365 Project - Week 1

Brenden had a great Christmas. He got lots of toys and had fun playing with everything. Some of his favorite toys are the ball pit, the drum sticks (notice not the whole drum, just the sticks!), the ball popper choo choo, and the musical activity table. I can't believe in just a few short weeks he'll have his first birthday too and get MORE loot!

Some of my virtual friends introduced me to a concept of a 365 photo project. This is a project where you take at least one ( I say at least because you ALL know I never keep my photos down to just one!) picture of your child each day of the year. I thought it was a great idea so I decided to start one of my own. This also forces me to update this blog at least once a week as I'll be posting the photos weekly (or at least try!)

Here are the photos from week 1 of the 365 project!

December 20

Haha! I found the remote control again!

December 21

Playing with all the bows from the presents

December 22

I love messing with the VHS/DVD player!

December 23

Playing "telephone" with Daddy's cell phone

December 24

Christmas Eve - waiting for Santa to come!

December 25

Christmas day - Mommy's favorite present!

December 26

Yes, that is strawberry applesauce in my eyebrow!

Super Long Blog

I've gotten behind on blogging all of Brenden's milestones and funny moments so I'm going to attempt to catch up in one super long blog post!

I'm sure he's only funny to me most of the time, but still, I think Brenden is just so funny. He's really forming his personality and its just a joy to watch his little mind grow. We've been teaching him to wave bye-bye for weeks now. If you wave to him, he'll wave back. The other day I was giving Brenden a bottle and Sean left the room and Brenden stuck his hand up in the air, other hand still firmly on the bottle, and waved bye. It made me chuckle. He gets it, he understands why we wave, and not just to do it only if someone else does it first. He knows its a way of saying bye.

This picture was taken about a month ago but it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

I was feeding Brenden some yogurt and he really preferred to play and not eat, so I set the little bowl on the coffee table and he went about his merry little way. Moments later I needed to run upstairs to get him a diaper. When I came down I noticed he was entirely too quiet and when I walked in the room he had the bowl of yogurt up to his mouth and was drinking it like it was a cup of water. It was very clear he was enjoying every bit of it as he was making Mmmm Mmmm sounds as he gulped! He looked up at me for a second as if to say "what? Its mine, I decided to eat it MY way!" He actually finished most of it and very little ended up on the floor. Every time I look at the picture I relive the moment in my mind and I always laugh.

He loves to dance. When he hears songs he likes he puts both arms up in the air and bounces up and down and gets so excited. The other day at daycare I set him down to drop him off and the teacher put in a holiday CD and Brenden immediately started swaying back and forth. One day his notes on his daily sheet said he danced so hard his pants fell down!

He can say thank you -- or at least "dah-doo!" He doesn't really know what it means yet but he knows if you give/get something somebody should say dah-doo! Here are 2 video clips of him trying to say thank you.

He's also walking using his push-toy. He'll play with this thing for a long time and get really mad if he gets stuck in a position and can't turn around. Here's a video of him pushing Tow-mater!

Another ordinary day

I sometimes struggle to find something exciting and read-worthy to blog about on a regular basis. I find most of my days to be quite ordinary and thus not that interesting to anybody other than myself.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. My brother Tom got to meet Brenden for the first time and that was very important for me. I want Brenden to know who his family is and how many people he is important to. We drove up to my mom's house and Brenden did really well in the car all things considered. He had a melt-down when we got stuck in a traffic jam, but my brother and I were on the verge of the same melt-down so we could hardly blame Brenden. I finally broke down and put a DVD player in the car. I hate having him watch lots of TV, but compared to screaming endlessly in the car, it seemed like the lesser of two evils.

Brenden is still not ready to walk yet. He can sometimes stand unassisted but he is so darned fast at crawling that trying to get him to walk is like torture when he knows he could just get there faster if he crawled. I have some video of him pushing his "Tow-Mater" toy push/ride truck. He's so cute with his Frankenstein legs.

