{The Near Family Blog}

The secret life of Alex Near

2012-02-14T09:50:00.001-05:00

I look back at how much I used to blog when it was just Brendan and I feel like Alex has been jipped a little bit. I blogged just about every little thing that was related to Brendan and poor Alex has only had a handful of posts devoted to him and I've missed so many of his milestones on the blog, so I'm trying to rectify that from here on out. This one's all for you, Goober!

He's a climber now. He's figured out how to climb up onto our kitchen chairs and uses them to look out our front windows. Here he was enthralled by the garbage men. I've got to watch him all the time now because he will climb on ANYTHING and he gets into a lot of trouble.

He loves to throw things away and I have to check the garbage cans before emptying them. One day he took every single magnet off the fridge and threw them away. Picking 26 alphabet magnets out of the trash was not fun. But on a good note, he does throw away his dirty diapers for me now!

When he wants something, he says"nah-NAH" in a very high-pitch scream while pointing at whatever it is that he wants.

He says a handful of words like "nite-nite", "look", "that", along with the usual "mama", "dada" and "bye-bye" and it's so awesome because at this age, Brendan was not willing to say anything.

He LOVES apples. He chomps on them until everything but the area where his hand is holding it is gone. It's amazing. He even almost ate a stem a couple of times.

He has learned how to nod his head now.

He thinks it's funny to whack people with a drumstick or other hard stick-like objects. I don't know what to do about this one because so far all my disciplining hasn't work and I'm frustrated. I'm not sure how to break his love of hitting people.

He hides things in my cupboards all the time. I'm constantly finding toys, old sippy cups and random objects in with my pots and pans and tupperware.

He loves playing in the fridge, which does not make me happy because he has broken countless eggs and made countless messes. But it's still adorable to see him so happy in there.

He's definitely got my sweet tooth. If he sees candy, he will scream until you cave and give him some.

He has a strange obsession with dark rooms or closets. One of his favorite things to do is to close himself in a dark bathroom.

He loves to eat chapstick. I can't even count how many of mine he has devoured.

Whenever he sees Brendan's preschool bucket out, he must grab it and play with it which makes Brendan quite angry.

He also loves to stick his fingers in my lipstick tubes. I don't wear lipstick much but my options are now limited since he's ruined several already.

He sleeps with his thumb in his mouth. Brendan was never a thumb-sucker so I was delighted to see that Alex is, and I still think it's the most adorable thing ever.

He's the most adorable 17 month old ever. Even though he drives me crazy most days, I still love him more than words can express. My favorite time with him is just before I put him to bed at night and we spend a few minutes in the rocking chair together. His little head on my shoulder, his hand sometimes patting my back too, and the kisses he lets me smother him with make those quiet moments my favorite.

It's time to party!

2012-02-09T19:31:00.000-05:00

Back in January, we had Brendan's birthday party (a few weeks after his actual birthday to give people a rest from the holidays). We decided (mostly me) that it would be an Angry Birds party since that is Brendan's favorite game. Here's the invitation I made for him-

Brendan loved it and was thrilled to get to give them to his friends.

A friend told me that Sam's Club had an Angry Birds cake so I enlisted the help of another friend who had a membership so I could pick one up for Brendan. It was WAY cooler than I expected. Thanks again, April! The party wouldn't have been nearly as awesome without your help!!!

And even more unexpected was how delicious it was. I think I ate half the cake myself.

I am not kidding.

Brendan, of course, loved it and when it saw it he cried because we couldn't eat it right at that moment.

When the kids arrived, it was time to get the party started. We played several games to get things going-

We first played Pin the Nose on the Pig, which was fun despite some kids trying to cheat- including my son. He was quite angry that he didn't win.

They all did a little too well and it was hard to choose a winner (the winners got Angry Birds fruit snacks that I found at a random store at the mall) because they all wanted a prize.

The second game was a the biggest hit of the party though. I made bean bags with the red, yellow, and black birds on them using iron-on transfer paper so they could toss them at the piggies, which were just giant cans with pictures of the different pigs. They were worth different point so whoever got the most points won a small Red Bird key chain. There were also some tears over that prize. Maybe I shouldn't have done prizes?

The last game (which I don't have pictures of) was Pass the Pig, which was basically just Hot Potato played with a plush pig toy. That one didn't hold their attention very well but hey, it was all I could think of. It was really hard to think of three Angry Birds themed games!

After the games, we had cake (finally!) and the icing stained our fingers and the kids faces. Alex's poop was green for 2 days after because of it and it was a pain to clean up all that frosting that inevitably got all over the place but it was so good, it was totally worth it.

The present opening was a bit crazy (nine 4 and 5 year olds are really hard to control after cake!) but check out that awesome present Brendan just opened. A Fart Machine! I swear he has never laughed so hard and he had way too much fun "hiding" it by Chris to make it sound like he farted.

What a fun day- though we were all exhausted by the end! Brendan has such an awesome group of friends and I'm so grateful that we've gotten to know them and their families. I feel very blessed for where we're at right now. And I'm even more grateful that I have another year until I have to plan a party again! Phew!

Ask and ye shall receive

2012-01-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

Alex seems to want everything of Brendan's these days and the "snake" boots are at the top of the list (don't call them frogs or else Brendan will get very angry). After lots of begging and crying, we finally gave in and put them on him.

He was so excited once he got his grubby feet in them. I love that something so simple was so important to him and made him so very happy.

He managed to waddle around for several minutes before falling over and it was probably the best few minutes of his week.

I love this guy.

Short but sweet

2012-01-07T11:03:00.000-05:00

After Christmas, my parents came out for a short visit. I wish I had taken more pictures of their time here but I was too busy enjoying being with them. I do wish I had a picture of Brendan's face though when he opened the door and saw Grammy and Grandpa- we didn't tell him they were coming so it would be a surprise and he was overjoyed to see them. So cute.

When they had to go home, there were lots of tears on Brendan's and Grammy's parts. Those two get along so well.

Goober didn't know what was going on but he enjoyed the extra hugs and kisses.

Poor Brendan was so sad. He really didn't want them to leave. He had such a fun few days with them that he never wanted it to end.

Brendan had to say goodbye several times and there was a little bit of crying after they drove away but he cheered up when he got to play with his Lego's that they got him as an early birthday gift. New toys- they make everything right in the world.

Thanks for coming to visit, Mom and Dad, and come back SOON!

Let's play catch up

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

I am so behind on blogging and honestly, these days I don't feel like putting my life out there on the internet. It seems like the majority of my time is spent just trying to keep thing on track and in order around here, and that really isn't so much fun to blog about.

But Christmas is always fun to blog so here's what our's was like in a tiny nutshell since I didn't take many pictures at all.

We got a live tree again this year and the boys had so much fun helping decorate it while watching a holiday movie. Alex was a little too interested in the ornaments and broke four within the first hour taht the tree was up but he's just too cute to stay mad at. By the end though, the vast majority of ornaments were moved to the top half of the tree, so the bottom look a little funny being bare and empty.

Christmas day came and since it was on a Sunday this year, we let the boys open a present each before we had to head to church. That was tough for Brendan but I'm glad we did it that way so we could still focus on what the day is truly about- our Savior.

When we got home, Brendan wasted no time and went straight back to the presents.

This game was a big hit. When I saw it at the store, I knew it had to make it under the tree and thanks to Grammy and Grandpa, it did!

I think the presents from the grandparents were the biggest hits and still are the most played with. My boys are lucky to have such loving and generous grandparents! And they loved knowing that their grandparents sent things just for them- they felt extra special that they went to the effort.

Lego's and Star Wars were a big part of Christmas this year too. Brendan and Chris had a good time putting together a Lego Mini X-Wing Fighter Jet that Brendan dismantled in about 10 seconds after it was complete. Typical. :)

Star Wars figures are EVERYWHERE in our house now- I find them in some strange places. This morning, I opened up a drawer in the kitchen and there was Luke Skywalker hanging out with my spoons. But I love that Brendan is so into Star Wars.

So that was Christmas. We had a fun time baking, eating way too much, driving around to look at Christmas lights and enjoying time with Chris while he was off from work. That was probably the best Christmas gift for me. :)

Cake and presents

2012-01-04T10:13:00.002-05:00

Brendan had a pretty spectacular birthday yesterday. It included a trip to the Lego store, a movie with just Dad (Brendan loved that Mommy and Alex didn't get to go), a special birthday Happy Meal, and cake and presents of course.

Brendan was all over the birthday wish this year. His wish was that Mommy and Daddy would blow up babies. I have no idea what he's talking about but it made us laugh pretty hard.

Getting Brendan to wait all day to open his presents was especially hard and there were a few small tears involved but when the time finally came, he was all smiles.

The Lego Ninjagos were the first thing to be played with. His little world revolves around Legos.

I loved watching his determination to put together the little set and get everything just right. And the stories that he comes up with for his ninjas are pretty awesome too.

I'm so glad that number five was a good year for him. He's grown so much and made leaps and bounds with his speech that I just know that number six is going to be awesome too.

Five Years of Brendan

2012-01-03T09:54:00.002-05:00

This handsome little guy is now five years old. It pains me to admit that but since I cannot stop time, there's nothing I can do about it.

Man, are we lucky to have him with us though. No one could possibly love you more than we do. Happy birthday, Brendan!

A new toy

2011-11-29T16:03:00.001-05:00

For my birthday a couple of weeks ago, Chris surprised me with a new 70-300mm lens for my camera (thanks, Chris!). We've had fun playing with it since and I wanted to share some photos- a lot of these were actually taken by Chris.

Could my boys get any cuter?

Brendan had just ran into a sharp corner and scratched his head, hence the tears and sad face. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of him but that made him cry even harder because he didn't want pictures of his cut.

I love this one mostly because Alex's favorite toy of the afternoon was that Twix bar. He wouldn't let it out of his chubby hands all afternoon. By the end it was pretty smashed and melted but I still ate it anyways. :)

Who knew that Brendan was such a good model?! He's got his posing down.

This was taken Thanksgiving morning and Alex was upset because he couldn't climb up on the couch- even with the help of the vacuum. His face cracks me up. Climbing and playing on the couches are his latest obsession.

Olives are always a part of our Thanksgiving and Brendan still loves to put them on his fingers.

Alex also had fun chowing down on our feast that day.

Hope everyone had a good holiday and is gearing up for Christmas!

A little update on my Alex

2011-11-15T09:17:00.001-05:00

I cut the Goober's hair last night and I have to admit that it breaks my heart a little every time I look at him now- he looks so much older and grown up! What did I do?! He's supposed to be my baby still and now he looks more like the 14 month old that he actually is. I can't bring myself to call him a toddler yet.

This is one of his crazy smiles that I see a lot. He's such a silly little guy and I love it. He loves to bite shoes, eat things off the floor, close himself in dark bathrooms and play with the remote to our tv. In fact, something inside of our remote now rattles because he's chucked it on the floor so many times. His goal in throwing it is to get the batteries to pop out (and he succeeds- I don't know how he figured this out) and then he chews on them. He LOVES to chew on batteries. What a weirdo!

Alex also loves to be naughty and get into everything and anything. He is becoming a seriously mischievous little boy. He still isn't walking yet but that doesn't deter him at all. I shudder to think what he'll do when he can walk and run. Maybe I should be glad he isn't walking? He'll take a few unaided steps to my outstretched arms but he does it with his eyes closed. And when you hold just one of his hands to walk with him, he walks in circles. It's pretty funny and we're enjoying this stage with all the adorable and amazing new things it brings. He says the most adorable "woof-woof", has developed a deep love for his shoes and constantly wants me to put them on him, loves peek-a-boo still, kills me with how clever he is, and gives the best open-mouth slobbery kisses hands down.

I really can't imagine our little family without him.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T11:11:00.002-04:00

I love this picture. Brendan was so into Halloween this year. When I told him to smile for the camera, this is the pose he gave me complete with a very scary skeleton growl.

Alex was a pirate and of course all good pirates must have mustaches and dark eyebrows.

This is how he felt about having his face painted. He did not share Brendan's enthusiasm.

Brendan and his posing seriously cracked me up. This was taken just before our church's annual Trunk or Treat. Brendan had a BLAST again this year.

Alex discovered the bean bag toss and was finally happy.

And even though this picture is slightly blurry, it's a favorite of mine. Alex got his first lolipop and went bananas for it. The boy was blue all over from it but he wouldn't let me clean him up until he had devoured the thing. Good times.

This is really not a great picture but for memory keeping purposes, here's a shot of Brendan's preschool class. The kids had a Halloween parade followed by a fabulous party, which they all loved (of course).

Halloween night we headed out for trick or treating and since the night was bit chilly, we bundle the Goober up. I didn't bother putting Alex in his pirate costume again since he wasn't getting any candy so instead he was Denver Nuggets fan.

Here's one of the three of us. I got the boys glow in the dark weapons so we could keep track of them in the dark and they were a huge hit. Smartest idea I've had in a while. Every time Brendan ran off to the next house, I always knew where he was and could point him out in a pack of kids.

The night was fun, much candy was collected, and when we got home Chris dug right in after we put the boys to bed. Good times were had by all!

Oh Alex

2011-10-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

My baby loves to sit in small spaces like laundry baskets, a basket I use to store blankets, the box my knee-high boots came in, and this suitcase. He is constantly climbing in here so Chris finally put a pillow in the bottom to make it a bit more enjoyable for him.

He loves playing in Brendan's room (especially when Brendan isn't there) and the first thing he does is climb in his suitcase.

