I know it's been a while since I posted anything...I've been a little busy doing installations/upgrades and have been traveling around. Nice to be back home again. One of the things that made me laugh was having been home for a week Nor asked me if I noticed the tape on the floor in the utility room. I probably did see it but just didn't really think anything of it.

Apparently while I was gone she found a bug and rather than step on it and clean it up figured it would be easier to take a piece of packing tape and just tape it to the floor and let deal with it when I got back. So this thing has been stuck to the floor for about 2 weeks before I found out.

I just have to say how happy I was...Brandon walked over to the DVD collection and pulled out the Dilbert collection I have and announced he wanted to watch it.

That just made my day!

(Warning, this post has nothing to do with Brandon, just something I found humorous after the fact.) So they other day I was inspired by a commercial...a really bad commercial for a beer product I think has no taste...but that's besides the point. For whatever reason I was on a cleaning spree (male PMS I guess) and after cleaning the AC intake a lot of fuzz came out the vent and was stuck to the ceiling. Well, a paper towel didn't work to clean it off since it just ripped the towel and was leaving more towel there than it was taking off in dust. So what to do...

Get a stool and pick up the vacuum cleaner and vacuum the ceiling of course! I will say it worked really well....I just want to get a lighter vacuum or one with a longer hose cause it's a pain holding up the upright part with one hand while using the hose in the other to actual get the stuff off.

A little while ago we had a palmetto bug in the house...nothing new there, we live in Florida! Brandon however kept saying he saw the buggy even after we killed it and got rid of it. So while the three of us were lying on the floor, Brandon announces that I have a buggy on me. Now just to be clear, there was nothing on me but mommy decided it would be funny to tell Brandon to go get his shoe and get the buggy.

So Brandon proceeded to run over and grab my sneaker (the biggest shoe available) and come after me trying to smack me with it to get the buggy!

Did mom help....nope. She sat there laughing and nearly peed her pants.

It's officially been one full week without the pacifier now. I am very happy to say that it has gone much better than expected. When putting him to bed at night, he only asked me once for his sucky but I just old him he was a big boy and didn't need it anymore, he put his head down and went to sleep no problems.

I'm not sure if it has to do with sleeping without the pacifier but the last two nights Brandon's been waking up throughout the night. Not really awake I guess but more like the half-asleep dream state like I do now and then. He'll call for us but not really know what he's doing. After a couple minutes he goes right back to sleep.

Since Brandon is the poster child for YoBaby drinkable yogurt, we go through a lot of it...currently about 8 bottles a day. Since it's not usually stocked as well as more common items we've had a rather odd setup for a while now...Gamma goes to the Pulix and gets all the cases they have, usually 10-12, so we have enough to last the week.

Apparently they've been trying to figure out who keeps cleaning out their supply and had someone waiting for her the other day. When she started getting the yogurt the manager came up and asked how many she was taking. After going through the whole explanation and having to confirm again that he goes through 2 cases, not 2 bottles, but 2 cases a day...they are now stocking a 15 cases in the back just for us so it will always be available for us and we won't clean them out.

Now I have to say I give credit to Publix for this...they are without a doubt the best supermarket around just because they are clean and well stocked...but the customer service was well beyond what I would have expected. We just need to remember to tell them when Brandon stops drinking the yogurt so they don't have a couple pallets rotting in the back waiting for us!

We had a couple nights this past week where Brandon went to sleep without grabbing his pacifier, aka "sucky". So last night we decided to try putting him to bed without putting one in the bed with him....slept all night no problems. Woke up around 7am to "Dadddyyyy.....I want my sucky!"

So it's a great start....going to try repeating this from now on and hopefully we can get him completely off the pacifiers in the next couple weeks. I'm trying to be realistic here in that he's going to have some nights where he just has to have the pacifier....so while I'm going to try to have it gone within the week, I'm not honestly expecting that to happen....I just don't have that kind of luck on my side this week.

