Big weekend!

This weekend we started Brendan on Multi Grain Cereal mush. He loved it! He reached right for it and kept the majority of it in his mouth. He especially likes it when he can help hold the spoon and when he "helps" eat it with his fingers. Here is the video from his first meal on Saturday as well as some of the best faces he made while eating.

He also got more practice with his sippy cup. He really likes to hold it by himself, but doesn't understand that he has to tilt it to get anything. So he holds, we tip. We are going to keep practicing and hope that between cereal and the sippy cup he can eat if I am away from him for more than 2 hours at a time.
Saturday was also the first day Brendan sat by himself for a good amount of time. By Sunday he was sitting for 5 minutes with no problems. We are "convinced" that the cereal made his bottom heavier and helped balance out that head of his! He is growing up so fast!

Last week we gave Brendan a bubble bath. Immediately after getting in he tried to eat the bubbles.

Sam made a fun hat for Brendan. He seems to like it.

Starting solids

Well Brendan has not been sleeping very well the past week. Last night he was up at 2:30am for 30 minutes, 4:30am for 1 1/2 hours, 7:30am for 15 minutes, 8:30am for 20 minutes, 9:30am for 10 minutes and then up for the day at 11:30am. This is a BIG change from going to bed at 8:30 pm and not waking till 8:30am to eat and go back to sleep till 10:30am. Needless to say Sam and I am working on not a lot of sleep today.

Sam and I talked about it Monday, and after last night it is for sure, and have decided that we are going to starts solids on Saturday. We got the go ahead from the doctor 3 weeks ago with the warning that he may stop sleeping through the night. So now that he is not sleeping through the night we are going to start solids. We are going to start with rice cereal. So hopefully Saturday afternoon I will have some fun video and pictures to post.

Recent pictures

Brendan reading King Bidgood's in the Bathtub with daddy.

He really is studying the pictures.

Sam is teaching Brendan the most important skill he will ever use as a man...

...how to use the remote control.

He kept practicing very hard.

Uh oh...I think he has it figured out.

He thinks that now that he has the remote figured out he needs to start using the camera.

Brendan likes to sit in his bathtub sideways. He doesn't fit very well that way, but it does make him look chunky and cute.

During the temple dedication last Sunday my dad babysat Brendan and then we had dinner over there with the whole family. Brendan wouldn't take a bottle so he screamed most of the time with my dad, but once I got there and he had a full belly he was very cute.

He listened very intently to what grandma had to say.

He sure loves his Winnie the Pooh blankie.

Since the snow has ruined our hopes of spring coming soon Brendan and I had an indoor beach day. He loves the beach ball.

And then Brendan practiced his swimming.

I went to this website and loaded pictures of Sam and I to see what our children would look like according to them. I "made" a boy and a girl. I am so glad they don't really get to decided what our children look like...

And this picture is just too cute not to post.

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day

This was as festive as we got around here for St. Patrick's Day. And it didn't last very long because Brendan started chewing on the necklace and I didn't want the paint to chip off. But he wore his green shirt all day to celebrate!

Brendan stood for the first extended period of time on the 14th of this month. He is growing up so fast and will stand as long as we'll let him. Well and as long as he stays leaned correctly otherwise he starts to tip.

He has also been getting closer and closer to rolling over from back to belly and is getting better at sitting up by himself too. He is growing up so quickly. I am hoping that this means he might start walking a little early, because he is getting so heavy

We also think he is going to start cutting teeth soon. He drools puddles every day and he chews on anything and everything.

The weather has been so beautiful we have been letting Brendan play out on the balcony. He even pushes himself backwards in the walker. Which means he pushes himself until he runs into the railing and can't go any farther. He won't look at the camera though. There is a flag pole just outside our balcony that he loves to watch blow in the wind.

Tonight we had Michelle, Kayli and Robbie over to watch the Utah basketball game and have dinner tonight. Brendan was a happy boy for some of the time and was grinning and talking to his aunts and uncle. Kayli got some cute pictures of him.

The moments slip by so quickly...

Sam and I were talking a few nights ago about how quickly the past 4 months have gone. There are so many things that Brendan has already grown out of. I don't know if I ever really appreciated them while he was doing them but now I miss them.

I remember how as he was falling asleep he would stretch his neck back, pucker his lips and wrinkle his forehead. It was the cutest look! We tried to take a picture so many times, but could never catch it in a way that could do it justice.

I remember how he would fall asleep eating and I could just lay him in my lap on the boppy and he would sleep there all cuddled up. Now he is too big to fit on my lap that way and doesn't even like to sleep cuddled up with me.

