Nani and Duckie

This weekend my Dad and step mom came up to visit. We had a great time and went to Clown around and I cooked every night for them :) Previous visits I was working and taking care of Brooke, so we usually got take out. I made and awesome meatloaf, which Brandon loved, and pulled pork which took forever. It was a fun time, and Brooke loves it. Here are some pics.

My Favorite Things

-The way Brandon smiles so big that his eyes completely close and his face squishes up
-The way he reaches out for me when he wants me because he can't crawl to get me
-The way Brooke tries to be a little mommy and give Brandon toys when he is cranky, or tries to give him his nukie, or tells me he may be hungry
-The little things that make Brooke smile and laugh....like showing her how to do "cheers" tonight for the first time

There are so many things I love about these kids I can't even keep track. They are my world and my everything. XOXO

Christmas

Christmas this year was by far the bext since Brooke has been born. It was the first year that she really "got it". She was so cute the night before and in the morning running out to the tree. It was a really great feeling seeing her so excited.

Brandon could really care less. He just wanted to eat the paper. He was actually fairly cranky on Christmas. He didn't want to go down for his first nap (do you blame him) and finally went down around 11 or so. He only took ONE nap all day. I don't know how he made it up from about 12:30 to 7:30 or so....but he did Mommy a big favor and only woke up ONCE that night!! Ever since then he has only been up one time a night to nurse. It is such a huge help to me. I guess he sleeps better when he is teething....go figure! Cry it out isn't an option for me, so I am so glad he is figuring it out on his own finally.

Another new thing for Brandon is that he has decided to sleep on his stomach these days (no still not crawling yet, but getting better). I know he is old enough for it, but it still drives me crazy. I wish he would just sleep on his back...ohh well. I am not going to wake him to roll him over, so his stomach it will be.

So back to Christmas....we were at it for about 2 hours in the morning. Brooke opened up everyones gifts and then tried to guess who they were for. She was more excited about the Rudolph the Red Nose wrapping paper than she was about some of the gifts. Having the two of them really brings back a lot of the excitement during the holidays! I can't believe they are almost 1 and 3. Time is flying!

My Favorite Things

These are just some random things I don't want to forget:

-Brooke was pretending to be an elf and make a dog toy by banging a pot lid with a wooden mallet
-Brooke laughing at Cody and Trevor sled down the hill and throw snowballs at the front door
-Brooke is a little mommys helper, trying to explain to Doc why Brandon is fussy, or tries to give him toys. One of my most favorite things is seeing to two interact with each other and seeing how gentle and caring Brooke can be with him (I know this will change)
-The way Brandon LOVES his blanket and smushes his face against it whenever I give it to him
-The way Brooke asks me to cuddle or snuggle with her at night, and the way she hugs and talks to me when I do....melts my heart..love it
-The way Brooke gets really excited when I tell her she can have a treat...I LOVE the way she says "thank you mommy for letting me have a treat" in her cute little two year old voice...

I wish they could stay little forever...

3rd Ear Infection

We arrived at my Mom's house in PA on Thursday, followed by a visit to urgent care on Friday the 18th, for little Brandon. Poor little man has the third ear infection since the beginning of November. Yes...That is 3 in two months. Not to mention that he is getting about 2 to 3, maybe 4 teeth, so he has been quite to vocal little guy the past two days. Not very fun to deal with all of this when you aren't in the comforts of your own home, but we are managing. He has been living in the Ergo, and I am passing him off when he lets me, which isn't very often. When I do pass him off, it is usually short lived followed by loud screaming which can be heard in every room in the house.

So back to his 3rd ear infection. It was so much fun dealing with urgent care.....NOT! They obviously don't see pediatric patents very often. After the diagnosis of a left ear infection, 15 minutes later the prescription followed....15 minutes spent doing division, multiplication, and referencing the little book they use to find medicines? Lets just say when i heard her say, "oh wow, they make pediatric infant drops of amoxicillian, lets try that"....the next thought that came into my mind was...."we are so calling our pediatrician as soon as we get into the parking lot". For those of you that are curious.....they don't even make that anymore. Glad to know she was using a book that is current and up to date!

