He'll Get There

Well he is a boy so we need to cut him a little slack, but Brandon just figured out how to clap! Yay Brandon!!

Dentist

Brooke had her first dentist appointment today! I am really bummed I forgot my camera, but I got some great shots with my cellphone that I will try to upload. I had been talking to Brooke about going for awhile now, so I was pretty sure she would be ok with going and not freak out. She did AWESOME!!!

They had tons of toys to keep her occupied while we waiting (the only negative part...we waited...about 20 minutes, which is a long time for a 3yr old) We had Pappap with us to entertain Brandon (thank goodness).

We saw Dr. Amy at Flanders Pediatric Dentistry. She was super nice and let Brooke play with all of the instruments before she used them. They gave Brooke sunglasses so the light wouldn't hurt her eyes while she was laying down, and a complimentary ride on the chair. I sat with her the whole time, and she did so well they did a cleaning and a flouride treatment.

She chose chocolate toothpaste (yummers!) and marshmallow flouride (even better!) I forget the name they gave the sucker thing....Mr. straw or something like that...the funniest part was the first time she closed her mouth on it, she couldn't quite get it open on her own! It was too cute. After the first few times she "kissed" "Mr. Straw"...she got the hang of it.

All of her teeth look great and we are due back in 6 months, for another date with "Mr. Straw"....and Dr. Amy.

Done?

How do you know when your family is complete? This is a topic that I have been having a really hard time with lately. Do you every really know when you are "ready" to be done having kids?? I just can't seem to get over this topic. I want it both. I want more kids, and I want a time for just Eric and I. I want to go away, on a cruise, somewhere warm, just the two of us, but I want another child at the same time. Why can't I have it both?? Will the feeling of wanting another child every go away? If I were to have a third, would I be at peace with a third, would I want a forth? It is so hard. I know I should count my blessings and I am thankful for everything that I have, a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter and an amazing son....but I just can't get over the thought of being done. It is so final. I know I don't need to decide now, but if we are done...I need to go back on the pill and if not, then nothing, so in some sense there needs to be some sort of decision.

I can't imagine being done. I didn't mentally prepare myself with Brandon that he was going to be my last pregnancy, my last kick, my last craving, my last delivery, my last newborn. But again, I have one girl, one boy....the perfect American family...why would I want more?? This is obviously not something that I am going to come to a conclusion on this very night, but is something that I have been struggling with the past few weeks. I wish it was as easy as "we are done" or "we are not done". I want it both, I want it all. I wish it was easier.....

Stats

Brooke:
3yrs 8days
28lbs 23rd Percentile
37inches 40th Percentile

No vaccines for the 3yr visit, much to Brooke's dismay. She actually asked the ped for a shot. Brooke consistently gets the colors red and green wrong, but today we found out there is no possible way for her to be color blind. Myself and Eric would both need to be color blind for her to be, so maybe she just doesn't like red and green. She is not due back until her 4yr year visit. Lets hope we can stay out of their office until then!

Brandon
1yr 1day
20lbs 8oz 13th Percentile
28.5inches 14th Percentile
18inches (head) 31st Percentile

Brandon had two vaccines, no crying, just need to fatten the little guy up. He is fine seeing how Eric and I are not big people, we aren't going to have big kids. The little guy gets to indulge in whole milk and all the butter he wants on his veggies and so forth for the time being.

No MMR today and probably not at his next visit either. I am delaying that one until 18months to 24months. As my ped said, that is an "emotional" topic and they will give it to him when I want him to have it.

The worst part about the appt was that the doc put everything right into his laptop. Well anyone who knows Brandon knows he is a fan of technology was was less than please that he could not have it. He kept reaching, saying ahhh, and crying because I wouldn't give him the doctors laptop. It didn't help that the peds laptop is red.....the same color as ours....Is it rude to ask the doc to leave it outside next time??

Not Enough Time

I have so much catching up to do on here! Brooke turned 3 on Tuesday, we had their parties this Saturday, and now my little man turns 1 tomorrow. To quote my husband as he was referring to our daughter..."You can stop growing now"...Please....you both really can stop growing now! Hopefully I will be able to post about their birthdays and parties soon....for now it is a triple shot venti mocha from Starbucks because I was up so many times with Brandon last night and can't even remember how many times it was............

