Quarter Birthday!

Dear Brooke,

3 months old already? Get out of town! Today is your quarter birthday, and you're pretty excited about it :) So much so that you gave us your first real belly laugh last night - oh, how delightful a sound it was! You're such a happy baby these days, like deliriously happy. Mommy had a really hard time thinking of things you don't like anymore because you just think everything is so entertaining. Life is so much fun at 10242 Kingsport Dr these days!!

Favorites

Daddy - You and Daddy are like 2 peas in a pod. You get so excited when he comes home from work. Probably because you have so many things to tell him; you're still having your nightly chats. You're spending more alone time together now, giving Mommy breaks, which might be why you've gotten so comfortable with him. Trust me, he adores you more than he'd ever admit and would do absolutely anything for you.

Fake-outs - You are quite the little faker sometimes and it cracks you up. You'll start a wimpy little cry that we know just means you want some attention. We call you out on it, making the same noises back at you and calling you a faker, and you think it's hysterical.

Your doll - You were given a soft, stuffed baby doll when you were born (see previous post for a picture of said doll) that you're just now starting to enjoy. Now that you can hold it, you cuddle with her all the time. And by cuddle with her I mean you eat her face. You love to chew away on her head, pigtails, etc. This isn't just reserved for your doll - you'll chew on anything you can get to your mouth these days, which leads me to....

Knuckles - Something about knuckles just says "suck on me" to you. Who needs a pacifier when Mommy and Daddy have 10 fingers each that you can just go to town on? Not our big girl!

Cuddling - Believe it or not, you're even more of a cuddler now. You particularly enjoy having things up against your face to snuggle with. Be it a blanket, a burp cloth, Mommy's shirt, your new bunny - you just love snuggling into something soft.

Not-So-Favorites

Strangers - Aren't you too young for stranger anxiety already? Apparently not. You're often scared of strangers now. In the grocery store this week, an old man cashier came over to greet you and you wanted nothing to do with him. You were all like "Mommy, where are you? I can't see you. All I see is this (slightly creepy) old man peering in my car seat!" Even relatives that are by no means strangers scare you sometimes.

Bathtime - While it doesn't make you scream or anything, you're not really a big fan of bathtime anymore. And this is totally due to the fact that you've completely outgrown your bathtub - our kitchen sink. You can't comfortably lounge in it like you used to, so now it makes you very nervous to be propped in there the way Mommy has to do it. You still splash around, but more due to anxiousness than excitement.

Tights - You're not alone in this one, as not many people enjoy them, but boy do you hate tights!

Your Bouncy Seat - You've never liked the darn bouncy seat. You are definitely a swing baby, not so much a bouncer. It could be because the bugs hanging down from it are all up in your face. But really I think it's just not stimulating enough for you.

You are one of the happiest babies on the planet. People constantly comment on how good you are, how they can't believe you never cry (though we all know that's not quite true!!), and how you're so smiley. Well, they're definitely right. Mommy & Daddy sure did luck out with you, baby girl. We love you, Brooke Mary!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Bright spot.

Mondays. Ugh. Nothing good ever comes out of a Monday. These days, Mondays mean Mommy has to work again. And by work, I mean babysitting. That means no naps, an early alarm clock, and 7 straight hours of not 1 but 2 crying/hungry/bored babies. What have I gotten myself into?

Just when I think I've reached my limit for the day, that my frustration level couldn't possibly be stretched any further, that my breaking point is thisclose to being shattered, I am met with this:...and my Monday is so bright and cheerful that the backaches, headaches, mental breakdowns, etc. are all forgotten. She is the reason I can smile through Mondays.

Heavy Cream.

I'm an avid 19 Kids & Counting watcher. What's that, you may be asking? Well, first of all, shame on you for not knowing. It happens to be one of the greatest shows on TV. It's the TLC show about the Duggar Family. You know, the woman with all the kids who prematurely delivered #19 at 25 weeks back in December (yet another woman who had her baby before me even though she was due after me, but I digress...) They're all over the Today Show and People Magazine these days, as the baby is still in the NICU 16 weeks later (her original due date was last week.) Big controversy because people think having that many kids is the reason this last one was delivered so early, like it was God's way of telling them enough is enough. While I agree with people to an extent (c'mon, it's not a contest, Michelle Duggar, and if it is I promise you're winning...), that's just not the case; the preterm labor was due to pre-eclampsia and had nothing to do with her decision to birth a large baseball team.

