Zooming Around

Brian took Friday off to clean the garage and to continue studying for his Microsoft Certification upgrade. That gave Brennan a little extra daddy time in the morning before heading to Ana's for the day. I caught this great shot of them watching a Baby Einstein video together.

Brennan is all about walking around with his walking toys. Every time I turn my head, he is up and walking. He's become quite good at doing laps around the house and knows how to correct himself if he runs into the wall or corner with the toy. Brian likes to "chase" him, as you can see in the picture above, and that just gets Brennan going... and fast!

New Skills

Brennan has starting doing a lot of new things lately. I can't believe it, it seems like he is turning into such a big boy over night. Here are some of his neat new skills:

1 - When you say Pelo (hair in Spanish) or Boca (mouth), he touches his hair or mouth, respectively. (His daycare provider, Ana, has been teaching him some Spanish.)

2 - When he sees Elmo he says Emmo... wow!!

3 - He points to books and balls and say "ba" type sounds

4 - He knows what to do with a comb and tries to comb his own hair. If he can get his hands on my brush, he tries to brush my hair too.

5 - He knows how to fill his bath toys with water and then squeeze the water out of them.

6 - He figured out how to put the top and bottom of his nesting barrels together (see the video clip below.) He also likes to put the top back on the jar of Vaseline by himself after I grease him down after his bath.

Father's Day Weekend

Brennan and I started off Saturday with a visit to see Shana and Spencer. Shana and I have been trying to get together for months now, but often have scheduling conflicts. Spencer is about 6 weeks younger than Brennan. Even though they are too young to really "play together," they definitely were aware of each other. We had a really nice visit. While we were there, Brian was in Alexandria taking a certification exam. After leaving Shana's, Brian was still in Alexandria, so we decided to head over and meet him. We got ice cream at our favorite little place in Old Town, named Scoop, and walked around the waterfront. It was a great afternoon.

This Sunday, we finally did Brennan's baby dedication. We had wanted to do it earlier, but then never picked a date. I was starting to think we might never get to it, but then our pastor contacted us about planning the dedication for this Sunday, along with his 3 month old daughter and another couple who has a 5 month old son. All my pictures came out dark and a little grainy, and I wasn't able to correct the red-eye, but I wanted to share at least one with you here.

After church, we had lunch with our friends Jill and Olivia and then headed home for laundry (me) and the gym (Brian.) Brennan and I spent some time outside. He was being so funny and cute. He kept laughing and going after my camera. It's been a while since I posted a video of his laughter, so I got this quick little video to share with you.

Little Man on a Mission

I am finally sitting down to post about our fun from last weekend. Brennan really took off with his walking toys. I tried to get a good video, but Brian was busy studying for an upcoming certification exam, so I had to try to position Brennan and then run into place with the camera in time to get a good shot. It didn't go so well, but this was the best of what I got. I will try to get a better video of the little guy in action this weekend.

Brennan basically did laps around house with the walking toy, going from the kitchen though the front hallway, to the living room, dining room, and back to the kitchen. He would just give an irritated grunt whenever he got stuck in a corner or hit a wall. I am working on teaching him how to back out of a corner on his own.

We bought a baby carrying backpack from a friend of mine who was going to post it on Craig's List. At first, Brennan was a little nervous at first being up so high, but then seemed to really like it. The only problem was that it was a very hot afternoon, so we didn't get too far with our walk. Just enough to test it out though. Maybe we'll have a chance to put it to better use this weekend.

First Birthday Party Fun

Mariah's twin girls, Olivia and Avery (above, left and right), turned 1 this week. We went up to Long Island last weekend to celebrate with them. I was so happy to see the girls and Mariah, since it had been six months since our last visit. The girls are walking now, it's so fun to watch them. At the party, we got to meet two other friends' kids - 1 year old Brooke and 5 month old Emily. Brennan was the only boy among 4 baby girls, so he was just in heaven. Mariah and Howie's house if full of toys, many of which we don't have, such as a pink horse (go figure!), so Brennan had a ball playing with them. His favorite was a house toy, where he is pictured below with Olivia. Each part of the house made a noise (the door bell, light switch, window opening/closing, mailbox opening/closing, etc.) He couldn't get enough of this toy. I think the only thing he found to be more entertaining was Maui, Mariah and Howie's dog!

By the time it was time for cake, the little guy was overdue for a nap and could hardly muster a smile for me in his butterfly party hat. He was ready to go down....

After sleeping for a bit, he was energized and tore into his fun goody bag! Mariah and Howie, thanks for hosting such a fun party!