Triumph

Would you say that Bri is laughing or crying in this picture?

Bri's first taste of icecream

Update: Bri's little cup (pictured above) contained Mayfield vanilla ice cream.

"No more? Oh no!"

New Trick

Not so sure about this sippy cup thing!

Getting a handle on the subject.

Close up!

Deep thoughts: It's like a toy that has food inside!

What happens when it's empty, Mama?

Well, now that we're covered in apple juice, it's time to take a bath!

Can we do this again tomorrow?

Eight Months Young

My little Bridoodle is growing up so fast! I can't believe that she's almost a year old. She's at my favorite baby age, right now. I want to videotape every moment, because I know it's about to fly away. So here are 8 special things to remember for her 8 month birthday.

1. She is just starting to grasp the concept of a sippy cup (pun intended). Today, she drank apple juice almost by herself. She holds one side of the sippy cup and I pick up the other side. It has taken a lot of practice, so far. We practice at the end of the meal, when she isn't starving, because I don't want her to get too frustrated. Even still, she cries for me to pick up the sippy cup for her, and I have to wait for her to try for herself.

2. Moving is the new thing at daycare. All the other kids are doing it! So she's starting to scoot around on her tummy a little bit. She can't go too far without getting tired, but she wants to move around so bad! It's really precious when she scrunches up her legs and her face at the same time. She looks so determined to crawl.

3. She loves to say "Dada!" but she doesn't quite know what it means. And when we say it back, she will repeat it with a big smile on her face. She can't wait to have a conversation. I think she's going to be a big talker, pretty soon.

4. On the changing table, squirming is the new thing. She wants to look behind her and she wants to throw her feet off of the side of the table. I learned a trick from my sister-in-law a couple of years ago when Bri's cousin Matt was going through this. We take the lid off of the wipe box and she plays with it while I change her. You just have to make sure there aren't any flecks of poo on there because all toys go into Bri's mouth. Yuck!

5. The girl knows no fear and no limit to her reach. She will throw all of her weight into getting what she wants, so you have to be careful not to let her dive out of your arms when you hold her. So far, we've caught her every time. Although, she has come a little too close to the floor for my comfort. Yesterday, in the bathroom, I caught her in mid-air after she tried to reach out for her bath toys.

6. One of her favorite new tricks is the lap stand. If you hold her up to your eye level, then she will support most of her weight, while standing on your lap. This results in a very happy squeal of laughter and usually some dancing. She loves to stand up!

7. Bath time is play time! She loves her bath toys. Someone got us a Baby Einstein book that floats and she loves to chew on it after I read it to her. She loves it when her Daddy sings the rubber ducky song. She gets all excited and starts splashing around. Her favorite toys, by far, have to be the stackable rubber boxes that my mom got for her. They squirt water or when empty, float around. She loves to try to catch them and gum them up. (Yes, we're still teething! There will be a huge press release when that first tooth cracks through.)



8. She loves to eat ... eat ... eat! Applesauce and bananas. And peas and squash and carrots. And oatmeal or rice cereal. She loves to sit in her high chair because she knows that food is on the way! While she waits for her food, she tries to grab the cherries that I painted on the high chair. It makes me feel like such a great artist! She eats three meals of solid food each day and also takes three bottles of milk and lately we've added sippy cups of juice to the mix too! She's getting to be a chunky monkey.

When we first had Bri, life became so hard, even though she was really an easy baby. It made me wonder why people are crazy enough to have more than one child. But as she grows up (and I forget those awful first few weeks), I've started to hunger for more children. She makes my heart swell like the Grinch's heart at the end of my favorite Dr. Seuss book. With so much love for someone so tiny, how can you not want to have more kids?

Playing in the Park

After school today, I came home and the Hubster and I went out for ice cream before we went to pick up the Brimeister from daycare. It was like a little mini-date and we really enjoyed strolling in the nice weather together.

Then we picked up baby Bri and on a whim decided to stop by a local park to play. She was just adorable, swinging on the baby swing for the first time. She giggled the whole time and her hair blew in the breeze of the swing's motion. Hubbsy took her down the spiral slide, but neither of them seemed very impressed by it. So we tried the teeter-totter as a family. Bri and I together balanced out the muscle-y Officer Hubster. She squealed with delight at each sinking sensation from riding down and then she giggled again at her Daddy's silly faces from across the see-saw.

Later, we grabbed a picnic dinner and took Bri to another nearby park. She had a cute gangster lean going while she ate her supper!


We brought a bib but it was unusable, so we just tried to keep her neat. Obviously that didn't happen! All of the pictures in this post were taken after dinner, hence the squash stains!

Bri baby says...

So I was sitting at the computer, reading my Google reader, with Bri sitting on my lap. She was occupied by trying to throw an empty plastic cup off of the table. As she threw her chubby hands in the air towards the cup she muttered some of her regular syllables.

"Blu bluh bluh... da dah dah... bluh blah," she gurgled while focusing intently on the orange cup.

"Mmm hmm...," I replied, absent-mindedly as I scrolled throught blogs I had already read. "Dada. Very good."

"Bluh bluh blah .... ma ma.... guh guh," she continued.

