Steamboat Triathlon

This morning Ryan competed in the Steamboat Triathlon!  He had to swim 450 meters, bike 15.5 miles, and run 5 miles.  Brynn and I had fun watching him and chasing him around town while he was swimming, biking, and running.  He finished second in his age group and was really pleased with how he did!  YAY DADDY!

We got there just a few minutes before the start so we got to watch him warm-up a little.

Brynn LOVED watching everything going on around her.  She
was mesmerized by all the swimmers.

They started a new swimmer every 20 seconds...here is Uncle Jason!

Then Ryan...

Jason transitioning to the bike.

Let me just say...I looked like a complete moron trying to run around...maneuver the stroller, attempt
to video Jason and Ryan, and try to take still pictures.  But I did get some good action shots!

 After the boys left on their bikes, we had about 40 minutes to kill.  By the time we got out of the parking lot and I had driven a few minutes, Brynn was snoozing in the backseat.  (With her cold she hasn't been napping  as long...yuck!  And on the weekends we normally let her sleep as long as she will (usually around 7:30) but she's been waking up around 6:45 so I guess she needed to catch up on some sleep!)  It was actually kind of nice having 20 silent minutes to myself...wish I would have had enough time to go get a caramel frappachino from Starbucks!  HA!  We parked at our town library to watch the boys come by on their bikes.  She was so content to just sit in the stroller and watch the bikers whiz by!

FINISH!  He did it in 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 41 seconds!  (Ryan wants me to point out that
the clock in the background was the timer from the very beginning...he didn't start swimming until about 10
or 11 minutes after the first swimmer, if that makes sense.)

Look at her little scrunchy nose face...this is her new look!

Hanging out with lots of our friends whose husbands and friends were competing.

AWWW....Kristi and Matt just had baby Cameron a couple of weeks ago.

So sweet...she has started laying her head on our shoulders to "give hugs."  It is adorable!
I think Ryan's quote was "This is what it's all about!"  So cute!

Oh Brynn...already Miss Curiosity!

Ryan's training buddies...Matt, Rick, Jason, and Alex.

As ANNOYING as Ryan's alarm clock going off at 5 am is, I am so proud of how hard he trains and how great he does!  GREAT JOB!! And just for fun...here's a picture of us this time last year at the Steamboat Triathlon!  Wow...what a difference a year makes!

I Need More Iron!

Brynn's had an eventful couple of days...she's gotten her blood drawn twice!  At her one year check-up our doctor took some blood to check her iron levels (evidently they started doing this a couple years ago).  Her iron was low, so for the last three weeks she's been on iron drops.  Tuesday we had to take her back to get re-checked.  The nurse called Thursday and asked if we had been giving her the drops...I figured that was a bad sign!  Turns out her iron levels didn't go up at all!  So...after school on Thursday I had to take her back to the doctor to get more blood taken so they could do a more in-depth look at her levels.  I tried not to freak out when the nurse asked me if we had a family history of anemia or "thalessemia minor" (I don't even know what that is, but it didn't sound great...).  They called today and said that her tests show that she's definitely iron deficient, but all her other levels (like white blood cells and platelets) look good.  So...bottom line...everything is fine, but she has to be on iron drops for four more weeks and three times a day instead of two.  We are so thankful for the good news!

Got a Dora sticker for being such a good patient at the lab!

She LOVES to stir!

Hopefully she won't have to have anymore blood work once this is all over...I don't know if I can take any more needles, finger pricks, and vials of blood...it's a wonder I haven't passed out yet at the lab!

Little Momma

Brynn has been acting like such a little lady lately! She likes to put little bags and wallets on her arms and carry them like they are a purse, she knows how to turn my iPhone on (pressing the button and sliding it open!), and has been taking care of her babies! Tonight she walked up and down my parents street pushing her baby in the grocery cart...oh my!!!!

















One going on thirty!!

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13 months!

Wow...what a difference a month makes.  I feel like this month has seen Brynn go from a baby to a toddler.  She is doing so many new things and is really developing a little personality.  (And side note...we had never used her 12 month sticker, so just pretend like this month's sticker says "13 months" instead of 12!)

I am 13 months, people!

This is how Daddy puts on her headband...oh brother!

SO EXCITED!

I know these little bullet points probably bore most of you, but these are things I don't want to forget about 13 months!

