Does anyone read this anymore?

More Christmas Pictures 2007

OK, Halloween went by and no posts. Christmas went by and still no posts. The New Year is upon us and I decide I had better post something before the end of the year. There has been a lot going on in here at the Schaefer household. Lets begin the story:

First things first. We hadn't mentioned it to anyone on here, and most people know already. Michelle is pregnant. She's due early March 2008. Brenden will soon have a little brother or sister. We're not sure. We wanted to find out, but from the ultrasounds they couldn't tell. Either the baby was turned the wrong way or it's legs were crossed. To me, legs crossed must mean it's a girl. A boy would have spread em' like all boys do (haha).

Brenden is now all over the house. He can climb up and down stairs standing up. He holds on to the railing to help him up and down. It's kind of scary to see, so we make sure we don't allow him to do it unattended. There have been a few times when everything goes quiet when we're in the kitchen only to find him half way upstairs or downstairs.

Brendens' favorite word is still "No", but we're trying to encourage other words and actions such as, "please", "thank-you", "yes please", "hugs and kisses". We will get the occasional hug when we ask, but not to often. Usually after I drop him off at daycare he'll give me a hug before I leave. Makes my day much brighter. He gives mommy a hug whenb she picks him up from Daycare as well.

Brenden Christmas gift was a Diego bed in a box. For those that don't know, Diego is Dora's cousin who speaks English and Spanish in their cartoons. We also got him a toy which makes noises and plays songs. He got various other gifts from family members and friends. Brenden loves them. He hates Santa, but does love to open gifts!

On the bed topic, we have as of this past weekend moved Brenden to his new room in his new bed. He realizes that he can now get out of bed himself, however he has been staying in it all night and hasn't got out willingly or fallen out of it yet. This morning he didn't get up until 9:45am which was almost scary. He rolled himself out of baed and came into our room to wake me up. That was nice to see. It's nap time soon, so I'll have to see how that goes. I have this funny feeling naps may be tougher now that he realizes he can get out of bed.

Anyway, hopefully there are some people reading this and I'm not posting for the fun of it. I see the odd comment so I know people are reading. Feel free to post a comment to let me know you're out there reading. I was thinking of giving it up totally, but then I change my mind and keep telling myself I need to keep those informed that don't see him that often. So although my posts are spaced so far apart, I am still here and I will still be writing here. If you read this, thanks for not giving up on me. Maybe I should make a New Years resolution to post more frequently....ahhhhhh maybe not yet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

Halloween 2007

Well, Brenden went out as a ZEBRA this year and he was a hit in the neighborhood. He got us plenty of loot (haha), and yes, he got some to. Didn't want to take it all from him, afterall, he did most of the leg work. We were out for about an hour or so, and probably went to about 10-15 houses on our block. He was a little unsure about some of the places we went to. We even got him to say, "Trick or Treat" in baby language. Sounded almost like it though. He really tries. Everytime we left a house he would say, "Bah Bye".

You can find more pictures than the ones posted above at the link below.

http://www.davidschaefer.ca/Halloween/2007/index.html

So, put the Halloween stuff away.....Christmas is just around the corner. Can I put up the Christmas lights now?

Still around

We're still around.....just haven't had to much time to post. Next post will contain Brenden's Halloween pictures. He's going to be a ZEBRA this year!

Will post later tonight. Don't believe me, eh? You'll see.

Where have I been?

CAMPING AT SIBALD POINT PROVINCIAL PARK

OK, OK! I know....where in the heck has Dave and his BLOG gone? Down the drain? Did he fall off the face of the earth? What's the status of Brenden? Is he finished high school yet?

Well, we've been through a lot in the many months of not posting anything. I felt I needed a break. A summer break. A "don't want to update the BLOG" break.

Here goes...I am going to try and keep it short and sweet and to the point, although I tend to drift away from the point from time to time. Bear with me.

Brenden has approx. a 20 word vocabulary now. I think his favorite song now is, "If you're happy and you know it ...... ". He can pretty do or say what you tell him as long as it's simple. He is finally starting to walk. He's getting braver day by day. At first he would only walk between mommy and daddy. Now, when were not paying complete attention, he will walk from point A to point B wherever that may be. Sometimes it seems like he's on a mission to get somewhere. He has learned to take his time when he walks. He used to rush it and fall down. Now he knows, in order to remain standing he must go slow. Baby steps. The only time he really falls down is when he's on a mission and looks forward only and doesn't realize a toy is sitting on the floor and he runs into it. He really doesn't care what's sitting on the floor, just clear the way. He is teething again?! When will it end?! More drool to contend with and avoid at times. He recently had a bad diaper rash as well, but it's getting better now. He is still enjoying Daycare (at least it seems that way when he doesn't want to leave at night).

Michelle, Brenden and I are loving our new home in Whitby. Brenden loves the space to move around and so do we. I think we'll call this home for many years to come.

Michelle is doing good and I'm doing better now. On August 19th I had to have an emergency appendectomy. My appendix partially ruptured. I was in the hospital for 6 days and I just started back to work on September 10. I am still in recovery mode, but feeling much better than I was.

Not much more to say. Short and sweet as I said it would be. Summer was here, and summer is now gone. Next post in the fall! Just kidding...hopefully it'll be sooner than that.

For those that read this post....thanks for checking the posts when I haven't been writing. I know some of you were reading these posts a few times a week. Sorry for the delay and thanks for reloading the page over and over hopeing for a new post to appear.

Until next post, have a good one!

Finally moved in

Well, we've finally moved in to our new home. Our first crack at moving from house to house. I don't want to do that again for a long time. It's a lot of working which is very time consuming. The move went well, and most of our boxes are unpacked. There's a few left, but those are the non-essentials at this point. We'll get to them when we can.

Brenden loves his new "diggs". He has a lot more room to play and move around. He is really enjoying watching TV on the 51 inch tv, rather than the old 30 inch. His favorite channel, "Treehouse" looks that much bigger to him.

Brenden still isn't walking yet. He's trying his hardest to get moving, but can't seem to get one foot in front of the other and keep his balance at the same time. He's getting there though. Michelle and I can sit approx. 4 feet from one another and he'll walk between us. Occasionally he'll fall over, but we catch him at that point. I think by the end of the summer he should be up and about. He can pull himself up to a standing position with very little effort now, so I don't think it'll be long.

Anway, that's it for this time. I know it's short and there's no pictures to show, but since we've moved, I have honestly not taken any pictures yet. I haven't felt the urge to get the camera out of the cupboard. Maybe this weekend I can get a few shots of us in our new home.

Until next time........later........

100 posts and moving!

Finally made it to my 100th post! It should have been sooner, but "hey", I've been busy and haven't had a lot of spare time to write entries here.

Well, Michelle and I feel that Brenden has finally spoke his first word! And really, I don't think it's a very common first word to come from a 14 month old. You would never guess it either. He already says, mama, and dada, but we wanted a real first word. We think he may have said "bath", and other small words, but I like this one the best, because he says is so well. The word: "Buckle". We said it once and right away he said it. He even pronounced the "kle" in buckle, the same way we're suppose to. It's almost amazing. He has also learned such words as, "Kukoo", "Cat", "Woof", and "Hi". We're getting to the point where we have to really watch what we say, because he's likely to give it a try.

This past weekend we went camping in Parkhill, Ontario. It's about 25km south-east of Grand Bend which is on Lake Huron. It's about 250km from where we live in Ajax. It was a nice drive. We ended out going through Kitchener and Stratford, places I've never been before. It was a nice drive. The park was ok, but the beach was bad. They had a pool as well which looked ok. We never went in it however because the weekend was quite cool. We actually went to Parkhill for a wedding. Michelle's cousin was getting married, so Saturday was a busy day, with not much time to spend in the water. At night time the temperature dropped to about 8C. We had to dress Brenden up in double PJ's just to keep him warm. It wasn't bad for me, because I find that weather great for sleeping in. I'd rather have it that way then too hot for sleeping. You can always oput clothes on to warm up, but taking all your clothes off to get cool, isn't always the best. :) Haha. Now that we're back home, Breden is trying to catch up on his sleep, since he missed many naps, and when he did nap, it was only 30mins to an hour, which is hardly enough for him. Tomorrow is back to school for him.

