Milk woes

I'll get to how the camping trip went next time, all I can think about right now is the amount of milk Brendan isn't consuming.  We were giving him four 5-6 oz. bottles a day...one when he woke up for the day, one after his morning nap, one after his afternoon nap, and one before bed.  The doctor has said no more bottles, she said this last time and I had tried to get him to sit with me and drink his milk in a sippy instead, well, it didn't go too well, so I stopped trying.

So I officially put away all of the bottles and told Brendan this (like he really listened).  He has two favorite sippy cups that he drinks water out of all day (I LOVE Tommee Tippee stuff!), so I put milk in there, of course he threw it across the room after seeing me pour the milk in it.  And he screamed and carried on and threw himself on the floor, this was for his afternoon milk on Friday (18th), then at bedtime, he refused the milk once again, so he went to bed without his milk.  Saturday morning he refused the sippy with milk, so I put it on his tray during breakfast, which he drank as much milk throughout his meal as he normally does water...it's not what he should be getting as far as the milk is concerned.  He drank a little more milk during lunch and then during dinner, but nothing to write home about.  So of course I'm concerned and of course I'm giving him yogurt and cheese to help with the calcium intake.  I just want him to drink his milk!  He was getting about 22 oz. (the doctor says 16-24 oz. is what he should be getting a day) and now I'm lucky he gets 4 oz. in him.   So now he doesn't pee as much, which worries me too!  UGH UGH UGH UGH UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is making me crazy and Brendan cranky, which then doesn't help Charlie's mood.  I'm so exhausted with this and sick of being worried about it.  He is so stubborn for a 15-month-old and he has been throwing so many temper tantrums.  I never give in, but I'm definitely getting worn out by them.  It's as if he doesn't know what to do without having a tummy full of milk--he doesn't play like he used to, he just walks around whining.

I lost it at breakfast this morning--of course breakfast time has now been pushed up due to no having a milk time in a bottle anymore--I screamed at him (of course I feel like total sh!t right now) because he purposely kept knocking his sippy of milk off of his tray.  This resulted in milk on the floor.  I'm on very little sleep, so that didn't help matters either.  I just want to cry and cry and cry.   Oh perfect, he just showed me that he wanted his sippy which is sitting on the counter filled with water, I should be thankful that he doesn't like juice and loves water, but when he's choosing water over milk, it makes me want to cry some more.

I understand that this will pass and soon he'll be drinking his milk like other kids, but right now it's very hard to see that and I'm having a really hard time with this.  I just want things to go smoothly with eating...like they used to.  He's changed his eating habits, he won't eat all of the fruits and veggies he used to eat.  I feel like a complete failure as a mother, who's job it is to present Brendan with the right foods.

Adventures in Camping

I would call myself an experienced camper.  I've been camping ever since I was 2 years old and my parents are beyond experienced campers, as they've been doing it since they were both little.  We only do tents, maybe when I'm 75 I'll do the RV or pop-up trailer thing, but for now, we're tent people.  I love camping.  Yes, it can have it's negatives, like when it rains, but overall, it's a fun experience.  Especially up in Door County at Peninsula State Park, where we've been going every year on my mom's side for over 50 years.

Brendan came with last time, but we stayed at a motel, too chicken to camp with Brendan, but we spent 90% of the time on my parents' campsite, Brendan loved the fire.  Tomorrow, we leave for Door County and we'll be camping.  With Brendan.  Brendan will be 15 months old in a few days.  This will be interesting.  Very interesting.  I'm scared and anxious about it all.  The thing that worries me the most is night time.  Brendan normally goes to bed without any issues, put him down and he falls asleep (the "let 'em cry" method was sooo effective when he turned 4 months, LOVE it!), however, this will be a tent, in a pack 'n' play.   And he's teething.  Plus once he's asleep, we'll eventually have to get into the tent too and we'll all be sleeping in the same "room" together.  Again, this should be interesting.  Very interesting.  What will happen when he wakes up at 2:00am and instead of putting himself back to sleep like he normally does, he'll be able to look over and see mom and dad!  Will he want to get up?  Who knows.  This will be interesting.  Very interesting.

Even though I'm worried about the whole sleeping/teething/cranky thing and worried about him eating a ton of dirt and getting worms, I'm also very excited to share this experience with him.  I'm sure he won't remember this time, but maybe next summer, or the summer after that, he will.  And to be able to show him all the awesome things we see and do up there for the first time will be so exciting for Charlie and me and for Brendan.  I think we've packed up the entire house...we're ready...So, Door County, here we come!

Clean up!

Okay, I'm going to brag right now, because yesterday was a crappy day with Brendan and it was a hard one because he was so cranky, so what he did this morning more than makes up for it!  It's almost time for his morning nap, which I wish he would give up, but no matter how hard we try, he can't survive all the way until one long afternoon nap--he's a nightmare!  It's obviously not the right time, but that's another post.  So anyway, I told him that he needed to clean up his toys.  Brendan promptly went over to his Lil' People school house and closed it up, and carried it all the way over to his toy bin and put it in!  How awesome is that?!  I'm so proud of him and Charlie got to see it too!  We won't mention the fact that he then pulled another 2 toys out of the bin, but that's neither here nor there!

Awww

Brendan gave me a hug this morning!  I got him out of his crib and asked him to hug mommy and he put his arms around my neck and hugged me!  That made my day!  He's such a sweetheart.

