Lizard, Lizard

Brennan loves to stick out his tongue. When he does it, he looks like a lizard. Now he has learned to stick out his tongue on demand when we say, "Lizard, lizard." I wanted to get it on video. I was completely unsuccessful, but what I did get was pretty funny. He obviously loves to squeal too!

When I imported the squealing video, I found some other videos.

This is one of me tickling Brennan while saying the ABCs. Please excuse my giant knee that is in the shot.

This is one of Brennan in his (well it is actually Adah's) jumper.

Dear Brennan,

Today you are 8 months old! These eight months have flown by and with the holidays quickly approaching, I feel like you'll be one in the blink of an eye! Here's a little bit about what you've been up to this past month.

You are wearing mainly 6-9 month clothes still. You can already fit into some things that say 12 months, which blows my mind. I think I need to buy you a winter coat. I think you have some hand-me-downs that are too big. But I guess I need to check your closet before I go out and buy you something new! You are wearing size 3 diapers and should be in those for quite a long time. You squirm a lot more during diaper changes now, so changing you is a little more difficult.

You are getting more used to restaurant high chairs. You are almost sitting up by yourself. You seem to be even better at it just this morning. I thought you were ready to do it several months ago, but that was just a fluke. Now you'll sit for a little bit and then fall backwards. At restaurants I will sometimes stuff a blanket in the high chair with you to help keep you from sinking down. We just went out to dinner Saturday night with Beth and Luke and you were great there! You love your high chair at home, so that's good. You continue to do great in your car seat and stroller. You like every stroller I've ever put you in. In the Chicco stroller, you like to sit up straight and not be buckled in, so I leave the feet raised up so you can't fall through. It makes your legs all swished up, but you seem to like it. We try to go on a walk around the block each night and you love it. You also do pretty well at Stroller Strides in the mornings, but you start to get tired and usually end up fussing a little bit.

You are still a pretty good eater, but I think having an ear infection recently made you not quite as hungry. You usually still eat four times each day and get solids at three of those meals. You've continued to add more fruits and veggies to your diet and you definitely prefer fruits! Sometimes it is hard to get you to eat your green veggies, but just last night you ate all green beans without spitting any out! We've been trying to get you to eat some puffs or Cheerios the past month, but you haven't been interested until just the past few days. You haven't put any your mouth yourself, but when I place a puff in your mouth, you don't freak out anymore. Just yesterday I watched your mouth move and up and down as you were "chewing" it up. You still don't have any teeth (where are those suckers??). You use your sippy everyday with water in it. I still don't think you drink that much out of it, but you do like to chew on it, so I guess that's something. Occasionally you will get a bottle, but not very often.

Sleeping is still going well, although again the ear infection (I'm assuming) has affected your naps some. You usually go to bed for the night around 7-7:30. I feed you, give you a bath, read you the book Time for Bed and your Bible story, sing Jesus Loves Me, and then lay you down. You don't get swaddled at night anymore!!! I am glad because I was beginning to think your college roommate was going to have to swaddle you! I decided to try you unswaddled during naps one day because you kept busting your feet out of the swaddle. Your arms haven't been swaddled down for months, so I figured it was about time. It went so well at naptime that I decided to try it at night and it worked too! You usually wake up for an early feeding between 6-7am, but will go right back to sleep afterwards and wake up between 8-8:30 most days.

You usually take two good naps during the day and maybe a short one before bed. Stroller Strides interferes with your first nap, so those days you usually only take two. Last Thursday you took a 3 hour and 45 minute nap, but that is NOT normal! The past few days I have been swaddling you again during naps just to see if you would sleep a little longer. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the length of your nap though. I think you are starting to extended your wake time, so I need to watch your cues more closely so I don't lay you down too early. Sometimes it takes you longer to fall asleep and I will hear you in your crib just babbling to yourself. It is very cute!

Let's see what else...you started swim classes and really enjoy those. You're a champ in the church nursery on Sundays most of the time. You're hair sticks straight up most days now even if I try to brush it down flat. Your face breaks out in hives (or something similar to that) if Ringo licks you in the face, so we have to be extra careful of that now. Speaking of Ringo, you LOVE him and cackle when he does lick you. You also love the cats. As I mentioned earlier, you had your first ear infection and still seem to be recovering from that. You still have never rolled over from your back to your tummy. You aren't crawling yet and do not like to be on your stomach, but Mommy makes you do it for a little bit each day. You love being outside. You picked out your first pumpkin just the other day. You still love bath time. Your workbench is your favorite toy. You say "ba ba ba ba" all day long right now. You still spit up a lot and Mommy is hoping you outgrow that soon. You have the greatest laugh and you laugh a lot!

Goodness that is a lot of stuff! It's wild to think how many more things you'll be doing just within the next month. In just a week and half we are traveling to Atlantic City to see your Ga-Ga and Ge-Ge, so that will be exciting. Everyday is exciting though! You are such a good baby and I love you so very much!

Love,

Mommy

Brennan back at 7 months!

Brennan today at 8 months!

B.F. Clyde's

We took Brennan to B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill. Friday was a gorgeous day, so when Kyle got home from work and Brennan woke up from his nap, we decided it would the perfect day to go. As we were pulling out of the driveway, our friends the Cols called us and asked if we'd like to meet them at Clyde's Saturday morning. Kyle laughed and said we were actually currently headed there, but that we'd still love to meet up with them the next morning. So we back today! Between the two days we took over 100 pictures! Brennan was so cute in the pumpkins, but was very distracted and not wanting to smile for the camera very often. We did manage to get several cute shots! And Brennan picked out his first pumpkin!

