The Zoo

We have found Brooke's favorite past time. She absolutely loves the zoo. We bought a family membership on Sunday and the first animal she saw: the tapir. She was talking to it non-stop. So cute. She did the same for every other animal she saw....well, at least, the "bigger" animals. I think she had a hard time finding the little monkeys and the little fox, but she loved the jaguars, the birds, and the GIRAFFE. A girl after her own mother's heart. On Sunday, the giraffes were not around, but we went back on Monday (thank goodness for national holidays) and we got to see the giraffe, Raffiki. He even licked Brooke on the hand. We probably should have taken video of her talking to the giraffe. It was absolutely adorable...maybe next time.

I absolutely loved spending all of the last 3 days with her. We had such a great time. I used to think I missed her being a "newborn", but now I think this stage is so much better. She has so much personality and smiles all of the time.

Last night, Brooke and I went to Target. I decided to buy new cereal since she has been protesting her oatmeal for a good month now. We tried rice with mixed fruit last night and she could not get enough. She was screaming for more, so I made her two more bowls, and she didn't even get her tongue in the way. I thought it was amazing, and thought maybe that would help her sleep through the night last night, but it doesn't appear that way. Chris was on Brooke duty last night because I had to get up at 4:40 for my 7 am flight, and he ended up sleeping with her in the spare bedroom. After my shower, she seemed to be stirring and was still mostly asleep when I left my house at 5:40.

It's about time to board. I will post the pictures when I am back at home...late Wednesday night.

Congratulations to Lauren and Jerrod on the birth of their baby boy, Charlie August last Tuesday.

And congratulations to Melissa and Evan on the birth of their baby boy, Tyler Jake last Friday.

Four teeth

Brooke has four teeth now. Two on the bottom, two on the top. When I left my house this morning, the top left tooth is coming out, I imagine when I see her on Friday that the top right will be out. Can you believe it? I doubt she will let me get a pic. This little baby is growing up so quick!

I'm in Macon, GA. My first time here...you should hear the Southern drawl at the hotel desk. Wow!

Congratulations to Lauren and Jerrod on the birth of their second child, Charlie! I can't wait to see pictures.

And, I am waiting (im)patiently on the birth of Melissa and Evan's baby in New York. Just a couple more days....

And, since I have stopped breastfeeding, I need to stop eating so much and I need to start doing crunches, but it's already 11 p.m. and I have a long day in front of me, so I guess that isn't starting today!

Good night!

Brooke's teeth on 12/24/08

Still having issues....yes, I know the orientation is off. just turn your head. I am over this!

Mommy and Brookie

Blue Eyed Girl

I like wearing shirts as hats.

Pics from a Calendar we made for our parents for Christmas

Brooke's two teeth on Christmas eve.

Hi Big Blue Eyes!

I keep trying

I have tried doing one at a time, 2, sometimes three, but the damn blog site isn't working! I tried to upload a video, but that took about 2 hours and I finally let it quit...

What's going on?

Brooke had avocado yesterday for the first time. Her parents don't like avocado, but we also don't want her to be picky, so she is going to eat food that we don't eat...like seafood. Well, Chris eats some seafood, but I do not eat any. I am going to start trying some fish though...I am such a big girl.

Let's keep our fingers crossed about uploading pictures. Oh, and keep your fingers crossed for me at 12:30 ET on Wednesday. I will let you know more about it later.

The pictures will come

I have tried 6 times to upload pictures, even one at a time, and it didn't work, so I am done with it for now! So freaking annoying!

Yeah, we're still alive!

I know...it's been a long time since I posted. I just have not had the time or motivation to get on here and then I think about how long it takes the pictures to upload and then I really don't want to think about it. But, I am sitting at the Melbourne airport at 6:28 this morning and I have a few minutes, so I thought I could at least write and then post pictures later.

So, you ask, what's been going on?

Well, we had Christmas and I had about 1.5 weeks off. It was wonderful to be home with Brooke that whole time. She enjoyed her first Christmas, even though we had a busy day. We started at our house, then went to Chris' mom's house, then back to our house, then to my brother's house, and then to Chris' aunt and uncle's house. We left in the morning at 9ish, and ended up back at home after 10 pm. I don't think we can do that again next year. Brooke was easy to transport this year, but next year, she will be ALL over the place so I think it might be best to be in a baby proofed house.

New Years was enjoyable. We laid pretty low. We went out to dinner with Meredith and Ryan and then just went back to our house to play the Wii.

Next up was Chris' 30th bday on January 16. Again, we laid pretty low, just went out to dinner with family and friends.

Last week, we found out Meredith and Ryan are having a little baby girl! I am so excited, I had a dream the night before it was a girl. Brooke is looking forward to meeting her best friend. I can't wait! As you may have guessed from reading this blog, I absolutely loved being pregnant (except the insomnia), so it is fun to live vicariously through my pregnant friends. I have a couple of them now. Two will be having babies within the next week or two. Both of those babies are boys, so Brooke has a few possible boyfriends out there, but they live far away, she is too young for long distance relationships.

What's been going with Brooke....

well, she officially rolled over right before she turned 5 months. I had a talk with her about milestones and said rolling over must happen by 5 months, and she did it with 1 or 2 days to spare. I may have already written that now that I think about it. She only rolls to her left side. She gets pretty angry when we try to get her to roll to her right, but she does it with assistance. She also goes back to her back from rolling over, but it is not consistent.

She is sitting up pretty well too. She is still a bit top heavy, but should be doing this on her own within the next week or two. I am so impressed with the sitting up. We hadn't really practiced it too much, so I was happy to see she could do it.

She still only has two teeth, on the bottom. They are so cute. She is always rolling her tongue over them or touching her lips to them.

(Time to board the plane...will write more later!)

Okay, it's later.

Unfortunately, I had to give up on breastfeeding. I am pretty sad about it, because I really wanted to make it to 12 months. I had a pretty stressful 2 weeks full of travel, STRESS and sickness and I just wasn't able to pump that much, so my supply just went down and I talked to some friends about trying to get it back, but I just didn't have the time to be able to do it. Brooke is handling it well. Better than me. It makes me feel like a failure, but at least she got almost 6 months of it and she is doing fine with 100% formula.

Brooke went to the pediatrician on Tuesday. She is SIX months. I just can't believe how fast time is going by....she's getting so big. She is 27 inches long (90th percentile), 16 lbs (55th percentile) and her head is in the 80th percentile. She's been eating Stage 1 baby foods for two months. We started with carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, peas and green beans. She likes the orange veggies better than the green. When we introduced fruit, she had no desire at all to eat it and would make the worst face. I now mix the fruit with her cereal. Lately though (this week), she doesn't want to eat anything but formula. She's done this before and it's okay.

So, that's what has been going on. Chris has interviewed for a new job, let's hope he gets it.