Friday's Fab Five

Hi there! Are you ready for a fabulous a weekend?!?! I hope so. Here's what we've been up to around here:

1. Both yesterday and today and I have gotten up, showered, and gotten ready before getting Brennan out of bed. Thankfully he almost always wakes up really happy and is content to stay in his crib for a little bit. It's been nice to already be ready for the day before he's even up. I am hoping it'll inspire me to stay up and get stuff done instead of taking a nap when he naps! (I might've laid back down for a short cap nap today...shhh!)

2. Tonight I am going to a game night with ladies from church. It's always fun when we get together! I am thankful for my hubby for taking baby duty tonight, so I can go! He also took baby duty last Saturday so I could go to a church game night!

3. It was gorgeous yesterday! Even though it's not as warm today, the sun is still shining brightly. I am so excited for spring and summer and can't wait to spend time outside with Brennan. I think we are going to go get a Mystic Aquarium membership! I think he'll like it!

4. B and I had a great time playing with Abby yesterday! I'll admit, I was a little anxious Wednesday night thinking about having two little ones here all day, but it went better than some days go with only Brennan! I think he liked having a friend here all day! It certainly helped that Abby is an awesome baby!

5. I didn't do a Fab Five last Friday, but Kyle and I got to go out on a date last Friday night. Val was kind enough to come stay with B and put him to bed. Kyle and I went to Olive Garden for free thanks to our good friends Ken and Anna!

So, this Fab Five isn't that exciting, but at least I did one this week! Here are a few pics!

Brennan and Abby

I babysat the daughter of a couple from our church today. Her Momma is a nurse and worked night shift last night and needed to get a little sleep today. I was happy to help. Abby is such a happy baby. I thought she might be able to teach B how to crawl, but no luck! :)

Here are some pictures. They were just taken on my phone, so they aren't good quality, but I thought Abby's Momma would enjoy them!

Brennan kept wanting to get in Abby's car seat!

Abby also liked playing with her car seat!

Abby has the same music table at her house.

Don't mind my creepy eyes; they both wanted to be in my lap!

Take 2.

Abby did a great job eating her lunch!

Two cute kiddos!

Abby army crawls around everywhere!

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk.
I pushed B in the stroller and Abby rode in the Ergo!
It was a workout for me for sure!

Abby holding B's hand!

Dear Brennan,

Today you are 14 months old! I don't think they come much sweeter (or cuter) than you! You are such a smart little booger too! Here's a recap of your last month.

You wear 12-18 month clothes. We recently packed away more clothes that were too little. I've been on a couple shopping sprees for you recently, so I am hoping you're all set for the spring and summer! You are still in size 3 diapers (Target brand) during the day and size 4 (Pamper's overnight) at night.

We continue to do Tot School most days after breakfast. Putting things into things is by far your favorite activity! Today you were able to put straws into a little opening I cut in a Puffs container! I was so impressed! You have tried coloring a few times, but aren't a fan of that quite yet. You love music and have become addicted to certain youtube videos. Mommy keeps saying she's not going to let you watch so many, but they keep you happy and entertained in your highchair, which gives Mommy time to clean up the kitchen after meals. You dance along to them and immediately sign "more" when they are over.

You still don't crawl, cruise, or walk. You have yet to even pull yourself to standing. Part of me wants you to start walking so badly, but everyone tells me to enjoy this stage while it lasts. You still love books too. I think your current favorite is the book Aunt Lala recorded for you for your birthday. You also like any book with flaps you can flip.

I haven't worked with you on any additional signs. You still do all the ones you used too and will do multiple signs in a row to make a sentence (more food, please). I have been encouraging you to try to say more words. You say, "Momma" a lot more now, which continues to make me happy. You will also say, "hi" when you wave. You say it like you're from Kentucky and that makes Mommy proud! Sometimes I think you say other words, but I think you're just mumbling and I think I hear what I want to hear.

We have been Skyping with Mommy's family a lot recently. We Skype with Aunt Lala at least once a week and you have gotten to see other members of the family too. It's nice to be able to do that since we live so far away. We did get to visit with our friends Amanda, Adah, and Michaela in Virginia this past month. You were a great traveler!

You're quite the ham with your tricks. You like to show them off to people at church. Speaking of church, you've been doing pretty well in the church nursery. Just yesterday I was able to lay you down in a crib during Sunday school and you slept for 45 minutes. The nursery workers said you were fine when you woke up, so you stayed there for all of service too. Hopefully the separation anxiety is getting a little better. Mommy and Daddy went on a date this past Friday night and you stayed home with Auntie Val. You didn't even cry when we left, so that was huge!

Your hair was getting pretty long around your ears, so you got your first hair cut! You did great! You now have eight teeth and go to the dentist for your first check-up on Wednesday. You are usually a good eater, but occasionally will decide you're all done and instead of signing "all done" you will just start waving your hands on your tray wildly sending food flying everywhere. I've let you use a spoon a few times. You don't quite have the scooping action down, but you can get the spoon with food into your mouth. You have started drinking watered down juice some too. You like to drink it from a sippy with a straw.

Since you've had such bad separation anxiety, I stopped doing independent playtime. That was probably a mistake on my part. I really wanted to stick with it, but it wasn't going well, so I decided to put it off for a while. You will play by yourself in the living room and let Mommy work in the kitchen, but you DO NOT like being left alone playing in your room.

We've had some sleep issues during the past month. You have always been such a good sleeper, so it's been totally unlike you. You've had two different colds during the past month and I think those have been keeping you awake. Most the time if you wake up, you will settle yourself right back down. I have had to go in a rock you a few times though. Even though it makes Mommy sleepy, I have to admit I find it super sweet rocking my growing boy! Most days you are still taking two naps, but I'm not sure how long that is going to last. Just this morning you spent a full two hours in your crib during nap time, but were only quiet (hopefully sleeping) for 30 minutes. You are napping now, so hopefully it will be a nice long nap!

