The Crazy Carlson House

Brendan's 15 Month Stats

2010-02-20T11:12:00.001-08:00

I realized that I completely forgot to post about this!

Brendan had his big 15 month appointment on Monday and he is getting sooooo big!

He now weighs 20 pounds, 11 ounces, which still puts him in the 10th percentile. That's cool...we love our little guy!

He is 30 inches tall, which is the 20th percentile. Still in the parameters for the infant seat, which cracks me up. We JUST moved him out of it a couple weeks back :)

Head circumference is 47.5, which is 50th percentile. Holy cow!!! At one point he was in the 3rd-5th percentile. Little man just kept growing :)

I'm Walkin', Yes Indeed, I'm Walkin'!

2010-02-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Well, not me, but Brendan!!! Actually, he's been "walking" for about a month now, but he actually uses it as his main form of transportation! He's practically running at this point! I'm so proud of him, and at the same time, I miss my little baby! It gives me a little of "the fever" if you know what I mean. ;)

Brendan will be 15 months tomorrow, which just seems so unbelievable to me! His doctor appointment is on Monday, so I'm looking forward to sharing those stats! Here are some other things my buddy is doing right now:

-Walking, of course!
-Helping clean up! This is really only a sometimes, thing. Mostly he makes messes! :)
-Puts together wooden puzzles
-Stacks objects in a tower (he especially likes soup cans for some reason)
-Can put shapes inside shape sorters
-Gives big, wet, sloppy kisses on demand (okay, actually, he's been doing this for the past 4 months, but it really is one of my favorites, so allow me to mention it again!)

I'm sure I'm missing a ton, but these are some highlights!

Now onto something completely unrelated...my grocery budget. I'm not really sure how I'm doing. It's the 11th of the (fortunately very short) month, and so far I have spent $169.34 on groceries. I feel like the house is very well stocked for all the recipes I have been making, so I think I can get by for at least another week without buying anything but fruits and veggies. We'll see! It's a fun game, if nothing else.

Try some of the new things I have made this month!

For the Superbowl- Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites!
http://annies-eats.com/2010/02/05/ham-and-cheese-pretzel-bites/

Also for the Superbowl- Pizza Bites!
http://annies-eats.com/2010/02/01/pizza-bites/

Chicken Spaghetti...to be honest, I wasn't sure what I would think, but it was great!
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/chicken_spaghet/

Honey-Mustard Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Fingers
http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=1086

Groceries=FAIL

2010-01-28T07:27:00.000-08:00

A little warning...this could be long, and very boring if you're not into budgeting...

A few summers ago, a very good friend of mine commented on the shocking prices of grapes. I honestly had no idea what to say. I HAD NO IDEA how much grapes cost. If I wanted grapes, I bought grapes. In fact, I had no clue how much money I was spending on groceries a month. This made me think. The next time I was at the grocery store, I made it a point to look and see how much grapes were. I stared at the price per pound. I was almost embarrassed...was this number high for grapes? I continued around the rest of the store, just throwing everything in my cart that I always did. I figured that we were doing okay with the grocery shopping as it was, so I just let it go.

This is kind of how things continued for a year or two. Then I read the book Skinny Bitch. Well, all of it but the part about animal killing. It was truly more than I could take. This book promotes eating all organic, no junk food, and especially a vegan diet. Now, I could probably do vegetarian if I wanted (I don't), but vegan would be impossible. I did go on a kick, however, of only shopping at Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck), squeezing my own orange juice every morning, only eating free range meats, and only buying organic. At this point I also cut out all aspertame/splenda and as much high fructose corn syrup as possible. The positive: I was down about 13 pounds in a couple months! The negative: I was spending a couple hundred dollars a week in groceries and I didn't even feel I was getting anything for my money! I went back to my normal grocery shopping and still bought as much organic food as possible, but at my much lower priced grocery store. I think it was at this point that I was starting to recognize how much things REALLY cost.

Right after this I got pregnant with Brendan. Everything kind of went out the window. Everything I ate made me sick to my stomach, so I'd just buy whatever I felt I could eat at the time (like that one time I spent $20 on a bag of cherries.......). I was getting yelled at for not gaining enough weight (WHAT?!!!!) so I'd eat whatever I could to keep the doctors satisfied. I was aware of what I was spending, but I simply didn't care.

Which brings me to now. I'm a working mom, so we do have some extra money coming in. Unfortunately, the cost of child care is insane, so a ton of our money goes there. That said, I absolutely adore our provider and she's worth every penny! But realistically, we need to be on a budget now. About a year ago I started cutting coupons and deal hunting with the help of my awesome grape friend from the story above. I started meal plans based on sales in the local papers and sure enough, there seemed to be more money around. Sweet!

Then for Christmas I got a bread machine. I wanted one SO much! I haven't bought a single loaf of bread in a month because of this wonderful gift. It also inspired me to make a lot of foods from scratch now. I suspected this has helped me save money, but I didn't know. I checked to see how much money we spent on groceries in December. $340, which I think is freaking AWESOME for a family of 3, right? It kind of inspired me to see how low I could go. I made it my goal to spend only $300 in the month of January. I've done some blog reading on this very subject to see if I could do it.

