A Little of This, A Little of That

Here again are just some random pictures (taken with my phone of course) of what we've been up over the past few days.

On Saturday we attended two birthday parties. I only managed to capture a few pictures at the first party for our church friends Morgan and Camryn. Their mom went all out decorating the party like Candyland. I should've taken more pictures of the decorations because they were so cute. Brennan was such a good boy at the party. He gets overwhelmed by lots of kids, so he ends up just sitting down and watching them all sometimes. It's times like this when there are kids everywhere that I am especially thankful he's usually a good listener.

Posing with the cutout.

His first time in a bounce house. He asked to get in several times, but then immediately wanted out every time!

Both birthday parties were outside, so that night we came home and had a good bath. I still love bath time pictures!

When Kyle is home, our usual Sunday routine after church is to grab some fast food, bring it home to eat, and try to get Brennan down for a nap by 2 at the latest. This past Sunday, I wanted to be able to go visit some friends that just had a baby girl. They are moving to CA next week, so I wanted to hold that baby and hug our friends before we left. Brennan and I decided to grab a quick lunch at Five Guys before heading over. He was cracking me up at lunch. I love lunch dates with this handsome guy. I didn't get any pictures of the new baby because I was trying to love on her while keeping Brennan from touching everything in their apartment they are prepping for the big move.

Brennan has discovered he likes to sit on this big green ball in the basement. He bounces on it and then purposefully bounces onto the floor and says, "That's funny". He also likes to roll on this ball on his belly. And I think I've mentioned on the blog before how much he likes to be naked; yep that's still happening.

We sent this picture to Brennan's GaGa - my mom - on Monday morning because it was her birthday. I love listening to him try to say happy birthday. For this picture he said, "Cheese. Gaga's birfday!"

Using these dinnertime prayers I found on Pinterest, Brennan and I are started a new dinner routine. He gets to pick a prayer card, I read it as we pray together and then we read a short Bible story. Getting dinner prepped while trying to get B entertained can sometimes be overwhelming and frustrating, so this is nice way to at least make dinner itself start off well. I'll admit though, after praying and reading, I usually let him watch a show or two on the iPad during dinner. It keeps him happy and entertained and once I'm done eating I can clean the kitchen while he's still watching.

And we sent one more picture to Gaga on Monday night after dinner. Brennan ate his entire dinner, which is pretty much a nightly occurrence for this growing boy right now, but I was very proud of him, so he got some ice cream for dessert. With chocolate syrup. He was pretty excited. He gobbled it right up!

Happy Sunday

via

20 Weeks!

I have been extremely quiet about this 2nd pregnancy on the blog. No real reason other than I guess I feel super busy and I feel like the pregnancy has been super boring. A real blessing as far as pregnancies go I guess. But today I am at 20 weeks and thought it was probably time to do a little update and share a baby bump picture.

This pregnancy has been identical to my pregnancy with Brennan. I have been convinced it's another boy all along and still feel that way. I haven't had any real cravings (maybe salty stuff more than sweets) and have had no real aversions either. Most nights right now I still have to get up and pee once a night. I was hoping that symptom would pass once I hit my 2nd trimester. I'm definitely having a more difficult time getting comfortable at night at this point.

So far I have been able to make through the summer wearing my regular capri pants and have only busted out one pair of maternity capris at this point. I am also wearing cotton skirts I bought at Target a lot. They're really stretchy and comfy and keep me nice and cool. I think the maternity shirts are going to have to be used soon though because my regular ones are getting pretty short.

At my last OB appointment I had only gained 2 pounds so far this pregnancy, but I am expecting a bigger jump at my appointment at the beginning of Sept. I haven't had an ultrasound since the initial one around 8 weeks, but the baby's heartbeat is always strong each month when I see my doctor. It's usually around 150-155bpm. I am now feeling flutters in my stomach, but no real strong kicks yet that I can feel on the outside. I'm definitely ready for those!

We will definitely be finding out the sex, but my doctor doesn't do it until late (at least 23 weeks) so it won't happen until my Oct. appointment unless I go to an outside place like we did with Brennan.

