Maggie's Journal

Yesterday morning was Brenden’s first time to see Patrick since he (Patrick) got home from his trip. When Patrick went in and got Brenden out of bed, he said that Brenden looked at him funny for a few minutes and then started clapping and giggling. But sadly, their night visit didn’t go so well.

Brenden didn’t believe me when I told him that I heard the garage door going up and that it was daddy coming home. But after several moments of hesitations and looks back at me, he did go to the door to wait for him. When Patrick came in, Brenden was excited. But Brenden did not want to be held by Patrick and soon turned cranky. Patrick tickled and rough housed with him to try to get him in a better mood and it was starting to work, until the fall. Brenden went to stand up, but fell forward instead, cutting his open mouth on the lip of his toy drum.

And here’s where Patrick and I discover we don’t handle our child bleeding very well. We couldn’t see where exactly the blood was coming from and Brenden wasn’t letting us look at his mouth while he screamed and screamed. And the blood wasn’t stopping. So we decided to take him to the emergency room. While I was gathering a diaper, a bottle and the paper I was working on that was due the next day to prepare for the long emergency room wait, Brenden did finally stop crying and the bleeding slowed down. As we were debating whether or not we should still go to the emergency room he started to twitch, which helped us make up our mind in a hurry.

We ended up going to our urgent care place rather than the emergency room because once we got in the car it seemed like maybe we’d overreacted. But since we couldn’t see the injury and it was in his mouth where food (if he would eat anything besides cheeries and gerber tomato chip thingys) would irritate it.

The doctor, who had no trouble getting inside Brenden’s now wide-open-with-a-smile mouth, said it was a very superficial cut and that he would be fine. So it all ended ok, but it sure had us scared for a bit. And poor Patrick felt like he had broken the baby.

Today my friend Kelli and I took Brenden to the Dallas Arboretum. Kelli is a photographer and wanted to do some practice shots of Brenden in a pretty setting so we went and enjoyed the morning. It was so pretty and peaceful. Brenden had fun walking barefoot in the grass and getting his feet dipped into two different fountains. Here are some of the pictures I took.

After we got home from there, Brenden took a great big nap. When he woke up, I spent about 15 minutes airing up and filling with water a small pool I bought for him several weeks ago and had yet to use. He really wasn’t that impressed, he would have preferred it if I’d let him wander in the grass.

We had a rough afternoon of defiante baby getting into absolutely everything while in demolition man mode and then laughing when I told him no. So we went out for a little ride and both came home in better moods. And Brenden played a little hockey before turning in for an early night of rest.

Brenden has been very entertaining these last few weeks. He just keeps showing more and more personality and learning more and more things. Like how to climb into and onto different things:

He’s still working on how to get down from the table and will scream until someone comes to help him.

He’s also finally caught on to the idea of banging on pots and pans being fun. It used to just make him flinch when I tried to demonstrate. So now he plays while I make dinner:

On Monday he went into his room and got his hockey stick and the little ball that came with it, put the ball down on the ground and hit it with the stick. He’s never connected those two things until that moment. Too bad his Dad didn’t get to see that!
Wednesday while Brenden napped, my Mom and I worked on taking cleaning up the yard so the anal retentive homeowners association would be happy. I was finishing up hand edging our sidewalks (our edger seems to be broken) when Brenden woke up. My Mom brought him outside with a toy broom she had gotten him and he helped clean up. He also liked the super huge rake. He had a lot of fun until he got hot, tired and cranky. I wish I’d gotten a picture of him “helping”.

Last night he worked for half an hour to eat macaroni and cheese with a spoon from a bowl. His mean mother didn’t realize how mean it was to give him a spoon for macoroni until he tried to use it the first time. I then promptly took the spoon away and tried to get him to eat with his fingers but he was having none of that. He wanted to get that stuff on the spoon. He was so determined. He did manage it a few times, but the noodles would just slip off again. Poor guy.

He’s still continuing his love of the phone and even occassionally talking to people on the real phone. Patrick, who is away for work this week, and I have been doing video chats on the computer and Brenden will run to the phone on the fax machine to try to talk to Patrick who he can see on the computer. He’s so confused by that one, but he gets a big smile on his face when he sees his Daddy!

He is really in to taking my sunglasses of my face or the top of my head and putting them on his face. Somehow this has also become a love of taking my headbands off to do the same. When I came home from school one day this week, I found him wearing my Mom’s headband!

And finally, a cute shot my Mom took of Brenden and Shadow:

This weekend was rather busy and we had Brenden all over the place. Here he is catching some quiet time on his new toy (actually, boxes with doors to our bookshelves that we bought on Sunday so Brenden wouldn’t eat any more of our books).

I’ve been reading up on the pools available for us to use in town and today Brenden and I went to test out a small splash park. He wasn’t sure what to think of all the loud crazy bigger kids running around or the big sprays of water, but the nice little one was good.

Brenden has started pointing and mimicing much more. He wants to have words, but just doesn’t know them yet, which is starting to frustrate him.