So in between calls to the pediatricians, and calls back, then calls to the pharmacist, the poor boy finally got the correct script. and a dose of meds into his body around 4PM. We left urgent care at 10AM.

So here we are in PA, lets put this lightly (with a pissed off 10 month old) and an almost 3yr old with a cold. Thank goodness for grandparents, relieving me for a few minutes, and here I am updating my blog when I should be chugging a glass of wine.

Well Brooke just found me, so I am done for now..........

Preferred Way of Eating

He just loves to try and shove the whole thing in his mouth. I made the mistake of actually giving him the whole thing and now I have to hide when it is time to eat or he wants it. Look at his concentration!

More.... not crawling

Always getting stuck UNDER things.

Santa

We saw Santa today. Brooke was really cute talking to him. She told him her name, but wouldn't tell him how old she was. When Santa asked if she was going to college, she replied with "yes" :) She proceeded to tell him what she wanted and sit on his lap for pictures.

Brandon could have cared less about the whole thing. He was just staring with a dumb look on his face. He was probably trying to think of a way in which he could try to eat Santa, or for something to chew on. We got the picture with no tears (it would have been more funny with some tears) but anyway, Brooke was really into it.

I tried to get a picture of the look on her face when she was walking up to him, but I couldn't. If you could have seen the smile on her face, it would make you melt. She looked so cute, happy, and excited all in one.

Crawling

No...not yet (10 months)....but this is what happens when all you do is crawl backwards! Kinda funny watching him until he gets stuck. He tried to make it under the fridge and ended up doing a straddle split up against it. Poor guy. I opted to rescue him before I took a pic of that one.....

SNOW

Much like the rest of the east coast....today we had our official first snow. (We had one in October but I am not counting it because it started at night and was gone in the morning.) Brandon has been a little cranky today so I didn't torture him and put him in the snow (tomorrow is a different story), but here are some pics of Brooke.

Camera

I just uploaded pictures from my camera to the computer and for some reason they were a little out of order. After looking at them I realized it is because of how many pictures I have taken with the camera.

We got the camera right before Brooke was born, so it will be 3 years in January. As of today, I have taken over 10,000...........yes......10,000 pictures, so the camera had to start over with the numbers...hence some of my pictues are a little out of order.

Wow...10,000 pictures....a little crazy.

Cuteness

So I just got Brandon's onesie in the mail from a seller on Etsy and I am in love with it.

Standing

Yay! Standing and letting go with one hand, trying to walk along things....still no crawling.....

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree really early this year. We got it yesterday. I grew up going and cutting down my own tree, but the kids are too little to deal with all the walking and everything that goes with cutting your own tree down. So for now, we go to a really cute farm place and get one that is already cut. The people that own this place aer always incredibly friendly and have a dog running around...which Brooke loves!!

So we got the tree and put the lights on it yesterday. Today we decorated it. Brooke was into the whole decorating process this year. She loved digging through the storage containers, pulling out the ornament and seeing what it was. After she was done, we did have a little re-decorating to do.

As far as Brandon and the tree....surprisingly he didn't eat it. He could care less about it and didn't even try to grab it. It would have made for some fun pictures, but oh well!





Her favorite branch....I must have taken 10 ornaments off this very same branch!





Some fun X-Mas PJ's....They were not into having their picture taken....but they look cute anyway!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, I think we can say we had an interesting car ride from NJ to my parents house in PA. I decided to go down on Tuesday so that we could take our time in PA, and make the day trip to the Please Touch Museum....which was awesome by the way.

Well I should have known we were in trouble when we hit traffic on a Tuesday in the middle of the day....but we survived. While sitting in stop and go traffic, I was doing just about anything I could to keep to troops happy. Brooke had her DVD player so she was fine. Brandon on the other hand decided that he was going to try and stay awake the whole ride. So it didn't take very long before my toy collection in my diaper bag dwindled down to about nothing.

As you may have read he is eating a lot of solid food these days, so I tried feeding him in the car. I know it isn't the smartest, and he could choke and all of that, but to keep us all sane, I did it. God forbid something would have happened, I would have put my car in park and been back there with him out of his car seat in 10 seconds. So back to the feeding him in the car. I drive a stick shift sedan, so I can reach back to his car seat pretty easily to feed him a tiny piece of chicken nugget at a time. It was going pretty well and he was eating a lot, until finally I gave him a piece and he had his fingers all in his mouth so I couldn't really give it to him. I figured he was just getting full, so I pushed it in his mouth a little and put my hand back on the wheel.

