{"id":508,"date":"2009-05-08T01:58:52","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T08:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/archives\/508"},"modified":"2009-08-30T15:27:04","modified_gmt":"2009-08-30T22:27:04","slug":"brandioniboni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/brandioniboni\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandioniboni"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BrandonToday is the 29th birthday <\/em>of my first born, Brandon Mark Pearce.\u00c2\u00a0 I can hardly believe that my darling little boy is a grown man!\u00c2\u00a0 How did that happen????<\/em><\/p>\n

I was thinking about his childhood this week and thought I’d share a few memories.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

His birth was a both a joyous and frightening time… because although he arrived wide eyed and alert, the medical staff whisked him right away because his blood sugar level was near zero.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He was so tiny <\/em>– looked like a little bird….\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 barely 5 lbs and nothing close to chubby.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But he was happy!<\/p>\n

\"BrandonMore health issues were discovered – he was jaundiced, had issues with reflux\u00c2\u00a0and a heart murmer.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent my first mothers day in the hospital with my baby in ICU.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And one of the hardest things I’ve ever done was check out of LDS hospital to go home without him.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I did get to bring him home a few days later – but soon afterward had to rush him to Primary Children’s Hospital where he underwent heart surgery<\/em> to repair his PDA valve.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately it worked, and he’s been healthy ever since. The huge scar that wrapped half way around his tiny\u00c2\u00a0body is just a small smile of a scar under his arm today.<\/p>\n

\"CatchingBrandon has always been very smart and creative.\u00c2\u00a0 He walked early, talked early and memorized many songs…. singing them perfectly in tune.\u00c2\u00a0 He said lots of cute, funny things that still make me smile today.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around age 3, after I’d been in a car accident and my face was bruised and in stitches – I asked him, “Does mommy look ugly?” – and he said, “Yeah, but that’s ok. We’ll just take this head off and buy you a new one at the store.” <\/em>I’d love to share his Nanny\/bathroom story but it might embarrass him. I will if he gives his permission \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Dags\"From about age 3 to 4, Brandon called his reflection “Dags<\/em>.” We don’t know why – but any time he’d see a picture of himself, or see him self in the mirror, he’s say, “that’s Dags.” He knew that HE<\/em> was Brandon, but that other kid…. that was Dags.\u00c2\u00a0 Even a few years later, when he no longer called his reflection\/current pics Dags, he saw a picture of himself at age 3 and said, “that’s Dags.”<\/p>\n

When he was about 8 we were eating dinner at the Yummy Tree and, out of the blue,\u00c2\u00a0Brandon told me that he thought he might be an alien<\/em>. He was dead serious. I asked him WHY<\/em> he thought he was an alien….<\/p>\n

\"BrandonWell, he felt ‘different’ from other kids…. and he couldn’t remember being born. How did he know I was his mother?!<\/p>\n

I assured him that I remembered<\/em> him being born, and I definitely WAS his mother…. though sometimes we do seem to be from different planets \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Brandon has great motor-dexterity skills – before he could even walk, he’d sit on the floor amidst a pile of colorful bracelets, and one by one, pick them up one at a time and using his thumb and a finger, gracefully flip them over onto his arm.\u00c2\u00a0 Once they were all on his arm, he’d dump them off and start over again.<\/p>\n

\"BrandonHis keyboarding skills won him several awards in school – and benefitted his piano playing.\u00c2\u00a0 After only a year of lessons, he took on the challenge of teaching himself very difficult piano pieces.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 A bit of a musical prodigy, I think….\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 he sings, plays piano, teaches others and is assistant director of the Utah Oratorio Society (as well as their web designer).<\/p>\n

Brandon has always been very disciplined and organized <\/em>– qualities that have certainly contributed to his current success.\u00c2\u00a0 Qualities which I don’t share, unfortuantely.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And he’s always wanted to be ‘righteous’ – not break any rules, etc.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Again, qualities which I don’t particularly share<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I never worried about him getting into trouble as a teenager – he was pretty much always home by 9 to follow his routine of 100 situps, pushups and scripture reading.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrandonI recall that at the end of either his junior or senior year of high school, he stopped home with a couple of friends around 9pm and asked if he could stay out late for a party.\u00c2\u00a0 I nearly cried for joy.\u00c2\u00a0 His friends thought I was nuts, but I literally jumped up and hugged him and said, “YES!!!! YES!!! Stay out as late as you want!!! G0 – have fun! Oh joy, you’re finally a TEENAGER!!!!”<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 LOL….<\/p>\n

I knew Brandon was going to serve his mission in Japan and told him so.\u00c2\u00a0 Brandon has a very formal, respectful manner about him.\u00c2\u00a0 He actually ENJOYS wearing suits.\u00c2\u00a0 All that bowing and social formality in Japan came very naturally to him.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He served well and while he did I kept up a website for him<\/a> to post some of his letters, pictures, etc.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It’s still up – though very outdated now.<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon is also really goofy<\/em>. He loves puns and silly humor. He has a rubber face and actually practices making strange faces in the mirror.\u00c2\u00a0 He thoroughly amuses his daughters, and it’s fun to watch how cute and playful he is with them.\u00c2\u00a0 When he and Ashley get together, they go particularly nuts – and are great fun.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And I have no idea where they get it from.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven years ago, he married the fabulous Jennifer Greene, and they have two beautiful daughters.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brandon has combined his music teaching experience with his web programming skills and created a very successful business called Music Teachers Helper<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 He’s created a wonderful life for himself and his family (which you can read about on his blog<\/a>) – and I couldn’t be more proud.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brandon,<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday, Brandon!<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you have a Brandon memory you’d like to share??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the 29th birthday of my first born, Brandon Mark Pearce.\u00c2\u00a0 I can hardly believe that my darling little boy is a grown man!\u00c2\u00a0 How did that happen???? I was thinking about his childhood this week and thought I’d share a few memories.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 His birth was a both a joyous and frightening time… because … Continue reading Brandioniboni<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[41,42,44,43],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familyfriends","tag-birthday","tag-brandon","tag-funny","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silenceoftheclams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}