Helper

Brennan is really concerned with helping me out.  Much more than Sara ever was, although Sara is a fantastic helper now.  Brennan studies everything I'm doing and he really likes helping with the dishwasher especially.  First I take out the glasses dishes and knives while he cries impatiently.  Then he gets to take all the plastic dishes out and he says "go", short for "here you go" and then he hands them to me.  Sometimes if he knows were they go, he will even put them away.  I finally got a video of him helping.  He also likes to put trash in the trash can.  He can usually even separate out the recyclables.

Also, he's been talking up a storm.  Every day he tries to say new things.  He says iphone, Uh Oh, ow, go, ball, us, ice, and bye bye, and balloon among other things.  He also makes all kinds of animal noises too.  Here is a little video I got oh him speaking that is really cute. I can't believe he sat still that long for me to get the video.  What was even funnier was for him to watch himself on the video.  He was really interested and wanted to watch the video I took of him over and over and made the noises all over again.

He is growing up really fast, I can't believe it's only about 4 months until his birthday, that just can't be right.  Time just flew by. Before we know it, he'll be going to kindergarten like his sister this year.

Flashy dresser and fast learning talker

Brennan is talking more now all of the sudden.  He will try to say any word that you say to him.  This week he was trying to say rice and ice because he really loves those foods.  Sometimes he is saying words for something and it takes me a while to figure out what he is saying.  Tonight he was helping me put away the dishes and every time he handed me something about of the dish washer he said "go".  I think he means "here you go" because he hears me say that to Sara and vice versa, but he just shortened it.  I need to get a vid of him unloading the dish washer and saying go, it's really funny.

Here is a video I got of him tonight saying a few things.  I wish I could have remember more words to ask him to say.

In addition to speaking more and laughing a lot and being a prankster, Brennan also has his own sense of style.

He loves to wear Sara's multi-colored hat, her cat hat, and her pink sparkly shoes. 

Sometimes his hair acts a little crazy too, like this morning when he woke up with a mohawk.

He is also all of the sudden eating a lot more.  I don't know why, maybe a growth spurt but he wants to be in his food chair all day long.  He can climb up in it by himself now so he does that quite often and then cries for food even if it's only been 10 minutes since he ate last. Maybe it is because he is so active.  He never stops or slows down.  This morning he walked all over the neighborhood with us without asking to be picked up. I guess he's working up an appetite.

He is a prankster too.  He likes to hide in closets and ambush us, or sneak into a room and jump out shouting.  He also likes to pretend like he's going to bite you and then say "Ow".  Lately too he has had a really maniacal laugh, he really thinks it's funny when he gets a rise out of his sister. 

Hole in my heart

Brennan's pediatrician recommended we go see a pediatric cardiologist in order to asses the loud heart murmur he was hearing at Brennan's 18th month appt.  So we went to Children's Hospital and had him evaluated today.   There was a huge freak snow storm this morning too which shut down the freeway in some spots and there were accidents everywhere, which almost gave Mom a heart attack just getting there.

At the appointment they first did an EKG on Brennan.  He was covered in electrodes and wires.  In order to keep him still, the person administering it blew bubbles at him and gave some to Sara so she could blow bubbles for him too.  That kept him mesmerized long enough for the machine to get a reading.  Then he had to have his blood pressure taken on all four limbs which was no easy feat either.

Then when the doctor came in to see him she listed to his heart every which way, standing up, sitting down, laying down, from the back and front.  Amazingly enough while she was doing all this, Brennan sat perfectly still, like he must have known it was important.

After it was all over his doctor told us that all of his tests came back normal. She did hear a small hole in between his chambers and she said that possibly it is louder because it's trying to close up.  She said that there is almost no chance of him needing surgery and that by age 5 there is a likely hood that it will close up on its own.  She said until then that we should come back once a year to have it monitored and that they might do some imaging of it by the time he's 3 if it's still there.

I told her about the MVP in Dan's family and asked if it was related.  She said no, that it is a birth defect of some kind not related to any type of family history.  She said that in all likely hood he will never notice any effects.  She did say if the hole stays then they may need to tell us some things to do a precautions for him in the future.   She also said it is not related to his breath holding spells.

I hope we don't have any more issues with it and he can live a totally normal life.

Home Spun Fun

Our trifecta of family blogs would not be complete without a post on "light balls" as we call them.  The kids love these rubber balls that light up brilliantly when you throw them.  We've collected about 7 of them now and they are like kiddie crack.  It's hard to take pictures of them because you can't really tell how cool they are.  I thought I had gotten a pretty good video but apparently I need to learn how to take video on my new camera.