It wasn't until a few moments later, that we stopped (in traffic still) and I looked back and realized that I had shoved the last bite into his ear. He was indeed done and was turning away from me so I wouldn't put anymore in his mouth...I had to fish a M&M size piece of chicken nugget out of his little ear. Oops.

That was only the first adventure of the car ride. I dont' feel like typing the rest right now, so if you are curious, check back tomorrow.

As far as Thanksgiving in general, Brooke opted for mac & cheese, while Brandon actually ate mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey and stuffing. He probably would have had dessert too, if I would have let him. He is such a good eater so far...lets hope he keeps it up. He is almost self-weaning....sad, but good at the same time. It was fun, but the trip went by way to fast.

Ear Infection - Round 2

Always trust your instinct. I had been debating taking Brandon into the doctor today since last night. I called and made the appointment this morning anyway and I am glad I did. He woke up Friday with green boogers and was very cranky, but seeing how today was only Monday, I thought it was a little premature for an ear infection to develop. If you read my previous post, I suggested I would be at the doc at the end of the week. But, with the holiday coming up, and just my "gut feeling" I took him in and we indeed have our 2nd ear infection for the little guy. Four more in the next 11 months and we will be getting tubes for this little guy too.

I am proud to say I walked out of the office thinking to myself that I knew it. I wish I was wrong and he wasn't on more med and uncomfortable with an ear infection, but I knew it. He was just way too cranky when he was off the Tylenol for it to be just a cold even if it was only day 3 of boogers. Before you have kids you wonder how you will figure all of these things out....but you do...

Jinx

So I am never going to post that not much is going on ever again! Last night Brooke was up twice in the middle of the night saying that she wasn't feeling good, and Brandon woke up this morning with green boogers! Lovely.

So far today Brooke has been okay, so I am not sure if it was just dreams, but it usually means that she is getting sick. Last time she woke up in the middle of the night, the next day both of her ear drums ruptured. That can't happen this time because of the tubes, but it doesn't mean that her ears won't drain nasty infected fluid (pretty much the point of the tubes). I have to give a big shout out to infants Tylenol, without it, Brandon was have been strapped to me in the Ergo all day long. He absolutely refused to be put down, and was even considerably fussy in the Ergo, which he never is. With that said, i bet in about 7-10 days we will be at the peds. office for ear infection number two. That is always how it happened with Brooke. Every cold.

Besides the kids being a little out of sorts, we put a bookshelf in Brooke room. Up until today she just had piles all over the place of her books. It makes it look much nicer and it is something that she is excited about for now. Enjoy some pics of Brooke in the leaves earlier today. Excuse the hair, and the scratch on her face (I have since cut her nails)

Not Much Going On

So I haven't had much to write about the kids recently, but I guess that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Everyone is pretty healthy (lets hope it stay that way because my SIL has H1N1 and we were exposed) so we are crossing our fingers for the next few days that we dont get sick. No new teeth for Brandon to report, no other major milestones to report either....still no crawling.

I am not too worried because their doctor isn't worried, but I really feel like he is falling a little behind as far as motor skills go. He crawls backwards, but really doesn't like having his knees under him to push himself forward. He will sit up and lean over like he is about to crawl, then he just starts to yell. Maybe he will go right from sitting to walking? I don't know. He can stand up holding on to toys pretty well when I stand him at them, but he won't pull himself up on his own. I am hopeful that I will be posting soon that he his crawling...

We have started signing with Brandon the past few weeks the way we did with Brooke. We are really only working on "more" and "all done" at this point.

Brandon is also babbling a lot this month....it really sounds like he is trying to have a conversation....nothing that we can understand at this point. He usually starts to laugh when I try to get him to say "Mama" or "Dada"

It is cute in the car now because Brooke can get Brandon to laugh at her. It is the cutest thing driving along and hearing them laugh together, and seeing them make each other laugh.

