The Funeral Trip

So I did attend my grandma's funeral. It took place in southern Missouri about 4 hours from my parents' house outside of St. Louis. I took one day to drive to St. Louis (3-1/2 hours), and one day to drive to the farm (about 4 hours). It was perfect, because I was able to pick up my sister (who came sans kids) and my cousin (who just started at BYU) from the airport, and they rode the rest of the way down with us. Thank goodness for more adult hands on car trips!

While we were there, Collin was able to do a few of the things I used to do when I went to the farm as a kid, like feeding the fish at the pond.He also got to splash in the mud-hole behind the workshop, which was good since the heat indexes were well over 100 the whole time we were there.

While inside in the air conditioning, he spent quite a lot of time playing with my cousins while all the adults talked and reminisced.Yes, these particular cousins of mine are closer in age to him than me, but that just comes with being a Mormon, right?

Brennan was also a super champ - at least during the daytime hours - letting anyone and everyone hold him and napping where ever I dropped him. One evening he even fell asleep in my cousin's arms (this one is actually about my age) amidst the chaos. I was so grateful for all the help. Some of the family there I hadn't seen in more than a decade! I also need to make particular mention of my wonderful older sister. She left her kids at home with their dad, and then proceeded to spend all her time helping me with mine - She rode in our car; she slept (when we were lucky) in our hotel room; she took Collin out once during the funeral; she fed Brennan solids multiple times; she got Collin food at meal times; she even rocked Brennan while he screamed at 3am one night! I certainly couldn't have made it through the week without her.

Collin was a real champ too, especially during the nighttime hours. This picture was taken during our goodbyes the last evening, and as you can see Collin had opted to skip sleeping during nap time that day. Other than the last half of the last day though, he was great. He was very cooperative and easy-going. We took two days to drive home - with another stop at the St. Louis airport - and in all we were gone six days. You wouldn't believe my boys' joy that evening when their daddy got home from work. (The above picture was not posed; they all just piled on the couch together!) Quick additional story (I guess I couldn't keep it to just the two in my previous post) - When a new cow was born on my grandparents' farm, my grandma would name the cow after what she hoped to spend the money on at its sale. The story that is told over and over again is of the cow named Microwave. This past week, as the women cleaned a bit before leaving, they came across a plastic bin (no dead mice there) of stuffed animals. I found this little cow, and he is now part of our family. It should come as no surprise that his name is Microwave.

I think it will be quite some time before I venture too far away from home sans Daddy. I'm still recovering from the exhaustion, and it has been 3 days since we got home. It was a great trip, and I am so glad I went to pay my respects to my wonderful grandmother, but there is a reason children are supposed to have a mother AND a father.

Tribute to Grandma

I just finished writing in the boys' journals, and after more than a week to think about my grandma and my experiences with her, I have narrowed all the stories I wish to share down to just two.1 - When I was about twelve, I went and spent a month with my grandparents on the farm. I thought it would be a great vacation, but boy was I wrong! My grandma knew how to work. I don't think she ever sat down, unless it was to weed in the garden! From dawn until after dusk, she worked, and she expected no less from me. We weeded, watered, picked, washed, snapped, canned, froze, labeled and stored their garden-abundance day after day after day. And if we were ever caught up with those chores, there was always the regular cooking and cleaning to do. She was pushing seventy even back then, and she ran me ragged. What a woman!

2 - About two years ago, I took Collin down to the farm to meet his great-grandparents. While I was there, there was a funny smell coming from their downstairs bathroom, so my parents and I decided to clean it. Suddenly, my dad squealed and jumped on top of a stool. My mom and I asked him what was wrong, and even before he answered, I had jumped up on the toilet lid. He called to my grandma that he'd found a mouse!

Now just imagine an 80-year-old woman using her remote-controlled easy chair to help her stand, then taking the 8-10 steps to the top of the stairs, before sitting down on her electric stair-climbing chair, and riding down to the basement. Now imagine her not-so-complimentary reaction to "us city folk" over the dead and rotting (hence the stink) mouse in the cabinet drawer.