This has been a rather full weekend for us. Other than moving everything out of our bedroom, including the bed, to paint and put a new floor in (ripped out the original carpeting finally) Brandon has been getting better at going pee in the potty. He's not perfect by any means and we still have to clean up after but he's improved a lot in the past couple days. Hopefully it will keep up. I have to give credit to Nor for it though as she's been really good at it where I feel like a deer in headlights and have no clue what to do.

I wish there was a way to put into words what we did last night. To set the stage, we just have our mattress lying on the floor in the bedroom so we can put in the new floor. Brandon thinks this is the coolest thing since he can get up on the bed easily and thoroughly enjoys jumping on the bed and falling down on it, almost like a trampoline. So while he was playing he managed to get in a few shots on mom & dad, almost like a wrestling match with the guys jumping up to land an elbow or knee on the opponents face. We kept trying to figure out how we would explain to the ER what happened....who do they call when you've been attacked by a 2 year old?

The one bad thing this weekend was Brandon skipping his nap again yesterday while at Grandma & Grandpa's....I think they've lost their noon-time babysitting privileges for a while until they promise to make sure he naps. He got so tired he eventually fell asleep on the floor (which he's never done.) He looked like he just passed out on the floor in the middle of playing...and he didn't want to get up. Of course since it was 6pm we weren't about to let him nap long so he was a very grumpy bear.

After a good night sleep last night and one successful pee on the potty this morning he's doing good. Hopefully it will stay this way the rest of the day.

This past week we Nor decided to take potty training to the next level and go one step further than they do at school. At night and weekends Brandon is no longer wearing a diaper (except when he sleeps or goes in the car.) He just wears his (really small) big-boy underwear.

Now the advantage of this over letting him run around naked is that when he pees without telling us it doesn't go everywhere and he's not encouraged to actually aim and pee on something like the dog or cat! The downside of course is that he usually tells us he has to pee just as he finishes or starts peeing so there's a nice little puddle beneath him.

Hopefully we'll make it through this stage quickly as I'm already getting tired of running around with the paper towels and clorox wipes every 30 minutes (yes, he seems to pee about every half-hour.) We're bringing him in to sit on the potty regularly even if he says he doesn't have to go trying to encourage him to go on the potty and he knows he gets a prize when he goes on the potty.

I'm going to state or the record though that if we ever see a yellow stripe on the dog or cat...I'm not going to be the one cleaning them up!

I guess mom just enjoys cleaning up as she decided to skip the diaper this morning and just let Brandon wear underwear. While I understand the goal of trying to get him to understand when he has to go potty and to go to the bathroom....I see it as a potential major clean up when he decides to pee somewhere in the house. Only time will tell what happens I guess.

Earlier this week Brandon woke up with his usual scream for Mommmmmmmeeeeeeeyyyy! He tends to alternate who he wants every week or so...the good thing about him yelling for mom in the morning is that I don't have to go running in...the down side is it means I was the one to get called in during the night.

But back to the subject....after mom went in and I followed, we started the usual morning routine and asked if he wanted to get out of bed. He decidedly said "No. I want girlies." We both looked at each other and I think said at the same time...did he just say what I think he said. Yep, he said it again...he wanted girly in bed.

Well, guess it's time for the neighbors to start putting the bars on their daughters windows. I'm thinking the implanted GPS chip may not be such a bad idea...at least lets get it in before he gets any bigger and realizes what's happening.

Didn't get a chance to post this the other day but Brandon actually went poop in his potty this week. About 30 seconds later I decided I want to throw out his little plastic potty he has. Why you ask, when you walk into a bathroom and start to heave due to the smell of toddler poop siting in a plastic bowl you'll understand. I nearly puked while emptying the bowl and cleaning it out due to the smell. I like the little seat that comes off and attaches to the regular toilet so I think we're going to stick with that so he can use the potty and have it go right into the bowl to be flushed. I just can't handle the smell.

Oh, and the other part was that from sitting on the seat down so low, when he went pee, it doesn't go in the bowl, it shoot forward and sprays the floor.

