A summary of our day...

I never imagined life as Mommy could be so wonderful. Every morning I wake up with a smile on my face. I can't wait to go get the little dude out of his crib and cuddle with him. He always seems just as excited to come hang out with me too. He's all smiles in the mornings...can't wait to snuggle. He loves to touch my face, squeeze my nose, pat my hair, put his fingers in my mouth, and stroke my cheeks. All while sweetly cooing to me...he is an angel baby. He is my constant companion...my little buddy.

After we cuddle for awhile I feed him and we go back to sleep, cheek to cheek. After our little morning nap he again wakes me up 'talking' to me and we venture downstairs. We eat lots of baby food veggies and watch the news together. He just squeals in delight at every new taste and just grins at me all morning. Then we get cleaned up from the eating mess and we get ready for the day. We usually will run errands and go to my lessons and he'll just sit/lie there playing quietly or watching/listening intently to the music/singing. Then we come back home and play...we love to roll on the floor, play in the exersaucer, read nummy books together, listen to music, giggle lots, and he'll sit on my lap while I'm on the computer. He loves to try to press the keys on the keyboard and on my piano. He is so curious. I love watching him explore and learn new things every day. We'll take a little afternoon nap together some days and just gaze into eachothers eyes 'talking' and smiling. :)

Then we bring him to Daddy's work so I can go teach/go to rehearsal. He lights up when he sees Daddy and just continues to be the happiest baby on the planet. My FAVORITE (besides waking up and cuddling) is coming home from work/rehearsal late at night and seeing that cute chubby face light up when he sees me. He'll squeal and reach for me and when he gets me, he holds on tight. :) He gives me little baby hugs and pats my face. And tries to stick his fingers in my mouth. And tries to eat my hair. :) And gives me big open slobbery mouth kisses on my cheek. Then smiles and wants to go back to Daddy while I get more food ready.

We eat and play in our baby food with Daddy applauding and there are giggles all around. My life has never been so full of happiness and love and laughter. I love him so much that I feel like my heart is going to burst every day. I watch him and Lamar play on the floor together and my heart just takes picture after picture. I love my little family.

Then it's bathtime and the squeals turn into pure giddiness when he finally gets to play with the bubbles. I get soaked and he laughs his head off, kicking and splashing. It's especially funny when Mommy gets wet. :) Cuddling a wet baby in a towel is so stinkin' fun. Especially with his head in that little towel hood...peering at me with a big smile. Then he rubs his eyes...the little guy is tired. So we get him dressed...he usually doesn't like that part. LOL. And he quickly coos when we sit to read a book. He'll look up at me reading to him and just smile a big 'pokemon' toothless smile. And pat the book. And try to eat it. And lean against me...all safe. :) Then Daddy comes over and plays with us too...and he and I just look at eachother with so much love...for eachother and for our little guy. Life is good.

Then I get to rock him to sleep. He just settles himself into my elbow, binky in mouth, and listens to me sing. He loves it when I sing to him. Pats my mouth until I do, if I forget. And just relaxes and watches me....and is asleep in minutes. I love to just hold him, watching him sleep...I love to watch the binky slowly fall out of his mouth as he starts to dream...and smiles in his sleep. I swear that child is so happy. I'm so glad that I seem to be a good mom to him. I think I am. :) He certainly has a great daddy too. We want to give him the world. And he loves us. We are so blessed! I thank the Lord every night in my prayers first for this wonderful amazing little family and for how much joy he brings into our lives. I'm sure in no time he'll be trying my patience, but for right now he is an absolute dream baby. And perfect for me. I am so in love. :) Life is soooo good.

Fits of giggles tonight!

I was getting Brendan ready for bed and he thought mommy's laugh was so funny. Luckily Lamar grabbed the camera in time to catch this...every time I'd laugh he'd just giggle. : ) He's such a giggly baby. I LOVE HIS LAUGH! (Sorry they're a little dark...several of our lights have burnt out in our room.) And pardon his soaked onsie. He's teething. :)

Lamar zoomed in to see his face better....he was being so funny!