Tomorrow I have to go back to Kitchener, Waterloo to interview student for a fall position open at my work. This will be the first time I get to sit on the other side of the table. It'll be a little better asking the questions rather then answering them. I hated being interviewed for fear of providing stupid answers to simple questions.

In just 4 more days we move to our new house in Whitby. We move on July 6. So let the packing commence. I hate moving. The best part about this one, is the fact that we've hired someone else to do it for us. We just need to pack and unpack and they do the rest. Much easier that way, and saves the strain on our backs. So just 2 more days of work, well one officially, because the interview is hardly work, then I'm off for a week. Not much of a holiday, but it'll give me a week to sink in to the new house and enjoy it more.

Not sure if I'll get another post off before I move, but I'll try. Who knows when I'll get the Internet all hooked up again at the new place. I'll try to get it done over the weekend, however, it may not get done until the following week.

Until next time........

First Haircut!

BRENDEN BEFORE THE HAIRCUT!


BRENDEN AFTER THE HAIRCUT!


Brenden had his first haircut on Saturday. He didn't fuss about it to much. He was a little unsure at first. He looked at the guy cutting his hair, wondering, "why is this guy trying to pull my hair out." He took it like a trooper.

Today was father's day. I had the best father's day gift today. A happy child. He was in his best behavior today, and hardly fussed at all. In fact, tonight he actully stayed up 2hrs longer than he normally does and he was very happy throughout. Usually he'll start fussing and you know t's time. Tonight, you just couldn't tell when he was tired. I think he just wanted to keep his happy day going into the wee hous of then night. Finally he fell asleep.

My turn now...time for my extended nap! Later.

Moving....times two

Last week Brenden had a little bit of the stomach flu. It's been going around apparently and I've known many people to have it. So far I've avoided it (knock on wood).

Brenden is almost walking now. As you can see from the pictures above, he is able to hold himself up as long as he has something to lean on. He'll push that little car everywhere. He loves it. Soon enough, he'll be letting go and he'll be off to the races (And so will we, apparently). He has almost a full set of teeth now. Looks like a few more left, then hopefully the drooling will stop. I think he can drool with the best of them, but according to the teachers at daycare, they've seen worse. I can hardly believe that. You would almost need a permanent spit cup attached just below the chin then, just so your floors wouldn't get soaked.

Brenden has turned into the little travelling baby. No fuss at all. Loves the rides in the car. He could probably sit for 3hrs and not fuss about it. We'll be trying that one soon enough when we go camping in 3 weeks.

The sleep schedule on the weekends seems off. He's been waking up at 6-6:30am both Saturday and Sunday. Hope he doesn't start that throughout the week. Those that know me, know that I'm not a morning person, and that I need my sleep. Guess we'll see tomorrow. I'm going to have to start going to bed by 9pm, just so I can get up early. Geez. He gets 12hrs sleep a night, and I'm starting to feel like I need that much too.

Michelle and I have recently bought a home in Whitby and are moving on July 6. It was time to leave Ajax. We love it here, but wanted to live in something with a little more room to move around. We're going to miss the neighbourhood here, since we had met so many new friends. We finally sold our house last week, which was a relief. Brenden spent a number of days staying up until 2-3hrs past his bedtime and that wasn't good. He was way off schedule and finally I think we've almost got him back to the normal routine again.

Until next post......who knows when that will be. I'll try and do one or two before we move.

Brenden's first live show

Once again, I've been way to relaxed, or what I meant was, I've been way to busy. Again, sorry for my slowness in getting a post up.

