The Beginning of our Journey....

20 weeks

2012-02-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

So I have finally decided that I look pregnant and not fat. In fact, at church yesterday as I was climbing over Eric and Brooklynn to get back into our pew I could see the couple behind us whisper to each other. And then he asked if we were expecting another. They did say that it's the first time they have noticed any showing-ness, so hopefully that means I wasn't looking as fat as I thought I was! I guess this makes my prego belly official. So, here's a belly shot (please forgive my end of day no make-up appearance!):

I have also been feeling pretty pregnant the last week or so. My lower back has been killing me! I am experiencing the difficulty breathing (shortness of breath/getting winded) and have chronic nasal congestion. (That combination makes it hard to eat without my mouth open, which Eric loves to make fun of!) I don't remember when that all started with Brooklynn, but I feel like it is way early this time. It is getting more and more uncomfortable to bend over and to have Brooklynn sit/lay on my lap. I have also seen the return of my pregnancy toe cramps. I used to get them pretty frequently even before I was pregnant with Brooklynn and then while I was pregnant with her all I had to do was move my toes the wrong way and they would instantly cramp. No fun and definitely not something that I am excited to have return, especially since I don't recall experiencing any cramps since Brooklynn was born.
One thing that I am excited has not shown up yet (knock on wood!) is heartburn. I remember taking a bite of salsa in my first trimester with Brooklynn and I had almost instant heartburn. I pretty much stopped eating spicy food with her (which seriously decreased my tolerance for my love of spicy food). And even without spicy food I still had heartburn pretty much constantly. With this little bundle I have been eating tons of tabasco and I had a jalapeno burger last Friday. I have yet to experience any heartburn! I wanted to test it out last night, so I had some of my mom's buffalo chicken wings (even though I hate eating meat on a bone). Nothing! Let's hope it never shows up!
We are so excited for our next ultrasound and to find out what this baby is!! We find out later this week, feel free to place your guesses!

We bought.....

2012-02-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

....A HOUSE!!!!

That's right, we are now officially homeowners! We found a super deal on a multi-family home. We have a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath home and a one bedroom detached apartment. So not only will be homeowners, we will be landlords. Scary, right?!

It is without a doubt a fixer-upper and it has tons of potential. Because we don't have tens of thousands of dollars laying around to do the work ourselves we went with a rehab loan. So the cost of fixing the two houses will be wrapped up into our mortgage and we will have a contractor do the heavy work for us, which will take like 3-6 weeks. We will do the easy stuff. Like paint and replace doors (because interior doors would cost like $200-300 through the contractor because of labor. Crazy, right?!) and of course decorate! I am so excited to decorate! I never really did much by way of decoration in either of our places the last 3 1/2 years because they never really felt like "ours." Well, now it is most certainly ours and there is so much fun decorating that will be happening.
I am so happy that the loan process is finally over! It took FOREVER....like nearly 5 months. We put an offer in on the house in September and were on track to be done with the loan and in the house by the end of the year. We were going through a family friend to obtain the loan through Bank of America. A few weeks into the process he was told that BoA was no longer going to allow outside lenders to offer their loans. He talked them into letting him finish ours. He was just about to get into the meat and potatoes of the process and he was told that he was not going to be able to finish our loan. So we had to go directly through BoA and they started completely over and did so at a snail's pace. They kept saying things would happen by a certain time and then it would actually happen like 2-4 weeks later. We had to get like 3 or 4 extensions, all of which they said they could close the file by and then couldn't. It was absolutely frustrating!! But it is finally OVER!! And now the real fun begins!

Gymnastics

2012-02-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to sign Brooklynn up for gymnastics for quite a while now. I finally got Eric on board with the idea (probably because our Parks and Rec department offers it for $33/month) and intended to sign her up starting in January. Oops! Totally forgot!!
Last Friday I got a great reminder that our little girl needs to try out gymnastics. Brooklynn was playing around and she had her head on the floor and her butt in the air and she just kicked her feet over and did a somersault! I know, I know. It was totally not intentional. But she realized how cool it was after it happened and then she did like 3-4 more, and those were intentional. So I called that afternoon and signed our little Monkey up!
We had her first class tonight and it was tons of fun (and super tiring for this mommy). We were waiting for her class to start she kept saying "play! play!" She did really well considering it was her first time and she's really not used to such structured "playing." Her favorite part was jumping down the long trampoline but she also like swinging on the bar.
It was so crazy trying to keep her in line and not running off and helping her do all the different things that I wasn't really able to take any pictures, maybe someday someone will be able to go with me and they can be the photographer.

Off we go....so excited!!

It's really blurry because she was moving so fast, but
you can still see how much fun she was having.

Winter Finally Hit

2012-01-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

And it sure hit hard!!

Last week we got enough snow to cripple the Seattle area. (We just don't get enough of it on a regular basis so the city is not equipped with snow plows and good preventative measures. Plus, there are so many huge hills in the area that driving around can be pretty treacherous. Call us wimps if you want, but it is what it is). I think we had about 3-4 inches here in Auburn between Sunday and Wednesday morning.

Enjoying the snow on Sunday after church.

Let's go for a walk! (Eric assured me you wouldn't be
able to tell I buttoned her coat wrong....not true!)

So pretty!

Our accumulation

Wednesday was a snow day for the City of Tukwila, but Eric had to go in because no one else would/could and his boss doesn't actually know how to do any IT stuff. We were really looking forward to a snow day so we could play with Brooklynn. It turns out that B is not so much a fan of playing in the snow, but she loves the idea of going out in it and playing or just watching it out the window. We tried to go for a walk while it was snowing on Sunday and it was just a bunch of tears and she refused to walk. I bundled her up on Wednesday and she would only stand on her own in our neighbors tire tracks. But she was super excited when I told her we were going out and she loved being in her snow suit so much that she wouldn't let me take it off for a good 10 minutes after going inside.

Don't let this face fool you....

....it spent most the time outside like this!

Done "playing" but still in our snowsuit!

The real trouble came late Wednesday night/Thursday morning. We had some freezing rain that completely covered our trees and bushes in like 1/2-1 inch of ice. Therwere tons of branches and trees that came down, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people losing their power. We were the lucky recipients of losing power at 5:45 Thursday morning! We had no idea when we would be getting our power up so we packed ourselves up and headed to my parents house because they never lose power! We called everyday at least once to get an update on when our power would come back we were always told that they had no estimate of when they would be able to fix our outage. So we "moved" in with my parents and stayed with them from Thursday mid-morning until Monday evening. We found out on Monday that we had power and a neighbor informed us that our power returned Friday night! While we were happy to find out our power was on it was frustrating to be told for 3 days that we did not have power and they had no idea when it would be fixed! Regardless of the frustration of being misinformed we are very blessed to have my parents so close and that they are willing and able to take us in and keep us warm and fed. We are especially grateful that we had a place to go at this time because Brooklynn ended up getting sick and needing multiple baths that we would not have been able to give her with our power out! Despite being sick, she had a great time spending a long weekend with Nana and Papa.

Some of the results of the icestorm in our neighborhood:

This tree is right outside our door and was
hanging so low I hit my head a few times!

a tree in our backyard

our privacy bushes almost completely covering Brooklynn's slide/climber
(they have mostly gone back upright...only a few branches were too weak to go back up)

ice we took off a branch

Some broken trees down our street:

Hanging out at the refugee center:

We saw a lot of this face over the weekend. Poor sick baby.

We played some Wii bowling and Brooklynn thought
we were playing Kinect and tried to play along.

19 months

2012-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

I started this post at the beginning of the month, when Brooklynn turned 19 months....now she is almost 20 months! Oops!
There really isn't anything special about Brooklynn's monthly milestones anymore, but it's just nice to have a reason to update. We just had a well-child appointment and our little peanut is now: 33 inches tall (80th percentile) and 23 lbs 2 oz (30th percentile). It's funny because sometimes I look at her and am so amazed at how big she is and old she is starting to look and act, and other times I look at her and think that she is so tiny!

Brooklynn continues to run around ALL DAY long. Her energy is boundless. Many times as she is running around like a child hopped up on caffeine (which she is not) I get asked, "Is she like this all day long?" The answer is YES! She continues to have no fear (except for loud noises) and is constantly trying new death defying feats.

She has a new found love for singing "If you're happy and you know it," "The itsy bitsy spider," and "Old Mac Donald." We usually bust them out in the car in order to keep her happy. The only down side...once we start she doesn't want us to stop!

We are struggling with the concept of sharing right now. I know that it happens to everyone, which is why I am not too worried. But it still isn't very fun to deal with, especially when I have 1-2 other children in the house that would also like to play with toys. A few nights last week she would cry out "mine, mine, mine" in her sleep. Maybe she was dreaming about being back at her P-Pa's house with 3 of her cousins and having to share all of her toys there!

She continues to surprise us with new words randomly. The other day we were in the bathroom and she pointed to the clock and said "clock." I don't even remember talking to her about clocks or ever pointing one out to her, so I'm not sure where it came from! She is getting better at repeating words that we say, but normally not when we are actually trying to get her to say them! Such a stubborn girl has to do things on her own terms! The one word that she struggles with (and that I know she used to say and still knows how to say) is "more." For some reason she says "Neh." We don't know where or why this has come about. She will occasionally say "more" if we fully and exaggeratedly enunciate it for her, but she's been in a stubborn mood lately and wont even do that.

We are still slowly working on potty training. She is getting good at telling us when she is poopy or wet and on occasion will tell us before she actually poops. She will sit on the potty now, but we still can't get her to do anything while she is there. We'll get there though. Hopefully we can have her trained before the baby comes the end of June, it would be so nice not to have 2 kiddos in diapers!

Brooklynn is a great helper and loves to bring me things and help me in the kitchen. She always wants to be up on the kitchen counter right in the mix of things. My mom is really good with her in the kitchen and always takes the time to let Brooklynn pour or stir or play in bubbles while she does the dishes. Something I don't always take the time to do.

(Notice a trend in the last few pictures? Brooklynn sure loves to be naked!!)

Brooklynn is obsessed with bags/purses. If she has a bag to carry around she is a happy girl. She has an adorable church bag that my mom made for her and she always insists on carrying it herself. Sometimes she even insists on taking it when we go grocery shopping or running other errands. It is so cute to watch her carry a bag around. She also discovered the stickers in my crafting drawers and has been obsessed with them. She is constantly asking to have stickers and she loves to put them on her face and ours, as well as on pieces of paper (and sometimes the floor and the couch).

Brooklynn has also become obsessed with Elmo and constantly is asking for him. She also loves Big Bird, which surprised me because we haven't seen too much of him on the newer episodes of Sesame Street. Her other favorite show to watch is Super Why. She is always asking for WhyWhy.

Brooklynn has almost perfected her skill of dressing herself. She is super amazing at putting on her own shirt (and taking it off as well) and can now pull her own pants up. The only hitch with the pants is that she hasn't quite figured out that she has to pull her pants up in the back as well, so she usually has a cute little diaper bum hanging out of her pants. Her shirt isn't always on the right way, but we'll work on that! She loves to take off and put on her socks too. She hasn't quite mastered her shoes, but she's trying.

We have entered a bad sleeping phase. We went through a few weeks where she would wake up at 2:00 in the morning and when we would get her back to sleep she would refuse to go back in her bed. We are not sure how she does it, but even sound asleep she knows we are trying to put her back in bed and she will cling on for dear life and cry. Which means she was spending about half the night in our bed just so that we could get some sleep ourselves. We finally got it figured out that if she is in bed by 7:30 she will sleep through the night. So Brooklynn now has a new bedtime. We've still had a few problems with her sometimes waking up at 5:00 or so due to her not feeling well, but we are thankfully back to sleeping through the night! Even though it was frustrating and tiring there was still a silver lining in the situation (which I think is true for most hard/challenging parenting situations): the early morning hours when I am hoping she will fall back to sleep in bed with us so that I can get another 30-60 minutes of sleep is when she gives the best love! I get so many sweet little kisses all over my face and hugs that just make me melt!

