8 Months Old

There is so much to say about Brenna this month. She is growing and changing so fast and learning new things every day. We are looking forward to having her be part of our family this year for the upcoming holidays. We will get to spend time with both sides of our family this year and Brenna will be there to take part in all of the traditions. Unfortunately this month our pictures will be a day late. We took Brenna in to get her pictures taken yesterday but the studio was running behind and it got to be too close to her nap time. This little girl had such a pouty lip and huge tears so we went home. We are going back tomorrow so this post will be updated then.

Brenna Stats:
She is still a very little girl. She weighs 15lbs and is 25 inches long. For the most part she is comfortably wearing 3-6 months clothing although we still have a few outfits that are too big. The most difficult part is finding pants that will fit her. If they fit her length they are too big around. She started wearing shoes when we leave the house since it is getting cooler now. I have found that if I take the insole out of the shoes they fit perfectly. She is wearing a size 1 but her feet are a bit too thick if I leave the insole in. She is still wearing size 2 diapers and I think she will be in that size for a while. We are still at a 0 count for teeth. She has had a few nights of waking up from her teeth pushing up, but none of them have broken through yet.

Eating and Sleeping:
Brenna is a very good eater. She enjoys everything that I make for her. I am making all of her baby food with the exception of the yogurt and prunes. She needs to have some protein (yogurt) and the prunes keep her regular. We have added puffed rice cereal to her diet as a snack. We are trying to teach her to feed herself but she hasn't figure that part out yet. She also gets some juice now and then. I have found that if I do a 2-1 ratio of water -juice she likes the taste and stays hydrated so it is a win - win. We have also started to put the juice in a sippy cup. She hasn't figured it out yet, but we let her play with the cup. She will figure it out someday.

Brenna continues to be a really great sleeper. She is still being swaddled when she sleeps which has been a controversial topic in our home at times. She does ok sometimes without her blanket, until she rolls over to her tummy. She hasn't figured out how to roll back over yet so she plays for a little while and then starts crying when she realizes that she is stuck. I figured that we will swaddle her until she can roll over both ways and then we will try again. I see no need to rush her.

Talents and Skills:
Brenna has learned to clap her hands. Much of the time she is actually clapping her wrists, but we know what she is doing. She will also shout Yay!!! as she claps. She gets so excited about things and it is fun to see that excitement.

She has also learned to be on her hands and knees. She doesn't spend much time on her back anymore. When we put her on the floor to play she quickly rolls over and then is up on her knees rocking back and forth or scooting around . She can scoot backwards right now so we often find her stuck up against the wall or half way under the couch.

Our favorite thing that she has learned is to hug and kiss. She is not very aggressive yet so we have to ask and sometimes beg for a little affection, but she knows what she is doing and it is the sweetest thing in the world.

Likes and Dislikes:
Brenna has a favorite blanket. It is a really soft chenille blanket that she loves the feel of. I don't think it is the specific blanket that she loves but rather the feel of the fabric. If we lay her down on it she will put her face on it when she is on her tummy. This blanket is also a guarantee for a hug. I have found that if I put it on my shoulder she will lay her head down for a little bit so that she can feel the softness.

Her favorite toys at the moment include an infant gum brush (it came with some toothpaste that we bought by accident thinking it was ora-gel pain relief) and a tube of my mascara. I finally gave in a let her keep it.

She has a problem with sneezing. Anytime someone sneezes she either looks frightened or cries. I don't know if it is the fact that she is startled or if she just doesn't like the sound.

The time has also come that she doesn't like strangers to hold her. She will sometimes even cry just because someone that she doesn't know is looking at her. This comes at a really bad time since we have to get a new nanny for her in a month. I have night mares of Brenna thinking that her family abandoned her. We will have to spend a lot of time with the new nanny between now and then so she gets used to being with someone new.

Month 7 was a very fast moving month for us and I don't expect month 8 to be any different. We have had a blast with all of the fun new things that Brenna can do and enjoy. We look forward to many more months just like this one.

Fast Learner

We found out how fast Brenna learns when she was learning to sit up by herself. She went from falling over after less than 2 seconds to sitting by herself overnight. I should have known that this would continue as she grows up. A few days ago I decided to try and get Brenna on her hands and knees. The first time I tried she went stiff legged and wouldn't let her legs bend. Finally I found that if I had her start sitting down and have her crawl her hands out she could get on her knees. This is how our first lesson went.



The next day she was able to get on her hands and knees all by herself! I was shocked.






The very next day she did this.








She went around the couch and down the entire hallway to the garage door. She giggled along the way and shot me this look that told me she was so proud of herself. She also eyed the electrical outlets along the way so needless to say we went out and got the covers for them that day. Soon we will be baby proofing the kitchen cabinets and putting up a baby gate in the living room to contain our little explorer.



I also found that I need to be better at sweeping and mopping the floor. Check out what her pj's looked like when she was done scooting! How embarrassing! It is only a matter of time before she starts crawling.

It's a BOY!!

Chase Alexander Messing was born last night November 19th, 2009. He is 7lbs 15 oz and is 22 inches long. He has lots of dark brown hair, long fingers and long feet. We love you Chase, Veronica and Nick and cant wait to meet this sweet little boy. Christmas can't come soon enough!

TBA

We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of our new niece/nephew. My sister Veronica has been in labor all day. If the baby is born before midnight the baby will share it's birthday with Veronica who is 29 today. What a wonderful birthday present. We can't wait to meet the new addition to our extended family. It will be any time now. Brenna is so excited she can hardly sleep...just kidding, she is such a good sleeper that not much can ruin that. We love you Veronica and baby!