We as a family have been going through a lot lately. A few weeks ago, we bought a new house, well it's 10 years old, in North Whitby. We move in at the end of July. Currently we are in the process of selling our current house. We have been in and out of the house like crazy. Sometimes we aren't even able to get into our house until 8:30pm at night because of agents showing our home. We actually had 1 showing today and already we have 2 scheduled tomorrow. Our house has been on the market for 2 weeks now and we are still awaiting our first offer. We've already had 2 open houses the past 2 Saturday's as well. Lot's of interest, but no offers yet. We are patiently waiting. We've already dropped our price once. We still have time though, so no worries.

Daycare for Brenden has been going very good. He enjoys it there. He doesn't mind being dropped off in the morning and he's extremly happy when mom picks him up. On top of crawling, he has also learned to sit on his Winnie the Pooh car and push his feet to move him around. He can go forward and reverse.

Today Brenden went to see his very first show. Michelle, myself, Brenden and a friend, Don, went to see a show called Cirque Niagara's Avaia which was playing at the Woodbine Racetrack in a seperate tent. The show was awesome. Brenden was very, very good there. He was quite amusing. Everytime the crowd clapped for the performers, Brenden would clap too. Almost as if he knew why he was clapping. He loved the horses and some of the acrobatic performances. He managed to stay awake for the whole 2hr show. He did fall asleep on the ride home though.

Brenden got the day off on Friday since he wasn't feeling that well. He had another round of needles from the Dr. and he had a fever for the most part of the day. Both him and Michelle stayed home as she wasn't feeling well either.

Well, that's it for now, and hopefully next time I post I can tell you we sold our house. Of course, if I wait another month to post, then that will be true for sure. Haha.

And he's off!

Picture #1: Brenden's ICE CREAM (April 20).
Picture #2: Imitating daddy when he's drunk.
Picture #3: Ribs, I love ribs.
Picture #4: I'm not sharing, it's my rib!

QUICK NOTE: My picture link has changed to http://www.davidschaefer.ca/brenden/index.html

Well, Brenden has officially started to crawl! He is finally on the move. Although it's taken him some time, he's almost mastered the skill in a week. Now we really need to watch him. And walking? Well he's very close to doing that as well. He has to hold on to your fingers right now, but he understands that he has to do 1 foot at a time. I would think in another month or so, he may be on his feet.

Well, unrelated to Brenden, we would like to announce that Michelle, Brenden and I have purchased a new home in Whitby. It's near Brock Rd and Taunton Rd for those that know the area. We don't move until July 27, however. That will give us the time we need to sell our current home. If you know anyone interested in moving to South Ajax, near the lake, let me know. With this said, our house is officially on the market as well. The showings start Monday, May 7 at 10:30am. There are already 2 showings lined up on the first day. Our house as of this evening, is SPOTLESS and EMPTY looking. The last time I saw it look like this, we were just about to move in. It's almost surreal to see our own home in this state. There are area's of floor, I haven't seen since we moved in 6 years ago.

Well, off to bed. Michelle starts new hours tomorrow, from 7am to 3pm. I have to do the morning Brenden things. Wake him, change him, dress him, feed him, and get him ready for Daycare. And to top it off, I need to keep the house looking spotless as it does now. That'll be tough for a little while, until we sell. Once it's sold, then we can go back to our normal lives of living.

Have a good one! And by the way, Brenden's next meal will be SPICY CHICKEN WINGS! Haha. Just kidding, it'll be awhile before he gets into the Chicken Wings and Beer.

Birthday Pictures

Well, Brenden's Birthday Parties were a success. He loved both of the cakes he was given. One on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Various family and friends attended and gave him gifts for his first. Thanks to everyone who attended and made Brenden's 1st Birthday a memorable one.

The first two pictures above are from Saturday, and the 2nd two are from Sunday.

Once again, Happy 1st Birthday Brenden!

Love Mommy & Daddy & the rest of the family

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDEN!!!

