Did you know that Tomato Soup in Cup = Toddler Consumption? Who would have thunk it? Just call it juice. 😉
Bren has been coming up to me all day asking, “What dooooo?” Translation: What are you doing?” LOL.
Brendan is the proud owner of a bike- A Kawasaki even. Too bad he can’t reach the peddles. I give that about 6 months. He loves to Fred Flinstone it around but that took awhile. At first he refused to sit on it- he’d just wheel it around from in front of the handlebars. LOL.
Brendan’s birthday party is set for the 13th. That’s less than 2 weeks away. Yikes!! I have all the themed stuff (cars) but need to plan the food, make or buy invitations and get them sent out quickly. My little boy is growing up so fast!

Bren says “there you go” and “choo choo train” now. He says things like “Oh, no. Where is it? Where did it go? [palms up & outward] Oh! There it is!” It’s too cute. He’s stringing his sentences together.
He has a few sheets of Bob the Builder temporary tattoos. He loves the pictures and marvels when one gets put on his hand but then he wants it off! He’ll shake his hand, say “Oh, no!” and even sometimes hit me; he gets so mad. LOL.
Mommy kisses now have magic healing properties. He is continually bringing me a finger to kiss. I love it- it’s a toddler moment I really looked forward to.
I think he might just about be done with a 3 week long sicki-ness.

of the explosive kind. On my bed. Everywhere. Thanks, son.
I posted about a simple puzzle I made Brendan a few posts ago. DH finally brought home the printed copy. He matched each differently colored car to it’s twin perfectly. 😀 So cool.
Also, Brendan has mastered jumping- yay! It took awhile for him to actually get off of the ground, he’s been practicing for months.

Mr. Bear came out of the wash totally unscathed. He is squeaky clean, and miraculously, his music box still works. I can’t believe it. The whole venture had me desperately worried that it was going to go the way of the swing seat cover. Don’t ask. 😉

Bren and I had a great time visiting his grandparents. He got to run wild and I got to go shopping and go to the casino. We also went to see Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. Brendan LOVED it!! Good thing the theater was practically empty because he was voicing his opinions all the way through (ahem, loudly):
“Yeah!”
“Ohhhh Noooo!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“WOW!”
He was captivated! LOL. This was his first movie without a carseat (my trick to successful infant/ toddler movie-going). He was pretty good. I had forgotten that the seats need weight to hold them down so Bren had to perch on the end with the diaper bag wedged behind him. He sat there for 1/2 the movie then moved onto my lap. Near the end he sat on the steps right on the other side of my chair. He did get up and explore the empty row in front of us once and he did run down the steps once but all in all he was fine. I will bring the carseat again next time- he’s not ready to sit through a whole movie yet.
While up there, my MIL and I learned how to make low calorie hard candies and lollipops. We used a kit that was made up of Isomalt and Splenda. If I had to guess, I’d say it was 5 oz. Splenda and 15 oz Isomalt. You add 1/2 cup water and mix til dissolved. Then you don’t stir it anymore and heat the mixture to exactly 320. You removed and cool about 10 minutes, add food coloring and 1 teaspoon of candy flavoring, stir, and immediately poor into Pammed molds or onto a Pammed cookie sheet. They came out excellent. Except for the fact that the kit was $16 (gulp!), I was really pleased. So, trial 1 complete for the morning sickness candies I plan on making. My next try will contain pureed ginger root. They’ll be lower calorie if I can find the Isomalt at Sun Harvest or somewhere else local.
Brendan says two more cute things- “pickle” & “See you”. We were leaving out the door to go home in the wee hours of the morning, Bren was asleep on my shoulder. I was saying bye to my MIL and he lifts his head up groggily and says “Bye. Seeeeee you!” and waved groggily. My MIL went back in the house and bawled. LOL. 😉
Well, my biological timebomb is ticking louder. I was messing around on the net and found out that San Antonio has at least 2 midwives now and that they both do waterbirths!! One of my top ten things I want to do in my life is have a completely drug-free waterbirth. I am excited! Darrell asked the Benefits lady at his work if midwives are covered by our insurance and this was her reply:
“Our plan does cover midwife as long as care is under the full-time supervision of a physician and either a registered nurse or a licensed nurse-midwife; and have a written agreement with a Hospital in the same locality for immediate acceptance of patients who develop complications or require pre-or post-delivery confinement.”
I’ll have to find out about the physician and the hospital when I go see one of them when I get pregnant. But the cost is only just over $2000 without insurance- that includes all appointments, delivery, post-baby appointments, the works. Seems pretty cheap for a dream.
I was surprised to find out that Darrell told our roommate about trying to conceive another baby in October. It makes it all more real. I am so excited!!!

