Friendship Friday - My Husband

This probably will not be the only post about my husband on a Friendship Friday, mostly because, he is my best friend. At times he may drive me crazy, but I still want to be around him, experience new things with him and grow old together. I love watching my husband be a father. Since I have worked with young children practically my entire life, many things I have experienced with motherhood have been expected (not all, but many). I know the basics of baby care. My husband on the other hand, has not been around many babies for extensive amounts of time. He knew how to change a diaper, bathe and feed a child, but many other things he had never experienced before . He he trying hard and love Brendan very much. I love that we are growing together as a family.

Last weekend, we took a drive and went to Long Beach. No special reason, just because. We walked around, looked at shops and enjoyed our time together. Here is one of the pictures of Scott and Brendan that I just love.

Another reason that I wanted to mention my husband today was for yesterday evening. Yesterday I came home from work, Scott and Brendan were sitting together on the couch, and there were roses on the table. What a sweet and thoughtful husband I have!

25 Random Things about me

I found this on my friend Elizabeth's blog and as always, she entertains me. So I thought that I would continue the post. You may join in as well if you would like!

1. I secretly wish I had become a hair-dresser and had gone to beauty school instead of getting a Bachelors degree in Philosophy. Even though I am not very good at hair or make-up.

2. I have no desire to travel outside of the county, although I complain that the only place other than the U.S. that I have been to is Ensenada.

3. I love watching Brendan grow-up and learn new things, but part of me want him to go back to three months old when he just wanted me to hold him in my arms.

4. I have an excessive need to make lists, shopping lists, to-do lists, party lists, lists of resolutions. I usually lose them after they are complete.

5. I would much rather text someone than give them a call. I know it is less personal that way, but it is faster and easier.

6. I actually hate Valentines day.

7. I love to throw parties, although I don't think I am very good at it.

8. I used to love to cook....until I got married.

9. I have a shopping addiction; it is my stress reliever.

10. When I am feeling depressed I love to watch chick flicks. My current favorite Chick-flick is The Wedding Date.

11. Past favorites include: Notting Hill, You've Got Mail, and from High School, She's all that.

12. I do not like going to the movies, I get bored halfway through, even if it is a really good movie. I also do not compromise, I only go see movies that I want to see. If I am going to pay $10.00 to sit through a movie, it better be one that I REALLY like.

13. I sometimes feel guilty for not wanting to be a stay at home mom.

14. I love to wear a ribbon bow in my hair and pearls, I feel so feminine; although now I feel too old to wear ribbons in my hair.

15. I love wearing suits to work, but can rarely afford them.

16. Some Saturdays, my husband has to bribe me with McDonald's breakfast to get me out of bed.

17. I believe that rules should be followed, they are there for a reason. I am a rule follower (most of the time).

18. I am extremely allergic to wool. I can feel it instantly when a sweater has wool in it.

19. I have always wanted to learn how to knit (or crochet).

20. My favorite flowers are daises and daffodils.

21. Yellow is my happy color.

22. I don't know know what my life would be like without my sister around

23. There are times I am amazed that my husband and I ended up together.

24. I love my husband more each day, I love it when he wraps his arms around his little family and tells us how much he loves us.

25. I am grateful for every person in our large, crazy, family, no matter how crazy we are at times! I love them all.

Well Baby check-up - 6 months

On Thursday of last week, my mom and I took Brendan in for his 6 month check-up. Overall it went really well. Brendan is still growing although he has slowed down from where he was before. Brendan now weighs 17 pounds, 7 ounces (50th percentile, down from the 75th) and has grown 1 inch, which makes him 27 inches long (75th percentile, down from the 90th). We are so excited for his development.
Brendan now sits on his own, although sometimes he still flops over when he wants to change positions. Brendan also loves books, especially ones he can chew on! His favorite book is "One Oogly Eye" It is a monster book that I bought for him for Halloween, he loves the colors and the fun words. Brendan rolls over from side to side and all over the room with no problem at all. I lay him down, turn around and he is across the room. I'm not sure if I am ready for him to be crawling!And our newest excitement is that Brendan has learned how to scoop. When a toy is placed in front of him, Brendan will pull forward with his arms to get to the toy. YAY! Brendan Loves toys, some of his favorites include his beads, his monkey, and his activity bouncer. He also gets on all fours and will rock but hasn't figured out the movement yet for crawling. Any day now I am sure!
Some basic developments that most 6 months old can accomplish, include imitating sounds and babbling like crazy! Turning towards voices and we think he has learned his name. He also loves to eat his feet (apparently this is a very important milestone, who knew!) More advance developments including passing toys from one had to the other, jabbering, dragging toys toward him, and sits without support. He can hold his bottle with both hands although he still prefers me to hold it most of the time, he does not always tip it back to get the milk, but it is still progress!
Part of my favorite time right now is when I am gone for a while and come back, Brendan gets very excited to see me! I just dread when he gets to the point of crying when I leave. Brendan is also in the stage where he loves "social play" he loves for you to be on the floor playing with him. He is also starting to be more aware of his friends, Sammy and Mercy, but that is a different post! I know that I am late in getting this posted so I will leave you with some more 6 month pictures!

