10 Months?!?!?!

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

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.....

....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.....

....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!

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!