Holiday Extravaganza

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?!?!?

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: