Mommy's helper.

This is how Brooke helps Mommy bake cookies at 7.5 months old:

My response to this: "And so it begins..."

The husband's response to this: "We own a jello mold?"

Catch-up time.

I feel like it's been ages since I really blogged. Like really did it. It's been sad because I really do enjoy keeping up with the blog, both for your sake and my own. ("Your" being all of my faithful readers, the dozen or so of you that keep up with this silly thing. And, actually, three-quarters of you see Brooke on a semi-frequent basis, so none of this is really new to you anyway. But I digress...) I guess we've just been busy. So here's a little catch-up on the Big Lady's adorable little happenings:

- She is sleeping so much better these days! We get nice long stretches of sleep sometimes, like last night when she didn't make a peep from 9 to almost 6. We still have craptastic nights sprinkled in, but all-in-all the sleep department is good these days. (I'm sure I'm jinxing myself for tonight, but whatev.)

- Brooke waves hello and goodbye on command. It's heart-meltingly cute. (Yes, I just made that word up. So sue me, it's my blog.) See for yourself.

(Before you say anything, yes that was "The Story of Easter" you saw on our messy floor. She doesn't have many books, so we read the same 7 over and over and over again. That is one of them. One of her first words might be Resurrection.)

- She says both "Mama" and "Dada". At first they were just sounds rather than names for her beloved parents. But now I'm pretty sure it's appropriately directed at us at least some of the time.

- She is babbling so much more lately. She has mastered several letters of the alphabet, with her recent fave being "N". What sounds like "no no no" is part of her latest stream of conversation.

- She crawls up on her hands and knees a lot now. But if she's in a hurry, she plops on her belly and does the army crawl. She's much faster that way.

- Though I'm sure I'm soon going to be nicknamed "The Girl who Cried Teething", I am certain Brooke is thisclose to getting her top teeth. I really mean it this time. She's a MESS, especially today, and everything is getting gnawed on. Including Mommy, which is making nursing a very painful experience. I'm sad to say we may be nearing the end of this Mommy-Brooke bonding time.

That's all for now. More to come :)

A good morning.

Brooke was up at 7:30 this morning. This is early for us, y'all. She usually gets up between 8:30 & 9:30, so this was not the greatest. However, I can't be too upset about it because....

SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!

9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. That's 10 1/2 hours, in case you can't handle that kind of math on a Friday. Seriously! I can't get over this. Because, you guys, she hasn't slept through the night since March. MARCH. Having gone to bed early myself, I got a solid 8 straight hours of uninterrupted slumber. This is crazy. I don't know what to do with myself.

I had a feeling this was coming. This was night number 4 of her skipping the middle of the night feeding, which means we are now 100% weaned from that one (yay!) The past 3 nights she'd woken up several times, but needed just a pacifier and a little back rub to get back to sleep. I guess last night she just decided she didn't need Mommy's help anymore. Fingers crossed this is the start of something great!

Pre-baby.

"I can't even remember what my life was like before I had kids."

You know you've heard it before. People drop this cliche all the time. As if giving birth suddenly means you develop memory loss regarding your pre-baby life. Well, let me tell ya: I remember 100% what life was like before I had my kid.

I slept. A lot. Like more than I needed to. I distinctly remember Sundays in college when I'd roll out of bed around noon, grab some breakfast/lunch, and then be back down for a 2-hour nap after that. Not only did I sleep, but I slept consecutively, sometimes 10-12 hours. And oh-so-soundly.

I relaxed. A lot. We spent weekends just lazing around the house watching Food Network. I'd get home from work during the week, grab a snack and curl up on the couch to catch up on my soaps. (From that day, not a week ago. I'm always a week or two behind now.)

I went out. An appropriate amount. And drank. More than one beer in a night. And didn't worry about what time I was drinking those beers and how it fits into anyone's feeding schedule or bedtime. And I saw my friends every weekend. And the husband and I went out to dinner and no one had to remember to bring the puffs and a sippy cup.

I remember my pre-baby life vividly. It was great. But it pales in comparison to my post-baby life. I gave up sleep and relaxation the day I had Brooke and I'd do it over again in a heartbeat. Nothing beats this life. Nothing beats hearing the word "Mama" come out of my daughter's mouth. (Note to self: update the blog with the latest and greatest in the world of Brooke, like her new "words" and the fact that she can wave now.) Nothing beats watching her eyes light up when I walk into her room in the morning. Nothing beats her open-mouthed kisses. Nothing. I'm obsessed with this post-baby life.

Reorganizing.

"Oh, hi Mommy. Did you not want me to empty out this basket for you? I thought you'd like to see all my headbands and the Qtips and the lotion and my brush strewn all about the floor. No? Silly me."

When I said she was getting into everything now, did you think I was kidding? So, so not.

Splish splash...

...Brooke loves takin' a bath!

Apologies for having to suffer through listening to my voice in all these videos. I can't keep quiet in them mostly because I am never quiet anymore. I dictate EVERYTHING I am doing to Brooke. I'm also constantly asking her questions, even though she never answers me. I then answer these questions for her. (Examples: "Are you a sleepy girl? I think you are." and "What would you like for lunch today? Peas and bananas? Good choices!") I talk to her all-the-live-long-day. They say babies should have heard 2 million spoken words before they turn one. Just making sure we meet this quota :)

Boredom.

Boredom can sometimes be a great thing. It was during an uneventful moment of boredom that Brooke and I ventured outside to play. She got to discover grass for the first time and had a great time with it. She loved ripping it out of the ground in handfuls and then watching it blow away in the wind. The pictures turned out so cute so I just had to share!