That's about all I can think of for now. I know I'll be as big as a house by the time Kyle comes home. I just took some pics with my phone, so I've been trying to get a one the past few days. Here's a couple from the past three days.

Thursday

Friday

Today - I only put on this shirt so I could compare it to 20 weeks with B.

20 weeks with Brennan

I feel pretty big for only being 20 weeks, but after looking at this picture from my pregnancy with Brennan, maybe I'm a little smaller than I was with him??!! About the same I guess.

OCD

Brennan is a pretty sweet boy in my opinion, but he certainly has his own special "quirks" about him. I guess all kids do. I sometimes forget about them because I'm with him all day every day and they just come naturally to me now. But when someone else tries to help him with something or do something with him and they don't know about his OCD, watch out! He will let you know he's unhappy. So I thought I'd record a few of his OCD tendencies.

Brennan loves Dum Dum suckers. They have become my go-to object for smooth transitions when we are out and about. He knows when it's time to leave somewhere, if he leaves politely that he will often get a sucker. Yes, he has me wrapped around his finger, but it's a little Dum Dum and if it keeps him from throwing a tantrum, it's worth it to me. If you're ever trying to get Brennan to leave somewhere and he is screaming for "suck" that's what he wants. That's not really the OCD part though. He now HAS to open his own Dum Dum. He will usually let me start opening it a little bit for him, but he has to finish it or it is no good to him at all!

Dum dum stockpile - always have to make sure I have some in the diaper bag too!

Thankfully Brennan is almost always super happy to brush his teeth. It just takes a little longer than the average kid due to his OCD. He now MUST climb up on his stool independently. That part is great because he was unable to do it for a long time. When you hand him his toothbrush and turn the water on, he MUST dip the toothbrush into the water three times. It's dip in water, put in mouth, dip in water, put in mouth, and dip in water, put in mouth. Just like that. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Again, if it makes brushing teeth a happy time, I'm all for it! He also wants a little toothpaste on his brush so he can "brush" his own teeth before I give them a good brushing.

Happily dipping his toothbrush three times!

Brennan has also always loved bath time. I am so thankful because it's a peaceful and playful way to end our day. He has gone through various tubby time stages: tons of toys in the tub, no toys at all, only one particular toy. But one thing that has remained the same for a long time now is that when I'm ready to turn the water off (he's always in the bathtub as the water is filling up) he HAS to count to 10 before I turn it off. He used to get mad when it was time for the water to go off, so this became my way of giving him a warning that it was coming up and it has stuck.

Playing a kazoo during bath time!

Here's one of the weirder ones! A while back, I started reading Brennan a super short devotion from his Bible at bedtime. He then started wanting to read one at nap time, which was fine with me. We were moving right along through the devotions until we got to a page that had an illustration of a moon on it. Brennan loves the moon. He loves finding it in the sky at night and really loves if he can find it in the sky during the day. He loves Goodnight, Moon and always points out any moon in any story we read. After I read the devotion with the moon on the page he said, "More moon." I decided to flip through his little Bible and find another page with a moon illustration. I found one and read that devotion to him that night too. I didn't think anything about it until nap time the next day. He freaked out when I tried to read the devotion that was up next and would only let me read the "new moon" and "old moon" devotions. And it has been that way since. At least two months now I would say and at every nap and each night at bed I read him "new moon" and "old moon". He can recite them now.

Pointing to the moon.

I love my sweet, weird little guy!

Learning So Much

I know kids change all the time and with Kyle being away, I want to try to document some of the new things Brennan is now able to do. He wasn't able to do this stuff when Kyle left just over two weeks ago.

Here's B catching a ball. He misses the small baseball a few times, but he is getting much better at catching. He got mad when I tried to stop videoing him.
 . 

Here's B finding number words. Again it's not perfect, but he's gotten super into spelling his numbers when we read his favorite number book, so I knew he was ready to start recognizing them. He's such a smarty! We got to show Dada this new trick while FaceTiming with him and B did them all correctly.


