Don't forget about this Valentine...

Hi Friends! It's Brandon here! Happy late Valentine's Day. Gosh, I love that holiday. Not only is it a day all about loving me, but it falls on the 14th! The 14th is the best day of each month because I was born on the 14th. This Valentine's Day I turned 7 months old!

Here I am with Mommy after church. Do you like my bib and my high tops?

Check out the valentine I sent to some of my family:

Cute, huh? Did you notice how I am the ONLY one in the pictures? That's because I am the most important valentine. That's right. It's all about me!
Get this: mom and dad thought they could have a special dinner on Valentine's Day - without me. Can you believe it? They wanted to eat all by themselves in the dining room with sparkly candles while I slept upstairs in my boring, dark room. Well I wasn't going to have it! I figured there must be some mistake. Maybe their dinner took too long to cook, so they thought they should put me to bed first. I mean, why wouldn't they want to eat with me? I eat real food! I just had some pureed peas and rice cereal a little while ago.
Mom and dad tried for over an hour to get me to sleep while I cried and cried (I usually just go right to sleep with minimal to no complaining every other night). Finally they got the message that this little valentine was not going to miss the party.

Just look at my face! Can you believe I was screaming 2 minutes before this? Ha! I have these people wrapped around my fat little fingers. I played happily in the exersaucer while they ate. (Side note: the exersaucer is on loan from mom's friend Tracy, and I love it! Mom mentions every day that she doesn't know what she'd do without it now that I can roll around and get into stuff like the TV cords when she needs to leave the room for a minute.)

I don't know why mom and dad think they can have special dinners without me. Maybe you remember Mom's birthday back when I was only 3 weeks old. I wasn't going to miss out on those festivities either! Here I am being fed in dad's lap while they ate. It worked out just fine for everyone as far as I'm concerned.

Okay, back to me. After dinner last night they again attempted to put me to bed - even giving me more milk, which I declined. Nope, I was not going to miss one minute of this day. It was fall asleep in someone's arms or listen to me scream. What would you choose? So, I got to sleep in mom's arms while they watched an episode of Lost (they are watching the first season for the first time).
What a great Valentines Day! I got to be a part of the whole thing because it is all about me all of the time, but especially on Valentine's Day!

Aren't I the cutest? Check out my 2 new teeth!

Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum

Brandon loves books, but not all books. He'll definitely let you know if he's into the book you are reading him or not. If he is bored with my current selection, he will try to close the book and/or grab the book and chew on it, and he'll often make his loud squawking noises while I try to get through it. But if he is interested in a certain book, he will kick his legs and move his arms excitedly, be very quiet, and actually help me turn the pages. I'll stop reading at the end of the page and hold the next page up a little, and he'll gently turn it over and wait for me to keep reading. It's pretty cute.

There is no book he loves more than "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb."

This book has a really great rhyme to it - almost like a chant or a song. (Which means my dad would hate it, by the way. Since childhood he has been terrified by Dr. Seuss books and anything resembling it in creatures or rhyming.) It has bright colors and lots of monkeys drumming on drums. A line frequented in the book is "Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum," hence the name of this post. Brandon seems to like monkeys as he almost always laughs when I make monkey noises, and he has a monkey toy that is one of his favorites.

Brandon also loves to drum on his drum. Here is a video of my little monkey drumming on his drum. (Sorry for the mommy commentary...I am always annoyed by what I say when I make these videos.)