Brayden's 3rd Birthday

Last year I interviewed Brayden on his birthday with the intention of asking him the same questions each year to see how they change. I had completely forgotten until my parents reminded me, thankfully! See the link above for the hilarious answers from last year. Here are this years:

What is something mommy always says to you? No.
What makes you happy? Saying yes.
What makes you sad? Like when I cry, wahhhh, wahhhh, wahhhh.
What makes you laugh? My car. My red car. That makes me funny.
How old are you? 2 (true enough, I did ask a week early)
How old is Mommy? 2
What is your favorite thing to do? Play with the truck. That makes me happy. The red truck. (Also...) Play with my keyboard.
Who is your best friend? Annabelle.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Drive Dave's truck. (Also...) A fire man. A big fire man.
What are you really good at? Flipping. I flip over and I just flip over.
What did you do today? Toot and fart. Fart and toot. (Yay for 3 year old boys!)
What is your favorite food? Oatmeal
What is your favorite song? Joy to the World (We are still listening to this regularly... yay...)
What is your favorite TV show? Frozen
What do you want for your birthday this year? A present. A chocolate cake one.
What is your favorite animal? Elephant or a pterodactyl. I like a pterodactyl. I like a pterodactyl.
What is love? I don't know. Shoes. (Also...) Love means eat.
Where do you live? At your house.
Where is your favorite place to go? Pop Pop's house.

I asked Brayden these questions today because we had a joint birthday party for Brayden & K with their friends. We totally stole Aunt S's rule of inviting only the number of kids as however many years they're turning and that made life SO MUCH EASIER!

So, Brayden invited his 3 friends (Brayden & K shared one of them) and off to the fire station we went. They gave the kids a demonstration so they would know not to be scared of firemen with all their gear on. They also allowed all of the kids to climb through the trucks, sit in the driver's seat, and put the lights and sirens on.

A very excited birthday boy!

These two are going to be trouble one day.

So tired... and sad it's over

 Happy birthday Brayden & K! Oh, and Uncle B!

Birthday Interview

For Brayden's birthday this year I wanted to start an interview that I can do every year and see how the answers change. It went like this...

What is something mommy always says to you? Um, I want to color 
What makes you happy? Mommy makes happy.
What makes you sad? Push the button and that noise.
What makes you laugh? Funny.
How old are you? I'm 2.
How old is Mommy? Um, 2.
What is your favorite thing to do? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8! (he then begins running laps)
Who is your best friend? Her name's Annabelle.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Be grown up at Nana Pop Pop's house.
What are you really good at? Bat
What did you do today? I go to Nana Pop Pop's house, so...
What is your favorite food? Annabelle. I want to see Annabelle.
What is your favorite song? Have a Great Day (Fresh Beat Band)
What is your favorite TV show? Fresh Beat Band on the iPad. (this does not exist in this house...)
What do you want for your birthday this year? A cake.
What is your favorite animal? Hmm... hot dogs.
What is love? Love? Where are you going?
Where do you live? There. (pointing at the front door)
Where is your favorite place to go? I'll crash you.

We celebrated Brayden's birthday with a family party one day and friends the next. Brayden's buddy K was born 2 days before him with K's daddy's birthday right between the two. So we had a joint party to ensure Uncle B was not left out (he's very touchy). Here are some photos.

Brayden had a Curious George birthday party

Brayden's cousin Valarie has a birthday 2 days after Brayden. Busy week!

Brayden's cousin Todd shares the same birthday so he helped blow out the candles.

Our little farmer, K.

Great friends!

Prayers

Brayden started attempting to say his prayers before he eats and at bedtime awhile ago, but recently he has been saying them all day long. Anytime he pretends to cook something in his kitchen for us to eat he makes us hold hands so he can say prayers first. As you'll see in this video, or rather hear, I was caught spying on him. I rarely close my eyes while he's saying prayers because I think he's adorable trying to squeeze his eyes shut.

What he is saying is "God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. Amen."

PS - While writing this post we have said our prayers 3 times and I have been warned beforehand every time to close my eyes.

First Snow of the Season!

It has, of course, snowed since Brayden was born (barely), but this was the first time he was able to play in it - and he LOVED it! He was very confused at first, and had no interest in actually playing with the snow, but just wanted to take a walk while it snowed around him. I am on board for that! Unfortunately I was not dressed for a long walk because I didn't expect that from him, and he was in his pajama pants, but that didn't stop us.

Christmas

Christmas this year was SO much fun with Brayden. He was not totally aware of what was going on, but he was way more interested than last year at 9 months old, of course. Although we had a busy month celebrating Christmas, I don't have any (or in some cases only mobile) photos from then for three reasons: 1) I was lazy and rather enjoyed sitting back and experiencing Brayden's joy rather than missing it while snapping hundreds of photos, 2) I was too busy chasing a very excited 1 year old to bother with photos, and 3) I relied on other people to capture some photos, so (hint, hint) please share them!

We had help from Pop Pop picking up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving when all the Christmas stuff went up. Then we, or rather I (sans Brayden), began the month of Christmas with a quick day trip to NYC to see visit Macy's, FAO Schwartz, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes show with Patty and Lisa. We rode the train in to Union Station with Nana & Pop Pop to check out the large train display only to find a mini train display thanks to renovations. We had a bit of culture shock watching a Christmas parade in Centreville, MD (camo, tractors, and generators on pickup trucks - wow!) with Nana, Pop Pop, and Centreville's soon-to-be residents B, S, A & K. For the first time we went to the National Zoo for Zoo Lights with the whole family which is something I'd certainly do again.

Then the early Christmas celebrations began. We started a week before Christmas with Uncle B, Aunt S, A & K with breakfast for dinner, the Grinch, and gifts. This I actually do have photos from!

Brayden has a strange habit of feeding K, and K always obliges. We felt this should be documented.

A couple of days later we celebrated again with B, S, A & K and were also joined by the rest of our Wednesday night family dinner group, Uncle M, Aunt L, and Little B for a tapas feast and the classic Rudolph movie. A couple of days later we joined Aunt Heather, Lottie & Izzy at Nana & Pop Pops for a lobster feast and gifts. A couple of days later (see the pattern?) Aunt Ami & Uncle Kevin came over to join us and Nana & Pop Pop for another Christmas dinner and gifts. Although we had all of these Christmas celebrations prior, what makes me finally feel like it's Christmas was later that night with our church's candlelight service of Christmas music, which is always my favorite service of the season. And finally on Christmas Eve we had an early Christmas day with Granny & the Couture clan (they're 5 deep now, large enough for clan status). We had a B.A.B. (a big ass breakfast as Brian & his dad referred to Christmas breakfast), opened a small mountain of presents, watched Christmas movies, relaxed with the kids, and enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Wegman's (I highly recommend it!). The next morning I had to hold Brayden off with "toons in Mama's bed Mama" (as Brayden refers to watching TV in my bed) while we waited for Nana & Pop to get here bright and early. We opened another small mountain of presents, watched Brayden jump from toy to toy, and ate yet another Christmas feast.

After Santa visited

Aunt S gave me this 2 years ago and it is my favorite decoration to put on my tree

Waiting patiently...

"SANTA!! I KNOW HIM!!"

He didn't know where to begin

So as you can see we are both now bursting at the seams (from food & presents!) and exhausted! But we had a wonderful Christmas - thank you to all our family and friends!