The Final Countdown

December 15: We went to the family Christmas party. They have the kids dress up for a nativity scene while the Christmas story is read. Talon did not want to dress up as the shepherd but he eventually decided he could wear the headband to be like Kung Fu Panda.

December 16: We watched The Polar Express.

December 17: Talon wore the Christmas shirt he made. He's pretty proud of it .

December 18: We attempted to make jigglers. I don't thing I had the right amount of water because they didn't work at all. It didn't stop us from eating them though!

December 19: We made marshmallow snowmen!!! I learned that if you overheat chocolate it becomes a huge clump but if you put it in a cold bowl and mix in some cold pieces of chocolate and keep stirring, it becomes melted again. Pretty cool! Talon had fun putting the little snowmen together. My favorite is the one that has 4 or 5 arms with some coming out of its head. Don't you just love that chocolatey smile?

December 20: We wrote a letter to Santa and Talon drew a picture. He came up with what he wanted all on his own. :)

December 21: We had reindeer pancakes! Of course it needed "brows". :)

December 22: Flaming snowballs! What could be better than ice cream and fire! You just put a sugar cube soaked in lemon extract on top and light it up.

December 23: Ginger bread houses. The best part was how excited talon was when we built a house out of graham crackers. "Wow, that's cool!"

December 24:  Rice Krispie treats. Marshmallows + ANYTHING = happy boy :) 

It was so much fun to have something for this boy to look forward to every day. We would get home and Talon would always ask about his sock tree so we could see what it says. I can't wait until next year when he has a little brother to join in the excitement.

Christmas Week #2

December 8: We made sugar cookies! Talon loved cutting out cookies shaped like snowmen and "ginger men".

December 9: We read a Christmas book.

December 10: We made s'mores over the stove. We tried the fireplace but the wood was too wet. The boys still had fun lighting it though. I love this picture of the two of them.

December 11: We made popcorn. This is one of Talon's favorite things to do and asks to make it every time we go over to grandma and grandpa's. He had to shake his bowl just like grandpa does.

December 12: Talon went over to Grandma's Christmas party for the grand kids. They all come over and make treats and play games. Talon had so much fun! Thanks Grandma Peggy!

December 13: We went and saw the Christmas lights. There's a house that goes all out with Christmas lights every year. They have cut outs of hundreds of cartoon characters. The city also does lights. Talon  's eyes lit up with excitement when he first saw them. That's the best part. :)

December 14: Talon made a reindeer shirt with his handprint. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty but I think he liked it in the end.

Christmas Week #1

We had a fun first week of December! Talon loves to take the little sock off of the tree each day and unroll the paper to see what he gets to do. He'll say "Let's see what it says Mom."

So here's what we did this week.

December 1: We made Christmas candles out of toilet paper rolls and pipe cleaners.

December 2: We drank hot chocolate with marshmallows. Talon wanted cold chocolate. Anytime we eat something he says "Make it cold Mom."

December 3: We colored a Christmas picture. It's no surprise that he chose one with Mickey and Minnie.

December 4: We cut out paper snowflakes. Talon loved to unfold the paper and see a cool snowflake.

December 5: We made a Christmas star for our Christmas trees. Talon picked out the blue yarn for his star.

December 6: We bought a present for Dad and put it under the tree. Talon did a good job picking but I can't say what it is yet. It's not very easy to surprise this boy's dad.

December 7: We made play dough and made snowmen, stars and snakes. This was by far the funnest one for Talon. He sat there for at least an hour smashing the snowmen and rolling out snakes that were "too big" and "too little". That's an eternity for a 2 year old!

 

This was the smile he gave me right before saying "No more pictures Mom!"

 

Disclaimer: As the week went on, the dates really match the day we drew the paper from the sock, not necessarily the day we did the activity. I've learned that its more fun for Talon and less chance of procrastinating it if I have the things we need ready as soon as we draw the paper from the sock. We'll do better at that this week now that we're all caught up. :)

Birthday Boy!

This 2 year old...




Mickey and Minnie Mouse ... and some "Boom Boom" Trees.

Weighs 34 pounds and stand 3 feet tall EXACT.

Can say all his ABC's (big and small), 123's, colors and shapes. You love learning!

Says any word we ask him to say, but chooses to say "Braga" instead of "Grandma".

Loves to give and get kisses all the time.

LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Is a daddy's boy and loves to do whatever he's doing, especially Angry Birds.



Sorry this one's blurry... hard to catch him when he's on the move!

Is so energetic and positive: When you fall, you always laugh and get right back up. When someone is sad, you give them a kiss/pat on the back to cheer them up.

RUNS and never stops and reminds me to not forget to have fun.

Loves to sing, play the piano, guitar and drums.

I could go on and on. I'm so lucky to be this boy's mom. How awesome is it to be able to love and help and learn from such a cute person all the time. Happy 2nd birthday!!!




Cheesy smile... I can't get him to smile any different for pictures :) Love it!



