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Italy trip

2011-07-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

We made a trip over to Italy back in May and Greg spent part of the 10 hour flight back typing up this blog entry.

Italy 2011

Background

Lisa’s younger brother Joe (aka “Bubba Joe”) is a West Point grad and an Army Ranger that has been stationed in Vicenza, Italy for the last several years when he was not deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Since we found out back in 2006 or 2007 that Bubba Joe would be stationed in Italy we have said over and over that we would go visit him. We were planning to go over with Lisa’s parents back in the summer of 2009, but with Brooklyn due that summer we had to pass. Since this month was the end of Bubba Joe’s stent in the Army and, therefore, his last month in Italy, it was now or never to make the trip over. So, despite Brooklyn being 21-months old, Lisa being 6-months pregnant, and Greg being really busy at work, we packed our bags and headed over the pond with Lisa’s parents to have Bubba Joe show us around Italy. In an effort to capture at least some of the great times we had on our 10-day trip, we are going to post a bunch of pictures and the associated stories here on our blog.

Our translator and tour guide, Bubba Joe

The Trip Over

When getting ready for the trip, a lot of people would ask “Well, what are you going to do with Brooklyn while you’re gone?” And when we would tell them that she was going with us, the reactions ranged from stunned silence (“Oh …”) to questions regarding our sanity (“Have you thought this through?!”, “Are you crazy?!”) to optimistic fear (“Oh! Good luck with that!”).

For only being 21-months old, Brooklyn has been subjected to a lot of plane flights and has been a GREAT traveler. But all of those trips were in the 1-3 hour time frame. Now we were talking about 16+ straight hours of traveling from leaving our house to when we would arrive at our hotel in Rome … YIKES! We had definitely not thought this through! To add to the fun, we would have just gotten back into town from Conway, Arkansas after attending Lisa’s other brother A.J.’s graduation from Hendrix! Nothing like a 5+ hour drive from Arkansas to get our international traveling started. We just might be crazy and we would definitely need some luck for the trip to go smoothly!

Apparently, smooth traveling luck comes in the form of grandparents and a monkey!! On the 9+ hour flight to Madrid, the only time Brooklyn made a fuss was when her grandparents had the audacity to need to go to the restroom, so she was forced to sit across the aisle with Mom and Dad. This was unacceptable and led to a couple minutes of whining until the bathroom breaks were over and Brooklyn and monkey could go back to Grandma and Grandpa’s laps! With a lot of sleeping, coloring, eating, and playing with Grandma and Grandpa, Brooklyn made the trip over with ease, which made the trip easy for everyone else.

Brooklyn and her seatmate, Grandma

Rome

We started and ended our trip in Rome. Rome is Greg’s favorite city. He loves the combination of history, modern relevance, interesting architecture, good food, and walkability that is found in few other cities. Also, the fact that they keep the city relatively clean (as opposed to Naples that, as far as we can tell, is simply the trash can of Italy) doesn’t hurt. Even though we had been to Rome before, we went back to the traditional tourist spots: St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps.

Brooklyn and Grandpa at the Vatican

Trying to get some Holy water

Also, on our last night of the trip Lisa and Greg spent a romantic night wandering around the city passing what seemed like every major landmark and small garden in Rome, while Grandma, Grandpa, and Bubba Joe entertained Brooklyn.

Colosseum

Il Vittoriano

Brooklyn and Monkey

For Brooklyn’s 1st birthday, she received a little stuffed animal monkey from one of Greg’s co-workers, Rachel, and her husband, Rob. For whatever reason, she has been enamored with “Monkey” ever since. When Brooklyn was 17-18 months old she started having Monkey do things, beginning with carrying diapers over to her changing pad. This entailed Brooklyn carrying Monkey over to the diapers and making “Monkey’s hand” (really Brooklyn’s hand that was next to Monkey’s hand) reach down and pick up a diaper. So, when Brooklyn/Monkey would bring the diaper over to the changing pad you would have to say “Thank you, Monkey!” If you said, “Thank you, Brooklyn!”, Brooklyn would look at you like you were crazy and wait for you to say “Thank you, Monkey!”. Over the months, Monkey’s talents have continued to develop. These days Monkey does pretty much everything Brooklyn does and needs pretty much everything Brooklyn needs (including diaper changes, drinks, vitamins, teeth brushing, etc.)! So, when deciding what Brooklyn would get to bring to Italy, Monkey was without a doubt item number one. As you can tell from the pictures, Brooklyn wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Waiting to board in Dallas

Layover in Madrid (it's the middle of the night for us)

Taking a walking break with monkey

Celebrity Brooklyn

We weren’t aware of this before we got to Italy, but apparently Brooklyn is a celebrity there! Everywhere we went she was getting free stuff and people were taking pictures of her. Now, here in the States it is not uncommon for people to pay Brooklyn attention, but it is generally a simple “She is cute” after watching her play around a little bit. Not in Italy! You would have thought it was the only baby they had ever seen. Within a couple of hours of arriving in Rome, we had lost track of all the free stuff that she had gotten! Just arriving at the hotel the Bellman gave her candy (not just one piece, but an adult-size handful!), a receptionist gave her an apricot fruit drink (very random, but she liked it!), and another receptionist gave her a box of Italian candy that was like M&Ms. This continued through our entire trip! Pretty much anywhere we went, Brooklyn would get free gelato, free candy, or a free toy. Brooklyn was always reluctant to take whatever was being offered (probably a combination of stranger anxiety, being shy, and not knowing what was going on). So whoever was offering the goods would basically have to beg Brooklyn to take it, which just made it seem like she was big-timing them … just like a celebrity. Finally, even the Customs agents were loving Brooklyn. As we were passing through Customs in Rome on our way back, the Customs agent took Brooklyn’s passport over the to next agent just to show her how cute it was!

Jumpy

Along the trip Brooklyn decided that one of her favorite things to do would be to jump off of any step or any raised surface that we would allow her to get onto. So from Vatican city to the streets of Palermo she would seek out anything and everything resembling a step in hopes of getting to jump down onto the ground. Brooklyn also likes to have anyone or anything she can name participate in whatever activity she is doing. In other words, she likes to take turns with everyone else. This typically leads to Mommy, Daddy, Monkey, Puppy, Giraffe, Hop (bunny), Boy, Girl, and Baby singing songs (Lisa is the pro at singing for Puppy, Giraffe, Hop, Boy, Girl, and Baby!!). So, naturally, Brooklyn was constantly inviting Grandma, Grandpa, Bubba Joe, Mommy, and Daddy to jump off of whatever she was jumping off of with her. Brooklyn couldn’t get enough jumpy! If we would let her, she would continually “jumpy” over and over again. This led to a hilarious exchange while we were in Rome. After getting everyone to jump off a step with her many times, Lisa said she could jump “one more time.” Brooklyn stepped up, jumped down “one more time” and without a pause starting begging for another “one more time, please” with the following facial and hand expressions!!

"Pleeeeeease"

"One more time, please"

Greg is trying to get his phone out to take video

Needless to say, we couldn’t say no to that charm, so she proceeded to milk it for all it was worth and jumped at least 15-20 “one more times” off that step!

Getting Bubba Joe in on the action

And Mommy can't pass up a good Jumpy!

Rome to Sorrento

From Rome, we headed South along the coast to Sorrento. On the way, we stopped to see the Pompei ruins, which we learned is the most visited archeological site in the world. We helped keep their ranking! For those that don’t know (like us before we got there), Pompei was a very large city that was buried in lava and ash by a Volcano (Mt. Vesuvius) around 49 AD, killing everyone in city. There was so much ash that many of the peoples’ skeletons along with the stone buildings and streets were preserved in the ash. If any of you ever go there with a kiddo, do NOT bring a stroller. We took ours because Grandpa thought he remembered it being pretty flat. It was flat … until you got past the modern walkway to the actual ruins! The stroller almost lost an axel on that stop!

We made it through without losing Brooklyn or the stroller!

Such a nice family picture!

After Pompei, we finished the drive down the coast to Sorrento, which is along the Amalfi coast of Italy. We stayed at the same hotel (Il Nido) that Lisa’s parents had stayed at back in 2009 on the recommendation of an Italian co-worker of Lisa’s Dad. Needless to say, we went back for a reason. Just look at the view from our room’s balcony!

Also, the daily breakfast with fresh-squeezed orange juice out on a large terrace with the same view didn’t hurt. Here’s Brooklyn and Grandma enjoying a little breakfast.

Brooklyn still has monkey!

Sorrento is a great little, quiet resort town on the coast. It originally settled by the Greeks and then later by the Romans. There were stores in the town that have been open since the mid-1800s, which is astonishing when you think about it! That really puts the local Dallas establishments that proudly proclaim “Open Since 1990” or even “Open Since 1970” into perspective!

Strawberries

Throughout Italy they have little corner markets with local, fresh fruit. While we were in Sorrento, the strawberries smelled pretty good so we bought a couple baskets full. Little did we know these strawberries would be the best strawberries on the planet! We wouldn’t call ourselves strawberry connoisseurs, but Lisa and I have had the good fortune to taste some pretty good strawberries over years, including fresh picked strawberries in Norway, and these were hands down the best.

The strawberries looked different than your typical strawberries. They didn’t have the tiny black seeds on the outside, but barely had any visible seeds and what seeds were visible were more of a yellowish color. Also, the strawberries went to a point at both ends, whereas typical strawberries we get in the U.S. are concave at the top. Finally, the strawberries were fairly small compared to what we get in the U.S. But what they looked like didn’t really matter because they tasted so good! Somehow the fresh strawberries tasted more like a strawberry jelly than a fresh strawberry because they were so sweet. Needless to say, Brooklyn fell in love with the “fragolas” (Italian word for strawberries) and we heard a continuous request from Brooklyn for “more strawberries” and “green off” (take the leaves off the top). Here is Brooklyn carrying around her basket of green off strawberries and stuffing her face!

Who thought giving her strawberries by white dresses was a good idea?

Unfortunately, while the strawberries throughout the rest of Italy were good, they paled in comparison to the ones we got in Sorrento. Luckily, we made the most of the strawberries in Sorrento stopping regularly at the nearest market whenever our baskets began running low.

Sorrento to Palermo

From Sorrento, we headed further South to Sicily. To get there, we took an overnight ferry from Naples to Palermo. Since we had spent a couple days in Sorrento already, we decided to spend the day leading up to the ferry ride in Naples. Mistake! Naples is just a dirty, dirty city. There was literally trash everywhere. It was almost impossible to appreciate any of the history or culture of the city because you had to constantly look down to make sure you weren’t about to step in something you would regret! After about 2 hours in Naples (with about 6 more to go before we could get on the ferry!) we were longing for the good days of clean streets and delicious strawberries back in Sorrento. We literally could not get out of Naples fast enough!

Ready to get out of Naples!

The ferry ride to Palermo was uneventful and put us into Palermo at a little before 7:00 in the morning. Again, on recommendation of Lisa’s Dad’s Italian co-worker, Toni Manino, we were staying at a bed and breakfast (Casa Manzella) in a town, Terrasini, that was 15-20 miles from Palermo. While Casa Manzella didn’t have quite the view of Il Nido, it was a nice bed and breakfast in a great location by the town square. Terrasini is small town, so we had pretty much seen everything there was to see that morning while we were trying to kill some time so that it was a more reasonable hour to call the owner of the bed and breakfast to let him know we were there. When we called him close to 9:00 am, it still sounded like we woke him up in the middle of the night! He showed up about 30 min later and checked us in!

Church in the main square in town

Terrasini served as home base for short excursions to surrounding points of interest, including Segesta, Trappeto, and Palermo. Trappeto had special meaning for Lisa’s Dad as his grandparents had lived there! He actually spoke to an elderly man on the street who said there were still some Sanfilippos who lived on a street down the way. While we were walking down the street looking for a Sanfilippo name plate or something on a call button, a lady came out to see Brooklyn (naturally!). With Bubba Joe’s help translating we found out that her last name was Sanfilippi and that some of her relatives were Sanfilippos! Brooklyn was really friendly with Mrs. Sanfilippi until we tried to hand her to her for a picture, then Brooklyn lost it and made the face you see in the picture!

Bordering Terrasini was a town called Cinisi, which is apparently where Toni Manino (Lisa’s Dad’s co-worker who essentially served as our travel guide and booking agent for the trip!) grew up. We actually met up with his sister at a café called Pallazollo. Pallazollo turned out to be our go to place for apperativo, which is similar to happy hour in the U.S. but way more awesome. Essentially, they put out a buffet of really good food (sandwiches, meats, cheeses, various fried stuff, nuts, etc.) that is free as long as your table is buying drinks. We typically couldn’t resist adding some gelato and pastries (each made fresh daily) to our apperativo food arsenal. For us, apperativo was enough to be a dinner, but the locals insisted that you had to eat dinner in addition to apperativo. Apparently, there is a reason that the Southern Italians have reputation for being heavier! However, that is not because of eating too much pizza at lunch.

