Wow – I can’t believe a year ago this Thursday Brenden was born! It seems like just yesterday he looked like this:

Day 1

And now, check him out!

In honor of his birthday, here’s twelve new observations from the past few weeks.

1. He’s walking around like a pro – almost running. It’s so funny to watch him “toddle” around.
2. The fun new game is to climb on everything – the couch, the toybox, the chairs, etc. You’ve got to watch him carefully, because getting down seems to done by going face first off of whatever he’s on top of.
3. This week he’s started “talking” – jabbering at me about anything and everything. There’s not many real words in it, so who knows what I’m agreeing to. Every once in a while I’ll understand what he’s trying to say, but for the most part, I just nod and say “uh huh” a lot.
4. He and Holly have reached a new level of friendship. He’s figured out that she likes goldfish crackers and she figured out he’s the source of the stuff dropping from the sky, so Holly now follows him around licking his hands.
5. He’s got a pretty good throwing arm. Lots of balls go flying around my living room.
6. I think that if you hand any little boy of any age a stick like thing, they will immediately try to whack something with it. Instinct, I guess.
7. He’s starting to throw fits when he doesn’t get his way. Big pouting lip, big tears, lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth. So far I’ve avoided one in public, but I think that’s coming.
8. We had our first actual health scare. Andy was spending the day with B, so he made them both breakfast: scrambled eggs and biscuits. After Brenden ate, we noticed he was sneezing like crazy and his eyes were all bloodshot. After a does of benedryl and a nap, it cleared up. We’re thinking he has an egg allergy, and we’ll have him checked out at his appt on the 3rd. Until then, we’re avoiding all egg foods and watching him closely. Anyone have any experience with an egg allergy?
9. We’re trying to wean him from the bottle, but so far we’re not having much luck. He’s not one of those kiddos who is attached to the bottle as a comfort item, but he’s not really interested in switching to sippy cups at all. We made the mistake of letting him drink water from sippy cups all this time, so he thinks that’s the only thing that should go in them. We haven’t been consistent at all about using the cups, so starting tomorrow, the lunch milk is only going in a cup. End of story. We’ll get the hang of it eventually!
10. He’s starting to develop a sense of humor. He’ll hide under something and sit there until you say “where’s Brenden?” and then he’ll jump out giggling.
11. We’ve started going to parks and splash parks to play – he loves the water. He’ll run through the sprinklers and get soaking wet and just laugh at all of it. And slides and swings at regular parks are his favorite.
12. Books are still a treat – his favorite one right now is “follow the fire truck”, but I think it’s because it’s a pop up book. He loves those. Grammy has one called “Get off my tail little whale” and all you have to do is say that phrase and he’s looking for the book. We’ve gone to the library a few times and he was in heaven.

So happy birthday to you, Brenden! You’ve brought so much joy and laughter to our lives and we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

-if there’s no Feb 30th, does that mean that Brenden gets to be 6 months old another month?
-he’s on the verge of crawling, but hasn’t quite figured out how to put all the moves together yet. So for now he just goes backwards and gets mad.
-Brenden is never still. Ever. He even moves in his sleep. However, this means that he’s a very good sleeper. Once you lay him down, it takes 2 seconds for him to fall asleep!
-He’s developing a “let’s get in trouble together” smile. My mom says both Andy and I have that same smile.
-He’s become quite fond of prunes. Yuck.
-In order to change his outfit or diaper, you’ve got to move fast. He can flip over and try to take off rolling if you’re not quick enough!
-We got him one of those doorway jumpers and he seems to like it. However, he still hasn’t quite mastered jumping in it, so for now he just spins in circles and laughs.
-He’s “talking” quite a bit – but we don’t know what he says. 🙂 Sometimes it sounds like he’s cussing in baby since most of his talking happens when he’s frustrated.
-We’ve moved on to formula since the well had run dry. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m sad about that, but I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was always worried that he wouldn’t get enough to eat. Now I can measure and know how much he’s really getting.
-I’m so not ready for him to crawl. We don’t have enough space! I’m going to have to spend my days chasing him around the coffee table. The coffee table may not survive.
-We had a family portrait done at Target last week – and he did really well! He was really interested in the camera. That helped. Hopefully we can post a few once we get them back. Maybe next week.
-He’s become fascinated with whatever toy Reagan is playing with – no other toy will do. And Reagan has become fascinated with watching him eat solids. It’s too funny to see them react to each other.
-He’s 1/2″ away from being too big for his car seat, so we bought him a new big boy seat. This thing is amazing – he’ll have it as a booster until he doesn’t need any seat at all anymore. It’s great! But we are a little sad to be losing the bucket. It makes him seem so grown up.
-Since the bucket is about to be history, we’re working on sitting in restaurant seats and shopping carts without it. He’s still a little wobbly, especially if he’s tired, but he’s getting the hang of it.
-I can’t wait until it warms up a little and I can take him to the park for the first time. I think he’s gonna love slides. He’s a little bit of a daredevil.

