How we began our day

This was the first thing that Brendan did this morning- crawl under his crib to play with his trains and track. And I really do mean the very fist thing. As soon as I took him out and set him down he was under his crib in about 2 seconds.

Usually Brendan can’t wait for breakfast so this was a strange turn of events. I couldn’t get him to come out from there even with a bribe of pancakes (his favorite breakfast food, which he calls just “cakes”).

That just shows you how much Brendan loves playing with his Thomas trains. He’s getting better at saying “Thomas” and now it sounds more like “Tommy”, which I think is pretty cute.

He spent about half an hour this morning playing under his crib and it was a nice quiet start to the day. I just wish our day had continued to be so quiet and mellow. Instead we had a fun day of running errands all over town and Brendan had a meltdown at Target and the library (twice). Of course. At least now we are enjoying some freshly baked pumpkin bread and some quiet time watching an episode of, you guessed it, Thomas the Tank Engine.

HAPPY "V" DAY!

Today is a Valerie's birthday. I think she'll be more surprised to see me posting here of my own volition than by any of the gifts Brendan and I got her.

This has been a pretty busy and exciting year for Valerie. She kick started it by driving 2500 miles across the country in a 17' moving truck with a car in tow and a baby on board. She lived in Berlin, NH ("The town that paper built") where she enjoyed views of burning houses and snow to the rooftops. Four months later she loaded up the car and some trucks and moved again (Brendan and I helped a little). This time only about a mile and a half. And this time the house didn't smell like cigarettes, but it was full of all sorts of bugs and spiders (Valerie's worst fear). In the mean time, she made some good friends and found out that we were moving yet again. This time there were movers that packed and did all the work, but a move is a move and it's never really fun. Now we live in the complete opposite environment than we did in Berlin. We enjoy tons of traffic, tons of people, stores open past 5pm, more shopping choices than Walmart, etc. The only problem now is that I have the car all day while Valerie and Brendan are trapped at home wishing they could go out and see all the stores, parks, and other great places they've heard about. Hopefully that will be resolved soon (It's a surprise, but I'm building Valerie and Brendan a car out of some scrap wood and an old mattress I found behind our house).

Other notable events from Valerie's past year include reading over 80 books (possibly 90 by the time this is published), speaking in church three times, becoming an "expert" in Rockband, driving up Mt. Washington (tallest mountain in New England and home to the most extreme weather in the world), driving down Mt. Washington, drawing a picture of Brendan pooping, per his request (not joking, good picture too. Stink lines and everything), killing a spider all by herself, selling some of her cool, homemade crafts/accessories, voting over 1000 times for Adam Lambert to win on Idol (just kidding!), and encouraging me to change my clothes more often; among other things.

All in all, the past year has been eventful. Valerie has been a little trooper when things have been difficult and has been a sweet mother and has made life in general much better and much more fun than it otherwise would have been. For that, as Valerie's big gift this year I'm going to try to not get another job and not have us move for at least 11 months.

I want the whole blogosphere to know that Valerie is my BFF and I love her. Just like Edward loves the girl in Twilight. I forgot her name, but she's the "moody" one.

Chris the Hiss- out

Our First Visit to Washington DC

The weather was absolutely beautiful today and it couldn’t have been a nicer day to head into our nation’s capital. We spent the morning doing all sorts of tourist type stuff and it was nice to get to see so many iconic sites in person.

The Lincoln Memorial was our first stop and I was quite impressed with how quiet and respectful it was there considering how many people were coming in and out. Even Brendan was quiet, which is a small miracle in and of itself.

Chris looking angry and Brendan looking at the duck instead of the camera. We ended up taking a break from picture taking to feed the duck (luckily I had a sandwich in my bag) and then Take 2…

Much better!

The Vietnam War Memorial and some fall leaves. It’s amazing to see just how many names are on that wall.

The Washington Monument is much bigger than I thought it would be and it’s the first thing that we saw driving into the city. It was so cool.

We didn’t actually get a chance to visit the Jefferson Memorial but at least we could see it across the river. That’s definitely on our list to go to on our next visit.

