18 months old

Thank you all for your input on our family pictures. It seems an overwhelming number love the second one, so I think that is what we will go with. I am trying to post it at the top of my blog, but I need Steve's help when he gets a chance, so it will be there soon.

As for today's post.....we have a little boy who has hit the wonderful age of 18 months. I wonder if this is as exciting for people who aren't members of the church. haha Brandon has been going to nursery for the past two weeks, and I stay with him for the first hour, then leave him for the second. He seems to do OK, but when he realizes that I am gone he is a little shaken up. He will adjust quickly though I am sure, and Steve and I are very excited to have peaceful Sunday meetings again.

So, Brandon is my only child who has had a blanket that he sleeps with. The funny thing is I kind of gave it to him as an experiment. Part of it was that we were moving and he was sleeping in a different bed every couple of weeks, and I wanted to give him the blanket so he would have something to let him know it was time to go to sleep. But a bigger part was for my experiment. I always hear Mom's say their kids are so attached to a blanket or stuffed toy or something and I was always curious how the kid got that way. Was it the kids choice or the parents? Meaning, did the Mom just give the baby the same blanket or whatever every time she put the baby to bed so after a while the baby started to think that was part of sleeping, or did the baby choose the same toy every time. Well, the conclusion to my experiment is the first scenerio. I think some kids may like to have a certain feel of blanket by their own choice or they may like to sleep with a stuffed toy in their bed, but I definitely think the attachment to a specific item comes from the parents giving it to them enough times that they become attached. And now that I have a baby attached to a specific item, I kind of wonder why do Mom's do this? If you rotate blankets every week or whatever, you would never have this problem of searching for a certain blanket all the time. I want to know what you all think of this experiment, so let me have it!


Now, back to Brandon. He is attached to a red blanket that my sister Laura made for him when he was born. He has to have it to go to sleep and he is always holding it when I go in to get him from bed.




It usually stays in the house with us though, so no dragging through mud puddles or anything. I have to draw the line somewhere. This blanket even has a name (don't all attachment blankets). It is called the TT-Ma blanket which comes from a whole other story. I will make it quick. When we flew from Germany to VA last year, we were headed home and were stuck in the airport for like 5 hours before we got on a short connecting flight before getting on a 7 hour flight to Germany. Brandon was 3 months old at the time, and about the time we got on the airplane he decided he was sick of being in my arms. He started crying loudly and wouldn't stop no matter what I did. This was within minutes of us sitting down. Well, after I tried to quiet him for 10 minutes, this lady next to me asked if I wanted her to hold him. I said "sure", thinking I could save myself some embarrassment if she were the one holding the screaming baby. Well, she started singing him this song, close to his ear, while she shook him softly up and down. It was a song she had made up for her son and it said:

"Somebody's so tired, Somebody's so tired
TT-Ma TT-Ma, TT-Ma
Somebody's so tired, Somebody's so tired
TT-Ma TT-Ma, TT-Ma

It had a really catchy tune and she said the "t" sound made the baby be quiet and listen. And sure enough she had Brandon asleep within a couple of minutes and he stayed with her the whole 45 minute flight sleeping. So....we adopted that song for him and used to sing it to him all the time. Now we just use the phrase TT-Ma for bed like, "Are you ready to go TT-Ma" and he thinks we are talking about his blanket so he will got get it or show it to us whenever we say that. If that lady only knew what her little song has turned in to at our house.
I have a video of Steve singing the TT-Ma song, but he is going to have to help me find that as well.

Sleeping with Daddy and the TT-Ma blanket



Getting the blanket from the dryer! Oh Happy Day



And here are some of Brandon's new words, so we can remember when he is all grown up. :)

Family Pictures!

I need your opinions and to hear you say how cute you think we are. :-)

We took family pictures when my brother, and sis-in-law came in January, and I need to get them printed and on my wall. Why am I so bad at that? I just don't know. Anyway, here they are and I want to hear which one you think should be a 16X20 hanging in our family room. I will number them, so you can tell me easier.

As a side note number 3 is our favorite, because I thought we could get it blown up big enough to still show off the family but also get the beautiful scenery.

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And just for fun:

Let's talk about me!

