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.