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!

Brynlee is 10 Months Old!

Brynlee, you've reached the double digits and are officially 10 months old! Here's the highlights of the last month of your life:

-You still snooze away from 8pm-6am and tend to sleep in on the weekends. How you know that it's the weekend, I have no idea, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

-You are wearing a size 3 diaper during the day and size 4 at night.

-You weigh 18 pounds 10 ounces (25-50%), are 27.5 inches long (25-50%) and your head is 17.5 inches around (50%). You are average on the charts but anything but average in your mommy and daddy's eyes :)

-You still wear 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes, but we have encountered a huge dilemma in the jeans department. Suddenly your 9 month jeans are too short, but 12 month jeans fall right off your skinny little hips. I have searched high and low for jeans that will fit you to no avail. So, it looks like leggings will be your legwear of choice this winter.

- Luckily, you have not outgrown any more shoes over the last month. We are hopeful that your ridiculously huge shoe wardrobe can be utilized for a while longer since we've already paid Pediped enough money to sustain their business for a year :)

-You eat 3 meals a day and LOVE to drink water from a sippy cup. We haven't fully transitioned to the sippy for all drinks just because formula and a sippy cup are not a fun combo. But once you can drink (much cheaper) whole milk, you'll be on the sippy cup only!

-The hair gods are still not really shining on you yet. The back of your head has sprouted a little more hair and is even starting to flip out and curl a little (yay!), but you still look bald to the naked eye.

-You officially have 5 teeth and I think the 6th tooth will be making an appearance shortly.

-You can now wave goodbye when we say "bye bye", repeat "Daddy" and "puppy" when we say them and your new favorite to repeat is "uh oh."

-Things you love: taking your shoes and socks off in the car, chasing Turner, taking all the diapers and toys out of the baskets on your changing table, smacking your lips, and crawling up the stairs with record speed.

- And the biggest news of this month, YOU ARE WALKING!! You can cruise from one side of the room to the other and can even stand up without pulling up on something. You look so cute toddling around because you are just so darn tiny to be walking. But we are soooo proud of you!

Turner is equally excited about

Brynlee's 10 month birthday!

Birthday kisses from Turner

Getting older is apparently hard

work for both baby and Daddy!

Look at her go!

Happy 10 month birthday, baby girl. Only a few more months and we can really celebrate!

Happy Halloween!

We get to enjoy the biggest "treat" of all this Halloween!

Walk This Way

Brynlee has been really practicing her walking skills lately. What started off as basically falling forward into things has progressed to actual steps! Every day she gets a little more brave and adds a few more steps to her "walks." Check out today's best effort!

Outdoors at the Orchard

This past weekend while my parents were visiting, we all loaded up in the car and headed to our local apple orchard for their fall festival. We didn't stay long since it was cold, crowded, and not exactly geared towards a 9 month old. But, we did get some cute pictures of our little princess during her first fall festivity, so I'll let thm do the talking :)

Brynlee's first hayride...she loved watching the

wheels on the tractor!

Brynlee is 8 Months Old!

Brynlee turns 8 months old today! This month has been a little slower in terms of development, and I am quite alright with that. I'm getting a little break before she decides to start walking to catch my breath! Brynlee, here's what you're up to now that you are 8 months old:

-You are back to sleeping through the night again....hallelujah! I think the momentary break in sleeping was due to learning how to stand. You wanted to stand all the time, including the middle of the night, but then you couldn't get yourself back down! The newness of standing has worn off and you're back to being a sleeping angel :)

-You now wear a size 2-3 diaper during the day and a size 3 nighttime diaper at night, which has been a lifesaver in terms of laundry.

-I haven't weighed you recently, but I'm guessing you weigh around 17-18 pounds. It seems like you are really starting to get tall too!

-You're now wearing 6-9 month clothes for the most part. Most of your jammies are still 6-9 month too, but you're probably able to wear 9-12 months pajamas, just because you need the extra length.

-You eat 3 (food) meals a day. YoBaby yogurt and a fruit in the morning, with a veggie in the afternoon and a meat and veggie in the evening. The jury's still out on the meats (you've only been eating them for a few days) but you are finally back to liking vegetables.

-Still not much hair to speak of. The good news is we're getting our money's worth out of all of your hairbows and headbands :)

-You still have just your bottom two teeth. I thought you were working on one of your top teeth, but it's been a few days and still hasn't shown up yet. Maybe soon!

-After almost 2 months of army crawling, in the last 2 weeks you decided to get up on your hands and knees. The transition came out of nowhere and you haven't looked back since!

-You still like to pull yourself up on everything. Just today you climbed up every single stair by yourself (with your mama hovering behind you) and you are now starting to walk (almost run!) along the couch and loveseat. Maybe by your 9 month post, you'll be walking!

-You love being outside and going for walks and we're looking forward to doing more of that now that cooler weather is arriving!

-Other things you love: reading books that make noise, splashing all the water out of the bathtub, chewing on every cord and tag that you can find, chasing Turner and trying to eat his paws and tail, and playing with all of your friends at the babysitter's!

Can't believe that Bryn is 2/3 of the way to her 1st birthday. Time sure does fly when we're having fun!

HAPPY 8 MONTH BIRTHDAY, BRYNLEE!

WE LOVE YOU BUNCHES!

Try To Keep Up

Brynlee has been tearing up the milestone chart the last few days and I am having a hard time keeping up with all the new things she is doing!

Last Thursday, Brynlee had a horrible day. By the time Brandon got home, I was crying because she was just whining all day long, never wanted to be put down, etc. I was exhausted. Friday morning, I got Brynlee out of her crib and she was flashing the beginnings of her first tooth at me :) I felt a lot better knowing there was a reason for Brynlee's crankiness and my previously well-behaved and happy baby had not been taken over by aliens!

Saturday, Brandon and I went to a wedding reception while Brandon's parents watched Bryn for us. Before we left their house, we sat Brynlee down to play and she actually stayed sitting! Previously she had been too antsy to sit. But she finally proved that she can do it!

Monday, Brynlee delivered her most shocking development to date. I went upstairs to get her bath ready and left her downstairs to crawl around, play, hang out until I was ready for her. Well, I came down the stairs and was greeted with this:

She had pulled herself up to standing! The girl is not even 7 months old yet! Since she did this Monday, she immediately finds her way to the stairs all the time now and is pulling herself up. And, as I'm typing this, she has used her Bumbo seat to help her pull herself up and stand at the couch. Seriously, I cannot keep up with her and all her new tricks! I also can't stop myself from constantly worrying now that she stands that she will one day fall and bust her head open. Oh, motherhood. So much fun but so much worrying!

Here's hoping Brynlee gives us at least a month before she starts walking, but I've ordered 2 pairs of Pedipeds on Ebay in the last week just in case she doesn't :)

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! 

 

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!

More, please!

After Brynlee and I returned from Illinois, she got to begin her adventures with solid foods. Right now she's getting to enjoy oatmeal with bananas and, so far, the variety it brings to her diet seems to be agreeing with her :)

Before the action began

The first bite

This isn't so bad!

Somehow Daddy manages to get a lot more on my face than in my mouth :)

Foot Fetish

We have officially added the phrase "Turner, don't lick her toes!" to our vocabulary in the Yoder household. The other day, Brynlee discovered her feet. Since then, it has been a non-stop drool fest over those tootsies of hers! Bring on the daily feet washing and toe jam checks :)