Brooklynn LOVES cream of wheat. That little girl almost can't get enough hot cereal! She also has a new found love for scrambled eggs. She is a really good breakfast eater and will gobble up her whole plate. But she is a little hit and miss with lunch and dinner. Give her a snack though and she is in heaven! She loves chips, fruit snacks, crackers, and of course candy. Poor little girl didn't stand a chance! At least she gets one good meal in her. (And I promise we don't just let her eat junk food all day. We hardly ever have chips and when we do they normally are tortilla chips and we don't keep candy in the house. Thankfully the Holidays and all the goodies that come with them are over!)

We definitely have our moments, but all in all I couldn't ask for a better little girl. She is going to be a great big sister!

2nd Trimester!!!

2012-01-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to be out of the first trimester! We are almost 15 weeks now, so it's been a few weeks. I think my favorite part of pregnancy is leaving the first trimester! It's amazing how much better I feel and how much more I am able to accomplish now. I'm sure Eric is enjoying having real meals at dinner!

It is so much nicer being pregnant and not working full time! Yes, I have a toddler to take care of and a house to keep in order and meals to prepare, but I am able to take a nap or not do much of anything at all if I'm not feeling up to it. With Brooklynn I was exhausted all the time. I was going to bed like at 8:00-8:30 because I was so tired from working. Then because I was going to bed so early I was waking up at like 4:00-4:30 every morning. Waking up so early made me super tired at work, with no chance whatsoever of taking a nap. It was a vicious cycle. With this baby I am still tired throughout the day and I am usually ready to head to bed earlier than normal, but I have a few nights a week where I stay up to my normal 10:00 or so.

I remember being in the hospital with Brooklynn and when the contractions started to get uncomfortable the nurse suggested I get in the whirlpool tub. Being in that hot water just made me sick, weird right? I don't think I lasted even 10 minutes in that tub. I haven't taken any baths, but during the first trimester my shower would make me sick if it was too hot. I had quite a few showers that ended with a visit to the porcelain bowl. Not fun. I am so glad that I have not experienced that in the last few weeks!

So far I don't really have any cravings, and I don't really remember having cravings with Brooklynn, and not too much makes me sick. I have a hard time cooking with garlic (which happened which happened with Brooklynn too) because I just can't handle the smell. I love having fresh garlic in my food so I still use it, I just try to get incorporated into the food as quickly as possible!
Probably one of the strangest, and most tragic, aversions I have is to my chapstick. I have used Natural Ice for years and I absolutely love it. Eric says that I am addicted. But when I put it on it makes me sick! I think it's the mentholatum. So I have converted back to the traditional Perkins Chapstick Brand. Seriously, if you don't have at least 3 tubes of Chapstick open at one time (in various places of convenience) then you are not a Perkins! Hopefully I can return to my Natural Ice once this baby makes it's arrival.

We are so excited to find out what this baby is next month!! 4 weeks can just not go fast enough!

sorry, no baby bump pics yet b/c I just look fat and not so much pregnant, and I am just not ready!

Hello 2012!!

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by! They just seem to go faster and faster the older I get. Does anybody else feel that way?

We have had a great year here in Compton Land. We didn't really do anything extraordinary, but we delighted in the ordinary. We enjoyed all the time that we were able to spend with family for birthdays, vacations, stay-cations and holidays. It has been absolutely amazing watching Brooklynn grow and develop into the happy, confident spit-fire she is today. She definitely kept us on our toes this past year from the very beginning, I still can't believe that she started walking last January! We had tons of fun trying to keep up with her, something that I am sure will not be changing in the near future.

In keeping with our pace for 2011 we didn't do anything extraordinary for New Year's Eve. We stayed home, ordered a pizza, drank Cherry Dr. Pepper, gave Brooklynn a bath and watched Inception (which we had never seen before, but apparently bought on Black Friday). I didn't see the ball drop, but I did manage to stay up later than I thought I would (I think it was 11:00).

We are definitely looking forward to 2012 and all the changes and exciting times that it will bring. We are excited to finish up the purchase of our first home and finally have our own space. We will even get to attend and celebrate a sealing this Spring (Congrats Nicole and Sean!). But I think that we are most excited to welcome our second child this summer and even out the parent-child ratio. And of course we look forward to all the things that will just naturally come about as we progress through the year. Hopefully we can find a way to throw in a few family trips as well!

I definitely have some personal goals for 2012:
1. Healthy pregnancy
2. Keep pregnancy weight gain under control
3. Lose baby weight and get into shape, hopefully to my goal weight by the end of the year
3. Be better with my personal prayers
4. Read my scriptures daily
5. Have family home evening
6. Be better about keeping the house organized and clean
7. Play more with Brooklynn
Hopefully I can work hard to accomplish all of these goals and improve myself spiritually and as a wife and mother.

Christmas

2012-01-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

**I started this almost a week ago, but blogger wouldn't upload my pictures and I just now got around to getting back to it. And I had so many fun pictures I thought I would try a collage**

I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did!!
Our Christmas started early with the surprise arrival of Ali and Kyle on Thursday evening! We had no idea that they were coming and showed up to my parents house for dinner to find their car parked outside. It was great to have them home and to be able to spend time with them. We had so much that I never got around to taking a picture of just the two of them like I had planned.

Christmas Eve was our annual Doughnut making with my family. This year my parents changed it up and did an open house. It was really fun to have everyone come over and enjoy the fresh out of the fryer doughnuts and visit with them. My dad and I have traditionally been the fryer and the glazer (for the last 10 years or so), but shortly before everyone started arriving Dad burned himself pretty badly and once the crowd gathered Brooklynn was overwhelmed and needed Mommy so we swapped out with Eric and Kyle. They may be novices, but they did an amazing job and kept up with the demand for doughnuts!
After resting from our demanding morning of doughnut production we went bowling with some family friends and then joined them for soup and a Christmas program.

We stayed at my parents house that night and Brooklynn barely slept, so it made for a tired and crabby Mommy, Daddy and Babers. Fortunately Brooklynn napped through most of sacrament meeting, so by the time we got home to open presents she was moderately happy. Brooklynn absolutely loved opening presents! To her the big deal was ripping the paper off and she would usually just walk away from the actual present and we would have to call her attention to what she was getting! It was so fun to watch her open her presents (and try to steal other people's presents that she helped open).

Our final Christmas celebration was actually on New Years Day. We got together with the Compton clan for the Annual party and gift exchange.We ate tons of food and had fun visiting with family we don't see quite as often. Brooklynn got to play with all her cousins and managed to sneak tons of candy and sweets, it's pretty much all that she ate! She also got to open up some more presents from Eric's aunts and uncles. Definitely a fun way to end our Holiday season and start the new year!

Holiday Fun

2011-12-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

I am so glad that I started feeling better a few weeks ago, just in time to enjoy some holiday fun!! (But not soon enough for me to justify putting up the Christmas tree....oh well).

We kicked off our Holiday Celebrations with the Garden D'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens with my parents. My family has done this for many years and I introduced Eric to it the first year we were married, so I guess it's something of a tradition. We didn't take many pictures because we have tons of pictures of the lights from previous years. All of the lights on display are flowers or animals, they literally make a garden out of lights. Brooklynn was a little put of by the cold at first, and possibly the big puffy jacket we made her wear. But she eventually warmed up and enjoyed running around looking at the lights. Her favorite part of the night? I have no doubt that it would be when P-Pa took us to Dairy Queen for blizzards! Our little girl loves her some ice cream, or "mymeam" as she would say.

Last weekend we took a trip into the city with my parents and rode the monorail and then went to see the giant gingerbread houses they have on display every year. Again, this is something that my family has done for years (according to my Dad, it's was our 15th annual trip) and something that I introduced to Eric when we got married. This year the theme was "Holiday Express." As always the displays were wonderful. This was the first year that we went on a Saturday afternoon and encountered a huge line...lesson learned! It was also naptime so B got a little unruly, but she was outnumbered 4:1 so we were able to keep mostly her in control!

Waiting for the monorail....she was definitely P-Pa's girl that day!

so excited for the train to come!

SO.MUCH.FUN

she entertained herself in line by dancing around the poles.....

...and trying to hang herself? She really loved the velvet rope dividers!

Minions!!

King's Cross Station....

....and of course, it was platform 9 3/4 complete with a flying Harry.

I loved the flying kangaroos pulling Santa's sleigh.

Island of Misfit toys

(no one told me my hair was crazy!)

Yesterday we had a playdate with 3 other families in our ward to decorate sugar cookies. B decided that it would be fun to wake up at 4:30 yesterday so at 10:00 when we are driving the 10 minutes to our friend's house she falls asleep!! I tried so hard to keep her awake. I sang "If you're happy and you know it" and "Old MacDonald" and even tried shaking her leg and yelling to her. It was definitely a losing batle! So B spent the first 20-30 minutes of the playdate asleep on the couch while the kids played around her! Fortunately she woke up soon enough to decorate some cookies (read: eat all the frosting off the cookies while I decorated) and play some.

Coming soon.....

2011-12-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

That's right!!! There's a new baby on the way! The babies due date is July 2. My mom is really hoping for a July 4th baby, but that is definitely NOT going to happen. Because I had a c-section with Brooklynn when she was in the right position and wasn't a huge baby I have only a 10% chance of a successful VBAC. Not very good odds at all! And the worst case scenario is that my uterus could rupture (which doesn't sound like fun). So we will be scheduling a c-section for this little bundle of joy. C-sections are usually scheduled in the 39 week, so we will most likely be picking a birthday in the last week of June. I really like the idea of having a July baby, but I think I am going to have to get over that!
I am really glad to be at the end of my first trimester and finally feeling better. I have been SOOO sick. With Brooklynn I would start to feel sick around 3:00 in the afternoon and I don't think I was throwing up every day. With this baby I was waking up feeling sick, throw up a few times a day, and feel sick all day long. I could not get anything done. It was literally all that I could do to feed my child and make dinner. I've logged a lot of couch time the last few weeks. Thankfully the nausea has subsided and I am starting to feel like a normal person again. And most importantly I have been able to take care of my house and family much better than before. (In fact, because I was so sick we decided that we had to speed up our timetable for our announcement. Our original plan was to announce at Christmas, but we spent Thanksgiving week at the Compton's and knew we wouldn't be able to make it through the week without suspicion. So we told family a month early).
We have told Brooklynn that we are having a baby and that the baby is in mommy's tummy. If you ask her where the baby is she will lift my shirt up and give my stomach kisses, it's pretty sweet. And sometimes if you just mention the word baby she will do the same. But she definitely does not understand what exactly it means! She loves babies, so we'll see how she does when the baby finally comes!

18 months old

2011-12-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

Our sweet baby girl is now 18 months old (last Wednesday)! How did that happen? I cannot get over how much she has changed in the last 6 months. She really is like a little person now. She has all of her teeth now, so gone are the tooth gaped baby smiles. Her hair is getting so long, which means all her baby fuzz is gone. And she is talking a TON, which is definitely not baby-like at all!

She continues to be very active and will climb anything she can reach, her little legs don't always make this the easiest, but she always manages to figure out a way. She has almost no fear whatsoever, so it's good that Eric and I have strong nerves. It is a very rare sight to see her actually sit down and stay there for more than a minute (usually this happens at night after dinner when we are winding down from the day). She is very social, especially if there are other little people around, and loves to be the center of attention. But she is also really good at playing alone and entertaining herself, which is really nice for me!
While we were in Utah she became obsessed with TV for some reason (it was really weird because it was like never on). She now is constantly asking to watch a "doh" (show). She loves Sesame Street, Curious George, The Backyardigans, Arthur, and Super Why. She is so obsessed with her shows that she knows how to turn on Netflix on my phone and start her own show!