Here is Brennan playing light ball.

Brennan also likes to run around with his sisters fairy wings on.

Tonight, the kids also had fun making a tent in the living room.

Someone is wild-eyed.

He likes to wear star fish hats and his sisters backpack

Last week Daddy brought home a fun toy from his convention.  Light up margarita glasses, apparently those make great hats.

Brennan says a few new words, which I also thought I had recorded.  He says backpack, boots, and book.  He can make lots of animal noises, his current favorites are meow and gobble gobble.

Not another doctor's appt!

Brennan had his 18 month check up this week and I was thinking to myself, only 1 more doctor's appt when he turns 2 and then we're done!!!  Well, it was too good to be true.

His pediatrician listened to his heart and detected a murmur that he felt uncomfortable with, so he recommended we see a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital up in Salt Lake for a further evaluation.  His actual diagnosis was "The heart murmur sounds a little harsh today- to be sure that he does not have a heart defect that might need further treatment, I recommend he see the Pediatric Cardiologist for further evaluation."

His pediatrician said if Brennan does have a defect that it's not severe, or else we would have noticed him being low energy and that is DEFINITELY not the case at all.  He has enough energy for 6 kids.  Mitral Valve Prolapse runs in Dan's family, almost every member of his family has it and my grandmother has it as well.  So chances are it's only something like that and nothing really to worry about.  Still, as a mother it's hard not to worry a bit.   Also, the doctor says as a hole is closing in the heart sometimes is gets "louder", and that might account for it. 

Also, Brennan has had trouble maintaining his iron levels (although the last 2 checks it was almost normalized) so at his 18 month appt they drew three vials of blood for further testing.  Hopefully the results will come back all fine.  He hasn't had any breath holding spells since he had the flu in January.  We've probably gone three weeks without one, so I'm hoping that that is finally getting better and maybe his iron will start to climb.  Anyway, I'm curious to ask the Pediatric Cardiologist if all of these different symptoms are related. 

Thankfully Brennan's growth was much better this time.  He had almost fallen off the chart last time and the doctor said if he has another visit with low percentiles that we'd have to investigate that too.  However he weighed in at 23.6 pounds, so 16% percentile, and 32in in height, or 37%, so the doctor was happy with that.  The doctor actually said his growth was "excellent".

Brennan has all the sudden started talking more, he says : knock knock, Poo Poo (Yay),  Ouch (when he hits you), and the cutest thing he says is Uh Oh.

He has also started head butting and hitting and even biting.  He bit me pretty good this week and I bit him right back.  So far, he hasn't done it again.

On the plus side, he has the cutest smile and he loves his Mommy!  He loves to cuddle and nuzzle and he likes when we sit on the floor and play trains or cars and tickle him.

He has started feeding himself with a spoon, even messy things like yogurt and he also drinks from a regular cup now, with no straw.   Also, he's not too proud to have sister feed him, he actually thinks it's pretty funny.

I'm excited to see what he is like at 2 years old.  I wonder if he'll be talking up a storm like his sister and I wonder how he'll adjust to the new house.

We love our little Moosa and it's good to know he's growing and thriving, despite the difficulties he's had.

He just went tubing for the first time this week and, being the adrenaline junky that he is, he of course loved it.

This picture says it all :

18 Months

Brennan will be 18 months by Friday.  It's been a rough go for us I think.  I don't know maybe this is all normal.  It's also been a bit of a blur.   Can you tell I'm a tired Mother?

So far the post-ear-tube update is good I suppose.  We all caught a terrible flu the first of January and Brennan did get another ear infection.  However this time instead of having to take another course of oral antibiotics, we got to use ear drops.  It was so so much easier.  I just hope it worked.  He is still pulling and picking at his ears and still cranky.  So as for as the true efficacy of it all,  I guess the jury is still out.

I think we have acclimated to some of his behavior.  The climbing is better, he still climbs everything but he does not fall off and hit his head as much, so that's good.  He still clocked himself pretty good this week by falling backwards off a chair onto the tile, so it's not totally out of the picture.  He still opens every cabinet and drawer.  I'm not sure whether it's right to blame him or us, because we are too lazy to install cabinet locks and drawer latches on every drawer.  Dan thinks though at a certain point, he just needs to learn what "no" means and so far, he's not very clear on what that means yet.  According to his behavior, he thinks no means to stop for a second until parents aren't looking and then real quick like, sneak back and do it again.