Halloween Fun

 Halloween is much more fun when you have a 1 year old. Talon thought carving pumpkins was great! He couldn't get enough of playing with the slimey insides and putting "mooh" (moons) on the "muh-muh" (pumpkin).  I would draw shapes and ask him which one he wanted and he said moon every time.







Of course he had to hold the spoon the whole time.  He is such a good helper! Love that smile. :)










He is such a cute Yoda. We went trick or treating with some cousins and had a great time. Talon's favorite part of that was the candy of course and had to have at least one piece in each of his hands the whole time.

I wanted to get a really good picture of him when we got back so I chased him around with the camera for a while but he would NOT cooperate. (I know... mean mom trying to get lots of pictures). So here's a picture of a tired Yoda with his milk.

The big 1!!!

 Our little boy is 1 year old!  He is growing up too quickly (isn't that what everyone says) and we are enjoying every minute of it.  We had a big birthday party for him on his birthday and were glad that most of BOTH of our families were there.  Thanks everyone for all of the help and the presents for the birthday boy! 

The little man was not the happiest on his birthday because his molars are starting to come in (aren't they called 2-year-old molars???)  Anyways, he was a trooper and made it through!

 We did a basketball theme because this boy loves basketballs.  One of his favorite games is playing catch with mom and dad.  Dad helps him catch and then he throws it back to mom.

Opening presents.  He sat so nicely in his little chair and was in awe of all the new toys and clothes.

Playing with some of his presents.

CAKE TIME!!!  He wasn't sure what to do with a whole cake to himself but figured it out as you can see :)

As I said before, he wasn't feeling 100% so he went to bed even before all the guests left.  The next morning he was so excited when he woke up and saw all of his new toys!  Thanks again everyone who came and helped.  When I was done putting him to bed everything was cleaned up and in our house which I appreciated so much!

As a big 1-year-old here are a few things about Talon.

• He loves to bark at dogs and cats and growls at other animals.
• He is starting to imitate sounds.
• He has started walking and has taken up to 9 steps before falling down!  Crawling is so much faster though which is the transportation he prefers
• He empties EVERYTHING he can... toys, books, the dishwasher while I'm loading it.
• He loves reading.  He will sit in his room and read his books one by one as he takes them off the shelf.
• Says "up" when he goes up the stairs.
• He is so attached to his tractor blanket.  He has to make sure to grab it when he gets out of his crib.
• Loves yogurt more than anything.  When it's gone, I have to show him that it's "all gone" before I throw it away so he doesn't get mad.  (Food is the only thing he gets mad about)

We love our happy little guy and look forward to all the new things he will be learning and discovering. HAPPY BIRTHDAY T-MAN!

What a Talon does.

Here are some of Talon's favorite things to do.

He loves it when we call for Tito and he comes to the back door. He'll sit there and "talk" to him as long as he can. Too bad Tito could care less.

He loves to pull up to standing and just recently learned that he is the perfect height to stand up under the kitchen table and hit the fun plastic stuff on the chairs.

He loves books! This boy is always on the move, usually going places he shouldn't, but when you give him a book he will sit there and turn the pages for a good 10 minutes (that's a long time for a 10 month old). So cute!

9 months old!

Talon is 9 months old today! Time sure flies when you're having fun. He is such a happy easygoing baby that we are always laughing and having fun when he's around. At 9 months old our cute boy...

• says "Mama" (usually when he's sad and wants something) and "Dada" (mostly when he's playing).
• He loves talking/screaming. Most of the time he says "Aaaahhh"
• Can go from laying to sitting with no problem.
• Pulls himself up to standing with almost anything he can get his hands onto (sturdy or not). I think this boy will be walking very soon!
• Loves to play in the bathtub on his belly so he can swim and slide around.
• He will NOT let you hold his hand. If you even try, he will let go and hold your hand instead.
• When he crawls he scoots. He loves to put stuffed animals/toys/burp rags in his mouth and crawl around.
• He loves to eat! Baby food, our food, cardboard, paper, socks.......
• Has 5 teeth!!!! (and one on the way I think :( )
• He LOVES the Geico commercials with the pig. Every time one comes on, he watches intently and gets a big grin on his face. I love it!

He is getting so much more mobile and playful! It's fun to see him learn and grow each day. Here are a couple of short videos of him crawling and playing.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! It was fun to have Talon this year even though he was more excited about the wrapping paper than anything. Here he is with his knew rifle chewing on one of his animals. He got his first tooth on Christmas Eve. That might explain the chewing.The toy Talon is leaning on is a dinosaur that shoots balls out of the middle. He loves to lean on it like that and try to stand up. I think it's so funny. He usually only gets up to kneeling and then falls over.

Even since my last post about Talon, he has learned so much! He can now roll over from his stomach to his back. Pretty soon he'll be rolling all over the place. He is also scooting around a bunch. Whenever he is playing on the floor, he's in new spot every time I look at him. With his new Christmas toys he has more motivation to sit up so he can now sit up for quite a while on his own!