Sick...

Ugh, everyone's sick today. I'm not sure if it's allergies or a cold, but we've all got it. Just what we need while trying to pack the house for our move...
Brendan learned to say "toe" today. But his favorite word today was "oh, no."
Luke is fussy and won't sleep. Michael is taking his turn trying to get him to sleep. I'm not sure what I ate that upset him so much, but he's had an upset tummy for a couple days now. Poor baby.
My mosquito bites are getting better though. The ones on the bottom of my feet are almost healed. The ones on my ankles are still driving me nuts off and on, but it's not as bad as it was.

Today's Update

We're busy packing like mad here. The house is an absolute mess from all the packing and we've been going to bed way too late each night. The combination of these two things is making for one very stressed mama. Add to that the fact that Saturday night I got several mosquito bites on my feet - two on the bottom of one foot - and I'm not doing too great. I've been limping around the house because it hurts to step on the bites.
The boys are doing well. Brendan has learned two more signs in the past couple days - blanket and ball. He may also have said please and yes today, but we're not completely sure. Luke is rolling more and more. I don't think it will be too much longer before he learns to roll across the room.
Well, that's my update for now, I've got to get back to packing.

What A Morning!!!

We got to sleep in a little this morning. I got up at 7am and Luke and Michael were still asleep in bed and Brendan was asleep in his room. Got a few things done before Brendan woke up. Then he woke up. I think he hit the terrible twos this morning. I got him up and started to make his breakfast. When his oatmeal was ready I called for him to come eat. He was playing down the hall and ignored me. I went to go get him and saw what he was playing with. Petroleum jelly!!! He had found the jar in a half-packed box in the hall, gotten it open, and was rubbing it into the carpeting! Yuck, yuck, yuck! Then, as I grabbed his arm to get him away from there and clean him up, he grabbed teddy with his petroleum jelly-covered hand. Eeeew! So we got him cleaned up, blocked off the hall, took teddy away to hopefully be cleaned, and gave him his breakfast. He decided to drink his oatmeal. Fortunately, most of it landed on the table and got scraped back into his bowl. And his favorite word today seems to be "Nooooooo!" Then Luke woke up and needed to be changed and fed. And then changed again. Eventually I got my breakfast and shower. Then we had to run around like mad to get everything ready to go to the doctor's. Both boys had well-baby checks today. We left running a couple minutes late, got up to Dupont road, were halfway to the office and saw a road construction sign. Annoying, that'll slow us down. Oh wait, it's not just construction, it's closed! Michael called the doctor's office and got directions to get around the construction. We were 15 minutes late. Not a crisis though, Dr. Tallon's office was running late anyway. The boys are both doing great. Luke is already 15 lbs. 2 oz. and 24 3/4 inches long. Brendan is 31 lbs. and almost 37 inches. And they're both doing quite well developmentally, too. We counted and Brendan has 27 words! Plus, he uses 8 signs and recognizes a couple others.
Something cute/funny:
Last night was Luke's first time sitting in his high chair at dinner with us. Brendan and Luke both thought this was wonderful! Luke blew a raspberry and Brendan laughed hysterically and blew one back. They went back and forth like this all through dinner - laughing and blowing raspberries at each other.

More Daddy Practice [for Brendan]

Brendan has been a good Daddy for his Teddy.

This morning Brendan was in our bedroom by Luke's swing with Teddy. I turned it on and put Teddy in the swing. Brendan turned on the music and walked out the door slowly and told me to "shhh!" He came back right away shaking his head "No" and picked up Teddy and walked in a couple circles with Teddy and put him back down and turned the swing back on.

He must have been watching Mommy with Baby Luke.

After Teddy was back down in the swing, Brendan walked out the door and screamed.

He's gonna be a great Daddy...

So yesterday afternoon I was holding Luke and walking around trying to calm him down. I wandered into our bedroom and what did I see?

Brendan standing next to the swing with it on and playing music. Nothing too unusual there, he loves the swing. Teddy was in the swing. Brendan looked up at me, put his finger to his mouth and said, "Shhhhh!" He was putting Teddy to sleep in Luke's swing!


Later on, I was carrying Luke in the sling and made a little sling for Brendan with one of his playsilks and tucked Teddy into it. He was thrilled! I don't think we got any really good pictures though. We tried, but he wasn't gonna hold still.

He loves helping me out, or at least trying to.
I was folding a pile of towels and had them all lined up at the foot of our bed and went to put the kitchen ones away. When I turned around, Brendan was pulling the pile of bathroom towels off the bed. I almost yelled at him to stop, but then I realized he was trying to help. He picked up one still-folded bath towel from the floor - quite an arm-full for him - and carried it all the way across the house to the cupboard where they go, opened it and shoved the towel inside! It wasn't quite on top of the pile, but he sure tried. I fixed it and handed him a bath mat to put away. That was much easier for him to do and he was so proud of himself for doing it.

He's also getting much better at feeding himself with a spoon. This morning he only spilled about a teaspoon of oatmeal on his bib!



Luke is rolling from back to front now. He's been able to roll front to back since he was 1 month old. He hated being on his belly though. So he rolls onto his belly and gets really mad, then I have to roll him onto his back because he doesn't seem to remember how. And then we repeat the whole thing. Again and again...

Lydia's Birthday Party

This is a week late, but better late then never, right?


Here is a lovely picture of Lydia riding her cow.


Joan was sweet and got Brendan a really cool color changing straw cup, but apparently the straw isn't dishwasher safe. :( Brendan loved his cup.


Luke had a good time with Mommy...

... and Aunt Penny, and everyone else who would hold him.


Lydia was sweet and kissed Luke.


We tried getting a picture with Lydia and Brendan and their babies that Kira made for Christmas. Brendan wasn't in the greatest mood for that. He only slept about half an hour that day on the way to Lake Mills from Milwaukee, and that was it. The idea was to have him take his nap there, but he never calmed down enough.


Brendan did get a quick smooch in with Lydia, but it was under protest since he was cranky.


Brendan did better when he was put in the pack and play with Lydia.


Lydia also loves hanging upside down. Here's a picture of her just hanging out.


Here's a cute picture of Lydia and Julie (her mommy).


Lydia was so cute. I had to get a little bit of snuggle time with her too. She loved giving hugs.

Beyond that, I can't believe how big she is getting. It's been so long since I saw her last. She's such an adorable little girl. I hope that something works out where we can see her more often, but that may have to wait a couple years.