I Pretty Much Just Want to Show Off

what my kid can do!




That's right! The kiddo is pulling up! :D

Mmmm...Blueberries!

Guess what Brendan's new favorite food is? Of COURSE it's the one with the highest stain potential! ;) Yes...BLUEBERRIES! Tonight he just couldn't get enough of them! I'm pretty sure he ended up having a million of them, and this is the end result:


I have to admit that I'm afraid of the diaper that will come of this...yikes! Anyone wanna come change a baby?

Speaking of making a mess, this is his latest skill: mess making! He especially likes to take every book and stuffed animal off his bookcase when he plays. I've been cleaning it up every time, but I think I may just give in and leave everything on the floor from now on. Okay, probably not. I don't think I could handle it. But it is sure exhausting!


"Hmmm...which book should I pick?"

"Yes! This is the one!"

"Oh, hi Mom!"

"Look what I did!"

By the way...does anyone know how to get the blue stains out of baby skin? Someone's fingers are still blue, even after a bath!

Back to School

I have to admit that going back to school has been a little bittersweet. There were definitely people I missed, but I also have to be honest; I'd quit in a heartbeat if I could. In fact, this little lapse in a paycheck I have right now is making me wonder if it's really possible...okay, okay, I'll stop daydreaming now!

This week has been a little insane. We had no real schedule until Tuesday (the day the kids came back to school), the music room is in the auditorium, the "gifted" program shares a room with a special ed. resource room, our lounge is now in a storage closet (we have 2 chairs in there!), and it looks like instrumental music will be in the kitchen. I won't even get started on the Coke machine living in the auditorium until our smaller machine arrives. Okay, maybe I will...it's just SO AWESOME when I'm trying to get 22 first graders to get in a circle to hear "Click, click, click, ka-ching, ka-ching, badumdadadum. Click, click, click." By the way, the click, click, click is the sound of shoes for those wondering ;)

But let's get back to the real reason I started this blog: Brendan. I miss my little monster like crazy. I HATE dropping him off. I think about him all day long. I guess it makes the time I have with him more special.

He's doing so much lately! He's crawling like a maniac all over the house and I'm constantly running to catch him. Usually it's to keep him from our glass table or the dog. Poor Pepper. Makes me laugh to think that at one point I was worried about how Pepper would be with Brendan. Who knew I'd be so concerned with how Brendan would be with Pepper? Pepper has been a rock star, though. He puts up with so much abuse! Brendan is SO CLOSE to pulling up. He gets on his knees and cruises that way, but he just can't get on his feet. In the meantime, I have minor strokes every time he falls down. This happens probably about eleventy billion times a day. I hope that one of these days he's just able to do it so my poor heart can have a rest!

This brings me to picture time!


At the playground- we LOVE the swings!

Our little Elvis baby

Daddy and Brendan being silly with the camera. Brendan's face in this picture cracks me up every time I look at it!

Okay, Mommies! It's Discussion Time ;)

Lately I have heard a lot about car seats and extended rear-facing (ERF). For the time being, Brendan is happy as a clam in his infant seat facing backwards, and he is showing no sign of outgrowing it any time soon. However, we will eventually need to switch to a convertible seat (we already have the Britax Marathon for when the time comes). The current requirement is to keep baby/toddler rear-facing until he/she is one, AND 20 pounds. However, the AAP has new studies showing that they are 5 times safer riding rear-facing until age two. (http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a) This is apparently a hot-topic issue, which I never realized, so I was wondering what other moms thought.

Now, before the discussion starts, I want to say that I do not necessarily always agree with the AAP. In this situation, however, I do. I figure that Brendan is on the smaller side, and while I'm sure he'd be happier facing forward, he doesn't know any better, and is safer (this coming from someone who has not "been there"). Anyway, let's discuss. Will YOU ERF?

Dear Pepper,

I so very much appreciate the fact that you are an awesome watchdog. You bark at every ant, person, and dog that comes by in the most vicious bark imaginable. Sort of laughable on our end, knowing that if any of these characters actually came in the house, you'd be soooooo excited to show them all how much you love them alllllllll, but since they don't know this, I appreciate your bark without the bite.

However, Brendan has napped for a total of an hour and a half today. If you could PLEASE refrain from barking quite so ferociously while he is sleeping, we would so appreciate it. I promise that nice, elderly couple walking down the street will not come get us. Oh, and put your fur down. We don't believe you for a second.

