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

December

Well, everything here is going great. Brandon is amazing us each and everyday with what he can do and the new things he learns. This week he has mastered waving. Anytime anyone says HI or BYE he waves. It's so stinking cute. He loves to blow kisses and also claps anytime anyone says yay, or if anyone else claps.

We got his first conference form back from daycare. They had LOTS of great things to say about him. Here are a few of the nice things they said...
-Brandon is very comfortable interacting with new people and new situations.
-He enjoys being around and playing with other children.
-He is developing the realization that familiar objets can be used in conventional ways.
-Continues to develop the ability to pull himself to standing.

and many more.

Brandon has for sure gotten down the pulling himself to standing thing by now. He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING. The couch, the chairs, the rocker, the stairs, tv trays.... Lots of things he isn't supposed to but we are working on letting him know which items are ok and which are not safe.

He crawls around very quick now. Sometimes it amazes me how fast he can follow us to another room or get into something he shouldn't be. We definitely have our hands full now. We have to literally watch him every second.

We are planning a trip to Aberdeen next week to visit all of our family in SD. I hope we can see everyone with this short trip. At this point we are hoping the weather is going to be good enough for us to travel in so we can get there safely and not have to cancel yet another trip. We will celebrate Christmas there and then come home and work a bit and then celebrate Christmas here as well with Grandma and Grandpa D.

I guess that's all for now. We are headed to the mall of america once again today to finish up some Christmas shopping and to have some lunch. Brandon loves strolling in his stroller at the mall and watching all the things go by.

We are very excited for Brandon to celebrate his first Christmas. We will for sure post lots of pictures of him opening his gifts up later on. We hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas.

The Sandmeiers

Thanksgiving

Well, we were supposed to make it to Aberdeen for Thanksgiving this year, and like many other years, the weather kept us home. We were very sad to not be able to see Grandma and Grandpa Sandmeier and Uncle Andy, Aunt Lynn and new cousin Atlas. Instead we stayed home and made our own Thanksgiving dinner ourselves for the first time. We did a Beer Butt Chicken instead of a turkey and we had a Green Bean Casserole, Stuffing and Mashed Potatoes. Then I made a Strawberry/Blueberry Crisp for dessert. All was very good.

Brandon is changing soooo much just in the past few days. He is crawling up on his knees now, as you can see from the video at the top of the blog. He has just learned how to Blow Kisses (although he wont do this all the time quite yet) He can somewhat wave goodbye too. He has figured out how to pull himself to standing on pretty much anything. Including the stairs.. He figured out how to crawl up to the second step so far. OMG... So we will be going to buy some safety gates this next coming weekend.

He now has 6 teeth and one more that is about to poke through on the top. That will make 4 on top and 3 on bottom. You would think this would widen his food choices but sadly no. He is sticking to what he likes and that's it so far. He still has a problem with food textures so he wont eat too many finger foods. So far his favorites are the gerber wagon wheels, or gerber lil cheddar puffs (kinda like Cheetos, but healthier). He loves most kinds of crackers, and also LOVES Laughing Cow triangles of Light Swiss cheese. Tonight I gave him some corn flakes and he seemed to like those as well. Anything that is slippery or slimy he wont eat yet. So cut up fruits and veggies are pretty much out.

We are getting very excited for Brandon's first Christmas. We did put the tree up this weekend and so far he hasn't bothered it one bit. So we'll see how long that lasts.

Jason and I are doing pretty good as well. Jason is just getting over having strep throat, so it's probably a good thing that we stayed home from Aberdeen. We wouldn't want to get anyone else sick. So far Brandon and I have not gotten it. Thank God.

That's all for now, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and we'll see ya later

Sandmeiers