Happy Birthday Brother!

My brother and I have always been pretty close, although we are 5 years different in age, we have gotten along very well over the years. Being that he was younger, I beat up on him growing up, and now that he towers over me - he beats me up. We still tease each other, but I love my brother dearly, as strange as he is! It was nice to see him at Christmas and spend what short time we had together with him. It was also nice for him to get to see his nephew again.

Today, my brother turns 21, a scary day for the world. Today is also my son's half birthday! He is now 6 months old. As a tribute to both of them (plus I have been experimenting with my new video camera) I wanted to post a short video of my brother and his nephew. Enjoy!

It is really only the first half is of J.T. and Brendan, the rest you can just ignore. I haven't figured out how to edit it out....

Happy Birthday J.T.!

Random Suport Group

My friends and I have what we call "Girl's Night" every other week. This started my senior year of college about 4 1/2 years ago I would guess (I can't believe we have been doing this for that long!) It started as a way to just get together and spend some quality time. Since I had moved off campus, Jenni had graduated and lived off campus with a roommate, Tawni had gotten married, and Shanda was living on campus still with a few other girls. We had a rotation and would take turns cooking dinner for each other and then just sitting around talking. As time has gone by, people have moved away and the girls that attend have changed slightly. But we continue on. At one point we were meeting every week and after dinner we would scrapbook together. We got older, got real jobs, got married and started wanting to leave earlier so we stopped scrapbooking and just went back to talking. Now that we are starting to have kids and life gets more hectic, we only meet every other week.

This is more than just a group of girls getting together, this is a commitment. We try not to cancel on each other except for real reasons (being sick for example). At times I know my sister will get annoyed when she asks to hang out on a Wednesday night and I tell her "sorry, it's Girl's Night." She just sighs at me and tells me I belong to "A Random Support Group." In a way, she is right. This is my random support group. Although the members have changed and we continue to add and lose friends, these girls are my support through life's issues that I face. When I was planning my wedding, it was these girls that helped stuff my wedding invitations and even helped me when I planned my sisters rehearsal dinner. Together we have been though birthdays, graduations, weddings, several moves, loss of jobs, starting new jobs, medical issues, we are on the third pregnancy of the group, as well as many other life trials that come our way.

Our husbands at times believe that Girl's Night is about husband bashing, and while we are given the opportunity to share stories, it is a time for us to vent about life and know that we are not the only one going through the situation, we all have been there. We discuss kids, husbands, jobs, school, parents, in-laws, future life plans, and anything else that is on our mind. Life has its ups and downs, having a group of friends to lean all can make a world of difference. We laugh together, cry together, pray for each other, and experience life - together.

Date Night

After Christmas, my mother stayed in town for a few extra days. Scott and I took advantage of Grandma being in town and asked to to watch Brendan for one night as Scott and I went out. This brought up the point that even though Brendan is at Day Care every day, I have a hard time leaving him with people for Scott and I to have a date. My mom brought up a good point that we should be trading off with another couple.

I asked our friends Tawni & Rob if they wanted to trade off with us. We will watch Sammy one week while they have a night to themselves and then the next week, they will watch Brendan. I am really looking froward to a scheduled date night. Even if we just stay home and have a quiet dinner just the two of us, that sounds great to me!

Tonight is the first night, we are watching Sammy to give Tawni & Rob an opportunity to spend the evening together.

Sleeping Habits

Brendan has really improved his sleeping habits lately. Right after Christmas, Scott and I realized that we needed to change something if we were every going to get a full night sleep again. He now eats rice cereal twice a day, morning and night. We put him down every night after feeding him a bottle at 9:30. Sometimes he will go to sleep around 8:30, but we still wake him up to eat at 9:30 every night. And we always get him up at the same time every morning, 6:30. Scott is better than me about getting him up at the same time, I would prefer to sleep as long as possible...