Here are a couple of my favorites:
Emily's Blog: This one is a bit too extreme for my liking, but I actually have gotten a few ideas. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with the lifestyle that she leads; I am more focused on how she saves so much money. I don't always agree with how she does it, but she does offer some ideas, so I'll give her that. Plus...it's always an INTERESTING read. She sometimes (quite often) gets my blood boiling.

Annie's Eats- Yummy, yummy, yummy recipe blog. Her blog has me cooking a lot from scratch and I have yet to find something on there that isn't totally amazing.

So now I'm armed with knowledge and I've just about got my grocery shopping finished for the month of January. How did it go? Mmmm...not so well. $65 over budget, and $25 more than I spent in December without the extra effort. Part of the problem with my shopping is that I refuse to budge on some things. I want fresh fruits and veggies in the house, and I still buy a lot of organic stuff. I think I'm going to give it another go in February and if I fail then, I will know that $300 is just too low for us.

As a side note, I should add that Chris and I ate out one time during the month of January. It actually made us sick because we had gone so long without eating junk food. I'm willing to concede that since we didn't go out at all, that's probably where the extra grocery money came from.

Bebba

2010-01-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

is Pepper!

Brendan is finally starting to talk a WEEEEEEE bit! He's still mostly interested in figuring out the walking thing (he can walk across the room when he WANTS to, but usually he just doesn't want to! Crawling is faster for him and this is still his choice roughly 90% of the time).

This morning Chris and I were changing his diaper and then were cuddling with Brendan and Pepper. Chris said, "is that Pepper?" And Brendan said, "Bebba." Coincidence? I then ask him, "Pepper?" and again he said, "Bebba!" Later tonight he actually did walk (almost running, actually) to Pepper and shouted, "BEBBA!" and gave him a kiss and laughed. So I'm pretty sure that's it!

Besides that, not much is going on. I had my gallbladder out last week and it was no biggie, really. I'm healing pretty quickly. I can tell when I do too much (like today...oops) and need to cool it, but for the most part, I feel pretty good. I'm having trouble eating, which is to be expected. I CAN eat the weirdest things like stuffed shells and chili, but CAN'T eat things like baked chicken and salads. There is a silver lining, though! I seem to be losing weight! My pants are all getting too big now, so that's cool!

In fact, I've lost 40 pounds!!! Okay, not so much. Our scale is broken, so it's registering 40 pounds under what I really am...so I'm pretending. I'm not sure if I'll be buying a new one or not. I've gotten used to my dramatic weight loss... :D

Vrooom!

2010-01-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

That's what Brendan's cars say now :)

Or, my makeup case, actually.

Or anything that he can move like a car.

The step count is up to 18- I think we're almost to the point of being a full time walker! Not quite yet, but close!

That's all I've got today.

Pretty Much Sums Up Today!

2010-01-02T18:13:00.001-08:00

My sister, Meghann, summed up today's adventures pretty well in her own blog. I don't feel the need to add anything else =P

Busy Bakers

2010-01-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

Brendan has been cooking up some good things. So far our favorites have been hamburger bun and wooden spoon. Delicious!

He has been going crazy playing with all of his new toys. He's KIND OF getting the idea of the Little People now! He knows that they go in cars and such, which is pretty big!

Even bigger than that...

WE HAVE A WALKER!!!!!!! Well, also kind of. Brendan has been taking between 6-12 steps for the past few days, so we're pretty sure he'll be taking off very soon! We are soooo excited for him!

Mommy has also been baking...the new bread machine is probably going to get burned out with all I have used it for! So far we've had two loaves of raisin bread, 3 loaves of white bread, a coffee cake, applesauce nut bread, and today, we made BAGELS!!! Sesame Seed and Cinnamon Sugar. They turned out GREAT! Maybe not in looks, but certainly in taste!

Before...

...And After

Family, Homemade Bread, and Play Kitchens

2009-12-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year! In the past, we have always done crazy Christmas traveling to see everyone, and by the end we were completely exhausted. This year was SO much easier! Christmas Eve at Chris's parents' house, Christmas Day at my parents' house. Relaxing, no rushing around, and wonderful!

It was so nice actually getting to spend quality time with the people we love. This year there was no arguing (that I know of, at least), and people genuinely seemed to be in good spirits, which is truly what Christmas should be.

Now for the materialistic stuff...Chris got me exactly what I wanted! Something I have been wanted for such a long time, but never actually bought because I don't really have the space for it: A BREAD MACHINE! I have owned it for about 48 hours now, and am on my 3rd loaf of bread and need to buy another bag of bread flour!