She grabbed an empty grocery sack, picked up its ickiness, and put its stinky self in a garbage can... all without batting an eye. Picturing it still makes me smile at my tough grandma.

(Collin & Grandma, Memorial Weekend 2009)

Both these stories illustrate perfectly my grandmother's personality and love of life. She was a wonderful, hardworking, tough woman. I loved her very much, and I'll miss her.

Where to Start?

There are so many things that I need to blog about, I don't know where to start...

1. Ryan did a triathlon on Saturday - a full-Olympic distance triathlon. I need to work on a "You are Amazing!" post when I actually look up all the distances and start to get my head around it. I also never posted about his 15K Run back in June where he placed 16th in his division.

2 - My grandma died on Saturday night. I need to work on a Tribute post when my brain stops spinning and my eyes stop crying.

3 - We've got a "ringing-and-running" problem going on. Luckily, I mentioned it to Ryan and he unplugged the doorbell. Sounds like a good "I love my Engineer" post.

4 - My first group of kids that I taught graduated from high school last month - exactly 11 years to the day after I graduated. Sounds like a good Decade in Review post.

5 - My boys both have colds. No one is sleeping, and let me tell you that the ringing-and-running hasn't helped! Sounds like a good Rant post about no cold meds for people under six. Of course, we all need to survive until they're six, which may only happen with some cold meds!

6 - My baby named Collin is two and a half. He speaks in complete sentences always, and if he mispronounces a word and we repeat it wrong back to him, he corrects himself. He sounds funny with a plugged nose, and I've yet to tell him I'm going to drag him around the countryside the next week or so for a church meeting (also known as a funeral). Sounds like a good Toddler post.

7 - My baby named Brennan is completely stuffed up and can't nurse or sleep. Miraculously, he still smile sometimes. Of course, we've all gotten a good share of his screaming too. Sounds like a good Baby post.

8 - I lost a few more pounds and only have two more to go, though I'm still holding out hope to lose six more. Sounds like a good Exercise post.

Tune back in next time to see if any of these posts actually come to fruition.

Six Months

Yep, you read that title right. Today is Brennan's half-birthday! To celebrate (ha-ha), we headed to the doctor this morning to find out just how gigantic he really is...
Height: 26.5 inches (55%)
Weight: 17 pounds, 6 ounces (50%)
Come to find out, he isn't gigantic at all, just super normal. He is also still a happy and content baby. Last week was a little rough, but then (on the 4th of July) his first tooth poked through, and the mystery was solved. (UPDATE: There's another tooth! That makes two!) Thank goodness for Tylenol.

Activities
He loves to chew and suck on his fingers and toes. I forgot how much I like watching babies fold in half and latch onto their big toe. Adorable! He loves to be sung to, especially if it involves clapping or other motions. He loves to chew on paper (bring on Mail Time) and play with rattles and other toys. He loves his Jumperoo (Everyone needs one of these!) and to lay on the floor watching his big brother. He especially likes tv, and I'm pretty sure he could watch all day if I'd let him. His favorite outdoor activity is swinging in the infant swing (Thanks Charity!), and he even cries out when he needs another little push. He isn't much of a fan of rolling over, though he is capable of doing it. Most of the time he just arches his back and bends his knees to roll to his side.

He's gotten to do a lot of fun things this summer though. He went camping for the first time in June (and was amazing!), he went canoeing for the first time in May (not so amazing - got the sun in his eyes at the beginning and never really recovered), has seen a bunch of bonfires (what else are we going to do with that pile of wood?), and has even been to the beach (I use this term loosely - We went to Comlara Beach in Bloomington last weekend. Other than the super gravel-ly sand, it was awesome!). We also put water in our little pool in the backyard about once a week. Appearances
Brennan hates getting his picture taken. Therefore, I have very few pictures of him smiling, laughing or being happy in any manner. In his case, the camera really does lie. On the other hand, most of the moms I spend time with have commented on what a serious baby he is. I think rather than saying he has a serious personality, it would be more accurate to say that he has a serious-looking facial expression. I really think overall he has a happy disposition.

