Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Our almost 5-month-old...

New developments in the past couple of weeks...

  • Rolling both ways, and is quickly learning how to just keep rolling towards items.
  • Sitting up for much longer periods of time, and even leaning off of me or her chairs sit on her own
  • Making consonant sounds.  I will make them for her, and she tries to mimic me, and has made a few small "be" sounds.
  • An attempt at sleeping in her own room once.  After that, she's been back in our room.  She wasn't crazy about it apparently. :-)
  • Attempting to crawl.  She can get her booty into the air and scoot very small distances, but not consistently yet.
  • She can pull her socks, bib, and hair bows off.  Hair bows don't come off her head, she just pulls them down around her eyes and then gets mad. :-)
  • Hugging and kissing (my favorite).  The kiss is just her sticking her open mouth on our cheeks and drooling down them, but I still love it!
  • She can now ride comfortably in the Ergo sans the infant insert, that she's been too big to fit into for awhile now.  I'm very excited about this!
  • Drinking milk (mine) from a sippy cup. She's not crazy about the bottle, so we tried the sippy cup.  She did pretty well with it.
I'm so excited to watch Miss Emma get bigger.  She has such a personality now, showing me when she has likes and dislikes.  She giggles all of the time, and I can tell she enjoys playing with her toys and with papa and I more now.  She is such a snuggler as well.  She likes to sleep on her side next to me in the bed, all snuggled up to me.  That is also her favorite way to nap.  If I am carrying her in the Bjorn or Ergo, she is as happy as can be most of the time.  She just likes being near us.  I LOVE that, and I hope that doesn't end.  I'm sure it will as she becomes more mobile and realizes she doesn't have to be near us all the time, and as she gains some independence.  But, I do hope she'll want some snuggles at times as well! :-)  This is where our almost five-month-old is!

Some pictures for you to enjoy...


Just in case you didn't see the fall pictures I had taken.


Look at that beautiful smile.


Her daily bouncing time.  She usually does this while I make lunch/dinner.


My baby girl sitting tall in her high chair!


I realize this is blurry.  There was a smudge on my phone lens.  This was her trip to the zoo with her friends Emily and Jacob!


Sleeping in style.... All the cool babies are doing it!


For how little she sleeps, I have a lot of sleeping pictures! :-)


This was taken during family donut, walk, Ikea day!


We had been snuggling in bed!


Ready for the fall rains of Seattle in her new little rain jacket!


Family Ikea trip!


Action shot in her new pumpkin hat!


Bouncing again!


Helping papa play Xbox already!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Well, it's that time of year again, one of my favorite times!  And, in the Brown House, we are surrounded by many changes taking place.  Let me tell you about a few of them...

First of all, the weather in Seattle is finally starting to change.  We had a very late summer this year, but it came and was beautiful as ever!  I enjoyed the days of being outdoors, going on some walks with the bean and enjoying the sunshine.  It was probably my most lazy of all summers, but I'm sure that was to be expected! :-)  But, now it is finally becoming my favorite time of year... AUTUMN!!  Danny and I share a wonderful love for all things that come with the fall.  Much of this goes back to all the fun we had when he was a youth group leader.  Autumn was always the beginning of the youth group year, and it was always full of bonfires, hayrides, Halloween parties, and such.  We've carried that love for fall with us, even though we're no longer youth leaders.  We both love the smells of fall (at this very moment the windows are open on this slightly chilly evening so we can smell the outdoors), the leaves changing colors, the weather turning rainy and cloudy again (yes, even in Seattle, we look forward to this), and all of the traditions we've started here in Seattle as part of our fall.  And, while we enjoy this time here, those autumns we spent in Charleston with the youth will always hold a special place in our hearts! :-)

I'm so excited to have Emma as part of our family this autumn!  There are new traditions we hope to start with her, as well as let her join us in the ones we already have.  I hope to start the tradition of going to the pumpkin patch every year to pick out a pumpkin, and carving them to sit on our front porch.  I'm excited to dress her up in a Halloween costume and take her trick-or-treating, even though she's too young to enjoy it herself (this year, we'll probably just take her around to the mall and let her dress up for our parties).  She'll also become a part of our set traditions as well.  We are excited for her to come with us to Harleween this year (though technically she was there last year, even if she was size of a kiwi) and she'll kind of be a part of Brown's House of Horror this year (more about this later).  So, as the weather changes, becoming cooler and more rainy, the Brown's get very excited!

