Dipping in the Katsup

Brennan has become a big fan of dipping things lately. Doesn't matter if it's even something logical to dip. Dip a cookie in some salsa? Yummy. Dip some pumpkin bread in syrup? Why not? Here he is doing some more traditional dipping:

No More Broccoli Until You Eat Your Quesadilla

Brennan has for the most part not been a picky eater. But he certainly does have some preferences emerging. He's becoming a less of a fan of meat, particularly when its not strongly seasoned. Blackened chicken and the like he'll eat up, but plainer forms of chicken and other meats are not as interesting. He loves vegetables, with lettuce and broccoli being his favorites. Nancy from his family care tells us that when she takes the kids to Bertucci's, Brennan is all about the salad and not as much the pizza. Well at least he's learning to eat healthy. I'm not sure where he gets that from -- not from us certainly.

Same sort of thing happened at Chili's a couple of weeks ago. We got him chicken quesadillas (Hmmm... Blogger suggests that when I say "quesadillas" I have simply misspelled "peccadilloes"--sort of the same but not quite). I tried the quesadillas out and can confirm they were yummy and definitely deserving of the party in Brennan's tummy. But we also got a side of steamed broccoli. Brennan wasn't the least bit interested in the yummy cheesy quesadillas; all he wanted was broccoli. Never thought I'd be saying to a nineteen-month old, "no more broccoli until you eat more quesadilla."

Fun at the Mall

Brennan loves the play areas at the malls. Since it was a little hot out Saturday for taking him to one of his favorite outside parks, we headed over to the Natick Collection for a bit, just so Brennan could run around and have some fun outside of the house. We get there and realize -- no stroller. This is sort of a big mall too. But fortunately, the Natick Collection has something even better. Every mall should have these. Grocery stores too, for that matter. Brennan was thoroughly entertained.

Superhero

Daddy sent this picture to me without explanation, so the best I can guess, Brennan has decided to be a superhero of some sort today. Or a wizard. I'm not sure.

Brennan & Papa Day

Once a month or so, I try to have a day with just me & Brennan. Not that we don't like Daddy, but it's nice to have some one-on-one bonding time, and Daddy could use the break. Last weekend, we went into the city for the "Ahts" festival (i.e., the Boston Arts Festival). We walked along the harbor for a while. The tide was very high. Brennan was mesmerized by the waves and the boats. The water was really as high as it looks here -- occasionally splashing over the top.


Brennan was also thoroughly entertained by the seal exhibit outside the acquarium. We spent a half hour watching that exhibit, with Brennan yelling "fish" every time a seal passed by, mixed in with some "wows." He was really annoyed when we left.

Probably the most amusing thing the whole day was how it ended. We spent a fair amount of time in the playground at Christopher Columbus Park, and I could tell Brennan was getting pretty fatigued. We had been outside for a long time and doing a lot of walking. On our way walking back to the car, we stopped by a ballet performance and decided to sit down and watch for a while. It's hard to see from this picture, but Brennan was thoroughly entertained. He sat there and just watched the dancers dance and listened to the music, clapping along with the audience in between numbers.


So perhaps we have a ballet fan on our hands? Who knew?

Our Morning Routine

We have a pretty set morning routine. Brennan starts making noises around 6 a.m. We ignore him for a while because that's just too early for us. He has gotten in to the habit now of flipping on and off the light switch in his room to further note that he is up. But he remains pretty content for a while -- having deep conversations with Winnie the Pooh and Donald Duck. And if you go in his room right when he starts making noises and ask if he wants to get up, he'll answer "nooooo" in a giggly voice.

Eventually, one of us will get up and bring him down for breakfast. He's overall been a flexible eater from day one, but lately he's gotten a little pickier. He's caught on to the fact that I give him the oatmeal from the variety pack that isn't as tasty (plain oatmeal and "banana" oatmeal that tastes nothing like bananas). Oh well.

Then, it's off to snuggle and watch Yo Gabba Gabba. He gets super excited when the show first comes on. Below is a relatively modest version of his daily excitement:

...and then it's off to the rest of our day.