"Mama. Mm hmm... wait a minute. Did you just say Mama? You just said Mama!" I jumped up squealing, and Bri was enraptured. She grinned ear to ear. I twirled her around in pure glee.

It was a priceless moment. One of those perfect, Hallmark card kind. It was beautiful and I'm still glowing! She said Mama!

Sleeping Beauties

This morning, I startled awake at 6:22 am because my alarm clock did not turn the radio on. I rushed into the nursery where Hubster had already whisked the Brimeister out of her crib to change her diaper. Glancing around, I realized that I could still make it to school on time since he was helping. When I explained all of this to him, as I headed backwards towards the bathroom, he started chuckling.
"You do realize that it's Saturday, right?" he said with wonder. Cheesy! I thought to myself. So it is.
We enjoyed watching the sun come up as a family and everyone had breakfast. Then we plopped down in the living room. Bridoodle is on a blanket on the floor. She's almost ready to start scooting around. She's fascinated by the Cheeto's bag. She likes to crumple it. So I put it close to her but just out of her reach. She was adorable, trying to swim towards the bag. I can tell that she's been watching the older babies crawl around at daycare, because she moves her arms and legs in a flurry of excitement and then gets frustrated when she doesn't actually move.
Hubby laid down on the couch to watch, and slowly his breathing became rhythmic. Then the dog curled up by my side and dozed off. Now Bri, has fallen asleep as well on her blanket. Such a sweet peaceful Saturday morning. I'm so thankful that it's not a school day!

Night Time Routine ... Works For Me

Not too long ago, I was a brand new Mama desperate for a whole night's sleep. I remember the bleary eyes and the utter exhaustion. I learned quickly that in order to get enough sleep I needed to go to bed as early as possible. So we started going to bed at 8pm and getting up throughout the night. When 6 am rolled around we found ourselves lucky to have had 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Sleep came in chunks. And that was okay. When Bri had her four month check up, the doctor told us to start thinking about solid foods. Our daycare workers gave us one excellent tip for introducing solid foods - always use a spoon. Apparently one of the toddlers never transitioned to solids because his parents put his cereal in his bottles at a very young age. He refused to take the spoon when he got older.

When Bri was five and a half months old we finally started feeding her rice cereal every night. And we quickly fell into a fabulous night time routine. We feed her a solid meal at 6:30pm (now she's eating cereal, fruits and vegetables). Then she takes a bath. And we put her to bed by 8pm. Sometimes earlier! If she fusses for more than fifteen minutes in bed then I give her a bottle too. That always knocks her out. She sleeps until 7 am! It's amazing!

We have time to ourselves in the evening AND we have time to get ready for work in the morning. I love the night time routine! It definitely works for me!

For more WFMW tips visit:

Bri's Words

For the last few months, Bri has been cooing and laughing. But recently she has repeated a few words over and over (and over.) Her favorite word, by far, is Hey. She says it with all sorts of intonations. Mostly, though, she sounds like Eeyore.
Her second favorite word is Dada. And the first time she said Dada her Daddy was actually in the room. She has not figured out that certain words apply to certain people/objects yet. But she can say Dada on cue if we prompt her.
Most recently, she said Gaga for the first time. It was last Thursday, when we went home for a visit with my in-laws. The amazing part of the story, is that she was sitting in Gaga's lap at the time. Now, for those of you who are not familiar with our family, Gaga is my Hubster's grandmother. And all of the grandkids, most of whom are older than we are, still call her Gaga to this day. Although, my Hubby was slightly embarrassed the first time he introduced me to her. Anyway, she was absolutely thrilled, as you can imagine, when Bri said Gaga while sitting in her lap! It was pretty neat!

Answered Prayers

About nine weeks ago, I posted a rather mysterious plea for an unspoken prayer request. And I promised to fill you in on the details later. Here's the scoop. My darling Hubster has been away for the last nine weeks getting his law enforcement certification.



On Friday he received his official certification and his badge. He's finished his training! So he's home again. Thanks for all your prayers. And don't drive fast if you live near us!!

Cutting a Tooth ... Finally!

Yesterday, a friend of mine (who is 99% doctor :o) discovered that Bri is cutting her first tooth! I got a closer look today during bath time. Bridoodle was distracted by the rubber ducky instead of playing peekaboo with her tongue. Sure enough, there is a little white iceburg tip sticking up through the gums. It won't be long before she'll have her first tooth in!

Bri's First Bowl of Mush

"This is what food tastes like? Yuck!"

First Day ... A Big Milestone

Today was Bri's first day in daycare. My fabulous Hubster actually took her in about an hour after I went to work. He said that leaving her there was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. I can imagine. Secretly I was very grateful that I didn't have to make the teary eyed journey from the parking lot of the day care back to work.

During my planning period I slipped away and saw her. I was pleasantly surprised to find her happily swinging. I guess that I'd expected her to be screaming for me. She gave me lots of hugs and big girl smiles. And then I went back to work again.

My students were very well behaved, surprisingly. It was sort of like the first day of school when everyone wants to make a good impression. But I was still very excited on my way to pick up Bri. I know I'll look forward to seeing her now and treasure that time so much more.

All in all it was a pretty good day.