New Years Eve

So, we spent part of our evening hanging out with our friends, Scott, Hannah, and Kadyn. We haven't seen them in awhile and the girls were so excited to see each other. They were little maniacs, running all over and getting into everything. It was fun to get to catch up with Scott and Hannah though and watch the girls play. After that, we went home to put Bree to bed and watched a movie until midnight. Yeah, we're real crazy partiers all right. Well what, we're almost 30 now and have a kid...we're officially old and boring...

Brianna and Kadyn playing Peek-A-Boo with Travis over the back of a chair. Of course, that was only the tip of the iceberg, they ran all over and were like a pair of hyperactive super toddlers.

Then they played Ring Around the Rosie awhile with Hannah.

 

And, they spent some time helping Scott construct a railroad track for Kadyn's Thomas the Train set.

 

As usual, they had their share of squabbles due to that darn sharing your toys thing again...but at the end of the night they were still good buddies.

Going to Work with Daddy

Due to my lack of energy lately, Bree has a bad case of cabin fever. We haven't gotten out that much and she really hasn't got to see many of her little friends to socialize with recently. So, today I really wanted to make sure she got out of the apartment to do something fun. I mentioned this to Travis and his big idea was to take her into work with him, since he needed to go in for awhile today anyways.

Now, I think I've mentioned this before but Trav is a microbiologist with an emphasis in virology. Translation=he studies viruses and spends his day peering through microscopes and mixing stuff in beakers and test tubes. I also think I've mentioned before that I personally, HATE going to the lab, especially when Trav's talked me into bringing Bree along. This is because there's really nothing interesting to watch Travis do while he works, at least in my opinion. Like I said, he looks into stuff and then mixes other stuff and then looks at stuff again. Meanwhile I'm left trying to keep my toddler from touching something she might infect herself with, breaking any of the many glass items in there, getting exposed to radiation, etc. And no, I'm really not exaggerating. Anyways, so needless to say when Trav mentioned this as his idea of a fun activity for Brianna, I was pretty skeptical. But, then he said that he planned on taking her in himself and that I didn't have to go. So I gave him my blessing, asked him to keep our kid safe, and sent them on their way.

It was really funny actually because as soon as Bree woke up from her nap her daddy asks her, "Hey, you want to come to work with me?" She immediately got all excited and said, "Sure!" I think she was especially psyched since she's been going through a phase lately where she doesn't want Daddy to go to work at all and gets upset when he leaves. But, this time, she was getting to go with him. So, she hurried to find her socks and shoes and then grabbed up her "laptop" (a little fake-y kid "computer" we got her for Christmas) and stood by the door, ready to go. "Dad, let's go to work!" she said. A few minutes later they were off. Bree looked back at me and said, "We're going to work Mom! See you later!"

While they were gone, I tried to take advantage of the quiet and get a few things done, but I was pretty amused the whole time, thinking of my two workers, working away. After they'd been gone about an hour and a half I got a phone call, Travis checking in. "How's it going?" I asked him, "Is she helping or just getting in your way?" "Oh, a little of both," he answered. Then I heard some toddler babble in the background and Trav says, "HEY! Don't touch that!" "Gotta go!" he told me. This conversation only heightened my amusement as I pictured the scene.

Finally, after being gone around 3 hours they came back home. Travis assured me they'd avoided getting infected with any viruses, and, they both seemed pretty happy so it must have gone fairly well, although I think it took Trav twice as long then usual to get his work done. As for Brianna, she walked in the door with a smile on her face, "Mom, I went to work!" she told me. "I did tips and stirred ice!" Then she laid down on the floor, "I'm tired!"

Who knows, maybe that was the start of a long and illustrious science nerd career for Brianna...

After they got there, Trav quickly set Bree to work filling some boxes with tips for his pipetter, breaking several child-labor laws I'm sure. It was fun for her since she's into puzzles and sorting stuff anyways and also a good, harmless diversion from some of the more dangerous parts of the labwork. Note the gloves she's wearing anyways though, safety first and all that. Her daddy had to actually tape on a pair of small gloves to keep them on.

Looking through the microscope.

Judging by this evidence, labwork is a huge blast..who knew? Every time I've gone in I've just been bored, pretty sure I never had an expression like this on my face. But, maybe it's in the blood, she IS a science nerd's kid after all.
P.S. All you other toddler's don't try this at home, Brianna is a highly trained 2 yr. old....er, okay maybe not. Just take my word for it and don't let your toddler handle lab equipment. :)

Well, see you later. Gotta run, things to do, microscopes to look through, Nobel Peace Prizes to win...

 

Red Light, Green Light

The other day all 3 of us were headed off to do...something (I think grab a few cheeseburgers) that Bree was excited about. At one point we were sitting at a stoplight and Brianna was saying, "Go! Hurry Dad, go!" So, Travis told her he couldn't because the light was red and then he started talking to her about what the different colors of a stoplight mean. Well, I listened thinking that she would never be able to grasp this concept let alone remember what he had said. That is, I thought that until a few days later when, just Bree and I in the car this time, she piped up from the backseat to say, "It's red Mom, you gotta stop!" (Needless to say, I had already stopped.) Sure enough, a few seconds later when the light turned she said, "It's green!" This has actually happened repeatedly over the last week or so....And so was born our own tiny backseat driver.

You're Not God!

One of the stocking stuffers that I put in both Bree and Trav's stockings this year were light-sabers ala Star Wars. They've had fun play sword-fighting before with makeshift swords and I thought it might be nice if they had some actual um, weapons to use. Okay on second thought maybe it wasn't such a good idea. But never-the-less they've already had a few duels and seem to be enjoying their little games. Brianna usually pretends that they're pirates when they "fight." However, this renewed interest in play sword fighting has also renewed the "En Guarde = I'm God" confusion for Bree. Every time Travis say, "En Guarde!" lately Bree comes back with, "You're not God!" Which makes me laugh but I'm glad that she knows the difference at least... 'cause not to point out faults but Travis is most definitely NOT God, take my word for it.

Hi Ho Cherry-O!

Okay so, our kid got so much stuff that we even FORGOT about some of the stuff we had bought for her. Today we remembered that we'd bought the games Hi Ho Cherry-O and also Cooties for a great deal at a used toy store before Christmas. Alas, they were still stuffed in the trunk of our messy car. So, we went ahead and pulled them out today. Even though they're both above Bree's level right now she still LOVES them, especially Hi Ho Cherry-O. She doesn't really get the rules thing right now...we tried to play with her and she ended up spinning the spinner and then scooping all her cherries into her bucket (even though she only spun 3 cherries to put in there). She's also not really into the whole taking turns during the game thing. But thats okay since she prefers to play the game by herself anyways, she has a blast setting the cherries up in the trees and then picking them back off into the buckets and pretending to eat them. Well, it's not exactly the way it's supposed to work but she's having fun and it's a good intro to games I guess.

The Day After Christmas

Well, we had a great Christmas and today, like many people I suspect, we have spent most our time hanging out in our PJ's, playing with our new stuff. So far today I've had Bree give me a full Dr's examination which included taking my temperature and listening to my "heart-beep" with her "scope" (stethescope). I've also had her take me "shopping" and cook me a gourmet plastic food meal with her new kitchen supplies. After that we acted out a few scenes in the doll house and Bree took a ride on her spiffy new bike. Yep, she has enough new stuff to keep her busy at least until next year, that is next week when 2007 kicks in. Well hopefully her stuff will keep her entertained longer than that but sometimes I wonder..she's always so ready to move on to new stuff and new ideas all the time. But, meanwhile though she got a lot of great stuff and I, for one, will enjoy getting to play with her and her new toys.

Check out our mountain of gifts from a few days ago. We ended up getting a ton of stuff in the mail from out of state family the last few days before Christmas. Most of these were for Bree though. See, she's the first of her generation on both sides which means she's the first grandkid, the first niece, the first baby for quite some time. So, she's pretty spoiled. The kid made a haul! Highlights include a Dr. kit, some plastic food for her kitchen, books, kid games, a doll house, to name only a few.... And, Travis and I managed to have a nice Christmas too. Except, it dawned on me that Christmas has taken on a whole different spin for me considering I was getting all excited about a carpet steam cleaner. Guess I'm officially not a kid anymore. :)

The biggest hit by far though was this Radio Flyer Trike (Thanks Grammy Deb and Poppa Roger). Bree is so proud to have her very own bike, she's been walking around saying, "See my pretty bike?" I mean, take a look at the handle tassles and nifty bell (which she loves to ring), it's a cool kid bike. She's been riding it all around like crazy. Here she is checking out the wheels before getting on. Safety first and all that...and then she's ready to ride! 

Yep, she's a tiny terror on 4 wheels! Watch out!

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a wonderful day! Just thought I'd share our Christmas family portrait with you. They turned out pretty good for a home snapshot. Travis just sets everything up, hits the auto button and then runs over to sit with us before the camera goes off. It's that last part that usually makes Bree laugh and is why she's smiling in most the shots...

Our Christmas Family Portrait

This was my favorite shot.
We've been doing this long enough with Bree now that we've got her pretty much trained to smile at the camera, even if no one's behind it. Kinda funny to think this will be our last Christmas family photo with only 3 family members.

Here's another version.

 

Okay well, this last one is a little blurry but I had to include it because do you see what Bree is doing here? WINKING at the camera, can you believe it? Cheeky little monkey!

 

Making A Gingerbread House

So for our Christmas Eve activity we decided to put together a gingerbread house. (We bought one of those ready-to-go kits from the store.) Or, maybe I should say I decided to put together a gingerbread house since it ended up being just ME decorating the house while Bree zipped in and out gobbling up candy as fast as she could and I don't even know what Travis was doing...taking pictures of it all apparently.

Here's Bree helping decorate. This was one of the only moments she was actually decorating instead of eating everything in sight. You can just see the little wheels in her head turning as she figures out what gingerbread houses are all about....

 

Why is Mom putting all this white stuff on here? I'll just taste some to see what's going on...Mmm. That was pretty good.

 

Holy Cow! This is chocolate! You mean we're decorating this little house with candy?! Sweet!

 

I'll just taste this to make sure it's safe to put on our gingerbread house. Man, I am SO helpful!

 

Mmm..that was good. Now, is there any MORE candy around here?

 

Mom, you're not using these for the gingerbread house are ya? Can I have them?

 

After taste-testing most the candy, it didn't take long for Bree to lose interest and she hopped down from the table to move on to bigger and better things. It was at that point we realized where the stick part of the sucker she'd eaten ended up. (See the sucker stick stuck to her little butt?) It was just stuck there, in the perfect spot, like a tail. So, here's Bree admiring her "tail" in the mirror. She actually liked having a "tail" and ran around with it stuck there until it fell off.

 

Here I am piping on the roof's icing. (After everyone else had left me to finish by myself.) Judging by my expression it's quite a serious task. Actually see how I've got both hands on the bag there? It was taking all my strength to squeeze the stiff frosting out of there.

 

Finally, after hours of toiling alone at the table, I finished the house. Okay well, it was only like an hour and a half but like I said, the other two left me to my own devices after about a half hour. Anyways, this is the back.

 

The Side.

 

The Front.
Not bad eh? It turned out to be a pretty cute little house if I do say so myself. And I guess I have to since nobody else around here seems to care about it that much. :)