This one is truly impressive. Not only can he find each of the number words when asked, he can straight up read them in random order! I promise I don't just sit around quizzing him all the time, he just picks up on everything so quickly and asks to do it multiple times throughout the day.

Just Some Pictures

Here are some pictures I shared on Instagram, but wanted to share here too!

Brennan loves the iPad. Here is playing Temple Run, which he doesn't know how to play. Yet. He seems to think the goal is to make the man jump into the water because he gets all excited and claps his hands every time it makes a "splash". 

This picture is also from this past Saturday. It poured pretty much all morning and afternoon, so we didn't leave the house. Brennan didn't even get out of his pjs. I opened the basement door to let Ringo outside to potty and Brennan ran over and immediately said, "God made more rain!" We often talk about the different things God made. Shortly after this picture was taken, Brennan made a big mess by dumping Go Fish cards all over the basement floor. When I asked him to pick them up he said, "Mommy clean up." That wasn't an option, so I asked him, "Who made this mess, Brennan?" His response, "God!". So maybe he's a little confused. And he still had to clean up his mess.

Our church service was outside on Sunday. We've been worshipping outside at Bethel Park one Sunday each month. They set up a big tent so the kiddos are contained.

On Monday we went to the mall; one of B's favorite locations. Not sure why he likes it there so much except he just gets to walk around and ride in his stroller while people watching. Here he is sitting in one of the rides. We were able to talk to Dada while we were at the mall, so that made this trip especially exciting!

On Monday night we were able to FaceTime with Dada again. We talked to him during B's tubby time and then said goodnight. After that it was time for B's bedtime stories. I snapped this pic because I thought he looked so sweet with his head in my lap while I was reading. Usually he just sits beside me.

On Tuesday we went to the commissary and then the library. I checked out a new "Sid the Science Kid" DVD for Brennan. He got to watch it while he ate lunch. He was pretty excited!

Tickle Monster

Brennan loves being tickled and he loves wrestling. These aren't the clearest pictures since they were taken with my phone and he was moving around the whole time, but I love his smile.

Happy Sunday

via

Jesus and ABCs

I wanted to share two videos.

This first one is Brennan answering questions about Jesus dying on the cross. I started asking him these questions because when we are out driving, he can always recognize churches. I asked him one day how he knew a building was a church and he said, "Cross". I then asked him who died on the cross and taught him the answer to that question and the others. I wish the video was a little clearer. I know I can understand him way better than anyone else, but I think it's still super sweet.

This video I took just the other day. Brennan has been obsessed with letters for a long time. When he first learned them, he called many of them by their phonetic sounds. I wanted to catch him on video saying his letters now because they are so much clearer than they used to be. Unfortunately he leaves out "w" in this video, which is the hardest one for him to say.

Cooking for 1.5

Before Kyle left for deployment he asked me what I was going to do with my time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when Brennan starts school. I told him one thing I would probably do was go to the commissary and get groceries for the week. His response, "How long could it possible take to buy cereal and nachos at the store?!?!"

I've been known not eat so great when Kyle is out to sea. When it was just me I would eat cereal for dinner some nights and make myself some nachos most other nights. But now it is different. I have to not only feed myself, but also Brennan and the little one growing inside of me.

I planned out our first week of meals before Kyle left and have now planned out our second week. I'm feeling pretty good about what I'm fixing and that we are eating at home when it might be easier to just go grab McDonald's each night. Pinterest has certainly helped me with my meal planning and I've been good about splitting up all my meat before freezing it, so I can just fix smaller portions and not have tons left over.

Here are few of our meals since Kyle's been away.

Garlic Cheddar Chicken - This was a new recipe and was soooo yummy! Brennan and I shared one chicken breast and it was the perfect amount. You bake the chicken and I also baked some parmesan zucchini.

Pepperoni Roll-ups - We've made these before with Dada and they've always been a big hit. I used the entire can of crescent rolls. Brennan ate 1 and I ate 3 for dinner and then we fixed the leftovers for lunch the next day. They were still super tasty warmed up and I'm very picky about my leftovers.

