Don't You Know Who I Am?

Okay, sorry, another obscure lyric from a band you've probably never listened to (Metal Church). I've been doing this for over two years now, my originality on the subject header is waning.

Hey, I got some good Brenna shots tonight of her drawing on her easel. Not sure what this thing is, and when I asked her I didn't get a very clear answer (I don't think she knew either). The sun was setting behind her, which cast a nice light. The last shot is of her playing with her music box that Grandparents H got her a while ago. She's figured out how to crank the dial in the right direction to get the music to play.

A few more Brenna'isms from tonight:

- The first thing she told me when she got out of the car tonight was that I looked like Captain Crunch (Veggie Tales reference)

- Later in the evening, she kept repeating "Pajama party time, jumpin' around", from an absolutely horrible song featured on a Yo Gabba Gabba episode

- After bathtime, while playing with her in her room, she kept repeating "Get the sillys out", yet another Yo Gabba Gabba reference.

Emily had to attend a church staff meeting tonight, so I had the honor of spending some one on one time with Brenna, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And before I forget, the tile has been laid in the toilet room, and I've picked up the parts I need to gut and reinstall ye old royal throne. Once done with this, I have a storage rack to put together that will go over it, leaving a few minor things left to finish before the bathroom renovation is finally complete (including installing a new brushed nickel light fixture in the toilet room, and taking a sander to my horrible spackel job over the sink).

Not A Pot To Piss In

The stars have finally aligned, and I can revel in using one of my favorite one-liners in a blog subject. And now, with our bathroom devoid of a toilet, I can even proclaim it to the world. Like many other projects that intimidate me, I procrasticated forever on pulling the can out of our bathroom. This afternoon, for the lack of anything else interesting to do, I finally got around to this. The tank and seat are now adorning my back yard, and I can't be more excited about this. At any rate, here is what the closet room looks like now. As you can see, some painting and tile work are needed before I can get everything back in order. I managed to cut my finger on something hiding under the wax ring, but don't worry, unlike 18 years ago, I did NOT pass out at the sight of my own blood. I was very brave.

In other news, I'll be uploading some yard pictures to the Hoes blog, so check that out, if you care to.

This afternoon I made my third 10-mile bike ride over to Emily's parents, and that went well enough. The four or five miles that are uphill continue to be a struggle, but hopefully as time goes on it'll get easier. Maybe I should invest in a folding bike with gears, could come in handy, but then what would be the point of getting the exercise?

I'm just about fresh out of Brenna pictures, but here are a few more. The first is one of her drawing what she told us were planets on her easel. The second is another shot in her Flashdance outfit, watching TV.

A few more Brenna'isms for you:

- Playing with her shape-o-ball the other night, she struggled with finding the slot where the piece of pie fit. Giving up in frustration, she turned to me and asked "Where does this damn thing go?"

- Watching her 10th anniversary Thomas The Tank Engine DVD that Grandparents H got her for Christmas, she is enthralled by the snippets they show of the real life Thomas engine chugging through what looks like a field somewhere (yes, a real Thomas train exists, believe it or not), and gets giddy when they show it. Last night while we were getting dinner ready, while she was chuckling at the sight of the train, she exclaimed "That's killing me!"

- And tonight, leaving Emily's parents house after dinner, Brenna stated matter-of-factly to me, "I can drive the car, and you can ride in my seat". Ah, if only it worked that way.

Weekend Activities

We didn't do much this weekend. Went to IKEA and bought some more shelves for the garage (one of many unfinished projects around our house), spent some time lounging around the house, which you'll see here.

Brenna loves her tutu that she got from Grandparents H, and here she is sitting around in it. She was also playing with her Snap-n-Style Baby, multi-tasking, as it were.

I can't tell Brenna enough that the calomondens aren't ready to pick until they turn orange. If she sees one she can reach, she grabs it off the tree and inspects it, telling me "This calomoden isn't orange", it's a funny vicious cycle. And yes, she says calomonden. She's also fond of saying Eucalyptus and Saguaro.

Here she is watching TV, sporting a nifty outfit given to her by her cousin Rachel.

And here she is watching TV on her belly. If life were this easy.

The Mind Of A 2+ Year Old

While I've been doing well this week with uploading lots of recent pictures, my commentary has been lacking, and for that, I'm terribly sorry. You see, earlier this week my wife dragged me (somewhat kicking and screaming) into the world of Facebook. In a matter of two days, I've already had running conversations online with people I haven't seen nor heard from in twenty years. Stress not, however, faithful blogging audience, I'll continue the good fight here and will not shirk my responsibilities in bringing you the finest in Brenna pictures and stories.

