Moosey speaks

Moose started speaking on Monday.  He says "Dada", "Mama", and "Baba".  Seven months old is the same time that Sara said "Mama" too.  Of course I followed him around with a camera all week and this is all I could get.  If he sees the camera at all he stops doing it.

Now when we put him in his bed he cries mama and dada too.  He also makes lots of loud chirping and hollering sounds.  When Dan is holding him he likes to tense up his whole body until his head turns red and grunt really loud.  He does it to me too but rarely.  One night he did it to Dan so many times that Dan thought he might be choking.  It must be a male thing.  Dan thinks that Brennan thinks he has to appear big and mean to Daddy or he might get eaten.  

I kind of wonder if Brennan is going to be really loud and talkative like his sister or if he'll end up being quieter. 

He's been crawling around faster now and getting into more trouble. I've really got my work cut out for me.  Just this week alone he tried to crawl behind the couch, he crawled up to the shoe cubby and started taking all the shoes out, and he crawled into the kitchen several times.  He's tall when he sits up too so he can reach things higher up.  I'm going to have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he does not pull anything down on himself or get any toys or chunks of food he's not supposed to have.  He's already into way more trouble than Sara ever was.

Moose loves to laugh at his sister.  She is really getting good at entertaining him.  She likes to do things endlessly that entertain him and make him laugh like pretending to fall and making raspberry noises.  He thinks she's the funniest thing ever.  She also likes to tickle him and sit him up in her lap and show him pictures in books.

This week I went down and got a bunch of Sara's baby books out for Brennan and put them on the floor.  He looked so grown up sitting on the floor looking at them, but most he wanted to determine if they were edible.

He's happy in his high chair because he knows it means food.

Playing on the floor with Sara.  He can sit himself up now.

Maybe a better nick name for him would have been butterball.  He's just so cute and round and happy.
His face is really starting to look more grown up too.  He will be 7 months old next week!

Brennan's first real ski trip

Moose had his first real ski trip this weekend too. We skied about 4 miles up the Nebo summer road.  He happily rode in the trailer and I think I even over dressed him with pajamas and a snow suit.  When I check on him in the trailer it was like a sauna and I had to unzip his snow suit and open the vents.  He didn't cry once though.  He slept for about an hour and was awake for an hour.

He and Sara seem to do well sharing the trailer, occasionally they have some space issues but for the most part I think they are happy in there.  I'm so glad we got the double ski trailer this year.

Brennan's first real hike

We took Brennan on his first real weekend trip, hike, and ski this weekend.  He hardly cried at all for three days.  It was strange for me because Sara, as a baby, cried all weekend when we went somewhere, she was miserable.  Her stomach always freaked out, she always was sick, and she always got a really red butt on trips. 

Brennan didn't even complain about sleeping in his play pen, which also freaked Sara out.  We put him in it and he thought the sides of it were cool, he fun running his fingers along the sides making a "swooshing" sound.  Amazingly, he didn't cry when we put him in it or in the morning when he woke up.  He slept all night!! That's something Sara also never did.

Brennan was so easy going, as long as we kept him fed, he played happily.  It probably helps that he has Sara to look at the whole way in the car.  She loves entertaining him and will do anything to make him laugh.  I just can't wait to see what his personality will be like, if this is any indication, he will be easy going I suppose.

He ate well on the trip.  He ate peas, chicken and cottage cheese, egg yolks, and blueberry yogurt.  He ran out of food the day we came home, so I mashed him up some banana and some rice cereal and he was happy to eat that.

Here is a video of Sara entertaining him on our trip in Capitol Reef.

Here are some pics of him on the hike.  He LOVED playing in the sand.

Hiking with Moose

We took Sara and Moose hiking the other day in Rock Canyon.  I don't think it's Brennan's first hike but it might be his coldest hike.  It was his first hike being in the backpack and not the front facing carrier.  It was amazing when I  put him down into the backpack and remembering that Sara was 8 or 9 months before she fit into it like he does.  He did really great, he didn't cry one time.  He really loves to go and be out, whether it's in the car, walking, or hiking.  I hope sometime this winter we can take him in the ski trailer too.

Life with Moose

Brennan is doing well.  Much to our relief he is sleeping 12 hours a night!  I think he would even sleep longer in the morning if we didn't wake him up.  Usually Dan has to wake him up at 9 a.m. to tell him goodbye before he leaves for work.  It's been nice for me to not have to get up at 3 or 4 a.m. and to be able to lay in bed and read a book until 9. 

