What do you think??

Late last week I finally decided to get around to putting the rest of Brooklynn's pics into her albums - I have stacks of them from about 3 months onwards. I know - its sad that it was never been done but there's just not enough time in the day. Luckily my mom is still here visiting with us and she so graciously filled 3 more albums for me so now they are all in order and in their albums. Now I just have to send the last 5 months to get printed. Anyway - I came across some pics my mom mailed to me shortly after Brooklynn was born back from when I was a baby. I remember looking at them at that time and thinking that Brooklynn defintely reminded me of when I was first born - but now I took out the rest of the pics from when I was a toddler and compared those. Wow - it is shocking how many similarities there are. She defintely has a part of her daddy but I can defintely see me in her - especially now. I've included some pics (prob way too many but I just think its so much fun to compare) for you to be the judge. What do you think??

This is my mom holding me when I was a couple months old

And this is Andrew holding Brooklynn at a couple months old

Me

Brooklynn



Me sleeping...


Brooklynn sleeping....

Me....

Brooklynn - sorry I wanted to include all 3 since I

thought they all kind of went with that picture of me.

Me

Brooklynn

So anyway - those are the pics I thought really showed a strong resemblence to me as a baby. Its the neatest thing to be able to see yourself in one of your kids - I can only imagine what its like for my mom to be a Grandma (or anyone that is a Grandma.) Its like they get to re-live their own children's lives again but with a whole new perspective - getting to experience all the fun without having to do the dirty work this time around ;)

Mommy's Little Helper...

Where did the last month go again? I think the weeks are going by faster and faster....hard to keep up. We haven't even been up to much. We ALL finally got rid of those nasty bugs we had for so long - I think we had a WHOLE WEEK of no runny noses and no medicines of any kind! I'm okay saying that without fear of jinxing myself b/c I think we have already started into the bugs of this week.

Yes you guessed it - Brooklynn woke up yesterday all congested and then throughout the day she had a runny nose that would not let up for even a second. Both Andy and me both have scratchy throats and Grandma (my mom) has been sneezing. What in the world is wrong this year?!?!?! Surely it can't be the fact that just the other day it was in the 80's during the day and now tonight we are going down into the 30's..that just couldn't be it....lol. So anyway....I'm hoping whatever this round is - it will pass quickly with no trips to the Dr's office. Lets keep our fingers crossed :) I'm not one to rush the summer to get here, but geez this 'winter' NEEDS to end!!!

Well Brooklynn had another Dr's appt last Friday (her only scheduled one out of the 3 she had in 2 weeks) for her 15 month check up. When did she get so big?!?!?!

So tiny at just 2 Days old

and now at 15 months!

She is literally off the charts in height - she is now 33" which puts her above the 97th%. Her weight has slowed down so she is only 26lbs lol....she is still in the same percentile (75th% - 90th%) but is now at the lower end instead of the top. We have all noticed that she has started thinning out now that she just runs everywhere! She is getting so tall - definitely looks older than 15 months. And to think she was so tiny and only fit into preemie clothes when she was born - she has definitely made up for that.

Nothing else going on with us - just busy with work and all the other fun day to day stuff. I got some cute pics of Brooklynn last weekend when she was 'helping' me around the house. I figured I better enjoy it while I can b/c I know there will come a day where it will be like pulling teeth to get her to help. So for now...enjoy my favorite little helper :)

Busy helping with the laundry


Waaayyy too much laundry....

Tasting each piece before it goes to the dryer

(don't ask b/c I have NO CLUE why she felt the

need to taste each piece of clothing....

just Brooklynn being Brooklynn..lol)


Finally all the laundry is in (and tasted for freshness)

ready to be dried. (pls. ignore the lovely half eaten

shelves behind Brooklynn - that was just one of Rocky's

masterpieces from his puppy days - the dog picture

sitting on the floor is prob hiding one of his best treats

for us - a hole that he dug right through to the sheetrock)


Wondering whats next on our 'to do list'

Finally!!!

I finally got my recessed lights in my kitchen!!! I am so excited. I have only waited almost 5 years to get them in and it was definitely worth the wait! From Day 1 when we moved into our house, the lights in the kitchen were the biggest thorn in my side... I hated them! We have these huge vaulted celings in our house and in the kitchen we had 2 (yes 2 side by side) of those UGLY strip florescent lights up there and then this random little single round frosted white glass light a little further over. I have no idea what the builder was thinking....but it was NOT PRETTY. Anyway one of our friends is an electrician (actually its one of Andy's partners in the electrical division at his company) and had told Andy awhile back to just let him know when we wanted it done and he'd come over and help install them. So we finally found a day that worked for everyone and now we have BEAUTIFUL lights in our kitchen....have I mentioned already how much I love them?!?!?! Here is a pic I took tonight - excuse the mess in our kitchen.....



