Christmas Festivities 2012

This year the Christmas holidays were so much more fun because Brandon really understood and got excited for presents and Santa.  We watched the Polar Express together and it is Brandon's favorite movie.  He loves the train in the movie.  Brandon helped me make and decorate sugar cookies for my work's Cookie Exchange.  He loved listening to Christmas carols and watching all the Christmas ads on TV.  He is beginning to understand the magic of the Christmas holiday and it is exciting to see it through his eyes. 

This year we went to Al's Nursery and got our Christmas tree.  Brandon loves the giant electric train that they have at Al's Nursery and all the festive Christmas decorations.  We found a nice big 8 ft tall noble tree and took it home.  Brandon helped me decorate it (although not as much as I liked).  I also found that he loves to pull the ornaments off the tree.  I kind of thought that may be the case so I put all the fragile ones up high.  As Brandon is so into trains, I got him a train music box that he loved turning and watching the trains go around the Christmas tree. 

Electric train at Al's

Watching Al's Nursery train

Brandon at Al's Nursery

Sean and Brandon at Al's

Brandon at our Christmas tree this year

Brandon helped me decorate the tree

Love this picture of Brandon peeping at the Christmas tree through the stairway

Brandon and his train music box

We went with the Mowery family to the zoo lights.  Brandon loved seeing his bud Logan and they got to go on the zoo train together.  Brandon loved the zoo train so much that he cried hard when he had to get off.  The lights were very pretty and were all of various animals.  It was a beautiful and magical way to begin the Christmas season.  Unfortunately for us, the weather was bad and rainy but we survived and both Logan and Brandon had so much fun.

Brandon having so much fun on the zoo train

Brandon and his pal Logan on the zoo train

Zoo lights

Brandon and Logan loving the zoo lights

Sean and I celebrated Sean's 31st birthday at Urban Fondue.  My mom came and baby sat Brandon and we got a yummy adult dinner out.  Urban Fondue was super yummy; Sean and I really love fondue.

I took Brandon to Macy's Santa House in downtown Portland to see Santa and the beautiful village they have.  Brandon did not like Santa at all when he first saw him and tried to escape. I went and saw Santa with him and he did better the second time around.  Brandon loved all the Christmas decorations and the electric train display they had that he got to press the button on.  They also had a neat monorail that Brandon enjoyed climbing in and playing with. 

Brandon was like get me out of Santa's lap

Brandon showing Elmo his electric train

Brandon getting off the monorail train

Brandon and Mommy before visiting Santa

Brandon, mommy, and Santa

 Probably the best Christmas activity Brandon did this holiday season was going on the Portland Holiday train.  The Holiday train is an old steam engine from the early 1900s that was restored. The route is about 40 minutes and goes along the Portland waterfront so you can see all the beautiful lights and the water.  They had Santa in the train and the kids got to go from train car to train car.  Brandon at first was scared to walk around the train but quickly got over it and had so much fun exploring the train.  He even warmed up to Santa and gave Santa a hug!

Holiday train 2012

Brandon and Daddy on the holiday train

Brandon and Daddy going through the holiday train

Third times the charm-Brandon and Santa

Brandon's Two!

I can't believe my baby boy is two!  He has changed the most in the past year from a wobbling barely walking one year old to a confident running and energetic two year old.  Looking back at this year, there has been so many milestones and happy times.  Gross motor skill wise, it has been amazing seeing Brandon develop from barely being able to walk to where he has now.  This year he has learned how to walk more confidently, then walk quickly, and then run.  He is a fast little runner now.  He is very good at balancing on things, loves climbing the stairs and even going down the stairs holding a bannister now on his own and not crawling down the stairs like he used to.  He also recently in the past two months learned how to throw balls and other objects over hand.  We have to be careful because all of a sudden he will see an object and just grab it and he can throw far!  At his 2 year doctor appointment, he weighed in at 34 pounds and was 37 inches tall!  He was in the 98 percentile for both height and weight.

Brandon is still a very social guy but he is becoming more sensitive to his environment and scared of strangers and people he does not know well.  He loves the two babies at his day care who are now walking all over the place as well as the older kids.  Over the past year, it has also been really cute to see Brandon and his friend Logan (my best friend Brooke's son who is 7 months older) friendship really blossom.  They genuinely care about each other and are very excited to see each other.  Logan affectionally calls Brandon "Baby B" or "B." Every time they have to say goodbye they hug each other.  Brandon is also pretty good at playing with new kids he meets at the playground.

Brandon's first birthday a year ago

Brandon's first birthday

Such big changes in one year

  It has been amazing seeing how much language Brandon is soaking up and learning each day.  At the beginning of this year he went from saying "Mama" and "Dada" to stringing two to three word sentences together.  It seems like he is learning several new words a day lately.  It is still sometimes hard to understand him but for the most part through gestures and through his words he can really communicate.  Brandon loves watching Elmo on TV, which I think helps him learn new words (and lets mommy get stuff done around the house).  He also loves all trains and watching U-tube videos of trains on mommy and daddy's iPhone.

The most amazing thing over the past year has been watching Brandon turn into a little person.  He has such a little personality now.  I think he has a good mixture of Sean and my personality, but definitely has some of mommy's stubbornness in him (which can be a good thing).  Brandon definitely knows what he likes and what he does not like.  He is still and always has been an awesome sleeper.  We were lucky this year because he was really only sick once the entire year.

We celebrated Brandon's birthday party with close friends and family.  Brandon loved having his good friend Logan to play with.  Logan helped Brandon unwrap all of his presents and they had a ton of fun playing with the new presents.  We also had yummy cake and cupcakes as well as a variety of other yummy finger foods and mimosas for our guests.

Brandon's Elmo airplane cake

Brandon's birthday shirt that I made him

Cheers to the lolly pop!

Opening up presents with Logan

Daddy and Brandon having fun with presents

Brandon loved his car ramp from Brendan and Sara

Mommy and Brandon about to blow out the candles

Thanksgiving at our house!

This year we hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  Brandon unfortunately was a little under the weather with a cold.  We had all of the Pomerleau family over for Thanksgiving including Sean's sister Dawn and her boyfriend Jose.  We got a huge 20 pound turkey from Costco, Sean's parents brought stuffing, gravy, and potatoes, and Dawn and Jose brought dessert-an adorable Elmo cake for Brandon's birthday and a Pumpkin Cheesecake.  My mother-in-law showed me how to cook the turkey and the stuffing.  It was so nice that everyone helped out so much.  I barely had to cook anything which is how I like it!  It was also really nice not to have to pack all of our stuff up and travel.  I was kind of tired of traveling especially after all the remodeling we had just done and due to the fact that we had to be out of the house and did not have our kitchen the prior two weekends. 

Elmo cake and Pumpkin cheesecake that Dawn made

Brandon and his Auntie Dawn

Brandon and Dawn reading together

 Our dinner turned out perfectly.  The turkey was plentiful and yummy.  We ended up with so much leftovers we still had a huge frozen bag of turkey even after I sent a bag home with Pam. We also ate left overs for 4 straight days and made everything from turkey noodle soup to turkey casserole.  Needless to say I am sick of turkey now for a while.  Sean and I also gave Brandon his big birthday present a week early, an electric train set named Toots the Train.  Brandon loves toots and watched her go around the tracks for hours over Thanksgiving.  

Brandon watching Toots go around the track

Brandon loving his new train

Love that smile!

Brandon assumed this position for hours watching Toots

Thanksgiving dinner shot

Since we were in Portland, we also got to go Black Friday shopping.  Brooke and I went to Target, Michaels, and Carter's on Thanksgiving evening after the boys went to bed.  Target was crazy but we got some really good deals.  Michaels and Carters were not that busy at all which was a nice change.  The next morning Sean and I went to Fred Meyers and did some Black Friday shopping while Sean's Dad babysat Brandon.  We spent Friday eating left overs, Sean and I went to a movie, and we played board games.  Overall it was a very fun and relaxing Thanksgiving! 

Brandon and his Papa snuggling together

Brandon making some pumpkin pancakes

That dough is yummy mommy!

To end the weekend, we had the Civil War game.  This year we went over to Rosie and Thomas' house and watched it.  It was very gratifying watching the Ducks slaughter the Beavers (especially after the hard loss to Stanford the week before).  Brandon got all dressed up for the game and wore his new Duck rain boots!

My happy boy with his new rain boots!

Brandon and Daddy all ready for the game. Brandon was watching Daddy play soccer on his X-box

Brandon loves his Elmo!  At Rosie and Thomas' house for the Civil War game

Remodeling, zoo and OMSI trip, and trip to Corvallis!

November was a very busy month for us.  After a few weeks of securing bids and making choices, we began our kitchen remodel in the beginning of November.  It was really stressful because I was working and acting as the General Contractor myself to save money and I had to find all the sub contractors myself and then choose from them and pick out all the materials.  I also had to keep track of the costs and stay within our budget too of course!  We were without a kitchen for about 2 weeks but it was not too bad because we visited Sean's family one weekend and my family one weekend.  The kitchen was also done in time for us to host our first Thanksgiving in our house!

Before shot 

Before demolition shot

Our old kitchen

The old kitchen sink

New cherry cabinets that we picked the stain ourselves on

I love our stainless steel under mounted sink!

New oak flooring throughout the kitchen, family room, and hallway

The first weekend in November I took Brandon to the zoo and to OMSI.  We are zoo members now and I love how I can take him whenever I want now.  We really like to go on Fridays since I have Friday mornings off and it is quieter at the zoo.  Brandon loves pointing and saying the animals names.  He also loves the zoo train and any trains in general!  He sees train tracks and always says "choo choo tracks."  I think Brandon loves to go on our little adventures as much as I do and I cherish Friday mornings with him.

Brandon loved the monkeys!

Both of our favorite up close and personal

Brandon enjoyed making music with the drums

On the zoo train looking at all the animals

Such a happy boy on the train

The following Sunday they had a $2 OMSI entrance day (its the first Sunday of every month) so Brandon and I went to OMSI for Brandon's second time.  They have an entire huge room that is just for kids 5 and under that Brandon loved including a water room, a giant sand area, a train room, and many more places to explore.  Brandon loved the water room and sand area the best.  He learned how to put a ball in a stream of water just right to get it to float to the top and loved doing that over and over again.

Playing with the floating balls in the water room

Having so much fun in the water room

Loving the wooden puzzle

Playing in the sand room

During the whole remodel, we took a trip to Gramsie and Baba's house in Corvallis.  Little did we know it would be our last time with my parents' beloved yellow lab Callie as she passed away about a month later.  We had fun taking the "doggie" on short walks and we went to Avery Park where Brandon got to get up close to the steam engine train they have there.  We walked all over the train but Brandon liked looking at it from afar more than climbing all inside it.  Maybe it seemed less real to him to see it up close or he just liked seeing the view of it from afar.

Brandon and Gramsie going up the steps to the train

Playing in the leaves on the way to the train

Brandon loved looking at the train from afar