Splash Pad Nirvana

It has been a fun summer water wise for the kids.  The invention of Splash Pads has revolutionized summer fun for children.  A near by town has taken it to the next level and added a river and a waterfall onto their splash pad.  It's an extremely popular feature and we've been going to it a lot this summer.  It's been heavily crowded up until now but if you go after 7 pm you have the place to yourself.

The kids go nuts there running in all the spraying jets, running through the river, and playing in the various fountains and water falls.  Brennan especially thinks it's pretty great.   Kids also bring toys like balls or foam balls or floating things to play with in the river.

 Today I got some video of them running and playing at the splash pad river park Vid 1
Vid 2

Tonight was the first time Dan had ever been to the water park and he said he wished we could do this in our back yard, that would be really fun, except maybe in the Winter...

Bot Bots

Today I tried to take Brennan to Sara's Piano Pals music class and it was a huge nightmare.  He screamed his head off and I basically waited out in the parking lot for him to quit screaming for at least half the class while Sara took the class by herself.  It's causing me anxiety to think about finding a sitter for him for the next year so that Sara can take piano.  It's just not going to be an option this time to bring him to class with her.   Her piano palls class is a lot more crowded and so is the music academy in the afternoon so screaming and bad behavior isn't as tolerated.

We had some 14 year old girls move in next door and they have already said they would love to babysit.  I'm hoping that we can really take advantage of this and that maybe I can even get them to come sit with him while he is sleeping and Sara is taking her piano class. 

He does a lot of really annoying things like getting into places around the house he shouldn't and screaming for things he wants or doesn't want.  Luckily he balances it out with cute stuff too.  We hung up a robot picture in his room and when he sees it he calls them "bot bots".  It's really cute and I finally got a video of it after trying for more than a week.   He is already starting to be able to say robot now so I wanted to get it on vid before he stopped saying it. 

Also, he is a free range sleeper now.  We put him in his bed every night but he wanders around.  Sometimes he is sleeping in Sara's room on her floor or bed, sometimes we find him on our floor asleep and sometimes he is just in his closet or on his own bedroom floor asleep.  So one morning he came walking out of his room with his plastic swim diaper on over his PJ's and one of his feet in an empty wipes wrapper that had been in his trash can.  He must have had a really good time digging through his room before he fell asleep that night.

He also has been feeling really tempted by his sister's new sparkly shoes and has been wearing them around the house.  We ended up having to put them up in her closet because we were trying to keep them clean for her to start school and he wanted to wear them outside.

Brennan really likes to color and paint too but it never ends well for me.  He will either eat the crayons or paint and or rub them all in his hair.   Here is a recent example of a fine mess that he made eating crayons.

Here he is looking cute in his space ship PJ's

Here are the kids on a recent hike.  Sara was trying to make Brennan smile.  We saw a huge rat snake on this hike, it was about 4 feet long and about 3 inches in diameter.  It came right up to the kids feet and crawled in front of them.   Brennan held perfectly still.  For one brief instant I calculated the risks in my head of the snake being able to eat Brennan but I determined it was safe.  I was really proud of him that he didn't try to run away and he even wanted to stay and watch it longer, we had to pull him away.

Brennan recently had his 2 year check up and got mostly good news.  He has been growing well.  His weight was 26 pounds which surprised me a little because I thought he was more like 30 pounds.  However his weight was in the 32nd percentile and his height, 34 inches was in the 42nd percentile. 

The doctor did say that he still has a loud heart murmur and we will just wait and see as he approaches 5 years of age is he needs any surgical correction.  Also he has a belly hernia and that might need surgery as well in the future.   Brennan had his iron checked, he is so good at the doctor's office.  He laughed when the little pin went "click" and poked his finger.  Sara would have been climbing on top of my head and freaking out.  Also he took his last immunization shot without crying no problem, all he said was "owie".   Also we all got our flu shots, so let's hope that works for us this year and that we are done with doctor visit for a WHOLE YEAR!!  Lastly, his ear tubes were still in perfect position. 

Where to begin?

I can't believe that it's been since March that I've blogged on Brennan's blog.   He has grown up so much since then and has changed in so many ways I'm not even sure where to begin.  He is still as demanding, feisty, and daring as ever though, that much has not changed.

April and May were kind of a blur because we were selling our old house.  In May we went to visit Nanna and I blogged about most of that on the Yodame blog.  Brennan particularly loved riding his Harley Trike while we were at Nanna's.  It's probably just easier to say read the Yodame blog to see what we did in May and June and I'll pick up here again with July.

Grandpa Glade came to visit for a week.  The kids had fun hanging out with him and he took them on walks and to ride their bikes multiple times a day which made them very happy!  They were really sad when he left. 

July is Brennan's big month because it's his birthday, on July 25th he turned 2!!  We have been through so much with him that I patted myself on the back for keeping him alive this long.  It was a fun day and we had a combined cousins party, for Sophie and Malina too, at our new house .   The kids all ran round and played hide-and-go-seek and had a big dance party.   Lots of Aunts and Uncles came and Grandparents too.

Brennan went around and gave hugs to everyone for his presents

He looked cute in his little turtle Hawaiian shirt.

There was a candle for each kid on the cake.  Brennan is actually afraid of fire (which make sense after you fall into a fire pit I suppose) so sister blew it out for him.

Then everyone ate cake, this was the kids table...

And the adults table...

For Brennan's birthday, Sara wanted to do her favorite thing that she does on her birthday, going to Jumping Jacks.  She thinks that's how birthdays should be spent.  I figured why not, so we drove up to Lindon in the morning and I was pleasantly surprised that for the first half hour we were the only people there, we had the place to ourselves, then after that, there were only a hand full of kids.  Brennan did have fun and he went nuts, his favorite thing was the biggest slide in the place, the tall 2 story slide, the did it over and over and over.  He ended up with burns on his elbows from it he did it so many times.  He's a thrill seeker.  Here he is going down the big slide with Sister. 


In other news, Brennan has been riding his balance bike for about two weeks and is already a little pro at it.  When he got it for Christmas last year his feet didn't even touch the ground but his legs have grown a bit now.  So we just decided to try it again now that everything is out of storage.

Brennan talks non-stop about bikes and has since he learned to talk.  He spots bikes in the neighborhood anywhere and everywhere, and anything anyone says anything to him he usually just replies "bike".  That about sums it up.  He's obsessed with bikes, even before he'd ever ridden one.  It's a good thing I got him a helmet already because when we tried his balance bike again this time, he was ready and he took off.  It took him 2 days to learn to balance and to stop falling over and then he was unstoppable.  By the end of the week he was balancing on it and could cruise 30 feet down a hill without putting his feet down. 

Here's a video I got of him, it's not the best but it shows what he can do.
He might even be mountain biking by the time he's 5, who knows.  I'm excited to see what the future holds. 

Overall, Brennan has done a ton of growing up this summer.  He's still our cute little guy.