Dear Brody, 6 Months

Dear Brody,

Happy Half Birthday Little Man (2 days late)!  I cannot believe that you are now closer to 1 than you are to being a newborn.  Time has literally flown.  I thought it went fast when Brenna was born, well now we are at warp speed and moving faster every day.

You are such a joy.  I mean, it's insane how sweet you have become.  Even in just 1 month.  Last month, you were still working out some sleeping issues and some fussing issues.  But all of the sudden, you have turned into this incredibly happy little boy.  I love it.  You smile constantly and it is the most heart-melting smile ever.  I don't know if its because its your Daddy's smile or what, but it's awesome.  You literally have the best smile.  Those girls better look out.

We had your 6 month appointment yesterday.  It was just me and you.  Daddy and Brenna stayed home since there are still tons of germs circulating and a pediatricians office is probably the best place to pick some up.  And I am honestly DONE, with germs for this winter.  You and your sister just got over a cold.  But thats beside the point.  You were an angel at your appointment even though we waited for a long time.  Your stats were:

17lbs 6oz (fully clothed and in a very wet diaper)
26 inches

You are just about average for everything.  A big change from your sister who was off the charts at every appointment.  But thats ok, I love love love that you are staying little for a while.  Makes it easier to hold you.

You "talk" all the time now.  You squeal when you are playing with your sister.  Your favorite thing to do is jump on the bed with her.  You cannot get enough of her.  And you actually started pushing yourself around in your walker!  Your feet hardly touch the ground but you point your toes just enough to get yourself going.  And you love it!  If you get tired of pushing yourself around, Brenna loves to push for you.  It is so much fun to watch you two interact.  She loves you so much.  You still don't sit up, but you are getting closer.  I think it's because you would rather stand up, and run after your big sister.  You'll get there.

You are now eating 3 meals a day along with your bottles.  You are napping so much better than you used to and you are actually sleeping most of the night.  Every once in a while I will wake up at 2am to you talking to yourself in the crib, but you usually put yourself back to sleep without any assistance.  And that is glorious! Your blonde hair is coming in more and more each day.  You are just the most handsome boy ever.  I can't believe how much you've grown.  From my tiny 6lb 5oz newborn to my 17lb 6oz 6 month old.

We love you so much Brody!

There's that smile

Big blue eyes...

Smiley face!

Making your sister laugh

Sibling Love

The other member of the family...

How could I forget about Bailey.  My sweet, easy and always happy child...er...dog.  We adopted Bailey from the Humane Society two months after we got married.  So he's been with us for most of our married life.  He'll be 6 in May. What?

When we got him, we thought he was mostly lab.  They told us he was a chocolate lab mix.
After his first vet appointment we found out he was actually a Lab mixed with Great Dane.  So a Labradane.  Oh Em Gee.  We were not expecting to get a dog this big.  He is huge now...and by huge I mean fat...and lazy.  But he is oh so sweet and we love him to pieces!

Back then he looked like this...

Aunt Drea "jiggling his bits"

He is also the weirdest dog you'll ever meet, and he is scared of everything.  He lets Brenna dress him up and hug him and cuddle him without ever getting mad.  Probably because she is a food source (hence his fatness) for him.  He wasn't always so happy with and tolerant of Brenna.  When we first brought her home he was jealous.  Not "lash out and hurt the baby" jealous, but "chew up something of hers every time they leave the house" jealous.  I cannot tell you how many replacement pink elephant teething toys I had to buy her.  Now they are good buddies and when we brought Brody home? Well it's old hat to Bailey now and he could care less.  I am sure he knows Brody will be another food source for him in a few short months.

Ah, good old Bailey...

Now he looks like this

Best Buddies

My favorite pic of him

Brenna

I haven't written much about Brenna yet other than her birth story. So today, she gets her own post. Brenna is probably one of the coolest kids you'll ever meet. She's hilarious, sweet, she can be sassy, has a mind of her own and an imagination like no other.

My baby and me...she's almost 3 months here

Brenna was an early talker. She spoke in complete sentences by around 15 months. They didn't always make complete sense but she spoke them.  I am sure we are the only people that really understood what she was saying.  For example she'd say things like "I wanna go lidle". Lidle=outside. There were many more silly phrases as well. For the longest time, she called Mickey Mouse (her favorite) "Ga-La-La". And Elmo was "La-La". Because of his La La Elmo's song. She called our dog Bailey, "Beedle" for a long time too. Remembering these things now makes me ache for my baby back. She's gotten so big now and she speaks like she's 5 now.  Most of the time I didn't correct her because it was just so cute.  I know, Mother of the Year over here.

16 months

Now she says things like "my hand has sprinkles!" Meaning her hand fell asleep. Or "Oh no! This is all blurred up!" Meaning something got smudged.  She wants to use past tense but instead of saying "I made this" she says "I moked this".  The things she comes up with crack me up. Like just now she ran up to me yelling "Brenna, Brenna!" And I said "Are you Brenna?" She said "No" so I asked her who she is and she said "Con". Um ok.  She is constantly making up names for things and games to play.  And she is a serious imitator.

