Big Brother 11

Is anyone else watching this show? Gabe and I have been huge fans of this show for YEARS and we are so glad it is back on! Gabe says he will be on this show one day...I'm not so sure of that. I believe he is all talk! ;) Anyway, they have re-vamped it for this new season and it is all about high school and it really does seem to be taking them all back to HS. It's hilarious. If you aren't watching you can pick it up at any time. It is a commitment though since it is on 3 days a week. Gabe and I already have our favorites and are definitely pulling for them! We were sad to see Braden go...what a goofball!

4 Mo. Stats

Well Baby Brody is definitely small! Here goes:

Weight: 13 lbs 5 oz (21%tile)

Height: 24 1/2" (36%tile)

Head Circ.: 16.25 (26%tile)

Love, love, love our pediatrician!!! If you live out this way, Stonebridge Pediatrics is the way to go. We never feel rushed, all of our questions are always answered, he is so gentle with my little man, and friendly as can be! We will start feeding Mr. Brody rice cereal this weekend. Interested to see how he will do... He has cradle cap, which we knew, but good thing all that all that crazy hair covers it up. Dr. Alvis gave us the suggestion to try to wash his hair with Selsun Blue Shampoo to see if that takes care of it. Brody was given 3 shots today (took them like a champ!) and he has been out like a light ever since Brooke and I left McAlister's. I was able to wander around Bed Bath and Beyond for a long time and then went to Babies R Us to exchange and walked around for a bit there too. Now we are home and Brody was up to eat and get a diaper change and now he is sleeping again! Hope he will continue to sleep so he isn't hurting from the shots, but also want him to continue sleeping through the night! I love my child.

It is amazing how many people will stop me while I am out shopping to comment on Brody's hair. 90% of the time they continue to have a conversation with me, while I am always polite, I am not always interested in talking with complete strangers for 5-10 minutes. Guess it is a good thing I am usually not busy! Better get some things done and be productive while I have the free time!

My Little Man

We are beginning to believe Brody is the most active infant in the world. He is determined to hit all the milestones and does them early, or at least we think he is. He started rolling over at 2 1/2 months and the average time period is month 4. We are now unable to control his rolling. I will turn around for a minute and he is across the room from where he was laid down! He is getting really close to sitting alone and the average time period is 8 months. He is also working extremely hard at crawling! He was practicing by scooting (hiney in the air, on his toes) around the perimeter of his crib last night and stopped only because he was overcome with exhaustion. Avg. age for this is again 8 months.

We have our 4 month well check up tomorrow. He should be getting 2 shots, so I am not looking forward to that but at least Gabe will be there. I am always anxious to get his stats and should post them tomorrow. Wondering if he is still on the small side?

Our camera is done! Dead! And we haven't unpacked the charger. Oops! As soon I as I do, I will get to snapping some more photos. I have a pic from last Friday when my Grandpa (Brody's Great-Grandpa) was over. He, by the way, adores Brody more than life itself. He is the most adorable, precious man in the world and the way his face lights up when he is with Brody just melts my heart.

Three Month Pictures

Cherie did another fantastic job photographing my baby boy. He did such a super job during the shoot, I was impressed! It's tough being a model and in those hot lights all the time. If you are interested in seeing them head on over to Cherie Marie Photography. Click on Clients. The password is "brody 3"

ENJOY!

Time for an Update

Sorry- nothing exciting here. We have just been so busy unpacking, trying to get this house in some kind of order. Good News...we finished Brody's polka dots! I am going to wait to post pics until his whole nursery is complete. We are waiting on the stinkin' dresser to get here, which by the way, we ordered at the beginning of MAY! Gabe worked so hard at getting this house ready for a small party on Saturday, I on the other hand helped a tiny bit. I am beginning to think that I am getting lazier by the day! I know I have an almost 4 month old to take care of with the help of my husband, but I still feel pretty worthless, like I am not contributing anything (even though I know Brody's life, growth and development is so much more important than any job!) I am so blessed to be spending so much time with him and be able to have the time to do so. Anyway, back to the party...We had 3 other couples over, 2 with brand new babies, and one preggo couple (with twins). Thanks Shane and Kelly for the delicious brisket tacos! Thanks Amber and Adam for the yummy new recipes! And thanks to Brooke and Steve for bringing the added yummies for the tacos! We are so lucky to have such great friends so close.

GAVIN AND BRODY

MOMMY, BRODY, DADDY

That's it for now! I am taking Brody tomorrow to get his 3 mo. pics, even though we are 10 days away from being 4 mos. Oh well. A little scheduling problem! :) I can't wait to see the adorable pics Cherie takes tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July and hope you all have a marvelous week!