Crock-pot Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli - This was another new recipe. I picked it because Kyle hates broccoli, so it was the perfect time to test it out. It was super delish! It was supposed to be served over white rice, but it wasn't until I was ready to fix the broccoli and rice that I realized we didn't have any rice. So we just ate it this way and it worked just fine. I cooked my one chicken breast in the crock-pot all day and it worked great.

Taco Soup - A staple at our house. We love taco soup even in the summertime. It makes way too much for just the two of us because even after eating leftovers the next day, there was still a lot left. There are lots of different versions to the soup. I use ground beef, taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, can of corn, can of rotel, can of black beans, can of green chiles, and water.

Baked Penne - Again nothing fancy, but so tasty. There was just enough left over for me to fix this for my lunch today.

It's so nice that Brennan is able (and most of the time willing) to eat what I'm eating. That certainly makes dinner much easier. We have also taken advantage of eating dinner with friends when their Daddy's are working. The kids get to play and the Mommies get to talk! I'm hoping this week to have some people come join us for dinner.

We are staying pretty low key for our lunches and doing his usuals: mac and cheese, hot dogs, quesadillas, pb&j, and chicken nuggets.

Here are some of the dinners I have planned for next week!
-Shake n Bake
-Fettucini Alfredo
-Southwestern Stuffed Peppers
-Spinach, Feta, Mozzarella Roll-ups
-Velveeta Skillet

Mystic Seaport

Some friends of ours were kind enough to let us tag along with them this morning to the Mystic Seaport. Colchester 4th grade students take a field trip to the Seaport each year, so I've been a couple of times, but this was B's first visit. We arrived right at 9am (gotta start practicing getting up and ready for school) and had a wonderful time.

The Seaport is set up like an old maritime town. There are cute little old houses, churches, and shops to explore. There was wooden boats you can climb aboard and it's all right on the water. It's also just a great place to let kids get some of their energy out!

We started at the Joseph Conrad boat and since we were there right at the opening, Brennan and Justin got to the be the helpers at the "Dead Horse Ceremony". They helped sing and parade around this big sack horse, which was then raised up and tossed into the water.

We visited a couple of the little shops and went into a replica of the Brandt Point Lighthouse. Brennan really liked the video we watched in there for some reason. We then headed to the outdoor children's play area for snack and play time. They have three play boats the kids can climb on and the boys had fun climbing and playing.

Next we headed into the Children's Museum. This was where we spent the majority of our time. Brennan LOVED it! It was just an old house with puzzles, a play kitchen, wooden boat, and other pretend play items. It was so neat watching the boy interact in the kitchen.

We ended up spending three hours at the Seaport today and we barely saw any of it! If you're ever in Mystic, CT, I certainly recommend checking it out. Brennan and I will definitely be headed back there. Our local library has a free pass, so I think we will take advantage of that soon!

I wish I had more pictures to share, but we were so busy having fun, I barely took any.

Brennan's Big Boy Room

After I found out I was pregnant, Kyle and I started talking about keeping Brennan in his current room and making the guest room the nursery or making the guest room Brennan's new big boy room. When the discussion first began, Kyle was in school and we thought he was going to deploy a few days after graduation. Deployment isn't over until November and I was hesitant to change Brennan's room then because it seemed like a lot of changes at once; new room, new bed, new baby in January. However, all of sudden Kyle said he could have the guest room transformed into a big boy room before he left. I had never even considered that a possibility, but was on board with making the switch. We quickly decided on a comforter and paint color and were ready to get to work.

We had company in our guest room until July 10th. I drove Amanda and her girls back to the airport that afternoon and when I returned home, the queen bed had been taken apart and the entire trim was painted in the room. The rest of the room went pretty quickly and the best part? It's almost all handmade by Kyle. I don't think many kids can say that.

Kyle made Brennan's toy box over a year ago I think. We moved it from his nursery into his big boy room before the room was complete and he immediately began playing in his new room.