Brooklynn loves to help her Mommy and Daddy, and most of the time she really is a good helper. She likes to help me load the laundry, she'll take Eric's lunch tupperware and put it in the sink and will even put her own dishes in the sink as well, and she loves to push in her chair when she is done eating. While I am making lunch or dinner she will often go to her play kitchen and say that she is cooking as well.
Brooklynn loves to put her own clothes on....they just aren't neccesarily where they belong and she usually has other clothes on already! But she is getting really good at putting on socks and pants and getting a shirt over her head.

We have struggled with her solid food eating and milk drinking, but she is starting to get better with both. She will eat most of anything I give her, as long as it doesn't have meat in it. The only exception to that is chicken nuggets, fish sticks and sometimes hotdogs. She is even starting to drink some milk, the most she'll drink in one day is about 8 oz.
We are definitely in the "terribles" phase. Lots of little breakdowns throughout the day, usually the result of having to share or being told that she can't have my phone. When it comes time to fix dinner is when she has the biggest meltdown. As soon as I go to make dinner she has to have me right the second! She is really struggling with sharing right now and doesn't really want anyone to play with her toys most of the time. Her favorite words right now: Mine and No. Good times!
Some other new fun words she is saying:
*ight= light
*mote/momote= remote
*unch= lunch
*ninner= dinner
*dekfas= breakfast
*milk
*diader= diaper
*pease
*dank you
*dorry
*up
*all done
*bite

**Sometimes she will say please, thank you, or sorry without being prompted! Such a proud moment to see that she understands manners on a small level!**
***Funny story: last night Brooklynn was force feeding me fish crackers and after she hard core forced on into my mouth she told me to say "Thank you." When I didn't say thank you she put her hand to my mouth to sign it for me as she say said thank you.***

I love my sweet little girl!

Fall Catchup

2011-12-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

I was looking at my blog the other night and I can't believe my last post was in July! The biggest shock to me were the pictures of Brooklynn. She looks like a totally different girl now! It is definitely time to get back on the blogging bandwagon!

Our summer was filled with days playing at the park and backyard sprinklers. We even had a few opportunities to get together and play with cousins, which is always a favorite. I am still surprised at how fast the summer flew by!

ALL of the Compton grandkids. It's not very often
that all 9 of them are together at one time.

In August Brooklynn and I took her first plane ride to visit Aunt Ali and Uncle Kyle in Utah. We don't get to see them nearly enough so it was great to have a week to spend time with them and for Brooklynn to get to know them some more. We had a great time visiting with family and old friends. The worst part of the trip: the HOT weather (and being away from Daddy for a week). This mommy does not like hot weather!!

Getting her energy out before our flight to Utah.

Meeting Jennie's baby Adeline. Brooklynn LOVES babies!

More from our trip: a visit to the aqaurium, playing at the park, and hanging out on BYU campus while Aunt Ali was in class.

Life has been pretty busy and sometimes hectic the last few months. I started watching my nephew full days instead of half days twice a week. Luckily I can get him and Brooklynn to nap at the same time! I also started watching another little girl a few times a week. The first month it was full days like 3 times a week, now it's half days like twice a week. I definitely like the the new schedule much better. Our house is sometimes crazy during the day and it's hard to get things done, but it's nice to be able to bring some extra money in.

My full house!

We had a great Halloween as the Flintstones. I made all our costumes, without patterns, and was super happy with the outcome. I literally finished my dress when it was time for us to go to the trunk or treat in my parent's ward! We were definitely a hit trick or treating at the mall. People were asking to take our picture and everything, it was crazy!

For Thanksgiving we spent a week with Eric's family in Wapato. It was so nice and relaxing. (Except for when we braved the crowds for Black Friday shopping, what a crazy night!) I love when Brooklynn is able to spend time with her cousins. I love seeing them all together and watching them play. It is pretty much non stop play at Grandma's house when we are all there! While we were there we took a train ride to "the North Pole" and met Santa and Mrs. Clause. Brooklynn barely tolerated them this year.

At the train depot checking out the trains before taking our train ride to the "North Pole."

Fresh Produce

2011-07-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

We had a Relief Society (the women's organization at church) a few weeks ago and I found out that a food co-op (Bountiful Baskets) for fresh fruits and veggies had finally made it to Western Washington! This was the first weekend since I found out about it that I was able to participate and I am so excited for the yummy, super fresh produce!

Look at my $15.00 basket!!

2 Mangoes, 5 bananas, 8 white peaches, 5 fuji apples, 8 oranges, 1 pineapple, 1 bunch of kale, 7 baby bok choy, 1 eggplant, 1 english cucumber, and 1 bunch broccoli.

Totally worth it!!

Still Just a Baby

2011-07-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

We have been getting so frustrated with Brooklynn lately. She is so feisty and strong willed and is in a stage where she thinks it's funny to do things that we are telling her not to do. She loves to dump her food off her plate/bowl and she throws it on the floor if it's not something she wants to eat or if she is done eating. She dumps out her entire box of toys just to dump it out and then will dump it out while we are picking it up. She has started throwing dirt/rocks at people (namely me). She'll turn on/off the TV and then play with the buttons on the side. Nothing we say or do curbs this unwanted behavior. I was talking to my friend Jennie about it yesterday and she helped open my eyes to the fact that Brooklynn is still just a baby! It is so easy for us to forget that she is just barely 1 year old because she is so capable and confident in her movement and abilities. She may be able to climb on anything she wants or run and kick and a ball but she just doesn't have the mental capacity to understand consequences and retain the information of what she should and shouldn't do. Thank you Jen for the reminder that we have a BABY and we are the ones that need to be patient and understanding of her learning and growth!

13 months

2011-07-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

When does it become ridiculous to count your child's age by months?! Regardless of any ridiculousness, Brooklynn is now 13 months and 1 week old. She continues to amaze us every day with her intelligence, quirkiness, humor, and her cuddliness. I have to say that I am loving her increasing willingness to give loves to me and Eric. I get so many hugs and kisses throughout my day now, it's awesome! She absolutely loves spending time outside...good thing we have a backyard to play in! She is really good at playing by herself, which is great for me. I can work on dinner or clean up the kitchen while she plays in the backyard (another reason why I love having a backyard). She has increased her climbing skills and is now able to climb on things that she hasn't been able to do alone before. She can now climb on the couch and she pretty much climbs all the toys at the park. She loves to get her own diaper and wipes when she has a dirty diaper or it's time to put on pajamas and will run to her room. She has been such a good eater lately, which is a welcome change of pace. A lot of times when I ask if she wants breakfast or lunch she will run to the kitchen and smack her hands on the fridge. All in all she is just amazing!

She LOVES grapes these days, and is actually into most fruits right now.

She absolutely loves her balls...and loves sitting and
bouncing on them, even if it is her tiny one.

More often than not she has to have both
of her balls at the same time!

Good thing Bryson didn't want his bananas....
Brooklynn stole them all!

Enjoying a cherry! This silly girl eats the cherry whole, pit included
and doesn't want anything to do with the cherry if I take the pit out!

Is it just me, or does she look like 2 years older in this picture?!?!

Celebrating our Independence

2011-07-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Wapato with Eric's family. Eric took off Friday and Tuesday so that we could have a super long weekend and I must say it was great to miss the traffic on both ends! We had a great weekend filled with sun, cousins, parks, pool fun, and even a Temple Trip. The only thing that would have made it better would have been Brooklynn sleeping past 6:30 (which, aside from one morning when she woke up at 7:30, was sleeping in for her the whole weekend). But what are you gonna do?

Warning: you are entering the picture overload zone!

Grandma and Grandpa Compton's basement flooded like a month ago and so Friday was spent helping them put the basement back together so that everyone had a place to sleep.

Brooklynn is such a good helper!

Eric and his Dad putting together the food rotation system.
Now he'll know how to do it when we have room for ours!

Playing with Addison in her seat.

Saturday we went to the Tri-Cities to go to the Temple and then we went to a park for the kids to play in the water before we hit up Famous Dave's for dinner.

Brooklynn was totally in her element!

She was right in there running around with all the big kids.

She kept sticking her head in the fountain, it was awesome!

On Sunday after church and naps we had a little photo session with Grandma and Grandpa. 5 kids under 3...not so easy! Brooklynn was super cranky for some reason and really had no interest in sitting still for the pictures. I think someone got a decent shot though!

From L-R: Trenton, Brooklynn, Addison, Chloe, Bryson

On your mark, get set, GO!

Grandpa was winning, until he veered off to corral
Brooklynn who got distracted by the gravel!

Look at those pointed toes! Maybe she will be a dancer!

We started off the Fourth with a picnic lunch and feeding the ducks at the park. Then we came home and all the kids went down for naps (the only time the whole weekend they all took naps at the same time, well except Trenton, but he's not loud and into everything yet!) and the adults played ladder golf. After naps it was pool time and more playing outside. Of course, there were also fireworks once it got darker. Let me just say, Brooklynn was not a fan! I don't know what the deal is, but even flowers pop and are super loud now. What gives? Luckily Brooklynn slept through the big stuff so we didn't have to worry about her freaking out.

Happy 4th of July!!

First time feeding ducks!

Gotta get the baby ducks fed too!

Grandma helped out with her climbing obsession

She's a fan of taking BIG steps!

Grandma took the kids to roll down the hill....

Brooklynn thought it was more fun to run down!

Brooklynn and Chloe are just a month apart from each other.

Sparklers with Mommy

What a great weekend! Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July as well!

Finding her Voice

2011-07-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

Brooklynn has been developing quite the vocabulary the last few weeks. Truth be told most of her words still aren't full words, but they are close enough to the real thing that we know what she is talking about.

Her words include:

~Dada (occasionally Daddy)

~Jesus

~That
~This

~Yes

~Cookie (sometimes)

~Cracker (also only sometimes)

~Mama (usually only when she is upset/mad/wants something)

~Cat
~Dog
~Yogurt (she says yoyo)

We haven't worked too much on Sign Language, but she has picked up a few signs. she knows "milk", "more", "please", "thank you", and she is just starting to grasp "all done". She was most impressive with Thank You as she picked it up after seeing just a few times. I was actually surprised when she said Thank You for the first time.

Some pictures of the last few weeks:

Brooklynn is lightning fast when it comes to climbing on/in things these days.
Turn your back for 2 seconds and you might find this:

or this:

or this (my personal favorite):

she really, really loves wipes and found where we store them!

Brooklynn loves this wagon she got for her birthday. It's not really made to be
ridden in, but she's small and they have tons of fun playing with it.

She went down for her nap with her pants on...
Somehow they ended up next to her head!

Going in the hard way!

Helping Daddy rake the lawn.

Checking out her hair.

Getting comfortable with her new potty chair.

Master of destruction!

Trying to figure out how she can get in the car while holding her ball.

This is how I have been finding her lately when she wakes up. She puts her arm up
through the bottom of her shirt and then out the neck. Silly girl!!

Eating dirt because Mommy doesn't feed her enough!

A trip to the Beach

2011-06-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

We just spent a super nice, long weekend on the Oregon coast with my family. My parents rented a house for us in Seaside and it was so nice to have so much space to hang out in, especially for Brooklynn! The best part of our weekend was that we didn't have an agenda, we could do whatever we wanted. We went to Tilamook to tour the factory and get some ice cream. (The factory wasn't all that exciting, but the ice cream was good and we got some cheese!) Aside from that we just hung out at "home" and played games and spent time playing at the beach. Brooklynn was in total heaven with all the sand and water to play with. We totally lucked out with the weather the whole weekend! We had some overcast skies, but it wasn't cold and rainy! (Can't ask for much more than that in the Pacific Northwest).
I am about to embark on picture overload, reader beware!

On our way and so excited to be in the car!

We took our Kinect and Brooklynn kept
waving her arm at it and trying to play!

When that didn't work, she would run up to whoever
was playing and wait for them to pick her up.

On our way to Tillamook

Checking out the cheese with Grandma

Brooklynn and Grandma spotted a bird!
(This is Brooklynn's go to action when she sees an animal)

Pure and utter joy!

Playing in the tidepools...

First time in the ocean

And she's an old pro!

"Let me go...I want to PLAY!!"

(I love her ruffle bum!)

