Christmas in the Park

A few weeks ago, we joined some friends and their kids (all boys!) for dinner and a lap at Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose. After years of driving by the festivities during the daytime, I figured with Brody around, it might be a little more fun this year seeing things through the eyes of a child. Okay, so he might not exactly be old enough to remember things, but it was definitely fun.

Brady and Logan before the mini-donuts!

San Jose State Christmas Tree

Aside from the dinner on Brody's face,
I think that this shot is priceless...seeing "snow" for the first time.

Our fam...keeping warm on a COLD night!

My Little Helper

Brody loves to play with his toys. Right now, he seems to love anything that has wheels, books with flaps (he's now started tearing the flaps out of all of his books), his stuffed Winnie the Pooh (he actually mauls it...it's quite funny!), and balls (he's got a good throw down...well, not really). But, he will drop all toys whenever he sees me coming with the LAUNDRY BASKET!!! Yes, can you believe it? While he is fascinated with the basket itself, he's much more interested in what's inside the basket. See for yourself the progression of how laundry gets finished up in our house:

What have we got here? Mom's purple sweatshirt!


Cool, and something else that
has sleeves!


Come on, I can get it out of the
basket!


On second thought, why don't I just
pull everything out?


Wait, there's still more!


Ah, the look of satisfaction!

Now, if only I could teach Brody how to FOLD clothes... :-)

Thanksgiving in the Desert

Brody's first Thanksgiving was spent in beautiful Arizona. We stayed at my folks' place in Surprise, AZ, and then drove up to Anthem, AZ to visit with Brody's cousin, Carys, Aunt Alissa, Uncle Ryan, and to have a wonderful turkey dinner at Grandma B's. Aunt Beverly from Virginia was also visiting, so we all had a great time as a family this year on Turkey Day. Brody tried turkey for the first time (wasn't too interested), and mashed potatoes (definitely NOT a favorite of his). Perhaps his favorite things to do this trip were hanging out with Carys, playing with golf balls at Grandma B's house, and tossing around my mother's ceramic pumpkins. Yes, he actually "tossed" one, and sure enough, it broke!

With Grandma B, Carys, and Aunt Beverly at PF Chang's

Playing peek-a-boo in Carys' tent

Carys finishing another masterpiece drawing

Brody having fun on the putting green at Grandma B's

Carys and Brody dancing in the kitchen after dinner

Playing with Grandpa

Hmm...what else can I break?

Perhaps Brody will actually want to help
with the dishes in the future!

Brody's First Haircut

Brody was born with a full head of hair. Most of it fell out save for a chunk of it in the very front. A few times, I actually took some baby scissors to Brody's mane and tried to clean things up a bit. Well, we were finally at the point where I really couldn't do that anymore. Honestly, do you really think a 9 month old is going to let you anywhere near him with a pair of adult scissors? I think not!

So, this morning I decided that it was time for Brody's first haircut. We found a place that specialized in cuts for kids, but what I neglected to do was research prices. Who knew that it would cost $17 for a baby's first haircut! Yikes! I even researched the infomercial product "Flowbee" - you know, the thing that you connect to your vacuum that has attachments and you actually cut your hair that way? Um...well after I saw what the product actually looked like and saw how much they were going for on E-bay (can you believe that people were going to pay $100 for one of those things!), I thought I would suck it up (no pun intended) and go to a kid's salon just to watch someone else cut off my little guys lovely locks.

The before picture is above. Here are some of the "during" shots:


Brody in his "ride"


Hmm..Not too sure about this


Okay, that tickles!


Is she going to cut off my ear?


Okay, ready to go!


All done! Don't I look handsome?

And He's Off!!!

That's right...BRODY IS WALKING!!! Yes, he's 9 months old, and yes it seems early, but this little guy does not want to stay still!!! He had been cruising around the furniture for quite awhile, and then finally started letting go to take a few steps toward the end of October. Then, about a week and a half ago, he finally started getting the hang of it, and now he's off! He can get go almost the entire length of our living room before he ends up on his bottom, but then he gets right back up....again and again...over and over. He's kind of like the Energizer Bunny. Very determined. We're so proud of our little guy.

Road Trip to Rocklin!

