Santa comes early!!

If you look close you might be able to recognize that guy. Josh dressed up at our TE.A.M.S. christmas party to give toys to the kids. It was absolutely hilarious. Brant was totally weirded out by the whole thing. That is the first time he has ever "seen" santa (other than in pics., tv.) and the fact that it sounded a whole lot like his dad really had him wondering. Josh did good and is already thinking of how to make it better next year-including having a Mrs. Clause or an elf!

Its almost Christmas at the Comrie's

We finally got the tree up along with the train. Brant LOVES the train. The is the first thing he wants to do. He is still learning how to play with it without making a train wreck. He can push the whistle button-its so cute. hope to catch it on video soon. This week has been incredibly busy. Have been baking my highly requested "snicker surprise" cookies all week and giving them away (the only way we can keep from eating them ALL ourselves). Thanks to Josh for giving me my early christmas gift-a stand mixer-it makes it sooooooooo much easier to make. Brant visited the speech pathologist Wed. to be evaluated, we will get the results tomorrow. During the test he was able to show off his impressive coloring skills and his ability to kick and throw the ball which he managed to get into the trash can. Oh yeah-his new word-cookie! Imagine that-no doubt his our kid!! And check out that hair cut. Doesn't look bad for having to hold him while he threw a fit the whole time. Can't wait for him to get over that! As for my hair, I got bangs. Just told her to cut 'em before I could change my mind. I honestly can't remember last time I had bangs. Maybe in high school I tried the Narz hair (a.k.a. mall bangs), but seriously don't remember looking like this since my 6th birthday party picture of me and my cabbage patch kid with matching dresses (thanks mom-you are the best!). Anyhow, check it in the next blog-where I am sitting on Santa's lap.

Oh, the joys of parenthood

Brant managed to get pretty sick over the holiday break. He had a double ear infection that after 6 days still hadn't cleared up, so back to the doctor we go. He then get 2 shots of antibiotics in his legs and another 10 days of drugs. In the meantime, I am starting to feel a little under the weather-have to take two days off of work (which I rarely ever do), I visit the doctor and am told I have a sinus infection. Oh-is that why I can't breath? and still can't. Maybe we are both antibiotic resistant. Brant is feeling better-you can tell by watching the video. I still feel like my brain is swimming in snottage. Took him friday to get his hair cut-big mistake. He pitched a fit, it was crazy. We left with his hair intact. Just tried again today, since Josh was cutting his hair thought maybe we could persuade Brant. It took some work, but its cut. Obviously not professionally done, could use a little work around the ears-but at this point, I don't really care. Thanks god he is a boy!!

Where's the turkey??

We had most of the family in for Thanksgiving this year and it was great. Unfortunately we (brant and myself) didn't get to run on the thanksgiving day race (it was full by the time I tried to register). We decided to have a low country boil for thanksgiving day feast since we planned to have the real thanksgiving dinner on Friday. My parents did most the cooking and everything turned out great. I actually got a little "martha stewartish" (if you can call it that). I handmade some crafts, had the kids make some, and even made some oreo desssert things that looked liked turkeys (but of course, no pics of those). It was a lot of fun.

i LOVE donuts

The other evening I am sitting on my butt watching little t.v. when I hear Brant in the kitchen yelling MA MA MA (because he doesn't say mommy or really anything else). I go in to check it out and this is what I find. He apparently spotted my dunkin donuts early in the day and was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to get his hands on some. He had moved my lunch box over the chair to help him up and he just wanted me to come in there to help him down. He managed to take bits out of two donuts and get chocolate and powder sugar all over him. Too cute.

I also just ran my 6th half marathon. I managed to run it in 2 hrs. and 18 mins. which is only 3 minutes slower than my fastest half ever, so i was pretty happy since that is about 10:44 mile pace. Felt great and have very little soreness. What soreness I did have was taken care of with a nice massage (and facial) that Josh had given me for my birthday. No plans to do anymore anytime soon but I am looking for a half to do in April. Brant will be running in his first race Thanksgiving day. It has almost became a tradition to run the Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) on Thanksgiving morn. at the Univ. of Richmond. They have a kids .5 mile run which we are going to enter Brant. Should be interesting!!

WE MISS YOU!

