Boo-Boos Happen

Well, we have a 'first'...but an unpleasant one. Brooklyn had a not-so-happy Labor Day celebration when she fell while walking around the coffee table at Grandma's house. This yielded a cut upper lip and her first bloody boo-boo. It was all I could do to not come unglued, but these things happen and I guess I ought to get used to it.

She recovered after a few minutes and later in the day, as she crammed food into her little cake hole, you'd never know there had been any injury. That's my girl. She is one tough little cookie.

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Brooklyn's birthday yesterday. I can't believe I now have a one year old baby. The party was great. Many sweet people came and showed their love to Brooklyn. These are only a few in attendence.



And she got a ton of loot. Her pretty party dress made her the belle of the ball.



The cake, food and decorations were top notch.





She played SO WELL with the other little kids. I'm very proud of her.




Sadly, there are no cake smashing pictures. Brooklyn was tired and irritable at the moment we brought out the cake and all she did was cry when she saw it. Poor baby was in sensory overload. That's okay though. There will be other birthdays and other cakes to smash. I've learned to never hang your hat on certain expectations. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. If you go into with that mentality, you won't be terribly disappointed when things don't go as planned. Roll with it, baby!

I'm so thankful to all of our guests. I'm especially thankful to my husband, my parents & my in-laws for all their hard work. They cooked, cleaned, shopped, baked, set up, cleaned up and did basically everything needed to make a party run smoothly.

Houston, we have tooth bud! And other news...

Just when I thought we'd have the only baby in history who would need dentures because she refused to grow a tooth, behold we have seen the nub. It's just the tiniest little speck of white on her lower right gum. The nub started making it's appearance on Thursday or Friday. And this explains alot about her mood lately. The poor little thing has a mini dagger pushing through her gums. I think I'd be at the very least a little cranky too. So 10.5 months old and her first tooth. Great job Butter Bean! You grow those teeth, girl!

Also, she's mastered crawling. Well, I use the term "master" loosely. She's mastered it as much as I think she's going to. She prefers to be upright on her feet and loves to walk around the house holding onto our fingers or doing laps around the coffee table. But if a toy is out of her reach, or she's tired of being in a particular room, off she goes on hands and knees. I know it won't be long before she's skipping and jumping rope. *sniff sniff* SLOW DOWN already, jeeze!



So we bought her the first pair of shoes. (Stride Rites...people say they are great.) Now if crazy people tell me stuff, I ignore them. But the people that said these shoes rock are sane, respectable and so far have given good advice. I love having friends who research the crap out of stuff. It makes my job much easier. "Hey Tracy, what shoes do I get...Stride Rites? Okay." "Hey Paige, what's the best car seat...Britax? Okay."



As for food, right now she likes bagels, ham, slices of cheese, still with the cheerios, cucumber, peas, and chicken from Chick-Fil-A. (Who DOESN'T love chicken from Chick-Fil-A?) Oh, and she ate the heck out of a chocolate chip cookie once, though dessert type food is still OFF LIMITS. (That's for you mom, if you are reading this.) LOL

She weighs 18.something lbs and is still sporting size 4 diapers. She is also still able to wear her 6-9 months clothing. We put her in some 12 month stuff only because it is so cute, but the pants fall down off her little hips. *sigh* Mommy wishes she had Brooklyn's little hips.

Well, that's all for now.

Mommy, look what I made!

Brooklyn came home with the cutest thing that "she" made at daycare. To me it's the most precious craft ever. And I'm so sentimental about stuff like this that when her life of school is over, I'll have had to buy a storage unit to keep all the precious things she brings home for us. John, we are going to need a bigger house.

Another Milestone - Pull Ups

Milestones are funny. They happen before we realize they are even happening. One second you are sitting watching your baby as she plays in her crib, pawing at the keys on her wall piano. Then she grabs the crib railing and pulls herself to a standing position as if she's done it for years. And you are like "Wait, did that just happen???"

