Sitting Pretty

Its been an interesting and fun-filled week for us all it seems. Where do we start? Last weekend, Justin went on a jeep trip with the boys so I took Brianna to Tulsa to see my sister and Robyn. I feel so horrible that I didn't take one picture the entire weekend until lunch with Robyn on Sunday. It was Bree's first shopping trip and I failed to capture all the fun. :-(

I met Robyn for lunch on Sunday and Brianna seemed fascinated with sitting in a high chair for the first time. She was watching everything around her, particularly Ethan. Its as if she were trying to figure out how she could do everything he was.

Sitting in a high chair for the first time

Watching Ethan

She did fabulous though and didn't have a single meltdown the entire weekend, if you don't count the last 1.5 hours of the trip to Tulsa where she screamed because she wanted out of her carseat. We left Ashley's house at 9:15 Saturday morning and didn't return till 7:30 that night. She smiled and giggled the whole day. Of course, it didn't hurt that Aunt Ashley was more than willing to carry her around, show her all the pretty clothes and keep her attention occupied all day! Needless to say, Bree had no trouble falling asleep that night.

Justin and I both had to go out of town overnight on business this week. My trip to Minneapolis was planned but his 3-day trip to Waco was last minute. Thankfully, I was able to twist my parents arms and convince them to come keep her for a few days. Let me tell you, it was a real chore to talk them in to coming too! I honestly don't know who had more fun, my parents or Brianna. Its so much fun for me to watch them play with her. It gives me a glimpse of what they must have been like when my sister and I were babies.

She discovered her laugh while I was gone and couldn't wait to show it to me as soon as I walked in the door. She's been giggling for a long time and occasionally would laugh but now, it seems she's constantly laughing at anything remotely funny. Its so cute too that Justin and I find ourselves doing anything we can to make her laugh. I bet we'd win America's Funniest Home Videos if there was a hidden camera in our house!

The other major accomplishment is that Brianna is very close to sitting up all on her own now. She still hasn't rolled from back to tummy and even though she can roll from her tummy to her back, she simply doesn't. I joke that she's going to be crawling before she's ever figured out she can roll over. She's still a bit weeble-wobble as I call it but she'll sit up for as long as we'll let her and its only when she reaches too far for something that she topples over. It doesn't seem to scare her when she does topple though as I found out yesterday trying to take the below pictures. She just rolls to her tummy, pushes up and looks at you as if to say, "what happened and sit me back up please!".

Sitting pretty!
Her shirt's a little too big but that's part of what makes these so cute!

She's right in the middle of her 6 month growth spurt as well. She was eating quite a bit more at each feeding while I was gone and taking extra long naps. The 2:00 am feeding returned last night and led to her thinking it was play time. She didn't go back to sleep till 4:00 am so she and mommy will be taking a nap together this afternoon. Daddy had to work today but is off tomorrow (Sunday). We'll be celebrating our 8-year anniversary tomorrow, even though the actual date was July 21. Amazing ... he's put up with me for 8 years ... gotta love the man for that alone!

Love you all,
Lucretia

5 Month Pictures

Ok, I couldn't wait to share these! I think she's absolutely adorable and the family pictures turned out better than I thought.



As for how she's feeling now, she's doing much better and thanks to all of you that sent us well wishes. For those that don't know, Brianna woke up Tuesday morning at 1 am with a low grade fever and lots (I do mean lots) of congestion. I ended up staying home from work and taking her to the doctor, where they diagnosed it as sinusitis and put her on an antibiotic. She ran a low grade fever all day on Tuesday but woke up Wednesday morning feeling better. She's still a little fussy today but no fever and her appetite's back so that's another sign she's feeling better. Right now though, its time to put her down for a nice long nap so gotta run ... love you all!

Lucretia

Little Water Baby

Wow, its been two weeks since I've posted anything and there's a lot of pictures to share. With the heat, we've been going to the pool almost every day on the weekends and Brianna loves the water! She doesn't like getting lathered up with sunscreen but its a must so I just get it over as quickly as possible. Once she's in the water, the fussing stops and the smiles start though! Here's a few pictures from last weekend when Justin and I took her to our community pool. It was Justin's first entire weekend off since before Bree was born that we hadn't needed to go somewhere so we hung out all weekend together. Daddy picked out her first swimsuit and I think she looks adorable in it!

Playing on her tummy in the water

She loves to stand up now that she's figured how
Isn't she cute!

Swimming never fails to wear her out!

We barely got her cleaned up from the pool and fed before she passed out. She fell asleep as I was wrapping her blanket around her and slept for 2 hours! She loves the water and will kick and splash until she realizes she exhausted and starts rubbing her little eyes. It never fails that she falls asleep in the stroller on the walk back to the house.

We also hung out with Daddy in the garage as he did some work on the Jeep. She was quite the Daddy's girl all weekend and wanted to be snuggled up or playing with him the entire time. The best quote of the weekend ... "if everyone had a baby smile at them the way she smiles at me, there'd be no problems in the world". Her face lights up every time she sees him, whether its been 30 seconds or 3 hours. Here's a couple cute pictures of her with Daddy's favorite toy ...Let's see, what else have we been up to. We spent the Fourth of July with Kris, Jen and Collin and Brianna really enjoyed the fireworks. She stayed up well past her bedtime and was very well behaved.I think that about covers it. We had her 5 month pictures taken on July 4 and they're due back in the next few days. We did a patriotic theme and I can't wait to get them and share with everyone!

Hope you all had a good weekend ...
Lucretia

New Favorite Toy!

