Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  Nick was able to take both Wednesday and Friday off.  We went to her 2 month appointment on Wednesday.  She weighed 11 lbs, 11 ounces (75th percentile) and was 22 and 1/2 inches (50th percentile).  I don't think we have to worry about her not gaining weight anymore!

The shots were as bad as I thought they would be.  She was cooing and smiling when the first needle went in.   By the third poke, I was sure that she would never smile again.  She screamed and cried hard, but fortunately was pretty much over it after 10 minutes.  I ended up crying on and off most of the day.  She was a little out of sorts the next 24 hours and during Thanksgiving at the farm, but seemed to be fine after that. 

Thursday morning we headed to Ft. Scott.  She is very much loved.

We headed out a bit early to make it to Mary Jo's for the end of their Thanksgiving.  It was great to see everyone!  Here is Bryn with Grandma Sterner, Great-grandma "Momses" and little Winston. 

Here is her 9 week picture.  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Much better!

Bryn is doing much better now and we are all in much better moods!  In fact I would say if one bad week produces a baby who is now sleeping regularly from 10:00-5:00 and usually wakes up smiling and cooing, I won't complain about that bad week ever again. 

She is growing so fast though and we are anxious to see where she is on the growth charts Wednesday.  Although dreading the vaccines.  I'm so glad Nick took off work to go with us.  I don't think it will be safe for me to drive afterwards.    

She got to go to Grammy and Grandpa Bell's again and had a great time celebrating Grandpa's birthday.  She loves snuggling with and sleeping on Grammy.

 Grammy gets pretty worn out too.

Bryn has also gotten a new playmat.  I told myself that we didn't need a playmat for her, that she would soon grow out of it, and that it would just take up a bunch of space we don't have in our small house. One morning she acted like she was trying to reach and grab her mobile, but it was too high. That afternoon, she had a playmat. I do not kid myself into thinking this will be the only time I do that.   Of course, she has shown no interest in reaching for the birds hanging on the playmat.  She smiled when she was first put down though and that was good enough for me.  

I let her stay like this for about 2 minutes before I turned her over.  But she loved those 2 minutes.

In huge baby news, Bryn started sleeping in her big girl bed this week.  We have to thank Carey and BJ again for lending us their Angel Care monitor, or I don't think we could have done it.   I had been waking up every 30 minutes or so to make sure she was breathing when she was in the pack n' play.  Now, the monitor makes a ticking noise every time she takes in a breath and I can see lights move with that sound on a monitor in our room.  Genius.  It will also sound (startle her) after 20 seconds of her not moving.  We've only set that off a couple times now by picking her up without turning the monitor off first.  Nick stayed up for over an hour the first night, just staring at the ceiling, listening to the ticking noise and worrying, but we have all gotten used to it now.  Here is Bryn stretching after her first night in her crib and after being released from her swaddle blanket.  This was 4:00 a.m., so give me a break for forgetting the lights or a flash.

Bryn got to meet our friend Jason Gavin.  Jason is yet another great friend we have from Iowa if his shirt doesn't give that away.

Bryn has really been wanting to show off her holiday dresses.  Good thing I'm not one of "those moms" who caves every time they see a cute dress and then spends an entire afternoon playing dress up with their daughter and trying to mimic professional photo shoots.

Bryn is 2 months old tomorrow!

She was pretty worn out after modeling.

Happy early Thanksgiving all!

Bryn Talking

Below is a video of Bryn trying to learn how to talk. Please ignore my voice!


Untitled from Catherine Bell on Vimeo.

Tears and Screams

Overall, Bryn did not like Week 7.  Not one bit.  She cried a most of the time.  Nick also left for a work trip for half of the week and it would be nice to say she missed him, but I think she was going through a growth spurt.   Let's just say that at one point later in the week, I handed Bryn to her father, locked myself in my bathroom, sat on the floor, and ate a piece of pizza.  Everything seemed much better after that.  We've tried a couple of new things related to feeding and she back to being happy most of time.

Here are some very deceiving pictures of happy Bryn.

