Wishful Thinking

Every parent does it, we have hopes and dreams for our kids.  Blake and I have our fair share, and playing sports is one of them.  Now we don't ever want to pressure Brooks into playing sports, but I do think we will at least make him try! Blake is really hoping Brooks follows in his footsteps and plays football.  As a big football fan, I'm all for it, but of course I'd like him to play basketball too (and maybe even baseball which isn't top on Blake's list! :) )  Whatever Brooks chooses to do in life, we will cheer him on, but we can always play around with hoping he's a sports fan!
Here is what brought on this post: Blake found his Trinity football jersey from college this past weekend, and had to try it out on Brooks....he has a bit of growing to do....

 He looks mad in these pics, but he wasn't, he was just a little tired!  He actually cried when Blake took it off him.

Then today, Blake dressed him in a little basketball outfit.  Too cute, I couldn't resist snapping a few future basketball star pics!

Zoo!

Last week Brooks had his first ever zoo experience! He loved it! Brooks and I met Blake's parents, Kit, Jesse, Winter and Pearl in Salina, KS at the Rolling Hills Zoo.  I had never been there before, but for a smaller zoo, it was pretty good! (at least I think it was a small zoo, but maybe I'm just too used to Henry Doorly zoo in Omaha cause that's all my family really went to growing up!) Here are some of the pictures from the day!

Brooks was ready to go!

He wanted to be held by Papa for the first few exhibits, but then he just wanted to GO! He loved walking around himself!

 These were chimps

He kept up with the older kids quite well

Don't worry, it was only the cage of a tortoise ...I figured I could save his hand before the slow thing could make it there!

Brooks pointing at the geese.

He enjoyed walking around outside about as much as seeing the animals I think!

 

Brooks wanted to touch the goat, but I was afraid it would bite him thinking he had food in his hands...maybe next time I'll let him!

 I liked the giraffes, but I think Brooks could care less...it was lunch time!

 Brooks also liked the wolves...of course!

It was a fun trip, a long time in the car for a 15 month old, but for only getting 30 min of nap the whole day, he did well!  I can't wait until we can take him to the Omaha zoo in a few weeks with my family and Blake can be there too. Brooks loves animals!! 

Fresh from the Garden!

We have really been struggling to get Brooks to try new foods.  For example, last weekend when we went to Des Moines, he was running short on his bunny shaped graham crackers, but I figured we'd be okay because I could just stop at Walmart there and pick more up.  However, the Walmart we went to was out of the honey kind, so instead of getting chocolate ones (I wasn't sure he'd like the switch) I grabbed a box of honey Teddy Grahams.  When it was time for Brooks' snack I handed him one and he took one look at it and started waving his arms and shaking his head saying 'uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.' Oh boy...so I tried them, and they taste exactly the same, but he wouldn't even try them! He wasn't content until finally we stopped on the way home at the Walmart outside of Omaha, and luckily they had 2 boxes left.  Thank goodness! We had a much happier little boy after that.  In the days since, we have gotten him to eat a couple of the bears when he wasn't paying attention, and he ate them fine, but if he looks at the cracker first, he won't eat it!
So needless to say, he doesn't get a lot of variety of foods these days.  But he has eaten almost anything we've given him that is fresh from the garden!  He'll eat green beans, corn off the cob, fresh peas, fried home grown potatoes, and even cucumbers! Luckily both our mom's do huge gardens and we've been able to get some of the harvests! :) Maybe next year we'll try and find a sunny corner (we don't have many in our shaded backyard) and do one ourselves!  Brooks also likes fresh fruits like bananas, strawberries, and peaches.  And of course unhealthy french fries is still a #1 favorite...ugh! Here he is just munching away on a cucumber slice...would have never guessed out of all things he'd like cucumbers! But I'm not complaining...at least he gets some nutrition!

When mom and I were husking corn to put up last week, Brooks would just not leave us alone! He absolutely LOVES corn, especially straight off the cob, so he kept whining because he wanted to eat one so bad.  Finally I decided giving him a raw piece of corn was better than hearing him whine! He was a content happy little boy after that! 

He'll probably be disappointed when we no longer have fresh corn off the cob, but I froze several bags and Blake's mom gave us even more, so hopefully that will last us through the winter!

This next picture has nothing to do with eating, but I thought it was just too cute not to post! Brooks loves books and always wants us to read him something.  He cornered Blake before he could go back to work after lunch and had him read one of his favorites.  Too cute in their matching ACE shirts!

Playtime

Brooks is doing so much better at playing on his own recently and it's been so nice for me not to have to be right beside him all the time anymore.  The other day I looked over to see what he was up to, and he was trying to go down the car slide on his toy.  Apparently the boy needs a slide to go up and down!  (We're looking into getting one that we could keep inside this winter for him to play with!)

After I got him down (he was kinda stuck with one leg on the toy and one on the floor), he was okay with letting the cars drive down the ramp, but I know he would have rather been the one to do it!

 

Brooks is also learning to play with his cousins and other kids a lot better.  I can't wait till he can play with them even more and get excited when they come over! About once a week I try and get together with my sister and her kids.  Last week we went to grandma's to play in the splash pool.

They had fun, but all Brooks wanted to do was drink the water!

When cousin Winter came over a few weeks ago, Brooks and her played in the sandbox together.  She even showed him how to wash up with the hose! 

 Brooks has always been a kid that is very aware of his personal space.  If someone he doesn't know well tries to enter that space he usually comes unglued and cries.  He has slowly gotten better with other kids, and hopefully the more he is around them, he'll learn that it can be fun to play with kids his own age.  This past weekend we went to Des Moines because Blake had some Ace Paint training.  We found it was a good excuse to get away and see some of our friends we hadn't seen since we moved.  We stayed with Doug and Jennifer (Blake's former boss).  Brooks has always been leery of strangers, but he got along great with them, especially with their daughter Maddie.  He is finally getting used to new people faster.  It didn't hurt that Maddie was usually showing him a laptop or her phone, but nonetheless, he enjoyed playing with her!  

On Friday night we went over to Aaron and Jess Savage's for supper.  They had a little girl 6 days before Brooks was born, so it was fun to get the two of them together.  However, Brooks didn't find it much fun this time.  Carmen is a much more affectionate and hands on baby than Brooks, and that boldness didn't mesh well with Brooks' personal space bubble!  Brooks has finally started calling me Mama (which I love!), and I found it so cute when Carmen started walking towards him that he came right to me saying "mama! mama!"  Someday he'll learn to actually like girls chasing him!  Brooks finally got used to her a little and we were able to snap a few good pics.  But you can see by the progression of the photos, that he became more and more uncomfortable the closer she got!

There were some tears after this last pic, but maybe during the next meeting there won't be so many!  On Saturday we met Lee and Missy at the farmer's market in downtown Des Moines.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that day, but we had a fun time catching up with them and meeting their new daughter, Sierra.  It was a fun weekend, but we definitely were happy to get back home too.  Traveling with a toddler is getting more and more tiring, and I know it will only get worse before it gets better!