If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Isn't that how it goes?

Well I decided to use this little saying and see how it worked. It works great. Here's the story:

Bria has been a pretty good night time sleeper since she was 10 weeks old. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments. But overall she does pretty well. Naps are another story. Every once and awhile Bria will take a wonderful nap, usually once every 3 or 4 weeks. But for the most part she does not like her naps and wakes up grumpy. It doesn't matter that we do the same thing before naps, she still enjoys fighting them. For the last week and a half it's been a huge battle. One day in particular Bria was fighting her nap with every bone in her body. I'd let her cry for a few minutes then go in and cuddle her. Wait a little longer, go in and cuddle. This went on for 45 minutes, she was winning. So I went in there, looked at her, and decided I couldn't beat her, she totally had me. So I joined her.

I crawled in her crib (Sarah-I was totally picturing you in the crib with Jack) and laid down beside her. Almost instantly she closed her eyes and was off to sweet dreamland. I quietly

crawled out of the crib (not easy) and did a silent victory dance. Although it wasn't technically a victory, I still counted it. Brian demanded a reenactment when he got home, he couldn't believe I actually did it. Believe it baby!

In other news, I've been able to put Bria's hair in a cute bow on the top of her head a few times. This may not be big news to you, but it is to us because Bria's hair is growing slower than grass in Arizona during the summer.

I give you the evidence:

Keys are a great distraction so I can get a few pictures.

And you may also notice Bria is in blue. I rarely put her in blue, not because I don't like it. In fact blue is my favorite color. But even when she wears pink people call her a boy so I don't want to encourage them by dressing her in boy colors. Although, I guess it doesn't matter because they make the mistake no matter what. Urgh.

Brian has been so wonderful to let me sleep in on the weekend and he says he LOVES his mornings with Bria. So everybody wins, yesss!

He does a good job of whipping out the camera when needed. Here she is emptying her diaper bag out (favorite thing to do these days):

Bria loves to stand at our back door and tap on the glass, especially when MJ's out there. She thinks it's hilarious :)

I'm busy working on Bria's birthday stuff so that's why I've been MIA. I can't wait for her birthday party!

My funny eater

Currently Bria is all over the board with her naps. One day she doesn't get tired until 12:30 pm and only sleeps for an hour, the next day she falls asleep at 9:45 am. I'm exhausted just trying to keep up with her changing naps.

Plus she is getting up earlier each day and waking up soooo crabby. The first noise out of her is a huge screaming cry. Can you say grumpy? It was only a week ago when she took a two and a half hour nap, but it seems like a lifetime ago :)

She's still in a pretty good mood for the most part though, and yesterday we went for two long walks because it was so nice out. We stopped at the park (I love our neighborhood) and I put her in the swings, she was laughing and laughing. I thought I was going to die of how adorable she was being, loved it.

I would've like to repeat that today but it is so gray and rainy out so that will not be happening.

My friend Erin and I are taking our little ones to swim lessons starting in February! I am ecstatic and can't wait to get Bria in the pool. I got her a cute little yellow and white striped swim suit yesterday at Target and am just giddy with excitement.

I mentioned how Bria is very animated during her meals, here is one of Bria's many faces during her feeding time, funny girl:

Plans for this weekend include homework, homework, and homework. While Brian does that Bria and I will probably make some trips to the library and hopefully get outside for some walks...weather permitting.

11 months

Next month at this time Bria will be 1.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse my mini panic attack. I cannot believe my little baby will be one next month, I seriously may vomit from shock. That is insane to me, didn't I just bring her home from the hospital?

Bria is up to a lot this month:

• Climbing stairs, she is starting to get really fast
• Working on going down the stairs, she still likes to try and go head first (insert heart attack)
• Saying "mama" "dada" "ni-ni" (I think she's trying to say night night) "ssss" and last night she was trying to say her name, it sounds like "Bruh" or "Brrr" it was really cute
• She is still in size 3 diapers and 9-12 month clothes. I've put her 12 month outfits on her but they are still a tiny big
• Wants to walk everywhere, but of course that still requires our hands :) When I try to let go and have her stand by herself she promptly sits down, I think she's cautious like her mama

• Crawls at lightening speed towards MJ's food dish and water dish, fun times
• Knows where her toes, ears, and tongue are. She knows where our nose is (and loves to grab it) and bellybutton
• She knows what trees are and will point to our fake tree when I ask her, she also points to the lights when I ask her where they are
• She is very into pointing these days, she points at everything
• Still waves hi and bye, blows kisses, and gives real kisses! I love her real kisses they are so sweet

• LOVES being naked, her highlight of the day is before bath time when she gets to crawl around naked, she is hilarious
• Nurses first thing in the morning and right before bed, during the day she gets a bottle or 2 of formula (I love wearing a normal bra!)
• Takes one nap a day, for an hour or two
• Goes to bed around 7 pm and wakes up between 6 and 7 am
• Prefers mom but does great with other people if I'm not there, yay!