What a joy he is. :)

Drumming, Pat-a-cake, exersaucer, Daddy fun

More videos of Brendan!

This is Brendan tonight playing in his exersaucer. He has SO MUCH FUN in that thing! Tonight he was actually much less 'busy' than normal. He was more talkative than usual and didn't pay too much attention to the exersaucer at all. I think he knew he was on camera. Just a two minute video to see a little of his talkative personality. I have a feeling he's going to be a little bit like me and talk everyone's ears off.

This is me doing my favorite things to do with him when he's sitting in my lap. I LOVE to drum (plus I'm a tap dancer, so I have a love of rhythm), so I'm teaching Brendan how to drum too. He seems to really like it too. We also pat-a-cake, do the itsy-bitsy spider (his favorite song), and dance alot too. But he was fussy 'cause he was tired, so I was hurrying to get all of them in before he fussed. I'm not normally that hyper with him! lol. He normally busts up laughing when we do the drumming thing, but at least you get big smiles on the video. :) It's a start. One of these days I'll catch him laughing again. You can't tell he's my favorite 'toy' I've ever had, can you?!?!? LOL.

Brendan loves to jump. And he loves to play with Daddy! Here's a two minute video of him playing with Daddy. :) He loves Mommy and Daddy. :) We love him.

This is a picture of him today sleeping in his carseat. Isn't he an angel?

This is a picture of the dogs. Lamar, bless his heart, tries to pinch pennies by 'grooming' the dogs himself. Uh....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! He's so cute. He tries. :) At least the two of us get really good laughs out of it.

What they NORMALLY look like after professional grooming:

Cute, right? Prissy little furballs...

What happened with Lamar!:

HAHAHAHAHA! Poor Yoda looks so dejected. Hey Lamar...I luv ya but don't quit your day job honey. ;)

Just wanted Mommy...

Quick story...sorry, no pictures again. I have to clear off my camera first, as my memory card is full. Ugh. So...Brendan today was tired and it was naptime. So I left him on my bed for a minute while I searched for my cell phone. I'm always losing it. I heard him crying and kept trying to talk to him as I was running around the house looking for it. He started crying harder though...and that just breaks my heart. I had to stop what I was doing and walk in my room to lie down next to him. When I came into eyesight he quit crying and a huge smile burst onto his tear streaked face! I melted and cuddled up next to him. He immediately calmed down and reached for my face. He loves to touch my cheeks, squeeze my nose, and put his fingers in my mouth. So I kissed his tears away and he just smiled at me. He rubbed his eyes alot and I was just singing to him. Then I kissed him under the chin (where he's ticklish) and he just giggled and giggled in his really tired little voice. Then he put his face against mine and fell asleep! He just wanted Mommy to lie down next to him!!! SO CUTE! Melted my heart. :)

Same thing tonight...Lamar was trying to keep him asleep...laid down next to him and Brendan calmed right down, quit crying, and fell back asleep. Lamar looked so happy. We love our boy. :) It's the simple things. :)

Weight Watchers Rocks!

Okay...so wanted to brag a little...lost FIVE POUNDS my first week with Weight Watchers! Whoohoo!!!

Darn Valentine chocolates that I ate tonight though...GRRR. Gotta work harder this week. Just SO excited that I lost five pounds so fast! :)
Shannon

My pantry

Andrea...this is for you! I bought over 100 little baby foods tonight...went a little nuts. Was thinking food storage and had to get some for the little guy. :) It's been so fun watching him try new foods I had to get him most of what the store had...the carrots tonight were a BIG HIT! :)
They are in rows, organized by fruit or veggie. There are pears, applesauce, bananas, peaches, peas, carrots, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, garden veggies, mixed veggies, etc. He's set for the month. I had WAY too much fun! Made me happy knowing SOMETHING in my house was organized. :)
Impressed by my labelling techniques too? LOL ;) I wrote on them. Ha ha ha! You inspired me. :)
Now even Lamar can find the baby food in the pantry. LOL!

Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Lamar took some pictures of me and little guy hanging out on our bed. He looks traumatized in this picture...he WAS smiling, but the five thousand flashes before our picture was taken mesmorized him. It was on the wrong setting...ah hem. There are no smiles this post 'cause of the darn flashes. Just a deer in headlights! ;) It's all good...he's still so cute to us! :) I love this picture...his eyes look so funny...

We had a wonderful Valentines Day today! There was much love all around. :) Brendan even gave mommy and daddy cards! It was amazing! ;) ;) Hee hee.

This was him opening his card from us...

Hi kiddo! What have you got there?

He looks so grown up now! I can't stand how old he's getting already. He looks less like a baby and more like a little boy every day. It doesn't help that he's already wearing 12-18 mos old clothing!!! (He's 5 months old.) He loved this card...wouldn't put it down. :) It was cute. Then he wanted to take a break to JUMP! See the awe? Ha ha ha! I wish you could see the big ole smile right before the deer in headlights! He was tired...and just wanted his card. After awhile he was done playing and was soooo sleepy! I hate hearing him cry. So sad!!!Picture time was over. Served us right...we shouldn't have woken him up early from his nap to go out to eat. He was a grump for awhile 'cause he was still sleepy. We took our camera with us to get pictures at the restaurant with daddy, since we knew he'd be happy again shortly...but we forgot to take any. We were having too much fun playing at the big person's table. Ah well...next time. Brendan's first Valentine's Day! :) Yay!

Little Piano Man

Wanted to share these picts....my little guy was loving 'playing' the piano tonight! We were at my friends' house and they have a baby grand...he wishes mommy had one like that! (Mommy does too...) Sorry they're kinda blurry...my cell phone camera strikes again... :) I think they're cute anyway. He has started to lunge for the piano every time mommy plays on it.

Sleeping during the lesson

I forgot to add this one earlier...this is a picture of Brendan taken by one of my voice students during her lesson a couple of weeks ago. He is perfectly happy sitting through the lessons normally, just watching my students sing. This time he was a little cranky so I let him sit on my lap while I played piano with one hand. He just sat there gumming on my finger for awhile totally quiet and content. Then after several minutes my student giggled and pointed out that the tired little guy had fallen asleep on my hand!!!! He was so sleepy he just konked out right then and there. :) So cute.

A couple of things

Taken today...love the double chin when he's sitting in my pillow. He's feeling better! Yay!

Just wanted to share a couple of things.

A couple of nights ago Brendan was falling asleep, so he wasn't too fidgety. He was cuddling in my arms looking up at me without moving around as usual. He was intensely studying my face and looked so happy. I told him "I love you Brendan...soooo much!" He looked at me in my eyes and both of us had so much love in our eyes...it was too much for him...he laughed!! We were sitting there smiling at eachother with so much love that he kept laughing softly! He'd study my face smiling, and then stare through my eyes into my soul and laugh. There were so many sparkles of mommy/baby love. We love eachother! I almost cried. I can tell he already has a huge capacity to love, like his mommy....his little eyes give him away. They are so old already...just full of love and happiness. I loved so much that he seemed to understand the love in my eyes, and then returned it. :)

Brendan has started getting visually excited for his bottle! He just about jumps out of my arms every time Daddy brings the bottle over! Well today he decided that he wanted the bottle in his mouth even if he wasn't that hungry. He would pool the milk in his mouth and then SPIT it all over me!!! (Nipple still in his mouth) Then he would just giggle!!! I'd giggle too and say "No no honey...that's not how you're supposed to eat", taking the bottle away from him temporarily...trying not to laugh...and he could sense I was laughing at him. So he did it over and over again 'cause he could tell mommy thought he was being funny. :) He's very perceptive. The little stinker.