So we had lots of fun trying to act all happy and cheering him on for going potty all while trying to resist the urge to vomit while cleaning up the pee & poop. Oh yea, looking forward to the next time he goes potty!

Just a quick update on Brandon's physical today. He's doing fine, current weight is 30.7lbs. and height is 34 3/4". This was the first time he did the height by standing up against the wall instead of marking the paper he was lying on to see how tall he was...stood on the scale too instead of the baby scale they lay in.

I have to say I was amazed when he got his latest shot...cried for about a minute and that was it. He handled needles better than I do that's for sure.

Brandon had nightmares last night about bugs in his bed...realized this morning that it was mommy's fault. He spilt his yogurt in the bed yesterday and mom told him he would get bugs in his bed if he did that!

Well when he woke up screaming, shaking, and terrorized that there were bugs in his bed this morning, dad got to have fun trying to calm him down for 15 minutes. He finally went back to sleep and just had the occasional scream without waking up the rest of the morning.

Unfortunately when he wakes up he's off to the doctors for his next set of shots....it's going to be a bad day to be Brandon I think.

Brandon went poop in the potty for the first time this morning. Looking back it must have been a funny sight to see Nor and I cheering and congratulating him for going poopy in the potty. He was all happy to watch the poop circle down the drain as he flushed it away. Not sure if he'll keep it up and want to keep doing it but it would be nice to not have the nasty diapers anymore. I'm sure the transition though will have many an accident we'll have to deal with along the way.

It's been a long time since I've see the show Mr. Wizard but after talking about it with a friend recently (don't ask what brought it up) I looked around and was able to find that they still have the shows available on DVD. I'm not sure how cheesy they'll seem now but I think I'm going to have to get them for Brandon...figure if he's got my genes, he's not getting an athletic scholarship!

I'm still amazed that it actually happened but Noreen was able to stretch the umbilical cord and let Brandon spend the night with Grandma & Grandpa. I was honestly expecting to wake up at 6am with her dressed and ready to go pick him up so she could be there when he woke up...but luckily that didn't happen. Granted she did get dressed and ready to go faster than I've ever seen her do when getting ready for work (in fact she's probably wondering why I'm typing at the computer instead of putting on my shoes to leave right now.)

Well, off to pick up the goober so Nor can reconnect the cord!

For a while now Brandon has used the phrase "Brandon doodit" (combination of do it and did it.) For the first time last night, at least that we've noticed, he was taking his bath and when passing the shower spray back, I handed it to him and he stated "I got it." It was just so odd to here him say "I" instead of referring to himself in the third person.

Brandon has decided that the best way to get our attention lately when he's not getting what he wants is to smack us on the face. Needless to say this is not something we're very fond of and are trying to break this habit as quickly as possible. It's proving rather difficult without resorting to smacking him back which I have to say is what you really want to do when you get your glasses smacked off your face and sent flying! It was really fun when he did this at the top of the Swiss Family Tree house in Disney and luckily Nor was able to grab them about 1" before they went over the edge and 40' down into the water. I was able to return the favor a little later when he knocked hers off a couple more times.

The really challenging part was when mom was having a serious talk with him about not hitting and he tried hitting her while this was going on. When I asked him if he wanted me to hit him...he just looked at me and said Yes. I'm not sure how we kept a straight face between the urge to laugh at the snotty little expression saying "I dare you" and the urge to return the favor and smack him across his face and see if he would learn that it hurts and to stop doing it.

All I can think of when I want to hit him is the comedian talking about his kids and saying something about smacking your kid and yelling at them about not hitting people...."Here's your sign." And for the record, no we have not and have no intention of actually hitting him (spanking excluded.)

Back from Disney...wasn't exactly how we had planned our anniversary but it was Disney! I've uploaded photos to the FolderShare so you can see the highlights. We'll have more of the good character photos when we get the PhotoPass photos (at last count we had 110 photos of Brandon with Characters and other areas around the park!!)