It's also been great that he puts himself to bed.  We have the same routine every night.  We put him in his sleep sack so he stays warm, everyone hugs and kisses him, and them we put him in his crib wide awake.  He puts himself to sleep in minutes with no crying.  During the day he struggles a bit more with his naps.  Sometimes he'll cry 5 or 10 minutes before he sleeps but it's not frantic crying just tired crying.  I try not to put him down for nap unless he's really read to fall asleep. 

I also noticed on the days he takes better naps, his room is darker due to it raining outside.  I think I need to make his window even darker for him during the day. 

This photo is funny because it looks like he chewed his hand off, he was sucking on his sleeve.  This pic shows how he can half way sit up by himself.

He has learned to sit half way up and if you put him down in a sitting position he can stay there about 10 seconds.   He can get around the room faster now.  Still not sure he's really crawling yet but he wants to follow us around the room and he can get there within a few seconds, push, pull, or drag. 

He's eating tons of new foods.  Today he ate a chicken, rice, and cottage cheese puree that he really loved.  I think his favorite is still the blueberry, apple, and maple syrup yogurt that I make for him.  I love the color of it too, it's ultra-violet (our carpet hasn't love it so much).   Now that he's been sleeping so long at night, he wakes us starving and it takes him a long time to feel full.  He has learned to scream and he screams loudly until you stuff him with food and then he'll calm down and be mostly happy the rest of the day.  I've been feeding him until he can't hold any more in the morning.

He always has a smile for us every time we look at him.  Also he's learned to furrow his brow if something puzzles him and it's really cute.   We really enjoy being around him.  Dan is always coming and taking him from me and playing on the floor with him, he really wants his Moose time.  Sara loves to play on the floor with him, lately she likes to tickle him and he really gets to laughing, and she reads him her books.  He is just a happy guy that is fun to be around.  He still can be a little bit stinky though.

6 Month check-up

Brennan had his 6 months check up today.  His growth was good, he was in the 25th percentile for weight and length and 50th percentile for his head. 

Weight 16.14 Height 26in Head 17.5in

The doctor discovered that his neck is stiff on one side which could later affect his posture so we have to do neck stretching exercises.  Also he had fluid on both ears but they weren't infected, so the doctor told us to speak louder to him so that he can hear the sounds and doesn't have trouble with his speech.  Hopefully the fluid will resolve on its own.  I told him that Sara has that covered, she likes to shout at him in his ear.  Also, his left eye gets goopy and the doctor said that we just needed to watch it and hopefully it'll improve as he approaches a year, that it is most likely a blocked tear duct.

The doctor used all kinds of toys and rattles to distract Brennan and check his eyes.  It was pretty entertaining.  He used a parrot flashlight that squawked and flashed to check Brennan's hearing and startle reflex.  Sara was entertained by it too.

The doctor seemed to think that Brennan should only be just starting to come off rice cereal and eat green veggies and nothing else.  I did not confess that Brennan eats the whole kitchen already.  Also he suggested we give him fluoride even though he has no teeth.  I've always been opposed to fluoride because it's basically a chemical.  My kids don't eat tons of sugar and so far we haven't had any teeth trouble so I don't see the need to add fluoride if you don't need it.

We also talked about Brennan's sleep habits.  He sleeps on his stomach more now and I think he's much happier and he sleep much more soundly.  He still has trouble taking naps during the day but he's a professional at sleeping through the night already.

Sara said something funny to the doctor.   I like that our doctor asks Sara questions  about Brennan too, he is very engaging.  He asked what she though of Brennan and she said, "He pukes all over everything, all over my stuff!"  The doctor thought that was funny.  Also, when he was showing me the neck stretches, he had to really pull Brennan's neck to the side a lot and Sara said, "Don't pop his head off, be careful with our baby".  The doctor said he would always remember that and he laughed really hard.  He told her that she was a good big sister for being so concerned.  We went ahead and got Brennan his flu shot today as well even though flu season is not that bad.  I had a hard time deciding what to do though.  Mostly because I didn't want him getting 5 shots today, it was sad but he didn't cry as bad as Sara did.

Lastly, Brennan is trying to sit up by himself.  He can sit half way up.  It's so exciting to see him going through the stages of development.  He still hasn't crawled yet but at least we have a nice child gate up now for when he figures it out!