Seven Weeks.

Seven weeks already - I can't believe it! It's been quite a busy week for Miss Brooke. She celebrated the start of her first Olympics (hooray!!), her baptism, and her first Valentine's Day. All 3 events were wonderful. She's been loving the Olympics as much as her Mommy, even staying up late to watch Bob Costas' full coverage (our sleep has seriously taken a hit due to the Olympics!) Her baptism and the party after went off without a hitch. She was an angel during the service and wasn't even bothered by the water as it was poured on her head. Valentine's Day was a lazy day for the whole family; we literally napped the day away, staying in and even getting Chinese take-out. She was all dressed up for the occasion (see below), just with nowhere to go!

Brooke is super animated now. She can now be entertained by hanging objects on her swing or car seat for a decent chunk of time. She laughs all the time, straight up Stevie Wonder-style with the closed eyes, open-mouthed goofy grin, and head swivel. Too cute. She's a huge fan of Mommy singing Old McDonald to her - she even sings along with a Moo-Moo here and a Moo-Moo there :) She hates her car seat more than ever, but we've attached a blinking musical toy to it that seems to be helping calm her a bit. Hmmm, what else...still a poop monster. Still wearing 6 mo. clothes (but the 6 mo. Ralph Lauren stuff is already getting too small...sigh.) Weighing in yesterday at 14 lbs 13 oz.

To make up for the picture-less post, I even have a little video for you from Valentine's Day. The end of it is the best part, so try to suffer your way through my voice to get to the end. Enjoy!

Time Out.

The Reeder House had its first time out tonight. Who would have thought we'd reach this milestone before Brooke was even 7 weeks old? Only it wasn't the Big Lady in Time Out; it was Mommy. (C'mon, who puts an almost 7-weeker in time out? What would that even entail? "You lay there on the floor instead of in your swing and think about what you did while you stare aimlessly around the room as usual, young lady!" I mean, really...) Anyway, I put myself in Time Out tonight.

After spending close to an hour trying to make dinner, she wakes up from a small nap just as we're sitting down to eat. I got through about 4 bites of mac n' cheese and a bit of zucchini before she decided it was time for her dinner (an hour early, mind you.) So, my baked potato remained untouched and was cold by the time I got back to it after her feeding. (Random dinner, you say? Blame Ash Wednesday.) I was so frustrated by the whole scenario that I just gave up on eating, passed her off to Daddy, and sent myself to my room for an hour. See, I was starting to get snippy with my baby girl and, at 7 weeks, she doesn't deserve my frustration. So I removed myself from the situation for a while. Daddy handled her perfectly while I was away and was being extra sweet to her when I finally came back down (maybe he sensed Mommy's attitude from earlier and decided to compensate for it with the munchkin - thanks, honey.)

All is well now, as the Big One is nestled in my neck sleeping as we speak. I apologized for being short with her; she forgave me with a precious little grin. (She kinda had to forgive me...I am her milk supplier.) So yeah, we're friends again :)


- I know what you're thinking: "WHAT?! A picture-less post? Why did I bother reading through that whole ridiculous diatribe, full of whining and 'Oh, woe is me' moments, if I wasn't going to be rewarded with an absurdly adorable picture of her chubby baby at the end? What a waste." Not to worry, blog readers (...both of you...) I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Hi there.

Oh, hello. Do you like my fantastic headband and 80's-style leg warmers? How about my heavenly smiles? I mean, seriously, they need to develop a new word for me because "cute" and "adorable" just don't cut it.

Six Weeks.

Our little girl has made it to 6 weeks! She's becoming quite a little character, hamming it up for us all the time now. We are blessed with adorable little smiles, laughs, and coos on a daily basis. It's absolutely heartwarming. After a long, rough day at work, she can get her Daddy to cheer up quickly. She suddenly seems so old to me!

Well, the Big Lady has gotten even bigger. We've topped 14 lbs this week, meaning we're close to having added 50% of her birth weight in just six weeks. Holy moley. We graduated to size 2 diapers a few weeks ago, but have now completely ditched any 3 month clothing items and moved straight to 6 months in all brands. sigh. Her baptism is this weekend and we're going to squeeze her into my Christening dress from 1984. I was 9 lbs 8 oz when I was born, but I didn't plump up quite as quickly as she has, so we'll see how this goes!

The precious little pictures that are gracing this blog post are from her 6 week pictures that we took today. Most of the photos are in the same outfit because we started to melt down after awhile (the outfit/diaper change mid-shoot was just a little too much for her.) Everyone's first impressions so far? She looks so big...those cheeks, the double chin, the fact that she's neck-less in most of them. All so adorably chubby. Those cheeks are irresistible, aren't they? (Disclaimer: I was not prepared to be in photos today, but the only way she was quiet in outfit #2 was if she was held by Mommy. I didn't buy any of the ones with me in them, but I thought I'd share a few.)