So anyway.....that was my big excitement in this otherwise ordinary week.

In other news, we have been battling some cold/flu bugs in our house for the past week - but then again, it seems like the entire city of Houston is as well. Doesn't help that the weather is like an out of control yo-yo. One day you are wearing shorts and its 80 degrees outside, then the next its below freezing....it seems a lot more up and down this year compared to other years - it just seems more extreme. There have been days that we go to bed at night with the a/c on and wake up in the morning and have to put the heat on.....its crazy. So anyway...of course Miss Brooklynn is sick....AGAIN. Every few weeks she has another bug - and I'm guessing daycare is a great breeding ground for that. So for now, she is really congested, with a nasty junky sounding cough and a nose that is running like a faucet non-stop. What fun! We actually did take her to the dr's on Friday afternoon b/c she had been going after her ears a little and she was just barely starting an ear infection (again) so we got more of her favorite pink drug...amoxicillan. So hopefully that will take whatever bug she has too and get rid of it once and for all. Its gotten so bad that I can just take the nasal aspirator (a.k.a. nose sucker/booger sucker/brain sucker) out of the cabinet and she has a TOTAL MELTDOWN - she HATES it. It looks like we are practicing moves for the WWE as I am trying to pin her down to keep her still while trying to suction her nose...lol!

Other than that - we haven't been up to much but somehow the days just fly by. Here are some random pictures I've taken the last few weeks that I thought I would share....

This is the scene in our house every weeknight...

The minute the garage door opens they all run to the door

waiting for their Daddy to come in....its the cutest thing.

Daisy & Rocky have trained Brooklynn well :)

Waiting for story time with Grandma....

Enjoying time with Grandma reading a book together....

She loves her grandma and is getting spoiled

rotten and is enjoying every minute with her.

Storytime's over....looking to get into mischief now....


Her very own chair - just her size :)

A perfect hideout - her very own tent....

And just a cute pic of her one day when we were

trying on the next size clothing in her closet. I hope

it warms up and stays warm soon b/c there are a lot

of cute dresses that she is already fitting into :)

What a difference...

A year can make!! As I was downloading pics tonight, I started going through all the pictures from the last year with Brooklynn. All I can say is WOW!!! She was so tiny!!! You honestly do forget how tiny they start out.....and how quickly they really do grow. I decided to post a few pics that really show the difference. I came across her bumbo seat in her closet a few days ago - its like a brand new toy to her. I had to laugh b/c her chunky legs can barely fit in there anymore - and once she sits down, I have to push them into place. Getting out of it is a whole other story - it stays stuck to her butt and thighs and she rolls around the floor trying to get it off - and of course she thinks this is the funniest thing ever - cracking up the entire time. Once she finally wiggles and squirms her way out she gets right back in and it starts all over again! Anyway...here are some pics from a year ago compared to now....


She was just under 2 months old in this pic...
no worries here about getting her legs stuck.


Here is the pic from a couple days ago -
what a difference!!!

Another thing I came to realize is how much fun Brooklynn has with Rocky and how much fun he has with her. They are always ready to play together - she throws a ball to him and he runs to get it, they play tug 'o war with whatever she can find in the room, she chases him around the room.....its so cute. He has been so amazing with her since day 1 when we got home from the hospital...Brooklynn is defintely Rocky's baby..... she jumps on him, tries to hug him and hang one when he tries to run away....he is just so gentle. And for those who have met him, understand how shocking this is. Yes he is a really sweet dog, but he is also a total livewire - its defintely the Terrier in him - he's a Boston Terrier. We would have never thought that he would take such good of her when she is around....but he completely surprised us. He can be running around 90mph and barking and growling with Daisy, but the minute Brooklynn comes by - he just stops and goes into baby mode. It is really amazing. Now if only we can work on Daisy.....lol!

This is the day we got home from the hospital

when Brooklynn was born....already Rocky is

glued to her side.

This is now - always together!

The funniest thing is looking back through all the pics - Rocky is in prob at least 75% of them.....alot of the time I crop him out but he's definitely right there with her all the time.