1st cereal = FAIL.

Brooke got to try rice cereal for the first time this morning. And it was a big fat failure. She was so disinterested; she kept her mouth closed tight. As you can see in the pictures, she did not find it too yummy. If she's anything like her mom, the consistency was just too much for her to get over! The husband got a little on his finger and made the mistake of licking it off; he now understands why she wasn't gobbling it up. Hilarious! Anyway, she couldn't have been very hungry because she had just eaten an hour before (the doctor recommended timing it this way.) So we gave up after about 15 minutes of absolutely no progress. Tonight we'll try again before a feeding when she's actually hungry and see how that goes. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures :)

The very first bite.

"Mommy is trying to shove some weird stuff in my mouth. She thinks making airplane noises will help. Mommy has finally lost it."

"Um, Mom & Dad, there's some gross stuff on my chin and you're not wiping it off. Hello?! Can you not see it?"

Holy smokes again!

Brooke is the talk of the office when she visits the doctor. Really, she's the talk of most places that we go, as people love to stare and smile at her adoringly. She's that cute. (Humility is one of my strongest assets.) It's typically the cheeks and the gummy smiles that people fawn over. When we go to the doctor, they aren't gossiping about her beauty; it's her size. She got another "Holy smokes!" from the pediatrician today. Apparently when the nurse handed her Brooke's chart outside the door to our room, she said "Your next baby is a BIG one."

How big? She weighed in at 19 lbs 7 oz and measured 28.25 inches long (her weight is represented on the chart by the purple dot; the red dot is average for her age, at 13.5 lbs). The doctor's absolutely not concerned over her size at all. She's proportionate, just largely so. She is currently the size of the average 10-month-old (the green dot). She's in the 25th percentile....for 1-year-olds. Yes, that's right; 25% of children blowing out the candle on their first birthday cake are Brooke's 4-month-old size.

Due to her size, the doctor and I both agree that she could benefit from rice cereal. Starting tonight, Brooke will get cereal twice a day in between regular feedings, in the hopes that this will fill her big ol' belly and squash this constant hunger I've been noticing. (Fingers crossed this helps her go back to sleeping through that 2 a.m. feeding!) After several weeks, if she's reacting well to the cereal and we get into a groove with it, we can introduce veggies and fruits! So exciting for her, as she's been enviously watching us eat (and grabbing for our food) for a while now!

The pediatrician was super-impressed with her developmentally. She is "advanced" for 4 months. So many times during our appt she would start saying "Soon, she'll start doing [insert milestone here]..." and I would stop her to say that she has already done it. For example, tripod sitting (sitting up on her own using her hands for support) is really a 6 month step - Brooke's already doing it. She told me we need to be very careful where we put her and always just assume that she will roll around (i.e. stop plopping her on the couch when we need to quickly do something...)

Poor baby girl had to have 2 shots and was not too thrilled about that. Mommy fed her mere moments after getting them and it soothed her immediately. She also got Tylenol just before which helped lessen the pain as well. (Get this - because our 10-month-old, whoops I mean 4-month-old is so big, a dose of Tylenol for her is 1.5 dropper-fulls!) The little doped-up peanut is blissfully napping as we speak and has already forgiven me for putting her through this torture :)

Belly laughs.

Just another video of Miss Brooke. Or as Daddy calls her when she makes her new fun noises, "Brookie the Wookie". Prepare yourself for precious laughs, raspberries on the belly, and baby fat rolls (this will give you a good view of the thighs, which are fantastic.) Enjoy :)

We've got a roller!

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the latest and greatest in ROLLING babies! The bigger-than-most princess rolled over for the first time today! She took the easy way out and went from belly to back, despite being thisclose to flipping from her back to her belly. But I am beyond thrilled that she has hit this milestone. And it was totally intentional - I was baiting her with toys and she did it a total of 5 times today. Way to go, Big Lady!

(When I get it on video, I will surely get it up here for all of you. Of course, Murphy's Law states that as soon as you set down the video camera the baby will perform what you've been asking of her. I literally set the camera down after trying to get her to roll for 5 minutes and that is when she chose to do it. Similarly, every time we've tried to show Daddy today, she just happily stays on her belly. Figures.)

Go Redlegs!

Brooke attended her very first Reds game on Thursday night. She had a great time, taking in all the sights and sounds around her. She was ready for a nap around the 6th inning, just like her Mommy. The Redlegs pulled out a victory, beating the Dodgers 8-5, meaning Brooke's lifetime Reds game record is a perfect 1-0. If I were her, I'd quit while she was ahead...

When getting her ready for the game, we pulled out her Reds hat that she got from her grandparents the day she was born. We snapped a picture of her with it on her head when she was just 2 days old (below left) and it was certainly a bit big on her. Well, I doubt this will come as a surprise to anyone but it's too small now. We STRUGGLED to get it on (below right) and I wouldn't really call the final fit "on" by any means. It looked pretty goofy resting on the top of her head (just how her Grandpa Dan used to wear hats before we convinced him that you need to pull the hat down rather than just place it on your head.) Anyway, I love seeing these pictures side-by-side; what a difference 4 months can make!

And I realize she did look rather boyish in her hat and bib. Since the hat didn't fit, she only wore it briefly and then had a bow on the rest of the time. That being said, she'll always look boyish in sports apparel because I am not a fan of the ever-popular pink sports apparel. I find pink sports stuff for babies a bit sexist, assuming girls can't wear the traditional colors. Don't get me wrong, we love us some pink in this house! But not when it comes to supporting our favorite teams. I don't wear pink in support of the Reds, the Flyers, the Bengals, etc. (let's be honest, I don't wear anything in support of the Bengals, usually - orange just isn't my color) so why should my baby girl? I'll get off my soapbox now...

Oh, hi friends!

This is the face of a well-rested, recently-fed happy-go-lucky 16-weeker, just laughing her way through a Wednesday in an oh-so-precious Sesame Street tee. Happy Wednesday :)

Such a big girl!

I know, I know, it's been a while. Blogging has taken a backseat to mommyhood. But that's a good thing, right?

Brooke is literally growing up right in front of us, both physically and intellectually. She hit the 3-month mark and apparently decided it was time to become a big girl. She's sitting up (!!), though slightly assisted. She can sit up supported by a Boppy for extended periods of time. Without any assistance she can actually stay upright for up to a minute. This boggles my mind!

She's almost rolling over. Unlike most, Brooke has decided to try to go from back to belly rather than belly to back (which is much easier and what most kids do first.) She's about 3/4 of the way there, just has to figure out how to get over that arm. I'll try to post video soon - it's so fun to watch!

Daddy set up the highchair this weekend. Though she's not eating in it just yet, she looks like such a big girl playing with toys in it. Best of all, she can now happily join us at the dinner table :)

Let's see, what else... We're not sleeping through the night anymore. But she is on a wicked schedule, so we're all getting a decent amount of sleep. She goes down about 9 p.m. every night. Then we're up for a feeding between 2-3 a.m., but it's still a brief 20 mins and then we're back in bed. Then she gets up for the day around 7 or 8 a.m. She was extra fussy and hungry last week, so on the advice of our pediatrician, we've tried giving her a big formula bottle before bed a few times to help satisfy her. No such luck. This girl is starving by 2 a.m. regardless. I'm hoping this means we'll be starting cereal next week after her 4 month doctor's visit - maybe a little extra food in the belly will help?

That's all for now. I'm off to play with my Big Lady (who is wearing her new babyGap jeans... size 12-18M. Don't even get me started on the near-meltdown I had in the Gap when we tried these on and realized this was the size she needed. Oh sister...)