New Motto

Brandon has a new motto. It used to be that whenever he looked at something he would think to himself, "I can put that in my mouth!"

Now, he thinks, "I can stand with that!"

All he wants to do these days is stand, stand, stand! Here's some proof:

I can stand in my crib! Even in my blanket sleeper!

I love my LeapFrog table! (although you'd never know it from this silly face I'm making)

One of my favorite things to do is try to stand with Mommy's nursing stool. I like to roll my toys off of it's slanted surface too!

The laundry basket can entertain me for the longest time! (well, maybe 5 minutes)

This ottoman is great for standing practice! Don't get the wrong idea from this picture. I am not allowed to watch much TV. Mom doesn't let me watch my baby DVDs unless I'm driving her crazy and she's having a rough day. Hmmm....maybe I should whine a little more often...

Here are some other recent pictures to show what else I've been up to:

I can open drawers! Cool, huh?

I like to ride around in the laundry basket and "help" with the clean diapers.

I have both teeth now! No more Sloth!

Last weekend we went to Branson, MO. Mom and Dad thought they should check it out since we live pretty close. We had a good time! I was so good (except I cried a lot in the car on the way there). I went to sleep easily for all of my naps and at night in my pack 'n' play! Here we are on a little hike. This is the first time I got to ride in my big boy Kelty backpack! It was fun!

Also while we were in Branson, we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede (because it was just about the only show Mom and Dad could bring me to). I thought all the lights and animals were really cool, but towards the end I got pretty overstimulated and just tuned it all out and played with my toys. Mom and Dad's favorite part was the racing pigs! Here I am afterward next to a horse. This is the closest I've ever been to a horse, but I wasn't too interested. Maybe I'll figure out how cool animals are in a few months.

I hope you enjoyed the update! See you soon!

Heyyyy Youuuu Guyyyys!

I hesitate to make this post. I no doubt will get some grief from at least one grandparent. I probably should follow it up soon with another posting, so it doesn't linger at the top of the blog for too long. Well....here it goes!

Last week, Brandon gave me a huge 3-tooth smile. I kept thinking, "where have I seen that smile before?"

Finally, it dawned on me.

Sloth. The initially scary, but ultimately lovable creature from The Goonies. Brandon has been lovingly referred to as "Sloth" by his dad ever since I made this correlation.
Luckily the resemblance ends with the teeth (I hope you agree...), and the current teeth arrangement is only temporary as tooth #4 is fast on its way.


Wanna hear something else kind of funny? I was called "Sloth" for a little while in college. I was thinking about it, and I think I remember why. One night a group of us were driving around Winston-Salem completely lost. (I'm lucky I made it back to campus each time I left with my sense of direction and no GPS. My roommate wasn't much better - Right Christie?). We saw a few cops standing outside on the street, so we decided to ask them for directions. In order to get their attention (because I was the driver), I yelled, "Heyyy youuu guyyyys!" (which is the classic line by Sloth in The Goonies rivaled only by "I love Chunk!") I don't know why I thought that was more appropriate than something like, "Excuse me Officers," or "Would one of you mind helping us with directions?" In my defense, I did not say it the way that Sloth did in the movie. It was more like I was calling over a group of my buddies. Poor judgment, I know, but any disrespect was completely unintentional. It's in those situations that spending 2 seconds pre-thinking what is about to come out of your mouth is time well spent. From what I remember, we didn't get a strange reaction out of the officers, and we did end up making it to wherever we were going. The only negative consequence was my short-lived nickname of Sloth.

I hope this will not forever change the way you look at my son. And if I ever hear one of you call him "Sloth" don't expect a Christmas card. Hopefully the name will be lost here soon as that precious mouth fills with little teeth!

Spring Picnic and more

Here are some recent pictures of Brandon:

Do I look like a Demon Deacon to you, or an Angel Deacon?

Don't I look cool in my Spartan shirt and my cool shades? I love these sunglasses! Mom totally thought I would rip them off the first time she put them on me, but I just left them there. Not having to squint in the sun and sneeze (I usually sneeze when the sun gets in my face) is pretty great!

Check this out! I can pull up on my knees now, and I do it all the time! Give me another couple of weeks, and I bet I'll be pulling up to stand all by myself!

Mom, Dad, and I went for a long walk in Shawnee Mission Park and then we had a picnic! Here I am kickin' back by the lake.

This is where we had our picnic. Mom says this is what she imagined parenting to be like - having picnics in the park on a beautiful day with her handsome husband and adorable baby. Mom and Dad ate some food while I read my book and ate some puffs. I love baby puffs!

I can read in all kinds of positions! I do this "downward dog" yoga pose a lot. I guess I'm trying to stand, and this is the best I can do on my own. I've got some pretty strong muscles...at least that's what all the girls say.

All I have to do is flash this smile at one of my parents, and I have them wrapped around my little finger. More puffs please, mom!

Whoops! What is this green stuff! I don't know if I like it!

Oh yeah...it's just grass. I can totally handle this! It's fun to experience new textures.

Just looking cute again...or still.

Like my hat?

Mom likes this picture for some reason, even though you can't see my face. Looks like a greeting card.

Hi! I have 3 teeth! Wanna see?

See you again soon!

Top 14 at 9 months

Brandon will be 9 months next week! We have some cute new spring pictures that I'll post soon (you get a sneak peak of one in the new header), but we've been meaning to do another "favorite things" post for a while now. This is mostly so we can look back and remember all the things we love about Brandon, but some of you might be interested in his cute antics too.

Here are the top things we love or think are interesting about Brandon right now. I couldn't narrow it down to 10, so this is a top 14 list.

• Brandon loves attention (what baby doesn't?). If I'm trying to get something done in the kitchen, he will army crawl across the room and then pull on my pants and ram his little head repeatedly into my shin until I pick him up.
• He loves to stand! He hasn't figured out how to pull up on furniture yet, but if one of us is on the floor with him, all he wants to do is climb on us until he's standing. Once he's standing up holding onto our fingers or shoulders, he laughs and does a silly little bouncing dance.
• Brandon does not like loud noises, but he is slowly becoming more tolerant of them. He HATES the vacuum cleaner, squeaky windows closing, and he is very suspicious of the blender when it goes over low speed. He also starts crying whenever his daddy screams in victory while watching a sporting event. It's probably good for Brandon's mental stability that Michigan State didn't make it to the final game.
  
• Brandon seems to be a little over sensitive to most sensory input. He has super hearing powers for one thing. And he hated grass the first few times he touched it. Now he is really interested in grass and will venture off the picnic blanket to feel it. After his first bad experience with grass (not the drug), I got a little worried (after all I am an OT who has worked with many kids who have sensory problems, and I never thought I'd have a child with them!). So I got out my therapy container of dried rice & beans and did some work with him. He wanted nothing to do with this activity at first and would only touch it with his his fingertips. After 2 "sessions" he now loves to put his hands in the dried mixture. I've concluded that Brandon is hesitant of new sensory experiences, but he just needs a few minutes to explore them on his own with some encouragement and then he is fine. He comes by all this honestly...I had major issues as a child with some sensory stuff. If there was one wrinkle in my sock, my day was pretty much ruined. My blessed mom spent countless minutes each morning before school trying to get my socks right. And I still dislike being barefoot in the grass.
• He has a cute little head shake right before falling asleep. He has done this since he was born. He will shake his little head in a quick "no" gesture really quickly right before he doses off.
• He loves his blanket sleeper. I think it is his security blanket. As soon as we put it on him, he holds the extra fleece fabric on the front and rubs it on his face and bites on it a little bit.
• Brandon gives us kisses! Well, kind of... Sometimes when we kiss his cheeks, he'll turn his face towards us with an open mouth and try to put his mouth on our face! If he succeeds, he will suck like a little fish. More recently, though he has started to bite, so I don't let him give me vampire kisses very often.
  
