Figured the 4 in the morning was a good time for me to catch up on our blog...and be un-distracted, since Brooklyn is sleeping. Although, she keeps stirring and talking/jabbering in her sleep...so I have been staring at the monitor in awe of how cute she is.
Ok...seems as if a month as gone by since my last post...and that makes me so sad. Mainly because this is the best re-cap on Brooklyn's life....and I haven't had time for it lately...so let me take you back. (although I don't think much has really happened in the last month).
July 25th I drug Brooks (and Brooklyn) along to the hospital for the "Buckle Up Baby" Refresher Class. We bought Brooklyn her new big girl carseat and wanted to make sure we knew how to properly use it. Out of all of our childbirth classes at Methodist Hospital...the carseat one was both of our favorites...worth every minute!! We are so critical when we see people driving around with the handle up on infant carriers, with things hanging all over the car to entertain their child...that could potentially knock them in the head, with the straps not tightened enough, with the chest clip too low on their torso...or with added things to the carseat for their child's comfort that make the seat not quite as safe as it was intended to be...ok, that is my rant on car seats.
We bought Brooklyn the Britax Marathon because of their safety ratings and their weight limits! I got an awesome deal on her seat...the pattern I wanted (pink and brown polka dots...yes girly...but it will be hers forever!!), it was on sale and I had a 15% off coupon!!! She can rear face until 35lbs...which we will likely follow because it has proven to be the safest...AND she can forward face until 65lbs...highest weight limit on the market! Not to mention, I weighed her on a friend's baby scale this past week and she was just shy of 18lbs...so she is still super tiny!! Totally worth every penny...everyone we know that has a Marathon, LOVES it!!!
Did you know that in Texas it is the law to rear face until your child is 1 year of age AND 20 lbs??? Apparently some people don't. I recently met another Mom, who happens to have twins...and she flipped her girls to forward facing at SIX MONTHS!!! I just met them at 10 months and they are 17 and 20lbs. I simply don't understand people. It has obviously been determined that rear facing is the safest position for children (BABIES!!)...so why woul you do otherwise?? For your own selfish convenience?? Yes, I realizes that we survived our parent's parenting skills...bumpers in the cribs, TONS of stuffed animals...and some of us not even having carseats...but this rule/law is in place for a reason. Ok...I will move on versus criticizing other people's parenting....
Anyways, Brooklyn is a B-I-G fan of her new seat. When she falls asleep in it she looks so comfy. Her head rests comfortably on the side of the seat and doesn't flop over when she falls asleep. It is also super soft and just comfy looking!! Brooks and I wish we had one! Did I mention how EASY it is to install!!??!! The carseat technician installed it for us and showed us exactly how to use it with the LATCH system, as well as with a seat belt. Britax wins the award for the B-E-S-T LATCH system on the market...so so easy!!! Easy to tighten, easy to install...would definitely recommend this seat!!
Do you remember the HUGE ball pits at the kid oriented pizza places (Little Piper Pizza...Chuck E Cheese???)....and how you didn't want to think how dirty and disgusting those balls might be from little kids wallering all over them?? Well, I tried to create Brooklyn's very own mini-ball bit. I got an inflatable baby pool at Target ($4.99) and then found a massive bag of balls for sale on Craigslist ($5). I filled the bathtub with bleach water, swished them around...and let them soak. We then rinsed them off and had balls laying all over our house to dry. We have more balls than fill the pool...so I figure we can upgrade to a bigger pool that might be more entertaining...because this pool is TINY!!!! Brooklyn can't even lay down it its so small!!
I thought this would be great fun for her. It entertains her for about 1/2 a second and then she rolls or crawls out of it. I think she has more fun crawling through the balls when they were laid out to dry. Oh well, it was the thought that counts. Maybe she will change her mind in a few months.
Speaking of crawling...this kid is everywhere!!! Talk about having a busy bee on our hands (we call her a bee for another reason...will get to that in a second). She is not phased if she goes somewhere without you. She will just trot off on her own to any room in the house...thus we have started shutting doors. She has discovered her skill of opening doors...and smashing fingers in drawers. Yes, we have bought cabinet locks (and our outlets are all plugged up)...but a certain Daddy hasn't gotten them installed yet. It is quite the daunting task of locking all of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets...but I think it will be worth it.
However, I do have to say...she is pretty good at sticking to "her" cabinet. We decided to let her play in the plastic cabinet...it is all of her dishes and our plastic cups. WARNING...anything in this cabinet needs to be washed before you use it!! Baby slobber and dog hair may be found on items!!! I washed everything the first time...and then decided that was a waste of time...haha.
She is learning "no no"..and when you tell her, she will usually look at you and then move on to something else. Although, funny story. We have three wrought iron candle sticks (1-3 feet high) in the corner of the hallway. She has tumped one over once...didn't hurt her...but I think just scared her. Anyways, when my Mom was keeping her...she went to investigate the candle holders. She put her little and on the first one...my Mom said "no no"...Brooklyn looked at her and moved her hand to the second one...my Mom said "no no"...so she tried the third one...and after being told "no no" for a third time (on her third object) she finally gave up.
Remember, how I said she is a busy bee...well she is also a BUZZING bee. I don't know if I have ever mentioned this before...but she is the noisiest eater ever!!! We think it's cute...unless she is bother other people. She must really enjoy her food...because it is constant buzzing and humming while she eats!! Brooks asked when she was going to stop buzzing and I said "just enjoy it...when she is 12 you will miss it (unless she still buzzes and that might be weird). I was on the phone with the pediatrician's office a few days ago scheduling her 12 month check up and the lady said "oh you have a moaner"...and I said "yes, she's eating...she hums when she eats"...and she said "she's buzzing"...so since then, Brooklyn has been our Busy Buzzing Bee.