You call for your spouse, who comes running. Then you sit your baby back down and see if she'll do it again. And she does. And your spouse says "No way! We need to take pictures!" He comes back in with the camera, I set it to burst mode, and we sit her down again. Baby obliges. She is very proud to show off her new skill that apparently makes her mommmy & daddy silly with amazement. And together with your spouse, you celebrate. "Yay! *clapping* Look what you did! Aren't you such a big girl!" And your big little girl just beams.

Capturing the milestones is important to me because when we get down this road a ways, and things become difficult or trying, I want us all to be able to look back and see how much Brooklyn is loved and how much we enjoyed every step of the way with her. It keeps things in perspective.

First Day of Daycare....

So we tried the grandparent/nanny care thing for as long as we could manage. I really enjoyed knowing Brooklyn was with family or close friends during the day, but schedule conflicts and poor health have made it necessary for us to go the daycare route. At first I was really annoyed that, with all the people and family that we have near us, we STILL have to use daycare. But now I realize that it worked out for 8 months and for that I'm thankful.

I thought today would be hard, leaving her with strangers, but I feel like I handled it well. It helps that Brooklyn is a social baby. I dropped her stuff off in the infant room then strolled her out to the gymnasium where all the kids gather (under supervision) before being separated into their individual class rooms. She watched two little boys playing with some toys and did her I'm-so-excited "ooo! ooo! ooo!" noise. She smiled at the teacher and was her normal curious happy self. One little boy came over to meet her and was so sweet and gentle as he reached out to shake her tiny hand. She doesn't get the whole hand-shaking thing so she grabbed him and probably would have tried to nom-nom-nom on his hand if he'd let her.

I'm sure things will go great for her today. And she's not far from where I work if anyone needs me.

Have fun sweet angel. Take good naps, eat well & make friends. You are loved and prayed for today.

Doing Something New

Today we went kayaking around a wildlife preserve in our area. Neither of us had 1) been to that part of our area and 2) been kayaking before. I LOVE doing new things. And I can't believe I've been surrounded by water my whole life and have never been kayaking, but hey, I'm doing it now!

Our instructor told us to think of your body as a stack of blocks...keep your head (block #1) over your shoulders (block #2) over your torso (block #3) and you'll stay balanced in the boat. Okay. Will do. As John and I settled down into our tandem boat with me in front and him in the back, I realized the great tip-potential of these tiny little vessels. And holy crap was that water cold! Um....did we really think this through? We push off the beach and I'm desperate for us to get into a paddle rythm. I feel our boat start to lean starboard (that's 'right' for all you land lubbers) and I yell to John "Your blocks! Stack your blocks!!!" He corrects himself and the boat straightens out.

Now we've been canoeing together before and learned that I'm a strong paddler and good at steering the boat. We also learned that John is not so much good at either of those things. Let's just say we saw many tree roots up close along the river THAT day. Hahahaha! In his defense, I think it is because he hasn't had much experience. Nothing wrong with that.

I admit that today I had low expectations as he took the spot in the boat that controlled our direction. But you know, we REALLY worked well together. He got the hang of dragging his paddle in the water to get us to turn and we both learned how to "paddle hard right" to turn right quickly and "paddle soft" to help us straighten out if we started zigging or zagging across the inlet.

We saw a manatee up close, we avoided running into any fishing lines from the shore fishermen, we watched and applauded a guy on a motor boat who reeled in this huge fish, we didn't get eaten by gators, didn't crash into another boat or tip over, and realized that we'd love love love to do this again. And I can't wait for the time when we can bring Brooklyn to go kayaking. Yay us!

Patty Cake

So today Grandma Linda taught Brooklyn patty cake. If you hold your hand out to her and say "Patty cake Brooklyn" she'll take her tiny hand and smack it several times. It's SO cute. I love how smart she is.

Our First Family Portraits

So today we went to JC Penney's to do our first family portraits. Brooklyn is 7.5 months old and I do regret not getting her in sooner, like around 1 or 2 months old, to do the really cool newborn pictures. But I can't keep beating myself up about it. She was premature and couldn't go out in public for 3 months. So yeah, I'm over the regret. Anyway, the photo shoot turned out really well. Brooklyn was in such a good mood and so very smiley. Every picture preview turned out amazing. It was not difficult to decide with shots to buy....we just bought them all! Can't wait for them to come in.

