Thanksgiving and 10 months all rolled up into one!

Thanksgiving was great this year. We got to go home and enjoy both of our families, including my brother's family! It was so much fun watching Brooke play with her cousin Andrew. First we went to Ryan's Aunt Dona's house the night before Thanksgiving and she had a blast crawling around her house and interacting with Jill's kids. On Thanksgiving, we ate lunch with Ryan' s family and Brooke tried turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and some of Sara's delicious mac n' cheese. She liked everything except the mashed potatoes. Then for dinner we headed to my parent's house. Brooke did very well for a 9 1/2 mo old and seeing so many people! The next day was also lots of fun. We went to a place called the Mud Hut in Longview with Amy (Chris's wife) and Brooke's cousins, Andrew and Ethan and my mother and mother-in-law. We needed lots of extra hands to help especially with 3 kids under 2! It was still fun and I think our pottery will turn out nice. I will get to see it in a couple of weeks. I made an ornament with Brooke's hand print and a plate with Brooke's footprints. My mom made a plate with Andrew and Ethan's footprint and Brooke's hand print and Amy made a picture frame with her boy's footprints that looked really cute! That afternoon we took professional family photos at my parent's house. After an eventful two days, we just spent the weekend visiting and relaxing. Ryan had to work on Saturday, so Brooke and I stayed in Longview and headed back on Sunday. Much to my surprise she slept the whole way back to Arlington. I guess she needed to catch up on some sleep after a busy Thanksgiving holiday!


My dad and Ethan


Andrew hugging Brooke

Brooke excited about playing with a ball


The following weekend Ryan and I decided to continue our tradition of going to a tree farm and finding our perfect Christmas tree. This year was extra special because it was Brooke's first time to visit a tree farm and take a hay ride. It was also perfect winter weather. The temperature was in the mid 40's (cold for Texas) and sunny.

The tree we picked out before we cut it down

Brooke watching daddy saw the tree


Brooke is now 10 months old!!! Time sure does fly! As usual, she is sucking on her two fingers of her hand. This is her pacifier. She prefers her fingers, which is fine with me because at least she has them with her all the time and she can't lose them. She is crawling all over the place. She loves to climb the stairs and when she gets to the top she turns around, sits, and claps. It is so cute! She is pulling up on everything and cruising along furniture. I know she is going to let go any day now. She loves to practice walking with us holding on to her hands. She is eating more and more "real" food. I can't get away with snacking around her anymore because she wants whatever I am having and I usually give her a little bite. She loves most food, but mashed potatoes is one thing she doesn't like, surprisingly. She will also eat pasta and rice that I fix, but doesn't like it in the premade 3rd stage foods. We are working on getting her to drink out of a sippy cup. She does great drinking out of a cup with a straw, but this is not spill proof. In addition to mama and dada, she has also learned the word dog, but she says it like daag. There are so many things that she can do now, it is hard to name them all. I just enjoy watching her grow and learn new stuff. This is such a precious age!

New Skills

Here are a couple of new videos ...

Brooke cruising


Brooke saying "mama" and waving

I was trying to get Brooke to imitate me, but she didn't in the video's. After I stopped recording the second video she started saying "dada".

Pictures

Here are some pictures of Brooke that I have been meaning to post for a while.


Brooke's 9 month picture

Last weekend, my parents came to visit and on Saturday we took a picnic at the park. Then, we went to the ICE show at the Gaylord Texan, which was themed How the Grinch Stole Christmas and it was really neat.

Our family at the park. This was the only picture where all of us were actually looking at the camera. It is very hard to get a picture with a baby and a dog!



Acting silly at the park.


Having a blast getting dirty and playing in the leaves. Also, displaying her "Mowgli" crawl.


Brooke with my parents at the ICE show.


Brooke and Santa at the Gaylord.

Piddling around...

I am sure you have noticed my frequent blog background/banner updates, especially if you visit my site often. I have become increasingly interested in digital scrapbooking, but I am not very familiar with using paintshop pro and it has taken me a few tries to get it right. I have finally got some basic knowledge of how to do little stuff and this banner is one of the first easy scrapbooking pieces I have done. I just took the background from a website for free and added the writing and picture. I just try to have fun with it.

I was tagged by my friend Kyla....
Here's how the game works: answer the following 5 questions and then keep the game going by tagging 2 more people. Here goes...