She is such a sweetheart, especially around other people. Sometimes when it's just the two of us at home she likes to throw tantrums and test me, but she'd never do that around other people because then they'd think my job was hard ;)

It's hard to think Bria is starting her last month of her first year. She has grown so much and I love her personality. She is cautious like me, she observes people and her surroundings before making any sudden moves. She stares at people intently and observes their every move. She is curious but wants me to explore with her. She makes the most hilarious faces ever, seriously, this girl makes about 20 different faces...and that's just during feeding time. I can be frustrated one minute and then as soon as she scrunches her face all is forgiven because I can't help but laugh.

Thanks for making our lives complete Bria, happy 11 months!

Hiking

Last weekend we dropped Bria off at Grammy's house and headed out for a hike. Back in the day we use to go to Bald Hill a lot during college and go for a hike but it's been a long time since we've been there. It was a blast and the weather was perfect. It seriously felt like we were in college again and tons of memories kept flashing back.

I forgot to go to the bathroom before we left but thank goodness there was one there. Brian thought it was funny to take a picture of me going in.

We took our time and stopped at each view point to snap a picture or sip some hot chocolate. It felt good to be outside getting some exercise.


I love how green Oregon is all year round, that would be thanks to the evergreen trees.

Next I want to head out to the beach, it's been over a year since we've been (I think it's been 2 years) and we are taking it for granted that we only live an hour from the beach. Although since we're in Oregon it's not really a beach, we call it the coast. It's rarely sunny there and the water is absolutely freezing, just sticking your feet in is painful. But nonetheless, it's still the ocean and we should take advantage of our close location to it.

We bought a Victorian House

Yes, you heard me right. We are proud owner's of a gorgeous pink Victorian house. Well, I should say this little girl is the proud new owner...or will be in about 5 years:

And Bria will be the most popular little girl on the block with it, I will be living vicariously through her ;)

We were out shopping downtown and a cute local toy store had this adorable Victorian dollhouse on display. I asked Brian to watch Bria so I could go play with it, and I'm not embarrassed to say that. It was gorgeous and something I would've LOVED to have as a little girl. Well apparently this little beauty was on mega sale, we're talking well under $100 for the house and ALL the furniture. Those who don't know about dollhouses, let me just say this normally went for $170, and that's just the house. Adding all the furniture that it came with it totaled almost $500!!

Now me being frugal and us not having an endless amount of money, I was not convinced that we should get it. Would you believe Brian talked me into it? Bria has the best daddy ever and one day she will have to thank him by not dating until she's 25.

We got it home and I could not be more thrilled with the purchase, it is adorable and the only thing it needs are some dolls. For now I'm having fun rearranging the furniture, it's adorable.

Now I just need my nieces and little sister's to come play with it before we pack it up!

The Library Rocks

I love reading. Love, love, love it. I haven't read a book since Bria was born, for obvious reasons, and I don't think I realized how much I missed it. Last week Bria and I went to our local library and holy cow have we been missing out. They have a great play area for kids so while Bria played, I got to read.
It.Was.Awesome.
I would stop every few pages to stop Bria from eating the germ infested toys there. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard to watch her crawl across the floor knowing how many dirty shoes have walked across there, and watch her play with the toys that so many other kids have slobered on, but it builds her immune system right? Plus, she was having fun and it was nice to get lost in a book again. So we are visiting the library often and I love it. I check out a bunch of books for Bria and one for me. It's wonderful to be reading again, any book suggestions for me?

It looks like Bria may have transitioned to one nap, although I have thought that twice before so who knows. The last week Bria has just taken one nap and does pretty well.

No new teeth, still just the 4.

Bria loves helping me organize my PJ drawers, apparently she thinks I need all new pajamas because she pulled all of them out, and had fun doing it:

I'm trying to expose Bria to lots of different types of fruits and vegetables. I don't like cantaloupe or honey melon but I bought some for Bria to try and she really like it:
She's definitely become a picky eater and is eating a lot less these days. I'm not sure why, hopefully it's just a phase. If I let her, she would eat toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sound familiar? Apparently all the toast I ate during pregnancy made her a toast addict as well.

