A Review Via Pictures

Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat lately as we have been way too busy. But I'll attempt to review everything we've been up to with the aid of some pictures.

Our dear friends Brad and Aubree welcomed their little baby boy (and Brynlee's future husband) on July 15th. We're excited to go and meet little Owen and hang out with our college crew next weekend.

We attended Brandon's company picnic and Brynlee was the hit of the party. The bow always draws a crowd :) Brandon and Brynlee rocked out their matching Interra shirts, even though it's hard to see in this picture.

We took Brynlee to her first baseball game to watch the South Bend Silverhawks! We put her in the Snugli, which she previously hated, and she was happy and content the whole time. We didn't stay the whole game, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

Brynlee got to take in the sights and sounds of the Elkhart County 4-H Fair. I intended on taking pictures of her there, but instead all I have to show for our days spent at the fairgrounds is this picture of a pig and her less-than-24-hours-old babies.

Last weekend was Yoderpalooza '09 (aka Yoder Family Reunion). We had a great time spent participating in Yoder Olympics, relaxing, catching up, and spending time with 60 or so of our family members. Brandon won two events in the Yoder Olympics. He was happy about it until he realized he was the oldest winner by about 10 years. I told him it's a good sign...it means that even at the age of 27, he can still keep up with the young kids :)

Brynlee had her 6 month checkup, where she was actually about 6.5 months. She weighed 16 pounds 1 ounce and was 25.75 inches long. She's gone from the 5th percentile at birth to between the 25th and 50th percentile. She had to get 3 shots, but didn't seem phased since she got to show off her crawling skills and play with the toys :)

We've also been doing a lot of baby bathing at our house. Brynlee has decided that her food is far more fun to play with than to eat, so she usually looks like the picture below after every meal. I never thought I'd be the type to undress my kid to eat, but it's either that or change/ruin clothes at every meal.

Brynlee also won Polka Dot Bowtique's Amish Acres photo contest with the picture below. We get free tickets to the Arts and Crafts Festival this weekend and $20 in free bows....woohoo!!

And last, but not least, there has been a lot of this going on at our house. Makes all the fussing, food throwing, and diaper changing worth it :)

She Likes to Move It, Move It

As of yesterday, at the age of 6 months 5 days, Brynlee decided she was no longer content to be sedentary. She is crawling! It's just army crawling on her belly at this point, but when she sets her sights on something, she goes after it in a hurry. The first video is yesterday, when she first started the crawling. She was kind of over it when I took that video, hence the whining. Oh, and pay no attention to the mess that is our house. Baby junk consumes our living room, but Brynlee likes it that way :) The second one is from today, where she's trying to get to Turner. This one cracks me up because she is trying so hard! It's amazing to me how much better she is at it just in one day's time. I'm so excited for her, but all of my friends with toddlers said I needed to treasure the time when Brynlee couldn't crawl/walk because once she does, this parenting thing gets even more exhausting. Lucky us, our child decided to crawl way earlier than the average baby, so we get two extra months of trying to keep up with her! 

 

Morning in Review

Once school let out for the summer, I planned on taking Brynlee out on walks through our neighborhood often. I figured it'd give us something to do, keep Brynlee entertained, and most importantly maybe help me lose the 3 remaining pounds of baby weight that WILL NOT GO AWAY! So far, we've walked a whopping two times :) Today was one of those times. The following is the play-by-play of our morning:

10:52 am- Set out on our walk with Brynlee facing out in her stroller for the first time. She thought she was hot stuff being able to see all around her. I held back tears because she is getting far too big too fast!

10:58 am- Arrived at the park in our subdivision and hit the swings for a little while. Bryn was unsure whether she should lean back or lean forward, so she tried both.

11:10 am- Walked down the street and arrived home to our massive hanging baskets. Yes, they're amazing. No, I don't have a green thumb. I've kept these babies alive and growing since May just by watering them daily. If only all plants were that easy to take care of.

