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.

A morning locked out of the house....

So yesterday Mitch and I laid sod in most of the backyard, and it looks fantastic. One of the most important things about putting down sod is making sure that you water it enough that it's not dead in a month. And therefore, it was a priority this morning to go out and set up the sprinklers, and then move them accordingly. I had gone outside 3 different times to set up/adjust them and went out to turn them off and while moving the hose, Brookelynne was knocking on the sliding glass door. So I hurried to turn off the water and went back to the house to get inside. When I reached the door, it was locked. No, no I'm not kidding. Brooke was right there so I tried to get her to unlock it, but she wasn't understanding me.

I ran around the house and opened the garage. I never, NEVER lock the door from the garage to the laundry room, but Mitch apparently locked it last night because it was locked. I looked for the key where we keep it hidden, and it wasn't there. I ran back out of the garage, and tried the front door, just to be sure, but as I knew it was, it was locked. I ran next door and asked to use my neighbor's phone. I tried Mom's cell, but she didn't answer. I don't know her work number and Mitch is in the middle of the ocean going deep sea fishing today, so I didn't know what to do. I went back to the back door and Brooke was standing there crying. I called Mom again and then he (our neighbor) looked up the number for the church and I called Mom at work. When she answered, I told her what was going on and she got on the road immediately. I stayed at the back door, trying to get Brooke to calm down.

Braxton was asleep in the swing, and I could see him from where I was, so I just tried to get Brooke to calm down. We sang her songs, and then she had to go potty (something that she doesn't think she can do on her own anymore) so I told her to take her pants off, and then I told her to go. She cried, but she did. When she came back she sat down in front of the door, and then Brax woke up. He started crying, and I told her to go help him. She wouldn't. When I told her to go hug him, she started screaming. Once she went in there, she didn't hug him, or kiss him, she just cried and they both cried louder. At some point, she decided she was okay, got a book and went and sat on the couch. I'm still sitting at the back door singing their favorite songs at the top of my lungs, hoping to calm Braxton. It wasn't working. He wasn't calming, and Brooke didn't want to help. Then Braxton started to throw up. He gagged a few times (something I can  hear from a mile away since Brooke throws up EVERY time she cries hard) and then he started to throw up all over himself and the swing. He was in a reclined position, so I immediately started to think about how quickly I could break the bathroom window, climb in and get to him. I waited for a moment after he stopped throwing up, and he didn't cry immediately. I threw myself against the sliding glass door and it didn't break, but he did start to cry again. I called mom again and she was getting off at our exit. I called Brookelynne and she stood up on the couch and looked toward me. I told her to get down and give Braxton a toy, and she looked at him and looked back at me, said "No" and sat back down. I once again almost came through that door. I yelled her name again and told her to come to me. She did. I told her to get Brax a toy and she did. About the time she handed Brax the toy, my mom drove into the neighborhood. I kept singing until she came around the corner to our house, and then I ran and met her at the car. She gave me the key and I ran back to the front door, unlocked it and ran inside to Braxton. My mom started laughing as she came inside to the sight of Brookelynne sitting in the middle of my big couch, with a book in her lap and the phone up to her ear. She didn't seem to be the least bit bothered by the whole thing. (Little Stinker).

Mom helped me get Brax bathed, the swing cover washed and some bottles cleaned (because he needed to eat and they were in the sink) . When Brax was eating, and Brooke was playing with mom,  I just started crying at the sink. I was just so glad it was over, and they were fine, and I didn't freak out during it happening. I handled it well, without getting weepy, or acting rashly. And I'm glad of that. I'm also very thankful for my neighbor being home, and outside at the time, and for Mom being at her desk.

Milestone Moments of Braxton James: Crawling AND Pulling Up Edition! :)

I know that this shouldn't be possible, but my little man is crawling!!! He's been scooting around the room for a month or so now, getting up on his hands and knees and then falling the other way so that he's moved a foot or so from where he was, but he definitely wasn't crawling or even 'rocking'. And then, almost overnight, he just started crawling. And I don't mean a short distance, or just once or twice. He's crawling across the house, down the hall, into the kitchen. It's crazy!

On top of that, on the same day, the 'pulling up' thing just clicked as well! He's been pulling up on your hands or whatever for a few weeks now, but if there was something stationary, he couldn't pull up on that. Then today he just crawled over to the coffee table, reached up, grabbed on and pulled up! Amazing! He also crawled into the bathroom and pulled himself up on Brookelynne's sink stool.

He is SOOO proud of himself and we're pretty proud of him too! He's so big! Yay for Braxton!

A week alone....

