Brynlee's 1st trip to the beach - Santa Monica, CA

A couple of weekends ago I took Brynlee on her first road trip to California for Heidi's baby shower.  The trip there on Friday was quite an adventure!  A tanker truck decided to tip over on the 15 S right at the NV/CA line near the golf course where Jason works (right in the path of my travel to California).  The highway was completely closed while they cleaned up the 41 gallons of chemicals that spilled...lovely!  Luckily there was another way to go to pick up the 15 S even though it took me out of the way 1.5 to 2 hours (no big thing).  We left the house at about 11:15 am and arrived at Heidi's in Santa Monica @ a little after 6 pm.  We did have to stop a few times for miss Brynlee though and at a Target for a baby shower gift, so all in all not too terrible (could have been worse). 

Santa Monica is beautiful!  I love that you can walk everywhere and the weather is perfect!  We took Brynlee to the beach and she loved sitting on the blanket in the sand, but she didn't love the water when the waves came in too much.

The drive home was much less eventful and we made it home in 4 hours even with 1 stop for gas.  Brynlee slept pretty much the entire way home; she woke up around Primm and was a little restless the rest of the way home, but she did really well all in all!  Now I know how she handled it, we can do it more often.  

Crawling, Sitting & Teething....Oh My!

Wow, time has flown by since I last posted anything!  And, miss Brynlee is doing so many new things!  Crawling is one of them, she is a quick one.  Most of you have probably seen the video I posted on Facebook.  Sitting is another one of her new skills.  She is becoming much better (and stronger) each day.

She even sits up in her crib now too (when she is supposed to be napping). 



She also has 2 teeth now on the bottom.  She started getting them right at 6 months when Mimi was still here visiting.  She had a blast with Mimi!  She did really good on our anniversary night (me on the other hand is another story).  I was fine all night when we were out and about, but once we got back to the room, I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about her and how she was for Mimi.  I didn't even have to worry, she drank the bottles great and slept better than I thought she would.  :)

I think she is starting to get teeth on the top now because she is waking up in the middle of the night hysterical, and I am thinking it has to be new teeth starting to come in.  Let me tell you, teething is rough; I feel so bad for her. 

We are going on our first road trip in a couple of weeks.  Heidi's baby shower is June 23rd in California, and it really isn't that far of a drive (4 hours), so I am going to take Brynlee for her first road trip!  I will post an update after our trip.  Wish us luck!  :)

BRYNLEE'S 6th MONTH (April/May)

I can't believe that Brynlee is almost 6 months old!  Time sure does fly by when you are so busy with a growing baby!  Such a cliche statement, but oh so true.  :)  I have been slacking lately and haven't posted in a while so I have a lot to catch everyone up on.  Brynlee is doing so much now, she is rolling all over the place and she is attempting to crawl, but she kind of crawls (or scoots) backwards.  I found her like this one day when I took my eyes off her for a couple minutes!

She sure is a cutie, I must say!  We busted out the pack and play again and we put her in there to play to contain her a little.  I know she is not going to want to stay in there for long, but for now she is content.  She also loves her bouncer activity thing (not sure the technical term for it).

This is what she does when she is on the floor with a flimsy blanket.  She rolls herself right up in it like a little Brynlee burrito.

Her hair is getting so long in the front, so I bought some hair ties and barrettes to keep her bangs out of her eyes.  The hair ties make her hair stand straight up (not for going out in public)!

                                         Before the hair tie

                                        
                                          After the hair tie

The barrettes are cute too and are much more appropriate for taking her out in public, and serve the purpose of keeping the hair out of her eyes.

I still love the bows that my friend Desi made her too.  Here's one of them:

We had to buy a space saver high chair to feed her in because the Bumbo and the bouncer were just not working anymore.  This is what she would do in the Bumbo:

We don't have a kitchen table since we don't have room because my office is in the dining room, so we have to feed her on the coffee table.  We also used the bouncer, but that wasn't working either as she would try to eat the pillow

on the bouncer and make a mess. And, we had to lean down to feed her as she was on the floor in the bouncer and frankly, my back can't take that anymore as I can't deny the fact that I'm just getting old!

So...the space saver high chair was purchased, and it works much better.  Plus, it will transform to a booster seat for the day that we do have a kitchen table in the house again!



