The Entertaining Adventures of Brookelynne Starr: Talking Edition :)

Well my sweet baby girl is far from a baby and looking more and more like a kid everyday. (as apposed to an infant). She's been saying words for a while, but with the exception of 'up please' (which is pronounced 'uppppa') she hadn't started saying anything but words. Not phrases and definitely not sentences, until this week. :) She seriously amazes me at some of the things she has begun to say, and almost all of it came over night. Here is a list of some of her new phrases....

*We love to eat salad here, and by salad, I mean lettuce, tomato and cheese with dressing on top, and whenever we do, we cut up a tomato for Brooke and give her some dressing to 'dip' it in. Whenever I buy salad stuff, I buy a lot and we eat a little at every meal for a week or so, so on the second or third day of it, at lunchtime, I pulled the tomato out of the fridge, and out of no where she yelled "Cut em up!" She'll say it over and over and anytime you ask her what we do with tomatoes, she'll say "Cut em up!" with this big goofy grin on her face!

*She's MASTERED possession. I don't know if I'm the only mother who thinks of her child's achievement as checkmarks in an English textbook chapter list, but I do, and she totally get's possession, lol. Her favorites are "Mommy's Car", "Daddy Car" [these are said EVERYTIME we see the cars], "Mommy Cup", "Gabba's Truck" (Grandma's Truck), "PawPaw Truck", "Gabba House"[everytime we get in the car], "Brooke Bow", "Ba's Hat" (Braxton's hat) and "Mommy Bag" [this is her diaper bag that we need to get before we leave her classroom. Every time I go to pick her up, before she'll come to me, she tells me to get her bag by saying "Go, Go, Mommy Bag, Mommy Bag, Go" :)]

*She has a new sound association, and that is the very unique noise that trucks, and more specifically, Paw Paw's truck makes. Most people say that cars or trucks say 'Vroom, Vroom" and that's what I tell Brooke that Mommy's car 'says', but my dad makes noises for things that actually sound like the thing sounds. Anyway, Paw Paw's truck says "Nunnnnn, nunnnn, nuunnn" and for some reason it clicked this week. For a full day she said it over and over, "Paw Paw truck, nunnnn, nunnnn, nunnnnn" and it's hilarious. Seriously :) [oh, and apparently Gabba's truck makes the same sound]

*She's started saying 'more ____ please', instead of just whatever it is she wants over and over. :)

*Her new favorite thing to say is "Nap time over" lol. She even told me that when nap time had just started the other day! haha. Silly Girl!

Anyway, Husband needs the computer and I need to get to bed. I'll post more later!

Milestone Moments of Braxton James: Sitting Up Edition :)

Well. Its official. My baby boy can sit up on his own! It seems like this has been a long time coming, but at the same time, it feels like this came on so fast! We've been 'working on' or 'practicing' sitting up on our own for about 2 months, meaning that every couple of days I would sit him up and sit near him to see how long it took for him to fall over or throw himself backward. This usually only took 15 to 20 seconds before we had to start over again. We would 'practice' for anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes, but he never kept his balance for more than about a minute, and it really seemed to me that he just didn't 'get it'. Like it wasn't important to him, so he wasn't going to try. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, today I sat him up like I do most days and to my surprise, after a couple of minutes, he still hadn't fallen over. So I grabbed the boppy and put it behind him, and started doing other things, waiting to see how long it would take him to tip, fall or flop. Twenty, count them 20 minutes later, he was still sitting up playing with toys! Talk about a proud Mama! I am! It was the craziest thing ever because it seriously seems like when I sat him up today, something in his little brain just 'clicked' and he thought to himself, "It appears that Mama thinks I'll like doing this sitting up stuff, so maybe I'll give it a try today." lol. Anyway, he does enjoy it, in fact he lovvvvvvvvveeeeesssss sitting up and playing with toys, he can reach for different toys and really play with more than just rattles. He'll occaisionally be playing with something and just stop, look around until he sees someone who's looking at him and then give them this huge grin! Seriously cutest thing ever!

Guess who's 6 months old already?!???!?

That's right! Mr Braxton James Pearson is!

Seriously. Where. Has. The. Time. Gone??? It seems like it has flown by even faster than it did with Brooke. I guess it really is true; the older you get the faster time flies.

Anyway, lets get to the stuff you really want to know, right? Our big boy is growing like a weed, and while I don't have his stats yet because he doesn't get his shots until next week, I can tell you he's at least 16 lbs already. I'll update his official stats when I get them, but in the meantime, lets look at all the other things he has going on!

