Braxton is 9 months!!!!

Okay, so I have to apologize, because I didn't do an 8 month post, and life has been sufficiently hectic that I've almost forgot to do a 9 month one, but alas, I couldn't let another month go by wit

At his appointment, he was 20 lb 5 oz, 28.5 in

* He can stand all on his own!
* He started pulling up around 7.5 months and since then has been standing up on EVERYTHING! He loves to pull up and look around. It wasn't long before he started letting go and standing all by himself!

* He's eating 2 times a day. He's not as good of an eater as his chubby cheeks would suggest, but he eats well enough. To be completely honest, he'd probably be a better eater if I were more consistent in feeding times/amounts/scheduling. But that's neither here nor there. lol.
* He's still not sleeping through the night consistantly. But he's getting close! He'll sleep great 2 nights, and then wake up for 3. It's totally random, but hopefully it won't be much longer! The last week or so, he's been pretty consistent, sleeping from 8-5.
* He still drinks 6 oz bottles during the day and then a 10 oz bottle right before bed.

* He's outgrown all of his 6 and 9 month clothes! We pulled out his 12 month clothes a week or so ago and most of them aren't even 'big' on him. They fit just fine. :)

 * He pretty much never wears shoes. I keep trying to put them on him and they're either too big or too small, but never seem to fit well. I'm trying more often now though, because he'll be walking before too long and will need shoes!!! :)
* He's still a super happy baby. We're so thankful for that!

A new camera makes Mama feel goooodddd. :)

How many people have gotten a new camera and found themselves taking picture of everything they can see? That sounds a lot like me these days :). Last year on Black Friday, we picked up a great Canon camera for a really good deal. It takes really good pictures and while it's a little bit bigger than my older camera, it's still small enough to put in my pocket or carry around my wrist. I've really enjoyed it. Mitch decieded to get it because he was having trouble getting good pictures of ebay items on the older one and thought this would be better. It was. But it's still not perfect, but since we still hadn't actually started listing much, he wasn't going to invest any more into it. Luckily for me, he started listing recently, and we've been doing pretty well, so he started looking into getting an even better camera. :) lol

In talking to his co-worker, he was mentioning how he had been looking on craigslist and ebay for a Nikon D3000 or a Canon Rebel, his co-worker mentioned that he had a new Nikon D3000 that he had bought last year because he wanted a really good camera, but once he got it home and realized how big it was and difficult it would be to keep handy, he put it in a closet and hadn't touched it sense. He then followed with the sentence that has had me grinning for a few weeks now... "You can borrow it if you want". :) YAY for me! :) He brought it to work the next day and Mitch brought it to meeeee. Haha.

I've been loving all the pictures that I've gotten. For those of you wondering what difference it can make, here are some comparisons!

New Camera :

Brookelynne is 2!!!

 

Brookelynne Starr is officially 2 years old and *big surprise*, I can't believe it! She's growing like a weed and amazing us each day with all that she's learning and doing. She's surpassed all the milestones that are 'average' for her age to be learning and is saying new words every day. It's been such a joy to see her turn into this little girl before me, from the helpless infant that I brought home from the hospital 2 years ago. Here are some stats from her 2 yr visit

Height:              35.5 inches         
Weight:             26lbs

Here are some more facts from Brookelynne's every day life!
~She loves being the center of attention, and will squeal, shout, nudge or sneak to get your attention back if she so desires it.
~ She's day time potty trained. While she still uses a diaper during naptime and overnight, she's completely in panties during the day, any accidents she's had have been few and far between. The biggest source of 'accident' is when she gets to the potty but either can't get her pants down fast enough or doesn't pull them down far enough, and ends up with damp underwear, but usually, its not even bad enough that it gets through her panties and on her pants. [On the potty trained note, the doctors have been EXTREMELY impressed with her. I remember when I told them at 18 months that we were starting potty training, no one was very optimistic and said things like "don't get your hopes up" or "well it's fine to try, but remember she's still young". When we went for her 2 year appt, and a week later with a different doctor for an infection, both of them asked if we had 'just started wearing big girl panties', to which I replied, "No, she's been potty trained for about six months". :) Both Dr Kim and Dr Baker were very surprised and impressed. It was definitely a proud day for this Mama! ]

~ She's a great big sister! She loves 'helping' with anything I'll let her help with, from changing diapers to picking things up for Brax. She loves hugging him and kissing him, sometimes to his detriment. We have to keep an eye on her and occasionally say "Let go of your brother" or "Don't squeeze him so tightly please". lol
~  She can't pronounce her 'f's. Instead of making an 'f' sound she makes an 's' sound which is absolutely adorable! :) We're eating it up, since we know it won't last forever. It's only a matter of time before 'no suss' actually sounds like 'won't fuss' :)

~ She LOVES football! Each week when we turn on college football, she gets very excited and starts saying 'sootball' over and over! She says that it's "gameday" and "Go Noles" each week and LOVES doing the chop!
~ She knows all the words to "Jesus Loves Me" and will sing it with you (even though she calls it 'This I know") And she'll come to me and say "Sing This I know, This I know" :)
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~ She's becoming quite the little mommy. She has 4 baby dolls now and plenty of accessories to go with them. It's not unusual to see her pushing her shopping cart with Baby Doll around the house, or changing a diaper at her changing table.
~  She is doing really well in all of her classes. She's been very good about going into her class on Sunday mornings and behaving well. On Sunday and Wednesday nights, she's been up on the third floor with the kids a few months older than her and she's been keeping up easily! Her teachers a few weeks ago told me that she was wonderful, participating fully in each activity and doing everything they asked of her, and she was one of the only ones who is potty trained.
~She LOVES sweets! She will eat candy all day if you would let her and rarely turns down any other sweet.