Brody said...

When Brody saw this picture he said, "It looks like Daddy is wearing piggy tails." Haaaa haaaa haaaa....

Rock Obala

Yesterday, Kevin and I were talking politics again and out of nowhere Brody said, "Rock Obala". It got our attention immediately. "What did you say?". He told us he did a project today about him at school. Naturally we were curious.

Here is the project. How great is this? It doesn't matter that we disagree with Obama on pretty much all of his policies, this is a historical event. This is major. There were 14-something million MORE voters in this election than the last one. 14 MILLION. That's nuts.

I already journaled about the whole thing so Brody and Mia have some personal historical record of this election. And I'll probably make a scrapbook page out of this project.

Here's the deal. This country is renewed and it's 100% in thanks to this man. I whole-heartedly wish the outcome had gone differently. I truly, deeply, personally believe that our nation is in jeopardy and that Obama is not the man who will change that status. BUT I can not deny that he's a charismatic man. That he has been able to get people so excited is a testament to his leadership abilities. I will support our president. I will pray for our leader's safety everytime I pray for our nations safety.

By the way, did you know that Kenya has proclaimed a national holiday in honor of Obama's Presidential win? Very cool.

I love that Brody did an "Rock Obala" project and am proud to display it on our fridge. We've since taught him who the man is and Brody can tell you that he's the "...President of the United States of America". So smart!

Mr. Funny

Can you see Brody? Always the comedian :))

Hats.

When Brody saw this picture he said, "Awwe. Look at my tiny little hat."

THIS, my friends, is a funny kid.

I May Never March In The Infantry...

Brody has been singing this classic church song for the past couple of weeks. Last week, at Aunt Sharron and Uncle Don's house, he & Cousin Malena danced around and sang it at the top of their tiny little lungs while Aunt Sharron hammered it out on her gorgeous baby grand. "Sing with me!"

I may never march in the infantry

Ride in the cavalry

Shoot the artillery

I may never zoom o'er the enemy

But I'm in the Lord's army. YES, SIR!

I'm in the Lord's army, YES SIR! I'm in the Lord's army. YES, SIR!

I may never march in the infantry,

Ride in the cavalry

Shoot the artillery

I may never zoom o'er the enemy, But I'm in the Lord's army. YES, SIR!

I love that he's learning these songs so early. The best part is that he learns a lot of them from his preschool where they have weekly chapel. He learned Deep & Wide there - hand motions and everything. And I Gotta River of Life. How precious is that? He even learned the "Johnny Appleseed song" (as the Johnson/Sturm family calls it) from school and now it's our nightly prayer before dinner.

On our way home from church this morning, I pointed out a wake boarder to Brody (yes, our drive to church is along the Pacific coast!) and he of course asked, "Why?". Not knowing how to answer that question I proceeded to explain the process of being pulled by a boat and being able to stand up on the water and ski, surf or even walk. He said, "Like Jesus?". I mean, seriously. The kid is paying attention!

Kevin an Brody read Bible stories every night from Brody's children's Bible. It is so rewarding when he says things like this. He's listening. He is understanding. Even though he doesn't realize it completely, he's learning. I'm thrilled that Bubba has the influence of Sunday School, preschool chapel and home (Veggie Tales counts, right?) at such an early age. We pray for him every day. Most nights, I try to stand outside his room as he sleeps and thank God for the little man he is and the Godly man he is to become...and that I'll have more patience with him tomorrow than I did today.

Keep singing, son. You are a precious gift. YES, SIR!

Kissy Lips

 

I was trying to get a pic of Brody in his new "train hat" and by lucky accident caught Brody doing his white man's dance face. Sometime last year Grandmama taught Brody how to do - what she called - "The White Man's Dance". I think she was going for the over-bite-double-fists thing but he translated it into this kissy-lip version. It's a show stopper. When he gets his hair cut by Bob the Barber he has to do his White Man's dance before he can get his sucker. He pretty much does it upon request so the next time you see him ask for a little show. You wont be disappointed!

I just like it because it show cases his adorable little kissy-lips!! I told him recently that he's not allowed to let all the little girls kiss his lips. When they try, he's to say "No!". Computer, do you think this is too over bearing? I swear, I'm going to lock my kids in their closets till their 30.

By the way, the hat tilt was all Brody. I put it on him with the bill facing foward and he immediately cocked it. The kid has style.

Uncle Nooch Strikes Again!

Paul gives the best gifts. Period. You can't top him. I could write an entire post on the meaningful and special gifts he's given me over the years including being the videographer at our wedding and putting together the most special set of videos from our wedding weekend! When Brody was born Paul set us a Louisville slugger base ball bat with Brody's name and birth stats engraved on it. We have been so blessed by his generosity to Brody over the past three years.