I am still making her baby food, and she loves a variety of foods, which I am grateful for.  She loves pears, apples, bananas, peas (mixed with pears), avocados (mixed with bananas), green beans, and carrots.  She didn't like the jarred prunes so much, but I did make a prune puree from some store bought prunes and she liked that ok.  We had to give her some prunes becuase she has been a little constipated (at least we think she is).  I just made some butternut squash and mango and bananas that I will have her try in a few days once we make sure she is ok with the avocado.  I purchased a hand held immersion blender and I love it!  It is so much quicker and faster to make a quick batch of her food, and you don't have to add any liquid like you do with the regular blender to puree the food.  I should have got one of these a long time ago!

Here is a picture of her when I gave her the avocado and banana mix yesterday.  I think she wants more!

Mimi (Jason's mom) comes to visit this weekend so that Jason and I can enjoy a night out for our 5 year anniversary on Saturday.  I am excited, but nervous at the same time because I don't want Brynlee to be too fussy for Mimi.  Hopefully she will be good for her.  More to come next week.

Grandpa Ransom's Visit

My dad arrived the day after Stef and Olivia left (Tuesday, April 10th).  He hasn't seen Brynlee since Thanksgiving, and boy has she changed since then!  We went to the Clark County fair up in Logandale on Thursday (what a drive!). We thought it was going to be a little chilly, but it ended up being a nice day.  We watched some frisbee dogs and some pig racing and of course we had to eat some of the unhealthy fair food (fry bread with strawberry cheesecake on top)!  Here are some pics from the fair.  We tried to get a good family picture, but Brynlee wouldn't cooperate.  This was towards the end of the day, and it was about that time where she had enough.  The pig racing was so cute; next year she will be a little more interactive at the fair!  She was exhausted on the ride home!

Here's Brynlee and Grandpa.  This was on Friday; we went to The Guitar Center to buy Jason his birthday present and then to Target.  Brynlee loves shopping (just like her mommy)!  Grandpa bought Brynlee a float for the pool.  :0)

Saturday Brynlee turned 5 months old!  It was a crappy day out for most of the day so we spent most of our time inside.  I made Brynlee some more baby food because I got 25 lbs of carrots with my bountiful basket this week.  I did a lot of cooking that day with carrots and I still didn't put a dent it my bag o' carrots!  She tried carrots that night, and its a good thing she liked them because she will be getting a lot more!  I went to a wedding reception that night for Ellie's sister, Chelsea, and Jason had the task of putting Brynlee to bed.  She was a little hysterical at first, but once she finally fell asleep she was out!  She has been going to bed around 7 or 7:30 pm each night, and the past few nights she has been sleeping through until about 4:30 or 5:30 am.  I think we are finally turning a corner here!  Now we just need to get her to drink from a bottle! 

Sunday was a much nicer day and we went down to Freemont Street and had some lunch.  Then we came home and took a nice walk around the neighborhood.  We had to put Brynlee in her Gator dress while grandpa was here!

We took grandpa to the airport Monday morning, and Jason had off on Tuesday and Wednesday this week instead of Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday was Jason's 31st Birthday so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner the night before and on his birthday I made him some homemade spring rolls, guacamole and some cake balls. We attempted to go to the pool and use the new pool float that grandpa got for Brynlee, but the wind was blowing too much and we think it was a little too cold for her so we will try again another day.

The next visitor arrives on May 10th.  Jason's mom (Mimi) comes in for our anniversary weekend.  Jason and I are going to see Elton John on our anniversary night and we are going to attempt to spend the night in a hotel room on the strip.  I've got to get Brynlee drinking a bottle by then!

April is a busy month!

I missed last week, and there has been so much that has happened since my last post!

Jason's best friend, Kenny, came to visit.  It was nice for Jason to get to spend some time with him as they haven't seen each other in a while, and  Brynlee got to meet her Uncle Kenny!  Brynlee looks sad in this picture, but she just doesn't like the flash on the camera.

The day after Kenny left, Jason's sister, Stef, and her daughter, Olivia, came to visit for Easter weekend.  Olivia is 3 and she was so excited to meet her baby cousin.

We went to the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus so that Oivia could ride some of the rides and she saw Dora in 4D.  Brynlee was in awe of all the lights and then she fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn on daddy's chest.  She can sleep in such chaos!  The next day we went and saw the Easter bunny at the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Gardens.  And of course we had to buy some of the expensive chocolate!

The next day we went to the Springs Preserve for the Eggstravaganza (with the rest of the City).  It was pretty crowded, but they had it set up well and there was so much to do.  Olivia got to do an easter egg hunt, and Brynlee was a champ and was happy in the stroller the whole time.  I brought some oatmeal and fed her some oatmeal while Olivia played on the playground.  Then she took a nap while we walked around.  The weather was so nice for us too!  Here are the girls before we left.  Olivia was so sweet with her baby cousin.