I started summer school on Monday and it has been hard on Brenden. Summer school is Monday-Thursday, so instead of just leaving the house two days a week, I’m leaving four. He does not care for it. Yesterday my Dad and I both told Brenden not to do something and he took off crying down the hall with hurt little feelings. I feel bad for him, but luckily summer school only lasts a month and then I’m off until the end of Aug.

with the sidewalk. Though to be truthful it was more like a trip, fall, and roll onto the head. As you can see in the pictures, despite a big stawberry on the head, he was fine.

We watched some interesting movies this weekend. We had started Man of the Year with Robin Williams and Laura Linney while we were on our cruise. One day it was shown over and over on this one channel and when we were in the room for Brenden’s nap time we caught part. Then when we went to bed we caught some more, but we couldn’t stay awake to see how it ended. So we put it on netflix and finally saw the rest. It was pretty good. The premise is that a Jon Stewart type comedian ends up running for president and winning but it was a glitch in some software that allowed him to win. The political commentary was great, but the movie seemed like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama and there were a few things that didn’t get set up very well.

We also watched Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. It apparently bombed when it was in theaters, but I really liked it a lot. Orlando Blooms character is having a pretty rough time and the way he plays it reminds me of Christian Bale in American Psycho. There are some parts that are kind of akward. Kirsten Dunst character is a little looney. The message of the story is that even though painful things happen in life, if you allow yourself to see them, wonderful things also happen.

This weekend Brenden decided that it was absolutely hysterical if I told him no. Don’t play with wires. Ha ha Mama. Don’t get all your clothes out of the dresser and try to pull the dresser over on yourself. Ha ha ha. Don’t stand up in your chair. This one actually turned into a game before I realized it. I’d tell him no.He wouldn’t sit down. I’d go put him on his butt. He’d laugh and then stand back up. So I took the chair away. Ha!

We went to see our friend’s new baby on Saturday and Brenden was very intrigued. That is the first time he’s been around a baby that was any more than maybe a month or so younger than he is. He kept stopping to look at the baby. He seemed to think the baby was pretty cool until I went to hold him. That was not so cool.

We also got to spend some time with Brenden’s great grandmother which was very nice. Brenden especially liked the idea that most things in her house seemed breakable and were at his level!

One night this weekend the silly boy decided it would be fun to climb on Daddy’s back. And it was even more fun than he originally thought, so he had to keep doing it! And laughing.

Today he learned how to put his fake coins into his piggy bank. He got it for his birthday and up until now has not been able to figure out how to get the coins turned the right direction to fit in the slot. I’ve been sticking them in the slot where they sort of catch and letting him push them the rest of the way in. But today he figured it all out and was doing it over and over. He was so engrossed in doing it that he even ignored the ringing telephone, something he never does!

I took Brenden for his first haircut today. It is something he’s needed, at least over the ears, for a very long time. I took him to a place that does only kids cuts. I think the lady we got was on her second day. As far as the cut goes, I’m pretty sure I could have done as well, but considering how much he moved his head, I think she did great! He got to sit in a little car and watch Nemo while the stylist did everything she could to entertain him. He did great! I’ll have to get a better after shot, the one I’m including now is the one that the stylist took for us. The rest I took during the haircut.

Brenden has learned to climb since we’ve been home. He has been interested for a long time and we could see him lift his leg up but he never knew were to go from there. While we were on our cruise the bathroom had a huge step up to get into it and Brenden started to practice on that step. When we got home, he was all the sudden able to climb up into his little chair that we bought him for his birthday. He really hadn’t shown much interest in it before and then all the sudden he could get in it. And then he discovered he could climb on the fireplace too. Once he gets up he beams a great big smile of pride. When he sits in his little chair sideways and pretends he is talking on the phone he looks like he’s hit teenagedom very early!

Brenden ate chicken and drank REAL milk from a sippy cup!

It’s not actually as hard as I thought it’d be, but it is still a fun game! There are two pictures each of Patrick, Brenden and I all mixed up.

I know my site is slow to load because of all the pictures. Patrick had helped me fix that once before, but I guess it got messed up and I wasn’t aware of it until recently. I’ll get him to help me fix it again, probably after next week when our semesters are over. Until then, sorry for the slowness.

yesterday and I thought I’d share my findings.

I am:
26% Girly
28% Normal (that little, huh?)
72% Grown up and 28% Kid
47% American
and the best one….

80% tortured genuis

Oh, and the perfect European city for me to live in? Dublin!

I know, every parent thinks that, but really, I have proof. Brenden got a little toy drum for his birthday and we were playing with it yesterday. I gave him one of the sticks while I played with the other. When he put his down I picked it up and was playing with both. I put them down, and smartso picked one up, picked up the other, used his little hand to transfer the second one to the big hand and went to town playing with both sticks in one hand. I personally think that makes him a genius. He played them that way again today too, so it wasn’t just a fluke. There’s a picture below.