12 months, what?? Really, Brooklyn's birthday is in less than 3 weeks?? Wow...how on earth did that happen. It's so funny, she is such a little girl. She is so long, so kid-like looking...it just blows our mind on where the last year went...and how we spent last September. Alternating who rocked her to sleep and held her until she was completely zonked out....and what seemed to be late nights. Although, we have been very very blessed with a child who is a wonderful sleeper...she has slept through the night since she was about a month old (really probably from the beginning, but I had to wake her up for feedings). She will go to bed between 8-9, and wake up between 8-9. She is even flexible..if we are out late or over at my parents house...she usually a pretty good trooper about staying up an hour or two past her bedtime. She is still pretty good about taking two naps during the day. Her morning nap is a breeze...sometimes she will fight me on going to sleep in the afternoon...but she will usually play herself to sleep.
I'm sure we will have a small celebration for her on September 3rd...how can we not?? However, her official party will be on September 6th. We are just having family and close friends over to the house...get together, have fun, eat...and watch her DIG into her cake!!!!! I bought her the cutest felt hat at Moon Mippy...Brooks thinks it looks like a scary clown hat...I love it, I want it to be her traditional birthday hat and wear it each year!!
Until recently, we had an 11 month 1 week old baby with no teeth. People have been asking us for months how many teeth she has. I didn't cut a tooth until the weekend of my first birthday...well Brooklyn has beat me!! This past Friday, my parents were over for dinner and she was buzzing away while eating...and I yelled out "Oh my gosh, she has a tooth!!!" There was a shiny white spot on her bottom gums. Her first tooth is on her lower right incisor...August 14th!!! I thought it was coming because last week there seemed to be a bump on her gums...so I had been feeling around. Wednesday night/Thursday morning she woke up crying for like 30 seconds...sat straight up in bed...looked around and flopped back over, maybe this was her tooth poking through??? Who knows, luckily "teething" hasn't seemed to affect her sleeping (knock on wood)...if we are now in the so called "teething stage."
Wow...so apparently I did find quite a bit to write about in the middle of the night and it appears that she has had a pretty eventful month. One as fun side note...Brooklyn knows how to kiss her baby doll. We bought her a doll at Wal-Mart so we could start practicing body parts with her (nose, eyes, ears, feet...etc). We also started giving the baby kisses on her head. If you say "kiss the baby" she will crawl over to her doll, open her mouth and slobber on her head. It's so stinkin cute!! Talk about getting a wet one!! She won't kiss us yet...although she has done this to me twice, but I don't know that it was intentional...but still sweet!! :) Speaking of faces...she loves to investigate our faces...grabbing eyebrows, nose...mouth.
She knows "da da da"....she will say "du" for duck and "ba" for ball...maybe the "ma ma ma" sound is right around the corner. I finally printed pictures of Brooklyn...birth through present. This has been something that had been weighing heavily on me...and stressing me out the further and further behind I got. Yes, yes...I know we are in the digital age where we can just pop a DVD/CD into the TV or Computer and look at pictures that way...but I want her to be able to flip through albums and look at baby pics. I am happy I had them printed...we now have 3 albums of Brooklyn snap shots (yikes...that is just through 10 months!!).
A few other fun facts about Brooklyn. We have been pretty conservative about what "real" food we will give her. She mainly just has Stage 2 and 3 baby foods. She eats puffs and yogurt melts. We have recently expanded her diet to have a Vanilla Wafer now and then. She started out eating those great....and now immediately tries to stick the whole cookie in her mouth. She also loves Graham Crackers and Gold Fish. She has eaten avocado, cheese, banana, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, strawberries, kiwi....but we have recently discovered her most very favorite are blueberries!!!
We also love it when we walk in the door from being away...and when she sees us coming she crawls at "super speed" towards us and squeals with her skrinkle face!! I think it just melts our hearts...
A VERY HOT Day in Landa Park with Aunt Jamie
I will try to be better about posting more often...it would not be such a daunting task if I posted updates on a regular basis. However, lately I have been so busy with my Thirty-One business. I truly feel blessed that Betsy sent me the information on this company. I have been able to make enough extra money to help support us and continue staying home with Brooklyn. I know have a total of 6 women on my team (which is incredible since I have only been doing this since May). This includes recruits that my recruits have...which is wonderful because my team is growing like crazy!! I currently have three women that I am talking to who are interested in the business opportunity as well. I love having the parties and open houses...it is fun to show to women, they get excited about and love it just as much as I do. I never in a million years thought I would want to work for a company like this, but I guess since I love the product...it simply just works. I have been super thankful to my parents, aunt and Gina for being able to keep Brooklyn while I have been at parties. If it is on the weekend, my parents or aunt watch her...if it is a weeknight, Gina keeps her until Brooks gets off work. However, Brooks was lucky last Tuesday when he got to watch her all day when I was in New Braunfels for a party...he had it pretty easy and they had fun. I am looking forward to my future with Thirty-One...
For anyone who is curious about what I have been up to I have a website with the company, www.MyThirtyOne.com/Kristen and I have also created a blog http://www.my31gifts.blogspot.com/.
Okie dokie...hopefully I have typed myself to sleep. It is now 5 am and I think I will go to bed. I will try and get some pics off the camera and post later! :)
