So I Don't Forget

I originally set up this blog so I could keep family and friends in far away places up-to-date with the goings on in Brandon's life. It's taken me a while but I finally realized I created this blog as much for me as for anyone else. This blog is like a diary - a baby book - of Brandon's beginnings. It's my hope to one day publish my posts (blurb.com is a great website for this) and keep them for myself. A scrapbook of sorts if you will. So in light of that, I want to share some "memorable" moments from the past few weeks.

1) It was just before Halloween that we had our first snowfall of the season in Calgary. It was not the first time Brandon had seen snow but it was the first time he used words upon seeing it. Having only a limited vocabulary, Brandon stepped outside, examined the white stuff and said to me "Mommy, it's bubbles!"

2) Speaking of stepping outside, every morning since around mid-October, Brandon says without fail "Mommy it's cold".

3) Brandon loves jewellery. Ever since he could pull himself to standing, he would grab my "fashion" jewellery and after playing with it, would hide it for safe keeping. Because of his love for jewellery I was always careful to keep my wedding rings out of his reach. Unfortunately ever since I was about 7 months pregnant, I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings. I keep them on a ring stand on my bedside table. I always thought this was out of Brandon's reach until one day I came upstairs to get ready for bed and saw they were gone! I knew instantly it was Brandon but I couldn't figure out how he got them. I also knew he must have put them in a "safe spot". I was frantic trying to find them. I asked Jamie if he noticed Brandon with anything and he remembered seeing Brandon throw something into his laundry hamper. We grabbed the hamper and sure enough, the rings were in there! The mystery of how he got them was solved the next day when I watched how he hoisted himself onto our bed using the foot rail and blankets for leverage.

4) Pictures taken by his day care provider Linda, show a happy boy who likes to hold hands and dance with his best friend Dakota (cute!)

5) Finally I weighed and measured Brandon on his 2nd birthday. He's 27 lbs and almost 34 inches tall!

6) Brandon loves to blow kisses and say "night, night" at bedtime.

7) My favourite thing in the whole world is to come home from work and hear his happy voice exclaim "Mommy! Mommy!"

Happy 2nd Birthday Brandon!

On Thursday Nov 10th my little boy turned 2! I was so excited for him because I knew he was going to have a fantastic birthday weekend.
His day started like any other. We got up, got dressed and headed over to Linda's house. It was a beautiful day and it reminded of the day he was born - blue skies with the sun shining. All of Brandon's friends were at Linda's that day, which was perfect, because Linda threw a little birthday party for him. She made him a "birthday boy" hat, brought in Crave cupcakes and had the kids sing "Happy Birthday" for him.

Once he got home from Linda's, Jamie and I did pretty much the same thing. We ordered in pizza, brought home Crave cupcakes (so good!), opened presents and accepted calls from family. It was a great night but the best was yet to come.

Friday was a holiday so we invited over a couple Brandon's friends to play in the morning. Dakota and Kahlan arrived around 9:30 and the kids played until around 11:00. We called them upstairs to sing "Happy Birthday" one last time and let them eat Crave cupcakes (seriously I don't have time to bake and I could never make a cupcake as good as Crave). After opening some wonderful gifts, the girls headed home and we went upstairs to pack. We were going to Banff!

I had booked us a one night stay at the beautiful Rimrock Hotel. Jamie and I had stayed there once before and knew they had a fantastic indoor pool that Brandon was sure to love. And love it he did! He had so much fun playing in the pool. Our timing was perfect because we were the only ones in there and he splashed his little heart out. His favourite was jumping off the pools edge into Daddy's arms. He would say "again, again"so we knew he was having fun. After the pool he surprised us by lounging in the hot tub. He seemed to really enjoy it (he gets that from his Mom!). When the swimming was done we headed back to our room to unwind for the night. We put Brandon under the covers of the big queen bed and let him watch "Toy Story 2" until his eyes grew heavy and it was time to sleep.

In the morning it was back to the pool, a wonderful buffet breakfast and then home to Calgary. We had such a nice trip and I think Brandon really enjoyed it. It definitely was a special weekend for my special little birthday boy. When you ask him how old he is he can tell you "two". It melts my heart and makes me feel proud. Mommy loves you sweet Bear!

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween Brandon was the cutest little Indiana Jones that I ever did see. I'd gotten the idea after visiting a costume shop. I had originally thought Brandon would make a cute Harry Potter but all the costumes were for kids around 5 years old. Hanging right beside the Harry Potter costumes though was an Indiana Jones hat and whip set. I couldn't resist so I scooped up the set and headed to the nearest used children's clothing store to find a jacket. I found the perfect one and the rest was easy. A white collared shirt and a pair of khakis and my little Indy was ready to go.

Brandon loved Halloween this year! Not only did he like wearing his costume (probably because of all the wonderful attention he got) but he also liked seeing all the other kids in their costumes too. Every time the door bell rang, Brandon would run screaming to the door because he was so excited to see them.
The evening was really mild so I decided to take him trick-or-treating. As soon as we left the house he spotted the glowing jack-o-lanterns and thought they were amazing. I told him "look at the spooky pumpkins Brandon" and then that's all he would say "Spooky pumpkins. Spooky pumpkins Mommy".

I took him first to the neighbours house beside us. We knocked on the door and when they opened up he walked right in started taking his jacket off! Ooops - sorry about my kid tracking dirty shoes into your house. Luckily they thought he was adorable and sent him on his way with lots of loot in his bucket.
At the next house, he tried to enter again but they managed to get the goodies into his bag before he got into their house. This caused him to pause and study the items they had just deposited for him. He was fascinated by all the fun stuff in his bucket.

At the last house we went to visit he was just mostly interested in the pumpkin they had glowing by their door. I decided that was enough trick-or-treating for the night and took my Dr. Jones home to bed.
He never ate one bite of candy but loved carrying his bucket of treasures around with him. Later when it was time for bed, I laid him down and told him I loved him. He said "Mommy?" and I replied "Yes Brandon?" "Night night Mommy" he said. Definitely a perfect end to a great night :)