Brooks-22 months

22 months already!!!  I can't believe that sweet Brooks is almost 2!!!  We just love this boy so much, and he constantly makes us laugh.  I don't think he tries to be, but he is just plain funny.  His expressions are funny, the things he says are funny, and he is just a happy little guy that brings joy to so many people.  I cannot believe how much his vocabulary has truly exploded in the last month.  He is learning new words and phrases everyday, and he is talking like crazy!  He still puts 3 and 4 words together, and he can pretty much communicate anything he wants to through his speech!  He loves to repeat phrases that he hears, but he also joins words together to form his own phrases.  He is slowly coming out of his picky eater phase (thankfully.)  He has branched out lately and tried chili, chicken casserole, and fried okra.  This is a big deal for this little guy!  He has started coming up to me from time to time and hugging me or laying his head on my lap or leg and saying, "I love you."  This melts my heart so much.  He just does this on his own accord with no prompting :)  He is still such a huge Mama's boy, and I love it!  Brooks is the king of entertaining himself.  He just LOVES toys.  I really think he could push cars, trucks, and trains around for hours and never get board.  He also enjoys wearing his little apron and playing with all of our pretend food.  Both of the boys like to take turns bringing me different meals that they put together, but Brooks always insists on wearing the apron.  Brooks loves to be outside, and he really loves to try and ride Reives' tricycle.  He is not able to pedal yet, but I bet it won't be long.  For the most part, Brooks is a pretty good listener, and he really likes to please.  However, I can tell that we are nearing the 2's, as he is beginning to challenge what we say a bit.  He loves to wrestle with Reives and Daddy, especially when they have "guys night" (when Mama has something to do in the evening.)  They really thing guys night is so cool!

Other things going on with Brooks at 22 months:

-he is not a very big fan or dogs, but he really seems to love cats and is very interested in Zipper, Tizzy, and Jasmine (my parents's 3 cats)
-we finally turned around Brooks's carseat, so he now faces forward..he was pretty excited about that
-he is still very attached to his "taci" and rags
-he currently has some phobia of the bath toys floating away or going down the drain...the poor guy just freaks out if there are any bath toys in the water
-he has finally started going down slides by himself instead of wanting to sit in someone's lap
-still is not the best restaurant eater and does not like to sit in his highchair sometimes
-loves to snuggle and sit in laps
-enjoys trying to draw with markers (mainly he likes to take the caps on and off) and he loves playing with play dough
-he will run up to random people in restaurants and other public places and get very close to them, cock his head to one side and smile at them....so funny!
-loves to copy his big brother
-enjoys doing puzzles and is very into books....especially books about trucks, tractors, and trains

Here are pictures of Brooks at this age...

Christmas 2013

Christmas was very fun in the Glendye household this year!  The boys loved the decorations, lights, food, stories, etc!!  They were so excited to celebrate Jesus' Birthday and have cake on Christmas Day! All in all, our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were wonderful, minus some type of mild stomach bug that I dealt with on Christmas Day :(  Here are some pics of things leading up to Christmas:

 Picking out our Christmas tree

 Making Christmas crafts

 Visiting Santa

 Looking cute

 Reading our Bibles about Jesus' birth

 Watching Christmas movies

...and looking at Christmas lights with friends.

We spend Christmas Eve with Trey's family.  We all went out to lunch, and then came back to our house to cook, rest, make Christmas cookies, open presents, and eat Christmas dinner.  It was alot of fun!  Here are pics from the Glendye family Christmas:

 Making cookies

 Opening presents

 Playing with new toys

Then, on Christmas Day, we had Christmas morning at our house.  Mid-morning we went over to my parents house to open presents with them and my sister and her family.  Then, we ate a late lunch at my grandparents house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was a very busy and fun filled day!!