While someone in our party typically had pizza for lunch in Rome, Sorrento, and Naples, once we got down to Sicily they looked at us crazy when we asked about getting pizza for lunch! One day at a local market, we asked if there was anywhere in town that served pizza for lunch and after some discussion between the workers the answer was simply no! The result is that all of the pizza places don’t open until 3:00 pm and the restaurants that serve things other than pizza, don’t offer pizza until dinner. This got us thinking about things in the U.S. that we consider “dinner only” items and couldn’t possibly get at lunch. While breakfast typically isn’t available for dinner (at most restaurants) in the U.S., we couldn’t think of anything that is available at dinner but not a lunch. Can anyone think of anything?

We had planned on going to the Palermo v. Chieve soccer match while we were down there, but a perfect storm of events kept us from getting tickets. First, Palermo’s website indicated that tickets were on sale only through a ticket broker (similar to TicketMaster) and that there were two available shops to pick them up on game day, Sunday. Bubba Joe and Greg trekked down to Palermo around 2:00 pm to get tickets for the 6:00 pm game only to find out that both shops were closed on Sundays. So, they decided to head to the stadium in hopes that there would be a ticket office, despite the fact that many stadiums actually do not have ticket offices and those that do are typically not open on game days or close well before game time. This is obviously quite different than in the U.S., where you can walk up to most sporting events and buy a ticket at the window and walk right in to the game. You also have to have your passport (or local ID) to buy tickets and the tickets will only get you into the game if they match your ID. This obviously cuts down significantly on scalping! It is actually designed to prevent the actual “hooligans” who have been banned from attending games by the European soccer association (UEFA) from getting in. After stopping by the closed stores, talking to street vendors about scarf prices and the location of the stadium, Joe and Greg found a couple of booths outside the stadium that were labeled as the ticket office at about 3:35 or 15:35 as the locals would refer to it. Upon further inspection, they noticed that the ticket office was open on Sundays until 15:30!! They had missed it by 5 minutes! Unbelievable! In the end, it probably worked out for the best because it was a rainy evening and Palermo ended up losing 3-1, while we enjoyed a nice apperativo back at Pallazollo! However, the next day we did go back by the stadium for a few pictures while we were seeing the sights in Palermo. Also, Brooklyn picked up a Palermo jersey. It wasn’t hard for her to support a team that wears pink!

Outside the stadium

That's the end of Greg's post. And I'll just wrap it up by saying that on the trip home Brooklyn had pink eye in both eyes and a double ear infection. She was definitely fussy and cried on takeoffs and landings and was not a happy camper while we were stranded in Chicago for 6 hours. But looking back on it, she did amazingly well given what she was dealing with! We were so happy to be back home when we finally got here at 2 in the morning!

This and That

2011-07-27T21:18:00.006-05:00

Brooklyn and I made a trip up to St. Louis last week to see my family while Greg hosted a bachelor party at our house. (I was not the least bit upset about being kicked out!) We had a great time visiting. I love that there are so many things to do in St. Louis that are free! We went to the zoo twice because Brooklyn continues to be fascinated with animals! She loved the monkeys, of course. And she would have gone on every animal on the carousel if we had let her!

She's been randomly saying things about our trip up to St. Louis and to the zoo since we've been back. Every time we're in the car she wants to go to "Grandma Grandpa house". She will say that we need to take a plane and that "Mom" and Brooklyn fly up in the seats and monkey and blankie fly down with the suitcase.

Side note: She's been calling me "Mom" lately and I think it's because she head me saying that up in St. Louis. But she's also been shortening words lately like saying, "pup and monk". Hopefully it passes because I don't think it's fair that she stops calling me Mommy before she's even 2!

She tells the bear to stop showering because the birds are going to eat all of your food. She tells the squirrels to stop eating the birds' food (in the bird feeder at Grandma and Grandpa's house). She tells the boy to make sure his life jacket is on when he gets in the cold water with the penguins. And I'm not sure how many times a day she mentions that Grandma needs to repaint her toenails and fingernails pink because it is being scratched off.

Her memory wears me out every day! And don't try to whisper or talk about her to someone, because she will hear and remember and bring it up at some random point! So these are some of the pictures from our trip and since we've been home.

Sammy, could 'ya please? I mean honestly! (Actually I think they were trying to hide)

Much better!

Brooklyn enjoying the best dessert ever created...gooey butter cake!

Making sure Grandma keeps it neat!

Giving Mommy the evil eye for interrupting Brooklyn/Grandma time.

Is this the natural pose that you use when your nails are painted? I'm pretty sure no one showed her how to do this.

Riding the giraffe

Making sure the stingrays stay in the water!

This is the picture I showed Brooklyn and asked her to smile like Mommy for the next picture.

This is what I got!

Taking a nap with monkey.

We're back!

2011-05-09T21:06:00.008-05:00

So we haven't really gone anywhere, we've just been busy around here. We actually are going somewhere very exciting next week and hopefully it won't take 3 months to post the millions of pictures I'm sure we'll take. Here is what we've been up to the past 3 months!

We went to the lake house to check on things and on the long car ride home we decided that Brooklyn should enjoy an Oreo cookie. She loved it!

I took Brooklyn to the Mills mall in Grapevine and let her ride the carousel. She liked it until it started moving. And I got really dizzy on it! Apparently we need to practice more spinning around at home!

She loved riding the "choo choo truck". She knows that it's a train, but insists on calling it a truck. She just laughs when you try to correct her. So set in her ways already!

She also enjoyed the boat, but I think she likes Daddy's boat more.

She's in the caboose!

We met some friends for lunch at the Village of Allen and then let Brooklyn play in the water fountains. She had so much fun once she got used to the water spraying at her. We brought a change of clothes and she almost got those soaking wet when she ran off while we were looking the other way!

While I'm sure I ate a lot at lunch, that is also a pregnant belly you're noticing! I'm about 24 weeks along now and Greg likes to say I'm showing like I did at 33 weeks with Brooklyn! Brooklyn has a baby brother coming and I'm trying to enjoy the calm days and sleep-filled nights before he arrives. I'll try to be better about taking more pictures to document this pregnancy!

Super excited about the "wawa"!

Brooklyn and I went to the library one day when they had outdoor activities. Brooklyn is barefoot because she stepped in a swimming pool of bubbles earlier! Fortunately it wasn't that cold out! She loved drawing with the chalk, so we went to the store on the way home to pick some up!

We've also been going to the Dallas Art Museum the past two months. On the first Tuesday of the month they have children's activities and admission is free! This is a wall of ivy outside in the sculpture garden.

Brooklyn had a good time playing with these magnets.

There are horses outside the new OBGYN's office that we've been going to. Brooklyn enjoys the horses from far away. She was a little weary this close!

She would prefer this distance! She's pointing at some longhorn cattle.

Posing in her Easter outfit!

Not so silly in this one!

More fun at the Dallas Art Museum with our BFF, Isaac!

So cute together!

Playing with the streamers outside at the art museum.

Brooklyn is growing up so quickly! She's learning multiple words each day, talking in 2-4 word sentences, remembers the craziest and most minute details of every single day, loves reading books to her animals and being read to, doing puzzles, playing outside in the dirt and pointing out everything she knows the words for when we're driving in the car. She hates getting her hair rinsed out in the bath right now for some reason. As in she screams and stands up in the tub when you try to rinse out the shampoo! Who knows! Hopefully this phase passes quickly!

That's all for now! We'll be back in a couple weeks with some really good pictures hopefully!

Lots to update

2011-02-07T22:13:00.007-06:00

It's been some time since the last post. I don't have a good reason other than just being busy (and lazy). Here are some pictures of the last few weeks proving that we're still alive and well!

Our new game...walking on the treadmill.

She can turn around in a full circle while the treadmill is running!

She wanted Greg to pick her up. I had her too close to the snow!

She likes the snow as long as it's not directly touching her!

The pool isn't looking so inviting right now!

I can't remember what she was doing here, but it was probably her favorite past time...dancing!

This is how we get Brooklyn ready for bed. I don't think they mention this in any of the parenting books!

Getting ready to race with Daddy.

Showing off her new pajamas.

Walking through the snow with Daddy who knew better than to let go!

Another project from Gymboree. It almost took pulling teeth to get her to put any of the candy on the house and not in her mouth!

After taking a bath she LOVES to put on lotion.

Brooklyn had her 18-month check up and she did great (as long as it was just the two of us in the room!) She knows a little too much about what goes down at the doctor's office. Everything checked out great and she's still got a big head for her little body! The other day we measured our heads at home (for snowboarding helmets) and she's only 5 cm behind her mother! Yikes! She talks ALL day now and loves her books, puzzles, drawing, driving, dancing and "talking" on the phone. Oh, and she is slightly obsessed with puppies. Every magazine that comes in the mail is turned page by page to find a single glimpse of a puppy. And I made the mistake the other day of pulling up a video of puppies playing on youtube. Oops! Greg has an app on his phone of rotating puppy pictures. The girl enjoys her technology! We also took her to a puppy parade in St. Louis and there is one coming up in McKinney that we are planning on attending. I'll do anything to not have to get her a puppy for home!

Some new words she's been saying lately include: brrrr!, puppy, hi, bye bye, jaja (jacket), shoes, up and down, pants, shirt, ocks (socks), ights (lights), eight, purple, ello (yellow), scadoo (sqwarado - Italian for diaper rash, thanks to my parents!), drive, draw, bath, tweet (for birds), monkey (although it sounds a lot like puppy!), giraffe, hat, hair, eye, ear, ready, set, go, baby, paper, and just today she said, "oh wow, mama!" She found some bb's from a gun at the park. I loved it! I'm sure there are more because I haven't heard "eh, eh, eh" while she's pointing to something in a while!

I'm going to try to post more later!

Santa visit

2010-12-12T22:11:00.005-06:00

Brooklyn and I went to visit Santa at the mall last week. She was a happy camper 3 seconds before and 3 seconds after seeing him, but was TERRIFIED while on his lap...which made for some awesome pictures!

Here they are seconds before Santa

Merry Christmas to all!

Consoling each other after the ordeal

All smiles again

I just thought this was a funny picture!

More Gymboree fun!

2010-12-06T19:30:00.004-06:00

Brooklyn has had 2 more Gymboree classes and is starting to really show off her creative talents. She is the ham of the class too, which I think is so funny since the other kids are 2 and 3 years old. She loves talking while she creates and watching just how the other kids do things. And she can finally finish all of her goldfish by the time the story is over! Small victories!

Not much has been going on around here. My crazy headaches are finally under control with the help of some steroids. Hopefully they keep working their magic and we can be pain free in a couple weeks, although I've had enough of their side effects already! I feel crazy, exhausted but can't sleep, hungry all the time and ready to break down at the slightest bit of adversity! But at least I can remember what happens throughout the day, which is more than I can say for the past month on pain meds! I pretty much slept through Thanksgiving, I think!

We went to a Christmas tree lighting at a nearby mall a couple weeks ago...it's all a little hazy to me! Good thing the camera remembers which day the pictures were taken!

Apparently a single bloodshot eye comes along with the headaches I had. Tell me that doesn't make your eyes water! I'm crying right now just looking at it! So gross!

But Brooklyn looks so cute in her hat!

Now it's Christmas time and the fall decorations are still on display at the house! Hopefully we'll get our Christmas tree up before too long. Brooklyn has already demonstrated her ability to take ornaments off of random trees we've seen, so we'll be placing them just above her reach! We're also planning a trip to go see Santa, so I'm excited to see her reaction this year! I have a feeling we'll either get a screaming gal or sticking her tongue out. That's her new thing when you take a picture of her. Lovely!

Arboretum and 15 month check up

2010-11-19T21:56:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago we met up with our friends, Jill and Isaac, at the Arboretum. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time! The great pumpkin festival was still in full swing so there was lots of playing with pumpkins!

Such nice kiddos sharing pumpkins with each other!

Brooklyn couldn't believe how big these pumpkins were!

A little posing outside the entrance

Posing in front of some mums

A house of pumpkins!

Look how excited those kids look to be taking another picture!

