Weathering the Storm

Thankfully, Hurricane Sandy didn't turn out to be too much of an event for us in Northern VA. School was closed for two days though and with cold, wet weather, we found ourselves inside quite a bit.  On Monday morning, we brought in our pumpkins and did a little carving.  I was very impressed with Brennan's ability to clean the inside of a pumpkin out.  It took him a while, but he separated the seeds from the stingy pulp and did a pretty good job.

Obviously, I did the carving part, but he designed what he wanted the faces to look like on the white board and I tried to replicate it (to some degree) on the pumpkin.

To keep Tyler entertained while we worked on the pumpkins, I turned on some music and let T dance.  He loves bopping around and will spin, clap and do wheels on the bus when that song comes on.  I tried to get a video, but all he wanted to do was stop dancing and run straight for the camera anytime it was in my hand.

We actually did try to go for an outing yesterday before the storm hit.  We planned to have lunch with friends at the mall, but that didn't work out because just as we arrived at the mall, we found out that it was closing at 1 pm.  So, we hit the drive through and went to our friend's house for a couple of hours instead.  Given that bust of an outing yesterday, I decided to stick close to the house today.  We did laundry this afternoon, which involves tossing all the dirty clothes downstairs - a task that both boys are pretty helpful with.  Brennan always like to roll around in the pile of clothing before it goes into the washing machine, and lately, piles clothes all over T.  Tyler didn't know what was coming for him in the photo below.   In truth, the boys are playing pretty nicely together these days!  Brennan has been quite helpful with little T and I do appreciate that!

Pumpkinville

Every fall, Brennan's preschool does a field trip to Pumpkinville in Leesburg.  We went on Thursday and had a nice time.  It was fun to see the turkey strutting around.  It was a pretty calm bird and came right up to our stroller so Tyler could check him out!

I knew it was going to be a dirty kind of day, so when Tyler had enough of the stroller, I let him roam.  He just walked around, checking out other people and small kids while Brennan went on bounce slide after bounce slide.  It was a very quiet day at Pumpkinville, so there was almost no lines and it was very easy to keep an eye on Brennan from a distance.

I remembered this elevated pirate ship from last year because it had been hard for Brennan to climb up.  What a difference a year makes!  Brennan cruised right up with no issues at all.

We took two trips around on the hayride, which was a chance to rest. After the hayride, we had lunch with a friend from Brennan's class and then headed home.  Although Pumpkinville isn't the most exciting fall festival in the area, the kids definitively enjoyed themselves!

Weekend in Pittsburgh

Last Thursday, we headed to Pittsburgh to visit two sets of friends: the McGees and the Sunwabes.  We hadn't seen the McGees since I was pregnant with Tyler, so it was nice to get a little visit in with them!  Friday night is movie night at their house and we watched Mary Poppins.  Since then, Brennan has been asking me to speak like Mary Poppins with a British accent.  Sara and Kenny - thanks for having us!!

On Saturday morning, we headed over to meet baby Lenny!  Here are the cousins.  Brennan loved Lenny and wanted to hold and kiss him.

Tyler was quite intrigued by the baby as well.  He tried giving him one of his own pacifiers, pushing him in the swing and, as you can see below, he tried playing peek-a-boo with Lenny.  Unfortunately, in his excitement to see the baby, he also once hit Lenny pretty hard in the face, but thankfully, Lenny didn't get upset and neither did Paul and Ernestine!  Yikes!  It was horrifying and hysterical all at the same time.

Here is the sweet little guy.

We managed to sneak in a short visit to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, which was awesome!  They had this cool wall that was kind of like a hamster run.  It was fully enclosed, but allowed kids to climb up two full stories.  Brennan had a blast.

The entire place was very visually appealing.  The picture below captures just one part of one room in this highly entertaining spot!  There were so many cool contraptions to climb, spin, build and explore different cause and effects.  I'm wondering if the Children's Museum in Baltimore is like this.  If so, we will have to plan to make a day trip this winter!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It was my mother in law's 60th Birthday on Tuesday.  Gary, Caryl, Philip and Kerry came down to celebrate with dinner at Maggianos on Friday night.

 Brennan helped Grandma blow out her birthday candles.

Kerry and Philip brought their dogs, Stella and Otis.  It was fun having the dogs here.  Otis is a such a friendly guy, but Stella has a little more attitude and she did not take to Brian!  Anytime she saw him, she growled at him and even took a nip at his hand.  Stella started warming up to Brian by the day they were leaving.  Hopefully she'll remember him at Christmas time so we won't have to separate them!

