2 1/2 years old and Christmas

1st snow fall of the year
Brecken looking at a toy catalog. He got up on the counter himself and this is how I found him.

Fall - Halloween

Happy Halloween! Brecken looks old when I see his Halloween pictures. He seems to look more like a boy then a toddler….good maybe we are close to having the terrible twos over with!! Brecken still has his moments, but now is acting more like a child and not a toddler. He can communicate wonderfully and you understand almost everything now. He sings the alphabet, counts to 20, talks in Spanish, knows his shapes, and some colors. We are going to enroll him in a soccer league starting in November. He needs to burn some of the energy he has. I wish he could pass it onto me.

Brecken at the Ramsey fire station

My First Twins Game

Kelli, Beth, Brecken, and I went to the MN Twins game on 9/4/10. Brecken enjoyed watching the Twins' bear. He kept asking me where it was when he couldn’t find the bear. He didn’t nap that afternoon, so we could only stay for a little bit. It was still fun to take him the stadium the first year it opened!!

Summer is done, almost fall

Brecken enjoyed his summer and this weekend we are going to the fair to end the summer on a great note. Mike built Brecken a bed and he loves it. We call it “Brecken’s House” and he thinks it is so fun to have everyone including Calla sit under his bed in Brecken’s house. Brecken now goes potty at daycare, he can count to 15, count to 10 in Spanish, sings the alphabet, he sings a lot of songs. He is quite a talker and a really loud one at that. We have mastered bed time again in our new home, so Brecken now goes right to bed and wakes up around 6:45 am on the weekday, later on the weekends if we are lucky! Mike and I have been doing a lot of house work…paining 5 rooms, planting shrubs, taking care of the pool, cleaning and organizing the house. We are so happy to have our new place!!!!

Potty Training….

In the last few weeks we have started potty training. Brecken has taken to potty training extremely well. I made a potty chart and he places stickers on the chart. This seems to work really well and he gets so excited for the stickers. He sometimes contemplates which sticker to pick for a minute or so. It is super cute. So far he has chosen all the stickers with sports balls on them…not surprising. This weekend he also did a #2 on the toilet…TMI!! As far as the move it has been wonderful, but Brecken is still having a hard time adjusting to his new BIG room. I have started putting a gate up in is doorway, so he cannot come out anymore whenever he chooses. This seems to be working.

Almost time to move!

We have been staying busy this summer with taking Brecken to beach, park, cabin, swimming, movies, and biking. Brecken can now count to 10, but he doesn’t do it all the time. He normally goes to 4 or 6. Today when two motorcycles passed us he said 2 cycles, which blew my mind. I cannot believe a two year old understands that. He loves motorcycles due to Papa Friese’s Harley. The terrible twos have hit hard and Brecken favorite word right now is “no.” We cannot wait to move into our new place and see how Brecken and Calla too both adjust to have a ton of room to play. Brecken will also be starting a new daycare on August 18^th…it is a home daycare, but the owner is the nicest person I have ever met and she is very into prayer and has a toddler/preschool curriculum.

June & 4th of July

Summer has been busy for us this year. We found a house and move into it at the end of July. The 4th of July was a great time at the cabin (JIV). Brecken got much more daring in the water this year. He is really into fishing and anytime he see water he asks for his fishing pole.

2nd Birthday Party & Memorial Weekend!

Brecken’s 2nd birthday party was a blast. The weather was perfect. Brecken was jumping off the side of the pool into my arms, over and over again. Mom was tried! He got a lot of neat gifts (Basketball hoop, sandbox, shoes, golf club, fishing pole, money, lawnmower, Twins outfit, Mega blocks, and books). Now we just need to move into our house to open it all.

We had the best holiday weekend. We took Brecken to the Zoo and Shrek 4. Brecken was so happy at the Zoo that he was skipping around and was a perfect little angel. After the zoo we went to Outback and Brecken sat for 45 minutes in the booth while we ate…this was due him being tired, but we enjoyed it!!!!