Eating
He was eating cereal with squash or applesauce once each day and nursing every 3-1/2 hours, but starting this past Monday, the kid has been starving! I've been nursing him every 3 hours, and give him cereal with add-ins two to three times per day. I think there's a growth spurt on its way, since he's been pretty sleepy too. His favorite foods right now are bananas and applesauce.

Sleeping
Brennan goes to bed between 6-7pm, and usually officially wakes up at 5:30am. And that brings me to the only trouble the Big B Man is causing us - swaddling issues.

In order for him to fall asleep, he must be swaddled. He doesn't particularly like it, but he doesn't like being awake and tired either, of course. I've tried rocking him to sleep and laying him down already out, but he always wakes up and really prefers not to be held at all. He also has never (at least in my remembrance) fallen asleep nursing and stayed asleep. It seems swaddling is our only option to get him to sleep.

The real problem lies in that he wakes himself up when he becomes unswaddled, and since he thinks he hates having his arms restricted so much, he wiggles those hands out and right up to his mouth. And as soon as those hands/arms are out - He cries and cries because he's tired but can't get to sleep. Yeah, it's a pretty vicious cycle.

Luckily (used with a huge roll of my eyes), since we have outgrown our home, we have the guest bed in his bedroom (nice nursery, eh?) so Ryan and I split the night sleeping in there, thus reducing the number of times we stumble down the hall and into walls. My shift starts at 3:30am. On his worst nights, about every 1-1/2 hours B has to be re-swaddled and re-binked. On his best nights, he sleeps all the way until 5-ish (my shift). The majority of the time it is somewhere in between. Ironically, his worst nights always seem to be when Ryan is away - which has been happening about once per week for about a month now.

If you were to ask me if B was sleeping through the night, I'm not really sure what I would answer. Does he think he needs to eat during the night? No. Do his wakenings keep me up for more than 10 minutes? Not usually. But, am I getting a good night's sleep? No. I can't wait until he's old/mature enough to start skipping the swaddling altogether. It should be right around the corner, right?

Conclusion And that's my little summary of Brennan. We really love having him around. It has been so much easier for us to adjust to having two than when we went from zero to one. Brennan is so peaceful, and his giggle is the absolute best. Here's to the next six months! Love you, Brennan!

Backyard Makeover - Part One

So I’ve been telling you for quite some time about the extensive Backyard Makeover we’ve been working on. It has nigh consumed our lives since the middle of March, and we are yet half done (hence “Part One” in my title). Despite not yet being finished, I wanted to post some pictures of the transformation.

Winter 2008
This is a picture that I took during our inspection in March of 2008 - after our offer was accepted but before we closed on the house. You can see the barbed wire fence, the ditch, the dead grass and the plentiful assortment of our neighborhood’s trash.

Summer 2008 (not knowing I’d need “before” pictures, this is all I’ve got)
I took this picture when I got home from vacation in July of 2008. We’d closed on the house two months prior - Ryan was feverishly working on his thesis and I was sick, sick, sick pregnant with Collin. We’d done everything we could just to keep the lawn mowed, and we had done NOTHING to the backyard and its tree line. Can you say Amazon?

Summer 2009 (another shot that just happens to have the trees in its background)
Despite its appearance, we had done a lot of work in the trees by our second summer. We’d gotten the barbed wire removed and cut back most of the limbs which hung too low in the yard or were within arms’ reach. We’d also worked to fight back against the unkempt lawn (thank goodness for Weed & Feed) and purchased a new lawn mower. Despite all our efforts, though, the weeds and trees were still super thick.