Funny Things

Lately it seems like we have been taking move videos of Brenna than pictures. She is learning so much and she is doing things that can best be remembered in a video.

This is her new dance move. The first time she did this it looked like she was itching her back on the carpet. We knew what she was doing because she was smiling and laughing. Now she does it when there is music, or when we do it first.




We are not quite sure what this is. It is either a kiss face, an itch in her nose, or just a funny face. She will copy us when we do it. The first time we saw this all we could do was laugh.





Just go ahead and guess what this face is!





Here is more dancing and laughing.

Fall Break

I know this is about 3 weeks late and I have no excuse for not doing this sooner. Once again I was blessed to have an entire week long vacation that just happens to be the week of my birthday. Being that Brent and I teach for different districts, he didn't have time off which is so unfortunate. Brenna and I decided to hit the road and go for a visit to Washington. We saw all of the important people in our lives that live there with the exception of my dad. Each year he goes on a month long hunting trip so he has missed most of my birthdays since I was born.

We got up bright and early October 10th to head out for our 8:00 flight. Brenna is wearing socks and a sweatshirt for the first time since she was first born. The high for the week that we were there was 50 degrees! That is quite cold for these Arizona girls.


Brenna has turned into a frequent flyer and has little problems flying now.

While we were gone we spent lots of time with Grammy. Brenna showed off all of her new tricks which was fun for Grammy since she doesn't see Brenna very often.

We spent time with Amy, Kaitlen, Kamy and their new family Bret, Courtney and Blake. Amy and Bret were married a week prior to our trip and it was so much fun to meet her new husband and step kids. We are so excited that Amy and Bret found each other.





Brenna was so fascinated with my parents' dog Sadie. She sat and stared at the dog and the dog was constantly checking her out. Sadie got to be very protective of Brenna and any time Brenna was fussy the dog would come over to see what was wrong with her.

We spent a day with my friend Kristina and her kids. Brenna and Braxton were a little unsure of each other, however, this visit went better than the last one when Braxton bit her on the leg.




My sister Vanessa came all the way from Ellensburg to see us. Any time Vanessa held Brenna she would sit and stare at her for the longest time. She was never sad, or unsure of Vanessa just curious.




Brenna got to play in Grammy's new bouncer that she bought just for her. This one is a bit different from the one we have at home. The springs are looser and it was much easier for Brenna to bounce. She went crazy in that thing.



My older sister came out with her family for a visit on Friday. It was fun to get Brenna and Patrick together. He was much softer with her this time. Grammy loved having both of her grandbabies with her. Brenna will be getting another cousin in the next month when my sister Veronica has her baby. I am so excited for Christmas when we get to meet the new baby.



I can honestly say that the best flight we have ever had was the flight back to Tucson. We had all three seats to ourselves. Brenna kicked her feet up and watch her show, then had a snack, took a nap, and then played with her toys. We loved our trip and all of the many other people we visited. I have tons of pictures on my mom and sisters cameras. I wasn't always good at bringing mine but luckily there was always a camera somewhere. We can't wait to move back to Washington so we don't have to spend an entire day in an airplane just to see the ones we love.

Brenna's 1st Halloween

This year our Halloween celebrations are more for Brent and myself than for Brenna. We have dressed her up, dragged her around trying to find pumpkin patches that have been closed for years, and had her sit next to a squash for some pictures. She is such a trooper. This is not to say that she hasn't yelled at us a time or two, but for the most part she has had fun celebrating her first Halloween.


The first thing we did to get ourselves in the Halloween spirit was to have Brenna's pictures taken in her costume. I feel that it is important to explain why there are so many penguins in Brenna's world despite the fact that we live in Arizona. My little sister Vanessa is obsessed with two things...Brenna and penguins. Last year when I was pregnant she found this penguin costume and knew that the baby (boy or girl) needed to have it. Luckily Brenna makes an amazing penguin. Vanessa's birthday was October 27th so Brenna and I decided that we wanted to get pictures for Aunt Nessie's birthday. There is still a surprise that we are keeping a secret for Aunt Nessie. She won't get it for 2 more weeks and we are very impatiently waiting for it to get here.

Brenna started off doing very well. She put up with the costume just fine. We didn't get many smiles...but when you are being slightly humiliated it is a bit hard to smile.


Then she decided that she was done and tried to get away...since she can't roll over in this thing she didn't make it very far though.
Before too long the gloves came off (or in this case it was the head)...And then I gave up and decided that she had done better than I would have done if someone put me in a suit like this (no offense Aunt Nessie). Did you notice that it looks like her feet are floating? She has on black leggings! I giggle every time I look at this because I remember how annoyed she was with us all at this point.

Last night we carved our pumpkins. I will always insist on carving pumpkins for tradition, I just secretly hate doing it. It is a good thing that Brent is really good at it. This year our pumpkin looked like Mario. Brent did such a good job. It looks really good when it is all lit up.




And of course we had to get pictures of our little one with her carved pumpkin. The Batman pumpkin is JoAnna's. Brenna seemed more interested in licking the pumpkin than anything else.



Here is a night time view of both of the pumpkins. Pretty impressive.



We are not sure what we want to do tonight. We might go trunk or treating, it will depend on how Brenna is doing by this evening. We hope you all have a fun Halloween !