I tried to get Brant to do something cute for the camera because I never seem able to capture those moments. All he wants to do is attack the camera-check it out. I think he thinks you were in the camera.

Josh, Sally (his mom) and Gabe (Sara's son) left early this morning to travel to Fort Campbell, KY for Sara's homecoming from Iraq. She will be getting in around 2am Wed. morn. It is very exciting to have her home and of course, a big relief. She is thinking she will be in Fort Campbell for a few months and then moved to Fort Eutiss in Newport News.

THE FINISHED FORT

josh's "little" project has finally came to an end. He has definetly enjoyed building this massive play structure for his little man.

I was so concerned that he wasn't quite old enough to get up the ladder and rock wall that josh had to build a handicap ramp up the back.

Anyone want some cookies??

For our 3rd annual halloween party, I dressed up as a girl scout and josh was a boy scout. My girl scout costume was a little risque-nothing you've ever seen a girl scout wear before. I even had a girl scout cookie box but it was filled with jello shooters. I was able to find a real boy scout leader outfit from a guy I work with-it fit great. Because he is such a honest boy scout-he had to work the door most of the night. We had a great time, as did everyone else there.

Monkey Boy

Brant's first halloween was great. I finally found him this costume at Old Navy for $5 (couldn't believe it-benefits of waiting till the last minute) I struggled with him all week to wear it, he had some kind of fear of it, not sure what that was about-oh, and if ya don't know, his nickname is monkey, i called him that right after I delivered cause he looked like a monkey with big eyes and black hair everywhere. Halloween night we forced it on him and then had to drag him outside. He was a little weirded out about going up to peoples houses but once he saw his twin cousins, Stephen and Stephanie, do it a few times he was ready. He got so good at going up to people's houses, he even went inside one and tried to climb their stairs. It was hilarious! Although, he couldn't say trick or treat, he did say bye to everyone at least ten times. He has mastered hi and bye. I tried to get a close picture of his lip but that is nearly impossible so this is as good as it gets. It still looks a tad bit swollen to me and he does has a little scar. I couldn't believe how fast it healed and how well he took it.

He is a total daddy's boy right now. He refused to let me carry him. Josh would have to carry him in between houses while I would take the kids to the house. Love that banana in his pocket! It even had a tail on the back.

Ready, Set, Busted Lip!

So here is the story...My brother, who lives in Giles County, VA, is in Richmond working so he came down for a little visit. He hadn't even been there but maybe 10 mins. when I decided that Brant should show off his running abilities (or lack of!) So on my commands Ready, Set, Go he would run across the room successfully until about the fourth try when his feet weren't moving as fast as the rest of his body, he tripped, and fell into a coffee table. Screaming, blood, pure panic, I was a mess. Once we got the bleeding stopped and on our way to the hospital, which we had to go Chippenham which was 30 mins. away because the people at patient first said he might need plastic surgery. We wait in the emergency room for 2.5 hrs. They give new meaning to the word emergency. Oh and all this is around 9 at night now, which is about 2 hours after brant's bed time. It was great, just great. He ended up with 6 or 7 stitches, Josh had to hold him because I did have the nerve to even watch. The inside of his lip looks horrible but they didn't need to stitch that, doctors said it would heal very quickly (which it is) and he will get his stitches out monday. Guess this was probably the first trip of many, and yes I think I got my first gray hairs.

"Oh Yeah! You should see the other guy!"

Already, the swelling has gone a great deal and he doesn't look quite so deformed. As far as the next emergency room visit---sure it won't be long. I "fort" is almost finished and I am already way more overprotective and nervous about him being on it. I will get some pics up soon. Too bad this didn't happen last week, he could have been a boxer for halloween.

The Fort

Josh had designed and is now building Brant a fort. They are both so excited about it and hopes to have it finished next weekend.

Notice the hat-what happened to the weather? It was 90 4 days ago.

Once finished there will be a slide, swings, rock wall, ladder, and of course, guns and cannons.
When I tried to get Brant to come inside he discovered the inside of his fort. Can't wait for it to be finished, he is going to have so much fun.

A day at the park

We made some time last weekend to get to the park. He loves climbing up to the top and then coming down the slide. It amazes me how he can climb so well and he is very much a daredevil. He has not fear-yet.
He loves going down the slide on his belly, not sure why, just glad he hasn't tried head first yet.