Still it helps that he is really cute and he gives kisses now and hugs generously.  He is talking more  and  he is really trying hard to say things complete with expressive hand gestures, even if we can't figure it out.  Surprisingly, he is getting good at saying "no, get down".  I wonder if it's because he hears it 100 times a day.  He also seems to understand quite a bit more, like when we say "night night" he runs to his bedroom door and stands there.  Also he is getting quite a bit more interested in books.  He will gladly bring books to us and tonight he was trying to repeat back words in his food book, I'm pretty sure I heard him say pizza.  If he likes books half as much as Sara, we'll be doing good.  So far he doesn't really have the patience to sit with you very long, but that is getting better slowly.

I am still concerned about his weight.  He's still around 21 or 22 lbs and he might even be off his weight chart now for his age.  He has really be refusing food a lot lately, not sure why.  I have been trying other options such as high fat shakes.  I make him a Greek yogurt, heavy cream, whole milk, banana, strawberry, and orange shake everyday, sometimes twice a day.  He does not drink any just plain milk on his own so we've been trying to figure out ways to add fats in any way we can.  Also I add flax seed oil in there by the tablespoon.  Another good thing is that he will eat an entire avocado in one sitting.  That's got to be good for something.  As far as other veggies, he's not such a big fan of them as Sara is.

He also is still holding his breath.  He goes through phases where it's really bad, like when he had the flu, it was three times a day.   Small things would set him off.  Now that he's feeling better, we haven't had a spell in days and it's been nice.  His doctor wanted to run some blood work to analyze his blood to see if he has any genetic disorders or diseases that keep him from maintaining his iron levels (which is related to the breath holding).  He is still on iron supplements and his iron levels have come up, but they are right on the boarder of being normal.

I hope we continue to get used to having a boy, it is quite a change and has been very challenging, more than I expected.  I'm excited for him to get bigger so hopefully I won't have to worry quite as much, in theory.  I'm sure my experience is similar to many other moms with little boys, but it's all quite new to me.  He is teaching us a lot about it all and we love him.

Brennan has really been into horsey rides lately.  Lately Daddy and Sara have been taking turns being the horsey, they wear a belt around their chest so he can hold on.

Tubes and Pacis

Brennan recently had another ear infection and even though our pediatrician said I had to wait until he had 5 ear infections this year (he was only on #3).  I had had enough.  He had probably had 10 or more since he was 2 months old.  He was already resistant to multiple antibiotics and we had just had enough of all the doctor visits, late nights crying, pain medication, etc.   We were ready for action so I took it upon myself to make an appt with the ENT. 

Immediately he scheduled us for surgery.  He looked in Brennan's ears and listened to his story and recognized a chronic problem.  He said Brennan was a prime candidate for the surgery.  The surgery would only take 15 minutes but he would have to be put under general anesthesia.  Luckily this doctor had done hundreds of these surgeries and we felt like we were in great hands. 

We took Brennan early in the morning  week later for his surgery.  Here is a pic of Daddy holding him in his Silvester hospital gown as he getting prepped.

I wasn't very nervous for the surgery.  I really felt like it was the right thing.  The doctor said that almost all kids with tubes never get infections again.  It was worth the risk considering the alternative, possibly years of ear infections. 

Brennan flipped out when we handed him to the nurse and was crying really badly when he came out of surgery.  The rest of the day he seemed fine though.  We gave him ibuprofen for two days and he still picked at his ears like they felt funny but we thought maybe it was just because he could actually hear again.  He had heavy thick fluid in his ears before and now it should be draining from the tubes.

We went back for his post surgery check up, 10 days later, and they said everything looks great.  The tubes are in place and there is no built up fluid.  We have to be careful to not get his ears full of water, but other than that, he's good to go.  He's a new Moosey.  We can all breath a sigh of relief.

Another big change is that we are trying to ween him off his paci now that he's not having ear trouble.  It's been a huge challenge.  He cries and cries for it but we feel like it's the right time.  We had just weened him before his burn accident and gave the paci back, but now that he's not in a lot of pain, we feel like he can do without it.

Hopefully by Sara's birthday he'll be totally paci free.  We have noticed however that he seems to be replacing it with a fleece blanket fetish.  I guess then that we'll deal with that.  Also, he's really attached to his Daddy to the point where if Dan walks out of the room or out of his sight, he'll hold his breath and pass out.  So clearly, we still have lots of issues to work on, one at a time...

Here are some really cute pics of him recently!

2013 is going to be a great year for Brennan, he'll turn 2 years old!  We love him, he's cute, and we are looking forward to seeing him grow, play, and learn.