I have so many crafts I want to do with Brennan pinned on Pinterest or floating around in my head, but just haven't been sure when he'd be ready to do them. Kyle was gone this morning, so I decided we'd go ahead and try a simple one. I had all the materials I needed (other than googly eyes), so we went for it.
My inspiration for this craft came from here. No Time for Flashcards has TONS of great craft ideas for toddlers!
I gathered my supplies: green, blue, and white paper; markers; glue stick, and scissors. I used Peel and Stick Post-It Note paper to cover Brennan's table so he wouldn't get marker everywhere. I then drew an A on the green paper (including little triangles for the eyes) and let him start coloring.
Brennan has never been super into coloring. He always wants to color at the library, but it will only hold his attention for a few moments and he'll just put a few scribbles on the page. Letting him use markers today changed all that. He LOVED it. This was by far the most scribbling he's ever done. Before he'd put the marker onto the paper, he had to touch his finger to it. He was pretty mesmerized.
He continued coloring while I cut out some white triangles to use as teeth. I also flipped the A upside-down so he'd get more marker over the entire letter. He used the purple marker the most!
He had fun watching me cut out the letter A (I forgot about those little triangles I had made for eyes and cut them right off...guess it didn't matter since I didn't have googly eyes anyways). He also found his marker-covered hands very interesting. That is until I went to clean them off and the marker wouldn't come off completely. He was super mad that his hands still looked dirty. Oh well!
Once the A was cut out, I had B help me with the glue stick, and then we glued into onto blue paper. When he came time to glue the teeth on, he was starting to lose interest and got up from his chair. He liked it when I chased him around with the alligator though.
Here's our finished project! I won't include so many pictures next time, but this was the first one, so I wanted to capture it!
Most days it feels good to get out of the house with Brennan. Our favorite local spots to go are the library, aquarium, mall, and Children's Museum. Somedays, however, it's nice to just stay at home and play. We had one of those days today. I was even able to document some of the fun we had.
Most mornings B wants to read several books before we even leave his room. We did this today. We started reading up in his glider like normal, but then he wanted to move onto the floor. We had already read several books when he picked out Little Boy Blue. Listen to him help me read it.
We kept reading after that and he picked Kipper's Book of Numbers. He loves counting books. Check out how well he does counting to ten. Some of the numbers aren't super clear, but he's much improved. His counting to ten sounds something like this: "wah, ta, see, huh, high, si, se, eigh, ni, te."
We were having such a fun morning that even included jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Then he wanted to build with his Mega Blocks. He helped me build a really tall tower and then he knocked it down. This is what happened after HE knocked it down HIMSELF. Whoa mood swings! :) And yes, I recorded it because it was funny!
I feel so lucky to get to have these kinds of moments with him every single day; even the crying moments!
I feel such a sense of relief. I just cleaned up my Google Reader and it is so so so much better! I had way too many blogs on there so if I even missed one day of looking at my Reader, I'd come back the next day with sometimes 200+ new blog posts. Way too many to actually read, so I'd end up just marking most of them as "read" without actually doing any reading. Today I took the time to remove the ones that I haven't been reading recently.
I also started "following" all the blogs in my Reader. When I first started blogging, I think I felt strange following someone's blog who I didn't know. I preferred just to stalk it instead because that's less weird, right?! I fixed all that today, so if I'm a new follower of yours, I've actually been reading your blog for a long time! Going through my Reader also helped me realize some blog addresses had changed, so I was able to fix that and start getting updates on those blogs again. So glad I finally took the time to get all that organized!
Now on to actually clean our real house!
Here's a pic of B because I know I can't make a post as boring as this one and leave off a pic! He loves his Lightning McQueen slippers!
Just wanted to share a few pics of B enjoying the snow yesterday! We had an unseasonably warm December and until yesterday it had barely snowed all winter. It was the first snow of the winter and B's first snow since he learned to walk. He seemed to like it but it was cold so we only stayed out for about 5 minutes.
