Brooklyn's newest tricks

Now that she has mastered crawling and can go ANYWHERE, and I mean anywhere, that she wants to, she has now started pulling up on things! She also had her first tooth cut through about a week ago (7.19.07).

She usually doesn't make it up past on her knees, which works quite well for some things. Last night she wanted Bella's tea set off our little table and she managed to pull herself up on the bean bag in front of the table, reach for the table and proceeded to pull the tea set off the table with quite a crash!

She was caught standing up on her feet yesterday! Luckily the camera was close by! It won't be long and she will be standing up and furniture cruising!!!

Hey - take my picture too!

This is Bella wanting her picture taken after she realized I was taking Brooklyn's! This is one reason why we cannot always get very good pictures of her because she is constantly running towards the camera so she can see the view screen!

Baby Yoga

It amazes me some of the positions babies can get themselves into! Here Brooklyn is crawling towards me because I got on the floor to take her picture. Then she started her baby yoga!

Bella's Birthday - Party #1 - The Guests

More important than the gifts and the cake are the people at the party!!! We missed Aunt Jenny and Uncle Chris who couldn't be there with us!!!




Mommy, Daddy, Bella and Brooklyn





Me-Me (aka Grammie) and Bella






Da, Ne-Ne (aka Grannie) and Bella

Sweet Cousins! From left to right: Whitney (8 months), DJ (6 1/2) holding Zach (6 months), Bella (almost 2) and Brooklyn (8 1/2 months), and Glen (6 1/2)





Uncle David with DJ and Aunt Angie with Zach




Uncle Mike, Aunt Allie and Whitney


Uncle Glen, Aunt Deisha and Glen

Bella's Birthday - Party #1 - The Gifts

Bella got some very fun gifts at her party!

Hey this card plays music! Bella loves these cards! She is still opening and closing that card!

Here she is opening her new stroller! She is very much into "walking" her babies (which may be actual baby dolls or her many stuffed animals) around in their stroller.

Much to my surprise, she really enjoyed opening the gifts wrapped in paper as opposed to those in bags. I would have thought she'd have an easier time tearing into the bags, but she was quite clever and had somehow already figured out where to tear into the paper wrapped gifts!!! Here she is ripping into one, which turned out to be Mumbo from Happy Feet (he even makes a tapping noise just like in the movie) and an oh-so soft Happy Feet blanket.

Here she is with her very own karoke/cd player! She loves to listen to music and sing and dance. She can carry the cd player around, but if it is somewhere she cannot reach she will get all pitiful and start dancing a little and saying "sing, sing"....

In addition to these gifts, she also got a very cute little bumble bee bear, a moo-cow flashlight, two puppets that make noise (a frog and a dog), a baby doll that can float in the bathtub or the pool with her, a coloring book, stickers and 5 new CDs! Needless to say she is having loads of fun playing with all her new toys and she still has two parties to go!

Bella's Birthday - Party #1 - The Cake

We went home to Anniston this past weekend to celebrate Bella's birthday with my side of the family. Here are a few pics of the "party".

Here is the cake that Grannie (or Ne-Ne - Bella cannot say Grannie yet, but she can say Ne-Ne) made for the party. It was very good!

And a picture of Bella with her cake - not sure why she had her hands up to her eyes like that, unless someone was playing peek-a-boo, where's Bella....It was a cute picture and she was smiling!

Ne-Ne also made a cake for Bella to "dig into". Most children would do just that - dig right in, but not Bella! She did put her finger into the icing.


She wanted a fork to eat the cake with!

At one point, she did have her teeth sunk into the cake for a little bite.

Cute Picture

The girls and I had to go to Lowe's to get a few things for Brannon and I put them in the Nascar cart. They looked too cute sitting there together, so of course I had to take a picture!!

How Bella Sleeps

Bella sleeps with a lot (probably too many) stuffed animals and two blankets (I've tried to get it to just one blanket, but she knows the difference). She sleeps with her head totally covered by the blanket(s) with just her little legs sticking out!

Here she is emerging from under her blankets when I wake her up (yes, some mornings I do wake her up, I cannot have her sleeping her day away!!!).

After a second or two, she will stand up in her crib and I will say "good morning" to her and she will say "morning" back and give me kisses!

More of Brooklyn Playing

Brooklyn really enjoys playing with toys - I don't remember Bella being this interested in toys, but Brooklyn constantly has to have something in her hands to play with. Just a few pictures of her playing!

Just more of Bella

Just a cute picture of Bella laying on her bean bag chair!

Bella being Bella

Bella has a blanket that she sleeps with and that at one point we had to take everywhere with us (luckily that phase has passed). She will walk around the house with it wrapped around her! Some days it makes her look like a princess with her royal robe and other times we joke that she is a little old lady! Or as pointed out by my friend Lesley, perhaps she is a celebrity in disguise - could be?!?!?