 Opening stockings and presents on Christmas morning

Family photo on Christmas

3 years and 3 months

Three year olds are so much fun!!!  Our Little R is full of energy, creativity, imagination, and questions.    He constantly makes us laugh and almost everyday we are amazed at how much he knows and understands.  Reives is becoming more independent lately, and some days, he insists on doing everything by himself.  Other days, he wants us to do things for him.  Reives catches onto things very quickly, and is one of the most observant humans I have ever been around.  For example, some days when I get him up from his nap, the first thing he'll say to me is something about how I took off my earrings or changed my shirt.  He notices little things like that about people all of the time!  He is such a little sponge and is learning so much at his preschool and at BSF (the Bible study program he goes to during my Bible Study on Wed. mornings).  Reives loves to play with Brooks, and he is slowly getting better about boundaries with Brooks, but you know how brothers are!!  He enjoys playing with blocks and legos, playing games with us like "Uno Moo" and drawing on his dry erase board with markers.  He also loves playing outside in the sandbox and just exploring around the yard.

When you ask Reives to name something (a stuffed animal, person he drew, etc.), he always makes up some random, gibberish name like "ishkish" or something.  It cracks us up.  Reives also loves to "go under the sea" with Daddy when he gets home.  Basically it means they roll around and wrestle on the rug and talk about fish and stuff.  One of the funniest things he likes to do is "to hatch."  This is something he made up all by himself.  One day, he just walked into the kitchen and said, "Mama, come and watch me hatch."  I was completely confused.  So, I went into the den and watched Reives cover himself up with throw pillows.  Then he busted out of them, and said, "I just hatched."  He does this all of the time and it never ceases to make us laugh!!  Reives has some prankster in him, too...hmm...wonder where he gets that!?!?!  

One thing I love about Reives is his sweet heart.  He has lots of questions about God and Jesus, and I love that this gives us opportunities to talk to him about what is most important to us!  He enjoys looking at His Bible, and telling me what he learns at BSF and Sunday School.  I am so thankful to be able to spend so much time with him, so that we have opportunities to talk about these things!!  He has even memorized his first Bible verse, "Children, obey your parents in the sight of the Lord, for this is right."  Epehesians 5:1. We sing it to the tune of "Happy Birthday!"

Reives is still one of the best eaters ever!  He pretty much will eat and try anything.  This past weekend, he ate quail and fried venison.  He also tries vegetables and any type of casserole.  However, he still drinks no milk, and just flat out doesn't like it...even when we add chocolate :(  He still naps most days, but usually 1 or 2 days a week will just rest and not go to sleep.  He has the potty thing down for sure, but he still sleeps in a diaper or pull up...will be working on that soon!  He also still sleeps in his crib.  It's funny though, because now he can climb into and out of his crib.  But, he loves his crib, and never climbs out unless I come to get him.  We are going to move him into a toddler bed after Christmas.

Here are some pics of our precious Reives at this age :)

Months 20 and 21

Mama, the slacker, strikes again!  I forgot Brooks's 20 month post...oops!  So, here is a combined 20 and 21 month update for our sweet Brooksy!  This little guy is a true mess...one minute he is the sweetest and most cuddly little guy ever, the next minute he is making us laugh with his quirky personality, and the very next minute he is Mr. Grumpy who only wants Mama to hold him and doesn't want anyone else to even look his way.  I am not sure how in the world I would describe his personality yet, but it is so fun to watch it develop.  He is still a true Mama's boy, and is still very far from what I would consider a morning person.  If you have to wake him up in the morning, everybody beware!  Some mornings, Reives (who 99% of the time wakes up happy) asks why Brooks is always grumpy in the mornings.  Brooks is getting more and more interested in puzzles, stickers, and drawing with crayons and markers.  He loves to push the trains on the train table and push his cars and trucks all around the house.  He also loves to play "pillows" with Reives. Basically they find every pillow they can and take turns covering each other up with them.  This entertains them for very long periods of time :)  Brooks is talking like crazy and is even starting to put 3-4 words together sometimes.  He is starting to sing some songs and can sometimes count 1-5....usually skipping a number here or there.  Brooks is still a very picky eater, and I think he would live off of milk and snacks if he could.  He still refuses to each anything with the consistency of yogurt or applesauce, and he also refuses to eat cake or muffins or anything like that.  Other things about Brooks:

