Our Brendan is a little sweetheart ...

Yesterday was a special day because Kelly promised to drop off Brendan at about 10 in the morning . . . and that's all it takes to make my day SPECIAL ~ hey! I'm a low-maintenance girl! Kelly had some personal business to attend to in this area of town, so Brendan and I got to play together.

Brendan is a very mechanical baby. He absolutely delights in HOW things work, AND he is very good and figuring out the process! He correctly uses tools, and his chubby hands are very adept at maneuvering and manipulating small pieces together. I love to watch him enjoy himself … and he does! He is an extremely contented person (he comes by this naturally, due to his sweet folks). 

We played a LOT with our cars and tracks yesterday. But where Brendan got MOST of his joy was from the construction process ... 

This little fellow tenaciously worked on connecting track and was SO into it! This curved track is very difficult to piece together. And Brendan was NOT successful. But he carefully and patiently worked at it for more than 10 minutes, wasn't frustrated or angry, but finally just put it down and walked away. I completed what he had begun and we did race cars for a little while.

Little Fellow
"chillaxin" in my bed …
Little Sweetie!

We listened to beautiful children's music all morning long. Brendan loves to sing, and I think the music helped to distract him from the fact that his mama was NOT here ...

This play cart with tools and blocks is still Brendan's favorite toy at my house. He plays and plays with this toy. I purchased it before Emma was born over at a Creative Learning toy store on E. Paris. I think I paid $59 for it, all of those years ago. I'm so glad I did!

When one of Brendan's favorite songs came on, he walked over to my instrument basket, picked up this toy triangle, held it correctly (!!) and kept time to the music. I was very impressed … he is a very musical baby. Can you tell that his grandma kind of … loves him? I'm crazy about him actually.  

But Brendan has another love in his life that is definitely #1. Every now and again, he would look up at me and this is what he would say: "Where's mama?" "Mama here?" And finally, he just got up and walked to my front door and insisted that it be opened up so that he could look and see if he could find her! 

Sadly, Kelly wasn't there! So we closed the door again and I carried him around the house to each light switch so that he could turn on and off each light … this amused him for awhile at least.

When we walked by one of my book shelves, Brendan spied this tiny 2-drawer blue dresser my dad had made many years ago. I took it down from the shelf for him to examine. The top drawer just held some old stamps; the bottom drawer was full of tiny shells. Brendan wasn't at all interested in what was in the drawers … he just wanted to pull them in and out, in and out. He was very pleased with this little project for quite some time!

But then … YAY! Kelly walked through the door. Instant happiness. Glee! There is no one quite like mama in Brendan's eyes. 

Two of the sweetest people in the world!

LOTS of photographs of our weekend ...

Another weekend has flown by! Friday and Saturday comes and goes so quickly every week. If I don't journal what we did together, I will not remember these precious family times ~ my memory isn't the best! And since a picture can say a thousand words ... I am posting a multitude of them today, with minimal commentary.

Matthew John ... looking a little bit
weary after a long week at school.

The children had a 1/2 day at school Friday, but I didn't know that until ... Friday! So I didn't pick them up any earlier than usual. I'd had a very busy week and had a lot of unfinished business to complete Friday, so it worked out for the best.  

This week our Bible story was about the Miracle of Multiplication, when Jesus fed the 5,000. Since I can go on-line to many children's Bible sites, I was able to print out some color pages that illustrated the story very well. The kiddos colored while I read the story to them. 

We talked all about how much Jesus cared about the people who followed him just like He cares about us right now as we walk with Him. We talked about Jesus being "the Bread of life" and read the story from John 6. They really enjoyed just coloring as we talked about the miracle that Jesus was able to accomplish and not only feed 5,000 men but probably as many women and children ~ and not only give them enough, give them a surplus, so that everyone was very full and happy!

It was Matthew's turn to pick the Friday night movie, and he chose "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. Actually, we had seen this movie at the theatre back in El Paso a few years ago; so it was fun to see it again, even if it was just on the small screen of my computer. It's a good story and the children enjoyed it. I think everyone, except Christopher (so consequently, me too) was sleeping by 11:15 ... but everyone slept in until 8:30 Saturday morning.

Since we were expecting company Saturday, late afternoon, we had to make preparation! We had invited Uncle Dylan, Aunt Kelly, and baby Brendan ... as well as Grandpa Pahman, Jesse, Diana, baby Kaity, and Shane to come over for dinner Saturday night.  

Emma remembered that Brendan likes "spinning" toys ... so she constructed him a LocBloc spinning robot guy ... 

 Chris and Matthew kept busy with art projects while Emma and I "kid-proofed" the house and removed all small objects that would be inappropriate for babies.

Emma didn't want Kaity to feel left out, so she
made her a toy using LocBlocs as well ...

 I asked the kiddos if they would make Grandpa Pahman a thank you card for taking care of their Mitzy-cat all of these months, so they got right to work on it!

I remembered, about mid-afternoon, that I had a sample CD of Aunt Kelly singing some beautiful songs she had written and I asked Emma if she wanted to hear how beautifully her Aunt Kelly could sing ... we actually played this sample CD 10x before they arrived at about 4:00 in the afternoon. 

Brendan found his "gift" from Emma
and immediately removed the
spinner ... so that he could fully enjoy
SPINNING it!

 Christopher and Brendan enjoyed playing together. Brendan was quite fond of Chris's hat and kept putting it on and off ...

We asked Aunt Kelly if she could help us with our "EASY" Origami book, which is NOT easy one single bit! So she sat down and seriously constructed this difficult lion from the instructions in our book. She agreed with us that the illustrations were not clear and that it was anything but easy! 

The kiddos enjoying a few appetizers ...

I love this picture of Kelly!

 We ate lots of veggies and dip, chips (!), pretzels, grapes, tangerines, jell-o, and pizza!

 Brendan baby was somewhat ... stressed with all of the chaos. He typically comes to my house and has the place to himself! AND ... since he is a very industrious and intense little person, it was a little upsetting to him to see all of his toys (!) played with by so many children all at once. His daddy was taking the time to explain things to him ...

 Baby Kaity hasn't been to my house very often. She seemed happy to explore and play with every little thing she could reach ... and she is a tall little girl and can reach lots of stuff!

I didn't do a very good job at photographing all of us together ... I had my hands full just making sure everyone had enough to eat, etc. But it was good to all be together. Regrettably, Shane was too sick to be able to be with us ~ he did not want to infect the kiddos ~ so he will join us next time! 

Fun with Brendan today ...

Kelly was assisting in the birth of a dear friend's baby today, so I was asked to come and play with Brendan for a little while so that Dylan could continue to work from home and actually accomplish ... some work!

Brendan was sad to say good-bye to his mama, but Dylan and I soon cheered his little heart ... 

I found Brendan's piggy finger-puppet and began to play hide-n-seek with it ... piggy was hiding everywhere ... behind Brendan's Little People barn, behind my back, etc. and pretty soon, Brendan took piggy from me and continued the hide-n-seek game all by himself, copying my every move! 

I've seen videos of little kittens jumping in and out of small boxes, but I really did NOT expect Brendan to squeeze himself into this rather small box! 

 Brendan wiggled and squiggled and finally maneuvered himself to a sitting position inside this really tiny, rather cramped box! He was so pleased!

I love to watch this little fellow play. He is (for the most part) gentle, patient, involved, inquisitive, persistent, and ... just delightful. He is very contented with his toys and he explores new ways of playing with them all the time. I had so much fun with him today!