And if that isn’t enough for you, today when we were waiting forever in the doctors office Brenden grabbed my cell phone. It was closed and he had it up toward the back of his head on the side facing away from me. I thought he was just rubbing his head because he was tired, but then I was watching his face and his shoulder, he was talking on the phone! He was making funny faces and trying to use his shoulder to prop up the phone!

And I bet you are wondering about that 12 month checkup, right? He’s up to 22 lbs 11.7 oz and 32 inches long, not a lot of growth since the 9 month checkup, but the doctor seemed to think that was all normal. We get to make the great switch from formula to milk and turn his car seat around. Doctor said everything looks great, we just need to start feeding the boy some meat so that he can be a true Romanski-Burleson baby.

Today was the big 1st birthday party. I think things went really well considering we had 16 kids here in a wide range of ages. Brenden’s nap lasted a little longer than we’d planned and he slept through the first half of the party. When he woke up and entered a room full of people he was not suprisingly overwhelmed, but he quickly got used to the people and turned on his usual charm.

I’d always been hesitant about giving such a small child cake, but we went ahead and gave him a tiny little piece. Turns out I really didn’t need to worry about the sugar content, he was more intersted in eating the plate. He did make a huge mess with the frosting, and the space between his eyebrows may be permantly blue, but I think he had fun. By the way, we took his shirt off before he ate the cake, which is why he doesn’t have one on in any of the pictures.
We’ve picked up everything and opened and assembled all his toys already while he took his nice long nap. He is going to have so much fun playing with everything, thanks everybody!

I have to say that we were patting ourselves on the back for a successful party, I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!

Last weekend Patrick, Brenden and I went to another Rangers game with both sets of Brenden’s grandparents and a few other relatives. Below are some shots of the hot and tired baby. Don’t forget that any time I post a picture it can be clicked on to make it larger.

Poor little guy was hot, thirsty and tired!

Patrick’s Dad and Stepmother, Mary. Brenden was perfectly content sitting with them until I got in his line of vision to take this picture, which is when he started crying.

My Mom and Dad. He wasn’t asleep yet, but soon afterwards.

Today we went to a picnic in the park for Patrick’s work group. We were all hot and tired when we returned. Our neighbors got a pool last summer and kindly offered to let us  use it today while they were out running errands so we decided to take them up on it for a few minutes. As it was Brenden’s first time in a pool, we had to document! Pay no attention to the ghost in the picture, we are sending the photos to Time Life books to have them analyzed further.

Despite the fact that Kelli and I watched “Twister” more times than I can count when we lived together and that I can recite the whole movie (as evidenced by my subject), I am not a fan of storms. Tonight that is a rather inconvient fact. The weather is horrible. It has been raining all day and on my way home from dinner tonight it started to get pretty hard to see through the rain to drive. I was trying to remain cool even after it got worse when I got home. Then Kelli called and wanted to know why I wasn’t watching the storm news on tv because tornados could form with no warning. After asking her what good it would do me to watch the news if they could give me more warning I got off the phone and Patrick and I looked up weather on the computer. We were indeed in the red, just as Kelli had said. I got nervous. I asked Patrick if he thought I’d be crazy to move Brenden into our room. He did, but I did it anyway. If you’ve not seen our house, Brenden’s room has one whole wall that is all window. Not what I want my baby in front of in a storm.

I think my fear stems from going through a tornado in Paris when I was really little. It didn’t hit our house, but a house down at the end of our road was distroyed. Our living room had a bunch of windows in it and I just remember everything being this eerie green color. I’ve been scared of storms ever since. I’m trying not to pass that fear down to Brenden, but I don’t know if I will be successful or not.

When I was little, every night before I went to bed I tried to think of where all my valued possessions were in case there was a fire in the middle of the night. I’d try to think how quickly I could grab my barbies, my favorite stuffed animals and my picture book and get out of the house. I was sort of doing the same thing tonight during the worst of the storm. Where are my bankcards, checkbook, child, animals and damn I wish I had a flash drive with all my digital pictures on it so that I could just grab that and go. I know it’s not rational. And usually I’m not that much of an alarmist, but I don’t like storms. You know those stupid surveys that people forward around that always ask, “storms-scary or cool?” Definitely not cool!

Brenden has been very affectionate this week. He has learned to come up behind me, wrap his arms around my legs and just cling. He has also been showing some love to the dogs and his goldfish crackers. Take a look.

Brenden gives Sam some love. Before this picture,  he was standing with his back to Sam, drinking his bottle and leaning his head back on Sam.

He wanted to hang onto the bag, so I let him. Then he was clutching it to his chest like a blanket and did not want to let it go, even so that I could get some more goldfish crackers for him to eat.

I’ve been saying forever that I’d get a video of Brenden walking on here soon. And it isn’t that I have been procrastinating, I’ve really been trying to get some footage, but everytime I pull out the camera, the walking stops. I was finally able to get a little bit recorded on Easter though, so here it is. You’ll notice that I have left the original sound in. The reason for that is threefold: 1) Brenden makes some cute sounds 2) It is always fun to hear Patrick and I make fools of ourselves 3) We worked hard to get this, and you need to be on the journey to appreciate the end result!

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