He'll grab a couple nearby toys and he's good to go. Every couple of minutes he'll look up to make sure I'm still there but otherwise he likes to be on his own. I love that he will quietly play by himself which means I can sit near him and read a book, check my email or do something productive like fold some laundry.

This is just one of the many funny, quirky things about Alex that I love.

Pick a fat pumpkin

2011-10-24T16:06:00.003-04:00

Brendan has been singing a song that he learned at preschool for the last couple of weeks and it constantly gets stuck in my head. So you can often hear us singing "Pick, pick, pick a fat pumpkin" over here. And it was all because of a field trip his preschool had scheduled to a local pumpkin patch. Brendan was beyond excited and when the day finally came, he was asking every ten minutes when we were leaving.

When we got there, Brendan was so excited to do all the fun activities they had. He had a good time pretending to drive a tractor.

He got his face painted too.

He chose the skull and even though the artist's skills were a bit questionable, he loved it.

A bouncy-house with a slide was the very first thing he ran to. It was a little rough in there with about 6 boys inside at once but that's the way he likes it. Wild and crazy.

Josh and Brendan loved hanging out, as always, and when they walked by this donkey Brendan said "Look, Josh! A donkey's butt!" These days, it seems all of Brendan's jokes revolve around farts, burps, poop or now, a donkey's butt. My silly boy.

They also had a nice hay pit for the kids to play around in and Brendan loved throwing hay at the other kids.

That poor boy did not like it though and left crying. Whoops. I did feel bad about that but really, what do you expect to happen in a hay pit?

He also did some pumpkin bowling, pumpkin painting, a sketchy maze, a bean bag toss and general fun that involved running with friends. It was a good time and by the end, we were both exhausted.

I love this time of year and we are getting geared up for Halloween now. I can't wait to get the kids in their costumes!

Also, I never mentioned on here that I was cutting out sugar for the month of October and I now only have 1 week left! The time has actually gone by faster than I thought it would but I can't wait to eat chocolate again!!!

Don't you hate socks?

2011-10-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

The weather here in Virginia was finally cool enough to warrant long sleeves, pants and... socks!

Alex does NOT like socks at all and can't keep them on for more than a few seconds before he's trying to rip the suckers off.

He takes after me in that regard. I hate socks too so I can't really blame him!

He tries so hard

2011-10-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

Alex seems to go back and forth between hating baths and loving them. Luckily, we are in a loving stage so bath time isn't so horrible for everyone involved. Recently, he's become infatuated with the faucet and trying to grab the water.
He is so determined to get a hold of it and if I try to move him out of the way or distract him with other toys, he screams.

Just looking at him, you wouldn't know that he has a scream that can make you feel like your ears are bleeding. Such a sweet innocent face- but I swear, I'm going deaf because of this boy! :)

My handsome boy just got more handsome

2011-10-07T13:42:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, Brendan got glasses. We saw an opthamologist about two weeks ago and I sure was surprised that while doing an eye exam on my little guy we discovered that he couldn't see out of his left eye very well at all. So, glasses it was! Brendan went back and forth between being excited and being reluctant about his new glasses. He had fun picking them out and choosing his frames (with a little nudging from Mom, since he would have chosen bright blue frames- no joke) but when they finally came in and were ready to picked up, he didn't want to go.

They've taken some getting used to but now, he loves them. He got them right before General Conference so while we were watching on Saturday, he pointed to President Erying and said, "Look Mom, he has glasses like me!" Melted my heart.

We're still working on how to put them on and take them off correctly, making sure he wears them ALL the time- no taking them off until bedtime- and not letting Alex grab them. Brendan finds that particularly funny while I do not. Brendan has really taken this in stride though and has proven once again what a wonderfully sweet and good natured little boy he is. I'm so proud of him and glad that he can see correctly now!

Learning to ride a bike

2011-09-30T19:54:00.002-04:00

We finally got around to getting a bike for Brendan. He was so excited for it he wanted to ride it to the checkout counter and home from the store, even though he didn't quite have the concept of peddling down yet and it was raining outside.

He had to wait two whole days (which is forever to a child) since the rain didn't let up but then finally we had a nice day and he could try out his new bike. He picked it up much quicker than I thought he would.

He was so proud of himself. I loved watching him concentrate so hard on what he was doing.

Pretty soon he'll be doing these kind of tricks all on his own!

Go, Brendan, Go!

I can't resist buying stuff for my kids

2011-09-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

Brendan's preschool is strange because they require the kids to use a bucket instead of a backpack for all their papers and projects. Lame! It's impossible to make a bucket look cool. So when we happened to find the perfect backpack for Brendan, I couldn't NOT get it for him even though he doesn't technically need one for any reason. It was too cool to pass up.

And he loves it of course. In fact, when we had to go to a doctor's appointment, Mario had to come with too.

Who knew the coolest backpack ever would be found at a smelly global food store? Well worth every cent, though!

The rest of the cake massacre pictures

2011-09-26T20:51:00.003-04:00

I just had to post some more pictures of the Goober enjoying his birthday cake.

He was so excited when he saw it coming!

He wasn't too sure what to do with it though so he tested it out by licking it.

He decided he liked it so he got his hands involved.

He couldn't shovel it in his mouth fast enough.

He was quite intrigued by the texture. He loved mushing the cake and frosting in between his fingers.

A cake handle bar mustache.

Cake up to his armpits. He had cake everywhere.

And because this one is my favorite, I had to post it again. I just love this boy!

Preschool makes both of us happy!

2011-09-20T17:26:00.000-04:00

Brendan finally started preschool and he is loving it! He was so excited to go to school- I've never seen him get his shoes on and move out the door so fast! He really likes his teacher, his classmates (especially because his BFF Josh is in his class!), and all the fun activities and projects that they do. Every day he's just bursting to tell me what they did that day and show me the sticker in his notepad that he gets daily. I love that he's getting so much out of it already and that I have a tiny bit of free time. It's so weird I don't know what to do with myself yet but I'm sure I'll be putting that time to good use soon enough.

He was getting frustrated at me because I wanted to take some pictures of him on his first day before he went in to class. He was so ready to go I could barely get him to sit for a few seconds.

I still can't believe that he's so grown up and that next year will be Kindergarten- but I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, I'm happy to have my sweet boy loving learning, making new friends and being independent. He's the best!

Happy Birthday To..............Me!

2011-09-14T20:42:00.001-04:00

So, today was my birthday. I'm one. My parents keep saying how old I look, but based on the pictures I've seen, I look like a baby, so logic would suggest that I'm not really old at all. On the other hand, I've seen pictures of my brother, Brendan, when he was one and he actually did look old. Imagine Gordon B. Hinckley being about a foot and a half tall and that's pretty much what he looked like; same hair style and everything. Ironically, as Brendan has grown older, he actually looks younger. Not me, though, I just look like a baby.

Being my first birthday there were a few things that I didn't quite understand. One, I got lots of presents from my parents and grandparents. My parents said all the presents were for me. The cards the gifts came with also said the presents were for me. But then Brendan said all the toys were for "big boys" and that only he could play with them. In fact, as I'm writing this Brendan is sitting inside a boat (upside down Little Tikes table) sailing to "Dream Island" and he's taking all my new toys with him. Sure looks like fun. I can't wait for his birthday, then maybe I'll get to play with his new toys.

The second thing I didn't understand was why I don't get to eat cake for dinner every night. Holy crap, it was delicious! Why would I ever want to eat anything else. Let's see, the past year I normally ate pureed lasagna, pureed sweet potatoes, pureed carrots, pureed horse meat, and other blended fruit medleys. Those have all been fine and I'll admit a nice bowl of equestrian meat can be quite satisfying after a hard day of playing and napping. But seriously, cake is good. It's very good and I don't think I'll go back to eating that other stuff for many years to come.

Other noteworthy items from my birthday include the insurance adjusters coming by to make sure I didn't take my afternoon nap. Apparently hurricane Irene caused some wind damage to the roof of our house. It opened up some holes in the roof, let some rain in, and caused a nice sink hole in the ceiling of Mom and Dad's room. They're a little worried that birds and squirrels might start sneaking into the house. Personally, I'm hoping they do. Anyways, the insurance guys came in the house, walked on the roof a little, and I overheard one of the guys saying that the sheathing on our house is incredibly thin. He thought he was going to fall through the roof at every step. Good to know. Now that I'm one year old my parents said one of my new privileges is being able to play on the roof with Brendan. We'll just have to be extra careful now. In the end, I'm just glad no one fell on me while I was in my crib. Granted, the guy might have deserved to fall. He came over on my birthday, woke me after napping five minutes, didn't leave a present, and didn't even sing me a song. I'm not saying I'm bitter, but I'm not saying I'll ever forget this, either.

In closing, I think it's important to recognize other special people celebrating their birthday today - The great Dmitry Medvedev, leader of the Russian Federation turns 46 today. What do you possibly get the guy who leads the Russian Federation? A Pillow Pet, perhaps?

The Lone Ranger turns 97 today. I wonder what Tonto got him? Maybe a new Bedazzler so he can add more rhinestones to his holster.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly, the late Amy Winehouse would have turned 28. Only the good die young. I wonder what rehab in heaven is like.

So happy birthday to me, to the entire Russian Federation, the Lone Ranger, and to the girl that looks a cross between Sloth from Goonies and Elvira. Turning one feels pretty good. So happy birthday to all... and to all a good night.

Just the two of us

2011-09-11T11:00:00.000-04:00

It seems like a lot of my posts lately center around Alex so here's a Brendan post.

I decided that Brendan and I were going to have a special outing just the two of us- no Alex allowed! Luckily, this happened before school started so I could snag one of the young women to babysit for me during the day for a few hours while Brendan and I headed out to see Cars 2. He loved the fact that it was just mommy and Brendan and he ended up loving the movie. He might have been the loudest laugher and gasper in the crowd- he was so into it! And I loved that it was a great bonding time for me and him. I don't think a mom has ever loved her little boy more.

We snapped a picture of us before we headed home and while it's not the most flattering picture of us, I absolutely love it. I'm glad I have it to remember the day by. Definitely something I plan on doing again in the future.

Still his favorite place to hang out

2011-09-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

Whenever the dishwasher is open, Alex comes charging. He loves it and since he's discovered climbing, he loves it even more since he can climb up top and reach everything much more easily.

It's too cute so I do feel a little bad when I have to pull him off and close it so he can't pull out any more knives- which is oddly the first thing he goes for. Why?! I think it's a boy thing to be attracted to anything and everything dangerous. This one keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

Just a happy picture of my youngest

2011-09-09T17:19:00.003-04:00

I snapped this picture the other day while the boys were playing in the basement. Alex was so proud of himself for climbing up the little table we have down there for them.

This munchkin has definitely turned into a climber and it's making my life very difficult right now. But I still love my Goober. And with a smile and dimples like those, who can resist him?!

And on September 14th, he'll turn 1. I still can't believe it!

Tippy Toes

2011-09-07T21:39:00.003-04:00

Alex is rarely flat on his feet and this picture captures his tippy toes perfectly. He looks like he could be a ballet dancer!

I did manage to catch him flat footed, which only lasted a second though.

And then it was right back on his toes.

I think he might have ballet dancing in his future.

Our trip to Colorado

2011-09-07T10:41:00.000-04:00

Alright, it's time to catch up! We had a blast when we were in Colorado last month. The plane ride went better than expected (despite delays and having to run to catch our connecting flight) and both kids were as well behaved as we could have hoped for. Brendan woke up the first morning and immediately wanted to find Grandpa and Grandma. He was so excited to be there. And then when the cousins showed up, he was in heaven.

Brendan and Spencer hit it off, which was too cute for words. Brendan saw Spencer reading a book on the couch one evening and got right up next to him with his own book and pretended to be reading it aloud too. He definitely looks up to his older cousin.

Alex loved meeting his cousins too. He was especially smitten with Marisa and Leila (so was I!). Those two girls are the sweetest, cutest and funniest girls and I wanted to take them home with me. I need to even out the girl-boy ratio in our house!

We did lots of fun things while in Colorado and enjoyed being with family that we don't often get to see. It was a nice treat for us to be there a whole week too!

We took a train ride and enjoyed a beautiful park.

Visited the donut factory, aka Krispy Kreme.

And stuffed our faces.

Watched Grandpa fly his planes.

And spent lots of quality time together as a family. It was nice to just sit around, talk and laugh. Lots of laughs when it comes to Chris and Carrie sharing stories.

Alex definitely loved having so many people around to play with him. He took a shining to his grandpa and I think the feeling was mutual, even though Alex did managed to break one or two things around their house.

And these two boys are just a few weeks apart. Andrew is a pro at walking and I think it seriously impressed Alex, who still shows no signs of being interested in walking himself.

If Brendan didn't already adore his grandma, he certainly did after she got the kids a Slip n' Slide for the back yard. It was love at first sight.

He couldn't wait until the cousin arrived or even to change into his swimsuit- he striped down to his undies the second he saw it and got right in. That's my boy!

It's memories like this (and all the others) that I am so grateful for. We don't get a chance to see Chris's family very often, but when we do, it's the best feeling in the world. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome family and I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. Brendan was so sad to leave and there were definitely some tears when we had to get on the airplane.

Brendan was so exhausted from our trip that he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport in the middle of eating his snack. We all felt the same way and I take that as a sign of a good trip. We enjoyed every moment of it and I'm looking forward to the next time we all can get together. (But John, Erin and Sophia- you guys better be there! We missed you guys!)

A quick hello

2011-09-02T09:41:00.000-04:00

I have sooooo much to post but I wanted to really quickly put this picture up because it cracks me up. Can you believe that Alex is 3 months older than the handsome fellow sitting next to him? I love my tiny baby.

