Brody: my blue eyed baby boy

How I love him. Strange how he is almost 14 months, the age Luke was when he was born. He still seems like a baby!

His personality has really been coming out. He is quite the charactor.

He loves to laugh. He does lots of silly things and thinks he is so funny. He laughs at silly things we do. And he is very ticklish, which makes it easy to get him laughing.

He is very cuddly. He will give hugs just to give hugs. He's just learned to kiss by putting his face right up to yours.

He's becoming more friendly. He likes to say hi to people by waving. He puts his hand right up to his ear and bends his little fingers.

Speaking of bending fingers, I've noticed that he is skilled in the fine motor skills whereas Luke was more skilled in the large motor skills.

Brody loves his brother and copies just about everything he does. One day Luke got mad, walked out of his room to the hall, and hit the wall. Brody had been sitting in the chair watching all this take place. He calmly got out the chair, walked out into the hall, and hit the wall in the exact place Luke did.

Not only does Brody hit things when he's mad, he throws things, and screams at the top of his lungs )the kind of scream you'd hear a little girl do on the playground.

He also throws his food, which is getting old! The floor around his high chair is ALWAYS a disaster area. I just read that babies mostly do that when they are finished, so you are supposed to catch them before they get bored enough to start throwing things. Yes, Brody starts throwing things when he's finished...finished sitting in his high chair that is! He's not done eating! He just wants to walk around and eat. He throws all his food on the floor and as soon as I set him down he picks up what he threw and starts eating it! When he's done with that he goes back for more!

When he does eat in the chair, he often wants some utensils. He tries with a spoon, poking at yogurt or applesauce, but is very good with a fork. Surprising to me...I remember taking Luke and Brody out with friends just after Brody was born. Their daughter was just a month older than Luke and was a pro with a fork. I was shocked. Luke was no where near using a fork. Here Brody is a pro at about that same age.

Brody loves to be outside. His high chair is right next to the sliding glass door. Lately, after every meal he points outside and says, "Ah," (his version of 'outside'). He plays right outside on the patio so I've begun to just leave the back door open so he can come and go. That will keep him entertained for hours.

He loves balls. Especially footballs. Funny that was his first word. He loves to throw, shoot hoops, and has learned to bat.

He understands a lot. He'll take things to the trash when asked, he'll retrieve objects when asked. He has been shaking his head no for quite awhile, and just recently has begun to nod yes when you ask him a question. And he does differentiate based on what he wants. He knows the signs; more, all done, please and thank you.

Words he says:
Mama (Luke said Dada before Mama)
He says pretty much anything that starts with 'b.' Its just all sounds very much the same, although we know what he is talking about.
buh-ba - football
baby - baby
baby - blankie
pa - pacifier
ah - outside
ma - more
ha - hi
du - drink

Build-a-Bear

Brody got a gift card for Build-a-Bear Workshop for his birthday. Our friends Alex and Daryl gave it to him, so we set a date to go to the workshop with them. I always like to build anticipation in the kids, so I'd been telling them today that we were going to go this evening.

Luke: (wide eyed) Oh, yeah! (clap, clap) (even though he doesn't know what it is)

We met Alex and Daryl at the mall, had some dinner, and headed off to the Workshop.

We were greeted by the Workshop Host who explained the process: pick an animal, pick a sound, fill him with stuffing and a heart, give him a bath and fluff him, choose an outfit, shoes, accecesories, ect, give him a name and print a birth certificate. It is quite a process!

Luke eventually settled on a grey cat and we chose "fudge pup" for Brody.

Luke had been pushing the buttons to hear the sounds long before we chose an animal. His favorite - the Star Wars theme song. Really? Please, no. Yes, that's what he got. The cat now plays the Star Wars theme song. Brody's pup says six different sweet phrases.

Moving on to fill their friend with fluff...the kids had to step on the pedal that controls the machine. At first Luke was afraid of it, but then did it on his own. Brody loved it so much he kept going back to step on it and laugh.
They had to chose a heart to put inside their animal. It was cute to hear this young guy tell the kids, "shake it up to get it started, rub it on your forehead so your pet will be smart, rub it on your tummy so he never gets hungry, rub it on your heart so he knows you love him, and give it a kiss and make a wish." They put their heart inside, he sewed them up, and they were ready for their bath.
Brody's went straight for the uniform with a football attached so that's what he dressed his pup in. Luke looked around at the uniforms with the various balls but really wanted the fireman hat. So his cat is dressed as a fireman and plays the Star Wars theme song.

Howie and Alex sat at the computers and filled out birth certificates. "Smokey" the fireman cat and "Niner" the football playing pup officially belong to the Howland boys.


Brody was so happy carrying his box out of the store. We know Luke had fun...his bedtime prayer: "Dear God, thank you for Mommy and fun at Build-a-Bear. Amen.

