December 2009

Our little Superman! Brendan is getting so big and doing great, though he has been sick off and on for the last month or so. He loves to run around and discover things. He also really likes to help me put away the laundry and the dishes, and he helps Eddie get the dog bowls to feed Nash & Sam. He is so much fun!

Here he is on the carousel at the mall! And just in case you are wondering, this is his excited face!

This last month, Brendan has correctly learned to identify his nose, ears, head, and belly! I think my big pregnant belly has been essential in teaching him this as you can see from the video above. He loves to kiss my belly when I ask him to give Kendall a kiss - so cute! 2 1/2 months to go before he is a big brother!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Everyone!

November 2009

Nash is finally allowing Brendan to pet and kiss him, which is a big feat for Nash who has turned into a crotchedy old man as of late. It took him 2 full years to accept Sam, so I guess Brendan got lucky! Brendan loves to pet (a.k.a. smack) the dogs and give them big kisses on their sides, tails, etc. It's pretty funny! And, whenever you ask Brendan to give someone a kiss now, he will always do it and it's pretty darn cute. Thankfully, he usually kisses people on the cheek, not the tail like the dogs!

We went to Houston for Thanksgiving and, while we were there, we took Brendan to the Houston Children's Museum, which is awesome! They even have an area designated specifically for toddlers, and Brendan had a blast! You could seriously spend all day in that place and, I learned afterwards, that it's considered one of the best children's museums in the U.S. I'm sure we will become regular visitors.

Brendan loved these cars which had wheels you could turn and horns you could beep. He looks so grown up here! Hopefully, he won't inherit his mother's love of speeding and his father's Road Rage when he gets to be a driver!

We should have suspected from a kid who loves to look at pictures of himself, that the mirrors in the museum would be a big hit, and they were! Here they had doors which you could knock on (yes, Brendan, has been knocking on doors, windows, and everything else lately) and ring the doorbell, and when you opened the door, there was a mirror. He was going crazy and laughing hysterically!

This picture came out blurry but I had to include it b/c one of Brendan's newest accomplishments is running. He has gotten pretty fast but still struggles with balance. He was so excited at the museum that he ran full speed ahead into this display and nearly split his head open. He got a big welt between his eyebrows which thankfully has dissipated into only a bad scratch but, after that, our trip to the museum ended quickly!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We have much to be thankful for this year!

October 2009

This was Brendan's first year to trick-or-treat, and he was the cutest little dinosaur ever! It will be hard to top this costume in years to come!

And Brendan's costume was the inspiration for the costumes Eddie & I wore to our friends' Halloween party, so we were the complete Stone Age family!

Other than rocking the Halloween costume, Brendan is doing great! He really enjoys being outside, and we have had some great weather lately for going to the park. He continues to be full of smiles and laughter and makes us happy every day!

I'm currently 5 months pregnant, and we just found out recently that Baby #2 is a GIRL!!! We couldn't be happier about this news and are looking forward to having one of each, since we don't intend to have more than 2 kids! ( : We are naming the baby Kendall Adrea, and she is due to arrive on March 18th (and I'm willing to bet she will be the hairy baby!...lol).

September 2009

Brendan is completely walking now, and it is so cute! He has gotten pretty fast, and his favorite new activity is chasing the "Pup-Pups" around the house, as he calls them. He is definitely talking more as well, with "Da-Da" probably being his favorite word. In fact when he hears Eddie walk in the door at the end of the day, he says "Da-Da!" and starts walking to the back door. Too cute! He also likes to take things out of containers and hand them to me, so I've gotten him to help me unload the dishwasher and the drier! Next month, I'm sure he'll have a part time job outside the house. LOL

He also started Mother's Day Out this month and has enjoyed it very much. He goes once a week for 5 hours. Every day the "teachers" put a little report in his tote bag which says how he did for the day. So far, he has been "Happy" every time and has had fun with all of the activities. He has even napped each day, so that has been great. I'm so happy he gets along so well with other people and doesn't have Seperation Anxiety whenever I drop him off. I'm really glad we got him involved with this.

My pregnancy is going well with no major problems to report. I'm 4 months along now so I'm starting to get my energy and appetite back. I'm looking forward to finding out the sex of the baby so I can start to work on his/her room which I get to design this time.

August 2009

Last month I visited my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Burt in Atlanta, and we had a family photo shoot with Nam Nguyen (www.namnguyen.com), who I met through a bride whose wedding I coordinated in June. Nam got some great shots of all of us, and here are some of my favorites!

Brendan really enjoyed his time at Sandy & Burt's - a whole new house for him to explore! They really loved getting to spend more time with him as well, as they had only seen him once since he had been born and that was over a year ago!

