Halloween and then some

17 months, 3 weeks

I know, Halloween was over a week ago. Clearly I'm way behind on this one!! So, we'll do a little update (with lots of pics)!!

Halloween was a great success! Brock's homemade Bamm Bamm costume came out perfectly! He looked so adorable and we got so many compliments on it! We started the afternoon trick or treating at my office. He really got the hang of picking candy out of the bowl and putting it into his bag. What he didn't quite understand, was just 1 piece! LOL! We left my office and went to see Great Grandma Elsie for a bit. He learned where her secret stash of cookies are - watch out!

We had a big night planned with trick or treating and then all of the girls and their kiddos coming over for some Halloween activities! Brock was a little out of sorts and being very 'clingy' to Mommy, but we decided to give it a go with trick or treating anyway. Brett, Kristin and Madison came to trick or treat with us, along with Aunt Mia, Grammie and Uncle Drew and Aunt Erin. When we first started out, both the kids were fussy and so not into it. But after a slight mishap (Brock fell and while trying to get up, fell back and hit his head on the sidewalk), we were finally in action. We hit about 4 houses around us and decided to call it good.

Once all the kids came, it was just the best kind of chaos ever! Toys all over the house, all the kids just having so much fun. Snacking, doing crafts, playing with each other so well and finally, watching 'Meows' which was probably the highlight of the night for Brock and Carter (who was dressed as Puss in Boots). It was a great night overall! Here are some pictures:

Trying on his costume. The only way we could get him to stand still was giving him Daddy's phone.

Trick or Treating shots!

Pebbles and Bamm Bamm

 The whole gang! Madison James, Carter Bucl, Marlee Hugunin, Tripp and Charlie Herman, Jackson Bucl, Brock and Carter Hugunin

 Below are 2 pictures from last year to this year. Hilarious to compare the 2 with the same kiddos!

Halloween 2011: Madison (duck), Marlee (dinosaur), Carter (dinosaur), Brock (bat)

Halloween 2012: Madison (ghost), Marlee (Pebbles), Brock (Bamm Bamm), Carter (Puss in Boots)

In other Brock news, it seems we've got another 'Mommy phase' starting. He's been very clingy and wanting Mommy a lot more lately. Again, I'm trying to soak it up, while also not encouraging it too much. I know I'll miss these moments, but I also want him to feel comfortable with other people. 

One of our new nighttime routines might be my favorite so far. I usually sing 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' to Brock before I lay him down. I never thought he really paid much attention until this week when he started singing it before I did almost to remind me. So I sat down with him and we just sang to each other before I put him to bed. It was one of the sweetest moments.

He's such a rough and tumble boy that doesn't like to just snuggle very often. He just doesn't sit still long enough! But his little sleepy voice was so sweet and we just sang back and forth while he snuggled up to me. So we've started doing it every night. Usually it's just me and Brock, but now he wants to make sure Daddy stays in the room too. I know we will cherish these moments forever!

He has started really picking up on identifying things. He knows Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Jake (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates), Mickey and Goofy - and he knows that each one of them is different and which is which. He also says 'Cookie' in a gruff 'Cooookie' Cookie Monster voice.

We have an animal picture book and he can now either name the animal or the sound it makes for the following animals: bunnies, pishes (fish), meow meow (cat), quack quack (duck), bawk bawk (chicken), moo (cow), whooo whoo (owl), rawr (tiger, lion or bear), and monkey. The one that puzzles us is dog. He knows dogs, that was one of his first words. He knows dogs when he hears them or sees them. But for some reason, he doesn't seem to recognize the dog in the book as a dog. It's pretty funny. 

Speaking of dogs, for some reason, Nick and I have called Oscar 'Little' for who knows how long. It was a random nickname that just kind of stuck with him. Well, now Brock calls him that too and has to say 'Bye Little' and pet him before we leave every morning. It's so cute!