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

In college at UNT. I still had no idea that I would be a pharmacist or mom 10 years later. I was living in a dorm on campus called Santa Fe and still doing pot luck roommates. My first roommate was Japanese. Every morning she ate white rice and a raw egg, which made me just want to puke. Then after Christmas she moved into an apartment and I got a new roommate that was all out sorority girl and took seriously 2hrs to get ready every morning! Needless to say they could not have chosen 2 people that were more opposite from me! Glad they are just memories.

2. What are 5 things on your to-do list?
a. buy Brooke more food
b. find a place to fix Ryan's blower motor
c. take sam to vet
d. pack for Thanksgiving
e. buy Christmas gifts

3. What are snacks you enjoy?
Depends if I am in a salty or sweet mood. Most of the time I am in a sweet mood and I am a sucker for anything chocolate!

4. What are the places you have lived?
Ashland, KY (born until I was 4), Mooresville, NC (until I was 10), Longview, TX (until I was 18), Denton, TX (until I was 22), Houston, TX (until I was 26), Arlington, TX (present)
As Ryan would attest to, I wasn't born in TX but I got here as fast as I could!

5. What are five things you would do if you became a billionaire?
I would retire and buy vacation homes in Utah or Colorado and Kauai. I would spend my time traveling with family and doing lots of exotic trips. I would go to Nepal and hike to Mt. Everest base camp. I would ski all over the world. I would learn to scuba dive and go diving in Australia.

So, now you have learned a few new facts about me...time to tag someone else...there are only a few other people with blogs that I know, so Kelli and Gina its your turn!

9 months

Brooke is 9 months old now. She is growing up so fast...sniffle. We had a well-check this month and Brooke passed with flying colors. In fact, during the exam Brooke started clapping for Dr. Geppert, which she has been doing since the middle of August and he was really impressed. Her weight is 15lbs 2oz (but she lost a little due to recent illness), 27" long, and head circumference 43cm. She is still petite compared to most her age, but if you look at her individually she looks very proportional. We took 9 month pictures, but the camera is in the nursery and I don't want to risk waking her to retrieve it. So, pictures will be posted later.

She is starting to really explore her world around her now that she is mobile. She loves to pull up on anything, furniture, walls, drawers, pants. She has recently discovered an interest in the stairs especially if there is a cat laying on them or some other interesting objects; such as, tennis shoes. I have let her climb them with supervision. She does well on the way up, then turns around and doesn't know what to do. I have tried showing her how to ease her legs back down by going in reverse, but it will take a while to teach her the technique. I am having to keep my eyes open and watching her constantly to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

Other notable accomplishments...
Brooke knows how to shake a rattle and loves doing it. She knows how to wave, but doesn't know when to wave. She has started imitating sounds and her favorite sound is clearing her throat (video to come later). She has started venturing more into finger foods such as pasta pick ups and little bits of real food.

Brooke and I are finally getting over our illness. She first caught an upper respiratory viral illness and then a week later caught strep throat, which she lovingly passed on to me. Thankfully, Ryan didn't get sick and we are both completing our antibiotics. We are finally returning to normal. I have learned the technique to effectively using a nasal bulb. Although, Brooke still hates even the sight of it and our neighbors probably think I am torturing her by her extremely loud screams when I use it.

Brooke's First Halloween

Well, the weekend didn't start out great for us. Friday morning Brooke was running a fever of 102.8 F, which scared me to death because she has never run a fever and that was the highest I had ever seen. Actually, her pediatrician told me that 102 is a normal fever for children, but I was still concerned. It just seemed to be a viral upper respiratory illness. Ryan and I decided to continue our trip to Longview like previously planned. Brooke surprisingly didn't act all that sick aside from a runny nose and waking up at night because she couldn't breathe. On Saturday, Brooke and I enjoyed a lunch with her Big Mama (Ryan's mother), Great Granny (Ryan's grandmother), and Aunt Sara. It was neat to have 4 generations all together! Afterwords, we went shopping for coats for Brooke. I am having a hard time finding a coat for Brooke. It seems like the stores that have thicker coats only have them in sizes 12month and up. Brooke is still a little small for the 12 month coats, so I am going to have to do a little more shopping. Hopefully, I will be able to find something around DFW area. After her afternoon cat nap, we headed to Nana and Poppie's (my parents) house. They were very excited to see Brooke because they haven't seen her since she has been crawling. She crawled all over their house. They have a sunken in living room with 2 steps and Brooke just climbed those like a pro! It was a little trickier getting down, but I am sure with a little time and practice she will get it. After she ate dinner, we got her dressed up in her costume which was a fairy, complete with wings, tutu, and a wand! She looked so adorable. I had originally wanted to dress her up in a pumpkin costume, but I am glad Ryan convinced me to change my mind because she was too darn cute!

