Happy Half Birthday

It's really hard to believe that we have had this sweet angel in our lives for 6 months now!  What an incredible blessing she is to us!  She makes us laugh on a daily basis, and she is constantly learning new things.  She has taught Joe and me so much, and she's helping us develop qualities that we didn't realize we needed so much help with before she was born.=) Things like patience, using our time wisely, selflessness, unity, and spending time together as a family.  She helps us recognize the small and important things in life.

She is one of the happiest little girls I know!  She is constantly smiling, laughing, or blowing raspberries.  People constantly stop me when I'm out, to smile and talk to her, and they just LOVE it when she immediately smiles back.

She's learned so much over the last month, and improved on things she's been working on for a while now.  She can now roll from her back to her belly, and her belly to her back without any problems.  I'll set her down somewhere, and if I turn away for a second, she's clear across the room when I look back. For only being able to roll for transportation, she's pretty quick!  ha ha!

She's pretty good at sitting up by herself on the floor. ( I still sit really close in case she decides to tip over)  I started this thing where I'll stick my pointer fingers out when she's lying on her back and wants to be pulled up.   She'll grasp my fingers and I'll pull her up from her back to standing.  She LOVES it!  She kicks her legs in excitement now when I do it, because she knows she's going to get to stand.

She's started feeling like she has to help me with everything now.  Whatever I'm doing, she's trying to grasp on, knock out of my hands, pull on, etc.  It pretty much just cracks me up, because watching her, she is just so focused on "helping" that it's funny.  Love this little munchkin!

She LOVES the little bouncer that Joe bought her.  She's content in that thing for at least 30 minutes to an hour at a time.  It has helped me so much to be able to get things done around the house! Probably one of the best baby purchases so far.

She just started eating from a spoon last week and she has loved it so far.  We decided to wait until she turned 6 months old to start feeding her solids.  Pretty sure watching her eat from a spoon is one of the cutest things I've ever seen!  I get so excited to feed her everyday!

She still LOVES bathtime.  One of her favorite things to do in the tub now is suck on her toes.  The way that the tub elevates her, it makes it really easy.  So funny!  She's like a little monkey.  I had to laugh when we were at the grocery store about a month ago and a guy looked in the carseat to say hi to her and she was sucking on her toes.  Keeping it classy.=)


Out of all the things that bring joy to Brooklynn's life, one of the top things has to be going for walks.  She can be fussy, and whiny and all I have to do is put her in her stroller and head outside and I won't hear another peep from her, except the occasional squeal of excitement.  She LOVES just looking around, watching the cars pass by, staring at the sky, and playing with the sun cover and safety bar on her stroller.  More often than not, by the time we get about half way home she is sound asleep. I can't tell you how many times I have just kept walking around our neighborhood so she can get a good nap in.  I won't lie.....I have often wished that someone would push me around in a stroller so I could just lay back, relax, and enjoy the scenery.=)  How relaxing would that be?!  No wonder she falls asleep!  I try to take her out for a walk every day because she loves it so much.

This was yesterday evening

She has really started interacting well with us, and one of my favorite things is when we play with her and she belly laughs.  Sometimes the anticipation of us about to tickle her, or say "BOO" when playing peek-a-boo is enough to make her laugh so hard her face turns red and she gets the hicups.

She loves reading books with us now.  She used to just look around the room, and not really get into the book at all.  Now she's happily pounding the pages with her little hands, trying to scratch at the characters, helping me turn the pages, and of course trying to suck on the book.

She'll try to suck on anything she can get her hands on.  She went nuts today in the grocery store when I would pull a plastic bag out in the produce section.  She was frantically trying to grab it and suck on it before I could get it filled with produce. Of course I wouldn't let her suck on it, but I couldn't help but laugh at the intense effort she was putting forth.  She was literally freaking out. So funny!

She has a bunch of toys to suck on, and she really enjoys just sitting in her high chair and playing.  Joe thinks it's funny to put things on her head.  She doesn't mind one bit!  ha ha ha she still looks cute with a turban on her head!=)

Joe put her blanket on her head

Joe went with me to her 6 month check up.  He decided to put her pants on her head while we were waiting for the doctor.  That, and look through all the drawers, and play with the tongue depressors.  Such a kid!=) On a side note, she is 20 pounds, and measuring slightly above 95th percentile in height, weight, and head size.  She's proportional and healthy the dr said! We'll take it!=) 

One more quick thing I have to document so I don't forget.  One day after reading a farm animal book to Brooklynn, I started making the noises.  Whenever I said "Moo" like a cow she would make this frowny face and start to cry.  I thought it was maybe just my impression of the cow that scared her.  By the time I thought to record it, I was starting to sound more like a dying cow.    Well, a few days later we were playing with this little toy, and guess what?  It makes a cow noise.  Pretty sure she started crying again!  I couldn't help but laugh.  It wasn't just my impression!  Now she's no longer afraid of that noise, but for a few days there it was quite the crack up!  

This little girl also really enjoys spending time with her daddy! He spoils her just like we all knew he would.=)   He is always getting her to laugh and he comes up with the funniest things to do with her.  She lights up when she sees him, and it's so fun for me to watch them interact.  Lately Joe and I have been racing each other to see who can get to her first when we hear her wake up from her naps. We'll jokingly argue over who gets to go get her!  At night after she's gone to sleep and it's been an hour or so, one of us will usually say "I miss Bookie!  Lets go wake her up!"  No, we never actually do it!! =)  We both love her so much!  I'm so lucky to have both of them in my life.  I'm so thankful that Joe is such an amazing father.  

Joe said he could tell she really liked it!  No, we did NOT buy it!!=)  

She loves sitting in the recliner with her daddy!

Looking at the gold fish!

Happy Half Birthday my little Bookie!  We're so incredibly thankful to have you in our lives!