…DH will play! Jen and Bren are visiting my parents while I have to work (yuck), so just for fun I’ve added some new pictures to the BrenBox at the top right of the main page. Each one has a little description if you hover your mouse over it too! Refresh and Enjoy!!! -DH 🙂

Last night I brought out a puzzle that we hadn’t played with in awhile. It is the perfect beginner’s puzzle because all the pieces are identical circles. That’s great for toddlers who try to shove a piece into a hole and it doesn’t fit immediately and then promptly throws the piece across the room or at you in frustration. Bren, up until recently, was that way. Now he can move the pieces around a bit til they fit. He’s been doing that for a month or more.
Anyway… these circle pieces fit easily and perfectly every time. The challenge of the puzzle is to match up the colors- red to the red spot, green to green, etc. I don’t know what clicked or when it did but Bren was obviously attempting to match up the like colors. And he did so well! He definitely has red down pat and he definitely mixes up pink and orange. I was impressed. But I certainly can’t take credit for teaching him “matching”. I really would like to know what series of events led him to understanding the concept!
I went on to make Brendan a simple colored cars puzzle on the computer. But DOH! our color ink is out. DH promised to print it at work. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Bren says chips now- he pronounces it “ships” though. Apparently almonds belong in the chips group as well. LOL.

Last night, the 3 of us were doing our standard night time ritual of brushing teeth, getting pajama-ed, reading books, etc. when Brendan suddenly ups and leaves our bedroom. Occassionally he will leave where we are and close the door and then immediately open it back up to see if we missed him. He loves doors and the fact that he can open and close them. So Darrell and I didn’t really think about it for a minute or two. When we realized that he had really left, DH wet to search him out. To our astonishment, he had gone to the other side of the house, opened the door to Mia’s room (an off-limits room to him) and climbed into the crib in which she was sleeping!!! DH just happened to hear Mia let out a confused whine and saw that her door was open. He poked his head in the room and there were two toddlers sitting in the crib! We had a good laugh. The kook.
The countdown to TTC #2 is going pretty swiftly- we have less than 8 months wait left before I have health insurance again. I wrote my RE a letter letting them know we moved and to ask for a status report on our 5 vials of semen that they have in storage. That was a month ago. I am a bit peeved that they haven’t responded and a bit addled with the possibility that they destroyed them or something. So I am biting my nails. If something has happened to them, then we have to buy more (WAY expensive) and have to deal with the possibility of not getting the same donor as Brendan had.
Besides these potential problems, I am very excited to try for another child. Brendan is just the greatest and I really would love to experience a baby again. I can hardly remember when he was a newborn. I am ready to be pregnant, even with horrendous morning sickness that did NOT go away when the 1st trimester ended. I am ready to tackle a VBAC. I am ready to conquer breastfeeding. I am crazy-ready to turn 3 into four.

We drove to Austin on Sunday to take part in an Alton Brown book signing. He’s the host of one of my favorite shows of all time, Good Eats. His books follow the very same humor, popular culture and history as his show and I love them so it was a real treat to meet him and get his autograph in my books. We were even treated to an hour long talk plus a nearby school of cooking prepared items from his latest book for the audience to try. It was super crowded and took up our entire day but lots of fun. Alton Brown is just so funny.

Some interesting Bren-bits from the past few days:
Bren said “Here we go” when an exercise dvd started and “Wait! Wait! Wait!” when I was going out the door. I was so surprised. He also has a mini bottle of bubbles that he got from the opening of a water exihbit at our Children’s meseum. On the cap is a brightly colored fish. He calls them his “fishy bubbles.” 🙂
I also taught Bren and Mia “Ring around the Rosies” today. It was fun and quite a workout! Brendan doesn’t always join in (he beats to his own drummer quite often) and Mia doesn’t always fall down. LOL. What a pair! If you sing the song he’ll spin around and fall down all on his own.