9 Month Check-Up

A little late, I Know.  But better late than never, right?  

We were still in North Carolina when Brinleigh should have had her 9 month check-up and when we came home she was already 10 months old.  She was not due for any vaccines at the 9 month check up so it wasn't a big deal that we were a month late.  At this appointment, our nurse was supposed to pierce Brinleigh's ears, however, the earrings and piercers that she ordered had not been delivered yet so we are still waiting for those to come in.

Brinleigh weigh's 18lbs.12oz. and is 27-3/8 inches long.  She has consistently stayed in the 40th(ish) percentile.  The doctor said Brinleigh looks great and was very pleased with her progress, as usual.  She talked about how she was very impressed with how cooperative Brinleigh was for her age and explained that it meant that Brinleigh was being raised in an environment where she felt very safe and loved.  Which she should since we spoil her with affection all day long.

    

Happy Father's Day!

I hope all the great Dad's that I know had a wonderful Father's Day.  We had an awesome day with Kolt celebrating his very first Father's Day.  We woke up this morning and after feeding Brinleigh her breakfast, I got her dressed in a special outfit that was bought just for today.  Then it was time to open his Father's Day gift.  Brinleigh and I got Kolt a Dewalt cordless drill, a drill bit set and a screwdriver set.  Kolt doesn't have any power tools and he recently told me that he wanted to start getting those as gifts.  You can't get any more manly than power tools for Father's Day gifts.  He loved his gift and can't wait to use it, which is probably a good thing since I already have a list of things for him to do with it.

Once the gifts were opened, we headed out to breakfast with a couple of friends.  It was absolutely beautiful outside and the weather temps were going to be in the 70's.  So after breakfast, we went home so Brinleigh could take a nap, Momma fell asleep too, and Daddy got to relax on the couch.  After we woke up and we were all refreshed, we decided to go check out the beach.  Sandy Beach is where people go to surf or where all the kids can play in the ocean when the weather gets really warm.  When we got there it was full of people sunbathing and splashing around in the water.  There were even some people out on a couple jet ski's.  I thought the water would be too cold for Brinleigh so we didn't put her in a bathing suit.  She again, was not a fan of the ocean, however, this time I sat her down on a beach towel and she crawled off of it and onto the sand.  When she touched the sand at first, she kinda hesitated and looked at her hand trying to figure out if she was okay with it or not.  After a minute or so, she went for it, crawling all over the wet sand.  She was a hot, sandy mess.

Once we got home, Kolt grilled some steaks, baked potatoes, and corn for dinner while Brinleigh had some spaghetti noodles, watermelon and then some of her usual baby food.  After our evening play time, Brinleigh took a bath and I thought it was only fitting to dress her in her camo sleeper since it was Father's Day.  It's probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  

Kolt and I ended our night on the couch, watching tv and relaxing with some lemon cupcakes that our neighbors (and new friends) had baked and then brought over to us.

An absolutely wonderful first Father's Day for the man we love so much, if I must say so myself.

    

 

10 Months

 I can't believe Brinleigh is already 10 months old!!!!  She is learning more and more every day and it is so much fun to watch.  Over the last couple weeks, her two front bottom teeth came in, she pulls herself up to standing position quicker than you can blink, and she has also not only started drinking some juice, but she started drinking it from a sippy cup.  YYAAAAYYYY!!!!  I was avoiding giving her anything but milk in her bottles, so I started putting some juice/water mixture in the sippy cup and let her play with it for a few days, and the next thing I know, she's sucking it dry.  She absolutely loves juice.  She is also now eating some Gerber Graduates Arrowroot cookies, which she took to immediately.  I liked those at first because they were big enough that she could munch on them without choking.  BUT THEN...... she figured out how to shove the entire cookie in her mouth.  Now I have to break it into pieces for her to eat.  Brinleigh now claps her hands, both on cue and whenever she feels like it.  Usually if you clap, she will too.  Sometimes she just does it after she thinks she's done something impressive.... which is everything.  She has started to "wave" at people when they wave at her.  This consists of her sticking her arm out at them and showing them the palm of her hand.  We are also working on her putting her hands up over her head when she hears me say "soooo big".  She has some sort of obsession right now with eating gumming paper and especially cardboard, which I'm really hoping is a phase and just feels good on her gums. I can only hope that I'm not raising a child that will grow up to be on the show "My Strange Addiction" as someone who is addicted to eating cardboard.  She knows I'm her Momma and when she is upset and wants me she cries or whines and says "mmmmamamamamamamamama" which is also sometimes just "mmamma".  

 

Towards the end of our time in North Carolina, the weather warmed up hot enough to get us into the pool and out on the lake.  Brinleigh wasn't sure of the pool at first, but once she was able to relax without everyone in her face she ended up having a great time.  I bought her a little baby pool float that she could sit in with a little canopy to block some of the sun and at first I pushed her around & tried to stay as close as possible, but after a little while we were able to let her just float around to all the different adults and as long as she had little toys to play with she was good.

A couple days after the pool, we decided to head to the lake across the street from the house and put the jet ski in the water.  KC and Tyler have some friends who have a house on the lake front and so we hung out at their place in the backyard which was right on the water.  Brinleigh slept the first part of our time their and I was able to back the car up into the yard and let her sleep in the car.  This was Momma's time to have some fun and go ride on the jetski.  Once Brinleigh woke up, we took her out on the pontoon boat and pulled the kids around on a huge tube float.  Brinleigh seemed to like riding on the boat, it was a smooth ride and it was just fast enough to get the wind blowing in her face.  After we were done with the boat, we let her play on the beach for a little while where she decided to try and eat a little bit of sand.  She wasn't impressed and started to cry a little bit.