Eight Months

This may be the first time I am actually writing an update on Brylee's actual "month" birthdate (usually I'm running late). We were at a good friends 2nd birthday party today, and on our way home, Bryan and I started talking about how before we know it we will be planning a 1st birthday party for this sweet girl! Part of me still feels like she was born just yesterday, and the other part of me can't remember life without her. Life is really good right now!

We don't have our next well-baby check-up until 9 months, but I weighed her on our home scale the other day and I'm guessing she weighs between 17-18 lbs. She's wearing both size 2 and 3 diapers (whichever I have out at the moment....luckily, we're still working our way through some of the diapers we were given as gifts from a diaper shower!) She still wears a few of her 6 month outfits, but now we're mostly in nine month clothes. And her hair is filling in enough that I can actually get a bow to clip and stay in her hair without a headband. So cute!
She has tried a few new foods and textures this month, including pureed chicken, pureed lintels and navy beans, and several new types of crackers. She had mastered cherrios, so we tried other little Gerber puffs, Club crackers, Saltines, and animal crackers. Needless to say, she likes them all. The sad thing about her diet is that she has basically weaned herself this month. We had mostly been nursing still at morning and night only, but the last week or so, she has really been fighting me, not wanting to nurse. And the morning of her turning eight months, she finally just refused to nurse all together. I think I will still try this next week or so (to make sure it's not just a fluke), but I think it's safe to say she is pretty much done with nursing. I wish she would have hung on for another 2 months or so, but at least we didn't have to work hard at weaning!

As you can see in some of these pictures, she is getting more and squirmy. She is not "mobile" yet, but frequently lunges from our arms or tries to reach very far for things she wants. She can pivot on her belly, but can't army crawl forward or backwards yet. But her fine motor skills are really developing, and she can manipulate most small items in her hands now.

I think she is going to have a strong-willed personality! There will be ocassions where she will scream...yes, scream very loudly...demanding my attention immediately. At this stage, it is hard to reason & give an infant choices of how it is appropriate to act, so we are doing our best of not acknowledging her demanding screams.

She wakes up around 7-7:30am, and goes to bed around 8:30pm. We are trying to transition from 3 naps to 2 naps, because the third nap was either really short or not happening at all. So now she takes a morning nap from about 9:30-11 and an afternoon nap from 2-3:30.

She "talks" a lot, but mostly in vowels and screams. She hasn't gotten any "baba's" or "dada's" or "mama's" yet, although I practice with her regularly! She loves Paisley, and Paisley has finally learned that being near Brylee has advantages, especially during meal times!

We couldn't be more in love with our sweet, eight month old girl!

Eight Months

July 23, 2011

Goodbye to a Good Man

About two weeks ago, my family said goodbye to my wonderful grandpa, Leo Stoniecki.

Brylee and I left town (for the third weekend in a row...we were getting a little weary of traveling), and headed to Chicago to be with my family. Brylee had previously been on three airplane trips, but this fourth was the first time I tried it alone. I should have gotten a picture as I was walking into the airport, because I had a backpack on my back, Brylee in her Bjorn carrier on my front, pushing a suitcase with wheels in my right arm, and carrying a car seat in my left arm! Needless to say, I felt like a pack mule! Luckily, I was flying Southwest, and checked all but the baby and the backpack, so that made boarding the plane easier. And we were fortunate to sit next to very nice people who didn't mind holding a random bottle here & there while I tried to coordinate holding & baby and managing feeding items.

The two days in Chicago went by fast, and we primarily hung around my grandparents' house visiting and reminiscing about good times. The funeral was on Thursday morning, and we made sure to take some family pictures. Unfortunately, as we all grow up, it's hard to get together with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles.

My dad is on the far right, his two brothers, and my sweet Grandma! She looks great for 88! There are six of us cousins. Two of my girl cousins are serving overseas for the Navy right now. Thankfully, they were both able to come home for the weekend.
My handsome brothers and Grandma

My whole family, minus Bryan who had to stay home to get some work done

Four generations of "Stoniecki" lineage

This cute girl stole the show while we were there. She did so well in yet another new surrounding!

There's this wonderful ice cream shop called Rainbow Cones near my grandmother's house. We used to go there during the summer as kids. We all went Thursday night after all the memorial stuff had ended and it was just close family again. They basically sell one type of ice cream cone, called the Rainbow cone, which has five flavors layered on each other, including orange sherbet, pistachio, cherry, strawberry, & chocolate.

