Fall in D.C.

Last weekend we attempted to get out of the house for a brief moment before studying for law school finals attacks in full force.  It's important to catch nate before he takes his vow of no Facebook, razors, sunlight, happiness, etc. and retreats to the back room for 3 weeks before emerging at Christmas time.  It was with that in mind that we went to snap a family picture or two downtown with our friends.  The colors were beautiful and the weather was even more so.  We had jackets on but we were sweating inside of them.  Funny thing about D.C. is that the squirrels are fearless!  Apparently they don't communicate with the animals down in Monticello which constantly live in fear of quick and sudden death if they pop their head out of their holes.  The squirrels here came right up to Nate and were literally eating out of his hand.  I resorted to running away from them screaming whenever they got close.  Bryn was just curious.  Look how close they get!

Also, Bryn is 7 months old and growing like a weed.  Next on her agenda is to drive me further into senility as she becomes mobile!  She has been on the verge of crawling for the past week.  She usually goes from sitting on her butt to her belly by diving for a toy.  If it is still out of reach she straightens out her arms, arches her butt in the air, and kicks her legs furiously to get some momentum.  She hasn't moved more than an inch or so, but it's only a matter of time before she's pulling DVD's off of the shelf and finding new ways to turn our hair grey.  But we still think that she's the best!

I can do it myself!!

I've been meaning to tell you something mom.  It may hurt but it's the truth.  You're a great mom and you know how to do a whole bunch of stuff better than me.  But look how messy I get when you try to feed me.  It's pretty ridiculous, I know I can do better.

You better let me try it myself, I am a big girl these days.

Wait, that's not how you do it.

Almost got it.

There.  It wasn't that hard, I don't know what the big fuss is all about.

See, I finished all of my food and I did it by myself!  Next stop, driving...

Halloweenies

Our second Halloween in Virginia was a bit different this year.  One: we weren't anchored to the house by a newly pregnant Jen who couldn't bring herself to eat anything except Tostitos Lime Tortilla Chips. Two: we didn't have this chubby little spider chasing us around!

We attended our ward's trunk or treat activity, which turned out to be quite the event.  There are a lot of babies in our ward around Brynlee's age as well as a robust Nursery and Primary.  However, the downside is that most families move out to the suburbs or move to other states closer to home once their kids are a little older.  This leaves our young men's/young women's programs proportionately smaller, however, there are wards that are much, much worse around here with huge nursery's and non-existent young adults. The trunk or treat was fun but short lived as it was past our little spiders bed-time.

6 months old

This month marked a huge milestone for our little Brynlee.  Life passes quick for such a little girl, and it's hard to believe that 6 months have gone by.  That's 26 weeks, 182 days, too many hours to count.  It has been a real treat to see how much she's grown and how fast these little babies develop. It seems like she surprises us everyday with some new trick she's learned, some new frontier she wishes to breach.  Lately, she has been "talking" constantly and has become much more interactive with the people around her, especially other babies.  It really is funny to plop her down to another infant/toddler and watch them babble, squeal, and giggle back and forth.  Who knows? Maybe they really can understand each other.  At the very least they are learning to interact with another human being.  The funny thing is that a few years down the road those skills will become almost entirely replaced by texting, facebook, and tweeting.

Enough with the philosophical banter, now onto the hard stats.

Head size = 50%
Height = 25 inches = 50%
Weight = 16 pounds = 50%

Just another day for our happy, healthy little girl.

Last of all, lest you think that she is the perfect child and that we are "those" parents think their child can do no wrong, let us tell you how big of turkey little Ms. Brynlee is.  We recently introduced solid foods to her. We thought the safe route would be to introduce veggies first because she would take to the sweeter fruits more easily.  We come to find out that she loves peas, squash, and carrots but she hates bananas and sweet potatoes.  Go figure.  Also, without going into graphic detail, her bowel movements have become a little less frequent but much more "explosive".  We've lost a few onesies and pants as the unfortunate victims of rice cereal and green beans.  Bedtime has also become a bit of a sticking point, where she use to sleep most of the way through the night, now she is waking up every few hours. We've tried stuffing her before bedtime, putting her to bed earlier, putting her to bed later, but nothing has really worked.  Very soon we will simply be putting her to bed and shutting the door.

This post is already too long but here are a few recent pictures.

Family Picture in the Shenandoah Valley

Brynlee the evil genius.  One of my favorite pics!!