7 Months!

Thanks to the craziness of the month of December, I'm a little behind on Brayla's 7 month post. This has been a busy month for our littlest lady, so without further ado, the update:

-You are still sleeping pretty great at night. You usually go down at about 7:30 and then I get to wake you up bright and early at 6am.

-Napping has not been going so well. Of course you nap a ton while you're at the sitter's in the morning, but most afternoon naps this week have been 45 minutes. You've been a little under the weather, so I hope that's the cause because your mommy could use a break!

-Still wearing a size 2 diaper. You are different from Brynlee in that you can still wear a normal diaper at night and not soak through it. Hallelujah!

-Thanks to your first "sick" doctor's visit today (it was just a cold), I know you weigh 14 pounds 12 ounces. You've gained almost a pound in the last month alone.

-You're still wearing mainly 3-6 month clothes. I think 6-9 month outfits will be coming out of storage soon, but we're not quite there yet.

-You eat 3 (food) meals a day. Cereal and a fruit in the morning, with cereal and a veggie in the afternoon and evening. You are somewhat of a picky eater. One day you like something, the next day you spit it out at me. One of these days I will figure you out!

-Still a bald beauty. I'm preparing myself for at least another year of baldness and bows.

-I have been expecting and anticipating the arrival of your first tooth for weeks. You have been in full-on drool mode. But, alas, we are still waiting. I'll take that gummy grin any day though!

-Within the last few weeks, you've started army crawling. You do this just.like.your.sister. Funny how different and alike you are all at the same time. You do get up on your hands and knees and rock quite a bit, so I think you'll start crawling "normal" pretty soon.

-You are such an easy going baby. Unless you are tired or want held (which is mainly after you've been playing a lot) you are so relaxed. You absolutely LOVE to watch Brynlee. I don't think anybody can entertain you or make you laugh as much as she can. You two are becoming fast friends and it melts my heart. You still enjoy playing in the exersaucer and though you can crawl, you really still like to roll. A lot.

We are so blessed to have not just one, but two sweet little girls in our life. We just love you to pieces, Brayla!

Winter Wonderland

Last week, we got our first dose of Midwestern winter. In a matter of 24 hours, we got about 4.5 inches of snow. While Brynlee's parents are not huge fans of the white stuff, Brynlee was thrilled to wake up from her nap and see it flying. I will admit that Christmas and winter in general are much more enjoyable when being able to witness a child's perspective. The day after our snow fell, I picked Bryn up from the sitter's and she was insistent that she wanted to build a snowman. How she knew that with the snow we had we could build a snowman, I have no idea. I was able to postpone her snowman wishes for a while, but once Brandon got home,

there was no stopping her. The girl had waited months and months for snow and she was ready to play! The snow ended up being too hard to really do anything with by the time Brynlee

was able to get outside, but she had the time of her life anyways (and looked pretty cute while enjoying it!)

Cracks me up that she felt the need for sunglasses while playing in snow. At 6pm.

While the snow has since melted, I'm actually looking forward to getting out myself with Brynlee for some winter fun once Mother Nature decides to "bless" us again :)

Not to be Outdone

Brynlee crawled at the age of 6 months, 5 days and I thought that was incredibly fast. Brayla decided she wanted to follow in her big sister's footsteps, albeit a teensy bit slower, and do it at 6 months 21 days. Why can't these babies just stay adorable little inanimate objects for as long as possible?! Can't believe I'm going to have two little girls on the move!

Twinkies?

When Brayla was born, we said over and over again how we didn't think she looked much like Brynlee. But, as she gets older, we are hearing with more frequency from people how similar they think they are. I'm still not convinced, but that's because I know who I'm looking at in each picture. What do you think?!

Half Birthday Girl

Last Thursday, our sweet Brayla turned 6 months old. After seeing how fast time flew with Brynlee, I try to cherish these long days, but short months with our girls. An update on what you've been up to, Brayla, in your first 6 months:

- Sleeping about 9-10 hours a night. You go down at about 8:30 and wake up at 6:00. Within the last month, you've really settled in to a good night-sleeping routine and we are so thankful that you and your sister are great at letting your parents get a full night's sleep.
-Naps are getting better and better. You consistently nap for about 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon and sleep for about 3 hours in the morning.

