10 Month Update

This little boy is full of personality - as can be clearly seen from the pictures he took! It seems that time is starting to fly faster and faster - maybe because he keeps us busier and busier! Breck loves to fly through the air like he's superman (that's what he's doing in the picture on the left). He also dances all the time and even tries to sing - he has the cutest little voice. In this past month, he has definitely gotten the crawling thing down and NEVER STOPS! He's been wearing his daddy out as he takes lap after lap around the living room. In the past month, he has become more of a daddy's boy - partly because they are spending so much time together while I work summer school. Those two are so much alike. It's funny to see Breck's personality start to come out and notice how much it reminds me of my husband. As a side note - it is super cute to see us out and about and have so many people constantly comment how much he looks like his daddy. I know that warms his heart!

Breck is up in the air with his naps. He has days where he naps just like he always has, for two hours in the morning and afternoon. Then there are some days that he barely lays down for 30 minutes and he's up and into stuff again. For a couple of days last week, he skipped that afternoon nap altogether and just kept playing hard. Of course, he crashed hard earlier than usual as well.

Breck has discovered a whole new world of wonderfulness in food. On vacation, we really started branching out in what we were letting Breck try. Now, he eats any and everything - nutritious that is! He loves to gobble up mini eggo pancakes, potatoes - cubed or mashed, wheat bread (loves Grams' homemade bread), pizza, ravioli and sauce, fish sticks, hot dog, hamburger, Mexican food - just about anything but the chips and salsa from that menu!, sugar-free jello, baby goldfish crackers, and chicken nuggets. I think Mexican food and chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes are amongst his favorites. For a couple of days, he enjoyed chicken nuggets for lunch or dinner and then when he didn't get them the next day, Brian said he just cried and cried. When Breck went to get his 10-month pictures with Daddy, they went to the food court at the mall afterward. This is where Breck experienced the tastiness of Chick-fil-a for the first time. I think those nuggets just don't compare to McDonald's or the ones in the freezer section. For fruits and vegetables we have tried giving him pieces of the real deal but so far, he still likes the Gerber vegetable and fruit purees instead. He still gets mixed grain cereal or oatmeal as well so he is sure to get some good nutrients and minerals. We have been working on sippy cups in the past month too since the time is coming to a close very soon on breastfeeding. I'm thinking in the upcoming weeks, Breck will know only breastmilk from a bottle so that he can get past needing me. Our next step will then be to get him to not be so picky about his milk temperature. He likes his bottles really warm and that is going to be a difficult transition from warm Momma milk to cold cow's milk. In his sippy cup, he loves cold ice water. He gets such a big grin on his face when you give it to him like he realizes what a big boy he is. Now if only we can make the move from milk and snacks to milk with meals only and water with snacks...but that is this month's goal!

As far as playtime goes, Breck has continued to play hard every day. We will be in the living room and he will just take off down the hall to his playroom. He gets in there and will play for hours. Brian has cable added to his playroom and now we have whole-home DVR so we can record several of his favorite shows and watch them at any time. Breck's idea of a good day is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on in the background and toys at his disposal. We continue to swim quite often and I think that will remain one of Breck's favorite things about summer. We were going to go to Schlitterbahn and Sea World in July but Las Vegas taught us a valuable lesson - we have a small window of being outside in the sun at the pool. With that in mind, we have decided to scale back our San Antonio weekend and just go to Sea World this year. We look forward to this being one of those fun things we do every summer where Breck doesn't know it's coming but he just wakes up one morning and the car is packed and we hit the road. (Brian had a similar surprise day growing up where they would wake up and his parents would have their swimsuits on and the cooler packed. They knew it meant going to the water park - a once-a-summer treat.) The cool thing about going to Sea World is that they have a water park as well. This way we can see animals - which Breck loves to do - watch shows, go indoors at times to escape the sun and still get to swim! I think it will be a good compromise these first few years until we can really enjoy Schlitterbahn with him (one of my favorite childhood memories!).

As far as progress goes, in this past month, Breck has not only become a little speedster with his crawling, he has gained more confidence in standing up and "cruising." Cruising is the term they give to toddlers who will hold onto something as they take steps. Breck is definitely pulling up on everything and using it to get him from one thing to another. I think being around friends who are walking has motivated him to get a move on it. I am happy just to enjoy the stage we're in though. I'm pretty sure we'll never sit down again when he is able to just get up and run!

I have loved seeing how much he has changed and grown just in the past month happening during the summer. It definitely spoils you! And to know that by the time we go back to school he will almost be a year old is awesome!

