Summertime

I now believe my sweet little princess is going to grow up to be a daredevil! I will be happy in whatever she chooses to do in her life...but OH MY GOSH she is super brave. Her new favorite game is to crawl as fast as she can from one side of the couch to the other, and then do a flip off onto the floor (where we have placed several pillows to break her fall!). Needless to say, she is having a BLAST at the Little Gym! She gets to crawl and climb wherever she wants and everything is padded so she can't get hurt. We have learned how to do forward rolls and back flips over mommy. She is also becoming quite the social butterfly in class as well. She loves to wave and crawl over to the other babies and "talk" to them. I also found out on the first day of class that we received a "2-for-1" deal, so we get to go twice a week! AND the best part is that the two boys from daycare, Morgan and Luke, are in the same classes! It is so good that we can stay in touch with them over summer. Brooke is also becoming more aware of walking as she sees all the other kids in her class doing it. As I mentioned previously, we aren't encouraging her too much to walk so she hasn't started yet. She will take a few steps at time though. Yesterday she took 3 steps towards me, stopped and stood there for a second, and then took 2 more steps! She's getting closer and closer!

Morgan and Luke's mommies told me that they put them into swim lessons at the Houston Swim Club. They said there was one spot open in the class that they are in, so we signed up for that as well! Our first class is this Friday. Brooke LOVES the water, so I'm hoping she really enjoys this class. It is a parent/child class so I will be in the water with her! We are having so much fun together this summer!

We will be spending next week at Lake Conroe, and are very much looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away for a little bit. We got Brooke a life jacket so we can take her out on the boat...don't worry, Reagan is a very good driver and he promises to go slow! I will post some pictures of our trip when we get back.

On another trip note...Reagan and I booked a vacation for ourselves at the end of July. We will be heading to the New England area! Reagan had some flight miles, so we get to fly free! This trip will be our longest time away from Brooke. She has spent the night with her grandparents a couple of times, but this trip is 4 nights away from her. It is going to be hard, but she will definitely be in good hands while we are gone!

Hope you all have a wonderful Fourth of July!!

SUMMER!

It is finally here! SUMMER! I am so excited about being home for the next two months with Brooke. I have a feeling that we are going to have a TON of fun together! Today was my first official day of summer and I spent it playing with Brooke. We also went to JC Penny to take her 9 month pictures. They came out great! Tomorrow is our first class at the Little Gym and I can't wait! ...I'm sure Brooke is excited, too! :)

On May 26th, we went in for her 9 month check up. She now weighs 14 and a half pounds. Still underweight, but staying right on her growth curve. Dr. H said we can start giving her some table food...but so far, not so good. She is still being very picky about the baby food, so big girl food is not any better to her. At least she's still drinking her milk! The doctor also said all her bloodwork came back great, so she's a very healthy little thing.

Brooke hit a huge milestone on June 30th! Brooke took her very first step without holding on to anything! She did it all by herself without us trying to encourage her to do it! We were in complete SHOCK! She actually took 2 steps from the couch to the glider. Then, she did it two more times after that! It was so exciting!! The next night, she did it again for my parents, but she hasn't done it since. We haven't really been encouraging her since then, so maybe that's why. We aren't ready for walking just yet. She has been growing up so fast and we want her to slow down a bit! It seems like she just got the crawling thing down and now she's ready to start walking! :( Although, I will have to say that I am super happy I got to witness it. I was so worried she would take her first step at daycare. I think she knew to wait so that mommy and daddy could see her do it!

The End Is Near...

Whew...this has been a tough year at school. I will say with all honesty that this has been the toughest group of kiddos I have ever had. They are without a doubt one of the smartest groups I've taught, but definitely the worst as far as behavior. The one thing I do love about teaching is that I have SUMMER coming! And, in the fall I will start fresh with a new group of kids. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids I teach, but they are more than a handful this year. I am so glad to say that THE END IS NEAR!!!

With that being said, I can not tell you all how excited I am to spend my summer with Brooke. I have signed her up for The Little Gym and I am sure we will both enjoy it very much. We are already planning to have several "lunch dates" with daddy. I have a feeling it is going to be a fun, and much needed, summer break!

