Brooke had her 9 month doctor's appointment on Tuesday, (even though she turned 10 months yesterday) which thankfully did not include any SHOTS! She's 29" tall (50-75%) and 18 lbs even. (25%) I asked if her weight was anything to be concerned about, and her pediatrician wasn't worried about it. She said she will likely just be long and lean. Everything else checked out great, and we won't be back until she's a year old! Good grief, that's hard to even imagine. My baby? A year old? No way.
So, she's 10 months old now, as of yesterday. I grabbed the camcorder yesterday, and recorded her while she ate some Cheerios. (realized we had no footage of her eating.. which she has been doing for 6 months now) Best part, though? When I said, "okay, Brooke, tell the camera 'bye bye'!" she WAVED at the camera!
My girl is so close to walking, it's frightening. :) It's so exciting to see her growing up, but life as we know it will be so different with her toddling around the house! She got bored of the small variety of toys we have for her, so I got her a "tropical turtle" on clearance from Target, and a hard, electronic Winnie the Pooh storybook with pages she can flip herself. :) Books right now are out of the question because she tries to tear/eat the pages.
Speaking of eating... she has SEVEN TEETH! Her doctor checked her mouth at her appointment, and goes, "Whoa! You have lots of teeth." I discovered them myself when I was hanging her upside down. (she's a thrill seeker) She was smiling so big, and there they were! Four front teeth on the bottom, along with the three on top.
I flipped through a baby name book that came with a bunch of stuff I got off of Freecycle, and looked to see what they say, "Brooke," and "Avery" mean. The only other book we have said Brooke means a literal brook or stream, but THIS one said that Brooke means sophisticated, (I forget in what language) while Avery means flirtatious. Oh great, so that means we're going to have a sophisticated flirt!
Well, that's all I have for today. :) Hope you all are having a great week!
For the past, oh, month and a half, I've been secretly organizing a surprise 50th birthday party for my Mom. It hasn't been easy, because we talk at least once a day, and I tell her pretty much everything. :) She was always MOM before all else while I was growing up, but, thankfully, after I went away to college, she became a really good friend. So, needless to say, secrets between us are very hard to keep!
I decided on a 50's diner theme for the party, since she was born in '58, (can I say that online? I guess you all can do the math!) and got to work on acquiring decorations online at ThemePartiesNMore and getting e-mail addresses from my Mom's address book while she was traveling back in May. With a diner theme, the menu, of course, consisted of burgers, fries, and soda floats, in addition to cake. With help from my Dad, we also created a slide show set to 50's and 60's music, which turned out really great.
On Saturday morning, my Dad got Mom out of the house at 11, and Ryan and I immediately set to work on decorating, and transforming their house. Mom absolutely had no idea what was going on.. evident, in part, by the fact that she didn't get herself all dolled up before leaving the house. :) As soon as they walked in the door, she was completely FLOORED as we yelled "Surprise!" followed by singing Happy Birthday for her. She points at Dad, saying, "I can't believe you!" while he points at me. "You're so bad!" she tells me. Thankfully she was HAPPY about the surprise, (she's a party person!) and we all celebrated for over 5 hours. :)
Mom's cake with strawberry filling!
Sky of records-- the main party area ~
Soda shop! (meant to take this before the meal... oops) The blue bucket held glass replica Cokes!
The birthday girl!
Brooke and her Uncle Daniel :) She was SO good all day!
Rock 'n' Roll~
Me and my baby~
Mom opening gifts
More gift opening
Me and my hubby
So, after all the planning, decorating, and buying, the party was a success! Mom was happy and completely shocked, (best part) and everyone seemed to have a fun time.
Her actual birthday is on Tuesday, but I just want to wish my wonderful, amazing Mom, a very Happy Birthday. I love you!
This week I've had an incredible desire to be laying out on the beach, listening to a good beach read on CD, (way easier than flipping sandy pages) followed by some good, classic Kenny Chesney music. You know how music always evokes emotions and memories? Kenny Chesney is "beach bum," and "tropical oasis" to my psyche. No other music comes close to making me feel near as happy as his does during the summertime.
Speaking of the beach, we'll be on vacation exactly two months and a week from today, in Ocean City, NJ. (incidentally the week of Brooke's birthday!) We'll be sharing a lovely beach house right across the street from the beach with my parents and brother. Of course, it won't be like vacations of years past, since Brooke is here now, (lazy lounging? Nope. Uninterrupted sun bathing? Nope. Moments of peace at all? Probably not, unless my parents babysit!) but it'll be an entirely new, and fun experience that we couldn't have had before her. That makes me so happy. Hopefully she likes the sand. My worry is that she'll like it too much, as she has a habit of putting everything in her mouth. :)
Wow, I have such an update to do, I don't know where to begin. I guess a good start is with Brooke. :) Thank goodness Lauren commented that Brooke will associate sitting up during nap time with me coming back in to lay her down. (incidentally she also learned to stand in her crib during the very next nap time) I peeked in to look at her during her next nap, and she immediately sat up and looked at the door, just waiting for me! So, we stopped that habit. It meant a couple of nap times of NO sleep, but she eventually figured out that Mommy wasn't coming back in. She even will occasionally fall asleep now slumped over, half sitting up. When she does that, though, I'll go in and lay her down, and she sleeps right through it. She wasn't sleeping well this past week, but now I'm convinced that I know why......
