9 months

On December 22 Brynn turned 9 months old! I can't believe that is 3/4 of the way to ONE YEAR! 

9 months old! 

 Special notes about this month include...

• She weighs about 19 1/2 pounds (although we will find out for sure when she has her 9 month appointment at the beginning of January).
• She wears mostly 9-12 month clothes.
• Size 3 diaper
• Daily schedule goes something like this...wake up around 6:45 or 6:50 (at least half the time she is awake in her crib playing and we don't have to wake her up)...5 oz. bottle or nurse at 7:30ish followed by some oatmeal and 1/2 container of fruit.  Morning nap from about 9:15-10:15 (almost always has to be woken up...we don't give her much longer than an hour so she will take a good afternoon nap).  Around 11:45 or 12 she will take a 5 oz. bottle or nurse, followed by half container of veggies.  Afternoon nap from about 1-3ish.  For "supper" she nurses around 5 and then has half a container of fruits, 1/2 container of veggies, and then either a little oatmeal or some baby food "meat."  Nurses around 7:45 or 8 and bedtime.
• She loves to feed herself in her highchair or out at a restaurant, and loves puffs, yogart melts, and little pieces of banana.
• She is still exclusively breast-fed!  WOW!  Never in a million years did I think I would make it this long!  The sitter gives her bottles of milk that I pump before school and I also pump during lunch (my social life over lunch is non-existent..haha!)
• This month she started pulling up and crawling (real crawling, not army crawling) like crazy!  
• She babbles a lot...and says mamamama, bababababa, and dadadada (I realize she probably doesn't know that mama means me, but it is still awesome to hear her say it.)
• She also tries to mimick us when we say "uh-oh" (like if she tips something over or drops something from her high chair).  She likes to blow air...she will watch me blow and she will do it...it is so funny!  She is pretty verbal...nothing makes sense but she loves to make lots of noises! 
• When she likes something or wants something she will look at it and reach her hand out and make this noise like "oooo oooo oooo."  She makes her mouth into this little circle while she says "ooo" (Lauren it looks like cat mouth! HA)
• She puts everything in her mouth...I'm hoping eventually she will realize that books are for reading and looking at pictures, not eating!
• Favorite toys include her soft babies and her little people Nativity Set this month.
• She loves PEOPLE...especially all the kids at Nonna's and Ansley and friends from church.  The only problem is they want to play with her, and she thinks that "playing" with them means pulling their hair and hitting them on the head! HA!  We are trying to show her how to be "gentle" but I don't think she is getting is yet.  =) 
• She hasn't seemed to show any separation anxiety lately...with Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff there were tons of new people that wanted to hold and play with her.  She never seemed to mind at all...I was kind of surprised.
• She is just such an easy baby...is so content to play with people or by herself, goes down for naps and bedtime SO WELL, great sleeper, etc.  We know we have it GOOD!  (Several people have told us we better watch out because the next one will probably be the opposite! HA!  And no...we aren't even thinking about the next one yet.)





As she has gotten older it's been interesting to hear who people think she looks like.  When she was first born she looked identical to Ryan's baby pictures.  It seems like lately more people can see SOME of me in her, and sometimes I will think "wow, that reminds me a lot of my baby pictures."  But I think that more people still say she looks like Ryan. 

Christmas with My Parents

The day after Christmas we headed over to my parents house to open presents with my mom, dad, and Lindsey.  Growing up we always opened at our house on Christmas morning and then went to my grandparents.  When Ryan and I got married we still went over to my parents house in the morning, and then went to his side of the family, and then on to my grandmas.  Now that we have Brynn we want to do presents at our house on Christmas morning, and it is just too much to try to hit 3 other places, plus this year we had church.  So...this was the first year EVER that we opened presents on a day other than Christmas...but it was still just as wonderful.  My mom made a BIG breakfast with biscuits and gravy and then we passed out gifts and opened them one by one.

Brynn playing with Aunt Lindsey before the festitivies began. 

When we were born my mom cross-stitched us beautiful stockings.  She made one for Ryan when we got married, and this past year she has been working away on Brynn's.  Now she is going to have to start on one for Curt...wow...that's a lot of cross-stitching! 

Lots of fun stuff in the stocking...puffs, yogart melts, a new sippy cup...what more could a girl want?

Lindsey passing out the gifts.

We tried to keep Brynn occupied in the jumper so she wouldn't go crazy crawling all over the presents...and it was working great until the very first present.  She "opened" (helped rip some paper) a little puzzle and when I tried to put it down in her pile (in the hopes that she might forget about it for an hour so we could keep opening) she started crying because she wanted to play with it! HAHA!  Needless to say, she got to spend the rest of the "present opening session" up in everyone's business playing with all their stuff!

Yep...there she is right in the middle of everyone!

She LOVES the crinkly loud plastic that things are wrapped in. 

Little Miss Thang!

HAHAHA!  My parents were so excited about this present (which is ironic because they never wear bike helmets and never made us wear them when we were little).  They got Ryan one of those bike carrier things so that he can ride his bike and Brynn can ride behind him.  They know how crazy he is about bike safety so they decided to go ahead and get Brynn a bike helmet!  (It is so cute...it has little pink bunnies on it!)  Evidently it is quite tricky to find an infant bike helmet, but they finally managed to find one that will actually adjust and she can wear it for a long time.  I think bike helmets are nerdy, but she might be able to pull it off...haha!

She wasn't really a fan of having it strapped on. 

I can't wait to see Ryan and Brynn out for a bike ride!

Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!  We had a WONDERFUL day, celebrating at church and then with our families!

Christmas morning when we went in to get Brynn up she was pulling up on her crib for the first time!  Guess somebody was excited!

Making Christmas morning coffee on our new Kuerig coffee maker!  (For the record...I had taken a shower and put some make--up on, but hadn't fixed my hair yet! HA!)

Ryan starting our family tradition of reading the Christmas story before presents.

Stocking time!  This is terrible, but we never bought Brynn a stocking this year!  We have a Mizzou one downstairs so we just used it...hopefully before next year we will get stockings for all of us.

What's in my stocking?  (Bibs, yogart melts, a book, and two new pairs of leggings!)

Love those yogart melts!

YAY!  Now my legs might actually fit in my leggings (hers were starting to look like those capri workout pants they were getting so short!)

We only got Brynn her stocking and one present (we knew she would get plenty from grandparents and family).  She started pulling the paper and then decided she was more interested in pulling up and playing with her nativity set! HA!

Now she's interested again...and yes (especially to my PAC friends) this is a CABBAGE PATCH DOLL!  (I have a couple of friends who are slightly obsessed with them!)

Looking at the baby. 

SO SWEET!

Kisses (aka open mouth slobber) for the baby.

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the name of this Cabbage Patch Doll is "Bren Elisa".  We got it because every single Cabbage Patch doll has a different name and THIS ONE HAPPENED TO BE IN CAPE GIRARDEAU...and Brynn's name is Brynn Elise!  Nonna called us earlier in November and told us "you better get to Toys R Us right now because they have a Cabbage Patch that has Brynn's almost exact name and there isn't another one like that anywhere in the world!" HA!

Brynn and Daddy with their gifts...Brynn got daddy some toenail clippers (haha) and some new work socks (long story short...my wonderful husband does not do a good job of cutting his toenails...gross I know...but then he gets terrible holes in his dress socks.  I decided he can either cut his toenails or never get new socks again! HAHA!)  We also got him a gift certificiate to his favorite bike/triathlon store.

I got a gift card to get our blog made into a blog book (so excited!) and an Erin Condren planner...which I am slightly obsessed with!

 We opened our family presents before church, and then went to our church's 9:00 service because they had the nursery available and Brynn could nap.  Our service was really good...then it was time to head to Ryan's aunt's house to celebrate with his side of the family.

Family picture after church.

Playing around before lunch...she was having a big ole' time!

Miss Cheesy!  Can you see her two little front teeth?

She loved Aunt Kim's puppy! 

After lunch we read the Christmas story and then opened presents and played "Dirty Santa" with gift cards.  (Brynn didn't get to get in on the present opening action...she was taking a nap in her pack n play downstairs in the bathroom! HAHA!  Thank you God for such a great napper!) 

 Then around 3 we left Ryan's family and drove to Oran to spend time with my mom's side of the family.  We got there just in time for presents. 

Brynn and Ryan opening up their gifts.

It truly is more fun to give than to receive...we were SO EXCITED for my grandparents gift.  The grandkids put together a photo book for them.  Everyone (their three daughters, son-in-laws, and all their grandkids/grandkids spouses/future spouses) wrote them a letter about special memories and the way my grandparents have impacted them, and we put pictures in it, etc.  It was AWESOME!  Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa...we love you so much!

Grandkids hanging out...Erika, Morgan, Ryan, Tab, etc.

Ty, Tori, Brynn, Ryan, and Erika

We all headed home around 8...I seriously think Brynn fell asleep in the 30 seconds it took to pull out of my grandparents driveway! HA!  We had such a wonderful day celebrating what Christmas is truly about, and also stuffing our faces with delicious food and enjoying time with family!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Party

Another family tradition is to go to the Christmas Eve Service at our church and then go to my mom's house for a Christmas Eve Party with all of my mom's side of the family.  Our church didn't have childcare for the service so Brynn just went with us.  At one point our pastor read the Christmas Story and invited all the kids to come up.  Ryan took Brynn up there and it was really funny!  She did really good through the whole service...yay!  I didn't take my camera in, so I don't have any pictures of her all dressed up at church.  Then we headed to my mom's.  It is so fun because my WHOLE family is always there...our family that lives in Springfield and the ones that live in Texas.  We have almost the same menu every year, and I LOVE IT! We have hot chicken salad, little smokies, rotel dip, veggie tray, and lots of desserts that people make.  We always have other stuff too, but those are the things we have EVERY year. 

My grandma with Brynn.

Filling up our trays with lots of delicious food...look at Ty in the background! 

Erika and Tab's kiddos...Ebby Lee and Nixon at the kiddie table. 

The other "kid" table...all of us cousins.

Tab with all the little ones...next year Jared and Kelly's will be in the mix!

Thanks Mom for always hosting wonderful Christmas Eve parties.  This is something I look forward to each holiday season.  (And it's no secret to my mom that my major wish is that Ryan and I might get to host the Christmas Eve party SOMEDAY when we build our new house!  HA!)