He built the bed himself and stained it to match the toy box. He used these plans and I love the way it turned out. After he built the bed, we ordered Brennan's new mattress because he was sleeping in a toddler bed. The box spring was on back order, so it took a little longer than we planned to get it delivered. We had the bed set up already though and Brennan would climb inside the frame and play or read books. It was super cute. The mattress arrived July 23rd and Brennan has been napping and sleeping in his new room ever since. He had no trouble transitioning at all.

During a visit to Pottery Barn Kids, we saw this shelving unit. We both liked it, but didn't care for the $300 price tag. Kyle decided he'd just build it himself. So he got to work and Brennan had shelves that matched too!

At some point during this time, we made a trip to IKEA to look for a new dresser for B. We found the one we wanted (Tarva), but once we went to the warehouse to grab it, we learned it was out of stock. We kept watching the website and once it was back in stock, Kyle drove back to IKEA to grab it. We left for Kentucky on July 27, so Kyle didn't work on it before our trip, but as soon as we got back, he stained it to match everything else. So even though he didn't build the dresser, he made it look good.

We don't have anything up on the walls yet and I'm not sure I'll get that done while Kyle is away, but so far I am loving Brennan's new big boy room.

Paint: Behr Paint and Primer in One - Sparrow
Duvet, Down Comforter, Sheets: Target
Throw Pillows: IKEA

A Terrific Tuesday

Brennan and I have had a pretty terrific Tuesday so far. Nothing that exciting, but it's been fun nonetheless.

We left this morning around 9:30 to drop off some paperwork at his new school. He was so excited to take his green paper to his teacher. He walked right into the office, handed it the first person he saw, and said, "Thank you!" They were even kind enough to let him play in his classroom for a few minutes since it was empty. He went straight for the shape sorter; one of his favorites. I am praying his excitement for school continues and that Sept. 4 is a great day for him.

After that we headed to the commissary. I am a very lucky lady because I honestly rarely go there. Kyle goes much more frequently than me since he works right on base. If I do go, I typically go on Sundays after church and Kyle stays home while B is napping. So even if I do go, Brennan doesn't go with me. Now that Dada is deployed, Brennan and I get to do the grocery shopping together. For a couple weeks at least because I'll probably do it while he's at school once that starts. He was super at the commissary today. He loves that the aisles are numbered and counts 1-10 as we go up and down. I was very thankful he was so well-behaved while we were there.

After we came home and unloaded the groceries, I pulled him in his wagon to a nearby playground. It's a pretty small playground, but today was the first time we have ever seen another kid there. We have always had it completely to ourselves, so it's perfect. Today's playmate wasn't even there very long. Brennan had a great time and I love seeing his confidence grow, especially with climbing stairs.

After about an hour there, we headed back home for lunch and by B's request he ate strawberry oatmeal. Now he's napping and I've been pretty productive and might just take a nap myself. :)

Happy Sunday

via

Dear Brennan,

You are now 30 months old! 2.5 years. Wowzers! You continually amaze me with how much you know and how quickly you learn. You sure are loved. It's just the two of us right now as Dada just left on Wednesday to go meet his submarine. It's only been a few days, but so far we are doing just fine.

You still wear mostly 2T clothes, but anything new I now buy in 3T and you can wear that stuff too. I'm curious to see what size pants you'll need this fall. You still wear a Pull-up at night and haven't been waking up dry in the mornings lately. I'm not concerned about it though because you sleep 11-12 hours each night so I think it's just hard for you to hold it that long. You wear size 6.5 shoes and are still hovering right around 28 pounds. I know you've gotten taller, but don't have a measurement.

You are now sleeping in your new big boy room. It was such an easy transition for you. You are just so laid back about things like that. You're sleeping in a twin bed and are doing great with that. At bedtime you still love to read stories and then have Momma hold you while I sing. Most days you still take a good 2-3 hour nap. Some days you just lay in your bed talking, but those are few and far between.