We took him to the zoo last weekend and he just LOVED it! It seems every time he likes it more and more as he's really starting to understand the concept. I think his favorite part was probably the lions. He also learned how to say 'elephant'. 

In addition to adding more and more words, he's starting to speak in more multiple word sentences. We're also pretty sure he's added 'I want' into his vocabulary. Not clearly and not all the time, but there have definitely been some 'I want X' moments. He has really started learning to respond to questions also. 'Yeah and ok' are constant responses and it's so cute! I don't think he totally understands it yet but when you ask him a question, he knows that requires a response.

He's getting his first haircut this weekend and this mommy is a little sad. His wild and crazy curls fit his personality so much! I'm going to be sure and tell them not to cut them ALL off. But, Daddy's been pushing for a haircut for awhile now. And when his hair is wet, it is getting pretty long (we're talking hanging over the ears and down his back long). It's just so cute when it's all wild and curly!

Fabulous Fall weekend

17 months, 1 week

We had a wonderful weekend filled with fall activities! On Saturday we went drove up to Weston, MO with Gary and Judy to visit the Weston Red Barn Farm. It was the cutest little farm with animals you could feed, tons of pumpkins and activities. Like last weekend, Brock mostly just wanted to run around like a crazy man in with all the free space to roam. We ate lunch in Weston at a cute little small-town restaurant with greasy, delicious food and then headed home.

Judy was a life saver and helped me get Brock's Halloween costume started. The main part is complete and I learned not only how to sew using my sewing machine, but also how to hand sew! I would have never even gotten started if it weren't for her and now I feel comfortable using my machine!!

It's not fall in Prairie Village unless you've spent at least one full day raking and bagging up leaves in your yard. We have a huge tree in our backyard that has huge leaves and acorns that fall all over the place. Our front yard usually gets covered in everyone else's leaves before the leaves even fall off ours up there. So usually there are at least 3-4 days out of the fall that we are working on leaves, 1-2 of them being full day affairs.

Before Brock, Nick and I used to tackle it together. We have always had the 'we're a team' mentality (I had Team Colbosa engraved on the watch I gave him for our wedding) and this was no different. Neither of us really LOVED doing it, but it was better if we did it together. Well, for all of you out there with kids (especially toddlers) you know the days of having time to just tackle these household duties for however long it takes are long gone. We assumed our days of working on the yard together were a thing of the past. One of us (Nick) would have to be banished to the leaves while the other (me) would be entertaining Brock some other way.

We got the most pleasant surprise however this weekend. Trying to soak up some of the few nice days left this year, we decided to try and take Brock out with us. We would tackle the deck area and getting the yard prepped before lunch/naptime and then Nick could just mow up the rest in the afternoon. Phase 1 went better than expected! Not only did we get everything done, but Brock loved it! He was rolling around in the leaves, jumping in them, laying in them, just loving it. He was a filthy mess and didn't care at all.

Phase 2 didn't go as planned when the mower wouldn't start, so Brock and I came back out to lend a hand again. We spent the better part of the afternoon out there as a family working on the leaves. Brock would use his toy mower to mow the yard, or the small rake to help rake the leaves or sometimes just wander around the yard exploring.

It was definitely one of those 'take a mental picture' moments. I was so overcome with pride at how well we were able to both get work done while Brock entertained himself. We had become so used to one of us having to watch his every move that it was more of a relief than I realized when we could all be out there together, doing our part. At one point, I just stopped and looked around the yard and just smiled. It was so bittersweet because we most likely won't live in this house next year. As excited as we are to move into our next 'family' house, we will all be sad to leave our first home. But it was the perfect way to celebrate another season in that house, all working in the leaves together as a family.

Here is Brock walking through the leaf pile. As you can see, it's pretty tall and there were probably 7 piles this high!

