brette: 7 months

growth:

our little one is getting big.

she is still wearing 6 month clothing and size 2 diapers,
but i'm sure that won't be for long.

i would almost swear the scale at the doctor's office

was broken last time we were there for her 6 month check-up

when we went in for her ear infection

she weighed in at 16 lbs.

which seems a lot more true

but that means she would have gained

over a pound in the last couple weeks.

either way, at least now she's more average for her age.

our big news for this month is she is sitting up on her own unassisted.

i knew she was close,

so i wasn't surprised when she just started having no troubles at all.

i love watching her sit on the floor and play.

she also sprouted another tooth!

she now has both her center bottom teeth.

and she uses them to bite e v e r y t h i n g.

i have to watch my fingers.

(but luckily, she has NOT bitten me while nursing.

thank jesus.)

 

 

sleeps:

so i've been such a bragger about
how brette is a super sleeper.
then we hit six months and things have been a little wonky.
we had three nights where she's been up several times.
like 9:00, 12:00, 2:30 and 6:00.
it was not cool.
after her tooth popped through,
those ended.
thank god.
but
she also decided that she needed to start getting up earlier too.
she used to go down around 8 and sleep to 6 or 7.
now she goes to bed at 7:30 and gets up at 5:00-5:30.
since i'm not down to start our day at that time,
i nurse her and put her right back down and she sleeps until 8:00.
so basically we reverted back to our original schedule.
it's nice because we're not starting our day at 6:30 anymore,
but its sucks because i have to be up for 30 mins around 5:00.
whatever.
i just really want her to eventually sleep 12 hours.
go to bed at 7 or 8
and get up at 7.
juuuust waitin'
 

  

eats:

she nurses five times a day
and gets food twice a day.
i normally feed her after her morning nap
(which is around lunch time)
and then she eats dinner with ronnie and i.
we actually have dinner at our kitchen table every night.
no more meals in front of the tv.
she will not let you eat without her.
she'll stare at you or grunt until you feel bad and give her something,
so we figured it is just easier to feed her while we eat.
then we can all eat in peace.
so far she is loving everything we give her.
if it's a new food,
i give it to her for 3-5 days straight
and then lay off it to see if there is a reaction.
so far, so good.
no allergies.
here is a list of food she's had:
peas
carrots
green beans
sweet potatoes
bananas
applesauce

i also started making baby food.
its super super super easy, fast and cheap.
i bought black beans and mangos today,
so those are next on the list.

if you want to make your own baby food:
read this.
its pretty much what i followed,
except i didn't have a steamer.

  

 

plays:

like i mentioned before,
i can sit her on the floor with toys
and she can play without falling over.
such a big girl.
she loves everything that makes noises and lights up,
but i found if i only give her one or two things to play with
she does better than if i surround her with things.
i think its too overwhelming.
she also found a soft spot for sofie,
the famous chew toy.
i guess it is worth the money
because every baby loves it,
brette included.

  

firsts:

she sat unassisted for the first time.
she had her first christmas...
and her first new year's.
she was prescribed her first antibiotic
because of her first ear infection.

this next month i'd love to see her push up using her arms.
that means, i better get crackin' on tummy time.
she's going to hate life.

ps- i got NO smiles this month,
but i swear, she smiles all the time.
maybe i should have let her wake up a bit more.

 

sick baby

a quick update.

 

we took brette to the pediatrician yesterday

since b had been running a fever for a few nights.

she also had a bad cough and a stuffy nose.

its not a good combo.

the doctor found a little bit of fluid behind b's ears.

wah wah.

she said i could either wait it out to see if it

clears up on its own when her cold goes away

or if she was running a temp or tugging on her ears,

i could put her on some antibiotics.

i chose the antibiotics since she had both symptoms.

 

we made it almost seven months without drugs,

but no more.

doc said b should be feeling a lot better by thursday,

so i'm laying low until then.

i'm trying not to go stir crazy.

i already spent my whole weekend at home,

so i'm keeping busy.

 

cleaning house.

making baby food.

laundry.

actually cooking dinner.

and

trying to get rid any germs in the house.

 

 

hopefully she feels better soon.

 



weekend top ten list

things that happened this weekend:

1. met up with my girlfriends on friday for a playdate.
always fun.
the kids keep getting cuter.

2. brette's second tooth finally cut through.
teething sucks.

3. brette has been running a fever for the last two days.
i'm assuming it's her teeth.
she also caught a cold.
i'm carrying around kleenex so she is literally not described as a snot-nose kid.
i know she doesn't feel well because she slept 13 hours last night
and then took a three hour nap this morning. sleep on, girl.

4. to top it off, she shit on ronnie. and then when he was changing her, she peed all over.
it. was. awesome. 
and then it was bath time.

5. the bachelor is back.
time to live tweet my friends every monday night.
its DZ tradition.

6. we took christmas down except for the tree.
i'm trying to convince ronnie to carry it down to the basement with all the decorations still on it.
my brother does it and it looks like an amazing idea.
ronnie doesn't think the tree will fit down the staircase.
there's only one way to find out.

7. it snowed and snowed and snowed.
and it's freezing here. like super-duper, don't-go-outside-at-all cold.
i hope people brought their dogs inside. 
it literally haunts me that people leave their pets out in this.

8. i colored my hair.
yes, that was the "highlight" of my saturday night. 
get it?! i kill myself.
i now have the blond ombre thing going again.
i missed it.

