First Mother's Day

This year I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. I had a wonderful day of Marty making me breakkfast and Brianne showering me with hugs.

I'm not sure what I thought being a mom would be like, but I don't think I could have expected the sheer joy each and every day brings. Sure there are challenges (exploding poopy diapers anyone?) but all the hard parts are far overshadowed by the happiness Brianne brings me. Sometimes I think what I am missing out on by having a baby - fabulous vacations in far flung places, etc. But then Brianne will smile at me, and there's no place I'd rather be than sitting on my living room floor playing with her.

I am so blessed to have my wonderful family, and could not imagine spending a day without them.

Here we are just goofing around.

Creepy Crawly

Since Brianne was around 6 months old, I have been worrying about her not crawling. The thing about babies is that they do things on their own time. It doesn't matter if other babies her age or younger were already crawling, she was not going to pushed into anything, no matter how much we tried.

Around 8 months, she started expressing more interest in getting around. First, she all of a sudden figured out how to sit up on her own. One morning, I went to get her out of bed, and before I went into her room, I looked at the monitor in our room. When I flipped on the monitor, she was sitting up in bed smiling at the monitor camera, as if she were saying "surprise!" It was actually kind of freaky. Now she has figured out how to get to sitting from almost any position.

Next came motion, though not exactly forward. When she was on her stomach, she would start pulling her knees underneath her, but she'd be on her face. Then in the next breath, she was pushing up really high on her hands, but her bottom half would be flat on the ground. It took her awhile to get both her hands and legs underneath her. For awhile, she slid around on her stomach, but always backward. She kind of reminded me of a baby seal on an iceberg, the way she slid around. She actually got going pretty fast, but she quickly moved onto the next step.

It was funny to watch her little mind work it all out - If I can't reach something, I can go and get it myself! She wasn't content to slide and sit, she wanted to move more efficiently. So the next step was from a sitting position, she would start rocking forward onto her hands. Then she figured out that if she bent her knees to the side, she could get going.

Then one Saturday morning, we were sitting on the floor together playing. She threw one of her toys, looked at it for a minute, then just leaned forward and started crawling toward it. I was absolutely shocked! As soon as she put it all together, she was crawling around everywhere!

Here is Brianne the first time she got her hands and knees underneath her. You can tell how proud she is of herself.


Now that she is crawling, this is the view we see of her - her back as she is crawling away! She is so curious about everything, and now that she can get around, she is exploring her little heart out.

Daddy's Back!

From March to May, Marty is in Tallahassee serving as a State Representative. He either comes home during the weekends, or we meet up in Orlando, so it's not like we go months without seeing him. However, it's very challenging for me to manage everything, especially now that we have Brianne. Luckily, I have an amazing support system of grandmas and aunts who help me every step of the way.

Even with all the help, no one can replace having Marty home full time. So the first week of May, we were thrilled to get Marty back full time.

Brianne is so excited to have her Daddy back full time!


She may look subdued here, but she is about to explode with happiness.

Lazy Girl

After a long day, Brianne couldn't wait to take a nap. Normally she takes naps in her crib, but she was so tired that she fell asleep on Marty's recliner chair. She looked like such a little person, we were cracking up. She napped here for a good 45 minutes.

She initially fell asleep next to Mi Ma Debbie.


But my mom couldn't sit there forever, so we wedged a throw pillow underneath her. She didn't even budge. She must have been really tired!

9 Months Old

Nine months old marked some huge changes in Brianne. She is starting to look less like a little baby, and more like a little girl. She has more personality, and is developing quite a sense of humor. She now likes to watch TV, and is a huge fan of Sesame Street. Marty and I keep arguing about how much TV she should watch - I think we need to limit to a few minutes a day, and Marty is flipping on Big Bird within minutes of walking into the house. She probably watches more TV than she should, but at least she is watching something educational.

Physically, Brianne is growing in leaps and bounds. At her 9 month check up, she measured 29" and weighed 19 lb, 3 oz. That puts her in the 95th percentile for height, and 5oth percentile for weight. She is also in the 90th percentile for head size, so she still has a big noggin'. However, her head has always been big, and is proportional to her body, so the pediatrician wasn't concerned. Also her arms and legs are very long, and almost look too long for her body. Hopefully she'll have a growth spurt soon to even it all out.

At her 7 month check up, Brianne was sitting up, but not crawling an inch. The pediatrician warned us that if she wasn't crawling by her 9 month check up, we'd need to "talk about options" which did not sound good to me. However, right around 9 months old almost on cue, she is crawling! Not only crawling but also pulling up to standing. The pulling up is actually more important than the crawling, so we are excited.

As for eating, Brianne has been trying a wider variety of foods with more texture. I still make almost all her food, so now have been making it lumpier so she has to chew more. Chewing is not a problem since she now has around 7 teeth! She recently went through a phase where all she wanted to eat was yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but thankfully, she is back to her good eating habits.

She continues to amaze us with each and every stage. Just when we think she will never ever be able to do something (crawling), she surprises us by picking it up over night. We fall in love with her over and over again every single day, and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Here is Brianne doing her sexy arm.

Brianne pulling herself up to kneeling.