It's Learning Time!

We have a talking stuffed bear.  It's cute, not creepy.  He sings songs and plays games with my son.  Sometimes he says in the most excited voice "It's LEARNING time"!

Right now I'm about as excited as that bear is about learning.

Excited because I'm learning Photoshop!  Wahoo! 

My amazing Sister-in-Law, Randi, unexpectedly sent me the most wonderful glorious gift I've received in a long time.  Photoshop CS5.  The newest version of Photoshop available.  It's the mack daddy of Photoshop.  The Rolls Royce.  The big Kahuna.  Seriously.... It. Does. Everything. 

I had a little trouble when we first loaded the sucker a couple weeks ago...wouldn't work.  I have no idea what made it decide to, but I thank the Photoshop god's that it finally did decide to work for me.  But, don't get me wrong.  When I first got in there, I looked a little like this...

Cue the crickets chirpping in my brain.  How the heck do you use this beast?  Seriously?

Well, I happen to follow a lot of photography blogs and have been studying all the tricks out there I can possibly get my hands on.  I still have no clue what I'm doing. 

 But...I was able to turn this picture of my sweet nephew Owen....



Straight out of the Camera.  Way too dark and just plane icky.



Into this...

Lightend up.  Colors boosted.  Eyes that pop!



How 'bout a side-by-side comparison...

Well...how am I doing so far?

Quick post

I took some pictures of my amazing sister, nephew, and brother-in-law today.  There are about a bagillion photos that I still need to edit, but I just wanted to post at least one.  This is one of my faves (even though the little monster isn't smiling...boo).  Aren't they such an adorable family?

Oh, and guess who went swimming for the first time today?

I ran out of space on my memory card so this is the best pic I got.
His expression tells you just how much he liked the pool though.  Yay!!

Dada

Poop poop shhhadoop

We're battling diarrhea at the Petersen Pad.  Well, Brody is at least.  And let me tell you...
EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!  I'll just leave it at that.
Had to do a quick hair washing after this last "episode".  But how cute is this?

Yah...it's a baby mohawk.  And I know...it's the cutest thing you've seen all day, right?  Maybe even all week?  It's ok...I agree.

Happy weekend!

Another video

Brody's getting closer and closer and closer to crawling.....

Eating Cantaloupe

Tried giving Brody some cantaloupe the other day.  He did quite well with it.  Gave him some more this morning and this is what he did....

I think he was reacting like that because it was cold.  :)

My first Mother's Day

 I had a simply WONDERFUL Mother's Day weekend.  I love being a mom.  Especially to this guy...

And I adore sharing the parenting role with this guy...

My Mother's Day weekend started out with a relaxing Friday night at home.  Saturday morning I took Brody to the Farmer's Market downtown with my good friend Katie.  It was simply gorgeous out and the market was packed.  Picked up some scrumptious tomatoes for us and a bag of kettle corn for my momma.  Then we went and had lunch outside at Panera...yum!  And then headed back to our house to chat with Katie on the back porch while the babe took a nap inside.  Later that evening Jeff and Brody and I headed over to Jeff's parents house for dinner.  Got to see a couple of his aunts, his sister and her little cutie pie Gage, and play with everyone for a bit...

Then Jeff dropped B off over at Grandma and Grandpa V's house for a sleep over.  Thanks to them for watching Brody so Jeff and I could go have some much needed drinks with our friends!

Sunday morning we got up early and headed back over to my parents house to pick up the little rascal and enjoy a Mother's Day breakfast with them.  Dad made waffles and sausage...YUM and YUM.  It was another B-E-A-UTIFUL day!  Just look at the clear blue sky and blooming spring trees...

We chilled on their front porch for a while and enjoyed the sunshine on our faces...

By then, it was time for Brody's afternoon nap, so we headed back home.  I'm not gonna lie...we needed a nap too!  So we all napped for a while.  Brody was having a hard time falling asleep for some reason.  This is so not typical for the B-Man, and since I was exhausted myself, I scooped him up out of his crib and brought him in bed with me.  We napped together for 2 hours!!  I haven't slept with him like that since I was on maternity leave.  It was great!  I don't normally do that, of course, but figured since it was Mother's Day and all...why not?!  Then we all got ready and headed out to Vanderveer Park to take some family pictures.  This was the one thing I really wanted to do for Mother's Day.  Thanks again to my amazingly wonderful mom who met us out there to snap some pictures.  She did a great job!  Check these out...

Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up something to make for dinner.  Came home and grilled out!  We had pork chop sandwiches (the food, not the baby!), tomato and cucumber salad, and cesar salad.  Delish!  What a great ending to a fantastic weekend.  Life is good.

Love Like Crazy

Decent song.  Awesome lyrics (in the chorus).  Thought I'd share...

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you.

Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense.

Never let your prayin' knees get lazy...

And love like crazy.

Always treat your woman like a lady.

Never get too old to call her baby.

Never let your prayin knees get lazy.

And love like crazy.

Happy Friday!

Happy Beautiful Spring day!

Happy Mother's day to all you Mutha's out there!  ;)



Here's a picture of me and my beautiful momma.
I'm certain she's the hottest grandma in the world.
And I know she's got the best smile I've ever seen.
She's the most selfless woman you'll ever meet.
And she's got the warmest arms to hold me tight.
So proud to call her mine...love you momma.



7 Months

No doctor appointment this month, so no stats to report.

As previously mentioned, I took a TON of photos of him today so I'll scatter them throughout this post since I don't have a lot to update on this month.

Brody is getting so big!  Wearing mostly 6 - 9 month clothes and a few 6-12 month sizes too.  Still in size 3 diapers and just recently started wearing the over-night diapers at night.  He was waking up smelling a little like urine, so it was time...yuck!

He has 4 bottles a day now and we are 100% on formula.  :(  I actually stopped breastfeeding him at 6 months but I think I forgot to mention it in my last monthly post.  I nursed him for the last time on his actual 6 month birthday.  He does just fine with formula, except he now spits up a bit about half an hour after a bottle. 

He's also eating two meals a day.  One he gets at Pam's (Oatmeal and fruit) and one at home around dinner time (Rice and Veggie and sometimes some meat puree's). 

By the way...they aren't kidding when they say baby's poop changes once on solid foods.  Sheesh!  TMI?  HAHAHA

He still rolls and rolls and rolls around, but not crawling yet.  He tries to sit up sometimes (from laying down) but I don't think he'll be able to do that for a while.  He definitely tries, but I imagine that's harder to do than it looks.  Gotta work on that core strength, Brobo! 

Since he rolls around so much, the play-time mat that we have is rather pointless.  He ends up somewhere else in the room, like pinned up next to the couch where he will peek under the skirt to explore (that's what she said...HAHAHA).   Or rolled up next to the entertainment center where he kicks or grabs at the picture frames and reaches up to push the buttons on the DVD player.  Guess it's time to baby-proof the Petersen Pad!  Gotta look out for the little monster.

He hasn't started talking yet.  We try to get him to say momma and dada, but he prefers to squeal and scream instead.

No new teeth to report on either.  The bottom two are pretty much all the way through.  I thought he was maybe going to sprout some new ones up top too, but none yet.

Brody continues to be a champ at sleeping during the night.  We bumped up his bed time to 7:30(ish) because he seemed to be really sleepy in the evenings.  It's working out well for us.  He gets up at 6:30 AM, which is perfect for Jeff's schedule in the mornings with him.

He takes 3 naps a day, unless we have a particularly busy day out and about.  He never wants to miss out on anything so he typically won't fall asleep in his car seat anymore like he did when he was really little.

He is SOOOOOO good to be out with.  Never cries or whines and smiles at everyone, wherever we go.

I remember a time not long ago that I wished for the days that Brody did not require my arms or the swing to fall asleep for naps.  Now, even if we wanted him to, he probably would not sleep in our arms.  Like I said...he never wants to miss out on anything!  But lay him in his crib and give him a pacifier and he'll fall asleep fairly fast.  He plays a little bit, talks a little bit more, then falls asleep on his own..

Brody.  Is.  Awesome.