Check out our little guy cruising along the couch and ottoman. Sorry for the poor quality of the video. I just grabbed my phone really quickly. Also, please excuse our giant horse of a dog. I think Ringo is in for a big surprise when Brennan decides to take off!
For anyone reading this who doesn't know, Brennan is 16 months old, but not walking yet. In fact, he has never crawled, pulled himself to standing, and can't quite get to sitting if he is laying down. At his 15-month check-up, the pediatrician recommended he start physical therapy to try to strengthen his core. We go to PT once a week and he is certainly doing better since we started. We went on Wednesday and for whatever reason, he decided he was ready to cruise along a bench there. Now he's doing it at home too. I think he's just doing everything in his own timing!
Happy Wednesday. I missed last week, but I am happy to be linking up with Jamie again for What I'm Loving Wednesday!
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I had lovely dinner last Thursday night with some amazing girls from church. Kyle had duty, so the girls decided to go eat at Olive Garden. Brennan was the only boy! It was a great meal and Brennan was super well-behaved.
One Friday each month, some ladies from our church get together for game night. That happened this past Friday. As always it was a good time. We try to play at least one new game each month and this month's new one was The Game of Things. It was hilarious! I can't wait to play that game again with some of my other friends!
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Saturday morning was overcast, but we knew we wanted to get out of the house, so we went to the aquarium. B and I go a lot, but this was only the second time Kyle has gotten to join us. Kyle got to watch the sea lion show for the first time. It wasn't nearly as good as the first time I saw it. Several of the sea lions were not in the mood to participate, which made for a pretty funny show.
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On Sunday one of the songs the praise team sang was "Be Unto Your Name". LOVE IT! In fact, I like our praise team singing it a lot better than the version below.
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I am loving days when B takes a four hour nap! He is doing so well with only one nap/day! I wish I could say I get tons of stuff done while he naps, but I typically spend a lot of time on the computer.
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On Monday Brennan and I ran a couple of errands including a stop by Michaels. All I wanted from Michaels was an over the door wreath hanger (I broke my previous one). I was a little bummed because usually when I go to Michaels, I make sure I print off a 40% coupon from their website. Since this visit wasn't exactly planned, I didn't have a coupon with me. The wreath hanger was only $4.99, so it certainly wasn't breaking the bank. While in the checkout line, the woman in front of me attempted to use her 40% coupon, but was informed everything she bought was already on clearance, so she couldn't use the coupon. She was nice enough to turn around and offer it to me. I saved $2.00 on my wreath hanger! I love saving money and love nice people! Plus now I am finally able to hang my balloon wreath on the door!
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We had a Vacation Bible School meeting at church Monday night. Kyle, Brennan, and I were out of town last year during VBS, so I am very happy to be volunteering there again. I have such wonderful memories of VBS growing up. I will be leading the kids during singing this year!
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My friend Val and I have birthdays close to each other in July. We are going to buy each other tattoos! I said something to Val a few weeks ago about wanting a small tattoo on my wrist. She said she really wants one too, so I thought: Why not get wrist tattoos for our birthdays?!?! I think we are both going to get a Bible scripture; just the address. Right now I am leaning towards 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (Pray without ceasing), but I'm not 100% sure yet. Oh and Val, it's on the blog, so this IS happening! No backing out!
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I am loving So You Think You Can Dance! I am excited for the Top 20 to start performing tonight!
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After getting a little behind, I am now caught back up on my scripture memorization. My goal was to learn two verses each month, so right now I have learned 11!
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I might be loving quite a few things today, but I can't leave out these two guys!
It's almost that time again! At the end of the month I am going to link up with some fabulous ladies to share my top five photos of B-Nugget from April, May, and June.
You need to check out the blogs of the lovely ladies! Seriously, go check THEM ALL out!
This is NOT a photography contest. Just a fun reason to go back and look through all those photos you've taken and pick some of your favorites! You can check out my top five photos from Jan-March here. If you link up at the end of the month, you are automatically entered to win some awesome prizes. One of the prizes is only available if at least 100 people link up, so you know what that means. YOU NEED TO JOIN THE PARTY!
For my devoted readers out there, sorry I have been MIA for a little bit. Other than doing Brennan's 16-month update yesterday, the blog hasn't received much love lately. I thought we'd do an update through pictures!
On Memorial Day, we made a trip up to Burlington, Mass to the nearest Chick-fil-a. Kyle received a gift card for Chick-fil-a from my parents for Easter, so we decided it was time to use it. Rob, Amanda, and Parker joined us in our car. The Cadovius family also followed us up. It was an awesome afternoon!