In other news, Brock has become OBSESSED with the movie 'Cars'. The funny thing is, he's never seen it. A few weeks ago we were at Costco and they had 'Cars 2' on the TVs there and we stopped to watch maybe 5 minutes of it. Yet somehow, he can find any 'Cars' type memorabilia, point it out and say 'Cars'. He found a picture of the 'Cars' characters on a CAN OF SOUP at the grocery store. I'm talking one tiny can of soup in the middle of maybe a hundred other cans of soup. At first I didn't believe him, until I finally saw it! 

It looks like this movie may be in our near future to watch on repeat like we've been having to watch 'Puss in Boots' or the 'meows' for the last 2 weeks. I try not to let him watch much tv, but he walks in the living room, points to the TV and says 'meows'. We've tried putting in on something else but he just won't have it. He knows when it's the 'meows' and when it's not. I think we've created a monster with this one! Luckily he only watches maybe 10 minutes at a time before he gets distracted. 

17 month update

17 months

Since I've been terrible about really doing an update specific to each month, I thought I would use this one to try and capture all the things Brock has been up to. Some of it may be repeats from previous posts, but hopefully not too much!

- Clothes: wearing pretty much exclusively a 2T (pj's, shirts for sure, can fit 18 month pants). Just like us he's got short legs so his pants tend to run a little smaller
- Teeth: He still only has 8 (top and bottom 4) but I saw another one start to pop through this week on top
- Shoes: He's wearing a size 6 and  about to move up to a 7
- Foods: Still hates bananas, not a huge fan of meat in general but LOVES his carbs - breads, pastas, he'll pick those out first to eat
- He still only drinks milk or water - no juice or soda
- Words: Easily over 100 by now and starting to say more multiple word sentences. This week we added: 'let's go', 'stop it', and the biggest sentence yet 'now I know my' (from the ABC song)
- He likes to pick out his own shoes now. If I pick them out, he'll get excited at first (b/c it is shoes of course) but then gets upset as if he wants another pair. I let him pick his own this morning and he was so proud of himself. However, he then became indecisive and after those were on, wanted a different pair. God help us!
- He loves to sing and dance whenever he can
- He asks for TV shows by name - I swear, we don't let him watch much, but he asks for 'Mickey' in the morning and then 'Meows' (Puss in Boots) at night. Last night we let him watch the Meows and we turned it off when it was over, he was not happy. He really only watches for maybe 10 minutes at a time, but he wants it on for when he decides he's ready to focus again!
- He has become familiar with places now. Last week we drove to Nick's parents house and as we got down their street, Brock said 'Grandma'. As we turn down our street, he now says 'Candy' thanks to Daddy giving him candy every night when they get home. He says 'CC' when we pull up to Cynthia's house in the morning
- He's clearly a tech-baby: he knows how to scroll through the pictures on our phones and on our tablet
- He says all the grandparents names now: Grammie, Meme, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa
- Every night he likes to press his light up turtle. It's become his goodnight ritual - he turns it on and off a few times, changes the colors, then we pry it out of his hands so he can go to sleep
- His bedtime is usually between 8-8:30 and he wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30 in the mornings. We don't hear even a peep out of him at night (we are so lucky). We had a pretty loud thunderstorm last weekend that even woke us up, he didn't even move.

As usual, he's just the coolest baby. He's so smart and so funny. He keeps us on our toes, but he's also so sweet. Love that little man more and more every day!

Here is a funny and appropriate shirt according to Mommy. A fun picture from this morning!

Baby genius

16 months, 3 weeks

WARNING: Major Mommy-bragging ahead. Read with caution

I know every parent thinks their kid is just the cutest, smartest and best kid out there. But they are all wrong, because clearly our son is the best. Only kidding! But for real, maybe it's being first time parents or just being normal parents in love with their kid, but we are totally convinced Brock is the smartest 16 month old on the planet!