And can you also believe that Alex is the one with the Hispanic heritage? Alex is so white he's almost glowing! Neither of my kids tan... poor boys.

Stay tuned for lots of posts coming soon... if I can ever find the time to get everything ready and done!

I usually hate posts like this

2011-08-01T15:14:00.001-04:00

I have so much to catch up on that I just don’t have the time to sit down and write everything out into individual posts, so instead I am going to dump it all out in one giant post. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

We visited the Library of Congress and saw the Capital bldg from afar. It wasn’t too hot or humid that day and we enjoyed being out in D.C. for the afternoon.

While we were in the city, we walked around a Farmer’s Market and then got some pupusas from an El Salvador restaurant. It just happened to be Chris’s birthday that day, so we had to do something special for him. I asked if these resembled the kind he ate on his mission, and he said they did. They were quite tasty and both Brendan and Alex ate some as well.

I didn’t mention this before but Alex finally got the hang of crawling while we were in Illinois (he barely got that milestone in under 10 months!) and a week later, he was pulling himself up and cruising along furniture. One of his favorite hangouts in the dishwasher. It’s so fun to watch him move around more and explore things in ways that he couldn’t before…

…until he pulls a knife on his mom. Yikes! I had forgotten how mischievous a mobile baby is. Lesson learned though. We now take the silverware caddy out when Alex is nearby. We have also finally baby-proofed the house so that the little stinker can’t get into anything dangerous but he still manages to find stray marbles that I’ve missed. I seriously throw a handful of marbles away every day and he still finds more! It is infuriating. I think Brendan is the culprit though because he thinks it’s hilarious that Alex pops them straight into his mouth and then I freak out and chase after Alex who is furiously crawling away to avoid his mean mommy who won’t let him eat marbles. The little guy is fast!

Even though we’ve baby-proofed things, Alex still manages to get into trouble. Last week he ate my deoderant- well, more like he chewed it up until he realized that it was disgusting and then started crying until I had wiped out every single fleck from him mouth. Just to be safe, I checked the packaging and sure enough, the container says “If swallowed, call Poison Control immediately.” Ummmm, can we just say that I had a major freak out right then. I was pretty sure he hadn’t swallowed any but I couldn’t be sure so I had my first experience calling Poison Control. Luckily they were nice and it turns out it really wasn’t a big deal. I never want to have to do that again though.

Alex also got his first haircut! Here’s a before:

It’s kind of hard to see the wings he’s got by his ears so here’s a second shot:

And this is now:

He was not happy that I interrupted his eating to take some pictures of him. I can’t believe that he’s getting so big. In just a month and a half, he will turn 1. The thought of that makes me get a little teary eyed.

Brendan also seems so grown up and sometimes I look at him and have to do a double take. When did this happen!?! We’ve been working on our writing lately and he doesn’t enjoy it. He’d much rather be outside playing or chasing after Alex but we’ve been slacking this summer and it’s time to get back on track.

It’s odd to think that summer will be over so soon but luckily we still have some fun things planned to make the most of what we have left. In a couple weeks we head to Colorado to visit Chris’s family and we cannot wait! Although every time we talk about it, Brendan starts crying and saying he doesn’t want to go on an airplane. I wonder what he’ll do when we actually get to the airport. I’m hoping he changes his tune. And I know that once we’re in Colorado and he sees his Grandma and Grandpa and cousins (and aunt and uncle too!) he will be over the moon.

So that’s about it. For now!

Visiting the Land of Lincoln

2011-07-21T10:25:00.001-04:00

While I love living in Virginia, I sure do miss being close to family. We had the chance a couple of weeks ago to spend 6 days with my parents in Illinois and it was awesome.

I don’t think Brendan really remembers his cousin Mary from when they would play together in Utah since it’s been almost 2 1/2 years since then (wow) but they hit it off right away. Despite Brendan’s face in the above picture, he really did love having Mary around and they played so well together. It was adorable!

I think Mary liked Alex too. But then again, who doesn’t?

Grandpa sure did love him. Alex took a strong liking to my dad.

Even though Alex stuck his little dirty hands in his mouth at every opportunity or made a grab for his glasses, Grandpa was still happy to have him.

Grandmas are always happiest when their grandchildren are around, so my mom was extra happy to have all three under the same roof.

Being back in my hometown meant eating lots of food and Alex was happy to partake as well. He loved all the goodies that people kept giving him but I did not love all the poopy diapers. It was gross.

Here’s Alex chowing down on a fry at Smoque, a BBQ place in Chicago we had to try out because we saw it on Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives. It was delicious and if you happen to be in the area, I’d recommend it.

A shot of my sister and Chris enjoying the food- I especially love that Chris looks like he’s in a BBQ-induced haze. The brisket was extremely good.

We also got to watch the fireworks since we were in town for the 4th of July. Can you believe that Brendan had never seen a real fireworks show before this? It was quite exciting for him.

We also did lots of other fun things like visit a small petting zoo,

collect pine cones on a walk, jump on a trampoline, go see Super 8 (which was very good),

and fishing with Grandpa. I asked Brendan was his favorite thing was and he answered: “Throwing worms in the water with Grandpa!”

It was such an awesome visit and I loved every minute of it, as did Brendan and Alex. Brendan was crying as we drove away, saying he didn’t want to leave Grammy’s house. It broke my heart.

Thanks to my parents for putting up with us and letting the kids tear up the house! And hopefully this time, their cat will not have another nervous breakdown because of Brendan.

Happy days

2011-07-14T13:36:00.001-04:00

We are back from our visit to Illinois but I’m short on time to do a post about it, so for now, here’s a couple pictures of my favorite boys.

When the cat’s away…

2011-06-29T13:26:00.003-04:00

I had an awesome evening out last night with some friends and when I came home, Chris told me he had a surprise on the camera for me. And this is what I saw-

This is not the first time that this has happened so I should have known what to expect! But let me tell you, I was laughing so hard, I was crying.

Alex’s face cracks me up still. He looks so evil and ridiculous, it’s hilarious. And perfect. I think I may have to frame these.

Oh man, these boys kill me. I just love them- mustaches and all! And because I can’t resist:

You’re welcome.

My little vampire

2011-06-29T13:26:00.001-04:00

I just love those two little vampire teeth poking through! His top front teeth are now starting to push through his gums so I knew this look won’t be around for much longer and I’m glad I got a picture to capture it.

This is what happens when Brendan picks his own outfit

2011-06-28T16:25:00.001-04:00

An awesome mixture of one of my headbands and his shirt inside out AND backwards. And of course, no pants. It took a lot of bribing to convince him to change into something a little more acceptable so we could go out and run our errands and he was NOT happy about it. I had a good laugh though.

I love this little boy. Every night it seems, Chris and I talk and laugh about all the funny, quirky and adorable things that he does and/or says. He’s definitely our little joker.

I need some suggestions

2011-06-25T15:07:00.000-04:00

Alright, I KNOW I've got a ton of friends and family who read my blog and run/work out so I need your help. I've recently started running again and I need some new tunes for my runs. I pretty much hate running but I'm determined to stick this out and I figured that my music will help distract me from how much I hate it. So give me your favorite songs that help you while running and/or working out. I desperately need some help here!

The #1 dad

2011-06-21T11:51:00.001-04:00

My boys on Father’s Day

I have the best husband in the world and he’s an amazing father to our little guys. So to thank him this Father’s Day, I planned the most awesome gift ever.

I found a website that sells dozens of different types of root beer and other flavored sodas not easily found. Chris is a big root beer and soda fan and so I put together this drink sampler for him. 7 different root beers and 5 flavored sodas.

I tried to order things that were unique (like a blueberry soda) and brands that we had never tried before but I HAD to throw in an Apple Beer. Oh man, that makes me miss Utah so much.

And it was a hit! But I was pretty sure it would be. Chris is a tad bit hard to buy for and I always agonize over what to get him, so this was a stroke of genius for me. Now I just have to think of something else for his birthday that’s coming up in less than a month!

Lions, Tigers and Panda Bears!

2011-06-21T11:35:00.001-04:00

We finally made it to the National Zoo for the first time last week, and can you believe that this was Brendan’s first visit to a zoo- ever?! The weather was so beautiful and with low humidity, so I wanted to take advantage of it and head up to DC. The zoo was a perfect choice and Brendan was so excited. It was all he could talk about for 24 hours before we went. And of course, it didn’t hurt that Josh was going to be there too.

Once we got there, Brendan wasn’t as impressed as I thought he would be but he still enjoyed getting to see all the different animals. The only animal he was super psyched to see was the elephants.

He kept wanting the elephants to go in the water and he was a little disappointed that they didn’t follow his instructions.

We saw lots of other animals, although this is about as good as it got at the Panda habitat.

The panda was hiding and I only saw a brief glimpse of its butt as it walked behind some trees. Oh well, this picture works for me.

And this is how the afternoon ended. Brendan so worn down that he was in tears and Alex napping away in the stroller. Good times.

Best part was that when we got home, both my boys took long naps. Heaven!

All in all, this was a great trip and makes me love DC even more. This area has so many family-friendly activities and exciting things to do- we need to get out there more often and I’m hoping this summer we have the chance to explore the city more. I’m planning on making up for such a lackluster summer last year- hurray for not being pregnant in the summertime!

A summer classic

2011-06-21T11:19:00.001-04:00

Eating popsicles outside on a beautiful, warm summer evening.

Showing off our colored teeth courtesy of our delicious popsicles. I just love Summer and so far, this one has been fantastic. Here’s to enjoying many, many more moments like this!

Alex’s first taste

2011-06-16T13:32:00.001-04:00

This reminds me so much of this post when Brendan got his first taste of whipped cream. I think Alex is a fan too.

It amazed me that he knew exactly what to do. His little mouth popped right open when he saw that can coming.

This was NOT my idea by the way- but I couldn’t let the moment go by without picking up my camera.

He licked his tray clean so I guess that means that we’ll have another little boy obsessed with whipped cream.

He still loves stickers

2011-06-16T13:19:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Brendan received a card from his Grandma and Grandpa with a package of stickers inside. And of course, this is what Brendan immediately did with them-

Stickers are always more fun when stuck to your chest and stomach, right?

Thank you, Robin and Dan- Brendan loved his stickers! And now he can’t wait to come visit you in Colorado this summer!

Look who got a hair cut!

2011-06-14T11:47:00.001-04:00

It’s about time! Although, I kinda miss the longer hair…

9 Months

2011-06-14T11:42:00.001-04:00

The little one is officially nine months old.

Alex is my sweetheart, my easy-going baby, my Goober. I just love him.

Some things about Alex at his 9 month mark:

He loves baths now
He is only in the 9th percentile for his weight and 7th for height
He just recently cut his top lateral incisors, making him look like a vampire
He has barely started to wear 6-12 month clothing and still fits in the majority of his 3-6 month stuff
He is so close to crawling but still can’t figure out how to move forward
He loves food
He’s a mama’s boy (hurray!)
He recently farted so loud that he scared himself and started crying
He just learned how to clap and it’s the cutest thing EVER
His eyes look more hazel than blue a lot of the time

I know I say this a lot, but it’s true- time goes by way too fast!

It’s weekends like these that make me excited about blogging again

2011-05-31T13:33:00.002-04:00

For Memorial weekend, our family headed down to Topsail Island, NC to enjoy some sun, sand and relaxation with our friends the Anderssons and the Emericks.

The weather was perfect (most of the time) and we had a ton of fun doing nothing but working on our tans and having fun.

As soon as Brendan saw the ocean, he was off! He loved the water.

Brendan even got to try out boogie boarding, thanks to Patric. He was freaking out at first and didn’t want to get on but I forced him to and once he was going, he loved it. Patric was awesome to pull him around for a several minutes.

This was Alex’s response to the beach. He did not share Brendan’s enthusiasm at all.

And of course, I’m a mean mom and snapped about 50 pictures of him crying on the beach, laughing the whole time. It was just too funny and cute though.

If he was being held or distracted, he was okay.

It’s a good thing we had plenty of friends who were willing to distract him for us.

At least I have one photo of Alex on the beach looking happy!

While Alex was being grumpy, Brendan was off happily collecting sea shells. I think we brought home about 20 pounds of shells.

The boys got buried in the sand.

Marshall, Brendan and Josh- the Three Musketeers! These boys had a blast together.

Brendan showed off some butt-crack this weekend too. The saddest part was he got sun burned on the top of his butt since I didn’t apply sunscreen there. I didn’t realize how big his swim trunks were on him- whoops! He was a good sport about it though.

On our second day, we finally got Alex in the water. Again, he was not impressed.

He’d see a wave approaching and start to get freaked out. When the water actually hit him, he’d be okay for a second and then…

Out came the tears and screams. Poor baby. He really did NOT like being in the water.

And yes, I do have about 30 pictures of him crying in the water. I couldn’t resist!

Alex did, however, enjoy eating sand.

I gave up trying to stop him after a few fistfuls of sand but Chris was more diligent than I was. That’s his hand swooping in to stop Alex’s feast.

I’m sure it didn’t taste good but it didn’t seem to bother him too much.

At least both of my boys enjoyed the sand!

It was such an awesome weekend and it was hard to leave. Brendan was actually in tears saying he didn’t want to leave “his” beach house while we packed up. I’m glad that we had the chance to go- thanks Sasha for planning everything, and thanks to everyone else for the good company, the good food, the good laughs, and the good memories. Who wants to go back next month?

Parks and Recreation

2011-05-18T12:05:00.001-04:00

We had some gorgeous weather last week and to celebrate, we headed to the park of course! This was Alex’s favorite activity of the day.