We played in the sand....

And Brooklynn destroyed whatever was created!

Or she ate it!

Brooklynn even played some Foosball with Aunt Ali and Uncle Kyle.

We had such a good time and were so happy that we were able to spend some good quality time with my family. And especially that Ali and Kyle were able to be with us (it had been almost a year since we had seen Kyle). Thanks for a great weekend!

Celebrations

2011-06-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

This picture has nothing to do with Celebrating her birthday, but she was super cute when she took over Daddy's side of the bed when he got up for work.

Brooklynn was a lucky girl and got a few days of celebrations her birthday, aside from her Birthday party last week. On Tuesday, after her 12 month check-up, we went and visited Daddy at work and went to see all the ladies over at City Hall. They love to fawn over her and she just soaks up the attention. A little bit later that afternoon we met some friends at the park for a play date and cupcakes. Brooklynn loves the park and she got to use her new sand toys in the awesome sand pit.

Our super cute friend Alice that we don't see very often since we moved.

Brooklynn loves to play in sand and eat sand! I even got her lowering
her mouth to the sand to lick it up!

Eric took the day off on Wednesday so that we could take Brooklynn to the Zoo. We didn't know quite how she would do. But she really loves animals, so we were hoping that she would have fun. It was a great day for the zoo. We went to Point Defiance and got there just as the school field trips were leaving! Perfect timing!! The weather was great. It wasn't hot, wasn't cold, and most importantly it wasn't rainy! Brooklynn had a great time! I think her favorite part was the aquarium, she really seemed to love looking in all the tanks. She also liked any of the animals that had water in their habitat, but mostly because she wanted to get in the water! She was trying so hard to join the sea otters!

LOOK!!

This is what she was seeing....Lemurs sleeping

Dancing Elephant and super cute pigtail girl!

The octopus came out from under the rock just to say hi to us!

So pretty!

Let me in there!!

I thought it was super cute watching Brooklynn and Eric walking.
Eric was wondering what was taking me so long!

The Polar Bears were non-existent. It's a sore subject.
We 're not gonna talk about it.

She crashed about 20 seconds after we put her in the stroller.
It's hard work looking at animals!

Love this happy face!

She loved this spinning cup thing. It would spin in a complete 360 and she
even figured out how to mover her upper body to get it to rotate herself.
Smart cookie!

Pigtails!!!

2011-06-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right. We are in the pigtail stage!!!

I put pigtails in Brooklynn's hair for the first time on Wednesday and then in one pony on the top of her head today. Can I just say SOOO CUTE!!!

How is that a simple pony/pigtails can make a baby look so much older?!?!

I have a ONE year old!!!

2011-06-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that Brooklynn turned ONE today!

One year ago we were in the hospital relishing the sweetness of our newborn and in complete awe of her arrival.

She was so perfect and beautiful and we just couldn't get enough of her. She absolutely, without a doubt, won us over the instant she graced us with her presence.

Now, she is still perfect, and beautiful, and we can't get enough of her. (Somethings will never change!) But she is definitely not our squishy little newborn anymore!

Our little girl, who started at 8lbs 7.3oz and 20 in, is now 20lbs 2.5 oz (40th percentile) and 30 in tall (80th percentile). It is so crazy that she has been walking for 5 months now and that we started the running and climbing (onto and into everything!) stage before she even turned one! It is getting ridiculous how much she is able to get into, there is seriously no keeping her out of anything anymore. Her latest thing is to climb into drawers and to grab onto things to try to pull herself up.

I have enjoyed watching her personality develop. She is definitely headstrong! This little girl knows what she wants and you better not stand in her way! She loves being the center of attention and will ham it up like crazy. She loves to laugh and sometimes will just start laughing completely out of the blue. I have a feeling that she is going to be very opinionated as well. She seems to think that her mouth is a third hand! If her hands are full and she wants to pick up something else, she will just use her mouth to do it. Sometimes she just decides to use her mouth even if she doesn't have anything in her hands, she'll pick things up from the floor, the couch, where ever. Why use your hands when it's just going to go into your mouth anyways?! It's pretty funny to see!

She tries so hard to communicate, but doesn't have any real words outside of "dada" and "mama." She gets so frustrated when I am not able to understand her. It is definitely frustrating for me to know that she is trying to tell me something that I can't understand.

Happy Birthday Little Girl!! Mommy loves you!!

Party Time

2011-06-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

So Brooklynn's birthday isn't until Tuesday but we had her party today so that out of town family could be there. Luckily for us it was a GORGEOUS day because we had a BBQ in the backyard. We got Brooklynn a slide/climber and it was a huge hit, she loves it!

Checking out her new toy!

Having fun with cousins Addison and Bryson

Birthday Girls get to ride on the roof!

She is such a little Monkey

Seriously, we can't keep her off anything anymore!

Brooklynn was a very lucky girl and got some great presents. She got an awesome keepsake growth chart, sand toys, chalk, clothes, and a play kitchen.

And of course, there was cake!!! Brooklynn had her own little monkey cake and everyone else had monkey cupcakes.

First bite of frosting!

YUM!

She really loved the frosting!

Want some?

And we're done!

Love the frosting face!!

What a perfect day for our little Monkey's party!
(She played so hard ALL day long today she went to bed at 7:45!)

Birthday Dress

2011-06-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I saw this birthday shirt at Target. I liked the idea of the shirt, but Brooklynn is a petite little thing and I thought she would swim in the 12 month shirt. So I bought a onesie (on clearance!) and some fabric and with the help of my mom made her a one of a kind birthday dress. I am a pretty novice sewer so I definitely couldn't have done it without my mom. She ended up doing quite a bit of the work because when it got time for the nitty-gritty sewing Brooklynn had had enough of me ignoring her and needed some mommy time!

This is what we started with:

Onesie, grey/white polka dot satin, and pink shimmery tulle.

Finished product:

I am so excited for her to wear it at her birthday party tomorrow, and to church on Sunday, and next week when we go visit Daddy at work and then when we go to the Zoo, and possibly sometime while we are in Seaside with my family! We are definitely going to get good use out of her birthday dress!

I'm linking up for the first time at:
Tatertots and Jello, Flamingo Toes, Simply Cadence, Someday Crafts

There are pictures of her in the dress in my Party post, but I thought I would add one here too for easy viewing! Not the best picture of Brooklynn, she had just woken up so she was a little out of it, but it's the best I have of her just standing there!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

We spent Memorial Day Weekend over in Wapato with Eric's family. It was such a great, long, lazy weekend! The weather was really nice the while we there so there was a lot of playing outside with all the cousins, Brooklynn was in HEAVEN!!

In the car on the way to Wapato, Brooklynn had to have her water bottle and mine!

Brooklynn LOVES dogs, and there were certainly plenty of them for her to play with. Sorry little girl, you probably will never have a dog of your own.

One of the highlights of the weekend: playing on Grandpa's lawnmower.

Another highlight was riding in the car.

Trenton, Brooklynn, Chloe and Audrey "watching" the game of Ultimate Frisbee.

Brooklynn is a total water baby! It was barely warm enough for the pool and the water was cold, but she could not get enough of it. All the other babies cried when they first touched the water, but Brooklynn just went to town. She L.O.V.E.D. it! And she was so impatient to get in it that we didn't even have time to put a swim diaper on her! She was SO mad at us both times that we made her get out of the pool. She screamed and tried to get back in, even though she was shivering and practically purple!

Those diapers are filling up!

Look at that diaper! I think it weighed as much as she does!

Little Miss Cool

(right before she broke my sunglasses! That's what I get for trying to keep her happy in the car!)

Slacker!!!

2011-05-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

I have been a complete and utter slacker on the blog front lately! It's not that there hasn't been anything going on or that Brooklynn has stopped being super cute and figuring new things out it's just that I have had "writer's block." Anytime I think that I should sit down and blog I just don't have the desire to do it. After wasting like 40 minutes doing nothing on the computer I am finally getting down to business! Yay me!! It's been so long that I had to look at my last months posts and the pictures on the camera to even remember things that have happened in the last month.

First off, my little girl is going to be ONE in 2 weeks!!!!!!! Who let this happen?! It certainly wasn't me. She may be turning 1, but she thinks that she is 2. She thinks that she can just do anything and go anywhere. There is just no stopping this girl. She is a little monkey climbing on and in everything.

She has some new, pretty amazing faces (she definitely gets it from me). There really is no good way to describe them, so pictures will just have to do.

This isn't a silly face, but I love it when she smiles like this!

Eric says she is working on her "Blue Steel" when she does this.

Is she my daughter, or what?!?!

Brooklynn gets to spend a lot more time with her cousin Bryson since I started watching him 3 days a week for a couple hours each day. They have always loved each other and really have fun playing together. Brooklynn loves to sit on Bryson, or in his lap. It's pretty cute!

It may not look like it, but they were both having fun.

Brooklynn continues to amaze me with her intelligence. She catches on really quickly and is constantly amazing me. She figured out her stacking rings a few weeks ago and loves to bring them to me so that she can play. She will run to her room when I tell her it's time to change her diaper or put on pajamas to get either her diaper or her pajamas. She will also run to the kitchen if I tell her it's time for breakfast or lunch and a lot of times when I have the food ready she will run to her chair. (But when it comes to actually eating she is a little frustrating. She really just doesn't seem to have an interest in eating real food, she will have a few good eating days each week though. And she will eat crackers like no other. If anyone has any suggestions I welcome them with open arms!)

When she does actually decide to eat, she is pretty good at feeding herself.

She still has a love for carrying things around and it doesn't seem to bother her if the item is almost as big as her or heavy (until she drops it on her foot!).

She loves, loves, LOVES playing outside. We take advantage of any good weather day and play at the park, or in the backyard. I went garage sale-ing a few weekends ago and found an awesome Little Tikes Cozy Coupe for super cheap. She loves her new toy and goes straight for it when we go out back.

She's had a couple of firsts lately as well:

First balloon (we tied it on her waist and
she thought it was pretty cool)

First time playing in a sandbox (with cousin Chloe)
Unfortunately she now thinks my garden is a sandbox
and she's killed 2 plants by stepping/sitting on them,

First time on a rocking horse, she wasn't too sure about it.

Helping Mommy bake.

She got to lick the spoon.

YUM!

Just because there hasn't been a picture of Brooklynn and her daddy in a while.

Look at those teeth! I love the "Edwards Gap" on her top teeth!

Check this out!

2011-05-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

I am totally overdue for a blog post, I know! I promise I am working on it, but in the meantime check out this awesome giveaway from one of my favorite crafty blogs:

Tatertots & Jello

I totally love my Cricut that I got for Christmas, but I do wish I had known about Silhouette before I got it (I know, I'm a little slow!). I am definitely going to upgrade someday and winning sure would make someday a LOT sooner!!

Because it's been a while, here's the little Monkey:

Nope, that's not chocolate....she was enjoying some dirt!

Made for Easter

2011-04-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

My little girl was MADE for Easter!

She loves, loves, loves to pick things up so I knew that we would be able to get her to pick up the eggs, but I wasn't quite sure what she would do with them once she picked them up.

The weekend before Easter my friend Jennie was in town with her daughter, Sophie, and we got together with them for some pre-Easter festivities which of course involved an egg hunt and a little mini-High School Reunion. Brooklynn totally rocked that egg hunt. We, of course, had to point the eggs out to her because she had no idea what they were or what the point was. Everytime we pointed out an egg to her she would pick it up and put it in her basket (with some coaching). She picked up about 6 of her eggs and then was more interested in playing with the eggs and all the other fun things outside.

Jennie's daughter, Sophie

Those ears stayed on like 20 seconds!

Off to get her first egg!

I just love that look of determination on her face!

Randa, Me, Jennie, Roxie

We also had an egg hunt with our ward last Saturday. Brooklynn was definitely the youngest and smallest of the hunters and the competition at this egg hunt was way stiffer! I had to stop a kid from picking up an egg I was pointing out for Brooklynn to come get. She was too slow to get much, but she managed to "find" herself 4 eggs.

