I bought a toddler bed for Brenden off of Craigslist.org a couple of months ago, but we’ve been waiting to move to put it up. Brenden has long been too tall for his changing table, but we’ve kept using it anyway. Last week though he started climbing up on top of the changing table and trying to climb into the crib. We decided to set up his toddler bed this past Saturday and take his changing table out of his room.

We had planned on setting it up right after his nap and talking about it all day so that he could get used to the idea. But Sat. morning came and we had an early house showing. We went out for that and when we came back we were about to put Brenden down for his nap when we got another call saying the agent was running late and hadn’t been to the house yet. He’d be by in about 15 minutes. So off we go to walk the neighborhood. Brenden finally laid down for a nap and so did I and the next thing I knew it was 5:30. Patrick got Brenden’s crib taken apart, we all went grocery shopping and then we played outside while Patrick grilled. The next thing I knew it was closing in on Brenden’s bedtime with no bed.

We got that together as quickly as we could. Brenden was so excited about it. Until we took his crib out of the room and told him it was time for bed. He’s supposed to go to bed between 8-8:30 but it was 10:00 before we could get him calmed down enough to sleep. He was so upset. He slept through the night though.

The second night he went to bed much more quickly but he got up two different times during the night. He’s still getting up some nights and he’s waking up much earlier than normal in the mornings, but getting him to go to sleep has been much easier. At least until nap time today! It’s going to take some getting used to having someone that can come into our room in the middle of the night though.

Here’s a picture of his bed. We had to turn the bed backwards because that is the direction Brenden is used to sleeping and if he puts his head at the end of the bed he’ll fall off! Once we know where we are living, he’s going to have a cowboy themed room. As in coboys and indians not the team.

We went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Sunday with some friends of ours and their 1-year-old son. Brenden got excited about the big huge turtles, the penguins and the sharks. Otherwise, he really just wanted us to put him down and let him run. Patrick blogged more about it here.

Brenden enjoying the sharks.

Brenden’s new “chicken” friend that we bought him in the gift shop.

Two weeks ago Brenden and I went and stayed at my parents house. They’ve had some land for a little bit and have been watching our dogs while our house is on the market, so when they went out of town we went to watch the dogs. Brenden loves walking the field there. We really enjoyed being away from the ringing phones and the constant need to keep the house clean. At the end of the week, Patrick came and spent the weekend with us. Here are some pictures from the week.

° He thinks that elbows are called Elmo and whenever he touches his elbow, he laughs like Elmo.

° He thinks that Nemo is called Elmo.

° Whenever he sees a Tommy Hilfiger symbol he says “Daddy” because most of Patrick’s work clothes are Tommy

° Whenever he sees the Hard Rock Cafe symbol he also says “Daddy” because Patrick has a lot of those shirts

° He thinks that turtles are called tchickins–like a mix between turtles and chickens.

I knew there was one more:

He thinks water towers are hats.

We had Brenden’s 2nd birthday party last Sunday and it went really well. All the kids played nicely and I think the adults had fun visting and watching the kids play. We had a Thomas the Train cake since Brenden is still loving all types of vehicles, especially choo choos.

On Wed. morning (his actual birthday) I took Brenden to his 2 year appointment and it went well. The only thing we have to follow up on is that he seems to be out of the range on his vision test and will need to go to the eye doctor to see what that means. Otherwise, we don’t go back until he is 3. Patrick and I were both a little taken aback by that, it’s just proof that he’s growing up.

The stats:
Weight: 30 lbs 9.6 oz (77%)
Height: 36 1/2 in (93%)
Head: 19 3/4 in (85%)