Chicago Trip & 2nd Birthday

I meant to blog in July to keep every one up to date at least once a month - oh well. Brandon has turned 2 years old in May. We're not sure where the transition happened from baby to big boy, but Brandon still wants to be treated like he's a baby. Sometimes he climbs into his old reclining bouncer and says "I'm bebe!". Or he wants to get into the stroller instead of the Radio Flyer wagon, so can still get bundled up like when he was younger. And of course, he still loves to have his mommy hold him, and be around him as much as possible - the word "mommy" gets exercised a lot around our house.

At least now we are much better aware of his needs and are able to communicate with him. He can tell us when he pooed in his diaper and needs a change, or if he's thirsty and needs a drink, or if he wants to go outside and play with the neighbor kids. Zenna and I are trying to also set good examples for him as we deal with everyday situations, so that he can have good manners from the get-go. It's sometimes hard when you see other kids mistreat each other and then telling Brandon that he can't do the same to other kids. I sometimes wish other parents were a little more involved in their kids' lives.

A lot of things have happened this summer so far that I haven't covered in previous blogs, so I'll try to catch up today. Since I was in Florida on a different postflight trip until the 1st of June, I missed Brandon's 2nd birthday. They had a celebration in Idaho, and then when I came back, we celebrated a second time. Brandon doesn't care what the reason is for eating cake, the more the better. So Zenna made him a yummy brownie cake with 2 candles in it. He was determined to eat the whole thing.

He got some clothes with the Cars theme and Wall-E on DVD, and a little Thomas train engine. He had a good day - although we still don't think he understands what Birthdays are all about.

A few days after I came home we also went to Chicago to visit my brother Ervin. We spent 3 days out there and it was a lot of fun. Brandon tried to absorb everything. Here are some pictures,
All right, new toys to play with!

We stopped at a hot dog place downtown, tasted better than any place at the airports.

And Brandon had to have an ice cream cone, of course.We ate at the Signature Cafe on the 95th, in the John Hancock Center. The views were great!

This place is so cool, I don't want to leave!