He definitely loves the swings. Part of me can’t comprehend how he is big enough to fit in one of these swings. Wasn’t he just a tiny newborn and only 6 pounds?!

Brendan got to bust out his new, cool shades too. He refused to smile for any of my pictures but I think it adds to the look. :)

After some quality time with the swings, Alex retreated back to the stroller and spent his time downing a bottle. Brendan used his time to run around like crazy and try to burn things using his magnifying glass with his dad (guess who taught him that one?) Now he asks to “go outside and burn things” every day. Oi vey.

Ah, brotherly love. These two play together much better than I imagined. Brendan just adores Alex and constantly gives him hugs and kisses. And Alex loves to watch Brendan. He’s fascinated by him.

A couple days later, we hit up another park with some friends. The sand pit was a big hit all around.

This park was really cool and Brendan really loved it.

And I had to get a shot of Brendan with his BFF, Josh. Every time the doorbell rings, Brendan think it’s Josh and he goes running to answer the door. And when it’s not Josh, he is very disappointed (unless it’s the mailman and then he’s excited because that mail really excites him). So when we actually DO play with Josh, Brendan is in heaven.

I am typing this post while it’s pouring buckets outside- beautiful weather come back soon!!!!

And here are my 2 Easter photos

2011-05-05T15:37:00.001-04:00

Just after waking up and before the Easter basket was handed out

Just after the Easter goodies were handed out

I did a pretty lame job of taking pictures on Easter but it was a good day. This year, Brendan was so excited for the Easter Bunny to come to his house. We didn’t do much else- no egg hunt, no big dinner- it was a pretty laid back day, which is what I needed. Brendan loved all this little toys (we decided to forgo the candy mostly since Brendan doesn’t really like most candy) and had a blast playing with all of his new stuff while Alex took a super long nap after church. It was a great day to relax and remember our Savior.

Sometimes, I wonder why I bother

2011-05-05T15:28:00.001-04:00

Recently, the library had a small petting zoo set up for the kids to enjoy and of course we had to go. Brendan loves animals and so I knew he would enjoy this. Brendan was definitely impressed by the giant turtle. And that little lamb in the photo above was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

I spotted a goat, so I was in heaven too. It’s a strange dream of mine to own a lot of land one day and have goats. They’re just so stinkin’ cute! And then I saw this:

Two baby goats!!!! I was a goner. I could have stayed and played with the baby goats all day.

There was a sheep as well which was not as soft as I expected but still it was cool. The animals were much more subdued than I thought could be possible with a bunch of young children running around screaming and trying to poke them.

The funny part was that Brendan looked at the animals for about 5 minutes and then all he wanted to do was run around the grassy field with his buddy Nate and play with sticks and rocks. Such a boy!

The boy likes to eat

2011-05-05T15:11:00.001-04:00

Alex is such a better eater than Brendan was as a baby and for that, I am grateful! It was always such work to get Brendan to eat- and still is- but with Alex, if you put food in front of him (or even in the vicinity), he wants it.

I don’t actually let him eat pieces of bread this giant; it was just for picture-taking purposes but he was totally into.

This was more manageable for him and he was happier since he could actually get it in his mouth.

What a happy boy! It’s so nice to be able to make him happy since we’ve had a lot of cranky days due to this:

Can you see that tooth there on the bottom? It’s amazing how something so small can cause so much trouble. But then Alex bit me and I realized it much sharper than I thought it would be, so maybe he’s not overreacting. :)

Okay, one more food shot and I’m done.

I just couldn’t resist that messy face. And look! He doesn’t lean/slump to the side anymore! Baby boy is growing up… too fast, if you ask me.

My Sleeping Beauty

2011-04-14T15:25:00.001-04:00

Two nights ago, Alex fell asleep in his high chair. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

I was busy putting away dishes in the dishwasher and trying to hurry before bed time, so I stuck him in his chair with a bottle to keep him happy. I looked over after a minute and this is what I saw.

So of course my first reaction was to quietly yell for Chris to come and see this, and than I grabbed my camera to take pictures.

He barely woke up when I gently picked him up and took him upstairs for bed. Oh man, this baby kills me. Just when I think I can’t love him any more than I already do, he goes and does something like this that makes me fall for him even harder.

There’s Something About Teddy

2011-04-14T15:17:00.001-04:00

Recently I gave Alex Brendan’s Teddy to play with and Alex was instantly smitten with him.

I would dangle Teddy above him and Alex would squeal and and shake his whole body in delight. Who knew that a simple bear would make him so happy?!

And of course, Teddy made it into his mouth.

Brendan was well known for sucking on Teddy’s nose (which once had a leather covering on it that is now non-existent) and Alex wasted no time trying to do the same thing.

He also spent a lot of time inspecting Teddy.

It was so cute watching him. I just love this little boy.

He was so happy and all because of Teddy. I think we need to get Alex his very own bear. And soon.

Endurance

2011-04-04T20:56:00.001-04:00

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the 13th Article of Faith. It just happens to be the Mutual theme for 2011 and so every Wednesday night, I would recite it along with the youth of our ward. The part that has really stuck out to me has been:

“…indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

I’ve been, how shall I put it, a bit cantankerous lately. I’m drained from all the sickness that we’ve dealt with this year so far. I’m constantly exhausted and cranky since I’m up with Alex during the night. I’m short-tempered and impatient with Brendan. I’m frustrated that I can never keep my house clean. I’m tired of dishes and vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms. I also tend to over exaggerate things and only see the negative side of things happening around me. One small thing suddenly becomes a huge obstacle for me because I let my self get carried away. I think that with the craziness that has been our life lately, I’ve lost sight of the mom/wife/woman that I want to be. To put it simply, I have not been a happy camper as of late and I have definitely not been “enduring” my trials very well.

I know that my problem mostly lies within me. I’ve needed an attitude adjustment for a while now and I’ve needed to focus on the virtuous, lovely, and praiseworthy things/moments in my life instead of focusing on the negative and mundane. I definitely need to “seek after” all the good that I have in my life, because really, I’ve been hugely blessed. This weekend’s General Conference was definitely just what I needed to get me started on the right track, and I feel so refreshed and uplifted after listening to the words of our Prophet and Apostles.

Also, I was recently released from my calling as 1st Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. It was definitely a bittersweet moment for me since I absolutely LOVE the young women and being able to serve in that capacity was a faith building experience in many ways. But that calling also stressed me out and took a lot of time, and with two small children and a busy husband, time is precious to me and not abundant anyways. I will now be teaching the Miamaids class though, so I’m grateful that I’ll still get to be a part of the awesome YW program. But I was released because Chris was called to be the Young Men’s President, which stresses me out in a different way but yet I feel very at peace because I know that this will be a good thing for our family.

Things have been going better the past few days. On Sunday, we enjoyed the mild weather and took a walk as a family. Brendan really is the sweetest boy ever and he deserves to have a mom who is patient and kind. Especially when he picks me “flowers”.

I’m hoping that the weather decides to stay mild and decent so that we can get out do more of this. It really helps all of us to be in better spirits.

I have the cutest kids. The little patch on Alex’s sweater says “Captain Adorable” and that he is. I can’t get over how sweet and adorable he is.

And tonight we headed out for ice cream since it was so warm today. It was the perfect way to end the day.

It’s these fun, happy moments together as a family that make all the difficult times worth it.

Wishful thinking

2011-03-31T15:20:00.001-04:00

I’m going to pretend that the high temperature today isn’t 45 degrees and instead I’m going to remember a day when it was above 70 and we got to play at the park with some friends.

Brendan is quite the expert climber now. He used to be too scared to go over the climbing wall by himself and now he wants to do it to show off.

More climbing. It was so nice to be able to go out and get some of Brendan’s energy out. We came home in time to put Alex down for his afternoon nap and Brendan rested on the couch next to me while we watched Cars. It was nice to have a quite afternoon together.

And then later, he was back to being his crazy self. I love his outfit choice- pj bottoms that are too big and falling off his tiny butt, one of Alex’s bibs turned around so it’s a cape, and his shower cap for his scalp medicine. Totally Brendan.

And we can’t forget Alex. Here he is rocking a pair of the awesome socks Ian and Erin sent us. I love them and am glad his feet have finally grown so they fit him!

We recently all caught another nasty cold and unfortunately Alex got it the worst out of all of us. I took this picture after a late night visit to urgent care because his fever was so high and I couldn’t get it to come down. The doctor also ordered a chest x-ray and I had never seen one done on a baby before so I was quite surprised. The x-ray technician sat Alex in what looked like a bicycle seat inside of a toilet seat and then closed him in a clear plastic tube with his little arms sticking straight up and a whole cut out of it for his face to stick out. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen but of course Alex screamed through the whole thing. Poor baby. Turns out it was worth it though because he had a mild case of pneumonia. When we got home he was so exhausted he didn’t even wake up when Chris took him out of the car seat.

Thanks to antibiotics, he’s back to his normal self (except for the diarrhea that it causes) and sleeping much better at night.

Thank goodness!!!!

6 months? No, it can’t be true!

2011-03-17T11:52:00.001-04:00

How did my Goober get to be so big? I feel like the past six months have just flown by. This boy gets cuter and cuter every. single. day.

He’s entered the realm of eating real food and while he enjoys most of the baby food we’ve tried so far, he seems to have a dislike for bananas. Really? Doesn’t that seem strange? To each his own.

Alex doesn’t quite fit in his high chair but he’ll grow into it. It gets the job done at least.

He’s got the sideways lean down.

The other day he refused to eat for a solid 5 minutes because he just wanted to suck his thumb. Alex loves his thumb and he’s sucked it raw because he doesn’t just suck but he gnaws on it constantly.

And he always sucks his thumb with his fingers open and palm up. Funny boy.

Some things about Alex:

He does NOT enjoy bath time
He is finally napping for more than 30 minutes (this has been a huge struggle for us the past couple of weeks)
He loves to make noise by banging toys, spoons or whatever he can get his hands on
Everything is starting to make its way to his mouth
He gives smiles freely but he’s stingy with his giggles
Dad gets the biggest smiles from him
He wakes up way too early because he poops EVERY MORNING (gah!)
He’s finally starting to fit his 3-6 month clothing
He has figured out how to scoot around on his back
He loves to jump
He has way more hair than Brendan did at this age
He is still such an easy-going baby and I just love him to pieces!!

My heart is full these days.

Waiting for Spring

2011-03-14T16:12:00.001-04:00

It feels like we’ve been cooped up in our house for way too long this winter and I’m anxiously awaiting warmer weather and sunshine. I’m hoping Spring will also mean less colds and viruses; we’ve been sick WAY too much this winter which is another reason we’ve been home-bound a lot this winter. But at least we have things like “Angry Birds” on the iPad to keep us entertained. Me and Brendan spend a lot of time together playing this.

Brendan’s also gotten to play with his best buddy Josh but not as much as he’d like. They were so cute the other week painting and chatting while they worked. I love those two boys together.

I figured I should post a few pictures of random things, like a couple of when my parents were here taking care of me and my kids while I was healing from surgery.

And here’s a shot of me when I was jaundice. Cute, huh? I happened to take this the day before I went into surgery.

And now a couple of my Goober.

This little boy LOVES his bottle.

That’s all for now. My camera is loaded with more pictures that I need to upload and hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze some time in to get that done and then I will post some more. There are changes coming soon that I think (and hope and pray) will mean I’ll have a little more time on my hands to get things that I want/need to get done. We shall see. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

FINALLY!!

2011-02-28T14:03:00.001-05:00

I am slowly feeling more like myself these days and the recovery is going good so I decided to post some pictures that I took a couple days ago of Alex in the jumperoo. This jumper has been a lifesaver, providing endless hours of fun for Alex while I would lay on the couch unable to do much else.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted pics of my littlest boy and wow, he has really changed. I apologize for denying you the cuteness of my baby.

Oh, those dimples make me so happy.

I caught him smiling up at Chris- he seriously loves to stare at him. It’s adorable.

And the tongue is ALWAYS out these days. Again, adorable.

This is not the best picture in the world and yet I love it. This is a classic Alex expression. He always looks surprised and it never fails to make me laugh.

Brendan had to get in on the action too. He just loves his baby brother and Alex adores him too. These boys are the sweetest and I’m so lucky to be their mom!

A very long story made short

2011-02-07T20:39:00.001-05:00

These past few weeks have been supremely rough for us. It started with horrible colds, fevers, sore throats, runny noses like you've never seen before, long sleepless nights, and then finally strep throat. It was a doozy of a cold we all got but we survived. Until I had the most horrible gallbladder pain- it was seriously some of the worst pain of my life. I saw a couple doctors, had a bunch of tests done, and found out I had a stone blocking my common bile duct. Which made me extremely jaundice. This all ended with me being admitted to the hospital immediately and having a couple of procedures done, the last of which was on open cholecystectomey. They basically cut open my abdomen to remove that stubborn stone causing so much trouble and my gallbladder. All the while, Chris was somehow able to juggle our two kids, One of which was a baby with an ear infection and who was NOT sleeping well, and still found time to get work done and visit me too. I was in the hospital for a week but I'm finally home now. My parents are here helping out and I don't know what we would do without them. I'm nervous about the recovery (it's going to be long and I can't even lift my baby right now!) and I'm nervous about keeping up my milk supply to nurse Alex but overall I am so very grateful to be home with my boys and for the many small miracles that I have witnessed the last couple of weeks. Thank you to all my family, friends and ward members who have helped my family, listened to me cry, and were there to support us with kind deeds and words. The love I have felt has been overwhelming. It has been a trial, no doubt about it, but it has definitely made me more grateful for the important things in life.

