Neighbors

I'm pretty sure that I've boasted about our neighbors and our neighborhood no less than about 10  million times on this blog.  Or, so it seems to me. 

I had the surprisingly easy task of watching our 2 kids plus Trig & Edee the other night.  Trig & Edee brought over a movie, The Lorax, and after we finished our English Muffin pizzas, all the kids sat down to watch the movie.  And watched it intently with no apparent need for supervision. 

 Trig is obsessed with Brenna and she is equally amused by him.  I have no idea what she's laughing about, but I thought her expression, albeit fuzzy, is cute.

 Such perfect looking children in this shot!  Brady, Brenna, Trig & Edee. 

So, I'll say it yet again.  I love our neighborhood and I love our neighbors.  We could not be in a better place.  

Halloween Preview

This year a cowboy and a cow (that looks more like a zebra, but seriously, the label said COW) will be venturing out from the Smoller household. 

Brady ADORES his outfit.  As in, I think he would wear it all the time if I let him.  And what's not to love about the horse.  It is pretty darn cute.

We went down to our local grade school on Sunday evening and took part in Trunk or Treat with the neighbor kids.  They won first place!  And had a blast taking Brady and Brenna to all the cars and stocking up on candy. 

 I let Brady have 2 pieces of candy; here he is concentrating on opening the first one. 

 This little girl was all smiles.  She was a big hit with the crowd. 

18 Month Checkup

We had Brenna's 18-month checkup this morning.  Before getting into all the details, check out how soundly this girl can sleep!  I snapped the first two pictures last week when she was zonked out.  Brady was already up and dressed and had eaten and this little girl was still sound asleep. 

 Not even the bedroom light would wake her up!

 Now, onto the details.  Brenna received a glowing report from the doctor.  She's the picture of health and it's been quite nice not to be seeing our doctor so regularly.  Last winter's ear infections made us much more regular at the doctor's office than we'd like to be.

Brenna is 30.5 inches tall and weighs in at 21 pounds even.  17th percentile for height and 7th percentile for weight.  She's small, but I'm just pumped she's on the charts!  Heck, I was a little surprised to see her so high on the height chart.  Let's be honest--we know our kids won't exactly be giants!

At 18 months Brenna is able to walk up and down stairs and now she can run in an attempt to catch up with her brother.  She loves to play chase and throw balls and pretty much do anything Brady is doing.  She can also kick a ball; mom worked on that a lot with her when the weather has been nice!  She's also getting ornery and will purposely take one of Brady's cars of toys, just to get a reaction out of him.

She is "talking" up a storm and her vocabulary is getting bigger every day.  She can say ball, daddy, mommy (kind of), mouth, nose, eyes, no, dog and several other one-syllable words.  Her favorite book right now is "Thins That Go."  It has these big foam pieces that come out and she loves to pull those out. 

She is using a fork and a spoon, though that process is just starting.  She can drink out of a cup, but still dribbles quite a bit so we'll be working more on that.  She eats pretty well and frankly, gets very cranky when we don't serve food to her in a timely manner.  Patient she is not. 

She HATES to be told no.  I mean, let's-have-a-major-meltdown-and-cry-like-no-other kind of meltdown if we dare tell her no or stop.  She's going to have to toughen up in that regard, but I'm pretty sure the next few years will involve a lot of the word no from Mom & Dad! 

I think that's it for the Brenn update.  Oh, and don't she & Brady look so cute in their pajamas?  I snapped this picture last night--they are adorable.

They do love each other

So the kids wake up from their nap the other day and came out to play in the living room.  After a brief time Brady announces he wants to take Brenna to his room and play.  And, up they go!  Up the stairs and then down the hall.  I started to follow and Brady looked at me and said "Mommy, I'll hold Brenna's hand while you stay here."  Such a little grown-up at times!

Cute blond

Here's Brenna rocking her hairstyle of late.  The ponytail on top of the head look can't be carried off by all, but she wears it well, doesn't she?!  She is just too adorable for words these days. 

Cruising

Two kids, riding in the back seat of the car.  Aren't they cute?

Kissing the baby

Brenna is not much into dolls.  She may come by that naturally, or perhaps watching her brother play with trucks and construction equipment is rubbing off on her.  Regardless, the dolls in our house lay mostly unbothered by our children.

However, Brenna did sneak in some snuggle time with one of her dolls the other day.  I even managed to catch her "kissing" the baby doll.  It was very cute.

 Gotta love the open mouth kisses at this age!

Iphone photos

The kids and I went to Holton last weekend for a funeral.  They were both quickly asleep once we headed home, as evidence by this lovely photo I snapped with my Iphone, as I was driving! 

Yes, I took a picture while I was driving.  In my defense, we were stopped and I took this picture while we remain stopped.  Does that make it better?

Snack time

Be prepared for blogging overload.  This mom made serious progress at work this morning and as a reward, the blog gets updated! 

Our kiddos are cute.  And adorable.  And yes they have their moments ("Brady, please don't pull your sister's hair." "Brenna, stop trying to eat Brady's cars.").  But they are our kids and we love them to pieces. 

Brady had been eating his afternoon snack at the island, but in the last week he's decided he'd rather eat on the floor with Brenna.  I love getting to capture a few pictures when they're not "posing" for the camera.

Who doesn't love nectarines!