House of Cooties

We have cooties, folks. Well, I have cooties. Brendan has a cold that's holding on for dear life (two weeks and counting), Kenny is getting over a cold and I'm breaking out in mysterious hives all over my body. They started innocently enough on my elbows Thursday morning and just kept popping up in new places as the hours ticked by. I went to the doctor on Friday and she's guessing it's a reaction to something I ate since I'm not using any new detergents, lotions or soap. I've been taking Prednisone but it hasn't given me any relief yet. I woke up in the middle of the night last night itching from head to toe with lots of new clusters of hives. I'm so over this!

Brendan has been sleeping later in the mornings. He's been pretty much sleeping through the night but most nights about an hour after he falls asleep he'll wake up crying. I wonder if it's too soon for bad dreams? When I'm already in bed and he wakes up I hear him whimpering in his sleep before he's fully awake and crying. What could he possibly be dreaming about already? Mommy took his toy away? Daddy made him eat green beans? Poor thing. Hopefully whatever it is will end soon. Other than that, when he's not waking himself up with all of his coughing, he sleeps until about 6 or 6:30. Much better than his old 4:30 wake-up calls! Oh, and he's got his 8th tooth! Now he has five on top and three on the bottom.

Just over a month to go before we take our first plane trip with Brendan. We're going to FL so he can finally meet his Papa Billy, Nana Sharon and his aunts and uncles. I'm a little nervous about the flight but I'm going to buy some new toys and have plenty of formula and food ready. Hopefully he'll pass out since we're flyng during his usual afternoon nap time. It will also be his first time at the beach (Mommy's favorite place!). I'm excited to see how he likes the sand and the ocean. I bought this tent to bring on the beach to keep his pasty butt out of the sun. I figured it would also be easier to lure people to the beach to keep me company if I had some shade to offer them.

I don't have any new pictures to post today but I have a video that I wanted to share from last night. He's figured out a new trick when he eats that he just finds hysterical. I have to admit, it's pretty hard not to laugh back at him when he does it.




Brendan is 1 day away from 9 months old today!

Horn toots and men in skirts

Brendan went to his first parade yesterday (in celebration of St. Patrick's Day) with Mommy, Grandma Annie and Grandpa Charlie. The silly weather people predicted a high temp around 60 degrees which was beyond exciting. Of course, they predicted sunshine on Friday and the day started out with a snowy blizzard. But I digress. It started out as a nice, warmish day with lots of sunshine but eventually turned to a frigid, cloudy day. We had a great time, nonetheless.

Brendan was a trooper, taking everything in with his ever curious (and often nosy) eyes. I was worried that he'd get upset when the big trucks came by honking their VERY loud horns but it didn't bother him one bit! The parade was pretty short—about an hour—and he was definitely ready to go by the time it was over. It was nap time and there was too much going on to be able to fall asleep while we were there. Sure enough, by the time we got back to the car he was passed out in his stroller. Mommy decided to stop at McDonald's for a quarter pounder with cheese (minus the bread) and some caffeine in an effort to prolong his nap. Brendan really appreciated my thoughtfulness.

Of course I took lots of pictures... enjoy!

Waiting for the parade to start


I'll just play with my shoes while I wait


Watching the police cars go by


Laughing with Grandma


Getting a better view with Grandpa


Watching the funny men in skirts go by


Who's next??


Silly Mommy covering my ears when the loud horns passed by


Eating my hand until something better comes along


Snuggling with Grandma under the blankie



Brendan is 8 months 3 weeks and 2 days old today!

Pictures!

Here are some more recent pictures of Brendan.

Flashing his big grin (and showing off a few of his teeth—he has 7 now!)







We woke up one morning to find Brendan with this hair. It reminded me of Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary when she had Ben Stiller's "special" hair gel in her hair. LOL.





Every night I get Brendan changed into his pj's, then hand him over to Daddy while I get his bottle ready. And every night as soon as he's at the desk he LUNGES for the computer mouse. He absolutely loves that thing! He's getting ready to make his attack in this picture.



Brendan loves bathtime! He used to sit in a reclining seat in the bath and splash the crap out of Mommy but he recently graduated to a big boy bath seat. Now he can play with all his fun bath toys!





Nanny Darlene has two close friends that she grew up with who also got to meet their first grandchildren (all boys!) in 2008. Here's a picture of the grandmothers and grandsons: Darlene and Brendan, Dee and Justin, Patty and Luke.


Here are the mothers and sons: Brendan and me, Andrea and Justin, Chrissy and Luke.


And here's one of Nanny and Brendan.



Brendan is going to his first parade this Sunday (St. Patrick's Day Parade in Greenwich). Should be fun. I'll try to post some pics from that too.


Brendan is 8 months 2 weeks and 4 days old today!

He ain't heavy...