Brody has quite a collection of superhero action figures thanks to his Uncle Nooch. We are forced to play "super heroes" quite often in this house. Yesterday, Brody was ecstatic to find a HUGE box on the front porch with his name on it. [Note: he will check the front porch about three times a day in the hopes of finding a package waiting for him!]. Inside was this super awesome, totally radical, very cool Iron Man costume (or as Brody says, "I-Ron Man"), two new sets of super heroes & two Wonder Woman action figures which I thought was a little strange until I found the note attached: "Brody - Please hold on to these for Baby Sister until she's old enough to play with them.". HOW precious is that?

Anyway, he hasn't taken off the costume since he got it yesterday. It's 90 degrees outside. His hair is stuck to his face after being in the costume for 5 minutes. But he's a Super Hero, man. What's a little sweat when you're saving the universe?

Thank you, Uncle Nooch. You are truly a special friend.

Why Brody Loves Me

Brody made this at school last week. I think it's the best little card I've ever seen in my whole life. Oh, how I love hugs and kisses from this little man. - Mother's Day 2008

We're Here to Paahhmp You Ahhp!

I am constantly telling Bubba to STOP GETTING SO BIG! He gets a big kick out of it and will stand up real straight or climb up onto a chair and say, "Look Mommy. I'm getting bigger!". It's a funny joke but I'm serious too. How has he gotten so big? I haven't been able to carry him for several months because of being pregnant and so I've probably lost some of my muscles...but when I lift him now, he honestly feels like he weighs a ton! He's 33 lbs of solid baby boy.

The other day we enjoyed this conversation:

Me: "Brody, would you please stop getting so big?"

Brody: "But I have to Mommy."

Me: "But whyyy?"

Brody: "Because Jesus is pumping me up."

Me: "Oh, ok."

A minute passes...

Brody: (holding his side) "Oooh, ouch. Ouch."

Me: (thinking he's in pain) "What's the matter?"

Brody: "Jesus - I mean God - is pumping me up!"

What a funny little guy.

We Love Gwamama!

Also taken the day before Baby Sister was scheduled to arrive.

Brody absolutely adores his Grandmama and the feeling is totally mutual, I assure you. The woman has a never-ending pool of love for this little boy. It makes my heart so happy to see them interact. To watch his face when he thinks Grandmama is being silly or funny or "tricken me". I love to watch her spoil him rotten. Even tho it always takes a couple of days to 'detox' Brody from the spoilification - it's totally worth it to have him spend time with her.

Mom was amazing while we were in the hospital. She stayed home alone with Brody for three nights while Kevin stayed with me and Baby Sister. She did a wonderful job of making Brody feel safe and secure. He only asked for us a few times but never in a freaked out sort of way. More just out of curiosity. She and he played all morning - crafting, racing cars, playing in his room (his most favorite thing to do ever) or outside. At noon she and Brody would come up to the hospital for lunch and visiting and then Daddy would take Bubba home for nap and so he could get in a couple of hours of work. Mom would stay with me and Baby Sister for some good times of fellowship and goo-gooing over the baby. In the evening Brody and Daddy would return to the hospital after a trip to the park or wherever and Mom would take him home for bedtime routine. I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. I missed Brody terribly while I was in the hospital but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was being well taken care of and that he was enjoying quality time with his "Gwanmama".

Thanks Mom for being the best mom and an amazing Grandma. These kids don't even know how blessed they are!! I wouldn't have wanted to do this without you. Wish we had more time together. But until we live closer to each other...there's always Skype!

The Messy Party!

Here are the invitations we made for Brody's 3rd Birthday Party. A Messy Party! They were created by Brody with watercolor and finger paints. The "M" is a stamp and I wrote out "essy" on a stripe of white acrylic paint. On the back were the details. I threw in some staples on some of them to add a random, junky feel. Over-all I am totally thrilled with them! We sent 6 by mail and invited most of the kids in his pre-school class (an additional 7). 8 kids total RSVP'd which was perfect.

The party was at our house which I knew would make things less stressful. Last year was such an ordeal with having to make and transport all the food and equipment to the park that I just didn't want to deal with all that being big-huge pregnant.

The day of the party was perfect. It is usually overcast on Brody's birthday because of the time of year. Thankfully we have been blessed with rainless birthday parties so far! We had several stations: an awesome painting station which Kevin set up, sidewalk chalk & chalk paint station, water and food coloring station, bird-seed feeder station, and a planting station. Plus water guns! Let me just say, this was a FUN party. By the end of it all they were wet and dirty and painted various colors from head to toe. All-in-all a true success!

