A Cerney Periodical

We've been trying to get Brock interested in hide-and-seek for a while. He'll play once or twice, but he's not a huge fan of not being able to find me when no one else is home. A few days ago, we discovered the perfect solution: Murray hides instead! Brock will play hide-and-seek like this forever. He happily runs to his room, counts to ten out loud, then runs out in search of Murray. This way daddy can help give hints when the game drags on. The one instance I recorded may not have been his fastest find, but it was the cutest. Enjoy!

Brock has been asking about carving pumpkins since we went to Michigan on our anniversary. Using the secret formula (mold-halloween+60degreeweather/Brock's excitement = time to make pumpkins) we did indeed deduct that carving weekend was at hand.   Brock picked out a lot of pumpkins while we were in Michigan. We just let him load up the wagon, thinking we would sneak them back when he was distracted or that he would become uninterested. Our first attempt to unload a few gourds was met with panic and mayhem. In a mere 30 seconds we became those parents that totally gave in and just got them all. Oh well. We love pumpkin seeds. With extra pumpkins on hand I had to get a little creative. No craft project is complete without a Murray represented. Brock's favorite part has been lighting them up. Every night before bed we give them a glow. Ok. With one week to go till Halloween, I am realizing my formula was a bit off. Poor sleepy little owl.

Brock loves helping make our morning breakfast shakes. At this point, it's probably more accurate to say that I'm the help. Brock calls out the ingredients in order by name, I fetch them and measure them, and he puts them all in the vitamix, puts on the lid, places the vitamix on its stand, and blends away. His favorite part by far is the egg. Brock is fascinated by eggs, and loves cracking them. He's been known to eat omelettes for lunch AND dinner in the same day, just so he can keep cracking eggs. (and eating cheese). Anyways, I decided to take a video of his egg prowess, and he decided to milk the attention as long as possible. It's a long video, but adorable, all except for the annoyed guy in the background slowly becoming late for work. 

Brock got the most awesome B-day gift from M(4)'s, a scooter!  He's a fan for sure. This is a scooter retrospective since August of a few of his adventures. He's lapping cart-man (grandpa's self proclaimed title after years of shopping cart management positions). I am laughing at this photo now. To think that those silly bumps would have ever stopped him. This is the most recent scoot. He enjoys running into things.

I don't think there is a medium to truly do justice to the magic of a child's emerging imagination. I can't believe the little soul in Brock that I am getting more than glimpses of. The way that he composes words, situations and his reactions to these connective manifestations may be even more magical to Matt and I than Brock. It's so damn cool. This is what having kids is all about. Even as these moments become everyday affairs, I still am touched by them. This post was also started a few weeks ago. I have far too many stories of his imagination to add now, but here is a sample. His art skills do not match his big ideas. This is a seal. This is a spider web with rain. Brock explains the life cycle of pumpkin guts This is Matt adding on to the post... Our first glimpses of Brock's imagination came right after we got back from Omaha. Brock asked to play with the fake-grass drying rack that we have, and proceeded to load it up with anim

Has it really been four years already? Don't worry, I haven't aged so terribly, that's just a friendly zombie that asked Holly for a dance. We stuck to our fall tradition this year and headed east to the shores of Michigan for another amazing weekend.  We started our trip by climbing a giant sand dune. The lake is to our backs and this hill is enormous. Brock did a great job of hiking as long as we stopped to rest and draw a few Murrays in the sand occasionally.  and inspect some logs We reached the top! We did make it down to the beach as well, and Brock was super happy and excited...until a wave of frigid water splashed his legs. Then it was tears and requests to leave all before the camera could come out. The next day we went in search of apples. This place is significantly more low key than our earlier trip. It's just apples and peacefulness here, but they are fantastic. Here's Brock yelling, "smile!" as he c

Like most toddlers, Brock is certainly not our jute box. Most attempts to get him to say a particular thing end in silence or quiet mumbles that we have to translate. But when Brock thinks of his own thing to say, he will belt it loud and proud.  A week ago I had to take him to the autobody shop to pick up our car from some rear-ending bodywork. I had explained to him that we were saying goodbye to the rental car. As I fumbled with the door and the car seat, Brock excitedly ran past me up to the receptionist and yelled, "We're here for OUR car!" Last night we went to our local mexican restaurant. Holly ordered a margarita. I went for a michelada. Then the waiter turned to Brock and asked, "and what can I get for you little man?" Brock immediately replied, "Chips and salsa! Spicy!" The waiter was floored. The waiter brought our drinks first. "Salsa?" Brock asked again. It came eventually. It's a tangent, but Brock has b

As the winter draws near, it's been harvest time at the Cerney household. No one is more excited for this than Brock. Here's a clip of him filling a dump truck with peppers in the most inefficient manner possible. Don't worry, when I put down the camera I showed him not only how to pick multiple peppers and stash them in one hand, but also how to move your dump truck next to the box you are harvesting.  Once Brock filled the truck up with peppers, tomatoes, and chives, he put the truck on top of part of his play fort that he "cooks" on and made me a delicious "sandwich." Thanks Brock!

Brock has started playing some basketball on our roof. I taught him that when you hit a shot that the crowd goes wild and then there's lots of crowd noise (made by breathing heavily into your hands). His version is way better. 

A few weeks ago, we set out with our friends and their kids to visit Jonamac Orchard in the burbs. Every year Holly, Brock, and I head to MI for apple picking on our anniversary, but this year we felt like double-dipping. Not only did Brock get a great day of playing with other kids, this orchard had many many more kid-friendly activities than simple apple-picking.  Brock wasn't too sure about the place when we showed up. He's a serious man, after all. We're pretty sure his favorite place was the silo of corn to play in.  There were dump trucks to fill up with shovels and slides to slide down.  Brock decided it was time for a corn shower... ...and mommy agreed! Truly fun for all ages here. There was a giant hay bale fort. We only got a shot of Brock tunneling.  Then it was off to the orchard to try some apples! Here's where Brock realized he couldn't keep up with the 4-year-olds. Ah, well. Back to mommy and

This September we made a special trip to Omaha to celebrate a completely unimportant, very small, and hardly mentionable age in the amazing life of dad, grandpa, computer wiz, B52 baron, disc golf Olympiad, scotch aficionado and grill master, (to name only a few descriptors) Jim Cerney. It was quite the event with old friends, some from Matt's youth, family including Melinda, Mark, Max, Madeline, the uncles Den and Don and great ma and pa Cerney, Frieda and Bob.  Let the festivities begin!     Brock shows off his construction skills.   and some daddy love. Brock has been working hard on controlling the deep despair that accompanies the collapse of a tediously stacked tower. As a coping method, we have given him the mantra "relax, rebuild" to channel the pain. Here is "relax, rebuild" in action  Peanuts anyone?  Brock is a hard core fan of Madeline. Here is the esteemed lady providing him with a tutorial in the pr