Brendan surprised us last night by walking up to Mimi while she was on the computer, pointing to the screen and saying “Did you see that?” Then not 10 minutes later Uncle Anthony was playing with a light-up ball and Bren ran over and excitedly asked, “What do you got?” I believe this is a combination of hearing us say both “What do you have?” & “What have you got?” We say those pretty regularly.
These mark Bren’s second and third 4 word sentences (the first being “Where did it go?”). I can hardly believe he (barring a bit of proper grammar) correctly uses these complex sentences!!!
Still in the country. All three of us went on a 4-wheeler joyride today. It was great! I made cherry star cookies frosted in sparkly icing to celebrate the change over to 2005. Happy New Year!

Picture this:
Bren “playing the bongos” on an empty humongous tin that once held 3 flavors of popcorn. He pauses, turns to face me, puts his finger to his lips and says, “Shhhh! Be quiet!” Ha ha ha ha ha!

We are all up at Darrell’s parents’ house in northern Texas enjoying a winter wonderland. It’s snowing!!!! It’s a rare event for us to experience snow. Brendan got to play in it for the first time today and loved it! I need to invest in a pair of waterproof gloves for him. His poor mittens got soggy after just a minute or two and his poor hands would just freeze. He can now say “It’s cold”. LOL. I think it’ll melt long before he gets his fill of snow.
I decorated my first gingerbread house. It was a lot of fun and I think it came out great! There are beautifully wrapped presents and colorful decorations and lots of secrets everywhere. Tis definitely the season of merriment and joy. Pictures to be posted after we return to normalcy.

Look what Bren can do now-

WOW! Neither a drop dripped nor dribbled.

I got Brendan out of his crib this morning, had a little cuddle and then set him on the ground. He immediately walked towards the living room, opened the door, went to the tv, turned it on, *changed the channel to the cartoon station* and plunked down on the floor to watch. He seemed so… fouryearoldish. Where did my baby go?
Looking forward to our Christmas vacation. Bren and I leave Sunday morning and DH follows Wednesday night. My brother just called to say that they are sending so many presents that they have to take them all to the UPS store to have them boxed up in one big box because they just can’t imagine how to do it themselves. WooHoo!
People who have gotten presents from us already seem to really like them. Dad loved the Swiss Colony stoned ground mustard that came with their present- said he’s been looking for a good one for years. Yay! Nico fiddled with her Scent Stories machine all night. Even Mia brings her Care Bear sleeping bag with her everywhere. And Chris… well we haven’t seen him since he opened up his XBox live. He’s either playing or crashed on the couch. Haha. It’s nice to see the stress and effort of finding the right gifts is worth it.
With a smidge of luck, our Christmas cards will be mailed tonight.

Brendan has hit a new developmental stage in the last week or so. I am sure there is some medical jargon for this latest skill of his, but I haven’t a clue as to what. All I know is that he puts things in a line now.
It all started during our country grandparental retreat where Bren hit upon Gene’s antique bottle collection… and proceeded to place them in a long line like this:

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This was taken while on our Thanksgiving retreat. I think it’s a really great picture!

Oh, and the wonder ceased. Drats.

My son just ate carrots.
RAW carrots.
He’s *never* eaten a raw veggie before and nothing but an occassional green bean for many moons. Yes, they were teensy matchstick-sized and covered in honest-to-God, full fat Ranch dressing but I definitely call them a veggie & nicely healthy too.
I will *not* jinx this by hoping this practice continues.

I’m back from my 11 day country retreat with the in-laws. I feel so much more relaxed now. Thanksgiving dinner was great- my FIL smoked a ham and a turkey too! My MIL bought Schwann’s Dark Cherry ice cream too and it was heavenly- it just needed lil chocolate bits in it! LOL.
I learned how to use a dehydrater while up there. I dried apples, peaches, bananas and pears and then made granola cereal out of it. It was fabulous! I’ve heard so much recently about the benefits of oatmeal and almonds on your cholesterol levels- such as a 1/2 cup a day of oatmeal for a month can lower your cholesterol 24 points. Almonds are chock full of calcium and good fats too. I am going to try the oatmeal 30 day challenge. I feel so gunky after all the bad-for-me foods that I’ve consumed while on hiatus.
Brendan is talking so much more now! I think he had a growth spurt too! He just loves his Bopa, his Mimi and his Uncle Anthony! I got them to agree to drive all the way down here on the 18th to babysit so DH and I could go to his company’s Christmas party (they are usually FABULOUSLY FUN) with the promise that Bren and I would go back up with them. So Christmas will begin early this year! YAY! DH will join us on the 23rd.
What Bren learned to say while we were away:
It’s hot/ It’s hot? (He’ll ask when we tell him “Don’t touch that.”)
Puts finger to lips and says “Shhhh!”
outside
water
balloon (“ball-ball” LOL)
And the biggie- last night:
“Bye. Dada. BooBoo. Kisses” Brendan said this when he saw me putting a bandaid on a cut- he went to go get Daddy to give my boo boo a kiss! And when DH came into the room with him he ran over to me, pointed and said “Uh-Oh!” And then gave my boo-boo a kiss! I was so shocked at the whole complexity of it! Completely floored. Kisses is a new word- I’ve only heard it that once.
We put up some Christmas lights last night. It was fun. We wrapped the two poles that frame our front door with alternating layers of green and red lights giving them a cool candy cane effect. Darrell made an awesome gigantic Christmas tree out of our flagpole. It just needs a bright star. Brendan loved watching us put up the lights. He said, “Oh, pretty!” over and over. Of course, he had to touch them too. LOL. I can’t wait til we go out and see all the fancy, lit up houses. It’s one of my all-time favorite holiday activities.