Speaking of, here are some recent shots of our daughter and her fascination with gourds. Um, yes, gourds. I grew these a few years ago, and she just loves them.

In other Brenna news, she's been having some digestion problems, and starting tomorrow we're going to start pushing prune juice, fiber cereal, and anything else we can get her to eat. Emily came up with a fabulous cookie recipe that's egg-free, and loaded with prunes, AND they actually taste very good... Brenna loves them! Score one for the mama!

A couple of quick Brenna stories that come to mind.

1 - She has a Counting Elmo book that has all of these nifty lift tabs with different scenes of the characters doing various things. On one page, they're all in a garden, and from day one Brenna notices that Bert was sitting on a park bench, seemingly watching everyone else do all the work (Ernie is pulling up carrots, Big Bird is picking tomatoes, it goes on and on). Every day for weeks when we get to that page, she'd always ask me "What's Bert doing", so I finally gave in and told her that Bert's sitting on his lazy butt. So now, you can imagine the first thing out of her mouth when we get to that page. I've also taught her to tell Bert to get a job when we get to that scene, and she cracks up every time she tells him that. So glad I'm being such a positive influence on our child. If there's a Father Of The Year award, I must in the frontrunning.

2 - Tonight while she was waiting for Wow Wow Wubzy to come on (since she's memorized Noggins' nighttime programming schedule), Emily was trying to convince her that she had to sit through one more (boring) episode of the Wonder Pets before Wubzy was coming on, to which she replied, matter of factly, "That doesn't work for me".

Where this child comes up with some of her phrases just astounds me (I also like "I'm okay with that"). Her favorite continues to be "I'll do it myself", but this other one came completely out of left field.

In other random news, I've finally conquered my fear of riding my puny, folding bike 10 miles across town to my in-laws house. A few months ago we traded our two cars in for one, since I work from home, and honestly don't need any more distraction from work (ahem, Facebook) than I have already. The idea behind the bike was to ride over to Emily after work so we could eat together, I could throw the bike folded in the back of the car, and ride home with them. Well, once the bike was delivered, and I saw how narrow and lacking in traction the tires were, I was a bit concerned, since there is a lack of sidewalks on some stretches of the route. At any rate, I found a way on Tuesday to get over there without endandering myself, and limiting the off roading. Today I repeated the route, and got to ride the last mile or two in the rain, nevermind the fact that there was NO forecast for it at the time I left the house, where the sun was out. Go figure. The bike, in the end, appears to have been a good purchase, and this is a nice alternative to running on a treadmill in the garage all the time.

I think I've shared enough here to tide you all over for a week or so, ha! Have a great weekend.

Bathtime

Here are a couple of pictures from bathtime, a few nights ago.

We've had about a tenth of an inch of rain overnight, waiting for more later today and into the morning. Good to see, since it's been about three weeks since our last one.

Cookie Dancin'

Brenna was very excited to be eating this cookie, and shared an interpretive dance for the occasion.

I like the last picture perhaps the best, it reminds me of an 80's album cover for some reason.

Happy Mid-Week!

Back From The Beyond aka Las Vegas

Ron and I are back from our little day trip to Las Vegas. Spent part of the day at a gun show, a little bit of time on the casino floor, and general wandering around (who knew there were so many guns, wow). We had a nice visit with Aunt Sue and Uncle Tom, and are very appreciative of their hospitality!

While I was gone, Emily as busy taking some Brenna pictures, which is nice since I was fresh out when I left. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Brenna lounging.




Brenna sleeping in our bed (she's been having some coughing issues, but is feeling better now - notice the crossed leg, pretty funny).




And Brenna regressing.





One of these days, as sure as there are feathers on a chicken, I'm going to find my camcorder software so I can upload some new video. Brenna pretty much refuses to be read to these days, she insists on reading to me, and does a decent job of relaying what she's memorized from some of her shorter stories. She's also very funny when she gets fixated on something, especially when I figure out later what she was talking about. Case in point, this morning straight out of bed she started asking for chocolate milk with a cow on it. I had no idea what she was talking about, and Emily guessed it was a carton of milk at her mom's house. When I got Brenna to the frig, I offered her milk she already had in her blue sippy cup, and that set her off ever worse. She insisted that she had milk with a cow on it. As it turns out, after she and Emily left for daycare, I found behind her blue sippy cup an chocolate milk container, sure enough, with a cow on the front. I didn't even know such a thing existed in there, but apparently our daughter with the steel trap mind remembered it.