Food and Hair Come Together

One of Brennan's favorite things to do when he is having a messy meal: show us where his hair is. "Hair, hair," he says, as he sticks his fingers in his hair, spreading around as much as possible of whatever he's eating like it's shampoo. Yes, Brennan, that is your hair.

He knows the word "mouth" too, but that would not be nearly as much fun.

Back to Nancy Care

Ok, it's been a while, but I'm going to act like it hasn't and just jump right in to things, because I just don't feel like doing an "it's been a while" post in which I would have to summarize the last two months.

Brennan goes back to family care (day care in someone's house) on Monday, as Carl returns to work part time. We got a little preview on Tuesday of how things might go next week, as we left Brennan at "Nancy Care" for most of the day because Carl had some meetings at work. Even before we woke up, Brennan somehow knew something was going on. Rather than waking up at 7 as is usually the plan, he stared fussing at 5:30. We just don't wake up that early, so we caved and brought him into bed with us for a little bit. Fortunately, we don't do this so often so he's use to it -- he's pretty much incapable of falling asleep in our bed just because he almost never sleeps anywhere but his crib (except for travel).

Then, he was pretty fussy throughout the morning. Snuggling with Mickey and watching Yo Gabba Gabba helped a little bit, but as you can tell from the picture, he was still a little upset:

Then we took him to Nancy Care together, and he was not very happy. He's had two stints in Nancy Care before -- this past spring and the spring before, each about a month -- but since then he has developed some attachment issues. The second we walked in he knew what was going on. He clutched on to me tightly, and when I put him on the floor to walk over to Nancy, the tears started flowing. Trying not to make things worse, we made a quick exit.

Turns out that he ended up sleeping for most of the 5 hours he was there. He had been sort of sleep deprived the last few days, having refused to nap, and he had a little fever, we think from teething. Also, it was a dark & rainy day. Poor kid.

Hopefully next week he'll get back into the swing of things and be happily playing with all the other kids. He really is a social kid and especially loves hanging around with the older kids. Especially now that he's finally walking, he should be able to keep up with them too. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Speaking of Yo Gabba Gabba, it's coming to town in September. We might just have to go. At first I was unsure. As much as Brennan loves Yo Gabba Gabba, he'll only be 19 months old. A little young for his first concert. Then I read that Biz's Beat of the Day will be included in the show. DJ Lance Rock, Brobee, Foofa, Plex, Muno, Toodee, and Biz Markie all on one stage? That's a hard concern to turn down.

Daddy in NYC

Daddy went to NYC this week with Adrienne, so Brennan & Papa had some fun together at home.  We went to the playground every day, went on plenty of walks, and had a lot of fun.  He always wants to do whatever the big kids are doing.  Even playing on the big kid equipment at the playground:

Yes Papa called himself Daddy when he was ready to go down the slide.  No wonder Brennan sometimes gets our names mixed up too.  Brennan's not quite walking yet without help, but he has fun pushing things around.

The baby dolls in the stroller escaped with only minor injuries.  This was in a great indoor playground we go to on rainy days.  After practicing with the stroller, Brennan tried his luck on the "race track" in the indoor playground, pushing around little cars until he was exhausted.  Then at home after a refreshing nap, Brennan was ready to go again, pushing a whole train:

Talking and Almost Walking

Brennan has been talking up a storm lately.  He says "daddy," "papa," "night-night" (when he's tired), "no" (when you're doing something that annoys him, he will discipline you), "yes," "ducky" (both ducks and dogs both get called "ducky", and of course, "hi," which he says to pretty much everyone who looks at him.  He's stood up a couple of times, but hasn't quite made it to walking yet -- he gets where he wants just fine by crawling, so why bother?  

He climbed up the stairs yesterday, which he hadn't done in a while, but we wanted to see daddy (who was upstairs), so he was determined to find him.  