Spring 2010
This was last Spring. By this point, we’d spent numerous more hours cutting back trees and even taking out two. We’d tromped down the weeds and done a lot of burning. We thought it was looking right nice. Little did we know…

Spring 2011 (today)
Ta-da! This is our tree line today. Pretty unbelievable, eh? Ryan (with the help of a friend) removed 9 clusters of trees. He also removed their stumps. In all, he used and destroyed 7 chains on two chain saws.
Here’s one of the many stumps Ryan removed. (I asked Collin to stand next to it so you could see its size; this is the best I got…). First, we called a stump-grinding company, but at $2 per inch of diameter, Ryan scoffed. Then we tried burning it out for a few days (see the charred parts?), but it did little damage. Then we opted for good ol’ back-breaking labor. Look what my Mister Muscles can do!
Yep, that’s our wood pile. (Again I asked Collin to stand next to it for size comparison, but he insisted on showing off this screw. Silly, silly boy.) We’ve burned a lot of the medium and small things, and Ryan hauled three pickup-truck loads to a friend’s place - This is just the remaining large logs. Oh, and did I mention that it’s two deep? Yeah, it’s a lot of wood.

I think the saddest part is that this Osage-orange wood burns too hot for indoor fireplaces, therefore we can only use it in bonfires and when camping. I was so wishing we’d be able to make more progress on our emergency preparedness, but no luck.

After he got all the trees cut down and their stumps removed, we were stuck with the challenge of leveling the dirt, and of course filling in the massive holes left behind by the stumps. We looked into renting a bobcat, but in true Williams-fashion, Ryan did all the labor with a shovel and hoe. Did I mention his new name is Mister Muscles?

So we thought the hard part was done when the ground was ready, but then we faced the building of the set. After lying down landscaping fabric (gotta do something to discourage those weeds from returning), it was time to get started. Ha-ha. The swing-set came with a 50-page manual and a DVD showing how to build it. They estimated a total of 23 hours of labor! Thankfully, our wonderful neighbor came over to build with Ryan every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and Ryan worked tirelessly on Saturdays too.

After the set was finished (about a month later), we dug a trench and put in landscaping edging.
And what would a children’s play area be without a sand box? We got this beauty from someone’s trash about a year ago. It served to hold the tools while the set was built, and then after a good scrub-down with bleach and dish soap, we added about 8 bags of sand. Total cost? $11. Oh yeah. Collin LOVES it.

The next step was to dump 30 bags of mulch in. It is only a thin layer, but it will do for this year. Then we cut and laid rubber mats in the “fort,” its sitting area, and as a path up to the set.
But were we finished? Nope. What about the ditch? In our early planning stages, we contemplated filling the ditch with dirt and then grassing it over, as some of our neighbors have done, but we opted to keep it. Instead, Ryan snagged some wood from our neighbor’s garbage and built this cute little bridge. Collin loves it, and I’m hoping he’ll build a matching one for the other side next summer.
Summer 2012

What? No picture? Yep, no picture for this one, seeing as it is next year. Our long term goals include – purchasing rocks and pebbles to fill the ditch (cha-ching), replacing the rubber stepping-stone mats with stone stepping-stones (another cha-ching), building a fire pit with landscaping stone (do you hear the wallet emptying?), building a stone patio to surround the fire ring (more credit card swipes), and planting grass everywhere there’s no mulch and no stones (not too expensive, but still something that needs to wait).

I have to say all these goals seemed far from attainable, but now that I’ve seen what my Mister Muscles can do (with a little help from his wifey, I might add), I think we may actually have quite the little backyard escape one day.

Anyway, the finishing touches on the other half of the "tree line" will all have to wait. It got much too hot too quickly around here, we’ve got other plans for our funds (a basement escape too?), and we’re ready to have our daddy back!

Conclusion

Okay, and now it’s time for some wonderful candids of my kiddos enjoying their wonderful new play set. Some of them are when it wasn’t quite finished, as you’ll see some missing windows, no mulch, and no foam mats.




Aww, what happy kids. And we all know that happy kids mean a happy mommy. Thank you, Daddy! We love you!

Name that Baby Answers

... and we've got winners!

Question number two was by far the most missed one. Ryan's sister and my sister each got 9/10, both missing poor number two.
This is Collin. And yes, I did put it in there because it is stunning how much they resemble each other. This is the "matching" one of Brennan. Striking, eh? And really, I couldn't make it THAT easy. In fact, I am glad I was able to trip a few people up - and relatives at that! Go me!