I also started feeling bad on Saturday and yep, sure enough I caught Brooke's illness. Luckily now, we are feeling much better, but still coughing up some junk and in a couple of days should be back to normal. I now understand how difficult it is to deal with a sick baby, while at the same time being sick.

I took Brooke on a walk this evening at the park near our house and we saw many other dogs, all of which she squawked at when she saw them. It was really cute. I know she is going to be a dog lover.

Everything else is going well. We are starting to prepare for our next transition in our life. Ryan will be completing residency in July '10 and he is currently considering a couple of jobs in the East Texas area. This also means that we are starting to think about moving and everything that goes along with it. I am ready to finally settle down in a place for a long time. I have felt like the last 13 years have always been temporary places with a defined end to the time I would be staying there, so I have been hesitant to make close friends because I felt like I would just be moving in a couple of years. First, it was undergraduate college for 4 years all of which I moved each year and then it was pharmacy school of which I moved 3 times and then to DFW for Ryan's surgery residency for 5 years. During the last four years, I worked full time until I had Brooke and the schedule I worked was alternating evenings and weekends so I felt like I was never on a set schedule and it is very hard to get involved in any church or social type organization with a schedule like that. I am ready to finally make some roots and get settled. I am looking forward to our next transition.

Enjoy some pics of Brooke's halloween costume.

Fall Photos

We went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens this past Sunday. I was really wanting to go to the Dallas Arboretum, but on Saturday there was the Texas vs OU game (go Texas!) and on Sunday it was the last day of the state fair ( :( we didn't get to go this year - because every time that would have been convenient it was raining). So that means that traffic was horrible both days and unless we went far out-of-the-way to get to the arboretum we would have had to deal with the traffic. Instead we decided to avoid traffic all together and head to Ft. Worth. The botanical gardens were beautiful as expected. I was hoping for a little more hay bale and pumpkin action, but they only had one spot set up with a few hay bales and pumpkins. We decided to take advantage of what we could and get a few pictures. Brooke was mainly interested in eating the hay, but some turned out really cute. She did really well that day and it was a full day for her, so she slept well that night.

I was also informed today that Brooke will be moving up to the next classroom at daycare. We will really miss Ms. Myrtle! She has been taking care of Brooke since June! It does make me a little sad to see her leaving, but at the same time I know it will be better for Brooke because it is a much bigger classroom with more age appropriate toys. She will definitely miss the one on one snuggle time with Ms. Myrtle. I hope that she makes an easy transition. We will see as the week goes on, her first day in the new room will be Thursday.

Oh, we got our leak fixed! Hopefully, (knock on wood) this will be the last one ever! (at least in this house). It is always a huge unexpected event that no one is happy to go through, but I am glad it is over and fixed.


I like to stand.

I am having lots of fun playing with the hay!


Yummy!


In the Japanese garden

8 Months

I am sorry for the long pause between blogs. We have been so busy. Brooke is now crawling everywhere and getting more confident with pulling up. Last night we saw her turn while standing from the coffee table to Ryan's leg. She also tries to climb everywhere she pulls up to standing. Her little leg just keeps bending while she is standing there hoping to catch a ledge to climb on. I think once she gets a little bigger she will be unstoppable. She has also started babbling more this past week. I have heard her say "dada" and "mama".

Last weekend, Ryan's parents came up and we went to the zoo on Saturday. It was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day in the lower 70s. It turned out to be in the lower 60s and cloudy, which is actually the lowest recorded high for that day since the 1920s. At least, it kept the crowds away and we just had to bundle up. I was a bit disappointed the monkeys weren't acting frisky in the cooler weather because they are my favorite to watch. Brooke loved the parakeets and kangaroos, but most of all she enjoyed watching the other kids.

We also discovered last Thursday that we had our 3rd slab leak since moving into this house! Insurance doesn't even pay for it. I thought at least if they had to break the tile that insurance would cover the cost to retile, but to my surprise they don't. As Ryan says, "They are in the business of making money not passing it out." So, we are going with this new technology that has come on to the market since our last leak. We are getting the pipe lined with epoxy and hopefully they won't have to dig to repair the leak. They are working on it as I am typing, so I will let you know how it turns out later.