We didn't do too much on Easter Sunday. I had a small basket for Brooklynn, but totally forgot that I was going to get her some baby snacks to put in them. Oops! Luckily she also got a basket from my parents with some treats in it. After church we had a great meal with my parents at the Olson's house, and I of course ate way too much! It was definitely low-key, but that's how we like it!

This is pretty much the best shot I could get of Brooklynn standing
up in the dress my mom made for her. It was SO cute!!
(Oh and she almost always has just one sock, or in this case shoe, on)

Oooh! What's in here?!?!

10 Months?!?!?!

2011-04-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! Brooklynn turned 10 months (almost 3 weeks ago--which is when I started this post!) and we celebrated by going to the Doctor where she was lucky enough to get only one shot! Brooklynn is now 18 lbs 10.5 oz (48th percentile....she's put on some weight! She went up 3%), 28 1/2 inches tall (75th percentile), and her head circumference is 17.3 inches (48th percentile). Her head size is definitely the most notable growth as she has never really been above the 20th percentile for that. Her brain must be growing really well inside that pretty little head of hers!
I was just looking at some pictures of Brooklynn from our first few weeks home. I cannot believe that she was ever that tiny (and immobile). In some ways I miss that sweet little thing that we could love on and snuggle with, but I absolutely love the stages that we are in right now and watching Brooklynn explore and develop her skills and personality. She is such a smart cookie and amazes me pretty much every day with what she is able to do and all that she figures out.

Helping mommy get ready.

I have to say that the best new development in our little girl's life is her cuddliness! She really hasn't been a cuddly baby, but a few weeks ago she started hugging! She gives the sweetest hugs. I LOVE it when she wraps her little arms around my neck. She also will spend more time just sitting in my lap, which is really nice, and occasionally will climb into my lap for some good quality cuddle time. All I have to say is: FINALLY!!!!

Putting on daddy's shoe

We have had some pretty nice days the last month and we have taken advantage of the nice weather to go to the park. Brooklynn absolutely loves the park! We have a pretty cool park by the library which is just perfect for her! It has awesome toys that are her size and I love that the ground surrounding the toys is soft (I have no idea what that material is, but I love it!). Brooklynn loves the merry-go-round! She is a stand-up rider (she will actually only sit if she falls) and walks off and on at will. She also loves to slide and will go over and over again. But her most favorite park activity, by far, is picking up pine cones. This little girl LOVES her some pine cones. She will often have 3-4 in her hand and will still try to pick more up!!

Swinging with Grandma Compton and cousin Bryson

Teeter-tottering with cousin Evan

Oh, the excitement! A rare moment with her actually holding on!

I am convinced that Brooklynn thinks she is 2. She thinks that she can do anything and go anywhere! She discovered stairs last weekend and climbed up them on her own like she had been doing it her whole life. She doesn't take the stairs one at a time bringing both feet onto one step before moving on the next. She takes them just like you or I would take them. And when it comes to going down she doesn't want to face backwards and climb down feet first, she thinks that if she is going down she should be facing down. Aside from stairs she climbs anything and everything that she possibly can (including me!).

Brooklynn also has a newfound love for dancing. Her version is to bob her head and if she is really getting into it then her head bobbing will continue down her torso and sometimes her dancing might be a little quick step with her feet. This past weekend she also started turning in circles, which is pretty cute to watch. She apparently is unable to turn in circles unless her head is turned to the side and looking down!

Brooklynn has an obsession with carrying around clothes. Her pants are always strewn around the house because she takes them out of her drawer as soon as I put them away! (For some reason she only gets into and takes out her pants, weird!) Her favorite day of the week is laundry day when a magical fairy leaves piles of clothes for her to play with when she wakes up. She is OBSESSED!!!

She loves drinking out of a straw and will pretty much take over my water bottle when she sees me drinking out of it. I think it might be time to get her one of her own!

Obviously, she stopped drinking but was still enjoying sucking up the water!

Brooklynn has had 5 teeth for quite a while, 3 on bottom and 2 on top. The top teeth that came in first were her lateral incisors, so we have had a little fang baby! We are finally able to say goodbye to her fangs because her middle teeth are moving in!

Look at those fangs!!

A few weeks ago Brooklynn started making dog sounds, pretty much out of the blue. She has a counting book that has dogs in it and it has barking sounds in it that we read, but other than that we haven't been working on animal sounds so it completely shocked us. Her barking sounds like "woof" without the "f" sound at the end. So it's "wooh, wooh".

(Last week's picture....yesterday was a crazy day and we didn't get around to taking her weekly pic yet)

Confidence Abounds

2011-03-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Brooklynn is getting more and more confident each day. She is so sure of herself and her movements. I love it. Even though I don't love that my "baby" was prematurely ripped from my arms. Is it wrong to tie her up so that can't get anymore independant? But I really do enjoy watching her each day as she explores and learns. She absolutely LOVES exploring her surroundings and testing her limits.

She is starting to show an avid skill for climbing. She will climb anything that is ground level, or use anything ground level to climb onto something higher. She is also starting to figure out to get off of the things she climbs without falling on her face (which she has done a number of times). If the object she climbed was small she will get on her hunches and put her hands on the ground and walk herself off that way. Pretty smart cookie! If I am sitting indian style by the couch she will climb into my lap and then get up on my knee and use that as a step stool to get herself on the couch. Once there she loves to run back and forth and go right to the edge of the chaise and peer over and then she will just step off! For the past few weeks we have pretty much kept a hand in hers to help her "jump" off, but now she will just step off and she is getting pretty good at landing on her feet.

Walking across the couch

A little help from Daddy as she dove off the
couch! This little one has no fear!

Up she goes...

oops, now my leg is stuck!

We let her enjoy some "naker" time in the evening before bed. It's amazing how happy she gets when we remove some clothes! And she loves to be a part in the removing of her clothes. I will usually unsnap her onesie and take one of her arms out and she does the rest. It's pretty funny to watch because as she's pulling the onesie over her head she is stumbling around until she is able to get it off her head. After which she enjoys carrying her clothes around for awhile.

She is super amazing at opening drawers, including the drawer under the oven, and doors. She is even starting to figure out how to open the pocket door that leads to the kitchen. Pretty soon we won't be able to keep her out of anything!

She continues to love books and will bring them to me periodically throughout the day to read. I use the term "read" loosely because she really just wants you to hold the book while she turns the pages.

She loves the remote and will point it at the TV and push buttons. Usually it's pointed the wrong way and she looks at me wondering why nothing is happening.

I love watching her figure things out and enjoy how smart she is getting each day. The other day I hid something from her under a couch pillow. I didn't think that she saw me do it, but not even 30 seconds later she was climbing over my lap to reach under the pillow. It used to be "out of sight, out of mind." I took the same thing from her and put it in a different place and when she realized it was gone she went back to the pillow and was a little upset that she didn't find it there.

Confessions.....

2011-03-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

....of a 9 month old baby girl.

(First of all, 9 months?!?! Holy Cow! It is so hard to believe that she has been out almost as long as she was in. Is it really possible that we will be celebrating her first birthday in just 3 months?

How cute is this 9 month old?!?!

On to the confessions:

Brooklynn loves to "eat" her diapers. She will often take off with the clean diaper when I am trying to change her, which means that she gets a diaper covered in slobber (on the outside) on her bum. But the real confession is that she will even take her dirty diaper and gnaw on it as well. I know, GROSS! So last week I started teaching her how to throw away her diaper. It started with me carrying her to the trash can and taking the diaper out of her hands and dropping it in. I am proud to say that she will now go to the trash can when I ask her where her yuckers go and will drop the diaper in or wait for me to pick her up so she can drop it in. She is also very proud of herself and claps everytime she throws one away.

On the move!

Speaking of clapping, Brooklynn is clapping all the time now. She first clapped the beginning of last month and then took a hiatus for about 3 weeks. She decided last week that it was time to bring back the clapping. She claps for herself whenever we tell her "good girl," she claps when she hears people cheering/clapping on tv, and she claps at random moments for reasons only she knows. And we love it!

Brooklynn is also now a waving queen. She waves "hi" and "bye" almost on demand. It is so funny to see her waving to Ellen DeGeneres when she first comes out on her show.

"HI!!"

One thing that I have been forgetting to mention is Brooklynn's fear of the vacuum. She is terrified! She didn't show any fear of the vacuum until like mid-January, in fact when we moved Brooklynn was crawling around and chasing the vacuum. Now she absolutely hates it. Sometimes when I get the vacuum out she runs from it before it is even on. She cries when I turn it on if I am not holding her and if I am holding her she whimpers and will either climb up my shoulder or bury her head in my shoulder. I've even tried to vacuum while she is sleeping and she wakes up screaming bloody murder (but she'll sleep through most everything else). She is handling it a little better the last few times I've vacuumed, so hopefully she'll grow out of it!

Brooklynn is pretty funny when she wants my attention and she is not getting it. She will get right in my face and smile at me, and sometimes I get a kiss.

She is now working on growing some fangs! That's right her top lateral incisors are both coming in now! She is getting better at letting me look at her teeth and will let me pull her upper lip back when I ask to see her teeth.

Little stinker figured out how to open her dresser drawers.

Life.....

2011-03-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

....just gets in the way sometimes!!

I haven't really been doing too much lately, but I feel like I have been super busy! I've been focusing on being a good homemaker and getting things done around the house. We finally built the storage shed we bought in January for the backyard, which means that we were able to rid the house of the unnecessary clutter and I have been able to work on organizing and getting things in their proper place. I must confess that I am not the most organized person, so it is a little bit challenging for me!

Brooklynn, of course, continues to keep me busy as well. She really hasn't slowed down at all, and I don't know that she ever will! She toddles around the house all day and loves to follow me around, she is definitely a mama's girl. She loves to walk on her own when we go to the store and recently has found it funny to run away from me! I finally put away all of her 3 month clothes, she could still fit in a lot of the 3 month onsies but I decided that they had had their wear and it was time to bring out some new clothes!

This is what I see most mornings when I go get her!
All smiles and standing up waiting for me!

She's been a little cranky as of late because she's been working on tooth #3. She has her 2 bottom central incisors (one that is still not fully out) and her top lateral lateral incisor is just coming in.

She's started waving, but is pretty stingy in giving them out. She will pretty much always wave at my dad though!

Ok, so she's not waving, but she has some pretty awesome nap hair!!

She has an activity cart that my parents got her that has a shape sorter as one of the sides and she loves to push the shapes in if I place them in the hole. And she is starting to show signs of wanting to put them in the hole herself. She loves to unstack her rings and is close to putting them back on the pole.

I'm such a good walker that I can pull my cart backwards!

She loves to open and close things: doors, cupboards, drawers, which has resulted in a few pinched fingers! She is even starting to figure out how to open the pocket door to the kitchen and can open the drawer under the oven. We finally put child latches on the kitchen cupboards so now she can't pull out things I don't want her to!

She has really gotten into books the past few weeks and will carry them around the house with her. Most of the time she just wants to turn the pages and doesn't care too much about reading the story, but occasionally we get to read a whole book! And of course she likes to eat them.

and sometimes kiss them!

Reading with P-Pa

She is a pretty good eater and eats pretty much whatever we are eating. She loves cheerios, waffles, pancakes, pasta, bread, cheese, goldfish crackers, club crackers, and yogurt. She is off and on with bananas, sweet potato, butternut squash, and yellow potatoes (all which she used to eat voraciously). Usually she eats her fruits/veggies better if I give them to her before I give her carbs! She is a little frustrating when it comes to eating because she will gobble something up one day and wont really touch it the next.

MMM...pizza!

The best thing about my almost 9 month old? She has started to be a little cuddle bug! She will run into my arms for a hug if I open them up when I am sitting on the floor. She will even spend time sitting on my lap and letting me love on her.

Kisses for Mommy!!

I can't believe she is going to be 9 months on Monday!!!

8 months!