Brooklyn also had her 15 month check up a few weeks ago. She's still a light weight and "average" height (sure!) according to the doc. And is still in the 90th percentile for head circumference. I blame Greg! She's doing so much new stuff lately. Our new words include bubbles, pop, puppy, thank you and oh wow! She's learning sign language faster than I can look up new words! She likes to use all the words she knows at once if she really wants something. So you'll get please, thank you, more, all done all at once. She's a bubble blowing machine, loves to jump and go on walks, still takes 2 naps a day and sleeps almost 12 hours at night (I love it!), loves giving hugs and kisses to Mommy and Daddy and still has 3 teeth! I think that's all for now! We're looking forward to the amazing weather this weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gymboree

2010-11-19T20:57:00.007-06:00

So a couple months ago we bought a Groupon for 4 weeks at Gymboree. I took Brooklyn to one of the play classes a few weeks ago and was a little disappointed because I felt like we could do the same stuff at the mall play area or at the park. I also peeked in on the music class and it was very similar to what we do at the library. But there was one more class that they offer and it was an art class so I thought it might be something we could try. Too bad you have to be 18 months to participate and the Groupon expires at the end of the year. So Brooklyn's birthday was moved up 3 months and we went to our first class today! She did amazing! See for yourself!

The teacher picked out green and pink for Brooklyn to paint with. She was very impressed that this was Brooklyn's first time painting!

We had to get an extension put on for Miss 90th percentile!

Mommy did the gluing and Brooklyn did the feather coloring.

She painted this turkey using a feather and then shook some glitter on!

We also played with cornmeal which took Brooklyn a minute to get in to. She kept brushing off her hands when she touched the cornmeal. Eventually she started playing with the toys and not worrying about getting her hands dirty. We played with Play-Doh for the first time too! What a wonderful experience! I'm getting ideas for art projects at home. Apparently Brooklyn is ready for some!

Gracias, Tia Katie!

2010-11-01T22:04:00.002-05:00

Thanks for my beautiful rosary! This is how I like to wear it! I walked around with it on all day! Thank you for remembering the first anniversary of my Baptism! I hope I get to go to Italy one day too!

UT vs. Baylor game

2010-11-01T21:42:00.002-05:00

We went down to Austin this weekend for the UT football game. We took 2 delicious breaks at the Czech Stop in West on the way down! Despite the good guys losing, we had a great time at the game. Brooklyn loved looking over the railing at the band. Any time they were on the field, she was leaning over to get a better look. She also read the program to see how both teams were looking. She fell asleep after A LOT of pacing in the hallways and was able to get some sleep in the car on the way back. We got in around 2:30 Sunday morning and she started stirring at 6:30 and finally woke up at 7:45. I miss those weekends of sleeping in!

We were able to meet up with some of Greg's old roommates and college friends who live in Waco and Austin while we were down there. We pointed out Austin landmarks to Brooklyn as we crept along stuck in Austin traffic. Overall it was a nice, quick getaway weekend. Thanks for inviting us down again, Ryan!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T21:29:00.004-05:00

We took Brooklyn to the neighborhood Halloween party last night and then we went to a nursing home close by to go trick-or-treating. She figured out pretty quickly that getting candy from strangers was an awesome thing! She started holding out her hand for more by the end! Then we came home and handed out candy to the little kids (No one in their teens, driving around in a car or carrying a trash bag to collect candy should be trick-or-treating in my opinion! I know I sound like an old lady, but I don't care!) OK, back to cute babies on Halloween! Here are pictures that I took with Brooklyn today. She has the best faces when she runs down hills!

HayBoo Fall Festival

2010-10-28T10:14:00.002-05:00

We went to one of Greg's work parties a couple weekends ago. They had it at a pumpkin patch across the street for the first time. It was a great night and everyone had a good time. I love the top left picture of Brooklyn and Greg riding in the barrel. Brooklyn looks like she's waving as if she's a pro barrel train rider! Brooklyn was terrified of the goats, but had a great time playing with Isaac in the pumpkins! She was so worn out that she fell asleep in the car on the way home, which she NEVER does! Oh, and apparently that is her pumpkin patch outfit! Who knew!

We had our 4th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party last weekend. Apparently we we€€re too busy having fun to take any pictures though! This weekend we're heading down to Austin for the UT game, so hopefully we'll remember to get out the camera while we're down there!

Trip to St. Louis

2010-10-13T23:39:00.004-05:00

Brooklyn and I went to St. Louis for the week and Greg joined us for the weekend. We had a great time visiting the zoo and the pumpkin patch and spending time with my family! The weather was perfect and it was so nice to be able to play outside without sweating to death! Brooklyn loved playing with Sammy, Grandma, Grandpa and A.J.! She still does this little dance when she sees Grandpa on Skype! So funny! Hopefully we'll get a video of it soon. She loves dancing in the morning and her repertoire of movements is growing every day. She has also been very generous with her 'courtesy laugh' as Greg calls it. And everything new gets an "ooooohhhh" now. Her top, left tooth is in and I think she's working on the next one. She loves showing all of her teeth with a goofy smile. She is the biggest ham and loves to turn on the sweet girl charm to get what she wants.

The afternoon that we returned to Dallas, we drove up to the lake for one last trip before winter. Brooklyn slept in until 10 both mornings for some reason. It was awesome! She would wake up for about 30 minutes and play and then fall back asleep for a couple more hours. I think Sammy must have worn her out! On Sunday we went out on the boat to drain the gasoline before storing it for the winter. Unfortunately Greg used up the gas so well that the boat ran out of juice about 200 yards from the dock. So Greg and Chris had to swim us in to the boat ramp in the other direction. The wind was helping a little, but they had to swim hard for about 45 minutes! Brooklyn and I just hung out in the boat taking in the views! Then Greg had to walk barefoot while carrying Brooklyn (so I could keep the boat by the shore) to the house to get the truck. He also claims that it was uphill the entire way and that most of it was gravel! So funny!

Brooklyn and I are loving the cooler weather here too! We've been on walks every day and she likes to pick up everything on the ground for me to hold. She also enjoys climbing up people's driveways and then running back down. She waves to her shadow and runs from mine when I pretend to grab her.

We have lots coming up in the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be better about updating the blog!

Labor Day and beyond!

2010-09-10T22:10:00.008-05:00

We spent the long weekend at the lake trying to get our fill of boating before the weather cools down too much! My dad, brother and his girlfriend joined us in hopes of surfing and 4 wheeling all weekend. What they didn't know was that Greg had lots of work planned for them! OK, again my family comes to visit and we end up working most of the time! This time we cleared a lot of the woods out and made several bonfires! So thanks again family for your help! We couldn't have down it without you! The lake was incredibly low, which left a perfect muddy area for 4 wheeling. We did get out on the boat a couple times. Brooklyn even got behind the boat on her 13 month birthday! Greg took her knee boarding while I drove the boat. Her life jacket interferes with her ability to sit up independently, so Greg had to help her sit up, hold on to the rope and try not to fall off the back of the board all while being dragged behind the boat at 5 mph! Brooklyn just took it all in. She didn't really seem excited or scared. Maybe next time we'll put her out there by herself! OK, probably not!

Before we left Brooklyn and I took pictures at the lake by our house. She was loving the weeping willow trees. And she was fascinated by the large flags lining the street. At 13 months she is learning new stuff each day. She's great at making towers of blocks and knocking them over. She usually waits until you say, "ready, set, go!" before knocking them over. She understands two step commands such as, "go to your room and lay down so I can change your diaper"! I'm sure it's too early for potty training, but she clearly knows when she needs to be changed because she will walk into her room and reach for a diaper in the drawer and then lay down on her changing pad. She is also impressively good at waiting for things. For instance, the bad storms a couple weeks ago left a crazy amount of leaves and flowers in the pool (along with a frog!) that took me 45 minutes to skim out. Brooklyn just hung out outside watching me, helping empty the skimmer into the trash and just walking around pointing at things. I may have had to tell her once or twice to not get so close to the pool, but that's all! And she also sits on the counter while I get food ready or cut up fruit!

I'm pretty sure she understands almost everything that I tell her. She's also been mimicking words lately. She has three variations of "ah, ah" for a dog barking, a bird chirping and monkey noises. Also, if you name something in a book she'll use the same number of syllables that you do. She can't pronounce all the different sounds yet, but she's figuring it out! Because she's forward facing in the car now she loves pointing at the stop lights and saying "op" and holding up her hand for "stop" when the light is red and "dooooo" and pointing forward for "goooo" when the light is green. She also has learned sign language for "please" and made up her own sign for "baby". It's frightening to me the speed at which she is learning!

Other things we've been up to...

This is Brooklyn's new move when you tell her it's bath time!

Showing off her swimsuit. This was probably the last time we'll get in the pool this year.

And one from behind

She loves watermelon.

We're learning how to use a fork. She's pretty good at stabbing things and getting them into her mouth (even if it won't fit!)

She dumped some cheerios on the floor and then proceeded to stomp on them in between bites. Lovely! I don't know where she gets these ideas!

Big girl!

2010-08-28T23:03:00.005-05:00

Brooklyn got herself a new car seat for her birthday! We had it in the bedroom while I was reading the instruction manual and she climbed into it every day to read books and play with her toys. Hopefully she'll enjoy it just as much in the car as she did inside!

sleepy girl

testing out the new car seat

She's also been trying on our clothes. She put my tank top on by herself. Too bad she couldn't fit her head through the arm hole!

What a fashionista! Good try, Brooklyn!

We put Greg's soccer jersey on her one day and she loved her dress!

Then she wanted to get it off so she could get back to playing with toys!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

2010-08-12T12:04:00.004-05:00

Hope you're having a great day! Isn't Brooklyn nice for sharing her decorations?!

ONE!

2010-08-08T22:09:00.008-05:00

We made it! Brooklyn turned ONE on Friday! What a difference a year makes! She's gone from this...

to this...

She's still the sweetest girl and we've had so much fun watching her grow over the past year (even though it doesn't feel like it's been nearly that long!)

On Friday we made a special breakfast of french toast and eggs, had lunch with Greg, let her open and play with a couple of presents and sang "Happy Birthday" many, many times!

On Saturday we had her first birthday party, which was lots of fun and a little overwhelming at the same time!

At one year old, Brooklyn is:

-walking/running

-saying "mama, dada, nah, and hey"

-wants to feed herself all the time

-mimics people (tries putting on our shoes, attempts dressing herself in our clothes or hers, undoes her diaper, 'talks' on the phone or an object she considers similar)

-hands objects to share with others

-uses signing for 'more' and 'all done'

-would prefer to eat fruit all day

-enjoys swimming and playing in the pool

-likes to help her mama with house chores!

-waves 'bye' although not usually on command

-points to things she wants (she's especially good at finding airplanes)

-plays chase, likes to slam dunk things and knock towers of things over

I think the list could go on and on. It's amazing how much she learns every day and how fast she picks up on things! Kinda scary too!

Here's to another wonderful, fun-filled year!

Another picture

2010-07-30T23:14:00.003-05:00

I forgot to add this picture. We went up to Arkansas to celebrate the Fourth of July. It was Brooklyn's first time on the boat in the water. She wasn't sure what to think at first. She just sat very quietly and just took everything in. And then when we let her get in the water she started having fun! Next year she'll be ready for skiing and driving the boat! Look out!

Family fun!

2010-07-30T14:12:00.010-05:00

My family drove down from St. Louis last week for what they thought would be a nice relaxing visit. Little did they know that we had lots of work that needed to be done around the new house! I promise that was not our intent, but it seems like that's how it always turns out with my family! The floors were swept, the dishes were cleaned, the laundry was done, the landscaping never looked so good and most importantly, the house was filled with my favorite people! Even Brooklyn's Tia Katie came down for a few days. But apparently we were too busy to take pictures while she was down here! Sorry, Katie!

We were able to have some fun while my family was here. A.J. and Beth were in charge of keeping the pool clean so we could go swimming each day. We also made a trip to the beach club in McKinney one day. And Sammy caught several fish in the neighborhood ponds. I promise that even though Brooklyn is rarely wearing an outfit in the following pictures, we do have clothes for her! She just ran around in her diaper most days because it's been unbelievably hot!

I love this swimsuit! How cute is this girly?

She loves the pool and swimming with her daddy!

Brooklyn followed Sammy boy everywhere the entire week. She woke up looking for him every morning and crashed hard every night at bedtime. She wanted to do everything he was doing...eat, sleep, play, run around the house, jump on the bed. I don't think she left his side from the moment he walked downstairs the first morning they were here. Brooklyn clearly needs a play buddy around her own age. Mama isn't cutting it anymore!

Sammy and Brooklyn playing in their cardboard fort that Beth made. It took some coaxing by Sammy to get Brooklyn to go through!

Brooklyn walked around with this water bottle and soccer ball for the entire morning one day.

Such a multi-tasker! I don't know where she gets these ideas!

We found Brooklyn reaching into her car seat and pulling out puffs and yogurt melts that were left in there from an earlier car ride. She looks like she just got busted!

