complete with the sobs and whines that would accompany that if/when he gets sad. Needless to say he is a great pouter, cryer, fit thrower and i attribute it to his great practice time he gets in daily.
He is rotten with a capitol R to go to bed. ROTTEN. He cannot hold still/calm down for the life of him. We tried lavender oils, bribery, locking his door so he cant get out, threats, followed through with those threats, nothing helps. We put him 'down' at 8:30-9:30 depending on the night and he often is still awake at 10:45 when me and Brandon go to bed after the news. Someday I pray he figures it out.
He is a talker. He talks, talks, talks all day. I think he is really understandable too...but i have learned how to listen to his fast talk. Others don't find him quiet as easy to understand, but listening to fast talk is a skill you have to practice and i get lots of it! :)
He has a great imagination, and it just keeps getting better and better. I love listening to him play. Its entertaining for me to watch and listen to.
He is the best cuddler. When I am not so frustrated with his inability to hold still in bed, i love laying down with him at night. He cuddles right up next to me and will just sweetly chat with me. It melts me. Its my most favorite time of the day. Just chatting with my bud. Just me and him.When i do get frustrated with him and turn my back to him he will rub my back...like he is concerned with how i feel and wants me to feel better. Oh bud, if you would just go to sleep i would be so much happier. :)
He wants a horse. Real bad. It doesn't help that one of the little boys i tend who has been his bff for a while got his own horse for his bday. He got a cowboy hat for his birthday yesterday and had the happiest look for 10 seconds and then his face dropped and he says, "but i don't have a horse!!"
He loves all fruits and veggies. He could happily be a vegetarian...all except he loves chicken nuggets...that ruins his go at being a vegetarian. I asked him what his favorite meals are here is what he said:
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Chicken nuggets and French Fries
Dinner: Spaghetti
I didn't prompt one of  those answers. I am not surprised on the first two, but spaghetti, he rarely eats it, and he wants the noodles plain lately! :)
His other favorite foods he mentioned were celery, orangeys (his version of oranges), Strawberries, and watermelon. But he loves anything i give him. ANYTHING. . .as long as its again, fruit or veggie.
He is still good ol Lactose intolerant. We are taking him back to the GI Specialist in July because he is still having a hard time. He always has bad eczema, and poor guy cant ever have a normal bowel movement. It breaks my heart. As much as i don't want it to be something more, i have a feeling he has something else going on.
This is getting long so i am going to stop. I could go on and on about this boy. He so special to me. I never knew i could love someone so much. Motherhood is special, it broadens your hearts capacity beyond this world. Its a heavenly feeling to love as a mother does. I love my boy!!

His stats when we went to his 3 year well child check. . .
 Height:  36.5 inches..... Landed him in the very high 33%tile for his height! Poor kid is going to have a little sister who towers over him. 
Weight:  31.5 LBs. . . . . Got him around 50% for his weight, cant remember the percentage exactly.


Until i can get some decent pictures enjoy these from my attempt to a photo shoot. I took 175 pictures (thanks to the continuous shoot option, best. invention. ever.) But was still unable to get a real smile out of the boy. Love him, but seriously!!

And she grew tall tall tall!!

Brooklyns stats from her 1 year well child check:
Weight 22lbs.......... 80.5%
Head Circ. 18.2...... 83.4%
DRUM ROLL PLEASE. . . . . .
Height 31 inches..... 96.3%

She is big and beautiful. :)





Kylers stats he got taken today too...but i didn't get a print off so i will post them with his year up date that will come Sunday when he is officially 3!!!

Brooklyn Kay is ONE!

This is going to a work-in-progress post.

My baby girl turned one on Saturday. ONE. She is now my little toddler...not my little baby. We didn't celebrate her birthday yet. We are doing a combined bday party with her big brother this weekend. (hence the work in progress status).
A little about our spunky fun little lady at one year...
**ridiculously close to walking. She just needs to decide to do it. She lets go of things and take 3-7 steps, but always looses balance or just giggles and sits down. She walks on her tippy tippy toes, which contributes to the lack of balance. We try shoes, but that just throws her completely off...so here we wait for her to get her walkin legs. (and yes i want them, it would be fabulous for her to keep up with all the other kids and to not be crawling in all the dirt when we start camping.
**She is a screamer. I could catch it on video, there are some who don't believe. But why, its not a pleasant sound. We are working on breaking the nasty habit and that is rough on a one year old. It results in lots of heartbreak and cuddle time. Poor girl.
**She holds her own with her big brother. Whenever she can she will smack him on the head or pull his hair. I shouldn't like it, but its hilarious to watch. Its her repayment for him tackling her down to the ground 20 times a day and smacking her head in the process.

**She trys to communicate. She signs "come here" "all done" "milk" all the time. Those are her favorites. We are working on "thank you", "please", "food". She says "aah daa" for all done, "mama", "dada", and "uh oh!" and every once in a while i like to give her credit for saying other words, but it isn't consistent so i think its just happenstance. :) Mostly she just screams when she wants something.
**She is a social bug. Her favorite place to be is where the kids are. She gets SOO frustrated when she cant keep up with their running from one room to the next. She loves kids.
**She loves animals. I was just saying this last night. She isn't a doll loving girl. I hand her one she got for Christmas and she tosses it to the side and gets to moving to keep up with the kids. But, she does love Sadie our dog, and loves watching the chickens. She doesn't get scared around the horses like Kyler did. She reaches right for them.