The Things She Says

It has been a little while since I listed some of the funny things Brooke says, so here goes:

-Singing Mary had a Little Lamb...Her version is..."Mary had a little man"
-After tasting my steamed carrots..."Mommy, these aren't very tasty, maybe you can try again next time"
-We came across a skunk that had been recently hit..."Mommy that is a stinky skunk....I think he needs to go potty"
-She sings her ABC's but instead of L,M,N,O,P she sings M and little P

Cat?

First word.....what do you really count as the first word? The little man has managed to say mama and dada in his random babbling but without really any intent...its not like he came toward me as to say, you, you are the "mama"...so I vote no on either of those being one of his first words. Since I can remember he has been obsessed with phones. He seems to know which ones are the old cell phones thrown in the bin to become phones for him to chew, slobber and ruin....even if I have been keeping them charged so they light up and still make noise. The past few days, he has picked up a few of the phones and put them to his ear and yells AHHH. Does that mean "hello" is his first word? There is definite intent, but with me being there to tell you that he is trying to say hello, it looks like he is just smashing the phone (or sometimes keys) to the side of his head saying "AHHHHH". That gets a vote of no also. This brings us to another obsession. Maddie. Our big, fat, mean cat, who likes nothing more than to hide until both kids are in bed. In the rare occasion that there is a sighting of this furry family member, the little man drops everything he is doing and tries to get her. He has been successful, without being bitten, a few times, encouraging him to chase her whenever he gets the chance. (Crawling forward helps BIG TIME) This past Saturday, the cat was around and Brandon definitely tried to repeat me saying cat, with his hand outstretched reaching for the cat. Though his cat sounds like "caaa"...I am voting for "CAT" to be his first word, said on 1/16/2010.

Hello (Ahhh) Sorry...I don't know how to flip the video...


Haven't gotten "Caa" on video yet.

Class Without Me....Already??

Today Brooke had her first gym class without me. It doesn't feel like she is old enough for that, but I guess she is. Less than a week and my little girl will be 3. I can't believe it! So I have said this a million times, but time really does fly. At class today, she ran in without even looking back. She couldn't have been happier to have gym class "without mommy"
I stayed out of the class except to change the bomb Brandon dropped while we were watching her through the glass windows. I'm glad I stood and watched the whole time, because it was really cute when she would peek up and look for me, because she was excited about something she had just done...(so maybe she needs me a little)...I'll just tell myself that.

She really adjusted well. She did great at the beginning of the class for the warm up, but she needed a little encouragement to stay in her group afterwards. When the warm up was over they broke the kids up into 3 groups for little skills and circuits in different areas of the class. Brooke's favorite by far is the bars. Needless to say she needed a little encouragement (maybe a lot) to stay with her group. I stopped counting after a while, but the teachers kept her on track and point her back to her group, or went and got her. She did escape quite a few times to go hang on the bars. She did a great job for it being her first class without me especially since the class was much more structured than the class she is used to. (right now, the 2-3yr old class, they have skills of the week, but they can do them if they want, and if they don't they can just around and do whatever they want....which kind of explains why she kept trying to fun off today)

I can't believe she is old enough to do solo classes. So cute! I don't know where the time went!

11 Months, 15 Days, 7 Hours and 6 Minutes

He has FINALLY figured out how to crawl!!!!

Balding Already?

The intent of this blog was to write nothing but stuff about my kids so they could look back on it and read it, but as I go through the day, there are so many other things besides, milestones, bad nights, teeth, holidays and so forth that I want to write about. Some are just about being a mom so I think I am going to start bloggin about those to, and I am just going to label them motherhood.

So here goes...

When you are pregnant, one of the changes is that you really don't lose and hair. Your nails are all nice and all that fun stuff, but after the baby is born and your hormones change, and you lose all that hair that you should have the past nine months. In my case it is handfulls upon handfulls of hair at a time in the shower. We even have a broken snake to show for it. It comes out so much in the shower that as I am washing my hair, I put the handfulls on the side of the tub to minimize what makes it to the drain. Pretty GROSS....not to mention it looks like a dead mouse in the trash can.

It happened with the first pregnancy, but with Brandon is was WAY worse. I looked like I was having a female balding issue...seriously. My hairline up until a a few months ago, looked a lot like Brandons current hairline....slowly receeding on both sides of my forehead.

I am glad to say that it is all grown back like normal, which I am happy about, but it is incredibly annoying to try to wear my hair back in a pony tail. I look like i have 2 poofy horns sticking out on each side of my head! It is all whispy and just plain ANNOYING. The only way I can hide it is with a headband, or by wearing my sunglasses on my head all the time including indoors and when it is not sunny..... It is totally worth it...duh... but it is so freaking annoying. I'll be glad when that is back to normal....

