Bounce House Fun!

As you can tell by my recent overload of posts, we have quite a bit more going on here than we usually do back home.  Hence the delayed posts and then plethora of entries.  

Kayden's 9th Birthday was on April 1st and a couple weekends ago he had a birthday party at the house.  KC and Tyler rented a bounce house and slide for the day and we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.  The weather was absolutely beautiful so we spent the majority of the day outside.  Kolt kicked all the big kids out of the bounce house so that we could take Brinleigh in to jump bounce with Momma.  She loved it!  She laughed and giggled the entire time, which of course made us laugh.  Then we switched and Kolt had the big kids get off the slides and play in the bounce house so that Daddy could take Brinleigh down the slides a few times.  She didn't seem to impressed or amused with the slides, but it was also nap time and I think she used up all her energy in the bounce house.  We ended the night sitting by the bonfire.  Overall, It was a great family day!

      

Brinleigh Update- 8 Months

I know you are all probably dying for a Brinleigh update and I apologize for slacking on the blog posts.  Things are a little more hectic and chaotic here in North Carolina than they are in our usually calm life back in Sitka.

Brinleigh D is not crawling..... yet.  But she's almost there.  She knows that her knee's move her, but she doesn't know how to move both her hands and knee's at the same time.  This usually leads to a slight face plant followed by scooting until she decides to hop back up on her knee's again.  Then repeat.  Once she learns to get them both in sync with each other, she is gonna be speeding around the house in no time.  She has, however, figured out that while she is on her hands and knee's that she can push herself up onto her feet.  She basically ends up in a downward dog yoga pose.  It's quite possibly one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  Even though she isn't crawling, she can still make her way from one side of a room to the other.  She scoots, combat crawls on her belly, stretches, and rolls herself to wherever she needs to go.  Which is usually to the closest cell phone, TV remote, or bottle within eyesight.  She doesn't completely push herself up into a full sitting position yet, more like a half sit, half lean, however, I do set her down in a sitting position and can leave her without worrying about her falling over.   She has more control over it now so she will usually kinda lean to the side and then flip over onto her belly.  

Brinleigh also has grasped the concept of switching hands when she is holding something.  If I give her something to hold and then try and change her clothes, she will hold the item in one hand while I put her other arm through the sleeve and then she will switch the item to the opposite hand while I put the other arm through the sleeve.

My little love bug is in the process of transitioning from her six month clothes to her nine month clothes AND now that I have used the last of her size two diapers, we have moved on to size three.  I swear I keep her in her current size clothes and diapers for as long as I possibly can.  It makes me so sad when she moves up in sizes.  Our baby girl is getting so big so fast.  However, that does mean she will be rockin' some new cute outfits.  Which, by the way, I have become slightly obsessed with finding the both of us color coordinating clothes.  (Note the Mama + mini matching Easter outfit colors.)  

Brinleigh knows how to blow raspberries with her lips now and entertains herself some times by doing so.  Usually when I'm trying to feed her.  She is very interested in all the people she see's these days coming and going from the Ruey house and she loves, loves, loves the kids.  She gets so excited and happy when they try and play with her.   She now makes the "bah bah bah" sound, some times in an extremely loud tone.  She also understands that when she drops something or throws something on the ground, someone will pick it up, give it back to her and she will repeat the process.  Almost anything involving repetition is her favorite game.  She loves playing peek-a-boo, she gets ecstatic when the dogs get within reach of her and she can touch them and she has met her first cat which she seems intrigued by. 

        

Day at the Park

  We are having so much fun with Brinleigh.  Watching her continue to experience so many firsts and develop such a cute personality is an absolute joy.  With the weather FINALLY getting warmer we are able to spend more time outside in the sunshine.  Brinleigh will actually get to wear real summer clothes this year!  
Last week Kayden and Tristyn, or, "The Kids" as Grayson refers to them, were out of school on Spring Break.  KC and I decided to take them all to Pullen Park in Raleigh for the day.  We picked up Burger King for lunch and started our fun with a picnic on the grass.  After everyone ate we hit up the Carousel.  The park was packed that day, I'm assuming because a lot of schools were out on Spring Break but also because it was an absolutely beautiful day.  After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, we finally made our way onto the merry-go-round.  This was Brinleigh's first time on a ride and I was super excited to see how she would react.  The Verdict:  I don't think she even noticed us speeding around in circles on what I thought was an unusually fast carousel.  While waiting in line, we saw how fast the merry-go-round was and so I opted for a horse giraffe that was stationary instead of one that moved up and down.  Brinleigh didn't seem phased at all.  Momma had a blast though!  After the carousel, we made our way over to the train.  The line wasn't as long and seemed to move a lot quicker too.  The train was fun and took us all around the park, again, Brinleigh didn't seem to care too much.  It was actually more relaxing than anything.  After a short ice cream break, KC and the kids got in line for the paddle boats.  Brinleigh and I walked around, she ate, and then finally passed out for a much needed nap.  After almost an hour of waiting for their turn on the paddle boats, they were finally off for their thirty minutes on the water.  Brinleigh and I followed them around the lake taking pictures.  It was getting late and we were tired but of course we had to play for a little bit on the awesome playground.  They had a huge playground area and they even had it divided into age appropriate toys and play equipment.  As the Ruey kids scattered, I headed to the baby/pre-school area and waited for a swing to open up for Brinleigh.  Brinleigh has never been in a swing other than her baby swing at home but I just knew she would love it.  I took tons of pictures and of course I had to record a video to send to Kolt since he wasn't with us.  It was super cute how excited she was about being pushed in the swing.  

            

Happy Easter!

A little late, I know.  But better late than never, right?
A few weeks ago we celebrated our first Easter with our little Love Bug and she got to enjoy her first Easter basket bucket.  Even though I had all of her Easter treats set out on the bed, she did find them on her own and commenced to dumping out her bucket and of course, finding the toys immediately.  As much as I hate to admit it, I completely forgot about getting pictures take with the Easter bunny.  KC and I just so happened to make a trip to the mall on Friday (two days before Easter) to do a little shopping and KC saw a sign and mentioned getting Tristyn and Grayson's pictures done with the Easter Bunny.  Doh!!! How did I forget about Brinleigh's first visit with the Easter Bunny.  So after venturing around the mall for a bit, we made our way to the Easter Bunny.  I sat Brinleigh on his lap and at first all she could do was stare at him.  She looked at me as if she wanted to say "Mom, what the hell is this thing?"  The ginormous flower on her headband was blocking her face so I had to readjust her and place her in the middle of his lap facing the camera.  All he had to do was wiggle and shake his hands in front of her face and she thought it was the greatest thing ever.  And so we have, yet again, my happy little love bug smiling big for the camera.      

This year, the Easter Bunny brought her:  A pink stuffed bunny, a couple books, a little pink ball, some duck bubbles, a cute turquoise onesie with a white swan on it, a "My First Easter" bib, some gerber graduate puffs (which she can't eat yet), and some little tipsy tumbling toy things, which were a huge hit.  She loved them.  Since she is semi-mobile now, I was sitting on the bed with her and as I was doing something else, she maneuvered her way over to her bucket and pulled it over.  Well since she found it on her own and emptied it, I might as well continue to let her explore her new Easter gifts.  So I called Kolt into the room and we just watched her become mesmerized with all the new goodies.

 

We had Easter dinner at KC & Tyler's house with some of the family and of course had an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos.  Brinleigh had a good time watching all of the kids run around the yard searching for the hidden plastic eggs.