Rice Cereal Take 3 and 4

The first time I gave Annalyn rice cereal, she didn't like it. The second time I gave it to her, she still didn't like it. For the third try, I put Annalyn in her high chair and I waited to feed the baby until Brynlee was asleep. (When Brynlee woke up she had fun climbing in the high chair. She thought I put it there for her.) Annalyn still didn't like it. But I heard it can take 10 times to be introduced to a new food before you like it so I decided to be persistant. 

On Tuesday I fixed the baby some cereal and buckled her in the high chair. Brynlee really wanted to help me so I had her get a bib and she put it on the baby. I left to grab a rag and as soon as I did Brynlee grabbed the cereal and started to feed the baby. Annalyn still wan't so sure about the whole thing at first but she actually ate quite a bit of it. More than I got her to eat. Brynlee was a great little feeder, if not a little messy. She was pretty proud of herself too. She was doing such a great job that I let her feed the baby for quite a while. I am glad that they are starting to interact with each other a little more. I sure do love my girls.

I guess it's not so bad, but I would rather suck on my fingers

Open wide Annalyn

(I love how Brynlee is concentrating so hard that she just had to stick her little tongue out.) 

Annalyn was just a little bit Messy

Brynlee thought she was pretty great

Five Months

Little Annalyn has grown a lot this month. She seems so much older to me. She is still such a happy baby. Here are some fact about Annalyn this month.

• Annalyn grabs at everything these days and tries to put it in her mouth. She can't sit on my lap during dinnertime without getting my food all over the place. 
• She still loves to suck on her finger but she also loves her pacifier. 
• Annalyn is fascinated with watching Brynlee these days. She can just stare at her for hours.
• She also loves to try and grab Brynlee and "give her kisses." Brynlee likes the kisses but doesn't like being grabbed. 
•  Annalyn is getting better at sleeping in her crib during the day for her naps. We are finally starting to get a routine down with her. 
• She usually sleeps through the night (from 10-6:30) but the last few nights she woke up around 4:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep until I fed her. 
• She still isn't a fan of rice cereal.  
• Her eyes are starting to get a gray tint in the middle so I think they might be turning hazel. 
• Her bald spot is also getting bigger in the back but I can feel some hair growing back there so hopefully she is growing more.
• She has learned how to make lots of new sounds and she loves to hear her voice. Check out the video at the bottom to hear her latest sounds. She was quite entertaining at church yesterday. 
• Annalyn is very ticklish on her thighs and her stomach. I love her little laugh. I really want a video of it but she won't do it for me when I get the camera out.
• She loves to sit up and she can even sit up unassisted for several seconds before she falls over. It won't be long before she will be sitting on her own. 
• She also loves to stand on my lap. 
• She does much better with tummy time lately. Especially when I give her toys to play with, but she would still rather be on her back.
• She has rolled from her belly to her back several times but she doesn't do it very often. She does scoot all over the place when she is on her belly. 
• Annalyn still loves to be held.
• She is a great addition to our family and we still feel really blessed to have her around. 

The ABCDs

Brynlee loves to sing. This is one of her new favorite songs.

I sure do love this girl. 

Monthly Update - July

July was a fun month for our family. We celebrated the fourth of July and went to our family reunion. We played several games of Hide and Go Seek. We went to visit Joel at work and brought him some snacks. I think Brynlee ate more than half of his snacks though. Brynlee got lots of horse rides from her dad and she started to get herself dressed in the morning. She has developed her own little sense of style. We spent lots of time playing outside. We even got out the slip 'n slide a few times. Brynlee loves playing in the water. I got a new haircut and overall we enjoyed the month.

Chicken Wrangler

Our little chickens that we got at Brynlee's birthday party have grown a lot in the last month and a half. Brynlee loves all animals and she thinks the chickens are just great. She considers them to be her little pets. When we first got the chickens Brynlee would beg to hold them and we let her get in the cage and try to catch them a few times. She is actually really good at it. 

Here is a video of Brynlee catching some chickens. The white ones used to be her favorite so they were the only ones she would catch. Now her favorites are the black ones. 

Today the chickens are not only a lot bigger, there are a lot more of them. Joel's sister, Joanna, the one that got us the chickens, gave us all of her chickens because her kids weren't feeding them. Now we have 20 instead of 10. We don't let Brynlee get in the chicken coop anymore. I am kind af afraid she is going to hurt herself or one of the chicken. 