More Teeth and Daycare

Brenden started daycare and already he has a cold. Well it started out as a cold and progressed to other diseases. Now he has been diagnosed with a stomach flu as well. Last week he had trouble keeping any food down. He went back to daycare 2 days following that and we got a call from daycare telling us he has pink eye. Back to the Dr. we went and sure enough, he has pink eye. He went back for a checkup 2 days later and the Dr. tells us he has a little bit of bronchitis. It's terrible. He coughs throughout the night, waking himself up. This makes him very tired during the day. The worse part about it is that at the same time, when he wakes up, his eyes are crusted shut due to the pink eye. Poor guy. Have to feel sorry for him because there's really nothing we can do other than give him the prescriptions from the Dr. He's getting better and should be able to go back to Daycare on Monday.

Brenden now has 4 teeth. The two bottom am two top have finally broke through. That's to top off everything I guess. Hopefully from this time forward he'll get better and we can avoid all these major setbacks.

Other than that he's doing well. Not crawling, but starting to get the hang of walking while hanging on to our fingers. He is also trying to mimic everything we do. The latest is: "Oh, oh". And he tries to say it back. Too funny.

Anyway, sorry there's such a span between blogs, but between working, watching hockey, watching Brenden and sleep, I've had little time to update it even weekly.

Brenden's first birthday is coming up soon. Believe it or not I have been running this BLOG over a year now. Brenden turns 1 on April 20, 2007. Very exciting.....we all made through a year, and it went so fast!

Teeth & Daycare

Well finally, Brenden is getting teeth. He had one tooth poke through on the bottom and the 2nd one is following suit. He'll have a full set in no time at all.

Last week we got a little bit of a scare as Brenden's temperature rose to about 104C. Michelle took him to the hospital and he was giving some antibiotics to treat, what they called some sort of virus. Michelle contacted out family Dr on Friday and brought Brenden in. It was in fact some sort of virus, and we are continuing antibiotics until later this week. He has seemed fine since. His temperature has been normal. The only thing he has is a bit of a cough, which sometimes wakes him at night.

Brenden is starting to talk a little more. Still babble words, but much more frequently and much more louder. He will say "Dada" and "Mama" to us now. He loves to mimic things we do now. Make a face, and he'll make it back. Say something and he'll try and say it back. It's quite amusing and fun.

On Monday, April 2nd, Brenden starts Daycare and a week later on April 9 Michelle goes back to work. Hard to believe a year is almost here already. Time is flying by.

Well off to get things done and get Brenden ready for tomorrow. My routine now has to change, since I will drop him off in the morning and Michelle will pick him up on her way home. I'll let you know how that goes. Sounds like less sleep to me.

New news

Once again almost two weeks and no post. Sorry about that. We've been very busy around here. Here are the latest developments.

Brenden is doing great. He still has no teeth, but he is learning how to eat solid food now. He loves plain toast, various vegetables and chicken. We have to make sure he has small bites, but he has started to get the knack for chewing. Once he has teeth he'll be eating up a storm. He's still not crawling and tends to get frustrated when on his stomach. Guess he'll soon walk instead.

His verbal skills are greatly improving. He really tries to be copycat now and it's quite amusing. His reaction is also priceless when he hasn't seen either Michelle or myself for a few hours. He smiles from ear to ear and laughs. It's awesome and makes you feel great! No matter how rough a day you've had, a baby can always change that by his actions towards you.

On March 11, Brenden got baptized at Hebron Church in Whitby. Brenden was dressed up in his tux, as seen above. He did very well throughout the day with hardly any sleep.

On April 2, Brenden will be starting daycare. We signed him up at a Montessori School here in Ajax. Michelle goes back to work a week after that. This will be a big change for us, and him.

Until next post.

