Brunners in Brooklyn

sigh

t&kbrunner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:55:13 +0000

Todd saw the hand specialist today, who confirmed there were bones in both wrists broken. He has another new cast on one arm (orange and black!) and a slightly more industrial brace on the left wrist. He’ll have a minor surgery next Wednesday on the right wrist (which is actually good news–healing will supposedly be faster with a screw than a cast alone). It looks like Todd will be working on molding the impression of his butt in the couch cushions for another couple weeks, but also giving his one good leg quite a workout. Here’s Todd showing off his latest apparatuses (according to Wikipedia, that really is a word!?) while hanging out with Sam and, sadly, watching more tv.

Posted by Kate

Happy Birthday, Mema!

t&kbrunner — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:57:44 +0000

This is really more of a duet than a solo. Also, judging by Sam’s state of dress, it’s a bit of a burlesque show, too. Happy Birthday!

Posted by Kate and Sam

A sense of humor

t&kbrunner — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:44:33 +0000

With Todd being injured we’ve resorted to TV a bit more. Todd and Sam have bonded over the Muppet Show; Sam particularly loves the Swedish Chef:

This video also shows Todd’s cast and braces for posterity–hopefully only 5 weeks to go!

For those critiquing Sam’s outfit….he has his pants off because our apartment is very hot. He’s a toddler and can get away with (and loves !) being pants-free.

Posted by Kate

Happy Birthday, Joe!

t&kbrunner — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:43:52 +0000

Posted by Kate and Sam

Our lives just got more difficult

t&kbrunner — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:15:48 +0000

Todd’s foot, casted for the next 6 weeks:

The real kicker is that he also injured both wrists so walking on crutches and picking up Sam are difficult. I’m sure this will all make for a funny story some time in the future, but it’s still scary at the moment. Todd was in the back of a truck when someone drove it away (not knowing he was there) and he fell out the back. It could have been much worse.

We’re still digesting all the many ways this is impacting our lives. We’re scrambling to figure out how we can both manage work and Sam, particularly next week since we don’t have much time to plan.

Posted by Kate

My new favorite holiday: President’s Day

t&kbrunner — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:37:13 +0000

Todd and I were both off work today for the holiday, and Sam’s daycare was open as usual. We actually had a nice, long, relaxing day together and didn’t have to watch the clock for our bedtime or worry about how much money we were spending on the babysitter. We had a nice lunch at one of our old favorite places in Soho, then saw the movie Crazy Heart. I also bought some fancy new sunglasses in anticipation of my lasek surgery coming up in a couple weeks. It was the best President’s Day ever!

Posted by Kate

Bathtime fun

t&kbrunner — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:35:46 +0000

Sam really loves the bath lately, but sadly, it isn’t really the bath that’s fun for Sam, it’s the fun on the bed AFTER the bath that gets him excited. He wants out of the bath pretty quickly into it, and he even giggles when we get out the towel. After the bath, we keep his pajamas off for a while and let him play on our bed. He likes jumping on the bed, fallling into pillows, and more recently, Playing Motorcycle. We set up the pillows in a row and he sits on one and pretends its a motorcycle (or a boat, or a garbage truck, etc.). We crash, we stop for coffee breaks (which may include cheese or guacamole) and we stop to look at the surrounding animals. He’s crazy for this game, and unfortunately it isn’t the same when we put the pillows on the floor so we really have to stay on our toes to make sure he doesn’t get too close to the edge of the bed.

Dang, he looks old in that picture!

Posted by Kate

Sam’s memory

t&kbrunner — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:27:13 +0000

The long-term memories won’t solidify for another couple years, but Sam has started to remember things for longer periods of time. Yesterday we were playing with play-doh and he asked me to make Gumby. He only knows who Gumby is because Grandma had a figurine he played with several weeks ago. For over a week after we left Wisconsin, he was asking to go downstairs to play with Reed (who lives in Wisconsin and NOT in an apartment downstairs from us). When he sees pictures of himself playing with his cousins in Maggie’s and Rosie’s room, he says “Get down, Reed!” (Reed was climbing on Rosie’s bed withouth permission). He even occasionally still talks about firecrackers (“Boom, up in the sky”), which he experienced in Oklahoma in late November. It’s strange and amusing to us to see these memories resurface–his little brain is working hard to retain all this information!

Posted by Kate

Off the market

t&kbrunner — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:58:03 +0000

We’ve decided to take our apartment off the market for a while. We had minimal interest to our ads and open houses and the dropping real estate prices were discouraging. The real estate agents have told us summer would be a better time (and an easier time for us to have open houses) so we’ll reevaluate in a couple months. Although we wish we had that bigger, 2BR apartment, we can make do for now. It certainly takes a lot of pressure off–keeping the apartment clean and getting Sam out of the apartment for the open houses has been taxing.

Posted by Kate

Goodbye, Uncle Bill

t&kbrunner — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:02:15 +0000

My uncle Bill, my dad’s brother, passed away on January 9th. It was an unexpected illness, but there was enough warning that his family had a chance to say goodbye. Unfortunately, due to the miles between us, we didn’t make it in time. Sam and I traveled out for the funeral, though, and it ended up being a really nice service where, thanks to some anecdotes collected from different family members, we got to hear some great stories about Bill and what he meant to his family and his community. We will miss you, Uncle Bill.

One of the small silver linings to any funeral is that it ends up gathering together a lot of people who haven’t seen each other in a while.Sam and I were able to spend some nice time with many of our extended family. Kate made it to Wisconsin at the end of the week so she was able to share in the reunion a bit, too. The nice thing about Sam’s current age is that he’s finally old enough to know his family, at least from pictures, and to look forward to seeing them. He had a great time playing with his grandparents, uncles, nieces and nephews. We’ve been looking at pictures from the trip almost daily. You can take a look at some of them by clicking the image below. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone camera so the photos aren’t the highest quality…

Pictures from Wisconsin

Posted by Todd

Brunners in Brooklyn

*sigh*

Happy Birthday, Mema!

A sense of humor

Happy Birthday, Joe!

Our lives just got more difficult

My new favorite holiday: President’s Day

Bathtime fun

Sam’s memory

Off the market

Goodbye, Uncle Bill

sigh