Brooklyn - 10 Months

We are one month closer to our sweet baby's first birthday!  She turned 10 months old last week.  Brooklyn is such a sweetheart and we just love her to pieces.  She is such a happy baby and just smiles at everyone.  She has had another cold this past week and is unfortunately on another round of antibiotics for yet another ear infection.  But despite not feeling well she has still been mostly happy.

At 10 months Brooklyn:
*weighs 19 lbs
*wears size 9-12 month clothes
*wears size 3-4 diapers
*loves to sing twinkle twinkle
*loves bath time
*nurses 3-4 times a day
*will eat pretty much any and everything I give her.  Some of her favs are chicken, nilla wafers, and cheese.
*does great using a sip cup
*takes 2 naps a day one in the morning for 1-2 hours and one in the afternoon for 1-2 hours
*goes to bed at around 7 pm and wakes up between 6-7 am
*is crawling and getting into everything!!  We had to finally put gates on the stairs.  Still no signs of wanting to walk yet.
*loves digging in the toy basket and pulling everything out
*still only has 4 teeth but it looks like she will be getting the top right canine pretty soon.

She is such a great baby and we are all pretty smitten with her.  I can't believe she will be one next month.  I have already started working on her 1st birthday party and think it is going be pretty cute.  I just love watching this sweet baby girl grow and learn every day.  She is such a blessing to our family!

Brooklyn - 9 Months

Baby girl is 9 months old!  She has officially been out of my tummy longer than she was in.  She is growing and learning new things every day.  It is so much fun to watch this stage as she explores her world and learns about the things around her.  She is an amazing baby and such a joy.  She loves her brother and sister and enjoys watching their crazy antics all the time.

I posted about all of her sickness during her 8th month and her 9th month continued on the same trend for a while.  She finally got over her second ear infection but before she finished that round of antibiotics she started running a fever that lasted for several days.  The day the fever ended she broke out in a horrible rash all over her head, face and torso.  We went back to the pediatrician for the 9th time I believe in a month and a half and she said immediately she had roseola.  It is just a virus that has several days of high fever followed by a measles looking rash for several day.  Brooklyn had a textbook case.  Once the rash cleared up she was back to her normal self.  Since then she has been pretty healthy, thankfully!  She started having a runny nose this week but hopefully that doesn't turn into anything else.

We had her 9 month well check up today and she checked out great!  She is ahead of schedule on several developmental things and is growing great.

At 9 months Brooklyn:
*weighs 18 lbs 5 oz (50th %)
*is 27 in tall (25th %)
*is wearing mostly size 9 month clothes but starting some 12 months as well.
*is wearing size 4 Honest diapers
*is nursing 4-5 times a day and getting 1 - 4 oz. bottle of formula before bed.
*is eating 3 meals a day with us.  She loves pretty much anything I give her but is especially fond of chicken, turkey, fruits, puffs, yogurt melts, and oatmeal.
*for most of the monthstill woke up once in the night to eat but the last 2 nights has slept for 12 hours!! WOOHOO!!  She goes to bed at around 7 pm and has been waking up at around 6:45 am.
*is still taking 2 naps a day.  The first one is usually around 10 am for an hour and then the second one is around 1 pm and is anywhere from 1-2 hours.
*is crawling all over the place and is in to everything.
*is pulling up on any and everything she can.
*loves pulling toys out of the toy basket and will sit and play by her self for extended amounts of time.
*loves bath time, especially with her big sister.
*started saying Dada this week and is making more and more consonant sounds so I know the word will start building up soon!
*still loves her paci but will occasionally suck her thumb as well.
*has 4 teeth. the 2 top middle and 2 bottom middle.
*gives the sweetest open mouth baby kisses on command. I love it.
*will typically start dancing when she hears a song.

I that about covers it for 9 months.  I can't believe she will be 1 in just 3 months.  I have already started thinking about what I want to do for her party :D.  This is such a fun stage with her.  I just think she is sweetest little thing ever.  She has the most gorgeous blue eyes.  I am so thankful for all the love and joy she brings to our family!

Brooklyn - 8 Months

Brooklyn turned 8 months on Christmas Eve.  How can it be that she will be a year old in just 4 months?  She is growing and changing so much and so quickly!  Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time, especially since she is our last baby!  We have had a busy month but is has been fun celebrating the holidays with B for the first time.

Unfortunately, this month has been filled with sickness for our sweet girl.  She got croup for the first time at the beginning of December.  That required a steroid and breathing treatment at urgent care.  Then 2 weeks later she got an ear infection and that required a round of Amoxicillin, and this past week she had a second bout of croup.  This was the worst episode any of our kids have had.  It was a little scary.  She woke up at midnight on Sunday and her breathing was just horrible.  Our pediatrician gave us steroids to keep on hand so I immediately gave her a dose of that but things were so bad that I felt I should take her to the ER too.  We waited for 40 minutes at the ER and still weren't seen so we left and I took her to a stand alone ER and we got right in.  By that point it had been an hour since the steroids and she was still having breathing issues so they gave her a breathing treatment and that opened things up more.  She slept ok the rest of the night then we got an appointment with the pediatrician the next morning.  Since this was the second time for her to get croup in a month and it was so bad our Dr. decided we should go on a daily steroid inhaler at least until the end of cold season.  She gets 2 puffs a day when she is sick and 1 a day when she is well.  Hopefully, this will prevent another episode like the one she had last week.  Maddox had to do this same thing when he was around 3 and it helped him. However, the steroids made him a little crazy so I am hoping that won't be the case for B.  Despite being sick, she has for the most part still been her happy, smiling self.  I love that about her.