- You wear a size 2 diaper and I don't foresee you growing out of those anytime soon.

- You have a doctor's appointment this Thursday, but I'm guessing you'll weigh about 14 pounds. (You were 12 pounds 9 ounces at your 4 month check-up). You are much shorter than your sister at this age. Brynlee outgrew clothes because of length and you just don't do that.

- You are wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes, but some of your 0-3 month clothes still fit. You are just one petite little princess!

- You are eating every 3.5-4 hours (5 feedings per day). You are still great at/enjoying nursing and this gives your mama so much joy! Just this past weekend, we started feeding you two servings of cereal a day and adding peas at dinner. You were not a huge fan, but did great with them tonight. Here's hoping you'll continue liking those green veggies!

- You are still bald as can be. You have little wisps of hair here and there, but not much. God just knows we can handle bald babies so he gave us two of them :)

-Things you love: rolling ALL over, watching your big sister and laughing at her (see video below), playing in the exersaucer, sucking on your feet

- You aren't sitting up yet and really don't show a whole lot of interest, but we're still trying. I know it will come with time.

- Changing your diaper is an extreme sport, since you roll and flip like crazy the entire time

- You are still toothless and it doesn't appear you've got any on the way. Looks like you'll be a little slower to grow those pearly whites than your big sister.

- You are definitely a belly sleeper. When I lay you down at night, you cry just long enough until you can flip yourself on to your belly. Then, it's a little burrowing of your head and you're sound asleep.

God celebrated Brayla's half birthday with our first snow

Brynlee just can't let her sister have all the spotlight :)

Brayla, you are the most perfect baby to complete our family. We are so thankful for your sweet, easygoing spirit and have loved these 6 months with you!Love those blue eyes!

Halloween-The Real Deal

After our "event" on Friday before Halloween, we were anxious to head out for real on Monday. We decided to hand out candy at home while waiting for Brandon to get off of work, then head out to the few houses we knew we wanted to visit.


Well, leave it to Brynlee to completely LOVE handing out candy from home and not want to leave! Brandon came home and we were all getting ready to head out and we had Halloween MeltDown Round 2. She kept saying "But there's more people out there. I don't wanna leave!" And true to form, she kept up this anti-trick-or-treating act for quite a while.

We went to Brandon's aunt and uncle's house first. Here's what we got there.

Ha! Maybe next year will be better. We then went to Brandon's parents' house. Things were a little better there, but Brynlee was all about the sugar by this point and wanted to take every last thing from their basket.
By the time we got back to our neighborhood, all of our friends had run out of candy and had their lights off. This also didn't make Little Red Riding Hood very happy since she was dead set on visiting our ex-neighbors (they moved down the street). I remedied the tantrum by turning our porch lights back on and handing out some more candy with my favorite little helper. Worked like a charm :) I know how much this girl can change in a year, so I'm sure that next year will be very different. Most notably, Brayla will probably be tagging alongside Brynlee. Can't believe how much I love these two little pumpkins!

Motherhood Fail

Today was the start of of my fall break from school. I've been fighting a cold and feeling pretty miserable, so I decided the best way to spend my day off is in my pajamas. Well, the girls went down for their afternoon naps and I realized I hadn't checked to see when our trick-or-treating hours were. Well, imagine my surprise when the article I read online said that trick-or-treating hours were today! So, to the shower I went to try and look presentable since apparently we needed to head out for candy in a few hours.

When Brynlee got up from her nap, I starting prepping her in all things Halloween. We went over trick-or-treat etiquette, got her pumped up for candy, and eventually got her costume on. I fed Brayla, got her costume on, and then we waited for Brandon to get home so we could head out. Once Brandon got home from work, he informed me that there were no kids out and about in the neighborhood. He questioned whether today really was trick-or-treating. I was insistent that it was today, since it was right in the article I read. So out we went.

