These past 7 months have flown incredibly fast.  Is it true, that my little guy is 7 months already?  A couple days ago, a new tooth sprouted.  How is it that he already has 7 teeth?  Elden’s favorite activity right now is standing.  He will pull himself up to standing position, squeal with laughter, and then steady himself, let go, and fall right down onto his behind, then immediately pick himself right back up to standing position.  He eats solids 3 times a day now. I think he prefers green beans over sweet peas, but his favorite right now is probably rice.  He has eaten most of the vegetables and fruits from stage 1. He also eats gerber banana fruit puffs.  I am not sure if I should start him on the stage 2 foods.  I realize that this standing business that he has been getting into is kind of early. The first picture that I have of Brennan standing was at 9 months, and it looked like that he only had 4 teeth. At least, that is what I see in the photos.  I am sure that I recorded all those important moments on my blog somewhere. 

Speaking of Brennan, Thursday was the first night that he slept with his underwears on.  We ran out of pullups, and told him this is it, no more pullups to bed.  Of course, he peed on the bed on Thursday and Friday night.  I guess, I will have make sure to wake him a little earlier to take him to the bathroom. He essentially holds it all in, until he wakes up, and then just let’s it all go.  Lately, he has been coming to our bed around 3 of 4, which he did, both on Thursday and Friday. 

What else.  Elden does have sensitive skin, particularly on his cheeks.  He will break out, if I don’t consistently apply Eucerin on him.  I think when food or if his has a runny nose, or something else gets on his skin, he will break out.  It looks pretty clear right now, so hopefully he will outgrow this stage.  So ya, he is growing way too fast for me. I hardly remember what he was like as a newborn.  Oh, so we have the crib in our room now and that seems to work, although, he does end up in our bed sometime around 4.  He usually has two naps, although today he had a strange schedule.  Both Brennan and Elden woke up this morning at 7, which I certainly was not ready for. Elden went down for a brief nap around 10, or maybe a little earlier. Around 11, like a good boy Brennan woke him up.  We went to Fun class around 11:15, then Elden fell asleep in the car around 1:00.  He slept for about 2 hours or maybe more, while we went over for a playdate at someone’s house.  Then we got home around 5.  Both him and me took a nap until 8.  Then I put him back down to sleep around 11.  I actually was able to pat him down to sleep.  It did take some time though.  He made noises and kicked around, but fell asleep to me singing.  But then he awoke again around 1 a.m..  I ended breastfeeding him, although, I had stuffed him with a bowl of rice cereal, a few of tose gerber puffs, and tried to stuff him more with some peaches mixed with rice cereal. 

I wanted to share a few pictures that Brennan took on our walk a few days ago at the beach.  He tooks 70 photos. A dozen of them were of my big ass, which I was not too happy to see.  It was interesting to see his perspectives.  He really has an interest in taking pictures of everything, so I allowed him to use my little Elph, while I took pictures with my big Nikon.  They up in Flickr.

Okay, gotta run, it’s 3:14 a.m and I still need to load the dishes into the dishwasher and then grab a few hours of sleep before the next day comes along.

I can’t believe that I worked on 4 scrap layouts at the same time.  I usually just do one layout and then work on it, until I can’t do anything more to it.  I stayed up until 7:00 a.m. on Friday scrapping.  I had the TV off, IM off, and refrained myself from surfing the net.  My scrapping goal for 2006, was really only to do one layout a week, but I definitely exceeded that this weekend.  Now if only I could finish them.  I don’t know if I will be able to finish them until later because I have all this school stuff that I need to work on for our gum database.  Right now, I am printing out an article on titled, “Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information” and trying to search for other articles on Wilson Web’s article search.