We found another thing that makes him laugh huge belly laughs...we'll try to get it on tape tomorrow. We'll take his feet and bonk them on our foreheads, and then pretend he kicked us-fall backward with sound effects. Oh he just LAUGHS!!! He thinks that it is so funny to 'kick' mommy and daddy in the forehead. Especially when we take his feet and go really really fast 'kicking' our forehead...he sounds like he's going to laugh so hard he's going to explode!!! It's so funny. It's probably not a good thing to start...LOL...but it is so cute that it makes him laugh sooo hard! We'll have to get it on video. It's adorable.

Tonight I was eating a bowl of soup in front of him and he started yelling for some, with his mouth wide open! And getting mad about it! So I quickly scooped him up and fed him some more rice cereal...the little thing PIGGED OUT! He had a whole bowl of rice cereal, AND a whole huge container of peas! AND a bottle!!! He was a hungry little monkey tonight. I just thought it was funny that he wanted to eat what mommy had NOW!

I joined Weight Watchers last week...ugh...not working fast enough!!!! Hopefully soon...

Playing at the doctors office

It's so sad...Brendan is sick...he finally caught what I have. (Bronchitis) Only he rubbed it in his eye and has pink eye now too. But he is the funniest happiest sick baby I've ever seen. He was smiling at all the nurses, JUMPING all over the room, laughing at his bunny toy, making people laugh, tearing the paper off the sick bed, and giggling at the baby in the mirror. We were there for FOUR stinkin' hours. Luckily Lamar met up with us so we didn't die of boredom. Here are some cute pictures from my cell phone of him playing in the dr's office.

He loved to rip the paper off the bed...we had to keep replacing it...the nurses will probably think twenty people stayed in our room in the time we were there.
He was making Lamar and I laugh

He loves to rip paper!

He'd jump til he was totally out of breath and wheezy, and then jump some more. Especially 'cause he was getting smiles from the baby in the mirror...he wanted to keep showing off. Especially 'cause when he'd jump he'd rip paper at the same time. It was SO MUCH FUN! :)

Poor little guy....his eye was all pink and swollen...I can't wait 'til we all feel better!!!!

Asleep cuddling with Mommy

This was taken yesterday at the dr's office. There were tons of kids screaming and mom's yelling at their kids (HUGE PET PEEVE...wanted to throw something at the yelling moms) and he was sleepy. I didn't think he was going to be able to take a nap because it was so noisy. He then grabbed my hand and put it up by his cheek. Within a minute of me holding his face he was asleep. He is such a cuddle bug! Thought it was sweet and took a picture with my cell phone. :) It was quite the contrast with us versus the other screaming mommy/baby pairs. I love my baby. :)

Reading with Mommy

It was bedtime and Brendan and I were waiting for Daddy to come in to tuck him in his crib. I read him his favorite book several times. Then I started to read my own book and let him keep looking at his, propped up. Lamar came in and thought we looked cute, so he grabbed my cell phone and took a picture. :) Reading with Mommy... :)

Brendan's giddy baths...

Brendan LOVES baths. I finally got him off the bath cushion and let him feel the water...and WOW! He LOVES to splash and drench me. He used to be 22 lbs, but has worked off 2 lbs in a month doing bath aerobics every night! :) He's so fun. Wanted to share this cute video...it makes me smile. We have just as much fun giving him a bath as he does getting one. I have to start wearing a rain poncho though. :) Bath time is my favorite time of the day!

Brendan giggling at Daddy's kisses

Our little guy thought Daddy's whiskers were really funny. He LOVES kisses! :) We caught him laughing several weeks ago...so fun. Wanted to share. We love his laugh!

Fun in the exersaucer

Fun in the exersaucer!!! He LOVES his present from Grandma and Grandpa Cook!

This look says "Hey Mom...I'm so laid back and easy going...and another thing...lemme tell ya.."

He loves to lean forward and JUMP JUMP JUMP!!!

I LOVE this picture....he's got such a cute smile. :) Makes me melt. :)

His eyes are getting to be a very deep blue. :) He thought everything I was saying was funny.Again...it's MOMMY! And she's being funny...

