Brendan is 11 months old and other updates

Our little guy will be one year old very, very soon! He started crawling about a month a half ago and it sped up his movements a lot! He is everywhere now! Before when people asked us if he can sit up or pull himself up we said that we don't know as we haven't seen it. He was very comfortable just lying or sitting. Once he started crawling he made so much progress.

Actually, on October 17th he started walking on his own without any support. Of course, he falls when he gets too excited about walking or even running which always causes tears and lots of drama. Poor guy!

He loves when we read books to him, I read Russian books and Chris reads English books. He also loves watching The Wiggles and Baby Einstein videos.
Brendan is also our little traveler. He has already been to America twice and traveled to Greece with us in October. Maybe it's just his age but he is so good on flights most of the time which makes it easier for us to travel.



One of the highlights of our August trip to NY state was our hike up the Hurricane mountain with Brendan. Chris carried him in a special backpack up to the top. It took us about 1 hr 20 min. to climb up there and the view was really worth it. Brendan was so comfortable that he even took a nap! The path was VERY steep and it was kind of hard to climb it. Brendan was 9 m.o. when we did it! Chris figured out that he is the third generation of his family to climb it. It's pretty cool!

In October we went to Corfu Greece for a week and stayed at our favorite place. We had a wonderful and relaxing time there! It was the end of the season so it wasn't crowded with tourists and we were the only customers at our hotel.

The weather was great and we spent quite a few days at the beach enjoying the sun and the sea. Fresh seafood meals and local house wine are just the best especially when you have a one million dollar view! We had a great time especially Brendan. He loved being at the beach and playing with the sand. He even ate some from excitement :)






One of the biggest changes in our life is that we are moving from the center of Moscow further away to the south west. We have already found a new apartment which is way bigger than our current one (150 sq.m) but it doesn't have any furniture in the living room so we'll have to go shopping. It's exciting but at the same time it will suck to spend money on something that we'll need only for two or three years. At the same time it is a great location, near a big park which is perfect for our daily walks and has our favorite groceries and a couple gyms to choose from. We are moving next weekend. It will be interesting. In a way, I'm sad about leaving this apartment as it was the one we brought Brendan home to from the hospital. His first room was here, here he started walking etc. Oh well, it's time to make a change and we all hope that we'll be the same happy there as we were here.

Our Little Lazy Guy :)

So finally on March 28^th at 9 p.m. Brendan rolled over from his back on his stomach without our help! It was very exciting! We knew that he can do it as he was doing movements with his upper part of the body and his legs but never attempted to turn on his own until a few days ago. Good job, Brendan!

He is still a happy baby which makes us happy. He loves to laugh, especially when I play “Where is Brendan? Here he is!” game with him. He is just laughing out loud. It's hilarious to watch.

One of the latest problems is his eating. According to our pediatrician, he doesn't get enough food. The feeding became so frustrating as he eats for two minutes and then looks around for five and so on, but once I pump and give him a bottle he pounds it without any problem. I understand that it's easier to eat from a bottle but I don't want to give up breast feeding as it will be better and convenient for everyone to breastfeed him on our coming trip especially at airports and planes. I even bought a special cover which I started putting on to get him used to it. At first he tried to fight it and then he had fun hiding there and eventually concentrated on his eating. I'll keep trying. We also started giving him some formula to make sure he eats his 200 ml per feeding but he fights it too. Sometimes he eats it, sometimes he is not interested. Again, it frustrates me but at the same time maybe he is full and doesn't need more. Honestly, we don't believe everything our pediatrician says which means that we need a new one. This subject deserves its own post, so I won't even any more now.

One of the latest changes in his diet is that we started giving him porridge as his last meal before the night. I have to tell you that it's awesome! I mix it with breast milk, he eats 200 ml and it just knocks him out from 10 p.m. till 7 or 8 a.m. Pretty sweet! :)

Today we gave Brendan broccoli purree for lunch. At first he was surprised at an unknown taste and then started pounding it and ate about 180 ml. It was pretty cool.

Before we had a baby I was bored whenever people talked about their babies' porridges, feedings, pooping and other baby related subjects. But now my husband and I can talk about all of these without any problem and actually be excited about it. In a way it's really annoying but at the same time we try not to bring it up when we talk to other people.

Anyway, our lazy guy is definitely growing and learning to do new things. We remember him being just a few days old and not being able to move his head, and now he is very active and is aware of what is going on around him.

3 & 4 months

Brendan is almost 4 months old! At his 3 month appointment his weight was 13.6 lbs and height was 25.8. So he did not grow that much in height that month but did in width.

Brendan is a happy baby most of the time if he doesn't have stomach problems. It took us almost three months to develop a daily routine. Our day is usually like this:

9 a.m. - morning feeding;

10 a.m. to 11 a.m. - nap (usually from 30-40 min, rarely 1 hr)

11 a.m. - some naked time, we do some simple exercises such as stretch and move arms and legs, also tummy time and change in new clothes

12 a.m. - feeding

12:30 - 1:30 - play time (swing, play mat, singing and talking)

1:30 - nap

2 p.m. - feeding

2:30 to 3 p.m. play time

3 p.m. to 5 p.m. - walk

and then feeding and playing time

9 p.m. - bath

9:30 to 10 p.m. night feeding

10 p.m. - goes to bed

Of course, some days are different but mostly we stick to this schedule.

One of the new and greatest things he started doing is sleeping through the night! The record was when he fell asleep at 10 p.m. by himself and slept till 9 a.m. AWESOME!

Brendan smiles a lot even when people talk to him on Skype and when strangers talk to him. It's good to know and see that he is not afraid of strangers, we just don't know if it's normal for babies and if it changes later. We'll see.

Once a day he goes into laughing mood. I can always tell that he wants to laugh, so I play with him and talk in his chest or neck and he is just laughing out loud. It's precious!

Sometimes I look at him and cannot believe that he is ours. I remember how frustrating it was when I didn't get pregnant for some time and how terribly I wanted a baby. Now he is looking at me with so much love that when I think about those times it brings tears to my eyes. Of course, now it's happy and thankful tears.

Yes, I get very tired by the end of the day especially now when Chris is being busy at work for almost a month and a half, so temporarily Brendan is mostly on me. It's hard and sometimes frustrating but at the end of the day when he falls asleep I cannot wait for the morning when he wakes up again, I kiss him, put him on his boppy pillow next to me in bed and talk to him while having my morning tea or coffee. He is our dream come true! I wish all our Novembies who are trying to conceive get pregnant and experience the happiness of being parents!

Brendan's First Christmas

It was so great to have Brendan with us on Christmas this year. It was our dream and wish to celebrate Christmas with our first baby and we are beyond happy that it came true.

We had a very nice day. As usually we got up and had our coffees with Baileys and opened our gifts. It was fun to open Brendan's gifts.



We were not sure what to get him as he doesn't get it yet. In the end we got him a few toys and the family sent him some new outfits. The winner was the recordable book with the Christmas story read by Chris' niece. It's precious! What a great gift to keep for years!

Brendan was so great on Christmas day, he was happy and did not cry. It was awesome!

We spent the rest of the day watching our favorite Christmas movies: Christmas Story, Polar Express, Bad Santa and some great cartoons. In the evening I made our traditional Christmas dinner: pasta with garlic shrimp. It was a great day!

Oh, I forgot to say that Chris got me a new cell phone which was a total surprise as I asked for gift certificates as I see lots of shopping for new clothes in 2011 :)