Rewind with lots of pictures!

I have been a total slacker at getting pictures put up here lately so I will try to get them all up while lil Miss Brynnle is content playing with Daddy in the living room! :)

Brynnle has got the crawling thing down these days and will follow you absolutely anywhere in the house. This includes the kitchen and bathroom. If I walk out of the room for more than 30 seconds she is either in the bathroom getting into the garbage or in the dining room playing in the dog's water or food bowls.

                                 Busted on her way to the bathroom garbage!

                   The very same day (20 min later) headed to the dog's food bowls!

This is the face I get when I tell her "no no Brynnle" - she finds it absolutely hilarious!
 
So after many many messes and Mom being grossed out more than once we decided it was time to invest in an exersaucer and walker. Huge thanks to our friends Chris and Rich and good ole Craigslist I got both for under $45 AND she LOVES them!

The blue button she has her hand on has a duck on it and it happens to be her favorite button to push. I cant even tell you how many times a day I have heard "duck, quack quack, pato (duck in Spanish)"

It will keep her content for hours as long as someone is in the room with her. I have yet to find a way to keep her totally happy when I "disappear" to take a shower but for now she is no longer in the garbage or Jethro's food bowls so I am a much happier mom!

The other day I was doing laundry and cleaning up and she was playing in the living room and apparently decided she wanted to play in her exersaucer but couldn't quite remember how to get in.

She had her 2 favorite toys in there with her (a baby spoon and a lid from a baby food container) and was happy as could be until she got her head stuck in the opening where the chair is and couldn't figure out how to get to her toys!


She isn't quite as happy in her walker, which I am afraid is my fault. The first time I had her in there we were trying to adjust the height for her short little legs so she could touch the ground. I pushed the button to lower it and it pinched my thumb and the whole thing collapsed and she ended up on the floor. She has been weary of it since. It also doesn't have nearly as many entertaining things on it as her exersaucer does and her legs aren't long enough to touch the floor so she can't move in it yet. Maybe in a few months?

                           So confused as to why I was making her sit in that boring thing!

Also new and due to her growing up she is now taking her baths in the kitchen sink regularly. I could have her in the bath tub but it kills my back (yes I'm getting old) to be hunched over making sure this active little thing doesn't drown herself. ESPECIALLY since our new favorite thing is to pull herself up to a standing position and let go, even in the tub - pictures of that to come in a minute!  

 Pardon the dishes in the sink! I am usually loading the dishwasher as she is bathing! :)

 You cant really tell in this picture but she LOVES to splash water all over the floor and on the counters, she splashed really big and got herself in the face - does NOT love that!

                                   This is her "Mom I'm ready to get out now" face.


As promised here are the pictures of her pulling herself up. The chair is actually part of her swing, it comes out and turns into a rocking chair or as we use it, a chair to feed her in since shes still not quite big enough for her high chair just yet. It also makes for the perfect thing to pull herself up on since it has a really wide base and is pretty stable.

She is soo proud of herself when she does it! She has gotten pretty good at it and has moved on to really anything she can get her hands on. Couches, coffee table, anything strong enough to hold her weight and sadly we have tried a few things not strong enough and ended with a few bloody noses! :(

Last but not least, the past week I have had the blessing of being able to go walking with my sister in law Jen. She is now a stay at home mom too so we have gotten out a few times to go to the park and walk or the mall when the weather doesn't cooperate. The girls were getting fussy (o.k. mainly Brynnle) after awhile of our laps around the mall so we stopped at the children's play area and let the girls out of the strollers for awhile. 

               This was a smile from Clair but my camera wasn't fast enough to catch it.

Both girls had an obsession with trying to eat Jen's clothes. Clair was going for her jeans and Brynnle was trying to suck on her shoes. Gross! :)

Its been really nice to get out and get a little exercise and have some "adult talk" with another stay at home mom who understands! I am hoping we will be able to continue to get together regularly as the girls grow so they will be good friends! :)

Be thou humble..

This post really has very little to do with Brynnle but I felt the need to get it off my chest today.

I heard news of a friend who after an accident involving her small child this weekend is facing challenges no mother ever wants to even think about. As I was being told about the events I felt this overwhelming sense of heartbreak for my friend and I felt very humbled. I have been complaining of sleepless nights and  the emotional roller coaster being a first time mom is for the past few months and the reality of  'it could be so much worse' hit me. I thought to myself how silly I have been for complaining over lost sleep and teething when a friend is dealing with something so much more and not only her but thousands and thousands of other mothers out there deal with tragedy so much more than I could ever imagine.

So with that being said, today I want to express gratitude to my Heavenly Father for the small challenges he has given me. He has given me an overwhelmingly sweet spirit to raise and call my daughter, she is beautiful and perfect in every way. As I watch her grow and learn I cannot possibly deny his hand in all things. He has given me trials that I might appreciate the wonderful things I have in my life.  He has given me an amazing husband, wonderful family and friends to be there and support me when I fall short.  He gave his son so that when I fall short and make mistakes I can be forgiven and my sins be washed clean.

My heart is full today as I look around and see the good all around me. As I think about my friends trials, my gratitude is renewed that I have a wonderful husband who is worthy and holds the Priesthood in my home. I am deeply comforted to know that he is willing and able to give us blessings at times when they are needed.

I have spent so much time lately focused on the housework and in the big picture the unimportant things. Today, I am not going to worry about the housework, laundry and my hair or makeup. Today, I am going to enjoy spending time with my beautiful family and appreciate the blessings the Lord has given me!

Will I ever know the feeling of sleep again?

Since this tends to be all about Brynnle I am going to continue updating on her accomplishments and places she may be slightly behind..