ALMOST got all five fingers in the mouth....listening to mommy tell a story...

Christmas with the Cook family in CA

Wow...this post will have lots of pictures. We went to Mission Viejo, CA for Christmas this year, to spend it with the Cook family at the Holmgren residence. :)

But first we took pictures of our own Winkel family Christmas at our house in Vegas. Frosty the Snowman came to visit! He was a jolly happy soul. :)

Reading "Scooby Doo" together...
We sooo needed these new bibs!

He really liked me helping him tear off the paper!

Then we drove to CA. The babies meet again!!! Only Brody wasn't too happy about it at that moment...the look on Brendan's face makes me laugh...like he is saying "What'd I do?!?!?" LOL

This is how I sleep. :) His arms have escaped the 'swaddle' since he was two months old.

Daddy was letting him play with the baby in the mirror. Then Lamar was so impressed by his physique he wanted to show off his 'guns'...walked around showing us. :) Boys will be boys. :)

This is his new daschund outfit from Grandma Karen! I love the look on his face. "Who, me?"

Christmas morning!!!!!! Santa came to visit again! :) And look who he brought with him? Santa's Little Helper! :)

He had the BIGGEST crush on aunt Ashley...this is how he was everytime Ash came in the room. He thought she was pretty. :)

Grandma Karen couldn't wait to get her hands on little Santa! :)

See? Again with the crushing on Ashley...

Opening presents with Daddy...
Cute little Brody....I love this picture...his eyes are SO BLUE! :) He is addicted to standing. The child loves to stand. : )

Santa had so much fun! He loved hanging out with Daddy. :)

Brody on the couch by himself... "Hey. Whatchoooo doin'?"

Opening presents was so exhausting!!!! Santa was wiped out. :)
Brody in his new exersaucer (Brendan got an identical one...he LOVES it!)

I love this cute face! Another "Who, me?" moment...

The boys were watching eachother very carefully here...

It was Brendan's turn...I love this little smile...

I think he looks a little elvish here...that cute little ear is sticking out... Hey Mom! Look! I turned it myself! Wow!Grandma Karen had both babies all to herself and she was lovin' it! :)

This cute baby will only fall asleep sometimes if I'm right next to him and our cheeks are touching. He's such a cuddle bug. For this nap I laid down next to him for just a minute and he snuggled right up and fell asleep. I of course couldn't sleep 'cause I was too worried about him being able to breathe, but I couldn't move. It was too precious. I love this picture...

Grandma is the baby whisperer...HOW'D SHE DO THAT!?!?!?!? We left for a movie and came back and realized that the entire time we'd been gone mom had had no help! (We thought our dad would be there and uncle Jon!) She managed to rock them both to sleep, one in each arm, all by herself!!! Poor lady was stuck on the floor though, when we got home...we felt so bad! But we were so impressed that she was a miracle worker!

Lamar had fun with the big boys looking at uncle Jon's fancy train set and guns in his office. :) My dad loves trains too...this picture is so cute to me!

The neck made a rare cameo...but hey! See! He DOES have one! :)

I love this little 'gerber baby' face. More exersaucer fun.

Hey Mom. I think I have a poopy...

MY NEW FAVORITE PICTURE OF BRENDAN!!! Grandpa Wylie picked him up in his Sunday outfit and he looks SO grown up! I love this picture. :) Melts my heart.

Brody borrowed the Frosty costume and played for a minute...so cute!

Grandpa Wylie loved playing with his little grandsons!

This picture is blurry, but it's so cute anyway! Brendan was putting his arm around big cousin Brody...even though Brendan is almost 8 lbs heavier!!! :) They were so cute together. :)

Cheyenne loved the boys too! This picture makes me laugh 'cause Brendan is almost as big as she is! :) I LOVE these two pictures of Brody in his exersaucer...he is so stinkin' cute! :)

One more adorable picture of Brody...I love my nephew!