Hello, Goodbye

Last week we had a going away "Party" for our friends Steve and Maria and their son Creedance. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and hanging out. I especially enjoyed being pregnant with Maria and having someone to commiserate with over pregnancy woes (i.e. super swollen feet and not being able to sit through church!). Thanks for being our friends, Steve and Maria, we truly will miss you and wish you well in your new endeavors! Bye Friends!!

This is our "pregnancy club" pre-babies. From L-R Maria, Shirlee, Kathryn, and Me

And here we are last week post-baby.  Babies from L-R Creedance (born end of March), Alice (born in April), Evan (born in May), and Brooklynn. I love how the babies are all doing their own thing! And of course, Brooklynn is staring off to the side. Notice, as Maria pointed out, pre-baby we all had our hair down and done nice and post-baby our hair is all pulled back for quick styles! 

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

I am seriously amazed at the increasing speed by which time flies! Brooklynn turned 7 weeks old on Monday!

  She is growing so fast and getting so big! She continues to get stronger and stronger and is gaining better control of her head. She has discovered her legs the last few weeks and finds great amusement in kicking them (even if it means kicking my stomach or chest!). She has also started supporting her weight when you stand her up, but only when she feels like it! She is always so alert and observant, constantly checking things out around her. The last few weeks we have been spending more time outside (yay for the weather finally getting nice!) and Brooklynn absolutely loves it! She is so intrigued by what she finds. I took her with me to check the mail last night and she couldn't decide what to look at first!

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Brooklynn is a serious grunter and a stretcher! She grunts in her sleep and sometimes wakes me up! She grunts when she is climbing. And boy does she grunt when she is waking up. She takes a good 20-30 minutes to fully wake up and during that time she will grunt and stretch (if she isn't swaddled). It is really funny to watch and such a cute little quirk. Speaking of sleeping, Brooklynn is consistently sleeping 6 hours straight at night, usually from 10:00-4:00, then it's back to sleep until 7:00-7:30. Isn't she amazing?! I'm starting to think that she might even sleep longer on her first stretch even. Because of her prolonged wakeup time accompanied by her grunting I usually sleep through the first few grunt moments until I am ready to be awake. I think it's time to leave her grunting until she very clearly is ready to be awake!

Eric was ready for his "Daddy Time" when Brooklynn was still sleeping so he got her out of bed and she proceeded to grunt and stretch in his lap for an hour!

Look at that face!!

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