A Good Day for Brendan

I was noticing that lately I've been blogging a lot about Caleb - I suppose that he's had the most going on. So, I wanted to write a little something for Brendan since today happened to be a really good day for him.

First, he was super excited to have his nursery buddy, Calvin Higgins, over for a playdate. It's not everyday that he has someone come over strictly for him, and with Caleb in school he is short a playmate. He was so cute, setting up all of his favorite toys to show off to Calvin when he'd arrive. He even pulled out all the kitchen chairs and made them into a pretend train complete with a flashlight headlight and his engineer hat ready to go. He kept saying how he had a really fun game to show to Calvin. However, once Calvin arrived, they played on our car and train playmats for awhile (apparently all the train set up was forgotten) and then they ended up pretending Star Wars, complete with lightsabers, maskes and the occasional blaster.

After Calvin had to leave, Brendan had his favorite lunch (at least for the time being) which includes a "face sandwich". Somewhere along the way, I came up with the idea to take an open face peanut butter sandwich and design a happy face on it with raisins. Now, he askes for face sandwiches "with extra raisins on the side". He likes to pick off the raisins one at a time and then eat the peanut butter bread last. He is such a silly guy. Always dissecting his food (he never eats a PBJ in one piece - he always pulls it into two open face sandwiches).

After lunch, I got a mail delivery which included a rather large box. He immediately took to it and sat inside. That's when I had the idea to turn it into a car to pretend in. So, we got out the tempera paints, sponge brushes and paper plates. I cut off three of the four flaps, leaving one on the back for a spoiler, and we got to work painting our car - complete with wheels, lights and doors. For some finishing touches, we added an Oregon license plate that we had left over from the Olympic Trials activity we attended (he decided that it ought to say "Obi Wan") and then I put on an antennae made of pipe cleaners (we've been talking about how the radio works lately). He was so thrilled with our finished product. He loves painting, and he kept saying how fun it was to paint the car. He was so eager to try it out, but we had to wait for it to dry. So, I let him play some Star Wars Legos on the PlayStation while he waited (he's getting surprisingly good at that thing - but I promise I don't let him play it much). Then he finally got to take his car for a spin.

Finally, this evening I had an appointment to go to the bishop's storehouse to do some dry-pack canning, so the boys went over to our friend, Trista Knighton's place to watch a movie. Apparently, I have the boys trained too well with our movie and popcorn nights, and they asked her if they could have some (I was so embarrassed to find that out later). Sadly, she didn't have any, but as an alternative she offered to bake them some chocolate chip cookies. They would NEVER turn those down, and Brendan got to be her special helper and make the cookies.

He is such a sweetheart. It's so fun to see him get excited over the simplest things, usually just spending time together playing a game is a big treat for him. Then add a special little activity, project or sweets to the mix and he is happy as a lark. I am so grateful that he is a part of our family. We love you, Bren!