So a shout-out to my two perfect scores...

Jennifer Stock - She's my good friend from our graduate-work days in Madison. Her husband, Dave, is getting his PhD in rhetoric and will be done next Spring (fingers crossed). We moved into our ward in Madison at the same time and then both searched for teaching positions. She found a job teaching ESL until she had her now 3-year old Lane. Then she became a SAHM. She had beautiful Eleanor about a month after Brennan was born. She's wonderful, and a winner of my Name That Baby Contest.

Amy Rose - She's my good friend from here in Peoria, though she now no longer lives here. Her husband, Devin, was working on his post-doc with the USDA here, until last winter when he accepted a professorship at the University of Nebraska. Her daughter Hallie is almost exactly one year older than Collin, and her daugher Hanna is almost exactly one year younger than Collin and one year older than Brennan. We joke that for the last 3 years we've each alternatingly had a baby in December/January. Yep, you counted right - it's her turn! She's wonderful, and a winner of my Name That Baby Contest.

And if you are wondering how you did, here's the full list of answers...
1 - Collin
2 - Collin
3 - Brennan
4 - Collin
5 - Brennan
6 - Collin
7 - Brennan
8 - Collin
9 - Brennan
10 - Brennan

I still think they look remarkably similar. I wish I had more baby pictures of Ryan; I'd totally do another contest for you guys - It's nuts how much my little boys look like their dad!

Name that Baby

Alright, I've created a little game for you. It's called "Name That Baby." The only hint I'll give you is that each picture is of either Collin or Brennan. And if you thought this would be easy, I made the pictures black and white.

Need an extra incentive? I'll mail or drop-off a reward to the person who gets the most answers correct. (Reward opportunity ends Friday, May 27th)

Okay, let the games begin!

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10.

Mother's Week

It was a great Mother's Day week around here.

On Tuesday evening I met a friend for dinner and shopping. Since having kids, I think I've only met with groups of other girls, and it was really fun to enjoy an expensive dinner and chatting. Unfortunately, I struck out at Old Navy for myself and ended up only buying a belt for Ryan.

On Thursday I picked up another friend, and we headed to the mall for National Mom's Nite Out. It was pretty lame, so we ended up leaving after 20 minutes and going to the Kid's Consignment Sale. I found a few toys, and it ended up being a successful evening.

On Saturday morning I headed back to the Consignment Sale (Half Price Day!) and scored a few more cheap toys.

Then on Saturday afternoon, after hours of planning and worrying, Ryan and I went on a date! We left Collin AND Brennan with our 17-year old neighbor and went to the Luthy Botanical Gardens. Then we got ice cream in Peoria Heights and strolled through their downtown. We even stumbled upon their local arts & crafts street fair. It reminded us of the summer festivals in Utah when we lived there. No stroller, no sippys, no binkies... The weather was amazing, and the company was even better!

On Sunday morning I finally decided I'd be willing to sit in front of the camera (notice the placement of the children in front of my gut) to get a picture with my boys. Aren't they handsome?

Another wonderful gift was that Ryan rode with us to AND from church. No meetings before or after! That's a miracle. Then after church, Ryan made us steak, baked potatoes, asparagus and smoothies. It was delicious! We ate while both boys took naps.And church must have been particularly exhausting for the toddlers, because Collin took a 3-1/2 hour nap, that I finally woke him up from at 6:30pm. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Some consequences of my fabulous week were that I had to pump 4 times (four bottles for my baby in a week; that must be some record!), and Ryan made marginal progress on the swingset project. Oh well. It was totally worth it.

Happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life!

What Have We Been Doing?

RYAN

Scouting
Ryan's calling in young men's is pretty time-consuming. When he was called a year ago, I was so excited for him. Now I just miss all the time we used to get to see him. He has a meeting before, after or both every Sunday. He is also gone most of the night every Wednesday. Once per month he is gone Friday night and Saturday morning for a campout. He loves working with the boys and the other men he serves with. He is really enjoying all his new camping gear he got for Christmas too.

