Happy Chanukah/Merry Christmas

It's still snowing so we had a white Christmas today. Delivery trucks have been stranded all over town, but luckily the bike I ordered came. It's a little too big for him (I just noticed it's for ages three and up, oops!), but he seems ready for pedals and Dan rolled up a towel so he could sit far enough forward to reach them.

Outfit-wise, I tried to get him in a cute holiday get up, but he's really been averse to clothing lately. He wouldn't stand for the collared shirt and vest even one minute. I have no idea how Dan got the long sleeves on him--he screams and tugs at the arms if I try to put him in long sleeves. He did have sweatpants on to start the day, for the record. In trying on his fancy holiday pants I realized he's grown another inch or two because his 12 month sized pants are suddenly too short. Unfortunately most of the 18 month sized ones are still too big in the waist, but he's been eating like crazy and chunking out a little so they should fit soon.

We sat down and made a list of Brandt's signs and discovered he's got 68 words! Still no real talking yet, but he's doing OK making himself understood. Here's his vocab:

1. airplane
2. alligator
3. apple
4. baby
5. ball
6. balloon
7. banana
8. bath
9. bear
10. bed
11. bike
12. bird
13. book
14. bug
15. bunny
16. butterfly
17. bye
18. car
19. cat
20. cereal
21. cold
22. cow
23. dog

24. ear
25. elephant
26. eye
27. fan
28. fish
29. flower
30. food
31. gentle
32. giraffe
33. glasses
34. grapes
35. guitar
36. hat
37. horse
38. hot
39. ice cream
40. lamp
41. lion
42. mama
43. medicine
44. milk
45. more
46. nose

47. one
48. pain
49. papa
50. peas
51. penis
52. phone
53. please
54. potty
55. rock
56. shoes
57. socks
58. strawberry
59. time
60. toothbrush
61. train
62. trash
63. tree
64. turtle
65. umbrella
66. vegetables
67. water
68. zebra

Snow

Ug. I had no idea it snows here. Brandt and I went out on the back porch for a few minutes, but neither of us wanted to stay out there for long.

Brandt turns 20 months tomorrow. That sounds so old! Dan and I have decided that once the new year rolls around we're done with months and will start saying, "He'll be two in April." Now that sounds old.

Seattle take two

We're back and we're cold. We haven't been brave enough to venture out of the house every day, but I figure we'll get braver.

With all this indoor time, Brandt has figured out how to steer his Scoot About. He needs help getting over the lip into the kitchen, but otherwise he can scoot all over the first floor.

Shaka Santa

I was a little bummed at having missed Sinterklaas on the mainland in Lynden yesterday, but we went to Honolulu City Lights and that more than made up for it. The electric light parade was awesome as was the huge Shaka Santa.

In mover news: the movers finally arrived yesterday so we're flying home tomorrow. We're sad to leave Tammie and the warm weather, but we miss Dan and the doggies and are ready to start settling into our new house.

Jump!

Here's a video of Brandt "jumping." I figure he'll get his feet off the ground eventually, but at least he's having fun pre-jumping in the meantime. We watched Hannah and Jake attend gymnastics class the other day and I thought Brandt wasn't paying attention, but now he tries to do forward rolls (he gets in downward dog position and waits for me to flip his feet over his head). I think I'll have to find a gym for him when we get home. Tammie's theory is that it makes the kids less clutzy than the parent and I'm all for that!

This afternoon we went to Ala Moana mall and I got to see the newly opened Miki House. I saw a lovely $108 shirt that I would never buy. Funny since Brandt's whole outfit cost $3 at Savers the other day.

MIA movers

Tammie got a Flat Stanley in the mail yesterday so we set out for the north shore in search of sea turtles. We didn't see any at the usual beach (but we did meet a crazy local dude whom I thought would make a good Flat Stanley photo buddy), but then we got lucky at the Baywatch Hawaii beach. Tammie set Flat Stanley on the patient turtle's head and snapped a quick picture.

In other news, I've extended trip three days (yay!) because the movers are still not even close (boo!). They added some other guy's stuff to our truck (after saying it would be just our stuff) and drove it to Reno where they've been waiting for two days now for his apartment to be ready. Supposedly it will be ready tomorrow and then it will take them just one day to reach Seattle, so hopefully Friday or Saturday. I feel like I'm pushing my luck heading home Sunday night, but that's the new plan.

Baby gets a new pair of shoes

I got Brandt a pair of adorable Vans at the outlet mall today and he loves them! Dan seemed skeptical that I could know how much he likes the shoes, but the moment we tried them on he started hopping up and down, spinning in circles, and marching all over the Vans store. OK, he doesn't actually hop up and down, but he bends his knees and grins and shoots up to his toes. Pre-jumping, I guess. In the afternoon we went to the tube park where Jake and Brandt found a huge puddle to splash in so now the new shoes are drying out...grr.

Between shopping excursions we watched Hannah's gymnastics class in the morning and Jake's in the afternoon. It looks really fun so I might have to look into one for Brandt. And there were no clowns and no singing so it's not at all creepy like Gymboree.

Our final shopping trip was to Savers (remember: I HEART SAVERS!!!) where I found Brandt some awesome new clothes. We only moved with a few days worth of clothing, trusting the movers' estimate so we were in dire need of a few more outfits. The biggest score was a new-looking 2T REI snow suit for $7.99. I checked online and it's normally $70. Woo hoo! I hope it fits in my suitcase so he doesn't have to wear it home. He wasn't really a fan of its bulk when trying it on.