Brant is so particular about getting stuff on his hand, see how he doesn't want to touch the step. At least when we are outside, he is learning to wipe it on his clothes, but he really gets irritated when food gets stuck on his hands. He just hasn't learn his father's manners on how to eat without napkins! HAHA Dad I know you are laughing! I do have better manners now, unless its chicken wings!

I don't know how two weeks have gone by so fast but somehow it has. Today, I am home sick, sorta. I definetly don't feel well, started with a sore throat last week and has now slowly progressed into congestion, cough, headache, the usual. Now I want to say Thank You to all my germy students, thanks for giving me the day off. I went to the doctor this morning and he seems to think I have bronchitis. GREAT-heavy dose of antibiotics for the next 5 days. With Brant still at the babysitters for the day, I managed to take a 3 hour nap. It was great, but of course, I won't be able to sleep tonight.

CHECK OUT HIS NEW GUITAR

He has so much fun with his guitar. Josh tied a string to it like a guitar strap so can hold it easier. He can be such a goof!

SOME MANY TOYS, NOT ENOUGH TIME

Sally bought this super cool tricycle for Brant. He hasn't got the pedal think down yet, but enjoys sitting on it and pushing all the buttons. It even has blinker signals. Toys haven't gotten so much better since I was a kid. I would get excited over ribbons hanging on the handle bars!
Nonno and Nonna got him his very own suitcase, which we packed and he pushed around for at least an hour.
Guess you could say we are starting him early! He knew exactly what to do once we got it open. He has since "cut off" all our body parts, "cut up" all the furniture, including the fireplace. I took his grinder to the babysitters and she warned me to NEVER bring it back. Guess she couldn't handle to noise!
Brant and nonna on the deck. Oh yeah, that his Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football shirt. We're 3-1, definetly didn't expect that and real excited about it.

BIRTHDAY PARTY PICS

He seems so excited and I think he even blew the candles out himself. Not to sure if he made any wishes.

The monkey boy is Gabriel, she is the son of Josh's younger sister, Sara. Seemed like everyone had a good time at the party. The weather was better than expected and a few kids were brave enough to get into the pool.

Just some pics

We spent a little time outside last night and i managed to snap some pics in between smacking mosquitos and scratching my new bug bites! Although the weather is getting much cooler the bugs here are still in full force. The picture of the car is Josh's new ride and the white magnets are advertising for his new website-jcsiding.com-he's big time now! I've got a big girls night tonight. Two of my close girlfriends and myself all have birthdays within a week of each other so we are all going out to celebrate, while the daddys have baby duty. This week ought to be busy getting ready for Brant's big monkey birthday. Susan-you will have to check out these monkey face cupcakes that I am gonna attempt to make, so stay tuned.

Brant is trying to talk!!

He will be turning 2 on Sept. 27 and his vocabulary is still so limited. Most everything is GA-GAAA but the way he says it I think he thinks he is actually saying something. He had a very exciting day yesterday watching the Redskins win their home opener-he would even clap (imitating me of course, not his dad). Things are getting back to normal at school. The students are starting to show their true colors but I have really enjoyed competing with them in our annual badminton tourney (yeah-I know I work too hard!!)

Looks like I was successful on my first try. Now the goal is to keep it updated. This was the goal while Josh was away at a builders convention in baltimore till sat. morn. Brant goes to bed so early (7:30 p.m.) its almost like we don't even have a kid sometimes.

Attempt at loading pics

Back to Work

Let the good times roll! I am now back to work (well, if you can call it that, mostly meetings) and back to missing my boy. Brant seems to be happy to be back at the sitters. He definetly likes hanging out with other kids and becomes very unhappy when I come to pick him up. We are heading to Virginia Beach this weekend because once again I have paid (a lot of money) to run a half marathon at the butt crack of dawn. Still not totally sure why I do that, maybe an addiction, slight insanity, that runners high thing, who knows. We finally got our new computer so I hope that pictures/videos are soon to come.

First Timer

After much encouragement from my sister-in-law, Susan, I have decided to give this a try. It is has been on my evergrowing list of things to do this summer. Well the summer is half way over and I am just now getting started. The harder part will to keep it up throughout the school year. Soooo...this is a learning experience-big time-since I am not that computer savvy.