4 Months Old

Briggs, today you are 4 months old! What a wonderful, wonderful kid you are. You are so delicious I could eat you up all day long. You have turned into the happiest, sweetest baby. You rarely whine, fuss or cry. You have started REALLY liking your binky (what a difference a month makes!) and now when you want your binkie you make this cute face with your tongue and roll your tongue all around. You love love love your sister, and she loves you. Just last night Ella was gone from you for a couple of hours and when I saw her, the first words out of her mouth was, “Where’s Briggs?” followed by a “Hi, Mommy.” When she climbed in her carseat next to yours, your face lit up and you were all smiles as she held your hand and “danced” with you and smiled at you. You two are going to be two peas in a pod! Last night, we took you grocery shopping. You LOVED being in the moby seeing everything I saw, you were so good, you didn’t let out one peep. Imagine how awful I felt when I finally made it up to the checkout, I looked down only to notice you were asleep!! I felt horrible because I have no idea how long you were asleep for! The second we set you down, you roll over. You are a moving machine. You roll from front to back and back to front and all around. You love Mommy’s hair and pull on it and everything else you can get your hands onto. You laugh out loud at the funniest things. We caught you on tape this last weekend laughing when we dropped a diaper on your face. You started cereal this month and the first full week we tried it, you just let it drip out of your mouth, you wanted nothing to do with it. NOW, you can’t get enough of it. We are basically shoveling it into your mouth to appease you! You started to sleep through the night on a regular basis last week, that all changed again this week with a growth spurt. Mommy is ready to get sleep, but, she knows her nights of cuddling up next to you are limited, so I’m not in any hurry. You still don’t love to take a bottle. You really don’t like to take one from Daddy when you’re at home. I’m pretty sure you know you’re home, and you think I should be there, but you can’t figure out why I’m not feeding you. You play with toys now and sit in your saucer. You sit up for the most part, toppling over after a minute or so, but you are VERY, VERY strong. Daddy and Mommy have seen you up on your knees a couple of times acting like you are trying to crawl. Boy, I am not ready for that! You use your voice all the time to coo at us and talk to us. You are on a pretty good wake, play, sleep, eat schedule cycle. You still love baths and love your mommy. You follow my voice with your head all around the house and keep dibs on me all of the time. We are so in love with you and so very happy you are a part of our family. Life wouldn’t be complete without you and you fill our hearts with joy everyday. We love you Briggs!

Sleep Issues

We’ve been dealing with a few sleep issues in our house as of late, here’s the run down:
#1-Dan snoring. This has been a problem for the last almost 7 years we’ve been married. I’ve grown accustomed to it, but when you’re awake feeding a baby for the 14,328 time, and your spouse is snoring logs next to you reminding you of the sleep you wish you were having, it becomes a tad annoying.

#2- Briggsy boy. Let’s just say that the boy likes his mom and his mom’s goodies. A lot. Especially at night, during sleeping hours.

#3- Ella sleepwalking/sleep talking. All of the sudden, Ella’s had a few sleep issues of her own. It started out with crying out in the middle of the night to which was easily solved by us going in her room and patting her back. Then we heard the footsteps…in the middle of the night. Scary the first time or two, yes, but, now we are secured with gates and latches, so we’re more prepared and less scared. Then, last night happened.

Let’s start out by saying that 2 nights ago, I “cleaned out” her bed, you know, books, blankets, miscellaneous toys and shoes that had made their way in her bed. What’s that you say, miscellaneous shoes? 12 of them. Count 6 pairs, 12 total shoes, hidden in my kid’s bed. She’s obsessed with her shoes. I put them all away and didn’t hear another word. UNTIL LAST NIGHT AT 3:12am. Ella started screaming out in the middle of her sleep, I ran in there and Ella was yelling, “Shoes, mommy, shoes, please, my shoes.” So what does any good mother do? I ran to her closet and gathered as many shoes as my hands could find in the dark and brought them to her bed. As she held onto her shoes with both arms and I covered her back up and patted her back, you could hear Ella say as she was falling back asleep, “Thank you mommy, my shoes. Thank you mommy.”

Wonder what we have to look forward to when she’s 16?!

Happy Love Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We didn't do a whole lot around here this year. I surprised Dan with a breakfast pizza with the sausage in the shape of a heart. He suprised me with a nice card and Ella with a HUGE heart balloon that she was OVER the moon about! Ella got a frosted cookie and some Barbie dolls, and then we enjoyed a nice steak dinner. Maybe one day we'll get a chance for a date night, but spending the night at home with our two little love bugs worked great for us! Ella's Valentine's are always a big deal. Here are her and Briggs' Valentine's this year. Little sippy cup apples that say "You are the Apple of My Eye" and we filled the apple with some M&M's. Hopefully her friends liked the fun treat! We got the apples at HyVee for $1 which was just as much as we would have spent on anything else! Happy Love Day!