Growing up, my mom always had fresh baked bread in the house. It was always so special, and something we looked forward to. She didn't have a bread machine, however, and all of the bread was done by hand. When it was time for the bread to be punched down before the second rising, we would FIGHT over who got to punch it. The bread would be barely out of the oven and we'd about knock each other out to get the first pieces because they'd be the warmest and the butter would melt into it. Yummm. Now, I don't have the same time (cough::talent::cough), but I hope that one day Brendan, and any future kids will remember having homemade bread in the house. I know it's lame, though, and there are so many other things I'd like him to remember and appreciate, but this is just one :)

Now for Brendan's Christmas. Sometimes I'm amazed at how smart he is. Santa may have gone a SMIDGE out of control...but it was totally worth it. He LOVES his play kitchen and Cozy Coupe (the two "big" gifts), but what I'm impressed with at how well he knows how to use them! One of the food items was a hamburger, which came in three parts. He knows which parts of the bun go together!!! Yeah, Brendan! Now the car...Brendan hasn't ever seen anyone actually drive a car since he's still rear facing, but as soon as he's in the car, it's like he has seen it every day of his life! I'm totally overreacting, I'm sure, but it just amazes me to see him learn :)

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

2009-12-24T23:20:00.001-08:00

Santa finally came...she (um, he) must have been really busy in her (I mean his) family room (I mean, workshop)! Santa will try to buy toys that will require a little less assembly as the Cozy Coupe near killed her (HIM!!!).

Results later... :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2009-12-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

I do love the snow! Despite the fact that it is just horrid to drive in, there is something about it that makes me smile!

I was so excited about the first snowfall of the year that I went out today to buy Brendan some snow boots! Size 4 boots are kind of hard to come by, but Target had 2 pair hidden behind some size 10s. Special shout out to the wonderful associate who will regret her stretched out earlobe one day for finding them!

Anyway, it seems Brendan loves snow about as much as I do! In about a year we're going to be making the most awesome snowmen together!

<3<3<3<3<3

I can't believe it has been almost a month since the last time I blogged! I apologize to me (3?) readers! ;)

Brendan will be 13 months old on Saturday! Each day he gets closer and closer to walking! I have a feeling it can be any time now. He can now get himself into a stand from a seated position without pulling up!

His current list of words include:
Dada
Uh oh
ah ah (means no)
Mama (FINALLY!)
Mmm (when something tastes good...does that even count as a word?)
Dwah-doo (the jury's still out on this one. We thought maybe doggie, but probably not)

He currently sleeps about 11-12 hours a night with 2 two-hour naps during the day, but the morning nap is getting shorter and shorter...it will probably be dropped sooner rather than later!

Brendan loves whole milk and we made a seamless transition from bottles! Woohoo! I'm so grateful he had no issues giving them up! Yayyyyy Brendan!

I Now Have a One-Year-Old!

2009-11-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Brendan celebrated his first birthday yesterday! I'm pretty sure he knew it was his big day, too! Grandma made Brendan a cake! He ate a whole piece and didn't share a single bit of it with Pepper! Adorable pics and video of that to come later today!

We went to the doctor today for his one year appointment and things look good!

Some stats-

19 pounds, 11 ounces (10th percentile)

29 inches long (25th percentile AND this means we can stay in the infant seat a smidge longer!)

46 cm. head circumference (35th percentile! Holy cow! I actually think this measurement might be off, but that's okay. Growth is growth!)

Brendan started on whole milk yesterday and loves it! We're going cold turkey on the bottles today- so far so good! Hope that continues!

Warning

2009-11-01T20:45:00.000-08:00

This may be the most disgusting TV commercial I have seen in the United States (sadly, I have seen worse from other countries). Has anyone else seen this??? Not. Okay.

Really. Who was in charge of advertising this product? They should find a new gig.

Thank Goodness For Vacation!

2009-10-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

Chris, Brendan, and I took a much needed trip to Florida to see my grandmother (Nonny), who has never met Brendan, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Coincidentally, my dad and other uncle planned the exact same trip and we had some travel buddies. I have to admit that besides getting to spend some time with them, it was VERY nice to have extra help with Brendan on the airplane! To think that I almost did this over the summer on my own...!

It was SO NICE spending time with everyone! Brendan loves Nonny and she even taught him a new "word!" You see, Brendan just loves her glass coffee table. Actually, he loves the sound it makes when his pounds it (yikes). Every two seconds we were telling him no and redirecting him, I swear! And he laughs when he is told no. Hmm. Not cool. I don't understand why the kids at school know I mean business, but Brendan thinks getting in trouble is hilarious. =/ Anyyyyway. Nonny didn't tell him "no" exactly, but a "nah-ah." So now Brendan says, "nah-ah"as he goes around the house. He does it usually right before he's going to do something he isn't supposed to do, of course!

Brendan and Nonny

Apparently the weather there was cold for the locals. We were feeling great in our shorts and t-shirts, but the Floridians were dressed in jeans, sweatshirts, and Uggs. It really was cute. I especially had to laugh at my cousins Shana and Natalie as they were getting ready to go to the beach with us- they brought their peacoats! Eventually they did take them off, but you'll notice they are still wearing sweaters...

Shana and Natalie

Us

Brendan especially loved the beach! The smile never left his face...even after he ate a handful of sand :)

I also got to spend some time with my cousins- Ollie, Shana, his wife, and his daughter Natalie. I wish they lived closer...we get along so well. Hopefully they will live by us sooner than later!

Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of my aunt and uncle :( But it was so nice seeing them, as well. She's a teacher in Florida and we discuss the education system a lot. I think I'm going to take up a new cause, though (like I really need ANOTHER cause! LOL)...education in Florida. I found out some pretty unfortunate things about teaching in Florida, but I'll save that for a different post. It truly deserves a separate one.

A few final pics from our trip that I think are important.

Nonny With Her Three Kids- My Uncle, Aunt, and Dad

Our Four Generation Picture!

Our Happy Family

My Guy is 11-Months-Old and Had His First Haircut

2009-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to give in...

He was going to get his first haircut at a year...

He is a baby and I wasn't ready for him to have big boy hair...

But it kept growing, and growing...

It was in his face, and he'd get angry and cry...

So I could no longer be selfish...

My baby got his hair cut:

Before:

The First Snip:

Half Way Done:

All Done:

This was very hard for Mommy to see. She took pictures to keep herself from crying, actually. We kept a lock of his hair, of course. And he's cuter than ever, of course! He can see and he's happy, which is the most important thing. So we didn't make it quite to a year, but it was worth it.

Kimmie and Jonathan came over Sunday night for dinner and great discussions! In addition, we got help putting Brendan to bed! Jonathan read Brendan his bedtime story (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), 3 of us got his jammies on, and he fell right asleep. How easy is that?!

Finally, I have to share what Brendan is doing this month!

-He waves "bye bye"
-"soooooo big"
-Claps his hands if we say, "yay!"
-Uses all of his toys (especially the remote control) as a phone. He puts it up to his ear and says, "Dada?"
-Joined the Mommy Brendan Band. Mommy Plays the drum, Brendan plays the maracas. We're actually really good. You should come see us at our next gig. We perform nightly in his room.
-Cruises like crazy.
-Stands on his own for a couple seconds
-Climbs the stairs
-Drinks from a straw cup
-Has 6 teeth, working very hard on 7 and 8

He's getting to be such a big boy!

So, uh...

2009-10-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

I think Brendan learns too much from Pepper. His new thing is to crawl around (he has no interest in walking, but that's okay- he's not even 11 months yet) and pick up toys in his mouth. He then proceeds to carry them in this fashion all over the house. This would all be fine, and mostly normal (normal, right????), but then he shakes his head back and forth and goes, "rrrrrrrrr." Well, maybe it's not "rrrrrrrrr" intentionally, but with his mouth filled with toy, it's hard to tell.

And Please Vote For Brendan

2009-10-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

Not that he'll actually win...it's just for fun :) He wants to be the new Gap Baby.

Vote For Me!!!

IKEA: The Best Place in the World

2009-10-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

At least it seemed that way yesterday. My friend since practically birth and I went shopping there yesterday while the kidlings played together with our moms. I haven't really been there since Brendan was born, and boy was I missing out!

First, let me talk about the adorable toys! So cute, and so much cheaper than other stores. I have Christmas AND the big 1st birthday planned already! Here's what I'm thinking:

A car mat:

A kitchen set (yes, my boy will have a kitchen, despite what daddy says):

Of course, many of the accessories that go with a kitchen

I would love to get this hanging chair, but there is (a) no space, and (b) I don't like the color with his room:

An easel:

Table and chairs:

Now that I've spent a ton of virtual money in my head, I'll post pics of the two little guys playing together! J did such an awesome job sharing his Kix with Brendan and Dodger the dog. One for J, one for Brendan, and one for Dodger. They had a busy day eating, playing in Grandma's living room, and going to the park. Brendan went down the slide by himself! Okay, kinda... ;)

Brendan did a great job sharing his musical table!

Someone needs a haircut...6 more weeks!

Grandpa helps Brendan down the slide:

Dinner time!

It's a Miracle it Didn't Happen Before Today!

2009-09-24T16:59:00.001-07:00

This morning I was doing very well, time-wise. I'm usually running about 5 minutes behind schedule, so the fact that I was 5 minutes AHEAD of schedule was nothing short of a miracle. Add in the fact that today is Chris's day to take Brendan to Katie's and I'm really doing well. I decide to stop at good ol' McDonald's for an orange juice for my ride with my extra time.

I'm sailing and about half-way to school I look in the back seat and see...the car seat. It has simply been too heavy (for months) to keep lugging Brendan around in it, so we generally take him in and out of it. The day before "Chris's Day to take Brendan" I take the car seat out of the car, and yesterday was no exception. However, last night we realized we had like 3 baby wipes left, so we went on a family trip to Buy Buy Baby. Left the car seat in the car, and now we have a dilemma. I call the secretary and tell her the situation. In the end I was 25 minutes late. Honestly, I'm amazed this was the first time it has happened in the 10 months he has been here! That combined with the fact that I forgot that I had to pick up Brendan at the Pavilion today instead of Katie's made it just an annoying day.