Brendan is up and walking all the time now and has almost completely abandoned crawling. He still falls down a lot but seems to be excited to view the world from an upright position!

Next month, Brendan is starting a Mother's Day Out program once per week and we're really excited for him! He loves to be around other kids but hasn't had a lot of experience with kids his own age and size since I'm not involved in any play groups or anything. We took him to meet his class last week and he had a great time!

The big news for us this month is that we are expecting another baby in March! Yes, we will have two kids under the age of 2 years old which is going to be crazy! However, this is the last child we plan to have so we are excited to give Brendan a little brother or sister. So far, pregnancy has been just about as crappy as it was the first time, but I'm hanging in there. Keep you posted!

July 2009

Happy Birthday to Brendan! It's hard to believe that our little guy is 1 year old! Time sure has flown by, and we have had a wonderful year being parents to the best little boy anyone could ask for! Now, since I have become an event planner, I have become a snob about cake, as you can see from the example above. I definitely spent way too much on Brendan's Backyardigans cake, but it was so cute! Now, the question is, did he like his first taste of cake?.......

.....safe to say he did! He even has a possessed look in his eyes. LOL! Now, his first haircut? Not a fan!

My friend and colleague Dorothy Gautreax (http://www.dorothygautreauxphoto.com/) took these wonderful family photos this month here in Dallas. We also took some in Atlanta with my side of the family but have yet to receive them. Here are three of my favorites.

Even his eyes are smiling. He is such a happy baby!

Another theme of this month has been getting stuck. This month, Brendan has discovered how to open all of the trashcans, including his diaper pail - EW! - but not always how to get his hand out of them. The doggy door is another famous place his hand gets stuck. But I caught two stuck moments on film this month. One with his butt stuck in the doggy bowl, and the other with a pea stuck in his ear. I know, I know....I'm the worst mom ever. ( :

I think by next month's blog, we'll be able to say that Brendan is officially walking. This month he started walking from place to place after pulling himself up onto something. However, he still favors crawling b/c it is much faster. Apparantly, he inheritied the "I hate to waste time" gene from me (poor kid).

See ya next month!

June 2009

This month we are definitely noticing how BIG Brendan is getting! His appetite is increasing and he is almost completely weaned off of baby food. He is getting closer to walking everyday and keeps trying to balance on his own. He still is full of smiles and laughter as you can see below!

Apparantly Brendan has gotten over his fear of the ballpit! Or perhaps he just prefers this new container! Whatever the reason, he dives into this thing like it was a swimming pool, and I spend a large part of everyday picking the balls up from all over the house! Speaking of the swimming pool, we take him regularly and he seems to actually like it now!

Although Eddie will never admit it, I know he is really glad we had a boy! After all, it would be tough for a girl to pull off Baby Batman like this. ( : In case you didn't know, his entire room is decorated in Superheroes. I think Eddie wishes that is how our room was decorated as well. Here Brendan is ready to jump in the Batmobile to save Gotham City...lol!

This month Brendan's cousin Gabriel came to visit from Denver while my brother Seth and his wife Lindsey were on vacation. Gabriel wasn't always a happy camper while he was here, but he and Brendan kept laughing at each other which was so cute. He is already walking, so maybe Brendan absorbed some of those great motor skills that my brother's kids both have!

Thanks to Andrea for letting me borrow this livesaver of a double stroller. The boys loved it, so we spent a lot of time going on walks, as you can see from their rosy cheeks from being outside in the hot Texas sun!

And, as I type this at 11:15 p.m., it is crazy to think that in exactly one hour my little baby will be a year old! Time goes by so fast, and we have been blessed with a wonderful baby and a wonderful year. And it is also very exciting to think that this June I am not walking around with 35 lbs of fluid in my legs and stomach! Ha! Summer is much more fun when you are not pregnant!

Next month....pics from Brendan's 1st Birthday! Aunt CeCe said it best, "I think it's so cool that he will always get fireworks on his birthday!"

May 2009

I can't believe May is already over and that little Brendan is almost 1 year old! Time really does fly! Brendan hasn't changed too much this month. He is definitely "talking" a lot more and squirmy as ever - getting into everything and constantly exploring. Here he is in his cute hat that his grandma bought for him. I used to think it looked goofy, but Eddie loves it. It's the only hat Brendan will leave on his head, and now that it's sunny, that works for me! ( :

I wouldn't say Brendan loves being in water, but he tolerates it! We bought this water table for him (yay Craiglist!) and take him to the swimming pool often. He always seems confused rather than interested but we are hoping he'll turn into a Water Baby one of these days! Yes, he stands up all the time but he can't do it without holding on to something. He walks while holding on to the couch, so maybe unsupported walking is coming soon!