Brennan wishing everyone a Happy Memorial Day!
The Cadovius boys pushing Brennan and Parker in the strollers!
We always love our playdates over at Parker's house! Especially since Parker got this cool Cars ball pit for his birthday!
It's cool. Mommy couldn't resist jumping in too!
One week ago, we drove down to Washington, DC. We stayed at our timeshare. Kyle's dad and Linda met us there, so it was great to visit with Brennan's Papaw!
I was trying to get Brennan to make his "cheese" face. FAIL!
We went to the National Zoo!
So handsome. Yes, that is his binky on the ground and yes I did give it back to him!
Kisses for Papaw!
Papaw's hat is super cool!
Love him!
We did a lot of eating out while in DC, but also ate a few meals in the room.
Finally making his "cheese" face!
And his other new move; plugging his ears. Not sure why he does this.
Our last night there, Kyle and I got to go out to a nice dinner. Papaw and Linda were kind enough to stay in the room while Brennan slept.
Sunset over Alexandria, VA.
On our way home, we stopped in Bel Aire, MD to see Eric, Christie, and baby Matt. This was our first time meeting Matt. It was so great to see our good friends!
Brennan was a super traveler! We ate lunch at Eric and Christie's, so after that we weren't sure how long Brennan would be able to last until we'd have to stop again. Our goal was to make it through New York. We ended up making it all the way back! He was in his car seat for 6 hours straight and was only fussy for the last 30 minutes. Instead of heading straight home, we stopped at Panera for dinner.
I let Brennan sit on the table for a bit so he didn't have to go
straight into the high chair after being in his car seat for so long.
Now that we're back home, things are back to normal.
Today you are 16 months old! Where does the time go?!?! You are such a laid back dude and we have so much fun playing together each day! I love being your Mommy. How'd I get so lucky?!?!
You wear 12-18 or 18 month clothes. There are a few shirts you wear that are 2T. We recently received some more hand-me-downs from Parker, so you've been rocking some "new to you" clothes. I also scored some good deals at Goodwill yesterday, but most of those things don't quite fit you yet. You are still in size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 at night. For the first time we are using Huggies overnight diapers at night and I really like them.
You still love to watch The Wiggles. That is really the only TV show that will hold your attention. You also love Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street. You continue to love books and music. I hope both of those loves remain for a lifetime.
At your 15-month check-up your pediatrician recommended you start physical therapy. I still wasn't concerned about you not walking yet, but she wanted you to try and strengthen your core since you have never crawled, pulled to standing, or gone from lying to sitting. We now go to PT once/week. You don't really like it. It's only 30 minutes, but Ms. Jen makes you try some things that are uncomfortable for you and always get upset. You just look at Mommy and keep signing "please" over and over again for me to come save you! We have seen some improvements since you started PT. I'm not sure if it's because of PT or because you are just doing things in your own time. You have cruised along the couch one. You have gone from lying and sitting a few times on your own. You are also more willing to walk while only holding one of my hands. Everyone tells me not to rush you walking, but dude, you are getting heavy to lug around everywhere!
Since you are a late walker, I thought you'd be an early talker, but you still don't say much at all. You do lots of grunting. You understand SO many words. You can point to almost anything we ask you to. Hopefully you'll start talking some more soon.
You still have eight teeth. The pediatrician said one of your molars had some in, but I still can't see or feel it. I can tell your gums are swollen, so I think you'll be getting all four of your first molars very soon. Most days you are a good eater. About two weeks ago you had a high fever two nights in a row and weren't eating very much, so Mommy took you to the doctor. She checked you out and ended up sending us for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen because to do a chest x-ray they put babies into this contraption:
That's not you in the picture. I just got that picture via Google images. You were crying the whole time and I don't blame you! I am not a very tender-hearted person, but watching you crying in that thing broke my heart. The doctor read your chest x-ray and said it looked clear and sent us home saying you just had a virus and there was nothing we could do. She also said you would probably get a full body rash at the end of the virus. Well, on our way home, Daddy called and said the doctor had called him and wanted us to come back. The radiologist disagreed with her reading of the x-ray. So we turned around and went back to the clinic. The radiologist saw some "fringes" of mucus and even though your doctor still didn't think it was anything for concern, they put you on amoxicillin. After getting your prescription, we finally got to come home. And sure enough, you did end up with a full body rash.
