Guitar Lessons

Last weekend we rearranged the living room to lesson the toy mess and make room for the Christmas tv that we'll be getting this weekend. We found the Wii guitars and Brody had fun trying them on and pretending to rock out. I think he has pretty good form for a 22 month old! It was cute to watch Brody as we moved furniture all around in different arrangements. After a bit Brody caught on and started pushing around his own little chair (see in the background of the picture) just like he saw his daddy pushing around the big chair and couches. It is so amazing how quickly they catch on and copy you.

A side note, Brody has both bottom 2-year molars already. He got them about a month ago or that's when I noticed while brushing his teeth. When did this happen? Good news is this means that we only have 2 more teeth to go before getting a break for years! With every step forward though, I remember that baby #2 will arrive next year to start at square 1 in all of these advancements....oh the joy of repeating it all again. Let's just hope that the second baby Park will be just as good of a sleeper as Brody has been! That'll sure help when they're sharing a small room! As I type this I can hear Brody tossing and turning as he kicks his crib (or should I say slams his crib with his feet), that kiddo is like a tornado in there! It's a wonder that he doesn't wake up with bruises. Soon enough it'll be morning and he'll be waking up and proclaiming "ALL DONE!" from is crib. I'm just thankful that he stays in his crib for now because I can't imagine that tornado confined to a bed without 4 sides of rails.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving and I forgot to say one of the many things that I'm most thankful for. There are many things I have to be thankful for including many people in my life. The one I think about almost every day is my mom and I don't say it nearly enough out loud. My mom, bless her heart, is super woman if you ask me. To care for toddlers 10 hours a day Monday-Friday takes a special kind of person. I honestly don't know if I could quite keep my sanity doing it, that's just my personality though, I'm meant to report to a job outside of my home and then do my best the days and hours that I am home. My mom though day in and day out cares for Brody longer than I have to work, she feeds him, dresses him, diapers him, teaches him things, sings him songs, does projects with him, plays with him, shares things like Sesame Street with him, puts up with his crabby moods, holds him when he wakes up in a funk, makes sure he has moo-cow when he needs him, and much much more. He's a lucky kid and I'm forever grateful that she's been there doing this for the last 19 of his 22 months. And I think she still has some of her sanity left! Thanks mom/Omi!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning: Brody is enjoying a fresh blueberry muffin. After a mishap in mixing up corn bread, it ended up working out and lead to yummy muffins for our breakfast! In case you're wondering, Jiffy mixes all look very similar and when you grab the last boxes in the store of the corn bread, it's wise to make sure that one of them is not a blueberry muffin mix. If you miss this step, you'll spend a lot of time picking out blueberry mix and tiny blueberries out of your corn bread mix.

Brody had a shower on Thanksgiving morning. Brody and showers do not mix. It sounds like he is being tortured in there! And don't worry, I got him a new robe. This one he outgrew at about 6 weeks I think.

At the farm for Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite the feast. Brody looked pretty handsome in his outfit in my biased opinion. Here Julie is blowing bubbles. Brody loves "BUBBLES!!".

Max applying pretend lipstick in an unconventional way.

After Josh, Whit, Claire, Max, Sue, Julie all headed on to other places, it was quiet enough for papa to read Brody a book about the farm. A book where he can point out cows and tractors is an excellent book in Brody's world.

A couple of weekends ago we took Docken family photos. Here's the after math with the kiddos playing with Auntie Heather in Omi's new toy kitchen. Max holds his own now fighting for prime play space.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

Cousins

Wait, what?! Both kids smiling at the camera? They're dancing to Omi singing the Elmo song. Now we have a trick up our sleeves.

My home slice Claire! Sorry, this is just too darn cute! We put Brody's hat on her and she wanted the necklaces on too.

Putting on lipstick. Looking good rock stars. Brody had it all over his face, on his cheeks, by his eyes cause Claire was giving smooches.

Mr. Max, cool little dude getting bigger every day and ready to get in the mix with Claire and Brody. He's learned to stand up for himself and tries to rule the toys too now.

Christmas Photos

Last Sunday the Docken crew (Omi, Papa, Heather, Sean, Josh, Whitney, Claire, Max, Barry, Bethanie, and Brody) got together at the farm to do the yearly attempt at a family photo. The final product was pretty good as compared to last year! I will post the 2 winners later of the whole crew. One was up in the red hay loft of the barn, the other was in front of some evergreens with a great light dusting of white snow! Here are just a couple that we took while we got set up before the whole gang was ready to go. If I ever get a "professional" photo with the three of us or just Brody where Brody has a nice smile....I'm not sure what I'd do cause those seem too hard to come by!

Thanks to Sue for snapping the photos and for my family showing up with smiles (those over age 3 that is) :)

New Hair Cut

So this isn't really about the hair cut because all we did was trim around the ears and in the back. What's hilarious is that Barry took a blow dryer and dried Brody's hair. Try not to laugh at the outcome, I dare you!

Tractors to Haul Hay

Ok, video number two! In reality, I'm just procrastinating walking home, since it's cold out and there's icy snow on the ground. That, and the UMD wireless uploads very fast!

Brody loves his new tractor. It's a red Farmall, just like Papa has! It's even got a little wagon you can hitch up to haul 'hay bales' (green foam blocks). We need to save this video for 10 years from now, to show him how much he used to LOVE tractors...before he had to help out on the farm!

Halloween Cupcakes

So I know it's a little late, but between our busy schedules and being VERY amateur video editors, we finally got the Cupcake video up. They came in a little kit from Aunt Aimee and Uncle Zach. It was one of the best after-nap surprises ever! Thanks Zach & Aimee!