For a while, we had one chicken that kept escaping. We have no idea how it got out of there but for a week it kept getting out. We must have fixed the problem because it hasn't gotten out in a while. When it did get out Brynlee would be super excited and have a great time catching that chicken. 

Side Note: Joel has been planning on building a bigger chicken coop. Brynlee calls it a "chicken poop" so she keeps telling me that dad is going to "make a chicken poop."

Here is another little video of Brynlee holding the chicken that kept escaping. She is better at catching them than me. If the chicken would get out when Joel was at work I would just send Brynlee out and she would have it caught in no time. The only problem is that she doesn't like having to put the chicken back in the cage.

 

Joel and I have never had chickens before so this has been a whole new adventure for us. Hopefully we can get them to lay eggs, although I have no idea what we are going to do with lots of eggs. In the meantime, Brynlee is just enjoying her little pets.  

Rice Cereal

At Annalyn's last doctor's visit we were given the okay to start Annalyn on rice cereal. On Saturday I figured it was a good time to try it out and see what Annalyn thought. Brynlee has been wanting to feed her sister for a long time so I figured it would be something she could help with. 

Annalyn has no idea what is about to happen. 

I set Brynlee up on my lap and had her gently help me guide the spoon into Annalyn's mouth. 

Annalyn didn't like the stuff at all. 

 Brynlee didn't like it either. 

I think we will wait a little bit longer before we try again and next time I am going to do it without Brynlee's help. She was a good helper at first but then she started trying to fling it all over the place and she tried to cover the babies legs with it. Hopefully next time Annalyn likes it. 

We'll Laugh About it Someday

I love Brynlee a lot and I really love all of her personality, but lately it has gotten her into lots of trouble. Just recently she has colored all over her arms and legs with a permanent marker, gotten toothpaste all over her church dress as we were ready to leave for church, and she purposely dumped her bowl of cereal on the floor and stepped in it. Lately one of her most used words has been sorry. She will walk up to me, pinch me, and then kiss the spot she pinched and say "sorry mommy, sorry." Needless to say she has been spending a lot of time in time out.

Brynlee loves to help me do things and she is a pretty good little helper. The other day we were at grandma's house and Brynlee was helping grandma mix up a juice. She was doing a really good job at stirring it. I went to pick up the baby and I came over to check on Brynlee right as she took a sponge that was sitting on the sink and threw it in the juice. I quickly pulled it out and made Brynlee get down from helping. Grandma was amazed that Brynlee got that in there so quick. She only left Brynlee alone for a few seconds. Luckily I got the sponge out of there really quickly and it was a new sponge. Grandma and I both still debated if we should drink the juice. Grandma stirred the juice and then just looked at me and said, "oh no, there is no way we can drink this." At the bottom of the juice we discovered one of those steel wool sponge things. We ended up dumping out the entire pitcher of juice and starting over. This time Brynlee didn't get to help. 

Yesterday was a busy day and when dinner time came around I got out a frozen pizza, preheated the oven and then I had to stop and feed Annalyn. Brynlee was playing with some toys for a while but suddenly things got really quiet. When I went to go check on Brynlee I found that she had pulled a chair up to the pizza, gotten out a can of baby formula and coated half of our pizza in baby formula. I just gasped and Brynlee looked up at me with a huge grin on her face. "Look mom, I make a pizza." After I snapped a picture of her I inspected our pizza to see if it was still edible. I figured since it was still frozen the formula couldn't really hurt it. I washed off all of the pepperoni's, shook as much of the formula off as I could, rinsed the rest of it off under the sink, and then I cooked it in the oven. It actually tasted just fine. Joel couldn't tell there was anything wrong with it. I told him what happened half way through his first slice of pizza and it didn't stop him from eating more. Yup, I love my daughter. 

Four Months

It's true. Miss Annalyn is already four months old and she is getting big. I am really starting to see her little personality shine through. She is such a happy and easy baby. She has got really nice chubby cheeks, chubby legs, and chubby arms. She is quick to smile at you as soon as you talk to her. She still has pretty blue eyes and some of her dark baby hair. Her hair is getting thinner and her bald spot is getting bigger in the back but she has way more hair than Brynlee had at this age. Here are a few more things about Annalyn. 