Briggsy is 3 Months Old!

Briggs! You are 3 months old and the cutest lil booger I can possibly imagine!! You are smiling all of the time and reacting to people and their faces and voices. You looove watching your Big Sister Ella and all of her shenanigans. You also love your mommy! If I walk out of the room and you can’t find me, you look and look and look for me and then you’ll usually cry. You are most certainly a momma’s boy and that’s perfectly fine by me! At your last appointment 2 weeks ago, you weighed 12lbs 9 oz (50% percentile) and you were 24 inches long (70% percentile). Your head was 16 cm (50% percentile). My guess is that you are probably close to 14 lbs now. You are wearing size 2 diapers (until we are out and then you will be in size 3, oh my!) and you pee or poop through a diaper at LEAST once a day but more like 3 times a day. You still love your baths, and you do not like the cold weather. You gasp and kind of hold your breathe every time we have to go out in it. You hold your head up all of the time and you suck on your hands and drool constantly. If you weren’t 3 months old, I’d think you were teething the way you suck on your hands and drool. You also found your foot the other day! You reach for your foot and put it in your mouth. Even though you’ve already rolled over (from back to belly), you still don’t do it often, but always flip to your side! If we lay you on your belly, you pretty much put your feet down to crawl, it’s crazy how much you move! Right now, you love to sit in the Bumbo seat and lay in the Boppy and reach for toys. You have a toy bar on your carseat that you play with all of the time too! You also still love your swing (your favorite place to sleep!). This week I got out the saucer and you are loving that and standing on your feet more and more. You are still eating only breastmilk and taking a bottle very rarely. This is all going to change very soon as Mommy goes back to work in about a week. Mommy has been blessed to have you all to herself for 3 whole months and the thought of leaving you makes me crazy. BUT, I know you’ll be in good hands AND I know that you’ll love having a Daddy day and a Gramma day. Going back to work will be challenging as you still are not sleeping through the night very well. You still wake up a couple of times and eat until your heart and belly are content. At this point, I think you’ll be nursing until your 5  (I hope not!). When we go out in public, people always talk about how adorable you are and how well you hold your head up. Our friends can’t believe what a mover and shaker you are. You are just so stinkin’ cute! And that smile of yours will melt any heart. I have a feeling you are going to have brown eyes like Ella. Your eyes are starting to get bigger like Ella’s did too and recently we heard the first comment… “Oh my, look at his eyes….” My guess is that we’ll get a lot more of those comments as you get older! Today as I held you and rocked you, I just couldn’t help but believe how lucky I am that I get to be your Mommy. I can’t believe you are mine and that I get to spend every day for the rest of my life loving you to pieces. That is the best feeling in the whole wide world. I love you so very much and you fit into our family perfectly. Thank you for filling my heart with happiness and joy!

Christmas 2011

Whew. This Christmas season has been filled with joy, love and happiness. I'm so thankful that we had a wonderful time with our family and friends. Ella- this Christmas you were a doll. You've understood what "Santa" means and what "Christmas" means telling everyone that its' Jesus' birthday. You asked Santa for a bear, and everytime we'd ask what kind of bear you'd go 'roar'.... Well, did you get a bear. You got a huge, stuffed bear. It's ginormous, I'm not sure what we're going to do with it actually. You also got a play kitchen which you love (girl after her momma's heart), some books, playdoh, play guitar and microphone, dvd's and other things. You were so much fun to watch open your gifts. On Christmas Eve, we had you watch a video that Aunt Marie made for you that had Santa talking to you. It was hilarious because you got real scared and put your hand up and said, "no no no, momma, no no", but the next morning you forgot about it because you were estatic to open your gifts and Briggs' too. You've been SUPER helpful with Briggs'- giving him his binky, blankey, playing with him, all those things! Yesterday we went to a store and you were waving hi and bye to everyone. And then you said, "Merry Christmas!" It was hilarious, you pick up on things so quick. EVERYONE who sees you family, friends, anyone is amazed at how you use our phones. You get on the internet, find Elmo You Tube videos, play games, they cannot believe they are looking at a 2 year old doing that! One night this month, you got in big trouble for coloring on a wall. Daddy was NOT happy and we gave you a long lecture and timeout. The next day you were coloring in a coloring book on a table and I heard you muttering something. As I got closer, you were saying over and over "Paper only, paper only, paper only." I guess we made an impression on you :) I felt horribly guilty. We are not without our 2 year old moments, however. Fits, whining and crying happen on a daily basis. I know that it will get easier as you learn to communicate more and more. Going to a restaurant in this stage of life is pretty non-existant. Your words and vocabulary shock me everyday. Daddy and I talk all of the time about how dang sweet you are. Probably the sweetest two year old I know, but than again, I'm biased. Love you sweetie xoxoxo