As for an update...
Mother's Day was great! Daddy and Brooke made me breakfast and gave me a dozen red roses. Then we had lunch with the Tielke family, and then Reagan, Brooke and I went to Oyster Creek Park for a walk. We wanted to take some nice pictures of Brooke and I, however Brooke was so occupied looking at all the dogs and people in the park that she didn't want to look at the camera! But, all in all, it was a great first mother's day!

Brooke had her first fever :( We think it was due to her teething since she didn't have any other symptoms than just being really tired. This past Friday, she woke up with fever, but after her bottle it went down. However, as the evening went on, her fever spiked at 102 degrees. She was so mopey and her eyes were so watery. You could tell just by looking at her that she was not feeling well at all. She just layed on our chest all evening, and she didn't even make a noise...not one cry or sound (which at this point is very abnormal!). Of course, this was a very busy night for mommy and daddy. We had already made plans for Brooke to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa Tielke's house since we had Reagan's high school reunion. We definitely didn't want to miss the reunion, but we didn't want to leave our little baby either. I had never seen Brooke like this, so I was miserable having to leave her. The tylenol was not helping her fever, so we gave her Motrin and that seemed to help. We received a text later in the evening while we were at the reunion that her fever had gone down to 100. Then, the next morning she woke up fever free! So, we guess her teeth must have been the issue, because she is fine now!

We go back for her 9 month check-up next week, and I'm sure I will update after we visit the doctor. So check back next week for another post! :)

REALLY?!

Just to prove to everyone how fast Brooke is growing up...and why I am so sad about it...

As I was giving Brooke a bath and cleaning her gums, I saw a SECOND tooth coming in! She just cut her first one last week and now another one is already coming through. She is really growing up. :( I am so going to miss that toothless smile of hers.

So, in the last two days, I have posted 3 blogs! Okay...I guess I have to get over being so sad about her growing up. This is all normal stuff and I should be happy she's going through it! :)

Wow!

So, two days ago I posted in my blog that Brooke was pulling herself up and carefully taking a step...

WELL, yesterday she pulled herself up to the ottoman and began cruising around it!! She walked almost all the way around it while holding on!! She just popped right up and began cruising! It looked as if she'd been doing it all her life! Mary, our daycare lady, also told me that she pulled herself up on to one of her toys and began pushing it yesterday. Wow, it really won't be long before she is walking all by herself.

I will try to get a video of her doing it so I can post it on here...keep checking back! :)

Come And Get Me!

Brooke is now 8 months old!! I can not believe how fast time flies. It is amazing to see how much she has changed in such a short amount of time. In just months she has learned how to crawl, "talk", stand up (while holding on to something), and take a step (again while holding on to something). She also recognizes her grandparents, which of course they love! When she wants to be held, she holds her arms up for us to pick her up...it just melts my heart! I love just sitting on the floor watching her play and explore. Everything is so new to her and it is so neat to watch her learn about it all. She is also learning how to wave, and I got my first real wave from her a couple weeks ago. Now, I know these are all normal things babies learn and go through, but this is our first baby so everything we see her do is just incredible to us. We also know that as she continues to grow, we will continue to be amazed. As Mother's Day approaches, it has really made me think about what it is to be a mother, and I will have to say that it is the best gift I have ever received. I thank the Lord everyday for my beautiful miracle. Motherhood has it's difficulties, don't get me wrong! But, I wouldn't trade this for anything and cannot imagine my life any other way now. So, I would like to wish all the mommies out there a very happy Mother's Day!!

In the last post, I mentioned that Brooke was still underweight. This has been a constant issue with her, even when she was in my belly! On April 6th, she went in for a weight check. In six weeks she had only gained one pound, which put her up to 13 pounds. The doctor says she is healthy and doing fine still, so we aren't too concerned about it. She is just now starting to fit into some 6 month outfits, even though they are still pretty baggy! She's about 3 months behind on her clothing size! We will go to the doctor at the end of May for her 9 month checkup, so we will see how much she is then.