Height/Length:                     26 inches      
Weight:                                 17 lbs 4 oz         
Head Circumference:            45 cm
    

*  He is in 6-9 or 9 month clothes. I had to put all of his 6 month clothes up a little over a month ago because he was just not fitting into them. He wears most of his 9 month stuff well, but the pants are a little longs still.

* He LOVES to swing. Seriously loves it. We have put up a play set in the back yard and of course have a baby swing for him, and he loves it. He'll contently swing back and forth for an hour or more, as he watches Brookelynne play around him.

* He can sit up if his legs aren't straight. I know that sounds silly, but if you put him on the edge of a table or in a chair that his legs and bend at the knee, he'll sit up by himself and not lean back on the back of the chair, but if you sit him up with his legs straight in front of him, he can't stay that way. I'm pretty sure he and Brookelynne have the same problem that their Mama has, short muscles and little flexibility!

*  He regressed for a few weeks this month and went back to waking up in the middle of the night for some reason. I tried not to feed him, but just give him his paci and sooth him, and most of the time he would go back to sleep. Needless to say, I was getting exhausted pretty quick with all the other things we have going on, so I'm happy to say that little man is back to sleeping like a big boy, all night long. :)

*  He is becoming so interactive! He's always loved for you to be entertaining him, and would smile, coo or laugh in response, but now he's physically reaching for things that you show him or trying to play with toys when he sees Brooke doing it. My dad was holding them both just a few days ago with  a pop up toy in his lap. Brookelynne would pop 4 of them and then Brax would reach over and push the button to pop the other one! He was so cute and happy to play with them!

*  I finally found shoes for him!!! lol I know this may sound stupid, but the boy would NOT keep shoes on his feet. Not sandals, not dress shoes, not tennis shoes, nothing. Within a couple of minutes he would have managed to kick them off. I was starting to get frustrated that I would have a walker that wouldn't want to wear shoes, but I finally found some that fit him and stay on his feet! We even made it through a whole day at the zoo without them coming off!

* He went to VBS! :) Just like Brookelynne did last year (and this year) Braxton went to Vacation Bible School this year and loved it! He had an entire room full of ladies loving on him each day and teaching him about Jesus. He also got to go outside with Mama's class (Brookelynne's class) one day and ride on the train and ride on a horse! Here's a picture of him riding the horse! He really liked it, and he enjoyed the train as well! :) We're so thankful for a church that values preschoolers enough to have such great programs for them!

* The comment I get most often about our baby boy is "He's a happy baby isn't he?" No matter where we are or what we're doing, someone will see him grinning as big as possible and be so impressed with what a happy baby he is!

* On July 2, Braxton went to the beach for the first time! :) He was the only boy among girls and had a great time being loved on, napping and feeling the water and sand on his toes!

Gone Consignment Crazy, Fall 2011 Edition

Well it is that time of year again and the Fall Consignment sales are starting to form! I've finally been able to get dates for them so I can now officially update you all on our old favorites and some new exciting ones too!

Jacksonville Kidsignment Sale
Dates and Times:
* Presale for Volunteers Only: Friday, August 5th, 6:30-8 pm
* Public Sale:  Saturday, August 6th, 9am- 6pm
*Half Price Sale:Sunday August 7th, 11am-4 pm

Location:
510 Fairgrounds Place, Jax FL 32202
(Jacksonville Fairgrounds)

Details:
Jax Kidsignment Sale

Smock A Doodle Doo!
Dates and Times:
*Presale for Consigners Only Thursday, August 11th, 6-8 pm
*Presale for First Time Moms, Thursday, August 11th, 7-8 pm.
*Public Sale* Friday, August 12th, and Saturday, August 13th

Location: 4841 Reed Ave. Jacksonville, Fl 32257

Details: This is a sale for only smocked, monogrammed or appliquéd clothing, all in like new condition. They will also be accepting bedding, bows and shoes.  If you have any questions or would like to consign, just contact Maddison Dorminey through the facebook page set up for the sale!
Smock A Doodle Doo

Finders Keepers!
Dates and Times:
*Presale for Consigners*  August 31st 10am-6pm
*Public Sale* Sept 1st & 2nd from 9am-6pm
*Half Price Sale* Sept 3rd, 9am-3pm

Location: Morocco Shrine Center Auditorium
3800 St Johns Bluff Rd S, Jacksonville, FL

Details: This is the largest of the local consignment sales. They accept everything that you could ever need for or use as a child, from bedding and clothes to toys and furniture. You price your own items, and keep 65% of your sales, minus a $12 consignor fee. This is my mother in law’s favorite of all the sales, because she loves the large selection!
Finders Keepers Website


 Warehouse Sale Jacksonville .
Dates and Times:

Location:

Details: While not a true consignment sale, this sale has the boutique quality smocked, appliquéd and monogrammed clothes that you want without the boutique price. These ladies buy overstocked items in bulk and then sell them to the public at a discounted rate twice a year. If you need a special Christmas, Easter, or other special occasion outfit for your little one, this would be a great place to look!