Anyway, the little man is getting to be not-so-little. He was playing on the floor and threw one of his stacking cups. I bent down to get it, stood up, turned around, and Brendan is standing on the second step! OHHHHMIGOSHHHH. I immediately get behind him where he scaled all 6 steps by himself. In the past, he got himself kneeling on the bottom step, and then got stuck. Not tonight! And a few minutes later he did it again. He also let go of the couch today where he stood on his own for about 3 seconds. I, of course, lectured him about growing up too fast. He said, "nyeh!" and pushed himself out of my lap where he continued his quest to cruise. I really am VERY proud of him!

If you want to see a funny video, see this youtube. My grandma gave him this weasel ball to play with, and it's pure hilarity. Sorry for the quality...it takes forEVER to upload videos onto blogger and I had to decrease the quality hard core to make it small enough to upload to youtube. It's still pretty funny, though!

Craziness Here!

2009-09-18T16:12:00.001-07:00

Besides, of course, the crazy bald man from my town who took out two officers and ran all over the western Chicago suburbs with two guns, hijacking two cars, and robbing (another) bank. ;)

Brendan is now OFFICIALLY pulling up! He does it on the toy (yes, Hannah ;) ) piano, his musical table, the ottoman, and to my surprise this afternoon, his crib! He even...took a couple steps! I think cruising is in our near future.

Also in our near future (more like immediate): stair climbing. Yesterday he pulled himself up onto the bottom step, which he has done before. He hangs out there usually, and then sits back down. Not yesterday. He moved his hands to the second step, and then put his knee up on the first step! Unfortunately (fortunately?) he slipped as he tried to get his second knee up, but I'm thinking it's coming very, very, very soon.

Does anyone have a Peg Perego item? How good is their customer service? Brendan's clip on his car seat is sticky (not with food...like it "sticks" when I try to put clip it together) and is really hard to get in at all. I want a new clip. I hope they send me one. I also have to call Baby Jogger regarding the City Mini...I somehow broke the clip on the carseat adapter. I HAVE worked with them before regarding the latest recall and they were great. I hope they will be about this one too. I'll be very sad if I have to replace the entire attachment over a clip. He's almost done with it anyway, though. I'm more talking about future kids.

Finally- here are some things I'm eying at Gymboree:

I have a thing for screen tees for babies...

Yeahhh...that one just makes me laugh.

I will probably buy all of it.

10 Months Today!

2009-09-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe there are only two months left of "babyhood" before we move onto toddlerhood. It goes too fast. He's already making sure we know that he can play by himself without our help...Mommy and Daddy do NOT like this. He will still cuddle when he's tired, though :)

10 Month Stats:
Weight- 18 lbs, 14 oz- 10th percentile! We jumped!
Height- 28 inches- 25th percentile...just a slight drop from the 35th.
Head Circumference- 44 cm.- 10th percentile. Actually, the doctor thinks his head was mis-measured last time, so that would explain the huge jump last time! In a nutshell, Mister Man has gone from the 3rd to the 10th percentile in head circumference.

He's getting big!

Brendan is currently crawling all over the house and is working on pulling up. He pulled up on the piano for about a week until one time he fell and took the piano with him. Eh, he learned I guess! Haha!

My Day So Far

2009-09-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

I'm really too tired to go into much explanation about today, but I also would like to vent, so here is my short summary of today rated by the good (+) and the bad (-):

+It's FRIDAY!
+Of a 3-day-weekend!!!
-Got called to the office today because a mom wanted to talk to me...her son got in trouble in music yesterday. *sigh*
+Mom made him apologize to me and write me a "sorry" card! I was so sure she'd be mad at me!
+/-outside, inside, outside, inside, outside, free lunch, outside
+New contract passed- yay for a decent raise!
+Leave at 3:30!
-Come home to discover that my house is the set of the next "Arachnophobia" movie :( Not really sure how to handle this situation
+Manage to open mailbox despite a tarantula (I swear it has to be related) on the handle of my mailbox.
-Realize that the Chicago Tribune charged my old bank account even after I changed all my banking information.
+Got it all straightened out.
-Realize Pepper ate Rupert, one of Brendan's bears.
+/-realized it was just the leg he pulled off and I think I can fix it. The bad news is that I have to fix it.
+Let Pepper out to get a little running time in.
-Realize the dog disappeared. The landscapers left the freaking gate open. Grab Brendan and chase the stupid dog all over the neighborhood. Guess he got his "running" in. Jerks. Both Pepper and the landscapers.
+New diaper covers in size medium came in today!
+The colors are awesome- sky blue (but it's dark!), aqua, melon orange!
-They are still too big for him, but the smalls are too small. Guess it's better to be too big.
+It's FRIDAY!
+Of a 3-day-weekend!!!

I Pretty Much Just Want to Show Off

2009-08-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

what my kid can do!

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

Mmmm...Blueberries!

2009-08-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

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 ;)

2009-08-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

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,

2009-08-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

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.......

2009-08-15T12:32:00.001-07:00

.....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!

2009-08-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

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 :(

2009-08-05T16:54:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-08-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

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!

He's Still Our Little Peanut!