Which brings me to Charlie and Lola. Aka Brenna's index fingers. Yes, just like Charlie and Lola from the show on Disney, but they are her fingers. She could entertain herself for hours with just Charlie and Lola. And if you've ever seen the show Charlie and Lola, you'd know they are British. And yes, she's given her fingers British accents too, or at least she tries to. It's quite amusing. One night it was just her and I at the grocery store picking up a few things and as we were checking out the cashier said "Hi sweetie!" To which Brenna stuck up both of her index fingers and said "It's Charlie and Lola! They're riding in the cart". The puzzled look on the cashiers face was priceless. It all started over the summer, after her BFF Quinn's birthday party where she met my friend Andrea's mother's dogs, Max and Sheila. So first her index fingers became "Max and Sheilix" as she calls them and slowly evolved into Charlie and Lola.  It still cracks me up.  I am asked to say hi to Charlie and Lola multiple times per day.

Meet Charlie and Lola on Christmas Morning

She is still a major Daddy's girl.  She only ever wants Daddy.  She has taken to waking us up in the morning now that she's in a big girl bed.  And during the week, when Daddy's at work she'll run out to my room and climb up into the bed and say "Mommy, I want breakfast." and then "Where's my Daddy?".  And sometimes, when I answer, "He's at work" she'll cry for a minute, because she misses him.  But she cheers up quickly.  She loves him so much.  And the feeling is mutual.  He is crazy about his little girl.  As much as I love my sleep, I love her wake up calls more.  I love that she runs out and is so excited to see us (and by us I mean Daddy) in the morning.  She usually has her blankie trailing behind her.  I love that sometimes she'll climb up into the bed and lay with us for a bit. It's just the cutest.  And I remember doing that to my parents, so it makes me laugh too.

I honestly don't know what we would do without her.  She has been the center of our world for almost 3 years now.  And even though she has to share the spotlight with her brother now, she'll always be my first baby.  The one who made me a Mom.  The one who amazes me with how much she is learning, how much she is changing, how smart she is getting and how funny she is.

I love you so much Brenna!  And I always will.

A crazy weekend

This weekend was nuts. We had a full plate. On Friday we started renovating our kitchen. We live in a tiny house. And our kitchen, is a decent size considering the size of our house, but small by comparison to other kitchens. When we moved in we painted the cabinets, got a new countertop, and new appliances. But all we really did was change the cosmetic appearance.  We didn't make it more functional and now, with us and two kids, the kitchen has become very cramped. Oh, and there is no dishwasher! Awful...this is what it looked like when we bought it...

So we decided to do a minor renovation. We aren't staying here forever (hopefully), but we can't move just yet. And in this neighborhood a big fancy kitchen renovation would never recoup in a sale. So this is what our kitchen looks like now...Please excuse our mess.

Our plan is to move the refrigerator to next to the washer/dryer (yes they are in the kitchen, but they are hidden and will remain hidden, there is no where else in the house they could go).  We will put in a dishwasher where the refrigerator was and we will add counter space and build a small shelf for wine (yay!) with a rack for glasses.  This is where the refrigerator will go and as you can see, construction has begun.

So the washer and dryer will slide to the left and and partition will go up next to them and the refigerator will be on the right.  We plan to build a cabinet above the refrigerator and and shelf storage above the washer/dryer.  I don't know if that makes sense.  I would put the CAD plans up that Jason drew if I knew how.  But I am not that computer literate. We will also put in two small cabinets for can, spice, sauce storage.  I have no idea what they are called.  

We have a backsplash ready to go up once the major part of the construction is done, I am painting the whole kitchen Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, and I will be replacing the drawer pulls.  

I cannot wait for this to be done.  I can't wait to have more counter space for cooking and baking and more storage in the cabinets.  So not only was this weekend crazy, but the next few will probably be just as crazy.  

My first "crafty" project

I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  And I always have these grand ideas of doing this or that and I never actually get around to it.  I guess thats one of the casualties of having two kids to take care of during the day.

When we got pregnant with Brody, we knew we'd need more room in our house.  We only had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.  We couldn't move just yet, so we decided to turn our garage into a master bedroom suite.  Then we'd move Brenna into our old bedroom and Brody would go into the nursery that had been Brenna's.  A big shuffle.  We started our renovation in late June/early July.  It was finally finished (aka livable not actually complete) on September 15.  Brody came September 28.  We cut it very close.

Once we finally were able to move our stuff into the new room, we painted our old room a neutral color and moved Brenna in.  Well, that room is gigantic.  Especially for a little girl, with a little bed and not a ton of wall decor.  Which brings me to my project.

There is one wall in that room that has had nothing on it since she moved in.  And it is HUGE.  Its the biggest wall in the room.  So, I saw a yarn-wrapped letter tutorial on pinterest.  I thought doing her name would be a great way to take up some room on that wall and make it look a lot less bare.  So I set out for Michaels to get some letters, yarn and glue.  And maybe some embellishments because, lets be honest, this was probably going to turn out pretty ridiculous and I would probably need to hide some screw-ups.

So I started on Sunday, and let me tell you, it was way harder than I thought it would be.  And incredibly tedious.  And of course the tutorial shows you how to wrap an L.  Probably the easiest letter to wrap.  Too bad I needed to wrap a B, R, two N's and an A.  The E was relatively easy.  The rest, not so much.  But I finally got them done yesterday, after working on them all day long.  And having to pick up my supplies over and over again, and the baby, and follow Brenna when she went from room to room.  Not easy.  But it's done, and we hung the letters last night and I think it actually looks pretty good!!

Now I have to do one for Brody...

Now on to figuring out toy storage for this room.  It'll be done one day.