All that I can remember anyway. 😉
Andy can walk across a room now (starting Sept 28th- 13m1w)
I had a 13 day AF
My husband has $75 on his casino card because I accidently stuck his card in the machine, not mine. Figures I’d win.
I had a hornet sting me smack on the nose.
I had a huge spider crawl up my leg while shampooing my hair.
Andy was sick. MIL was sick. DH is now sick. Like really sick. I just know I’m next.
Andy now says book (“boo-uh”), Papa, ball, banana (“bah”), & puppies (“puh”).
He also refuses more bottles than not now. But he eats very well.
Andy has 2 more teeth (upper molars?) for a total of 10.
Brendan likes to play golf.
He calls Anthony “Uncle Anthony” now.
Speaking of Anthony- he has a girlfriend right now who has a 2 year old daughter. I hope he keeps her (sight unseen lol) because her age is perfect to be a playmate cousin with my kids and my MIL needs a grandaughter. Kinda takes me off the hook, lol.
He also sings this song from Avatar just like Uncle Iroh. It is uncanny.
Brendan travels very, very, very well. He is so good in the car. Andy, well…. not so much. At all.
Our car is flashing us odd combinations of brake warning lights- but only once in awhile.
I scored a Hooked on Phonics complete reading curriculum set for K, 1st & 2nd grades for a total of $30. Just K and 1st at Wal-Mart right now is $87!! Even better- I love it! We have been reviewing letters and sounds (I never really taught lowercase) so far but I hope this helps Bren to learn how to string the letter sounds together into words.
Brendan is 4 1/2 now. I swear that saying about how kids are at their worst behavior “on the halves” is SO TRUE. The kid does not listen.
But he sure can make me laugh!
Bren’s recipe (Spet 21):
“Level 1- Put breads.
Level 2- Put breads on hot dog.”
(He asked for a “hot dog sandwich” and I was taking too long getting around to making it so he was telling me how.)
Bren’s conversation with Mimi:
Mimi: These dogs are hungry all the time.
Bren: I’m a dog. I’m hungry all the time!” LOL!
He ain’t kidding either. He is always wanting something to eat.
According to Mimi’s measurements he is 3 ft 7 7/8ths inches (43 7/8 inches). I’ll have to compare that to his 4 year height. Before we left he was 46 1/2 pounds. I don’t want to know now. [update: he was 42 5/8 inches 6 months ago. He HAS grown!]
He also out of the blue started asking for cocoa. He must’ve got this from a cartoon since we call it hot chocolate. His first cup was heated chocolate milk with cool whip in a mug and he wants it all the time now. “I love cocoa!”
I have a million things to do. 10 days away is just too long. It is weird being home.

The watermelon and red grapes took nearly 24 hours to completely dry!
Watermelon- Unusual flavor but they were fun. They had a cooked taste but the texture was very similar to fruit leather.
Grapes- Great! Much better and juicier than store bought.
Applesauces- Cool! The fruit punch and cinnamon flavors turned out the best, probably because they were sweetened.
Strawberries- They totally rocked! Fabulous!
Grape Tomato halves- They also rocked! We ate them as a salad topping and we’ll be making more of them very soon!
The granola is 3/4 gone. LOL.

“The cost for family coverage has risen 78% since 2001, while wages have risen 19%”