WeeTrade, San Marco Location

Dates and Times:

Location: 1666 University Blvd. W. (Lakewood Shopping Center) Winn Dixie Side @ San Jose Blvd & University Blvd (Opposite End of Winn Dixie, near Beall's)

Details: At WeeTrade you keep 66% of your earnings, (minus your $5 registration fee), or if you don’t have time to price, tag and hang your items, you could also just drop the items that you want to consign off to the sale, and let them do it for you, still keeping 40% of your earnings (minus the $5 registration fee, of course). They also have 2 sales this year, so if you don’t sell everything in the first one, you can always take part in the second, without changing all the work you’ve already done!
Wee Trade Website


Two Silly Friends (Formerly "Between Friends")
Dates and Times:
*Consigner Only PreSale* Sept 21
*Public Sale* Sept 22nd through Sept 24

Location: 175 Hampton Point Drive, St Augustine, FL 32092
Inside the Watson Realty Building on CR210W, 2nd Floor.

Details: This sale has some great perks, including no consigner/registration fee, and you keep 70% off your earnings! They also have a “drop-n-go” service, where you can drop off items that they will consign for you, for a 60/40 split, as they like to call it. It is located in St Augustine, so much more convenient for some of you mandarin and St Augustine residents! You must consign 10 items to be eligible for the presale!
Two Silly Friends Website

JumpNJax, which was our first sale in the spring, is seventh in order this fall!

Dates and Times:
*Presale (Mom 2 Be, New Grandparent, & Military )* August 3rd, 1pm-7pm.
*Public Sale* Aug 4th, 9am-7pm, Aug 5th, 9am-6pm, Aug 6th, 9am-3pm
*Half Price Sale* Aug 7th, 1pm-6pm.

Location: 5501 Roosevelt Blvd
Jacksonville, Fl 32244.

Details: This sale is my favorite.  Consigners earn 65% with no registration/participation fee, and can bump up their earnings to 75% by referring 5 new consigners.

Upscale Kids Sale, Ponte Vedra

Dates and Times:
*Presale for Consigners and Volunteers* Sept
*Public Sale* Thursday & Friday Sept 9:30am-7 pm
*Half Price Sale* Sept 9am-5 pm

Location:


Details: This sale has no consigners fee and you earn 70% of your sales, 5% more for some volunteers. With a presale for consigners and a half price sale at the end of the weekend, as well as 3 locations, this just may be the sale for you!


Kids Go Round, another St Johns County sale, comes in at number nine.

Dates and Times:
*Public Sale*

Location: Faith Community Church
3450 CR210 W, St. Johns, FL 32259
(Located on CR210, 3 miles west of I-95, opposite South Hampton)

Details: Consigners earn 65% of their sales this weekend, with the opportunity to make more if you refer others! If you consign 25 items or more, you receive a pass to the consigners presale.
Kids Go Round Website

WeeTrade, St Johns Location
Dates and Times: *Presale*

Location: TBA, Just West of I95, convenient to 9A Shoppes of Bartram Park~Publix Shopping Center

Details: At WeeTrade you keep 66% of your earnings, (minus your $5 registration fee), or if you don’t have time to price, tag and hang your items, you could also just drop the items that you want to consign off to the sale, and let them do it for you, still keeping 40% of your earnings (minus the $5 registration fee, of course). They also have 2 sales this year, so if you don’t sell everything in the first one, you can always take part in the second, without changing all the work you’ve already done!
Wee Trade Website


Upscale Kids Sale, Orange Park location

Dates and Times:
*Presale for Consigners and Volunteers*
*Public Sale*
*Half Price Sale*

Location: Jefferson Crossing Shopping Center.
179 College Drive, Orange Park, Florida 32065.

Details: This sale has no consigners fee and you earn 70% of your sales, 5% more for some volunteers. With a presale for consigners and a half price sale at the end of the weekend, as well as 3 locations, this just may be the sale for you!


That just about wraps it up for this fall! As I get more information on sale dates and times I'll update!

Braxton is 5 months old!!!