After his middle of the night feedings I used to lean against the wall and lean Brendan up against my chest and sing softly to him until he fell asleep.

He would lay cuddled against my neck sleeping soundly. Some nights, even though I was exhausted, I would just want to sit like that all night. There were even nights in the first few weeks when he would refuse to sleep anywhere but my arms. Most nights it was annoying and I wished he would just lay down so that I could go back to sleep. Some nights the only way we could get any sleep was to put the boppy in my lap, rest my arms with Brendan in them on it, lean way back in the recliner and the two of us would sleep for a few hours like that. Some nights we even ended up sleeping on the couch with Brendan sleeping on top of me.

Those were hard nights. I never slept well, I would be so tired the next day...but now I wish I could have a night like that. There are rare occasions that Brendan will fall asleep in my arms eating, and I don't want to lay him down, but I know that if I keep holding him he will only sleep for 10 minutes or so. He won't even fall asleep in my arms if I rock him, he will for most everyone else, but not for me. I miss those days.

I wish we would have taken more pictures, I wish we would have written more down, I wish I could remember more of those moments. I know that we enjoyed it as much as we could with the sleep deprivation and learning how to survive with a newborn, but some days I wish we could do it again.

I am worried that with our next child we will have more pictures, more memories from those first few weeks of his/her life. I hope Brendan will understand that it doesn't mean that we love the second any more or less, but simply that we realize it is gone too quickly.

I also hope that I will remember how much I miss those days and make sure that I am making the most of the present day so that I don't look back and miss today the same way I miss yesterday.

"Today" I love the way he will stop mid-eating to stare at me. He examines my whole face, as if memorizing ever inch of his mommy. It never lasts for more than a minute, but it always ends in a big smile and then he goes back to eating. I have never felt more important and special than I do in those moments. The pure, innocent love that fills his face amazes me.

I love the way he will be playing in his jumper laughing, jumping and playing by himself. Then he will catch my eyes, his face will fill with a smile and he coos then the moment passed and he goes back to playing happily by himself.

I love the way he gets so excited when he hears Sam get home from work. I love the way he looks at Sam with that same love. The way Sam looks at him with adoration.

I love what a happy baby he is. I love that he smiles and laughs at the simplest of things. It makes me feel like he finds joy in life and in the world. There is nothing more I could wish for than for that to continue for his entire life.

I love the way he is camera shy. No matter how smiley he is, no matter how much he is laughing, he always clams up when the camera comes out. As annoying as it is to only have a tiny amount of smiling pictures it is such a cute trait. It also makes those few smile-filled pictures even more special.

I love the way he hides his face sometimes when he smiles, like he is shy and embarrassed. It is so endearing and makes my heart smile.

I love the way he kicks and splashes in the bath tub. I love how he attacks his duck as soon as he touches in. He will stuff the ducks bill into his mouth. He will even chase the duck around the tub with his toes trying to get it close enough to grab.

I love how he always ends up diagonally stuck in his tub because he tries to keep his eye on Sam and I while he plays.

I love how he gets "stuck" on his activity mat because he has scooted himself in a circle and his legs are tangled in the bars.

I love how he tries to "eat" the water we pour on him to rinse him off in the tub.

There are so many things he does that I hope we remember, so many things that I can't wait to tell him about some day. Things I can't wait for him to experience with his own child someday.

The moments slip by so quickly. I just hope we can grab some and hang on to them before the slip too far out of reach.

So photogenic...

I have really enjoyed taking pictures of Brendan. He's just so cute! I took these today.

He tolerated it, but only for a few minutes. He's cute even when he's upset!

Little sports star

Taken 3/10/2009

Taken 3/2/2009
Taken 2/7/2009

4 month stats

Brendan had his 4-month doctors appointment yesterday. The doctor says it sounds like everything is normal and that normal is always a good thing.

Brendan weighed in at 17 pounds 10 ounces. Meaning he gained 4 pounds in 2 months (and February was a short month!). He is 26.5 inches long, a half a foot taller than the day he was born. His head circumference is in the 100th percentile! Average weight and height for his age is 14 pounds 13 ounces and 24.9 inches. He is such a big boy!

We got the go ahead to start solids with a warning that some babies that are sleeping through the night sometimes stop sleeping through the night if they start solids. So we are going to wait awhile longer and see how Brendan is doing. Right now he seems totally satisfied with just nursing so we will stick with that for a while. No reason to risk our sleep if he is doing fine.

The doctor was telling me about the milestones we should expect in the next two months and Brendan has already reached them all. So he is doing really well! Before we know it he will be moving around and pulling everything onto the floor.