Stalling!

Brandon has been potty-training and has realized that this is a good excuse to get out of bed. The other night, he was sitting on the potty when he was supposed to be in bed. He looked at me and said, "I stallin', I stallin'. I funny, I funny." I did think that this was funny, but of course couldn't let him know! :)

Philadelphia

As part of Brandon's birthday celebration, on Saturday we got together with Jason and Bethany and went to see the Liberty Bell and the zoo. Yes Dad, the Liberty Bell does exist. We actually found where they had it hidden! Here are a few pictures of us at the Liberty Bell.

Here are some pictures at the zoo. We have already posted most of the animals, so I didn't take too many pictures of them. One thing that we saw was this turtle on wheels. We wondered if it was injured or just too big to move. (It was one big turtle!)

Then we saw an elephant drinking. We thought that this was pretty neat. D.J. especially liked it, but thought that it was gross, and decided that he preferred to use a cup or straw to drink rather than his nose. :)

Laura these ones are for you - one of yours and D.J.'s favorites!

After walking around for a while, we all had to sit down and take a break!

D.J. with his water - a necessity for a warm day outside in the sun.

D.J. wanted his picture taken behind the cheese, so here it is.

I let Brandon go into the petting zoo for the first time. He absolutely loved it! After a little while I asked him if he was ready to go, and he said "No, brush" and went off in search of another goat. Every time I asked him the response was the same. The only way that I could get him to leave the petting zoo was to tell him he could go wash his hands. Since he loves to wash his hands, he figured that this was a fair trade. :)

Brandon at Two

He loves:

• to tease people


• to get a laugh out of anyone - if you laugh, he will do it all the more


• books - reading them, and being read to


• any kind of ball - basketball, baseball, football, etc.


• his laptop


• to talk on the telephone


• to go down the slide, but is scared of swings


• to climb


• any animals, but especially doggies


• to draw


• to color


• to count


• to sing


• to listen to music


• to play church. At church before service, he gets a songbook and leads the singing, then a Bible and preaches. If I start playing the piano, he takes advantage of it as his offertory, grabs the offering plate and hands it to D.J. He must think that D.J. is his usher. :)


• to wrestle with his daddy and brother


• hugs and kisses


• being praised


• helping

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Brandon celebrated his 2cnd birthday on the 11th. I asked him what he wanted for supper and he quickly told me pizza! Here are a couple pictures of him enjoying his pizza and juice.

Here is Brandon opening his gifts. After just a couple, he would hand D.J. the new present, tell him to open it and play with his last present while D.J. opened the new one. He would glance over every once in a while to see how it was going. Once D.J. had opened the present, Brandon would take it so that he could play with it while D.J. opened the next one for him. He thought that he had his own personal servant!

I asked Brandon what he wanted on his birthday cake and started to give him a list of ideas. He informed me that he wanted a "doggy cake." So, I attempted to give him what he wanted. The results are not professional, but he was quite happy with it!

Fourth of July

D.J. had really been looking forward to fireworks. We all had colds and did not feel like going, but did not want to disappoint him so we went. It was sprinkling, and the wind was not blowing, so there was a big smoke cloud. They kept setting the fireworks off, but it was behind the smoke cloud so you couldn't really see them. After a little while, the smoke cloud began to go away and you could see them better. However, then it started raining a little harder. We like fireworks, but with the rain and our colds, we weren't too sad to see them end. Here are two pictures that I took of the boys.