Semi-Broken Camera

Baby pictures updated: http://www.davidschaefer.ca/brenden/index.html

Once again I apoligize for not posting as often as I should. I am busy, busy, busy between Brenden and work.
I do have an excuse for not posting pictures lately though. My camera broke. Well, not totally, but the flash no longer works. For indoor shots I like to take pictures with the flash, and when Brenden is outside, well, he has to many clothes on because of the cold weather, so pictures of him just don't justify him. I recently purchased a new camera on EBAY and should be receiving it sometime next week (I hope). It looks like a great camera. It's a Canon Powershot S3 IS digital camera. Looks to be very nice and I'm looing forward to using it. It'll take some nice shots I bet. I was really after a Digital SLR, but their just to expensive for me, so I settled for one a few hundred bucks cheaper. Once I get it, you'll start to see more pictures appear on here again, but until then, you're stuck with my ramblings.

Brenden just went to the DR. on Monday for a checkup. He had a TB Skin test done and it never even fizzed on him. I would have passed out. Hope he doesn't acquire that from me. Needle = Pass Out. His height is 30 inches, and he weighs 22bs. He is really trying to put words together now. He says Da, Da quite well now, and he really loves trying to copy what you say, and as well as some actions. He claps his hands very well, and now he's started intentionally falling over so he can roll to his stomach. He's still not able to move anywhere (other than shimmying backwards) though. So we can still leave the room and get a drink from the fridge without worrying about him crawling somewhere he's not suppose to.

This week we booked a visit with a daycare. Well not just a traditional daycare centre, but a Montessori School in Ajax. It's quite pricey, but we know he's in great hands there, and they can be trusted. It's also good because they'll take babies from 12 months, whereas most are 16 months.

Other than that, there isn't much new to report. I do find it real hard to believe that he's almost 1 year old.

Wow! Time really does fly.

I posted a few pictures I took today (without the flash as mentioned).

Finally, a new post!

OK, once again, I'm guilty of not posting at least on a weekly basis. After vacation work has been just hectic and I haven't had time to post anything. The times I am free, I just flat out forget until it's time for bed.

So now you're probably wondering....how's Brenden? What's new with him? Well I see him everyday and I see a few new things, but not a whole lot.

Talking:
He has really started to try to say single words now. He has started saying, mom, mom, mom. At least it sounds like that. Sometimes I even hear da, da, da, but I'm not sure if that's just my brain saying it sounds like that. Occasionally he'll belt out some bablle words and scare the crap out of us because we weren't expecting it.

Attitude:
We can now tell when he's angry and/or frustrated. He will put his arms or flail them around in disgust if he's not happy with something. Generally he's happy, but he has his days much like you and me (well, not like me, but like you).

Eating:
He is eating very good. You gives you that face when he doesn't like something and we have started to give him a spoon while we feed him. If we did his spoon in the food, he will actually move the spoon to his mouth and eat from it. After that he usually drops the spoon. Hey, it's a start though. He's very good at it and at least knows what to do with it. At bottle time, he holds his own bottle now. I know have a extra free hand to use the remote and talk on the phone at the same time as feeding Brenden.

Exercise:
So it looks as if Brenden will save the wear and tear on his knees and advance straight to walking. He can hold himself up on his hands and kness, but he's not sure how to move forward from that position. Instead he pushes with his arms and moves backwards. If we try and sit him down, he gets angry, because he really wants to stand instead. He can pretty much stand on his own while hanging on to something, but hasn't grasped the walking concept yet. That's probably a good thing. He still loves to bounce. The Jolly Jumper and his little bouncy car is very handy at the moment. I can only hold and bounce him for so long before my 'Ironman' arms are sore. He also loves to be tossed....now that doesn't mean I'm throwing him around. It simply means I toss him up in the air and catch him. He loves it. He laughs and smiles. I think we have ourselves a future rollercoaster connoisseur.

Fun Time:
He loves peek-a-boo. And he loves it when mom holds him and dad approaches from behind. He thinks its a game, and if I make the silly sounds that adults make to babies, he will literally laugh his ass off. He giggles and it's so funny. That seems to be the happiest moments. We have also found his tickle spots and can get him laughing quite easily.

