Merry Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas! Here is Brooke at 6 Months + 4 Weeks.

Brooke had a great first Christmas, with Mimi (Jen's mom) and Grandpa Jim (Jen's dad) visiting for the week. Here's some floor playtime with Grandpa.

Mimi always smiling while she holds her "little button."

Low and behold, Grandpa's feeding Brooke! We had to be sure to capture this as he didn't think anyone would believe...

Christmas dinner from atop Dad's shoulders.

Lastly, a Christmas tradition of holiday pajamas is started.

Santa!

Here is Brooke at 6 Months + 3 Weeks. Last weekend she met Santa! While we didn't get a smile from Brooke during the quick couple pictures we took, there was lots of HO HO HO'ing. She has also turned into quite the rolly polly. If I look away for 2 seconds she has "ninja-style" rolled 5 feet away. I can't imagine keeping track of her once she starts crawling!

I thought I'd have to keep Maddie away from Brooke's toys. Well it seems it is the other way around. Here she actually pulled the bone onto her mat (I quickly took it away). And here she is reaching for the ball and the bone I had previously taken away.

Wintertime

Here is Brooke at 6 Months + 2 Weeks Old.

As winter progresses, we've been breaking out the sweaters. It's funny, I remember getting these sweaters when she was just born and putting them away (they were marked for 6-9 mos old), thinking it'll be so far away before she wears them. And now she's ready for them. Time is moving too fast! Stop growing Brooke!!! Here is a sweater a friend knitted for her.

Lastly, sometimes when I'm dressing Brooke I feel like Molly Ringwald from Sixteen Candles, when she is trying to put her sister's wedding shoes on at the church (and the sister's feet are going every which way but the right way). Here's a sock dressing attempt...

And she pulls the sock off with her mouth...

So the other sock goes on...

6 Months Old!

Here is Brooke at 6 Months + 1 week. She turned 6 months last Sunday, and weighs 14 pounds 9 ounces.

Last Sunday she was a giggle machine when Dad was reading her a book.

Here she's pondering her Christmas list to Santa.

To mark her "half" birthday, we broke out the rice cereal. Woo Hoo! It was an experience. In the holiday fun, Brooke was excited to see the Christmas tree go up.

Some Brooke and Maddie time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brooke at 5 Months + 4 Weeks Old. Trying out the high chair. "What are these straps?""Hmm, I guess this is pretty fun."
Brooke had lots of fun lap time with the family for Thanksgiving holiday. Here she is with Grandpa Chief.

With Grandma Karen. With Aunt Heather.

Though she didn't eat any turkey, she enjoyed sitting at the table with us.

And closing out with her feet: "little turkey"

Quiet before the Holidays

Here is Brooke at 5 Months + 3 Weeks old.

This is what Brooke thinks of Notre Dame this season.

Waking up from naptime.

Meeting Great Grandma Mary

Here is Brooke at 5 Months + 2 Weeks Old.

This week we went to Minneapolis to visit Brooke's Great Grandma Mary, Aunt Caryl and Uncle Randy, and Uncle Bill and Aunt Linda. Aunt Caryl is all smiles holding Brooke.

A few minutes later, as bedtime drew near, some tears were shed while Aunt Linda said goodnight to her (sorry about the wet shoulder!).

Visiting Grandma was a lot of fun.

Grandma sang to Brooke as Brooke babbled along.

And a parting shot of Caryl and Randy.

Election Week!

Here is Brooke at 5 months + 1 week.

Here's some smiling tummy time.
Yet a new piece of baby gear entered the house this week, a Bumbo chair. It'll be helpful to give her a new view and build her abilities to sit. Unfortunately she's a little small for it so she sort of slumps in it right now.
Other fun this week is watching her dexterity continue to improve. Whether she's in her crib reaching for her pacifiers or laying in her changing table grabbing her stuffed animals (which, by the way, these tiny Baby Gund animals are perfect distractions for the changing table),
or swiping at Maddie as she sits by. (that time she came away with 2 fistfuls of dog hair)Lastly, Brooke's first presidential election of her life was an extraordianary one for our country; electing Barak Obama as the 44th President. An exciting change for America!

5 Months Old and Happy Halloween!

Here is Brooke at 5 Months Old (22 weeks). She is 13 pounds 5 ounces.

Not too much to report this week. We were going to go Trick or Treating at Dad's office on Halloween afternoon, but the car died (luckily in our garage...hopefully it's a simple fix and we can get a few more months out of it).

Here's some Dad/Maddie/Brooke time earlier in the week.Bathtime has become a lot of fun with lots of kicking and splashing in the water. Here's a little video clip.

Brooke's New Toy

Here is Brooke at 21 Weeks Old. Brooke's new toy is an Exersaucer. Dad had a lot of fun putting it together. (No, not really. I think I heard some grumbling about 500 screws and many pieces that could've been assembled at the factory...) Anyway, since she's still a little small for it, the seat has many towels padded around her to keep her fairly upright. Each day she has a little more fun with it as she examines all the toys.
In other events, we had our first babysitter this week. Mom and Dad celebrated our 5th anniversary so we went ventured out to dinner for some time by ourselves. Luckily (for the babysitter), Brooke was asleep before we left and didn't wake up in the 128 minutes we were gone. Just kidding, we were gone for about 2 and 1/2 hours.

A parting shot of Brooke and Maddie.