Well, Brianna's old enough and stable enough to discover the wonder of an exersaucer! They tried her out in it last week at school and she loved it. So, we're now the owners of one ourselves, thanks to Lisa & Jeff, who handed theirs down to us. Here's a few pictures of her playing in it. It took her no time at all to figure out how to work the buttons, spin the dials and play with all the toys. I was impressed how quickly she figured it all out! Dare I say it but she's a smart little girl!



She's also discovered one of her mommy's favorite things ... books! You can put any picture book in front of her and she gets all excited. She's able to turn the pages and of course, she wants to put it in her mouth. Our story time before bed has become more play time than relaxing time now that she wants to be an active part of it. Its also a good way to amuse her when I need to get some stuff done around the house, which is what I was doing when I heard her giggling as she was playing with her book.



And last but not least, the new outfit her Aunt Ashley sent for her ... isn't she cute all decked out in sunflowers for summer!

First Cereal & Lots of Pictures

First off, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I hope its been an enjoyable weekend! I know its been a fun-filled weekend around here, even though Justin had to work most of Saturday. He actually had Sunday off so Brianna and I have gotten to spend the whole day with him just playing and hanging out!

Since Daddy was home, we decided today would be Brianna's first cereal feeding. Here's the video so you can see for yourselves exactly what she thought of rice cereal!

I think she ended up with more of it on her face and her bib than actually in her mouth! I can't say that I blame her though ... that stuff didn't look that appetizing. Here's a few pics of the event as well ...


Last night, Justin and I took Brianna outside with us while we did some yard work. I guess I should clarify, Justin did yard work while Bree and I observed and offered what I'm sure was helpful advice and direction. I happen to have a rose bush that has these bright pink miniature roses on it so I picked one for Bree to see. She wasn't that interested in it so I tucked it behind her ear. It didn't take long for the camera to come out after that!



Let's see, what else has been going on this week. Oh, Brianna got a package from Grandma Petrik this week. She found a pattern for converting onsies into little dresses so decided to give it a shot. I think it turned out pretty cute!



Here's a closing picture of Brianna and Justin. They had such identical expressions on their faces I couldn't help but grab the camera! Its easy to see that she's her father's daughter!
That's it for this post ... hope you enjoyed it!
Lucretia

Mommy Weekend!

Its been a Mommy and Bree weekend and I've completely enjoyed it! Of course, I've missed Justin, who's been out wheeling with the boys all weekend but after being gone to Minneapolis Wednesday - Friday, I was ready for some much needed mommy/daughter time. My Minneapolis trip was only supposed to be overnight, but due to all the bad weather Dallas got Wednesday night, DFW airport was closed Thursday and I couldn't get home. Poor Justin too ... I go out of town and all heck breaks loose while he's home alone with her. We were texting back and forth Wednesday night while he and Bree were hiding in the closet with no power and the tornado sirens wailing. It was not a pleasent experience for either of them. She was a trooper though and as soon as it was over, settled down with Daddy for a bottle and some snuggle time.

I meanwhile, got up at 4:30 am Friday morning to see if I could catch an earlier flight home and ended up sitting in the airport all day after almost making it on to two flights, only to be denied at the very last second when the passengers showed up with literally seconds to spare. I kid you not, the gate agent was counting down 30 seconds till he gave me a seat only to have them show up with 10 seconds left on both occasions! So, I ended up on the 2:00 flight home, landed at 4:30 and have been hanging out with Brianna ever since I got home. Many thanks to Jen and Collin for picking her up for me since I had rush hour traffic to deal with as well!

Brianna's 4 month pictures came in a few days early so we made a special trip down to Target to pick them up. Here's the various poses that I chose, including the arrangement I had made for Justin for Father's Day.
This weekend was also her first time to go to church and we met up with April, Jeff and Presley. She did so good in the nursery and was sitting up in a bumbo seat when I picked her up, just looking around and taking it all in. They said she was a darling and to bring her back any time! I'm sure they tell all the parents that though. Here's a few pictures from this morning ...

April, Presley, Brianna and I

Going to church must have worn her out!

I think that's it for now ...
Love you all,
Lucretia

4 Month Well Check

We're home from Brianna's 4 month well check and she's sound asleep in her crib. The poor baby had to be stuck with two long needles but she did well and only cried for a few seconds. Once I picked her up, she was fine and she passed out asleep as soon as we got in the car to head home.

Here's the highlights from the appointment:

• Weight: 13 lbs 12 oz (50th percentile)
• Length: 25 3/4 inches (95th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 41cm (50th percentile)

Her doctor recommended taking her off the Zantac to see how she does since she's close to outgrowing the dose she's on and not having any issues. Hopefully, she's able to go without it. She also had her first tummy to back roll while Dr. Karen was examining her! As far as other developmental milestones go, she's right on track. Her hand-eye coordination is more that of a 6 month old so she's a little ahead of the curve there but she doesn't have quite the upper body strength yet that she should. She has excellent head control but needs more tummy time to continue developing her upper body strength. She's starting to put some weight on her feet when you hold her up and Dr. Karen said that was more of a 6 month milestone so not to be worried that she's not doing that yet. Overall, she's perfect in every way and doing everything she should be by 4 months of age!

As far as feeding goes, since we're still nursing successfully, Dr. Karen recommended we continue to do that exclusively until she's 5 months old, then start her on rice cereal 1-2 times a day. That way, she'll get the extra iron she needs from the cereal and the fluoride she needs from the water its made with. She said it was perfectly fine to wait till she's 6 months old to start her on veggies and then fruits.

I think that covers everything! I'm just thankfull I can work from home today in case she gets to feeling icky from the shots. Time to finish my lunch and get back at it before she wakes up from her nap!