11:12 am- Safely in the garage with Brynlee looking like this:

11:14 am- Spent a few minutes here:

11:20 am- I check on Brynlee and she looks like this:

All in all, a successful walk. Maybe we should try these more often :)

P.S. I realize her crib looks institutional. We had to remove the bumpers because someone tried to rip them apart when she wasn't attended to instantly after waking up. I'm hoping a few days without them will break her of the habit and that we can get them back up since they're just so darn cute!

Brynlee is 6 Months Old!

Half a year?! Seriously?! Every month on the 9th I sit in pure disbelief that Brynlee is growing up this quickly. But with the growing up comes a lot of fun adventures with our little princess. Bryn, at the age of 6 months:

- You are still sleeping about 9-10 hours a night. You go down at about 8:30 and wake up at 6:30. Now if only I could get you to understand that summer break only lasts another month, maybe you would let Mommy sleep in!

- Still wearing a size 2 diaper, and no longer soaking through them. Hooray for less laundry!

- Estimating that you weigh about 15 pounds. Doctor's appointment is in a few weeks.

- Wearing 3-6 month clothes, but just about to move you up to 6-9 month sleepers

- You are eating cereal once a day and in the last week have added peas and green beans to your menu

- You are starting to get a little hair (finally!) and it looks like it will be pretty dark brown.

-Things you love: Mommy or Daddy making silly noises, watching/playing with Turner, watching Baby Einstein DVDs, being outside, and playing in the Exersaucer

- You aren't sitting up quite yet, but are getting pretty close. Hopefully soon!

- You roll all over, from one end of a room to the other, but crawling isn't happening yet

- Despite all the sucking on your hands and everything you can grab, you are still a toothless girl. But those gums when you smile are just the cutest!

- When I lay you down in your crib, you immediately roll to your belly. By the time I check on you before I go to bed, your teeny tiny hiny (as I call it) is usually high in the air.

Take 1: Looking like a Grandma :)

Much better

WE LOVE YOU, BRYNLEE!

HAPPY 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY!

Why I Love My Husband

Here are a few conversations that took place in our house today that remind me why I love Brandon so much.

Upon seeing Brynlee after he got home from work, Brandon says: "Hi mini Brooke. My Brooke Jr."

Me: "What makes you say that? What parts of her are like me?"

Brandon: "The good parts."

Good answer, dear husband :)

Conversation #2

Me to Brynlee: "Bryn, tomorrow you and I have to take a shower and change our clothes. We stink today."

Brandon: "Well, I think you both look beautiful."

He makes me smile :)

Brynlee's First Fourth

Last weekend was extremely busy at our house. My parents arrived on Friday to stay with us for the long weekend and we jam-packed their stay with tons to keep us all busy! 

Friday night we ventured to downtown Goshen. Our town has an event called "First Fridays" that takes place on, you guessed it, the first Friday of every month. This month's activity/event was a classic car cruise down Main Street. We saw tons of great old cars and enjoyed strolling around downtown.

Brynlee hanging out with Grandma and watching the parade of hot rods

Touching grass for the first time

Saturday, Brandon and I had a surprise birthday party to attend. My parents watched Brynlee for us, but I was home pretty quick because our little peanut tried peas for the first time and I wanted to be there to watch her reaction.

This is so much better than that boring cereal!

Sunday night we headed out to Brandon's cousin's house to watch fireworks. I was a little nervous to take Brynlee because it would be way past her bedtime and I figured she'd be just a peach to deal with by the end of the night. But, I managed to get her to sleep inside the house just as the fireworks were starting. And to everyone's surprise, though she slept about 50 yards from where the fireworks were shot off, she snoozed through the entire 25 minute show. Angel!

My All-American Babe :)

We're looking forward to a little more relaxed week here at home. We're taking Brynlee to get her 6 month pictures taken tomorrow night, but that's about our whole agenda for the week. Can't wait to see how her pics turn out!