Aedan is 6 Weeks

On our way to 2 months!  Aedan is more alert, has better neck control and is smiling! 

He’s eating and growing like crazy.  I don’t know how much he weighs, but he’s wearing some 3-6 month sleepers and looks pretty chunky in a lot of his 3 month clothes.  I can’t believe how big he’s getting!  He’s growing so much faster than Brody, just another one of the differences we’re going to see with these two. 

He’s an amazing sleeper.  We are so lucky, as he averages 5-8 hours each night.  After the 8 hours nights, I feel great!  It’s so nice.  Then a 5 hour night sneaks up on us…but I really can’t complain. 

We haven’t introduced any formula at this point but he’s getting about 1 bottle of pumped milk each night to get him used to the bottle.  He’s doing it pretty well with it, but still doesn’t love his pacifier.

The past two weeks, Aedan had his first Halloween, met a few of my friends he hasn’t seen yet, and spent his first few hours away from his parents.

Here’s a photo recap since his 1 month checkup:

Favorite Words

Of course I loved the moments that Brody said “Mama” for the first time, or when he started calling me Mommy instead.  I even loved it when he realized my name was Kellie and listening to him try to pronounce it is pretty cute.

However, my absolute favorite words, so far, haven’t been the most common ones.

There is just something cute about little kids saying things that you wouldn’t expect them to say.  For instance, the first time Brody said “Bless you” when I sneezed, was absolutely the cutest most adorable thing I had ever heard him say. 

Another cute one?  When he started saying, “excuse me” when he was done eating, in order to be excused from the table, instead of just “all-done.”  They taught him that one at school, but it was just such a polite thing to come out of a 2 year-old’s mouth!

My newest favorite words?  “You okay Mama?”

This usually happens if I drop something, or hurt myself and yell something I probably shouldn’t in front of a 2 year old (though I’m getting really good at keeping the swearing to a minimum, I still need to watch the words like “crap”).

This morning, I dropped my cell phone in the hallway and Brody was still laying in his crib (he does this when he doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning).

All of a sudden I hear from the other end of the hall, “You okay Mama??”  It’s the one of the sweetest 3 words that come out of his mouth…and I love it. 

Pregnancy #2 is going to be very different

We have a 2 year old

Clearly I’m a bit behind in blogging. Things have been busy around our house this year, including two trips to Orlando over 10 days for me. We’ve also been getting over colds, ear infections and random fevers.

Birthday update will be done soon, but it has come and gone, Brody is officially two! And he’s bringing in the year in style.

Terrible Two Style.

I don’t know what happened to my sweet, endearing little boy!! Okay, he’s always been a little crazy, but not so dramatic! I’m trying to take it a day at a time and approach from the “this too will pass” mentality. But that little man sure knows how to push my buttons.

His language is great these days. He’s really doing a good job communicating and it’s nice to know what he wants most of the time. Of course, with his ability to tell us what he wants, comes with demands:

-Brody sit in chair. Mama, couch!
-Mama eat breakfast.
-Brody no nap! Toys!
-More books Mama! (After reading 5 million before bed) Then…More songs Mama! (I secretly love this one because there is a day that will come where he realizes I’m not that good of a singer)
-Watch Guppies!

Most of these “requests” I’ll happily do for him. Some I have to put my foot down (bedtime stall tactics). Others, I just cannot allow…and this is where the temper tantrums come in.
Recent examples:

1. Biggest fight ever about having cookies for dinner. Brody saw cookies on the counter and decided that is what he wanted for dinner. For starters, he very very rarely eats any desserts and definitely not cookies. So cookies for dinner?? Out of the question. The obvious compromise (if you eat your dinner you can have cookies for dessert), didn’t work.

Result: 30 minutes of temper tantrums, crying, screaming, 1 unsuccessful time-out, a few tears on my part…and he finally gave in, ate his dinner and had cookies for dessert.

2. Marshmallows with dinner. We don’t even have marshmallows in the house! Apparently he’s been getting them at school for good behavior (will post about my opinions on this another time) and came home expecting the same thing.

Result: A few whines/cries, distraction with another food he liked, eventually forgotten about. Whew, crisis averted!

3. “Red Car Mama!!” — Um, well, sure it would be great to drive the red car today, but your father already left with that car, and the brown car is the only choice we have. Oh and he said this after we were already a block away from the house! Where does he come up with this stuff?

This one is also right up there with his demands to drive. He’s asked several times if he can drive. Luckily he had a toy steering wheel we keep in the car so he can pretend. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we get this request between now and 16.

Goodbye 2011!

2011 was a great year for our family, but more than anything, it was the year without any major changes!! It felt good. (OK, Jason was promoted to VP and I was promoted to Manager, but I am not counting those as major changes since we stayed in the same jobs, just added responsibility)

I look back at our lives since we got engaged. Basically, Jason put the ring on my finger and we took off running:

*2005 – Engaged, graduated, moved to Kansas City, started a new job (also the year Jason and I got back together after a 1 year hiatus)

*2006 – Jason moved to Kansas City / started a new job, married, bought a house

*2007 – Sold our first house, moved to Cincinnati, adopted two doggies, Jason started a new job

*2008 – Sold our second house, moved back to Wisconsin, started new jobs

*2009 – Pregnant!! Bought our third house.

*2010 – Brody! A fun, but exhausting year…

*2011 – Time to breathe….

2011 really was the year of travel. I love vacations, big or small. I don’t like to sit still, so getting out of town every chance we got, was really fun. We had big vacations (NYC & Punta Cana) and we had a ton of smaller vacations (Michigan, Indiana, Kansas, couple of Wisconsin getaways).