• Brandon turns book pages, but only if it's a book he's interested in. Out of his book collection of probably 40 books, he really only likes about 6 enough to pay attention for the whole thing. These include Dr. Seuss ABC, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, The Eye Book, Goodnight Moon, Oh the Thinks You Can Think!, and The Hungry Caterpillar. We could read these over and over all day long and he wouldn't get tired of them (but we would)!
• Brandon is always moving. We are convinced this is why he is in the 10th-25th percentile for weight.
• He loves those baby puffs, and they are extremely helpful for keeping him occupied in the car at stoplights and on any kind of outing. His pincer skills are quite good!
  
• Brandon is starting to have stranger anxiety. If someone new holds him, he either smiles at them right away or starts crying. I don't know why he doesn't like some people at first. He warms up to everyone pretty quickly, though.
  
• Brandon plays a "bib game." While eating, he likes to take off his bib. When I attempt to get it from him to put it back on, he will grab onto it tightly so we are playing tug-of-war, and he just looks me in the eye and laughs. Little stinker! I have ordered a bib that he will not be able to pull off, and I am anxiously anticipating its arrival.
• He laughs when I say "I love you, Brandon." Since he was about 5 months old, whenever I would say those words, he would look at me and give me a little giggle. I love it!
• He smiles at me in the store. I usually put Brandon in the Ergo Baby Carrier when I do my grocery shopping still. He likes it better than being in the cart because I am continually moving. Usually about halfway through my shopping I'll look down at him, and he is just staring at me smiling. When I give him attention, he giggles. It's like he's thinking, "I've seen enough of this store, Mom, I just want to look at you." Pretty cute, huh?
  

Brandon's 8 month pictures

Here is the link to the slideshow of Brandon's 8 month professional pictures by our very talented friend Sarah Sorell!

www.sorellimages.com/brandon8months/

There are so many more great ones from this session as it is so much easier to get Brandon to smile now compared to when he was 4 months old.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Welcome to my very first food posting! I have been taking pictures of my cooking for over a year now...even before I started a blog! But for some reason I haven't made a food posting. Maybe I have been intimidated by all the other great food blogs out there and the food postings by my friends. Or maybe I have just been a little too focused on the newest member of my family. :-)

I absolutely love to cook. It is definitely the activity that takes up the most time in my life when you factor in the planning, the shopping, the cooking, and don't forget about the cleaning! It is such a gratifying feeling to be able to create something that I love, but more importantly that someone else loves too. Luckily for me, I have a husband that loves to eat and values food so much that he will wrap up and save the 2 remaining bites of a meal for a "snack" to eat later. If he didn't enjoy my cooking so much, I know I wouldn't be nearly as motivated to put as much time and effort into what I make.

I love reading about food almost as much as I love cooking it. My favorite magazines are those that focus mostly on food (Southern Living is probably my favorite), and I love to read food blogs. I enjoy perusing cookbooks too, but I don't use them nearly as much as I should for the number that I have. (I have a bookcase purely devoted to cookbooks, and it doesn't even contain them all.) For some reason, I have a really difficult time cooking something from a recipe when I don't know what "real" people have to say about it. If I find a recipe in a cookbook that I want to use, I will first get on the computer and find a similar recipe on Food Network or Allrecipes just to read the comments. I want to know that the time and effort (and money!) I am about to expend on this recipe is going to be worth my while! I have just recently stumbled upon a food blog search site (found here), which I have used frequently in the past few weeks. If someone else used a recipe and it turned out well, I feel way more confident about trying it. With all that said, I don't typically follow recipes to the T, but that is another story for another posting.

Before I give you the recipe that this post is really about, let me just prove myself wrong on a couple accounts. First of all, I found this recipe in my large accordion file of recipe clippings from magazines (most likely from Southern Living). It did not have any user comments, and I did not search for similar recipes on the internet. I would have, but I didn't have enough time. I had friends from our church community group coming over in one hour, and I wanted something sweet to serve. Secondly, I followed the recipe (well...mostly. See below). This recipe involves baking, and I don't usually experiment with baking ingredients because I don't fully understand all the chemistry behind the magic that happens in the oven, despite my addiction to the show Good Eats.

