Happy Valentine's Day

Only a week late with this post.  That is some serious improvement!

I managed to take a few pictures the morning of Valentine's Day before we sent the kids off to day care.  This mom made peanut butter cookies with heart-shaped chocolates in the middle.  I gave each kid 3, so hopefully the parents weren't too disappointed with the sugar load or were smart enough to eat the cookies themselves.

Anyway, so I took 4 pictures.  I managed to get both kids dressed in red, which is pretty impressive.  However, these 4 shots illustrate the difficulty in getting a good picture of both kids together. 

Here is the play-by-play, by me, of our picture-taking adventure.

 Picture #1.  Great.  Both kids sitting next to each other, nobody trying to walk or crawl away.  Brady has that whole "deer in the headlights" look.  Darn.  Okay, try again.

 Picture #2.  Brenna is starting to crawl away, but hey, she looked at the camera.  Great!  She's not smiling, but we can live without that.  Oh wait, now Brady isn't looking at the camera.  He's too obsessed with his new book about Katy the Snowplow (probably because we've had no snow this winter!). Try again.

 Picture #3.  Hey, hey, hey.  Both kids looking at the camera at the same time.  And they're not crying!  Now we don't have smiles in this shot, but hey, you can't be too picky.  Maybe, just maybe we could get one with smiles?  Maybe?  Pretty please? 

Picture #4.  Well, at least I got a smile from one of them.  And doesn't that smile just melt your heart?  It's not perfection in the picture category, but then again, life isn't about perfection.



Mild winter weather = outside fun

This mild winter weather isn't so bad.  Mom has been able to do all kinds of running, Dad has done all kinds of "outside the house-work" and the kids have enjoyed playing outside several times.

We are now able to traverse to the playground hauling both kids in the wagon.  Brady thinks it's pretty great that Brenna can ride in the wagon with him.  We do strap her in since that head of hers still tends to topple her over on occasion.  The first wagon ride was a success.

Off we go!

Brady swings on the big-kid swings now and is slowly starting to learn the whole lean and kick concept.

Brenna got to enjoy her first ride in the swing.  She clearly wasn't hating it!

Serious look here; I think she was observing all the kids playing on the playground equipment.

Peek-a-Boo!

Peek-a-boo.  Smoller Style.  'Nuff said.

That's how she crawls

Yep, Brenna is officially a mover.  It's hard to catch on video, but I did manage to capture this the other evening. 

9 months

Like I said before, better late than never.

Brenna is 9 months old.  We had her checkup last week and it went well.  No shots, which is ALWAYS a good thing.  She is measuring 27 inches long (30%) and weighs in at 15 pounds, 6 ounces (4%).  She is a skinny, little thing, but given her genetics that's not too surprising.  The doctor isn't concerned.  Her appetite is ravenous, so we certainly know it's not from a lack of nutrition.

 At 9 months of age Brenna is crawling all over the place.  She has really taken off in the last month and crawls everywhere and pulls herself up on her knees or to a standing position.  She claps her hands and is so very proud of herself when she makes that happen.

She sleeps from about 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and is usually good for one solid nap during the day.  She feeds herself Cheerios and small pieces of cheese and banana.  She still eats any kind of baby food we give her, though I think the green garden vegetables are not her favorite! She smiles so much and is quite a bit of fun to be around.  However, she is definitely a mama's girl and she wants to be held by mama, so we're continuing to work through that.  I love holding her, but I can't hold her all the time!

Tooth!

Before I forget, we got our first tooth yesterday!!!  Miss Brenna has been a slobbery, drooly mess for quite awhile.  As I was attempting to keep her quiet in church yesterday morning, I let her chomp on my finger for awhile and I felt that first little tooth popping out of the bottom.  More milestones, though I could live without the crankiness this one involves.

8 months old

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  So this is just a little on the late side.  Better late than never, right?

Brenna turned 8 months old on Christmas Eve.  And this mom, well, she took a little break from blogging.  Not on purpose, just because it's been uber hectic on the home and work front.  Anyway, back to our cute, little girl.

8 months old on Dec. 24th.  I have no idea what her height or weight are, but we'll find out tomorrow when we do her 9 month checkup! 

 At 8 months of age Brenna is doing great!  She goes to bed about 8:00 and wakes up around 7:00.  She sits on her own and she is crawling all over the place.  She's also clapping her hands and is just completely amused with herself at that skill.

She's eating practically everything we give her and has been perfecting those fine motor skills and is eating more Cheerios than she spills.  Still no teeth at 8 months (but stayed tuned!), but getting close.  She is quite the momma's girl and fusses when she's not held all the time, so we're having to work on that little issue. 

So I started 2012 totally slacking in blog posts.  I'll try to make up for it!