So anyone who knows me more for more than a minute knows that I am a very social person. One of my biggest struggles with being a Stay at Home Mom is that it greatly limits my two way interaction (although Brooke is learning to talk better each day). Every day I very much look forward to Mitch's arrival, because 3 days a week that's the okay other adult I see all day. So a couple weeks ago when he told me that they were sending him to class in South Carolina for a week, I was less than thrilled. lol. Espcially since it was the longest he'd left me since we had Brookelynne, much less Braxton and 5 nights with no "Daddy" was not in my 'to-do' list. Anyway, we survived, and here are some highlights of the 'ups' and 'downs'. :)

He had to be in Brunswick by 1 on Sunday, so I said "goodbye" to him before church Sunday morning, and went to Sunday School with just me and the kids. After church we went to lunch with my parents and then home for naps. Lunch, nor naptime went as planned and we didn't get up in time to get to Meet at the Met (the special churchwide service at Metropolitan park) but I didn't care. I was NOT going to add a night of bedtime routine w/o Daddy if I didn't HAVE to. So I put them in the car and headed out. :) We arrived just as Dr Brunson started preaching and met up with the Polizzis. It was a good message and my kids did really well with not making  alot of noise. After the service, we spent the next hour or two playing and enjoying the nice weather and cool breeze. Here are some shots of the kids playing!

Monday we had no plans so I worked really hard all day to try and get things clean. Tuesday, I had Mom2Mom at church and we really enjoyed the morning out. I came home and had heard back from a person selling something on Craigslist and made plans to buy it from them on Wednesday. That meant that when I got home I had to make room. Our new addition, you ask? A new 3 piece entertainment center. :) I had to pull all the stuff out of our current tv entertainment center, and move it out of the way to make room for the MUCH bigger model. :) Needless to say, I had to do that once the kids were asleep, so I didn't make it to bed until midnight.

Wednesday morning, my dad came over (as is his usual Wednesday routine) and entertained the kids while I tried to clean up the kitchen a little bit. Then our friends Kelly and Jeff came up to help me. Kelly, Dad, Brookelynne, Braxton and Malachi stayed here while Jeff and I went over to the house to pick up the furniture. The person selling it to us ended up being someone I had worked with at Chili's, so it was a very comfortable environment as he helped us move the pieces. They are solid wood, with beautiful glass doors and shelves, and seriously weighed like 300 lbs a piece. And we had to bring them down stairs. Not fun. :) Anyway, it took us a little over 2 hours (longer than I had hoped), but once we were done getting them into the house, we all went to Chicfila. The kids played while we ordered and got the food and then we ate and visited for a little while. It was really nice. When we got back home it was naptime for the B&B and PawPaw (my dad) headed out, so it was just me. The kids fought me hard on naptime, crying for like 25 minutes (something they NEVER do). I was so frustrated that they were crying and I needed to shower before church and Tama was barking outside, that when I went to the back door to let her in, I didn't even look at her to notice that she was DRIPPING mud. Muddy Tama turned into Muddy House, and an exhausted/frustrated Mama into a I've had one-thing-too-many-go-wrong-so-I-give-up-Mama. I rushed and rushed to try and get ready for church but it just didn't happen, so we stayed home. Before the night was over, I went and picked up a carpet cleaner and once the kids were down for the night, I cleaned the carpet in the living room and hall. Didn't get to sleep that night until 1. No rest for the weary!

Thursday morning didn't go as planned (because my brother's cruise came docked earlier than expected, so Mom had to pick them up first and then come up to my house) so I didn't get anything accomplished until after noon. But once my Mom and Dad got here, we got to work. We moved the couches around and cleaned the carpet underneath them. Then we rearranged the living room. It looks SOOOO Much bigger! Mom, Brooke and I went to Walmart and picked up some new rugs for the living room, hall and front door and then moved the table back into the living room too. Mom helped me bathe the kids and then headed home.

She came back on Friday to help me finish putting everything away and do some actual cleaning, since my house had seriously been turned upside down. I'm so grateful for all of her hard work, and help with the kids. I don't know what I would have done without her. She headed home in the afternoon and much to my surprise, Mitch got home around 5, instead of 8 as expected! :) We spent the evening at home since Mitch had just spent 6 hours in a car. I was VERY grateful to have him home!!!

Moments to Remember: She's Cracking Us Up!!!

Brookelynne learned how to turn around in a circle a while back and occasionally will turn all the way around while playing, but she usually does it once and then goes back to whatever else she was doing. In the last couple of days she's started standing in the middle of the room and turning as fast as she can, as many times as she can, all the while laughing hysterically at herself, and then she'll stop and try to walk. It's so funny!