We're not there very often, so I thought it was only appropriate to let Brylee try a little. Hey, I didn't know when she would be back to ever be able to try it again! So she got a little lick of just the sherbet (which I figured was mostly flavored sugar anyways).

Of course, she loved it, and then wanted more the rest of the night until I had eaten it all!

It makes me a little sad that it takes a funeral to get all of us cousins together again, but I am thankful for the time we got to catch up! It was a good time to make a sad situation joyful!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a wonderful first fourth of July as a family of three. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend, and spent the actual holiday grilling out with some friends. Brylee and Tyler will be best buds if their parents have anything to do with it. Brylee is already very interested in Tyler...
...and is not shy to be the first one to make a move.

We though we would try our hand at swimming. Brylee has been swimming in a big pool before, but never seated by herself in a small one. And this was Tyler's first pool experience. As you can see by the picture, us parents were by far having the most amount of fun!

Tyler enjoyed playing outside the pool, and Brylee quickly realized she was having a lot of fun!

I realized we need to get a small pool for our backyard this summer. With 100+ degree temperatures, we definitely need some relief. My dilema...getting a smaller pool like this with a shade canopy or getting a slightly bigger pool that I can actually sit in too!

She learned how to splash, and liked to splash, but couldn't figure out how to do so without getting water in her face. She kept on moving her arm farther and farther back while splashing, but the result was still the same.

Drying off with the dads.

What a cute girl in her red, white, and blue. I love this outfit even more because I got it from a bin my mom had saved of some of my old baby clothes. I wore this same blue jean dress 28 years ago!

Happy 4th of July from our family to yours!

Unclel Brando & Aunt Britt

Some of our good friends from ACU came to visit the Fourth of July weekend. We have so many fun memories with this couple, and are so blessed that the memories continue to grow. Brittnie and I were best friends during college, and Brandon and Bryan were college roommates for several years. So it makes for a really good time when we get together. It is like we are family!

Friday night, we went to the Rangers' baseball game while our trusty babysitters (Bryan's parents ...thanks Ed & Jan!) stayed home with Brylee. We enjoyed a Rangers' win, and stayed for a great fireworks show after the game.
The boys bought these silly boots full of coke, and enjoyed cheering the Rangers on using them as props for the rest of the game

Brylee loved looking at & smiling at Uncle B, but was a little timid when it came to him holding her

So remember those silly boots mentioned above...

The boys had the great idea of pretending Brylee was wearing them! No matter how silly, this is one cute girl!

We enjoyed a relaxing weekend, hanging around on Saturday. The boys made a special brunch trip to In N Out Burger, while the girls chatted at home & ran errands to Target.

Brylee had fun playing with Aunt Britt

Brandon & Brittnie ended up having to leave for home a little earlier than planned, but before they left we had an excellent Fourth of July cookout. The boys grilled the best steaks, and Brandon made this delicious apple crisp dessert from scratch after losing a bet on Friday. We bet that if the girls were able to stay awake on the car ride home after the game on Friday, then Brandon would have to make dessert. If we fell asleep, we would be in charge of dessert. I'm glad we won the bet, because this sure tasted good!

We had such a good weekend, and hope to see them again soon!

Seven Months

As with many moms, I'm running a little behind, but am only a week late on a seven month Brylee update. There was no doctors appointment or big event associated with seven months. And when people ask me, "What is she up to these days?", there are actually few physical milestones that are different from 6 months. Brylee was an early sitter, so she already had mastered that. But she's not really rolling, crawling, or doing any other gross motor activity yet that is a measurable milestone. But seven months has been a HUGE month when it comes to personality, socialization, and cognitionn!

Brylee in bullet points:

- Her schedule is very consistent, the same as at six months. She still sleeps great at night, naps decently during the day, and eats well

- We have really started using formula to supplement this month. She nurses about 2-3 times a day and gets formula 2-3 times each day. She's pretty flexible about going from one to the other. Although, even with the formula, she does not take the minimum recommendation of 24 oz of milk each day...she just doesn't want to drink anymore, and would prefer her fruits & veggies

- She loves her cheerios now, and after a few weeks of gagging on them because she could not figure how to move them around in her mouth, she now is getting the hang of "chewing" and gumming them until she can swallow
- She's showing some interest in our food, and I've let her suck on watermelon & cantaloupe, but she freaks out if she bites off a piece and doesn't know what to do with it (I also freak out because it's usually a big enough piece to choke on). We try putting it in those mesh ring-pop looking things, but she definitely doesn't like it as much