**She loves DIRT! She would play in the sandbox for hours if I could let her. She lets it run through her little fingers trys to throw it, eats it, puts it in her hair. She gets out of that sandbox with sand everywhere. She loves being outside. She loves to swing. She loves to go down the slide and has no fear. She has great trust in me that i will catch her. :)
**She loves water. Bath time is a special time. We turn the water on and she comes a crawling as fast as she can. We have also gone swimming quite a bit and that is fabulous to her as well. She is a water baby.

**She loves playing with balls.
**She still giggles when someone sneezes. I love it. 
**She is getting to be a much better eater. Before she wouldn't touch fruit. Weird. But now, she loves it. Watermelon, strawberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, peaches, are just some of her favorites. She loves Cheese. We give her a stack of shredded cheese and she goes to town. She really likes celery, green beans, corn, broccoli, but her absolute favorite is BEETS. She could eat a whole bottle of them. Her favorite breakfast is either cinnamon toast or peanut butter toast. She gobbles it right up. She doesn't like being spoon fed. I can get her to take yogurt time to time, and oatmeal once a week, but more than that she likes her finger foods. She doesn't have any texture issues with meat like her big brother. She eats all meat just fine. She is on real milk now, except we have spoiled her and give her formula before bed. She is SOOOO attached to her bottle. I am just dreading weaning her from it. I had Ky off his 2 days after he was a year, but her, i dont think it will be so easy. In fact i know it wont. She can take a sippy and does, but that bottle is special to her. She gets mad without it. (back to the whole screamer thing, ya its bad)

**She finally is starting to give cuddles. I have been heartbroken she wouldn't ever lay on your shoulder or cuddle in. Now she does, and i LOVE IT! Thanks Brookie.
**She is lovingly called: Brooklyn, Brookie, Brookielyn, but mostly i call her Sue or Suzie. Don't ask, not sure where or how it started but i call her Sue a lot. The other day i was getting after her for screaming and called her Susan. I busted up laughing. As if i was using her full name when she was in trouble. So she is Sue, Suzie and Susan as well. :) 
**She is beautiful. She has dark eyes mostly hazel color. She has beautiful tan skin and is acquiring quite the farmers tan the last few weeks. She has tons of hair. I can braid it if she would hold still long enough. She can have full piggies, her hair is quite curly if i could just get it to stay that way. It goes straight pretty fast when drying. She hates having her hair done. I thought since i started doing it when she was 2 weeks old that she would be well adjusted to it at one year. NO, no no no. She fights me tooth and nail every single morning.

Check back in 2 days for her stats...i have a feeling they will be something to glance at. :) She wears 24 month size clothes and fills them.

Gardening

We have planted a garden every year that we have been married. Some much more successful than others. OK really only one really successful year and that was when we were living in Manti in Brandon's Grandmas house and that is because she has been working that garden ground for at least 50 years (yes, i really bet that's how long). That garden was beautiful. It produced like crazy. We didn't grow many weeds. We had serious bumper crop of certain things that we are still using up! That year we also didn't have kids yet, i didn't have a job yet, i was new to the area and knew not one single person down here. So me and the plants had lots of time to spend together.
This year we are vowing to have a better garden than the last 3. Its a goal. Lets hope we fulfill it.
For FHE last week we planted some seeds. Its hard gardening with 2 kids. Ok 2 young kids. Someday they will pull their weight around that dirt. For now its all teaching and fun time, which I almost like more, besides the fact that it takes longer. But they had a good ol time.

first we got in the tractor

then we made furrows

then we planted(no photo, i planted and Brandon doesn't take pictures)

Oh where has Brooklyn been during this tractor/planting/watering...playing with the hose and water. She screamed when she first crawled into the freezing cold water, then it didn't matter. She played there until i was afraid she would catch pneumonia...it was cold outside and then playing in frigged water...i ended the fun, she was mad mad.

 

 

Sneek Peak

I was going to wait to post these till Brooklyn was officially one (next Saturday) but i cant resist at least a sneak peek. And to make it a fun sneak peak i am letting you compare me and Brooklyn. This is my dress my mom has saved for my daughter one day. WOW ruffles!! But, my, isn't she a beauty!

(Click on it if you want it bigger)

Life

 I have to start off by saying that 4 days ago i was doing a developmental test on Brooklyn. I was trained on one in college and i love it and use it often. Yes, I am one of those moms. I try to make sure i am working on things all the time. I take great great pride in getting them 2 steps above where the average kid is. Realizing that they are kids, realizing that i cannot push them (I am NOT one of 'those' moms) Kyler is WAY above his level except in motor skills. No help is getting him there faster. :)
Anyway, I did it on Brooklyn and there was the proof that i was starting to slack. She was behind 2 steps in a couple areas. WHAT! :) One of the areas that she could improve on was imitating activities. She WILL NOT play pat-a-cake with me, she WILL-NOT play to any signs with songs or participate. She also is not imitating around the house activities (ie play talking on the phone, etc) I dont know why this bugs me, but it does. BUT, not today, not to any pushing by mom, am proud to announce she now all of a sudden crawls one handed while talking on a play phone. I think it to be AWESOME she is multitasking already and without my helping her she did just what i wanted her to do.
To add to her quick need to prove she is the brilliant girl she is...

Today i kept wiping her nose due to its constant "on" position. I was using a towel. Gross I know. But I was using an absurd amount of tissues and a girl can be thrifty ya know. :)
Anyway, We were playing on the floor. She reaches up on the couch grabs her snot rag, and proceeds to wipe my nose just the way i had been all night. I busted up laughing. She was sporting that I-am-so-proud look and followed with a big ol' smile and kiss. Gosh i love her.

(and if you are worried, she grabbed the clean part of the rag to wipe my nose with, otherwise i wouldn't have laughed, I wouldn't be bragging about it, and I would probably be puking still, cause there is one thing i cannot handle and snot is IT)