This girl loves her some watermelon!

Sammy and Brooklyn with their grandparents

Brooklyn opening an early birthday present. Clearly she was more interested in the card!

We had to get the big guns in to help since she was going too slow! Thanks, Sammy boy!

These two cousins love each other!

'OK, enough! Let's go play!' Brooklyn says!

Beth took them for a walk in the stroller and they both fell asleep before she hit the end of the block!

Sammy on the merry-go-round at the mall

We even put the two cousins to work cleaning the floor!

Such good helpers! Seriously, does no one in this family wear a full outfit?!

Brooklyn did get her first tooth while the family was here. She's just trying to be like Sammy any way she can!

Sweet baby sleeping. She was sucking her thumb because her teeth were coming in.

Stay tuned for pictures from Brooklyn's First Birthday Party!

Brooklyn walking

2010-07-01T08:32:00.003-05:00

This is the only way I could figure out how to get a video on here of Brooklyn walking. It's funny to see how far she's come. She barely ever gets up and falls down immediately anymore and she can walk all around a room, no problem. Maybe we'll get that on video soon! The middle clip is the first time we attempted getting her on video and she just wanted to dance.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pictures from the camera

2010-06-30T22:16:00.008-05:00

I took the pictures off the camera the other day and decided to share them with everyone since we haven't really had any pictures lately. Enjoy!

I couldn't get this one to flip around. But it's funny, none the less!

So this was the face that Brooklyn began making after getting water up her nose when we took her swimming every day of Memorial Day weekend. So funny! And it's practical...she can now blow her nose!

How cute! Watching fireworks for the first time with Daddy! She was enthralled!

Apparently we didn't want our picture taken today!

Ahh, memories! Our family in front of our first house.

Attack of the Brooklyn gal!

Cousin Lexi swimming

Vanetta and cousin Adrian also swimming during Memorial Day weekend

Brooklyn was worn out! She fell asleep with lots of screaming and splashing going on!

This is what happens when you're in the car ALL THE TIME and your mom tries to feed you puffs while driving! Sometimes we get them in the mouth...sometimes we miss!

OK, off to unpack some more stuff! I'm beginning to think I should just get rid of it all! It's not like we've used it in almost 2 months!

Weeble Wobble Walker

2010-06-23T23:49:00.006-05:00

Brooklyn took her first tiny, wobbly steps on June 12th. Now in the past couple weeks she's able to stand up from a squat or half kneel and walk/run all the way across a room! Crazy! She's even able to hold something small and walk. I have attempted to upload video of her walking for the past week and for some reason it's not working. Hopefully I'll get smarter than blogger so you can all see the toothless wonder walking around!

In other news, we're finally in the new house. There are still a crazy amount of boxes to unpack (or maybe just leave packed up!), but we're getting there! Pictures to come soon!

"Old" House

2010-06-13T21:32:00.004-05:00

As many of you know by now, we're in the process of moving to McKinney. It's taking a little longer than expected to get the new house ready, but we've been fortunate enough to be able to stay with Greg's mom. We're hopeful to move into the new house soon and get back on a regular schedule for all of us.

It all started several months ago...

Greg enjoys the occasional browsing of new houses that come on the market. Right before we headed down to Florida for a vacation (back in March!), he found a house that he wanted to go look at. So we toured the house and were intrigued by the idea of fixing it up. So we put an offer on the house when we were in Florida and ended up accepting their counter offer. Who buys houses when they're out of town? Apparently we do! Anyways, when we got back from Florida we had to get the "old" house ready to sell. My mom graciously came down for a few days so we could declutter and get the house staged. We had a couple open houses and had a contract on the house in 3 weeks without a real estate agent! We ended up selling the house to a super nice family who is adding on to make it a little larger. Hopefully they'll let us come back after the improvements. Here is how I'd like to remember the house...

the front

living room/kitchen

kitchen

living room

Brooklyn's room

master bedroom

Stay tuned for before and after pictures of the new house!

A whole month?!

2010-05-30T21:22:00.006-05:00

That's what I said when I saw how long it had been since I've updated the blog. We've been crazy busy! Right now I'm too tired to wait for a ton of pictures to upload, so I'm just going to put a few on and promise to come back later and add more with explanations! Enjoy!

Playing with the glass wall in Daddy's office

Giving Mama some lovin'

Helping move!

Climbing stairs. Yikes!

Talking to Daddy on the phone during our 7 hour stay at the Little Rock airport

Trying out some snazzy glasses

Waiting for the pedi at our 9 month check up

Helping with the laundry

Waking Daddy up

Easter Pictures from Alumni Weekend

2010-04-29T22:19:00.011-05:00

We went up to Conway a couple weekends ago for Alumni weekend at Hendrix. We had a great time visiting with everyone and showing Brooklyn off. We were able to spend some time with my brother, A.J., who is finishing up his last year there. So sad. Our friend, Leah (a fellow alumnus and professional photographer!), followed up our maternity photo session with one for Brooklyn. Despite Brooklyn skipping her afternoon nap, Leah was still able to get some great shots! See for yourself!

Brooklyn in true "Mean Girls" form!

8 Months

2010-04-28T20:51:00.008-05:00

Brooklyn turned 8 months almost a month ago now, but I wanted to make sure I remembered what she has accomplished in these past few weeks. She's been crawling as fast as she can go, pulling herself up on anything that is remotely stable and even trying to stand up from a bear crawl position. She's also been working on her standing balance by letting go of what she's holding on to. She's up to about 7-8 seconds and is getting brave enough to wave her arms and reach a little without support. An unfortunate result from her new found bravery is her first shiner on her forehead. That darn nightstand just jumped up and got her!

Words-wise she's been saying, "mama, dada, baba, this (or at least that's what it sounds like!), hey and nana." She's eating new foods each week. Lately we've had apricots, sweet peas, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, acorn squash and she loves feeding herself puffs! She's changing so much each day...who knows what she'll be doing next month!

Recently we've been watching Wheel of Fortune because I found out one day that Brooklyn LOVES it! I think it's all the dinging, but it is so funny to watch her! She's nicer than Greg and lets me figure out the puzzles without shouting them out!

Mesmerized!

I'm trying to watch Wheel of Fortune here!

We went to Richardson to meet Greg and decided to take some pictures in their wildflowers.

I don't know if she was saying "So big" or "Pick me up please"!

So pretty in the wildflowers

More pretty flowers

"I'll get you for this, Mom!"

Playing with our friend, Isaac

Too bad Brooklyn kept using Isaac to try to stand up. He didn't mind it at first, but then he would get upset when Brooklyn would get close. Such a bully that girl!

A Swinging Good Time!

2010-04-21T21:11:00.003-05:00

We took a walk to the park tonight and decided to let Brooklyn try out the swings. It was super funny! She's laughing like she does when you throw her in the air. I guess it all feels the same to her! As you can clearly hear, I couldn't stop laughing! I thought it was hilarious!

Here are some still pictures. It was a little difficult for me to time and these are the best ones of the many I took. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

She's cruisin' for a bruisin'!

2010-03-30T16:40:00.006-05:00

Brooklyn has been very busy the past couple weeks learning how to pronounce 'b' sounds, cruising on furniture, army crawling backwards and just yesterday moving forward in hands and knees crawling! Her incentive to crawl you ask? Her mom? Her dad? Nope! The laptop! It's by far one of her favorite toys! Too bad all of her favorite things just happen to be Mom and Dad's electronics! My job is about to get a lot busier! Here are some pictures from the past couple days.

"Oh...computer...so close!"

"Whew! Getting tired. Gotta take a break!"

"OK, back to it!"

The other day Greg and I needed to do some cleaning up around the house so we put Brooklyn in her crib to play for a while. I literally came back in 2-3 minutes and this is how I found her!

"Oh no! She caught me!"

This was the first time (at least as far as we know) that she's pulled herself up in her bed. It might be time to move the mattress lower!

"And I can walk down to get you one-handed!"

This is where the cruising all started!

Taking a break from eating avacados to take a pic.

DJ'ing with Uncle Ryan's headphones that he let us borrow.

More standing on whatever is in her path!

Florida Trip

2010-03-22T22:09:00.004-05:00

Despite it being unseasonably cold while we were there, we had a great time in Florida a couple weeks ago. Brooklyn seemed to enjoy playing in the sand and didn't mind when Greg put her feet in the cold ocean water! We enjoyed some delicious food and had a wonderfully, relaxing few days! Brooklyn did awesome on both flights even after getting stranded in New Orleans for a few hours! Now we're back in Dallas where it's been 75 and sunny one day and 30 and snowing the next! Literally! Crazy weather!

Our only family pic from the trip. See the nice lady on the side trying to get Brooklyn to smile! She was the wife of the random guy taking our picture!

It was so cold waiting for the sun to set! But Brooklyn was a trooper!

Swimming with Dad in the heated pool! It was too cold for me!

Taking a dip in the ocean!

Chillin' with Dad!

Brooklyn wanted to ride one of these huge bikes, but we said she had to wait until she could touch the handlebar.

My favorite picture from the trip! Brooklyn loves being tossed in the air!

Hanging out on the beach in long sleeves.

Brooklyn didn't mind the cool weather.

Hamming it up for the camera

2010-03-03T21:20:00.005-06:00

We went to the lake this past weekend and A.J. and Curt were nice enough to come down and help Greg clear the brush. And we were very fortunate that they came because Brooklyn and I were sick and couldn't help much! All of us have been fighting off something the past few weeks. We're ready for our mini-vaca to Florida this weekend! Woo hoo!

Despite feeling under the weather, we've been pretty busy around here. Brooklyn has begun solids! It's been super fun! She gets so excited when she sees it coming. She actually only likes when Greg feeds her. She just blows bubbles when I try to feed her. These are pictures of her trying carrots and rice cereal.

The picture in the upper left-hand corner is a picture of Brooklyn's rash she had a couple weeks ago. No idea where it came from, but it's gone now! Also pictures of Brooklyn hanging out with uncle A.J., playing with a wrapper and my phone (real toys are boring!) and showing off her standing skills. She's been practicing her standing for a few months now and we've been getting more and more daring (i.e. taking pictures from a few feet away) since she's able to stand now for about 10 minutes with someone guarding!

Greg has a picture wearing a Cardinals' outfit when he was about 6 months old, so we thought we'd recreate it with Brooklyn since she looks so much like her daddy. Here are some of the cute pictures!

We'll have more pictures from this weekend in Florida!

World Record Holder!

2010-02-15T13:34:00.008-06:00

Brooklyn is now in the Guiness Book of World Records!

OK, so are Greg, me and about 108,000 other basketball fans who attended the NBA All-Star game last night! It was the highest attendance for a basketball game ever! We had a really good time and it was our first time at the new Cowboys Stadium!

The jumbotron really is ridiculously big! Brooklyn did very well given that the game started at her normal bed time and we were outside for about 20 minutes in 30 degree weather walking to the stadium and then waiting in line to get in! She also did surprisingly well with how loud it was in the stadium. We borrowed Uncle Ryan's gun range earphones, but she wasn't very fond of them. I think she thought it was weird that she could see our mouths moving but not hear anything. Also, they were a little big on her and she had trouble turning her head because the earphones kept hitting her shoulders!She still looked cute! She was asleep as soon as the car started on the way home! It was the perfect way to spend Valentine's Day!

This morning she had her 6 month checkup. More pokes and prods and she did great again. She's growing right on track. She gained almost a full pound in a little over a week! I had to bring her in before we went to St. Louis and found out she had an ear infection. Now that the ear infection is cleared up, she has hives! She woke up with them all over her face and legs yesterday. Poor girlie! Turning 6 months is rough!

Let it snow!

2010-02-11T16:23:00.009-06:00

We woke up to a Winter Wonderland this morning! Brooklyn and I flew back from St. Louis last night and Greg attempted to fly out to Austin this morning. He missed his first flight that took off on time (even though he was at the gate 5 minutes before the scheduled departure). But he did get a seat on the next flight...and sat for over 4 hours waiting for the plane to be deiced! They were the 14th in line!

Meanwhile I built a snowman while Brooklyn was sleeping and then we took some pictures when she woke up! I have to say, this is some good snowman-building snow! It took me all of 10 minutes to put it together! It's not the prettiest, but it'll do! I put Brooklyn in the bumbo so she wouldn't have to sit in the snow. But she is doing great sitting on her own. And while we were in St. Louis, she began showing signs that it won't be too long before she starts scooting and crawling. Yikes! We're in trouble now!

Tonight Brooklyn and I are hanging out together. Greg is now stranded in Austin as they have canceled his flight! Hopefully we'll see him tomorrow! We just want him safe and sound!