Woah, went off on a major tangent there. Back to the point.

So I'm watching this week and Mama Duggar is talking about how she's always had tiny breastfed babies. Evidently, her milk has a low fat content, so she essentially produces skim milk. I've never heard of this before, but it got me thinking. What in the world are my Girls producing? Whole milk? Heavy cream, perhaps? The husband thinks Brooke might be getting straight butter. Like my Girls have some kind of magical churning powers and are providing the Big Lady with some good ol' Country Crock. There's a visual for you. (Oh, should I have warned you this post would quickly become TMI? Whoops, my bad.)

I mean, seriously, this is the only explanation for how rapidly my 17 pounder is growing. Yep, 17 lbs. (And that's just an estimate, it may be a few ounces more.) She has rolls in places you wouldn't expect. We constantly find stuff lodged in them, too. The girl has Rubberband Wrists - it always looks like she has rubberbands around her wrists (see photo to the right). My sister gave me a hand-me-down 9 month sleeper that she was going to get rid of back when I was only about 4 mos. pregnant. I thought to myself "Oh, my baby will be 9 months old in the fall, so this long-sleeved sleeper will be perfect for September." Never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd need it now, still under 3 months old. People hardly believe she's as young as she is, thanks to both her size and her alertness. It's incredible.

So yeah, heavy cream. I do come from a dairy family, after all.

Easter Bunny.

Brooke met the Easter Bunny for the first time on Sunday, and it was a good meeting! We all went to the Egg Hunt at the Rec this weekend. Brooke got to hunt for eggs, meet The Bunny himself, and look super cute in her bunny ears (thanks, Aunt Nicole!) She was about as enthused with the whole thing as an almost 3-month-old could be. As I said in a previous post, it was a photo op. So, here they are:

Saying hello to the Easter Bunny. Clearly, she liked him :)

All ready to go. Let's get hunting!

"There are silly ears on my head, aren't there? Oh, Mommy..."

Exploring her eggs. She found lots of Smarties, a few stickers, and some (slightly creepy) little stuffed bunnies in her eggs.

Just looking precious at the party.

Big Sleepin' Girl.

Brooke deserves a present. Seriously. A big fat one. We are not only sleeping through the night every night, we're sleeping 7-9 hour stretches every night. And some mornings, she goes right back to sleep after a quick feed to sleep even longer. Like today, for example. She was down at 10 pm, up at 6:30 am to eat, back in bed by 7am, and still sleeping now :)

I love that she's a bit of a night owl, too. I've heard so many people say that they put their little ones to bed at, like, 7 pm for the night. I'm not even remotely tired this early, so how do these people get caught up on that whole "sleep while the baby sleeps" thing? My munchkin was having a deep convo with her Daddy at 9:00 last night; she's got too much to do and say to be going to bed that early! Plus, it makes for later mornings for Mommy, too (like today.) Bonus!

This is the face that greets me in the mornings. LOVE IT! I always say "Good morning, my Big Sleepin' Girl!" and she's all "Mommy, you came for me! Hooray! I'm ready for the day!" and it's accompanied by ridiculously awesome toothless grins and crazy arm & leg jerking. Again, love it!

It's official.

My child wears more Polo than not. My almost 3 month old is signed up for the Rec's Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday ("Hunting" for Brooke will involve looking around and flailing her arms about. It's really just a photo op with the Easter bunny, let's be honest.) I live in skirts, flip flops, and big white sunglasses in the summer. I have the SUV. I have the house and the successful husband. It's official - I have achieved MOE status. I'm blue & green car antennae ribbons and a Starbucks skinny vanilla latte away from being in it full-blown.

For those unfamiliar with the term, MOE = Mother of Evendale. It's a phrase coined by our group of Evendale friends, a status many of us aspire to. The MOE stereotype is incredibly fitting for so many women in the Village. It's a Soccer Mom to the extreme. Supermom with a Vera Bradley purse, if you will. And yes, Kenny's now a FOE (he'll be full-blown when he starts coaching Brooke's Eager Beavers t-ball team.) So yeah, together we're a MoeFoe (...I crack myself up.)