First Father's Day

Brian enjoyed his first Father's Day last week. We were just getting back from vacation, so we spent it in a low-key manner - just the way he likes it! It is so heart-warming to see those two together. They both just light up. And I think Brian is enjoying the new bond they have since spending the whole day together every day while I'm at summer school. He's been saying Da-Da a lot more since Monday and sure wants his daddy all the time. Did I mention that multiple people have been commenting how much those two look alike? I think that warms his heart just a little bit. Think it's the matching haircuts?? ha ha... :)

Summer School

Oh summer school...how I have a love/hate relationship for you! Last summer, Brian and I both worked summer school for the first time. It's good money and the new system is all online so it's pretty easy. It worked out last summer since we weren't doing much of anything except waiting for lil B to arrive and with invitro, we could put the extra money to good use paying off those medical bills. When the spring rolled around this year, I was faced with the choice of working it again or not. We couldn't both work since we wanted Breck to enjoy the summer with us and not have to pay for daycare since we're teachers and home anyway. When it came down to it, Brian even said to not worry about it and enjoy the summer with our little boy, but since we do still have these lovely medical bills and our financial goal is to be debt free by the time Breck starts kindergarten (which will be lovely because we won't have to afford daycare then either!), it seemed the best thing to do would be to work summer school. It is only four weeks of four days a week. The sessions last from 6:45-2:45 (at first I thought I would only have to work until 11:30 which made it much easier to agree to since I wouldn't miss as much with Breck's morning nap in there). In the end, they needed me for three sessions (and thank goodness by day 2, they decided that sticking me in a math classroom was STUPID!! and moved me back to English where I belong!!). I will admit, I have been a little whiney about it this week. I just feel like I am missing out on so much fun with Breck during the day and it defeats the purpose of summers off! Granted, Brian has mentioned that it is a bit more work than he realized now that Breck is quite mobile and he has him for 8 hours straight but still I've been a bit sad this week - that is until my wonderful husband reminded me that we could use face time during the day. What a brilliant idea! It changed everything because I can do what is best for our family by working but I still get to see my little boy. Here he is just playing away while I watch.

Brian will turn the ipad around so that I can say hi to Breck and when he sees me, his little face just lights up and he says Momma over and over again. He will usually crawl as fast as possible toward the screen and just jabber away like he's telling me all about his day. After a while, Brian will turn the ipad around so that he no longer sees me but with the camera on the back, I can still watch him play. This is helpful because after a while he gets upset that he can't grab the screen and touch my face - I truly believe Breck will grow up thinking the only way you talk to people is with video as well! We connect during the breaks between sessions and although it's not long, it still helps me feel connected to them throughout the day. Wednesday, I watched Breck do craft time with Daddy and Crayola's wonderful invention of color wonders - perfect for little ones! Overall, I know that these few weeks are a good time for Brian and Breck to spend together too since football starts up way too soon (actually the Monday after summer school is over and then B and I will have four weeks with just the two of us before school starts).

Additional Vacation Pics

I finally downloaded some other pics from my camera and liked too many of them not to add them as well! Here we are getting ready to board the plane.

 Thank goodness for Mickey Mouse on the ipad!

 I made the boys some cute matching shirts!

 Breck was so cute when we saw Mickey Mouse. It was like he became starstruck and didn't know what to think. He just got this bashful look on his face and wouldn't make eye contact. The second we walked away, he looks back to Mickey and just babbles on and on like the trance finally ended and he was trying to tell him everything he had planned on saying. Too funny!

 Brian and I enjoyed our first date night out since Breck was born. I know, it's sad since he is already 9 1/2 months but when you work the schedules we do during the school year, just having the three of us together is such a treat that we couldn't dream of leaving B behind to go out. It was sweet of the grandparents to watch him - well actually put him to bed! - and then we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Nove. They closed the one in Dallas so it was perfect that they still have one on the 51st floor of the Palms hotel. It was great food and an amazing view. Afterward, we enjoyed a Bruno Mars concert. It was great! His opening act was horrible but the actual concert was a ton of fun. We had an awesome night out and even better, I think we were able to take stock of how amazingly our lives have changed and how very blessed we are. I am so grateful that after 12 years of marriage (our anniversary was just a few weeks ago), I can honestly say that my best friend from high school is an even better friend, an amazing father, a loving husband and a phenomenal man. What a blessed girl I am!

Vegas Baby!