As I sit here hemorrhaging brain cells while watching Yo Gabba Gabba (have you ever seen this show? The people who write it MUST be tripping 24/7), I'm trying to come up with something blogworthy to write about. Brendan is still as adorable as ever and getting bigger and bigger. In the last two days I've seen two 11-month-old babies who are the same size as my 8-month-old. He is a big boy. Not crawling or walking. Frankly I think he's just lazy and thinks why should he do the work when there are people who will carry him around and move him to where he wants to go?

I don't blame him. Although, like I said, he's not a small kid and lugging around 20lb of squirming little boy gets pretty tiring pretty quickly. I brought him to the doctor a week ago (2 weeks ago?) for his second flu shot and stupidly decided to leave the stroller in the trunk and carry him, my purse and the diaper bag from the parking lot to the doctor's office. The trip in wasn't so bad. But we had to wait a while and that meant I had to keep him entertained while we were in the waiting room. So lots of walking around, bouncing him up and down and all that. By the time we were walking back to the car after the appointment it took everything I had not to drop the bags and sit down in the middle of the parking lot until my back stopped locking up. Somehow I made it to the car without sustaining any permanent damage. Note to self: ALWAYS bring the stroller.

He's an expert sitter and a very chatty little fellow. He's definitely saying mama and dada, although he has no idea what either word means. He's also saying baba and flicking his finger across his lips when he talks to make funny sounds. I've tried feeding him Cheerios and puffs but he has zero interest in either. Grandma even tried giving him a piece of bread but he just wanted to use it as a drumstick to pound the table with. Which makes me wonder, with parents that love to eat, how is it possible that we produced a child who needs to be coerced to eat??

Anyway, here are a few recent pictures. Enjoy!


Mr. Smiley


Being shy Brendan


OK Mom, one more picture and that's it.


Close-up of his beautiful eyes


Playing in his fortress


Sleepy Head



Brendan is 8 months and 1 week old

The early bird...

It is 7:20am. Brendan and I have been up for 3 hours. My coffee has little white specks in it. Methinks the milk might be bad after all but the need for caffeine overrides the possible side effects of drinking sour milk. I am grateful for Blues Clues and the Baby Einstein jumper, both of which are entertaining our little bundle of joy while I try to keep myself awake until Kenny gets up. It's his morning to sleep in, I'm figuring I've got about another hour and a half before he gets up and I get to take a nap.

Later today we're going to a birthday party for my friend Jill's son Steven who recently turned two years old. This is just wild because I'm pretty sure she just had him like 2 months ago. Time just FLIES by. Anyway, this is the first kids party Brendan is going to so that will be fun.

Hold on. I smell poop and I'm fairly confident it's not coming from me... I'm back. Brendan is extra cuddly this morning so we snuggled for a bit on the couch after I changed his diaper and now I'm thinking he'll fall asleep in a bit.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. Brendan made Kenny and me a beautiful card at daycare. He's quite the little artist. ;) I found a really cute onesie at Baby Gap that says "Hunk-a Burning Love" and we had a pseudo photo shoot Friday morning before we left for the day. He was being such a little ham, there are so many great shots. I'm going to make a slideshow as soon as Kenny downloads flash player. But here are a few of my favorites to tide you over until then.







And here's a picture from a few weeks ago that I love:



Brendan is 7 months, 2 weeks and 2 days old today!

Quick Note

I'm going to make this a quick one. Brendan and I are both sick and he kept me up all night so I'm headed back to bed in a bit.

Yesterday Brendan and I met up with Auntie Jill and her son Steven at the mall. We got some lunch first and Brendan sat in a high chair at the restaurant. It was his first time, normally he stays in his infant seat, and he loved it. Mr. Nosy kept looking (actually staring would be a more appropriate word) at the people sitting at the table to our left. When we were done eating we walked around the mall and he got to sit in the big boy stroller which he loved. After the mall we went to Christmas Tree Shop and he sat in the shopping cart. Another first.

Anyway, the point of my post is that while we were strolling around Christmas Tree Shop, I happened to look down and see him watching me with this look of absolute and utter adoration. Like I was the best thing since sliced bread. And he didn't look away all ashamed that I caught him. Instead, he gave me this beautiful, giant smile. And it occurred to me then, that I'm a kind of superhero to him. And Daddy too. Super Parents. When he's not feeling well, we have the ability to make it better with hugs and kisses. When he's fighting sleep, we have the ability to hold him and whisper how much we love him and rock him to sleep. When it's time to play we have the ability to make him fly, or bounce, or stand, whatever he feels like doing at that moment.

What an amazing feeling, to know that someone loves you so totally and unconditionally. So I'm going to keep reminding myself to cherish every second of the time I have with him right now. Because sooner or later the gig will be up. He'll grow up and somewhere along the way he'll learn that his parents don't know everything and we don't have any super powers to speak of. And he may even hate us now and then when we don't give him his way. But hopefully when he's a grown man with a family of his own, just like I did, he'll realize that parents really are superheroes and we did the best we could with what we had.


Brendan is seven months and two days old.

Snow, snow go away!