First Laugh

We heard Brooklyn giggle today for the first time. I don't know if it was HER first time giggling but it was certainly OUR first time hearing it. What was it like? It was as beautiful as I imagine the sound of angels ringing bells would sound.




What induced her to laughter? I kissed her left cheek, then her right, then her left again and then she giggled. John and I looked at each other in disbelief..."Did she just giggle?" "Yeah, I think that's what that was." "AWESOME!"

I believe that this is the first of many many giggles to be had in the Bassett house.

Solids

No, not 'solids' as in someone did you a bunch of favors. I mean 'solids' as in the first non-breast milk thing Brooklyn gets to eat from a spoon. The word solid is very misleading because it isn't solid at all. It's mashed pureed (insert food) and about as un-solid as you can get.

Anyway, we chose the rice cereal as her first spoon-fed item. She wasn't sure about it initially but after a few tastes she did surprisingly well with this new experience. Brooklyn I'm so proud of you!

The part that makes me laugh is how my imagination of what it would be like to feed a baby from a spoon clashed with the reality of feeding a baby from a spoon. I pictured her sitting there very calmly, interested, open-mouthed, while woodland creatures frolicked about and birds sang through an open sunlit window. Reality: wiggly, closed-mouthed baby who's interested in everything BUT the task at hand. There is no way reading a book can prepare you for it.

Holiday Happenings

Saturday we took Brooklyn to see Santa. She was so cute in her little white outfit. We thought white would be a good choice since Santa wears red. Well, his big ol' gloves and beard, combined with the baby's dress & porcelain skin, didn't contrast as much as we'd hoped. But she's still a cutie patootie! And she did so good - no crying or fussing. I didn't expect her to...I don't think she gets who is family and who isn't. Right now she just knows familiar faces. Strangers don't seem to bother her at all.



Saturday night was her first Christmas party. John bought this dress for her and she was basically the belle of the ball! Again, she had a great time...even with so many new faces. I was a little afraid she'd be overwelmed at the end of the night so I made sure to take her off to "her room" at Grandma's house and away from all the guests to let her unwind a little bit. It must have worked because she was pleasant and happy all night. Fell right to sleep when we got home. Such a sweet little trooper!

Brooklyn turned over on her own!!!!!

I'm really excited! Here are a series of photos from yesterday (10/3/09),at my parents house, showing Brooklyn rolling over for the first time (she actually did it 3 time and this was the last)

Enjoy

Our Sunday's best

October 20, 2009 was Brooklyn's first time at Church. Here she is showing off her Sunday's best

Yaaaaaay! At last...

I felt my first Bean kick today at about 1:45. I was sitting at work reading an email and...what the heck...I felt the tiniest most gentle little flutter in the front of my stomach. And then it happened again. I knew right away what it was because I'd never felt anything like it before.

I sent John a quick email and he calls me IMMEDIATELY to have me describe everything. Then he tells his coworkers (mostly women) and I hear them cheer from his side of the phone.

I called my mom to share the great news. No answer at the house. I'll try again later.

I sent a quick text to my sister, who does exactly what John did. She called me immediately and squealed over the phone for like a whole minute. She's so excited and we couldn't stop from giggling.

Then I sent a quick text to Tipitee, and I swear she does the same thing...call, squeal, laughter.

So yeah, there is some action going on. Do I feel pregnant yet? A little more than I did yesterday. But I'll really feel pregnant after Friday's appointment.

And did I mention I CANNOT WAIT FOR FRIDAY TO GET HERE ALREADY????????

Firsts: Baby Gift

The most precious thing arrived in the mail yesterday from North Dakota. Our first present for Bean...teensy little baby caps & the tiniest baby socks you've ever seen, and a sweet card. Who do we know in ND, you might ask? Patti, a woman who has been a dear cyber friend for about 1 1/2 years. Though we've never met face-to-face, we've shared many MANY laughs, tears, craft ideas, life stories, pictures, and so much more.



Patti, thank you so much for thinking of us. And during our phone conversation, your support and encouragement was so touching. Thanks for being my cyber friend. I so appreciate you! =)