According to our bathroom scale and my own measurement, Brendan weighs 54 lbs and is 47.5 inches tall. Is it my crazy googling search results or are both of those off the charts for a 5 year old?
Anyway, Andy’s toy of the week is batteries from the battery drawer. All shapes and sizes- he wants them. He also really likes all kinds of balls. Darrell was just now counting outloud and after he said four, Andy piped up with “five”. We were both amazed! He also says “peebah” for pizza. 🙂
Bren’s toy of the week is toy phones. We have 2 of them- green and red but otherwise identical- that flip open and make appropriate sounds. Andy likes them too but not like Brendan. He also found a Transformers website and is getting into them.
We are in the middle of our Japan unit and having a ball with it. How can you not like chopsticks, kimonos, clogs, bowing and origami? 😉 A month of knights and castles is next! And a birthday party!
My FIL is getting therapy for his back and they say it’ll be 20 days. The problem is his sciatic nerve. He damaged it in a fall.

Bren’s words are in bold print:
My dad is as tall as 55. His favorite food is potatoes and tomatoes. Dad’s favorite TV program is scary shows. In the good old days, dad was little. His favorite thing to do then was make himself a toy. I think my dad looks funny when he laughs and laughs a lot. Dad is really happy when he makes some tickle-tickle. I wish my dad would play crazy with me every day.

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing this game! Can you beat me? 🙂

Drew’s Smoked Tomato salad dressing… wow! We’ve had it on turkey and cheese on fresh french bread subs and on a romaine salad with tomato, cucumber, shredded cheddar, warm black beans, warm corn and warm cut up grilled chicken.

Also, a really fun and yummy snack called Pirate’s Booty. Neat name, great chip! It is aged white cheddar flavor but there are other varieties with similar names too (like Fruity Booty- heh!).

Andy at 18 months

Bren at almost 5 years old

1/29- Andy can manipulate all the little gizmos on his disney toy to pop up the characters 🙂
1/30 Bren is quick to give Andy a hug when he gets a booboo. 🙂 He is also more willing to do seatwork- like printing 5s or tracing a few words. He can spell and write his name too! It is amazing how much he has learned about the days of the week and numbers beyond the teens from his calendar. I wonder what he’ll do when I take off all the numbers tomorrow and tell him it isn’t January any longer- but February? LOL.
Andy melts my heart when he throws me a kiss after I tell him I love you. 🙂 He calls cats meows- it’s so precious!!! Darrell showed him Youtube cat videos last night and he loved it.
1/31 Andy’s favorite perch these days is the little red 3 wheeler bike. It wasn’t so long ago that it was Brendan fred flinstoning around the house. Bren hasn’t totally given up the little bike either but soon his knees just aren’t going to fit anymore.
2/3 Ever since DH showed Brendan some youtube yoyo championship videos a few weeks ago, Bren has made us laugh with our stash of yoyos. He’s got some moves! Andy likes the yoyos too and I’ve untangled so many yoyo messes it isn’t funny. No surprise he learned to say “yoyo” today. 😉
2/7- 2/16 We went to Mimi and Papa’s house. Andy learned to say “I don’t know” and “There it is”. Awww! He also says “I love you” so he can say three 3 word sentences now. WOW! I bought Andy some large toddler type crayons and it turned out to be the toy of the week for BOTH of them. I can’t tell you how many times I had to round them up from around the house. I ended up leaving them up there because they were fighting over them.
Valentine’s Day was good! Waynell bought me 2 dvds and Bren got a Connect Four game and Andy got a gears game. She also took us out for a Prime Rib dinner. YUM! As soon as Darrell met up with us he gave me a huge box of high quality truffles and the boys got little filled M&M characters. Then we got home little gifts were everywhere. It was great. 😀 I made the grandparents and Darrell cards with a picture of the boys inside a heart. It turned out very nice.

We had a really good trip. Waynell started talking about when Brendan was in school so I took a deep breath and told her I’m homeschooling him. I had been dreading it because I didn’t think she’d approve. I got a real surprise though- she was THRILLED. I still can’t believe it, lol. Every day that I sat down with Bren at the kitchen table and started working with him the room would magically clear out. The tv would be turned off and Andy would be entertained in another room. It was really nice and thoughtful of them.
The only rough part of our trip was that Gene spent 95% of the time in his bed because he was having severe hip pain. It’s pretty damn cruddy to not be able to walk or sit for more than 2 minutes at a time. Poor guy. He says he is going to the doctor on Monday. Anthony did a great job playing extra with the boys. He read books with Brendan several times. Anthony tried to get Bren to draw with him but Brendan just doesn’t care to draw or colors. I can’t wait til he paints with him.
2/17 I can’t believe Andy will be a year and a half old in 2 days! WOW. I measured him and he is around 33 1/2 inches tall. He wears 24 month onesies and shirts and 18 month pants. His 24 month sleepers and size 4 pampers are getting small though. I’m guessing he is between 25 and 26 pounds.
Brendan is doing so well with his reading! He is really close to the end of the Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics. He picks it up easily now and loves the little books and comics. They are really cute, I must say. This unit was on snow and he made the cutest snowman painted from white paint mixed with salt. The texture after it dried was amazing! Brendan was granted permission to be outside alone for the first time at his grandparents’ fenceless house. He loved it and played outdoors whenever it wasn’t cold or wet. He only ran off once that I noticed. One nice thing- I definitely don’t have to worry about a stranger taking him up there! At home he is free to go in the fenced in backyard but it’ll be awhile until he can be alone out front.
2/18 Found out Gene went to the ER yesterday. After a shot of something and some X-Rays that showed nothing wrong and 4 prescriptions to fill he was sent home and told to go to his family doctor. I hope whatever the shot was, it helped. I need to find out more.
Eesh… Darrell just called and said they were taking him to the hospital again. He is in horrendous pain still.