Eating the snow off her sock

Happy girl

Playing with the new camera lens

The 10-minute snowman

4.5" and it's still coming down!

Close up with the new camera lens

Looking at the 10-minute snowman

Finally warm with socks on our hands

Making snow angels, but it's so cold when the snowflakes hit your face!

Flu, Bronchitis, Pink Eye and maybe Pneumonia

2010-02-02T20:55:00.002-06:00

What do all these things have in common? Greg has ALL of them! Awesome! Brooklyn and I are attempting to stay far, far away from him (we were sick with colds last weekend) and we're Lysoling everything that Greg even looks at! Our house is on lock down. Hopefully we're all better by Friday so we can go to St. Louis! In other news, Brooklyn has been practicing her rolling from her back to her stomach...in her sleep! Lovely! It was funny to watch on the monitor until she kept waking herself up trying to get onto her back. So last night we decided Greg would sleep on the other side of the house and Brooklyn would sleep with me in our bed. I weighed Brooklyn down with the covers so she wouldn't flip over and today we worked on rolling with her arms in different positions. Oh this poor family!

Recent pictures

2010-01-24T22:20:00.005-06:00

We went up to the lake house last weekend so Greg could do some brush cutting. Brooklyn and I tried to help, but really we were just good company while Greg did all the hard work. He did an amazing job and the path down to the lake looks so good!

Brooklyn has been working hard on sitting up recently. One day she can barely sit for a couple seconds and the next she is sitting and playing with toys for 10 to 15 minutes! It's crazy how fast she is changing lately! She's almost 6 months and then comes a year! Ahhhh! Where does the time go? Soon she'll be going off to college. OK, breathe! She's still a baby right now!

Here are some super cute pictures of Brooklyn sleeping, sitting up and just hanging out this past week! Enjoy!

Happy 5-month Birthday!

2010-01-06T20:52:00.004-06:00

We've had Brooklyn with us for 5 months today! Hard to believe! We had a great day playing and had lunch with Greg to celebrate! Brooklyn has begun talking A LOT lately. Strangely, she growls when she "talks" to me and says "dada dada" when she talks to Greg! We've been having lots of fun with her lately. We even took her swimming (indoors) last night. She was a little hesitant at first, but in a couple minutes she was "talking" and smiling!

This picture was taken today with Brooklyn sitting on her own! She's so surprised! I was in the middle of changing her and she looked too cute!

This is a collage from our New Years celebration. Brooklyn and I took a nap until 11 and then Greg picked us up and took us to Shaun and Desiree's. She did great and stayed up until 2am! Look at her cute bear hat! It's a 6-12 month hat because she has tons of brains in that pretty head!

Not too cute here, but I wanted to get a picture with her Princeton shirt on! Thanks, Uncle A.J.!

Brooklyn said that she wanted to start getting the mail for us so we lowered it to her height. OK, what really happened was that the recycling truck hit the mailbox and knocked it down. Greg thought it was funny to put the remainder in the ground. The mailman also thought it was hilarious! He said it made his day to see it!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T21:38:00.008-06:00

Brooklyn sleeping with Grandpa! They were worn out!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We just returned from St. Louis where we were able to celebrate our first Christmas with Brooklyn! We had a great time and even had a white Christmas as we were leaving this morning. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with loved ones on such a special day! Here are some events of the past couple days!

This pretty much sums up how awesome our Christmas was! Sammy boy loves him some Cat in the Hat!

Brooklyn can't figure out if she wants to read or play with her horses

"You're crazy if you think I'm sharing any of my presents with you, Mom!"

"I'm stylin' and profilin', fool!"

Snuggling with Great Grandma WAY past our bedtime!

Our first Christmas with Brooklyn!

Sammy boy!

She'll be a St. Louis fan just like her mom!

An Italian "My first Christmas" onesie from Uncle Bubba Joe!

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

Santa!

2009-12-18T17:50:00.003-06:00

I brought Brooklyn to see Santa yesterday and she did great! She was such a pretty girl in her Christmas dress and there wasn't any crying this time! I can't wait until next year! Santa with a 16 month old is going to be interesting! We went to see Santa when he was at North Park mall in Dallas.

Nice digs for 'ole St. Nick!

Don't go too far, Mom!

We also let her open one of her first presents the other day. She was mesmerized with the pretty wrapping paper!

It was her first Christmas stocking. So exciting!

Back from an extended hiatus!

2009-12-11T14:46:00.005-06:00

Well it's been a while! We've been having so much fun around here I've had no time to update the blog! Brooklyn and I spent a couple weeks in St. Louis and this weekend and last we've been up at the lake! Don't worry, we've been staying out of the water! Next weekend we'll be back up in St. Louis for Christmas!

Brooklyn had her 4 month appointment on Monday. She is oh so close to doubling her birth weight and has grown over 5 inches! She got her 4 month shots and didn't even shed a tear! What a big girl! One of the most exciting things (for me at least) that she started doing last month is sleeping through the night! So nice! It's crazy how good I feel after 5 hours of sleep, even when it's 4 in the morning! She's also learned to roll from stomach to back and back to side. She can roll onto her stomach from her side, but not all in one smooth motion. She's been drooling and blowing bubbles like crazy. She can sit by herself with her arms supporting herself and I personally think it's hilarious when she falls over. Typically she falls forward onto her face. Don't worry, we practice on the bed where it's soft! Brooklyn also started sucking her thumb...or entire fist and putting everything in her reach into her mouth. And she's also talking like crazy! I finally downloaded Picasa on this laptop so I created some collages to show all the new things Miss Brooklyn Gal has been up to lately! Enjoy and I'll try to not stay away as long next time!

Memory card error!

2009-11-15T19:01:00.003-06:00

Brooklyn and I spent last week up in St. Louis an took lots of pictures! Unfortunately...I turned it on Friday morning to take pictures of her with her first Build-A-Bear and apparently the memory card has been corrupted! Bummer! It only has 1500 pictures on it beginning in 2006! Luckily we have most of the pictures downloaded on to the computer except the ones from this weekend. The guy at the camera store says that you should reformat your memory card every time you download your pictures.

Well this weekend we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my family (including my brothers who came in from Italy and school in Arkansas), went to the Zoo and showed Brooklyn off to the Pink Flamingo camping club! Brooklyn also started doing several new things. She's been successful at getting her thumb into her mouth, rolling from her back to her side, tracking people who are all the way across the room and holding her head up in sitting. And last night she slept in her own bed in her own room and did great! Hopefully we'll get the camera working correctly and we'll be able to post some pictures from this weekend and of all the fun happenings around here!

Getting Baptized!

2009-11-02T21:31:00.006-06:00

We had Brooklyn Baptized this weekend. My family came down from St. Louis and my best friend drove 13 hours with her husband to join in the celebration! It was a perfect ceremony. Brooklyn smiled the entire time even when the priest was rubbing oil on her head and pouring cold water on her!

Mom and Dad getting Brooklyn dressed

Ready for the big ceremony

Listening intently to the priest

Brooklyn was Baptized by Fr. Tom at All Saints

Taking it all in

This little girl loves swimming and anything to do with water!

My mom made Brooklyn's Baptism outfit!

Brooklyn's Godparents, Katie and Chris

After the ceremony we went to Jason's Deli.

Brooklyn can't wait to start eating real food so she can have some of those cupcakes!

3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

2009-11-02T16:37:00.006-06:00

This weekend we had our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. We had a great turn out and lots of fun and delicious food! There were some impressive pumpkin carving skills demonstrated as well!

Here is Brooklyn on her first hay ride bringing the bales from the garage to the front door!

The Queen "B" has arrived!

One of the scrumptious apple pies!

There were lots of great carvings. This is the one that my mom did for her two grandkids.

Sammy was Spiderman and Brooklyn was a Sweet Pea for Halloween.

Here is Katie's pumpkin for Miss Brooklyn. (She's Brooklyn's Godmother)

Brooklyn has been going to sleep around 6:30 each night, so she wasn't able to go trick or treating with Sammy. But she did wake up for a few minutes to get her outfit on and take pictures with Spiderman! She was not happy about it though!

Thanks for the Halloween costume, Aunt Jan and Uncle Bruce!

Muscle man getting ready to go get some CANDY!

Busy weekend!

2009-10-20T20:37:00.012-05:00

This weekend we packed our Saturday full of fun things to do! It turned out to be a beautiful day, so we were able to do all of our outdoor activities. We started the day bright and early by walking a 5K at the Race for the Cure. Before the race started we took a picture of her in the pumpkins at North Park mall.

Decked out head-to-toe in pink

Brooklyn was the hit of the entire event! She had cheerleaders screaming for her, other participants cooing over her and a random man take her picture! Greg carried her in the Baby Bjorn and she loved it!

She fell asleep for a little while and then was able to wake up in time to dive head first into the finish line! Look at that determination!

She was getting ready for the Longhorn game before the race.

We came home and she changed into her Texas outfit to cheer on the Longhorns against OU in the Red River Rivalry. We both took a nap during part of that game. But in our defense, we were up earlier than usual that morning and we knew Texas would pull it off anyway! After the game we went to Mass and then headed up to the FC Dallas game. It was Brooklyn's first game and first time eating at Rudy's! It was a little cold, but she was bundled up and had a good time watching FC Dallas beat the Colorado Rapids.

She's too busy watching the game to look at the camera.

She even got her picture taken with the FC Dallas dance team after the game!

We also tried out the Bumbo with Brooklyn and she's loving it! She holds her head up very well! Soon she'll be walking and hopefully helping me with the cleaning around the house. OK, maybe not!

Today Greg joined us for lunch so we could go back to North Park to take more pictures among the pumpkins. They have the craziest looking pumpkins there!

She's able to stand and support her weight. She just needs a little help with the whole balance thing!

This is my favorite picture of the afternoon. What is she doing with her mouth?

This is Greg's. She's getting ready to water the pumpkins.

Another wedding!

2009-10-14T15:53:00.003-05:00

We made the trip down to Houston this weekend for Andrea and Jason's wedding. Andrea played soccer with Greg and I at Hendrix. It was another mini-Hendrix soccer reunion! We had lots of fun! It was Brooklyn and my first time to Houston. The weather was nicer than I expected given that that is all anyone seems to talk about when you mention Houston. Well, that or the traffic. And the traffic wasn't too bad either, but it was the weekend. Anyway, we had a great time and Brooklyn got to meet more of her honorary aunts, uncles and grandparents! She did great during the full Catholic Mass...it's what we've been working up towards with the previous weddings she's been to. That's crazy that she's been to 3 weddings already! What a go getter!

The fam with Leah who took our awesome maternity pictures! Brooklyn is fake sleeping in this picture!

Snuggling with Dad after the wedding. She was cold and tired and ready to go back to the hotel to sleep!

Brooklyn getting some good lovin' from the bride! She's counting down the days until it's her turn!

Greg and I went to the reception by ourselves so that Brooklyn could get some sleep and not lose her hearing from the loud music. I think with as many weddings as she's been to we need to invest in some baby Bose noise cancelling headphones!

Me and all the Hendrix soccer girls at the reception!

This picture is from today. I'm trying to have her wear all of the little baby outfits that she hasn't worn yet before she outgrows them. And she is about to outgrow the cute little shoes too, so I had to get a picture! Look at that sweet face! You can just imagine what she's thinking!

"You realize that I can't walk yet, right? OK, as long as we're on the same page here."

This weekend we've got lots planned! Race for the Cure, Texas/OU weekend and an FC Dallas game. And that's just Saturday! Yikes! It's a good thing I put in my two week notice at work the other day!

Brooklyn at 2 months

2009-10-08T17:12:00.011-05:00

We had Brooklyn's 2 month well check up on Tuesday. Apparently turning 2 months old means you get 2 shots! I hate to see what happens when she's 12 months! Actually, the pediatrician said that they used to get 4 shots, but now they are combined. That is definitely a good thing! Brooklyn did great again with her shots. She stopped screaming as soon as we picked her up off the table. She was still hurting later that day, so I gave her Tylenol and she slept most of the day.

This is how she likes to sleep during the day. I think she likes to be close enough to my pillow to smell me!

This was the day before looking too cute with her little duck outfit on.

More smiles after our shots. See they weren't so bad! Or maybe that's the Tylenol speaking! I like how my feet in the background make her have bunny ears!

She loves going on walks in the Baby Bjorn and she holds her head up so well unless she falls asleep. We were out walking today and I kept wondering why my hand felt wet. Then I realized she was drooling on me! Awesome! So I took a picture when we got home.

So funny!

Turning two months is tough work when your mom is a PT. Look at her holding her head up so well!

8 weeks = 8 hours!