-loves to run and give people big hugs
-gave me a big hug a few weeks ago, and said "I love you" to me (without prompting or me saying it first).....be still my heart!
-very attached to his "taci" (paci) and "rags" (his rags which are squares of my old T-shirt)
-favorite foods are fruit and snack foods like crackers and things
-runs instead of walks alot of the time
-is starting to try to kick balls outside
-has his top eye teeth but not the bottom ones yet
-wears 24 month/2T clothes
-loves Mickey Mouse and Elmo
-obsessed with riding in golf carts
-wants to do everything that Reives does :)
-constantly stands at my legs and says "hold me, hold me, hold me" (my poor back)
-has the biggest, bluest eyes I've ever seen...they will melt your heart

Some pictures of my cutie pie:

Thanksgiving 2013

Each year at Thanksgiving (and/or the weekend after Thanksgiving) all of my dad's family gathers in the middle of nowhere in Climax, GA.  Yes, this is the middle of nowhere, but to all of us, it is a very very special place.  We are thankful to my grandparents, who are no longer with us, who bought this land years ago and made it such a peaceful and wonderful place.  The cabin and pond sit on the edge of roughly 480 acres of land.  The name of the pond house is "Covey Rise," and now generations of us Clevelands enjoy coming here to be with family and have a great time!  There was a whole crew (maybe around 30 of us) who gathered this year.  This is really the only time of year that us cousins see each other, but our children play and have fun like they are buddies who live in the same neighborhood.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip!  Nevermind that Reives fell into the freezing cold pond on Thanksgiving day!  (He was a trooper though, was right back out there fishing the next day....thank goodness I am a life jacket nazi.)  We spent 4 nights down at "The Pond" (as we fondly call it).  The weather was beautiful but a bit on the chilly side.  The boys traveled great and for the most part, slept great.  All of us in one hotel room went very smoothly, and we enjoyed having fun in the great outdoors and catching up with our family that we don't get to see nearly enough.

Here are some pics from our fun filled Thanksgiving trip...

 Reives and Brooks with their cousins, Ellis and Hunter

 All of the Cleveland 2nd cousins who were there (minus Caroline who was sleeping). They are all waiting on the annual "Swine Time" parade to begin!!

Going for a "gator" ride

 Just hanging around before Thanksgiving dinner :)

 Some of the boys playing on the porch...

 Ashley with Jaymie and Caroline (the two youngest "Clevelands")

Making of "the dressing"

Some of The Thanksgiving spread

My cousin Melanie also took some pics of us with her super good camera while we were there...

 My two very handsome boys!!!

 Happy Thanksgiving 2013!  We are so thankful for all of the friends and family that God has blessed us with :)

Trick or Treat 2013

Better late than never...

We had a very fun Halloween 2013.  Reives got into the whole costume thing this year, which was really fun!  I knew Brooks would wear a fish costume that Reives wore 2 Halloweens ago (even though I literally had to squeeze him into it), and so I really wanted to Reives to be a fisherman.  Wouldn't that have been too cute?  Well, Reives had an idea of his own, and he insisted on being Bob the Builder.  So, Bob the Builder it was!

We went to fall festival at Wesley Gardens on the Sunday before Halloween, and the boys enjoyed wearing their costumes.  So, they were extra excited when they got to wear them again on Halloween.  We started off the evening by eating pizza at Gigi and G-Pa's house.  They were kind enough to invite Grammie and Grandaddy over for pizza, as well as Aunt Laura and Jaymie, too.  So, we all dined and then set out for some trick or treating.

The first house we went to was complete with scary music, gravestones, skeletons, and a woman who answered the door in a scary mask.  I don't think that is exactly what the boys had in mind.  But, after a few "more normal" houses, the boys were good to go.  They enjoyed trick or treating, and they especially enjoyed getting all of the candy :)

Reives

So, my mom was asking why Brooks got two posts about him turning 18 and 19 months and Reives only got one when he turned 3.  I decided when Reives turned 2 that I would only update his growth/milestone updates every 3 months, instead of every month.  So, when Brooks turns 2, I will do the same thing.  But for now, Brooks is still in the "every month update" age :)  I sure do my love my sweet, little Reives!  Just didn't want all of you to think I was leaving my big boy out!