WARNING! Tons of pictures coming up!!!

Friday's Fab Five

Check out some of the fabulousness that's been happening around here!

1. Last Saturday we went to the zoo with Josh, Amanda, and Adah!










2. Last week I mentioned that I had printed off this prayer calendar for praying for your child. This week I found something else I really liked. It is an old post from the blog Bring the Rain. The entire blog is amazing and you should check it out, but I really like the seven prayers a day I found here. I went ahead and copied them into this post too. The writer picked seven regular events that happen with her children each day and used them as a reminder to pray for her children throughout the day.

1. When they wake up: "Let the morning bring (child's name) word of your unfailing love, for she has put her trust in You. Show (her/him) the way (she/he) should go, for to you (he/she) lifts up her soul." (Adapted from Psalm 143:8)

2. When they are getting dressed: "Therefore, as God's chosen child, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Lord, help (him/her) bear with others and forgive whatever grievances (he/she) has against others. Help (him/her) forgive as the Lord forgave (him/her). And over all these virtues, help (him/her) put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." (Adapted from Colossians 3:12-14)

3. While they are eating: "Teach (child's name) the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Teach (him/her) that (he/she) can do everything through him who gives (him/her) strength." (Adapted from Philippians 4:12-13)

4. When they go out of the house: "(Name of child), do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will." (Adapted from Romans 12:2)

5. While they are taking a bath: Lord, give (name of child) clean hands and a pure heart, and let (him/her) not lift (his/her) soul to an idol or swear by what is false. Let (him/her) receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God (his/her) Savior. Let (him/her) be part of the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. (Adapted from Psalm 24:4-6)

6. When they are going to bed: "The Lord Your God is with you; he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, be will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

7. While they are sleeping: "I pray that (name of child) will do everything without complaining or arguing, so that he/she may become blameless and pure, a child of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which he/she shines like a star in the universe as he/she holds out the word of life-in order that he/she may boast on the day of Christ that he/she did not run or labor for nothing." (Adapted from Philippians 2:14-16)

3. We went to OCF Wednesday night for the first time in several weeks. It was nice to visit with everyone. It starts at 7pm and goes until 10pm, which is just too late for Brennan. He was great though and slept in the pack-n-play during Bible study.

4. Kyle and I are reading Love and War by John and Stasi Eldredge together. I am glad I have a husband who will read books with me!

5. I have so many books to read right now and can't wait to read them all! I am loving how much time staying at home with Brennan is giving me to study and read on my own. I've added all kinds of new blogs to my daily reading list. I have visited the Focus on the Family website, which has some really great information.

By Your Side

I like it and hope you do too!

Crazy Hair

Brennan woke up with one crazy mop of hair Sunday morning!

That's How I Roll!

I apologize if every single person reading this already knows about this, but I just in case some of you don't, I thought I'd share.

Do you stalk follow several blogs?

Do you have tons of blogs on your blog roll?

Do you go to your blog and check your blog roll to see who has updated their blogs?

If that's how you've been reading your favorite blogs, I think it's time for a change! When you read blogs using your own blog roll, you have to click on the link, that new window opens up, you read the blog, then must close that window to go back to your blog and click the next link.

It isn't difficult, but I learned a little while ago that is also isn't the most efficient way to read blogs.

If you aren't using it already, I highly recommend using Google Reader! It takes a little time to set it up, but I really think it is worth it.

Google Reader allows you to read blogs without visiting their site directly.

(Side note: If you "follow" your favorite blogs through Blogger, this is even easier. When you first log-in Blogger, the screen shows the blogs you follow and there is a link that says "read in Google Reader". Click that and if you log-in using your Google account, you can already read them there.)

Go to reader.google.com and get started today!

Sign in with your regular Google account (or create one). When you log-in, there will be a button in the upper left-hand corner that says, "Add a subscription". You have to click there and add the web addresses (one at a time) of your favorite blogs. I did this by clicking on the blogs on my blog roll and copying and pasting the addresses. Maybe there is a faster way to do it, but I don't know of one yet.

By adding your blogs to Google Reader, you can read all your blogs in one place. You log-in and it shows you the people who have updated their blogs. The blogs appear right in the same window currently open. As you read the blog, it becomes a "read" item instead of an "unread" one.

There are a few downfalls to it that I have found.

• The blogs aren't as pretty because the backgrounds don't show up.
• Some blogs will only show you a preview of their post on Google Reader and you still have to click on the blog name at the top of the window and go to that blog, but that doesn't happen very often.
• Some blog pictures/videos won't appear in Google Reader.
• You will have to go to the blog to leave a comment.

The other nice thing is that you can easily update your blog roll on your blog by importing your Google Reader contacts. Sometimes I will come across new blogs I would like to add to my list. I find that I just add those blogs as a new subscription on Google Reader, then occasionally go to my blog to update my blog roll the way I used to, and choose the "Import from Google Reader" option. This will add any new blogs I have subscribed to using Google Reader. That way my blog roll still stays updated for anyone who looks at it.

Okay, so maybe that is as clear as mud! I hope you try it if you aren't using it already.