James and Brooklyn

James is definitely 100% boy, but there are little moments everyday when I get to see a softer side of him- the moments that he is playing with his baby sister. Don't get me wrong, everyday I have to tell him at least once to "be soft" or "be nice", but there are so many times when he, on his own initiative, will get down on the ground with brooklyn and start making baby noises, trying to talk to Brooklyn. He loves to say, "Brooklyn watch me" followed by a funky dance just to try to get Brooklyn to laugh (which usually works). He randomly likes to bring her toys and says, "Here you go Brooklyn". But my most favorite- when he puts his head close to Brooklyn's and says, "I love you Brooklyn". He is such a good brother and I am such a grateful mother!

Brooklyn Bear

I have been horrible with blogging about Brooklyn! With James I took lots of pictures and blogged all of his accomplishments, well baby stats, etc.... but not with Brooklyn. So here is my attempt to catch up a little bit when it comes to that!

Brooklyn went in for her 4th monthvisit last month (Feb. 8th-ish) and the doctor LOVED her! She was in the 65% for length, 75% for weight, and 90% for head circumference. She is SUCH a joy- she is seriously ALWAYS content unlessshe is hungry.

This past week she has started putting more weighton her legs (she loves the baby Einstein jumper that we have), she rolls from her back to her tummy every chance she gets, she LOVES playing for toys (something James didn't do at that age), she grabs for toys even when she can't reach them, she laughs all the time (especially at James), she loves looking at her mama, she has started scooting backwards (something James loved to do), and she gabbers A LOT. James was pretty much a silent baby so its fun to hear her talk- she can talk NONSTOP for a good half hour and loves to have a conversation with her mama (she will let me talk and then she responds). Her favorite sounds are the G, B, F, short A, and gurgling noise. Here are just afew pictures of her from the past few months:

January 26, 2012:

It was a really cold day but James and I were tiredof being cooped up, so we went to the park. Here is Brooklyn all bundled up in her car seat:

February 14, 2012:

One of the things we did on Valentines was make homemade ice cream (more pics. of that to come). Here is Brooklyn laying on the floor while we were making it:

March 9, 2012:

Random photo shoot- she LOVES sticking her tongue out and to the right side like in the picture below:

James was making her laugh in the picture below. I love watching them interact- they definitely have a special place in their hearts for each other!

She loves sticking her hand in her mouth! We are trying to steer clear of thumb sucking, but I don't mind hand sucking too much:

March 9, 2012

Just this past week we had beautiful weather so we went to the park. The lighting was so good for pictures so I took some pictures of Brooklyn chilling in her car seat again. From these pictures below I think she may have a talent for modeling :)

March 10, 2012:

While cooking dinner, I always put Brooklyn on the ground next to the kitchen so I can watch her while James plays. On this day I decided to take a break from cooking and snap a couple of pictures of her in action:

He’s a Genius

Me (Stephanie): “James, what are you doing?”

James: “I’m doing my homework. I’m doing my crossword.”

I guess our little boy is ready to do the daily crossword puzzle with us from now on :)

James Reading to Brooklyn

 

While I was cooking dinner, Matt captured a couple of cute pictures:

James loves to have us read to him, and we have been trying to teach him how to look at the pictures by himself and tell us what is happening. So far he is good at looking at books by himself, but he won’t tell us what is happening or make up a storyline. On this particular night Brooklyn was practicing tummy time and Matt told James to read to her- she loved it! He really loves his little sister!

The Inevitable Crash

Every school day Matt bikes 5 miles to school no matter what the weather- sunny, rainy, windy… and now snowy. He definitely sacrifices a lot for our family and we really appreciate it! Everyone in our ward that also bikes (mostly recreationally) has told Matt to expect to crash or fall multiple times- we have been lucky that Matt hasn’t fallen… until this past week. Yes- Matt experienced his first fall and luckily it wasn’t bad and it didn’t involve another bike or car.

There was snow on the ground and it was really slick (Matt said that there were no other bike tracks in the snow which is crazy because typically there are DOZENS of bikes out). Matt had biked about 3 miles and was about to turn from one main road to another main road, and he lost traction and fell. Luckily there were no cars in the lane he was in waiting for him to get back up and go (there were other cars driving around him though). We are definitely blessed that he didn’t get too hurt and that his bike is ok.

He is VERY disappointed about what happened to his favorite waterproof jacket though:

Yup that’s right- its torn at the elbow :( Here is a picture of his battle wound:

Children’s Museum

 

We LOVE the Children’s Museum here in Portland! We have a year long pass so we have gone quite a bit, but it never gets old for James! There are a bunch of different ‘stations’ to visit, but James’ favorite stations are easily the Digging Pit and the Grocery Store. We could spend hours at a time there, so usually when we go we only visit one or two stations. Here are some pictures from his two favorite stations!

 

She loves her daddy!

 

Brooklyn typically does great with her naps- she has a routine and it’s easy to put her down- but over the weekend she had a hard time staying asleep for one of her naps… that is until daddy held her while watching football: