Mel-mo Slippers!

I found these slippers for a couple bucks at Once Upon A Child. Katelyn loved them, of course. :)

Another Train Party!

Brendan was excited to go to the train place, although I'm not sure that he remembered having it there last year. Picking out his favorites, Thomas with Annie & Clarabel

Katelyn enjoyed all the snacks that we had. :)

A Happy Birthday Boy!

23 Months

She's almost 2!

Happy 4th Birthday Brendan!

Height: Not sure - he wasn't the most cooperative at his doctor's appointment Weight: 32 pounds He's still wearing 3T clothes for the most part, but some of his pants are starting to look short and we have a few 4T shirts that don't look big on him. He's still a fairly picky eater, but will eat peas & broccoli, most fruits, cheese, macaroni & cheese, meatballs, and chicken. He LOVES his milk and probably drinks way too much. He's mostly given up his afternoon nap, except for the rare afternoon when he falls asleep while Katelyn naps and he gets to watch Curious George. He goes to bed very easily - usually falls asleep while reading/watching train videos before 8pm, but is also up bright and early, usually before 6am. Our rule is that we don't go downstairs (the dogs hear everything and will then want to get up, have breakfast & go outside) until the "6" stays on the digital clock. The other morning, Chris & I were groaning in bed when yet again, he has come into our room early. There was a 6 on the clock, I believe it was 5:46. After the clock moved to 5:47, we heard him say loud & clear..."That 6 didn't stay, Damn it!" We were both stunned and were probably both smiling in the dark, but had to tell him that that is not a nice thing to say and to not repeat it. :) We're mostly good on the day-time potty training, although we do have some bad days. Sometimes, it's hard to stop playing to take a potty break. :) We're not even talking about night time yet - he takes a sippy cup of milk upstairs and drinks that while we read stories, so I'm not hopeful that he'll be dry all night for awhile and that's OK. He knows all of his letters, can count to 29 (30 is "twenty-ten") and can read a couple words. He knows how to spell his name as well as Katelyn's. We recently had parent-teacher conferences at his preschool and Mrs. Johnson said that he is doing very well overall. He needs to work on his hand writing, as he doesn't hold the crayons correctly in either hand (He's still trying to decide right vs. left) and can not write any letters yet. I'm not overly concerned at this point. He will do Senior Preschool next year before moving onto Kindergarten when he's 5 1/2. We're trying to help him some at home, but if it's not playing trains, he's not interested. 100% boy! Trains are his number one obsession. If something is not a train, he will most likely pretend that it is one. He often runs through the kitchen/family room, "choo-choo"ing and singing Thomas the Tank Engine songs. He's not as into puzzles as he was when he turned 3, but still does them well when he sits down. We got him some legos for his birthday and he's showing some interest in those...the set had a train, so of course that was a hit. But he also likes to build bridges and tunnels for his engines. He is also going through a pretending phase. He is a kitty cat. :) He crawls around on all fours and meows at us. It's kinda cute...I scratch him behind the ears when he sits next to me. Pretty sure that his favorite color is blue (like Thomas) and his favorite number has moved from 3 to 4, although 5 is a close second because we've told him that he can have TrackMaster when he turns 5. (He's already asking when he will turn 5!)

Train Cake & More Presents

After a quick dinner, we had Mamaw & GrandBob as well as Uncle Rob, Aunt Jenny & Bobby over for some train cake and to open a few more presents.

In true 4 year old fashion, he opened his gifts in rapid time. :)

Uncle Rob, Aunt Jenny & Bobby gave Brendan a remote control car. Brendan had a hard time tearing himself away from his new trains, but Katelyn & Bobby were definitely intrigued as it chased them! (He has since of course come around and also enjoys getting chased by the car and is trying to learn to drive it as well!)

After a few minutes of playing, we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate some yummy cake & ice cream.

Presents!

We called Bisia & Grampy while Katelyn slept so he could open his presents from them. He was so good to wait most of the day! Of course, he got more trains that he loves!

Birthday Trip to the Children's Museum

We went to the Children's Museum with the kids & Mamaw to celebrate Brendan's birthday. We all had a really good time. :) Brendan of course now knows where all the trains are in the museum. So, we headed to Playscape after a brief tour of the Mr. Potato Head exhibit.

Of course, I seemed to have gotten more good pictures of Katelyn than of the birthday boy! Oops! :) After the museum we met GrandBob at Scotty's Lake House for some yummy burgers and fries.

Watching the Big Game

We crashed Mamaw & GrandBob's house to watch the Super Bowl and eat some pizza. The kids had a great time playing with Bobby while the grown ups watched the Giants beat the Patriots! Wahoo!