Update: Luke

They grow so fast. It sounds so cliche, but its so true. Brody is approaching 14 months, the age Luke was when Brody was born. And Luke is not only speaking in sentences, he's weaving sentences into stories.

Luke turned to Bethany (our babysitter) and said, "Domonique's in the hospital. She has an owie. I got an owie. My toe hit the door."

The other day when Luke wanted a drink, I asked him where his cup was. Usually this is just a rhetorical question. I don't expect that he actually knows. He kept directing me from the table, "right there." I asked him where and he replied, "on the counter (window sill) in the box." Sure enough, there it was.

We've been creating anticipation in Luke by talking about Uncle Jon's wedding. We've told him this summer he gets to ride on a plane and go to Pennsylvania. He talks about it a lot. This is our conversation...
M: Where are we going this summer?
L: Uncle Jon's wedding.
M: How are we getting there?
L: Ride in a airplane and a dump truck.
He says dump truck every time! I have no idea where he got that.
M: Do you know what a wedding is?
L: Yeah. (Confidently, and confused why I would think he didn't)
M: You do? What is it?
L: Its a playground!

I've also been surprised at what he remembers. When he gets books off his bookshelf, or gets out a toy, he will tell you when he got it and who he got it from and he is right!

His seems to be in the phase, "I super strong," "I really fast," and, using the measuring tape, "I tall."

In most cases having the older kids in our home has been really helpful and fun for Luke. He loves them. As you can imagine, he copies much of what they do and say. Which for the most past is not bad. But there are a few things he picks up that aren't so good. One of those things is that he's begun to say, "I don't care." I often say that in the context of where of what we eat for dinner. This is NOT how he says it.
D: Do you need a timeout?
L: I don't care.
I don't think he really knows what he is saying or how to use the phrase. And although its very funny, (we had to keep from laughing the first time he said it) its so not ok.

We've been remodeling our bathroom (which is a whole other post). I was ripping out our old laminate tile, which was really difficult to peel up, so I was making some grunting sounds. Luke came to watch. He said, "I can help ya," started pushing on my back and made grunting sounds. He totally thought he was helping. I thanked him and stood up to gain a little more leverage on this tile. He said again, "I can help ya," grabbed hold of my leg and started hugging it as tight as he could, grunting. So funny!

Luke picked up my eye liner and used it as a microphone. He yells out, "Attention boys and girls, welcome tooooo ___________!"(he would change the last line every time he said it). He said this with all the intonation of an MC! He just amazes me sometimes!

Luke has a book that has very few words in it called, "Big, Little." He can read it himself. I've heard him reading it to himself in his room. We brought this book to Grandma's house and she was reading it to him. I told her he could read to her. So she stopped and asked him to read it to her. He points to a picture and says, "What's that?" Funny what he thinks "reading" is but he took the role and was reading it to Grandma.

Luke's become a backseat driver. In the short trip down the hill and back I heard, "Be careful, Mommy." "Be careful of that car, Mommy." "Watch out for that bike-alo (motorcyle)." "Not this way, Mommy." Sheesh!

Need a Laugh?

This is Luke: standing in the window sill (his favorite place) in his new floaty swimsuit making faces. He is quite a charactor. Hope this give you a giggle.



"I super strong!"













Sad with a smidge of giggle.













Mean. Don't mess with this one.



















Happy, excited, surprised...they were all the same.












Scared, complete with a whimper!

Mother's Day Weekend

About a week before Mother's Day I got my Mother's Day gift: a card with a planned trip inside. A trip to my mom's complete with a massage and a babysitter. So Thursday evening the boys and I packed up the car and headed to Vancouver.

The trip down went really well. We stopped for dinner, ate in the car and a friend let us borrow their movie player which saved the day. They had a difficult time falling asleep but that is to be expected in the car.

Friday we spent the day catching up on sleep then went to Mom's school to catch the end of "Mother's Tea" in her classroom.

Saturday morning Dan agreed to babysit while my mom and I went for a massage. I'd never had one before and was a little nervous but it was GREAT.

Sunday we wanted to do something the boys would enjoy so we went to the Portland Children's Museum. I wish the kids could play there weekly! That place was great! Right as you walk in there's a big water works section that draws you in.
They had a little grocery store where the kids could load carts with food and pretend to be the cashiers, a veternarian's office where kids could care for pets, a home under construction, a stage to pretend to be a rockstar, and a "Dig Pit" full of shredded rubber to play in, among a lot of other things.




The boys could have played there all day had they not needed a nap. We ate lunch, enjoyed a few more exhibits and headed home.

Whe took quite awhile getting home. The boys slept for the first bit, then halfway we stopped at McDonald's to eat and play and change diapers. I didn't realize we'd been there for an hour! We got settled back into the car, put on a movie and made it home.

It was so nice to come home to a clean house and cards and gifts on the table. We put Brody to bed and let Luke enjoy a chocolate covered strawberry from Grandma Chris. "Happy Birthday, Mama," he said. :)