Brooke's baby doll

Brooke loves playing with her baby and she has been such a chatter box lately.

Quick update

Here are a few pictures from this last month. I will write more when I am not so tired and maybe closer to her 8 month birthday. I am still taking suggestions on how to get Brooke to sleep past 5:45am.

Another round of baby food

Yesterday I made Brooke more baby food and decided I wanted to try some different vegetables that even I have never had. I made sweet potatoes, parsnips, and zucchini and rutabaga, butternut squash and green beans. I only made one flavor combination for fruit, apples, apricots, and prunes. Come to find out that parsnips are more nutritious then carrots and rutabagas are sweeter than turnips. Kyle and I tasted all of the combos and they were very yummy and Brooke enjoyed them too! I loved making the fruit because I only had to dirty one pot and my food processor. First I skinned the apples and boiled them. After I added them to the processor, I put more water in the same pot and added my scored apricots. When the skin started coming away from the flesh, I took them out and peeled them and added them to the processor. The last thing to plump up were the prunes and that didn't take long. It pureed very quickly and only took a little of the leftover water to get the consistency that I wanted.

Life with sleep...I think!

She stayed in the nursery all during church. When I went to pick her up, they told me she was the most social child in that age group. Afterward, she was so exhausted from all the playing she started to fall asleep on the walk back to the car.

Brooke has been sleeping through the night for the past week now and it has been amazing... I think. She now wakes up at 6am every morning and even with the uninterrupted sleep I wake up exhausted. We have tried putting her down later, but it doesn't matter. Our little bundle of happiness is ready to greet the day with the rising of the sun. I think over time I will get use to the early wake up and I should now take advantage of the 11 hours that she sleeps and go to bed earlier, but if any of you have suggestions on how to get her to sleep in a little longer, that would be great!

She borrowed this bow from Peyton Miller. It is the biggest bow she has ever worn. I think it is as big as her head!

Going down for naps is also easy!!! She doesn't cry and if she wakes up early from her nap, I let her fuss for about 5 minutes and then she is back to sleep for another hour. I am thrilled that her sleeping has officially become easy and I no longer have to stress about the amount of time it is going to take me to get little Brookelyn asleep.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Brookelyn

She is now walking around the coffee table and sometimes it seems she is waving and other times I think she is just moving her hands. She talks all the time and I believe that her first word is just around the corner. She is also standing on her own for about 10 seconds and is able to pick stuff off the ground while she is standing. She still doesn't have any teeth, but is doing a great job using her gums to smash smaller objects.


For mother's day, my mom came down to San Diego and I hired a photographer to take pictures of the three generations for her mother's day gift. Brooke was very happy for about 20 minutes and then after that, she was done. I don't know why she didn't want to take anymore pictures, maybe it was because we were outside and it was hot, but she usually hams it up for picture time. Even so, I know we were able to get some great pictures and I can't wait to see them and share them with you.


I hope all my mother friends had a fabulous day full of relaxation and special treats!

Bows, pins, and necklaces

As some of you know, I love putting cute bows and flowers on Miss Brookelyn's head. I decided that if I wanted to continue on having new bows to match her different outfits, I was going to start making them myself. I went to Michaels and bought a few different $1 ribbon spool and have made five cute bows. I have so much leftover ribbon that I decided I would make extra and see if I can sell them around $2 a bow. I will post some pictures soon, if anyone is interested. The best thing about these bows, is that they can be used as clips when they get older and go in their hair (they do stay, I put it in my hair).

Today, I went to a class that taught us how to make ribbon rosettes (pic #1). The ones I created are pins, but could have and will be attached to alligator clips. I think they are actually a little big for the head, but are the perfect size to attach to your blouse. Next week I am going to attempt to create this beautiful flower necklace (example of one in picture #2). It is made out of five flowers that are rolled and glued to make little roses. Then you attach it to a chain with some ribbons and you have fashionable necklace. I am thinking about selling those as well. I think the one in the picture is cute, but a little fancy.

Last night

We stopped by Disneyland yesterday after Kyle worked at a nearby college. Brooke fell asleep in her stroller around 6pm on our way out of the park. She was able to take a 30 minute nap before we got to the car. I figured she would just fall back asleep, but instead she was awake the whole ride home. We got home around 8pm and I fed her and gave her a bath. By the time she was all ready for bed it was 9:15 and instead of being completely exhausted she played like crazy. I didn't see any end in sight so I fed her to help calm her down and that seemed to work. We then continued our bedtime routine of books, singing, and rocking. When I put her down in her bed she was awake. I left the room and instead of hearing a little objection, the room was quiet. I went back about ten minutes later to check on her and when I peeked in she was laying down rubbing her bumper. I think she finally asleep around 10:00. Here is a video of all the fun she had before going to bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCknkdB6iA

ENJOY!!!