Extra Extra, Read All About It! Brendan Turns 1!

Brendan turned one year old on August 5th. Can you believe it? Our little baby is growing up! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENDAN! My, how big you are getting and how you light up the room when you smile with your precious grin and little teeth! Your giggle is infectious and you just make every moment a little better and a little brighter.

I have not blogged in quite a while. I started back to work and we are back to the daily grind. Oh how I miss you days of summer! But no matter how busy and hectic our daily lives become, I am going to do my best to periodically update the blog. This will be a particularly long blog because I have a lot to catch up on about Brendan's birthday. So let me start at the beginning...

On Brendan's actual birthday, my dad was staying with us to help me take care of the kids. James had his tonsils and adenoids out on August 4th and it involved about a 10 day recovery where James was really not feeling well. He is all better now thankfully (more on that in a later post). My dad made Brendan a peach pie for the family tradition of each person getting a homemade pie on their birthday. Brendan spent the day playing and getting spoiled!

On August 10th I took Brendan for his 1 year well child check up. It went well. Our pediatrician relocated so it was our first time meeting the new pedi. I really liked her, although Brendan did NOT like when she had to look in his ears. He was pretty mad! That is a new side we are seeing of our sweet B. I think everyone who has met Brendan pretty much agrees what he could go down in history as one of the happiest and easiest babies of all time. In the past couple of weeks, he is still our happy, easy guy most of the time but we are starting to see him showing us his opinion on things and speaking up when things are not going his way. He has added a few more words to his vocabulary and we are getting lots and lots of babbling. When he gets mad he has a special noise to show us his displeasure. He has also figured out how to be loud, and I mean LOUD! At the doctor, he measured 29.5 inches long and 20.5 lb. He is meeting most of his milestones on time. Brendan was recently diagnosed with a motor delay (fine and gross motor skills) and we have been working with Early Childhood Intervention. He is 2 -3 months delayed with motor skills but it looks as though it will not be long before he is caught up. He is doing really well in the cognitive, language and social/emotional areas of development. He is making awesome progress already and might get to exit the program soon!

Here's a quick list of B's favorite things at 12 months:
Foods- toast, pears, chicken nuggets, strawberries
Songs - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Yesterday by the Beatles (I sing it to him every night before bed)
Books - in that phase of being a total squirmer at book time, but seems to like Jamberry and The Nose Book
Toys - nerf balls, Winnie The Pooh Train, the ball popper, the diner, bath toys
Things To Do - taking a bath, snuggling with momma, cruising along the furniture, playing with our doggie, dancing to music

The last year has been so wonderful. B was the missing piece to our puzzle and I can honestly say that I barely remember life without him in it. Now it seems normal to have my hands full, a kiddo on each side on my lap, two slippery wiggle worms in the tub every night, and two heads on my shoulder when it is time to snuggle. It fills my heart up every day. Who knew you could love so much? So happy first birthday Brendan! I am so glad I am your mommy! Thank you for bringing me so much joy these past 12 months. My heart smiles every time I think of you. Watching you grow and explore each day makes me so happy and I cannot wait for all the amazing memories we are going to make together. The world is such a better place because you are in it Brendan. :-)

Up next....Party Time!

We celebrated Brendan's first birthday at his safari bash on August 14th here at our house. We had a big turn out and it was wonderful party. It was so nice seeing everyone and hearing all the laughter in the house. I certainly loved James' first birthday party too, but this first birthday was so different. We had a house full of kids here! I once read that mothers should never feel guilty about not having the same amount of time to spend with their second born children because they are born into the magical world of childhood instead of into a world of adults like firstborns. This is so true. James's first birthday was nearly all adults and Brendan's had 10 children and their families and their parents plus godparents too, and Nana and Granddaddy!

I think all the kiddos (and Mommies and Daddies) had a really fun time at the party - at least it looked like they did. I love parties and planning B's was great. I loved doing something special for him. We decorated with lots of balloons, crepe paper and party goodies, hired an entertainer and tried to think of every last detail from the safari themed food, handmade invitations and safari hats and favors for every child. The birthday boy looked snazzy in his custom outfit I ordered on Etsy. He looked SO stinkin' cute! Brendan's favorite part of the party had to be eating his smash cake. It was pure heaven for him! We let him eat it for about 15 minutes and he was covered in blue icing. I loved watching him try to figure out how to eat the cake. At first he tried to pick it up but it was to big, then he tried to put his little face down into it, but he couldn't reach. Finally, he figured out how to pull off pieces of it and taste it. This boy loves cake! And his first taste of cake was delicious thanks to Kara Clayton! She made it to match the plates and decorations we picked out. She makes some yummy cakes! It was so tasty and completely gorgeous. The party entertainer, Dena, from Silly Shindigs was second to none. She tailored her entertainment to the toddler crowd and our safari theme and boy oh boy did the kids love it! They were totally engaged and James is STILL talking about her two weeks later. I know we will be using Dena again in the future. Bravo Silly Shindigs! Last but not least, my buddy Nell from Cowtown Camera Girl, took pictures of us. You can see a cute collage if you visit her blog (you can click on her blog over on the right). I always love seeing Nell, and it was extra nice this time because she brought her own little cutie along. He was a safari animal expert! :-) All of the little ones were so well behaved and things flowed smoothly. Watching the kids interact with each other, play, eat a "picnic" on the dining room floor and open Brendan's presents for him (each opened and showed B what they brought while he was finishing his smash cake) were each special memories I will always treasure from that day. Brendan received some really fun and thoughtful birthday gifts including a ride on train, a new monogrammed back pack, some great books, several toys including a musical instrument set and $1,000 for his college fund. Thank you to our family and friends who came to the party to celebrate with B! You made the day one we will never forget. One of my favorite things is to have my house full of the people I love, and all of us together in honor of our one year old sweetheart, well, what a great day!

