Thursday, February 7, 2013

11 months - Brekan

Happy 11 Months Brekan!

My how he is growing! I thought this month I would list a few of the new things Brekan is learning/doing and some of his favorite things, then share the rest in pictures of my precious little guy. It's hard to believe that he will be 1 so soon! This first year has flown by!

Brotherly Love Games
 

Little B is up to so much these days. In the last month he has...

*developed a love for Peek-a-boo! He loves to cover his hands over his eyes and play peek-a-boo. He will also do this with blankets and has been for some time now, but he just learned how to do peek with his hands. He and Coleman will play this game together in the car if Coleman is feeling "helpful"


 


*He is close to saying "uh oh" and is learning what it means. He now loves to throw things on the ground from his high chair or exersaucer just to hear me say "uh oh", but he has started to say "uh" at least! He will sometimes says 'mama' but he's very good at 'dada'. 'Da' tends to be his word when he wants to tell us something, and sometimes I think I hear "dis" as in 'this' like he wants to know what something is. He is really loving to babble and squeal to tell us things. I love having Coleman try and converse with him like I do. B will babble and then Coleman will say "oh really? then what happened?" just like I do so he can tell us more....it's precious.


*B is full of drama! He's my little drama-king. He can get so upset over the smallest thing it's quite funny. In the pic below, he was upset because he bumped his head on the fabric toy bin that held the stuffed animals...you would have thought the world was ending by his dramatic cry


*He still loves to bury his head/head butt things. I really think it's his way of giving us love or telling us he's tires. Either way, Coleman hates that he does this...lol.

love this precious face and spikey hair!
 
 
*Brekan LOVES the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and can do the little spider motion and the "wash the spider out" motion. He loves to hear us sing this song!

*Brekan learned to stand on his own. He is cruising around all sorts of furniture and pushing toys around, but he learned to let go and stand on his own. He is also starting to stand up on his own from a seated position.

taken on the day he learned to stand on his own - he wasn't too thrilled to be showing off his new trick when I finally got the camera!
 
 
*Brekan now signs: more, all done, and is very close to signing 'eat'. He is an expert at waving hello and goodbye too
a little blurry, but he's signing "more"


*Lately he has developed a love for books. He likes us to read to him and he's starting to point at the pages.

Here's Brekan with my grandpa (his Opa) who is 94, I'm so lucky that my grandpa can get to know his great grandsons


*Brekan is learning to self-feed now. It's a messy process but he's doing great and LOVES using the spoon and eating independently. I'm more okay with it than Justin (he just doesn't like the mess it makes) :)

 
  
 

 
Can't wait to see what the little guy will be up to when he's 1 next month!
watch out world, I can do stairs!
 

Friday, February 1, 2013

Brekan 9 & 10 months

* I had this post done at the beginning of Jan...but blogpost.com was being weird and wouldn't let me upload photos! (Corie, I know you'll be happy to read something since I think you're the only one who reads my blog!) =) I've got about 5 more blog ideas I'm working on, February will be the month of blogposts!! *


Happy 10 months Brekan Randall! My how you are growing!

Here is a little bit of what our little B has been up to the past 2 months.

On 11-14-12 Brekan officially crawled. He has been on the go ever since. He is now becoming quite the little speed crawler too! He loves to explore the house and get in to everything. We noticed that Brekan is much more of a climber than his older brother was. He learned to do stairs pretty quickly (we are trying to teach him to go feet first on the way down, but most of the time we just carry him down and let him crawl up). Along with crawling, Brekan loves to pull himself up onto anything and stand. He is cruising around tables and the couch with ease. He also likes to pull himself onto the dishwasher to "help" me. He has enjoyed playing with the special magnets on the refrigerator too!
 
 


We are thankful for the baby gate to put at the bottom of the stairs in the basement so he can't climb up them without us. Coleman is also thankful for the baby gate because it allows him to have some space to play with the "smaller" toys that B can't have. Brekan doesn't like the gate so much because it keeps him from being with his big brother. On our "fun" days, Coleman whines because Brekan is in his stuff, then I put the gate up and Brekan whines because he can't get to his big brother.


Brekan loves to crawl UNDER things. He loves tunnels and he loves to crawl underneath the table in the kitchen and the chairs. He doesn't like it so much when he sits back down and can't sit straight up because the chair is too low for him, he bonks his head and cries. Silly Brekan or "silly drekan" as Coleman would say.

Brekan has also developed a love for head butting things. He like to ram his head into the wall, chairs, us, you name it, he loves to bump it....I think it's his way of saying "I love you"....at least that's what we tell Coleman when he does it to him!

Breky B is a little eating machine too. He is now beginning to eat more of the same foods as us and is starting to do lots of self feeding which is making mealtimes more exciting and messy. He now says "mmmm" when he eats too. He is starting to enjoy snacks like puffs, baby mums, and teething biscuits! He also enjoyed putting anything and everything in his mouth - we have had to up the sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming at our house and separate toys too (hence the baby gate playing idea). I often find him crawling around the basement or upstairs with a toy in his mouth like he's a dog walking around with a bone. Silly Brekan.

Around 9 months Brekan had a hard time trying to fall asleep. He would get himself to sit up but couldn't figure out how to lay back down. He would end up falling asleep folded in half and we would have to "unfold" him before we went to bed. I was so worried that he would stop breathing or something because of all his precious rolls, but the Dr. reassured me that all was fine and he would eventually figure out how to put his legs behind him. I'm happy to say that now he has figure this concept out and is sleeping well at night (for the most part....he is a very restless/noisy sleeper and moves around a ton at night!)


Brekan's tricks he now knows: waving, clapping, "so big", "go crazy" ie. shake his head back and forth with a smile. He likes to do tongue clicks and babble his lips together when we do that too. He also likes to high-5 his daddy at the dinner table and is very ticklish under his arms. He is also very close to signing "more" and "all done"! He also loves to play peek-a-boo. He will play this by using the doors around the house or covering up with a blanket in the car.
SO BIG!
 
PEEK!
PEEK A BOO brothers!

Another big thing Brekan has been working on is TEETHING! He has his bottom 2 teeth in already, but over the holidays the top front 4 have been making their way down and causing a lot of fussiness from our almost-never-fussy B. It's been hard trying to figure out the right remedy to help relieve him from this pain. I'm pretty sure I've seen 2 of the 4 break through, I'm just hoping the other 2 begin to come in quickly!

We continue to be amazed at Brekan's happy go-lucky personality. He is all around a great baby. He is content to watch and observe around him, he likes to explore everything, and you wont catch him crying unless he's teething, wet/dirty, or tired. We are so lucky. I love to see the differences between him and his brother and I wonder how they will play together as Brekan becomes more engaged in pretend play and when he starts walking and talking - it should be fun!