The other night during bath I let Brennan play with shaving cream for the first time in quite a while. He had so much fun! My favorite part was that he kept saying, "Wow!" every time he got some on his hands. It was so cute. I also had no idea he knew how to wash himself so effectively. He had shaving cream everywhere! I was pretty impressed!
He has also uttered, "Wow!" a few times this morning while watching the snow fall. This is the first real snow we've gotten this winter. I think we'll go out and play a little later, but here is a shot of him observing from inside.
Sorry your update is a little late this month, but I think having fun in Disney on your 23-month birthday is a pretty good excuse. You are growing and changing so much and I can hardly believe that next month you'll be two! I say it every time, but time just keeps flying by. You are still in size 4 diapers, but I think when these run out we will move you up to size 5. You wear 2T clothes.
You're doing great with walking and keep getting faster and faster. You still don't run, but Momma is okay with that. You did a ton of walking in Disney and also love going to the mall just to walk all around. You still can't climb up things and don't know how to go up or down stairs yet. When you get to stairs you will stop and either say, "Help" or "Ca". "Ca" is your word for "carry".
You talk quite a bit, but still don't say many words correctly or completely. You do lots of first syllables for words still. Some of your newer words are cool and wow. It's so funny to hear you say those. It's been so fun to hear you talk about our trip to Disney and tell people how you saw "Mou" (Mickey mouse), "Goo" (Goofy), "Pooh", and "Tig" (Tigger). You can't say an "f" sound, it comes out as "sh" every time.
You continue to amaze people with your knowledge of number, letters, and shapes. You can count to ten without any help and can also recite your alphabet with only a little help. Colors are probably your favorite because you point them out all the time. In fact, you like to walk up to strangers and tell them what color they are wearing. You are also really good at identifying and naming shapes.
You are still really liking trains right now. You enjoy playing with all your new Thomas stuff from Christmas. Your favorite Christmas gift though was your car ramp. Another Christmas gift that gets a lot of use is your IKEA table and chairs. You like to sit there and do puzzles or eat your snack. It's been really neat to see you start developing interest in certain things. You get so excited for certain things and will let out the loudest squeal. We heard that squeal so many times at Disney and it was absolutely priceless! You have also developed a new fondness for our pastor's daughter, Mackenzie. She's always helped out with you a lot Sunday mornings, but now you get so excited to see "Zie".
I mentioned in your previous update that you had started saying, "No". Now it usually comes out as a string of no's. It can been pretty frustrating at times to hear you saying "no no no" over and over again, but I just keep reminding myself that it's part of your increasing communication and that it's only a phase. You can also get pretty whiny so I'm hoping that's just a phase too.
Most of the time you are super sweet though. You were fantastic on our trip to Florida. It was our last flight with you as a lap baby and you were wonderful. You are almost always happy in the car and you also love your stroller. I'm so thankful you're such a happy little guy.
I've started working on your 2nd birthday party. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a construction theme and you'll have fun playing with all your friends. We are trying to get you to hold up two fingers instead of one now when someone asks how old you are, but haven't had success yet. We'll keep working on it!
Momma and Dada love you very much! We will especially remember this past month because of our trip to Disney. You are so much fun and we can't imagine our lives without you!
Love,
Momma
Brennan back at 22 months
Brennan yesterday - a few days over 23 months old
We were able to get a good picture before this happened:
We ended up only spending the morning at Animal Kingdom today. To say we were all tired from all the walking we've done this week would be a huge understatement. Spending 9-12 there today was plenty. It was a good low-key way to end our time in Disney. Not too many pictures of B-man today. Mainly just pictures Kyle took of the animals we saw, but there is a video of B at the end!
We first visited Africa and did the Kilimanjaro Safaris.
Next we rode a train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Brennan liked the train ride even though this picture doesn't capture that.
Once there, we went to a petting farm; The Affection Section. Brennan liked the goats and would've climbed right under the ropes if we would've let him.
Brennan was also able to visit with Rafiki!
Next we visited Asia and did the Maharajah Jungle Trek. B's favorite was the tigers. Good thing there was a glass wall there or else he would've joined the tigers in the jungle!