Brooke has her next doctor's well check up at nine months. She is growing so fast. Over the past couple of weeks I have made an overhaul with her clothes. I first bought several fall/winter outfits and now I need to get more sleep coveralls because she is outgrowing them. I bought her some soft shoes with a rubbery sole. We are working on more table foods. She loves the gerber puffs and yogurt melt aways, but isn't too sure of mashed up carrots and avocado. I am trying to get her used to more textured food.

Enjoy our pics from the zoo and her new shoes!

Amazing...

Brooke can now pull herself to standing.

It is truly amazing to watch Brooke grow and learn new things. She is crawling everywhere and getting into everything. She loves to pull up on everything.

I love to make her laugh. She is very ticklish and will give a good belly laugh each time. It is adorable and makes me laugh.

We have started a few new foods. She has had peaches and meat (turkey) for the first time. I just bought the jarred meat and it smelled gross, but she ate it. I tried it and didn't like it. I think after we finish the jarred meat I bought, I will just let her have mushy pieces of the real food! She is feeding herself the Gerber puffs and using her jaw to mash them up. She loves the puffs.

She is now the oldest baby in her daycare room. All the other babies are 4mo and under. When she started daycare there was an older boy named Wyatt (9mo) and he was crawling and screaming and doing all sorts of stuff. Brooke loved to watch him and now she imitates him to a T at daycare. At first, Brooke would cry when Wyatt screamed out of joy, but now she is the one screaming. Now Wyatt is in the room next door and frequently visits. I think that Brooke likes being the oldest. She loves to crawl to the other babies and poke at them.

Enjoy some pics!

She's crawling!

Before I had any children, I thought having a baby would be easy especially if I was working only part-time. I imagined her being on a predictable schedule for feedings and naps (2hrs in the morning and 2-3hrs in the afternoon) and by 3-4 months she would be sleeping through the night (at least 8hrs). After all, this is what all the parenting books say this is true for a majority of babies. Brooke has her own schedule. I do have to say since about 6 months old she has been sleeping consistently 8-10 hrs straight at night. As far as feeding and naps go there is no real schedule. I can give an estimate of when she will be hungry and need a nap, but I can't stick to a schedule like she eats at 8, 10, 12, etc and naps at 10, 1, etc. I just feed her on demand and they do the same at daycare and I lay her down when she is acting tired. Some days she takes good naps (3 hrs total) and others not so good (maybe an hr). I keep track of my nursing using an application on my iphone. Some days I wonder if she eats enough and others I think I am not going to have enough milk to satisfy her. She definitely keeps me on my toes. One week I will think that she is starting to get into a nap routine, just to have the next week completely different. I have tried to stay pretty strict with her bedtime ritual (at least within a 30min window). We take a bath around 6:45pm and then nurse and then to bed. If I stick to this schedule she goes to sleep pretty fast. This past week she was waking up at 5am every morning to feed and usually if she woke at that hour she would go back to sleep for another hour until it was time to go to daycare, but not this week she was AWAKE and ready to play. Then she would fall asleep during the 15min ride to daycare and wake up just as I was taking her out of the car. Then she would only nap for 30-45min once during the time she was at daycare. Today has been a completely different day. She woke at 5am as the previous days and was ready to play, instead I just tried to hold and rock her to see if she would go back to sleep. 20min later she was still trying to get out of my arms to play on the floor. So, I let her and after 45 min of play she finally was sleepy again and I layed her down for another hour of sleep. Then at 7:30am she was awake for the day. We nursed and ate breakfast, then said good-bye to daddy as he is on call today. After clean-up we went for a jog around the neighborhood then played some in the nursery. Around 10 she went down for another nap for an hr. Then we got up and played and ate carrots. Her high chair arrived and I assembled it. Then around 1pm she was acting sleepy again. So she slept for another hour and woke up hungry, but fell asleep in my arms after feeding and during this feeding the lawn people showed up, so I just held her the entire next hour while she slept. This is unusual. She doesn't normally nap for 2 consecutive hours, but if you are keeping track this is a total of 4hrs for naps today (counting the early riser nap). Just now I finished feeding her and once again she fell asleep in my arms and has been asleep for an hour so far. At first, I thought I just wasn't cluing into her signals that she was tired, but now I know she is just on her own schedule and cannot be forced to a set schedule. Today is definitely a sleepy day. I guess maybe she is going through a growth spurt or just trying to catch up on her zzz's from the previous week.