2009-10-01T22:14:00.002-05:00

Last night Brooklyn slept for 8 hours...in a row! It was the first time in a long time that I've been able to sleep about 5 hours straight! She woke up at 4 a.m. and I felt so rested I thought I should stay up and do something! But I went back to sleep! Today we had a great day going to the dentist and a little shopping. We went on a couple walks and took some good naps. Let's hope this sleeping through the night thing keeps getting better and better! I'm beginning to remember what it was like to get a good nights sleep! It was rainy and sunny today (a good combination) so Brooklyn wore a sun hat to cover her head. And she chose pink for breast cancer awareness month! This picture isn't very good, but her chubby chin cracks me up!

Chattanooga Trip

2009-09-29T14:26:00.007-05:00

We made a trip to Chattanooga this past weekend to attend a wedding of a fellow Hendrix soccer alum. Greg was in the wedding and Brooklyn and I went to partake in the festivities. Brooklyn had many firsts this weekend: flying, her first National Park tour, eating at Bojangles and having fun with Grandma while mom and dad were out partying! She did great on both flights. She was just a little fussy on the decent, but calmed down when I fed her. Everyone on the plane appreciated it, I'm sure! And Greg and I did great keeping the line moving through security! The wedding was beautiful and Brooklyn did great being passed from one person to another! All around it was a success! These are the pictures from our camera, but we'll have more of the wedding from my mom's camera. I'll post those when I get them off of Greg's computer. These are what you get for now!

She's not too excited here. Greg and I are wondering what we've gotten ourselves into! But she was just hungry!

Not sure about this whole flying thing! Doesn't she look scared!

But her mom is here, so it's all good!

Brooklyn looking out over Chattanooga from Point Park on top of Lookout Mountain

A Junior Ranger in training

Hanging out with the cannons

At Chattanooga and Chickamauga National Military Park

I finally caught a smile on camera!

We were hoping to meet up with Bryan, Ashley and Emma while we were in town; but Emma was running a fever and not feeling very good. I'm sure we'll get to see them soon and hopefully Emma is feeling better and everyone is getting more sleep around their house!

Professional photographers!

2009-09-23T11:32:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we took Brooklyn to the Picture People to get some real photos taken. Click here to see them. As you can see in some of the pictures, she wasn't too happy that we woke her up and stripped her down. But we definitely got some cute ones. I like the 4th picture. I don't know where she learned to flick people off...we'll have to teach her more appropriate ways to deal with her aggression!

This weekend we're heading to Chattanooga for a wedding. It'll be our first time on a plane with Miss Brooklyn. Here's hoping we're not "those" people who take 45 minutes to go through the security line and then have a screaming baby the entire flight! We'll take lots of pictures to commemorate the occasion! Have a great weekend!

Sir Mix-a-Lot, UT and too much time!

2009-09-21T17:58:00.012-05:00

So I had grand intentions of using cloth diapers as soon as Brooklyn was born. Unfortunately you apparently have to have a huge kid to start them out in the diapers we bought! Well. that or plan on cleaning up LOTS of messes! So I've tried several times to see if she would fit in them. This was our latest attempt.

Making Sir Mix-a-Lot jealous with that booty!

Our version of The Lion King attempting to show how ridiculous the diaper looks.

So hopefully she'll continue packing on the pounds and we can get her into the cloth diapers soon. Although that's going to mean a lot of laundry for me!

This past weekend we watched the UT game. Brooklyn got all dressed up and sat on the couch to watch the game.

She was not happy that we were interrupting her view to take pictures! She actually stayed awake for most of the game!

When I take Brooklyn on walks around the neighborhood I start thinking about what she might possibly be thinking.

In this picture I think that she's saying, "Mom, is that seriously how fast you can push this thing? Look, I'm only holding on with one finger! I can't wait til Dad gets home so we can put some G-Forces on this thing! Oh, and I popped my collar because it's awesome! Get your head in the game!" (I like that NFL commercial and have clearly too much time!)

Now we'll end on a cute picture from today!

Brooklyn at one month

2009-09-09T14:57:00.010-05:00

We had Brooklyn's 1 month follow-up this morning. She's packing on the pounds and growing the centimeters and did so well getting her shot. Greg was able to come to the appointment and swept her up after her shot and she calmed down instantly! Some things she's been doing recently:

continues to hold her head up longer and longer while on her tummy

making eye contact for longer periods of time and tracking from side to side
smiling when she hears/sees me or Greg
taking weight through her legs and pushing herself into standing with support
continues to stay awake for most of the day and sleep great at night
beginning to coo when we talk to her
helping hold her head in midline when pulled to sit from supine

This past weekend we spent some time up at the lake. Both sets of grandparents were able to join us as well! There was a bit of drama getting up there. We started by driving through a huge storm on our way out of Dallas...Brooklyn slept through it. Then we got lost taking a new route in the fog...Brooklyn slept through it. Next we blew a boat trailer tire at 2 in the morning...Brooklyn slept through it. So we left the boat in town and Greg dropped Brooklyn and me off at the house. We fell asleep while Greg drove back in to town to sleep in the truck for 2 hours while waiting for the tire shop to open. Unfortunately neither of the shops in that town had trailer tires, so he had to drive to the next town over to buy one and then come back to have the tire placed on the trailer. He finally made it back around 9 in the morning and was ready for some wakeboarding! That same day I also popped one of the truck tires pulling the boat out of the water. Then Greg broke the lawn mower trying to mow grass that hadn't been touched for 2 months! At some point we decided that we should just lay low the rest of the day to avoid breaking anything else!

Hanging out with Grandma

The rest of the weekend was great! I was able to get behind the boat and do some knee boarding and wakeboarding for the first time in about a year! The weather was nice and it was so good seeing my parents again. Greg got to try out his new tower speakers on the boat and I've decided I need ear plugs if I'm going to be in the boat. Brooklyn was also treated like a celebrity at the local restaurant and church! And we were able to meet up with Greg's Memaw on our way through Texarkana and introduce Brooklyn to her.

Such a sweet girl!

After our shot this morning

She's her father's daughter

2009-09-01T15:43:00.007-05:00

Brooklyn is definitely Greg's kid! She looks like him, she likes being out running around rather than being at home, she likes to sleep at night and not take naps during the day and she likes eating out. OK, maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch! We're loving watching her grow and develop every day! She had her first bath this weekend and she did great! Only went to the bathroom twice during the entire 5 minute bath! She loved her bath towel that Rebecca got her! She looked so cute in it! It's a pig with a little tail on the back! Love it!

Here's Brooklyn sleeping with her daddy. Look at those similarities...double chins, 5 o'clock shadow (kidding!)

Little Miss Brooklyn sleeping on her stomach. She is not a fan of the Back to Sleep program American Academy of Pediatrics!

This is how we spend most of our days...awake and playing!

Caught her looking!

Girl time!

2009-08-25T12:56:00.005-05:00

Greg was out of town yesterday so Brooklyn and I went to her 2 week well check up and then spent the rest of the day at home. She checked out great at the doctor's office! Greg says she's getting shorter and fatter. She weighs a pound more than when we left the hospital and apparently she shrank! OK, not really! She was wiggling a lot when they were measuring her. We went to the hospital after the appointment to get her 2 week PKU testing done. She did great! She screamed when they poked her little foot, but stopped as soon as they stopped squeezing the blood out! Then she went back to sleep for a couple hours! She has been sleeping at least 4 hours at night. She slept 6 hours in row the past 2 nights! And then we take 4 hour naps during the day! It's been awesome!

Yesterday at home we had a great time working on our flirty eyes

sleeping

doing tummy time (and working on our Austin Power's re-enacting skills)

and trying to focus without crossing our eyes!

A fun weekend

2009-08-19T13:29:00.003-05:00

mesmerized with Uncle A.J.

visiting with Grandma and Grandpa

This past weekend my Dad and brother, A.J. came to visit and meet Brooklyn. We had a great time with everyone here. Brooklyn misses everyone already and can't wait to see them again! She even convinced Greg to get a new laptop so she could Skype with everyone!

We're already beginning to notice her preferences. She tends to like being on the go rather than hanging out at home. She sleeps better and longer at night than during the day (not a bad thing!). She wants to be swaddled as tight as possible when sleeping, but then demonstrates her Houdini skills to get out of it when she wakes up. OK, it's time to get a nap in while she's sleeping!

The many faces of Brooklyn

2009-08-19T13:08:00.002-05:00

She makes the funniest faces and poses when she's sleeping! Here are just a few we captured as she was waking up the other morning!

First trip to a Restaurant!

2009-08-13T09:35:00.003-05:00

Brooklyn made her first trip out to eat last night to celebrate Grandma's birthday at Steak n Shake! She was great the entire time! Here are some pics from the outing along with what we think Brooklyn was probably thinking at the time!

"Mmmm, do you smell that deliciousness?!!!"

"I know where we will be this weekend!"

"It's about time we got some real food around here! I was getting tired of milk for every meal!"

"Mom, feel free to upgrade your milk supply to this Mint Cookies n Cream flavor ... it is delicious!"

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

2009-08-12T16:14:00.003-05:00

Brooklyn wanted to wish Happy Birthday to her Grandma who has spent the past week being a tremendous help here in Dallas! Thanks, Mom (Grandma)!

She's like, "seriously...enough with the flash already!"

Week one coming to a close

2009-08-12T15:15:00.010-05:00

Brooklyn has been with us almosta full week now and we have been having a wonderful time with her! We went to the pedi on Monday and she checked out great! She had already gained 3 ounces back of the 7 she lost in the hospital. Her color looks perfect, no tanning needed. Head shape is perfect as well (he only mentioned something because he knows where I work!)

She has been amazing us every day. She likes to prove us wrong already. In the hospital I mentioned how we don't have to worry about getting sprayed while changing diapers and she promply sprayed the wall while Grandma was changing her! Then we were talking about how she shouldn't be able to lift her head up very much and since then she's been lifting her head and holding it for about 10 seconds and then gently lowering it back down with amazing control. We expect her to be walking when she's 3 months! OK, maybe not! But don't tell this girl she can't do something!

Here are more pictures...what everyone really wants! Enjoy!

Hanging out in the tutu from Amy

Getting our first sponge bath at home

Trying to catch flies while sleeping

Tummy time with Dad

Going on our first walk around the block. She did amazing in her Cadillac of strollers.

SHE'S HERE!!!!

2009-08-08T22:40:00.009-05:00

Hey everybody! Little Miss Broolyn Madison Webb got here on Thursday at 11:58 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 11.8 oz and 18.9 inches short! Brooklyn and Mom are doing fantastic! Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, visits, flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, etc. We really appreciate all of the love and support! Since we've kept you waiting almost 3 whole days now for pictures, we thought we would give you a bunch of them all at once. Enjoy! And don't worry, we'll upload some more soon!

You can check out the pictures that were taken by the professionals at the hospital. Just go to this website: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=a6d6550d-cad5-497a-9482-e5c07fb740ba and use this password: 10881273711228.

Now if you are feeling lazy and don't want to enter passwords and such just look below!

Packing things up to head to the hospital.

Lisa admiring her hard work!!

A few minutes old at this point, working on the tan!

Trying out this whole breathing thing for the first time!

Proud parents in the delivery room.

Just chillin' after moving to the regular hospital room! Yep, she's the cutest thing ever!

Brooklyn and Greg taking a much needed nap.

Getting loaded up into her car seat for the 1st time.

Leaving the hospital.

Brooklyn making some priceless faces while she slept and stretched in Uncle Chris's arms.

Are you kidding me?! How could you not love something that cute!!!!

Brooklyn trying out the new recliner at Nanna's house. She seemed to like it!

Almost there!

2009-08-04T18:53:00.006-05:00

Since we are getting so close to welcoming our little one we decided to get a crib this past weekend! It went together pretty easily and looks good with the rest of the furniture!

Oh la la! Convertible bed!

Greg also did some golfing this weekend. I went with him one time...just to ride in the cart and take pictures with the new camera!

Greg and Ryan picked up a random additional player about half way through their golfing.

Friday was my last day of paid work for a little bit! So the past few days I've spent cleaning the house and getting ready to bring the baby home. Apparently I may have tried to do too much because Tuesday around 11:30 pm I was told by the on call OB to head to the hospital. I guess bleeding is not something you really want! (I know that's nasty, but that's what happened!) So we had an hour long sonogram (fun!), some blood drawn (not as fun!) and Greg learned that the machine that tells if I'm having a contraction is smarter than I am! He kept telling me when a contraction was coming because it sensed it before I did! Awesome! Can't wait to use that one when I'm really in labor! But about 4:30am they said to head home and now I've been put on bed rest with bathroom privledges. Great! I'm feeling better now. The contractions are a lot stronger now, but not 5 minutes apart like they were last night. These contractions are no joke! And apparently they're just going to get worse! The reason the sonogram was so long was because he had to count the number of times certain things happened (like breathing, swallowing, moving extremities, etc.) At one point he said, "this baby has some long legs!" I was like, "well she didn't get them from me!" So I'll be interested to see how that pans out once she's born! He also said I was measuring at 41 1/2 weeks, so I don't know how much I can really believe him!

