Check Out These Tricks

Here are a few of Brennan's "tricks". I was so happy because he did almost all of them the first time. Hope you enjoy!

Moblized!

Kyle and I are currently considering buying iPhones. Any thoughts on the purchase?

I know tons of my friends have them and most of the ones who don't have some sort of smart phone. Many of them use their phones to read blogs.

As I was reading my blogs today, I saw this post from Mom Tried It. It was asking if your blog is mobilized. A blog that is mobilized will show a condensed version on mobile devices. Mom Tried It said this about mobilizing: No need to zoom in.  No long loading time because of sidebar buttons or widgets.  You can still makes comments and read them.  Your site, just simplified.  You click on the arrow next to the post title to read the entire post.  Easy.


And it really was easy! I started to follow her steps:

If you are on Blogger, here is what you do.

• Go to the Beta Dashboard of Blogger Draft, http://draft.blogger.com/
• “Settings” Tab
• “Email & Mobile” Tab
• The very first section is “Mobile Template”.  Click the Yes button. 
• Save the settings at the very bottom.

However, as soon as I got to my dashboard, a screen came up talking about mobilizing, so I just clicked right on that. I clicked "Yes" and previewed what it would like on mobile devices and it was done!

So if you're reading this on your phone, let me know what you think!

Apologies

As Val so kindly pointed out, I completely forgot to do a Fab Five this past Friday. I do apologize! We had a busy day and it didn't even cross my mind. Hopefully sharing some new pictures of Brennan will help make up for it!

The first two are of him playing with his birthday presents from Josh and Amanda. They were taken before we put his toys in his toy box. As you can see, he was in desperate need of one.

Tonight Brennan decided he wanted to eat his hotdog with Mommy's spoon. I was cracking up that he was actually able to do it.

Here are several more from tonight. These were taken right before bed. Check out his awesome hair!

His birthday is less than two weeks away now and he has learned how to show "1" when you ask him how old he is.

And a quick weaning update! We are now completely done nursing! Last week we dropped the nighttime feeding and it went really well. I was only uncomfortable for one day and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Yesterday was Brennan's first day to not nurse at all. I was in extreme discomfort for most of the day. I was glad it was a Saturday and Kyle was home to help because it was painful to even hold Brennan against my chest. *TMI ALERT: Last night I took a hot shower and self-expressed some milk and then took some Ibuprofen before bed and slept without a bar. The discomfort eased a lot overnight. Today has been MUCH better; still uncomfortable, but not nearly as much.

So my big boy is completely weaned. And I am completely happy! I know it was the right time to do it and he is loving drinking from his sippy cup! And I have worn a regular bra for the past two days! Woohoo!

Teacher Talk Thursday - Organization

Today is a very exciting day for Abby over at Snyder Stories. She is hosting her very first blog link up for Teacher Talk Thursday! Today's theme is organization! Even though I am not in the classroom anymore, I love me some organization, so I thought I'd share a little bit. (I already get excited about how I will organize things I will do with Brennan as he gets older).

To encourage student organization, some days after school, the "clean desk fairy" came to my classroom and left a little reward for students who had clean and organized desks. The reward varied based on the grade-level I was currently teaching, but usually something as simple as a sticker was enough to motivate most students to keep their desks clean. This just a took a few minutes one day each week to quickly scan the desks and leave the reward. 

Also, my students usually had morning work on their desks when they first came into the classroom on Monday-Thursday. However, Friday mornings the assignment was usually to clean your desk. If your desk was already clean, you could read a book.
I liked for the students to have clean desks because 1.) I didn't like looking at papers and junk sticking out everywhere and 2.) It made transitions easier because students could actually find what they were looking for. 

As I teacher (I will still call myself that even though I am not working right now), I am a huge believer that if I am organized then my students will be more likely to be organized too. For me, this was probably my biggest organizational tool.

They can be quite pricey, but I was lucky enough to be given one of these by a friend. 

At my school, we were lucky because we didn't have a limit on the number of copies we could make each year. I used the drawers to store my copies for the upcoming week. The top five drawers were for Monday-Friday and the bottom five were more for miscellaneous stuff. Or if I was really on top of it and was making copies further out, then they would go down there. 

Within in drawer, I clipped all the same copies together and then placed them in the order I would use them throughout the day. So when I was ready to pass a copy out, it was right on top of that day's drawer. 