Here are just a few examples of his clear genius status:
- As mentioned last week, the kid can count to 5 (now again, not from 1-5, but he knows what sequence they go in and says '2', sometimes '3' and '5' if you start counting)
- He has a favorite song - no joke. The song 'Some Nights' by the group Fun. That song comes on the radio and his face lights up and he starts dancing away. Call me crazy, but a 16 month old being able to tell the difference in songs is INSANE
- He can name most of the Sesame Street characters - he knows Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird and Cookie Monster and I don't mean he can just say their names - he legit knows which one is which. I've been told that's pretty major (by his totally unbiased Grammy). He also knows Mickey (and asks for him to be turned on while he eats breakfast) as well as Jake (who comes on after Mickey)
- He knows Nick and I's first names...well, he can say 'Aubree' but I don't know if he realizes it's the same as Mommy. But he for sure knows Nick is Daddy. Over the weekend while trying to get his attention, he said 'Niiiiiiick' in pretty much the same way I lovingly call to my husband when I need help with something.
- A few weeks ago, Aunt Mia was watching him and she had left one of his hangers on the couch. All of the sudden she couldn't see him so she went to look for him. She found him in his room trying to hang the hanger back in the closet - now this one amazes me because we can't figure out where he learned that one. I put his clothes away in his room, usually when he's not there (it's somewhat counterproductive to fold clothes while he's trying to throw them on the floor)
- He not only has an enormous vocabulary for a 16 month old (easily over 50 words), he know is saying 2 and sometimes 3 word sentences. 'Oh wow', 'Where go', 'Oh gosh', 'Hi Poppy' - ok so a couple of these are just repeating us, but 'Where go' - he says this when he asking where someone or something went
- He knows the obvious body parts - head, eyes, ears, teeth, nose and toes
- Nick has a backpack he uses for his work laptop and he has it sitting by the table in our living room. Brock always tries to mess with the buckles on it and when Nick went to pick it up this morning, Brock had buckled the 2 straps together!
- Last but definitely not least - the kid is a Jayhawk fan already! Being KU alums and fanatics, we have KU/Jayhawk stuff kind of everywhere in our house. Just little things randomly sprinkled around. Brock says Jayhawk - sounds kinda like k-hawk - whenever he sees one. And he can find them anywhere - on a jacket or a shirt, in his toy box, on a sign, on a rock in our front yard. If there is even the smallest K-hawk, that boy will find it and point it out!

Ok, I know there are lots of other things he does and in all seriousness, we are just so damn proud of that little man! He amazes us every day with just how smart he is. I know we are probably very biased and being first time parents, we don't really know the timeline babies are supposed to go on, but we feel he's pretty freakin' smart!

Vacation's over...

16 months, 2 weeks

Soooooooo sorry about the gap in blogs!! As you can probably assume from the title, we took a little bit of a vacation and have just been off-schedule in general at our house.

2 weeks ago Brock was the ring bearer is Drew and Erin's wedding. He was adorable and did such a great job! He had the most serious look on his face like he knew he had a job to do. He danced a little at the reception and looked soooo cute in his little tux!

The next week, Cynthia was going on vacation so we decided to take advantage of her time off and do a little 'staycation' for our little fam. We went on a tour of Arrowhead stadium, then went to Wichita to see my dad, Pat and the rest of the clan down there. We had a big family dinner and then went to Tanganyika Wildlife Park right outside of Wichita. It was by far the coolest animal place we've been too so far. You can feed/pet giraffes, feed lemurs and let them crawl all over you, pet kangaroos (some WITH babies in their pouch), and even get in a little pen with a bunch of bunnies and feed them and pet them. Brock loved it! We all did! It was so much fun!

We visited Deanna Rose for the first time also. Gotta say, it was a bit of a let down going so soon after Tanganyika and Brock is just a little young for most of the activities, but it's a great place that we definitely plan on visiting many many times in the future!

We spent a lot of time at home just relaxing and enjoying our little family time. It was never so hard to go back to work! Almost as bad as after maternity leave, only no tears this time! Brock has just become such a little man and so much fun to be around. He makes us laugh pretty much daily and we loved every minute of being home with him.