Later that night Jason and I went on our first date since B was born.  Stef was so nice to take on both kids for the night!  We went to the M and ate a nice peaceful dinner at the Oyster Bar and then played a couple of the slots, but we didn't have any luck.  It was a nice night though and Brynlee slept from 7:00 pm until about 3:00 am, which is good for her.  After I fed her at 3, she went back to sleep until 8:30!  She was a sleepy head.

The Easter bunny came that night and left the girls some stuff in their Easter baskets.

Brynlee had a great first Easter!  She got some books, bubbles, a rubber duck for the tub, a soft bunny and a frog bath mitt.  She also got some books and a cute little outfit from Mimi.  The weather was so nice that we took the girls to the pool.  Brynlee loves her baths so we figured she would like the pool too, and she did!  I need to get her a float for the summer cause that floppy hat was annoying both of us!

Then it was picture time for the cousins with their Easter dresses on.

The next visitor arrives tomorrow!  My dad is coming in for a week and we are going to go to the Clark County fair on Thursday.  More to come next week!

What a weekend!

We had a pretty busy weekend, and I feel like I have so much to post about.  Miss Brynlee is starting to get so much more active.  I think I mentioned in one of the last posts that she rolled over, but wouldn't do it for me again so that I could get it on video.  Well, that same day that I said that, she did it not too much later and I was finally able to capture it on camera!

The video quality isn't the best, I will have to work on that (or we just need to invest in a new video camera).  :)  This video was last Tuesday (3/20/12) and since then, she is rolling over both ways now (I need to get that on video)!  She loves being on her tummy now and she even sleeps on her tummy!  She scared the you know what out of me on Friday afternoon when I put her down for a nap.  She was crying, which is normal so I was downstairs doing a few things and I went up to check on her once it got quiet, and she was face down in the child's pose position in the far corner of her crib in between the bumpers (I didn't have time to capture it on camera)!  I quickly picked her up to make sure she was ok and she just gave me this look like "what mom?".  She is something else! 

We picked up another bountiful basket Saturday morning.  We had to get up early, but it was so worth it.  We got so much stuff!

I got a juicer so I have been juicing at least once a day or making a smoothie, so none of the stuff we get goes to waste!  I also make Brynlee baby food with whatever we don't or won't use, and then I freeze it. 

Later that evening we went to Desi's house for Chelsea's bachelorette party. So much fun getting Chelsea ready for her wedding night and honeymoon!  ;)  Brynlee got to stay up past her bed time, and she did better than I thought she would.  She went right to sleep once we got home after I fed her. 

But...on Sunday morning at 2:30 am she woke up to eat (nothing new there), and when I put her back to sleep after feeding her she immediately rolled over to her tummy to go to sleep.  I rolled her back over to her back and again she rolled over to her tummy.  I tried again to put her to her back and she was not happy and rolled back to her tummy.  She looked so comfy and was pretty much asleep so I decided to let her be, but I was pretty nervous about it after everything that you read about SIDS and what not, so I grabbed a blanket and my pillows and slept on the floor in her room to make sure that she was ok (I paid for that the next day, my back is still hurting).

Later that morning when Jason left to go to work, I brought her into our bed and we slept for a couple of hours.  We got up early again becuase I wanted to go to this semi-annual sale called the As They Grow Kids Consignment Sale (it was the 50% off day).  I debated whether I wanted to go becuase I didn't know how she was going to be and if it would be worth the drive, but I am so glad that I went.  I got her so much stuff for $38.00!  It could seriously be her summer wardrobe, but I'm sure I will find more cute stuff to buy her along the way!

I got her this Gator dress for $1.50!

And her Easter dress for $4.00!

Brynlee still continues to roll over to her tummy every time I put her in her crib on her back.  Last night I didn't sleep on the floor in her room, but I did go into check on her often!

Here she is playing on her tummy in the bassinet.

BRYNLEE'S 5TH MONTH (March/April)

Well, I think I am finally caught up.  Brynlee has entered into her 5th month.  She was 4 months old last Wednesday (3/14/12), and we went to her Doctor appointment where she got some more shots (I have been splitting them up so that she doesn't have to get so many all at once). She weighed in at 13lbs, 8oz and 23.5 inches long. The Doctor said she was a healthy baby girl.  She was a very happy girl in the room while waiting for the Doctor, and she destroyed the paper on the table.  She has come a long way since her first appointment (she didn't like it when we had to strip her down, but she was ok with it this time).

She took a nap with daddy later that day in our bed.  She slept for almost 3 hours, which is a long nap for her (she's usually a cat napper).