• She weighs around 21-22 pounds.
• She is wearing a size 3 diaper.
• Wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes.
• I really didn't expect her to start doing this so quickly, but she has dropped her morning nap and just naps from about 1-3:30 everyday.  Occasionally she will still take one (if we are in the car and she falls asleep, etc.).
• This month she stopped nursing completely and also dropped her last bottle...just eats supper and is good to go until the next morning...wow, what a difference that makes!
• She started walking and can crawl all the way up stairs.
• She just seems to be learning so many things and her receptive language seems to be getting better and better.  You can ask her to go pick something up or throw something in a basket and she does it.  It's crazy!
• She LOVES to bring me books and will come over and plop herself in my lap...too cute!
• She says dada, nonna, mama (still not much), uh-oh, ball (bah), and everytime she sees a balloon she shouts "bahhhoo", and she really tries to imitate when we say things.  She says a lot of "bah" and "dah".  She tries to say "toothbrush" but it comes out really funny, but it sounds the same everytime.  She says "bowwwwww"...and "nigh nigh" at night.  I can't think of everything, but she is really trying to say a lot.
• She loves to snuggle with her baby and her giraffe in her crib, and when we put her down at night she has been attempting to "jump" lately in her crib...oh boy!
• She loves to play with Pamaw's babies and feed them and put them in their bed.  She also loves to take spoons and bowls and stir.
• This has been such an exciting month!

That brings me to another exciting piece of news...(and please don't be thinking this is a baby announcement...that's definitely not in the works yet!  HA!)  This month, after LOTS of prayer, Ryan and I finally made the decision that I'm not going to teach full-time next year!  We have been thinking about it pretty much all school year, and I told my principal and co-workers a couple of weeks ago (amidst bawling).  It's so bittersweet because I love my job, and plan on going back once our kids are in school (or whenever God leads), but for now we decided that I will get to stay at home with Brynn.  I am going to try to sub about 2 days a week at Orchard, which I think for me will be perfect!  We are so excited for this next phase of life!

Updates...

I feel like I haven't blogged since all the Easter overload pictures!  HA!  Here are some pictures of sweet Brynn and some updates on what's going on in the Bandermann family...

Look at these ADORABLE boots!

Ryan's Aunt got these for Brynn for her birthday...they are ADORABLE.
We had Brynn's one year pictures taken on Tuesday and we
took them (and the matching jacket) to get some pictures taken in them by
the creek near our house.  Brynn just wasn't having it! 
The coat was way too big (and the boots are big too) so I think I'm seriously
going to save them for her 2 year old pictures!

Watching her try to walk around in these was HILARIOUS!

She looked so cute this morning before school that I had to snap some pictures.

Her pants matched this little "dew-rag" so I put it on her! 
Ryan told Nonna he thought it looked like my underwear on her head!  HA!

We don't care what Daddy says...this is ONE CUTIE PATOOTIE!

Brynn has been quite the entertainer at supper lately.  The other day she let out a HUGE toot and then said "UH-OH" really loud.  Ryan and I were peeing in our pants we were laughing so hard.  (I don't know if it was just a coincidence that she said that, but the timing was hilarious!)  She also LOVES to try and use her spoon.  It was so funny the other night we took some pictures. 

She definitely likes to try to do it herself!  Sometimes she can be a little sassy-pants!

She will pick up her food and put it on the spoon and then try to put the spoon in her mouth.
Sometimes she even just sets the food on the spoon, smiles, grabs it off the spoon, and then puts
it in her mouth.

She doesn't really understand that food won't stay on the spoon if she holds it up and down!

So proud of herself when she can do it!

SUCCESS!
Well...not totally successful if she needs a bath EVERY time she gets done eating supper,
but that's how you learn, right?

A couple "big girl" updates...she hasn't been taking a morning nap for about a week.  Last week at Nonna's she was fine all morning so Nonna didn't put her down until after lunch (around 12:45) and she hasn't been taking one since.  There have been a couple of times she has been pretty cranky in the evenings, but overall it hasn't been too bad.  We have been putting her to bed earlier during the week (like in her crib before 8).  Speaking of...our evening routine has also changed.  After her one-year check-up when Dr. Hoffman said to try to phase out the bottle, we gave it a try.  She has done great...I guess I was worried that she would wake up early because she was hungry, but that hasn't been the case at all. She eats supper around 6 with us, and then about 7:45 we've been reading out on the couch and letting her drink milk from her sippy cup if she wants.  Then we say "night night" (and she has been saying "ni ni") then we put her in her sleep blanket and put her down for the night.  Sometimes we will see her on the video monitor in there playing and making chirpy noises, but within 10 minutes or so she's down for the night.  It is so exciting to see her become such a big girl.  She is trying to imitate so many words we say, and it's just such a cool time!