Brooke is VERY active! She is now crawling all over the place and we are constantly chasing after her! She already knows where she is NOT supposed to go...like the dog bed and dog food bowl. She knows when she goes to those places, we chase her and pick her up. She loves having us chase her! When Reagan was 9 months old, he began walking. If Brooke decides to take after her dad (like she does with so many other things), she will be walking very soon. It will be so funny to see such a tiny little baby walking! I am hoping she waits, though. She is growing so fast, I kind of want her to slow down! I want her to be a baby for as long as possible!

Brooke has started to cut her first tooth! So far she hasn't been too cranky. It seemed to really bother her when the very top part started to come through, but since then she seems to be okay....ask me again next week and it might be a different story!

I can not believe that in less than 4 months, my little girl is going to be ONE! It is so neat to watch her grow, but at the same time I am so sad. She will officially be a "kid". :( We are planning a big birthday celebration, so make sure to keep the weekend of her birthday open!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! ;)

We Call it the Crawl-and-Flop

Well, once again it has been a while since I last posted. Things are pretty busy around here with work and trying to take care of Brooke and the home, that I just never seem to have enough time in the day! I am really going to try to update more often. Brooke is at that age now where all kinds of new things are happening, so I want to document it all...I just need to find the time!

Over the last couple of months, Brooke has really started to show us her personality. She is smiling all the time, laughing at us when we make silly faces, and starting to say "mamamama", "mehmeh" and things like "buh". I'm sure to you, that's nothing, but to me it is sooooo neat! She is definitely a talker! The other day she saw an empty bottle, reached for it, and said "meh". Reagan and I were so surprised! Every time we feed her, we say "milk" before giving it to her, so it was kind of like she was trying to say milk! :)

Brooke has also become MOBILE!!! She has started moving all over the place. We used to be able to put her on the carpet to play with her toys, and go to the kitchen to do stuff and she would stay put...now when we put her down, she crawls over to the kitchen to see what we are up to! Her crawl is not the most perfect form at the moment...as my mom likes to call it, it's the "crawl-and-flop"! She will get up on all fours, lunge her arms forward, and then flop down on her belly! She will continue this pattern until she gets to where she wants to go. She is definitely much more active now! Brooke is also getting a lot of use out of her entertainment center. She loves bouncing around in that thing!

At her six month check up, we found out that Brooke has fallen off track with her weight gain. She is currently right around 12 pounds, which puts her in the less than three percentile for her weight. She is very healthy, she is just not gaining weight like she should. At around 5 and a half months we started her on rice cereal and she LOVES it. Dr. Hogarth said to start her on veggies at six months, so we decided to begin with peas...that did NOT go so well. She would gag and stick her tongue out every time we would bring the spoon to her mouth. After only a few bites, all the peas came back up...yuck! I did happen to get a good video (before the peas came back up) of her attempting to eat them. It is pretty funny. There is a link at the bottom for the video, so make sure to check it out. We weren't going to give up that easily on the peas though, so I decided to mix them with cereal the next night. That seemed to taste a lot better to her, because she ended up eating quite a bit of them. We stayed with peas for a week, and she really seems to like them now. She still kind of gags though if she gets a big spoonful of them, but I'm sure I'd do the same if I had to eat those! This week we started giving her green beans, and she is doing much better with these. She will even eat green beans without mixing the cereal in with it, so that's good news. Hopefully these veggies will help to put a little bit of weight on her...

Brooke is a very luck little gal...she is going to have some great friends growing up! My friend Lindsey, the one that has been on bedrest for several months, gave birth to beautiful Josey Marie on February 21st (MY BIRTHDAY!). And another one of my friends is being induced tomorrow! Baby Olivia will be here very soon and we are so excited to meet her. This is her second daughter, so Brooke is going to have lots of little girl friends to play with!

Well, that's about all for now. I still don't quite understand why this website will not allow me to upload my videos, so for now you will have to click on the link to see them. There are two videos on there. One is of Brooke crawling, and the other is of her first attempt at peas. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11628512@N02/?saved=1