Brennan had his 3 year appt. on Friday. He weighed 32 pounds and measured 37 1/2 meters (I think that is the right measurement).  I seem to have misplaced the paper that they wrote his measurements on.  The Dr. asked me to stay outside with Elden, and have Den go in with him.  She said that Brennan would probably cooperate better if mom was outside. That really sucked because I was really looking forward to being in there when he had his eyes tested, etc.  I can understand because when we went to the Dr’s last week when he was sick, he just laid on the table in a fetal position crying for Daddy for about 15 minutes.  So I guess that was why she decided to have me outside.  He had his eyes checked.  He stood away from this eye chart and had to name all the little pictograms that he saw on the lines.  He also had to pee in the cup, which we was so thrilled to do.  He came out to tell me what he did.  I thought that was so cute.  They checked his ears, mouths, eyes, pushed on his tummy, and his little guy.  They pricked his finger.  I forgot ask what they check for.  He also had a hepatitas A shot.  Dr. doctor said that he looked great.  Also, she mentioned that the growth pattern between 3 and 4 goes up and down weekly.  So we will seeing a lot of growth spurts this year.  Also, she said that the weight gain will slow down.  I am so excited to see how he grows. Also, his he will be talking a lot more in sentences, which gosh he has been doing so much anyways.  Like for instance today, there is this 6 year old girl, that Brennan calls Ballerina, although her name is Marina, that sometimes he plays with.  She was knocking and knocking on the door for Brennan to come out and play.  I was ignoring it for the most part because if they end up playing, I would have to be the one to go out and watch them.  Her parents lets her play outside by herself.  Plus, she ends up wanting to play inside.  But anyways, she was telling Brennan to come out.  Brennan was responding and saying that he would be right out, but he has to put his clothes on.  And saying that he would be right there. Then she was telling him to open the door.  He was having a total conversation with her.  I was totally amazed.  Finally after about 20 minutes later, I told her that Brennan couldn’t play because we were going to have dinner soon.  But ya, Brennan is totally growing in so many ways, that I can’t believe it. 

I am still trying to figure out Elden’s nighttime routine.  His naps have been fairly consistant, but I am still figuring when he is ready to go down for the night.  I want to be more consistent with making sure he gets his two naps, have him go to sleep at 8:00, and not have him constantly attached to me throughout the night, like Brennan was.  At the beginning, he was pretty much easy going.  He only wakes up like twice a night, which is great. 

We finally moved Elden’s crib into our room, out of Brennan’s room.  Den had to take it apart because it didn’t quite fit through the door.  I had heard from someone a while back that if you removed the door, the crib would fit perfectly. Unfortunately one of the bolts would not come loose, so that idea was nixed. It’s stupid because the crib is only a tinny bit bigger in width than the door opening. So then Den searched high and low for that stupid tool that you have to use to take the crib apart.  Why couldn’t they have attached the crib with screws?  Anyways, we had more than a dozen of those things.  He did find it, and then was able to quickly take the pieces off.  I did try putting Elden down to sleep at 8:00, but he kept waking up after I put him in the crib and crying.  So I took him downstairs and fed him some cereal then tried breastfeediing while I went on a couple messageboards.  Then we when back up and he still woke up.  Finally, around 10:00, Den turned out the light and then Elden fell asleep.  I know he didn’t fall asleep because of of the light being out.  I did that earlier. Maybe it was because we were all in bed.  I do try to put him down to sleep around 8:00, when Brennan goes bed, but he is never ready.  So I am not sure what is up with that. 

I think I will print out one more article.  I think I can only read three tomorrow, since I will be crunched for time.  I am meeting my group tomorrow before class starts, so we can starting building our database and figure out our rules, and look over our Statement of Purpose. 

I also want to see if I can complete my 4 layouts tonight, so that I don’t leave them hanging. Next week, I need to finish a CJ, complete my rolodex cards for the swap I am hosting, and work on layouts for two DT’s that I am planning to enter. I am thinking of entering my belly cast, so I need to work on that right aw I need to look up their due dates, but I think they are in early March. 

Whew, this ended up being long.  It’s midnight now, and I am debating whether or not to finish my layouts. I guess I can stay up for another hour and a half. 

