Museums, dinosaurs, the dentist and 6 teeth!

Time keeps flying by and finding the time to make blog posts is few and far between.  We are so busy these days that the day seems to be over in a blink of an eye.  I have noticed that doing a post around every two weeks seems to give us much more to report so hopefully it makes reading it that much better!

Brody has made two trips to two new museums over the past two weeks.  One being the Putnam which he has been to before once earlier this year, but it was a new experience as he had not been there in many months and didn't really remember it.  I took him one afternoon when Iowa was losing and Tim stayed home with Briana.  He is so curious and asking questions about things and wanting to see how things work.  There were not many people there at the time we went so he had plenty of room to explore.  The main reason I wanted to take him was I heard about their traveling exhibit called "Lights, Sirens, Action" which features police cars, firetrucks and ambulances (a favorite at the moment).  He was very into the exhibit and the simulators for each car but I could tell he was disappointed when he pushed the buttons and nothing made noise.  He has had a few chances to check out real ambulances and firetrucks over the past two months so the simulators where just not the same.  I am glad we have a membership at the Putnam so we can have a new place to go over the winter months and it gives Brody an excellent learning experience.

Last Sunday we drove up to Iowa City and took Brody to the Children's Museum for the first time.  All I can say is I am in love with that place!  Such an awesome museum so close to home!  Brody absolutely loved it and I am not at all joking when I say he has asked to go back everyday since we went there.  We will definitely be going back!  Our museum here in Bettendorf is very nice as well but I loved how this one is sectioned off which helps little ones with little attention spans stay at one task longer.  I also loved all the different areas, there is just so much to do!  So fun!

Tim had seen an advertisement for a dinosaur event at the Expo Center this past weekend and he wanted to surprise Brody by taking him.  The ad made it look like a very fun event and we were both excited to see what he thought.  Well, when we got there it was $40 to get in and then all the activities were an additional cost.  This would have been fine if it had been worth the money but unfortunately it was not.  There were hundreds of people there and nothing was organized, we waited in line for 30 minutes for Brody to play in a jumper and there were tons of very big kids in there not watching out for the little ones, it was a mess.  Luckily Brody doesn't have a clue about all that so he was happy and that was all that mattered.  We just ended up doing one activity and then taking him to Popcorn Charlie's (his new favorite) for a special treat.

Brody had his second dentist appointment this morning and he did very well.  There were some tears this time but he did cooperate for the most part and everything looks good so that is always great to hear.  We will go back in 6 months.  I really love his dentist and all the things they have there for kids.  They get a goody bag with each visit and get to pick prizes and stickers afterwards, it is really nice.  Briana even got a goody bag today with a new toothbrush for her.

Brody's language continues to take off and I am really happy with how it is developing.  He is at a funny stage right now where he picks up everything, good or bad, that we day and he can definitely tell if one of us said something we shouldn't by our reaction so he will repeat it to see what we say back.  Not that we are using bad language but more like calling the dog a pain or I have caught Tim saying stupid and Brody repeating it, things like that.  He can ask for anything he needs now and is naming things left and right and really getting some good sentence structure as well.  I am so proud of how things are coming along.  I know there are things he says that may be hard for someone else to understand and he has a ways to go but I can't even tell you how much progress I have seen in that past 6-8 weeks.  I can only imagine what I will see over the next few months.  The experts, doctor and everyone else was right, it will come when it comes.  And it is definitely coming!

We took the kids to visit Santa this week.  We actually ended up going twice because they were having technical difficulties with the camera.  Neither time our photos turned out so we are going to try and take them back this weekend when there is more natural light during the day.  Brody has no fear and sat with Santa and told him what he wants for Christmas.  He played drums with Santa and had a great time.  Briana did ok at first but after a few tries at pictures and a second time going to see him she was pretty much over it.  Hopefully we can get a good picture this weekend!

Briana is taking off at the speed of light and really is turning into a little person.  Her favorite word is "up" and she uses it to get her way. LOL  She is definitely testing her boundaries and before she tries something naughty she will look to see if we are watching.  She plays so well with her brother and they really are developing a sweet little relationship.  They hold hands and dance and walk around the house together and it melts my heart.  Brody can be a little rougher than we like with her at times but I feel a lot of that is for attention as well.  Briana is pointing at everything and uses that to communicate.  We are not seeing a ton of words yet but she does say Momma and Dada on occasion and up and "MMM" for milk.  She has many ways of communicating besides words and definitely gets her point across.  She loves to play dress up and puts on hats all the time (so cute) and loves anything her brother plays with.  She will dance and wave on command and comes over and sits down to get her shoes and coat on when she knows it's time to leave.  She is very curious and is most definitely learning about the world around her.  I am dreading putting up our Christmas tree this year as I can only imagine how she is going to be with it.  :)  I bought us a small slim tree this year (our usual one is HUGE) and have decided that Brody and I will only decorate the top half with unbreakable ornaments.  We will see how it goes.  Briana is cutting 6 teeth and it is not easy on her.  I was much more fond of Brody's teething schedule where he cut a tooth at a time, getting 6 at once is way too much.  She is getting all 4 molars and her two front side teeth.  Poor baby!

The 3 of us (minus Dad) spent the last week under the weather with a very weird bug.  Brody started running a temp of 102 last Tuesday night and woke up crying most of the night that evening and the next.  He never showed any other symptoms but the fever and not sleeping other than being tired and wanting to snuggle.  Briana started vomiting on Wednesday night and threw up 15 times over the course of 2 hours.  We were lucky with Brody to make it to 3 years old without that happening.  She never ran a temp but I took them both to the doctor last Thursday just to be safe.  They both had red throats but no strep so just a virus.  I ended up with a mixture of it all which had me down for most of the weekend and now we are ending it with a cold.  Hopefully we are building up our immunity and can make it through the winter with not too much more going on.  It is just part of us being out all the time with so many germs and things going around.