Shame on me

2011-01-02T21:35:00.001-05:00

It's been way too long since I've posted so I'm going to do my best to catch up in a very small nutshell.

This is from before Thanksgiving but Brendan look so sweet and cute I had to post it. One night for family home evening, we made a "thankful" tree and Brendan loved it. He was so proud of his tree!

We had a cold spell that made me want to never leave the house but when we did have to venture out, Alex's hat made it a bit more bearable. Sorry for the pun- I couldn't resist.

This isn't the best photo but I took it shortly after Alex started smiling. He just melts my heart. He is the sweetest, most lovable baby and I'm so lucky to have him. I wish I could write about all the adorable things he does and to document all of our struggles and triumphs, but I just don't have enough time or energy. But suffice it to say that he has his bad moments as well as his good, but for the most part, he's very easy-going and easy to please. Now if he would just sleep through the night... oh please, SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT ALEX!!!

Christmas was fantastic. Everything about Christmas makes me happy and we had such a wonderful holiday together as a family. My favorite part was watching Brendan get excited and enjoy the season too.

Brendan couldn't wait to rip into his presents (the above are him tearing into the gifts from the grandparents). That boy was spoiled and he loved it.

Alex was adorable as always on Christmas morning enjoying his favorite activity- sucking on his hands and fingers.

This one is for Carrie. The hat was a gift from Chris' sister and Alex loves it and looks quite handsome in it as well. His dad couldn't be more proud of his budding Nuggets fan.

We also made it up to the DC temple to see the lights and it was beautiful. It did make me a little homesick for Temple Square in Utah, though. Nothing can compare to the Salt Lake Temple lights but we still enjoyed the DC temple and it was a great opportunity to talk to Brendan about the temple and why it's special. Plus we got to go with some wonderful friends and Brendan was so excited to get to play with their kids too.

Now I must finish wrapping some birthday gifts for a certain little boy who will be FOUR tomorrow. My, how time flies!

Good times

2010-11-28T13:31:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, my parents came out to visit us, get to know Alex and spoil Brendan. It was awesome having them in town and I wished they never had to leave. It’s hard being so far from our families.

Brendan loved playing with Grandpa George and doing all sorts of things that I can’t/won’t do with him. He had so much fun, and I think my dad did too. He was a pro at soothing my sweet baby and putting him to sleep. (I had to get a shot of Alex’s rad baby mullet!)

My mom really wanted to take Brendan to the Build a Bear workshop and it turned out to be an excellent idea. Brendan was so excited to pick out his very own special bear.

Brendan loved helping stuff, wash and dress his bear. He picked out the clothes and everything. He even named him. At first when asked what he wanted to name his bear, he replied “Teddy” but since he already has a bear named Teddy, he picked another. His second choice was T. Bear and I think it is the cutest name ever. It amazes me what this kiddo comes up with.

These are not the happiest photos but trust me, he loves his T. Bear. He sleeps with him every night and carries him around the house. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We also blessed Alex on November 4th. It was a special day for us and I really wish I had better pictures of that day but all I have are dark pictures and Alex is crying in every. single. shot. Oh well.

At least Brendan was smiling and had fun with my camera’s remote.

Brendan also finally saw a dermatologist for his scalp and we got him some medicine requires him to swear a shower cap at night. It’s pretty hilarious but the good news is the medicine works like a dream!

And here he is showing off his cool cap and pounding his chest like Donkey Kong, his latest obsession.

And on the 16th, I turned the big 3-0. Crazy.

Brendan was a little confused and thought it was his birthday so he helped me blow out the candles and open my presents. He even helped me eat one of my presents (a bag of my favorite candy- Swedish fish). Brendan’s always ready to help when a treat is involved. :)

Well, that is all the exciting stuff going on here. And now, I’m ready for Christmas preparations!

Some kind of magic

2010-11-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

First off, some pictures of my sweet baby. He had his two month appointment a couple of weeks ago and he is officially 10 lbs now! 10.1 to be exact, which puts him in the 14th% for his weight. I love my tiny baby.

This little guy just kills me. He’s so sweet and cuddly and loveable, and he knows it too. He’s definitely a mama’s boy so far (finally! Brendan was always a daddy’s boy) and I’m eating it up. He’s starting to smile at me and it is the cutest thing in the world. I had forgotten how amazing it is when baby’s start to smile. I’m definitely under his spell.

I couldn’t resist this “getting sleepy” face. Alex is still a pretty good sleeper and I couldn’t be more thankful since I know how rough it is to have a bad sleeper (aka Brendan), although if he happened to want to sleep a little longer at night I wouldn’t complain.

And of course his confused face. I love when he furrows his eyebrows and how his little forehead scrunches up. The cuteness never ends. Until…

my other favorite boy enters the picture, and then things usually end up like this-

Poor Alex. Brendan doesn’t quite know what to do with all the love he has for his baby brother and so he ends up being a little more rough than he means to be. But Alex takes it in stride and I know down the road, these two boys are going to be the best of friends.

Much better!

An Epic Post

2010-11-02T16:07:00.001-04:00

I have tried to write this post a half dozen times over the last week or so but it seems that as soon as I sit down at the computer something comes up. Currently Alex is asleep in my arms and I’m typing with one hand, so please excuse any typos or errors but I’m determined to get this done!

A couple of weeks ago, Chris’ parents came to visit and help us out. We loved having them here-Brendan especially loved all the attention and extra play time.

We were sad to see them go but so very grateful for all their help and love. Every time Brendan sees a plane he waves to it and says, “Hi Grammy!”- he really misses his grandparents.

Brendan was totally stoked about Halloween this year. I found some glow-in-the-dark skeleton pjs and they had to be ours. I think I loved them as much as Brendan did.

It didn’t take long for Brendan to decide what to be for Halloween- he saw an ad for PartyCity that had a Mario costume in it and it was love at first sight. He HAD to have it. When we went to the store to pick it up, they were out of his size which really ruined Brendan’s day. He cried and cried until we finally went online and found one for him. When it arrived in the mail, he put it on right away and modeled for everyone.

The mustache was my favorite part but unfortunately the sticky side lasted about 2 seconds so we ended up painting a mustache on him.

The size that we ordered for him was a tiny bit small on him, as evidenced by Brendan pulling out his permanent wedgie. That didn’t stop him from loving it though.

We went trick-or-treating with the Andersson’s and Terry’s (which made trick or treating enjoyable for us too since we got to hang out with our good friends). It would have been perfect if Brendan had been Woody to complete the Toy Story theme Ella and Josh had going on, but Mario was still awesome. Brendan absolutely LOVED getting candy and the kiddos ran non-stop for the first half hour, they were so excited to go to all the different houses and get more candy. Towards the end, Brendan figured out how to get extra candy. He would ever so sweetly say “trick or treat” and get his candy. But instead of leaving the house, he would say “Wait. Just one more.” and of course no one can resist the cuteness of my child (especially in his awesome costume) so Brendan would inevitably get an extra piece of candy. Chris was delighted by this.

Brendan hasn’t eaten a single piece of his stash but on Monday morning, he dumped out his bag and began sorting it. He spent about an hour grouping all the different candies together in different arrangements. First it was by type, then by color and then by size. It was pretty awesome.

We also carved a pumpkin and this is the first year that Brendan actually participated. Brendan went back and forth deciding between a happy face or an angry face. In the end, a happy face won out. He was a bit grossed out by the inside of the pumpkin and lost interest in it after that so Chris finished up the job. I don’t have a good picture of the finished product but trust me, it was cool.

And of course, I can’t leave Alex out of this post.

He’s definitely starting to pack some fat onto his little body and I constantly want to kiss his chubby cheeks. He’s still a pretty good sleeper and really is the sweetest baby ever. I’m slowly adjusting to having 2 kids and figuring out how to get things done but it’s definitely been a challenge at times. I’m looking forward to Alex getting on a schedule hopefully sometime in the near future, which I think will help things. Every day gets a bit easier though and I’m grateful for that.

See, he’s getting chubby! This a classic Alex expression- he always looks a bit skeptical or confused and it never fails to make me laugh.

I can’t believe how big he’s getting. And these pictures were taken almost 2 weeks ago.

My parents are coming into town tonight (hurray!) for a week long visit so I’m sure I’ll be absent from the blog again for a little while. Hopefully these pictures will hold every one over. Until next time…

Our Alex

2010-10-03T13:55:00.000-04:00

Our little Alex is slowly getting bigger. At his two week appointment this past week, he weighed in at 6lbs 8oz- which is a full pound heavier than he was when we took him in to check his jaundice levels when he was 3 days old. Alex is a good eater and I'm grateful for that.

Alex loves his swing and it's the spot you can find him the most... well, besides my arms, that is. He loves to suck on his lower lip and it's constantly tucked into his mouth. He hates yawning.

He loves looking around him when he's awake, which is started to be for longer periods of time now.

And he loves his big brother. Which is a good thing since Brendan loves to give Alex kisses or love taps constantly.

Alex is such a sweet, good-natured baby. He rarely cries and when he does it's not for very long. He's great in his car seat and seems to enjoy car rides. He sleeps well and thankfully lets us get 3 hour stretches of rest at night (usually). We're lucky to have this little boy in our lives. He's such a blessing to our family.

A bit of a rough start but things are looking up

2010-09-25T20:07:00.000-04:00

My first week on my own with two kids was off to a rocky start. Brendan picked up a nasty virus somewhere and proceeded to spend 5 days vomiting and battling horrible diarrhea. Being puked on multiple times a day was really not what I imagined our first week alone to be like, but we got through it... somehow.

My sick boy was back in pull-ups since he couldn't control his bowel movements. I felt so bad for him! Unfortunately, Brendan passed on his virus to me but luckily mine only lasted about 24 hours. Chris was able to work from home a couple of days to help me out, which was a huge help both physically and emotionally. It's probably no surprise that I was a bit of wreck worrying over Brendan not being able to keep even water down, worrying over the possibility of Alex getting sick, and being stressed out to the max. I'm extremely grateful that I have such an amazing husband and I'm also extremely grateful for prayer. There was a lot of praying going on and I know that we heard and were blessed and strengthened. I couldn't have gotten through those few days without that extra comfort and strength.

Luckily, we are all now back to normal and are all healthy.

Alex was a little jaundice as well, which I found out runs higher in the second child if the first was jaundice- and Brendan was very jaundice and spent a few days on a bilibed for light therapy. Luckily, Alex's levels were never high enough to warrant light therapy and his "tan" has almost completely faded at this point. And don't you love how he's sucking on his fingers? I sure do. Alex loves to suck on his hands and fingers when he can get them by his mouth long enough to get a hold of them. He melts my heart.

Now it's time for some cute photos that don't need much commentary from me.

Brendan took advantage of Alex's changing pad being free and decided to lounge on it... naked, of course.

Brendan also loves my nursing pillow and constantly wants to use it. He gets mad sometimes when I need to use it and he can't.

One tired dad and one sweet baby. I love my boys!

I'm looking forward to this next week going much more smoothly than this past week- wish me luck!

We had a baby!

2010-09-15T18:33:00.000-04:00

Alelx Matthew Near finally decided it was time to stop torturing me and came 5 days early on September 14 at 6:40am. It was a fast (but very intense) labor and luckily a very quick delivery. Alex weighed in at a tiny 5lbs 14oz and is 19 inches long.

We couldn't be happier and we're all smitten with him- even Brendan, who is behaving like a first-class big brother.

We're all home now but posting will probably be sparse for a little while as we all make some adjustments around here. Let's hope this little guy decides to be a good sleeper!

Labor Day

2010-09-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

I was hoping that today would indeed prove to be "labor" day but unfortunately, it's looking like this baby is happy to keep chillin' in the womb for a little bit longer. I'm having contractions every now and then but nothing major to get me really excited, and on last Friday my doctor informed me that I'm dilated to a 1 but that really didn't mean much since I was stuck at a 1 with Brendan for a couple of weeks. But at least my body is getting ready and I know the next couple of weeks will just fly by... right?

The weather has been surprisingly awesome the last few days, so we've been taking advantage of it. We took Brendan to the park for the first time in quite a while (sad but true) and he loved it.

We got to do all the things he loves: swing, run around chasing each other, get super dirty, eat a yummy treat, and throw rocks in water.

He was even in such a good mood that he would pose in a picture with me.

And because we wanted to reward him for doing so awesome with his night-time potty training (still no accidents! Keep your fingers crossed for us), we went out and got him a surprise-

His very own marble race. He loves it and spent 3 hours straight playing with it that afternoon. Best toy we've ever purchased for him.

He Still Surprises Me

2010-09-04T10:12:00.000-04:00

This picture is a bit old but I couldn't resist putting it up here. I happened to be looking through old photos of my little beloved and just about died at the cuteness of my child. How has he grown up so much?????

And this morning, we had yet another reminder of how grown up he is. Brendan made it through the whole night in his underwear without having a single accident. No more pull-ups for this little boy! And it was all Brendan, too. He decided last night as we were getting ready for bed that he did NOT want to wear pull-ups anymore- just his undies. So I figured "why not?" and we let him wear his favorite Yo Gabba Gabba underwear to bed, fully prepared to have a very soggy child in the morning. Boy, were we wrong. He was still dry at 11pm when we checked on him and this morning he was dry as a bone. My boy is awesome.

Now I'm cursing myself for buying the econo-size box of pull-ups from Costco last week of which he's used probably less than 10. Anyone need 70 pull-ups?

How Brendan plays Skee Ball and Proof that we do more than sit at home and play the Wii

2010-08-22T22:57:00.001-04:00

This past week, we enjoyed a trip to the Prince William County Fair and it was pretty awesome.

