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.

A week with Mimi and Grandpa

Here is Brooke at 20 Weeks Old. She was having fun in this week's photo session! Also, Aunt Kathleen has asked for more pictures each week, so here you go! Last Saturday, we went to go pick pumpkins. For the event we HAD to dress Brooke up in her Halloween outfit. (sorry Brooke, as it was 75 degrees...but you looked so cute!)
She blends in with the pumpkins! She's choosing which one she wants while Dad provides a little support (not emotional or decisional support, just physical support so she doesn't topple over).
Mom, Brooke and Maddie posing on the decorated front porch.
In other big events this week, Brooke earned her first airplane wings! We flew to visit Jen's parents and United gave her some wings for her memory book. Overall, the flights went very well!
Brooke spends some quality time with Mimi (aka Jen's mom).
And with Grandpa.

A lot of the week was spent flipping her over. See, she loves this new skill of rolling on her stomach, however she doesn't roll back onto her back so after a while she gets quite frustrated. This happened often at 1am, 3am, 5am...

A parting shot of her week with Mimi and Grandpa.

Fall is here!

Here is Brooke at 19 Weeks Old.
We haven't see much from Maddie lately, and this is HER blog... Check out this amazingly Ginormous mum in our yard. Dad's quite proud of it.

Here's Brooke, Dad and Maddie one evening this week.

4 Months Old!

Here is Brooke at 18 Weeks Old. This past Tuesday she turned 4 months old. Her weight is 12 pounds 8 ounces and her height is 23 3/4 inches.

To celebrate, she has begun sucking her big toe.

She also LOVES playing "airplane" with Dad.

This week was also busy rooting on the White Sox with their win of the AL Central Division.

While Brooke postponed her first ND game (sorry, but we're not paying ND for a ticket for a 3 1/2 month old), Mom and Dad caught two great wins over Michigan and Purdue! Here we're tailgating at the Purdue game (me, Heather, Mike, Scott, Brad and Heather).

Brooke's Baptism

Here is Brooke at 17 Weeks Old.
Last weekend was Brooke's baptism. We were delighted to have Jen's sister Kathleen and Scott's brother Brad as the godparents.

The next day, she went downtown to cheer on the Bears with her good friend Hailey. Unfortunately the Bears lost in overtime.

Later in the week, we roadtripped to Madison (phew, Brooke slept the whole way!) to see Taylor, her big brother Eli and parents Sarah and Michael.

We then ventured even further north to see Erin, Greg and their three boys. (phew, more successful sleeping in the car) Here Jack is playing with Brooke. Or is he flirting???