Spicy Magnolia

Brennan is a Bitty Twin

First there was a freaky sighting of Brennan’s twin on BabyCenter.com. Since then, a number of friends have emailed me about seeing Brennan’s look-alike as they browse that website. I keep wondering who that other kid is and how long ago that picture was taken.

But get ready for another double-take! Not only does Brennan have an unknown twin roaming the face of the earth, but Brennan has been made into a doll. An American Girl Bitty Twins doll! Matt’s mom came across the catalog and had the matching picture of Brennan to go along with it.

 

If we have a little girl, maybe she’ll look like this???

You’d think I’d be receiving royalty payments for the use of Brennan’s image for a doll, but no one consulted me before proceeding with his replica. <grin> But I could see why people would want to buy a doll of Brennan…he’s pretty cute!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week, dear Internet peeps! I’m truly thankful for each of you as you’ve come along this journey with me. Blogging has sure been an exciting ride for me, and I thank you for sticking with me as my precious little boy has slightly altered my time commitment to ya’ll. Some days, let me be honest, I wish that weren’t so. But at the same time, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My journaling has waned throughout the last seven years, but since Brennan was born, I’ve been journaling my favorite moments with him during the day, special moments of his development, and heartfelt cries on the days that are rough in the trenches. All to say, a breath of new life has come to my journaling because of the one I wouldn’t trade for anything. In fact, I’ll need a new one soon (if any family member needs an idea for a Christmas gift). <wink> 

My folks came into town this past weekend to celebrate my momma’s birthday. After two weeks of colds being passed along in our household, Brennan finally got it.  I took him to the doctor this morning to be sure he didn’t have an ear infection, and sure enough, a doozy of one is in his right ear…his first one!  We’re pumping him with meds and praying for the little guy to feel ok during our flights tomorrow. How can a sick little guy still be this happy? At least he seemed to enjoy the piece of dog kibble he ate today.  And the leaf that I found in his mouth last week didn’t seem to bother him all that much either…he even slept through a nap with it. I finally discovered it before he started eating his dinner. His momma needs to be more watchful!

So this weekend ended up being quite restful and low key as we pigged out on some scrumptious Mexican food, hot turkey sandwiches with a Gruyere cheese sauce, and German chocolate cake. It’s a grand way to usher in the holiday season. Matt and I are trying to lose 10 lbs. each, and why we think we can start this weight loss regime, which has no specific plan to it except for quality (for me) and quantity (for him) control, during the holidays, is simply nonsensical. But we’ll try.

My momma came to the rescue this weekend big time! For Thanksgiving, I am in charge of a pecan pie and some good ol’ southern cornbread dressing from a recipe past down through my family for generations. Screw the weight loss plan.  <grin> It was my first time making the stuffing and I did some prep work on it this weekend. At the grocery store, I was supposed to get turkey neck to boil.  Don’t ask me why, oh why, I thought that “gizzards” were just another name for turkey neck. So on Saturday morning, I boiled gizzards for four hours. When I told Momma I wasn’t sure if they turned out right because they looked kinda funny, she went over to take a peak.  She nearly vomited. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but no wonder I couldn’t “shred the meat” of the gizzards! You’re not supposed to shred organs! When Matt told his family I was busy boiling gizzards, their reply was “Oh, she puts those in the dressing, too?”. They’ll be very relieved to know my momma stepped in to rescue the dressing from going in a direction that certainly wouldn’t be as appetizing. And guess what…the neck looks like a neck:  long and neck-like!

Here are some things I’m thankful for this year:

• A hubby who has stuck with me throughout all of my emotional ups and downs this year, who is a committed teammate who cheers me on, who helps me every step of the way, who is an incredible Daddy, and who works so hard to take care of us.
• A baby who has brightened up my life immeasurably more than what I can put into words.
• My God who has been so gracious and tender to me as I stepped into this new role of mommy hood. The ways I’ve seen His faithfulness to me are numerous. He has been “the stability of my times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.” (Isaiah 33:6)
• The gift of laughter.
• Friends. Friends whom I can be completely myself around and they still love me.
• Being able to stay home with Brennan.
• My Molly who is such a comfort to me, who allows me to snuggle up to her and get lost in her silkiness.
• A God who is constant, unchanging, and completely good...no matter what is going on in life. As Beth Moore poignantly wrote today, our lives are like “…a wild concoction of joy, laughter, pain, and bewilderment. Our one true unmovable thing is Jesus. He continues to be the uncontested center of life around here. Even when we waver, wander, or stumble, He remains steadfast and faithful.”  Amen.
• A roof over my head. Running water. A heater to turn on when it’s cold outside. An A/C to run 24/7 when it’s hot as blazes. Food on the table.
• A family who is incredibly supportive, encouraging, and so much fun to be with.
• A safe and pretty neighborhood to take our daily walks.
• That I’m loved.
• That we can go the doctor when we need to, with easy access to medicine, and for the good health that we’re in.
• That we won’t be eating an assortment of turkey organs in our stuffing this year.