This past weekend, Brody and I joined our friends Shona & Taylor, and Vanessa & Luana on a road trip to Rocklin, CA! Brody's friend Callie turned one last week, so we thought we'd pack up the car, pack up the kids and head out on a Mommy & Me day trip. Callie's mom, Julie, lived in San Jose and attended our Mom's Group until this past summer when she and her family moved to Rocklin. We miss her lots, but we are happy that there are only a couple of hours separating us by car. I think that there will definitely be more road trips in the future...especially now that Julie is expecting baby #2!

Happy Birthday Callie Jane!


Party Animals: Luana, Taylor & Brody

Trick or Treat!

A belated Happy Halloween from our Little Stinker! Brody dressed up as a skunk for his very first Halloween. He seemed amused by the costume, and I was even more amused that he managed to keep the headpiece/hat part of it on for the majority of our time at a local Halloween Parade for toddlers! I joined my friend Stephanie and her little bunny rabbit, Hattie, for a stroll down Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen so the little ones could experience their first Halloween and see other kids in costumes. Brody definitely enjoyed seeing lots of other kids (he just can't stop STARING at everyone!), and he especially liked picking candy out of candy buckets at the shops along the street. We kept telling all of the shop owners that the candy was for daddy's emergency candy fund!

Here are some of our fun Halloween moments:

Yummy...I wonder if I can eat the whole thing!

Maybe I shouldn't be playing with mommy's ghost necklace.

Miss Hattie as the cutest bunny ever!

Our Little Stinker!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I celebrated my 31st birthday. The celebration actually began over the weekend with a celebratory dinner at La Fondue...just me and Mike! We even got dressed up for the occasion and Grandma Linda was kind enough to come up to babysit the little guy. La Fondue is AMAZING...a full four course fondue meal with cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and the always spectacular chocolate fondue. Yum Yum! We even opened up a bottle of wine from our New Zealand honeymoon. It was definitely a wonderful evening. Perhaps we need to have date nights more often!

On Monday, Mike was kind enough to let me sleep in. I can't remember the last time I actually slept past 8:00am...probably before I got pregnant in the spring of 2007! Mike took the day off of work, so we packed up the car and headed over to Half Moon Bay for lunch at the Moss Beach Distillery. We actually went here for my birthday dinner about 5 years ago, so it was fun to revisit, enjoy lunch and experience everything with Brody this time around.

After a walk around the Ritz Carlton (such an amazing place!), so decided to head home. We made a special stop at the Lemos Farm Pumpkin Patch so that Brody could experience a pumpkin patch with both mommy and daddy. There was lots to see and do at this pumpkin patch. Here are some photos from our afternoon:

9 Months Old and LOTS of Boogers!

Brody is 9 months old today!

I wish I could say that we celebrated with a trip to the park or with some fun playtime with Porter, but nope. Little man Brody celebrated this milestone with a cold. This is Brody's second cold in the course of a month, and wouldn't you know he just had to share it with Mommy. I've got the sniffles too, but at least I'm old enough to know that green boogers are not that attractive and should be wiped away immediately. Poor Brody doesn't like us trying to clean up after his never ending stream of snot.

We did manage to get out of the house for Brody's visit to the doctor for his 9 month check up. He now weighs 19lbs 7oz and is 29 1/4" long. Basically he's long and lean (just like mommy and daddy were pre-baby!). Brody also has two teeth and we think that the top two teeth will be making their debut shortly.

Aside from his growth, Brody is now cruising the furniture at home. He's even successfully released his grip from the couch for a few seconds to take a step, but then he usually ends up on his bottom. I think that he'll be walking by Thanksgiving for sure. My guess is that once he starts walking, he'll be RUNNING in no time. Thank goodness I'm no longer in my back brace...perhaps I'll be able to keep up with him!

More Firsts...

First Trip to the Beach - I took Brody down to Laguna Beach so that he could experience he first trip to the ocean. Yes, we've driven over the hill to Santa Cruz, but we didn't actually go down to the water's edge. Brody started with the sand at the beach playground and really enjoyed the swings. Then, we headed down to the water. He LOVED the water (even though mommy thought it was a bit chilly) but didn't seem to enjoy the sand that ended up everywhere...including in his diaper.










First Trip to the Pumpkin Patch - Grandma Linda and Auntie Amy joined us as we traveled to the Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch. Growing up, I remember going to Irvine Park for Girl Scout events (I think that this is where I got bucked off a horse!), and then spent some fun times there in high school before graduation. Brody got to see the ponies, the old Irvine Park Train, his first Haunted House, and seemed to enjoy picking out a pumpkin. This was a perfect introduction to one of my favorite holidays!