4 months and counting...

In 4 months I will have a 2 year-old. A 2 YEAR-OLD!!! That sounds old. But, right now we are enjoying the time inbetween 1 and 2. I taught Brooks to put up his one finger to show how old he is. Seems kind of silly since in 4 months I'll have to teach him how to hold up 2 fingers. Anyways, Brooks is 20 months today. He amazes me with something new everyday. He is constantly on the move and will sometimes stop for a quick hug. He still loves reading, food, and playing outside. He is independent in every way, but he is learning to ask for "help". I love that he is able to communicate with us, even if it's just one word at a time. I love to hear him call out, "Mommy!" - even if it is 47 times in a row. I love to watch him wrestle with his daddy. He will run full speed at Chad and Chad will pick him up and "throw" Brooks down on the ground to tickle him. It's the cutest thing. I can only imagine the amount of wrestling that will happen on our living room floor as Brooks grows up. Today was a fun day because all the wrestling and fun with Daddy happened outside in the SNOW! I know it snowed in Dallas last week, but Austin - REALLY?! Today Brooks learned how to say "snow" and "snowman". It was fun having the snow and thinking back and remembering our home in Colorado. Brooks could really play this time (notice the comparison below).
Then:

Now:

Then:

Now:

Team Hoffman

Words cannot express how much I LOVE my family.

"We love because He first loved us." 1John 4:19

More Bath Time Fun

I've been having so much fun with Brooks lately just listening to him talk and try to communicate. He's getting easier to understand when he talks and he is talking ALL THE TIME!

After bath I tried on his robe. This robe is special because his oldest cousins wore it (Bryan and Dawson) as well as his other cousin (Brodie). It's been in the family for 7 years and now it's Brooks' turn to wear it. I just cracked up watching him playing with his Daddy and running around in his "new" robe. So cute!

Just Melts my Heart

"Hats, Hats, Hats"

There is a children's non-fiction book called "Hats, Hats, Hats" by Ann Morris. It depicts hats from all over the world. Tall hats, soldier hats, baseball caps, etc. Well, apparently, Brooks LOVES hats. His teacher told me that he loves to put all the dress-up hats on his head. I've seen it at home, too. If he doesn't have a hat, then he usually finds something else and pretends that it is a hat. I guess I need to go get some hats for him to play with. It's great, too, because when I want him to wear a hat when it's cold - he loves it and doesn't even take it off. I've also always loved him in hats. I think he looks absolutely adorable in a beanie (not that I'm biased or anything).
He's worn a lot of hats since he's been born...
The first time I saw him he was wearing a hat:

Coming home from the hospital he wore a hat:

One of my favorite pictures with Aunt Cari is one where Brooks was wearing a hat:

He wore a hat to his first baseball game:

He had a hat for Halloween and a hat for Christmas:


Some hats were knitted by friends:

Some hats were down-right silly:

And some hats were floppy, and perfect for the crazy/hot sun in Texas:

And lets not forget the infamous "naked baby in the cowboy hat" picture (although I cropped it a bit for this post):

Some hats almost seem like they were made to bring out my baby's beautiful blue eyes:

Here's an example of his recent excitement over hats:

We finally got rid of it.

Well, the one good thing that came of Brooks being sick was that we finally got rid of his paci. I never really thought that he would be using it still, but it just happened that way. He liked the paci and I went with it. I always had excuses not to get rid of it like, flying or being too busy or being away for the weekend. You know how it goes.
Well, he's been sleeping without it for naps for the past 2 weeks, but I was still dreading taking it away at bedtime. With him being so sick he was too tired to notice that he was going to bed without it. Perfect. Now we're set and we finally got rid of the paci.

104.5

Chad traveled down to Corpus for an extended weekend to do some work and enjoy some time with his family. I would have loved to go, but taking off work isn't all that easy for me. Plus, we pay for Brooks' daycare even if he's not there, so it seems like a waste of money to pull him out unless we really need to. Anyways...I was debating going up to Arlington, but I decided that Brooks and I would just have some quality mommy/Brooks time. You know - hanging out, coloring, running errands, playing with friends, etc. Well, 104.5 fever sure does ruin those plans pretty quick. Let me tell you the story...
Friday night Brooks was running around and playing while I "cooked" us some dinner. His nose was pretty runny and he had a bit of a cough. We went about our night, took a bath, and got ready for bed. He started to cough more so I gave him some cough/cold medicine and some Tylenol to help him sleep. We cuddled in his chair to read before bed and he REALLY started coughing. Then I thought to myself, "I think he might throw-up he's coughing so hard!" Any guesses what happened next? Yup. He threw-up all over the both us of. You know how people tell you that it's different when it's your own child? For me - that actually was the case. I HATE seeing/hearing/smelling people throwing up. I gag a little just thinking about it. Well, Brooks threw-up and I just cuddled him and went to the bathroom to get us undressed. It was like I had super powers cleaning up that puke without gagging. And by that point I realized that maybe he was sick. I took his temp and it was 103.1. I called every mom I know and nobody answered. (Remember that Chad was out of town, so I was flying solo.) I threw some laundry in to clean all the puke, and then I called my mom to see what advice she had for me. Brooks played and jumped on the bed while we talked...and then he puked again. So, now I was thinking he was REALLY sick. I took his temp again and it had spiked up to 104.5. I panicked. I called my Aunt Pam (who happens to be a nurse). She told me to run a luke-warm bath and get him in immediately. She warned me that Brooks might fuss because of the water temp, but to keep him in at least 10-15 minutes. Well...Brooks didn't really know that he was sick, so he just played and colored on the tile in the tub. He stayed in for 30 minutes. When I took him out I checked his temp again and it had dropped down significantly, so I did feel a little bit better. My Aunt suggested Vicks rub for night time to supress his cough but of course I was out of Vicks, so I got him dressed in his P.J.'s, set up the pac-n-play in my room, and off we went to HEB at 10:00 at night. He actually feel asleep on the 5 minute ride home he was so tired. I tried putting him to bed in the pac-n-play, but it didn't work. The only thing I could do to keep his coughing to a minimum was to hold him in bed. This was the FIRST time that Brooks has ever slept in bed with me. He woke up a lot and I just held him and he'd fall back asleep. There was something so cute about this little body lying next to mine. He slept until about 8:15 the next morning and we spent all day just relaxing. No milk products. No playing outside. Lots of cuddling. Lots of juice. It wasn't really what I expected for the weekend, but we did get to spend lots of time together. I had to give him Tylenol every 4 hours all day on Saturday and even into Sunday morning otherwise his fever would spike back up. Like I said, besides losing his appetite and cuddling a lot, Brooks didn't really "act" sick. However, he did throw a couple of silly temper tantrums. I happened to capture one of these tantrums after I took the camera away from him. It's a little different than the smiling pictures I usually post, but lets face it - it's not all smiles all the time. Notice his outfit - A short-sleeved shirt with a vest.
He really wanted to wear the vest that day...whatever.