Both dogs were very gentle with Tyler.  He was fearless with them and went right up to them.  Although they sometimes overwhelmed him by getting in his face and licking him simultaneously, he rolled with it and loved playing with them!  Brennan enjoyed them both as well, but liked Otis' easy going personality best!

Tyler's 15 Month Stats

I took Tyler for his 15 month checkup on Tuesday. He weighed 23 lb 4 oz (30%) and was 33 inches long (90%.)   He got three shots (two boosters and the flu shot.)  He seems to be on target with his milestones - saying a few words: Mama, Dada, Uh-oh, Hi and Woof. Well, the woof sounds more like "fff," but he says it every time he turns to the dog page in the brown bear book. He waves hi and bye and attempts to feed himself with a fork and spoon. He also tries to wash his own hair in the tub, use his toothbrush and rub lotion on himself.  He likes reading and will pick a book off the shelf and hand it to me to read to him.  One of his favorites is Miss Lucy.  If I start singing the words, he gets a huge grin on his face and immediately starts to look for the book.

I taped some paper to the floor this week to see if he would have any interest in coloring and he definitely did.  He scribbled for a while and then we turned on some music and he started dancing.  Tyler is definitely flirting with the idea of going to one nap a day, although the nap he seems to want to drop is his afternoon one, which seems to be the opposite of what other kids do!  He is definitely growing up and changing a lot.

Playtime

Over the weekend, we got together with Brennan's friend Carter at a local playground.  The last time we went to this playground, Tyler was just on the brink of walking, but not quite there yet.  So, it wasn't a very enjoyable experience for him, since he was pretty much stuck in the stroller - or getting his hands covered in mulch, neither of which seemed appealing to him!  This time, he was up for exploring.

Last time, he seemed really frightened of the swing, but this time, he was all smiles.  Tyler often does this smile, where he throws his head back, but I have never caught it on camera.  He started doing it around the time he started using the jumperoo and its so cute.  I sort of got it in the photo below.

There's that sweet smiling face.

Carter is a middle child, with a brother in first grade and a 9 month old baby sister.  He is always trying to help his mom with his sister and likewise, is very sweet with Tyler.  While Brennan ran wild around the playground, Carter was patiently sitting with Tyler, encouraging him to go down the slide.  It actually was quite good because after going up and down the slide a couple of times with Carter, Tyler lost his fear and started climbing up and sliding down on his own.  He also started bringing his water bottle up with him, throwing it down and saying, "uh-oh."

Brennan took his power wheels truck out for a spin this week with Tyler as a passenger.  It was Tyler's first ride in the truck and he seemed to like it!  Tyler has been taking a couple of test rides on the toddler-sized power wheels quad.  Although he is still a little nervous on it, he doesn't seem to be afraid of it, like Brennan was at this age.  I think he'll be cruising on it in no time!

Slow News Week

A little over a week ago, the hard drive on my laptop crashed.  Thankfully, I still had 90 days on my warranty, so Dell replaced the hard drive for free (well, for the cost of the warranty that was paid for long ago!)  Brian installed the new hard drive, but I'm still waiting for him to complete a few things, so my computer isn't fully functioning yet.  It's been such an impediment to me to blog, since I don't have my software to fix my photos.  I don't like posting red-eye!  But, it's been a while since I put a post out, so I am just going with what I have.  Overall, it's been a slow couple of weeks from a news perspective, so you haven't missed out on much!

Tyler has been playing with his toys in new ways now.  He goes right for the toy chest, digging through until he finds what he wants.  He puts objects into things, like his little car, displayed above.  He's starting to hide balls and other small toys in the little hood compartment.  I remember when Brennan was in this phase.  Anytime we were missing something, we'd have to check all the little compartments in toys.  Tyler is also doing a lot of imitating.  He dials the phone and then holds it to his ear.  He rubs his hands together when he sees us washing our hands.  And, he'll go up to a bottle of lotion, put his hand near the pump and then rub his hands together, like he's rubbing lotion into his hands.  He also claps, waves and does high-five.

Brennan has been helping me a little more these days.  Here, he was working on cleaning up his costumes and stopped to pose for a picture.  I have assigned two regular chores to Brennan: to open and close the blinds in the morning and evening, and to put away the clean silverware from the dishwasher.  He is doing pretty well and completes these tasks about 80% of the time.

I don't think I ever posted it on the blog, but we got a new Beta fish a couple of months ago.  His name is Sharkie.

I am still amazed by this praying mantis that was sitting on the window sill of our bay window.  I don't know if I had ever seen one before.  I saw it on my way out to pick Brennan up from school and was so happy that it was still sitting there when we got home.  Brennan got to check it out and I managed to get a few photos!