Happy Valentine's Day!

This Valentine's Day ended up being more of a Valentine's weekend. The restaurant we wanted to eat at was booked for Friday and Saturday, so we made plans to go on Sunday instead. My parents came down on Friday to hang out with us (meaning, they wanted see Brenden) and they sent us out shopping because they had something they needed to do with just Brenden. When we got home he had made us a homemade Valentine's Day card, which was amazing! We also got cookies, candy and the Cars dvd. After Brenden finally settled down we ate pizza and watched The Golden Compass, which was actually a decent movie, even if it was a little confusing. I want to read the books, but I've heard that they are written from an atheist point of view and are meant to be the anti-Narnia series. I just want to see what it's about. I don't think any book could change my view on my faith.

Our amazing Valentine!!!

Saturday was pretty laid back. We went to the mall to look for a dress for me for the upcoming dining out at Oklahoma State and while we were there we let Brenden play with the other kids at the indoor play place, which he loves. I realized while watching him that he has started surveying the situation before he jumps in, and I'm very happy to see that. He's always cautious when he gets close to a step, always grabs our hands or the railing. Before he grabs something he looks at us to see if we are going to tell him no. So yesterday, he stood against the wall and watched for a little bit before he went running through the crowd. I also noticed that he waits for other kids to go up and down the slide, or lets them crawl on before he does, even if he was there first. He doesn't scream or push, he's just happy to be there with them. He ended up running around after a couple of the girls, screaming as they screamed, which they all thought was a hilarious game. As long as he wasn't screaming because he was hurt or upset, I wasn't worried about it.

Even though Tim told me I wasn't going to get a gift because he hates Valentine's Day (ask him about it sometime) he surprised me with a couple of books and a homemade poem. I think he was tired of watching me re-read the Harry Potter books and Twilight series. He wanted some tools for the computer and was more than happy to pick them up himself, so that I didn't get him the wrong ones. We spent Saturday night eating sloppy joes, reading, and messing with the hard drive for the laptop, which was the wrong one. Oops!

Our plans for Sunday didn't work out the way we expected. My mom was going to watch Brenden for us when we went out to eat, but some other, more important, things came up so we decided to go out to eat with Brenden instead. Tim is super excited to eat some skillet queso at Chili's and Brenden should be happy to have tons of people to wave at. It was a fun, relaxing weekend that turned out better than I expected, especially since I was told to expect nothing. :)

Since I haven't bragged in a few days about Brenden's new skills, that's what this paragraph will be devoted to. If you are anyone other than one of his grandmas, or an adopted grandma (That's you, Elaine!) then you should probably skip this. You may be bored. Brenden has now learned all of the hand motions for The Wheels On the Bus, which we've learned works very well in the car if he gets upset. He can even say "beep!" This morning when we told him we were going bye bye he grabbed the car keys, handed them to Tim, and said, "Keys!" We had no idea he had learned that word yet. Last night we were reading a book about food and Tim was pointing out the different things to him. Brenden grabbed the book, started pointing to the different items, and babbled using the same inflection that Tim was. We both started cracking up! And, he's learning how to recognize people in pictures other than Tim and me. The other day he tried to dial someone on our phone and when he realized the call wasn't going to go through (we had outgoing calls restricted) he started pointing at the picture associated with the number. He can pick out all of his grandmas and grandpas, and even tried to say Uncle Justin.

I promise that's all the bragging for now. I hope you all had a wonderful, love-filled weekend!

P.S.

Chili's was pretty good! Brenden found a couple of kids to play peek-a-boo with and even convinced one of the ladies next to us to pick him up. He ate a little of his grilled cheese and a TON of broccoli, his new favorite food. Tim and I gorged ourselves on chips and dip and then somehow shoved our dinner in. Then we thought we'd treat ourselves to Braum's, which was super yummy. A great end to a a great weekend!