We are now going on night 5 of Brendan not waking up AT ALL! Two weeks of him going at least 4 1/2 hours between eating at night. I am so happy to actually sleep for longer periods of time. The only thing that now worries me, is when I wake up in the middle of the night, or really early in the morning, and realize I have not heard a peek from my baby. Terrible thoughts go through my head and I sneak a peek in his crib to make sure everything is okay.

Brendan has also been really good about going to sleep when he is suppose to. For evening at naps, I will give him his blanket and lay him down in his crib. Once in a while he will cry for a couple minutes before falling asleep. But most of the time, Brendan will take his blanket, wad it up, roll onto his tummy, and sleep on top of his blanket. It is just a tiny little blanket which I am thankful for because he also likes to cover his face with it, or bunch it up and lay face down on the blanket. I am so worried that he is going to suffocate himself and am always pulling blankets away from his face.

All in all, I am very proud that he goes to sleep so easily now and sleeps for longer periods of time. Even nap time is getting to be longer instead of short cat naps of a 1/2 hour. When I go in to check on him, I fin him in the most peculiar positions. Usually, face down. Here are a couple of pictures of him sleeping. I have no idea how he gets in these positions, I always lay him down on his back facing the rails...

Friendship Friday - My Neighbor & Handyman

Every time Scott and I start talking about moving out of our apartment, my mother reminds me; “You know you can’t take your handyman man with you.” “My” handyman man is Dave. Dave lives below us with his wife and one of my best friends Jenni. Dave is the one I call when I need help, although I love my husband to death, he is not very good with tools, fixing things or common sense of how to fix things. (I love you hunny!) Dave on the other hand, has installed ceiling fans for me, driven to my work after my car died and replaced my car battery while I was at work. Dave has fixed so many things for me; I can not even begin to count them. Part of it is his job, Dave works for the apartment complex that we live in and so many things he does for us are part of his job, but they get done right away for us! Many other things that Dave does for us are NOT part of his job, he just is so giving that he helps us out. It has also been nice that Scott and Dave get along so well. Jenni and I introduced our men Valentine's weekend 2005. This was the first time we all hung out as the four of us. After that we hung out all the time, we went places and did things together. Aquarium of the pacific, Balboa Island, Dave & Busters, Disneyland and so much more. After Dave & Jenni got married and lived next to us we were more than just neighbors, we were close friends.

Our friend and handyman is leaving me! They are moving to a house, yeah I know, good for them. But sad for us! Losing Dave is sad, but for me, losing Jenni is worse! No longer will I have a friend just downstairs to run to when I get upset, or borrow oil as I bake a last minute cake at 9:00 at night, or to stop by just to say hi after work before I go upstairs, or have someone check my mail when I am out of town. Just a couple weeks ago Jenni called me to say "your baby has been screaming for an hour and a half, do you want me to take him so you can have a break?" She then watched my screaming, teething child for two hours as I got my house clean and went to the grocery store. Have a close friend is good, but having one as a neighbor is wonderful! Jenni tells me that they only moved a couple miles away and it wont change much, but I am sad to see my friend leave. I know I am being selfish by wanting them to stay next door forever, but for the past 3 ½ years, that is where she has been. Good luck in your new house Jenni & Dave, I really am happy for you!

Full night of sleep!

Last night we actually got to sleep from 12:30 to 6:00 this morning without interruption! Brendan woke up at 12:30 last night, Scott changed his diaper but we knew he shouldn’t be hungry, he cried for about 15 minutes more and then went back to sleep! YAY! We went an entire night! I feel so rested! Here are a couple pictures of our good little sleeper!

5 months old

I started this post a few weeks ago, I finally was able to add some pictures and post it. This was his 5 month update, in a couple weeks he will be 6 months!

Beside the sickness, Brendan's fifth month has been going really well, he is developing amazingly! At this point he rolls over with ease from him back to his tummy and then back and all across the floor. He is handling tummy-time more than before although he still doesn't like it as much as on his back. But while on his tummy he can scoot in circles on the floor.

We started Rice Cereal on December 12th. He is starting to get the hang of eating with a spoon, but a lot still comes out with each bite. He is much more interested in the spoon itself than the food on it. He is sitting up really well, pretty much with assistance but he sat by himself the other day watching Daddy play on the Wii for about 3 minutes straight (I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is a big deal to us!) He is hitting all the proper development milestones on time if not sooner. a couple weeks ago we watched a sample video of Baby Einstein. He really enjoyed the color and movement on the screen.

My favorite is Brendan's facial expressions. he puckers his lips and sticks out his tongue. The other day in Target he was laughing up a storm in target with Daddy! We love to make him laugh and see what funny faces he can make. Enjoy a few of the faces we were able to catch on film!