We have been checking out pre-schools (for next fall) for Brooke the past few weeks. It is so hard....I don't feel like any school will be good enough for her...We are checking out a Montessori school after thanksgiving, hopefully I will like the teachers there. Some of the teachers I have seen have been less than impressive. I will keep you posted about this.

That is pretty much it for now...

XMAS Reject Pics

For fun, here are some pics that won't be making the Christmas card this year....

Pictures

For those of you who have more than one kid (or pet), you know it is virtually impossible to get a good picture with both of them looking at the camera....fat chance of getting them both to smile. We are attempting the X-mas cards soon, but here are some I got of the kids together this morning. I realized last night that I have very few of the two of them together. I need to get working on that! Enjoy!

Random and PSU

Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is next...

Some houses around us have already decorated for Thanksgiving. As I was driving the other day, I pointed out one of those inflatable turkeys to Brooke and said, "Look Brooke, a Turkey for Thanksgiving." For those of you who have read the "why" post, Brooke replied back saying, "Why does he say thank you for giving?" It may not sound funny or cute now, but it was absoutely adorable when she said it in the car.

When I got home I told Eric the story and he told Brooke that turkeys don't say that, that they say gobble gobble....Brooke tried to repeat saying... goggle goggle :)

This past weekend we also headed to PSU via the RV for the PSU/OHIO state game. More for the tailgating and seeing family since only my brother and their friends had tickets to the game. We had a pretty good time. No beer pong for Brooke this time. It wasn't too excitied as far as funny things for the kids, but Sunday morning in the Lopezs' RV Brooke exclaimed that she "drank too much last night" I am not sure who she was listening to Sunday morning, but we definitely need to be careful what we say around her these days....she is definitely listening!!

Brandon 9.5 Months

This post is more for me too look back on when I have the next baby (Eric if you are reading this...yes there will be a #3 despite what you may think)

Since feeding Brandon fingers foods he has pretty much refused anything that heads his way on a spoon. I sometimes can get him to eat yogurt, but that is about it.

When I am eating he actually starts crying and throwing a babytantrum if I don't give him a piece of what I am eating.....

At this point he is already eating:
Blueberries
Pears
Peaches
Peas
Carrots
Mac & Cheese
Noodles
Chicken Nuggets
Grilled Cheese
Stuffing (only because I was eating it and was trying to avoid a meltdown with him)
Cheerios
Puffs
Potatoes (same as the stuffing)
Pancakes

He also has been drinking from a straw cup since about 8.5 months. Water most days, sometimes pear juice if need be.

When it comes to nap time, he has a morning nap, usualy around 30-60 minutes long and and afternoon nap any where from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. Sometimes he needs a quick 20-30 minute nap in the evenings. So he is napping 2 times most days and some days 3 naps.

As far as sleeping is concerned, last night was a good night for Brandon. Went to bed around 9PM, nursed at 12:30ish, 3:30ish, 6, and then was up for good around 6:30. He played in bed until aroudn 7:15, until I finally ahd to get up and get the morning started. Normally he gets up around 7:30, but he is still adjusting to the time change. It has been really hard to get him back to normal since we switched the clocks back.

Brandon and the Leaf

So when the doctor said Brandon could eat pretty much all table food except shellfish, nuts, honey, and eggs, he probably didn't think he needed to add leaves to that list...

At a play date today, Brandon was minding his own business happily eating cheerios on the floor. I left him with his Aunt for about 2 minutes while Brooke had to go to the potty.

When I came back, Aunt Kris asked if he normally stuck his fingers so far down his throat that he gagged. I said I wouldn't say it is normal but he has done it before. Looking a little teary eyes, he proceeded to gag once or twice more. I thought he probably just had a piece of cheerio stuck in his throat, so I held him up, patted him on the back, looked in his mouth and he seemed ok. Not quite right, but he was breathing fine and wasn't choking or anything.

So he did the gag face again. Still thinking he had a piece of cheerio stuck in his throat I figured I would nurse him to try to help him get it down. He would not latch on...very weird for him. Again he was still breathing fine, but was definitely acting a little weird.

