This Week at the Brennans’

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Life has gotten so busy, it seems I don’t have the time like I once used to to sit down and just type out my thoughts without being interrupted by a child. Haha! I used to burn the midnight oil to get all my work done, but now I have to go to bed (or end up falling asleep) by 10pm. I LOVE looking back at these family posts; they’re serving as my public journal and I love that. But it seems that I can’t keep up. Of course I can only do so much, but this time in my life is something I really want to keep track of! So, I’m a little frustrated with myself, but am giving myself the grace to fudge my posting schedule a little.

Here’s what happened these past two weeks:

It’s not super consistent yet, but Porter is sleeping wonderfully! We’ve had several nights of 5-hour sleep stretches and then one night with a 6 hour stretch! Say whaaat? It has been amazing. And the very very beautiful thing about this is when I nurse him in those early hours, he goes right back to sleep. There still are those nights where he is up every two hours, but thankfully they are usually followed up by a night with a longer stretch. His bedtime is anywhere between 10pm and midnight and that long stretch happens right away.

Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I have been praying that this baby would be a good sleeper (or if he was a bad sleeper, I’d have the strength and stamina to survive on little sleep). Thankfully, it’s been a combination of the two and I’ve been able to handle this transition really well. Also, its super important to note that I’m handling it so well because I don’t have to get up at 6am to get my older three ready for school. Gordon’s work schedule has allowed him to be here every morning. He works evenings and midnights, but is home in the mornings. It’s been a big blessing for sure.

One of my best friends, Amy, came to New York to visit and help with the baby and general housekeeping. We loved having her here and were so sad to see her leave. A lot of her kids are similar ages to my kids so Brooke and Blake were upset she didn’t bring any of them with her (haha!) but maybe we could go visit them in the summer.

Halloween happened in these last two weeks! Gordon was working, so I took all three boys trick-or-treating right after school to lots of little shops before it was even dark. I adore how the city does Halloween and how excited the shop owners are to see all the costumes. Blake took Eddie with him while I stayed on the sidewalk with Porter in the stroller. Blake would say “trick or treat” and Eddie would only say “Happy Halloween”…probably because we told him to say trick or treat and he refused. Such a rascal! After about 10 streets we were done and the boys wanted to go home…at 4:30pm! It’s glorious. (Brooke is doing no sugar with her Dad, so she did not go trick-or-treating.)

Obviously a few days after Halloween we set up the Christmas tree. Haha! I wanted to decorate early this year because Thanksgiving is so late, but also, we have a holiday photo shoot coming up that I wanted to be ready for. I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE for early Christmas decorations. It’s my favorite holiday.

Because Porter is such a good baby and I am able to function pretty well, I’m slowly easing my way back into the kitchen and because I have a little bit of energy, it feels amazing! Can’t wait to get more brand new recipes onto my site! I’m still working on a few specialty recipes for my holiday e-magazine (coming December!) and I still have a few others saved that I made before I had the baby that I have yet to share, but I truly do love testing recipes and posting them online. So, stay tuned.

My sweet friend Amanda took new family photos for us! Since we have a brand new member of the family, I thought it was important to document. I’ll be posting a few more online hopefully soon! They turned out better than I expected because Amanda is a miracle worker. Eddie pretended to be a kitty 95% of the time so let me tell you, it was a serious challenge. But we are so happy with how they turned out. Also, Brooke is only 10 but looks 15. I’m not sure what is happening but I’m not sure I like it.

And finally, probably the most exciting thing that happened these past two weeks is we got a car! We weren’t planning on getting one this early, but we found a few early Black Friday deals that really pushed my husband to head to the dealership and pull the trigger. I know I asked in previous weeks what vehicle recommendations you had and we ended up getting a Kia Telluride, mainly because of the great gas mileage, the price, the safety ratings, the third row leg room and ample trunk space. When we compared it to the Pilot, Highlander and Atlas it was the clear winner. I never had Kia on my radar, but turns out they are really nice cars. Who knew? So it’s been fun feeling the freedom that a car brings. The kids had no school yesterday so we all jumped in the car and went to the Bronx Zoo (and Target…obviously). I’m excited to be able to go out to do Christmas shopping and have a trunk.

Here’s what is coming up these next few weeks:

Parent teacher conferences. Gordon is switching from the midnight shift over to evening shift so I’ll probably be attending solo. Wheee!

Gordon and I are celebrating our 12 year wedding anniversary! WE MADE IT.

We got tickets to Disney on Ice, so I’ll probably be taking the kids to that solo.

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