2 Months Old!

Briggsy boy, you are two months old. My oh my does time fly. You are 11 lbs, 7 oz (as of Dec. 12, so I know you're quite a bit bigger than that now!), 23 inches long and your head is 38.9 cm. You are wearing 6 months clothes for the most part! You have grown out of 3 month clothes in the length, so you're either wearing clothes that are too big or clothes that are too short. :) You're in size 1/2 diapers but only until we run out, then you'll be in size 2! This month, you started smiling at everyone. You especially smile big at mommy! You have been less fussy this month, but you are really particular about your sleeping and eating patterns! You like it quiet (Ella drives you nuts) and you like your own bed to sleep in. You don't like napping in other places. Mommy is sllllooowly adapting as I hate to leave you upstairs to nap while I'm downstairs even with the monitor! You still don't like the bottle very much. I'd venture to say you've only had about 10 or so and you really don't take them well. Big news this month is that you've started finding your hands. You put your fists up in front of your face and stare at them all day long. You've also started swating at toys in front of you with your hands and feet. On 12/27, you rolled over for the first time! Already! From your back to your front. We knew you were close and Ella and I stood near cheering you on! This month you also had your first overnight away from Mommy :( Mommy had surgery on 12/20 your two month birthday and had to stay in the hospital overnight. Grandma had you and Daddy took Ella. I think you got more sleep than Grandma did :) You are definately a momma's boy. You smile the biggest when I'm holding you and if you hear my voice you'll follow it all around! You are starting to interact with Ella more and more and she LOVES helping out getting you your "binky" ("Mom, he doesn't want it) or putting a blankey on you. She'll tell me when you're crying or smiling. Briggs, we love you soooo very much. You make everyday so much fun and full of joy! We love you!

Briggs- 1 Month Old!

Briggs! You are one month old. My sweet baby boy, you are the apple of my eye. What a little dolly you are. You are so alert and such a chunker. You are demanding and laid back all at the same time. You are a sweetheart that melts my heart every second of every day! Right now, you are laying on the floor (and have been for about an hour), just looking, cooing and every now and then fussing, but mainly just loving life. You have weaved your way into our hearts and lives so easily. You are on an awesome schedule...You and Ella are actually on the exact same schedule pretty much and we didn't even try for that!! You wake up at about 8 and Ella comes in our room and asks, "Where's Baby Biggs?...Oh there you are...Hi Baby Biggs, Hi Buddy." You smile and coo at her like you know exactly what she's saying! You stay awake while Mommy feeds you, and pumps and Ella eats breakfast. And then you pretty much sleep. and sleep some more. You get up every couple of hours for some milk and to poop (which you get real mad about!) and you take another good afternoon nap right when Ella does. You wake up again around 7 or 8 at night and stay up until about 10 or 11 and then go to bed. You have some good nights and some bad nights. On good nights, you go about 4-5 hour stretches. On bad nights, you're up "snacking" about once an hour. You are an awesome nurser, and an ok bottle feeder. You really like Mommy. If you are fussy, you like me to hold you and you LOVE the Moby. Our tag line for you is the "noisest kid ever"- you snore, sound like an animal as you gulp milk, grunt, poop loud enough for the whole house to hear and just overall like to make noise! And that's OK with us! You love the swing, feel ok about the bouncy seat, but love the floor. You really like your thumb when you can find it and the binky you're OK with too. You get really hot like your Daddy so we get you naked a lot. Everyone says you look JUST like your Daddy. You're so cute and very alert. Right now you have Ella and Daddy's cough which has me worried a bit. We've had a great month, LOTS of visitors and well wishers, and we've been lots of places. Mommy and Ella kind of go stir crazy at home, so we get out quite a bit. I've left you 2 times. Once to go to a research study and Grandma watched you and once to go shopping for a quick hour with Daddy, Grandma watched you then too. We're doing a breastfeeding study with you like we did Ella. You weigh 9lbs 14 oz, 21 and 3/4 inches and your head is 37.7. We feel so blessed and lucky to be your parents. We can't tell you how much we love you- our hearts are full of joy because of you. Thank you for making our hearts full. LOVE YOU baby boy!