Happy Birthday Brett

The last couple of weeks have been pretty exciting at our house.  Brett turned 1 on September 1st and the Husker Football season started as well.  We also put new shingles on our roof and by "we" I mean Travis, 3 of my brother-in-law's and one friend.  They did an awesome job and got the house and garage all done in a day!  Travis had ripped the old shingles off of the garage and prepped it to the tar paper stage which was hard work for him but he did great.  I was on the garage for a few hours helping him out but other than that it was all him.

Let's start with Brett turning one.  I can not believe how fast the year has gone.  He is growing like a weed and when I tell you he is into everything I really mean it.  We used to say that Sam was into everything when she was his age but she wasn't.  This boy is all over everywhere all of the time!  Here are some pictures from a small birthday celebration we had with my mom, and my sister and her family.  We went to the zoo first thing in the morning then came home for lunch, naps, then cake and ice cream followed by presents.  I made him a Curious George smash cake.  It was devils food with whatever the normal frosting is out of the can.  He seemed to like it.  We also made ice cream in the ice cream ball.  It was vanilla with broken up Reese's PB cups in it.  Everyone but Brett loved the ice cream.  I think he just has a hard time with it being so cold. 

On 9/4 Brett started his first day in the toddler room at day care.  He was a little out of sorts when I dropped him off.  I took oatmeal for him for breakfast but they don't have highchairs in there.  Maybe I need to transition to finger foods for breakfast.  But then again, he can't really climb into the chairs and sit at the little table yet so maybe it isn't such a big deal.  I'm also still nursing him.  I wrapped up nursing with Sam gradually right after she turned one.  Brett had his one year appointment with the Dr. last Thursday and he said he is fine with him continuing on breast milk, or formula or whole milk.  In the end it is up to me.  I've been researching and researching trying to figure out if there is a real benefit health wise to Brett or myself for continuing.  They say that continuing benefits the baby's immune system and there are rumors that it it better for brain development.  I have also read that the longer the mother breast feeds the more she decreases her risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, diabetes, etc.  What isn't clear is how long is the most beneficial.  I want to make sure I've done enough research before I totally pull the plug on it.  I give myself a few more weeks.  I have cut back to nursing in the morning, pumping at around 2pm and pumping again around 8:30pm.  I'm thinking of cutting back to nursing in the morning and pumping for the before bed bottle.  The doc said he only needs 16 oz of milk so if I am feeding him 6 oz at night, what I would guess to be around 5-6 oz in the morning, that means he really only needs another 4 oz or so to hit the 16 oz goal. 

Fitness wise I haven't ridden my bike since 8/4 and I have no desire to do so right now.  I've been running about 20 miles/week and doing the elliptical for a few hours a week.  I'm working on a training plan for a cross country race the weekend before Thanksgiving that is 7 miles long.  We are trying to decide when our next race should be.

On another kid note, we are thinking about taking the kiddos to the Nebraska game this weekend.  I'm not sure how they will do.  The weather is supposed to be perfect though so if we ever wanted to give it a try this would be the time to do it.