Our plan was to head first to Brandon's aunt and uncle's house and then afterwards go back to our neighborhood. Imagine my surprise when we pull into Brandon's aunt and uncle's neighborhood and see....nobody. A phone call confirmed my fear. I was wrong. This rarely happens (lol) and Brynlee did not take the news well that we were indeed NOT trick-or-treating tonight. We heard crying the whole way home. Then, when we got home, this is what we got to experience (pardon the dark picture quality).

Upon closer inspection, I realized the article that first appeared when I searched the newspaper's website was from 2008. Awesome. Here's hoping things go a little better when we FINALLY get to trick-or-treat for real :)

The Return

So, after much too long of a hiatus, I'm trying to get back in to the swing of blogging. I'm realizing as Brynlee gets older that I want to document all of the hysterical things that she's doing and saying every day. These years pass by too quickly and the more I'm realizing that, the more I want to try to savor every little bit of it.

Brayla is soon to turn 6 months old, so I'll try to get monthly posts going too. Poor girl has gotten the shaft being the second child :( Although I feel bad, my mom was trying to compare Brynlee's height and weight to mine and my sister's and found my sister's baby book was lacking as well. At least I know I'm not the only mom to drop the ball the second time. Never fear, Brayla. We still love you just as much as your big sister!

Looking forward to keeping the masses (or at least the grandparents) a little more up-to-date on our busy lives.

Arizona: The Beginning

Well, yesterday our little family of three joined with my grandparents to head off to Chicago's Midway Airport. We left the house at about 10 am and arrived at the airport around 12:30 Chicago time. We found a parking lot across from the airport, which was a short walk, but not made easy due to the 3 inches of snow that had freshly fallen that morning. Senior citizens + toddler + luggage + snow = bad combination! Luckily we all survived the walk, albeit with a little complaining, and made it safely to the counter to check-in. And that's where our "fun" adventure stopped. Our flight ended up leaving an hour late due to the weather. It was just a short flight to St. Louis, but Brynlee decided she had had enough for the day and was "that child" on the flight. Due to the delayed flight, we arrived in St. Louis with 10 minutes to spare before our connecting flight left. Needless to say, I was freaking out! Luckily our gate for the next flight was about 10 feet from where we arrived so we were safe. And then Brynlee continued demonstrating her hatred for flying on the 3 hour flight to Phoenix :( We all made it safely to Phoenix after shedding a few tears along the way (both by Brynlee and her mama) and finally got to see my sister, Tia Bria! It was one of the worst days of my life, but so worth it to finally get to visit my sister and be in the warm(er) Phoenix outdoors. We were exhausted but looking so forward to a fun day on Wednesday :)

Showing just how "fun" the airport can be!

Best Weekend Ever!

This past weekend Brandon and I went to Chicago to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Brandon had planned the entire weekend's events and all I knew going into the weekend was that we were going to Chicago and staying overnight.

Saturday morning we dropped Brynlee off at her Mimi and Papa's and then we were on our way! I was dying to know what Brandon had up his sleeve and he threw me a bone about 10 minutes into our trip and let us know we were meeting our good friends, the Goles, for lunch in Highland Park. I was ecstatic! We got to know the Goles when we lived in Gurnee and hadn't seen them in quite a while. I didn't take any pictures of our lunch at Fuddruckers, but we had a blast and it was great to catch up with them and a fantastic start to our weekend away.

We spent a little time in the suburbs before we headed downtown. Brandon wanted to go to Navy Pier, but it was a long hike from our hotel so we decided to just hang out on Michigan Avenue. We did some shopping at Water Tower and then hustled back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Brandon let me know that we were going to the Signature Room at the John Hancock. What a surprise! We enjoyed a fabulous, but way too expensive dinner, with awesome views of the city. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget.

We intended to head home pretty early on Sunday but wanted to pick up a few things downtown before we left. We picked up a gift for Brynlee at TJMaxx and then Brandon stood in line for 30 minutes waiting on Garrett's popcorn for his parents. We ate lunch at P.F. Changs (my favorite!) and then finally started our journey back to Indiana.

We were excited to see our little pumpkin again, even though I don't think she missed us one bit :) Definitely a great time spent with my honey and hopefully we can make this a somewhat-regular occurrence!