2009-07-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today was our 8 month doctor visit, and he is certainly growing right up! The pediatrician (Good Ol' Dr. Mike...oh how we love him!) suggested that we try some finger foods now, such as noodles, fruits, soft veggies, lunch meat, etc...I can't believe we're at that point already! Then again, he is a monster with four teeth now! Now, just to get him to eat said finger foods...he still won't eat those puffs unless we put it directly into his mouth. Apparently, according to our lovely Dr. Mike, he's gotten lazy and knows we'll do it for him. Oooooopsies...........guess that's done!

His current stats:

-Head Circumference: 43 cm., 25th percentile, up from 3-5th just two months ago! He's putting that brain of his to work, I guess ;)
-Height: 27", 35th percentile, down from 50th two months ago (Hey, what do you expect, he's got two shorties for parents!)
-Weight: 16 1/2 lbs., 5th percentile, right where he always has been...he's our little peanut boy and we love him like that!

As soon as we got home from the doctor, baby gate installation continued! Our crazy house needs FOUR ridiculously expensive gates! With a split level, we need 2 top of stair gates to screw into the wall and (gasp) banister, so while we were paying up the wazoo for those, we figured the bottom of the stairs gates might as well match. So like $200 later (and trust me...this could have gotten WAY more expensive), we have matching baby gates that get in the way of everything, and a start to a baby-proofed home. Thank goodness, because he was actually just rocking on his knees for the first time a minute ago...what happened to my immobile baby?!

Also, I graduate a week from Saturday, so I will have four more glorious weeks at home after that...if anyone is up for some playdates, let me know! I'm totally game for a trip to the zoo or the pool or something!

8-Months-Old Today!

2009-07-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Monthday to Brendan! He's 2/3 of a year old now, which I totally cannot believe!

Here are some things he is doing now:

-Sits up completely unassisted (since Father's Day).
-Rolls over all over the house.
-Does a push-up and then turns in a circle (looks like crawling, or at the very least, army crawling, is coming!).
-Says "dadadadadada" and "gagagagagaga" but to nobody in particular.
-Has 3 teeth and is working on the 4th.
-Refuses to lay still for diaper changes.
-Gives hugs.
-Starting to wave "bye-bye."
-He is in 6-9 month clothes still, and we will find out how much he weighs on Thursday!

As cheesy as it sounds, I just love this little guy so much and can't imagine life now without him!

Adventures in Baby Food!

2009-07-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I began making my own baby food, which was MUCH easier than I thought. All that's needed is a saucepan and a blender. No need for a babyfood maker, although I have to admit that I almost did buy one! We made banana blueberry, peas, sweet potatoes, apple strawberry, peach strawberry banana, and peach strawberry blueberry.

Here are my findings:
Banana Blueberry- SUCCESS!
Peas- COLOSSAL FAIL!
Sweet Potatoes- FAIL!
Apple Strawberry- Hated at first, but by the end was okay with it
Peach Strawberry Banana- SUCCESS!
Peach Strawberry Blueberry- Have not tried yet

I think I'll make some more this week. I have food to make broccoli, green beans, and combinations of the above mentioned fruits. A book I'd suggest if you're interested is Top 100 Baby Purees. I learned something in all of this...did you know that some foods (like carrots) retain more nutritional value if you add butter to it? It holds more of the carotene. Fascinating!

Brendan is getting closer and closer to becoming mobile, which is so cool, and so scary at the same time! He's now doing a full push-up and will rotate himself in a circle this way. It's only a matter of time! Time to buy some baby gates! Any suggestions would be awesome! We will need 4...one for the top and bottom of each staircase, so I'm thinking 2 screw in, and 2 tension. Actually, I'm pretty sure we have one tension one from when Pepper was a puppy, so we'll need 3.

Speaking of poor Pepper, his Panosteitis is really acting up and I feel HORRIBLE. There really isn't much we can do, though. Right now it's on his two back legs, so he's having a hard time standing. Totally breaking my heart :( He's 4, so I'm hoping that another year of this and we'll be done. If you're interested in reading more about Panosteitis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panosteitis . This article doesn't discuss it in complete depth (as it can effect dogs as old as 5), but it's a basic description.

Back to some positive news: SHOPPING! I bought a maxi dress today. I'm pretty sure they only look good on you if you're really tall and skinny, but my short and stout self thought they looked awfully cute and comfortable. We'll see! I also bought these today:

I'm such a sucker for this As Seen On TV stuff. But seriously, it's awesome! I actually have room in my closet now (for more shopping???)! And it forced me to purge, which is probably more important. Plus, I got it at BB&B, so 20% off is always sweet.

EDIT: Do not buy this product. Now that I have them all put in, I have discovered that it does not, in fact, save 3 times your closet space. More room, yes, but not enough to matter. *Sigh*

I'm Pretty Sure We Have a Ghost

2009-07-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

You know, I never really believed in ghosts. Angels, yes, but ghosts...not so much. But I really think we have one. Last night I heard a noise like a pile of papers fell on the floor from a high location or something. Chris was there and heard it too. He said he heard it a couple times yesterday before that as well. Then today it happened again, but this time the dog also heard it and started barking at nothing. Hmmm. I have no explanation!