I'm tired of snow. It's cold and slippery and hard to drive in. (At least when you have a little Honda Civic. That needs new tires.) While I appreciate the fact that snow means overtime for Kenny which means extra money for us, it also means that I'm basically a single parent until it ends. Sometimes it only means a few hours of overtime. Sometimes it means I don't see Kenny for 2-3 days.

I adore that little bundle of chubby deliciousness but it's exhausting to get up at the crack of dawn with him, get us both ready and out the door by 7:30, drop him off at daycare, work all day, pick him up (if Kenny is still working), get him fed, bathed, spend some quality time with him and then hopefully get him to sleep by 7:30 or so. Then I get an hour, maybe an hour and a half of "me time" before I go to bed. I have such great respect for single parents out there. Especially the ones who have more than one kid. I don't know how they do it!

Anyway, enough of my moaning. We've got grandmothers a half hour or so drive away just chomping at the bit to watch him so it's not like I don't have help if I need it.

The monster, or Sir, as I've become fond of calling him (as in yes Sir, whatever you want Sir, Sir why are you growling, Sir please don't pull my hair) had a check-up last week. Daddy took him to this one by himself and he did a great job! He reported that Brendan is now 28" tall and weighs almost 19lb. He's in the 80th percentile for height and head circumference (he can thank Daddy for that) and 50th percentile for weight. He got a bunch of shots which he did not like one bit but it was nothing a little Tylenol and TLC couldn't cure. I have to bring him back at the end of February for his second flu shot and then he's in the clear until his 9-month appt.

Brendan is eating solids like a champ, three times a day. He gets some cereal and fruit for breakfast, fruit and vegetable for lunch and cereal and vegetable for dinner. All pureed of course. The doctor said he can start finger foods when he's got his pincer grip down (when he can grab small objects with his pointer and thumb fingers). He's just DESPERATE to crawl but he hasn't figured it out just yet. Which, frankly, is fine by me because that's when all the trouble really begins anyway. It's only a matter of time though.

He's got six teeth now, four on top and two on the bottom, and he chews everyhing he can get his chubby little hands on. We're supposed to be brushing his teeth so I went out and bought a tiny little toothbrush for him and gave it a try but he looked at me like it was the most disgusting thing that's ever been in his mouth. Even worse than the time I fed him green beans (which he gagged on and eventually threw up). So I just wipe them with a wet washcloth instead. We'll try the toothbrush again in a few weeks.


Brendan is two days away from 7 months old!

So cute!


Sporting his Alfalfa look


Spending some QT with Grandma Annie


Hanging out with Auntie Andrea




Brendan is two days away from 7 months old today!

6 Months

I cannot believe what was once our little tiny peanut is six months old already. He's looking more and more like a little boy than a baby every day, which is scary and exciting all at the same time. He's showing his personality more and more. He's a very happy little man, always ready to flash a big smile. And he's very friendly, he'll work his charms on anyone and everyone. Of course, he loves his Momma best. And his Daddy second best (hehehe).

The most exciting development of late is that Brendan is finally starting to SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. YAY!!!!! The first night was December 17th, Daddy's birthday. He woke up bright and early at 4:40 but I was still super happy about it. He's gotten through eight of the last 14 days without waking up for a bottle with four of those eight days being the past four days. Of course, I still wake up a few times throughout the night out of habit (and to fulfill my OCD need to make sure he's still breathing). Hopefully I'll stop that soon.

We spent Christmas with my family and Brendan got to see his Uncle Keith and Aunt Shannon who hadn't seen him since he was five weeks old. They were very impressed with how good he is, just hanging out soaking everything in. I'm hoping they're going to give Brendan a cousin very soon...

Aunt Lauren was also there and of course Grandma Annie and Grandpa Charlie, who hosted the day at their house, along with Rob & Susan and their sons Jason and Christopher and Charlie's mother Mimi and two sons, Charlie and Nicky. After everyone was sufficiently buzzed the karaoke competition started. Grandma Annie started it off and Little Charlie "sang" a few songs too. I'm happy to report that I got the high score of the evening. There was a claim that Uncle Keith got the high score after I left but I'm not counting that. Anyway, I've heard him sing.

We celebrated Christmas with Kenny's family this past Sunday at Nana's. Uncle Scott, Aunt Splat and Aunt MaryAnn were all there too. Brendan got a lot of cool presents, including a rocking horse from Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle Jay that sings and talks. Brendan is already trying to eat it. Oh, he also got his third tooth for Christmas! Well, the day after Christmas anyway. He'll be eating steak in no time.

Here are some photos from our first Christmas celebration. The other pics are on Nana's camera so we'll have to wait for her to send us those.

Styling in his argyle sweater vest


Snuggling with Aunt Susan


Snoozing on Mommy


Some hats Daddy bought Brendan for Christmas






And one of the shirts he bought (yes, that's his middle finger)


Uncle Keith showing Brendan how to use the jumper


Doesn't everyone sleep with washcloths in their mouth?


Doing what he does best - being cute



Brendan is 6 months and 1 day old today!