We got to hang out with the Anderssons so Brendan was stoked to be with his best buddy, Josh. They were holding hands all evening and it was so cute. Brendan loved the fair but it was even better since he got to share the night with Josh.

The rides were pretty awesome too although the only one I got to enjoy was the ferris wheel, but it was still fun.

Brendan got to go down a giant slide again and he loved it as much as he did last year.

Chris also took him on a spinning ride and Brendan just ended up laying down on Chris’s lap for the whole thing. But he got off smiling and loving it so it was worth it.

Needless to say, Brendan cried when it was time to go home but soon stopped when we got some fried dough, which is what I was really looking forward to. It was as good as I hoped. The night was exactly what I needed- some quality time with my family and good friends, delicious treats and getting to watch my little boy have the time of his life.

Seeing a turtle in our yard was also a highlight for Brendan this week. This little guy moved faster that I thought he would- I thought turtles were supposed to be slow? He was definitely not- he quickly ran away once Chris put him down.

This is as close as Brendan would get to him, which is funny since he got to pet a python at a library sponsored program and he wasn’t afraid of that at all. I guess a turtle’s head is a little more intimidating than the tail of a giant snake.

We also spent some time at the Washington National Cathedral since I still hadn’t seen it. It was pretty amazing and much bigger than I thought.

The inside of the church is just as impressive- very ornate and very beautiful.

After being super good while we walked around inside, Brendan enjoyed running and jumping around the grounds.

And here’s a shot of my giant belly. Today someone asked me when I was due and if there was just one baby. It totally made me feel awesome. And sadly, she is not the first to ask me that question. Oh well, only FOUR more weeks to go. Can you believe it? I can’t!

Proof that I may be the laziest mother…

2010-08-11T14:47:00.001-04:00

Brendan has been enjoying some quality Wii time lately and the boy is seriously becoming a pro at the New Super Mario Brothers game. The Wii has really come in handy for when we need an activity and it’s too hot to play outside.

I have to be careful though because Brendan would play all day long if I let him- but I don’t. It’s just nice to have some down time so I can rest and relax a little.

Watching random videos about marble races, Thomas trains or Nintendo games on YouTube is also another favorite activity.

He loves it.

But don’t worry, we’ve been up to other more stimulating activities as well. These are just the only pictures I have to show for the past few weeks. :)

A bit overwhelmed

2010-07-26T20:31:00.001-04:00

I only have 8 weeks left of this pregnancy… it’s very strange to write that because it seems like such a small number but September 19th seems so far away still- especially in this heat that we’ve been having here. Of course the summer that I’m pregnant has to be a record-breaking summer with temperatures in the 100’s far too often. This has been a hard summer so far. We’ve been trying to find things to do inside (since air conditioning is a must for me) and we’ve managed to tag-along to a pool with a friend a handful of times but it seems that the majority of the time we are just hanging out at home. Brendan has been anxious to play with his friends and get out to the park but it’s just too hot. Poor kid. I’m struggling to find activities to do with him to keep him entertained but hopefully the heat will back off a little so we can resume normal summer activities.

My parents came out at the end of June to visit with us and to help watch Brendan while I was supposed to be at Girls Camp.

Unfortunately the night before I was supposed to leave for camp, I had horrible, intense pain in my stomach- which has turned out to be gallstones and am now on a lovely restricted diet (goodbye delicious fatty, greasy foods) for the rest of this pregnancy. I ended up missing most of camp since I was in and out of the doctor’s for tests and still in some pain- I had no idea gallstones could hurt so bad- and I was bummed that I couldn’t be there. I’m glad my parents were here to help out though since Chris and I were in urgent care that first night for about 3 hours until 1:00am. It would have been even worse if we had had to drag Brendan out of bed and sit around the doctor’s office all night with a cranky three year old. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

We did get to do a few touristy things with them while they were here luckily. We hit up DC (again it was so stinkin’ hot) and got to see some of the sights.

We even ventured out to Mt Vernon the Saturday before they left. We hadn’t visited there yet so it was a new adventure for all of us and it turned out to be pretty cool.

The grounds and gardens were amazingly beautiful, which I probably would have enjoyed even more if it hadn’t been so hot. But it was well worth it and I’m glad that we could go with my parents.

Their visit seemed way too short though and Brendan was so sad to see them leave. The day after they left, he asked if we could go to Grampy and Grammy’s house and cried when I said “not today” (an answer he gets quite often from me these days). I know he’s looking forward to seeing them again soon shortly after his baby brother is born.

Speaking of his baby brother, I still haven’t done much to prepare for this baby, including deciding on a name. Chris and I have very different tastes in names and boy names just seem to be hard for us. Chris is still rooting for Baxter but I don’t think it’s going to happen. It’s starting to stress me out that we don’t have a name chosen now that the clock is ticking. I also haven’t done much to get the nursery ready either. No bedding picked out, no furniture bought, and no clothes purchased (sort of). In general, I’ve done a shockingly small amount of shopping for this baby, which is very odd for me. In short, the only thing I’ve done is sort through Brendan’s baby clothes to see what will work for baby #2 and my mom ended up washing most of them for me since I only got as far as throwing them in a pile in the nursery. I probably wouldn’t have done it yet if it weren’t for her. We’ve got a ton to do in a short amount of time now and I’ve starting keeping a list of everything I’ve got to accomplish, which is stressing me out even more when I look at it or add three new things to it. Add to that the fact that I’m not sleeping well, I feel gianormous, I’m sweaty all of the time because of the heat, I’ve got KILLER heartburn, and I’m exhausted from trying to deal with Brendan. Needless to say, I’m ready for this summer to be over and the baby to be here… if only I can get everything on my list checked off.

And then a pipe in our bathroom had to burst. It was not a fun way to be awoken at 6:30 in the morning to water gushing out the wall behind the toilet. Since it happened on the top floor, the water managed to flood our main floor and basement in areas where the water seeped down through the ceiling and walls. We were lucky enough to get it fixed that same day but went for most of the day with no running water and no air conditioning. It was not fun. I’m just glad that Chris was home when it happened and knew how to shut off the main water valve (something I now know!) and could work from home that day to help me out with the clean-up and watching after Brendan. Now we’re just waiting to get some walls and ceilings patched up, which is luckily the worst of the damage.

On a funnier note, here’s a picture of Brendan after he slathered half a jar of hair pomade onto his head. This just shows how attentive I am these days. He was so proud of himself for doing his “daddy hair”. He is still very much a daddy’s boy and wants to do everything his dad does, so in a way this was so sweet.

But it took a lot of shampoo to get it all out of his hair.

Some things that I forgot to post back in June

2010-07-05T20:40:00.001-04:00

There’s no real reason for this post other than I realized I had some pictures I wanted to post that I had completely forgotten about- so here they are with minimal words.

Enjoying water activities in our “yard” with his buddy.

These were all taken at Chris’ work party. Brendan loved the mini golf!

Brendan going down a waterslide

They had a giant waterslide for the kids to enjoy and Brendan gave it a go. He almost chickened out when he got to the top but luckily there was a little girl behind him to tell him to go down, and so he did. I think it scared him more than anything and he decided that once was enough.

Back in the end of May, Chris’ grandma also got baptized and he’s neglected to do a post so I thought I’d at least include a photo from the few that he took. We’re so thrilled that Pumpkin made the decision to be baptized and Chris has promised that he’ll devote a post to that weekend very soon.

Summer is going by fast luckily and I’m already at 29 weeks! Here’s to hoping that the weather cools down some (yeah right).

My So-Called Life

2010-06-21T10:39:00.001-04:00

The heat here is really getting to me so all we seem to be doing lately is sitting inside my nice, cool, air conditioned house. I feel bad for Brendan since he deserves to be out playing and having fun but I’m just not up to it most of the time.

So we end up doing this a lot- me sitting on our porch in the shade while Brendan occupies himself.

It’s so hot that I don’t even care when Brendan squirts me with his little water gun. In fact, I encourage him to squirt me to help cool me down.

I’ve been doing some baking as well since I’m always in the mood to eat and Brendan helps by licking the bowl clean. He loves to help me bake and cook.

I’ve been feeling guilty for not doing fun things this summer so I made Chris take us to a cute park that a friend told me about that has a short train ride and an awesome carousel for kids. Here we are enjoying the train ride. Brendan was so excited and loved when the train would blow its whistle. We even got to go through a tunnel and Brendan thought that was pretty cool too.

The carousel was a big hit too. Brendan had so much fun and every time they circled around, he would wave happily to me. This is the second time he’s been on a carousel (the first was in Spokane- remember that, Angela!) and I think he enjoyed it a bit more this time.

Once again, the heat got to me so we didn’t last very long. Brendan got to ride the train and carousel and play on the playground, and then it was back in the car to head home. Brendan didn’t seem to upset though- he was pretty worn out from all the excitement.

And we recently found out that Brendan officially qualifies for speech therapy through a local program in our school district called Child Find. It’s taken 4 months to go through all the assessments and meetings but it is finally official- the only down side is that we have to wait until school starts in September again. I hate waiting but I’m looking forward to Brendan getting some awesome help. He’s doing much better and is constantly talking and using new words, but now his big problem is articulation. I probably only understand him about 70% of the time and I’m his mom. So until we start his therapy, we’re trying to get him to pronounce things correctly and break some of his bad habits. The big one we’re working on is “daddy”- Brendan has a tendency to favor the “w” sound and so he says “da-wee” even though he can say it correctly. It’s getting really old correcting him over and over and over, but hopefully it makes a difference. I just love that he’s talking so much more and we’re now able to have little conversations together. It’s so cool. He surprised me the other day by pretending to ride the broom like a horse and saying “Yee-haw! Ride ‘em cowboy!” I have no idea where he picked that up from! And today he was talking about telescopes- also have no idea where that come from. But I love it.

Zach Attack!

2010-06-13T16:16:00.027-04:00

This post is about the time when Valerie flew to Texas to be with some friends and Zach Parry Esquire flew to Virginia to hang out with Brendan and Myself.

First, a couple of things to know about Zach:

1. Yes, he is indeed the same Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell. As most of you know, he dyes his hair dark brown for his current role on Raising the Bar.

2. Zach is absolutely a lego maniac.

3. Zach still tours with his band "Zach Attack," which features Kelly on backing vocals, Lisa on bass, and Slater on drums.

Okay, the story begins with Valerie leaving for Texas. Now, I've never been a big fan of Texas; however, I did approve of Valerie going there to be with some friends because she deserved a little break and it had been many years since she'd seen these particular friends.

This was the first time Valerie would be away from Brendan overnight. I don't know about Valerie, but Brendan cried a little at first. Every day he would ask "Where's Mommy? and every day I would tell him "Your mommy was very naughty, so she got sent to Texas." Then we'd both cry.

Valerie left Thursday and Zach came into town on Friday morning. His flight left Vegas at 1:00AM, had a layover in Minnesota, then finally made its way down to D.C. around 11:00 AM. When Zach finally made his way out of the airport we embraced each other and Zach lifted me up off the ground. He doesn't know this, but I even lifted my leg up behind me when we hugged; just like in the movies.

And that was how we began our weekend of a real-life episode of My Two Dads.

Obviously, I was the cool dad with the beard and Zach was the boring, strict dad with the highly fashionable sweaters. And Brendan got to be the girl with the long, teased hair and hunky boyfriend played by Ricky Schroeder (Who, for your information, is now a Mormon).

Due to formatting issues I have to work around the photos I already uploaded into this post. It won't let me change the order of the pictures I put in, so this post will be in reverse order of how our weekend actually went. The coolest part of the picture above is, and I'm sure we can all agree, Zach's shirt. The shirt is a charcoal color. Slightly faded in the shoulders and neck region. Made in Indonesia entirely of a 50/50 cotton/polyester blend. It portrays a person dancing like a robot. The person dances a few moves, then gets pounded on the head by an actual robot. I assume it's because they weren't dancing up to real robot standards. As a side note, Zach is standing by some waterfall that we went to in northern Virginia. The signs in the bathroom stated "If you fall in the water, you will die." In hindsight, I'm not sure if that was a reference to the waterfall or the toilets. Fortunately, we all made it out alive. Brendan loved it because he got to throw rocks in the water. I loved it because I got to throw rocks in the water. Zach loved it because he got to take great pictures with his cool camera.

Next topic. Pictured above is Brendan sleeping. This was after a long day traveling across D.C.
Anyone that knows Brendan knows that he only sleeps when absolutely necessary, but that's how tired he was. Of course, he woke up once shortly thereafter and ran around and knocked on all the windows outside the Cathedral and tried to jump in the fountain outside the cathedral as well. The cathedral itself was pretty breath-taking. Lots of details, hundreds of stained glass windows, and statues of every kind (including two grotesques, one of Darth Vader's head and one of a raccoon. Both designs picked out by elementary school kids back in the eighties. True story. They're so high up they can only be seen with a zoom lens, but they really are there).

Prior to going to the cathedral we went to the botanical garden right next door to the Capitol building. Zach is an avid botanist and always looks for any chance to explore new plant life inside a hot glass and metal environment (another reason why Zach was the lame dad and I was the cool one). Actually, in hindsight Zach said the botanical garden was probably his least favorite part of the trip. I'm not sure if that included the red eye flight over here or not. But the garden was neat if you like plants alot. It had a cool view of the Capitol building from inside it and it was probably Brendan's favorite part of the trip because he got to spray water and play in the dirt, but for your average Paul Reiser-type of person, the garden was kind of boring. So we took the tour, went up a really slow elevator, saw the plants from a catwalk, played in the kids botany section, then headed out.