We had such a great time on vacation! We were able to use our condo in Vegas for the first time and it was fabulous! You can see from one of the pictures below our view of the pool from our master bedroom. We have a 2 bedroom condo in the Planet Hollywood Westgate Towers but if we want, we can break it up and use the studio side one year and the one-bedroom suite the next. Since we were busy having lil B last year, we had the entire thing - sleeps 8! - to use up this year so we invited the Boydstuns along. It was a great time - had by all, I think! Since B wakes up at 6am on the dot here in Texas, it meant that at 4am, he was up and at 'em in Vegas. This killed most of my desire to do anything after 7 since I was so exhausted come 4! It shifted how we typically relax in Vegas but we had so much fun taking B out, that we didn't care. And Vegas is quiet, cool and just calm at 4 am so we definitely saw a different side than before.

Here we are in anticipation of Breck's first flight. We just wished the smiles had lasted! He was cranky on the plane and didn't want to take his nap, at least not willingly! In the last 20 minutes, our pilot decided to imitate a roller coaster. Poor B got so quiet and his eyes got wide then before we knew it, he was puking everywhere - mostly on Brian! We had another outfit for Breck ready to go but Brian wasn't so lucky :(

This is one of our early morning strolls. The fountains outside of the Bellagio make for a great picture!

Here's the view from our room I mentioned earlier.

Swimming turned out to be one of our favorite things to do - go figure in the desert! They had a shallow area so B loved crawling around in the pool.

Breck started eating everything in sight in Vegas - here he even couldn't resist the menu at the Sugar Factory - great name! and even better tasting food!! Breck tried all kinds of new foods for the first time - pancakes, potatoes, chicken, steamed veggies, fruit but his favorite all week was a croissant. Loves books and French cuisine - I just know he is my child!

 

We were so glad we brought his big stroller - it made taking him places so much easier and the shade it offered was great. Breck got to where he expected puffs in the little snack holder in the front and if it was empty, he would just keep swishing his hand around until we got the hint.    

We took bath time to a whole new level in the suite!

There's an aquarium in the Forum Shops at Casear's. We stayed there forever with Breck just watching the fish swim by. The sting ray was obsessed with B and wherever he was, the sting ray would swim over to him.

He wasn't diggin the hat, but I was!! So cute!!

Before we knew it, it was time to head back. We were a little apprehensive about the flight home (here he is ready to board) but it went fantastically well. He slept easily, played happily and everyone told us what a great little traveller he was. It was awesome.

We had such a great time on vacation!

9 Month Update

My boy is ALL OVER THE PLACE! Right after Easter, seriously it was the Monday after we returned, I get home from work and set Breck on the floor. Up to this point, we have been working with him to show him how much easier crawling would be if he would get on all fours instead of "army" crawling on his stomach and elbows everywhere, but he just collapses back to his tummy and takes off. Anyways, I set him on the floor, turn to set my own bags down and when I look over at him, he is on all fours and crawling for real - and fast! I instantly get my phone and shoot a short video so I can send it to Brian who was still at football practice because I know he wouldn't want to miss out on this historic moment. After getting some cute clips, I then get out the real camcorder for better footage. It was just one of those moments that you knew you would look back on with wonder. Since then, this little one seems to have sprouted up and is everywhere all the time. At his 9-month appointment, he measured 18 lbs. 9 oz. (a 2-pound increase since six months), and stretches out to 29" now (an inch and a half increase). Now that he is also pulling up on everything, people have commented a ton at how tall he is. He is in the 75% of his height but of course his lean build puts him in the 10% of what babies his age weigh. I believe that is due to genetics (my husband has always been long and lean), diet (I've been so grateful that everything has worked out well with breastfeeding because it truly seems like the perfect nutrition for him) and exercise (he is on the go constantly!). 

Poor Breck showed up with another ear infection at his doctor's appointment. We went to see the specialist but at that time he only had fluid in his ears and we felt surgery where Breck would be put under anesthesia was a bit premature. Now that he is showing another ear infection though, we will go back to the specialist in a month and see where we stand. I know a lot of people get tubes put in - especially with boys - but we want to make sure this is the best thing to do instead of the status quo. We know friends whose children are older and have had more ear infections than Breck and their doctors have said they should still wait. I would feel much better if Breck was facing a surgery when he was already over 1 year old. What's crazy about his ear infections is that we never know he has them! He doesn't spike a fever or scream in pain. He only occasionally grabs at his ears so it really doesn't upset him at all. Breck has had a fever some this month but that has to do more with cutting teeth like crazy! He now has four top teeth and it looks like his canines want to break through next. So, now that we are up to six teeth, I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with our lack of biting issues - and thank goodness! 

Matter of fact, as far as issues go, Breck has done a great job listening to instruction and then obeying. We don't have any problems with him going to objects he's not supposed to mess with. You can say no and he listens and responds accordingly by changing his path away from whatever you told him no about. He is still napping well - he takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and the afternoons. His bedtime has turned into closer to 7:30-8:00 p.m. now because he decides he's tired. He still wakes at 6 a.m. like clockwork though! 