Brooke's FIFTH tooth popped through yesterday. Yes, fifth. Her newest one is right next to her left top middle tooth. So, she now has a grand total of two bottom teeth, and three top teeth. I've never heard of a not-even-10 month-old with 5 teeth! Apparently, my teeth came in early, too. Just taking after her mama, I guess. She has been sleeping GREAT ever since it came through, thank goodness.
Brooke has started to WAVE! It is the cutest thing ever. She started it last week, mostly waving at herself, (and usually at meal time, for whatever reason) but didn't actually start waving at someone who was leaving until Friday. She waved at her Daddy last night! It is so precious. :) I tell you, she does something new every day. Seriously. 9 months has been a very full, exciting month!!!
In other news, I've started a pet service. (dog walking and pet sitting) The pros were obvious: nice weather to work in, great exercise, can "work" with Brooke!, and get my doggie and kitty fixes while making surprisingly good money. I posted fliers around our community, and actually just had my first job this past Thursday through Saturday taking care of kitties. I also was networking (not intentionally) while Brooke and I were at the pool last Wednesday, and pretty much got offered a job taking care of puppy for three weeks. (THAT would be amazing, but nothing is in writing yet) I still think it's funny to think of networking while out at the pool.
We've got some other possibilites brewing, but some things need to happen first before I mention anything about it. (But, no, just in case you're wondering, I'm not pregnant!)
I do have tons of pictures to share!! I took a few this morning, followed by some pictures my Dad has taken this afternoon. Enjoy!
Cheerios. Breakfast of champions. (This is her new chair passed down by our neighbor!)
"More!" She waves her hands for "more." :)
Our family today on Father's Day!
Right after her Daddy gave her coca-cola for the first time. Yeah... Wasn't my choice!
One of my new favorites!
She LOVES to be out in the sunroom! (look at those teeth!)
Our happy little girl :)
She's not smiling, but I still think this is a pretty picture. :)
Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my Dad-in-law, and my hubby, who incidentally is an incredible daddy. Enjoy YOUR day! :)
With this crazy heat wave, I decided to take Brooke to our pool for the very first time. It takes a lot longer to get ready for the pool when you have a baby, let me tell ya! She loves splashing in the tub, so I figured her loving the pool was a given. Actually, she ended up having a little apprehension, and clung to me for dear life while she got used to it. Before long, though, she was splashing away, having a good ole time. She really loved her float, and, after that got old, she enjoyed swimming around with me. There was no one there, aside from the lifeguards, until we were just about to leave. Then, two other mommies (one even had a 9 month old daughter!) came in with their kiddos. The pool absolutely made this weather bearable. :)
Being the picture fanatic, I have some shots to share. :)
Trying out the adorable float
She wants my sunglasses. Badly.
Loungin'
Brooke and I :)
In other Brooke news, she cruises on her activity gym from one side to the other! (cruising=taking little steps while holding on to something) Pretty major development, considering the child still doesn't crawl forward. :) Now she can also push herself to a sitting position. This has proved to be not-so-fun when it comes to nap time. Right now I'm having to go in 2-3 times at the beginning of each nap time to lay her back down so she'll go to sleep. We also had to lower the crib so she can't topple out when she learns to stand. I also caught her with the DVD recorder today saying, "da da." :) Ryan finally heard it for the first time on Saturday morning, but she says it a LOT. Now I'm sooo ready for "ma ma." :)
She started off with saying "bla" over and over again, and very emphatically, for the past few days. Last night, once Ryan was home from work, we were saying "da da da da da da" to her over and over again, and she'd just smile or laugh and say "bla bla bla." This morning when she got up, she just started saying "da" and "a-da" like it was nothing, and finally said "da da!" Of course, since Ryan wasn't home, we ran down the stairs to get our dvd recorder, so at least I'd have it on video for him. (She wouldn't say it for the camera, naturally-- just "da" and "a-da" a few times-- so close!) I called Ryan to let him know she said it for the first time, though, and it totally made his day.
Ah, my girl is growing up. Hearing her say something so sweet completely makes me forget that I wanted her to say "mama" first. ;-)
