Last night I put some DVDs away on the bookshelf and saw the Baby Einstein DVDs. Brendan loved those, even when he was a baby! I put the 2 we own that are appropriate for the youngest babies on our table as a reminder.
This morning Andy would not be happy, even in my arms. My eyes ran over the waiting DVDs on a trip through the kitchen– BINGO!
Andy is in the front room strapped down and glued to the tube. I can see his feet wiggling.
Sanity returns. If he stays there 10 minutes more he may just make up for getting up early!
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Sentence of the week for Brendan- “Are you happy?” Whether you are happy or sad is important to him now. 🙂
Word of the day- “sizzle”. LOL. We’ve come a long way, baby!
*****
Lizzy- It’s called an animated gif. It IS a series of photos linked together. I used a program called Animation Shop. If you want one, email me a few photos and I’ll link ’em together for you. You can use it as your signature if our board ever returns from the dead.

Andy’s latest achievements:



Andy got his 4 month shots (soap box: If you don’t have insurance/ have worthless insurance, go to your local health clinic- it is sooo much cheaper and in some places free) about a week and a half ago and weighed 17 pounds 8 ounces. Yay for breastfeeding!
He ate his first Z toast a week ago and loved it.
He had his first tears a few days ago.
His eyes are still ocean-y blue and his hair has grown out enough to look buzz cut. He still fits in many 6-9 month clothes but he’s looking fatter. I predict a growth spurt soon.
Brendan’s latest and greatest:

Here’s he’s working on dressing himself.
He has a renewed interest in www.starfall.com, letters and making words from them. Can’t say enough about that website. If you have a toddler, preschooler, kindergartener, 2nd grader… go there!
Asked the names of some of my ratherly private parts and I couldn’t bring myself to say “breasts” and “vagina” (I fail as a mother…). So I told him “boobie” and “privates”. He now thinks my hoo-haw is called “pirates”. Argh, matey!
Calls yogurt “ogre-t”. The Piston Cup in the Cars movie is the “Pissin’ Cup”. And my name is now Princess Mama Jen Hxxx. Awww, I like the princess. But he is still Brendan Potty Hxxx.
***
The past couple days have been hard. It’s chilly. They’re whiny. Everyone has a runny nose and I suspect raw throats as well. Low on energy too. I found out that yesterday was “Blue Monday”- the day of the year when the most people are depressed. Does that make today “Ruby Tuesday”??? 😀 Seriously, I sent DH to the grocery store for stuff to make cupcakes last night. I ate three in 5 minutes. So much for eating more whole grains and cutting back on sugar. Yum!!
The house is getting straightened up and more organized all the time. It’s slow going though. I gotta carefully balance cleaning with time for each of the boys and our Sims time. My brother sent us the complete line-up with every expansion pack for Christmas. We are playing it every chance we get!!

Lookit that slobber and them rolls of fat!!!

Lil Cutie Bear

Cold but Cool!

Andy sucks on his first cracker.

Pretty good for you and good! In fact, the only bread pudding I have ever liked. LOL. Bren ate 3 servings. I let him because he is sick, poor baby. I think this would make a terrific breakfast. Be sure to serve it warm!
This recipe is from Kraft, except I changed the 2 egg whites to 2 eggs. No sense in wasting the yolks. I also added a bit of vanilla.
Rustic Chocolate-Cinnamon Bread Pudding
1/2 block light cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t cinnamon
1 3/4 c skim milk
1/2 t vanilla
8 slices whole wheat bread, cubed
2 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (like Baker’s), coarsely chopped.
Preheat oven to 350. Beat cream cheese and sugar with a mixer. Add eggs and cinnamon and mix well. Gradually add in milk and vanilla until well blended.
Place bread cubes in bottom of a square 8×8 pan. Sprinkle chocolate over bread. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over bread. Bake 30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm.
1/8 of the pan has about 200 calories.

DH has been working very hard on the comments spamming I have been getting. Our plan is to have the newest 3 entries accept comments. A blog without comments is just a journal, right?! 😉

In celebration of “Delurking Week” (Jan 7-13), please leave a message! Questions, comments, topics, etc. are all welcome and appreciated! Can we beat last year’s number???
Update- ARGH… looks like comments aren’t working correctly. I’m working on it!
Update 2- Ok!!! Lay ’em on me!

Andy beat out 3 day old Brendan in the Sneezes Contest this morning. First place- 7 sneezes in a row!!! Haha. He tried his first few bites of a meat too- Apples and Chicken. He loved it. The small stage 1 foods are just not enough anymore- even mixed with cereal.
Bren solved his first “Blue’s Clues” riddle (that I know of) today before they solved it on the show.
Clues:
UP
DARK SKY
FLASHING LIGHTS
FIREWORKS!!! YAY!!
I think AF and BF have been duking it out. I’ve been low on milk the last 2 days. I think it is coming back now though. Apparently I am very affected by hormonal changes. This seems to happen about once a month. I hope BF wins!!! LOL.
And I passed up my 2 year Blogiversary in November! Go me! 😀

Now that I have a minute to breathe, I have a minute to post something other than pictures…
Christmas was good. It is always nice to not be responsible for much more than the care of my kids. The presents were fantastic. The in-laws always go all-out. I got a Kitchen Aid food processor and a Celphalon multi-pot (with veggie steamer and pasta inserts). DH got a new camera (Kodak Z710, we loooove it). Bren got a variety of toys and Andy got a few toys and a lot of diapers.
Bren’s musical repertoire includes 3 carols now- Jingle Bells from last year plus I’m Getting Nothing for Christmas and Feliz Navidad and a line or two from We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
He has become Mr. Silly lately, especially with his obsession with people’s names. He’ll ask me my name and I’ll tell him and he’ll invariably argue about it and tell me my first name is Sebastian (a la Little Mermaid) or it is Mom, not Jen. He calls DH Darrell instead of Daddy cuz it gets his goat. His own name is Brendan “Potty” Hxxxx. Love that middle name. LOL. And for some reason he calls a bottle of water a “Dega Seca Doo Dad Water”. Haha.
As for Andy, he now gives kisses. He is delightfully ticklish along his sides too. He mostly nurses to sleep (though he can be bounced to sleep on a knee) but when you put him down he needs to hold the edge of a blankie to replace my shirt and a pacifier to replace me before he’ll settle down. Don’t take too long getting these either! 😉 He is totally a pacifier baby now.
He is just now starting stage 2 baby food with fruit and veggie combos. I still mix them with either rice or oatmeal or on an odd day a spoonful of yogurt. He gets one meal in the afternoon and occassionally demands a few bites if he sees us eating supper. He loves eating and seems to enjoy just about everything right now.
He is really growing and some of his 6-9 month sleepers are getting small. It seems like we just started this size!!! He wears size 3 pampers but often blows out of them. Yuck. THAT is a disadvantage of breastfeeding. Oh, and he drools incessantly.

I’d kill for a tall frozen fruity alcoholic something or other… but I’ll settle for good mongolian barbeque. This time. 😉 Happy New Year!



Oh yeah… almost forgot those pesky resolutions…
#1 Lose 40 pounds… had to have a weight loss goal! It’s tradition!
#2 Organize my house so it doesn’t look cluttered all the time and everything has it’s place to go. And keep it that way.