Brandon - 15 Months

Brandon is now 15 months old! He had his official 15-month-old well-checkup today.

His stats:

22 pounds 2 oz (10th percentile)
31 inches tall (50th percentile)
19 1/4 inch head circumference (95th percentile)

What you can gather from this: I have a average height, skinny, big headed child.



I don't think he has a big head. Those charts are crazy. He is a very active child, which I assume accounts for the 10th percentile in the weight. He just runs and run all day long! As for his head...well he's been that way since birth. The doctor said again, "He's got a big noggin'. He must have lots of brain."



So far his words are: dada, mama, ball, book, pup pup, trak (tractor), truh (truck), ga-ma (grandma).

On top of that he likes animal sounds too: baa baa (sheep), mooo (cow), woof (dog), meow (cat), very rare), grrr (lion/bear/dinosaur).

Most recently, he has learned that he likes to color with crayons. He likes to eat crayons, but he does like to color on his little toddler bench with some white paper.

He also likes Blues Clues, Yo Gabba Gabba, The Jump Arounds, and surf videos.

As seen in this video Brandon has learned to "give kisses". He's been blowing kisses for a while, but learned in the last few weeks the "sound" of blowing kisses, MUAH!



We love our little boo-ey. He is growing so fast, and learning and exploring so much right now. He loves to do anything from playing inside with a laundry hamper, to running outside, to playing in the pool. We are so grateful to Heavenly Father for allowing his little spirit to come to our family.

Random-ness

This is Brandon lately. He runs a lot and preferably outside.



He loves throwing balls. Any ball will do. Oh, and isn't this outfit adorable? I know they're not Red Sox colors but there weren't any available! I guess icky Yankee colors will have to do.



I have been trying to teach Brandon how to use a fork and plate. He doesn't mind the fork when I help him and he just loves to play with it. He likes to take the plate apart though. This plate has a suction-cup part that can do just that, stick the plate to the highchair/table using suction. I did this to prevent from plate and food flying everywhere.


We didn't have any problems with plate and food flying, but he thought the suction cup part was pretty awesome. And apparently looks good as a hat.



This is Brandon at Tuesday night's church softball game. It was pretty awesome! It was actually semi-boring until the 5th inning when it looked like we were going to lose. But then we came back and won in the 7th by one run at 21-20 (church softball games here only last 7 innings).



Brian was traded out for Tyson in the 4th inning so he got to play with Brandon while I had a good time talking with the girls.



Tyson and Jennie's son Cedric brought this "lawn mower" to play with and Brandon loved it. I guess we might need to get a lawn mower for Brandon!



Father and son watching the game.



This is a photo of Brian, Mindee (our amazing score keeper), and some of the rest of the gang. This was a later time so most of the mom's and kids that are usually there were not. I will have to remember to take a picture with all of us next time.

Petroleum Jelly

If any of you follow my Facebook, you would know that Brandon ate about a fist full of petroleum jelly yesterday afternoon. It was right before his nap and we were upstairs. I opened up his bedroom door so he could play in there for a few minutes before it was time to go down for the nap.

All of a sudden it got really quiet. Normally, he is throwing toys/hitting toys with other toys/running around and I can hear what is going on. Well I heard nothing so I thought I'd better check. Sure enough he had his hand in his mouth and the other hand holding the jar of Vaseline. There was some on the floor and his clothes as well.

Some of you may be thinking, what in the heck? Why does Kandra have a jar of Vaseline accessible to Brandon in his room? Oook. Slow down. Let me explain myself. Without going into too much detail for my son's sake, during diaper changes we need the Vaseline, okay? Just accept it. Anyways, I had it on a bookself that I keep his toys on the bottom shelves. On the third shelf up I have diaper changing things. He's not tall enough to get up there...or so I thought. Apparently, he was able to climb and/or shake the shelf to get the jelly.

I ran over to him and ripped the jar from him. He threw a fit! He was so mad at me. I grabbed a diaper wipe and proceeded to wipe his mouth, hands, clothes, and the floor. By the way, I'm sure I didn't get all of the jelly out of the carpet so if any of you have any great ideas for removing petroleum jelly from carpet, let me know. He cried and cried. I got him mostly calmed down and decided it was time for a nap. I laid him down and got on the computer to figure out exactly how toxic petroleum jelly is. There isn't much out there. So, I decided to call the National Poison Center because they'd know. Sure enough the lady said that chances are he'll be fine. He might throw up once, his body rejecting it. However, petroleum jelly acts like a laxative. She told me to keep him really hydrated with Pedialyte and/or clear liquids.

Well, Brandon never fell asleep. After a half an hour I gave him a drink, assuming the taste of Vaseline was still in his mouth and I wouldn't be able to fall asleep like that either. He went back and forth between talking and crying for another hour before I got him up. No afternoon nap today! Within minutes of getting out of bed he pooped. Shocked? No. It wasn't diarrhea though, thank goodness, and up until this morning he still hasn't.

What I can't figure out is that he will reject some fruit and vegetables, but he'll eat petroleum jelly? Oh, and I know it tastes bad because when I was cleaning up he shoved his hand into mouth. Gross.

After all this, I still can't help but think of how grateful I am to be a mom. This is so much better than any job or career. It's more exciting and scary and joyful. There are most definitely some big lows, but they are always accompanied by bigger highs. I love being a mom. I can't imagine wanting to do anything else.

