Say Cheese!

Brendan should be eating finger foods by now. He has the dr's okay to pretty much eat whatever I'm eating (with some exceptions) just cut up real small. Well, he just hasn't been into it. The boy is a Taurus all the way... so stubborn! And if he doesn't like the taste or texture of something he can actually make himself gag and throw-up! So I've been trying finger foods and the only thing he'll eat is Gerber puffs (these little fruit flavored cereal things.) I've tried his favorites that he likes pureed and he still doesn't like 'em... cut up bananas, little pieces of sweet potatos, etc. He just gags and pukes. Super. I've also tried crackers, cheese, pasta pieces, etc. All leading to gags. But tonight I bravely tried some Sargento cheddar cheese stick (prior to the jarred food... no fool am I!)... and guess what???? He ate it! Wooo hoooo! I was so excited I tried to take a picture but didn't have the memory stick in the camera. Doh! Anyway... I think this was a big step. Amazing what excites me these days!

For Carrie... my biggest fan.... hopefully not the only one!

Brendan's antics

I figured out how to upload video!!! WOOOO HOOOO! So here is what the little man is up to. He loves balls. (Stop giggling you pervy, immature people... you know who you are.) He has learned to bounce and play "catch". It is so cute!!! Here's the video!

He also has figured out how to get into everything! Last night my nephews were over and the bathroom door must have been left open. I hear Brendan giggling and chatting with himself in there. Realizing he was in the bathroom I went running! (Thinking he'd be about to crawl head first into the toilet... God Forbid!) But instead he's found the toilet paper. What a little stinker!

Baby boy

We started our long weekend of romance (hahaha) with a Valentine's Day fever! Bren felt a little warm in the late afternoon and then by the time we had a bath and we were getting ready for bed he was burning up. Then he projectile vomited up his dinner... super. And then after bottle, spewed that too. Ugh.... So scary! I pumped him full of baby Tylenol and put him down hoping he would break the fever and get some rest.

So Jimmy and I shovel in our "romantic" dinner and gulp down some wine. And an hour or so later the baby was up and screaming. I went up and had him in the glider trying to calm him. Jimmy had to go to work. So there I sat with my poor sick baby, the temperol thermometer (so I could check every 10 minutes and a glass of wine. It was a long night.

This was Brendan's first high fever.... 103.4 at it's peak! We had a nice late night call to his Ped and she put me at ease. Sunday morning we went to see her at the doctor's office. He was still running 101 but was perking up. But Sunday afternoon he was on the mend and we went over to Jimmy's sisters for dinner for his Mom's birthday. Can you believe this little boy was so sick only 24 hours prior???? Kids are so resiliant...

New shoes...

Yesterday we went to Stride Rite and bought Bren his first real walking shoes! He moves so quick now that his socks aren't slipping all over the hard woods. hehehe. Now he can just crawl all over and follow you around. Which is so cute. This morning he was my shadow as I got ready for the gym (yes, that's right.. I went to the gym... but that's another story!) and as I'm getting dressed I start to wonder at what age should I stop changing in front of him? I could've sworn he was watching me put on my sports bra with knowing eyes. Although it may simply be that he is remembering the girls as his intial food source. Come to think of it, he does kinda eye his bottle in the same way. But it does make me wonder what how I'm going to get ready for work when he gets too old to lock in the room with me while I get dressed. Maybe I should start looking at big play pens now!

I can't believe next week he turns 9 months old! Blows my mind. And I feel like he is really on the verge of a word... he says a lot of dadadada. Of course Jimmy thinks he is actually saying "dada" in reference to him. But of course this is really just indiscriminate babbling and I am convinced there is a "mama" in him yet! Or maybe a "hi". He kinda makes this "heeeeh" exhaling sound in response to a "Hi Brendan!" Yes, he's a genius.

For Aunt Carrie & Aunt Lauren

Because it touches me so dearly that you tell me that you miss my little man, here's what Bren Ed was up to this evening.... a little frozen 'naner with din-din then into jammies for some play time and crawling!

Some random thoughts...