You just got back on Wednesday from your third trip to Washington, DC. We really like our timeshare there and it isn't a long drive for us, so we tend to go there for a little getaway. This one was extra special because Papaw and Linda met us there! You were an awesome traveler! On the way home, we hit some traffic and you ended up being in your car seat for six hours straight and you were only upset during the last 30 minutes!
You are doing great with your one nap. It is usually pretty long. Most days you sleep for 3.5 hours. Sometimes Mommy even gets bored during that time! You're still a champion sleeper at night too! You sometimes stay up a little later now, but are also usually sleeping in until about 8, so that makes Mommy very happy. You are still very much a Momma's boy! Thankfully each Sunday in the nursery, you seem to cry a little less. I hope that pattern continues.
I'm sure there are other things you are doing, but I guess that hit the highlights. I love you so very much. You are such a joy to be around!
If you had to choose, how would you choose to spend your money...on landscaping or a pool?
The answer to this question depends on how realistic I am being. I would like to have a pool; a really nice in-ground one. However, if I spent the money on that I would also want to spend the money on a pool boy who could take care of it for me. I don't really like all the upkeep that goes along with owning a pool. My husband is the one who takes care of our landscaping. I do think it would be nice to hire someone to take care of all that stuff too. I think my more realistic answer is that I'd use the money or landscaping (and hire a lawn boy to maintain it!)
Death penalty, yay or nay?
I usually don't have a very strong stance on many political issues; this one included. I feel like getting the death penalty seems like an "easy way out" for a criminal instead of having to live the rest of their lives with the guilt of what they did. However, I don't like how much tax money it costs to have an inmate spend a life sentence in jail though. So there's my wishy-washy answer. :)
What's the worst thing your kid has gotten into when you turned your back/blogged/showered/blinked?
This is one area of my life is getting ready to change big time. My almost 16-month-old son isn't walking yet and he has never crawled, so we have had 16 months of him being immobile! Crazy! Probably the worst thing that has happened so far happened while the hubby was gone to Vegas last month. I was letting Brennan play with a spice container (that still contained the spice). He had played with it earlier in the week under strict supervision and had done great. He was even able to stack multiple spice containers on top of each other. However, when I gave him one for just a few minutes on the kitchen floor so I could wash a couple of dishes, I turned back to him and the hamburger spice was dumped all over the floor. Oops! He didn't get any on him and I saw it right away and was able to pick him up and move him away. I can only imagine was stories are going to be coming up once he gets this walking thing down!
How often to do REALLY go to the dentist?
Since I have had a job and my own insurance I go every six months. My mom wasn't so great about getting us to the dentist as kids. Thankfully I have healthy teeth and never had a cavity until I was pregnant with Brennan.
What is your favorite animal? (Doesn't have to be a pet-type animal)
A GIRAFFE! Background story: When I was fifteen I was with some church friends and we were being silly and making up goofy nicknames for each other. Mine ended up being "Skinny Giraffe". A few days later I was out and saw a stuffed giraffe, thought about my new nickname, and knew I had to the buy the giraffe. That started my giraffe collection that has grown into somewhat of an obsession. Most of the giraffes are now in Brennan's giraffe-themed nursery. It's crazy how many giraffe things you can find once you start looking for them!
I'm loving the sea lion show B and I saw at the aquarium last Saturday. We've been to the aquarium many times, but this way our first time watching the sea lion show. It was so fun! Just a little 20 minute mini-Sea World-like show, but I really enjoyed it!
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I'm loving our friend little P-man who celebrated his 2nd birthday on Saturday!
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I'm loving that on Sunday we went to see some family in Southington, CT. We got to visit with my aunt, uncle, and cousins! It was great to have a cookout and celebrate Memorial Day weekend! We took our camera, but didn't take a single pic while we were there. :(
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I'm loving it was a four-day weekend! Kyle had to work on Saturday, but was off Friday and Monday. Monday we celebrated by heading to Chick-fil-a. This is no small feat for us. The nearest Chick-fil-a is over 1.5 hours away in Burlington, Mass. It was well worth the drive to eat some good food and hang out with great friends!
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I'm loving our visit to the Roger Williams Zoo yesterday!
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I'm loving that Brennan is working hard on his gross motor skills. We had his 2nd PT visit today and he has made some small improvements. We practiced a little more once we got home:
He can now pull to standing from sitting on my lap (but not
from flat on the floor). I used to phone to help motivate him!
Here he is supposed to bend over and pick up the toy saw, but
it was too low for him still.
So, I raised it up a little and also added a hairbrush to see if he
could grab it.
