Cardiologist Appointment

Last weekend Brooklyn started to get sick and by Monday morning she was really pulling at her right ear. So I decided to take her into the pediatrician to check it out.  She did have an ear infection and we got some antibiodics.  Also while we were there the doctor was doing his normal checks of her lungs and heart and he kept just listening to her heart for what seemed like forever.  When he was done he told us that he thought he heard a small murmur.  He had never heard it before and that is what concerned him, he said that it was a weird age to develop a murmur.  He recommemded us to a pediatric cardiologist who was just down the hall, so we went and made an appointment for Thursday.  Craig wasn't able to come with us because of school, but he did give Brooklyn a blessing Wednesday night. So we go into the doctor and they do all of the normal doctor things like height, weight, and they also took her blood pressure with the cutest little blood pressure cuff I have ever seen.  They then had me strip her down to her diaper and did an echo (ultra-sound of her heart).  The tech asked if I had a binkie or bottle since it would take about 20 minutes and she needed to hold still.  My heart kind of dropped at this point because I didn't have any of those things and it is impossible to keep her still for even 5 minutes.  Luckily she laid there on the table watching Disney Junior and playing with my keys and eating puffs.  It was quite amazing. The tech couldn't believe how well she did.  I know that it was definitely the blessing that helped her do that.  The doctor then reviewed the echo and then came in and listened to her heart and told us that there was nothing to worry about.  He called it an innocent murmur, that it is just the sound that her heart makes.  Her valves and everything work properly.  We don't even have to follow up about it.  It was definitely a big relief and we are very grateful that our baby girl has a healthy heart.  She is just as happy and cute and crazy as ever!

Happy Halloween!

We are not big Halloween people, surprise surprise.  Craig and I have never really gotten into the holiday, we are not fans of dressing up, but since we have a kid now we decided we will get somewhat into it.  We did not take her trick-or-treating, but we did go to our wards trunk-or-treat and chili cook off.  Brooklyn was a Boise State Cheerleader (thanks nana and pops for the outfit).  I was going to put some Band-Aids on her and wrap her arm or something in an ace bandage since BSU had just lost to BYU, but I got too lazy and she would have just pulled them off anyways and she was just cuter this way.  I decided to throw on my cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and be a cowgirl.  Brooklyn had no idea what was going on but she seemed to enjoy watching all the other kids.  This year we didn't even hand out candy on Halloween night because the last few years we only had and handful of kids come by and this way I got through Halloween without eating a single piece of candy.  I think next year will be a lot of fun, hopefully by that time we can get her to say trick-or-treat.

 

8 Months Old

October 22, 2013
17 lbs
size 3 diapers (they are huge)
size 6 month clothing



This girl is on the move and out of control.  She is in to absolutely everything. Books, DVDs, cords, shoes, diaper bag, name it and she tries to get into it.  Needless to say baby proofing has begun this month.  She is not yet crawling on hands and knees but her army crawl is sure getting her places quickly, especially in the living room on the wood floors.  This month she has become really clingy to me, I think it was partially due to her having a cold for over a week (or teething, but we still have yet to see any teeth).  She is still a very happy baby, always smiling and laughing, although she doesn't smile quite as quickly for the camera anymore.  She is trying so hard to sit up on her own and has done it a few times, but it has yet to become a regular thing. Her personality continues to just shine through. She is hilarious with her faces.

She eats solids twice a day and is doing really well with them.  Her favorite right now is sweet corn casserole, but continues to love anything orange (sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, mango, pumpkin).  She still prefers veggies over fruit, so anytime she has fruit it is mixed with a veggie of some sort.  She loves to feed herself puffs.  She does really well picking things up between her thumb and pointer. It is actually easier to feed her solids when we are in public than a bottle, because with solids she can still look around and see what is going on. She was still sleeping really well until her cold/teething, but is getting back into it again.  It was a really long 10 days or so for all of us.  She usually naps twice a day. Her morning nap is typically very short like 25/30 minutes and then will take a longer one in the afternoon for like an hour and a half to 2 hours.  Sometimes her second nap will also be short so we will throw in a third for good measure. Recently when we check on her while a sleep we have been finding her on her knees with her rear end up in the air and her face down on the mattress, or child's pose if you do yoga.  It is hilarious.  We will pull her legs out so she is laying on her tummy and then she will just pull her knees right back in.  Not really sure how that is comfortable, but it seems to work for her.

Last week we had an appointment with a pediatric neurologist to check out her flat head.  They took a couple x-rays (which she absolutely hated and screamed through) and he looked at and felt around her head.  He said that since her forehead and face are symmetrical that he isn't too concerned.  He said that it will take time, like a couple of years, for her head to round back out and that it won't ever be perfect but will be better.  He said that we could speed up the process with a helmet if we wanted, but that it was unlikely that our insurance would cover it and they cost about $3,000. So, no helmet, but he does want to monitor it.  It was just nice to hear it from someone else that it would be okay.  With her hair growing it doesn't look as obvious as it used to, so hopefully it will just continue to get better.

Here are some pictures from throughout the month:

The DVDs on the bottom shelf have now been moved

 

Our future tennis star

Trying so hard to sit up all by herself

Still loves her toes.  I now put her in the Bumbo to keep her in one place. One day I went to the bathroom and had left her in the living room playing with toys and when I came out I couldn't see her.  She had crawled back in to the corner in between the couches.