Yesterday we went to Costco and I needed to go to the bathroom, so we went into the big handicap stall and luckily now he can stand up while I attend to my business.  All was going swimmingly until someone flushed their toilet...then all hell broke loose.  B looked at me with huge eyes and just started SCREAMING and crying hysterically.  This carrying on also lasted through his diaper change.  It had a brief respite when I picked him up, but started double when I put him in the cart.  I frantically searched my purse and found the snack I had brought for him, he immediately stopped and even smiled.  Aaahhh, the power of food; it works well on the young too.

2 steps forward, 1 step back

It amuses me to no end when Brendan does his "tricks" for people and he is so proud too.  He loves to 'give five' to everyone, and will proudly "moo" like a cow, and "woof" like a dog, and will "read" for anyone and everyone.  When Brendan does something new (and it's usually something I never thought he would do) it's just so awesome and I probably get too excited!  For example, I was blowing on his green beans to cool them off, and I always explain what I'm doing in the hopes that he'll eventually pick up on it and do it too, well, tonight, he did!  He actually blew on his green bean!  THE CUTEST THING EVER, well, until the next cutest thing ever!  And just now, he brought me his stuffed panda and he likes to see me hug the panda, and I always exaggerate the hug.  I handed the panda back to Brendan and I told him to hug the panda...so he did!  So now that's the cutest thing ever!

All of these things are so awesome to see him pick up and learn, and makes me feel accomplished as his "teacher".  So when he has his temper tantrums I feel like we're going backwards.  Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that the tantrums are 100% normal and par for the course, especially at this age when he can't tell me what he's thinking, needing, or wanting.  But after seeing all of the accomplishments, I hate to see him "regress".  Just something going through my mind.

The Blackhawks play Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals tonight and I'm psyched.  B and I have been wearing our Hawks gear all day!  Go Blackhawks!

Runaway boy

We couldn't wait for Brendan to start walking...and boy oh boy, were we fools!  Nah, it's actually awesome being able to watch him explore on two legs instead of on all fours.  Today at Target, I wanted to get him some cheap gym shoes to supplement his expensive Stride Rite sandals, mainly for camping...that's an awful lot of dirt and junk to get inside sandals!  I put him down so I could see where his toes lined up in the shoes, they were too small (why doesn't Target have half-sizes!?), so we took them off and as I was putting them back and grabbing the bigger size, Brendan took off!  He's too fast when he wants to be!  I glanced at my cart which had my purse in it still and then glanced at Brendan, now an entire aisle length away...I made the quick decision that obviously Brendan trumps purse and ran after my lil' maniac who had a book in his hand and no shoes.  He keeps it interesting!

While at Target I got diapers and misc. other things, which once we got home, were sitting in the kitchen awaiting passage upstairs.  Brendan was having fun playing with the misc. items that were sitting on his diaper boxes.  All of these little things (box of band-aids, some toothpaste, and neosporin) ended up on the floor.  When I told Brendan that it was time to eat lunch, he started toward the high-chair, but then turned back and picked up those items off of the floor and put them back on the diaper boxes!  How cute is that?  My little boy has picked up on his Mommy's OCD, orderly habits already...this could be good or could be bad...only time will tell!

Time to fire up the keyboard

I wish I were eloquent and witty so that it could liven up all the posts I'm planning on writing, but I'm not. So this is going to be a day to day (or days to days) snapshot of what my little Brendan (14.5 months as of the start of June 2010) is up to. He is constantly amazing me and boy oh boy is he funny and brilliant! I know every parent says that their child is brilliant, but he really is! B has a major love affair with two things--books and going outside. This kid reads ALL day. I always wanted him to have a love for books as I do, so I started reading when he was only days, then weeks, then months old. I incorporated reading into his bedtime routine at 4 months old and we haven't looked back since. B will sit for long periods of time, and when I say long, I mean long for his age--15-20 min--, and just read. He opens a book, turns each page, sometimes silently taking it in and other times "reading" aloud. Once he's finished with one book, he casually tosses it aside and picks up the next one. After awhile he'll get up, make sure I haven't disappeared from the kitchen, plays with a few toys, and then goes back to reading another stack of books. This goes on throughout the day. He constantly wants to be read to as well, so we'll sit and read until I need to get up and tackle another chore or make dinner. Charlie started a very cute thing a few weeks ago at bedtime. He lets Brendan get down off the rocking chair and pick out his first book, they read that one, then he gets to pick out his second, and so on. B is just thrilled to have the choice and he looks so darn proud! His other obsession is going "sigh", AKA "outside". He points out the window or points at the door or he will grab our shoes or his shoes and bring them to us. He loves just walking around; up and down the sidewalk. He encountered a dog the other day, barking from an upstairs window in a neighboring house, and he looked back at me like he had come across gold...he was fascinated. So since he was standing there and glued to the spot, the dog kept barking, which only made B even happier. So we could move on with our "walk", I picked him up and as we were walking away I asked him what a doggy says, and he sure told me..."grrrr". Now he's moved on to saying "woof, woof", but it comes out as more of a cough, which is just as cute!

Getting started on blogging again was hard, only because I actually had to start, now that I have written a post, I now know I can do it and it's not that bad. My goal is to write every day, but I'll be happy if I write every 2 days. As I watch a movie or my beloved HGTV in the evening, I should be able to bang out a few sentences, maybe even more! I just want to be able to document all of my thoughts, feelings, and awesome things about Brendan, even a few of the bad things we encounter along the way. Typing on the computer is sooo much better than the written log I've been keeping for a few months!