2011-02-16T11:50:00.000-08:00

So Brooklynn turned 8 months old last Monday! (Life has been kind of crazy the last few weeks with sickness and teething, so I'm a little late posting).
I feel like a broken record, but I really don't know where the time is going. It is just flying by SO fast! And then there is the fact that Brooklynn has stolen away my baby by walking so early. People always look at her and say, "She shouldn't be doing that!" and it's true, she shouldn't! But you just can't keep that little one down!

So, what's going on with our little 8 month old?
*She loves to carry things around. She'll carry anything from a toy to a shoe and even our couch pillows (which is really funny to see because they are almost as big as her!)

She grabbed this little saucepan off the shelf and was
carrying it around...I was just too slow to get the camera!

*Her curiosity has been amplified by her increasing mobility. She discovered in the last few weeks that she could reach the dvds on our entertainment center and that it was super fun to pull them all out! She has also been getting into the speakers and cords that she could get to from the side. So we bought a new entertainment center to keep her away from it all (it took Eric all day on Saturday to put it together! Good thing we moved our Valentine's date to Friday instead of Saturday!)

Enjoying her spoils!

Helping Daddy put the new entertainment center together

*She's started clapping. She had been doing what looked like clapping for a little while, but when I would clap to try to get her to do more she would just stare at me! Like 2 weeks ago we were walking Ellen and she just started clapping like crazy when she came on. She will now clap when you clap and when someone says "yay!"
*When she is excited or when she wants something she flaps her arm (just one, normally her right one). If she really wants something her arm flapping usually ends up hitting me!
*She loves to play with my cell phone and look at the pictures. And she loves to call people so that she can hear their voices. She is so funny about it....if I get a text message and she hears the sound she'll come up to the phone and start "fussing" and it's very clear to me that she wants to talk to someone. So we usually call Ali (because she wont be at work!) and she smiles and kisses the phone while doing her happy grunts.
*Speaking of kisses...she loves to give kisses to her toys and other kids. But if you are not her size it's hit or miss on whether she will give you a kiss or not!

Giving herself kisses in the mirror!

*She still loves taking baths and spends a good portion of her bath time standing up. Last week I asked her to sit down and she did, such a smart cookie!
*She is working on getting tooth number 2 as we speak

If you look really closely you can see her tooth

*She is starting to show a love for climbing. She will climb on anything that is ground level, especially if it will help her to get something that she wants. She even tries to climb out of the tub (fortunately she hasn't tried to climb out of her crib yet!). Am I in trouble or what?

*She loves the dishwasher and loves to kiss/eat the soap dispenser (never with any soap in it).

Silly Girl!

*We still have a pretty petite little girl on our hands. She can still wear some of her 3 month onesies, she still fits into her 0-3 months skirts, and is still comfortably wearing her 6 month pants (and in some cases is just really starting to fill them out).

Eric's sister just had a baby and 2 weekends ago we went to see him and be there for his baby blessing. It was the first time that Brooklynn has really been around a baby that was smaller than her. She loved him! She loved giving him kisses and touching him. It was beautiful that weekend, so we all went to the park. It was the first time that Brooklynn played at the park. She wasn't too sure about the slide, but loved being outside and walking around the playground.

She spends a good portion of her day in this corner by the table, for some reason she really likes to play there!

Getting Crafty

2011-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

(Some of you may have already seen this post...I wasn't quite done with it but scheduled it's posting and didn't realize that the date was for last night and not today! Oops! So I am reposting with the changes I made).

So my parents got me a Cricut for Christmas. Yay!! Well, I finally got it out and really used it (I played with it once before, but have been pretty busy).

I wanted to make myself something that I could write my weekly "to dos" on. So I busted out the Cricut and a frame that I bought at he dollar store awhile ago and made this:

I wanted it to be dry erase, but didn't really want to buy a dry erase board (kinda boring). Since you can write on glass just like a dry erase board this was the perfect solution for me (I was originally going to use transparency paper that I had left over from a Young Women project, but then remembered about this frame). I put magnets on the back so that I can hang it on the side of my fridge and see it right when I walk in the Kitchen. I have to say that I LOVE it!! Well, I don't love the wood frame and I will eventually paint it when I decide what color to do. I love that I can lay out my week and even give myself a "reward" if I get all my work done. I feel so much more focussed and organized, and even though I've only been using it for half a week I feel so productive!

I have so many fun Valentine projects that I want to do! Here are a few of them:

I want to make a felt heart, but I can't decide if I want to do it on a wreath form or a plate. Which one is your favorite?

I found these here and here

I think these little felt poms are so cute (it's a whiffle ball under there)! My plan is to turn them into topiaries.

I found this here

I also want to make my own "LOVE" blocks (which probably wont look anything like these!)

these blocks found here

And how sweet is this:

found here

I also want something fun to give my Visiting Teaching ladies and I found a great idea on a link up party at one of my favorite craft blogs. This blogger made a super cute cookie bouquet that I might just have to replicate!

Isn't that fun?!

Working out with Daddy

2011-01-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Eric likes to do sit-ups and push-ups in the evenings while we are watching TV and Brooklynn thinks that it is absolutely the coolest thing in the world. When she sees him start to do his sit-ups she gets this super huge smile and "runs" to him. She usually ends up grabbing on to him and gets pulled around while he goes up and down. She loves it. It is absolutely the cutest thing!

If you look closely you can see the excitement on her face!

In other Brooklynn news:

She is so confident in her walking and her balance now. She spends the majority of her day toddling around the living room, into the hallway, and occasionally into her room. Sometimes while she is playing she will look over at me to check in, give me a huge smile, and walk right into my arms for some love. Melt my heart!

Remember the "I'm so excited" smile I was talking about?
Well, this is one version of it!

On Saturday she proved to us that she is a pro at walking on slick surfaces in her socks. There is nowhere that she can't go now! With this newfound skill she has explored the kitchen with new eyes and found that she can open the cupboards!

She also now stands up wherever she is without anything to help her. We have seen her do this on occasion the last few weeks, but it was always random. Now if she feels like standing up, she does!

Brooklynn has a new love for shoes. She loves to play with them, eat them, and carry them around. She loves her shoes and our shoes. It's kind of funny to see her carrying around one of our shoes because they are almost as big as her!

She continues to be a good eater, as long as you aren't putting a spoon in her mouth! But she has also started playing with her food. She loves to drop her food and then stare at it. It is such a fun game! She also really enjoys putting food in her mouth and taking it out, over and over again!

Yup, it's down there!

She has also decided that she is too cool to wear her bib and is constantly taking it off!

And last, but certainly not least, she cut her first tooth today! She was playing on the floor and I thought I saw blood in her mouth, so I was trying to investigate. I was sticking my finger in her mouth to see if it came out with blood and I felt a little poke of something hard. I fought with her some more and was able to catch a 3 second glimpse of tiny little nub of tooth poking out of her gum! (Oh, and no, there was no blood). I'll have to see if she will let us take a picture sometime soon...it might be impossible!

Shoes!!

2011-01-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

So I broke down and finally bought Brooklynn some shoes on Monday. I have been putting it off because I thought the price of baby shoes was a little ridiculous. What can I say? I am cheap! But now that the little one is walking I decided I couldn't put it off any longer. Brooklynn is now the proud of owner of 3 new pairs of shoes (Payless was having their BOGO sale and I found a really cute pair for super cheap). She is getting used to the new sensation of having something other than socks on her feet and adjusting to the difference they make in walking.

Look at that cute little foot all shoed up!

While she is getting used to that, I have my own adjustments to make. I feel like the introduction of shoes has made me lose a little of my baby! She is no longer my sweet, tiny, little baby girl. She is growing and changing so fast, probably a little faster than I would like! I look back at pictures of her first few weeks and I miss that sweet little bundle of love. But, I know that there is no turning back the clock. And while I will continue to mourn the little things that take away the baby-ness of my little one I also look forward to those things! I love to watch her as she explores and figures things out and realizes that she can do things. The look on her face when she is so proud of herself seriously melts my heart, there is nothing better!

What a difference 30 weeks makes!

Our little walker in action. She is getting so good on her feet! She gets more and more confident every day and is getting really good at stopping and turning. The only problem that she has is that she gets so excited and happy her smile closes her eyes (she gets that from me!).

Have I mentioned that her newfound freedom in movement means she is getting into EVERYTHING!?!?! I thought it was bad before she was walking!

She almost always has something hanging out of her mouth. It is especially cute when she is crawling around with something in there (well, as long as it's something soft), she looks like a little puppy dog.

Mommy's little helper!

7 Months

2011-01-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

So Brooklynn turned 7 months last Friday. Once again I am asking myself where the time has gone?!?! It is so hard to believe that it has been 7 months since we were in the hospital welcoming in our sweet baby girl. She has grown and changed so much in those 7 months. We still love her to pieces though and enjoy watching her explore her world. She is getting more and more aware of what is around her and is even starting to test her limits (or mine really). I have no doubt whatsoever that I have a very strong willed, independent child. There really is no stopping my little girl! She keeps me on my toes and I don't think that will be changing anytime soon!

You pull, I'll push!

On Saturday we were at my parents house for a family dinner (my Grandma and Aunt were up visiting) and Brooklynn decided that that would be the night she would walk! She has been walking along things pretty much since she started crawling and right before Christmas she started letting go and taking a few steps (like 3-4). But Saturday night we were seeing some serious walking! She is so proud of herself and gets so excited about what she is doing that she will take a few steps backwards and/or lose her balance all the while smiling her ear to ear "I did it" smile! It is so cute! She is getting pretty good at stopping and balancing herself and even turning. I absolutely cannot believe that she is walking at 7 months! She is way too young (and little)!! But, like I said, there really is no stopping this little girl.

She still is not a big cuddle girl, one thing that I hope will change in the next few months (you can get her to sit in your lap while she is waking up, which takes 5-15 minutes). It is especially hard when she takes a spill (which have been happening a lot these days) because she wont let you comfort her. When she is upset and crying she will crawl to me crying and when I pick her up to give her love she pushes off of me and just stands upright in my arms crying. It's so sad! I think she knows that mommy will make it better, she just doesn't know how to let that happen!

She may not cuddle, but she has started giving kisses! Last night I asked her for a kiss and I got one! I wasn't sure if it was a fluke or not so I asked her to give Daddy a kiss, and he got one! She gave P-Pa, Grandma, and GiGi (great grandma) kisses when asked as well! We're going to have to work on her kiss etiquette as she tends to give a lot of tongue! For the time being though, if you ask for a kiss you may get licked! Either way, its a fun new trick!

No more pictures! I want down!!

She has a new favorite room in the house (although she still loves the kitchen)....the Bathroom!! I have found her in there many times standing up and looking into the tub! We now keep the bathroom door closed!

She now loves to play "I'm gonna get you!" Most of the time she gets so excited that she will crawl towards you and then she just flops herself on the floor and waits for you. It's pretty cute!

Good thing for her Grandma loves to play that game too!

(It is getting harder and harder to take these weekly pictures! She is way more interested in eating the paper than letting mommy get a good picture! I have to be really fast and I usually get just one chance to get a non-paper eating picture!)

Bring on 2011

2011-01-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow 2010 flew by, but it definitely brought some amazing things with it! Namely: Brooklynn!! We spent the first half of the year anticipating her arrival and the second half of the year enjoying our precious little girl and being amazed by her! She was WELL worth the anticipation as we fell in love with her instantly. It's so funny that after just 6 short months (well, less actually) it's hard to imagine our life without her!

We had a pretty simple goodbye to 2010. We started the day of with going out to breakfast with my parents and "shopping" at Pacific Place downtown.

And we finished out the day with pizza, Dr. Pepper, and Netflix streaming. Pretty exciting! Well, as exciting as you can be when you have a 6 month old that needs to be in bed! It was perfect for us. We welcomed in 2011 with the 4th Annual Perkins Root Beer Tasting. My Dad loves root beer and he has translated that love into his yearly rootbeer tasting contest.

We do a blind test of 5 root beers, rate them and pick a winner. It's actually a lot of fun and we look forward to it every year.

