First Steps!

We went for a visit to see Grandma and Grandpa. Elijah was so excited to see them that he stayed awake almost the whole ride down to Iowa! He wanted to wait to show off to them that he could take his first steps... at 11:30pm!!! I just took the video on my cell phone, so it's a bit choppy.

Don't believe me? Watch for yourself:

1 Year Portrats

Grandma loves pictures!! She took Elijah to get his portrait taken for his 1 year birthday awhile back. Here are a few of our favorites to share with you!

Happy Birthday, Elijah!! We LOVE YOU!

Funny, Funny Guy!

Elijah thinks that he is a pretty funny guy these days. He likes to make us laugh. Sometimes we just have laughing fits for the fun of it. Sometimes it's for good reason which you can see below...

He loves to stand on his head and look at you through his feet!!!

Nothing funnier than a little guy in a big guy's hat!
(except maybe sunglasses, but we haven't gotten him sunglasses yet)

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down.
I'd like to take a minute just sit right there and I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.

Elijah is jammin' on the Hammond

Mirrors? HILARIOUS!

The Slide

Tonight we had our friends Dave, Susan, and Ethan over for dinner. Dave and Susan are married. Ethan is their son. He's four (almost 5) and taught Elijah how to better play with his toys. After a tasty chicken dinner, we all walked up to the park to use up some energy! Ethan mostly played on the big kid stuff, but Elijah graduated from the smallest slide at the park to the THIRD smallest tonight. Camera phone footage to tell the tale... You can decide if you think he liked it or not!

Guess who took 3 steps tonight all on their own? Will report more as he progresses!

The Brecht Boys

Hey friends, family, loyal acquaintances that follow our blog. I tend not to blog unless we have some adorable pictures to post, but I thought I would do a typing-only blog tonight.

This is my first Wednesday in a long, long, long time where I'm not working at a church. Gail is, however. (That should explain why I'm at a computer blogging and not spending time with her).
This having-no-job business is a bit odd to get used to. I find that my Iowan farmer roots keep me working pretty hard all day, even without a job. Mostly, Elijah and I just hang out. So I wanted to share a typical day. Here was today's rundown:

8:42 - Dad wakes up.
8:43 - Dad comes downstairs to prep breakfast BEFORE getting the boy up.
8:45 - Dad gets Elijah up and we head downstairs for Applesauce and Cheerios, closing the door on our way down so Mama can sleep longer.
9:13 - Gail emerges.
9:13:43 - Elijah smiles at Mama and laughs.
9:15 - Elijah smears Applesauce all over his hair.
9:32 - Dad cleans up breakfast, Elijah and Mama play.

10:16 - Elijah gets cuddly with a blanket.
10:32 - Mama reads him a story and puts him to sleep.
10:32 - Dad sends emails, makes phone calls, check for Xbox game deals, and washes dishes.
11:00 - Gail goes to the YMCA, then to work.
12:04 - Elijah gets up and we have Soup, Sandwich, and a banana for lunch.
12:33 - Clean up lunch. Clean banana out of Elijah's hair.
12:33-2:45 - Play.
2:46 - Go for a walk in the stroller.
2:48 - Get rained on and go home.
2:55 - Elijah and Dad install a new smoke detector.
2:59 - Elijah fake cries for 30 seconds because he wants to play on the stairs instead of help install a smoke detector.
3:30 NAP.
5:15 - Elijah wakes up. Dad gets salad, rice, fish, milk, cheese, and an apple ready for dinner.
5:45 - Two strangers come to the house and give Dad $100 cash.
5:46 - Dad gives two strangers an old crappy guitar.
6:01 - 7:30 Elijah and dad play on and off while dad sometimes sneaks away to learn how to use twitter.
7:47 - Justin Rimbo has a heart attack and explodes because he can't believe Josh is using Twitter.
7:51 - Bath TIME!!!
7:57 - Elijah tries to stand up while dad is getting a towel, slips and hits his head on the bathtub.
7:58 - Elijah cries.
8:00 - Elijah dries off. We read a story, he goes to bed.
8:03 - Dad does laundry.
8:06 - Dad cleans up 78 toys.
8:09 - Dad has a beer and blogs!

Thanks for reading!