Speaking of copies, once I moved to Connecticut, I taught in a very different school environment than I did when I was in Kentucky. My school in CT had tons of a parent volunteers and it was amazing! If you are lucky enough to be in a school where parents are willing to help, I highly recommend having a "copy mom" (or dad). I had never even thought of or heard of one before I moved up here. My first year at Jack Jackter, a parent volunteered specifically for that job and I had one every year after that. It was great for several reasons:

• I could spend my planning period (up here they say "prep") actually planning instead of copying. 
• My volunteer would usually come during class time, so the copiers weren't nearly as busy; she could get more done is less time.
• It required me to be ready on Copy Day; the day of the week changed each year based on the availability of my volunteer, but I always tried to have the majority of what I needed copied for the next week ready and marked for her in my copy basket.

Your volunteer might require a little training on the copier, but trust me, it is well worth it. I dreaded nothing more than getting an email from my copy mom saying she couldn't make it in that week. Although even in those rare cases, I had everything ready in to be copied in my copy basket, so it still made my job easier (and more organized)!

Now I am off to play with my son. Even if I was teaching I'd be off, we have a snow day today. This area has been hit hard by snow this winter. Kyle is even off work today because of the snow! 

Toy Box

I mentioned in a previous post that Kyle was building a toy box for Brennan. I wanted to share pictures of the finished product. We haven't put it in Brennan's room yet, but it is already full of toys. Brennan's floor is much clearer now! It's so nice to have a home for all his toys and I think it will be nice that he can't see all his toys at once. He tends to only play with something for a few seconds before wanting something else when everything is within his view.

Doesn't it look nice? This was Kyle's first attempt at making one and I think it turned out great!

Bye Bye Booby - Part 3

This post should be much shorter than the previous weaning posts. I continued by dropping one more feeding this past week; the 3:00 feeding.

I didn't keep a day by day log as I had done before because it was really an uneventful week. Other than Brennan doing GREAT with his new sippy cup. Once he was up to two sippy feedings/day, he seemed to be fine without a bottle. That's what Anna had told me all along!

I never woke up with any discomfort and only had slight discomfort during the first two days. Just like when I dropped the 11am feeding, Brennan's nap scheduled determined how many feedings he got during the day. Most days he had a total of four feedings still; two nursing and two from the sippy. A couple of days he only ate three times. He started doing so well drinking from the sippy, that I increased the amount of those feedings to 6 oz. He started with exactly half breast milk and half cow's milk. Currently, he is getting a little more cow's milk than breast milk with each sippy.

I am so happy weaning is going so well. Brennan doesn't seem to miss nursing at all. He usually eats right after nap and he almost always wakes up from naps happy, so when I hear him start to wake up from one, I still have plenty of time to get his sippy all fixed up (I am warming it up still at this point) before he gets upset in his crib.

We are currently in the process of dropping the nighttime feeding and so far that is going equally well. He's such a little trooper! He's doing a great job of feeding himself more table foods too, so I know he's getting plenty to eat.

Okay, enough about boobies. How 'bout some pictures of the cute little guy?!?!

Brennan and Ringo love each other!

These pictures were posed. Thankfully he hasn't learned to pull up in his crib yet. We did go ahead and lower his mattress down one notch just in case he does it out of the blue one day.

Hi everybody!

Friday's Fab Five

It's that time again! I hope you've had a great week and that your weekend is fabulous!

1. So how cool is this?!?! I am committing to learning 2 scriptures each month, so by the end of the year, I will have memorized 24! I just picked my second verse for the month of January yesterday. It is Psalm 55:22. It's really easy to memorize, while also having an important message. But then I felt like it was totally the right verse for me to be learning because later that afternoon I was on youtube looking at Seeds Family Worship videos. Well you know how youtube has related videos off to the right-hand side? Guess what video was over there??? Yep...Psalm 55:22.


2. If you need a good laugh, check out the video in the previous post. I recorded it on the computer and when you play it back the timing is all off, so it makes it hilarious. I need to take it down and record a new one on my camera, but I couldn't stop laughing while I was watching, so I thought you might like a laugh too!

3. Check out the cool presents Brennan already got for his birthday. Thanks Josh, Amanda, Adah, and Michaela! He loves them!