Weight: 15lbs 1oz (71.14%)
Height: 25 3/4 in. (94.7%)
Favorite things to do: Be held, lay on her back and kick her legs, sit up, watch things around her, chew on her finger, smile, "talk" to people, eat, and sleep

Annalyn still gets fussy every once in a while and can scream really loudly but is usually happy. She is sleeping through the night, eating well and can almost roll from her back to her belly. She did it once but hasn't done it again. She really wants to sit up and tries really hard to sit when I set her down. She also likes to stand on my lap. She locks her knees really well and will just stand there for a long time. She can scoot all over the place when I put her on her back on the floor. She just puts her little legs under hur bum and then pushes. She also loves to hold her feet and make all kinds of noises. She gets picked on by her big sister a lot but she just takes it all in stride. We sure do love this little girl. 

My Two Year Old

Miss Brynlee has been two for almost a month now. Brynlee has definitely gained her own personality and she is quick to let me know what she wants. Here is a list of some things about Brynlee.

Weight - 28.4 lbs (68%)
Height - 35 in. (81%)
Shoe Size - 7 Clothes are 3T
Teeth: Last top middle left tooth is finally breaking through and she is working on four more molars in the back. Her teeth took forever to come in.
Favorite Color - changes daily. Today it is orange.
Favorite Sno Cone Flavor - Rainbow
Favorite Foods - candy, ice cream cones, and anything sweet. She also likes grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza. Other than that the things she likes changes daily. For the most part she is still a good little eater.
Favorite Things to do - Play outside. She loves to play in the sandbox, jump on the trampoline, and swing. She likes to organize things, and she loves to play with animals. She loves rocking in the rocking chair and cuddling with mom and dad, She also loves watching youtube videos and home videos of herself with the video camera.
Favorite Songs - "Twinkle Star""Spider up the Waterspout" "Child of God" and "Sunbeam"
Favorite Toys - baby dolls, stuffed animals, blocks, play doh, and small knickknacks.
Favorite Games - Hide and Go Seek, and Duck Duck Goose  
Things She's Scared of - Falling. She woke up in the middle of the night a few times crying that she didn't want to fall.
Words She Says - Brynlee talks a lot and she is a singer. She says most words pretty well and she can talk in complete sentences. She will often refer to herself in third person. She says stuff like "It's Blee's turn." Here are some of the words that are harder to decipher. Alesha "she shuh," Grandma/Grandpa "Pa," Book "Bookt," chicken coop "Chicken  poop," swimming suit, "foup." She still likes to call her dad Joel. Probably because she knows it makes him mad. She knows most of her colors, some shapes, she can count to 10, and she can sing the ABC's.

Some more fun facts about Brynlee:

She loves to play with her little sister. She thinks changing diapers is lots of fun and always tries to help mom. She has been know to undress Annalyn and take off her diaper.

Brynlee sleeps in her big girl bed at night and has for a while. She still sleeps with her soother, her sea horse that plays music, at least one or two babies/stuffed animals, and the fan blowing right on her face. 

 Brynlee usually tells me when she needs to go to the bathroom but I only have about two seconds to put her on the potty chair. She thinks she is pooping every time she goes and usually announces it to everyone. She will also let you know if "it was just a fart."

She finally goes to nursery without crying.  

If she want help doing something she just grabs someone's hand and pulls it until they come with her. 

Brynlee can be super sweet but she also has a terrible temper and is extremely stubborn. She likes to scream, run from us, and lately she has started hitting.  

Brynlee is a good climber and she cannot sit still for long. 

Brynlee has brought lots of happiness to our family. We love this girl a lot. 

Family Reunion

We spent the weekend up in McCall with all of Joel's family for our family reunion. We had some nice cabins to sleep in and there was lots of things to do. Brynlee had a blast watching all of her cousins catch frogs and she played with the puppies that were there. Joel and I went on a hike, played some games and just got to enjoy talking and catching up with family. It was a great time and a much needed break for all of us. Joel has a great family.

When we got back from the cabin Joel's sister saddled up her horses and all of the family that was still here went for to ride. Brynlee loved it! We have a little cowgirl. She could have rode that horse all day. Her favorite person to ride with was aunt Joanna. It was a fun week and we are sad to see the family leave.