Maybe the botanical garden would have seemed cooler if we hadn't just come from the Library of Congress, which happened to be one of the huge highlights of the weekend. The Libaray actually consists of three buildings. One, pictured above, is the one one usually shown in movies and pictures and it's obvious why when you first walk in. The building is immense and almost as ornate and detailed as the National Cathedral. It's certainly more colorful and vibrant. Lots of statues, detailed paintings, and a rotunda with a painted celing somewhat similar to the Capitol. When we first went to the Library of Congress we could only enter certain parts of the building. You have to have a library card to get in to the sections that actually have the books. So the second time we went, we had to go to another Library of Congress building and get our official library cards. Library cards are suppossed to be issued only to "serious" researchers, but we managed to get one even though our purposes were less than serious. The building where you get your card was a major letdown. It reminded us of an elementary school with primary colors used on the doors and lots of laminate floor tiles.

For anyone that tours D.C. the Library of Congress is a must-see.

When we first went to the Library of Congress we accessed the building through a series of
underground tunnels that connected the Capitol to the Library. That means that prior to going to the Library of Congress we spent some time on an official tour of the Capitol. The two of us(that's right, two of us. The first day of the trip Brendan hung out with his friend Josh while Zach and I saw some sights.) started the tour off with a movie on how great the checks and balances system is and how effective the current democratic process is. I'm not sure why they bother showing fictional movies like that before they start you on the tour.

At the tour they give you headphones and briskly herd you around to the rotunda and senate/representatives buildings. The rotunda was impressive and the guide gave some interesting insights into the history of the artwork and the various disgruntled artists that contributed to the work over the years. One angry artist painted his face into a tree as an act of definance before being fired.

The most intriguing part of the tour was when we finished and the guide asked for us to hand him our headphones. We were in the back of the group at the time. We were in a bit of a hurry to get going, but I was content to wait until everyone else turned in their headphones in front of us. However, in a classic Zach move, Zach took my headphones and his own and handed them to a tourist from Hawaii while we took off. The look on her face was priceless as she went from surprised to confused, then to annoyed, and finally to angry as she realized what had happened.

When we left the airport to start touring the city we first had to get some nourishment. The obvious solution was to buy jumbo slices of pizza. Hence, we went to Jumbo Slice Pizza. Or at least we tried to. I'm still not sure what the name of the place was that we ate at. We were looking for a recommended pizza place called Jumbo Slice Pizza. What we found were three shops all on the same block with giant signs that said "Jumbo Slice Pizza." It seemed that one was legitimate, and the other two were jumping on the jumbo slice bandwagon to gain customers. Anyway, whatever one we went to, it had really big slices and it was good. But don't be fooled by the picture above. What looks like ham and canadian bacon is actually turkey. The place we went to didn't sell pork products, but we were surprised when we found out we weren't really eating pork. Couldn't tell the difference.

Again, due to the formatting issues, my pictures are in random order and this post is at the mercy of the Blogger settings. One evening we went downtown to see the national mall including the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and other nearby memorials. The night pictures were some of the best, but most of them wouldn't load into this post. Try to picture big, white monuments with the sun down, but lit up by large lamps and camera flashes.

As shown in the picture, this was a very tiring weekend for us all, but especially Brendan. He would wake up early every morning so he could wake up his second dad by spraying him with a water gun. I'd get Brendan up and the first thing he would say was "Spray Zach?" Then we'd spend pretty much every moment of each day on the go driving to places including the masonic temple, Mt. Vernon, Olive Garden (Only becuase Zach had a gift card, not because we'd normally go to a place like that), a pupuseria, the Supreme Court, the Washington D.C. temple, and many other places.

While looking at the photo I noticed Brendan was missing a shoe. I guess that's what happens when you have two dads. There's no mom to keep an eye on those things, so Brendan gets run ragged dragged around D.C., with only one shoe, he probably had dirty underwear on, his hair was not combed properly, and he was likely being fed popsicles and soda for every meal. For Valerie's purposes, if anything like that did happen, it was Zach's fault.

We definitely made the most of our time. On Tuesday Zach had another long flight back to his family and Brendan and I had a joyful reunion with Valerie at the airport. Her arrival was nearly delayed by her almost missing her flight, but thanks to baby #2 in her belly she was able to cruise through security in a wheelchair and bypass all the long lines. We're back to being a nuclear family and it feels good.

A Girls Weekend

2010-06-07T14:14:00.001-04:00

This past Memorial Day weekend, Chris and I spent the holiday apart which would usually not make for an awesome weekend but this was the exception. I got the chance to spend 5 days with four of my best buddies from college while Chris had Zach, who is the reason Chris and I first met, come stay at our place. Chris will blog about his weekend another time, but this post is all about me and the 4 lovely women that I got to spend my time with. I headed down to Austin, TX last Thursday and met up with my fabulous friends Tara, MaryAnn, Bekah and Lindsay. We all lived on the same floor in the dorms at BYU and have managed to keep the friendships alive even after 10 years. Having never been to Texas before, I was a little surprised by how normal and awesome Austin is- which wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a lot more cowboy hats, giant belt buckles and pickup trucks but instead Austin felt completely hip and urban. My opinion of Texas has greatly improved since my trip but maybe that was because I got to spend this trip with such great company.

Three out of the five of us were pregnant and showing, and I was glad that I was not the only one that needed to be constantly eating but I was jealous of Tara and Bekah’s very flat stomachs.

I hope the girls know what an awesome time I had despite my lack of pictures. I was having too much fun to bust out my camera and be bothered with taking photos- I just wanted to enjoy as much time as I could with these women. Now though I’m sad that I don’t have more photos of all the awesome things that we did (and ate) but let me tell you, this weekend was jammed packed with fun. We went tubing, ate some killer BBQ, hiked and walked a lot, enjoyed a bit of the city atmosphere, and ate one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever had. This is something that I hope we do much more often than once in every 10 years, but this weekend was priceless for me and a much-needed vacation from my everyday life. And next time, I hope we have the complete crew there- we missed you Christine, Jenn and Teagan!

Even though it was much-needed, I still missed my family like crazy and couldn’t wait to see them again. I barely made my flight out of the Austin airport and ended up using my “delicate condition” to my advantage by claiming need of a wheelchair to breeze through the insanely long security line. I thought I had got to the airport with plenty of time to spare but I hadn’t counted on the enormous number of post-holiday travelers who were also trying to fly out Tuesday morning. Luckily this giant pregnant belly is good for something and they gave me a wheelchair without a question and I was able to make my flight with about less than 5 minutes to spare.

When I finally got home, I was rewarded with the sweetest smiles, kisses and snuggles from my child who is not usually very keen on being snuggly. It was awesome and I took full advantage of it.

Of course, it didn’t last long. The next morning, Brendan was back to normal and wouldn’t even smile for me when I tried taking some photos of him.

To my wonderful friends- thanks for the awesome conversations, fun activities and good food. You guys are so inspiring to me and I can’t wait to see you all again!Thanks to Chris (and Zach too) for taking care of Brendan while I was gone- it was such a treat for me and I know it probably wasn’t the easiest.

Our Future Yoga Master

2010-05-21T14:27:00.001-04:00

During my workout one morning, Brendan decided to join in and show off his sweet yoga moves. He loves to stretch (especially when Chris is doing his stretches for his back pain) and he loves my yoga mat.

He’s got some pretty sweet moves.

This boy cracks me up.

My baby is growing up

2010-05-18T11:09:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, Chris took Brendan on his first Father-Son camp out with our church and it made me realize just how grown up Brendan is. I can’t believe he’s old enough to go camping with his dad!

NOTE: As a first hand witness to the camping events, I thought I'd add a few insights into what went on during Brendan's first camp out. My notes will be in red font throughout this post.

NOTE: This is the first time Valerie and I have collaborated on a post.

NOTE: Valerie doesn't know I am doing this. Hopefully she approves of my content.

NOTE: I will now proceed with my details of the weekend's events.

Brendan was super excited about going camping even though we weren’t sure if he knew exactly what camping meant. I did a Google Image search and showed him pictures of people camping and sleeping in tents, and that got him even more excited until I told him he’d be sleeping in a sleeping bag- he didn’t like that idea very much but everything else sounded good to him. While we were getting everything together by the door, Brendan decided to line up all his toys to take with him too. He even packed a backpack full of his trains and cars but unfortunately he had to leave all those behind. Our tent isn’t that big.

I wish we had some video showing Brendan packing up all of his toys for the big camp out. It wasn't just him piling up the toys by the door, it was him yelling, squealing, running back and forth, and the occasional pause as he stopped to think about what other items he needed to pack, then it was back to squealing, running, and yelling. This probably went on for 45 minutes or so. It's safe to say he was excited. He didn't know what camping was, but he new it would be fun and I suspect he thought it would be for more than a day, which is why he felt the need to pack everything he owns.

Brendan was a little mad about the toys but once the car was packed, he was ready to go. Of course it didn’t hurt that his best buddy Josh was going to be there too. Brendan kept saying before they left, “Brendan camping, dad camping, Josh camping.” He was so stoked that his favorite people were all going to be there.

I have to admit that I was worried about this Father and Son camp out. I thought Brendan might run off and get lost in the woods, but to my surprise, he was well behaved and always came back when I called him, even when his friends were off playing elsewhere. If Brendan keeps this up we can avoid the embarrassment of hooking him up to a toddler leash. Although, Brendan might actually enjoy the leash.

Brendan is a big fan of hot dogs so he actually ate dinner there. I was a little worried that he would be too excited to eat. He’s been known to do that.

You wouldn't know by this picture, but Brendan actually toasted his own hot dog over the campfire. It was cooked just right; nice and hot, but no black char marks. Brendan also wanted to throw other items in the fire, such as his juice box, cookies, and the rod used to cook the hot dog.

It was quite warm and humid that night so Brendan got to sleep in just his pull-up, which he loved. Brendan loves to be as naked as possible as much as possible.

Falling asleep was a little hard since Brendan could hear people in the other tents and the older kids who were still awake. Chris said that Brendan kept yelling “Quiet!” at the other kids, which made me laugh because usually Brendan is the loud one and we’re telling him to be quiet.

Chris and Brendan had such a great time and I’m glad that they could have a special father-son trip together. Plus, it meant that I got to go out with my friend Sasha and have a nice night out all by myself. It was bliss.

For such a special occasion, we hired a professional photographer to take pictures of us as we slept soundly in our little two-man tent.

Before the above picture was taken there was a moment when we first were getting settled into the tent where I smelled something funny. I checked Brendan's underwear and he was clean. I then checked my underwear. I too was clean. I tried to ignore the smell, but it kept getting worse as Brendan moved around. I finally tracked down the origin of the foul odor and it turned out to be a whole lot of fresh poop on the bottom of Brendan's shoe. I immediately ripped the shoe of and tried to clean it up as best I could scraping most of the mess off onto a log, then dumping bottled water on it. I left the shoe out the rest of the night. The scary thing is that no one had any animals with them at this camp out and I could only assume it was human. Very gross.

In other camping news, Brendan found a little frog that he chased around a tree while I set up the tent. Some other kids found a turtle they carried around with them the whole night. But the wildlife adventures didn't end there. When we got home from the camp out I noticed a small bug crawling up my leg. I tried to smash it, but it was strong and couldn't be squished. I took it outside and was able to crush it with a rock. My first thought was that it looked like a tick. However, it looked different from any tick I had seen, so I just brushed the thought off. A while later Brendan was getting changed and I saw a bug with it's small head burrowed into Brendan's belly. I new it was a tick. We got one out of his stomach, his leg, and his head. A day later I had one in my leg (even after showering twice and changing all my clothes). We don't like ticks, but the good news is that there appear to be no signs of Lyme disease.

Back to the camp out. Brendan and I slept through the night and were woken up at six AM to kids shouting and running around. We didn't get much sleep and we tried to eat the breakfast they made for us, but Brendan isn't in to breakfast burritos, so we just came home. We surprised Valerie by being home so early, but she was happy to see us again. She always enjoys having the bed to herself. But the camp out was a success and will surely be the first of many more to come.

The End

I think I’ve created a monster

2010-05-15T20:35:00.001-04:00

I mentioned before that I started rewarding Brendan with a car every time he successfully did #2 in the potty, and I think it’s gotten a little out of hand.

I should note that many of these cars are not new; they’re ones that he’s owned for a while but his collection on a whole has spiraled out of control. He’s gotten to the point where he tries to force himself to go poop every time he uses the bathroom, and I can hear him grunting with effort of trying to force it out. Sometimes he’s successful in squeezing out a tiny one and he’ll come and tell me “Another car, Mommy”. We’ve cut him off of this habit and I don’t think he likes it.

But I have to say that his rewards worked though. He was so excited to go to the bathroom and he quickly transitioned into his underwear full-time. This whole experience has been a bit up and down but for the most part has been better than I was expecting. I think the cars helped a lot.

For very special accomplishments (like lasting the whole 3 hours of church without an accident), Brendan would get a Cars figurine car and they are his pride and joy now.

Again, this is something that we’ve stopped doing but has seemed to help him be more motivated about using the bathroom and going longer periods of time without accidents.

Now that we’ve made it through potty-training, the transition to a big boy bed is up next this summer. I’m hoping that that goes as well as potty-training did but I’m not looking forward to it. Again, if anyone has any tips or suggestions, let me know. I’m sure I’ll need them!

