Poo Poo = Choo Choo

Bradley achieved his poop goal on Monday, so we went to the new train restuarant. The Two Toots is right next to the real train tracks. If you pick the right table, you can watch real trains and the model train at the same time. It is actually kind of awesome. The new train restaurant has a more limited menu than the All Aboard Diner, but the food is good. Ben likes the restaurant too. He likes to point at the model train as it goes around. This was Brad's second trip to Two Toots. He had earned a trip at the end of August.

The Graduates

Both Ben and Bradley have moved up a classroom. This is long overdue for Brad, but on-schedule for Ben. Both boys now go back to large motor in the morning.

Where's My T-shirt?

Bradley says "My parents went on vacation and all I got was this lousy moose hat."

Last Hurrah

Summer is all gone already! We had to squeeze as much fun as possible into its last days. Bradley mapped out Sunday early in the day. He said he wanted to pack a lot of stuff and go to a concert. However, his nap was really long and we missed the concert. We went to the Kane County Cougars baseball game instead. Bradley loved it! He watched the groundskeepers get the field ready, saw the players warming up, got a high five from a player, and a stamp on his arm. This was before the game even began. As a snack, Bradley bought a bag of popcorn that was almost bigger than Ben. We only watched a few innings since certain people had to go to bed. Both boys stayed up late. I was hoping that would pay dividends the next day, but no such luck. Brad was up from about 4-5 and finally got out of bed around 5:45.

On Monday, we were able to get an early nap and made it to a 3:00 concert at Cantigny. After the concert was done, we checked out the tanks.

Olympics

Bradley really, really, really, I mean really, liked the Olympics. We would watch it every day. Sometimes we would watch during dinner, but we always watched just before bed. Bradley would have his snack in mommy & daddy's room and watch the competition. His favorite was gymnastics. This is probably because he has been doing Tumblebears all summer. We finally got some pictures. On Saturday, he showed us a running summersault. The first attempt was successful. The second one: not so much.

15 Months

Since Ben's 15 month birthday is just around the corner, we went to Heaven on Seven to celebrate. He has been doing really good with the walking this month and he is getting faster.

I though this would be a good opportunity to take a look back and see what we were doing last year at this time.

It is also interesting to see what was going on with Bradley when he was 15 months. Like Ben, he was saying "uh-oh" a lot. Ben will be moving to the toddler room in the next two weeks. Ben seems to be a little better at the sign language. He has been able to sign "all done" for a couple months, but we really haven't been teaching as many signs as we did with Bradley.

A Real Heart Stopper

We went to the Elite Men's National Criterium Championship on Sunday. Bradley was there to race his bicycle. However, Ben was sitting on the bike for a little while. Somehow the bike started rolling backwards into the street, just as the peloton was flying by. I quickly grabbed Ben and he was never in any real danger, but it was scary enough to shave a few minutes off my life expectancy. Bradley has been doing a good job accelerating his inheritance and now that Ben is walking, he is joining the effort.

In Your Face, Tajikistan

The People's Federated Democratic Republic of Bradley now has three medals from the Olympic season. Bradley has two for Tumblebears and one from Big Wheel racing.

The Squat Heard 'Round the World

Finally, finally, finally! Brad sat on the potty and made a poop today. This was rewarded with a present and a trip to the train restaurant. After lunch we stopped at a park to use the new digger. We didn't get to play too long before getting rained out.

Benny Two Shoes

Benny got his first pair of shoes last weekend. He just loves wearing them.