Whiny, cuddly, running outdoor boy with a new house

My gosh, where to begin? So much has happened in the last 2+ months! Brendan is 14 1/2 months old now! WOW! And we’ve spent most of April and May moving and buying a house! The closing date got pushed back a month but finally happened on May 21. It was sooo much work and we still have lots to do but we are loving it! My friend Nico and her family moved in with us!
Brendan got his first 2 molars on the top on each side. He learned to say “cracker” from Mia and also says “Hi, Dada”, “thank you” and “tickle, tickle”. He naps for 1 ½ hours once a day, typically, but still falls asleep easily in his carseat. He wears size 4 pampers and is busting out of a few of his 24 months onesies, but separate shirts and bottoms fit fine.
He loves meats and fruits mostly, especially those new pudding cup “Smoothies”. He drinks 3 sippies of milk plus one of water or juice daily- well, I think so anyway. With Mia the Guzzler around it is hard to tell. LOL. Case in point, she just knocked her empty sippy onto the desk at my elbow and gave a good bellow. Her meaning is clear!
We spent a day at Sea World a few weeks ago and Brendan went on a baby carousel, a spin the cars while spinning ride and loved a sort of moonwalk bouncy room filled with giant canvas-covered foam blocks. He loved the bouncy area and the spinning, but didn’t know what to think of going up in the air. His passion in life right now seems to be going outside and playing in our backyard. He *adores* water and loves to carry the hose around. He has a little pool that they swim in too. He loves to scrounge for rocks also. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been outside four hours, he ALWAYS cries when it is time to come in.
The most frustrating thing about this time is the whining and tantrums. My goodness can he holler now! But he is full of cuddles and will *RUN* (having learned to walk at 12 1/2 months) towards you for a hug if you’ve been gone and say “hiiiiii!” in the sweetest voice. We are loving that! He still says “awwww” when we hug and he often pats my shoulder like I pat his back. DH was thrilled one night when Brendan was cuddling with us in bed and Brendan rubbed his shoulder tenderly.
I put together and painted his new Bob the Builder room and sewed Bob curtains. I love the curtains! The paint came out a little dark and we had to use Elmer’s glue so the border would stay up, but it came out pretty good. What makes me mad is that we spent $200 on a put-it-together bedroom set and both the dresser AND the headboard fell apart as soon as we got them together. I hate cheap crap! Argh!
Brendan has learned a cute trick. I was eating a baggie of pretzel mix last night when Brendan came over, so I picked him out a pretzel and it happened to be a small circle. I told him to stick out his finger- and showed him how- and then stuck the pretzel on it like a ring. He was thrilled and now comes over with his finger pointed for more! LOL.
Starting to think more and more about TTC #2. I think maybe I’ll try Hypnobabies- a hypnobirthing system for managing pain while in labor. I desperately want to try a VBAC and my OB sounds like she is fine with that. I know a lot of OBs don’t do them anymore because of the risk of uterine rupture but I feel I healed quite nicely. I hope my next child takes to the breast better than Bren did as well. I know better what I am going into with #2 so hopefully I won’t be so overwhelmed in those first few weeks. If we just had the money…. We live near a Babies R Us now and I whisper “soon…” to it every time we drive by. Am I nuts or what?! LOL.