That’s all for now! Have a great week!

On Friday, Brenden turns 6 months old! Happy half year, Bubs! Here’s some new info on the little guy:

1. Once we leveled out the mattress and “set him free” so to speak (no more swaddling or “nest”), Brenden figured out he could scoot and roll and have fun in the bed. I’ve started trying to take pictures of the weird positions he sleeps in.

2. He also came up with the fun game of “throw the pacifiers out of the crib”. We now have at least two to three in there to combat the game.

3. He is now seriously teething. I still can’t find any little teeth buds, but he’s got lots of the symptoms – flushed cheeks, drool, chewing on everything, doesn’t like solids, crankyness, etc.

4. Due to the teething, he’s become very difficult to feed. I actually took him to the doctor last week thinking he was sick because he freaked out every time we tried to feed him solids. We finally figured out it was teething and found the formula: oragel+no cereal+cold food+a little yogurt = happier eater

5. Feeding him solids has become the new thing this month. So far, he’s tried: avocado, sweet potato, bananas, pears (thanks Great GrandButlers!), apple juice, oatmeal and rice cereal, and yogurt. Favorite so far – yogurt (whole milk organic active cultures yogurt). Least fav – bananas. Avocados are a close second fav.

6. Most people who know me know that I am not “granola” in any way, but having a baby has made me much more interested in what I put in both me and him. I’m making my own baby food and buying organic veggies. Since he likes yogurt so much, I’m even going to try to make my own!

7. He’s getting closer to crawling, but not quite there yet. However, if you put him on the floor and lay down a little bit away from him, he figured out how to squirm his way over to you and he’s very proud of himself when he does.

8. I just downloaded a bunch of pictures off our old camera – normally Andy uses the good one and I walk around with the older one since I usually forget to take pictures of anything. I just found pics all the way back to our Disney trip. I’ll try to put some of the good ones on Facebook and let Andy pretty up the other ones for here.

9. B is starting to get hair. Actually, he’s had some hair, but now he actually has hair you can see. It’s oddly blond. I don’t know where he got that.

10. Now that we’ve started solids, he’s going to bed earlier and sleeping later. I think it’s the combo of heavier food and all the activity during the day – he doesn’t stay still. Ever. Unless you put him in a bath. That seems to be a serious activity that requires concentration.

11. I’ve started giving him baths at night before bed – you can pretty much count on him starting to get cranky and sleepy by the time bath is over and pj’s are on. He falls asleep within 5 minutes after that. It’s really nice. Hopefully he’ll continue to be a good sleeper for a while!

12. The bigger he gets, the more I want to throw furniture out the window so we have floor space. Who needs seating? Isn’t that what the floor is for?

13. We went to the store yesterday and bought every kind of fruit/veggie that counts as “first foods” for a baby. Including prunes. Lord, help us all. yuck. So far today I’ve made six ice cube trays worth of food, with probably enough stuff for six more at least. He’s set for a few months – then there’s a whole new list of foods he can eat!

14. I’m starting to look into different web-based services to make a scrapbook of B’s first year. So far I’ve looked at www.cropmom.com and www.shutterfly.com. Anybody have any other recommendations? I have a few beautiful handmade scrapbooks that I just need to print out the pics for as well – he’s going to be one well documented kiddo.

Hope you are all doing well! Come by and see us sometime – B loves visitors!

