Teething Baby

I posted on Brendan's 8th month update that he got his first tooth this past weekend. Even though the tooth finally broke through, Brendan was still unhappy and extra clingy. Yesterday evening I noticed that a second tooth came through right next to the first. Here is my attempt to get a picture of the tooth, sorry, no video Dad. Poor baby, I know it must be really painful!













I know the teeth are hard to see, but if you click on the photo it should make it big and you can see the teeth then.

Irish Dinner

Last night I had my Traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner for the girls. We had 6 girls and three kids at dinner. I thought the evening was wonderful! This was my 5th year cooking this dinner for the girls. Although it is not the "Traditional" dinner my parents make, I don't have time to spend hours in the kitchen, so I have improvised my meal a bit. My Parents still makes their dinner every year.

Before leaving for work, I put my Corned-beef (frozen) into the crock pot with a few cups of water, set it to 10 hours low, and left for work. Because I live so close to where I work, I was able to come home at lunch and add the golden potatoes (I like the taste better than red potatoes) and carrots to the crock pot. After work, I came home to finish the meal, although most of the meal was already done, sitting in the crock-pot waiting for me. My sister helped me with the asparagus (instead of the mint peas (not minced) my mother makes), we boiled some cabbage in the juice from the corned beef, and I went to work making the Girl Scout Thin Mint brownies they were really good. I had purchased some Potato rolls that were in a bread basket on the table (since I didn't have time to make the Irish Soda Bread) and with the pear jello made the night before, dinner was a snap!

Sorry, no pictures of dinner, but I did get a video of the kids playing afterwards. The video is mostly of my son...but what do you expect? :) Pictures of the kids together can be found on Tawni's blog.

Wee bit o'Irish

Here is Brendan's first St. Patricks day. It was a busy morning so I will get more pictures tonight at our party. Please excuse the hand in the mouth, he is teething like crazy and his thumb is an attachment to his mouth as of late. It is a rare piture to get without the hand in the mouth. Enjoy!

Pear Jell-o

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Growing up, St. Patrick's Day was always a big deal. I ALWAYS wore green to School. My mother would try to make the day fun for us, she would pack green food in our lunch with mint cookies, I remember one morning we had green malt-o-meal for breakfast and maybe even green milk! She always wanted us to enjoy the holidays. Every year we had our traditional big St. Patrick's Day dinner with everything included: Corn beef, cabbage, potatoes, minced peas (gross!), key-lime pie, Irish Soda Bread and pear jell-o.

Pear Jell-o? What is Irish about that? I have no idea! But it is a tradition in our house, and it seems to be spreading. My first year of working at my job, I suggested that we have a "party" on St. Patrick's Day and all bring goodies. (Our office is always looking for an excuse to party.) That year I brought my "traditional" pear Jell-o and they were a huge hit! From then on, Jen in my office makes me bring them every year, and every year we have a party. This will be my 4th year bringing my "Famous Pear Jell-o" to work.
They are actually very simple to make, but somehow I always wait until the last minute to make them and stay up until 11:00 at night to finish them. In the center of the pear is a cream cheese mixture with powdered sugar and walnuts covered with Lime Jell-o. Considering half of the Staff is new this year, we will have to see how well they go over.

8 Months & new Teeth!

Well Brendan turned 8 months this weekend, maybe it was because February was a short month but I feel like I just wrote his 7 month post. But in one short month, Brendan has been developing like crazy! We started the 7th month with him just really mastering crawling, now he is all over the house, following me around back and forth through our hallway. He has learned to pull himself to a standing position and now can move around the coffee table while standing.

This weekend has not been fun for us though. Brendan's first tooth came through on Friday. Finally! He has been drooling and chewing on his fingers like crazy for months now and one finally broke through. I htink another one is not far behind because he is still miserable!

I just love that picture even though he looks so pathetic! Now that Brendan has been sitting up so well, and NEVER stops moving, he doesn't fit in our baby tub any more (and hasn't for a while). So now Brendan gets to bathe in the Big-boy tub. He loves his rubber duckies. Even though he has about 8 of them in the tub with him, he always wants the one just out of reach! It is so cute how he tries to pick them all all up at once! And of course, Rubber Duckies taste WONDERFUL!We are very excited for Brendan as he learns new things. As he gets older, we become more and more tired at the end of the day! I hope teething passes soon! Until then, I rely on his cuteness to get me by!

Child Care

Leaving your child in someone else's care for 45 hours a week can be very difficult on a mother's heart. During the day, my mind sometimes will wander...thinking about my baby being cared for by someone we picked out off of a list of local certified child-care providers. Is he being loved enough? Is he getting cared for like I would care for him? Is he happy? Does she play with him enough? Is he safe? Sometimes I just worry that he is not getting the care that I had hoped for because of the cheap rate we found. Sometimes I just wonder...

Today, I took Brendan inside to see Marion. She walked over to him, arms open wide, with a big smile and he shrieked with excitement and started jumping around in my arms at the possibilities of today. My heart feels better.

Keys to Mommy's Heart!

My friend Tawni saw this at Wal-mart and thought it was perfect, so she bought me (Brendan) one. I just LOVE this shirt - it is perfect isn't it??

If you can't read it, the shirt says "I've got the keys to mommy's heart" Thank you Tawni!