A Few Chapters in the Parenting Book

Chapter One: Who Needs a Sippy Cup?
Brock likes drinking from the "pack pack" as he calls it. It is Cory's camelback.


Chapter Two: Be Careful Where You Put the Step Stool!
We have this stool in the garage that gets moved around. On this day it happened to be in front of the washer and Brock climbed right in. Notice he is wearing his new helmet. This kid, who refused to wear a hat all summer, wore his new helmet around the house all weekend.


Chapter Three: The Bottle Fairy
This weekend the bottle fairy came and took Brock's bottles. He was down to only two a day and losing interest so we decided - no more bottle. The story we told him was that the bottle fairy collects the bottles and gives them to babies that need them. Brock had no problem giving up his bottle - but he didn't like the idea of sharing them with babies. He specifically told me, "No give the bottle to baby". I guess if he can't have them - no one can! Otherwise, he couldn't care less. I guess I was more addicted to the bottle than he was because it gave me a few moments of peace. Oh well!
Here he is packaging up his bottle for the fairy. We left them on the porch and then in the morning he got a new little hot wheel motorcycle.
Chapter Four: The Narrator
I feel like my whole life is narrated these days. The everyday things that you do and ignore are pointed out when you have a toddler in the house. His new wake up call is, "Mommy, I heard a noise" (yup, that is me trying to wake you up). After he yells this a few times I come in and he says, "Mommy, I heard a noise in the back room". Whether it is eating or peeing or pooping, Brock lets me know what is going on at all times. And just in case you missed it the first time, he repeats it over and over again. He is talking in sentences - most of the words pronounced correctly and in perfect tense. Impressive for a 22 month old!

Happy 30th Birthday Cory!

No pictures to post - just a belated Happy Birthday to Cory! We had a big party on Friday night to celebrate the big 3-0 with friends. Cory has an incredible list of accomplishments to be proud of for his first three decades of life. Most important to us - he is the World's Best husband and Dad! We love you soooo much!

"Big Dirt Hill"

This weekend we had 10yards of DG delivered for our back yard project. It was money well spent because Brock has been highly entertained for days! The thrill began when a huge dump truck made the delivery. Then he played for about 2 hours straight - climbing the hill, running down, digging with his tractors, jumping of the the side, sliding down. He was so pleased with this new entertainment that he would give a shout out to the dump truck every few minutes, "Thank you dump truck"! It was too funny!





I even had to bring out lunch to him so he could take bites between playing.

Finally a Haircut

We finally did it - we gave Brock a haircut! He looks like such a little man now. We didn't do anything fancy, just some clippers in the garage! Here are some pictures of the process - before Brock got seriously annoyed at us for taking too long!

Stuck in Lodi Again

Last weekend my best friend, Katie, got married in Lodi! It was perfect...like from a magazine perfect. Brock was looking studly in his wedding outfit and I'm happy to report he made it down the isle without incident (except a slight stumble). It was a fun weekend with dear friends and we are now recovering from exhaustion and colds :(.



Us girls did all of the center pieces over wine and good tunes the night before the wedding. They turned out pretty good!


Jeremy, the handsome groom who I have no pictures of, has three little sisters. They LOVED Brock and Brock sure loved the attention.

The Great Reno Balloon Races

This weekend we enjoyed one of our favorite events in town, the balloon races. The event is actually on the weekend, but we get a preview beginning on Wednesday because we live about a block from the event - good thing because we were out of town for a wedding this weekend. Brock LOVES the balloons. He would wake up each morning and tell me about "balloons up in the sky". One of us went with Brock each morning so he could soak it all in. His favorite balloon was the fish, of course! Next year we will resume what will be our Annual Balloon Race Party!