Squirmy

Brooke turned 8 Months Old today! She is very squirmy these days. And, as she gains weight (chubby thighs are sooo cute!!) her sudden shifts in squirminess cause surprise if she's in your arms. Otherwise, she's moving quickly across the floor, always in pursuit of Maddie's toys. Here's some happy floortime. She's working on tooth 2 (lower center right). We'll try for a picture next week.

With Dad home for 2 weeks we're making "field trips" to places we have yet to go before we leave. This week it was the Strategic Air and Space Museum. Lots of 1940's planes to look at -- first 3 were interesting, after that, not so much.

Can't tell, but here's Mom and Brooke.And here's Dad and Brooke.

Lastly I've been meaning to say congratulations to "new parents" from the last month or so:

• Kristen and Jon welcomed their 2nd son in early December,
• Jennifer and David welcomed a daughter before Christmas, and
• Julianne and Craig welcomed their 3rd daughter (and a 2nd dog!) at the end of December

Congrats to all and sleep tight! ;-)

Slithering

Here is Brooke at 7 Months + 3 Weeks.Last weekend Brooke and Dad went out for Saturday morning breakfast, leaving Mom to sleep in. Brooke enjoyed the conversation over coffee. Mom enjoyed the sleeping. Dad enjoyed his Lumberjack Breakfast. The past few weeks the slithering has continued to progress. First it was just her arms pulling herself forward. Then the tip toes got involved while the tushy pushes into the air. And now she's starting to use her knees too. We'll be zooming around before we know it!

Week 33 - Carrots

Here is Brooke at 7 months + 3 weeks. She later apologized to Lamby for the abuse. Also, you may notice the teddy bear is missing his white ribbon...we grew tired of her pulling/eating it during each week's paparazzi session.In the kitchen this week our creation was carrots. They went over pretty well. I think the natural sugar hypes her up because she goes bonkers after eating them (not good for bedtime settling down). Next up is sweet potatoes.In other eating news, one day she was blowing "raspberries" all day long and in general being very vocal, even through lunchtime. So a spoonful of pears (a very liquidy food as it is) goes in, then Mom immediately holds her hand 2" in front of Brooke's mouth as it gets "spittled" out. (Mom learned to hold her hand up after wiping it off her face/clothes a couple times)

The First Tooth!

Here is Brooke at 7 Months + 2 Weeks.

This week was the spotting of her first tooth! It's the lower left central one, and it's already breaking through the gum. Mom just happened to notice when she was chewing on a toy. I feel bad as I hadn't seen it before, but luckily there hasn't been any crankiness associated to any pain or excessive chewing, drooling, etc... In other events, Mom tried her first attempts at making homemade baby food, with a course of mashed peas. There was some gagging (on Brooke's part), as I think it tastes more like real peas then the jarred stuff so she wasn't quite sure about it.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year! Here is Brooke at 7 Months + 1 Week.

A second week of grandparents' loving! After Christmas week with Jen's parents, Brooke packed up and spent the next week with Scott's parents (Mom and Dad went to Hawaii to celebrate their 5 year wedding anniversary from October). Here's some playtime with Grandpa Chief.

And with Grandma Karen.

Heather and Brad stopped by for some baby loving.

With Great Grandma Mary.

Great Grandpa Steve gets lots of smiles and giggles out of Brooke!

She also turned 7 Months Old this week. Dad was estatic with the new Blackhawks "toy." Mom, well, not so much. (go Red Wings!)

Brooke was super spoiled this Christmas. Let's just say it is toys galore with all the gifts she received across all the families. Thank you again to everyone!
Maddie also had a great week playing with Cassie.