Her personality is really shining through:

-She loves looking at people, and definitely does not know it is not polite to stare! Luckily, she's a cute baby and people don't mind the stares, and they usually smile back

- She loves reaching for things - she's beginning to reach & lunge out of our arms when she wants to grab something while we're holding her

- She still is a momma's girl. She will go to other people fine, as long as I'm nearby or completely out of the picture. If she can see me from afar, she gets upset

-She can follow just one command so far, which is simply "Kisses." She will open her mouth wide so we can kiss her. She will also do it to her stuffed animals if I bring them to her face

- I think she slightly understands the word "NO," because I use it when she bites me while nursing. Her usual reaction is to stop, and then to giggle, so I don't quite think I'm getting the point across (it doesn't help when I crack up laughing, though, because it is just so cute & funny!)

- She tries to manipulate things in her fingers, like picking up her Cheerios or smaller toys. She's just learning this, so is not very good yet

Overall, she is a very curious baby, and at a stage where she wants to reach & touch anything new. Other people are by far her favorite, and although a little shy, she usually reaches out to touch them. It is very rewarding watching her learn and discover her world around her!

Seven Months Old - June 23, 2011

(actually, these pictures were taken on July 3 because I had totally forgotten and we had been out of town...oops!)

Father's Day in Atlanta

You may remember a few months ago on our trip back from Atlanta, Bryan and I received a couple of free round trip tickets due to volunteering to get bumped from our flight. We used two of those tickets to spend Father's Day weekend in Atlanta with my family. It also happened to be the weekend the Texas Rangers were playing the Atlanta Braves in inter league baseball play. So here's our weekend in chronological picture diary format...

Brylee did great on her third plane trip. It was a slightly complicated trip, having to wait on the Dallas tarmac for an hour before we took off due to bad weather in Atlanta. When we finally were landing, it was the scariest landing I have ever experienced. During all of my years of flying, I have never been so scared during a landing. Our plane was being blown around in the wind, and it was the one and only time during all of my travels that I thought there was an actually chance we were going to crash. Thankful to God, we landed safely and had a great week! During our last trip to Atlanta, Brylee had not started solid foods yet, so we never though about needing a high chair. So our first morning, we had to do breakfast sitting on the kitchen counter. We soon remedied the situation by getting a portable high chair to keep at my parents house.
My parents had to work on Thursday, but when they got home, we all went out to get yogurt after dinner.

Brylee learned a new game while in Atlanta...Peek-a-Boo!

I would cover her head with her Lovie...

...then she would pull it off her face and giggle at me. So cute!She had her little spot set up in the living room with some toys we brought and some my parents are collecting

Friday night the whole family met up for dinner, then we headed to the Brave's stadium for the Rangers/Braves baseball game. Honestly, we were hoping to stand out a little more in our Ranger's gear, but the Brave's colors are red, white, & blue also, so you could hardly tell the difference except for the writing on our shirts.

Andrew, my youngest brother, Emily, David's girlfriend, and David, my middle brother

Bryan and I (leaving a perfect little space for Brylee... ha!)

Brylee was enthralled by watching all the vendors & fans walk by

Her new thing is blowing raspberries...she did it all weekend!

She stayed awake for the entire game, and fell asleep right at the end before the firework show

But as a good little girl, she stayed asleep through the entire thing, and slept like a champ that night

On Saturday, the boys went back to another afternoon baseball game, while the girls spent time doing "girly" things. Brylee hung out with us while we got pedicures.

She was very interested in what they were doing to our feet. We then went shopping, to the grocery store, and home to watch a chick-flick.

My mom captured a few cute expressions. How can you not love this "thinker"...

...or this "smiler"...

... or this "giggler."

My parents have a blow up baby tub at their house, but she has almost outgrown it, so we tried taking a "big girl bath" for the first time. She loved it, as usual with her other baths.

Everything these days goes into her mouth. I love her full, after-dinner-belly protruding over!

My parents recently got back from a mission trip to Mexico, and brought Brylee this adorable seniorita dress! Brylee got the giggles around Uncle Andrew for no apparent reason. It made us all laugh!

Sunday morning we celebrated a casual Father's Day. We all went to church together, and cooked steaks at home for the dad's I love!

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful dad I've every had!

And Happy First Father's Day to the most wonderful husband and Dad out there!