He loves the noisy things attached to the fridge, which we finally took out of the boxes:

The only downside is this is all the way across the room from the other noisy toys, so he can't quite get all the noisy toys making noises all at once, despite his best efforts.

1-Year Old

Brennan turned 1 on Sunday.  He had his one-year checkup this morning.  He had some blood taken from his finger (he is braver than me).  Here he is with his band-aid on his finger:

He's a big boy -- 30 1/2 inches, and 22 lbs 8 ounces, but we already knew that.  Now he & daddy are staying in for the big snow storm (aka flurries and drizzle so far), while papa's at work, hoping he can get home this evening!

Hockey Day in Canada; Papa & Brennan Day

Saturday was a fun day for two reasons.  First, it was Hockey Day in Canada.  We're not Canadian, but we still celebrate this holiday.  What better way to start off HDIC then watching last night's Sabres game on DVR with Papa?

Then, while Daddy was away for the afternoon, Brennan & I got a whole afternoon to hang out.  We went to an indoor playground, where Brennan crawled from toy to toy to toy for an hour and a half straight, making some new friends along the way.  Here's Brennan playing in the ball pit:

After all this fun, Brennan was thoroughly exhausted, and needed a nap.  He stayed in this position for a full hour and a half, not moving an inch:

He was sleeping so hard I actually had to wake him up.  It was 5:30 pm and he needed to eat dinner and get a bath.  But to round out the fun day, we went to Burger King for dinner.  Here's Brennan trying to win the "see how much hamburger I can stuff in my mouth" contest:

Good sleeper, or...?

Here's Brennan from yesterday -- hanging out with Daddy on the third floor.  

Nice and innocent, right?  Well, he's decided lately that he wants to be a little devil in the middle of the night.  For the longest time, we had it pretty easy.  Brennan was sleeping through the night at around 4 months old (really through the whole night, not 11pm to 5am, but 7pm to 7am).  He stayed pretty consistent until just about a month ago, when he decided he wanted to start waking up a 2 or 3am for a late night snack.  It's partly out fault for facilitating it, but when you're in a daze at 3am, it's much easier to give him a bottle and put him back down then it is to outlast his fussing and begging for "Daddy."

A couple nights ago, Daddy had had enough.  He had given Brennan a bottle around 2, and Brennan woke back up at 5:30, which in our house, still counts as the middle of the night and is too early to wake up.  So I went in there and snuggled with him on his chair, and we both fell asleep there until 7:30.  Very enjoyable for one morning, but nothing I want to make a habit of.

Then came last night.  Usually, even when Brennan has been getting up at 2 or 3 am, he has a bottle,  goes right back down, and sleeps until 6:30 or 7.  Last night, after having a bottle at 2, Brennan woke up again at 3, very unhappy, and inconsolable.  So I sat there with him while he more or less tantrumed for 15 minutes in my arms, then eventually, he stopped, instead deciding it was playtime.  He started giggling and grabbing my nose and hair.  Not amused or in the mood to play, I put him back down, and fortunately, he did not protest, instead falling back asleep til 7.

Overall, these haven't been awful nights -- last night, when I was probably awake for 20 minutes with him, was among the worst.  But after we get past his birthday, we're definitely going to make an effort to stop this midnight snack and/or play habit.  Wish us luck!

Weathering the storm...

While Papa is at work, Daddy and Brennan are staying inside today because it's stormy out (just rain -- no snow, fortunately).  Here's Brennan, lounging around and snacking on a bottle before his nap:

With his first birthday approaching, Brennan is on his last week or so of bottles.  He's actually been becoming less interested in the bottles and much more interested in whatever we're eating, so we think it will be an easy transition off the formula.  And he's gotten a lot better at his sippy cup too, so we don't think he'll miss the bottle itself either.  

What's been going on the last few months...

Well, there's plenty that has gone on.  I'll just have to address the last few months' events one at a time.  First, Brennan likes happy meals!

Update: I'm told that Brennan finished his hamburger (this picture was taken today), and then he was pretty mad when it was all gone, so he demanded another one.  Our son loves to eat!