Surgery

Well, I know it's been a long time since I posted on here. So This is what's new with us...

For me, I just had Surgery about a week ago to have my Bunion fixed on my right foot. So They Shaved the bunion off the bone and broke my bones in my big toe and the one next to it and realigned them and put pins in them so they stay in place. So I have been on crutches for the last week (not fun, or easy for that matter). I have been doing my exercises the doc gave me to strengthen up the joint to my big toe. It is still swollen and black and blue, (not a pretty sight). I really just wish I could put some weight on it. Now that Jason is back at work it is really hard to do things for myself. Even though I try. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa Sandmeier were in town for my surgery so they were able to help out with Brandon for the first few days, then they took him to SD so I could have some time to relax. Plus I couldn't take care of him by myself right now anyway. Jason and I are heading to SD tomorrow to spend the week with the family for Thanksgiving. We are so excited to have more than just a few quick days in Aberdeen, THis time we have monday-Friday to spend with friends and family.

Jason is doing his first Flight Deck Ride Along today. He is flying to New York and back in the cockpit of the Delta Aircraft with the pilots. This is so the Pilots can ask the Air Traffic Controller questions and vise versa, so they both can get better ideas of what each job entails. He was very excited about this trip and I am excited to hear how it went when he gets home.

Brandon is learning so much each day. It amazes me all the new words he can say each day. He really is starting to repeat everything so it's time to watch what we say I guess. ha ha.. Right now his favorite things to say is "What's that?" he asks that question a million times a day. He also loves to say "oh, there he is" when he is looking for something or someone. He says a million other things but those are by far his favorite. He also is getting pretty good at grabbing his butt and saying "poop" when of course he has pooped.
Brandon will be 22 months old tomorrow. I can't believe it is almost his 2nd Birthday already. We are probably just going to throw a little party.
He also is getting very independent. I guess he always has been in a way. But now he can put on his shoes on his own, which he wants to do all day long. When it's time for a snack I will say "do you want some raisins?' he replies, "um, no" then I will ask, "do you want some Teddy Grahams?" he replies. "um, no" and we go through this until I pick out something he really wants then he says "YEAH" but the way he says yeah is like he's saying. "Oh my gosh,yeah, what a great idea" It's funny!

Not too much else is new here. I am going to be out of work at least until after christmas and depending how well my foot is healing maybe longer. Who knows. I guess that's all for now. Until next time!

19 Months old

I know it's been a while since I posted anything. We have been busy. So B is now 19 months old. He is learning so much each and everyday. He is starting to say more and more words.. here are a few he knows and uses quite often.

Uh Oh
Bye
Hi
Bubbles
Star
Please
Daddy

He can say others too but doesn't usually say them in the right way. Like he will say mama but he points to himself. He's doing pretty good though.

Brandon is also growing like a weed. At his 18 month appointment he was 26.5 lbs which is just about average. He is in the 80 percentile for height too. So as of right now he is a tall boy with a big head. Ha ha..
He is still a super picky eater. He has about 5 or so go to meals that he loves but other than that he isn't really much into trying new foods. He sure does love his milk though. He could sit and drink two sippy cups full of milk at each meal.
B has been having a fun summer swimming in the pools at our friends houses (just kiddy pools) and playing outside. We actually just had a playmate with my cousins today and Brandon got to have his first ice cream cone after lunch. He loved it of course.

I am going to have a schedule change starting in September so I will be going back to the night shift. 2-10pm. I am not very excited about it but I am excited to spend the mornings with Brandon and some mornings with Jason too. So we'll make the best of it until the spring when my schedule will change again.

That is all for now. Hope you enjoyed.

The Sandmeiers

California Trip

Well, last week Jason and I got some time off and were able to take a trip to California. It was an awesome time (even though the weather didn't cooperate with us).

Brandon got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Sandmeier in SD since they are both retired now. Brandon had a great time while he was gone. I don't think he missed us at all.

On our trip we started it out flying into Sacramento and rented a car. From there we drove to Napa and spent two nights there. While in Napa we visited a few little towns around there, one is called Yountville, which is so so beautiful. We ate at a really good restaurant there (twice actually) called Bouchan that is one of Thomas Keller's restaurants, he is a chef that Jason really enjoys. We also visited a Winery called Sterling Vineyards, in Calistoga, CA. It was super fun to tour this winery and see how it is all made. We got to taste 5 of their wines while on the tour.

Then we drove to San Francisco, and spent two nights there as well. We went on the Anchor Brewing Company Tour, which was very cool. We got to taste MANY of their beers there as well. Very good! We drove past the house that is the house that the Tanner family lived in, in the 80's TV show Full House. I watched that show everyday growing up so it was cool to see the house. We also ate at several great restaurants in San Francisco. We got to check out Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown as well.

All in all it was an amazing trip. Unfortunately the weather was crappy. It never got above 65 degrees and was cloudy or raining the whole time which is very odd for california this time of year. They kept calling it "Juneuary" on their news stations there. Apparently they thought it was pretty bad. Which it really wasn't. But oh well. We still had a great time.

Well just to update you all on Brandon. he is now about 16.5 months old and of course busy busy busy... He keeps us running all the time. He now says his first words. "uh oh", and he says it a lot. Sometimes he says it before he even does something, like he will say Uh oh then drop his pacifier or whatever he his holding. Sometimes he does something naughty then says uh oh. LIke he digs in the dirt in the plant, and when he sees his dirty mess he will look at us and say Uh Oh. I think he is starting to figure out how to say "mine" too. If I am holding something he wants he says 'my' which i think means mine.

That's about all for now.