Computer
Ryan inherited his dad's old desktop computer (Thanks Papa!) so he's been working on loading Windows 7 on it and getting our new modem working, which is easier said than done. Something seems to be wrong with Windows 7 and the ethernet card, and we still (it's been a month) don't have internet on the desktop. I'm just glad he didn't load the new operating system on the laptop at the same time - I'd be internet-less!

Trees
His biggest project lately has been working in the tree-line. We work in it each Spring, but this year we may have bitten off more than he can chew. I'm not much help because of the kids, so Ryan's been flying solo a lot out there. This year we are clearing out a 20-foot length for a new swingset, and also cleaning out some dead and crooked trees. It has been very time-consuming. Luckily, we've had some good friends come over to help (Thanks Kendall!) and even the elders last Saturday. One day Collin will have a new swingset to enjoy. Until then, it's just a big, muddy mess.

Exercising
Ryan is really devoted to his exercise. He has maintained his current weight since our Biggest Loser Contest two years ago! He wakes up on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:45am to go running with a friend. The other days of the week he is usually biking on his trainer in the basement by 5:30am. The Cadbury MiniEggs have forced him to step it up a notch, but I am still so proud of him.

Basement
Ryan also is working on our basement. He built us some new shelving, tore out some walls, and obtained a permit to start putting up new walls and doing electrical. Our goal is to have a finished basement (play room/tv room, bedroom, and exercise room) by the time the cold sets in next winter... I just have my fingers crossed.

LINDSEY

Sounds like I just sit around keeping my fingers crossed, eh? Unfortunately, that is the way I feel a lot of the time too. But really, my fingers are staying quite busy...

Mommy-ing
... changing TONS of diapers, feeding TONS of mouths, clothing SUPER wiggly bodies, singing TONS of songs, reading TONS of stories, rocking TONS of bodies to sleep. That's right - I am definitely the mother of two now.

Driving
I've also been driving the boys to and from St Louis where we've been visiting my parents in order to get out of the house and give Ryan more time for his List. In March, we went to visit while my sister was in town, and in April we visited while my brother was in town. In June, Ryan has a week-long business trip, so I'll head back then too.

Exercising
When Brennan is up at 6am, I feed him and then exercise from 6:30-7am while Ryan is home and getting ready for work. When Brennan sleeps in or if it has been a bad night, I go down after the boys are in bed from 8:15-8:45pm. My official goal is 30 minutes at least 3 times per week, but I've been doing this for a month now and have lost ZERO pounds, so I think I need to modify my goal some. (On the other hand, it has been Reese's-Peanut-Butter-Egg Season, so maybe I'll start to drop some pounds now that they've exited the grocery store.) After I had Collin, I exercised 6 days per week, so I may need to get back into that groove in order to get the results I want.

I am actually looking for advice on a good yoga DVD to buy. I need a beginners one for the flexibly-challenged. Any ideas? I think it would be nice to use my elliptical and treadmill in the mornings and do the yoga in the evenings before bed. Recommendations?

Cleaning
A good friend mentioned shortly before Brennan was born how disgusting it was that I never cleaned my house (Thanks Jacqie!) unless we were having company, so I have implemented a stay-at-home-and-clean day to each week. Before kids, Ryan and I cleaned on Saturday mornings together, but I figure as a stay-at-home mom, I need to work it into my week and keep our Saturdays free.

Anyway, I hate this new week-day cleaning event. Collin is always on his worst behavior (because his mom is ignoring him) resulting in numerous timeouts. I've tried a few thigns to help him be happy - I have given him his own water spray bottle and a rag, but he only lasts about 15 minutes. He also has his own broom. Lately, I have pretty much been turning on PBS all morning, but he gets bored with that after an hour too. Any ideas on how to make cleaning day fun for Collin and therefore me?