I realized it yesterday as I was making chocolate chip cookies with a baby on my hip, the 5th load of laundry for the day was tumbling in the dryer, and my kitchen table was adorned with St. Patrick's Day placemats. I looked around and thought, "Wow, I've made it. I'm a MOE." And I love it! (Oh and why chocolate chip cookies? Because I survived my 3rd day of having twins. I'm now babysitting a little boy 3 days a week who is 10 days older than Brooke. I'm crazy, you say? I agree.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ten Weeks +2.

I missed the "Brooke is X weeks old this week, she's sleeping X hours at night and eating every X hours and doing these cute things" post on Thursday. My bad. It's been a trying week. The Big Lady is getting bigger - it's been a growth spurt week. Since we had the 2-month growth spurt several weeks ago, I'd imagine this is the 3- or 4-monther for our little overachiever.

So, to be consistent....

Brooke's 10 weeks old this week! She's sleeping like a CHAMPION. It's no big thing for her to go 8 hours or so. While this is awesome when it happens, it's not every night. It's usually more like 6-7 hrs of sleep, a 20-minute dream feed (i.e. she wakes up hungry, pretty much sleeps while eating, sleeps through a quick diaper change, and then we're both back in bed after a mere 20 total mins), and then another 3-4 hours of sleep. It's beautiful. Don't get me wrong, we have our frequent rough nights where it's not so clockwork. This week we dealt with waking up multiple times to eat in the night (this was Monday) and refusing to be put back in her bed starting around 2 am (this was Wednesday). Do you know how easy and fun it is to sleep on the couch with 16 lbs of congested baby sleeping dead-weight on a chest that grows by the minute as it fills up for the next feeding? I'll tell you how - not.

She still eats every 3-4 hours during the day, but is ridiculously proficient. She gets anything she needs in a matter of a few minutes, then moves on to bigger and better things. Like pooping (I couldn't have a blog post with mentioning my baby girl's bodily functions!) I'm happy to report that the size 3's have drastically reduced the # of blowout situations. Hallelujah, sister!

And cute things she's done this week? What hasn't been cute? She is the funniest person I know. Laughs about everything now. She found her tongue - jackpot! It's her new BFF. She plays with it all the time now. Adorable, however tongue shenanigans = drool city! She goes through, like, 5 bibs a day. She's not just partial to her own tongue; nothing delights her more than when someone else sticks their tongue out at her. She's become somewhat of a mimic, too. She tries to shape her mouth to make the same sound that you make. "Ooooh" is her favorite word, I think because of the O-shaped mouth associated with it. She's also discovered that she has hands and a face and oh-how-much-fun-it-is-to-touch-said-face-with-said-hands. She actually rubs her eyes when she's tired (insert Awwwwww here.) Precious, my friends, so very precious.

That's all for now. Apologies again for the poor blogging this week. Hoping for better bloggage (new word?) next week.

Just chattin' it up with Mr. Penguin.

"Mom, buzz off. Penguin and I would like some privacy."

Almost Spring!

Oh spring, how I love thee. I've missed you. Even though it hasn't officially started, this weather sure does remind me of spring. When last spring began, my most important role was wife. Having a baby was definitely at the forefront of my mind, but it wasn't yet a reality. Fast-forward 365 days and I'm a mom, Brooke's mom. Crazy, eh?

Thanks to this delicious weather, Brooke and I have been able to get out of this house and get some fresh air this week. It's so refreshing; I heart sunshine. I can't wait until the weather is consistently warm enough to get her outside daily. Brooke got to experience her first walk (and second and third) and her first trip to the park. I have a feeling walks to the park will be frequent. She went down the slide and spent some time on the swings. The pics may not really show it, but she had a blast :)

Happy Sunday!

If this doesn't make you smile on this beautiful Sunday morning, nothing will.

p.s. Guess who slept 8.5 hours Friday night!! You read that right, eight and a half, and then we even had to wake her!! (I reeeally didn't want to wake her - wanted to see how long she'd go - but I needed to feed her before we left. Also, I was in pain. 10 hours between feedings = yikes!)

This SAHM says TGIF.

Who says stay-at-home mom's can't look forward to the weekend? When I said to the husband yesterday "I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday," he acted as though I had no real reason to be excited for it. After all, I don't work so all my days are the same, right?

