14 Months

Another month has gone by in Brooks' life, and with it comes more adventures! Brooks is totally confident walking and "running" all over the place. He loves playing hide-and-seek and tackling Kansas. Daddy also taught him how to play in a tent. By that I mean that Chad holds a blanket over their heads and Brooks just laughs. So now, if you ask him to make a tent, he'll take the blanket and hold it over his head...it's pretty cute. He still loves reading his books. He even has one Baby Einstein book with "wormy" on every page and he can find him on every page. Sometimes "wormy" is really small! He is starting to repeat things that we say by just repeating a sound of the word. We were in the bath tonight and I asked him to get his blue octopus. He found it and I kept saying, "OCTOPUS, OCTOPUS, OCTOPUS". Brooks watched my mouth closely before he said, "/O/, /O/, /O/", and then he said "octa". We took turns:
Mommy: "OCTOPUS"
Brooks: "octa"
Mommy: "OCTOPUS"
Brooks: "octa"
Well, you get the idea. I was pretty impressed.
He says "dada" really well when he says Chad, but only really says "mama" when he needs something or he's upset about something. Being away from him at work is still incredibly hard, but I love it when I come home and he runs into my arms (he never did that before).
He is definitely changing daily and growing into a fun little boy!

Saturday

On Saturday we found out that UT was having a fan appreciation day on campus. Fans could come and get autographs from UT football players. We thought that would be a fun thing to do. We dressed the family in burnt orange and headed out a little early, we wanted to make sure we beat the crowd. Well, apparently getting there 30 minutes early was not enough. They opened the doors to the gym starting at 11:00, and we heard that people started lining up about 7:00am. You had to have a wristband to get in, and they had already given out 2,500 wristbands by the time we got there. We stood in line for about 10 minutes before giving up. Here's a bit of the line:


So, we walked around the campus for a little while:



After sweating outside for an hour or so, we headed to Jungle Java. Jungle Java is an inside playscape that also has coffee and food. Brooks had a great time playing in the toddler jungle. He wasn't really interested in going down the slide, but definitely liked trying to climb up the slide. He definitely wore himself out.

While mommy is working...

Blog Overload

I am just realizing that my blog time is going to be cut significantly with me going back to work. I am very sad about that. I like to journal Brooks' growth and fun times. I am going to do my best to keep up with it. It is hard to believe that it is already August, and I feel like we've done so much. Some friends from college came down to hang out: Melissa, and Justin, and their son, Ethan, all joined us for a quick weekend. We went to the park, shared snowcones, played in the water fountains at the mall, ate yogurt, etc. It was also fun after the kids went to bed, and the adults got to hang out. We don't get to hang out with friends like that anymore. Thanks Clark Family for a wonderful weekend.





The other day, Brooks and I drove out by Fredricksburg to visit some friends at their family ranch. Now, let me back-up and give you some details on these friends: My dear friend from HS, Weston, and my dear friend from college, Stephanie. So, before my wedding I realized that these two people in my life had very similar interests. They both loved climbing, hiking, biking, and anything else outdoors. They were both laid back and fun people. All of a sudden I realized that they were perfect for each other. And what better way to meet than at my wedding. So I started preparing them to meet their future spouse. Nobody believed me. 7 years later they have two children and have been happily married for 5 years. So, Brooks and I got to hang out at the Ernst Family Ranch where we saw cows, fed the horses, went romping in the jeep, played in the sandbox, and went swimming. It was a wonderful day with old friends.






And, some of my favorite new pictures of our recent fun together...
Brooks is officially a toddler. Walking around the house like a drunken old man:

Brooks has discovered the guitar and loves to pound the strings. It pretty much sounds just like August Rush.

Sometimes all our running around really wears him out. On this particular day, I forget his night-night blanket at home, so we used a beach towel as a substitute:

Kansas and B are Best Buds. Kansas loves to come into Brooks' room to get him up from his nap. I absolutely LOVE this picture:

Lately...

...Brooks has found a love for cars. He loves sitting in my lap in the driveway and playing with the steering wheel and changing the stations. We went grocery shopping today and he sat in those big cars attached to the front of the cart - he LOVED it. And not to long ago, we found this awesome jeep at Toys'R'Us. He was very happy sitting in the driver's seat. Notice that he's also reaching to change the station:


...We have been exploring our new town. There is a great Hill Country Galleria down the road with lots to do, including these fun fountains. Brooks was the only one playing that day, but he had a blast crawling back-n-forth under the sprays of water:



...We've had some good family time. We try to explore Austin or do something fun as a family on the weekends. It's a new thing for us, since Chad's last job had more freedom and a more flexible schedule. Now we have to wait until the weekend for all of us to get together. Here we are at The Iguana Grill in Lakeway. It proved to be near impossible to capture a good family photo:




...Brooks discovered that he has a new talent. It's even funnier when he does it to himself:


...Aunt Cari and Parker came to visit. Brooks loves Parker. He would play and then stop to look at Parker and check him out. They watched Baby Einstein together, and even laid down next to each other for a bit. There was a time when Cari ran out to the store while I stayed home with the boys. Parker was laying on the couch and Brooks was literally climbing on Kansas to try and reach Parker. He also happened to notice Parker's paci (which is the same one that B has). I took it away and told him no. I'm pretty sure you can guess the picture that goes with what happened next:




...We've been having lots of fun Mommy and Brooks time, but that is about to change. I got a job teaching 1st grade in Round Rock. I am very excited but also very nervous. It's going to be a hard transition for me, but I'm guessing Brooks will adjust just fine. Those first few days at school are going to be long. But I am so thankful that God opened this opportunity for us. There are no pictures of B and I playing together, but one of our new favorite things to do is go for long walks to the park. I got a jogger for my birthday, and Brooks and I have gone out a ton. I've been trying to jog a bit, but this Texas heat is killer! Brooks seems to enjoy the new jogger, and of course he likes our stop at the playground:

"That's one small step for man..."

"...one giant leap for mankind."  Okay, well, I guess mankind isn't really benefiting from this, but Brooks did take his first steps the other day.  I missed the first steps, but I did manage the capture the second try.  Notice that I am totally bribing him by using my cellphone (pathetic, I know).  He's not walking, but definitely standing a lot more and taking a couple of steps when he feels like it.  

Here are a couple of pictures of his recent attempts to stand and possibly go somewhere:

13 Months Old

I have been so sad to not be able and blog lately.  We are currently without internet, so I am forced to relax at Panera so I can surf the web.  Anyways, Brooks turned 13 months the other day.  I don't know if you're supposed to celebrate months after 12, but since we still communicate how old they are by using months, I thought I might as well take this time to celebrate and share some pictures.

Accomplishments by July 23, 2009:

* Brooks took his first steps today

* "Dada", "Mama", "Dog", and "Uh-oh" pretty much sum up his vocabulary, along with lots of babble

* He is understanding more everyday, especially, "NO TOUCH!"

* Can lunge his body into the water off the side of the pool, it's his attempt to jump in