Because the weather here is not the greatest at the moment

2010-05-13T19:36:00.001-04:00

Brendan has been complaining a lot that it’s “too sunny” when we go outside so while at the store the other day, I asked him if he’d like a pair of sunglasses to which he respond with a squeal of delight. Brendan has never liked sunglasses in the past and wouldn’t wear them longer than a few seconds but now that’s he’s 3, he’s totally into them.

It definitely feels like summer with my boy running around in shorts, flip-flops and sunglasses! I just wish the weather would cooperate now.

The Best Homecoming

2010-05-12T10:30:00.001-04:00

Chris was gone all weekend and got home late Monday night. We tried waking Brendan up so he could see his dad for the first time in 4 days but the kid was out cold. Even the mention of presents didn’t do the trick. So this morning, Brendan discovered the presents his dad left him and he couldn’t rip into them fast enough.

The Lego airplane was a HUGE hit and Brendan demanded that we put it together immediately. It took me a while to get it right since it was 8:30 in the morning but we finally did it and it is pretty cool.

Of course Iron Man had to get in on the action. (Iron Man was a recent addition as well from a Burger King kids meal- they have the best toys right now!)

Grandma sent a magnet book and it was also a huge hit- Brendan loves magnets. His favorite is the snake and he likes to chase me with it while making some fierce hissing sounds. Brendan sends a big thank you to Grandma for sending such an awesome surprise home with his dad. She knows him so well!

I think I got the best gifts though- a box of See’s chocolates (which I’ve devoured most of already), I have my husband home again, I don’t have to sleep alone anymore and I’m no longer a single parent. It was hard work being on my own with Brendan for so long and we’re both thrilled that Chris is back!

Brendan needs a kitten

2010-05-08T10:06:00.001-04:00

At the library yesterday, Brendan happened to find a book about cats and fell in love. I think it was meant to be- he just stumbled upon it while I was looking for a book in the adult non-fiction section and it was in the same aisle. He clutched it to his chest the whole time we were at the library and the first thing he did when we got home was jump on the couch and start reading it.

There are tons of pictures and Brendan can’t get enough of them. He stops every few seconds to say “Look Mommy!” and show me yet another picture of a kitty.

I think this means that Chris should finally give in and let us get a kitten.

Double the Trouble

2010-05-04T15:32:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we found out that we’re expecting another baby boy come mid-September. We couldn’t be more excited and are looking forward to meeting our newest boy.

It was a great experience to see the baby opening and closing his mouth, sticking out his tongue, and curled up in a super tight ball. He was quite active during the ultrasound and the technician felt more than a few of his kicks- what can I say? It seems that we produce kids abounding with energy.

Our ultrasound technician also happened to be practicing her 3-D ultrasound skills so she used me as some extra practice. We didn’t get the best images since the baby didn’t want to cooperate and get in a better position but it was still amazing to see him. He’s a real baby! Who knew? I am completely and whole-heartedly in love.

Random

2010-04-29T17:09:00.001-04:00

Today I felt sick pretty much all last night and all day long as well, so when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a surprise while driving home from the grocery store, it lifted my spirits. I love camera phones- now I always have a way to capture funny moments.

Brendan had managed to snag my purse and pull out my glasses, which he loves and constantly wants to wear and constantly gets mad when I won’t let him. So he totally took advantage of the situation and got to wear my glasses for the whole drive home- a whopping 3 minutes. I love that he puts them on upside down every single time. And don’t you love his awesome hair? My excuse is that I could barely fix my own hair today without throwing up so Brendan’s hair got neglected. I think he pulls off the Jim Carey Dumb and Dumber hairdo quite well.

This totally made my day.

I’m Ready…

2010-04-27T22:31:00.001-04:00

I’m ready to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl. We go in for the ultrasound next Monday and I can’t wait. I’m tired of not knowing and this time around I don’t have much of a feeling either way. With Brendan I was pretty positive he was a boy but this pregnancy has been quite different. I just want to know so I can start getting ready and hopefully buy lots of adorable pink things. There’s a little poll over in the sidebar if you’d like to cast your vote before Monday!

I’m ready to be done with potty training. Seriously. The last couple of weeks have been all over the place. One day Brendan’s doing great and the next he can’t even pee in the toilet. Today was particularly difficult for me to keep my patience with him. He pooped in his underwear TWICE and once happened while we were at the store despite me asking him over and over if he needed to go to the potty. I was already in a bad mood today and this did not help. So it was back in pull-ups for Brendan, which Brendan just treats like a diaper so it felt like we took two steps back today.

We’ve moved to bribing Brendan with cars to see if that will help motivate him and last week he picked out a Chic Hicks car from Cars- which he then tried to flush down the toilet later that night (but luckily didn’t go down). Brendan LOVES flushing the toilet and it was only a matter of time before he progressed to flushing his toys. We thought he had also flushed his Lightning McQueen car too since he was no where to be found so Brendan got in BIG trouble and had a very stern lecture from us while in timeout. And then we found Lightning in the kitchen. I felt so bad. So to make it up to him, we let him go crazy and jump off the stairs (which he is usually not allowed to do).

I’m ready for Brendan’s speech therapy to start. I finally got a phone call to schedule his full assessment so at least we’re getting somewhere. I’m hoping that we can have him start as soon as possible because even though Brendan has made tremendous improvement lately, he still definitely needs some help.

I’m ready for my picky eater to not be a picky eater. He’s so difficult to feed- what kid doesn’t like mashed potatoes?! Or strawberries? Right now, he’s living off of grilled cheese, pancakes or waffles, bagels and chicken nuggets. So it was quite the shock the other night when he found half of a lime and wanted to taste it.

And he actually liked it and took several licks from it. I think he mostly did it because Chris and I were cracking up but hopefully he’ll be more inclined to try new things in the future now.

This kid cracks me up and even though I spend a lot of time trying not to tear my hair out, I just love him to pieces.

I know Easter was a couple weeks ago…

2010-04-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

I finally found the cord to connect my camera to the computer (I always lose that stupid cord!) so without further delay here are the pictures and video of our Easter.

Brendan had fun finding the eggs that Chris “hid” in our backyard until the giant bumblebees appeared. At that point he refused to come back outside to finish collecting the last few eggs and I don’t blame him. Those suckers are HUGE.

Brendan was sporting some awesome hair that morning. The egg hunt was literally the first thing we did that morning- even before breakfast.

When Brendan was done in the backyard, he wanted more eggs so Chris re-hid them in the front yard.

We found that net in the $1 section at Target at Brendan had to have it. He didn’t want to put his eggs in his basket. It was all about that net.

Brendan eventually wanted to look through his basket and was pleased to discover he had even more goodies in there. I had to buy him a chocolate bunny despite the fact that the only candy he eats are Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups but it’s just not Easter without a chocolate bunny.

Since Brendan isn’t much of a candy person, I filled his basket with other little fun goodies- punch balloons, chapstick, toy cars- and he loved it all.

As for Chris and I, Chris managed to track down my favorite Easter candy and I made sure to have lots of Cadbury Creme Eggs for him. Then we watched conference, relaxed and had a nice dinner. I’d say it was a pretty successful Easter.

Day 4

2010-04-08T15:02:00.002-04:00

We are slowly making progress with potty training. Brendan has had two successful attempts at peeing in the toilet today and I’m excited since yesterday we had quite a few accidents. Turns out that Brendan has no problem peeing in his pull-ups or underwear so it’s been a battle to get him to go to the toilet before he pees. But this morning after breakfast, I asked him if he needed to go pee and he went into the bathroom without a fuss, pulled down his underwear and went pee!!!! I was so proud of him and it was so nice to get him to go without crying, screaming “no!” or refusing to sit on the toilet. But we’re getting there and I’m hopeful that things will keep getting better. Brendan has always been resistant to change so I knew he’d put up a fight but so far, it hasn’t been as bad as I thought. Then again, we’ve only been doing this for 4 days and things could still change.
And because I have to include pictures, here are a couple of Brendan and his buddy Josh playing with the hose since we’ve been having a heat wave here all week and they needed to cool down. I’m not loving the hot weather and it’s a little too early in my opinion to be having 90 degree days.

Cherry Blossom Festival

2010-04-06T10:57:00.001-04:00

We headed into DC last week to check out the Cherry Blossom Festival and we picked the perfect day. The weather was awesome (mid-70’s), the trees were at their peak bloom and we beat most of the traffic.

We also got to stop and see the Jefferson Memorial, which we missed on our last trip. It was super crowded but still very cool.

The trees were really beautiful and I couldn’t believe how many there are.

The weather was so nice that we had planned to rent a paddle boat and enjoy the water but unfortunately the line was a little too long. I couldn’t even see the end of it. So instead we opted for some popsicles and got to sit and rest our feet. It was a long afternoon of walking and we were all tired.

Brendan was wiped out even though he got to be pushed around in a stroller the whole time but I guess the excitement of the day was enough to exhaust him. He never takes naps anymore so I couldn’t believe that he fell asleep on the ride home. It was a beautiful day and now that the weather has warmed up, I’m sure we’ll be exploring DC more- there’s still so much that we haven’t seen yet!

Foiled Again

2010-04-04T21:17:00.001-04:00

This past week, I had planned to start potty training with Brendan but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. One day we picked up some tacos from Taco Bell and Brendan managed to eat 3 soft tacos in about 5 minutes- which is really impressive for someone his size. I can’t even eat three in one sitting. Well, it turns out that Brendan’s digestive system couldn’t handle all those tacos either. That night he threw them all up and proceeded to have diarrhea for the next few days- which is why he’s in the bathtub in these pictures. No one likes to smell like puke and poop. Actually, Brendan probably couldn’t have cared less but I had an issue with it.

I figured with all the stomach issues going on with him, it wasn’t the best time to to start potty training. Which was a bit disappointing since I’m looking forward to the day we are diaper-free at our house and Brendan has actually been quite excited about using the toilet like a “big boy". We already got him a potty training seat and he loves to put it on the toilet and sit on it, and he’s even managed to go poop once! Hurray for Brendan. Too bad he had also pooped on the floor before we made it to the toilet but luckily we have hardwood floors.

Brendan’s feeling better and is back to his normal self so we’ll begin this week! I know I’m going to need to have a lot of patience but I’m hoping that things move along quickly. If anyone has any good tips, books, methods, encouragement- let me know! I’m sure I’ll need it.

I know this isn’t a very Easter-y post but Happy Easter! Our pics (and a video!) will be coming along soon. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did. In between pigging out on candy and chocolate, we had a very inspirational conference weekend and loved every minute of it.

The best part of his day

2010-04-01T22:27:00.001-04:00

Guess what we did yesterday?

We made brownies and a certain little boy got to lick the spoon when we were done.

He likes the batter more than he likes the finished product (although he does like brownies). It was the highlight of his day.

This is a little late…

2010-03-26T10:36:00.001-04:00

We visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum with some friends back on President’s Day so I’m a little behind posting about this but better late than never, right?

We took the Metro into DC, which was our first time riding it, and Brendan had a blast while I tried to keep my nausea under control. Morning sickness and trains aren’t the best mix, but at least we didn’t have to battle the traffic in the city. It was worth it- plus Brendan loved it.

The museum was very kid-friendly so the kids had a blast running around and getting to play with lots of scientific displays, which were fun for Chris and I too. Brendan was a little young for some of it but he still appreciated being able to touch things without getting yelled at.

We had a great time and we owe a big thanks to April and Andy for inviting us! Brendan especially loved being able to run around with their kids and they kept him entertained during the more “educational” sections of the museum.

One Lucky Boy

2010-03-22T10:19:00.001-04:00

This past week on St. Patrick’s day, Brendan got to have his favorite buddy Josh come over for a few hours.

These two are so stinkin’ cute together- they give hugs to each other, hold hands when they walk to nursery together, and in general are super excited when they see each other. Brendan absolutely loves Josh and asks for him on a daily basis, so he was beyond excited when he came over to play.

I decided to take them to the park since the weather was perfect and it’s nice to let the boys get some energy out. They played so well together.

Enjoying a quick snack together.

Here’s Brendan yelling for Josh to come and follow him.

After the park and a quick lunch of chicken nuggets, the boys needed a break so Yo Gabba Gabba was called in to help them relax. That was the quietest 25 minutes I had all day.

And because it was St. Patrick’s Day, we had to make green cupcakes and decorate them.

Notice the difference of sprinkle amounts on their cupcakes. Brendan went overboard (like I knew he would) while Josh kept it to a normal amount. And once again, Brendan wouldn’t eat the sprinkles. Sigh. At least they had fun.

Brendan cried and cried when Josh went home but he was so worn out from all the excitement that he went to bed earlier than normal without a fight. It was awesome. I think Josh can come over every day if it means Brendan goes to be early!

Spring couldn’t have come sooner!

2010-03-20T20:43:00.001-04:00

This week, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and so of course we’ve spent the vast majority of our free time playing outside. It has been so nice to be able to enjoy being outside again and I love being able to open our windows and let some fresh air into our house. I’m really loving spring so far.

I love being able to take Brendan in the backyard even though it’s tiny and there’s no grass- but it’s completely fenced in so I don’t have to worry about him wandering off by himself. So I can sit in our basement and fold laundry or browse the internet while I watch Brendan through the sliding doors happily collecting rocks and chasing around “bees” (which are actually flies but Brendan doesn’t seem to get the difference). It’s been very nice to have that peace of mind that he won’t run away on me.

And this is how Brendan spent 2 hours. I really thought his obsession with rocks would have died down by now but it’s still going strong. I don’t understand the fascination but at least it keeps him busy and entertained.

Brendan enjoyed himself so much that he actually let me take pictures of him without making any angry faces at the camera. Plenty of silly faces but I’ll take those any day over scowls.