Brennan quickly got over roto-virus.  Thank goodness, he didn’t puke at all.  The Dr. suggested that we keep him away from other kids, so we stayed home today.  Well, okay, we stayed home for most of the day. All of the pictures are from Wednesday, except the breadcrumbs one. I think tomorrow I will take them for a walk on the beach, with Elden in the Ergo, and Brennan in the jogger.  I really need some exercise. I have been feeling very unhealthy lately.  I haven’t been doing any form of exercise in the past few weeks, since class started.  I managed to do some writing and a little bit of reading.  I am already so behind in my reading.  But it is really hard to do.

I did take them to the mall because I wanted to go to the candy store and buy some gum for the gum database we are building in my class. Weird huh. Well, it was even weirder because our original db was going to be on paper clips.  But we axed that idea.  Too complex. Well anwyays, this was a little peek into our day.  There should be a picture of me scrapping, but alas, I haven’t gotten to do any scrapbooking since last week.  Well I did make V-card for Den, but that is about it.

 
This is what Elden has been doing the past few days. He is very determined to stand up. I just don’t understand why he wants to stand so early. But whenever he is up, he gets very excited and drools everywhere. It is so cute.

So this freestand lasted about a quick second until he plopped right down onto his butt. But then he went right back up again.

 

Brennan was back to same ole shinnangins today, obviously feeling a lot better.  He dumped open two boxes of carbonated water.

  He watched the purple guy for about 10 minutes with quite intensity.  It is usually all about Dora and Diego, but Brennan was cool with it.

This was his dinner the second night he was sick. Which was about 5 pieces of bread. He threw them through the hole of the highchair. 

 Here is a picture of Elden sleeping in the cranberry Ergo, during his early afternoon nap.  I’m able to do dishes and homework on the computer.  I could do more housework wearing him, but yes I do admit I am lazy.  Although, I did do the laundry wearing him the day before.  So I am working for it. 

This is the first time that Brennan caught a weird stomach bug.  He has been feeling bad since Sunday.  The last time he had any contact with other kids was on Thursday.  Friday I went to the dentist, but I can’t imagine him catching anything there.  Saturday we were home all day, and the Sunday morning was when he started feeling bad.  Monday the boys were at Granny’s and Brennan was pretty inactive there.  He maybe played a little bit, my mom said.  He has a Dr’s appt. later today, but he still feels yucky.  He went to the bathroom once.  It seems like he tries to hold it in because he complains about his tummy and butt hurting, but he won’t go to the bathroom.  Today all he ate was some rice porridge and a little bit of a cheese quesadilla on corn tortilla. 

Now Elden has a runny nose that he caught from Brennan, who had it last week.  Or he may have caught it from me.  I just can’t tell if I have a cold or allergy because I think the pollen count it pretty high.  He is still really active, which is good.  I don’t think I could handle two really sick kids.  Right now, Elden is sleeping on my back and Brennan is sleeping in his bed.  I have tons of laundry to do, and I really need a shower.  Oh well!  I guess I should eat some lunch. 

 

The little guy just got 2 more teeth, bring the total to 6.  The top left canine came in yesterday, and the lower left next to the front teeth popped its head today.  He was sucking on a plastic hotdog yesterday, all day long and drooling.  I should probably give him a cold rag or something.  Poor kid.  Thankfully, his teething pain doesn’t last too long. 

As I mentioned, in an earlier post, Elden is starting to pull himself up to standing position. But he doesn’t stop there, he will push himself up and then first let go with one hand and then when he thinks that he steady, he lets go of the other hand.  Too bad his butt brings him right back down.  I really have applaud him for trying to so hard.  Around this time, Brennan was rolling across the room, but I don’t think he quite had the crawling down.  Elden never did the rolling, but does crawl around fairly well.  I know at 8 or 9 months, Brennan was scaling across furniture, but maybe Elden will skip that part all together.  It is so exciting to see these developments. 

I think I would want one more child.  I love watching the changes of a baby.  I was telling that to Den the other night, and he was like, I don’t know about that.  Are you sure?  We still have lots of time to decide.  If we do have a third child, it wouldn’t be for a while anyways.

