Playtime

Here are just some fun shots from our recent adventures at play. We stayed for bounce at Tumbles last week and Brennan loved it, as usual! That week at Tumbles, he figured out how to hang with one hand on each bar on the even bar apparatus (previously, he hung with two hands on the same bar.) He was quite pleased with this discovery.

Here is our little monkey boy, hanging again, at Clemijontri Park, where we went to celebrate a friend's first birthday. Brennan enjoyed sliding and going on the see-saw with his Daddy. The wavy curves on this slide were a little challenging for Brian's long legs!

Yum... at the end of the party, Brennan was double-fisting it with lollipops!

My little jumping bean

Our neighbor's son has a little skateboard ramp that has become Brennan's favorite new outdoor toy to play with. He loves to jump off of it (well, he likes to jump off just about anything I let him.) When the neighbor's kids are in school, I will occasionally drag the ramp into our yard so Brennan can play with it. Here he is smiling and ready for a jump.

Not always a graceful landing, but he seems to prefer to land down, like this, instead of on his feet. He picks himself right back up and heads back for another jump. This circle of activity can go on for longer than you might expect.

Big Boy Room

With another baby on the way, we've been planning on moving Brennan into a new bedroom, so that the baby can have the nursery. This weekend, we finished transforming the guest room into Brennan's room. The new furniture, which was a gift from Brian's parents, arrived two weeks ago. My talented friend, Nikki Andrews, came to paint some artwork on Brennan's wall. I finished the room off with star-themed bedding and curtains from Pottery Barn Kids. It was really fun putting the room together and I think it turned out great!

Brennan was SO excited about the rocket ship and moon. While Nikki was painting, he kept peeking at her with a huge smile on his face. More than once he said, "so beautiful."

Brennan loves looking at the real moon and he was thrilled to have one on his wall.

Nikki incorporated a bunches of stars throughout the room to tie the theme together.

It's hard to see the detail on the lamp, but there are star cut-outs all over the base.

Normally after bath time, Brennan likes to dance and flop all over our bed, but tonight, he ran right into his new bed. I think he wanted to get to sleep in his new digs. He didn't fight me to get him lotioned, dressed or brushed. We read together and he seemed ready to kick us out of the room. I haven't heard a peep from him since we left him, so I hope he has sweet dreams tonight!

Tumbles Fun

Yesterday may have been our best day at Tumbles to date! Brennan usually has a tough time waiting in line for the activities and often doesn't do them because he refuses to wait - even if there is just one child ahead of him. I don't know if we just had a particularly good day, or if waiting in line has clicked with him, but he waited nicely in line for almost all of yesterday's exercises. Here he is doing a forward roll on the tumbling apparatus.

Brennan tried out the handstand station multiple times.

During free play, Brennan always enjoys holding onto the even bars and bouncing on the big "hot dog," for lack of a better term, which is directly behind him in the photo below. While bouncing, it's impossible to get a good shot, but I managed to catch him dangling from the bar before dropping down.

He spent most of swing time on the tire swing. Other kids came and went on it with him, but he stayed put and had fun.

Poop!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that Brennan has been napping without a diaper for the last 4-5 days, but what I failed to mention is that during this period, he also hasn't pooped. Normally, he has a bowel movement right after he wakes up from nap, so he had been using his diaper, but without a diaper, he was just holding it. Despite upping the reward for poop from a Hershey kiss to the bottom third of a Lindt Chocolate Snowman (and a Buzz Lightyear doll that Nana offered), he still hasn't been compelled to go. We bought a liquid suppository to help with the situation, but Brennan got really upset when we tried to use it. This morning, I woke up hoping he'd just come down with a dirty diaper - I just wanted it out of his system. No luck. So, I decided to be sneaky and use the suppository when I took his diaper off on the changing table. He didn't realize what I had done until it was too late! He was upset, but within a few minutes, was on the potty taking care of business. Afterwards, he was all smiles and said, "tushy medicine good! So happy!" Unfortunately, he's now been hinting at needing the "tushy medicine" to make a poop, which may be another hurdle to tackle, but at least he got that first big poop on the potty out of the way! Progress. Here he is enjoying his reward at 7 AM - so much for breakfast today, but I had to keep my promise!

Random Updates

Since my last update, my car failed inspection and required over $2K in repairs. Since the car was almost 10 years old, we decided not to go through with the repairs. With the failed inspection sticker on the car, we had two weeks to make a decision about what to buy and close a deal. Thankfully, my in-laws were coming into town during the last weekend of March, followed by my mom, who was coming for the week. Having grandparents in town allowed us to leave Brennan at home for long stints of time while we car shopped. We ended up getting a certified pre-owned 2010 Toyota RAV4.
Potty training has continued to go pretty well. Brennan has been in underwear for almost three weeks now while he is awake with minimal accidents. In the last 4 or 5 days, he has even been napping in underwear and waking up dry. The photo below was taken on our first two-stop trip in underwear. We had gone to story time at the library and then headed to the mall to meet friends for lunch. I carry a portable potty seat with us that Brennan is comfortable using when out in public.
Brennan had gone through a little stint of fear with the mall train, but seemed to get over that this week with my mom. Before riding the train, we took a ride on the carousel, which he usually really enjoys. Normally, his favorite is the black horse. This time, he didn't want to get on a horse. I tried to convince him, but he insisted on riding in the spinning tea cup. I decided to let him give it a try. He loved it!

After a dismal day of pouring rain yesterday, we were happy to see the sun out today, even if it was a little chilly out. We bundled up and enjoyed some fresh air. Brennan loaded up his wagon with balls, hopped in and said, "take walk!" And we did! My dad drove down yesterday to pick my mom up and they left today. Brennan was spoiled getting so much time with Papa, Grammy, Nana and Baba over the last 10 days... it's going to be a little adjustment for him to be back with just me :)