What are some things you’re thankful for this year? I hope you have a most memorable and special Thanksgiving! Again, I’m thankful for ya’ll, too, and it’s a joy to share life with you, in all of its “wild concoctions”. Blessings, friends.

Let the Countdowns Begin

‘Tis the season of countdowns.  Seven days until Thanksgiving.  Thirty-three days until our seven year anniversary.  Five weeks and two days until Christmas.  A few more after that and it will be 2010.  2010?!  Holy cow!  Wasn’t it just yesterday I was a junior in college smoking my first (and last—it wasn’t that great) cigar with my friends who will remain nameless Corrie and Eric, ringing in the turn of the century over Christmas break?  We’ve all grown up since then.  <grin> Anywho, back to my countdown.  Only a mere fifty-nine days until Brennan turns one year old.  Three days after that, Matt will turn thirty-two.  My life is on fast forward, and I know I’m not the only one who feels like that.  Give me just a small moment to breath.  To stop and breath ‘cause with everything coming up, all you have to do is flip a switch and I’m a stressed out maniac.  And if anything this season shouldn’t be, it’s stressful.

Minus two days ago was Brennan’s 10 month birthday.  He and I were in San Antonio together with Pops and Meems where he baked sugar cookies we’ll have for Christmas; 

made his first zoo visit (thanks, Meems, for going even though you don’t like zoos very much!); entertained four puppies; tried a whole new assortment of yummy food that Meems made him (including a baked potato, mushroom and barley soup, pigs in the blanket, and some of his perfectly baked sugar cookie); and mastered going out the doggie door.  It was a full and very wonderful weekend!  Now we just need to get Daddy feeling better and cross our fingers that Brennan doesn’t get sick before we leave on a jet plane for some celebrating with Matt’s family in California for Thanksgiving! 

So here are some snippets about our ever-growing gem of a boy who is just a blink of an eye away from being a one year old!

• Some things you love:  playing in the refrigerator, your paci, practicing climbing the stairs, playing chase, music class, Molly (and playing ball with Dapples and giving Seymour kisses), your milk (it’s fun to make you crawl over to me to get your bottle) <grin>, and affirmation (you love to be cheered on—it brings on the biggest smile and claps). 
• Daddy spent hours putting up the gate to keep you from going up the stairs, and even though it was still off the ground enough to where you could slip underneath, we thought we had at least a month before you figured how to go underneath it.  We were so wrong.  We had a week at the most.  You quietly and ever so slyly crawl underneath and before I know it, you’re on the fourth step.  I have to watch you like a hawk.
• You’re a pointer now!  It made the zoo all the more wonderful because we knew you could see the amazing creatures, of which the monkeys were your favorite.

What’s that, Momma?

That’s a deer?  A ram?  A big dog with horns?  Oh wait, a longhorn sheep.

• When I’m working in the kitchen, you beautifully serenade me with your piano playing.  Another favorite instrument of yours is the guitar.  You kinda hog it at music class. 
• You figured out how to go out the doggie door at Pops and Meems’.  I still won’t let you go through ours because of the step down and hard concrete.  But you sure raced out the door at their place.  You were just waiting for the opportunity. 

 

• You know the word “clap” 
• Thanks to Jillie, you had your first itty bitty bite of chocolate cream from a cream filled donut.  Two happy campers you were! 
• “B” sounds were introduced.  You love to babble back and forth with me.  I walk around stores baby babbling with you.  <grin>
• We have a motor boat!  You make that sound everywhere you go.
• We’ve seemingly skipped stranger anxiety entirely, although you have been quite clingy to me the last few days. 
• Over the last month, four teeth came in, three within a week of each other.  You have six total.
• Favorite finger food:  red pepper hummus on toast.
• You are SO MUCH FUN TO TICKLE!
• You like crawling around with toys in your hands.
• You despise it when I try to pick something off of your face. 
• You love to share your toys with Molly.  And if I’d let you, she’d be one porky puppy because you like sharing your food with her, too.
• One of my new favorite games to play with you is “I need to be rescued by my prince” where I lay on the floor until you crawl over to me and give me lovies.
• You wave ‘hello’.  Miss Molly gets the most waves since you wave hello to her every time you come down the stairs after a nap. 