Who can believe that its been 5 months since this sweet little boy entered the world? Because I surely cannot! He is growing so much each day and gets just a little bit more of my heart every time I look at him. He laughs and coos all the time and rarely gets upset. He has such a sweet disposition and everyone says he look just like his Uncle Josh. Ironically they also say he looks like Brookelynne who apparently looks 'just like Mitch' and anyone who knows Mitch and Josh knows they look nothing alike, lol. :) Here are some pics and stats from the past month!

* Can sit up for short periods of time, but I really haven't been working on it with him very much because of how busy we have been.

* LOVES his toys!! Rattles are his favorite right now but he also likes playing with his paci pets. (The frog and dog that are connected to his pacis)

* He's rolling over everywhere! If you put him down for any amount of time, he'll roll over within minutes. :) He doesn't mind being on his belly but once he's tired of it, he'll let you know.

* He's going through 2 to 5 bibs each day between his drooling and spit up. You would think he would have a tooth or two by now but none in sight! He's got the best toothless grin though!

* Is quite the socialite! He talks to everyone!

* Loves to stand up/straighten out. Anytime you lay him down, he's as straight as a board. They should have no problem measuring his length any time soon because he's as long as he can be every time he lays down! He also loves to stand up. You have to fight him to get him to bend at the waist most days, but if you just put his feet on the floor he'll hold his own weight for 30 minutes or more. I've even started holding just his hands or just putting my hands on his hips, and while he's not super stable, he'll stand on his own for short spurts.

* Is about to pop out of all of his 3-6 month and 6 month clothes. We pulled out the 9 month clothes last week and are starting to clear out his drawers and replace them. I've noticed that we don't have many 9 month church clothes though. Guess that means I'm going shopping soon! :)

* He naps in his swing often times, mainly because he's in the 'fighting sleep stage' and it's much more effective to put him in the swing and swing it fast to get him to fall asleep than to hold him tight and make him go to sleep because as soon as you put him down, he's up again..

**** He's sleeping through the night!!!!!! ******** :) He started this at about 4.5 months, and has done great with it. He takes his last bottle around 9 and then I just lay him in his bed and he goes right to sleep! He's so precious and hardly ever fusses. If he does fuss, I let him do so for several minutes until he's about to cry and then I walk in there and give him his passy. He immediately takes it and is out in seconds.If you try to give it to him any sooner than that, he won't take it. (Little stinker!) :)


* He's starting to know my voice even from across the room. If I'm outside of his classroom at church and talking, he starts turning his head to me and immediately smiles when he sees me! Its so stinkin cute! (Oh, and in case you were wondering, he has the best smiles ever!)

* He doesn't have any favorite toys yet, but does like playing with rattles. Especially the ones that he can shake and make a good amount of noise.

* He puts EVERYTHING straight into his mouth! I know this is 'normal' but it's so new to us because Brooke never did that. Literally everything that his hand touches goes in  his mouth, so we now have a much more clean-conscious Mama over here! It never bothered me with Brookelynne if she dropped a toy on the ground or even if she picked something up off the ground because 95% of the time, she'd just play with it and then put it down/back. Not Little Man, he immediately tastes it, meaning when he drops it on the floor, he puts those germs right into his mouth. Not cool. :) It makes me wonder what type of learner that will make him. Hopefully I figure that out soon! haha

*We finally found a song that he likes!!! Unlike his big sister and his Mama, he was not at all concerned with music for the longest time! You could sing and sing and it didn't calm him a bit. I stumbled upon a tune that he likes and we now officially have the first 'Braxton James Song" :) It goes "Where is Braxton James, Braxton James, Braxton James, Where is Braxton James? He's sitting right over there" We also substitute  "I love...he's our sweet baby boy" and Brookelynne's name for more variations of the song.

 * He's eating solids! He has had carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, green beans, peas, peaches, strawberries, kiwi, spaghetti squash and butternut squash. He doesn't like the squash though! :) We started him on it right at 4 months, and it took him quite a while to get good at eating off of a spoon, but he's gotten it now! We knew he wanted to eat, because if you kept at it, he'd eat 2 or 3 ice cubes worth each day for the first week or so and then 4 to 6 ice cubes each serving after that. He eats great now, just as long as its not squash, lol.

* He LOVES his big sister! He thinks she is hilarious and loves when she plays with him or talks to him. If she comes into his line of sight he always smiles and usually laughs anytime she does or if she makes faces at him. She'll play peek a boo with him, which they both love, and she loves to do 'giccha giccha goo" with him while she pokes his belly!

Backyard Playspace....