On the move

Brooklyn is officially crawling! She is enjoying her newfound mobility and is exploring lots of new places! She can now follow me from room to room!!!

Brooklyn

Just a cute picture of Brooklyn playing with the "chicken races" toy. It is a cute toy - it has two chickens and a race track and the chickens spriral down to the bottom when you push the blue button. It also has a song that plays while the chickens spiral down the race track!

Random

This is going to be a long post, but I thought I'd post a non-pictoral update about what's been going on lately.

• Bella will be two in less than a month! We just can't believe that she is already 2. When I was pregnant and after she was born, everyone would say "enjoy her while she's little, they grow up so fast" and I'd smile and say "oh I know"! But they really do grow up so fast. She is so full of personality and really keeps everyone around her laughing and smiling! She has quit calling me Momma and has started calling me Mommieeee. I'm not sure why - but that's fine with me. We are working on the potty training and some days she is interested and other days she is not. We are also working on her manners - she is very good about saying (or signing) please and thank you - sometimes you have to ask her "what do you say" and then she's says it. I have also been working with her to say "ma'am" mainly when she says "no". She still has to be prompted for that one, but that's ok. She loves to help around the house - taking out the trash, doing laundry, cooking, telling Brooklyn "no no" when she is getting into something she shouldn't, and even telling Georgia to "sit and stay". She is talking more and more and signing less and less. When she really wants something she will still sign pretty emphatically. The signs she uses most are "more", "please", "thank you" and occassionally "eat". She repeats everything you say, or at least tries. She continues to love to read, which is great! Brannon and I also love to read, so she sees us reading our books all the time and I think that encourages her. She can count to 10 when assisted and she will repeat the entire alphabet with you. Right now she really enjoys playing with her "babies" as she has taken to mothering them a lot lately. All in all - she is doing great and we have so much fun with her!

• Brooklyn turned 8 months old this past Monday! Again time really does fly by! She is getting more and more mobile by the second. She is officially crawling! Sometimes she crawls "normally" and other times she still uses her one foot to push herself off. She definitely can get where she wants to go! She has recently ventured out of the living room into the kitchen. Up until this point she has only been in the kitchen while in her high chair, so this is a whole new world for her! She loves plastic things - so I am having to be extra vigilant that she doesn't get hold of any plastic bags - because everything goes into her mouth. She also loves newspapers and magazines - mostly because they make a great noise when she crinkles them in her hand - this entertains her for hours! She is definitely a momma's girl! Momma was her first word (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). She also says "dada" and we swear that she says hey and waves. She will also hold her hand up and say hi. Now whether she actually knows what she is doing is up for debate, but it is entertaining none the less! She is eating solid foods but prefers the fruits. We've tried to sneak in some vegetables by mixing them with the fruits and she locks her lips shut! Her diet consists of breastmilk, apples, bananas, and pears at this point! We tried her on some blueberries and mango and she broke out. I also gave her strawberries (I know I shouldn't have so early on, but I forgot, plus Bella never had any trouble with any food, so I didn't even think about) and she broke out in a full body rash! So..no blueberries, mango or strawberries just yet. She continues to get bigger and bigger, catching up quite rapidly with Bella. Last time they were weighed, there was only about a 6 pound difference between them! She is the happiest baby I have ever seen and it is so fun to watch and play with her!

• As I mentioned in an earlier post, Brannon has now passed all 4 parts of his National Chiropractic Boards and is waiting to take the State of Alabama Boards in August. Once he passes the State Boards, he will be an official Licensed Chiropractor!! He is going to open a practice in Bay Minnette. He has the building secured for his office and they should be starting the build out within the next couple of weeks. Once that is finished, we will move in his equipment and hopefully he'll be open for business in early September! We are very anxious for him to get started!!!

Bella's latest boo-boo

This morning Bella was underneath a bench in the living room and she bumped her forehead. She cried when it happened but I didn't realize how hard she had hit it until around lunch time when there was a big red spot and bump on her head. I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures - but it is right between her eyebrows (slightly above her left eye)..

Baking with Mommy

Just a few pictures of our cookie and cupcake baking from yesterday!

Do I get to help yet????

Bella poured the sugar into the cookie dough

Then she helped stir it all together

Ready to go into the oven!







And the very best part of baking is getting to lick the beaters with all that extra icing (I didn't let her lick the cake batter because of the raw eggs, in case anyone was wondering! There are no eggs in the icing, so it is safe)!

Little Momma

Bella has recently become very mothering to her baby dolls and stuffed animals calling them all "baby". I am having to constantly swaddle them for her and have even been changing a few diapers on them. I am trying to teach her to do it, but she'd rather have me do it for her! She will even rock them to sleep, as you can see in these pictures.