Blogging is a lot of pressure. I go through my day thinking, "would this make for good blog content?" So today I thought.. would anyone really care that I sat in a lot of traffic this morning, then started my day meeting with an agency about a project I need support on, then read some emails, had a meeting about our new print on demand system, then got a yummy salad around 1:45, had another meeting about how we'll handle communicating some product changes, then chatted with a colleague who just returned from maternity leave, then another conference call, back in the car and in traffic, picked up Brendan, then did the bedtime routine, put him down to sleep, ate a sweet potato with a little butter, and I'm now watching American Idol? Boring, right?
If you are bored by that then maybe I can discuss the AT&T commercial about the Techno Twins... I mean I hear it on the radio, see it on the TV and start to lose my mind. It is BEYOND annoying. I wish that guy would just stop yelling and shut the heck up. I don't know why it makes me so mad but it really makes me rageful.

Oh, and since someone asked monkey-lovey is Brendan's little snuggle friend. A lovey is like a security blanket type of thing. It's super cute and real soft. He likes to wrestle it and swing it like a laso as he falls asleep. Here's what he looks like....


























By the way, anyone remember when I looked like this?? I had to dig up my preggo pics to make myslef feel better about my current state of utter fatness.

3 minutes!!

I mean... can you even believe that my son went to sleep tonight after being put in his crib fully awake and only cried for 3(!!!) minutes?? I'm such a proud mama. Let's just hope we make it through the night.

In other news... I can't get over this guy in the news who gave his wife a kidney and then ungrateful biz-natch cheats on him and now he's suing for his "asset" which he's valued at 1.5MM. I love it! What a great case.. give me back my kidney you cheating ho or pay me. It's such an interesting time we live in. Seriously though, if someone loved you enough to risk their life to give you the gift of a major organ would you really go out and screw someone else? What is wrong with this woman!?!?!? I think this guy has undervalued his kidney.

Also in the news here in NY today... So, picture this, I'm driving home from the city tonight... minding my business, listening to the news station (1010 Wins) and I hear them play a 911 tape of a woman delivering her baby in her home bathroom with help from her mother and a 911 operator. The mom is screaming at her to, "PUSH, PUSH WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT" and then describing to the operator, "the body is out... the head is still in". (The baby was breech.) In the background you hear the mommy-to-be grunting and screaming. Cut back to the newscaster, "The woman was able to fully deliver her child in a squat position with a few more pushes." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What a crazy thing to put on the radio during drive time! I'm still disturbed by the visual. The word "squat" should be regulated by the FCC.

Everybody's doing it...

So all my friends have started these really witty and fun blogs about their fabulous lives. Some without even telling me... thanks.  Anyway, so I want to play too! Will anyone really read my blog about my mundane suburban, married life?? If I keep it a secret from Jimmy then I can tell all the really funny stories about the stuff he does... but until I make a decision on that I'll focus on Brendan.

Bren turned 8 months old yesterday. Crazy right?!? We've had a really rough month. We've been so spoiled as he was a really good baby... slept good, ate good, development good. But then he got his first cold and cough, then a stomach bug, then an ear infection... all while cutting 4 teeth, learning to crawl and starting to pull-up to standing. So needless to say we've turned a big corner and life is a bit crazy. And we are all desperate for sleep as our formerly good sleeping son is gone... he's now a manipulative crib crawler. Waking up every hour or so crying and crawling to the corner of the crib by his door as if to say, "come get me suckers!"

So Monday I put my foot down and commenced "sleep training". We'd talked to the Ped about all the different methods you read about and bottomline she said he needed to cry it out... learn to put himself to sleep without us running in to his room, picking him up, soothing him and other actions she referred to as "meddling". Apparently we had trained him to be like this by catering to him during all his illnesses and it was our responsibility to undo it. So, Monday I did our bedtime routine, put him in the crib with monkey-lovey and binky, told him that God loved him, Mommy loved him, Daddy loved him, etc. and walked out. He cried for 27 (long) minutes. And then (miracle of miracles) he didn't wake up until 6:22 am.

Last night I did the routine, told him about the love and walked out. He cried for 16 minutes and then slept! He did wake up at 4:30ish with a big poop. But I cleaned him up, then back in the crib and he slept until 7 am!

So, I'm feeling good, empowered, mom-of-the-year! I'm actually excited to try again tonight. I wonder how long he'll cry. I'm thinking 8 minutes or so... I'll keep you posted.