Trick or Treat!

Mommy & her little man!


Happy Monkey!


We drove over to Aunt Jenny & Uncle Rob's house to do a little trick or treating! It's so nice to have them just down the street now!



Monkey in a tree!


He got some candy in his pumpkin bucket and was fascinated by it!


Then we headed home so that mommy & daddy could pass out at least some of the Halloween candy we bought! ;) Brendan got to do his two favorite things...push his lawn mower and his lion!



"Sampling" a Snickers! (We didn't let him eat any actual candy...he gets an occasional cookie or bite or two of ice cream, but we figured chocolate right before bed wasn't a good plan!)


"It's hard work being a monkey!"


Reading myself a bed time story in my Halloween PJs. "Night-night!"

Happy Halloween!

I'm always teasing Shadow (one of our kitties) during October, that her "day" is coming up. I think that she knew that today was her day as she was exceptionally vocal all day. She wanted to pose with the Halloween candy!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

My mom and I took Brendan to the Indianapolis Children's Museum for the first time. He was a little scared/shy at first, but once we got to the Playscape area, he really came out of his shell and enjoyed the day.

We rode the lion on the carousel


Checked out an Indy race car


Dug in the sand...



Played with some trains while listening to some songs...


Built some towers with the big blocks...


Played in the kitchen and "sampled" all the food, even when I was told not too!





Thought that the magnet letters looked better on the floor...


Absolutely LOVED the water area...

Baby Update - 22 weeks!

It's hard to believe that this pregnancy is more than half over...it really seems to be flying by! I had an OB appointment about 1 week ago and all is going well. A few weeks to go before I have to take the dreaded gestational diabetes test...I passed just fine last time, but I'm still terrified of not being able to eat what I want, when I want!

In other baby news, I've come up with a nickname for baby girl..."Baby Bug", no real story, just the first & only nickname that we've come up with that seems to have stuck.

Chris got to feel Baby Bug move/kick about a week & a half ago. Definitely makes the pregnancy more real to him. I've definitely been feeling her move a lot, which I'm enjoying, but so glad that he's starting to get to enjoy it as well.

In terms of weight gain, I'm up 14 pounds for this pregnancy. I can't remember exactly what I had gained with Brendan at this point, but I feel like I'm doing well in not gaining too much too quickly. I have noticed that with this pregnancy, I'm not as hungry as I was with Brendan, so that is probably helping. Of course the other side of things is that, even though I'm not working full time and being on my feel all day long everyday, I'm definitely staying busy chasing around a toddler and wrestling him into his carseat or shopping cart. :)

The worst part of this pregnancy by far has been the back pain. My OB referred me to a physical therapist about 4 weeks ago. I've been twice now and will go back next week. I'd like to go more frequently but our health insurance doesn't really cover the therapy and we have to pay out of pocket until we meet our deductible, which we won't meet this calendar year...2010 will be different, so Lori (my physical therapist) and I will be good friends come Jan 1st! Anyway, apparently the problem is that my sacro-iliac joint (basically joint between my pelvis and bottom portion of my back/spine) is too loose, likely from the hormones produced in pregnancy. So my left hip is rotated all out of wack. I got a back support/brace which I now where except for when I'm sleeping, which has definitely helped. I've also been learning exercises to increase my abdominal strength to help stabilize my back/pelvis, which includes sitting on a exercise ball. Those are my favorite as it is such a relief to my back pain. I've also been trying to pick up/carry Brendan as little as possible, but it's very hard to do. :(

We've been shopping for a better car so that I don't have to lift Brendan so high up as I do in my SUV, plus we figure in a few months, we'll have two carseats to deal with, which will make both of our cars very crowded. Hopefully we'll find something good & affordable soon!

Ma Ma!!!!!

Brendan's vocabulary has been increasing at an amazing rate lately, however there was one word that was sorely missing...."Ma Ma" or anything resembling it! For awhile, when I would go upstairs to get him in the morning, I was greeted with a "Da-da"! Partially because I think he loved saying it and partially because he adores his Daddy. About 2 weeks ago, while shopping with Mamaw, Brendan did point to me and say "Ma Ma", but it really hadn't happened again and I was worried it was a fluke! Chris and I had started playing somewhat of a game with Brendan...pointing at Chris and saying "Da Da", then pointing at myself and saying "Ma Ma".

