People Sandwiches

Oy vay! I have completely forgot about keeping up with the blog. Apparently we have been busy. Rather than dwell on all the things I missed posting about the past 6 months...we'll just start with today.

I introduced the boys to one if my favorite childhood lunches...."People Sandwiches." Nathan loved it! Andrew didn't want to make a face and wanted me to just cut his sandwich into pieces like usual, but I'd still say it was a success and we will definitely be trying it again.

January Update

Oh man! I have been terrible at taking pictures, writing in baby books, blogging, and anything else having to do with recording things the boys have been doing. I have no good excuse. In fact, this has been such a crazy winter I have already had five "cold days" off from school! Weird!

Here's Andrew:

Julie Nack took these cute Valentine's Day themed photos of Andrew to use in her advertising, so we got the digital images FREE. Yeah!



Andrew continues to be a smart, cute, and busy two and a half year old. He LOVES reading books to himself. His favorite right now is "Polar Bear, Polar Bear." He pronounces virtually all of the words wrong, but we know what he's saying and it's adorable. Sometimes Nathan is allowed to read to him which is also super cute, but mom, dad, and grandma rarely get to sit in the rocking chair in his room and read anymore.

With all the "cold days" Andrew hasn't had any speech therapy since before Christmas, but we can definitely tell he is making progress. He is aware of letter sounds and even knows which ones he has trouble with. He just isn't always willing to work on them with us, but he loves "playing" with Amy and will try just about anything with her.

Andrew has also decided he is a big boy now and no longer uses a booster seat at home or a high chair in restaurants. He isn't quite big enough to climb into his chair by himself, so he keeps a step stool next to it. He also uses the step stool to climb onto the piano bench, chairs in the kitchen, play in the bathroom sink, and anything else he can think of. Andrew's other favorite toy is the bucket of Easter eggs. He has been obsessed with them since before Christmas and we haven't been able to put them away yet. :)

And here's Nathan:

Nathan loves to play Angry Birds on our iPods. This is his version of Angry Birds using foam blocks to build "pig houses" and the eggs are the pigs. Then he throws a ball at the house to "kill the pigs."

Nathan is a wild and crazy four year old. He loves to tell jokes (they are not good), sing songs, read books, play Candyland (he wins A LOT), Legos, and do any sort of art project or coloring. He also continues to enjoy going to preschool at King of Grace Lutheran Church, swimming lessons at Foss, and Sunday School/Family Faith Formation at Valley of Peace Lutheran Church.

Nathan had his first sleepover at Gramma Rollie and Grampa Phil's house. He had a great time going out for pizza, counting flags, playing with bubble wrap, putting on tattoos, and making pancakes with M & M's and chocolate chips. He had so much fun he sobbed when Andrew and I went to pick him up. He's already talking about his next sleepover. :)

Santa!

Both boys enjoyed seeing Santa this year. Nathan even wrote him a super cute letter telling him everything he wanted. I had Ben go take the note back from Santa, so we could put it in Nathan's baby book.

My Little Superheroes

Happy Halloween! Fall has been busy in the Brandt household. I am back to teaching part-time at Cornelia. This school year is going much smoother since I don't feel like a first year teacher again anymore. Nathan has started attending pre-school at King of Grace Lutheran Church in Golden Valley. He loves it and I love hearing about everything he is doing there! I am super excited for conferences later this month and the chance to sit on the parent-side of the table and hear about my big boy. Nathan will also be turning four in a little over a week. How did that happen?!

Andrew is a happy, fun-loving two year old who mostly wants to do whatever his big brother is doing (good or bad). Ha! Andrew has speech therapy one day a week and is making great progress. He is a very smart little boy, but is just hard to understand. He is finally starting to use more "b", "p", and "m" sounds but needs to be constantly reminded. He also attends ECFE one morning a week. This year it is a separating class. He has a hard time when mommy leaves, but it slowly getting more used to it. Both boys take swimming lessons on Saturday mornings and we try to regularly go to Sunday School and church too. Busy, busy, busy! 

Super Nathan!

Nathan has been telling us he needs a cape, so he can become a super hero, get some scissors and cut down the sky. Then he wouldn't have to go to bed anymore. Love that boy!

One down, one to go...

We officially have a completely potty-trained boy living in our house! Woo hoo! He has been successfully wearing underwear during the day for a LONG time now, but up until recently still wore diapers for night time, nap time, and anytime he needed to poop. Over our family vacation in Nisswa he suddenly decided he could wear underwear while he was sleeping and he did it without having any accidents. We have had to change the sheets on his bed a few times since being home, but overall he is doing great. Last weekend he finally tried pooping in his little potty chair and had success right in the middle of Andrew's birthday party. All the compliments and cheers from everyone at the party were just what he needed and he's been doing it ever since. Now we just need to get him doing it all on a big potty. Hooray!

Andrew is 2!

How is that even possible? I still think of him as my little baby, but he slowly and surely becoming a toddler. It is amazing to think of all the progress Andrew has made in the past year. One year ago we had him first evaluated because he was still not eating food or moving at all. Now he is walking, eating, and talking (sort of)! He is going to continue with some speech therapy through the Robbinsdale Early Childhood Special Education Services. He will try to say and repeat just about anything, but still only uses limited consonant sounds, so most people have a difficult time understanding him. It will be interesting to see what the speech therapist has us do to work with him on this.

Andrew's second birthday party wasn't all that different from his first. He still needed a lot of help opening gifts and was not happy with the large crowd of kids trying to get in close to see. He also was not interested in trying the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and peanut free cupcakes with coconut milk ice cream we got. Oh well! Maybe by the time he's three, he'll finally try his "birthday cake." :)