Moving

We finally closed on our house late Wednesday and have been busy moving ever since, hence the huge delay in posting. We have gotten so much done, but still have so much more to do. The kitchen is the most completed room in the house. We are impatiently waiting on our new living room furniture, our new bedroom furniture and Brody's dresser/changing table to arrive. Once we get these pieces in which will be delivered sometime between the 1st and the 17th, we can being placing the rest of our decorations. We do have a few items on the walls, but not many. The house is already warm and "homey" but I think it will feel even more so once more decorations are placed around the house. It's hard finding new homes for the decorations from the old house. We still need to get a dining set and furniture for the upstairs room, but I am going to finish the other rooms before tackling those two. Gabe and I had our master painted the other day and it looks great! We have been looking for someone to paint polka dots on Brody's walls, but not one is committing, so we have decided to do it ourselves...yikes! I think it will look good, just hope I don't screw it up. Pics to come later...

Good Night!

Seahorse

My friend Amber has this glow worm type toy, except it is a sea horse that plays soothing music. She has been talking about it for weeks now, and I finally saw it last night. I was able to hear the music and now I am obsessed with it and have to go get it tomorrow for Brody! I think it will be his new BFF.

PS- I do not know this baby! It was the only pic I could find of this super cute product!

Left Handed?

Brody seems to be favoring his left hand a little bit. It will be interesting to see if he turns out to be left handed. Can you tell so early on? Does it matter when they are so young?

I guess we will find out...

3 Months!

Baby Brody was 3 months yesterday and we couldn't love him more. Here is my new fav pic of him.

All about Brody:

~ He is grabbing things

~ He is reaching for things

~ He only fusses when he is hungry, and then he gets angry! ;)

~ He has been sleeping through the night most of his short life

~ He is "talking" all the time

~ His smile is to die for!

~ He is working on his laugh

~ He is bashful at times, which again is adorable.

~ He is beginning to entertain him self

~ He LOVES to be outside!

~ His paci or his fingers/fist is in his mouth at all times

~ He is able to roll over from tummy to back with ease

~ He is practicing rolling from back to tummy

~ His favorite songs are the ABC song and The Itsy Bitsy Spider

~ He has the biggest blue eyes

~ He has the BEST baby hair of all time!

Wow, I could go on but I must have some self control! He is the sweetest baby and I am beyond thrilled to have him in my life. I only hope he knows how much he is loved.

Happy Birthday Gabe!

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband. Gabe is celebrating his 27th birthday today and I couldn't be happier to be spending it with him and Brody.

We have had a stressful week, and hope it will have a happy ending here in a few days. Gabe and I have had delay after delay after delay. My goodness we are super anxious to get in there, with the anticipation killing us...

Little Miss Teagan should be entering this world tomorrow or Wednesday! I know mommy and daddy (Amber and Adam) are ready to meet their little girl and see what she looks like. Every mommy- and daddy-to-be feel the same way, I know we did! Especially without those 3-D and 4-D sonograms! It seemed so far away and I cannot believe she is almost here...crazy!

Bad News Bears

We are not closing on the house today! :(

Someone made a mistake on the option addendum therefore delaying our move until Thursday! Gabe had worked so hard to have all the deliveries and installs scheduled for today/tomorrow and at 5 o'clock last night had to call everybody and reschedule. Also, there is 30% chance of rain Thursday and Friday while today (the original moving day) is beautiful! Cross your fingers that this will be the one and only hiccup!

The bright side to this is that I have a couple more days to finish packing everything at mom and Ron's. It is amazing everything we packed into their upstairs area! I forgot we had so much stuff, now plus all the wonderful things we have for Brody!

Time for a break

Wow have we been busy!! Time for a break from packing and time to blog! I forget how busy teachers are at the end of the year! It has been crazy nuts. I am officially done teaching for this year. A very bittersweet thing. It has been a hard year, but I got great experience and I worked with an incredible team. There were many things I liked about my school and very few things I did not, which I believe is a school that is hard to come by. The staff there is absolutely amazing and anyone who works there is lucky. We were named Exemplary again which is super. My personal classes TAKS scores were great, much better than I thought...I must say I am proud. I moved out of my classroom yesterday and am excited to spend every day with Brody. Please let me know if you know of an open position in McK, Frisco, Allen, Prosper, etc.

We are busy bees packing it up. And Gabe has been in Vegas since Thursday, leaving me to single parent it for 4 days. Well, kind of anyway... mostly at night. Mom and Ron are the best! I am going to miss their help! We are closing/moving on Tuesday. It has seemed so far away for so long and now it is finally here. Can you please pinch me! I still don't believe we are moving again! I have the most patient hubby for living with mom and Ron since October. It takes a special person to put up with in-laws for that long of a time.