I can't believe that my little Bubba is 3. How on earth can he be so big? His little personality is so precious and let me tell you something...this kid has a heck of a sense of humor. He's hysterical funny and I literally want to be around him all the time.

I hope you had a great party, Bubba. You are my sweet baby boy. Happy Birthday, my love.

Brody Turns 3

This was Brody's electronic birthday invitation which was sent to our friends w/o children and families. You may notice the typo at the bottom "You should prepare to get eat...". No one was rude enough to remark on it tho :) The funny thing about us having a Messy Party is that Brody isn't a very messy kid. I mean, he'll get spaghetti all over himself when he eats it but I think that's more romantic than messy. He usually steers clear of mud and dirt and hates bugs of any sort - including worms which can be found in mud and dirt and probably the reason he steer clear. But he loves painting and LOVES water play and I know he'll get a kick out of the peanut butter bird feeders we are going to make! Stand by for more photos and details of the actual party!

Easter 2008

I get these expectations. I shouldn't,,,but I do. Last year Brody's birthday fell on Easter weekend and we incorporated the city's annual Saturday-before-Easter "Eggstravaganza" (to be said with a large sweeping gesture of arms) at Chase Palm Park into the festivities. It was a blast! The kids were so cute. Brody had a cool new Cars basket (thanks to Grandmama), collected a ton of chocolate eggs, saw the Easter Bunny, stole candy from other kids' baskets...just good times all around. In fact, it almost got a bit overwhelming. So many kids - too many kids - that I was constantly afraid we'd loose one. Well, I had a year to look forward to this year's "Eggstravaganza" only to be sorely disappointed. Too little eggs for the amount of kids, big kids in the little kids areas stealing up all the candy, it just didn't seem as well planned as last year. But Brody had fun, so that's all that counts. He was SUPER excited about seeing the Easter Bunny. In fact, it was the thing he remembered most about last year's egg hunt!

Every year for Easter, Reality does their service at the local high school in the outdoor amphitheater. We look forward to it every year. This year, we had several friends join us which was really special. Besides the blazing heat, it was a beautiful service as usual. Tons of decisions were made which was really touching. Afterward we had a good time playing at the Kids Fun Land where Brody got to jump in the Bounce Houses and eat sno cones. We ate delicious carne asada tacos!

We waited till after nap on Sunday to give Brody his Easter Basket so he'd actually have time to play with all the goodies. He loved all his special treats! We've gotten a lot of good play/use out of this Lightening McQueen basket. Thanks again, Grandmama!

We ran out of daylight to do egg dying yesterday so he and I attempted to color some eggs this afternoon after school. I didn't have lemon juice (random) so I used vinegar in the water. I guess that was a wrong decision because our eggs were less than brilliantly colored. Oh well. We made a good mess and have 6.5 (one broke) blue eggs to show for it.

Fun fact...Easter will not be the third week of March again for another 200+ years. I don't have the desire to actually verify this fun fact so if I'm wrong, let me know but it's the rumor I heard!

Carolyn + Sasha = Precious!

Did I mention that my precious girlfriend Carolyn came for a visit the other week? She and her family were visiting family in Palm Springs and she actually carved out a couple of days to come to SB for a weekend visit! The timing couldn't have been more perfect as Kevin was out town on a men's retreat and we were super in need of distraction. I was so looking forward to our little nuggets playing together. Unfortunately, Brody has been going thru a 'turning 3' stage and was a bit of a beast the entire time. Of course, this was only made me feel terrible as just-turning-2 Sasha is a perfect angel. [Note to God: I'd like one of those, please! ] She also has a big brother who probably abuses her in little ways too but I was so embarrassed every time B decided to jerk something out of "Cha-Cha's" hands or shout "NOOOO! She's doing it wrong!!" at the top of his lungs. Ugh. I kept saying, "This is new. I promise. Two weeks ago he was the perfect little boy-man. I'm so sorry. He misses his Dad." And so on. Gracious as always, Carolyn didn't make me feel like a terrible mother or like I had a monster-child of a son. Thank you, girlfriend.



There were times when Brody was sweet and played with his blue-eyed girlfriend and life was really nice. They started off having a ball in the bathtub but rumor has it that the event ended with Brody splashing Sasha in the face and saying he wanted her to leave. I told him that I would remind him of this when they are 16 and Sasha is the unattainable beauty queen that she's destined to be. "You kicked her out of your bathtub you know."

Even tho I was big-huge pregnant we still managed to have a pretty active and really fun time. On Saturday we took the kids to the beach and they ended up sleeping for like 3 hours afterward which gave us the great opportunity to sit down on the patio, eat junk food (mostly me), drinking tea and lemonade and just visit w/o distraction. Perfect.