Happy six months!

Sing with me! 🙂

I figured I’ve been a mommy long enough now to have a few favorite things, so I thought I’d share in case anyone out there needs some tips.

So, in no particular order:

1. LUVS Diapers These are wonderful! B tends to be very “productive” at night, and we have yet to have a mess. They’re cheap, too, especially at diapers.com if you catch a good coupon code.
2. Medicine Pacifiers When B first was diagnosed with reflux, and the pharmacist handed me this set of pills and said to mix it with a teaspoon of water and feed it to the baby, I looked at her like she was crazy. A teaspoon doesn’t sound like much, but for a baby, that’s a lot of liquid to take in all at once. These pacifier things are great – they have a little reservoir on the back of them that comes off, so you just fill it with whatever they need to take and – voila! – no mess or unhappy baby. We got ours at Walgreens and I plan on getting one for every new momma as a present!
3. Zip up sleepers Since B is so big for his age – about to outgrow 9 month outfits at 5 months! – it’s been hard to find him clothes that still make him look like a baby instead of a big kid. I’m not ready for big kidness yet! These sleepers are warm, fuzzy, and he looks snuggly in them. And I don’t feel like I should be taking him out for a walk or getting him his driver’s license.
4. Hand blenders I just got this thing last night, and already I’m in love. B is just on the edge of starting solids. He’s doing great with rice cereal, so we’re hoping to introduce new stuff starting tomorrow. I wanted to try to make my own baby food, since several of my friends have done it and said it was easy. I have a huge food processor, but it’s so hard to clean up. This thing works great – I just made enough avocado, banana, and sweet potato “cubes” to last him about 2 weeks! The banana took all of 2 minutes to mush since I didn’t have to cook it first! And we all know how I feel about bananas, so the less time in the presence of one, the better.
5. Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair Our table is a bar height table, which means that a normal high chair wasn’t going to work – he’d be looking under the table. So we got this little one that straps to a chair, and it’s great. B will sit in it while we’re eating and just play with a toy, so we can all sit at the table together and eat. It also tilts just enough so that he’s not straight up and down, which is still hard for him. And we can take it anywhere, so if he’s going to spend the day with a grandparent, it comes with us and they don’t have to have an extra chair in the way.
6. Jumperoos If you haven’t seen one of these things in action, you are missing out. Basically, it’s a seat with bungee cords on all four sides. Some of them attach to a door frame, ours has it’s own frame because we don’t have a good door to use. It’s got toys all the way around to play with, and when he’s been cooped up for a while, B loves to just jump and jump and jump. It’s a good way to work off some energy – I wish they had adult sizes!
7. Sue Boynton books If you haven’t read Moo, Baa, Lalala or Snuggle Puppy, you are missing out. All of her books are board books, so they’re thick pages that can be man-handled by little hands. And they are all very silly. Silly enough to make an adult giggle, and plenty silly to send kiddos into fits of laughter. There are tons of them, and I think B will need the entire collection in time.
8. Skippyjohn Jones books Despite Andy’s serious logic issues with these (ask him about the shape up book), these are great, too. Skippyjohn is a sweet little siamese cat that has lots of educational adventures. For some reason, Brenden adores these books. I might prefer Snuggle Puppy, but he’s grabbing for Skippyjohn Shapes Up every time.
9. Sippy cups with silicone lids We just started using these, and they’re fabulous. They don’t leak – Brenden can throw them around and nothing comes out. That is, until he sucks on one then spits out whatever was in it. But that’s more of a leaky son issue than a leaky cup.
10. Recipes on the internet and Super Baby Foods Like I said before, I’m learning to make my own baby food, because it’s cheaper and you have control over exactly what is in it. My two weeks of food I made this morning probably cost a total of $2.50. Not bad! I got a book called Super Baby Foods for Christmas, and it has a ton of good info in it. There are a few things that I wasn’t sure about, so I looked up “making your own baby food” on the net. There are HUNDREDS of websites with recipes, tips, tricks, and ideas out there! Mommies of the world, unite!

That’s it for now, I’m sure there are lots of other favorites. I’ll close with my favorite new pic of B:

The End