Here is the face Bryn makes right before she smiles.  I love this as much as her smile. 

Here is what Bryn actually looked like most of the week. 

Here is what a dog who really wants to get away from the loud crying noise looks like.  If Tegan hadn't noticed Bryn much before, she certainly does now.  She spent the week upstairs wishing her dad would come home. 

We did get to go to Ella's basketball games early in the week and pre-baby melt down.  We had so much fun watching Ella and hanging out with Whitney, Clifton, Cali, Ella and Carter in between games.  Bryn also got to try the baby carrier for the first time and seemed to like it. 

Ella is Number 10 on the left.  She is the only girl in the competitive league and is super fast.  You can imagine how much I love this.  "Remember, Ginger Rodgers did everything that Fred Estaire did, but she did it backwards and on high heels."  I'm sure Bryn someday will have to look those names up. 

Four adorable kiddos.  This was right before Ella taught me how to throw a football (thanks for nothing mom and dad) and right after I tried to explain to Carter the James Dean pose.  Neither experience was well learned. 

Week 8 is going fantastic for Bryn so far! 

First Halloween!

Halloween is our least favorite holiday.  I hoped that having kids might change that attitude, but no such luck this year.  All we really had to do for a 6 week old is get her a cute outfit and we ended up getting her two not so cute outfits that were way too big.  She was a trooper with the many outfit changes and adjustments, so I guess she didn't mind. 

2011 Halloween Outfit No. 1:  Penguin.  I ordered this outfit over a month ago.  When it came in, it was obvious that it was going to be way too big.    

 She thought momma's frustration was pretty funny!

2011 Halloween Outfit No 2:  Pink Bunny.  I got this outfit after getting the penguin outfit in the mail and realizing that the penguin outfit was going to be way too big on her.   The pink bunny outfit was so big that we didn't even bother putting on the bottom half and I had to position the ears so you could tell what they are.  At least her little gown was cute with it and she was all smiles throughout the changes. 

Here is our little bunnguin, too tuckered out to mess with another outfit removal.  Next year we hope for greater success!

We managed to capture some pretty good pictures this week and I finally got one of her with her full knock us over smile. 

Bryn and Miller hanging out with supervision.  Miller gave her kisses (on her forehead).  He swipes on her now and shows affection.  Tegan will still smell her, but not much more.  I'm guessing that she would show more affection if she didn't smell like me. 

Play time.  Can you find the words I spelled during play time?   Pretty proud moment.  I can still spell.  "Love" is misspelled intentionally before I get text messages about this. 

 Here is a video of Bryn cooing and smiling.  I only put this up for family who have not seen her do this (she tends to fall asleep as soon as someone walks in the door).  I ask for two favors (1) turn your volume off before watching...I sound like an idiot talking to her and (2) stop the video about 10 seconds before it ends our you will see a massive spit up explosion.  I don't know how to edit the videos yet. 

All dressed up to go get the oil changed in the car and go shopping at a organic food store for some hippy food.  We decided we like the creepy guys who changed the oil better than the judgmental employees at the grocery store.  Don't ask them questions that betray the fact that you do not shop at the organic food store frequently. 

Sidenote #1:  I have learned from a close friend who does this as part of her job that companies pay people to search blogs and facebook for references to their stores.  Therefore, if you are curious "organic food store" is located at 95th and Metcalf.  

Sidenote #2:  Coconut water is disgusting.  Kale is disgusting.  Mixing the two is even more disgusting. 

Sidenote #3:  If all of the people who judge babies and mothers who have "Big Name Brand Store" clothes on similarly wear the same ill-fitting jeans and baggy shirts, are they not also conformists?

Sidenote #4 to Bryn only:  Our feelings towards that experience does not give you permission to be a conservative. 

I kid.

Kind of.

Not really.

All tuckered out from her trip.

Celebrating Nathan's 22nd Birthday!

 
Our first heartbreaking moment of realizing that she has outgrown a special outfit.  This was her bonnet that she came home from the hospital in.  Thankfully, you can see in her 6 week pictures below, the jumper will still fit for several more weeks.