We are now living at the Friese’s house until we find a place. The transition has been better than I would have thought!

Weight: 33 lbs
Height: 35 inches

Brecken is Two Years Old!!

This quotes fits perfectly how a 2 year old and parents are: It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself....
I remember a year ago I started on Brecken’s one year old picture book thinking I had so much time to complete it, while now he is two and I haven’t looked at it in almost a year. Time goes too fast when you are having fun. Brecken is into Dora right now and everything is Dora, Dora, Dora. We are in the process of moving, so I spend a lot of time packing our house. Brecken now says his colors and numbers when you count. We are going to miss Tinkertown daycare so much (especially Krystal and Darla). Brecken has learned so much from them! When we told them he was leaving the center everyone said they were sad and they were going to miss him lots. What a great thing to hear as a parent. We found a center in Ramsey called The Learning Lodge and eventually we will find a center where ever we move. Moving is a tough process, but a lot more comes into play when you have a child.

This past year our little boy has gone from taking his first few steps to running and hitting a ball. He can throw a ball, talk (his new sentence is “I don’t like it”), color, sing, dance, ride his bike, he is now much gentler with Calla, he reads, points, asks for things, slide down slides at the park, copies words and actions, plays hide and seek, sleeps in a big boy bed, tell us when he poops, plays alone with toys, and the best tells us “I Love You!” I cannot wait to see what next year holds.

23 Months Old

Brecken had a great Easter with the Family. Mason and Brecken had a great time together copying everything the other one did. I took Brecken to his first movie this month. "How to Train Your Dragon." He got scared when the main dragon came on the screen, so we had to leave early. We lasted about 45 minutes into the movie, which was better than I expected. The movie was a lot more violent and scarier than I anticipated. Brecken has become extremely coordinated with the ball and also his t-ball. He loves anything that has to do with throw or kicking a ball. He does the cutest thing where he wakes up in the morning and gives my leg a hug while I am blow drying my hair. I LOVE IT! He is so cute when he wants to be.

22 Months Old

22 months old….WOW almost 2! Brecken has really started to copy everything we say this month. He said his first sentence “I did it”, which is extremely cute. Brecken loves to brush his teeth and stands on a step stool while the water runs. He thinks he is so big. His favorite TV shows are Curious George, which he call “George”, Handy Manny, and Imagination Movers. The first time we went outside this spring he was so happy he was running around chasing Calla and he had to take all his toys out. If Brecken gets any food or dirt on his hands he comes to me to wipe them off, so of course the day we were outside it was dirty and he needed his hands cleaned a lot….just like me a neat freak!! Right now he loves to play ring around the rosie and fall “DOWN.” He is starting the phase where he needs to do everything and doesn’t want any help.

21 Months Old

21 months old! This month Brecken started to wear some 2T shirts and I got very emotional when I put them on him, since he had outgrown the month labeled clothing. Our new routine is to watch/read “Your Baby Can Read” books and DVDs. Brecken will sit and watch the DVD and say all the words and point to the correct body part or make the correct animal sound. His other new thing this month is when he poops in his diaper he says “poopy” and holds his butt. It is really funny! We have set him on the toilet, but with potty training a boy we have a long ways to go.

20 Months

20 months old, I always wanted a toddler, so this is my favorite stage. Brecken is now sleeping in a big boy bed. We had to make one, since his crib broke. Mike built a bed in a few hours. Brecken has had no issues adjusting, but the first time he took a nap he fell out, so we knew we needed to add a bed rail. Brecken went to the doctor this month for pink eye, little did we know that he also had strep throat and a double ear infection. Poor boy! He has become very loving and gives lots of hugs and kisses. The best news of all is Brecken has all of his teeth…YEAH! I am so thrilled to be done with teething! He is still talking like crazy and adds new words all the time to his vocabulary. He now is forming 2-3 word sentences, which is really exciting.

Weight: 30 lbs