The granola turned out pretty darn good! I might add more almond extract next time but there was just the right amount of cinnamon and sweetness. I really thought all that honey and brown sugar would be overpowering but it wasn’t in the least. The almonds in it are terrific. It took 9 hours to dry.
I started churning out some more stuff this morning. It was a great fruit week at the grocery store so my dehydrator is currently playing around with watermelon wedges, rainbow applesauces fruit leather (one tray = five 1/2 cup containers), strawberry halves sprinkled with Splenda, whole red grapes and grape tomato halves from the garden.
The watermelon is supposed to end up candy like- I am guessing like fruit leather. The applesauces I used were 2 orange colored fruit punches, 1 blueberry, 1 strawberry and one cinnamon. The book suggested chopping up the dried tomatoes for on salads.
*****
Here are some recent bits and dotes:
7/15 Brendan- “Andy hurt me on the finger. That was shark!!” (as opposed to “sharp”) LOL. Makes perfect sense though.
8/16 Andy is currently naked and very pleased with himself. He just took off his diaper. He also pulled out all the wipies. He’s been mimicking all the sounds he hears.
8/20- Bedtime advice from Brendan:
“Don’t eat the floor” (Bwahahaha- he meant off of it.)
“Don’t sleep in the ‘streep'”
“Call me if you need me”
8/29 Andy stood up from sitting on a step and took 2 steps to me. Wheee!
Bren has taken to calling little cups of water (that he gets for himself from the tub) his “tea”. Took me awhile but he gets that from Uncle Iroh in Avatar. He also often calls Anthony “Uncle Anthony” now. He really took a shine to the character!
8/30 Andy says “pat, pat, pat” and will pat you on your arm or back. I love it! He also says “hello”- especially when the phone starts ringing. 😀
9/2 Andy is scared of the vacuum cleaner. One of us has to hold him or take him out of the area. Tonight Darrell had set the vacuum cleaner down in the kitchen for a bit before bringing it all the way into the garage where we keep it. Totally unsuspecting it, Andy crawled through the door from the living room and around the corner into the kitchen. When he saw the vacuum he gave out a scream, raced back into the living room and shut the door behind him! We almost wet our pants it was so funny!
Andy was fascinated by me chewing gum and blowing bubbles. He kept moving his tongue around and tried so hard to do it too, giggling all the while. Bren still loves to pop my bubbles.
Andy is currently teething- he has at least 2 pointy bits on his gums, is uber-whiney and has weird mushy (and stinky) teething poopies.
9/5 Andy can pull the tops off of markers.
9/6- Andy screeches and wails when Bren and I do “school” work so I gave him some markers and put him in his high chair and he drew his 1st picture! It is hanging on his door now.
Bren identifies 2 of the same objects in a row easily but has trouble with locating the “different” object. Three sparate teachings and he still doesn’t understand.
9/9 Andy is really good at getting down off of the couch by himself now. He rolls onto his tummy and puts his feet first over the side.
*****
And the traditional 12 month in the washer pic…

And to compare… this is Brendan.

I’m making homemade granola today. Mmmmm! Gotta love the heart healthiness of oats! 😛 Here is my stock recipe + today’s changes.
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup melted butter (I used butter spread made with canola oil)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 t vanilla (today I used almond extract)
2 t cinnamon
1/2 c honey (I made 2 T of this butter pecan syrup)
1 c slivered almonds (6 oz container honey roasted almonds)
1 c dried fruit pieces (3 small grated granny smith apples)
18 oz container of rolled oats
Mix all the ingredients except the oats together. Stir in oats until coated. Spread onto racks. Dry at 145 degrees until crunchy. Crumble and store in an airtight container.

This is my favorite picture of my boys together. It amuses me to no end. 😀 After largely ignoring Andy in the beginning, Brendan sure is making up for it now. They are constantly playing together! I’ve suspected it for awhile, but now I am quite sure that we had Andy for Brendan. I am so glad they have each other. I love my boys!!

This pic of Brendan was the first picture I ever did in the “black & white with a colored object” style. I love doing these and I love how they turn out! 😀 One thing about them- the picture has to lend itself to this method. Many times I have taken pictures with the intent of doing this with them but they didn’t work out right.
We just bought our Christmas cards for this year- we got a fabulous deal on them at Big Lots. They are white frames that you slide a picture into and the border around the picture is silver snowflakes. They are perfect for black and white photos and I’m am trying to think of something the kids can each hold that I can leave in color. Something seasonal. Any ideas?

This is me getting my hair braided at one of the Mexican ports we stopped at during my grandparents’ 55th wedding anniversary cruise (Jan ’01). It was very similar to having my hair pulled back with a headband. Every braid had a pretty little jewel at the end and they lined up across the top of my head. I absolutely loved it!! It was very odd to wash my hair with it still braided. I didn’t make it but a few days before I pulled them out but I sure enjoyed having it done.