AnyWAY, some people might remember when I was pregnant that I ate nothing but fruit (who will forget that time I paid $20 for cherries that weren't even that good? Oooooopsies). At the time, this was great. I barely gained any weight (although I did get in trouble for that a couple times...), and I was happy and hydrated. Well, it seems this has traveled forward as Brendan really wants nothing to do with food if it isn't fruit related. I even started with veggies as suggested, but no. He's a fruit addict. Well, he also likes sweet potatoes, but that might have to do with my sweet potato fry addiction during (and after) pregnancy.

Which brings me to my next food issue. Brendan loooooves puffs. He thinks they're just the greatest (especially the aforementioned sweet potato). But he won't pick them up to eat them by himself. He puts everything in his mouth- carpet pieces, paper, fuzzies from my shirt, Pepper fur, just to name some common ones. But not the puffs. He thinks it is great fun to throw them on the floor. Fortunately enough, so does the dog. Pepper is already forgetting his jealousy! But he can't seem to feed himself. Is this something that will come as he gets older?

Also, something to vote on...tomorrow should I make a strawberry cheesecake for dessert for the 4th of July party we're attending, or should I make a German potato salad as a side (not your typical potato salad)?

What a Long (almost as long as this post...), Fun Day!

2009-06-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

After a night of Brendan deciding that 4:30 was wake up time (who could blame him? He passed out at 6:30 or 7 last night...10 hours of sleep is plenty! Ha!), he finally got fell back to sleep until 7:30, which truly was miraculous! What a nice night sleep for us :)

This is good, because we had a crazy day at the pool planned! We've actually never been to our new pool since it has been redone, so we thought we'd try it out. Well, the day started bad...Chris and I discovered that neither of us have swimsuits that work. They worked a couple years ago (I was pregnant last year, needing none of my swimsuits)...this drives us into diet mode hard core. Ack! So off I go to Old Navy who is having $5 suits this week! I tried on one, but it was slightly too small, so I grabbed a size bigger, a cover up, a couple suits for Chris, eleventy billion other "essentials" and went on my way. Well, I got home to discover that as always, I'm just no size. Lovely. The suit I got had leg holes the size of some potholes here in Chicago, and was ginormous in all the wrong places. Boo. So I finally searched through all of my swim collection again, finally deciding on this purple thing from college. It wasn't great, but it would have to do. Chris actually had to pin the new one I picked for him in two different locations with diaper pins. We're clearly HOT these days....... ;)

2 hours after we were planning on leaving, we left with my sister and her boyfriend, and my parents met us there. The new Rainbow Falls is actually pretty nice! I wouldn't say it's very grown up at all, definitely more kid-friendly, but hey, this is who we are now and I'm frankly very excited about that change! We brought a picnic lunch, which was soooo yummy (perhaps I should have tried my swimsuit AFTER I ate?), and went into the water, which was about super duper cold. Brendan freaked, so it was obvious this wasn't going to go well. But then I found a spot in the zero depth area where I could sit on the ground with him and he felt a little safer. Yeah, until this kid comes over and clogs all the fountain holes in the ground a few feet over, leaving one fountain to spray out of control, all over us. Cue freaked out baby and freaked out mommy. Then the kid ran away...jerk. Okay, clearly it was my fault for sitting in a spot where fountains weren't too far away, so maybe the kid wasn't so much of a jerk after all. ;) Well, we finally found a nice spot where the splashing wasn't too bad and somehow we managed to get Brendan into the water all the way. I think he liked it when he got used to it. It WORE HIM OUT, though.

After the pool, Chris, my sister, her boyfriend, and I decided to play a good game of Bags while Brendan napped. I need to practice for our 3rd of July party on Friday, where we have a psycho tournament. So the first game was Chris and I vs. Meg and Steve. Chris and I won, of course ;), and then we played a second game with Meg and I vs. Chris and Steve. Yeah, we totally won at the last minute! The score at one point was 19-8, but Meg and I came back psycho style and won a million to 19. Again, because I'm awesome like that.

Busy day, and I'm beyond exhausted, but in a good way!

The Verdict on Bubble Gum Medicine...

2009-06-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

Me: it is not as good as I remember it.
Chris: it IS as good as he remembers it.
Brendan: stop feeding me spring vegetables with brown rice and give me more of that bubble gum medicine!

TGIF!

2009-06-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hurray for Friday! And especially hurray for being 2/3 of the way done with this summer's grad program! One more week of class in July and I graduate! YAY!

Everyone is finally feeling better here, which is really good news! I have to admit that every time I gave Brendan his bubble gum medicine for his ear infections, I wanted to taste it to see if it was just as good as I remembered. I swear, that was the best part of being sick! I remember getting so excited as my mom took the glorious hot pink bottle out...it was doubly great- it made me feel better AND it was bubble gum medicine! Perhaps tomorrow after Brendan has his last dose I'll just try a drop... ;)

Other great baby things I love: those baby puffs. Especially the sweet potato kind. Total awesomeness! Oh, and my sister found these organic baby cookies at Target as well (Earth's Best). 9 cookies for 90 calories, which is totally great. I now plan to buy them for myself since Brendan is still too small.