I thought that maybe when he shoved his fingers in him mouth that maybe he scratched his throat so maybe that was bothering him. (I had been meaning to cut his nails for a few days now...but you know how that is...it gets done, when I happened to remember it when he is on the changing table) So...since he wouldn't nurse I figured I would go get him a straw cup with some water to see if that would help. After gagging again, he took a few big gulps and he was ok.

So back up to the play room to play. For a good 5 minutes or so, he was playing across from his cousin Sierra (6 months) on a big play square thing. Then I started tickling him and he was laying down and threw his head back, mouth wide open.....AAH HAA

A huge piece of leaf about the size of a nickel (a descent size for his little mouth) was stuck on the roof of his mouth. It must have been just far enough back that he couldn't get it off with his tongue and it was making him gag. He must have picked it up in transition when I got up to take Brooke to the potty and before Aunt Kris made it over from Sierra to him to make he wouldn't get in trouble...

Earlier in the day I had been talking to someone saying that my biggest fear with Brandon is that he will choke on something since absolutely every single thing he gets a hold of goes in his mouth....He must have been listening :)

I feel bad, but he is fine. We will be doing a sweep of the house making sure ever little toy or piece of dirt or foliage that can fit into his mouth is put away.....for a very long time!!

Maybe Fall will be his favorite season. Winter may be my new favorite...you can't choke on snow right??

Scale

So I am not sure what Brandon really weighs....

A week ago for his 9 month well visit, they weighed him and he was 18lbs even.

Today they weighed him to make sure they gave him the correct dosage for his medicine and he weighed 18lbs 14oz....almost 1 pound difference....hmmmm

It was the SAME scale.

Now I know he has been eating a considerable amount of finger foods since his last visit, but I am not sure the amount is worthy of 14oz in a week.

Stumped.....

Brandon's First Ear Infection

Today Brandon was diagnosed with his first ear infection. Needless to say I was not surprised. The extra crankiness, running nose...and runny eyes...yes I said runny eyes. He had so much crap in his sinuses that is started coming out of his eyes. As soon as I saw that last night I called and left the ped. a voice mail. When the doc walked in I said "I am going to be shocked if you tell me he doesn't have an ear infection."

I was right...always trust your instinct! Luckily it was only in one ear, and even though stuff was coming out of his eyes, we caught it early. Ten days of amoxicillin is in order for this little guy. It is way to early to talk about tubes, but if he is like his Daddy and his sister I am guessing February/March we will be in for his first round of tubes. Hopefully I am wrong, but that is my guess.

So we got home and got Brooke down for her nap and I decided to do something fun with him, since he was probably feeling crappy. I was feeling brave today so I decided on some finger painting. I feel bad because at this age Brooke had already done tons of painting....so anyway....today was his first time painting. I'll give you one guess what he tried to do....



Big surprise that he tried to eat a glob of finger paint! Thank goodness for non-toxic art supplies :)

Halloween

Besides the weather being a little dreary, halloween was great this year. It was the first year that Brooke was REALLY into it and knew what was actually going on. She wanted daddy to take her to all of the houses, but came running back to Mommy each time (I was stationed at the wagon with Brandon and Mimi), bag wide open, yelling "Mommy, they gave me a treat!!!" It was so cute to see her in action this year.

Her costume wasn't too creative, but what can you do when your 2yr old is obsessed with dogs. We have been a dog for 2 consecutive years now. Hopefully next year she will be into something else. If not, oh well....she can be whatever she wants.. right??...until she is a teenager :)

Brooke lasted about an hour and a half before she was getting hungry (Mom forgot to pack chicken nuggets) and decided to call it a night. With encouragement from all of us to keep going, she proudly sat in the wagon and I quote said "I have had enough" It was the way she said it that was hilarious! She had all of us lauging, and heading home.

When we got home she dumped out her whole bag and got to pick out a treat or two before winding down and calling it a night. Just a note-a pixie stick is not a good choice at night time :)

She wasn't so sure about the "pumpkin guts" at first, but as you can see, she got into it!















The day after halloween....

Brooke woke up and was saying that her legs hurt! I guess we didn't use the wagon enough. I asked her why her legs hurt and she said it was becuase she walked to far then she pointed at her little calves!! Poor thing got a good work out!