We'll let you all know what goes down! Back to laying on the couch sleeping as much as I can!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

2009-08-04T18:37:00.007-05:00

We can't say thank you enough to Leah for taking such awesome maternity pictures. A huge package arrived yesterday that included some DVDs of the pictures and an amazing present for the baby's room! We didn't have anything on the walls in the nursery and now we have the perfect decoration! I can't decide which pictures are my favorite! They all turned out so well! Here are just a few!

Thank you so much, Leah! You did an amazing job! The pictures are so special and something that we will cherish forever!

38 weeks and shady happenings

2009-07-27T20:47:00.005-05:00

I went to the OBG last Thursday and again today - it's just how my work schedule fell. Things are still going well. We had an ultrasound last week and she said the baby was a little on the small size (even though the measurements weren't very accurate because she's so big now), so she said there is no way we're inducing (not like I wanted to anyway!) and that I should try to pack on the pounds to help this baby get a little bigger. On Thursday I went home and ate double-stuffed Oreos and cake from our 3 year anniversary
(I know, he might be a keeper!) on Wednesday! Surely that's what she meant! Then this weekend was filled with eating, eating and more eating! It's a bit more difficult than I thought...I was constantly full making it tricky to move and breathe! But I will say that having desserts after lunch and dinner was awesome! At the appointment today she says that she's now weighing in at 6 and 1/4 pounds. So she gained about 1/2 a pound in 3 days...your welcome, baby! Hopefully we can keep this pace up and she'll be around 7 pounds when she's born. Still estimating August 9th for the due date. I only have 4 more days of work left and then I can nest all day until the baby comes!

Here's the belly at 38 weeks. Greg thinks it's funny that I walk around the house like this because I'm hot all the time now...too much extra blood and food flowing, I guess!

We've continued with our nightly walks and recently we've seen this van parked on two different streets in the neighborhood.

We're not quite sure what's going down...but we think there are some shady goings on in the making! There is an abnormally high number of houses for sale in the neighborhood (like 5 instead of none)! Apparently those people know something we don't!

37 weeks and counting!

2009-07-20T08:11:00.009-05:00

Greg has been in Atlanta for work yesterday and today, so I've been given strict instructions to stay in bed with my legs crossed all day! I thought I'd be productive and update the blog! The countdown is on now! We don't have too much longer before we'll have a new addition to the family!

Last week we had a Dallas baby shower and my work threw me a baby shower. The Dallas shower was lots of fun (as was the work one, but I don't have pictures from it)! Clearly our friends and family know us too well! "Greg's baby" got lots of UT paraphernalia, disposable diapers and a daddy diaper duty kit (including gloves, tongs, nose plug and goggles) so Greg can help change diapers! My baby got practical things like baby wash, hangers, organizer boxes for the room and a car seat head support to prevent heads that I see every day at work! We also received lots of things made by people...boppy covers, bibs, blankets, hats, stuffed animals! I love all of it! And our baby is going to be so stylish no one is going to recognize her as our baby! I'm having trouble choosing just one "going home" outfit between the UT onesies, purple tutu and many, many other super cute outfits given to the baby! We may have to reenact the moment several times! I'm sure no one would mind at the hospital! Greg's mom and the baby's "honorary Hendrix grandma" (Mrs. Fuchs) did a great job of organizing everything for the shower! Greg and I had a great time, so thank you to everyone!

So here we are at 37 weeks! Only a little bit longer! We toured the hospital this weekend. It has flat screen TVs for Greg and food service 24/7 for me! What more could you want! They also have "lo-jack" systems for the babies that prevent the elevators from working if there is not a nurse with the baby! So cool! So our baby should be safe and sound at the hospital!

Just 2 more weeks of work for me...if I make it that long! We're having another ultrasound this Thursday. At my last appointment we played another feel-the-belly-to-figure-out-how-much-the-baby-weighs game. At least this time the OBG instilled confidence in me beforehand by telling me that she was a little "gun shy" because her estimates have been off recently! Lovely! And this time I only had to wait 50 minutes to see her! Although the only reason it was that short was because after waiting 45 minutes (and being the first appointment that morning!) I got my clothes back on, walked up to the front, threatened to leave so I could get back to work, and then ran back to the room to get undressed again before she came in. So if anyone needs a recommendation for a well-run OBGYN practice in the Plano area, don't look to me! Is it bad that I'm thinking I'd rather her not be on call when we deliver so I can be assured that someone will actually be there on time...or at all?! Oh well! I'm sure everything will be great for the delivery!

Enough complaining! It's raining outside and I'm super excited that the temperature may lower a bit! Woo hoo! Off to do some more nesting! This house may actually be ready when we bring the baby home! Look out!

Update!

2009-07-09T21:41:00.004-05:00

We spent our last two out-of-town weekends before the baby gets here. We spent one weekend in Charlottesville, VA visiting our good friends, Leah and Zach. Leah took some wonderful maternity pictures for us!

Gotta love being 34 weeks pregnant and flying on a plane this big! My ankles were gigantic by the time we got off the plane! It was awesome!

We took some pictures outside on the UVA campus, which is so pretty!

This is the rotunda and lawn, which is what the school originally consisted of when Thomas Jefferson designed/built it. The students stayed off to the sides in non air-conditioned rooms...and they still do. Apparently it's a privilege to stay in one of these rooms! Just not when you're super pregers!

The weather was beyond awesome and from the proofs we've seen so far, the pictures look great! I'm so excited to have the pictures as memories of this pregnancy!

Greg took this picture while things were getting set up.

For the 4th of July we went to up to Arkansas. It was a relaxing weekend of going out on the boat, eating lots of food and watching fireworks with hundreds of other boats on the lake. I think we're going to have to make it an annual trip. It was so much fun! I think I enjoyed it so much because we didn't have a million things planned to fix while we were up there. We did spend the better part of one evening grouting the tile in the bathroom, but that was it! Now that bathroom is almost finished! Yeah!

This week we've been trying to get the necessities for the baby. The diapers we ordered came in the other day.

I'm so excited to try them out! I think I'm going to love the cloth diapers!

Don't be jealous of that sweet ensemble!

I went to the obg this week and everything looks good! She's about 5 1/2 pounds (according to the very scientific method of two hands feeling the belly). We'll have another sonogram in two weeks! I'm excited to see how big she's measuring and when they're expecting her to come!

Baby's room

2009-06-22T15:43:00.007-05:00

We finally finished painting the baby's room the night before the furniture was delivered. It was a lot of work, but so worth it! Here is a picture to appreciate the stripes.

(you may have to click on the picture to get a better view)

We decided to go with "big girl" furniture for the room. It's so big you can barely tell there are stripes on the wall. Oh well!

We have yet to get a crib, but she can always sleep in the stroller...right? I mean, it cost just as much as a crib and it's super cool! Kidding! We won't sleep her in the stroller! Speaking of the stroller...

I love it!!!! I think I'm going to make Greg video how easy it is to fold! It's the most awesome thing ever! I'm not sure it's OK for me to be this excited about a stroller...but I am!

Here's a 32 week picture. I had to get a quick one in before I went to work, so it's not the best, but you can see that belly getting bigger!

This weekend Greg had a boy's weekend at the lake. There was apparently lots of wake boarding and lake time. No pictures taken because I had the camera up in St. Louis. I was up there for the baby shower, a graduation party and bachelorette party all in one day! The baby got lots of fun things at the shower! Some of my favorites are the stroller (obviously), this shirt that predicts what the baby will be when she grows up

(well at least she'll be smart!)

the glass bottles we registered for (woo hoo!) and a cell phone to call her "aunt" Katie. It even comes with her picture so she'll always know who she's calling!

And of course lots and lots of super cute clothes! She's going to be more stylish than her mom, that's for sure! It was so good to catch up with everyone at the shower! Thanks Beth and Katie for all your hard work (and Mom too!). It was wonderful! And thanks to everyone for coming as well!

Here is a picture of me and some of the high school girls at Mi Ranchito for Audrey's bachelorette party! We were loving the portrait in the background!

Mi Ranchito is one of my favorite restaurants in St. Louis. And I got to go there TWICE this weekend! Mmmmm!

Next weekend Greg and I are headed to Charlottesville to visit college friends, Leah and Zach. Leah is going to take pregers pictures for us! So excited!

30 weeks and weekend projects

2009-06-03T17:31:00.006-05:00

Over Memorial Day weekend my Mom, sister and nephew came down from St. Louis to help paint the baby's room. It was a lot of work initially taping off all of the stripes. Greg - the math wiz - did all the calculations. We were able to put a couple of coats of paint up. There is still a little touching up that needs to be done. But it looks great! I love the color! We also painted the hallway and the treadmill room.

Greg and Mom getting the taping started. The longest and most tedious part of the entire weekend!

Sammy helping paint the ladder.

Greg trying to pretend like he's tired from taping the walls. Too bad he couldn't stop smiling!

The somewhat finished project with the tape still up. The stripes were done in the same color, but we used an egg shell and a semi-gloss finish, so the stripes are subtle. It's easier to see in person! I promise there is a difference!

3/4 of the way through this thing we call pregnancy (or 30 weeks)! This is Greg's first attempt to capture the belly.

Then I asked him to get a picture more on my level...so he kneeled to be funny!

That shirt almost doesn't fit anymore! I guess it's finally sinking in that we're having a baby in a couple months. In fact, I've worn maternity pants all this week at work! Those things are comfortable! I'm going to keep wearing those even after I deliver! Everything checked out fine at the last OBG visit. I'm not sure when the next sono is. But I'm sure our little girl will be waving whenever they take the picture!

This past weekend we were up at the lake house again to work on the bathroom this time. This is what the shower used to look like with nasty cobwebs and everything!

We tore down the drywall and plywood around the shower and put up new backerboard and tile.

Then we textured the walls and we'll paint those next time we're up there. This was the first time Greg or I had ever tiled. I think it turned out awesome! We just have to grout and seal it next time we're up there. But we're getting close. Greg is going to have a boys mini-weekend in a couple weeks while I'm up in St. Louis for the baby shower. I doubt they'll get any work done. I'm sure it'll be all fun and no work! He only makes his pregnant wife do work up at the lake!

This weekend is my birthday weekend and when Greg asked what I wanted to do I said "NOTHING! Nothing at all! Just rest! No home improvement projects please!" So that's what we're doing! Staying in town and not doing anything! Glorious!

After knowing each other for aout 8 years, Greg did get me the most appropriate present ever this year! I've been craving hot dogs lately and Monday a coupon came in the mail for a FREE package from Oscar Mayer! I thought it was just a random coupon, but Greg said he want online and requested it for me! I love hot dogs, coupons and getting stuff in the mail...what more could I want?! He's the best!

28 weeks and counting

2009-05-19T22:30:00.004-05:00

Here is what we're looking like at 28 weeks! Only 3 months to go!

And here's what the baby looked like at our 27 week sonogram. I bet you can't guess what she was doing...

Yep! Waving again! She's so big you can only see part of her in the sonogram picture. The sonographer was impressed by her head size. She said, "oh, that's a big head circumference!" Lovely! I blame Greg! She's weighing in at about 2# 7oz and is in the 60th percentile for size (measurements of her head, waist and femur bone). And I'm officially in the appointments every two-weeks zone! That means we're getting close!

Mary Grace and Bill's Wedding

2009-05-18T13:56:00.005-05:00

We went to St. Louis this weekend for my cousin, Mary Grace's wedding. The Mass was at St. Ann, my family's church and the reception was on the top floor of a building downtown. It was a beautiful day and we had awesome views!

The fam before the reception

Greg and I getting ready to stuff our faces with delicious food!

My cousin and her new husband cutting the cake. He was nice and didn't smash it in her face!

A view of the Arch from the reception

The new family

Another picture before the reception started

On Sunday my dad scored tickets to the Cardinals game. It was the first time I had been to the new stadium. The Cards got killed, but it was neat to visit the new stadium!

We had a great weekend in St. Louis. This weekend my mom, sister and nephew are coming down to help paint the baby's room! We already have the colors picked out! I'm excited to see the finished product!

Lake house adventures

2009-05-18T13:35:00.007-05:00

Two weekends ago we went back up to Arkansas to work on the lake house. It rained the entire time! Greg was able to get the yard mowed before it started raining too hard! He is loving the 4 wheeler and pull behind mower!