COLLIN

Collin is getting super fun... that is, when it's not cleaning day. He loves his pockets, and I'm always finding curious treasures in the washing machine and dryer: rocks, stickers, tissues, matchbox cars, mulch, sticks. He loves to put a mixture of things - blankies, stuffed animals, puzzle pieces, remote controls, cars, wood shapes - in a bowl and stir them with a spoon. He calls it "soup." He also likes to find bags and boxes and collect things. He says he's "packing for Grandma's." He is always flipping things over, getting his tool box, and "dixing it." My favorite new thing he's doing is telling "jokes." For instance, last night he told me that when Daddy got home from work they were going to play toys together after "dada goes potty." Then he said, "Dada need to change his diaper." I must have looked confused, so he helped me out by then saying, "Momma, Collin is funny." Yep, that's my little jokester.

BRENNAN

I've figured out the crying, at least mostly. Try not to judge me, but I am just stupid. So overnight, Brennan started to care about life. He now needs to be able to see what is going on, watch the show Collin is watching, sit with us at meal time and play with toys. I know it sounds silly, but he really did go to bed one night not caring in the least about anyone or anything, and the next day he woke up constantly crying. I thought it was colic, but come to find out: He just wanted some human interaction! Yep, he's back to his happy self most of the time. The one place he is still quite miserable is in his carseat (imagine those long drives to St Louis...). We changed the angle a bit and that has helped, but I avoid the car when he's tired if possible.

CONCLUSION

So in case you've thought we've been sitting around bored these last few months, you can see we've all been quite busy doing our own things. Hope you are all busy and happy too!

Easter

Happy Easter

from my cute blue bunnies,

who got a little restlessbut nonetheless were quite patient with their Sunday-morning photo shoot.

Brennan - 3 months

How have I had two children for three months already? I hope this is normal, but...
- I never take pictures of him.
- I never write in his baby book.
- And I hardly hold or play with him!
Ryan joked the other day that we would blink and our little Brennan would be turning 18. I'm starting to think he isn't that far off.

Yes, he is gigantic. I guess I just have big babies.

A few things about him... He loves to smile. He loves it when I pay attention to him - probably because it is so rare. He loves to babble too - which I had forgotten how adorable that is. Until last week, he was the happiest, easiest baby on the planet. He didn't like to be held; he didn't like to be messed with at all! It was nice to be able to feed and diaper him and basically forget I was the mother of two until one or both of those things needed to be done again. All was blissful until last week... So, Collin had a habit that he SCREAMED (not just cried) himself to sleep. It started at birth and kind of ended at 18 months - But it happened at naptime yesterday, so it isn't really over. Anyway, it was/is just awful.

Unfortunately, Brennan adopted this method last week too. He SCREAMS when he is tired, instead of just closing his eyes and going to sleep (which to me seems like what a normal baby should do). In WalMart today they literally opened a new lane so I could check out. No one was interested in us sticking around!

Oh, so I had forgotten how much I HATE when other moms tell you what is wrong with your child. Here's my favorite from today - "He's hungry because when he saw you he stopped crying, and then when you just gave him the binky he started crying again." Are you kidding me? Is that really evidence of HUNGER!? Who are you to tell me he's hungry, since you have no idea he ate 30 minutes ago?!

Alright, Brennan is really a wonderful baby, except for the very recent screaming stuff. He has learned to make bubbles and let them drip all down his chin. He loves to play with his hands and chew on them. He loves to play with his tongue too. He also loves to chew on his binky (which is frustrating when all you want him to do is suck on it to fall asleep!). He recently has struggled to take a bottle, which is hard since I helped to teach Seminary this week and wasn't home when he woke up. Fingers crossed it was just an I'm-tired-it's-early-morning rebellion thing. The best - at least to me! - thing about Brennan is that since his 2-month birthday he has been sleeping for 9-10 hours straight each night. He isn't a binky-addict like Collin was, so we don't even have to get up to re-bink him! For the last week he has been sleeping from 8pm-6am. Yeah, I'm spoiled. It's wonderful.

Here's to being the mom of two and to wishful thinking of a quieter home.