4. One of my favorite things during the day is reading with Brennan. He LOVES books right now. The highlight is probably when he "asks" (points, grunts, and signs please) for his Twas the Night Before Christmas book. This is the story his Papaw (Kyle's dad) recorded for him. The first page is a narrator who says, "This book is a special Christmas present from someone who loves you very much." When that voice comes on, Brennan's face just lights up. It is the cutest thing ever!

5. We have had sippy success! The newest sippy cup I bought Brennan last Sunday is a hit! He will drink an entire serving of milk from it every time! No bottle! Woohoo! (The sippy is a NUK).

And a bonus #6 - Our neighbor came and shoveled our driveway today while Kyle was at work. Kyle shoveled this morning so he could get out and then it kept snowing, so it was going to need to be shoveled before he came home. I planned on going out during B's 2nd nap, but when B was eating lunch, Ringo started going nuts and I looked outside and saw John shoveling! So thankful for nice neighbors!

For Adah

This video is a special treat for Amanda's daughter, Adah. Well, I guess it's for Amanda too because hopefully it gives her a much needed and well-deserved 15 minute break while Adah watches it. (And, Amanda, no one will judge you if you let her watch it more than once/day!) And please no one judge me for the corny video. Sorry it ends so abruptly. I had to edit it down to under 15 minutes.

I hope she likes it! I hope it works. I think it will take a while to load, so you might want to let it sit awhile before you call her over.

Oh my. I just watched it without letting it load first and the sound is SOOO off from the motions that it doesn't make any sense. Maybe I will try again later. But I'll just leave it here so you can laugh.

Brennan and Parker

We had friends over for dinner last night and I finally remembered to pull the camera out and get some pictures of Brennan and Parker playing together. So without further delay, here is Parker's debut on the blog!

Bye Bye Booby - Part 2

Here's my next recap about weaning Brennan!

As I mentioned before, I got most of my weaning ideas from here. I made it through the first week of dropping pumping at night without too much discomfort. I certainly didn't need a full week before dropping the next feeding, but it was nice not to rush the process. This past week, the plan was to drop Brennan's 11am feeding. Several days Brennan took crazy long morning naps, so I did drop a feeding, but it wasn't always the 11am one. For example, we had swim class Tuesday morning from 9:30-10:30. He ate when he woke up, then after class he went right down for a nap. He slept for 3.5 hours, so when he woke around 2, I nursed him. That day he only received a total of three feedings. He didn't take a sippy or a bottle at all. So, it wasn't quite as easy to drop a specific feeding as I thought it would be.

I was also very ambitious with this weaning process. Since Brennan has only had a bottle a handful of times, I wanted to try to wean him directly to a sippy cup. His doctor had also told me it was fine to start cow's milk with him at 11 months, so I decided to mix breast milk and cow's milk from the very beginning, so I could hopefully make the transition to cow's milk easier. However, he wasn't drinking much from a sippy by the second day, so I switched a bottle. Mostly because I wanted to see which variable was keeping him from eating: the sippy or the cow's milk. He hasn't been drinking his entire bottle, but he is certainly drinking more from the bottle than from the sippy, so he doesn't seem to mind the cow's milk. As we continue the weaning process, I really want him to be using a sippy, but we'll see how it goes. I have been giving him his sippy or bottle while he's sitting in my lap in his room; the same place I nurse him.

With all that said, here's my recap from this past week.

Week Two - Dropped the 11am(ish) feeding
Jan. 8 - Dropped one feeding (his naps were off, so his feeding times were off), nursed him three times during the day; gave him a sippy cup with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 3oz. of cow's milk and he drank 1/2 of it.
Jan. 9 - woke up with A LOT of discomfort in the morning and the morning feeding only relieved some of it; dropped the 11am feeding, but moved his third feeding up a little to help with the discomfort; gave him a sippy with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 2 oz. of cow's milk (this is the same ratio I am still using at this time, until he drinks the whole amount and seems to need more) and he only took a few drinks, but we were at church, so it was a different environment; however he took a really good nap in the church nursery and another good afternoon nap, so I think he had plenty to eat; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 10 - woke up with no discomfort; gave him a sippy around 11:30 and we tried a different kind of cup, but he barely took any of it; he ate his solids at this meal, so I figured he was fine; nursed him three times.
Jan. 11 - woke up with no discomfort; we had swim class this day and he slept through his 11am feeding, so he didn't even try a sippy this day; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 12 - woke up with no discomfort even though Brennan slept in - we had to wake him up at 8:30; tried a sippy, but he wouldn't take it at all, so I switched to a bottle and he drank about 3oz. of a 5oz. bottle; nursed him three times.
Jan. 13 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle at 11am and drank 3.5oz; nursed him three times.
Jan. 14 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle, but didn't finish it; nursed him three times.