I think that's about it. I'm sure I am missing something, but it's hard to remember all the things you are doing. Mommy loves you so very very much!

Love,
Mommy

Brennan back at 13 months

Brennan today at 14 months

Tot School - 13 . 5 Months

Thanks for joining us for another week of Tot School! Here's what we were up to this week!

Brennan still loves playing at his music table he got for Christmas. This table has really helped strengthen his legs. He has yet to pull himself to standing or start cruising, but hopefully those things will start happening soon.

I have mentioned before how much he likes his Melissa and Doug Pet Sounds puzzle. He is getting so good at it and can now identify some of the animals. If you ask him to show you the dog, bird, frog, and fish he can do it! I know he knows cat too, but he doesn't like to find that one for some reason.

Brennan also loves playing with Scout. Scout has been one of his favorite toys for a long time, but now he can easily press all of Scout's paws. He is so good at pressing the paws that he will never let one song or saying finish before he presses another paw, so it turns into continuous, garbled string of sounds.

I let Brennan try coloring for the first time this week! He didn't really know what to do. I was impressed that he wasn't eating the crayons, which is why I had never let him use them before. However, I soon as I sent a picture to Kyle and said he wasn't eating them, he started putting them in his mouth. He did like trying to put the crayons back in the box (go figure, he likes putting things in things). I had to display his first drawing on the fridge!

Tot School often requires deep thought and I was able to capture Brennan during some of it!

Maybe he was thinking about which new ball he wanted to play with first. These awesome balls, each with a different texture, were in his Easter basket from Aunt Lala. The purple one has numbers and the alphabet on it. He can still pick out the letter B!

We practiced rolling the balls and then also practiced rolling the fire truck. He is getting much better at it!

We also had great fun playing fetch with Ringo!

Thanks again for a taking peek into our week! Come back next Sunday!

Smile!

I've always known I take a lot of pictures of Brennan. There is absolutely no doubt about it now. Check out this new cheesy face he makes when I pull out the camera. These were all taken this morning when I was trying to take pictures of his Tot School activities.

He's such a weirdo! I wonder where he gets his weirdness from?!?!

But speaking of smiling...

I was reading my devotional book, Spilt Milk, today and read this:

God is the ultimate mercy granter. I am a sinner who constantly makes mistakes; I am a repeat offender who deserves to suffer the consequences. I fail God numerous times, wreaking havoc on my life as well as on the lives of others. I violate. I discriminate. I isolate myself from God. I ignore God's calling and seek my own way of doing things. I deserve punishment, but God gives me mercy. How great is our God!

Can't help but smile after reading that!

Tot School - 13 . 5 Months

I did a horrible job taking pictures this week! I'll share the fews pics I did take, but also share some new techy tools we discovered this week!

Here is B doing his push and scoot move across the tile.

Kyle says I am giving B a complex by always having him practice putting things into something. He always wants to put EVERYTHING in something now! Hopefully no permanent damage is being done, because it sure is helping his fine motor skills! This week he was able to put ziti into a soda bottle. Then had fun shaking it!

This week And Twins Make Five shared Great iPhone Apps for Toddlers and Preschoolers. I checked some of them out and added a few of the free ones to my phone. I don't let Brennan play with my brand new iPhone, but I did let him sit in my lap and tap the screen to work the apps. He wasn't too impressed with them, but I thought they were cute. I added the following apps to my phone:

• Fisher-Price: Where's Puppy's Nose?
• Neil Daniels: Bubble Snap
• Fisher-Price: Let's Count Animals

Brennan is still loving watching the numbers and counting PowerPoint presentation I made for him. We watch it several times each day. I am happy to make things like that for him, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. If things are already available for our use, why take my time making the same thing? This week I have been doing a lot of searching on youtube.  Sure, there's a lot of junk there, but there is plenty of good stuff too. 

This is Brennan's current favorite. He LOVES it! As soon as it ends, he signs "more". 

If you go to youtube and search for "counting" or "letters" you can find some pretty cute stuff! You can also search Kidstv123 on youtube. They made the numbers video above and have several other cute ones too. They also have a website, but I haven't checked it out yet, so I don't know how good the quality is.

I did visit the website, Super Simple Songs and found lots of good stuff there! You can also go to Super Simple ABCs and find some cute phonics games! You can also search Super Simple Songs on youtube. Gotta love good, free stuff!

So, we didn't get tons of pictures, but hopefully you found some of our new Tot School finds helpful!

Ultimate Blog Party!

Welcome! I am taking a break from my regular Friday's Fab Five posts to link up with the UBP. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into Calton Corner!

Here's my fam:

I am an elementary school teacher, turned stay-at-home-momma of a handsome 13 month old boy! I loved teaching my little rugrats at school, but I am loving teaching my own son even more! My husband, Kyle, is in the Navy. We are both originally from Louisville, KY but have been stationed in Groton, CT for the past almost five years. We own a house in Mystic, CT which is famous for the movie Mystic Pizza!

Even though we are far away from our home-home, CT certainly feels like home to us now. We have great friends and a great church. We are even lucky enough to have some family nearby; my aunt, uncles, and cousins live in Connecticut too!

This blog mainly just serves as a way to document things going on in our lives. Since Brennan was born, it now focuses mainly on him. I just started linking up and doing a Tot School post on Sundays, which has been a lot of fun! I am always on the look out for more fun things to do with Brennan!

Thanks again for visiting! Hope you'll come back again!