Tonight was such a glorious night; nice and warm, but with a beautiful breeze! We took Brendan and Pepper for a walk to the park to celebrate the Cubs' victory over the White Sox. Okay, this isn't exactly true, but we (and by we, I mean Brendan and me) are super excited! Chris doesn't really want to talk about it, of course! HA! At the park Brendan found some new favorite playground equipment (see below) and Pepper only almost ate one little dog for coming too close to Brendan. This was likely because it was the only dog we saw. If there were more, he would have tried to eat more, I imagine. Please excuse the quality of the photos below; they were totally taken with our phones.

Tomorrow's plan involves going to the pool for swimming and lunch! Lots of pics to come! None of me in any swimsuit, though...eeps! I'm afraid to put any of mine on. In fact, I'll probably go out looking for one before we go. Old Navy has theirs on sale for $5-10 and I have a 25% off coupon from the glorious oldnavyweekly.com website. Oops...another little known secret! ;) Enjoy and good luck playing!

Side note: my goal is to have Brendan's first words be "Go, Cubs, Go!" So far, we're not succeeding, but he has a mean "Pbbbbbbtthhhh" with so much enthusiasm that he spits everywhere. In reality, I'm still quite sure his first words will be "Pepper, NO!" I wonder why...

I Don't Know How Single Parents Do It.

2009-06-17T19:27:00.001-07:00

Or parents who work crazy hours! I'm certainly glad I'm a teacher!

This week I'm VanderCooking, and I only have 12 days of it to go before I'm finished and I can graduate! Woohoo! But I catch a 6:15 AM train, MECA all day, get home at 6:15 PM, make dinner, play with Brendan and feed him for about an hour, and then he goes to bed. Not long after, I follow. Lather, rinse, repeat. I pretty much hate it. Not to mention that my little man has been sick this whole week!

Poor guy went to the doctor today and it turns out he has an ear infection. It's awful. He won't lay down without screaming, but he refuses to eat without laying down. Then he will try eating but he's so congested that he has to stop every second to take a breath :( Yes, I counted! No exaggeration! When he gets frustrated enough, he screams, and I can't tell if he's screaming because he can't eat, or because the position he's in hurts his ears, or some combination of the two. I'm thinking some combination of the two. It's breaking my heart. I literally cried tonight when I couldn't make him better.

To add more chaos, Chris is sick too. He has whatever cold is going around, but he's just as miserable as Brendan, and because I'm at VanderCook all day, he's definitely been getting a lot of extra work. I think this is taking a toll on him and I feel so bad about that. I hope this passes for both of them fast. Poor guys!

For all my VanderCook buddies who have not taken their MECAs yet, I have some unsolicited advice. Unless you have no choice, please don't take the "Innovative Approches for General Music K-5." Serious waste of time. The teacher is driving me absolutely bonkers, I'm learning nothing innovative, and there's not near enough actual music involved, in my opinion. I decided this yesterday when we were drawing pictures with colored sand in total silence and she suggested this as a possible activity to do with our kids in music class.

Seriously.

And Today We Went Swimming...

2009-06-14T18:46:00.001-07:00

in the backyard, of course. It was his first time and I think he enjoyed it. We did, at least. His turtle pool is very fun. The head sprays water and everything! Pepper, unfortunately, thinks we got him a super-sized doggie bowl and drinking fountain. =/

Just Getting Started

2009-06-14T13:57:00.001-07:00

I'm brand new at this, so forgive me if I'm a little boring!

I'll start by admitting a problem I have. I'm addicted to online shopping. Well, all shopping, to be honest, but mostly online shopping. It's absolutely out of control! It stems from a couple things, I believe. #1- I'm obsessed with finding bargains. Did you know that jcp.com and kohls.com both have a deal of the day? Oh, yes...check it out. And #2- I love, repeat LOVE coming home to a box on my doorstep! Even when I know a package is on it's way, I rip it open like I'm 5-years-old on Christmas morning! Some latest finds: thirstiesbaby.com has an outlet store. I'm a little hesitant to share this secret to other cloth-diapering mommies because selection is so small (or non-existent like it is right now...) and it all goes so fast and I selfishly don't want to lose out, but I know we're all looking for deals in this economy and their diaper covers are usually less than $8 each. A STEAL! I just bought 4 last week. Awesome. I'm totally into hearing about other sites where you find deals, so if you have some, keep me in the loop! I'll share others I find as I continue my online shopping habit.

In other news, our little monster has TEETH! The first one sprouted one day, and by the next day we had tooth #2. It's time for steak! Or not. But we are trying puffs this week. We bought 4 flavors, and so far, the sweet potato is for sure his favorite. It's weird, though. He loves them now and will eat them, but we have to put them directly into his mouth. We put them on his high chair try, he demonstrates a fantastic pincer grasp, and then throws them on the floor. Pepper has found his new best friend. So he won't put the food in his mouth, but he's currently on the floor scootching his way off the blanket to munch on some carpet fibers. Yum.

My next goal for this blog is to figure out how to post pictures and videos. It doesn't look too terribly complicated. We'll see about this!