At 8 months, Brooklyn:
*weighs 18 lbs 2 oz (about 44th percentile)
*Wears size 9 month clothes
*Wears size 4 honest diapers (I think these run a bit small so she wears a size 3 in other brands)
*is a great napper if we are home. She takes 2-3 naps a day, one is usually over an hour. If we are out though she will typically not nap.  She likes sleeping in her bed and rarely sleeps anywhere else.
*still wakes up at least once a night, much to my dismay.  She usually goes to bed around 7 and will sleep until anywhere between 12-2. She will nurse and then go right back to sleep and sleep until between 5:30-7:30 depending on what time she woke up in the night.  If she wakes up before 6 she will usually go back to sleep again until between 7-7:30 but if it is after 6 she is usually up for the morning.
*started crawling on her hands and knees this month and is now into everything.  I really need to get the cabinets baby proofed now.
*pulls up on everything.  This is way earlier than the other 2 so I'm thinking we will have a walker way sooner too.
*has cut 3 teeth.  Two on the bottom and one on the top.
*nurses 6 times a day on most days.  One of those feedings is in the night (boo).  She is a great eater and loves almost everything I give her.  Some of her favorites are chicken and turkey, sweet potatoes, french fries, apples, prunes and apple/cinnamon oatmeal.  She also loves puffs and yogurt melts.
*loves bath time and can now sit up without any support in there.
*has started giving kisses.  Those open mouth baby kisses are the sweetest!
*has learned to clap and says "YAAAAAY" when doing so.
*dances when she hears music.  It is so cute.
*loves the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  It will typically calm her down if she is upset.

Aside from her night time sleeping, she is such a good baby.  She is happy most of the time. She will let almost anyone hold her.  She is just such a joy.  We are so thankfully for her sweet little spirit and love that we get to watch her grow and change everyday!

loves to stand up now

on the move

those Toms and those legs...love!

A good view of those 2 bottom teeth!

More Christmas

It has been so much fun celebrating Christmas this year!  With us living in Texas now we haven't had to think or worry about traveling or being away from family so we have just been able to do all kinds of fun things!

We took the kids ice skating at the Galleria last weekend.  We weren't really sure how it would go but they LOVED it!!  They were already asking when we could go again before we even turned the skates in!  Brooklyn and I just watched while Daddy and the kids when around and round!

The kids had their Christmas parties at pre-school and had a blast.  They both did a Christmas book exchange, played Christmas BINGO, got to have yummy snacks, and came home with several fun treats and cute little hand made gifts for me ;D. I failed at taking many pics tho.

Sunday morning, I dressed the kids in coordinating outfits and was able to snap a couple of cute pics after church.

Sunday night we had a special Christmas candlelight service.  It went great and we had a packed auditorium!  We sang carols, Collin preached and then lit the candles.  It always looks so pretty with all the candles lit.  Both of our families joined us for the service!  It was a great time of celebrating the birth of Christ and focusing on what Christmas is really about.

We are so excited to be with both of our families for Christmas this week.  We will be with Collin's family on Christmas Eve and then my family will come over to our house on Christmas day!  This is such a fun time of year and we are looking forward to a fun week ahead!

I hope you have a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Programs

Both of the big kids participated in a little Christmas show this past week.  Maddox got to be Joseph in the show at pre-school and Addy did a little Christmas dance in her dance class.  They both did great and were super proud.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Decorations are up and the Christmas festivities have begun!  We LOVE this time of year at our house!  We got the house all decorated the day after Thanksgiving and this weekend was filled with lots of Christmas activities!!

On Friday, we started the day by going to Northpark and letting the kids each pick a kid off of the angel tree.  We let them both pick out a needed item and a toy for the kids they picked. They were a little disappointed that we didn't get to give the gifts to the kids and just had to drop them off with the volunteers there.  Friday evening, we went with Collin's family to the North Pole Express in Grapevine.  This was such a cute and fun experience.  The kids had a blast.  We rode the train, got bells from Mrs. Clause, got Santa's special "frosty chocolaty snowball milk", wrote letters to Santa, and got to sit in Santa's lap and take a picture!  I would def recommend this to anyone looking for a fun Christmas activity.  However, you will have to wait until next year because it is completely sold out this year!

On Saturday morning the fun continued at church.  We had our annual Breakfast with Santa event.  It was so cute!  We had a pancake breakfast, Christmas story time, built a toy in Santa's workshop, and took another picture with Santa and Mrs. Clause.  Someone decided right we we got to the front of the line for Santa that she had to go potty too bad to take a quick picture so only Maddox and Brooklyn participated this time.  This was a great event and I know one we will look forward to every year!

We have a few other Christmas things coming up but have already been having a blast celebrating!!