The recipe I'm about to share is a cookie recipe. I never would have thought my first food post would be about cookies. I usually shy away from cookies when baking (I don't, however, shy away from cookies when they are on a plate in front of me) because I seem to think that they are going to take more time than making some kind of bar cookies, brownies, or easy cake that you don't have to drop by rounded tablespoon one by one. This recipe proved me wrong, as the whole dropping process can be done more quickly than I remembered, and there is no cutting to be done after they cool!

So, these cookies that have taken me this long to get to are called "Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies." If the word "flourless" doesn't make you a little suspicious that these actually turn out, how about I tell you that they are also butterless. Now, I don't want you to get the impression that these are health food cookies...but they seem to be a little more healthy to me than your average flour-butter-sugar cookie. Only 6 ingredients are needed, and you probably have all of them in your kitchen already. That is precisely why I picked this recipe from my file. I had everything on hand, and they seemed quick to prepare. I did not have time to weigh the pros and cons of this recipe over another, so I hastily and uncharacteristically jumped right in to the mixing.

Here are the ingredients:

brown sugar, chunky peanut butter, egg, baking soda, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips.
That's all!

I wasn't too confident about the outcome, so I was truly surprised when these cookies came out exactly how I would want a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie to be! This is from a girl who goes through a jar of peanut butter each week and consumes enough dark chocolate to fulfill the antioxidant needs for everyone on my block. The cookies turn out slightly crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. And they aren't too sweet, which I really love about them. (Take note that they might be more sweet if you don't use natural peanut butter). Everyone loved these cookies, and no one could tell they were flourless!

Ok, enough rambling. Here is the recipe. Make these cookies! You won't be disappointed. They will definitely be seen around my house again.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup chunky peanut butter (I used Smucker's natural chunky. Smooth would probably be fine too)
1 large egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels (the original recipe called for milk chocolate, so you can use whichever you prefer)

1. Stir together first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon. Stir in chocolate morsels

2. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (I used a silpat). (Next time I might press the dough down slightly to get a flatter cookie)

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.

makes approximately 1 1/2 to 2 dozen

Mama's Boy

Brandon is unashamedly a Mama's Boy. He loves his mama! He even says "mama" when he cries. (OK, so maybe he doesn't really associate the word with me yet, but it still causes me to go pick him up more quickly, so I think he's at least caught on to that.)

Here is a video that Krzysztof wanted to capture, as it never ceases to entertain him. It's a little game we call "Where's Mommy?". Krzysztof is usually the one to change Brandon in the morning. I go in there while he's finishing up and sit in the rocking chair to get ready to feed him. Once I come in the room, all Brandon wants to do is look at me and smile. I'm not sure if he is really happy to see me or just hungry, but I'd like to think it's the former! Krzysztof will try to block Brandon's view of me, which causes Brandon to lean to either side to try to find me. It's really cute and never seems to get old. We play it just about every day.

Krzysztof comments all the time that it must be great to feel so loved. It is! It's not that he doesn't love his Daddy, though. Whenever I am holding Brandon, he's always looking around for his Daddy the same way he does with me, but I think I get the best smiles. What can I say? He is with me all day, so we get lots of practice smiling at each other.

And Brandon even looks like me. Check out these pictures. I am first and then Brandon.

Yes, I just put this picture of me on the internet.

This was so hard to stage. Brandon does not like to sit still for one second, especially on his belly. He likes to be rolling around or doing his army crawl, which is precisely what he was doing for the other 15 pictures I attempted to take. This is the ONLY one that came out even remotely well. The massager was again used as bait as it was in his crawling video.

I'm not sure what was happening here? That hand belongs to my grandmother, who was possibly checking me for a fever? Who knows.

This picture was equally difficult to capture as Brandon kept wanting to crawl towards me.

This is my other grandmother (the hand in the above picture does not belong to her).

So what do you all think? Is he a mama's boy?