We did a little more walking, but then caught a bus back to our shuttle and returned to the resort. It was nice because Brennan got to nap at his regular time, so hopefully he will back on a normal schedule when we get home tomorrow.
Momma got to pick our dinner spot and I went with Steak-N-Shake. Yum! Brennan hasn't been eating much at meals lately, but I figured out the trick. Give the kid some cheese sauce to dip his food in and he's good to go. He did eat some of his grilled cheese and fries, but then just decided to use his sandwich as a vehicle for eating the cheese sauce. Check him out!
He's a goof!
I can't even begin to say how much fun this vacation has been. We know it'll probably be the last one we will get to do as a family for a while since Kyle is getting ready to go back to a sub in July. I wondered if B was too young to do Disney, but it has been perfect. I'm sure he's going to be talking about "mouse" for a long time to come. I know Kyle and I will never forget the memories we made during the past week!
Our plan was to head to Animal Kingdom this morning, but being the spontaneous people we are, changed our plans. When we woke up, the chance of thunderstorms had increased from 40% to 70% for the majority of the day. We knew we wanted to spend a good amount of time in Animal Kingdom, so with the chance of inclement weather, we decided to head to Epcot and, depending on the weather, maybe head back to the resort early.
We caught the 9am shuttle to Epcot.
It was perfect because large majority of the exhibits in Epcot don't open until 11am, but right inside the gate is a Meet and Greet with the characters that starts at 9am. The line wasn't bad at all and you get to see five characters, so we jumped in. After waiting only about 15 minutes we got to meet everyone. We weren't sure how Brennan would react, but he loved it. He wanted nothing to do with Momma and Dada and just ran right up to each character. When people told me their kids' first trip to Disney was priceless, this is what they were talking about. By far the highlight of our trip!
Brennan and Mickey:
Brennan and Pluto:
Minnie got a big hug!
Donald got a kiss!
Brennan and Goofy:
If you travel to Disney, I definitely recommend heading to Epcot early to do this Meet and Greet. I think the crowds were down since there was a chance of bad weather, but it's all indoors so rain wouldn't even matter.
Since the World Showcase part of Epcot wasn't open yet, we just walked a quick loop around and snapped a few more pictures of Brennan. I love the look of pure joy on his face!
The weather was still cooperating, so we took the Monorail back over to Magic Kingdom. Right inside the gate there was a Meet and Greet with Pooh and Tigger. The line was super short, so we decided to do it. Once again he loved these characters. I couldn't pick just one picture to share because they were all so cute!
After that we got to watch the parade again!
Then it was time to ride the Disney World Railroad!
After the train ride, Momma and Brennan rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while Dada grabbed himself a snack. It was starting to sprinkle a little after the ride and it was already passed B's lunch time, so we decided to eat at Pinocchio Village Haus. People had advised us to bring our own food into the park, but we did want to eat Disney food one day. This was the perfect spot because it's connected to It's a Small World. We were able to get a table next to the window and B was able to watch the boats from that ride.
As we finished up lunch, we realized it was raining harder. We entertained B a little longer inside the restaurant and then just hopped next door to It's a Small World. We had already ridden it on Monday, but Brennan loved it and today there was no line, so we went again. He loved it this time too! By the time the ride was over, the rain was done too! Then we headed to Adventureland to ride the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Mommy wanted to ride it since the Dumbo ride is currently under construction and this was the next closet thing.
After the ride, we just did a little more walking around and let Dada snap some more pictures.
Then it was time to catch the Monorail back to the shuttle and return to the resort so B could take a late nap. Once Brennan woke up, we headed to Downtown Disney (third day in a row) for dinner. Tonight we ate at T-Rex. It's a lot like The Rainforest Cafe, but with dinosaurs throughout. It was a very yummy dinner!
After dinner we had to grab some dessert from Ghirardelli!
Then it was back to the room for a bubble bath!
Brennan, how do you feel about tomorrow being our last day in Disney???
I agree! Hehe.
Once again we had a fabulous day. Even a little rain couldn't put a damper on it. I'll leave you with a video of B talking about our day. Sorry it's so dark.