The contestants in winning order. (The last one was pretty gross!!)

I am so excited for the changes and new things that will come our way in 2011. Brooklynn is just moments away from walking and that will definitely be the first and biggest change for us this year! We look forward to her accomplishing that amazing feat and all the other milestones she will make this year.
I have quite a few changes I would like to make in my life, mostly so that I can be a better wife, mother, and person in general. My goals for 2011:

*Read my scriptures every day
*Be more organized at home, which in turn will help me keep the house clean
*Lose my "baby" weight (ideally by Brooklynn's birthday...still not sure of the reality of that goal!)
*Spend less time watching TV

Just some small little goals that should be easy to follow through with, right? Some are easier than others, and it probably wont be easy, but I hope that I can make these changes in my life this year!

Notice the squash in her hair!

Love this face! Silly girl!

Holiday Extravaganza

2010-12-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

We had quite the Christmas celebrations this year! Even though Brooklynn really had no idea what was going on or that she was getting presents it was still fun having our first Christmas with her! And boy was it a busy one!

It started with my sister, Ali, coming into town the week before Christmas. It was so much fun to have that time with her and it only could have been made better if Kyle had been able to make it up with her. She hadn't seen Brooklynn since August so it had been awhile.

So, what did we do the week before Christmas?

We ushered A Christmas Carol at the Act Theater and really enjoyed watching the play ourselves. They do a really good job and we hope to be able to usher again in the coming years.

We had a party with the Comptons where there was tons of food, presents, and family that we enjoyed spending time with.

All the Compton Grandkids (for the next week or so)

We had an early Christmas with my family while Ali was in town.

Helping Grandma cook "Christmas" dinner

(Brooklynn's gifts far outweighed ours the entire weekend! She got lots of toys, books, and clothes. Most of which she has already enjoyed playing with!)

We went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens for their Garden of Lights display. I was slightly dissapointed to see that they are now charging for this festivity, but I guess times are tough on everyone and they need to make some money somehow! Despite my feelings we still really enjoyed the lights display and all the neat animals and flowers they create.

And last, but not least, we headed over to Wapato to spend Christmas weekend with family over there. We had a fun weekend filled with food, cousins, and games.

We are so blessed to have both of our families so close and to be able to spend so much time with them, especially at this time of year.

Now, for a Brooklynn update:
She continues to keep me on my toes! She decided a week before Christmas to take her first step, literally one step. She has since repeated that feat and has upped her amount to as many as 5-6. She wants to be walking SO bad!
She has started climbing. She will climb on anything and everything that she can!

Climbing on her cool toy from P-Pa and Granmda Perkins

She had her first major accident. She climbed off the edge of the couch and hit her forehead on the coffee table.

You can see the bruise/bump on her forehead
and the little bruise on her cheek.

She is sleeping MUCH better at night. Letting her "cry it out" really worked. She will sleep at least 8 hours now and occasionally will sleep completely through the night (like 11-12 hours). She still has some bad nights where she cries multiple times a night, but for the most part we are both getting sleep. However, she does not really let us put her to sleep anymore. She fights and fights and fights, so we have to resort to letting her cry herself to sleep.
She is beginning to be quite the ham. We constantly get comments about how cute Brooklynn is and I think that she understands and plays it up. She has this new smile where she scrunches up her nose and closes her eyes tight. If she is really happy/excited she will also throw her head back while she does it.

It's pretty darn cute!

We have been struggling for the last 2 months to get her to eat rice cereal or any of the pureed fruits/veggies. She has had little tolerance for being confined in her bumbo or a high chair to be fed add that to her grabbing at the spoon constantly and we have one difficult feeding session. Every now and then she would let us feed her and she would eat like a champ, but that was a rare occasion. We tried giving her a spoon of her own or putting cheerios on the tray with her, but as soon as you try to get the other spoon to her mouth that is the one she wants! While we were eating Christmas dinner I was trying to distract her so I was breaking up pieces of roasted potato and she was gobbling them up. We put her in the high chair and she sat there for a good 20 minutes eating! Breakthrough in the eating department! Since then she has had carrots, sweet potatoes, and avocado and she LOVES them! It is especially nice to be able to give her a tray of food while Eric and I eat.

Doesn't she just look so tiny in the huge high chair?

Where have we been?!?!?

2010-12-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

We missed the 25 week post....
and I never even got a chance to take her 26 week picture! Ooops!

So, it's been awhile! Life has been crazy the past few weeks!

So what's been going on?!?!?

First, and foremost, we moved!!! So I have been busy packing, and now unpacking! We love our new place!! It is so nice to have a bedroom for Brooklynn (although she's been spending almost as much time in our bed as she has in hers...more on that later). It is wonderful to have more room in the living room for Brooklynn to crawl around and it is especially nice to have walking space around our bedroom furniture!! And everything will be especially nicer when it is completely unpacked and organized!

Brooklynn, as always, has been keeping me busy! She has entered the clingy stage and just wants me all the time, which makes it hard to get things done (and makes Eric sad). Poor thing got an ear infection the last week at our new place, perfect timing, right?! She was a major trooper through it all. Aside from a runny nose, occasional crankiness, and super clinginess I didn't even know she was sick. I chalked everything up to teething, until she started throwing up! She threw up 2 mornings in a row (on and in our bed) and a few times during the day, which is what made me call the doctor. Good thing I did!

Brooklynn is now 6 months old (holy cow)!!

We had her checkup last week and I am proud to say that she is a healthy little girl! She is now 26 7/8" (95th percentile) tall, 15 lbs 4 oz (45th percentile), and has a head circumference of 16 1/4" (20th percentile). She is holding strong in the height department! She's been in the 95th percentile since she was born, but just drops percentiles in the other 2 stats. But the most important thing is that she is growing in those departments, just not as fast as other babies!

Brooklynn has always been an active baby, but now she is constantly on the move! She has completely mastered the art of crawling. I love her "I'm moving so fast" sounds, it's very helpful to know when she is trying to sneak up on me, and they are just so darn cute! Her favorite place to crawl? The kitchen! She just loves to hang out in the kitchen!! And now that she has mastered crawling she has already moved on to trying to master walking. She pulls herself up on anything that is remotely her height, she transitions between objects, she walks along things, and she loves to walk holding your fingers (and has even gotten pretty good at walking holding onto just one finger). Brooklynn is definitely enjoying her newfound freedom to explore her new surroundings!! Nothing is safe anymore, she gets into EVERYTHING!!

She thinks it's so cool that she can stand herself up in the tub...
she pretty much spends all her bathtime standing now!

Checking out the front door!

She's started doing this tight lipped smile, it melts my heart just as much as.....

this one!!

Getting into EVERYTHING!

Exploring our Christmas tree that magically appeared while she was sleeping!

Brooklynn continues to struggle with the whole sleeping thing! Man, I miss my 0-3 month old who used to sleep 6+ hours straight at night! She has been waking up every few hours, ugh! It's been especially bad the last few weeks when she was sick. She was waking up crying and would pretty much only sleep if she was with me. Definitely NOT a good habit, even though I love having her in bed with me. I love her warm little body and the way she puts her arm around my neck. But she definitely needs to learn to sleep in her own bed, and through the night! So last night I let her cry! I fed her the first time she woke up and then turned the monitor down. I woke up to her crying at 4:45 and it was definitely hard for me to lay there and listen to her cry. At one point I even stood outside her door trying to peek in at her through the crack in the door. I wanted to go in and pick her up SO bad!! She stopped crying about 5:00 and I waited 10 min to check on her. She was laying in the corner of her crib snoring! I'm going to try to be strong and continue with the sleep training!! Wish me luck!

Just because there really aren't enough pictures of us together:

Big News!!

2010-11-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

We've got a crawler on our hands!!

That's right! This little girl took her first crawls last night at her Grandma and Grandpa Perkins house.

It is still fairly primitive and slow moving, but crawling nonetheless.

We unfortunately didn't have the video camera with us at my parents, so we had to have her re-enact her feat when we got home:

(Don't mind the super mean mommy who pulled the toy away to make her sweet baby girl crawl further!)

Perfect timing for her to figure out the whole crawling thing....just in time to help me pack for our move!!

Aside from the crawling, Brooklynn is getting really good at standing (supported of course) and pulling herself up. She is so proud of herself that she thinks she can let go of both of my hands when she is standing! Not quite ready for that yet!!

Playing in Grandma and Grandpa's recycle bin

In other news:

We've gotten our first snowfall of the season!

So beautiful!!!

Hopefully the snow will bring a snow day for Eric tomorrow!! We have tons of packing to do!

Catching up

2010-11-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

So last week both Eric and I were sick and this week was crazy busy with things that I had going on. My blog sort of fell to the wayside and now it's time to catch up!

Brooklynn is now 5 months old!!

When did that happen?!?! I really can't believe how fast my sweet little girl is growing!

What's going on with our 5 month old?

*She is days away from crawling! She can move her feet like a pro now she just needs to figure out how to move her hands. She sometimes moves her feet so much that her bum is straight up in the air! If she had the strength and understanding then she would definitely be standing!

*She has found a new favorite "toy" in our barstool! She loves it because she can stand all by herself (and the rungs are perfect for chewing on). She gets so confident in her abilities that she thinks she can stand holding with just one hand, which after an extended amount of time results in a face plant!

*She has developed this really cute habit of smiling with her bottom lip tucked in then she smacks her lips and gives you a great big smile. Can I just say that it is the cutest thing in the world!

*She has entered the shy phase and will smile at people and then bury her face in my shoulder.

*She is also in the clingy stage and always wants her Mommy, but if I'm not around it's out of sight out of mind (which is definitely a good thing)!

*She has discovered zippers and thinks that they are super fun to play with.

*She has finally started to grow out of most her 3 month clothes so we now have a whole new wardrobe (most of which is too big!)

*She LOVES bath time and I think that when she is in the bath she makes connections on how to move. The other day she was sitting in the tub and trying to get her duckies in front of her and she scooted herself forward so that she could get it! Crazy!

Can I get in the bath now?!

Kisses for Daddy!

Apparently she loves feet in general...just like her mommy!

Funny face...but look at those eyes! Gorgeous!!

So this crazy week is over...bring on the next few crazy weeks that will be filled with tons of packing and moving into our new apartment!! (We sign the lease and get they keys tonight!)

2 YEARS!!!!

2010-11-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that 2 years have come and gone, almost in the blink of an eye.

We've had 2 amazing years so far and I am grateful to know that we have eternity ahead of us. I am so blessed to have found such a kind, loving, patient man to spend the rest of my life with (and then some)!

A lot of things have changed for us in the last few years (most obviously is our appearance...not necessarily in a good way) and we have grown so much together as a couple. I look forward to the many years of changes we have before us.

Happy Anniversary Babe!

I love you!!!

Just call me Martha....

2010-11-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

.....but without the prison sentence!

Someone from Eric's work gave us a couple pairs of baby legs for Brooklynn and I absolutely LOVE them!

I love that she can wear skirts or dresses still and not have to wear tights (which are annoying when it comes to diaper changing). What I don't love is the price! I was not about to spend $10 myself!

So I made my own!! I found a tutorial on my favorite crafting site to make baby legging out of women's knee socks. Target has a bunch of knee socks for $2 and so I bought 3 pairs earlier this week, and 2 of the pairs ended up being $1 when they rung up!! So I made 3 pairs of baby legs for $5, 1/2 the price of buying a pair!

My mom brought me a sewing machine (she had 2 extra at her house that aren't hers!) last night and helped me figure out the tutorial. For some reason I was having a hard time visualizing part of the instructions. Since I don't have a ton of space in our current living situation it went on the coffee table! Ask how much fun it is to sew on your knees! Another reason I am SO excited for our move....I will have more space in the living room and be able to craft!

Brooklynn played while I sewed this morning.

When she got cranky I bought myself 5-10 more minutes by giving her some naker time!

My finished product:

I love the striped ones because they can literally go with anything!

I think they turned out pretty good! I am way proud of myself!