Man, does this kid love to eat! No one could ever call Brendan a fussy eater, which makes things easy for Eddie and I. Here he is eating avocado which he loves to smear all over himself - usually some makes it into his mouth as well. And don't you dare eat in front of him if he doesn't get to eat! Whenever there is food around, he comes right over going "Mmmmm! Mmmmm!" and then usually freaks out. We think he learned this trick from Sam. It's really pretty funny but makes eating in restaurants pretty impossible.!

As if May wasn't crazy enough with 4 weddings and 1 charity event, Eddie and I decided to put our house up for sale to try and capitalize on the low interest rates and low housing prices in order to upgrade to a bigger model. We plan to stay in the North Dallas area, but we expect that our house will take quite awhile to sell seeing as how it looks like a million other houses in Frisco. Work for Eddie is still a daily beating as companies have not started to rehire. We did manage to sneak away for a weekend to Charleston, SC to see our Army friend Dave Uthlaut get married and spend time with our good friend Erik. All in all, it was a crazy month and I'm looking forward to a more relaxing June!

April 2009

It's hard to believe we took Brendan's 9 month pictures this month! He is growing up so quickly! He loves the camera and is the biggest ham!

During his Ninth Month, he has grown an additional tooth on the top to go with his snaggletooth, waves "Hello" and "Good-Bye," tries to clap, and says things like "Ba Ba" and "Ma Ma" which might be the cutest thing I have ever heard in my life! He has also figured out how to crawl behind the couch and open up cabinets, reminding us how behind we are on the babyproofing of the house! Enjoy the pics - I think they're some of his best!

March 2009

It's so funny how fickle babies can be! At my friend Leah's house, Brendan absolutely loved playing in the ball pit. So, of course, I went out and bought a bag of balls (which aren't cheap by the way!). When we got home and put Brendan in the pit, this was his reaction

He was completely frozen and stayed in this position for like 30 seconds. It was hilarious! Now he just crawls out of the ball pit as fast as he can.

Brendan hasn't really changed too much this month. He continues to crawl and pull up on everything in sight. His new favorite activities are tearing apart magazines and attempting to eat the pages, watching the dogs fight and laughing hysterically, wrestling with Eddie, and making a sound that sounds like a roar. It's pretty cute.

Also, he is getting one of his top teeth; however, it's a side tooth, not one of the front ones. It looks pretty funny. I think we are going to start having to call him Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel (watch The Simpsons!)

Super Baby! Here's Brendan imitating the super heroes who are all over his bedroom! He loves to reach for things that are far away from him such as the toys in the bathtub and the water in the toilet. Ew.

Two words every mother should know: CRAIG'S LIST! That is where I get most of Brendan's gear including the jogging stroller seen here! Unfortunately, the desire to jog is not available to purchase on Craig's List, but it makes for some nice walks to the park! ( :

Everyone begs for food in our house! Ha ha! Poor Sam was bestowed with the shock collar this month, though our sweet little dimwit Beagle doesn't seem to figure out the correllation. Ahh....he truly is like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, and he ate my copy of that book this month. There's irony for ya.

In other Commender family news, Eddie's job totally sucks right now as corporate recruiting is rather difficult when there are no jobs to recruit for. He is hanging in there, but it's not very much fun for him to go to work each day. At least he has happy little Brendan and his always cheerful wife to come home to. I'm here as well. ( :

Business is going well for me and I am very busy working on the charity gala that I am coordinating. If you'd like more information, visit www.soundsoftheseason.org.

TTYL

February 2009

Brendan's Favorite Activity = Standing Up On Everything! Here he is trying to get the dog's chew toys to chew on himself!

Such a happy little guy! He smiles all day long. We are very lucky!

We had to retire this chair when Brendan flipped himself over and started crawling away with it still attached!

A rare photo of Brendan & me after a bath - Eddie is the official bath giver! ( :

Playing with Daddy sure is tiring! Awwww!

In other Commender family news, I just got back from being in Warsaw, Poland for 5 days to referee the Men's World Cup of judo, which was very exciting. I barely got to see any of the city, but it seemed pretty interesting! Eddie has been busy with work as well as a volleyball league that he joined. Business for me is still going well, and you can view my latest events at www.significanteventsoftexas.com/tag/weddings

January 2009

Happy New Year! It's amazing how much Brendan changes in such little time. In the last month he has started crawling, pulling up to standing, and cutting teeth! Of course, this means that he is back to waking up at night to alert us of his new skills, but it's pretty cute to see him standing up in his crib! Eddie had to lower the mattress because one day Brendan looked like he was about to climb over the top. So, now I guess I really have to pay attention to him....( :

Look at those teeth! They are sharp!

A crawling machine!

So excited to stand!