These last ten months have flown by, little boy.  And I know the next two are going to as well.  But they also will be filled with so many special memories and celebrations.  What a privilege it will be to witness you beholding the wonder of this season through your eyes for the first time.  May we stop and be still, experiencing it afresh alongside you.

A Circus of a Breakfast

It’s flown by these last (nearly) ten months.

We’ve sure come a long way from our breakfast picnics back in the early days.

You’re not so little anymore.

Your skinny newborn chicken legs are hefty chunks of baby rolls.

You move…wherever you want to go.

And you’re curious.

Breakfast picnics are not so laid back anymore for Mommy.

Or Molly, who thinks she’s in competition with you for the food.

It’s a circus.

At the rate you’re growing, you’re going to pass me up pretty soon.   

Your first year birthday is still two months away, and I am already a blubbering mess.

Your hair doesn’t look too bad when we take pictures from far away.  Mommy’s hair is shorter now, too.

You’ve changed a lot, baby boy.  So, so, so many exciting changes you’ve gone through.

We’ll keep having our breakfast picnics…until you actually want to eat the food off my plate.  Mommy doesn’t share food very well.

But with that endearing face of yours, I think I’ll cave.

Or maybe I’ll simply take you to an actual circus instead.

A Glimpse into a Gal’s Mind

A few weeks ago, me and my hubby left Brennan with my folks for an extended weekend getaway to the Lost Pines Resort, where we got to enjoy the niceties of not having a baby around, with extra sleep being at the top of the list!  Other pluses included relaxing by the pool, floating down the Crooked River Pool, reading (I finished my first book in who knows how long—I couldn’t put it down!), roasting marshmallows for S’mores by the campfire, and simply reconnecting away from the hustle, bustle and daily pressures of life amid scenes like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t we look relaxed?  That’s the first of three pairs of sunglasses I’ve bought in three weeks.  Gone are the days when I was able to keep a pair of sunglasses for at least five years, to no fault of my son.  It’s all on me.

We were also able to feast like kings and queens!  The food was a-maz-ing!  Look at that dessert bar.  My plate wasn’t big enough!

Brennan was treated like a prince himself, and I’m happy to report that his momma did pretty good leaving him.  It helped that I called about three times a day.  When surrounded by families who brought their kiddos with them, it pulled my heart strings just a tad to see little boys running around, and it beckoned my lips to say countless times, “I can’t wait to bring Brennan here one day; he would have so much fun!”  Somehow, this getaway already feels like months ago.

One of the books Matt started reading was For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn, “a straightforward guide to the inner lives of women”.  On a number of occasions, the two of us talk about an illustration we once heard a speaker use of a waffle and a plate of spaghetti to describe male and female communication styles, respectively.  A waffle, being very compartmentalized, is used to illustrate how a man has to stay on one topic of discussion and thinking before moving onto the next, whereas a woman’s is more like a plate of spaghetti where each noodle criss-crosses with the other noodles and maneuvers itself all over the plate.  While it looks like a mangled mess, it is in fact, cohesive and intricate. 

Despite having that helpful image to understand each other better, it was shocking to my hubby when he read that many women said they “thought their thought lives were almost like busy computers with multiple windows open and running all at once, unwanted pop-ups intruding all the time, and little ability to close out or ignore any of that mental or emotional activity until a more convenient time.”  He was even more overwhelmed when he read a specific conversational illustration the authors provided to prove such a point.  After asking, “Okay, hon, what is in your brain right now?”, she proceeded to list off at least eight different things that she was mulling over at that very moment.  Like the author’s sudden realization, Matt finally came to grasp how my female ability to multitask both thoughts and emotions impacts how I relate to him every single day.  He was baffled that I thought like that, which came to a huge surprise to me because, well, isn’t that the first thing guys should know about girls?  <grin>  For being married nearly seven years, he surely circumnavigated through that very well without giving me any indication that he knew otherwise.