She has had a couple of first's for this week. Yesterday, Ryan and I saw her sitting up in her crib after she woke up from a nap for the first time. She is also pulling up on her knees.

It is also a mystery to figure out the noises that bother her. Sam could bark while she is sleeping and she won't move a muscle. Then I will be reading her a story and making all the noises that go along with the book and when I "ROAR", it makes her upset. Today, while the lawn people were here, she slept through the lawn mowers and weed eating, but when they started the blowers, she woke up upset. I don't get it. She used to also be frightened by the crunching of wrapping paper, I have since broke her of that. She also doesn't like it when I vacuum unless I am holding her. It is hard to judge what she will be sensitive to because some things that I would think would bother her she doesn't bat an eye, but other things that I think shouldn't bother her do make her upset. It is funny but I guess it is all learning about our big new world.

I finally found a high chair that I liked and received it in the mail. I got it set up today. I like it because she is so active I needed something that would strap her in and keep her safe. We have been using the bumbo seat with a tray up until now and there is no securing her or the seat to the table. It worked for what I needed up until now when Brooke is getting bigger and more active. When I was registering for baby showers, I was so undecided about high chairs and just figured I would decide when the time came.

Enjoy our pics and video. :)

7 months

Wow, I can't believe 7 months has already passed since I had Brooke. I remember this time last year, I was just getting settled with the fact that I was pregnant and wondering what it would be like to have a child. I could not have imagined what a wonderful blessing it is to have a beautiful healthy daughter. She has such an enjoyable positive disposition. It is such a delight to watch her grow and learn new things. I can't help but smile when I think of all that Brooke has been able to do and learn. I am excited to teach her new stuff and show her this beautiful world where we live. I want to teach her about God's love and show her the beautiful Earth He has given us. It is truly amazing to look at Brooke's inquisitive face when I show her something new. It can be as simple as letting her feel the grass or swirling her fingers in her oatmeal. She is so curious about everything and I try to let her explore most things, even if it means I have to clean up a mess. I can only hope that we am doing a good job raising her and I try to enjoy each moment to its fullest potential. I know that she will not remember any of this part of her life, but I hope that we are instilling a strong foundation of trust and love.

She is not crawling yet, but everyday it seems that she gets a little closer. Part of me wants, so bad, for her to crawl because I hate seeing her get frustrated. The other part of me wants her to stay put just where I sit her. She tries so hard, but she hasn't figured out that she has to move her legs and arms at the same time. In the mean time, she is going from sitting to all fours almost immediately when I set her down and will eventually end up on her stomach and just spinning circles.

Last weekend, we went home to Longview. She was playing in the jumper at my parent's house while they were watching her and I was talking to Ryan on the phone in the bedroom. When I came out, my mom said, " You didn't tell us she was talking." I said, "That's because she isn't." Well, her and my dad both witnessed her first words, Baby and dada. I still haven't heard her repeat either one, but they both say it was plain as day when she said it. I believe them, I just wish she would repeat it to us.

Other new stuff...
I introduced carrots and that is now her new favorite food.
She is sleeping most nights 8-10hrs.
She still doesn't take naps regularly. I was informed that her great-granny is not a napper either, so I guess that is where she gets it from. I told Ryan I hope that our next child is a sleeper like me, I could sleep all that Brooke does and then some.
She loves raggedy Andy. Ryan's mom brought down from the attic all of his old toys and several raggedy Andy dolls. The past two weekends she has gotten a kick out of those dolls. She looks for them every time we enter that room where they are kept. Her granny is making her a raggedy Ann, but in the mean time Ryan' s mom let her take his old doll home.

I have started baby proofing. So far, I have taken down all the glass Coca-Cola bottles and beer bottles we have collected. I have removed all chemicals from underneath the sink in her bathroom. I have located all the extra shampoo/lotion/stain remover to one cabinet in her room, so I only have to put a lock on that door. We are going to buy a baby gate to protect all the wi-fi and other electrical things that have to be located in the nursery so she will not have access to it.
For now, her room (except for the baby gate) is completely baby proof. I need to buy a gate for the top of the stairs and then practice closing the other bedroom doors and then the upstairs will be baby proof. We are also going to buy a high chair this weekend. I have been using the bumbo seat with a tray. She is getting more active and bending over the sides and trying to get anything that is out-of-reach. I think an actual high chair would be safer. We also are going to buy a couple of gates that can connect together so that she could have a bigger area to play when we are downstairs that is dog/cat safe. So, now we are off to make a couple more major purchases for our precious baby.