Last night she ate an entire container of apples (applesauce) and 1/2 a container of carrots and STILL wanted to nurse shortly after. I guess you don't get those thighs without a little work! :) Thanks goodness she isn't doing anything else "new" this week. I would be ok with just a little plateau in her development now.

I take that back, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for her to figure out how to SLEEP! We have been doing as the pediatrician recommended and putting her down every 3ish hours for a nap with fairly good results. She only sleeps for 30-45 min but in total that gives me 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get things done during the day which is better than the 45 min I was getting before. With this new routine, she has stopped going down at 10:30-11:00pm like she had been doing so well weeks before - We are back to the 12:30-1:00am routine and its a fight the entire time. I have tried EVERYTHING I can possibly get my hands on to help her. We've done the night routine with a lavender bath and lotion shortly before bed, Baby Zzz's (an herbal sleep aid for babies with ginger root, camomilla, and peppermint extract), bottles with milk and rice cereal, formula, night time formula, just nursing and the combination of all 4. Ive tried playing music when she starts to go down, letting her scream it out and even let her sleep in bed with us. Keep in mind I have given all of these "remedies" at LEAST one full week to see if there was improvement.  All with the same result - 1 1/2-2 hours of sleep at a time followed by 20 min of screaming, nursing then back to sleep. How is it that a child who seems to want to do everything else earlier than most babies cant seem to figure out how to sleep!? Wouldn't you think she would need the sleep to have the energy to crawl, roll over, sit up and get two teeth? Maybe I am raising a future doctor or lawyer who can do it all on 2-3 hours of sleep at night but this mama is no superwoman and needs sleep to get it all done..  I know someday I will look back and laugh, but I thought I would be doing that by now too! I am in no hurry for my baby to grow up and would trade her crawling, sitting up on her own and both her teeth (lets be honest, I would trade two of MY teeth) to have her sleeping just 5-6 hours at one time per night let alone the 10-12 the pediatrician said she should be doing!

Most days I feel as if I am going insane and then I realize - I'm not going insane, Ive become a mother!  

Mother of the Year Award

I have said many times "I am sure I will win the Mother of the Year Award because..." So here is proof! :)

I had been on the phone most of the morning working on bills and prescriptions and whatever so I hadn't had the chance to eat breakfast or take a shower yet and Brynnle was starting to get fussy since it was time for her first morning nap. So deciding I could hit two birds with one stone I put her in her swing (on high which usually puts her to sleep) and jumped in the shower real quick. I rushed through my shower and when I got out I noticed no sound coming from the bedroom, good sign right?! I thought "Yay she went down without even a fight!" I snuck into my room to check and found her sleeping like this. I guess there was a fight I just showered through it! She slept in that exact position for well over an hour though so I guess it was pretty comfortable! :)

Later that day, I was trying to get the house picked up and the dishwasher loaded and now that she is moving if I don't want her into EVERYTHING I have to put her in one of her chairs and surround her with toys. I wanted to vacuum the carpet so I decided to put her up on the coffee table so I could. I left the room and got distracted with something else and when I went back in there (10-15 min later) I found her perfectly content watching TV. My 5 month old watches TV!!!

My 3rd and final moment was just today as I was blogging! :) I let her roll around our bedroom floor because (when its clean) its a lot of open floor space and its got soft carpet so when she crashes its not as brutal. So I was uploading pictures and checking my email when I heard her squeal (not at all uncommon) behind me. I turned around to see what she was doing and found her stuck under her crib! She wasn't really stuck, usually she would throw one leg over herself to roll over to get out and she couldn't because the leg she normally uses was under the crib! Thank goodness she couldn't get her big ole head all the way under..

She caught me taking a picture and actually smiled at me but my camera isn't fast enough and the smile had just faded when I got this picture. Little stinker is going to be serious trouble when she really gets the crawling thing figured out, I don't even want to start thinking about walking!

Soo big!

She usually sits up so much better but she kept trying to grab the camera as I was taking pictures..  I cant believe how fast the little stinker is growing! I keep trying to convince her she is ONLY 5 months old - SLOW DOWN! When did my snuggly little newborn become a (somewhat) independent infant?! I am going to blink and she is going to be turning 16 then graduating from high school. Ok I know I'm being a bit dramatic but still, time is just going soo fast!

A little bit of catch up..

Since I mainly want to keep this about Brynnle and whats happening with her, I am going to rewind the past 5 months real quickly..

October 11, 2010 at 2:17pm after 14 hours of intense labor and 2 hours of pushing Brynnle Marie Leonard made her entrance into this world. She came out face up and her head was all scraped up from the adventure.. Our life has never been the same!

Brynnle was taking a nap and it was pretty cold in our house so Jethro decided to snuggle with the only person holding still.. Then she woke up:

A few of her milestones.. At just under 2 months old Brynnle learned to roll from stomach to back and just over 2 months rolled from back to stomach. She giggled for the first time right in there too.

We LOVE our bath time around here and the more bubbles the merrier! I turned to grab her towel and it was slippery enough she slid right into the bubbles! :)

She cut her first tooth on February 17, 2011 - the day she met her uncle Alex for the first time.

We have also been experimenting with rice cereal and baby food. Here is our first rice cereal..

This past Sunday - March 6, 2011 she started sitting up all on her own. I will try to get a picture and put it up here!

Where has my newborn gone?! She is 5 months old today and I am still in awe of how fast the time has gone! I know I am going to blink and she is going to be heading out on her first date then off to college. In my mind she is still tiny and snuggly and shouldn't have teeth or be almost crawling. :(

Im a blogger!

I have always wanted to start a blog but thought I would have nothing to blog about.. So now that I have Brynnle growing by leaps and bounds I am hoping to keep this up to date to keep everyone in our family up to date on the happenings with Brynnle and the life of this little Leonard family. Please be patient with me as I learn the world of blogging! :)