So I thought I’d give my hubby (and you, dear Internet peeps), a peek into my thoughts and emotions yesterday morning (yesterday, because that’s when I started this post) that ran all over the place.  I’ll save you the grief of too many details though.  So within a course of a few minutes, this was the rollercoaster ride:

• How is it that a girl from Texas has more winter clothes than summer ones?  My closet is no indication of our locale.  Thanks for the wonderful and unusually long Fall, Lord, but please bring on the 50-60 degree temp so I can wear clothes I love, clothes that “cover a multitude of sins”, as Jill wittingly says.
• I want to blog so badly.  But what do I blog about?  I’m in a big-time rut.
• Stellan, Stellan, Stellan*.  Jesus, please carry Stellan through today.  Bring him through surgery successfully, safely.  After being land blasted by friend after friend battling the clinching jaws of death through cancer, and aching for other friends going through so much, it would sure be nice to have a sweet victory here, Lord.
• How can I get Brennan to better understand “no touch”?  He keeps going after those awful outlets.
• Gotta make Matt’s lunch.  Everyone’s eaten breakfast but me, and I’m hungry.  Matt’s lunch first though, he’s leaving soon.
• Should I go to Sprouts and then the Target on Louis Henna, or should I go to the Super Target on 1431 to nail two birds with one stone?  The latter, because then we might be able to hit Hobby Lobby on our way home.
• Stellan.  Stellan.  Stellan.  I gotta check Twitter to see if there are any updates.
• Brennan needs a haircut.  Should I try to do it on my own?**
• Why haven’t I packed yet?  We’re visiting Pops and Meems in just a couple of days, why didn’t I start to lay out clothes earlier?
• Thanksgiving is just two weeks away.  THANKSGIVING IS JUST TWO WEEKS AWAY!!???
• Do I have a cold or a sinus infection?  I don’t want to go to the doctor again, so please just let it go away.  I’m really complaining about a measly little sickness?  Get a grip.  I have so much to be thankful for and our health is a huge one!
• What do I need to do before we leave town?  Water plants.  Laundry.  Pack.  Grocery shopping.  Blog.  Will I be able to blog?
• Matt and I need help and wisdom in how to be on the same page with teaching Brennan.  How are we going to do this parenting thing together well?
• Brennan’s first birthday is just two months away.  That girl whose pictures I just saw of her son’s first birthday looked awesome and so creative.  How can I do that?  Do I want to do that?  How can I make it simple and special?  I wonder what so-and-so did for her son’s first birthday.  I’d wanna do it like she did. 
• I need to start sacrificing sleep to get things done.  There’s too much to do.
• I hope Brennan takes good naps today.***
• Stellan.  Stellan. Stellan.  Jesus, please!
• Gotta cancel Molly’s reservations at Dog Boy's.  Don’t forget to email so-and-so about a package delivery.
• Does the post office have a postage meter or can you only buy stamps?****
• Does my shirt go with my pants?  What will I look like to other people if we go out?  Makeup day or no makeup day?  Itty bitty makeup day it is.
• What bagel do I want this morning?  Hmmm, breakfast.  I’m hungry.

Suffice it to say, I could go on.  And on and on.  But I think hubby will get the picture, don’t you think?  Only God in His wisdom could have designed a woman’s mind and emotions to work the way they do.  And thank God that He gives us the peace and wisdom we need because goodness, He sure knows we need it!

* I’m sure most of you all know about Stellan, but if you don’t you absolutely must read this.  If you need to be encouraged to see the power of prayer like I have been lately, you really must catch up on baby Stellan.  It indeed is a miracle I hope to remember the rest of my life, and to God be the glory! 

**Today I tried to trim Brennan’s hair on my own, and it was the biggest mistake ever.  I was in tears.  It messed up our morning entirely until we asked Matt if we could stop by for a pick-me-up and visit him at work.  I butchered my son’s precious golden locks, taking a chunk of hair next to his ear.  His bangs are cut above his hair line, all crooked, and it just looks horrible!  He just laughed and has no idea, but I know!  Big mistake.  Big!  Huge!

***That “today” was yesterday, and no, good naps were not to be had.  I’ll blame it on the 6th tooth that popped out…that makes 3 in the last week and a half!

****The post office only offers stamps, no meter.  And the guy who helped me laughed at me saying, “You’re out of breath?” when I walked in, having not seen the 25 pound baby/carrier I just lugged inside with a box of letters.  Clearly, I need to lift weights more regularly. 

Out of the Jungle

 

I was running through the jungle, like a wild little monkey.

All of a sudden, these people snatched me up and they were kinda funky.

They told me to come along and follow them, a banana they had in hand.

I figured I couldn’t ever be too chunky, so my tail and I skedaddled across the land.

      

 

We arrived at a festival with funny lookin’ creatures and lotsa sweet candy.

So tired was I, dazed and confused.  All I wanted was a banana, then I’d be just dandy.

 

  

After pinning a giraffe with a spot, back to the jungle I was to go; but the funky people took me home instead.

The magic wore off and I became a little boy.  The monkey was gone and I laid my sweet head in a big, comfy bed.