Thursday, July 29, 2010

Hello, Goodbye

Last week we had a going away "Party" for our friends Steve and Maria and their son Creedance. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and hanging out. I especially enjoyed being pregnant with Maria and having someone to commiserate with over pregnancy woes (i.e. super swollen feet and not being able to sit through church!). Thanks for being our friends, Steve and Maria, we truly will miss you and wish you well in your new endeavors! Bye Friends!!
This is our "pregnancy club" pre-babies. From L-R Maria, Shirlee, Kathryn, and Me
And here we are last week post-baby.  Babies from L-R Creedance (born end of March), Alice (born in April), Evan (born in May), and Brooklynn. I love how the babies are all doing their own thing! And of course, Brooklynn is staring off to the side. Notice, as Maria pointed out, pre-baby we all had our hair down and done nice and post-baby our hair is all pulled back for quick styles! 

On Tuesday Brooklynn and I took a trip to Poulsbo so that she could meet Mandy and Kristin. I made Ali tag along because I only have one more week of her and then who knows when I will see her next! Brooklynn did really well on the drive over there, she's always been kind of touch and go in the car but lately she has been doing a lot better (which is good because we are driving to Utah next week!). Brooklynn seemed to be amazed by Mandy's apartment, there was so much for her to look at and she was definitely enthralled! It was so good to see Mandy and Kristin and to introduce them to Brooklynn.


I am seriously amazed at the increasing speed by which time flies! Brooklynn turned 7 weeks old on Monday!
  She is growing so fast and getting so big! She continues to get stronger and stronger and is gaining better control of her head. She has discovered her legs the last few weeks and finds great amusement in kicking them (even if it means kicking my stomach or chest!). She has also started supporting her weight when you stand her up, but only when she feels like it! She is always so alert and observant, constantly checking things out around her. The last few weeks we have been spending more time outside (yay for the weather finally getting nice!) and Brooklynn absolutely loves it! She is so intrigued by what she finds. I took her with me to check the mail last night and she couldn't decide what to look at first!
I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Brooklynn is a serious grunter and a stretcher! She grunts in her sleep and sometimes wakes me up! She grunts when she is climbing. And boy does she grunt when she is waking up. She takes a good 20-30 minutes to fully wake up and during that time she will grunt and stretch (if she isn't swaddled). It is really funny to watch and such a cute little quirk. Speaking of sleeping, Brooklynn is consistently sleeping 6 hours straight at night, usually from 10:00-4:00, then it's back to sleep until 7:00-7:30. Isn't she amazing?! I'm starting to think that she might even sleep longer on her first stretch even. Because of her prolonged wakeup time accompanied by her grunting I usually sleep through the first few grunt moments until I am ready to be awake. I think it's time to leave her grunting until she very clearly is ready to be awake!
Eric was ready for his "Daddy Time" when Brooklynn was still sleeping so he got her out of bed and she proceeded to grunt and stretch in his lap for an hour!



Look at that face!!



I absolutely am in love with this girl! She has the sweetest smile and such a precious face! She very often will bestow the sweetest smiles on me at 4:00 in the morning, which makes those early morning feedings well worth it!!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Another week down....

Brooklynn has survived another week and is now 6 weeks old!
(We've finally moved out of newborn onesies!)
Our little one continues to get stronger and stronger. She is able to hold her head up longer and more securely. I really think that Eric will be taking her rock climbing when she gets older! She really loves to climb up our shoulders. And when she is mad she climbs without the support of our hands! She really hasn't developed any new tricks or talents, she is just working on perfecting the ones she already has!
Like smiling! We have been able to coax some smiles out of her and it is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, if I didn't already love her to death her smile is enough to put me over the top.
Come on! How could you not love that face?!?!
Brooklynn has had quite the exciting last couple of days. She took her first trip into the city and went to the Bite of Seattle. She enjoyed it so much she slept most of the time! It's amazing to me that babies can sleep amidst so much noise and craziness, but sleep she did. I love the Bite of Seattle because, well, I love food! This year we even watched a food eating contest. Jimmy Johns (my favorite sandwich shop) challenged 3 professional eaters to see who was faster-the sandwich makers or the sandwich eaters. (For those of you who don't know anything about Jimmy John's their slogan is "Freakishly Fast"). They had 5 minutes for sandwich making/eating. The sandwich makers made 22 sandwiches and the eaters managed to put back 21 of them. They have done this contest like 7 other times and the sandwich makers always win, but this was the closest it has ever been. I am so sad that I forgot our camera in the craziness of getting out the door!
Brooklynn also got to experience her first beach, such as it is! We went to Dash Point with Ali for FHE yesterday and just enjoyed being outside. We finally have some summer weather and it is great!
Yup, that's blue sky and sun in the background!