Brooklynn modeling her first pair of mommy-made baby legs!

Isn't she an amazing model!?! (And getting super good at standing!)

Leg warmers are also an excellent choice for working out!

They were super easy and fun to make. I think there might be some Christmas present making in my future!

Someday.....

2010-11-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Someday I will not hear cries of frustration

because someday this little girl will learn to crawl forward

and I wont have to rescue her when she gets stuck underneath the furniture!!!!

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

We had such a great Halloween weekend, even if Brooklynn is too young to really know what was going on!

We started out with our Ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night. We ate some yummy chili and showed off our Lady Bug. I got pretty crafty with some baking and made a spider cake! My mom has made this several times and I decided that it would be perfect to take to our ward party. I ended up making a S'mores Cake, so it was a graham cracker cake (literally, it had no flour, just graham cracker crumbs!) and a marshmallow frosting. It was definitely yummy!

On Saturday Brooklynn and I headed over to Wapato for a Bridal Shower and then to go trick or treating in Ellensburg with Addison, Chloe and Bryson. Brooklynn definitely has no idea what candy is (other than it has shiny wrappers) and didn't know what we were doing at all, but it was fun to be out with the cousins and I think she enjoyed seeing all the different people and buildings (Ellensburg has a beautiful downtown area, I always loved it when I was at school).

Sunday we had linger longer after church and I again got food crafty and made "eyeballs" out of mini doughnuts! We ended up going to my parents house for caramel apples later in the evening since Brooklynn really is too little for Trick or Treating (and it was Sunday).

It was a pretty simple weekend made special by spending time with family. Nothing is better than that!

In other news:

We are moving!! We decided that it was time to move onto to something bigger than a one bedroom and started looking a month or so ago and found a great place just a few miles south of us in Auburn. It's a two bedroom in a 6-plex and we will even have a yard. The best part is that it is less than what we are paying now. I can't wait to have a room for Brooklynn (and all of her things). It will be so nice to not worry about waking her up when I go into my room. Her room is far away from the kitchen so I won't have to worry about pots and pans banging and waking her up. We wont be moving until the beginning of December so I have plenty of time to pack!

Brooklynn is now 21 weeks old.

(It was hard to get this picture this week....she was not interested in looking at me, she much preferred playing with her feet and the sign!)

She is getting really good at sitting on her own. All last week she was spending a lot of time on her side when we would lay her down on the floor. So many times we thought she was close to rolling from her back to her stomach, but she would just not follow through! Saturday she was on he side and Eric put a toy just out of her reach to entice her to roll herself. That was all she needed! (Thanks cousin Bryson for sharing your snail toy that is so enticing!) Now we have a rolling machine! Gone are the days of just hanging out for tummy time and the occasional rolling over. If she is down she is all over the place and there is no stopping her. She is a pro at scooting herself backwards, which is something of a frustration for her because it usually happens when she is trying to get something that is in front of her. She also gets up onto her hands and feet, so crawling definitely is not far away. Looks like moving will be a good time for baby-proofing!

We're still working on the whole cereal thing. She seems to like it and sometimes will eat it like she will never eat again. But mostly she just gets mad at us because we are making her sit still and wont let her grab the spoon. It might just take her a little while to understand that food is worth sitting still for!

"Share with me Daddy?!"

Happy Girl!

Mommy's kitchen helper

Have I mentioned she is obsessed with her feet???

Just a little cousin lovin'!

And 19 turns to 20

2010-10-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Week 19 went by SO fast (and now week 20 is almost half over)!! I can't believe that my baby girl is almost 5 months old! Our friends had a baby a month or so ago and every time I see that sweet little boy I miss my tiny little girl. I know that Brooklynn is still little, but I feel like I did not savor her infancy enough. I miss holding that tiny little body in my arms and I really can't believe how fast they grow! I enjoy the baby that she is now and I love the milestones that she is reaching as she grows and develops, but part of me wishes we were back to the just got home from the hospital stage!

Brooklynn has been a little cranky lately, thank you teething, and is still not sleeping as well as she used to. Not loving the regression of waking up to eat every 3 hours! She hasn't done that since she was 2 weeks old! But she is still super cute and lovable.

She is getting so strong and usually exhibits her strength by pulling my hair! Ow!

One of her new favorite things is to stand on the floor in front of you, holding your hands of course. She LOVES doing this. If she is facing forward she will turn her head back and look at me with a huge smile on her face, she just thinks she is such a big girl! She also likes to stand and hold herself up on a table, the bathtub, or anything that is her height.

Speaking of bathtubs, I decided that it was finally time to move Brooklynn out of the infant bathtub and into the real bathtub for bath time. She loves it! She gets so excited to splash around and kick.

Brooklynn has become quite the talker lately. And she seems to have found her voice in the form of screeching! Yup, we have a screecher! Makes for good times!

Her new talking face (when she isn't screeching!)

We have definitely had some exciting moments the last week and a half!

We started Brooklynn on rice cereal last Tuesday. A lot of days she was eating every two hours, or less on occasion, and I was hoping that it would help her to sleep better at night. She's still getting used to it, but I think she likes it. The hard part for us is that she doesn't like to sit still to be fed! And she would much rather be feeding herself, or at least have her hands in the mix. So far it hasn't helped the sleeping, but that's ok.

First bite...

and we got a smile!

This is what happens when you sneeze into your spoon!

Probably the most exciting thing is that Brooklynn has been working on her sitting skills! She's getting pretty good and will last a minute or two, unless she sees something interesting and has to reach for it! She still needs to work on her balance, but she's getting there!

Just some more pictures from the last week and a half:

I love it when they eat their own feet! So cute!!

This is how the cool kids use their pacifiers

Just hanging out with the girls!

Mauling cousin Chloe!

LOVE THIS FACE!!!

Weekend of Fun

2010-10-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Wapato to see Eric's parents and to have a girls craft day. We had tons of fun spending time with his parents and our nieces and nephew. (It's kind of sad when Nicole lives like 15 minutes from us and we have to both drive all the way to Wapato to spend time with her and Bryson! Horrible!) We only saw Addison and Chloe for a short time, but they are cute as ever!

(The only picture I was able to get with Chloe and Addison in it. I just barely missed Brooklyn and Chloe giving each other loves)

Brooklynn seemed to really enjoy her time with Bryson. Anytime he was around she would crane to be able to look at him. She didn't even mind him sticking his fingers in her mouth and poking her face. And she definitely tried to eat him as much as he tried to eat her. Perhaps they will be good friends!

I LOVE this picture!

We girls ended up making Fall Wreaths. I have never actually made a wreath before, but have wanted to so it was great! I love crafting and I have really wanted to start some projects (I still haven't started mine and Eric's scrapbook or Brooklynn's) but I just don't have the space to do it right now. Hopefully that will change really soon!

My finished product.....I think it turned out pretty good.

We put her in the highchair while we ate breakfast...she looks so tiny in it! (And super relaxed!)

Big smiles for he Aunt Dani

It was FREEZING in our house when we got home so she snuggled under the blanket with Daddy.

Cuddle Baby

2010-10-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I have really been wishing that I had a cuddly baby. Brooklynn is just WAY too active and doesn't like sitting still long enough to cuddle. Lately it is rare to get her to actually sit in your lap. She would much prefer to be standing in your lap than sitting in it! She does have her rare moments of cuddle time, but hopefully my time will come with her!

My little active girl is 18 weeks old (well, since it's Thursday she's probably closer to 19 weeks now)!!

She is seriously getting so big and learning new skills all the time! She is developing her hand-eye coordination and getting really good at putting her pacifier in her mouth! A lot of times she is just putting the flat side in to chew on, but she will on occasion get the nipple in as well! She is really into toys right now and will reach for them during tummy time. We have fun putting them out of her reach and watching her get them!

Look at that reach!

Another of her new thing is to pick things up. She will bend in half so that she can get something that she dropped or just something that has caught her eye (like the remote on the coffee table)! She is way interested in whatever she can get her hands on and will grab at it like nobody's business, which can be very helpful when I am, say, taking a drink of water. It is so great to have someone tip the glass for you!

She is getting closer and closer to being mobile. Yesterday she started pushing herself up farther than I have seen her do so far, pushing enough to get her belly off the floor. And a few times she pushed herself high enough so that she was on her knees!

Look at that! Watch out world!

She has been turning herself in circles for the past month or so, and now she has added scooting backwards to her repertoire. Guess it's time to think about baby proofing!

She is getting better and better at sitting herself up and is close to sitting on her own. She makes me laugh when she sits to far forward and she ends up face-planting the couch! So funny!!

Brooklynn has also been teething for the last few weeks, if not a month or so. She continues to drool enough in one day to fill a kiddie pool! And she is chewing on anything that she can get her hands on, including our hands. She hasn't gotten to the super crabby, "I'm a beast" stage....but she has had small moments of it.

I can't say enough how much I love my little girl! I have so much fun with her during the day and I am so glad that I can be home with her. I don't know if I have mentioned lately how great of a Daddy Eric is, but he is so amazing! He loves her so much and he is so good with her. When he comes home from work he spends as much time with her. I have to almost fight him for Brooklynn time on the weekends! He is the master at putting her to sleep at church (for some reason I just can't seem to get her to go to sleep at church)!

I am so grateful for my beautiful little family!

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!"

Love, love, love that sweet face!

4 months already??

2010-10-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's almost impossible to believe that 4 months have gone by already! It feels like just yesterday that we were in the hospital and seeing Brooklynn for the first time (cliché, I know, but it's true).

So, what's new with our 4 month old??

First, and foremost, she finally rolled over on camera! She's rolled over a few times here and there but I hadn't been able to catch it on video. I still don't think she's made the connection that she is the one that is rolling herself over, but she is doing it more and more. She also likes to scoot in circles during tummy time, she will do a complete 360 if she happy enough to last that long.

She has a recent obsession with sucking in her lower lip! I don't know what the obsession is, but it has consumed her since last Saturday!

She responds to tickling with some giggles. She even had a pretty big giggle fit when I was blotting her face with a blanket last week. Is there anything cuter than a baby laugh?

She grabs at anything within reach and will bring that item to her mouth for some quality "chewing"/sucking time (some of her favorite things to eat are mommy and daddy's hands!). She seems particularly interested in my cell phone as of late, maybe a foreshadow of things to come!

She continues to eat her hands as often as possible and drools like nobody's business.

She is a happy baby and has some of the best smiles. My dad summed up her smiles when he said that they have sound!

She is growing like a champ! We had her 4 month checkup today (and shots) and she now weighs 13 lbs 10.5 oz (60th percentile) and is 25.5 inches long (95th percentile), and her head is a whopping 15 5/8 inches (20th percentile). I think her tiny head is why everyone keeps saying she is such a tiny baby. She is definitely average people!

I am so in love with my 4 month old and I am so excited for all the new milestones that are ahead of us!

Conference Weekend

2010-10-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

We are so blessed to have a Prophet on the earth and especially lucky that technology allows us to listen to his voice so often! What an amazing conference we just had! I am so very grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life, it's teachings are such a comfort and a blessing. I am grateful to know that my family is eternal and that through the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we can all return to live with our Father in Heaven once again.

So this was our first General Conference with Brooklynn and I don't think I have ever been more grateful for our modern technologies! We are so lucky to be able to watch from the comfort of our homes (or my parent's home in our case). It was so nice to not be sitting in a dark chapel where Brooklynn really wouldn't have room to play and we would be worried about keeping her quiet for the sake of those around us! Much more comfortable for all!

Brooklynn had some fun laying on Daddy's legs while we watched conference.

She was SO funny! She would bury her face in Eric's legs....

Then she would push her bum in the air! She is such a funny girl!

Eric "watching" conference

On Sunday we picked up Nicole's exersaucer and Brooklynn just loves it! You can tell that she is just elated at the act of sitting/standing all by herself and being able to play with all of the attachments. She is so proud of herself and gets this look that seems to say, "I'm a big girl!"

Giving the sheep some lovin'!