Breck loves finger foods now. He will gobble up the puffs and has discovered the joy of cheerios. If you get the box out, he starts smiling ear to ear and clapping (a recently acquired skill). Oh and the boy now dances. It is hilarious. It looks like he is doing the sprinkler! For those that don't know what I'm talking about, he bends one arm at the elbow and puts it behind his head and his other arm is straight out - then he starts bobbing his head and pivoting that arm back and forth. It always makes us laugh. I'm going to try and get that on video next! He still loves all things Mickey Mouse and since his daddy surprised him with a Mickey Mouse doll one day that talks, he grabs it and giggles all the time. Breck still eats like a champ though he's had a few days where his love of cheerios and puffs overshadows his desire for real food. We discovered our stupidity of giving him a few puffs while we were getting his meal together and then watching him throw a fit and refuse to eat. Without snacks present, he magically devours the food without problem. He has accepted meats into his regimen but Breck seems to be more of a vegetarian - he gobbles up the fruit and vegetables but not so much with the meats. Since he's been eating cheerios, we figured he might want bites of food - so far he makes a weird face and moves the stuff around in his mouth, not really sure what to think. He did have a bit of hamburger the other night and liked it but didn't go for the hot dog the night before. Breck tried some sorbet the other day and absolutely loved it. People have been trying to sneak him snacks - unhealthy ones - and we have put our foot down on that. I know Breck will not live his life without junk food, nor do I want him to be deprived of that but I do think sweets should be in extreme moderation. There's tons of good stuff out there that isn't junk food! We're still wading through how to fight that battle - especially when it seems that every holiday or celebration is surrounded by candy and dessert. We don't want Breck to feel like he's deprived or missing out but I also don't want him to be like so many other kids I see who eat poorly...enough of that soapbox! We just know with the more foods he is starting to eat, the more that battle will have to be fought and I'm just trying to get a good idea of what balance to strike.

Breck talks all the time - still a lot of babbling - but he distinctly calls out Momma! He wasn't feeling well one weekend and even had to be picked up from school early. When I called Brian to check on him, all I heard in the background was my crying baby and Momma being said over and over. Brian said he had been doing that for hours. It just broke my heart because I couldn't get home from work fast enough. When he saw me, he just threw his arms around my neck and giggled while saying Momma - like "Finally! You're here!" He has started to say Momma more too when other people have him and he wants me instead. Warms my heart but it might hurt theirs ;) He says Da-Da too but often calls Brian Ba-Ba instead. I ask Breck if Dad has been a bad boy and that's why he calls him ba-ba. He just laughs and says it more. We think he is just mocking us because he hears us say no to Winnie or bad Winnie when she does something wrong, so usually he sees her and says ba-ba. It's funny that in his mind his Winnie girl and his daddy are both misbehaving! Probably not far from the truth!

Breck loves toys now. It's like a whole new world of discovery and he busts out the toy box every day. We have a little ottoman in the living room that has a lid that comes off. Thankfully, most of his daily toys fit in there and then hide away under the end table. My type-A personality couldn't take toys everywhere all the time. I like it that they disappear from view and my house looks normal again when he's done playing. Breck loves to fly through the air like he's superman. He pulls up on everything and can now climb things as well. We broke out the baby gate for the stairwell just this week. Breck loves the fact that we have a pool right outside our backyard. We have been frequenting it. The other day Breck tried to dive out of our arms, flattened his body out so he was on his tummy and started kicking and moving arms and legs just like he's been swimming forever. Guess we better look into those swim lessons soon! He likes watching all the little kids play at the pool too and just sits and laughs. We especially love that about daycare - that he has had interaction with other kids and just loves it.

As summer begins, I know there will be so many more new discoveries - and I'm excited to be around to see them! We just know he'll be walking soon. He has his first airplane ride coming up in June too. Lots of fun ahead!

Mother's Day

This has been the best first Mother's Day! We have just enjoyed a busy weekend of fun but today has been nothing but laid back and relaxing. Even now as I type this, Breck is sound asleep snuggled at my side as we hang out in the movie room. In the picture at the top, you can see the photo shoot my boys did for my present last week. I have that photograph framed and by my nightstand. Breck also bought me the dress I have on in the picture. We all crack up at those Hoops and Yo-Yo cards and my boys picked out a good one. Breck giggles every time they start up with their "million" thank yous. Breck wrote me a very sweet letter (translated by daddy of course) and I have a heart with his handprints as well. I think the best thing though is just seeing my little boy light up when he sees me and giving me the biggest hugs. That is beyond amazing. I feel so very blessed.