16 months going on 16 years!!

How grown up is he????

Our Little Bear is growing up so fast we can hardly keep up. Everyday he is doing more big boy things and saying (or trying to say) more words. He says "Yes" really well, but only shakes his head for "no." Pretty good I guess since most kids learn "no" far sooner! His other favorite word right now is "Owwwwww." It is so stinkin' cute and that is probably why he loves the word so much...because he knows Mama Bear thinks he's adorable when he says it. He'll intentionally hurt himself (or me) just so that he can say, "Owwwwwww." Then, tonight he was playing with his Precious Moments doll that says the nighttime prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." and at the end he said, "Ah-men." Now, as any mother of a one-and-something year old I realized that the word he said sounded very appropriate for the moment. However, I knew that often he will say something that sounds like the right word but when I try to get him to say it again he cannot. Well, this time I said, "Did you say "Amen"? Can you say "Amen"? And what did he say???? "Ah-men." Of course I had him say it a few more times just to make sure and had Daddy Bear listen so that I had a witness and sure enough, "Ah-men."

Our little angel...

He has also learned a few new animal sounds and other words (mostly sound effects), and has recently learned to say "shhhhh." (He actually blows on his finger more than making the "sh" sound, but he definitely knows what he's doing).

We helped Grandma Bear out with a big garage sale last weekend. After about 20 years of life-changing, soul-winning youth ministry she is looking at a career change. Because of this, Grandma Bear decided that she had a lot of things that she would no longer be using. One example: the amazing wig below. So before it was sold, Little Bear decided to ham it up!

Little Bear is still crazy about his pal, Shaddie Bear, and is more comfortable than ever getting into his dog crate with him, despite my valiant efforts to keep him out of there. He also LOVES his dog bed and was caught relaxing on the hair-covered pillow with the remote and bottle of baby shampoo just yesterday morning. I couldn't help but crack up at the sight! It does look might relaxing, doesn't it?

I look at him sometimes in awe at what we've been through with him and at what a miracle he really is! (All children are, really. Right?) Just to see him grow from a helpless little creature out of the womb and after surgery to this usually independent, sometimes helpful, most often joyful, occasionally cranky, always fun-loving and knowledge-seeking, adorable little boy! Praise God that we were chosen as parents for Little Bear Braun! What a precious job!!!!

To Stillwater...and back

I guess I realized this past Wednesday how few pictures I have taken of Little Bear (forgot to use our fun names in the last blog...oops!) lately. So on Wednesday we traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma for a short visit with our dear friends who live there (both Daddy Bear and the father of the household we were visiting had the weekday off of work, yay!!). We were a bit sad to have to enter the land of the ORANGE, but got over that once we were inside of their cozy home and away from any hues of the morbid color. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the kids playing together because Little Bear doesn't really "play" with other kids much yet. He used self-defense once and hit his "cousin" in the face with a play axe. He's at that fun age, AND he hasn't had a ton of experience playing with others before this summer when we were okayed to get out around more people. So he's still learning. But what a good friend to learn with as this friend is not afraid to throw a baseball in Little Bear's face or a mixer to the noggin. I am sure that eventually they'll be good buddies but Little Bear seemed to get along much better with the sweet, gentle, 2 1/2 year old girl who was visiting that day. That better not last either, though! :) He did have a lot of fun playing with his "cousin" Ella's sunglasses.

After arriving home that afternoon, I decided to try out Little Bear's new winter gear as our house was a little chilly inside. He seemed to enjoy his winter hat much more than he enjoyed last year's, but it is already a little small despite the "18 month-3T" label so we may be shopping for another.

After the winter fun, we were cooking in the kitchen as a family where Little Bear decided to pull my aprons out of the drawer. I took advantage of the situation and had a little fun with it. I asked, "Do you want to put on one of Mommy's aprons?" His adorable smile and "Yesh" followed. So...he wore my half apron around the house for a bit (until it begin to fall to his ankles) and he even took a rag out of the drawer and cleaned the chair and the window sill.

Should I be pushing a little less of this and a little more sports, cars, trucks, planes, and rough-toughness??? :) Kidding! He has plenty of opportunities to observe and experience "manliness" in his day. He is just Mommy Bear's big helper as well!

Well, two posts in one day are enough, I think. Little Bear is more than stirring at this point so shall go rescue him from his bed and fix us both some breakfast. Have I mentioned how much I love the 10 hours of sleep I got last night and being a Stay-At-Home-Mom??? It is such a delight! Auf Wiedersehen!

Dad visits from Germany

September turned out to be an ridiculously busy and eventful month so it looks like I only got one post up on the blog. Sorry I'm not living up to my original goal of once a week. I'm going to try to catch up a little bit today and post twice, so here goes...

Tony's father came in for a visit back in September. We had a lot planned for the weekend before we knew he was coming so he kind of got drug around to a lot of different things but we really enjoyed his company! He lives in Germany with Tony's mom and Grandmother ("Mutti" and "Omi") so it is always a real treat to see them when they are able to get away for a visit!

Benjamin wasn't sure what to think of a visitor staying in our house at first but he warmed up quickly and was even giving kisses out by the end of his Grandpa's short stay.