We are on to the next stage now! I can't wait! What an exciting ride this is! We love your Brendan! Happy Birthday!

Here are some pictures from the party....more to come once I can figure out how to upload the rest to Blogger. :-)

Catching Up After a Busy July

Summer is slipping by, but I refuse to give up on it until I wake up and have to go to work. I will squeeze out EVERY SINGLE LAST SECOND OF SUMMER and love it. I haven't blogged very much because I have been so busy this last month, but I was motivated to catch up after visiting the awesome blogs of some friends. I am kind of copying one of them here, by catching up on everything we have been doing lately. So, here goes nothing!

July in Review:
We started out the month celebrating the 4th of July with my wonderful parents. I already posted pictures of that, so I won't do that again.

Right when we got home, Daniel's brothers Andrew and Kevin came to visit. How I loved seeing those goofballs! Hanging out with them was really nice, now that we are all grown up. I was blown away talking to Kevin because he is all grown up now. When I think of him, I still envision the 10 year old version of him, not the 21 year old man he has become. We had a good time hanging out, although James was in rare form. Turns out he had strep AGAIN (more to come on that later). He always gets crazy when he gets strep. Here are a couple of pictures of the boys with their fabulous uncles!





In between Daniel's brothers coming to visit and our trip to New Braunfels, we just enjoyed some great family time. We checked things off our summer fun list. I watched as my Summer Project List grew longer and felt only moderately guilty and moderately panicked that barely anything was crossed off.







We wrapped up July with a trip to New Braunfels where we stayed with my parents in a condo and celebrated my dad's 59th birthday. We visited Gruene, went swimming, hung out at Landa Park and took James to Schlitterbahn. The boys got cookies from the oldest bakery in Texas and we ate big home cooked family meals together. All and all, it was a great trip. Brendan loved his time in the pool. He kicked his little legs and really tried to swim. He looked so cute in his tiny little suit in his float. Daniel and I took James to Schlitterbahn (HUGE Waterpark!) and had SO MUCH FUN! He was in heaven! He played and played and played and was so good. He was precious in his tube going round the lazy river. It brought back memories of when I was a kid and we used to go there. I am so excited for next summer when Brendan can go too! I wasn't brave enough to take my camera around all that water, so you will just have to imagine how handsome my guys were! Now we're back home and I am getting everything unpacked and looking at what things I still have to get done before school starts back up. James is having his tonsils and adenoids out next week and my little love bug B will be turning one next Thursday! It just keeps getting busier and busier around here! Updates on James' surgery and Brendan's birthday to come.

The Road to Becoming a Big Boy

All moms have to travel it. It is the exciting, the new, the thrilling, the somewhat scary and bittersweet journey of watching your babies become big kids. Over the last week or so it has hit me like a ton of bricks that my first born is growing up into a little boy right NOW. No longer are we saying things like "When we move James into a big boy bed", we are doing those things! It makes me so proud of him to see him growing and doing new things and having ideas and communicating them so clearly. I like that he has a sense of humor and really gets things now. Of course, he is as stubborn as a mule and that stubbornness seems to be growing exponentially day by day. I know that I am a stubborn pain in the butt myself, so I guess this is some kind of karmic payback. Joy! I look back at his baby days now with a sweet fondness and laugh out loud remembering what a little terror he was some days. Knowing him now, really knowing him, no wonder he was so ticked off at me a lot of the time! Of course he did not want to be held all the time or have his clothes changed or be contained in any way. That would just not do for big boy Jamer and I see now that babies really do come into this world already full of their own opinions and wills. (Thank goodness I was blessed with one snuggling, cuddly momma's boy or I might just have to hold James down and get my snuggles in against his will!) Anyway, James is now in a big boy bed......it was a great transition for him. If it weren't sometimes as early as 6:30am, I could say honestly that I love seeing his little face peering over the side of my bed each morning. I do chuckle though every time he announces, "I'm up! I woke myself up!" and pull him into bed with me for a couple of minutes while he is still comfy and pliable and will lie next to me for a minute or two without much protest. The "Paci Fairy" came to visit yesterday. James decorated a paper sack for her and put all his pacifiers (oh the beloved pacifiers!) into it. He left it on the porch and lo and behold, the paci fairy delivered a shiny and new Buzz Lightyear toy that has so many buttons and lights (and 65 sayings!) that I really believe it could fly itself into the real outer space. Overjoyed is too little of a word to sum of James' reaction. It was true love for him and Buzz! He had a hard time going to bed without the comfort of his paci. I actually cried along with him, he in his bed and me in the living room, silently cursing myself for ever giving him a pacifier in the first place. Then I reminded myself that I like to sleep and have two kids, and cut myself a little slack. But then it was quiet and I knew it.....I knew that my baby had become a big boy, and was sleeping soundly in his big boy bed. He woke me this morning with a huge smile, one I could see all the way. No paci was blocking it and I smiled too, feeling pride welling up inside for my big boy.

July 4th!

We spent July 4th in Houston at my parent's house and we visited the ranch too. The boys wore their matching red, white and blue outfits and we made the flag cake, a tradition we started last year. We tried explaining to James that the cake was for America's birthday, but of course he thought it was really for him. :-)








Mooooo! A couple of the cows we saw while out on the trail wagon.

Lately Brendan's been.......

working hard on eating more,

hanging out with Daddy,

helping with the laundry,

helping me with the dishes,

practicing pulling up on everything (and cruising a teeny tiny bit),

reading some good books,

showing me what needs to go in the recycle bin

and just being his happy little agreeable self!