Our wee elephant

Getting ready for the big day....

Sometimes he is just so *cute*!!

Artsy shots in Stanley Park

How do you not smile when you see this picture?? What a moment to capture...

And us, hanging out in the park.

Ice Cream!

After a successful morning at the aquarium, what better thing to do than go for ice cream together?? We stopped at the crown glory of gelato places on the way home from the city.. and the funny thing about kids.. you do not have to teach them how to eat an ice cream cone!!!

Pumpkin patch!!!

These are like big drums...

You can tell, Brandon is communing with the Great Pumpkin, wondering what great art is going to emerge from within...

I love pasta (this is not a tan)

A train ride..

In front of a big train... and the wonder of a smaller train...

Lighthouse Park

a really cool family pic!

Our bear

back at the beach...

at the end of a day....

So much harder to get that "money shot" now that he is getting older, he moves a lot more, and I am trying to get candid shots, but it can be tricky. This is truly an advantage of digital cameras - you can take a zillion shots, and then edit, edit, edit!!

food shots never get old..

Well... 14 months just flew by, and Brandon is talking up a storm. He has many words already, and his favorite phrase is "Where is the ball?" That is the first thing he says in the morning, and the first thing he says when we get home.. you can have many toys, and it all comes down to the simple stuff. He says momma and dadda, poppa, hi, ball, car, shoe, he has said moo but it has been a while, go (a few times), almost said buzzzzz, apple, nana, and bye bye. He is getting there - he is a talker, what a surprise! He is close to walking, but not quite. He is cruising along, and moving between pieces of furniture, but he just doesn't want to stand solo yet and take steps by himself.

He will walk with someone holding his hands up, and he is getting stronger all the time. It is easy to get impatient at times, and try to will him to walk, but he will when he is ready and it is obvious that his skills are improving all the time, and that is what you want to see.It seems that kids mature and do things when they are ready and we have to learn patience.

He likes to play, and he likes to wrestle. He likes stacking toys, and is learning how to push cars around. He loves his stuffed, soft animals and he is a really good eater. He does well with bottles and sippy cups, and is learning how to use a spoon. With me, he is a messy eater, and with his dad, well, Ken helps him more and I let him make more of a mess, so together we have some kind of balance thing going on. He doesn't really make strange much, and he sleeps for about 9-10 hours at night, and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. This has been pretty stable for a while - sometimes on the weekends we sneak an extra nap in there - we are all tired when saturday rolls around!

He has fit in really well with daycare, and we consider ourselves really lucky. I am starting a new job in a week, and without feeling good about our daycare, I could never have contemplated this move. It is really exciting. I am trying to think of what else I can update you with - ah yes, I have spent time going through Brandon's clothes this weekend - he is 24 month old clothes, or 2Ts... He is about 34 inches long, and I figure about 30 pounds. Funny how in the beginning all that information is so precise, and then as your child gets older, these answers become much more approximate as you relax in to parenthood. He is growing like a weed and that is fun to watch. He is tall - we are paying forward a few hand me downs to a boy at daycare, he is 25 months old!! In all fairness, he is smaller from his age because his parents aren't that big... He likes interacting with other kids, and is changing all the time. The baby stage seems like a lifetime ago already (which is part of the reason I am trying to capture a few milestones here today). He still has 7 teeth through, and I think that the lower left 1st year old molar is poking through.. that final bottom front tooth (of the first 4 that come in first) is really, really close but not confirmed to be through yet. Those first teeth came in so fast, and the last few have been stragglers. It's kind of funny.

a background of blue

What a picture, makes me smile when I look at this one.

the water park in fall

At the museum....

Is this a sign???

On the ferry....

The dog days of summer

Probably the last time this summer we can get this messy at the beach! Especially since the rains are predicted in the near future...these days are priceless.

We made a sand castle and played in the sand, and then we went for a swim. It was a great way to celebrate being alive!

Messing with Brandon's hair

First it was with food.

This time, soap. What fun one can have with hair!

Those shrinking pads.

Well, Ken's goalie pads are 36 inches tall, and Brandon is quickly closing in on that number. He is about 87cm, or 33.75 inches tall!! WOW! I am lucky if I have a decade left of being taller than him!!! It amazes me when we are playing on the ground and he is pretty much as long as my legs are - the baby stage is so short, it is hard to believe until you look back at the months gone by!!!

Our 2nd boat trip

We finally made it out on to Pimainus Lake!