He also said "thank you" this weekend. Well okay, he sad "dah dooo" but we knew he was trying to imitate us. It was cute. We have vidoe of that too. As soon as I get it to the computer I will post it here.

He's almost 11 months old. I don't know where the time went. I certainly didn't expect it to go by this fast. I look back at his pictures from just 6 months ago and he hardly looks like the same baby! We are having portraits made this weekend for the holidays. I hope they turn out well and can't wait to share them with everybody!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Its that time again when we should all reflect on what we are thankful for so I thought I'd share my top 10 - I invite you to do the same!

1 - Brenden! I can't thank God enough for blessing me with such a sweet little boy!
2 - My family - My husband, Mom, Stepdad, brothers, inlaws. I'm blessed to have such a large family.
3 - My close friends who have stood by my side through ups and downs, thick and thin, you have helped me through some really tough times and never once judged and I cannot be more thankful.
4- My "virtual" friends (many of whom are also my "close friends" listed in #3) - My online family of moms and future moms (I believe we ALL will be moms one day). I don't think I could have ever survived the ups and downs of infertility and losing a baby without you all!
5 - My relationship with God. I have had to talk with Him a lot over the past 3 or more years and surprisingly he has answered me a few times. It helps me face the trials of each day knowing He has a purpose for me in His plan, even though His plan is not always what I want it to be!
6 - RE's around the world - For giving women a fighting chance at being a mom when "mother nature" alone is not doing the trick!
7 - My acupuncturist. For providing me with an alternative to drugs and negative side effects and also giving me a moment in my life where I can truly relax.
8 - My JOB - stress and all! With this harsh economy and all the turmoil the banking industry is experiencing I am very thankful to still have a place to come to work every day.
9 - My home, flaws and all, I am always thankful to have a roof over my head.
10- My fur babies - Buddy and Copper and even crazy Milo, you always love me unconditionally and I probably don't always deserve it!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!! Gobble Gobble!!

More fall pictures

Here are the rest of the fall pics I tried to post earlier. The leaf pictures in my other post were taken in my back yard and these pumpkin pictures were taken by a photographer that came to the daycare. I think they all turned out cute!

Fall pictures

Just trying to upload some of Brenden's fall pictures. More to come.. Blogger is not cooperating with me!

Aspire to be a better virtual friend...

I admit it - lately I've been a terrible virtual friend. I blame it all on the demise of the American Baby message boards. I was able to get to these boards from work and thus was able to have up-to-the minute communications with all my online friends. Then we moved to a more private board, which was great in that sense, but unfortunately my work blocks the site so my only chance to catch up with the online world was on weekends and evenings. Then came the final straw.. Brenden became mobile! Now I cannot post, email, IM, blog, myspace,facebook,etc until after he goes to bed, after I've washed bottles, after I've cleaned up and fed myself too and after all that if I still have a speck of energy then I get the chance to catch up with all my many internet vices. Obviously I'm failing miserably in this department and just want the virtual world to know that I'm still out here, I still want to be friends, and I'm sorry I don't keep in touch more!

I realize that Brenden's life is flying by and somehow I am not finding enough time to capture every moment of our crazy lives in my blog like I intended. Here it is a month later and I'm just finally finding the time to post. Brenden is so big now and is so full of life. I just adore him from head to toe. God could not have made my son more perfect if he tried. He was worth every moment I waited for him and still brings tears of joy to my eyes all the time!
He loves to play "chase" and likes for us to be the chasers. He's so funny, he'll look over his shoulder and then turn around very quickly and squeal in anticipation as if to say "come and get me!" then I chase after him and he screams at the top of his lungs and giggles. He'd do this all day long if we let him. He's just so silly.

A few weekends ago we took him to a birthday party for one of his daycare classmates. After his shyness wore off he proceeded to crawl through their kitchen, pull up on their dishwasher and just started licking it all over. What do you even say when you are a guest and your son is coating their appliances in sloppy baby drool? He proceeded to do the same to their windows and when he pulled his face off there were streams of drool running down their glass. No parenting books prepared me for this! What a goof.