I swear, she does this all by herself! She has so many cute "poses" that involve her hands by her face! She sure does love having them up there!

Friday, July 16, 2010

5 weeks

Brooklynn turned 5 weeks old on Monday. I can't believe it!! 
She is more and more alert and aware of her surroundings and I absolutely love it! On Sunday she was sitting on our bed staring over her left shoulder, like she always does, and when I started talking to her and she actually turned her head to look at me!! I know it's small, but that is really the first time that she has responded  to my voice. She is also getting better at following people with her eyes, even when my dad is walking circles around her to see if she will follow! And she finally smiled at me! Oh my goodness, melt my heart! It was the cutest thing ever! She is still learning how to smile though, so it is pretty random when she will decide to smile and it isn't on demand yet. But she's figuring it out and I'll take her practice smiles any day and any time!
Probably her best trick is picking up her head. She has always been a strong baby and has pretty much picked her head up from the day she was born, but now she is SO strong and will hold her head up for a good couple of minutes.
(It looks like Eric is suspending himself in the air, but really he's on the exercise ball.
 He's good, but he's not that good!)
She is such a pro! I love it (and her)!
Her other trick has us thinking she is going to be a mountain climber (and Eric thinks she is going to start crawling early!). She loves to climb up our chests! If you put her feet in your hands she will push off and pick up her legs and keep doing it until she is about to go over your shoulder! We think it's pretty amazing that her legs are strong enough and that she has figured out how to use them so well already.
Well, I guess we just think that she is amazing and perfect. She just gets cuter and cuter every day and constantly amazes us with her growth and development. It is so fun to watch her and see what she will do next. Fortunately it appears that she is growing! She finally grew out of her Newborn onesies! She is still wearing her newborn dresses, outfits, and most of her sleepers though.
Oh my goodness!! She is just so precious and we can't get enough of her!!

(I finally got this post done and now she is almost 6 weeks!!)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Just a girl and her P-Pa

So before Brooklynn was born my Dad was asking us what she was going to call them. I always just called my grandparents Grandma & Grandpa, so I really had no plans for Brooklynn to call our parents anything different. My Dad declared to us that he wanted to be called "P-Pa." I'm not sure where he came up with that, it was probably something that just popped into his head at the moment, but I am pretty sure he was joking. We teasingly would call him P-Pa after his declaration, and now it has kind of stuck! He is such as great P-Pa, he loves Brooklynn and relishes in the moments that he gets to spend with her. He is already trying to make her laugh, which in turn makes us laugh and we love it! I am sure that Brooklynn is going to love her P-Pa! 
Brooklynn and P-Pa's first moment together
P-Pa finally gets to see the whites of Brooklynn's eyes!
He likes to talk to her when she is sleeping
Taking a nap with P-Pa
Just having a P-Pa moment

We love our P-Pa naps!
P-Pa's "on duty" no falling asleep for him!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

One month!?!

It is so hard for me to believe that one month ago (yesterday) my sweet baby girl was making her grand entrance into the world. 
How is it possible that she is a month old? 
She is so stinkin' cute I can't get enough of her!

Today is SO hot, well at least for Seattle standards and compared to the weather we have been having lately! It's crazy that we went from being bundled up on the 4th to burning up just like that! Poor Brooklynn is having a hard time dealing with the heat. I took her onesie of her this morning and decided that there was no way I was putting clothes on her today. So she has spent all day in just her diaper!
I put her down for a nap in her bassinet in our bedroom and when she woke up she was burning up! 
No naps in the bedroom today!
It is way cooler to be in the living room on the couch where the fan can hit her!
 The heat must be way too much for her because she has spent most of yesterday and today sleeping. She wakes up long enough to eat for only about 10 minutes before she passes out again! 
Poor little thing!
 I hate hot weather but I really hope, for Brooklynn's sake, that we cool down a little bit really soon!
She's so miserable she will sleep anywhere and in any position!