We've also taught our back seat driver that in addition to red meaning stop and green meaning go, that yellow means slow down. Within a day of telling her this, Brenna was yelling "yellow means slow down!" as I rolled through a borderline yellow/red light while coming home yesterday. I think she's going to make an excellent traffic cop when she gets older.

Paint It... Brown

Hi again, sorry it's been a while, we've been videotaping lots of Brenna activities recently, including skulking around the house, and "reading" her Fairy Colors and Fairy Numbers books, but until I can find my Sony software, it may be a while before I can upload any of these gems to our new computer.

My personal favorite from the Fairy Colors book (which she pretty much has memorized) is (imagine in little Brenna stereo):

Fairy purple, fairy green, curtsy to the fairy queen

There are about five pages of this little ditty, and she's now reading it to me at bedtime instead of the other way around. She's also just about got the Fairy Numbers book down, and has memorized about 25 Berenstein Bears covers/titles pictured on the back of one of her books. I promise, video will be forthcoming at some point, maybe weekend after next.

Hey, I'm going to Las Vegas with father-in-law Ron on Saturday, if I remember to take my camera, I'll take some pictures, that'll be a hoot.

I don't have any new Brenna pictures to share at the moment, so here's a less flattering shot of the first version posted a few days ago.



A few weekends ago I finally painted the rest of our deck to match our kitchen cabinets (makes sense, doesn't it?), here are a few shots of that.

Goodbye for now from 75 degree Apache Junction, where winter ended two weeks ago, and 90 degree weather is (potentially) only 6 weeks away (ugh).

Quick Sunday Update

Hello to all. It's another beautiful 70 degree day here in sunny Arizona. We had a fun weekend together. Here are a few shots of Brenna in her church clothes, posing (sort of) for the camera. When time permits, I have oodles of new videos to upload, just have to track down the Sony software for transferring to the PC, since we got a new computer a few weeks back.

The dress Brenna is sporting below was a nice find by Emily at a going out of business sale at the mall back around Christmas. She liked it so much she wore it all day (until she got her dinner all over it, that is).

Here's another angle, and killing two birds with one picture, in the background you can see our deck, freshly painted to match our kitchen cabinets, by yours truly.

And finally, a neat shot I captured tonight while Emily was at a church meeting. Get the kid laughing and you might get something good now and again, like this one. Look at all those teethies!

Check out the Hoes blog, something new there, too!

Brenna Update!

Here are a few pictures of Brenna in her jammies, our little hair farmer. She's still enjoying the "chase me, chase you" game, which involves knocking one of us to the floor and climbing all over us. She's still drawing a lot on her new easel, and spends a lot of time "feeding" her babies, and "putting them to bed". Emily has made her some blankets for them, which she has enjoyed.

Finally, below these two shots are a few of some Hawaiian prints that we'll eventually be framing and hanging in our front room.

What... Another Blog?

For your review, evidence that while my afro is finally gone, the beard remains. As it should be. Here I am playing with Brenna and her Snap-N-Style girls.

Here is Brenna posing nicely by the couch.

And finally, Brenna posing for me... on the floor, for some reason. Thank you, goodnight!

Brenna Update!

Back from the laziness of the holidays, I hope to get back on a regular schedule here on ye old Brenna blog. I've also gotten back to running as well, logging short of 8 miles in the last four days (with a 5 mile bike ride on the off day where I didn't run). The weather is perfect for running the garage, and should be until April or so.

Anyway, here are a few Brenna pictures. I need to make more of an effort to videotape her talking, the things that come out of mouth these days is pretty amazing. Last night while we were playing a rousing game of "I chase you, you chase me" around the house, she stopped in her bedroom, put her arms out and started doing squats. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me "I'm doing yoga". Funny child soaks up everything she sees and hears around here.

Here's a shot of her doing some coloring. Don't worry Grandma Sheila, she is wearing out the easel you got her, she just sometimes likes to go back to her old stomping ground here on the couch.



And here are a few pictures of her fixing her stroller (this is what she told me she was doing, I saw nothing wrong with it).



And finally, from time to time, she likes to regress to being held by Mama like a baby.

A new hoes blog is lurking in the shadows... do you dare to engage it?

Final Look At Christmas

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, we got a new computer and I've been trying to get it online and convert over all of our old data off the old PC.

That being squared away, here are a few final shots of Brenna during our Christmas Open House from the 27th.

There are a few pictures of Brenna playing with some of her cousins, me playing Texas Hold Em with family, and a final look at my afro, which was shaved off on New Years.