I don't have a lot of pictures because of how much I can't stand it, but here is the best shot I have. I have none of the "horns", but maybe I will take one just to upload it.

Receding hairline at 10 months:



Check out my hairline...you can see my scalp back so far....just like my little man...
(This picture still doesn't do it justice, but you can get the idea):


I went searching for recent pictures of me and since this is a side shot, it doesn't do it justice, but you can get the idea. I need to take one straight on...The fuzziness growing on my head:

X-Mas and December Pics

Christmas morning:


Done already:


Christmas night:


Brandon and Mimi watching the boys shovel after 18" of snow:


Brandon and Doc:


Nice Hat:


Just noticed the tree, I have been putting him near it all month:


Selander and Harms Kiddos:


Love that boy!! :

Nursing and Sleep Schedule

I am proud to say that my son Brandon doesn't even know what a bottle is. Brooke on the other hand did, because I had to go back to work, but I pumped every two hours and made sure she had the good stuff all the way up to 1yr, when I weaned her during the day.

Lucky for Brandon, I didn't go back to work. As we are fastly approaching the 1yr mark with Brandon, I am sad and happy to be weaning him at the same time. I am going to miss the cute stuff like the way he looks up at me when he is about to finish and smiles and the closeness that you get when you are nursing, not to mention the free "work out" that I am getting. We need to get things going so we can go for number 3..if you know what I mean....not that I miss not having my monthly visitor. It has been almost 2yrs now, besides right after Brandon was born. Anyway, back to what I was saying

He is only nursing 3 times a day, and once in the middle of the night. Initially I was worried it would be harder to wean him than Brooke because I am at home, but he likes table food so much, that he doesn't really ask for it even when I am giving it to him now. I know he needs it until a year so until then, I am not going to not offer it to him until then.

I am happy to say that Brandon is only up one time a night these days which is such a relief and we aren't' co-sleeping anymore. I co-slept with Brooke until about 14 months when she transitioned to a double bed. The only trouble with the transition was that she liked me to stay in her room until she fell asleep. So far, Brandon is ok falling asleep without me in there, so I am hoping that the transition will be easy for him as well. He is already on a twin bed (hence the not co-sleeping anymore). The bed was just to small, I was waking him up, he was waking me up, it was just plain awful.

For about a month after I moved out of the room I was in there 2 to 4 times a night to nurse him, and all of a sudden it is down to just 1 time a night. He goes to bed anywhere from 7-8:30 and is up at 7:30am. I am so glad he is finally figuring it out on his own. He WAS the most awful sleeping baby there ever was. He has come a long way! I am sure there are people saying he shoudl be sleeping through the night and not be up at all, but I will take what I can get. I'm sure it won't be long before he gives up his last night feeding. So until then, I will take being up one time a night versus 3, 4, 5 or 6. (yes, there were times where he was up 6 times a night nursing.....worse than a newborn!)

What Makes for a Good New Years?

A new front tooth and a double ear infection...If you are talking to Brandon that is. His second front tooth popped through on New Years day. You would have never known if you hadn't been looking for it since he slept like a champ the night before. He was only up one time to nurse, and in our house, that IS sleeping like a champ. Actually since Christmas night, he has only been up one time to nurse, with the exception of New Years day, night....if that makes sense. This takes me to my next topic....

New Years Day night, Brandon was up every hour. I knew something was up! It was a tough call because of the teething and everything, but at 11:30 the following day we ended up at our peds office. Sure enough, double ear infection for the poor little man. His left ear which was infected last time was the better of the 2. His right was a lot worse. He just has his last infection on 12/18 and finished the meds from that ear infection five days before this last one...so he is on some stronger stuff this time. Hopefully it will get rid of it and we won't be back before his 1yr well visit on the 27th. Ahh...I can't believe my little boy will be 1 in a few short week...time flies.

So as far as the ears are concerned, we will take a look at them at his one year and may be off to the ENT for their opinion.

The only good thing about him getting so many ear infections, is that is make me feel a little less horrible about sending Brooke to daycare. I was convinced she was getting so many because she was at daycare with all those other kids and germs, but it looks like it is hereditary after all.

Poor guy has had 4 in two months. Hopefully we can get this cleared up and make sure he is hearing well and not on meds every other week.