9.  ronnie made dinner twice this weekend.
talk about miracle.
he says he's going to try to start cooking, but only on the weekend.
i guess that leaves me the other five days.

10. my best friend that lived 5 minutes away moved back to warrensburg.
40 minutes away.
not cool, not cool at all.
so now i'm all alone in lees summit.
sad face.

so yeah, my weekend was not that exciting.

but when you have a sick six month old and its 10 degrees outside

it limits the amount of things you can do.

i didn't list it, but we did manage to get out of the house and go to walgreens.

i stayed in the car though, so i don't know if that counts.

 

whoop whoop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

two zero one four

i see all the commercials on tv to get healthy.

and the new low calorie meals restaurants are serving.

i wonders if all of america just went on a diet together...

i mean, that's what the new year is all about, right?

every year is the year i claim will be

my skinny year!

 

unlucky for me,

i gained 30 pounds this year.

(wtf, brette)

but lucky for me,

i've lost 33 pounds.

 

yes, that's right people.

i am currently t h r e e   p o u n d s

under my pre-baby weight.

booyah.

 

remember when i mentioned the 21 day weight loss challenge

i went on before christmas?

it was actually successful.

i lost 10 lbs.

going from 162 to 152.

oh yeah.

 

but

i still need to lose another ten pounds.

[or more]

i mean, i wouldn't be mad if i ended up losing 17,

but i'm trying not to be crazy.

i took the week of christmas off.

i had to partake in the pies, rolls, dressing and cheesecake.

take my word for it - - it was worth it.

 but now i'm back to healthy eating.

blach.

but maybe, just maybe

2014 will actually be my skinny year.

 

i hope 2014 is everything you want it to be too.

have a baby, get married, buy a house,

get organized, be happy and healthy, make lots of money,

take lots of vacations and spend lots of time with the ones you love.

 

hopefully, that covers all of our resolutions.

good luck to us.

christmas with the cox's

we had another christmas celebration over the weekend

with ronnie's side of the family.

 

brette got some pretty cool new toys from her grandma and grandpa

and aunt sheri was showing her just how it all worked.

a turtle ball pit.

perfect for a future dz.

and how cute is this zebra ride?

we just need brette to be a bit taller.

hopefully she'll be riding it in no time. 



 

b also got an adorable santa pj set.

i'm really hoping i can still put her in the robe again next christmas.

too cute.

 

and that wraps up our holiday celebrations.

until next year...

 

 

now back to my diet.

things went astray.

christmas day

how was your christmas?

ours was filled with

family

church

food

presents

traveling

desserts

and love.

 

of course, brette's first christmas was more for ronnie and i than her,

but i loved getting to share all our holiday traditions.

on christmas eve we went to see santa.

she loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

that night we went to mass as a family.

(my parents, my brother, sis-n-law, their two girls and us)

and the only spot available for six adults and three kiddos

was in the second row, dead center.

i was praying that brette made it through with no tears,

and we were in luck!

all the girls did wonderful.

and brette got to show off her new dress i bought her.

 

 

 

then it was back to our house for pizza and the anticipation of santa.

once everyone left and we got brette to bed,

ronnie and i watched a christmas story,

my favorite xmas movie and a turner christmas eve tradition.

the next morning b woke up at 5:45 (oh. hell. no.)

 i fed her and read her xmas stories

until 7:00 and decided it was time for dear old dad to join us.

i made hot chocolate, put on some christmas tunes

and turned on all our christmas lights.

the setting was perfection.

 

 

 

we showed b her gifts under the tree and

ronnie and i squabbled about his lack of skill using the video camera.

(um yes, i do want heads in video.)

so then he wanted me to redo it all so he could refilm it,

but i refused, so now, when brette watches the video of her first christmas,

i have no head. 

sa-weet.

i swear, sometimes...

 

then b went down for a nap and ronnie thought

we should do laundry and pick up the house.

i'm sorry.

i don't do chores on the holidays.

so once again, i refused.

you can tell ronnie and i were not off to a great start.

when she woke up

i dressed her in my old christmas dress from my first christmas.

i love that my mom saved all these dresses.

 

 (ahhhh-dorable)

 

 

 and we hit the road to my parent's house.

aunts, uncles, grandma, cousins

everyone was there.

i think total we had 24.

it's chaotic, but fun.

we ate lots and lots

and then went back for more.

we opened gifts and talked for hours.

i loved it.

i am already anticipating the amazingness of next year

with these three little ladies.

 

(matching pj's provided by aunt jaime)

 

so yeah,

basically, we had a wonderful day.

hope yours was just as special.

happy holidays!

 

 

here comes santa claus

its the eve of the big day.

baby boops is sleeping

and after her nap

we are f i n a l l y going to take her to see santa.

there were lots of christmas things i wanted to do with her:

sleigh ride, christmas tree farm, gingerbread houses, elf on a shelf

but she's a little too little.

this is the one thing that even though she'll have no clue what's going on,

 i'll still have a picture to show her

that she met santa on her very first christmas eve...

right before he had to take off for his trip around the world.

 

our other plans include evening mass and a family pizza dinner.

then off to bed to await our big morning with

just the three of us.

then we'll head down the highway to grandma & grandpa's house

to share the holiday with our other twenty family members

over a big turkey dinner.

should be fun.

 

and since i don't get to mail out a card to every special person in our lives,

here is our 2013 christmas wish for you.

 

 

merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

 

2012 card

2011 card

2010/2009