Everyone keeps telling me to update my blog. Problem is, I don't really have anything to say. I don't think the camera came out the whole month of January, and we are doing absolutely nothing exciting. So, I finally decided that maybe I could blog about me! Most of my blog posts are about "the boys" which I am aware are the most interesting. But my sister Jessica blogs about her own life and I find her blogs to be fascinating. So, maybe I can think of something interesting to say about me. (Just don't compare me to Jessica)

Here are a couple of things from my past couple of weeks.

1. The week of my last birthday (nov.) I gained five pounds. Grant it I went out for breakfast, and dinner, and ate most of my birthday cake by myself, but I have been doing that for years! Steve told me it is because I am getting older. But seriously...on the actual week of my birthday! So, needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. At that point I started obsessing over recipes, and reading things that would help me to eat healthier and get rid of that five pounds, plus about 50 more. I have read a lot and learned a lot and I do feel like I am definitely eating better. Unfortunately it has not show on the scale much. I have lost the 5 pounds, but that has been just in the past two weeks. But I am on a roll I hope. Some of my favorite things to eat now are:
-an egg sandwich (honey wheat english muffin, slice of turkey bacon, and one egg.) that fills me up for such a long time and tastes great.
-I have been making a shake when I need a snack and really like the taste of it. (1/2c oatmeal in the blender to make it powdery, then add banana, strawberry, milk, ice, and a touch of chocolate syrup.) This also fills me up, satisfies my sweet craving and tastes great.
-this new bread product called sandwich thins made by Arnold select. Seems like much healthier bread to me so I can have a good sandwich. I also bought almond butter for another recipe and really like the natural taste of it. Put it on a sandwich thin with a little jam and it is fantastic.

-I also have been drinking a lot of Sam's choice flavored seltzer water. It has no calories, or anything else for that matter, but it taste great when water just is not what I am looking for.

Feel free to tell me if any of these things are not as healthy as I think they are. I am still figuring this health thing out.

2. While we are on the subject of food, I had some great recipe successes this week.
-I finally figured out the secret to delicious fried rice. Sesame oil! I love the taste of sesame and this recipe I found said to saute and fry with sesame oil and it was so good. I sauteed onion, garlic and mushrooms, then added carrot, and frozen green beans, then a cut up left over chicken breast, and some cubed ham, next add cold rice, and soy sauce to taste. I added a little more sesame oil at this point to fry up the rice a little and it was delish.
-I also made these cookies with my bananas that were going bad, and it turned out very good. Like banana bread in a cookie.
3. Along with eating better I have been exercising for the past three weeks and am totally enjoying my exercise videos. I am excited every morning to exercise, and feel like I am getting a real work out with them. What a great, cheap, effective way to exercise!
4. A couple months ago we bought a new couch and I love it. You all know I would take comfort over fashion any day and this couch is all comfort. I love it so much that I have been using it a lot at night to unwind in front of the T.V. instead of blogging. Of course I am always either cross stitching or folding laundry at the same time. But still enjoying the comfort.

5. Last week as I was cleaning my room something caught the corner of my eye, so I looked in the hall and saw a mouse scurrying down my hallway!! NASTY! Me and Jacob ran out to the family room to see where it went, not knowing what to do if I saw it again but we lost it. It had been really cold for a couple of days and Steve says it probably came in to get warm. Luckily we have a trusty cat who still has her front claws, so we just had to wait for Ginger to attack. Today was the death day of the mouse. Thanks to Ginger for her catlike skills.
6. I decided to get myself a haircut and apparently it was long over due. I have gotten so many glowing compliments from people since this haircut I don't think I will ever go back. Steve is the only one who doesn't seem to appreciate it so much, but I guess if he doesn't care, I will stick with the cut that everyone else likes.


7. Last but not least, we have been pretty sick here this week. Brandon has pooped and thrown up more in the past 3 days than his whole life combined. After being intimate with many of his bodily functions I started to get sick on Friday. Every time I start to get a throw up sickness I pray and pray that I will not throw up, but will be able to get rid of all the nasties from the other end. Up until now that has never worked, but it did this week!! Every time I stood up I thought I would throw up, but I never did. I was thrilled to know now that that is possible.

Well, I guess I had a lot to say.