Happy 10 Months B!

In the midst of school getting out, getting ready for vacation, etc. I did not get around to wishing B a Happy 10 Months! You are getting closer to 11 months now.....gulp! Can it be?!

So, hey Brendan......Happy 10 months little guy! In some ways I cannot believe you are already 10 months old. It seems like you cannot possibly be that old already. On the other hand, it is hard to remember life without you. You have been such a terrific addition to our family and you have been the missing piece of the puzzle. It is as if you have always been with us. I love that James will never remember life without you. I have taken to telling him: Be good to your brother. He's the only one you've got.





What you are like at 10 months old:

- You are so curious! You are into EVERYTHING! You especially love the recycle bin and pull stuff out of it every day.
- You are crawling everywhere and pulling up everywhere. You like to play at the Elmo Workbench in the playroom and with a toys that has lots of little balls and plays music from Donna and Jamie.
- You adore our dog Cheesecake and we hear the biggest belly laughs coming from you when you are crawling after her and petting her.
- Stranger anxiety has set in and you are starting to be a little bit more reserved in who you give your grins to. You also get sad sometimes when Momma leaves.
- You play really well around your brother but also like to go off and explore on your own, especially at the play diner.
- Your favorite foods are banana, toast, English muffin, grilled cheese and yogurt melts. You are a carb man!
- You have 4 teeth....2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. I am pretty sure more are coming in soon!
- You say several words: Hi, Bye, Cheesecake (sounds like Cheecake), Mama and something that sounds like YoGab (Yo Gabba Gabba?)
- You are sneaky because one second you will be crawling behind me and I will turn around and you will be gone! Tricky tricky B! We are having to reevaluate all of our baby-proofing and had to invest in a toilet lock. That's right B, at 10 months, you are fascinated with the toilet!
- James is crazy for you but sometimes has a hard time sharing toys with you. But my goodness, he loves you so much! When you take a nap, he asks for you and tells me that he wants to see his Bubba. He kisses you and pats you and brings your pacifier to you. You love him so much too! It makes me so happy seeing you together.
- You have fallen behind in your weight gain over the past 6 months and have a little bit of a hard time eating. You are meeting all your milestones, but your pediatrician referred you to ECI and we met with them for the first time yesterday. They have decided to send an occupational therapist and a nutritionist out to see you. So far, so good and Momma is excited that we are going to figure out what is going on.
- You are still a total Momma's boy and I love EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF IT!



Brendan, watching you grow and discover the world is so rewarding. I just wish you would slow down a little bit and stay my baby just a while longer....

Free Session Give Away from Cowtown Camera Girl!!!

Exciting news DFW friends! Nell from Cowtown Camera Girl is giving away a free session today! She has been taking awesome photographs of the Duffy Family since I found out I was pregnant with James. She has captured some of the most memorable events in our family and I cannot say enough wonderful things about her pictures or her business. If you are looking for someone to get some great photographs of your family at your home or a beautiful location (Botanic Gardens, anyone?) in the metroplex, she's your girl, your Camera Girl, that is!

Check out her blog at Cowtown Camera Girl Blog

I had to post some of our "Nell Pics" here from the past year to show off her greatness! Enjoy a look back......

Galveston Vacation - Part 3

Our last night in Galveston, we ate dinner outdoors on the Strand after walking around and looking at the shops. Lots of laughing and cutting up during this dinner. There was a band playing near us and James was pointing out all the instruments while Brendan "danced" to the music.




Afterwords, we got dessert at La Kings Confectionary. Ok, I admit it! We went there twice on our trip. DELICIOUS truffles and all kinds of candy and ice cream and even a coffee bar. Yum! This particular night James had some mint chocolate chip ice cream....he picked it out. It was the first time he ever liked ice cream. He picked it because it was green. He's really into all things green. He also picked out a piece of green candy. We figured, hey, why not! We're on vacation! Poor Brendan, he can't wait to have ice cream and candy!






While we were walking, we came across this.....can you believe it? This has to be about 10 feet above the ground. Hurricane ike was in 2008 and this is still here.

Galveston Vacation - Part 2

We spent a day at Palm Beach (part of Moody Gardens). It was just James, Daniel and me because Brendan was sick and my mom came from Katy and stayed at the condo with him. We all missed B! Palm Beach was even better than I remembered. I had not been there since I was a kid. James was apprehensive about getting in the water during our trip. He wanted to play near it and play with it, but not in it. Eventually, we were able to take him out in the water for a little bit, but he was scared. Our boy used to be fearless, but he has become scared of things lately. We have another vacation scheduled at the end of July and we hope that if he gets lots of exposure to water he might relax some about it. Swim lessons start tomorrow, so I hope that we are able to survive them!

Here's James lounging and checking out the splash pad....he was nervous about it! Can you tell by his worried face?!

On the splash pad. This was so cool! James loved it until this overhead bucket of water dumped on him!

Taking in the sights........



He did pretty good until the end......somebody got tired and grouchy!

Playing in the sand...

Galveston Vacation - Part 1

Last week we spent several days in Galveston. We all really needed a little getaway and our condo there was perfect. Wanting to visit the beach, but keep the cost and travel time low, we chose to visit the Island. Thanks to Moody Gardens, we give this vacation two thumbs up! We kept busy but also attempted to get in some downtime. But let's face it, downtime is sort of in short supply when you are negotiating with a toddler and chasing after a crawling baby during most of their waking hours. The boys were wonderful and very flexible overall. What great little travelers they are. We have a very tired toddler on our hands now, but I would say it was worth it to do all the cool stuff we did.



On our trip, we went to the Rainforest Pyramid at Moody Gardens, and I was just in LOVE with all of the plants and flowers there! So gorgeous! Looking at the variety I was really thinking about how amazing nature is. I have a couple of friends who are photographers and I was just thinking the entire time how much they would love to take pictures there. Hope you enjoy! More vacation pictures to come in the next week.....