When we bought our home four years ago, one of the selling points for me was the beautiful view on from the back door and nice large covered back porch. I told myself I'd sit out there regularly and enjoy the breeze coming off the lake and that we would get plenty of use out of it. I lied to myself. LOL. :) But since Brookelynne was born, we've gone back and forth about what to do with it. As she gets older she wants to spend more and more time outside, and lets just be real for a second, I do not like getting dirty and sweaty if I can't go take a shower as soon as I'm done. And lets just face it, with two kids, I barely get my one shower each night after everyone's asleep, there's no way I'm getting one at 11 am after playing in the park. So when we started talking about getting the playground stuff for the back yard, I started thinking about what I could do with the back porch for rainy days or time in the shade. I have wanted to get a 'playhouse' but knew there was no way I was going to pay $80 or $100 for one, and I knew I'd like a slide and coupe car, but wasn't paying full price for those either. So a few weeks ago, my mother in law, Jeanna, called me to tell me she was at a garage sale and they had a few different things and she was getting them for her house so the kids could play in them. I told her that I had been wanting some things like that and she said that she would keep an eye out for them. Later that day she called me back to tell me that she had found another garage sale and had cleaned up! And that she'd have the stuff at her house for me to pick up whenever.

So a few weeks ago, we started on our porch playyard, by putting together her new-to-us house. :) I started by bleaching them really well and scrubbing each piece and then put them together on the porch. Brookelynne was in love right off the bat! A couple days later I stopped by there to get the slide and 'picnic table'. We repeated the scrubbing process and added a step of spray paint to give them some new life and *tada* we had even more to play with!

 New Slide and Picnic Table! (The parts that are red were very faded, almost white. They look GREAT now!)

 Braxton having a blast on the slide and Brookelynne playing house!

Then I started searching craigslist for my coupe car. :) To my excitement, I found one that was being sold in a lot with 2 other ride on toys that I had liked anyway, so I bought all three on my way over to visit my nieces the other day. While at Jeanna's house that afternoon, she mentioned that the sand table was also supposed to go to my house, so we left the motorized ride on toy for my nieces, and loaded up the sand table to take home. Needless to say, we have quite the collection of plastic toys out there. Hopefully I can get the yard and house cleaned up in the next few weeks so we can have some of Brooke's friends over to check them out too!

 My babies in their cars!

Scary Moment that I never want to repeat....

So today we had VBS training/planning and I was at the church all morning. We didn't even leave the parking lot until 2:30 and even though it was past nap time, I had to stop at Sam's on the way home. We went inside and I stopped in the book section as always and headed back to the produce. I grabbed the salad stuff I needed and some green grapes for my favorite 20 month old and headed to get the tea bags. Brookelynne of course wanted to start eating the grapes, something I always allow her to do, so every couple of minutes I would pull 3 or 4 out of the container and give them to her to eat. We strolled through the store and up to the front. She was standing in the buggy, next to Brax's carseat (which he was in) and eating grapes, one at a time. All of a sudden she kind of coughed, and at first I thought she had accidentally swallowed some juice down her wind pipe, something that obviously corrects itself after a couple of coughs. A second later I realized that she wasn't just coughing, but choking with her mouth open and her face turning red. I didn't even think, what came next was just my training/instinct taking over. I 'swiped' her mouth out, feeling the grape that was lodged in her throat, but not able to 'get behind it', so I yanked her up out of the buggy, hitting her back with my right hand, as I positioned her on my left hand for the infant/child's version of the Heimlich. Before I could turn her over/hit her again, it popped out and she started screaming. I turned her around and just held her and calmed her down.

It wasn't until minutes later that I started shaking and thinking about all the what ifs. I mean my daughter eats grapes all. the. time. And she's been eating them whole for 6 or 8 months now. She's never had a problem. What if I hadn't been looking at her when this happened? What if we had been at home and she had taken some grapes into the other room (something she often does when she's snacking) and this had happened? Would I have even heard her? Would she have been able to cough it up or get to me in time? What if it happened in the car? There's no way I would be able to get off the road, back to her seat, her out of the seat and try to help her until 45 or 50 seconds after realizing what was happening. Seriously this could have been so much worse and I am so grateful that if it was going to happen that it happened this way and even more grateful that I have had cpr/first aid training to know what to do. Even though I haven't be 'certified' in 5 years, it was like I had been trained yesterday, I just immediately saw the diagrams in my head and began positioning Brooke accordingly. How great is my God that when he created me, he created my brain to work in such a way?!?! So grateful to Him, not only for Brooke being okay, but for being such an amazing creator!