Let me tell you why I'm so excited it's Friday. Weekends mean an extra set of hands at home. Weekends mean seeing friends and family we don't always get to see. They mean either lots of activities or lazy days as a family. They mean extra sleep because Daddy can take her in the morning. But most importantly, weekends mean Brooke gets to spend extra time with her Daddy. He doesn't miss the smiles and the laughs (and, at the same time, the poo-splosions and spit-ups) that Mommy gets during the day (her happiest and most active time.)

On a completely unrelated note, here's Brooke's first adventure in an exersaucer. This is at Grandma's house; she still hasn't used ours. But look what a big girl she is now! She had fun in here, though I didn't let her stay in too long as her neck control, while freakishly awesome, isn't that great. But we're looking forward to being able to have more fun in this soon!

"Look at me, Mom! I'm such a big girl!"

"If I concentrate hard enough, maybe these things will spin on their own since I haven't figured out how to do it yet."

Nine Weeks.

The Big Lady is fantastic this week. She's still sleeping like a champion most days. She has recovered from Monday's vaccines and we're slowly getting back on our schedule. Morning playtime is the best part of my day. I think Brooke's favorite part of the day is when Daddy gets home from work and they chat and play. It lasts about 20 minutes before she gets angry and starts her usual evening fussy time. Fussy or not, we just adore this kid more and more as the minutes roll on.

I have a million nicknames for this child now, don't ask why. Each day I come up with something new; they're all so fitting. I thought I'd make a list, mostly so Brooke will know the origin of these names if she grows up thinking her name is, in fact, "Big Lady" or "Mama". (Or so she has proof for her future therapist of just how crazy her mom has been since she was born...) Let's see, we have: Big Lady, Big Mama, just Mama, Ladybug which sometimes morphs into Buggy (fitting for my nature girl, don't ya think?), Mommy's Girl, Pretty Lady, Poop Monster, and the latest - Drool Queen (we go through so many bibs a day...)

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the week:

Her bib is always cocked to the right like this. She thinks she's ghetto. That's her gang sign.

Brooke's spot at the dinner table at Grandma & Grandpa Reeder's :)

Airplane with Mommy. A fun game for Brooke, exercise for Mom.

Brooke's best buddy: the previously mentioned flower carseat toy.

Wow, Brooke wore that bib a lot this week. Note to self: rotate bibs.

Trip to the doctor.

Brooke had her 2 month doctor's appt this morning. She's weighing in at a killer 15 lbs 4 oz. She grew half an inch, up to 24.75 in. Her head size is now 16.75 in, up 3/4 of an inch, meaning her head grew more than she did this month! When the doctor came in, she jokingly asked how my 4-month old was doing. No concern whatsoever on her size. And for all you skeptics out there thinking "That child is way too big! She must be feeding her too much!", let me quote the doctor for you: "You can't overfeed a breastfed baby. Your body won't produce more milk than she can handle and needs." So there.

Guess who's still off the growth charts. See that red dot down there? That's the 50th percentile, average size of a 2 month old at about 11 lbs. The curve at the top is the 97th percentile, around 13 1/2 lbs. See the purple dot? Yeah, that's Brooke. Wahhh wahhh!

Anyway, as the doctor was examining her "perfectly proportioned" body, she unsnapped the diaper to take a look at her, um, girl parts. She proceeded to count the rolls of fat around her legs and that area. (Apparently they need to have an equal number of rolls on each side. I kid you not, folks, this is an actual part of the exam.) So she gets to 5 and says "I think that's the most rolls I've ever counted on a baby." Go ahead, laugh at my little girl some more. Are you done? Ok, then let's continue. Otherwise, she's fit as a fiddle. She was talking and laughing so much during the exam that it took awhile for the doctor to listen to her heart. God bless the pediatrician though, she didn't try to quiet her down once - in fact, she encouraged the cooing.

Then the sad part happened: the 2 month vaccines. Oh, how bright red and angry her little face got when they stuck her! She got shots in both legs, but luckily they have 2 nurses do it at the same time so it's all done at once. She was so terribly sad for a few minutes, sadder than I've ever seen her. I picked her up as soon as they'd let me and just cuddled her with her pacifier for about 10 minutes before leaving the room. She fell asleep in her carseat on the way home and is still sleeping there now, 2 hours later. I imagine it'll be a sleepy/fussy day. I'm going to give her all the cuddling she wants today to make up for letting them hurt her!