Christmas Day

 Here are a few of my very favorite shots from Christmas morning. There are a ton more plus video, but I am so behind on everything else that these will have to do.

fun in the texas sun

 Oh the Texas sun! Ben was so so so excited to be able to go outside! He ran and ran and ran all over the backyard. I wish we had a real backyard here for him to play in. He loved Grandpas big dirt pile and the sweet digging trucks Grandma Linda had for him to play with.

 Thanks to Grandpa Clark's hard work there was a sweet basketball court complete with night lights for the boys to shoot some hoops? Who's that hottie going for a layup? Oh that's my sweetie Scotty!

 The big boy's hoop was a little high for Ben, so Uncle Steve helped him out!

 While the boys played basketball, Cole and I sat underneath the huge acorn tree in the backyard. I LOVE this tree. I think it is so beautiful. There are trees like this all over in Austin and I am infatuted.

 Yeah for cars!!

I think there will be a soccer career in his future!! 

This post is making me miss the sunny warm days in Texas. Sigh . . .

congress street

 This is one of my very very favorite places in Austin! South Congress Street! We always go to the cupcake trailer and to my very favorite antique store: Uncommon Objects!

These last three shots are from inside the store. Such fun treasures!

austin zoo

Austin, Texas prides itself on its "weirdness" and the Austin Zoo is no exception. When we decided to go to the zoo, I thought we were headed to a zoo along the lines of the Hogle Zoo here in Utah. Wrong. We drove way way out to the boonies through the forest on a windy road for what seemed like forever. I was starting to feel like maybe the zoo didn't really exist. At last we pulled up the dirt drive into the dirt parking lot. The main building looks like a house made into a zoo lobby. The zoo was a bunch of dirt trails connects homemade enclosures for all kinds of animals. They had quite a large variety of animals: llamas, chickens, deer, goats, pigs, parrots, lions, panthers, wolves, monkeys, and reptiles.

Ben loved hanging with Uncle Davis all day. They became awesome buddies while we were in Austin. Ben still talks about growing up to play basketball like "Uncie Davis."

Lion says . . . from Britta Bruderer on Vimeo.

This is Ben making the roaring noise like the lions. What a nut.

Whatcha doin pig? from Britta Bruderer on Vimeo.

What was Ben's favorite part? Running in the dirt and kicking rocks. Of course.

4 months old!

how did this happen? how did he get so big? and so so darling? i adore him!

 some of cole's nicknames:

cole - i - oli - ravioli (this is ben's favorite, sometimes he just calls him ravioli)

cole bear

c bear

lil'c

c

 

favorite things:

loves being swaddled

loves chewing on everything (but not so much his binky)

loves his lion toy

sleeping through the night (my favorite)

tubby time

twinkle, twinkle little star

i am the duke of york

patty cake

peek a boo

 

The best way to describe Cole is a chubby ball of sunshine. He is always so smiley and happy. He giggles and coos at the slightest glance or funny face. When he is tired he does this sad little fake scream and all I have to do is swaddle him up give him binky and rock him for 2 seconds and he is out for the count. Sleeping time is the only time he will take his binky and even then he sucks on it for a minute and then he is done. I love this baby. He is so sweet and cuddly. He loves to just snuggle into my face when I hold him. Melts my heart.

classic

during one of our one million trips to the potty today this comes out of ben's mouth:
"i be ca-ful when i fwush a potty or you woose me and be sad and haf a buy a new ben."
(i be careful when i flush the potty or you loose me and be sad and have to buy a new ben)

no more diapers!

we did it!!!

to say that i was terrified to potty train ben would be an understatement. horrified would be the more appropriate term. from the day he was born everything has been so hard with ben. i just figured this would be one more really hard thing we would do together. 

but i was so so so wrong!

he has been asking me for a while now to go potty. and he would go when he felt like it. we would take off the diaper and go on the potty and then back to diapers. two days ago i was on the phone with my mom when he asked me to go on the potty. my mom said, "oh britta, just do it. he is ready. you don't need a huge production or the perfect situation. just do it." so we did. i put him in underwear and didn't look back. day one went shockingly well. he only had two big accidents when we didn't make it to the potty at all. all the other ones he had a little wet in his undies but held the rest till he got on the potty. he stayed dry from 2:00 pm till bedtime when we did a pull up. considering we started at 10:00 am i think that is pretty stinking good!!

pooping is a work in progress, but much better than i thought two. we didn't have a poop until day two. the first time he went in his pants and was traumatized and didn't want to do it on the potty. so i backed off, and explained it to him and we put our undies back on. later that night at bedtime he was asking to go potty again. i thought maybe he was just figuring out another way to get out of going to bed. but he did go pee. but as soon as i pulled him off the potty he squirted poop all over the floor. he panicked and cried, but i got him calmed and cleaned up and told him next time we will go on the potty. about ten minutes later, same thing happened. this time as soon as we were all cleaned up and he was standing there nude (again) i heard his tummy grumble and i knew there was more coming! so i wrestled him onto the potty and kept telling him to push. and . . . he did it!! good thing too because that one would have been a HUGE mess. he pooped on the potty and got to have a special prize. a matchbox truck! he was so proud of himself!! so cute!

i know we are going to have many more adventures, especially poop trauma, but at least we are mostly successful!!

"i wuv you so munch"

ben's new thing is to constantly tell me "i wuv you mommy. i wuv you so munch." it cracks me up. not to mention is a fabulous reward for all that i go through with him. he tells me all the time. he will randomly run up to me and throw his arms around me, give me a smooch, usually a "big juicy one," say "i wuv you!"the funniest is when he is in the middle of yet another ridiculous temper tantrum or he is getting disciplined, he looks up at me with big puppy dog eyes and says,"but i wuv you so munch." it is hard to maintain disciplining him when i am about to burst out laughing at his attempts to avoid punishment with declarations of love. what a kid.

little love

 oh my little cole. such a gem. it is a really good thing that ben came first and not cole. i would be traumatized. but since cole came after ben, he is the most wonderfully pleasant baby i could ever imagine. he sleeps all the way through the night. i only have to get up once, maybe twice (on a rough night), and we are only up for about 15 minutes. he cries a little soft delicate cry when he is hungry or messy and will wait his turn patiently if necessary. best of all he smiles and giggles the most for me. 

pirate hunt

 any good pirate knows that you are only as good as your steel. thus making it critical to check your weapon of choice before plunging into battle.

 

"a maiden in distress? i must rescue her!"

 

"what's that? they are below the deck? reveal yourselves scallywags!"

 

the pirate king defeats the fearsome alligator in his quest for the maiden.

 

"look to the skies! " 

 

one last check for creeping things in the closet. 

rest at last. whew. what a day.

we had so much fun pirate hunting! it was the only way ben would let me take his picture in his awesome pirate pajamas. i convinced him that there were pirates attacking and he yelled, "i save you mommy!" and came to my rescue. i had to keep telling him places to look so that i could keep taking pictures. (these pictures are another example of how i can't pick just one! arg. i can't tell if they are all really great or if i am just emotionally attached to the memory of that afternoon. oh well.)