Girly girl.

People frequently mistake babies to be the opposite gender. No one has done this for my child. Why? Could it be her girly face with the long eyelashes? Could it be the pink outfits she's always wearing? My best guess = headbands. Brooke has a headband on her head most of the time. Partly because I think they're adorable and she looks like a little princess in them. But mostly because I can't bear the thought of someone mistaking my Big Mama (my newest nickname for her - I'm fully aware of how random I am...) for a boy. She's 100% girl and will dress like a girly girl (whether she likes it or not) until she's old enough to dress herself...at like age 18.

All of this brings me to her Jordan outfit. Her uncles gave her this before she was even born, when everyone still held out hope that we'd have a boy. Alas, she was born a lady but still needed to dawn her little jersey-onesie to one of Daddy's basketball games. (Perhaps I should explain this further for those that don't know my husband as well. When I met him, he owned more shoes than me. Most of them were in the form of Air Jordans #'s 1-23. [I'm sure I'll get a lesson tomorrow on which ones he truly does and does not own, but I know it's many of these...] It's an obsession that I'm happy he outgrew. That's not to say we don't still have a stack of size 13's in orange boxes in the closet in our guest room...) So anyway, Brooke wore her little Jordan outfit to Daddy's game and it did look pretty cute. But I caught myself saying a million times "She looks like a boy," pretty much every time we showed her off to someone new. Apparently I have a complex about this. To remedy this, I wrapped her in a pink blanket and fought the urge to put her headband on over top of the hat.

(Oh, and can we talk about how big she is? Yowza. She looks so much bigger just this week. We're definitely over 13 lbs.)

Five Weeks.

5 weeks for the Big Lady. There is one word that defines this week: patience. My patience has been tested so many times this week. Brooke hit the infamous 6-week growth spurt a few weeks early (because she thinks she's that old) and has been a handful. She decided to spend an abnormal amount of time awake in a 48-hour period. On top of a lack of sleep, she got hungry more frequently than usual but would only eat a little bit at a time. Oh yeah, and the Poop Monster (the nickname our poor child has received from both of her parents and will more than likely send her to therapy in the future) has been ruining outfits left and right. 4 a.m. explosions are my favorite - nothing like stripping a half-asleep, half-pissed infant in the middle of the night, trying to calm the starving child while dealing with the poop that is just everywhere. Let's just say we're down 1 onesie as I decided at 4 a.m. it wasn't worth my time or sanity to clean it and so into the trash can it went.

Today was the (knock on wood) turning point for us. We had a pretty good night, going 7 hours between feedings. This morning, I woke up to find that my little one, still fast asleep, had fallen from her side-sleep position onto her belly. That's right, her belly. Call the SIDS-police now, folks, because I *gasp!* left her that way. I took a shower, got ready, and even ate my breakfast, and all the while my baby girl was sleeping on her belly. And I don't feel bad about it, nor did I worry about her - she's freakishly strong. Plus, I felt like a human being again! Not only that, but not having to depend on someone else to help with her so I could do all of these things left me in an incredibly good mood. Bonus!

Speaking of freakish strength...the pediatrician told us to increase Tummy Time from now on to improve Brooke's already incredible upper body strength. So, we worked some in today. Here's the step-by-step process in pictures: first, figure out what's going on; next, rest up for what is going to be a tough couple of minutes; then, it's go time - lift, lift, lift!

Holy Smokes!

This is what Brooke's pediatrician said as she walked into the room at her one-month appt today, after having taken a peek at her chart. The nurse had weighed her in at an incredible 12 lbs 13.6 oz. This shocked the doctor, as did the fact that she's now 24 1/4 inches long, up almost 2 in. from birth. Her head has also grown an inch (like it really needed to...) and is now 16 inches around. When I say Big Lady, I clearly mean Big Lady! When she checked the growth charts, she told me Brooke is completely off the charts. OFF THE CHARTS! Apparently they don't make babies this big. And by "they", I mean society. She's not the least bit concerned by her size - she's proportionate, she doesn't really eat all that often, and when she does it's not for very long. She says she's just an "efficient eater" and has a "big stomach". So, as long as the doctor's happy with her size, I'll proudly continue putting my brand new baby in her 6-month sleepers (wore the first 6-monther today!)

Brooke was so good throughout the whole appt. She was very quiet and calm, super alert, smiling and cooing at the doctor. I think the doctor was both impressed by and enamored with our baby girl. She got one shot today, which made Mommy almost as sad as Brooke. But there were no tears involved for either of us - she doesn't have fully-developed tear ducts yet and, well, I was just brave :) She has her very first Princess band-aid to show for it! (Can you say precious?)