Brody is growing and developing more and more each day. He rolls over from tummy to back with ease and rolled from back to tummy today! Mom read that this normally happens at 4 months and my little guys isn't even 3 months yet. I am loving his smile, it is the best! Especially in the mornings when he is waking up. He will get to sleep in his big boy room and crib come Tuesday! What a change I am going to have to adjust to.

Here is my man sitting in his Bumbo (thanks Carli!)

Rolly Polly

Brody can officially roll from tummy to back.  I saw it for the first time yesterday!

2 month check up

We are (or shall I say I am) a little late in posting about Mr. Brody's 2 month check up at the doctors, but in my defense the appointment was 6 days after his official 2 month birthday, if you want to get all technical... :) We did not enjoy the shots, but glad Gabe was there to comfort us. Although I didn't want to cry until I held Brody post-shots while he was upset. I just wanted to make it all better for him. He was definitely a trooper!

His 2 month stats are as follows:

Weight: 10 lbs 8.5 oz - 20%tile

Height: 23.25" - 53%tile

Head Circ.: 15.50" - 30%tile

He is definitely a little guy! I was thinking he would be more in the 12 pound range...boy, was I way off! Brody and Rocky are now the same weights. I know it will not last long, probably a day or so. My sweet baby is smiling so much now, it is the most precious thing I have ever seen in my 25 (almost 26 -- tomorrow's my bday) years. He is in the process of beginning to roll over, which is awesome and scary at the same time!

He went "swimming" for the first time yesterday! More like, Gabe was holding him in the warm water of the hot tub. He loved it. See pics below.

I am so anxious to get to spend every moment with Brody in just seven short school days! We are both extremely anxious about our big move back to McKinney on the 9th. It is amazing the day is almost here!

Memorial Day

What a perfect day to blog about my grandpa.  My grandpa passed away from brain cancer on May 9th and we attended the funeral last week in Seward, NE (the greatest small town in the world!).  We drove up on Sunday with Brody, who did AWESOME in the car both ways, and made the drive home again Wednesday.  It is always so nice to see family and friends you do not see often enough, but we all knew why we were brought together...an extremely sad and emotional day.  My grandpa, who is actually my step-grandpa, but the only grandpa I have ever known since my 'real' grandpa passed before my sister was born.  To some people he is remembered as one of the POWs from Vietnam, but I remember him as a rough-around-the-edges guy with a kind and gentle heart.  During his Navy days, his plane was shot down and he ended up being captured and tortured for 7 years in Hanoi.  My grandpa Wendy (short for Wendell) had the most amazing stories and would tell them with such detail that is was almost as if these events happened a few days ago, when in fact it happened many years ago.  We (Gabe and I) had never attended a military funeral before and let me tell you how amazing it was. Grandpa totally deserved all of the wonderful things the US Navy provided at his funeral.  Of course, they draped the coffin with a US flag which they folded and passed to my grandma, 2 Navy jets did a fly over, and also a 21 gun salute.  Just amazing, simply incredible to witness for someone who gave so much for our country.  He is definitely a hero in all sorts of the word.  

Captain Wendell B. Rivers

Earthquake, What?!?!

DFW had an earthquake today.  Yes, you read that correctly but just in case you can read it again. DFW had an earthquake today and Gabe and I totally felt it.  It was a 3.3 on the Richter scale and the center of it was about 4 miles south of Euless, which pretty much borders Colleyville!  We were upstairs getting ready and the whole house shook pretty hard.  We turned to each other and were so confused on what just happened.  An hour or so later, we heard it was an earthquake. Can you believe it?  I still can't.  Here is an article to prove I am not koo-koo bananas!

Earthquake Article

Picture Updates

Here are 2 recent pictures from this week, his 7th week of life.

7 weeks

(This was actually taken last Monday, 6 weeks, but this is the most recent pic we have of Brody)