We have been feeding him about 3 meals of solid food, mostly the lighter foods colors.  It is so funny because I remember with Brennan I made tons of homemade food, but this time around, I am more carefree.  The jar is perfectly fine and it free of pestasides.  I am sure when I was making food with Brennan, that I doubt that I used organic food.  I am wondering when they start eating cheerios and baby bisquits. I probably should consult my baby books.  I read a lot with Brennan, but with the second kid, I hardly open a book. 

So finally, I got organizing and cleaning Brennan’s room.  I threw all the little random things in a big rubbermaid container and sorted through them.  I put all the cars in different crates, as well as little action figure toys that he has, and the train stuff in a different crate.  There are also containers for stuffed animals, big toys stuff, and also I organized his books on his bookshelf.  He actually commented on his bookshelf and thought it was nice.  Hopefully, he will keep it organized.  I want to also bring the crib into our room, so Elden can sleep in it one day.  Right now, it is in Brennan’s room and taking up much needed play space.  He has been playing in is room lately,which is kind of nice.  He used to never want to play in there. Instead of calling it his room, he calls it his office.  Sometimes, he will announce that he is going to his office to do work.  Funny kid.

I wanted to mention this incident before I close up my writing of the night and probably the week.  We all know how diffiicult it is to keep things clean and organized.  I know that I have to be more vigilant in about picking up some items and vacuuming the daily crumbs that land on the floor. I do try.  But apparently, I didn’t try hard enough because somehow Elden ended up choking on this little square piece of shrinky wrap paper that he found of the ground. Poor guy.  I have no clue how he found that piece.  I haven’t used shrinky wrap for a long time.  I felt so bad.  Well we patted him on the back, and somehow he was able to spit it up.  I am sure it hurt him because it was this square piece with pointy corners. Somehow, he manages to put about 2 or 3 little items into his mouth, whether it be a piece of cotton ball, gum wrapper, or crumb, he manages to get into his mouth.  I do to vacuum once a day, but heck I don’t know what happens.  5 minutes after I clean it, it gets messy again.

Well, that is about as much writing that I can muster to do tonight.  Brennan has President’s Day off tomorrow, so we will be heading out a little earlier. Den will be dropping me off at school around 11:30, and dropping the boys off at with grandma.  It will be a long day tomorrow. 

I am so thrilled and happy because I won a guest design team spot at Leaving-Memories.com.  If you read through the thread, you will see my layout that I entered. It was a layout from New Years 2004.

So for the whole month of March, I get to play with some of the new Basic Grey paper and their rubons and other cool stuff, and hang out with the amazing DT (Kathy, Gen, Heidi, Nicole, Jenny, April, Cathy, and Christina).  I think it is their new Urban Couture Line that was introduced at CHA a couple weeks ago.  I’m browsing through their website, but I can’t seem to find the rubons. I saw them on a blog or messageboard, and boy are they gorgeous.  Oh, and their ribbons look so yummy.  It is about time that they have ribbons.  I never did get why they sold fibers. 

I’ve really been inspired by Leaving-Memories.  The people are friendly and the designs are always so cutting edge. 

Well speaking of scrapbooking, currently I am working on a resolutions and goals layout. About time. It’s sitting pretty, all alone on my desk, just waiting for me ever so patiently.  A few goals for me scrapbookingwise is to do at least one scrap a week, get on a Design Team, and start submitting.  Well, maybe I will start submitting.  I am not feeling the vibe for publishing just quite yet.  Oh, and you believe it.  There are two scrapbooking expos this month, and I am not going to either of them.  Boo-hoo! 

I actually have so much to write, but no time for now.  We are going to eat pizza now. 

Everyday that passes by, I feel less and less the urge to write.  I am not a natural writer by any means, and I don’t write to entertain or write about controversial topics.  One thing that I do like to write about are the everchanging updates and milestones on my kids. The only problem is that I dread the actual writing part.