Without the big changes, 2011 was really a great year. It had it’s ups and downs, but we really had fun and grew as a family this year. Taking Brody on a plane for the first time was probably the highlight of the year as well as an entire week with my husband and friends without children. While I love Brody to death, it’s refreshing to spend a little time on ourselves.

I look forward to 2012 and everything that it will bring, hoping for an equally low-stress year.

But look at how far we’ve come…

Dec 2010

Summer 2011

December 2011

When Brody Grows Up…

He wants to be just like his daddy…

Love.Them.To.Pieces.

Why I blog

As anyone who actually still looks at this blog knows, I have barely written anything in the last few months. So I began reflecting on why I blog…

Well, it started as a way to document my pregnancy and then realized it’s also a great way to keep family and friends (who I never have time to call on a regular basis) in the loop on Brody’s development as a baby. He was changing daily, so it was nice to document it.

Now…Brody has gotten a little older and while he is still growing and changing at a rapid pace, it’s not the same as the first year of his life. Some weeks, I don’t have as many things to write as others. Then there are the weeks that I have a ton to write, but don’t have the time to do it. Then when I find time, I forget some of the things I wanted to write about.

The other day I was browsing through older posts on my blog and looked at some pictures of Brody that don’t seem so long ago. Yet, he looks so different today than even a couple of months ago. And I realized that I’m missing out on documenting his first summer as a toddler. And it’s been a busy, adventurous summer!

So on that note, a preview of our 18 month professional photos (taken by McManigal Photography). Once again, she did a wonderful job capturing Brody and our family. These are only the first few that we’ve seen, but I expect the rest to be just as wonderful.

Then and Now

Brody rediscovered his love for his bouncy seat over this weekend. He clearly wasn’t able to enjoy it’s bouncing powers a year ago.

11 Months!

Yes, the countdown has begun. We’re officially less than a month away from Brody’s 1st Birthday! And I say it every month (and will continue to say this for the rest of my life) but he’s getting so big so fast. I see it every day but every once and awhile it still catches me off guard when I realize how much he’s grown in 11 months. He used to be so tiny!

Okay, I’m wiping away the tears now and onto what he’s been up to…

Walking! I have to say we officially have a “walker.” He’s not perfectly steady on his feet, but he usually chooses to walk from one part of the room to the other. Many times (i.e. when he’s not tired) even when he falls, he’ll stand himself back up and keep walking. He’s not as daring as I thought he would be, since he will walk towards something that he can hold onto to steady himself before walking to his end goal. However, not surprisingly, he usually falls because he’s trying to walk too fast. He wants to run, but his feet won’t keep up!

Honestly, I think he’s been working so hard on walking and standing up on his own, that he hasn’t had time for any other skills. But there are a few other small ones he’s working on. Rumor has it, he can wave! I have yet to see it, so I still don’t believe it, but his daycare teachers swear it’s hilarious. He doesn’t go for the typical baby hand flopping up and down wave. No — he apparently swings his arms from side to side like he’s drawing a rainbow. Apparently him & another boy in his daycare room do this to each other after nap time. But he’s in no hurry to show his parents.

He’s added “na-na” to his “baba, mama, dada” rambling. I think he’s pretty sure what mama means, but he still will use it out of context. But many days he’ll say, “mama” directly to me while he’s coming towards me. So it’s hard to say. He’s also getting really good at turning pages while we read books & he loves to clap! He’s also “pointing” at things, at least that what we think. He actually uses his whole hand to point instead of just a finger, it’s pretty cute.

As far as personality, I do think we have a little shy guy on our hands. He adapts well to new situations in the fact that he doesn’t cry or freak out in new places. Or if we leave him alone & he cries, he’ll get over it very quickly. However, if we’re there, he does tend to cling to us a little bit until he’s sure of the situation.

More than anything, he never “shows off” in big groups. We couldn’t get him to clap at his cousin’s basketball game, but he loved watching the game and sat still for an hour to do so! At his Aunt’s graduation party, he walked a few steps but nothing like he does when it’s just us and him.

For now, I’m classifying him as an observer. He seems to love watching what other people (and kids) are doing before he jumps right in. And this is where his personality continues to take after me. I’m actually pretty shy in new situations, but eventually warm up.

Last month until we officially have a toddler on our hands! But at least there will be a fun birthday celebration!

And this last picture is his reaction to taking 11 month pictures — I’m outta here!

First Haircut

After dragging my feet for at least a month, I finally booked a hair appointment for Brody. Jason has been bugging me for awhile as Brody’s hair got longer and longer. I knew once he no longer had his baby hair then I’d really have to realize that he’s growing up!

We booked an appointment with a kids salon, knowing that we’d want someone with experience cutting the hair of a 10 month old. He barely understands the word no, so telling him to hold his head still was out of the question. Obviously, I was a little nervous — not just about losing his baby hair – but throwing a temper-tantrum in the salon.

The hair place had cars instead of chairs. You could pick anything from a pink Jeep to a blue mini-cooper-type car. We went for the blue one that was open. Each station had it’s own TV with a kid movie playing. I imagine this works well for kids that are a little older, but Brody has very little interest in TV, so it didn’t help much.

Overall – Brody was a trooper. He didn’t get cranky once and he held still very well. Every once and awhile he’s turn his head quickly to see something else going on around him. He loves to watch everyone around him, which worked well until they started vacuuming out a seat behind him and he quickly turned his head around mid-cut. In the end though, he hair looks great and it’s no longer in his eyes.

But he does look more like a little boy than my baby…

BEFORE:

AFTER: