Half a Year!

You would think after having one child already that this second child it wouldnt be a suprise as to how fast they grow. It still is. Shocking. Our little lady has been with us a whole six months. Thats crazy. She is so much fun to have around. She keeps life 'real'. She is sooo different from Kyler. Not much is the same about these two kids. But, they get along so cute. He can get her to giggle far more often than me and Brandon can. She lights up when he comes up to her to talk. I hope it always stays that way. Thier favorite time together is bath time. She giggles the entire time...i have to admit he is pretty entertaining in the tub. He is slightly insane in there. :)
She is so wonderful and such a mystery to me. I love figuring her out and getting all my slobbery baby kiss I can stand. Here is some updates on her
*She does not sleep through the night (biggest differnce from Kyler) She at times will still wake up 3 times in the night. Killing me, seriulsly killing me.
*She loves her mobile, it can put her right to sleep.
*When she is really tired...which happens often. She doesnt like to be snuggled. She want to be layed down in her crib and puts herself to sleep. (also different from Kyler, he wanted to be rocked)
*She went from loving her binki to hating it, to now LOVING it again. A good friend down here tended her for me while i taught a class and when i went to get her a couple hours later she was sucking away on that binki. Since then she loves it. Bless you Cheryl, Bless you. We like to call her the baby whisperer around here. :)
*She is starting to love her blankey. Last night it is what finally put her to sleep just holding it and rubbing her face on the softness. Cute.
*She doesnt appriciate our attempts to make her take a bottle. She likes her mommy.
*She is a bugger to feed. Some days she will chow down a whole 2nd foods container, and then other days its like pulling teeth to get her to eat half of a 1st foods container. (also different from Ky, he was all about food)
*Her favorites thus far are definatly sweet potatoes, peaches, and bananas. She tolorates beans, peas, and applesause. She hasnt down right refused anything which is nice. She LOVES mashed potatoes...the real adult kind, she has has them a couple times (yes bad mom letting my little babe eat salty buttery mashed tatos). She smiels the whole time and is begging for more.
*When she is mad, you had better watch out. There is no denying when you have upset her. (such a girl)
*She isnt a good traveler. Ky was so graceful about being put in the car. Rarely fussed about it. Holy cow she lets you know she is mad that she has to be in there. She does give up after 20-30 mintues and will sleep, so i am grateful for that, but i wish she would just get over it, we travel A LOT.
*We had to move her to a convertable seat much earlier than we had to for Ky. She is more broad than him and chubbier so she was not comfy in that infant carrier. This did help in the taveling stress, but didnt fix it all together like i was hoping
*She is rolling all over the place. She started to roll several months ago, then completly stopped. Then 2 weeks ago started trying, and a week later she is rolling all over the room. She likes to roll to the right the most which lands her always up against the couch, but out of desperation she will roll to the left a couple times to change direction and then go back to the right. She is so entertaining.
*She is loud. Loud to talk, loud to cry. Not too lady like. :)
*I havnt had her 6 month check up yet...its in another week and half...my schudle is much harder to work around now that i tend kids all day. So it will be added to 7 month update i assume. But i had her weighed when i took Ky to the dr 2 days ago and she was 19.5...yup my 'little' Lady is almost 20 pounds! She fills out 12 month clothes perfectly.
All in all this little lady is a joy beyond all meausre. She is so fun to play with, I melt at her smiles and giggles. Daddy is wrapped around this girls finger...she already can do no wrong. Big brother adores her, and all who meet her are taken by her beauty. Where ever i go, i am still stopped atleast 2 times to be told she is beautiful and they love her hair. Then when she smiles at them (cause what girl doesnt love being told she is beautiful) they are totally sold on her adorableness.
We love  you Brookyln, Brookie, Brookly, Little Pea, or just Pea. Keep up all that hard work growin!

i had a blast taking/editing her 6 month pictures here are my favorites

my favorite

Window Fun

After becoming addicted to pinetrest i saw an idea to paint a tree on the window..here is the site that started the fever. Here is my rendition

We used coffee filters dipped in colored water to make the leaves...i then cut them all out and we glue them up there with a washable glue stick.I painted it with washable kid paint. I drew it up there with a dry erase marker and painted just in from the line so i could erase it. Worked like a charm.

after loving the fun of having the kids help decorate it i have caught "decorate the window for every holiday season" fever Here is Thanksgivings

We painted and used glitter glue to decorate the feathers for an activity. Then glued them up with the washable glue stick as well. I was nervous that it wouldn't come off when i used it on the leaves...but it wiped right off and this window gets hot hot in the afternoon. Yes i painted that turkey, yes i am impressed with my skills, no i am not an artist. I hate drawing and being an artist, but yes i am in love with doing these on the window so i figure out ways to make it easy. (this time i used a big round tub for the body and traced it with a dryerase marker, and the head is a lid to a bucket of toys traced as well.)

No that turkey or tree is not that impressive of a drawing, but if you knew my creative skills when it comes to drawing you would be soooo impressed.  Just thought i would share our fun.

"Giraffes Didnt Come"

Several weeks ago we took Kyler too the Zoo. Brooklyn came along too. :) I had planned on taking him every weekend in the summer, we never made it. It was making me so mad that we couldn't take this little animal loving boy to see something other than horses, cows, dogs and cats. He loves animals. He loves all his animal books. This being the reason why finally I made us go. We had to squeeze it in, literally. But it was sooooo worth it.  Kyler loved it. He was in animal heaven. He loved seeing real tigers, loved the Gorillas, thought the camels were funny, was fascinated watching the elephants, really he sat and watched them for quite some time. He still talks about how the Elephant was throwing dirt on his back. He has an amazing memory for a 2 year old. But, his all time favorite animal that we saw, the best of the best, the animal that took the cake was simply the Giraffes. We watched them forever. He was super super distraught that they never came over and said hi to us. Really, just ask him, or just hang out with him for an hour or two and he will bring it up. And no i am not exaggerating.  It has been since the 1st of October, yes a whole month ago and we still hear a couple times a day about the "Giraffes that didn't come" and about the grandpa Giraffe that was tired. He also, every night for prayers and every prayer on the food, he mentions to Heavenly Father about those Giraffes that didn't come and see him. He cannot finish, or for that matter start his prayer until he tells his Father in Heaven about those Giraffes. It cracks me and Brandon up every time. He rarely misses a prayer that Giraffes aren't mentioned.
I am so glad our trip was what i thought it would be. He loved the carousel (he wanted to get back on it each time he saw it from a distance as we walked around), and loved the train ride. He might have smiled in the pictures if we wouldn't have kept him out way past his nap time. He was beyond exhausted by the time we made it to the train ride and crashed before we left the parking lot of the zoo. Poor kid, being a kid is exhausting.
Here are some pictures of our trip. 

can you go to the zoo and not get a picture by the lion fountain??

He is super focused on those elephants

Still watching those neat-o elephants

Loved this horsey

Yea for the weird animal that looks like a cross between a zebra, giraffe, and lama. :)

Daddy and Brookie went for a ride too

Happiness

mommy and the infamous giraffes. I forgot to mention before one reason why he was so sad after we finally left the giraffes is cause they did come up to some people and were licking their hands....he wanted in on the giraffe action, they didn't have the same desire. Next time buddy, next time.

ya so tired. He really did have fun on the train...or at least i think he did.

 

Bakers Best Friend

  This little lady helped mommy make some cookies today...She was mostly interested in the chocolate chips, ok she was REALLY interested in chocolate chips. :) Trust me I didnt give her any...but she really wanted to figure out what was in that awesome noisy bag...must be good if the bag is that much fun to play with.