Another big change that has been happening around this house is the "little" home improvement project we've been up to!  We have spent the past couple of months turning our bonus room in our basement into a theater!  Danny has been dreaming of doing this for a very long time, and we're finally at a place where we're able to do so.  Danny, along with help from our friends Frank, Seth, and Chris have ripped down a wall, taken out a window, and painted the entire ceiling black.  He and I spent a few nights down there painting the rest of the room, measuring for the screen, and figuring out the perfect placement for everything.  Workers have been in to build (and rebuild) a tier in the back, put in new carpet, replace the former ceiling lights with cans, and patch up some drywall.  We are almost done, and hoping to have a "soft launch" of our room this Friday night.  Let me show you a few pictures so you can know what we've been up to!


Before shot looking from the screen wall to the back wall.


Looking from the back wall to the screen wall.


This is the closet that was taken out


Tearing down the wall


You can see the closet behind him


The wall is GONE


You can see the pile of wall and such that was left over


There is the window they took down

Our back wall with our tier built!


This is our screen wall now, painted black


Our black ceiling with can lights


This is the screen, face down after we finished stretching it over the frame.... 135 inches of amazing!!!


Danny, during the screen construction process.

As I said, we hope to have the room completely done (minus the chairs which have to be ordered and shipped, so they will get here a little later) by this weekend, so check back here for pictures of the finished product! :-)

What we're attempting to finish the room by, is our third annual Brown's House of Horror!!  For the past two years, we have taken each Friday in October and invited lost of people to our house to watch scary movies.  We put much thought each year into the perfect movies to watch and look forward to filling our house with people.  In the past we've watched everything from The Blair Witch Project, to Halloween, to Dead Alive, to Black Sheep (a very gross but very funny movie about were-sheep).  We usually have a great turn out for most of our movies, and we've always really enjoyed it!  This year, we're excited to have our first BHOH in our own home and to host in our brand new theater!

The final changes taking place (and most exciting) are with our little Emma!  My baby girl is starting to get so big!  She is officially no longer a newborn.  She is getting very strong with her ability to hold herself up, she is starting to show more personality, and she is so happy!  We have started putting her in the stroller like a big girl, and she loves it.  She can see more of what's going on, and since she is so curious right now, that's great for her!  Emma loves her bouncer and has learned how to bounce quite well in it.  


Here is a video to prove how much she loves it!

Emma is a rolling machine these days, and while she still can't roll from her stomach to her back, she rolls onto her stomach almost every time I lay her on her back.  At this point, my days of being able to hold Emma while doing anything else is over.  She is into EVERYTHING.  Anytime I'm holding her, if there is something in my hands, she wants it and wants it in her mouth.  I also feel as though her coordination is getting so much better.  Every day I spend with her is a blast!  I would never have guessed just how much I would love her, and how much my love for her would grow daily.  I feel so blessed to have this time to just concentrate on her now, and to watch her grow each day.

For those of you reading this who are back in Flora, we are excited to be headed that way in early December.  So, while I'm sure our little girl will have changed even more by that point, we are excited to introduce her around before she gets to big.  We love our little girl so much, and know the rest of our family will as well! :-)

So, these are some of the wonderful changes happening in our lives right now!  Everyday, I get to thank God for all of the wonderful changes he is allowing us right now, even while some changes (such as my baby growing up) make me just a little bit sad!  We are so blessed!