Well...it finally paid off!!!! We were at a family birthday celebration tonight and Brendan looked at me, pointed and said "Ma Ma!" quite adamantly too! :) I was soooo happy...not going to lie...I got a little teary eyed! :)

In celebration of this feat, I thought that I'd make a list of the words that Brendan has just for fun. :)

Ma Ma
Da Da
Hi
Bye-Bye
Peaz (Please)
Thank you
De-do (Blankies...not sure how/why he came up with this)
Ni-ni (night-night)
Uh, oh!
Oh, no!
Wow!
Car/cars
Cards
Bus
Big? Car (Truck)
Red
Blue
Ball
Out-side
Shoe
Kitty
Duck
Fish
Cheese (often means any food, but specifically mac & cheese)
Afflesauce (applesauce - an obsession lately!)
Peas
Spoon
All gone/all done - not sure which it is or if it's both! :)
More
Hot!
Chair
Go
Up
Off
No! (not a fan of this one! LOL Sometimes it's accompanied by head shaking and adamant pointing...kinda funny at times!)
Elmo - this is a brand new one, and he doesn't always get it right...Gymbo (the character at Gymboree which is a clown), is currently being called Elmo)
He will roar at a lion picture, says "ba ba" for sheep and quack quack for ducks.
Tweet, tweet (means birds)
I'm sure that there are a few others that I'm missing/can't think of right now. I'll try to come back and add them as I think of them/hear him say them.

ETA: "Wa tha?" or "Tha?) (What's that?)
Baby :)

"Out-side!"

Brendan loves to be outside and often cries when we have to come inside. I'm afraid what will happen in the winter when it's too cold or wet to be outside. Until then though, we're enjoying the fall weather.
His lion push toy is still his favorite outside toy. Loves to turn the sound on & off!

Pumpkin Patch - Stoney Creek Farms

We made our 2nd annual trip to Stoney Creek Farms this weekend, so that Brendan could pick out a pumpkin. It was a cold day, but the sun was shining! I think that for the most part Brendan had a blast...he loved watching the tractors that pull the wagons out to the pumpkin patch.

20 Months!

He really didn't want to sit still! :)

Our little football fan

Brendan has been really into watching the football games on TV lately. He will even yell at the TV "Go, go, go!". We've been trying to get him to do the touchdown sign, but asking him how big is Brendan, but so far he hasn't made the connect that it's the same thing. He's definitely enjoying our new TV in the basement. We even moved his little chair down there so he has his own place to sit.

Nesting...

It seems that now that we know that this little munchkin will be a girl, the nesting bug has fully taken over. I've had some brief moments of feeling the need to scrub down walls, organize closets, etc, but I think that it's in full force now. :)

I had a productive weekend...got our outdoor fall decorations up and cut back some flowers.

I also got the closet organizers put together for Brendan's new big boy closet and starting moving a few things in there each evening as he reads a book before bed.

We also hired some movers at the end of last week to move some heavier furniture items up & down the stairs for us. This included the desk/dresser parts of Brendan's new to him bunk bed set. I found this at a garage sale earlier this summer...just a few weeks after we learned we'd be having another baby. They were pretty marked up with marker, stickers, gum, etc. But with a good cleaning and some refinishing work by Bisia (Chris' mom, Bisia is Polish for Grandma) they are looking great!



We are taking Brendan's nursery bedding and putting it in his new big boy room after Christmas once we get everything organized. Initially, when we picked out his bedding, I told myself, this will work great for a boy OR a girl...well, now that we're having a girl...she needs a girlie nursery...but of course not too girlie, as I couldn't tolerate a pink infested room! So, yes I'm getting new nursery bedding, but all we need for Brendan's big boy room is a comforter and sheets for his new bunk beds, so not too bad!

As far as nursery bedding, I still haven't found a "set" that I like...BUT, I found a quilt making kit at Joanne Fabrics that I've fallen in love with. :) Bisia has offered to make the quilt kit. With some work, I have hunted down a fabric that I at least hope is very similar to the small purple rose bud fabric that is in this quilt and will be making (with the assistant of Mamaw) some small pillows and curtains for the nursery. I have found a crib bumper, dust ruffle, and sheets in the purple and pale green gingham. So hopefully it will all come together as I'm imagining it!
This is a picture of the quilt kit.

Gymboree

Our now typical Thursday morning activity is to go to our Gymboree class. For those not familiar, it's associated with the Gymboree clothing stores, but not in the same location (learned that the hard way, the first time we tried to go to class!). It's not really a "Mommy & Me" class, but does provide a structured, at least as structured as you can be with toddlers, learning environment. We do lots of climbing, jumping, and throwing of balls. But we also try to reinforce concepts such as "up & down", "in & out", "side-by-side". All of the teachers that we have had are wonderful. We particularly like Ms. Wendy who does the Thursday morning class, but enjoy Melissa & Marissa who do the Thursday evening and Friday morning class. They also have music & art classes as well, but we've yet to try those out, as Brendan is so hyper and enjoys burning off energy during the class. There is also "Open Gym" times thoughout the week, but we've been too busy to make them so far. :( If anyone is interested in more information, please send me an email. I have coupons for a free preview class that anyone is welcome to! They have classes for children ages 6 months up thru school age.

Anyway...here are some pictures of Brendan having fun last week.



He's finally getting brave enough to go on the paracute ride towards the end of the class.

I think that his favorite part of the class is playing with the bubbles!