I am starting the process of weaning him and its probably harder on me than it is on him just because I want him to be my little baby forever! Its time though. Because of the daycare situation, he has to go between bottles and the breast. Well he's learned to chew on the bottle nipples so guess what he does when he's breastfeeding??!! OUCH OUCH OUCH!!! I feel so bad because I yell at him in pain and desperation to have him release the vice grip-like hold his four little teeth have on me. The first few times he laughed at me like it was funny, but now he cries like I'm hurting his feelings and then I feel bad for yelling. I realize this is becoming an uncomfortable situation for both of us. I planned on weaning at a year anyway. I will continue to pump a few times a day just to keep my supply going for the next few months and then use up my frozen milk reserve and supplement with formula when necessary. All in all I could not be happier with how the breastfeeding went. I can't explain it, but it was really important to me. I guess all those months of feeling like my body was a complete failure, I just needed for something to go right.

I have to say that being a parent has been even more rewarding than I could ever imagine. I am thankful for every sleepless night, every tantrum, every CHOMP on my boobie, every laugh, cry, tantrum, drool, booger and toot! How did almost 3 years of infertility seem to drag on for an eternity, but 1 year of my son's life is just flying by?

I end with saying I'll try my best to be a better virtual friend. If anything I will try to keep the blog updated so when I can't get to all the other online outlets there is at least one place people can go to check up on us!

9 Months Old!

I just don't understand it. No matter HOW many times I ask my little guy to STOP growing up he just doesn't listen! This month has been such a milestone month for him. He went from crawling to pulling up and cruising. He's clapping his hands and making funny noises with his hands over his mouth. He's into EVERYTHING!!

Here he is climbing up me trying to get to the camera!

This is his 9 month picture. As you can see he also got teeth this month! There are currently 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top, but the other top tooth looks like its going to pop out any minute. Teething has been very rough on both Brenden and me. The first tooth was the worst but we still have those nights were nothing soothes him.

Here he is pulling up on the TV - on of the more interesting objects that he likes to pull up on. He hasn't figured out how to turn it on/off yet but I'm sure it won't be long!

Here's another shot of his little "toofer" on the bottom. This was when he only had 1 tooth, but it didn't take long at all for the other two to pop out.

And finally his other milestone so far is learning to feed himself. This has proven to be interesting as anything that looks like food now goes in the mouth. There was an interesting incident with a piece of dog food a week ago! Lets just say he seems to find that more appealing than any of his baby foods!

Here he is shoveling Cheerios in his mouth!

And of course we end with Brenden's first Halloween costume! I love my little peanut!

Rock 'n' Roll Baby!

Brenden has been showing quite the interest in musical intsruments. First he was introduced to a very large drum in music class at school and as you can see he loved it!

Then daddy decided to play his guitar for Brenden and he was SO eager to play music too!

CRAWLING!!

Brenden is FINALLY crawling. He's wanted to crawl for so long but just couldn't figure out how to use his arms and legs. He couldn't ever pull himself around or push with his feet. Finally he's figured out how to get up on his hands and knees and push himself forward. He's still a little wobbly but its amazing how he just went from no crawling to crawling overnight. Its only a matter of time before he'll add speed to the mix and then I'm really in trouble!

Brenden's new toy

My friend Erin from college bought Brenden a new toy and I promised her pictures of him playing with it. Its the cutest doggie that sings songs and teaches colors, body parts, etc. Brenden seems to enjoy his new little friend.

Then when all the glamour of the lights and sounds wore out I just made the puppy dance around and he'd laugh. Finally I figured out that it was the flopping ears on the dog that he found so funny so then I intentionally flopped the ears and I have to say this is the hardest I've ever heard him laugh.

Bath Time!!!

Brenden loves his bath time. He's been taking his baths in the kitchen sink since he was about 2 months old. It just became easier than filling/draining a baby bathtub and was easier on my back to just have him at waist level. He's now old enough that he can sit up all by himself and has a blast playing in the "tub."