So close to smiling!



Monday, July 5, 2010

4th of July Weekend

Anyone besides me think that it doesn't really feel like the 4th of July when it's on Sunday?
It was weird watching fireworks as we drove home last night. I was like, "Oh yeah, it's the 4th!"
So because of it being Sunday our 4th was pretty low-key, which it probably would have been anyways since I'm still not too keen on doing to much with our little one.

Somehow I managed to go the whole day without taking any pictures, which really is unfortunate because my mom made Brooklynn the cutest little 4th of July dress. I guess that means I'll just have to put it on her again and take a picture later! Anyways, our celebration started with a BBQ at our house with Eric's brother and sister and their families. It's always fun to have the cousins get together (even if 2 of them are way too young to interact with the others)! Best part of the BBQ? Homemade ice cream! Homemade ice cream is the best and pretty much brings a happy ending to any get together! In fact, when I was growing up homemade ice cream was the only time that I would eat vanilla! 
After our BBQ we went over to the Olson's to see my family and show off Brooklynn (that seriously was my motivation for going....I think everyone needs the pleasure of meeting my little beauty!). So we enjoyed the company there and had a wonderful "FHE" lesson before we got to enjoy some fireworks. Fortunately for us, it was a good night for Brooklynn. She's been getting fussy in the evenings, but not yesterday! (Probably because she would only take cat naps after church so she was wiped out and slept the whole time!).

Today we went on a hike with Eric's brother and sister. It was supposed to be a pretty easy kid-friendly hike that Eric's sister found in a book she has of hikes for kids. Well, Eric has a day hike book and while the hikes had the same name in both books they were not the same in difficulty level. The hike we ended up on had huge inclines and was way more than I bargained for. And now, a few hours after being done, I think it was way more than I should have done considering it's only been 4 weeks since my c-section. We're a little sore tonight! Live and learn right?!




It is so hard to believe that our baby girl is 4 weeks old today! Time is flying by so fast. I swear when we woke up this morning she looked different to me and she is starting to lose the infant look. For the last few weeks she has been a really good sleeper, which I am grateful beyond words for! She will normally go down anywhere between 10:00 and 11:00 pm and then, depending on her last feeding will be up some time between 2:00 and 3:30 and then again sometime between 5:30 and 7:00. Maybe she'll be sleeping through the night soon! Brooklynn is such an alert baby and when she is awake she loves to take everything in. And I feel like she is more becoming more aware of people around her. She is beginning to follow people as they go by and sometimes when you talk to her (but you are out of luck if she has found a good corner to stare into to!) She is a very complacent baby and will just sit there and stare (although that doesn't always last very long if she's not being held by someone). I have always been amazed by her strength. From the day that she was born she has been so strong! When we went to our first doctor's appointment she was on her stomach being checked out and practically doing push ups! It's always fun to try to burp her on your shoulder because she usually doesn't want her head to be resting. She will hold her head up for up to 30 seconds! The weird thing is that she really only is interested in lifting her head when she is on your chest or shoulder, she's not so much interested in that when she is having tummy time! She can also be a pretty stiff baby. She will go so rigid sometimes and it is impossible to move any of her body parts, which is especially fun if you are trying to change her or when I'm trying to feed her! I am constantly amazed by her and I am so excited for this next stage of development. Bring on the cooing, the increase alertness and awareness and definitely bring on the smiles (I think they are close)!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Brooklynn's Photo Shoot

So last Thursday we went over to my friend Sara's house to have Brooklynn's picture taken.
Sara just started a photography business with some friends and they had new equipment that they wanted to get some practice with. Fortunately for them Brooklynn was a willing participant to model....well she wasn't always a willing participant, but she did really well considering we were there during one of her feeding times.
When I first saw the pictures my heart melted. They captured our little girl so beautifully that I fell in love with her all over again! She truly is so precious and her little personality shines through the photos so well.
Check out some of the best shots of our little one.


I am totally in love with their work and would recommend 35th Place Photography to anyone looking for a photographer!
Thanks Sara and Tiffany for capturing such perfect photos of our perfect little girl!!