Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Brendan has an announcement he would like to make:

Yes, that's right, folks! Brendan is going to be a BIG brother! I am currently 8 weeks, 4 days pregnant and due September 29th. We have seen/heard the heartbeat twice at the doctor now, so I think everything is going to go smoothly and work out, so we didn't want to keep it a secret any longer :)

So far, I pretty much feel the same way as I did with Brendan. I feel sick if I haven't eaten but I haven't actually gotten sick at all and, other than being tired, I feel fine. Brendan and the baby will be just about 21 months apart. I can't think of anything else to tell you right now. I have an ultrasound picture from today but haven't been able to scan it yet so I will post it another time this week or next week. Start your guessing on what we're having ;)

Here's a couple pictures of Brendan from today because I'm quite possibly the worst picture taker ever since he has turned one! Poor Brendan. I am going to make a real effort to be better about it.

His new favorite thing is taking his race cars and dropping them through the little holes on the sides of this chair. He has also discovered pushing cars/tractors/trucks/etc. around and loves to run them over the fireplace and along the floor. It's very cute.

He also enjoys trying to step on and put things that are too heavy on his racetrack. I feel like I am constantly saying "No, Brendan, that is going to break it" and then he gives me a mischievous smile and tries to keep doing it. He has, however, learned how to roll the cars down the ramp onto the spinning part of the racetrack rather than just throwing them into the spinner. That new trick is courtesy of Daddy.
Happy boy! I finally was able to make him laugh and get a clear picture of him smiling and being extra happy! It's a miracle :)
He also took both of his bottles out of a sippy cup today! There was a little complaining once he was done, but he drank them without a fight. I am so happy! He is turning into such a big boy. I don't think he crawled once today, just walked. He got his one year shots but only cried for a minute and then has acted fine the rest of the day.

He spent a wonderful and fun weekend with his Lolli, Pops, Aunts Emily and Caroline and Uncle Alex in Waco. Tim and I had two blissful days of sleeping in (well, sort of two for me, I had to get up at 4:00 AM to go register him for Mother's Day Out on Saturday morning. It doesn't start until the very end of August, but that's another story! And, I did get to come home and go back to sleep for 3 hours), going to dinner and going to a Miranda Lambert concert at Billy Bob's. It was a great break for us and I know Brendan had a fun time. They also successfully got him to start drinking only water out of his sippy cup instead of water mixed with juice. Yay!

That's about it! If you are friends with me on facebook, you will know I haven't posted this on facebook yet. I wanted to post it for my awesome blog readers to see first and I will likely post about it on facebook tomorrow. Hope y'all had a fun weekend!

Snow, Snow Go Away

Hello! It's been a couple weeks. I guess this snow we've had just made all the time and energy get away from me.

In case you didn't know, we got quite a snow last week. Tim had to stay home from work everyday starting Tuesday and we were cooped up in the house until Friday. Needless to say, I was very thankful for some sunny weather this weekend and am NOT looking forward to the possibility of more snow on Wednesday.

Here are just a few snowy pictures. I know you've probably seen tons on facebook.

Tim thought these icicles on one of our trees was pretty

Brendan got a play set from his CiCi for his birthday. Tim finally got it put together weekend before last, just in time for one or two days of nice weather before it got too cold to play on it. Here's what it looks like covered in snow:
We spent lotssss of time inside. Brendan renewed his love for getting in Shiner's cage with Shiner and closing them in.
In the past two weeks since I last posted, he is walking consistently and very well. He still crawls occasionally but mostly walks.
Laughing with Daddy. He really enjoyed Daddy being home all week, but Daddy didn't get as much work done as he needed to!
Before the snow days, Brendan playing on his playset for the first time.
He loved to slide!
It also has a little playhouse attached to it with a door, little picnic table, and two seats. He thinks the whole thing is great fun.
We also got Brendan's One Year pictures taken a couple weeks ago. Here are a few of them from the session.









Unfortunately, we couldn't get many smiles out of him the whole time, but the pictures are still pretty cute.

He also had his one year appointment. He couldn't get his vaccines because he had fluid on his ear from a never-ending cold he has had. We finally had to get him on antibiotics this past Thursday because his cough and congestion just would not go away. I think he is finally getting better now. So, we have to go back in a week or so to get the vaccines. Here are his stats:

Weight: 26.6 pounds (90th percentile)

Length: 32 1/4 inches (97th percentile)

Head: 19 inches (95th percentile)

He's still the big boy he has been his whole life! The doctor said his weight should slow down at this point and he would be more surprised if he stayed in the 90th percentile than if he fell out of it. Brendan is doing everything his is supposed to be doing and says several words now as well. I know I'm going to repeat some I've mentioned before, but here are some of his words:

bath, bottle, hi, bye, hey, mama (occasionally), dada (often), Shiner (he says something to the effect of "Shiiiii" when he points at him), Tucker (Tuuuuuhhhhh), that, and sometimes I think he says a word for his Teddy. There are a lot of times he says things that sound just like he is saying something we just said or something that fits with the situation but, of course, we can't get him to repeat it, so I don't know if he really does or not.

He points at EVERYTHING and also loves to wave at people. He has no problem with strangers and, in the past two weeks, has reached out for a Home Depot employee to hold him and has reach out for some random man talking to him at a restaurant to hold him. We left him in the kids play place at the gym we just joined and he happily reached out for the girl working there and walked away without ever looking back at us. When we came to get him, a guy who was watching him carried him over to us and he didn't even reach out for us like he wanted to leave! I guess we at least don't have to worry much about separation anxiety!

We are still battling getting rid of the bottle. I was planning to ditch it cold turkey at 13 months (yesterday) but since he has still been a little sick, I think we will wait until next week or possibly the next because he is going to stay in Waco not this weekend but the next and I don't want to burden them with trying to get him to drink milk without the bottle! The doctor said he has to be off of it by 15 months and I will make sure we make that. He drinks fine out of a sippy cup but refuses to drink any milk out of one. He will take a sip, not realizing what it is, make a face at me, and then throw the cup on the floor. He just has two bottles a day (morning and night) but he absolutely loves them and gets so excited when I ask him if he wants his bottle :(

I think that's about all! Hope y'all all survived the cold and have a great week!