We got all our Halloween decorations out while we were home also and Brock is totally loving them. He looks at the 'scary' stuff and says 'oooooooo' in an attempt to sound spooky. It's so cute! He's now become pretty obsessed with candy corn. So much so that we had to move it out of his reach and eye sight!

We also learned while home with him that he can count to 5! Seriously, a 16 month old that can count, he's a baby genius! Now, a little disclaimer, he can't just start counting 1 thru 5. But if you say 1, he'll say 2 (and sometimes 3) and then you say 3,4 and he'll say 5. It's amazing!

He's becoming very responsive too. This weekend he started saying 'ok' when we asked him if he wanted to do something. The first was 'do you want to watch the meows (Puss in Boots) and he looked at me, nodded his little head and said 'ok'. It was so sweet and also a really big moment for me. I just looked at him in amazement that now not only can he talk to me and I can talk to him, but we're on the road to having conversations together!

He's a dancing machine right now and anytime he hears music, his head bobs, or he claps or he starts bouncing up and down. He's also his biggest cheerleader. His new favorite phrase is 'yeah Brockie'! He likes to help me unload the dishwasher. He hands me the plates and I put them in the cupboard. He's my favorite little helper!

I'm sorry I don't have any pics up yet of our stay-cation, but if you are friends with me on Facebook, they should all be on there soon!

One last update - the binkie is totally gone. I think he honestly forgot about it! We gave it to him in the car to Wichita because he was fighting sleep so hard, but other than that, he hasn't even missed it! Such a champ!

Now it's back to our regular old routine, which means back to work and our regular schedules, back to being mindful of what I'm eating and back to working out. Boo....vacation was way more fun!

Bye-bye binkie?!

15 months, 4 weeks

There are some changes goin' on at Casa de Barbosa! We are attempting to get Brock off the binkie!! First, let me start by saying he ONLY gets one at night and they never leave his crib unless he's sick or we're on a long road trip in the car. However, I have been thinking about getting rid of it for quite some time. I struggled because he has always been SOOOOOOO easy to put to bed. We just give him his hugs, kisses, goodnights, lay him in the crib, hand him the binkie and we don't hear another peep until morning.

About 2 months ago I stopped giving him the binkie directly. We started putting stuffed animals, a pillow pet and a blanket in the crib as 'comfort items'. I left the binkie in the crib and if he found it, than so be it. Well, he almost ALWAYS found it and would fuss a bit until he did. Lately, I've really been wanting to try and take it away before it becomes a total habit that we just can't break. I made a mental goal of wanting it gone by 18 months. I just didn't want it to be completely devastating when we took it away, but at the same time, I didn't want to take away something that brought him comfort.

I've been doing research about the best ways to break it. Cold turkey, cutting a hole in it, putting weird tasting stuff on it (which I think is so mean!), giving it away, giving the 'you're a big boy now speech', etc. It was overwhelming and I thought the least painful seemed like the hole-cutting idea. I mentioned to CC (our daycare provider) that I was thinking about getting rid of it and she said the best way to do it is just cold turkey. It'll be hell for a few days, but it works.

We were going to wait a few weeks before we attempted to even try, but almost as if he knew, that same night that I talked to CC, he couldn't find his binkie. It had gotten wrapped up in his blanket and while he fussed a bit right when we put him down, he fell asleep and not a peep until morning. He usually loses the binkie almost immediately after falling asleep and doesn't wake up. He'll pick it up again when he wakes up in the morning, but other than that, once it's out, it's out.

So, I decided to go with it. Maybe this was the opportunity to just give it a shot. So we tried the next night, same thing, a little fussing (not crying) and then back to sleep. CC also took them out of his crib at nap time and said he had no issues. Friday was a bit of a set-back because for some reason, he was just crying for no reason before we even put him to bed. So we caved and gave the binkie because he was just crying SO HARD, but that didn't even help. It was one of maybe 2 nights in his short 15 months that he just wouldn't go down.