So that was our 2nd week. Brennan is doing well and doesn't seem to miss the dropped feeding. This week I am dropping another feeding and for the past two days, he had taken two bottles each day and no sippy.

What are your thoughts? Should I just stick with the sippy and assume he will drink if he is thirsty enough? Should I give him a bottle for the next few weeks and then work on the sippy? He does drink a little water from a sippy, so he can use it; just not very proficiently. I am thinking if he takes a bottle during the weaning process, I might make him go cold turkey to a sippy after his first birthday. So many choices!!!

This is the sippy we are using.

We tried this one, but he doesn't really seem to like it.

And I just bought this one today, but Brennan's is blue, not pink. :)

I think I am becoming obsessed with sippy cups!

Friday's Fab Five

I feel like I just did last week's Fab Five and now here it is Friday again!

1. Brennan is becoming such a big boy. I'm not sure how fabulous I find this, but I guess he has to grow up so I might as well be excited. Check him out eating his big boy lunch today; pasta with diced tomatoes.

2. I got this CD in the mail the other day.

I won the CD in a giveaway over at Amber's Articles. I am excited to add it to our collection in the car.

3. Speaking of music; I am LOVING this song right now. The praise team has been working on this one, so we will hopefully be singing it on Sunday morning soon.

4. Swim class started back up this week. Brennan still seemed to love it and he crashed and took a 3.5 hour nap afterwards! The best part is our friends Amanda and Parker are taking the class with us!

5. It's a three-day-weekend for the hubby! Woohoo!

I hope your weekend is fabulous!

Dear Brennan,

Whoa! You are 11 months old today. That means that in a mere one month, you will be 1! Whoa! Where in the world has the time gone? It really does not seem like it has been 11 months since this day:

You are growing so fast and learning so many new things. It just seems crazy to me that I am planning your first birthday party! But here we are, so let's recap some of the things you've been up to lately.

You wear 12 month clothes. Lately you've spent a lot of time in your pajamas. You are comfortable in them and on days we don't leave the house, I don't see any reason to change you out of them. You are still in size 3 diapers. I am doing most of your diaper changes on the floor now. It is just easier because it doesn't make me nervous if you wiggle all around on the floor like it does when you're on your changing table. Just this morning, as soon as I had your diaper off, you rolled onto to you belly. You were so cute with your little naked butt sticking up in the air. Hehe.

We still spend most of our day in your room because that's where most of your toys are. Sometimes we will take some to the living room or downstairs just to get a change of venue. Mommy is working hard to make sure you get independent playtime each day. When you wake up from your morning nap, you eat lunch, then play in your pack-n-play with a few toys. You always fuss for about a minute when I leave you, but then you start playing and babbling. I come back to get you after about 30 minutes. You would play longer, but you're little, and I think 30 minutes is good amount of time. It gives Mommy time to eat lunch and sometimes take a quick shower. You love your new toys you got for Christmas. You are doing really well at standing at your music table, but you don't pull up on your own yet. Books are your absolute favorite right now. Mommy reads to you ALL DAY LONG. We are still working on not eating books, but we seem to be making some progress.

You still aren't crawling. We try to practice with you, but you want none of it! You will go from sitting to your belly now by leaning over to the side. But then you usually roll right onto your back. You aren't cruising yet either, but with how much you love your music table, I don't think it will be long until you start moving around it.

We are just starting the weaning process. You are now nursing 3 times/day and getting a sippy of half breast milk and 1/2 cow's milk once/day. You aren't really proficient at the sippy yet, but I am going to try to stick with it instead of giving you a bottle. I'm not sure if that will work as you keep dropping more feedings, but it works for now. You are also starting to eat more finger foods. You like pears and green beans and I am excited for you to try more table foods. You get frustrated when Mommy tries to feed you your pureed foods now, so I think you are certainly ready to be feeding yourself more.

You continue to sleep really well. You usually take two good naps during the day. You are extending your wake time, which is nice because your afternoon nap is getting pushed back a little, so now you aren't so exhausted at night. You go to bed between 6:30-7:00 each night and sleep until 7:00-7:30. You are still sleeping with binkies right now, but that's the only time you usually have one. I am undecided if I'm ready to take those away during nap and nighttime.