Updates...

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Brooke is doing so much now. I have really enjoyed this month because she is developing so fast and it seems like she is learning something new everyday. She is still trying really hard to crawl. She rocks back and forth, but doesn't really have it figured out yet. She can go from sitting to all fours, but not all fours to sitting.




We have started solids. So far, she has had oatmeal cereal, avocado, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, prunes, peas, and today I put a small slice of ripe cantaloupe in a mesh feeder, but she didn't eat much. She mainly played with it.

She has known for a while how to blow raspberries, but she is doing it all the time now. She thinks it is funny. She is babbling a lot more. It is funny because she starts moving her mouth before any sound comes out.

She has started to protest when she doesn't want to do something. First witnessed to the extreme last weekend, when Ryan and I were driving back from Longview. She slept for about 30 min. in the car and then she had enough of the car seat. She was fussy for the rest of the way back and nothing would sooth her except to get her out of the car seat.

She is very curious about everything. She wants to touch and put everything in her mouth. She loves to flip the pages of a book and dump things out of containers. She has figured out how to clap and this is usually accompanied by babbling. I need to get this on video.

She loves bath time and splashing in the water. I have her in a bath seat now and I bought some more water toys. She likes sitting up in the bath.

She likes to play games like peek-a-boo and sing interactive songs with mommy, like itsy-bitsy spider and patty-cake patty-cake.


Here is a typical weekday in Brooke's life:

Wake up around 5-6am for a feeding. Mom gets me up and dressed around 6:15am to go to daycare. I eat cereal around 7am and have a 4oz bottle. Then I take a nap, usually 45min. I have another 4oz bottle at 9am. Then I eat a veggie around 10-11am (depending on how hungry I am). Then I usually take another short nap 30-45min. Then I play and have another 4oz bottle around 12pm. Mom picks me up between 1-2pm. I come home and either eat or play depending on the last time I was fed. I take another nap (on good days) for about 45min. Then I nurse around 4pm. Then it is all out play time for a couple of hours and usually by then dad is home and I am always excited to see him. After that, I eat another fruit or veggie and cereal. Then it is bath time and I nurse again before going to bed around 7-7:30.

Peek-a-boo

I videoed Brooke playing peek-a-boo with me. I am amazed that she was playing with me instead of the other way around.
Enjoy the video!

6 months old

Officially, 1/2 year old!! Time has flown by. I can't believe she is already 6 months. Her check up this month went very well. As usual she is advanced for her age. She weighed 13lb 5oz, 25.5" long, and head circumference is 41.5cm. She is progressing right on the same growth track as before. She didn't like getting the shots, but no adverse effects and took a good nap that afternoon.

We got the okay to start real food! We actually started giving her avocado about a week ago. She was going through a growth spurt and it was like I couldn't feed her enough, so I felt like she was ready for real food and she loved it. Since she did so well with the avocado for 7 days we decided to try another vegetable and gave her sweet potatoes on Monday. She likes that as well. I hope that she will be a good eater. It is so awesome to see her grow and learn new things. She is sitting very well and is able to play with her toys. She is also very mobile when layed on the floor. She can push her chest off the floor with her arms straight out and she tries to pull herself forward, but mostly pushes herself backwards.

This last weekend we took advantage of Arlington residents getting a free tour of Cowboys stadium. This will probably be the only time we will ever get to set foot in this stadium because everything is insanely expensive. Here are some of the concession stand prices bottle of water $5, hamburger $13, beer $9. It is ridiculous!

It was very difficult getting a picture of Brooke this month with her monkey. She kept on wanting to play with it and I had to get Ryan to distract her to finally get a picture. That is why she is looking off to the side in the picture above. I did include a couple of funny pics that I happened to take while trying to get her to sit still.


Hey what's under here?

Yummm, this is lacy....


Us in the cowboys stadium. The screen behind us stretches from 20 yard line to 20 yard line!

Here is a video of Brooke playing during bath time.

A couple of videos

Here is a couple of videos I was finally able to upload. One is of Brooke sitting up taken just a few days ago and another of Brooke laughing taken today. Enjoy!

