Growing and figuring out the world around me

Brooke continues to amaze me day by day. I love to hear her talk and use her voice. She is starting to make more and more consonant and vowel combinations. She is developing a bright and cheery personality. She loves to meet new people and always has a smile waiting for them. I get lots of comments on how she is so alert. She loves to watch her surroundings. She has started to grab at her toys and put them in her mouth. As I am writing this, she is just chatting away in the nursery.
It is so cute.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Brooke. I can just hear her squeal every time I look at it.

This coming week is going to be a busy week. I begin my transition from working at HEB and moving to Cook's. This is my last week at HEB and I will work 3 days, but then I have one day of orientation at Cook's, so I will have 4 full days that I will be at work and away from Brooke. This will be a difficult week because I already think it is difficult to work three consecutive days in a row and now I will have 4. I have been trying to build up my milk stash, but not with very much success. We will see how the week goes. Please keep us in your prayers. The next week I have two more days of orientation and then I will start training for my position. That week will also be a big week because Brooke will be starting at the church daycare. I will be glad when I finally get into my work schedule of M-F 4 hrs a day.

Mother's Day Weekend

My parents and brother's family came in to spend the weekend with me. It was the first time Brooke met my brother, Chris, his wife, Amy, and her cousin, Andrew (13.5 months). They came in Friday night. Ryan grilled us some hamburgers and we spent time visiting. Ryan went to Longview to go fishing the next day, while we went to the Ft. Worth Stockyards and to the Ft. Worth botanical gardens. It was forcasted to be a rainy day, but it turned out to be nice and cool. We ate a good lunch at Risky's b-b-que and then Andrew got to sit on a live longhorn. He was interested from a distance, but not to sure once he was on it. The botanical gardens were very pretty. There were lots of blooms and we got some great pictures with the flowers. I had a great weekend spending it with my family. I loved seeing Andrew and how much he has grown. It was cute to see the cousins together.












Ryan got me a gold bracelet with amethyst stones (Brooke's birthstone) for my mother's day gift. It is very beautiful and I can treasure it forever.

For those of you that didn't know, I have been looking for another job. My current employer, still wanted me to work weekends and evenings after coming back from maternity leave, which is not what she told me before I got pregnant. I found a job that is at a local pediatric surgery center. It is M-F 7-11, which is just what I was looking for, part-time and works with Brooke's daycare schedule. I will truly miss working with my coworkers at HEB. They were a fun group of people. I will be starting my new job in June. Wish me luck.

On a good note, I finally got Brooke rolling over on videotape. I need Ryan to install the software and then I will try uploading it to the blog.

Well, that is all for this week. I hope everyone has a great week.

12 weeks and counting...

Sorry for the long time between posts. We have been so busy with me starting work and Brooke has been going through a huge growth spurt. Based on my home scale she has gained 7oz in 5 days. Yeah, Brooke!

I can't believe that Brooke is already 12 weeks. She is still working on rolling over. She has discovered that she has a voice and is talkative all the time. She loves to hear herself coo. She is also getting a lot better hand eye coordination. While in her swing, she reaches and rolls the rattle in front of her. While in her bouncy seat, she reaches and grabs the monkey and parrot in front of her. While on her activity mat, she reaches for the animals above her and swats them around. She is also starting to hold herself up a little better while I am holding her. She is starting to pull away a little from my shoulder and using more upper body strength. She has just started to razz and it is so cute.

I had to return to work on May 4th. I was excited to see my coworkers, but at the same time very sad to leave Brooke in daycare. I didn't like leaving her with someone I didn't know. Daycare has been tricky trying to figure out how much Brooke is actually eating, since I have been nursing her I have no idea how much she actually drinks. At daycare, they want me to have each bottle ready for feeding ahead of time. I have been sending 2oz bottles, but I was just informed this morning that they need more milk in the bottles. Guess I will need to pump more, now I just have to find more time in the day. It breaks my heart to leave her at daycare and go to work, but I know I have to do it. Hopefully, it will decrease her severity of separation anxiety and build up her immune system.

Brooke is the joy of my life and I love spending time with her and watching her grow.