Our baby is getting so big!  He is having fussy fits lately but we are thinking it is due to having tummy aches.  The doctor says its normal for breast fed babies to go 6-7 days without pooping, I am not sure its normal for any one, ever!  Anywho, we ended up having to give the little guy a suppository one evening.  A few hours later, we had a messy diaper.  Four days later, he pooped on his own..yea :)  well that was last Monday.  We have not had a dirty diaper since, until yesterday afternoon poor baby Brody received his second suppository and again, a few hours later, we had a dirty diaper.  Gabe and I had left to go get the groceries/ingredients for taco salad so unfortunately mom (grandma) was left with the mess.  This morning, Brody seemed a little uncomfortable so I called the nurse and asked if this is normal.  She told me to give him a 3rd suppository and I might could try pear juice.  At this point, I am thinking I am pretty much refusing to give another suppository unless it is absolutely necessary.  After discussing my options with my mom, I ran up to Market Street and picked up a few 4 oz jars of Gerber Pear Juice.  The nurse said to give 1 1/2 oz in the morning and evening.  This was about 9:30 am and Brody was OUT!  He slept until about noonish and was given the pear juice as well as a bottle of milk.  I had to go take a test and when I got home at 3, I walked in the door and a minute or two later, we had another dirty diaper.  I am glad this seemed to work and I am anxious to see what the next few days ahead have in store for us.  So if you know anyone who is having the same baby pooping problems, please share this info.  The babies will LOVE the juice and it is so much for comfy for the babies to drink juice rather than have something shoved up their tiny booty.  

I am sure Brody would be mortified if he knew I was blogging about his bodily functions, so Brody I am apologizing.  I am hoping this is informational to other mommies and daddies.

Almost Done

Here is the outside of our house.  It is almost done and we are getting more and more excited with each passing day.  Our closing date is June 11th.

Busy Bees

My goodness things have been so crazy busy lately, we have barely had time to breathe and now we are all 3 sick!  On Sunday, I noticed Brody started sneezing a little and had a slight cough and my throat started to hurt.  I woke up Monday morning not feeling well, went to school, was freezing, throat hurting, fever increasing throughout the day, headache and lower back ache.  I called the doctor, went to the doctor, was tested for strep and flu (both came back negative) and was diagnosed with a upper resipitory infection and have had an extremely scratchy voice since Tuesday.  I am now on the biggest pill I have ever seen in my life, amoxicillin. Gabe started feeling bad the next day, his symptoms are blocked ears, sore throat and congestion.  We called the pedi yesterday since Brody has been having a lot of yuckiness in his nose.  He is now on saline drops to help with that, along with a vitamin drop.  Needless to say, I have let my work pile up and now have 2 weeks worth of papers to grade.  My class is starting a novel next week, and I will be spending part of my weekend reading, A Tale of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  Please, be jealous!!  ;)  

Speaking of my sweet baby boy, he has started tearing up when he cries so that means his tear ducts are developing.  He will sometimes grab the bottle when he feeds, and is smiling so much!  Brody is loving his tummy time and loves to stare at himself in the mirror.  He will be in the pack and play downstairs napping and when you go over to check on him or see if he is still sleeping, sometimes he is just laying there wide awake staring at himself in the mirror, sucking on his paci.  He kicks his legs like crazy, and they are some strong legs!  Ok, enough bragging!!  I just am amazed he is almost 7 weeks old!

Since the last post, I was thrown a WONDERFUL sip and see by some dear friends.  Thank you to everyone who came.  It meant a lot to me.  You all continue to spoil Brody with the fabulous gifts, which are sincerely appreciated.  I loved visiting with my far away friend Kelly who I don't get to see very often.  Kelly, Allison and I had a lovely dinner at PF Changs in order to spend more time together and catch up since the last time we were together in December.  I love you both and thanks so much for everything!  (And my sister too, who helped out so much).  

The following weekend, I co-hostessed a baby shower for my great friend, Amber, who is due with baby Teagan in June!  It turned out great and Teagan received some adorable gifts.  We are so anxious to meet her little girl.  Amber looks amazing and her belly grows so much everytime I see her.  Gabe and I already have Brody and Teagan paired up as BF/GF!  It's going to be fun to have a girl thrown in the mix.  

Look at her tiny shoe collection!

My mom has been spending a lot of time in San Antonio lately, due to some unfortunate news.  My step-grandpa (the only grandpa I have ever known on my moms side of the family) was diagnosed with brain tumors which have caused him to lose the ability to speak and swallow.  It is the saddest news since it all happened so quickly.  My grandma noticed his speech beginning to slur a little, so they made an appointment for a CT-scan.  Then they did a biopsy, and ever since he has not spoken or swallowed.  We just visited him in January and he was completely normal.  He has been given 1-2 months, but you just never know how long with cancer which is the scary thing.  I think the saddest part of all is that he was a POW in Vietnam for 7 years and  this man has the most incredible, amazing stories (some of which make you cry) and he will never be able to tell them again.  I feel so lucky to have heard some of the many he has to tell. Gabe and I are hoping to go down to SA as soon as we can to visit him and introduce him to Brody.  If you could just pray for my grandmas strength to get through this tough time and that he is comfortable. I think my sister said it best "We know that we cannot save him so I just pray that God will wrap his arms around everyone close to him and comfort them as much as possible."  

Any prayer would be appreciated.