Love the Sandmeiers

Almost 15 months

Next week Brandon will be 15 months old. WOW. We go to the doctor next week to see how big he is getting.

Brandon has been busy growing lots of little teeth. he now has 11 teeth all together. The molars were pretty rough coming in but now has 3 of them in. Just one more to go.

This last week has been tough, Brandon was sick with the flu. It acutally only lasted a day or so. But it was a rough day. He ended up throwing up 4 times all together. It was so hard to watch him like that. Luckly we got some help from our nurse and she suggested we don't give him much milk since that seems to upset the tummy a bit more, and that helped. He hasn't thrown up in over 24 hours now so he is doing much better. I am hoping by tomorrow his diet will be back to normal. Since he was sick yesterday, I went to target and bought him a new toy to try and cheer him up. I got him the Little People Airplane toy and he presses on the pilot over and over until it sings the song about flying in the clouds and he rocks back and forth with the music. He loves it. I think it helped a bit.

B loves to sing songs, well not so much sing yet but do the actions. He has Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes almost all figured out. He points to his head and toes in the right spots and now is starting to point to his eyes too in the appropriate spot of the song. He also can do the actions to Paddy Cake. He claps his hands and then can just about do the rolling part but thats about all. He loves it when his little Puppy sings those songs.

It was nice last week for a few days so we did get to go play at a few different parks a few differnt times. He has lots of fun just walking around the park and swinging on the swings.

He is still quite the picky eater. We are still working on that. We still feed him some baby food about once a day or so just so he can make sure to get some fruits and veggies in his diet. Some of his favorite foods are Waffles, Pancakes, Boca Burgers, Grilled Cheese and he even ate a real burger the other day that Jason grilled for us. He liked that too.

We are very excited for Easter weekend so we can see Uncle Andy, Aunt Lynn and Cousin Atlas. We haven't seen them in a while. Even the Easter Bunny is gonna come this year.

Well that's about all for now I guess. Jason and I are doing good too... not too much new. Jason is starting his new work schedule next week, which means no more midnight shifts. So he is excited about that. Nothing new for me though... same ole same ole.

Danielle and Family

Growing Up

Here is our Latest video of Brandon. walking around like crazy.

Our Lives

Well whats new with us you ask??

Well for Brandon he has just gotten his first two molars. Both poked through within the last week. He has had a few restless nights because of it and pulls on his mouth and tongue but a tiny dose of Tylenol does the trick. Most of the time when he gets a new tooth he gets a runny nose and cough, which he had for a little while but the two molars also spiked a rash on his whole body. Just little bumps. We took him to the doctor but all they said was try some Benydryl. Which hasn't seemed to work either.

Brandon got to spend 5 days in South Dakota with Grandma and Grandpa Sandmeier, while Mommy and Daddy went on a trip to Vegas. He had a blast in South Dakota and so did Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa Jerry is retired now so he got to spend some quality time with B and even learned how to change diapers. We are all so proud.

Jason and I had a great time in Vegas. We were there for Valentines day, had a wonderful Steak dinner at CraftSteak which is a very nice steakhouse from guy named Tom Colicchio who is a very good Chef and a Judge on the TV show Top Chef which we like to watch. It was wonderful. We also got to have two full days by ourselves, we walked the strip everyday, at least 6 miles everyday of walking. Our legs were definitely sore by the end of the trip. Then on Wednesday our friends Josh and Jodi Stahly met us in Vegas and stayed there till Friday with us. It was really nice seeing the Stahly's again. It's been a while. We walked the strip a few more times with them, also we went to the Cirque du Soleil Mystere show. It was amazing. All in all it was a wonderful trip. Jason and I had about 5 more days off (this was our yearly vacation) when we got home so we got to spend some nice family time together and sit inside while there was the big snow storm here again.

Brandon is a walking machine now. He walks all over the place and is getting really good. We can't wait for the summer so we can go outside and play at the park.

B also got a new haircut last week. His hair grows so fast and when it get's long it sticks straight up so we buzzed it all off. It's really short and I am not a huge fan but of course he is such a cutie pie still.

I will try to post some new pictures soon. That's about all for now.

1st Haircut

Brandon just got his first haircut. He did so good. didn't even fuss much at all. Just a little bit towards the end he was getting antsy, so the lady cutting his hair gave him a slinky to play with and that seemed to work. He also go to watch Dora as he was getting his haircut. We are so proud of him. He looks so nice.

Holidays are over

Well, it's already 2011, I can't believe it.. But man are we excited to have the holidays over with. As fun as they were, we are exhausted. Brandon had a really great 1st Christmas. We did end up going to SD for a few days, Brandon got lots of new toys and presents there. He loves playing with all his new things.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa D's on Christmas eve evening and Christmas day evening to celebrate with the family. Of course Jason and I still had to work so we didn't stay too long each day.

Brandon got a new push toy for Christmas and at first he really wasn't sure how to use it. But after showing him how a few times he grabs it and walks it all around the living room now. Well until he runs into something then we have to turn him around. I think he is gonna get this walking thing down sooner than later.

Now I am getting ready for a quick trip to Vegas for my cousin Ashley's 21st birthday. It should be a fun trip.

Then we are having B's 1st Birthday party. It is gonna be crowded as heck in our place but that's ok. We'll make it work.

Brandon is even getting moved up into the 'older infants' room at daycare, they are getting soo many new babies starting they had to move some of the older infants into another room. But he gets to move to that new room with a few other kids he is in the same room with now so there will be some familiar faces for him. I think he will do so good in there. He will get to play with bigger kid toys and learn so much more. He really seems to like daycare.

Enjoy the new pics as well..

Sandmeiers