She has been sleeping in her own room in her crib for a week now.  She was sleeping in our room in her pack and play, and she was not sleeping well at all. We would have to bring her into our bed in order to get any sleep!  In her first few weeks to a month, she slept in her car seat next to our bed.  We had an insert in it that cradled her, and she loved it.  She would sleep so well, so I figured hey, whatever works!  I moved her from her car seat to her swing and took out the car seat insert and put that in the swing.  She slept great that way as well, but of course the swing had to be on (went through quite a few batteries).  We had her swaddled as well and she slept so much better that way.  I think around 2 and a half months or so we finally took out the insert and she was still sleeping in the swing.  Jason and I got a new bedroom set in February (an early anniversary present) and I finally took the swing out of our room and she slept in her pack and play (she was 3 months old by this point).  Then, I decided to let her sleep unswaddled, I probably should have kept her swaddled, but she kept wiggling like she wanted to be free (she is a wiggle worm these days).  I probably should have let her sleep in her own room much earlier, but I wasn't ready yet.  The first few nights in her room were a little rough; we let her cry it out, but she eventually was able to soothe herself to sleep. Now everyone is happy and we are all getting more sleep. 

BRYNLEE'S 4TH MONTH (February/March)

Brynlee turned 3 months on Valentine's Day.  We didn't do anything special, but we did order some nice sushi and had a nice family night together. These are her cute little jammies that I got her at Target (we love Target and go once a week or so) for Valentine's Day.  She didn't get to wear them for long though because I think we had a nice leakage of some sort (I won't go into details).  She was probably still wearing a disposable.  We don't have too many leaks when we are wearing the cloth diapers.

Jason had the opportunity to go to the LA Golf Show with his boss, so Brynlee and I were on our own for a long weekend.  We had fun though, but we missed daddy!  We texted him pictures all the time because he missed us too (a lot more than he thought he would).

That Saturday that he was gone, we went and picked up our first Bountiful Basket.

We had to get up a little early, pick up time was 7 am, but Brynlee was up anyways, so it wasn't a big deal.  I made Brynlee's first batch of baby food with the heads of broccoli and cauliflower.   I highly recommend checking out the website in your area http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.

Brynlee rolled over for the first time on Saturday, March 10th.  She was on her tummy doing tummy time and she rolled over to her back.  She did it 3 times that night, and I have been getting her to do it again with no luck.  Of course I didn't get it on video when it happend, but I have been trying almost every day since.  It will happen and I will post it!  She hasn't rolled over from her back to her tummy yet, but she does roll over onto her side and she does it the most in her bouncer (drives me crazy!).

BRYNLEE'S 3RD MONTH (January/February)

After all of the holidays wore off, I had to go back to work.  I am very fortunate that I am working at home right now.  Now that Brynlee sleeps so much and I am not as busy as I have been, it didn't seem like it would be so bad.  Jason went ahead and switched his schedule at work though just so he could be here 2 of the days (Wednesday and Thursday).  Once she starts to get more active though we may have to reassess this!  :)  


Brynlee loves being in her bouncer, and she loves it when I put on the Disney Channel or Nick Jr.

I also put her on her tummy for tummy time everyday.  She is ok with it at first, but then she gets frustrated.  She is getting better and stronger everyday.  She actually rolled over for the first time the other day, but more on that in another post (gotta stay with the timeline).

 

BRYNLEE'S 2nd MONTH (December/January)....Christmas & New Year's

We had a few weeks by ourselves before we had our next visitors for Christmas.   Brynlee was 1 month old the day after mommy's 31st birthday. I had a great birthday, Jason got me a massage from the spa at the M Resort & Casino; it was nice and relaxing and much needed!

Grandpa Pomroy and Grandma Char came to visit for Christmas weekend.  Brynlee had a great first Christmas. Jason made a nice Prime Rib, and he got the day off. The weather was pretty mild so we were able to go on some walks.  We went out to the golf course to see daddy at work the day after Christmas to have some lunch, and we hit the outlet mall (Carter's) on the way home to get Brynlee stocked up on some clothes (her Christmas gift from Grandpa & Grandma Char).  All of the Christmas's to come will be much more fun and exciting!



We went to watch the UFC fight the day before New Year's Eve at Derrick's house(Jason's boss).

Jon & Ellie came over to ring in the New Year with us. I made chicken parm and we just hung out.  It was fun.  Eillie took a cute picture of Brynlee with an app on her phone.  Ellie tried to feed Brynlee a bottle of formula.  She actually drank it, but ended up spitting up/throwing it up (all over poor Ellie).