With the help of Greg's mom, we were able to get a lot done that weekend. We built doors for the other side of the shed and hung them. We painted a couple interior doors for the house. And Greg decided that he wasn't happy with the shower set up, so he demolished part of the bathroom! Awesome! Now we get to learn how to put up backer board and tile! That's for another weekend. We did have the heating and air installed! It is much nicer up there now! It's almost ready for visitors!

On our way home we ran in to bad traffic in the middle of nowhere. We sat without moving for an hour (some people were getting out of their cars and talking to their neighbors!). So we decided to take a detour and use the GPS to find us a different route. We end up turning onto a road that we think should bring us back to the main road past the accident. At one point we had to drive over a little running water. No problem in Greg's truck. But we probably should have turned around when we ran into this...

That would be a family trying to get a hold of their two horses who happened to get lose because of all the flooding! You can see the water is almost to the road in this section. But we decided to go ahead and a little further down the road we saw an SUV stuck in the middle of a flowing river! They were attempting to get across the road, but the water was too high and running too fast and they weren't going anywhere! So at that point we decided to turn around and go past the horses (who were still on the loose) and back through the overflowing section. What an adventure! After all of that, we only added an extra hour and a half to our trip. Not too bad! Hopefully Arkansas gets a little reprieve from the rain for a while!

Birthday celebrations!

2009-05-06T18:13:00.007-05:00

Greg turned the big TWO NINE on the 24th of April. I know, it's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and post a blog! We celebrated by going out to eat with friends, attending a crawfish boil and going to Cirque Imagination.

This is the only picture I was able to get!

Cirque Imagination is basically the show for retired Cirque Du Soleil people...so they're like 18 instead of 14! It was awesome! I highly recommend going to see a show if they are in town! This is a clip from a Cirque Du Soleil show. The girl who did this at Cirque Imagination grossed me out! As a physical therapist, I worry about about the problems they are going to have when they are older! But it is pretty impressive none the less! It was a great birthday present from his mom and a fun addition to his birthday weekend!

This last weekend we were back up at the lake doing more work on the house. Remember this picture?

Try not to throw up!

It now looks like this! Much better! We texture painted the walls. We also built new doors for the shed. They look awesome and are incredibly heavy!

We're heading back up this weekend and we should have a new heating and air conditioning unit by then! Ooohhh, the luxury! I have a feeling we're going to be spending a lot of time in Arkansas this summer! Hopefully we'll be in Dallas when I go into labor! I don't know that I want our kid to be born in podunk Arkansas! I don't even know where the closest "medical facility" would be!

It's hard to believe we only have about 13 weeks left! Look at that belly! It's getting tough to run (OK, it's really probably considered a jog!) on the treadmill without my stomach hitting the front bar! Don't mind my crazy hair...it's super humid in Dallas and there's no taming it! Next week I have to do my glucose tolerance test. Here's hoping I didn't make myself diabetic with all the carbs I'm eating!

And last, but certainly not least...Buon Compleanno, Bubba Joe! That's "Happy Birthday"
in Italian for my brother who is in Italy. It's his birthday today (May 7th)! At least I'm on time with someone's birthday!

Side note!

2009-04-14T21:05:00.001-05:00

Tonight at Jamba Juice the lady asked if I wanted a shot of calcium for the baby! I wanted to say, "What baby?! Are you calling me fat?!" But I decided to be nice! How fun is that? Strangers are finally able to recognize my pregers belly for what it really is!

The moles are terrible in Dallas this time of year!

2009-04-14T20:43:00.003-05:00

OK, it's not moles. We're having a sprinkler system put in. According to Greg it is long overdue. We never had a sprinkler system growing up in St. Louis (unless you count my parents setting up the sprinklers for us to run through), so I kind of think it's a little silly. But I guess, when in Dallas...right?

Hopefully in the next few months all of our outside pictures will have lush, green grass as far as the eye can see (or at least to the lot line)!

Crystals

2009-04-14T18:39:00.004-05:00

I used to like crystals. In fact, in grade school I grew my own crystals on a rock in an empty soda bottle. It grew really quickly and had every color of the rainbow on it! I think there was even a girl in high school whose name was Crystal. And I like the restaurant Krystals, even though it's no where near as good as White Castle.
What I don't like are crystals that show up in a urinalysis. Which is what happened to me the other day at my GI appointment. Apparently crystals aren't supposed to be there and can be an indication of kidney stones! Lovely! So he decided that I should have an abdominal ultrasound done to look for these.
Yesterday was my day to have this test run. I'll start by saying that the entire test only lasted about 15 minutes. It was supposed to be a regular ultrasound focusing on the kidneys and bladder. What ended up happening was that the sonographer was so excited that she got to look at a baby instead of old people's kidneys all day that we spent 10-12 minutes looking at the baby and 3-4 on the kidneys! The sonographer was so funny! She kept telling me that she wasn't supposed to be doing this, but if I didn't mind then we would keep looking at the baby. We literally went from the top of her head to the soles of her feet and discussed how the baby looked in each view. We were able to see the ears, see that she was sucking her two fingers like Hook 'em Horns, her tongue was moving when she was drinking the amniotic fluid, we saw HER kidneys, her heart, her 10 fingers and toes, her legs crossed at the ankles and much, much more! I'm not kidding! We went through everything and the sonographer was giddy the entire time! Apparently the baby and I "scan" well. Good to know! I was loving it, but all I kept thinking was, "Greg is going to be so mad he's missing this!" Because we weren't supposed to be looking at the baby in the first place, she wasn't able to print out any pictures. But it was a fun experience anyway!
And my kidneys...well apparently that pain that I've been having at night is due to hydronephrosis. Which basically means something is blocking the tubes that let the fluid drain from the kidneys. It could be stones or it could be that the baby is sitting on them! Treatment: drink lots of water so I don't develop an infection and hopefully everything will be better once the baby is born. This pregnancy thing is not for sissies!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T22:05:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. Greg and I spent it in Dallas this year. We only got to Mass 10 minutes before it was supposed to start, so we were relegated to the gym Mass with the other slackers! I always loved Easter Mass because of how many times you get to say "Alleluia!" You're not supposed to say it during Lent, so it seems like they throw it in whenever they can at Easter!

It's hard to get a good shot when there is no one around to help take pictures. Thus, Greg has the top of his head cut off!

We didn't have time to take pictures before Mass, so we took some when we got home. Unfortunately Mass was super packed so we had to park down the street. And then when we were leaving, the sky opened up and it rained like crazy! So if you look close you can see that my hair is soaking wet and getting curly from the humidity and our clothes are pretty damp! I can only run so fast in high heels and with extra pounds!

23 weeks and still attempting to play soccer with Greg yesterday (It was a sight to behold!)

This afternoon the weather cleared up and was beautiful! We grilled out for dinner and were able to eat outside. I hope the weather stays like this for a while!

Keeping busy

2009-04-12T20:32:00.005-05:00

These past couple weeks we've been staying busy with shopping for the baby, making improvements to the house and traveling the country (or Arkansas). The baby shopping has been lots of fun! A couple weeks ago we went to Just Between Friends which is a consignment sale. We loaded up on lots of cute outfits, a pack n' play, a swing and a carrier to pull behind bikes! So exciting! Because we're first time parents we were allowed to shop before the general public. The one that we went to was in Arlington (about 45 minutes from our house) and started at 8:30 on a Thursday night. We only shopped for about 30 minutes but the line took for-ev-er and we didn't end up getting home until 1 am! That made for a rough Friday! But it was all worth it for the awesome stuff that we got for great prices! The baby's room is filling up quickly! We also registered this weekend at Babies R' Us. That was a little overwhelming! How many choices of pacifiers do you need?! I will put this one disclaimer on our registry...Greg had the scanner! So there is no telling what is really on there! There were a few times I turned around and he was no where in sight. It will be interesting to see what ended up on the registry!

This weekend we had a fun evening out with friends who gave input as to what names NOT to choose for our little one. Our two favorites were: World Wide (with the initials 'WWW' and the nickname 'internet') and Tangled Ina. So funny! We haven't really come up with any names that are realistic possibilities. Any suggestions are more than welcome! I tend to like the less common names with different spellings and Greg likes the more traditional names. It's definitely harder than I thought it would be to choose a name.

We also did some spring cleaning around the house and donated 8 huge bags of clothes to Good Will. The closet has never been more organized! I love it! It's funny what getting ready for a baby will do! I think the nesting phase has already begun!

Just last week I was finally able to distinguish between which movements were the baby and which were just my stomach. I think it helps that my stomach issues have been improving since another medication was added to the regimen. Greg and I have decided that we're going to have to get something that mimics the sounds my stomach makes and it's going to have to be really loud and sound like someone letting air escape out of a balloon with the end pinched. I don't know that they make those! One day I was sitting there with my stomach going crazy and when it would make a sound, she would kick like she was startled from a deep sleep. It was so funny! But then I started imagining her getting revenge on us at 3 in the morning! I just hope payback isn't as bad as they say it is! They say that sounds the baby hears in utero will be familiar to the baby when they're born. So this past week I decided to put that to the ultimate test when I went to watch Greg play basketball. He was helping out a team that was down a couple players. He played really well, but the buzzer could not have been louder! I don't know what that means for the baby when she's finally hear. Maybe she'll be able to sleep through multiple hours of Rock Band practice like I am!

Look at that textbook form! I don't even know what to look for!

Last weekend we went up the Arkansas for Alumni weekend at Hendrix. Greg was able to play in the soccer game and said it was tough! I helped cut up oranges for halftime...it wasn't too tough! We were able to hang out with some of the soccer teams. It's so fun catching up with everyone and finding out what everyone is up to. It makes me miss the good 'ole college days when things were simple and you only had classes for a few hours a day and the food was cooked by the nice cafeteria ladies...and was seriously delicious! I honestly contemplated stopping by the cafeteria to get some food!

We went to Cantina Laredo for dinner. I only had about 4 bowls of salsa! It was so good and I was starving! But by 11 o'clock I was spent and ready for bed!

Reagan, Leah and Andrea at Cantina Laredo

Jenn and Ryan

Then Sunday we went to a cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma and learned all about brunch cuisine. This was followed by a 60th Birthday party celebration at a really good new restaurant! The pregnant lady had two huge pieces of cake for dessert...and then took a nap on the drive back to Dallas!

Next weekend we'll be back in Arkansas to do some more work on the lake house. No rest for the weary around here!

Half way point!

2009-03-28T12:09:00.005-05:00

20 weeks down, 20 to go! I'm beginning to wonder why people say the 2nd trimester is easier than the 1st. I have never been woken up more in the middle of the night or been more uncomfortable sleeping in my life...and I have a feeling this is only the beginning! Yikes! For the past two weeks I've been having pain on my right side that feels like I just got punched in the kidney (not that I've had direct experience with that). It took me a while to figure out that this is the new way my body has decided to let me know I have to go to the bathroom. Awesome! I had to learn the hard way that if I don't get up immediately, it's only going to get worse. Before this, I could just roll over and go back to sleep. This baby is having none of that! Unfortunately for Greg, if you blink too loudly, he'll wake up! So we're on a 2 hour schedule now. Every two hours, get up, go to the bathroom, get back in bed and try to get to sleep as fast as you can so you can at least have 2 hours of sleep. I guess this is just preparing us for waking up with the baby!

We went for our latest sonogram and found out that we're having a little girl! Yeah! The sonographer says she's "textbook" for her measurements. Greg can't believe that I'm not able to feel her crazy movements. She punches me, kicks me, rubs her eyes and of course waves. We might have a beauty queen on our hands with all the waving going on in there!

Always waving!

I think that I've been able to feel her move, but I'm still not sure if it's her or my UC. I'm going to my GI on Monday and hopefully he'll be able to give me insight into what is what.

I think the best thing about knowing the gender is being able to go shopping! Neither of us are huge fans of pink, so we've gone the green, yellow, purple route. We also get to think of names...which we haven't really done yet! Oops! But our friends and coworkers have been giving us many suggestions! So far we know that Charlotte, Cob and Spider are definitely out because of the last name! We're open to most others though!

20 weeks

This is what I'm looking like right now. My innie is becoming a flatie and it's getting challenging to tie shoes in standing.

In other news, we've finished a lot of projects at the lake house! Greg made a path down to the lake while I removed that awful wallpaper. Then we primed and texture painted one of the rooms! I really liked the painting! It reminded me of icing a cake! Don't worry, I refrained from tasting it! No pica disorders around here! We got a lot done last weekend and it's almost ready for people to come visit! Now we just need central heat and air. No biggie!