Walking

Bri has been working on her walking for a while now. I have finally been able to capture some of it on video. Enjoy!!

4 months

So little miss is now 4 months old and getting even more beautiful each day. I'm finding that some days there isn't enough hours in the day. My time is spent on her and her only when she's awake so everything else around the house waits until the evenings when she's in bed and then I'm too tired to do a whole lot other than pick up around the house. And I'm okay with that.
Occasionally she is sleeping through the night from 7 pm until 7 am....only occasionally though. Most nights she is still waking sometime between 2 and 4 am. We've been working on naps a good bit lately since Bri doesn't seem to enjoy taking them in case she misses something going on during the day.
She's definitely growing like a weed...or at least like her mama. She recently went for her check up and is still in the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height.

Recently we've spent a good bit of time exploring the area including the zoo, Old Town, and even a day trip up to L.A. with Mac. She usually sleeps through the majority of her time at these places, but it's still fun to take these adventures and see new things. We're heading to Seaport Village on Friday and I'm looking forward to taking her there and to many other places around here. I can't wait for Justin to be able to go to some of these places with us. I think he'll have just as much fun as I do going to these places with her.

Overall

Bathtime

Overall, not too bad of a day. Today seemed to be a pretty fast day for some reason. Bri and I had a blast spending the morning with Gloria. We really enjoyed our walk with her and the opportunity to talk and share a great deal. Lunch with her was also great, even if Bri had decided at that time that she didn't want to give me a chance to sit down to eat. Once we got back to the house, it was past time for Bri to be taking her first afternoon nap, but she seemed to be sound wound up that she fought that nap until it was time for her second afternoon nap, when she finally gave in to it.



My little sleeper



When she woke up from this nap, it was bathtime. After her bath she went down for the night and after playing in the crib for a few minutes, she was out for the night....and that was at 7. She will wake up sometime between 1 and 3 and then be back out for the rest of the night until 5 or 6 which is wonderful. I'm so grateful for how great of a sleeper she is for me.

And now it's time for me to take advantage of these few hours of sleep!!

Play Ball

So today's activity was playing with a ball. Bri seems to really like this ball; probably because she is able to hold it and because it has a ball with a rattle on the inside. She has also spent a bit of time talking with Mr. Cow, but not nearly as much as usual. I think she may be mad at Mr. Cow since he refuses to respond to her.

Wendy made it over this morning and Bri seemed very happy to have her here. She even got upset once Wendy left.

The rest of the afternoon was spent like this:

Well, in many various positions!

A sleepy little girl

So the past couple of days have been pretty relaxed with very little going on. We went to church yesterday morning and spent some time after church with some great people during a fund raiser. Bri slept through most of church and the fundraiser afterwards. Once we got home, we played for a little while, but she fell asleep around 3 and then slept until about 6 when she woke up enough to eat and then she was right back out for the night. And she's been sleeping through the night until around 3 for the past couple of nights!!!

Today, she has slept for the majority of the day only waking long enough to get a quick playtime and eat and then she's right back out. I'm guessing that she's just going through a growth spurt right now. I could be totally wrong, though.
Tomorrow should be a fairly relaxed day as well. We're looking forward to a wonderful friend coming over in the morning to spend some time and then the rest of the day should be pretty laid back again (which I enjoy).  Although I guess I'll probably get in another load of laundry. Should be fun.

The Talking Cow

Bri definitely makes each day interesting. I love her love for life. She wakes up every morning with such a smile and a joy to be awake. Many mornings as I talk with her and we begin our day together, I watch her beautiful smile and wish to be more like her. It probably seems silly to want to be more like a 2 month old, but I want that joy each morning when I wake up, I want that love for life and interest in such ordinary things every day. Oh the fun of being so young!! I pray each day for that joy and have been making it a point to find a little of it everyday in the ordinary things.

Today, Bri used her developing social skills to talk to her cow during tummy time...which I have been calling Mr. Cow. She will just talk and talk to the cow, but then gets so frustrated when the cow doesn't reply, but then she'll go back and talk to the cow some more. She even makes sure to look straight at the cow and into it's eyes while she's talking. It's sooo cute and fun to watch.

It really amazes me at how fast she's growing and maturing. Everyone always says to enjoy each of the moments with the little one because they move so fast, but I never really realized how fast they truly do pass by. I am definitely taking time each day to cherish my sweet girl, even on days when she's extremely fussy.

Something New

Well, this morning has been great so far. BriAhna has started reaching up to grab her toys now. Before she would hold onto the toys, but wouldn't reach up to get it...until now. She seems to love having her crinkle wrattle on her wrist and is getting interested in toys other than her hands. She's definitely growing up way too fast.

This is all after she sat in her Bumbo for a few minutes last night which was another first for her..She's hated that thing since the first time I put her in it, but last night she sat there and played in it for long enough to let me finish cooking dinner, provided it was only about 10 minutes, but that's quite an accomplishment for Little Miss. She's working so hard at this growing up thing that she's even napping a little better and on her own today.

Little Miss is also up to 10lbs 10.5 oz up from her birth weight of 7lbs 4 oz. She's currently in the 50th percentile for weight but the 90th percentile for height at 24 inches, up from her birth height of 20 inches. I'm already starting to notice the issues with pants that will forever be an issue. The pants will either be long enough and big on the waist or fit on the waist and be too short! I forever had that issue and it's bad to be finding that issue with her pants already. I put a pair of pants on her this morning that she may never get to wear because they are huge around the waist, but are of perfect length. And sooo, the fun begins!

Life Gets Busy



Going Home!

 Some days I think life gets moving and forgets to slow down. Our baby girl arrived November 7, 2010 and although she's been with us 2 months, it feels like it was just yesterday that we first laid eyes on our beautiful little girl. She definitely brings more joy to life than I ever thought possible. It amazes me how much I can love her and some days I fear that it's never enough. Will I ever be able to love her as much as she truly deserves? I can only try. I pray that one day she'll understand how much her daddy and I love her. I also pray that she'll get to know God and trust Him as we have.


'Gangsta gnome'



Bri is growing so fast! She smiles all the time and is such a happy little girl. I love how alert she is and how she's always making sure that she knows what's going on around her. Right now her favorite things are her hands and a little crinkle toy that she can wear on her wrist. It's so fun to watch her playing. She's already an independent little one and can entertain herself. She's a great sleeper and has been since day one. It really makes things easy on me! She had her first set of shots on Tuesday and has done really well with them. She was a bit fussy Tuesday evening but has been completely fine since then. She woke up yesterday morning in such a great mood!

Justin and I have been doing well at adjusting to Bri. Justin was able to spend 3 weeks with us before heading off to training and was gone for 3 weeks. We're grateful that he was able to come home for a couple of weeks for Christmas. It's hard, sometimes, living the military life especially when he has to be gone so much but it's always just another adjustment that we make. We definitely learn not to take our time together for granted as much!