We just recently got back from a trip to Kentucky. We drove and you were seriously the best traveler ever! I was so impressed. You love all your family in KY even though we don't get to see them too often. Right before the long trip, we bought an iPad so you could watch movies in the car; a first for you. You loved it. You also love playing with the iPad and still love the "Zoo Train" app. A new favorite is the "Letter Writer Kids" app. It lets you trace letters, numbers, and shapes and you're great at it! Before we headed back for CT, we bought a couple more movies and put them on the iPad too. One of them was Hop. You have now become obsessed with that movie. You want it on all the time when we're at the house. You can already quote parts of it and sing songs from it. Thankfully it's a pretty funny movie for grownups too. Before the Hop obsession, you had started watching old Transformers cartoons. That made Dada proud.

Even though you like watching movies and playing on the iPad, you get annoyed if Mommy is on her phone too much. You have started saying, "all done phone" when you want me to put my phone down. You say a ton of stuff now and have pretty much become a parrot of what we say. One of the cuter words you've picked up is "ewww". You also call me "Mommy" now instead of Momma. You still say "Dada" most of the time though.

You have such a thirst for knowledge. You are constantly counting or saying your ABCs and now you love to spell out words that you see. Dada got you a Tag book reader for a going away gift and you're learning how to use that. I'm so glad you still love books. We read so many everyday. I love to hear you "read" them now. It's precious. We currently have a book from the library called Potato Joe and you can pretty much read that whole book. Your love of numbers has caused you to love the digital clock that is now in your room. You love watching the minutes change and it's become a great tool for Mommy when it's time for bath or bed. I can tell you what number we need to wait for until it's time and you get all excited when you see it.

You certainly have your moments of being very whiny, but definitely understand when Mommy says, "No whining". Thankfully we still haven't seen tantrums from you though. Daily we are working on obeying Mommy the first time she gives an order. Somedays are more successful than others. You are learning how to share slowly but surely. You aren't used to being around lots of kids at once and that overwhelms you. At playgrounds you would start yelling if someone came anywhere close to you, but Mommy taught you to say "hi" instead of yelling and that seems to be helping. You now tell every kid you see "hi".

You are a lot like your Momma was when she was little and want to do everything right the first time. You tend to get upset if you mess something up. I can see improvement in this area and you are learning to say, "Try again".

Right now you are so excited about starting school next month. I hope that excitement stays. I know it's going to be so good for you. And good for Mommy too. I think you'll learn more about sharing there, which will come in handy once the baby arrives in January. You now like to blow raspberries on Mommy's belly and think it's so funny. You used to always say the baby was going to be a "girl baby" but sometimes you say "boy baby" now. No matter what, I pray that you'll be a good big brother.

Mommy is getting better at wrestling. It's a good thing since I have to fill in for Dada. You especially like to wrestle at night. Last night you were climbing on my back and I'd flip you over my shoulder. We did it over and over again. You can also do a somersault on your own now. I hope to be able to enroll you in a gymnastics class this fall. I think it would be great for improving your gross motor skills.

The main area we need to see improvement in is your BMs. It's my blog, so I'll talk about your poop if I want to. You are completely potty trained and have been for months and you don't have a fear of pooping in the potty, you just have gigantic poops that are painful so you'd rather hold them in. I started putting fiber powder in your drink once a day and that helped for a while, but now you are really struggling with constipation again. You are a good eater and eat fruits and or veggies at every meal. I think you just take after your Momma in this area too!

You are really still such a sweet, sweet boy. I am so thankful for that especially during these next few months that Dada is away. I love you very very much!

Love,
Mommy

I decided to do a giraffe shot today to document his growth in the last six months. Such a big boy now!

Brennan at 2 years old

Brennan today at 2.5 years old!

And here are few more cute shots!

He loves playing in the hose.

Right after he woke up from his first nap in his new bed! He slept in it upside down!

Soon he'll be as tall as that giraffe!

Such a goober!

Morning at the Museum

We love our membership to the Children's Museum. Brennan always has a good time when we go.