Well, that's the 2 week update. Next step it to update his pictures. I have taken a few, but not many. I should take more, since he loves the camera, but I'd rather enjoy my time with him then take pictures. I'll soon post what I've taken since Christmas. For now the most recent are included above.

One last thing I would like to say, is congratulation to my cousin, Steven Schaefer and his new wife Cindy. Sorry I couldn't make it to Hawaii to enjoy the ceremony. I'm sure it went well, and I'll be looking for pictures once you return to Japan from Hawaii. All the best to newlyweds, Steven & Cindy Schaefer. You can see his website at http://www.nocentre.com/wedding/

Until next post.........

Vacation over, back to work

OK, the vacation is now over for the three of us. Brenden had a vacation away from us and we had a vacation away from him. It was a much needed break for all of us.

Cuba was great! 30C weather everyday, only one evening with rain, and a tan to boot. The beach was awesome, other than the naked parts of it. Old, hairy Europeans that do not to be tanned in the private regions. Quite scary at times. Try sitting across from them at the dinner table afterwords.

We enjoyed Cayo Largo while we were there, but I wouldn't advise anyone with a sense of adventure to go there. Let's just say, there's not much to do. If you just want beach, sand, ocean and just to laze around all day, then this is the perfect place to go. The only excursion we took was the Catamaran tour. It was pretty good.

I'll be posting pictures online of our vacation soon and will post a link when I have. I will, as I promised earlier, be adding some new pictures of Brenden soon as well.

Thanks,
Dave

A Vacation

Well, for the first time since having Brenden, we are leaving him for a week. Leaving him with his grandparents of course. We are taking a much needed vacation to Cuba. We leave in about 5 and a half hours from now. By noon on Saturday, we'll be lying on a beach in Cuba. I can see it now. Pina Colada's and big German's with tiny Speedo's. OK, that kind of grosses me out, but oh well. Hot sun, hot white sandy beach, relaxing on our all inclusive vacation. Brenden will get the same. A needed break away from us. Now's a good time for him to start learning that we won't always be the ones taking care of him. Afterall, he needs some non-parent time too.

This being the first time we're spending a week away from him will probably be a good test for us as well. It's hard enough to go 2-3 days without seeing him, and now it's going to be a whole week. It's not like we can just drop what we're doing and leave to go get him. There is no turning back once we board the plane this morning. I think it'll be a bit easier on me, since I am normally working for the most part of the day and only see him 2-3 hours a day as opposed to Michelle who sees him all day everyday. This will be a good test for her. If she starts getting ansy, I'll be sure to force some more drinks into her to mellow her out a little.

Anyway, we'll post a message when we return next week to let you know how the week went, without our son.

Hope it's cold here at home, that way the trip will be more worth it. I can live with 24-27C in Cuba. Not going to like it when we return home though. Lets not think about that right now.

Dos Margarita's Por favor!

Happy New Year

First of all we would like to say Happy New Year to everyone who reads this BLOG! Best wishes from our family to yours.

Brenden had his first swimming lessons today. Michelle took him in the pool. He loved it. Never complained one bit and slashed his heart out. He was very tired after though. He just about fell asleep putting him in his car seat. His lessons will last a number of weeks on Saturday mornings. We're a little nervous about the dunking stage, which didn't happen the first day. Michelle doesn't want to dunk his head, alhtough last week he had his first experience with water poured in his face. I was bathing him and gave him a cup full of water, which he loves. This time it tipped towards him and the water landed on his face. He cried a little (I think it scared him), but he was fine after a few minutes.

Brenden is quite the shopper. Loves looking around and tries to grab ladies purses as we walk by. I taught him well...haha.

Brenden is picking up so much stuff from us. We try and teach him new things, like clapping hands, and he tries, but hasn't quite got it. He still isn't crawling yet and no teeth are showing yet. It's just a matter of time.

I'll post some more pictures soon. Again, Happy New Year!