In fact, last night I was thinking about what I wanted to be when I was in elementary school. I wanted to be a mom. I even have a shirt to prove it. We made shirts with something along the lines of "I have a dream to be ____" and we were supposed to fill in the blank. I still have that shirt, and it says "a mom". Of course, I had been practical and thought of other career paths starting out in college in case I didn't get married right away (which I did). But they were just fillers. It was never what I really wanted to do. Being a mom is the best. I can't imagine doing anything else that is more rewarding and self fulfilling.

My Boys

I love my boys.




(church softball game, Brian is catcher)

This weekend they had lots of time to play and be together...and let me tell you, it was pretty darn cute.




(Like my clean laundry all over the couch?)

(Brandon wanted to sit next to Daddy while he read scriptures. Brian was reading in Spanish, Brandon always loves that.)

(Then Brandon decided he needed to catch up on his Gospel Principles and grabbed Daddy's book from his scripture case. It looks like they are discussing doctrine, lol)

(When Brian moved onto homework Brandon thought it would be best for him to help out.)


Oh, and my Little Man looked completely and absolutely adorable in his Sunday outfit. I suppose I am a little biased though. Still, don't you just want to pick him up and give him a huge hug and kiss?

i {heart} faces Week 19 "Blurb Photo Book" Contest

This picture is for the amateurs category!



I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Go check out both the amateur and professional photos being entered this week at i {heart} faces.

Wait...what? It's summer? WAHOO!

We believe summer might actually be here to stay!

And that means barbecues:


(Brandon likes having as many clothes off as possible, and I allow this when it is nice and warm out)

It also means beach time and no-wetsuit-wearing surfing! I cannot explain enough how excited Brian is to not have to put on that wetsuit to go surfing. That also means that Brandon and I can go and have fun! I don't have to carry him around on my back or stomach because...he can walk! Although that does present other problems like eating sand, cuts from sea shells, etc. However, Brandon seemed to not want to run into the water and didn't actually try to eat anything on our most recent visit to the beach on Friday. I took a ton of pictures:


(oOo sand)


(being a cute model for mommy)


(hey mom, this is pretty cool!)


(looking at more sea shells)


(He couldn't figure out how to get the sand off his hands, it was so funny!)


(This is Grandma Lloyd's favorite picture)


(Daddy!! Squealing with delight to see dad)


(Daddy teaching Brandon how to stand on a board, if you look closely Brandon is smile and pointing at Brian)


(Best buddies)


(watching the waves together)


(He loves the ocean)



If you want to see ALL of the photos they are on my family's phanfare website.

i {heart} faces "Laughter"

Kids entry:



This weeks theme at i {heart} faces is "Laughter". Brandon wasn't a "laugher" until he was almost 5 months old. This picture is one of the first times I got him going with a camera around! I love this little boy.

Go check out all of the other entries at i {heart} faces!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love my mom.



She has been my rock for as long as I can remember.



Not only has she been a wonderful mother, she has become a fantastic grandmother (and from 2,300 miles away, quite a feat!)



I think you are the bomb mom. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for guiding me to be the person I am today (after all, I am pretty awesome).

I hope you have a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Running Week 2

This weeks running went alright...at least Monday did.

I should have run Wednesday morning but...I was so tired! Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to run Wednesday afternoon. That meant I in order to stay with my "3 days a week" schedule I had to run Thursday (yesterday). Well, Brian had to run before Brandon's last swim lesson and then we had a softball game. I realized I would be bringing Brandon along in the jogging stroller. Brandon is about 23 pounds and it was 3:30pm, possibility the hottest time I could have gone out yesterday. I also didn't realize that there were hills on my double lap run until yesterday! I tell ya, it was completely exhausting! Brandon had a grand time though, after all, he had juice and toys. He even had no shoes on!

It wasn't until last night that I knew I didn't want to run in the afternoon like that again while it is hot like this. That's when I realized that meant I was going to have to run this morning (Friday) barely 15 hours after my Thursday run. Aw man!

Brian runs Friday mornings too, so I had to wait until 6 am when he got home from his run (I know, he's crazy). I don't get up earlier than that anyways! Brian woke me up at 6:15, apparently my snooze stopped at some point because I had my alarm set to 5:45. I pulled myself out of bed, put my workout clothes and knee braces on. Brian showed me how to work his Garmin watch (it's GPS). I put it on and it was bigger than my wrist. I also grabbed my iPod and out I went. It was still near the mid 60s at 6:20ish. I felt soo tired. I thought I would never finish that run. Using the Garmin, I realized my route was actually long, almost a quarter of a mile long. This morning I ran the mile in 9:56, my whole route actually took me 11:49.

That made me feel a little better. I thought it was crazy that I could barely run the mile in 12 minutes. This week did give me some mental power though. Even though I really, really didn't want to run, I still did, and I don't regret it.

i {heart} faces - Hats!

This week at i {heart} faces the theme is "hats". I love putting Brandon in hats and I had a few pictures I liked but they had to be edited quite a bit. My editing skills are still lacking but, hey, why not give it a shot right? This was taken at the beach while the sun was setting behind us. I liked the soft glow it was giving his skin.

Go check out every one else at i {heart} faces this week!