It was a busy day and we ended up leaving a little earlier than planned since Brendan was a little cranky and tired, but we’ll definitely be going back soon. I can’t wait to explore some more.

I hope this entices all of our family and friends to start planning a trip to come and visit us soon!

What we made

Last night for FHE, we made bird feeders out of a milk jug and soda bottle. They’re not the prettiest things ever but it was a good activity for Brendan and he enjoyed every minute of it.

He was a great little helper and poured in the seeds for both feeders all by himself (mostly). He made a small mess by spilling some of the seeds but when does he not make a mess? That’s normal for our house.

He’s my artist-in-training, my mini Picasso. And now his works of art are hanging in our backyard from a tree and they are patiently waiting for the birds. We checked off and on all day but never saw a bird near them. We’re hoping that the birds figure it out soon and we’re really hoping to attract some cardinals but even if no birds come and use it, it was fun making them together as a family.

A Spook-tacular Night

I think Brendan’s favorite part of Halloween is getting to scare people. He got these awesome vampire teeth from our ward’s Trunk or Treat and loved them immediately and proceeded to try to scare as many other kids as possible.

Brendan was supposed to be a Greaser ala The Outsiders but I don’t think many people got it. Instead most everyone that he was Elvis. Oh well. We thought it was a good idea.

My favorite part was the sideburns! Brendan didn’t like the process of me coloring them on him but it was all worth it in the end.

As mentioned before, we attended our ward’s Trunk or Treat and Brendan has a blast running around and getting candy. It was a good warm up for saying “trick-or-treat” for my speech-delayed darling as well. He wore himself out and had to take a juice break on the couch.

Tonight we made the rounds in our neighborhood and Brendan loved it. The weather was super warm and if it weren’t for the on and off again drizzling rain it would have been perfect.  Brendan only got scared a couple of times by some kids’ masks but other than that, it was pure fun for him. He got a good stash of candy, which Chris and I are excited about since Brendan doesn’t like sweets very much.

A happy boy enjoying his spoils from the night.

Now I’m just hoping that we can get him to calm down enough to go to sleep at a reasonable time.

Nothing Much

I’ve got a little boy with a slight fever today so we’re taking it easy. Lots of playing and little work getting done around here. I’m just hoping that he’ll be feeling better for tomorrow’s Trick-or-Treating. Chris and I need some sweets!

Believe It or Not

A couple of months ago Chris and I picked up a hot air popcorn popper at the local thrift shop for only $1, which made me very happy since I have fond memories of eating freshly popped popcorn throughout my childhood.

We took home our awesome $1 popper and proceeded to use it that very night. And that’s when we found out that it’s a super powered hot air popper that shoots popcorn and kernels at such amazingly fast speeds that the they ricochet out of the bowl. We ended up with about half of the popcorn on the counter and floor. This is not normal but, hey, we figured it was only $1 so we can deal with a crazy popcorn popper. We’ve used it a few times since.

Yesterday after church, we needed a snack so I pulled the popper and started to make some popcorn. Now, Brendan loves the popper because it’s crazy and shoots popcorn all over the place. He thinks it’s hilarious and even pulls up a chair so he can see what’s going on better. This is what he did yesterday.

And so he was in the perfect spot for a blistering hot unpopped kernel to shoot down into his shirt, which proceeded to burn him quite badly. I could tell by his screaming and crying that it was serious. This is what we saw when we finally got his shirt off of him.

Chris looked up the stats online about popcorn and discovered that popcorn pops at the temperature of 212 degrees but often the unpopped  kernels are hotter. You see, what makes popcorn pop is moisture in the kernel that gets heated up and causes the kernel to burst. But in some kernels the moisture is gone so they never pop. Instead they just get hotter and hotter during the popping process. I think Brendan got one of the extremely hot kernels that didn’t have any moisture in it because his skin blistered up right away – which is a second degree burn.

My poor little boy! I seriously find it hard to believe that a little popcorn kernel did this and I saw it happen. It continued to burn him down his chest and the side of his stomach (where it was trapped in his shirt) although they are not quite as bad as this one.

Luckily he bounced back pretty quickly once we loaded him up with some pain reliever.  He even ate some of the popcorn once he calmed down.