Love,
Your Humans

We have.......

.....a CRAWLER!!!! He started the day before he turned 9 months! I will try to post a video very soon! He's getting speedy!

Moving Right Along!

I had a really long post going a few minutes ago, and I just deleted the whole thing because I realized just how self-conscious I am and how absolutely whiny I can be. All I did was complain about how I look. Since I'm trying not to whine about that anymore, here are some things I'm doing to resolve the situation:

1. I'm doing the 30 Day Shred every single day, no matter what.
2. I get one ponytail day a week. That's it. I look much cuter with my hair down and ponytails for me are just lazy.
3. After watching episode after episode of "What Not to Wear," I am going to be as fashion forward as I can. I want to be a cute mom, not a frumpy mom! I will stand by what Stacy and Clinton have to say!
4. I will do my best to have no more negative thoughts. Easier said than done, but I will do my best.

Bring on the Panic Attacks :(

Maybe not real ones, but panic nonetheless.

I went into school on Monday, and again today to survey the situation and to start moving stuff to my dungeon, I mean auditorium. I totally "get" why I have to be in there, but it's depressing anyway. But that's not the panic. The panic is that I have to go back there in 2 1/2 weeks. I know I'll be fine and adjust when the time comes, but right now, not so much.

The same thing happened to me when I returned from maternity leave. I felt HORRIBLE that I had to leave my 12-week-old baby (which, I should add, is 2 1/2 months, NOT 3, and there is a difference!) while I went to work, but since I carried both of us on my insurance, it was a necessary thing. Once I got back into the swing of things, I did fine, with only minor breakdowns, but I certainly looked forward to summer.

This time is different, though. He's doing so many fun things now. He's practically crawling, I can make him laugh on demand, and he's my little fishy at the swimming pool, among so many other things! At practically 9 months, he's got the best personality ever.

So, here's my resolution...I will no longer be panicking about this. Instead, I will vow to make the most of every. single. day. I still have 18 days left with my guy, and we're going to have SO MUCH FUN! Any mommies up for playdates any time soon? The zoo? The pool? Just chilling at someone's house? I'm game!

Wow! It Has Been Awhile!

I guess things have been relatively busy around here.

I finally graduated from VanderCook on July 25th! Woohoo! No more degrees for me ;) It was a great concert, although I was sad I couldn't sing in it being that I wasn't in classes this summer, and graduation went really well too! Yay for a jump on the pay scale!




Brendan has become super mobile...baby-proofing has commenced. He's not "crawling" per se, but he's totally scooting and rocking back and forth on his knees. He also does a push-up thing now, too, like he's going to start doing a bear walk. Not sure what that's about, but it's really cute. He also tells me no when he's full! Well, okay, not VERBALLY, but he does shake his head back-and-forth, which is so funny!

One thing I really worked on with the dog before Brendan came was showing him the difference between his toys, and the baby's toys. He has been absoulutely great with it! One thing I did NOT anticipate, which I totally should have: Brendan stealing Pepper's toys. He just adores this red, rubbery chicken thing Pepper has, and I spend most of my time trying to pry it out of his hands. By the way...if anyone has any idea how to take something from a baby and successfully replace it with something else, please let me know. We're getting into the sobbing if we don't get our way phase, and it's getting old real fast! For example, just a few minutes ago, mister man wanted to chew on Pepper's tail. Well, Pepper is VERY loving to Brendan, but obviously does not want his tail to be munched. So he gets up and tucks his tail under him. Brendan starts crying like he's injured. Repeat with various items and this is now my life. :)

Other than that, nothing else is going on at all! Hard to explain why I'm always so busy, but never know what I did. Oh...there is one thing. A couple days ago, I sweetly took Chris's clothes off the bed to wash them while he was in the shower. I checked the pockets, took out his wallet, and threw in the load of clothes. I sat on the couch, and literally 1 minute later I hear, "Hun...where's my phone?" Ummmmmmm........ =/ I saved it as soon as I could, knew where to find it because it was glowing (yikes?) took out the battery, and had it all in uncooked rice overnight. Well, the rice failed, but Marta, the wonderful tech at Verizon gave me a nice refurbished phone to replace the one I washed. She saved me $350 and I'm forever grateful to her for that!