One year ago.

One year ago, I had a baby in my belly.
One year ago, I was filled with an incredible amount of excitement & pride, but also anxiety & fear.
One year ago, I thought I knew what being a parent would be like.
One year ago, I had no pregnancy "symptoms", only a couple little sticks telling me I was.
One year ago, we had a million ideas about how we would prepare for a little one but no idea where to start.
One year ago, I started a blog to chronicle my thoughts as I travelled the road to Baby Reeder.

One year ago today, I found out I was pregnant. And one year later, life is completely differently...in a totally fantastic way.

p.s. Did this photo scare you? Make you think we'd have 2 under 1? Just seeing this picture again makes the husband really nervous :)

Under the weather.

Lesson learned: being a mom and being sick are not compatible. The whole familia suffers.

Yep, you guessed it. This mama was bed-ridden all day Saturday. It was rough. Haven't had a fever like that in a long, long time. It totally drained me of all my energy. I continued nursing Brooke throughout the day (don't worry, the Internet said it was okay to do so; we Googled it, as all respectable parents do) but that was about the extent of it - I could hardly hold her, let alone really care for her. All kidding aside, the Big Lady weighed too much for me to lift her and carry her around. Luckily, the fever subsided by the next morning, so I was only out-of-commission as Mommy for 1 day.

And what a weird day it was for my baby girl. This little one has her Mommy by her side every day, all day. While she got to see me every three hours on Saturday to eat, that was it. Without batting an eye, my fantastic husband put his SuperDad cape on and took over. He changed every diaper that day, dealt with all the fussiness, and kept her pretty happy. She spent a couple hours with both sets of grandparents (bless them!), but by the end of the day our usually perky munchkin started to melt down. Oh how sad she was! I managed to muster up a burst of adrenaline when I heard her screaming; poor thing just needed her slightly feverish Mommy to cuddle her and put her to bed. It's amazing how your body can find a 2nd wind when your baby needs you.

Anyway, the whole family has recovered. And now, the princess is all smiles again.
(I must say, SuperDad was also SuperHusband. He took excellent care of his ailing wife. Oh, and did I mention that Saturday was going to be our first official date night since Brooke was born? Um, big fat failure. The icing on the Craptastic Day cake, let me tall ya....)

Tasty fingers.

Mmmmm, these fingers are yummy!

Parenting styles.

Everyone parents differently. It's inevitable. Like snowflakes and Walmarts, no 2 are exactly alike. (C'mon, everyone has a Mart that they call "Sketchy Walmart". There's a killer one on Ridge Rd that I'd never take my child to, for instance.) Anyway, so parents - we all do things differently. Even spouses who share the same parenting fundamentals each do things their own way in some instances.

Tonight, as I'm unloading the dishwasher, the husband was in charge of entertaining our munchkin. Eventually, she started getting fussy; it was time to eat, he had to stall her 5 more minutes for me. The go-to method for helping quiet her is to sing her favorite song, Old McDonald. (I know, I know, we've been over this a million times. You, my faithful blog readers, are well aware how much my daughter likes this song. She and McDonald are tight. I guess she's channeling her inner-Hillsboro or something.) Well, Daddy has either never been to a farm or doesn't like traditional farm animals. Why have I come to this conclusion? Here's what I heard as I put away the dishes:

"Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a Brooke, E-I-E-I-O.
With a waaah waaah here and a waaah waaah there,
Here a waaah, there a waaah, everywhere a waaah waaah,
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."

And after he finished making fun of her (she doesn't mind, she thinks it's funny,) it continued like this:

"...And on his farm he had a spider problem, E-I-E-I-O.
With a web web here and a web web there..."

"...And on his farm he had a toad, E-I-E-I-O.
With a ribbit ribbit here and a ribbit ribbit there..."

"...And on his farm he had a tractor, E-I-E-I-O.
With a beep beep here and a beep beep there..."

"...And on his farm he had a hummingbird, E-I-E-I-O."

This is where I had to interject.

"What did you say? A hummingbird? I can't wait to hear what sound a hummingbird makes." His response, "They're silent." So it continued like this:

"...And on his farm he had a hummingbird, E-I-E-I-O.
With a (long pause) here and a (long pause) there,
Here a (long pause) there a (long pause) everywhere a (long pause).
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."

She ate this up, laughing her way through it and singing along. I can't wait until she starts talking and really singing this song. Will she have cows and pigs on her farm, or will she have silent hummingbirds and spider problems (my personal favorite)? Her preschool teacher is going to love her if it's the latter.

Bonding time.

Spring Break! No babysitting this week, so Brooke and I are officially on spring break. And we're loving every minute of it. She and I have been having a blast the last 2 days. Serious Mommy-Baby bonding time up in here. We've been playing HARD - so much so that she just crashes when it's nap time. We've taken walks, napped together, cleaned together. This has been some of the most fun I've had with her since she's been born. I think it's partly because we've had no obligations whatsoever; nothing on the calendar, nowhere to be, no one waiting for us. Just Brooke and Mommy hanging out at home.

Speaking of fun, Grandpa V introduced Brooke to one of his favorite games last week. It has no name, but it involves a baby hand & foot in one of Grandpa's hands and the other hand & foot in his other hand. And then there is major swinging through the legs and up in the air. This is something he's done with all of his kids and each of his granddaughters so far. He waits to introduce this to the little ones until they're physically strong enough to be able to handle it - I guess our big girl is big enough! These pictures crack me up, her face is priceless.

Here we go!

Grandpa, what exactly just happened here?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! The Easter Bunny was so good to me :)

Growth spurt.

Holy growth spurt, Batman!

Oh, Miss Brooke. When are we going to go back to sleeping all night? You spoiled your Mama! We've had a rough week in the sleeping department. Couple that with a ravenous hunger and it appears we've got one heck of a growth spurt going on. Brooke's been waking up at least once every night this week, going no more than 5 hours at a time. And when I pick her up when she cries out, she's inconsolable until I feed her. She literally slurps when she finally gets to start eating. It's exhausting for all of us!

Fingers crossed for a good night tonight. If not, it's Daddy's turn - it's the weekend, after all!