I love Carolyn and I love that our husbands really like each other. One day maybe we can all get together as families and do something fun. Like....run on the beaches of Mexico, possibly?? ;)

Love you C. Thanks for coming to see me. Yours truly, me.

Helper!

Check out Bubba helping paint Baby Sister's room! He did a wonderful job. He even added is own personal touch...literally. There are two tiny hand prints in Sister's closet that will stay there as long as we live in this house. What a little helper!

Big Boy Bed!

We found the PERFECT bunk bed for Brody last week! No more crib (which was converted to a toddler bed months ago) for Bubba. He adapted immediately. We decided to only get one mattress for now and convereted the upper bunk into a play area for his many cars.

I found this bed at Kmart! I haven't been impressed with Kmart's furniture in the past but after reading the reviews of this bed we thought we'd go for it. It was on sale for $179 and you just reallly can't beat that price. Even if it only lasts for a few years, it's been worth it! And amazingly, the stain is a perfect match to the rest of his furniture. Another reason we really like it is that it's not too tall. The top bunk starts at Kevin's chest. AND there is a ton of under-bed storage. So, we're thrilled with it.

Kevin spent all Saturday afternoon setting up the bed - which was more challenging than we expected. It's a surprisingly sturdy bed. Brody LOVES it!

Then on Sunday, Kevin got passionate about building a ramp for Brody's Cars cars. He and B went to Ace hardware to get the supplies and then Kevin spent some time whipping up this awesome ramp! He had a vision of he and Brody building this ramp together but after about two minutes of hammering Brody got bored and came inside. Then after playing with the ramp for two minutes, Brody was over it too. It's ok. He'll play with this ramp for years to come! Thanks, Daddy!!

Monkey Boy

Not only do I have a Monkey Boy but I have the coolest monkey boy on the planet! Brody and Daddy had a fun morning at the zoo last week. Brody came home wearing this get up and I had to hold back my scream in the back of my throat! It's a little frightening at first sight to be honest. He loved my fake screams and chased me around the house. Such a great sense of humor. Cara takes all the credit for his highly developed sense of humor but I mean, come on. I actually take full credit for Cara's highly developed sense of humor so at the end of the day I think we all know who we can thank for Brody's (and Cara's and Kevin's, for that matter) brilliant funniness!! Hee hee

Our Little Techie

Kevin and I marvel at Brody's technical genius. He's learned how to operate the DVD player before he was 2 and he now knows how to unlock and operate Kevin's iphone so he can watch watever movie (or movie sceen) he wants. The phone also has a cool scroll feature for viewing photos which Brody uses regularily. This photo was taken on our most recent drive to Phoenix. He's watching Toy Story on Kevin's ipod and controlling the volume on his own. I swear, he's a genius.

We regularily talk to Grandmama over the computer using Skype. We trip out on the fact that it's totally normal for Brody to video call. We still get caught up in how 'Jetsons' it all is! What will life be like for Brody when he's 30? Hologram video calls? Flying cars?

We figure when Brody starts a family they'll probably have some capability to perform sonograms on their home computer/TV screen. It's amazing really. We love technology 'round these parts. And watching Brody grow up around so much technology excites us for what he'll be able to accomplish one day. That's not to say that he'll have unlimited access to technology. His computer time will definitely be monitored. But the fact that he'll grow up knowing how to operate a computer as tho it were a freaking tape deck, blows my mind. And since he's such a genius he'll probably know how to take the machine apart and put it back together! That's my boy. Actually, that's his Daddy's boy.

Underpants!

Also, Brody has gone an entire week wearing underpants with only one pee-pee accident! It was the first day and he hated it. I guess he learned from that one time because he hasn't done it again. In fact, on our 4.5 hr drive to San Jose this past weekend he started to panic a little because we'd asked him to hold it, "I want to go home! I have to pee-pee!". We had to pull over and let him pee on the side of road...which of course he totally loved! I'm so proud I could actually pee my pants!!

Potty Chart

My good friend Elisabeth turned me onto this bright idea! Brody gets one star for every tee-tee and two stars for ever doe-doe [yes, I mean poop]. He also gets a treat - usually an M&M or 2. When he fills a row he gets a prize - usually a Cars car. He completed one chart in October. We've started a second chart but aren't as dedicated to it. He almost always uses the potty now but I'm nervous about going full-throttle b/c of daycare.

My darling Tessa gave me the great idea of triple-sheeting + sheet protectors for evening attempts. This will start at the first of the year. Wish us luck!