Here he is with his favorite duckie. The duck has a "hot" sensor on the bottom to tell if the water is too hot or not. He has other toys in there with him but none entertain him the way the duckie does. He will spend the whole bath chasing it and dropping it and chasing it agian.

"I LOVE to SPLASH!!!!"

"Mommy - My hair looks silly!!!"

There's my sweet boy! I love those big brown eyes (yes they are definitely going to be brown/hazel in color).

Starting to babble sounds - words will be coming soon!

Brenden has started repeating consonant/vowel sounds like bla bla, ba ba, dada, mamama. Its so cute. He's gonna be talking soon!

This video is his first babble - its hard to hear but he was doing his bla bla bla sound while he played.

Then the dadadada sound started and that's ALL he says now. Excuse the hissy fit in this video he gets frustrated because he cannot crawl yet.

I've caught him saying Mama a few times but its mostly when he's tired or fussy so I don't typically capture those moments on video. I'll try to capture it eventually.

And this video has nothing to do with talking but I thought it was SO cute. He was watching the dog eat a treat today and thought it was the FUNNIEST thing he'd ever seen. The belly laugh is so precious and contagious. You can't help but laugh too when you hear it!

I love my little Squirt!

Don't ask me why.. but when I look at him the nickname "squirt" pops in my head. I call him that all the time. He's always been on the small side so maybe that's why... who knows, but I love him! He's a really good and happy baby. We were at church today and when it came time to "pass the peace" he held his hand out so people would shake his hand too. It was too cute. I cannot believe he's 7 months old now!

A sound only dogs and dolphins can hear....

My son likes to 'screech' and make a high pitched noise that I'm sure is not intended for human ears. I got a video of his 'dolphin talk' this morning. He's so silly!

My little jumpin' bean

So Brenden's new thing now is he LOVES to jump. Anytime you hold him he'll push himself up to a standing position and then drop suddenly to a squat and then push back up. I decided he needed a jumping toy. It took a trip to 4 different consignment shops but I finally found a Graco Bumper Jumper. I am glad as this was the kind I really wanted. I know there is the "Jumparoo" but I just don't have the space for another entertainment toy. The Bumper Jumper attaches over a doorway and this particular kind has a 'bumper' that goes around it to keep the baby from bumping the sides of the doorway. He really likes it. He got the hang of jumping right away.

Here are some pictures and a video clip of his new toy:

Feeding Fun

Well we've been actively exploring the world of solid foods. I've been trying my best to make all of his babyfood. Today he had his first 'jar' food - squash. He HATED it. He actually started gagging and threw up when he ate it.. we're not a big squash family so I can easily say that we'll not be trying that one again. Its not like he needs to develop a taste for a food we never fix. He doesn't like green beans or peas right now either. He doesn't gag with them though. But after 2-3 bites he's spitting the rest out and making the 'yucky' face. He does like sweet potatoes and avocado. He LOVES peaches and bananas. I'm hoping he's not a picky eater like me.

He always is interested in putting his hands in his mouth with the food so I mixed a bit of peaches with cereal to make it thick and let him play in it. Be sure to click on this image to get the full size.. he has peaches in his hair, eyebrows, etc. He had fun :)


Here he is shoving his bib in his mouth to wipe the peas off his tongue. He is a very messy eater! (Its certainly NOT because Mommy can't hit a moving target :oP )


Here he is giving his sippy cup a try. He doesn't really suck anything out of it, or if he does it just runs down his chest, but he's getting the idea of holding it and putting the spout in his mouth.


This is veggie medley ..aka sweet potatoes and green beans. Its the only way I can trick him into eating his greens is to mix them with sweet potatoes. He is loving his high chair. He thinks he's such a big boy with his own seat!


This has nothing to do with food! This was the day he got his 6 month shots. I just thought this was the most pitiful expression known to man! Poor little sweatheart!