Still loves bath time

 

 

We try to go to the park at least once a week and she loves the swings

Hanging out under the coffee table

One of her favorite things to play with are her dad's shoe boxes

Playgroup at the zoo



Craig's Birthday Extravaganza

Craig's turned 27 last Thursday and if you know us at all you know that extravaganza is a huge exaggeration.  We aren't big celebration type of people.  Again I wasn't allowed to get him a present, but we did go out to dinner Thursday night.  Craig was feeling a burger and shake so we hit up Red Robin.  Then Saturday night we had ice cream and hot brownies.  He got a lot of cards, calls and text so I think that overall he had a good day.  Someday, maybe when we are no longer living off student loans, we will make up for all of the holidays and birthdays.  But for now just spending the time with our sweet baby girl is enough.

Brian Comes to Visit

Craig's oldest brother Brian drove the almost 10 hours from Houston to come visit a few weeks ago.  He got into town late Wednesday night and then on Thursday when Craig got done with school they went golfing.  On Friday Brooklyn and I took him for a little stroll around downtown.  We walked down Beale street and showed him the FedEx Forum and Autozone Park. We also walked down by the Mississippi river.  That evening we went to the BBQ Shop.  You can't come to Memphis and not have bbq.  He got a taste of the Memphis Style dry rubbed ribs.  On Saturday Craig and Brian were able to play a round of golf at Justin Timberlake's course just outside of Memphis, Mirimichi.  Craig has been wanting to play this since we moved here and I'm glad he finally got the opportunity.  Luckily Brian is very kind and offered to pay for Craig to play, although it is priced way lower than it could be.  Supposedly the course losses 2 million every year, but JT loves golf so I guess he's ok with that.  After golf we went to Gus's Chicken for dinner. We told Brian he would never be able to eat at KFC again if he ate Gus's and he was okay with that and after dinner he said he totally agreed and would not look at fried chicken the same again.  Brian then left Sunday morning when we left for church.  It was a quick trip but it was great to see him.  Sadly we forgot to take pictures.  The only picture I took was of Brooklyn at Gus's

This is after I realized I had been giving her Sprite.  The waiter asked if he could refill my glass, which was full of water, which Brooklyn had been drinking from.  After he filled it up Brooklyn wanted another drink so I gave her some more and then I took a drink a few minutes later and realized it was Sprite.  I was wondering why she was enjoying it so much.

7 Months Old

September 22, 2013
16 lbs
Size 2 diapers
Size 3-6 & 6 month clothing

I think this last month Brooklyn has gone a little crazy, or maybe she is making me go a little crazy.  She has the cutest, funniest, craziest personality and I couldn't love her any more.  She is a little out of control, but it is awesome.  She rolls all over the place.  One day we were hanging out in her nursery and she rolled all the way across the room, out the door and down the hallway until she got sidetracked by a doorstop, which kept her occupied for like 10 minutes.

She eats solid food at least once a day, but normally twice.  She loves sweet potatoes. We normally strip her down to just her diaper and put a bib on her but she still manages to make a mess, although by the end of the month she was getting better at opening her mouth wider. She sits up so well now. We no longer have to make sure that she is positioned just right before we let go.  We can just plop her down and she will stay there.

This last month was not her best sleeping month.  It took her a while to get back into her routine when we got back from Idaho.  She still goes to bed around 8:30 and will wake up around 7:15am but she normally wakes us up at least twice a night crying, but she does a great job consoling herself and for the most part puts herself back to sleep.  She is down to 2 naps most days. Her morning nap is fairly short, normally around 30-45mins, but her afternoon nap is thankfully around 90 minutes. She no longer sleeps swaddled up.  I thought it was going to be a tough transition, but of course she did it like a champ. We thought she was teething at the beginning of the month. She was kind of cranky, extra drooly, wasn't sleeping well, had a super runny nose and was biting the crap out of everything, but here we are 3 weeks later and still nothing.  So maybe she just had a cold I guess or it is taking forever for her tooth to come through, either way it was not fun. Other than that she is still a super happy baby.

Just a few days ago (9/20/13) she figured out that she doesn't have to roll to get to things, she started to scoot.  She is still pretty slow at it, but it was amazing to watch her figure it out. Her head is still pretty flat.  We don't feel like it has rounded out at all, so we are going to take her to a neurologist in a few weeks to see if she needs to get a helmet.  I can't believe how much her personality has blossomed this last month.  She laughs and smiles all the time, she shakes her head no constantly, her feet are ticklish and she loves to play with toys.  She especially loves tags, she will find the tag on anything and then start sucking on it.

Here are a few random pictures from throughout the month:

We found her an old remote to play with so she wouldn't slobber all over the real one

 

Time to change out of the jammies

She loves playing with bottles and she always tries to drink out of them



The Joys of Homeownership and being a Grown-Up

New water heater... $1500

 

Plumber fixing master bathroom toilet... $500

 

Katie's dental work... $200

 

New air conditioner... $7500

 

Fixing Craig's truck... $400

 

Homeownership & being a grown-up... Very Expensive and kind of sucky right now

 

Needless to say these last few months have been a little stressful.  When we bought the house we figured there would be some small things that would need to be done. We thought we might have to replace the washing machine or the dishwasher. So when our water heater was leaking and the technician told us that it wasn't fixable, we thought that was going to be our "major" contribution to the house.  We had no idea what was coming in the next month and a half.  All I know is that when it is time to sell the house we are taking people right up to the attic so they can see the $9000 worth of new stuff up there.  All of this wouldn't be that bad if we were planning on being in the house longer than another year and a half.  All I know is that we better sell this house for a profit.  I guess all of this stuff is just part of growing-up, I just wish it didn't have to happen all at the same time, yay for student loans.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that there nothing else comes up.