You have started using sign language. You can sign "all done", "please", and just yesterday you started signing "duck". Sometimes you'll use the sign for "milk", but it looks just like waving, so sometimes I'm not sure which one you're doing. You will wave hi and bye bye. You put phones up to your ear to talk on them. You have a quite a temper; you grunt and flap your arms when you get really mad. You shake your head 'no' on command. We started swim class again today and you did great! I'm so glad you love the water. You're just a little sponge soaking up everything going on around you.

I'm sure there are many other things you are doing too. There is something new every single day, so it's hard to keep up! You are absolutely adorable and I love you so very very much!

Love,
Mommy

Brennan back at 10 months

Brennan today at 11 months

Eskimo Kisses

I wanted to post this picture one more time, so I could link up with Jhen Stark! Before Brennan was born, we worried about how Ringo would act with the baby. Everyone told us the dog would be great and he truly is. Brennan absolutely loves the dog too, which makes it even better. I never had pets growing up and even though they are A LOT of work, I'm glad Brennan will grow up loving animals.

Could they be any cuter?!?

Bye Bye Booby

If you don't want to read about breastfeeding, you might as well stop reading now.

We are about one month from Brennan turning one! (Whoa!) As of the first of the year, he was nursing four times each day. His meal times are approximately 7, 11, 3, and 6. At three of those meals, he also eats solids. He has always been a fast nurser, but lately he has become very distracted. If he nurses for five minutes per side I consider it long, so I have decided it is time to start weaning him. I think Brennan could do it cold turkey but I'm not up for that, so we are dropping one feeding per week. I also pump every night to have breast milk I can mix with his cereal, so there are technically five "feedings" throughout the day. Pumping at night has given me a good supply of frozen breast milk I can use as I start dropping feedings.

I thought I'd go ahead and blog about our weaning adventures so a.) I can remember what I did and how it went and b.) others might get some ideas that may work for them.

I got the majority of my ideas from here. I was going to do one big weaning post when we were all done, but I think it will be a little long-winded, so I'm going to do it weekly. So lots of reading about boobies coming up!

Week One - Stopped pumping at night
Jan. 1 - First night of not pumping (Hallelujah!)
Jan. 2 - Woke up with no discomfort at all (very surprising); nursed Brennan at his four regular times throughout the day.
Jan. 3 - Woke up with quite a bit of discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 4 - Woke up with a little discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 5 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 6 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 7 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.

Yesterday was our first day to drop one of his feedings during the day. I'll write all about that at the end of the week. I dropped his 11am feeding first since he gets solids with that meal. My plan is to drop the 3pm feeding after that, followed by the nighttime feeding, and finally the morning feeding.

Wish us luck!

SNOW!

It started snowing last night just before we went to bed and we woke up to a couple inches of the white stuff this morning. Brennan has never "played" in the snow before and we figured today would be a good day.

Here's Brennan this morning eating breakfast.

Dada took some pictures of the backyard this morning.

Then after Brennan woke up from his (three hour) nap, we played inside for a little bit and then bundled up and headed out. We don't have snow clothes for Brennan in his size, so he is wearing a 24 month snow suit and size 7 boots! Ha! All he was going to do was sit in the snow anyways, so we figured it would get the job done.

Friday's Fab Five

The first Fab Five of 2011 - Woot! Woot!

1. Check out B's new kicks. His friend, Aiden, wore a pair to church on Sunday and I knew B needed a pair too.

2. Check out this loot! I got my Luv Bath and Body Works card in the mail the other day. You take the card to the store on one Thursday of each month and get a free gift. I went yesterday fully expecting to get some little dinky free gift and instead scored three free things! Pretty sweet deal! Unfortunately the enrollment period for getting a card is over now.

3. Brennan is signing! Yes signing - not singing. I have been working on sign language with him since he was way too little to understand it, but now he can sign "all done" and "please". I am so proud of him!

4. I've been working on Brennan's birthday party! I'm trying to make as much as I can myself, so I don't spend too much money on something he isn't even going to remember! I think it's going to be a doggone good time!

5. Kyle is building Brennan a toy box! I'll save pictures for when the whole thing is complete, but it is coming together very quickly! I am excited to see the finished product!

And here are some pics of my boy.