Another Growth Spurt

I can't believe that Brooke is almost 6 months old. She is growing and learning so fast. I am positive that she is starting another growth spurt. The last couple of days she had been getting increasingly fussier and not sleeping as well. Last night she woke 3 times hungry and has been fussy all day and fed every 2 hrs! I just hope this one goes by fast. I have also had trouble getting her to take a nap the past few days, so now I am taking advantage of her napping in her crib to update the blog!
She is sitting better on her own. She has stop thrusting herself randomly backwards. She is all about moving and wiggling. She has also become very interested in our iphones and the tv remotes. So, I bought her one of those toy phones thinking that she would be more interested in that because it sings back to her and is more colorful. Wrong! She knows what is the real thing and is much more interested in that! It is cute though because if she sees it and can't reach it then she starts grunting and reaching for it. I told Ryan we should use the remotes to persuade her to crawl.
Last night while I was preparing her cereal, I had her seated in her Bumbo seat on the kitchen table. (I know they recommend not to do that, but honestly where is she going to go, and I am watching her) As I was talking to her, I started dancing and running towards her acting like I was going to "get her". She thought it was the funniest thing and was laughing for a solid 10 minutes. It was so cute, I wish I could have video taped, but I was afraid if I left the room to grab it she would stop laughing. She has also loved playing in her jumper. It is funny to see her. She bottoms out the springs. The other night we tried videoing her, but, of course, when we got the camera out she stopped jumping. I will have to secretly video her later.
I also think that she is starting to feel the pain of teething. She hasn't had any teeth pop the surface of her gums yet, but she has been chewing on everything in sight. She doesn't even chew on her pacifier like a normal baby (not that she has ever really wanted to take her pacifier). I bought her another teether. She likes these ones that Born Free makes. They are made out of silicone. I have one for her diaper bag and one for home now.
She is starting to help me feed her. She is putting her fingers in her mouth while I am feeding her cereal and grabbing for the spoon. Then she rubs her messy fingers all over her face, ears, and hair. There is a reason bath time is after cereal. Well, not very much longer and we get to start real food.
Awake babies! Nap time is over....


This is how Brooke chews on a pacifier




Messy cereal face baby

Galveston!

This past weekend we went to Galveston for my birthday. I wanted to get out of town and do something, so we decided to visit Galveston. We had not been back since Hurricane Ike. It has changed some. Most places are remodeling and back in business, but some are just a hopeless cause. All of the oak trees along the esplanade down Broadway are all dead and need to be cut down. It will majorly adjust the scenery along that historic road, so unfortunate. We arrived on Friday night and met up with Ryan's brother, Jonathan and his wife, Stacy. We went out to eat at Sonny's, which is a hometown seafood/American bar. Ryan actually got a scholarship for medical school from the owner of this restaurant and we got to visit with him for a few minutes. On Saturday, Brooke was up bright and early so I decided to take her and enjoy a few minutes of the sunrise and the peaceful ocean before the crowds. I really miss taking early morning jogs along the seawall. It was always so quiet and relaxing. Then after that we went back to the condo and ate cereal and joined Stacy at the beach some more relaxing in the sun. Brooke doesn't really know what to think of the ocean yet, but I took her in the ocean for a little while. The she took a nap on a towel on the beach. After that we went to lunch at The Sunflower Bakery, another hometown cooking restaurant near UTMB. It has moved down a block and is now three times the size of its old store. It was still delicious as usual. Then we headed over to Moody Gardens The Aquarium. Brooke enjoyed watching the fish and followed them along in their tanks. It was fun to watch her reactions. Meanwhile, the boys went on a guided fishing trip in the bay. They caught 9 trout and one sheepshead for eating and each caught 2 hammerhead sharks, scary! That evening we met up with my good friend from pharmacy school, Kelli and her family in Kemah. She has a 9 month old, Kolby, who is cute as a button. I am glad I finally got to meet him. We had a lot of fun visiting at dinner. On Sunday, we took some pictures of Brooke in the ocean and shopped on the Strand and then ate at Fisherman's Wharf before heading back home. It was a fun filled weekend and I am glad I had a wonderful weekend birthday. Enjoy the pics from our trip!


Me and Kelli with our babies



Brooke watching the fish

Shark and sea turtle at Moody Gardens

I love my baby girl!

Smile for the camera

Brooke playing in the water.

Stacy and Jonathan

Brooke reading Water, Water Everywhere at the beach.

Gulf of Mexico from our balcony in the morning


Sunrise from our balcony

I miss running on beautiful mornings in Galveston


The hurricane water line in the Strand