Saturday was back to it and while this time he did cry for awhile without it, he finally went to sleep after maybe 5 minutes. Same thing with nap time on Sunday and by Sunday night, not even a peep. He just laid in his crib until he fell asleep. Now, I know we're not even a full week in so we'll see how well this week goes. We will be away from home at least one night the next 2 weekends and we may have to bring old faithful back to get us through those nights.

So far, the only downfall is that sometimes on weekends he'd wake up and find his binkie and fall back asleep. Now, once he's up, he's up and ready to face the day! Maybe we weren't ready to take it away just yet afterall? I do still struggle a little feeling like is it really necessary to take it away right now? Does it really matter? It helps him sleep and it's not hurting anything. But, I know in the long run, the sooner we take it away the better and I just hope he's not laying there wondering why he doesn't get one anymore.

In other fun Brock news - I taught him to say 'Hola' this weekend! It's so cute. I really want him to be able to speak Spanish and thankfully a lot of the toys out now have a spanish version. We turn ours to Spanish a lot just to let him become familiar with another language.

He also is learning to take after his Mommy with his food tastes. My absolute favorite type of food no question is Mexican. I completely black out while eating chips and salsa and could eat it all day, every day. We went out for Mexican on Friday night and Brock saw us all dipping our chips in the salsa and wanted to try it too. At first he wasn't so sure, but he kept dipping his chips in and before long, he was dipping every bite into the salsa first. It was so hilarious!

We have a big weekend coming up! Uncle Drew and Aunt Erin's wedding is finally here! We are all in the wedding and can't wait to celebrate with them (and see Brock in his little tux as the ring bearer!)

Personality update

15 months, 3 weeks

Now that some of the big developmental milestones are behind us, there isn't much changing from week to week with Brock. So, I thought I would take some time to jot down a few of his little personality 'quirks' so we always remember what this time was like. He has such a big personality and makes us laugh every day! Just when you think it can't get anymore fun with him, he ups the ante!

He can point to his head, ears, eyes, nose, teeth and toes. 

Still LOVES to brush his teeth! He patiently lets me brush his 8 little teeth, then he takes over and does the rest. The other night, I brushed my teeth while he brushed his and he was just in awe!

He loves to Face Time with Poppy and Meme. As soon as he sees 'Poppy', he asks about Meme. He likes to lean over and give them (or ZZ) kisses on the phone or blow kisses to Meme. 

He makes the funniest faces at dinner. Silly faces, mad faces, annoyed faces, excited faces, he runs through the whole spectrum of emotions and usually smiles after each face. It's our nightly entertainment.

He now knows what a Jayhawk is and can (kind of) say it. We took him to the first KU game of the season last weekend and he would zero in on the Jayhawk anytime he was in our sight and just watch him walk up and down the stadium. One of these games, we're going to take him down to actually see him in person. He was such a champ at the game. It was hot and he was tired and getting over a cold, but he didn't get fussy until near the end of the game. 

Last night he was finishing up dinner in his high chair while I cleaned up the dishes and did some cleaning in the kitchen. I turned my radio on and would look over at him and dance. He started nodding his head to the music and had me just rolling on the floor laughing! He loves music and will either nod his head, bounce up and down or sway back and forth to the tunes!

Last week, we took him to get some ice cream at Sheridan's by our house. While we were there, a firetruck came roaring down the street. At first, he was intrigued, but as it got closer (and LOUDER) he freaked out and just started running. He just took off as fast as he could the other way and when I caught him you could just see the fear on his poor little face. He may be scarred for life on firetrucks! 

He is still just the best little man ever! He sleeps so well, eats so well and just is the happiest baby. He truly is the joy of our lives and we just love watching him grow and change and discover new things!