More pictures to come...

Kiwi-not so much

I fed Bria some kiwi and although she liked it I think it was a little sour for her...

Cute outfits and Barfing (not related)

Bria has been waking up a little earlier lately and it's funny how tired I am even though it's only 45 minutes earlier. Guess she can't wait to start the day ;)

When I put this headband on Bria she looked so adorable that I told Brian to grab the camera, we need pictures stat!

It was actually a bow that Jenny and Kyle put on Brian's present way back when they got married. I kept it in hopes that we could put it on our baby girl one day, and now we can! Thanks for the cute headband Tegners :)

Notice how MJ snuck in the pictures? Can you say jealous?

"What do you need Mom, I'm kinda busy helping Dad with his homework."

My friend Jenna sent me this adorable onesie. She said she just couldn't pass it up and thought of Bria right away when she saw it, I LOVE it!!

(I had a hard time getting a picture because someone wanted the camera, but it's a cheerleading shirt, so adorable)

It's been awhile since Erin and Gabe have come over because of the holiday madness. Both Bria and I were so excited when they came over to play yesterday. Gabe is the cutest little guy, he is so happy. Bria loves grabbing his hands and face. She's also jealous of all his hair, the little guy has already had a haircut and he's only 5 months! Oh man, I am just dreaming of all the boys I could put on Bria if she had that much hair.

I have to say this is one of my favorite outfits. I've been eying it for awhile and my mom got it for Bria for Christmas, yay! The onesie underneath the jacket says, "Smile if you think I'm cute!"

And then the jacket has a pink Bug on it-perfect.

I wish this picture wasn't blurry, I love it.

"Well hey good looking, fancy seeing you here."

Prevacid

I thought it was working. I thought we found a solution to Bria's throwing up. I thought she had acid reflux. I also thought a rice cooker was a crock pot.

It has been 3 weeks of Bria being on Prevacid consistently, haven't missed one day. She is still throwing up.

The other day we were at my moms and she was throwing up so much that I lost count at 8. My mom's poor carpet, we had carpet cleaner all over it. Then she barfed on the chair, and me, and it just didn't end. Ugh.

I can't tell you how deflated I feel. I hate seeing Bria throw up, I hate thinking about what it's doing to her esophagus, I hate that I can't fix it, I hate even more that her doctor won't spend more than 2 seconds trying to diagnose it, I hate that our insurance is being a pain and hasn't reimbursed us for the Prevacid.

I hear stories about how some babies throw up a lot and then one day they stop, will that be Bria tomorrow? I pray it is. If not, I think we may need a second opinion. We've got to figure this out. I need to be stronger and stand up to her doctor, I'm her mother and I need to find the courage and confrontational skills to say, "Listen, I don't just want medicine, I want a solution. I want to figure out the real problem and fix it for good. You hear me?!"

I find myself getting into the mode of, "Why Bria. Why did this have to happen to her?" And then I snap out of it and think about all the little babies who have things much worse. Bria is healthy in every other way and I need to remember that and be grateful.

It just gets exhausting watching her barf, cleaning the carpet, doing her laundry, doing my laundry, repeat. MJ had to get a haircut and bath this weekend because Bria barfed all over her. It was kind of funny and MJ was trying to figure out where the barf was and looked all over the rug.

Today Bria and I are headed to the library to check out some books, I think both her and I are ready for some new stories :)

Year to Year

Last year at this time my day looked like this:

5:55 am- Get up, shower.

6:10 am- Do hair and makeup while watching the news

6:30 am- Get dressed

6:40 am- Scarf down breakfast while packing a lunch and getting my hot chocolate made

6:50 am- Leave to meet vanpool and head to work

7:45 am- Arrive at work

12:30 pm - Eat lunch, go for a walk

3:00 pm- Break, go for a walk

4:50 pm- Meet vanpool and fall asleep on the way home (one of the many reasons the vanpool rocked)

5:45 pm- Arrive home, don't sit down-go directly upstairs to change and go for a walk with MJ.

6:30 pm- Get back from walk, change, eat cereal and toast for dinner, and sit on the couch for the rest of the night.

Since a year ago I was about 8 months pregnant I will add that I peed every 20 minutes, or so it seemed.

My days now:

6:30/7 am- Wake up to a beautiful baby talking on the monitor (or more recently, crying), nurse baby in bed while watching the news

7:30 am- Go downstairs, eat breakfast while Bria plays

8:30 am- Feed Bria breakfast

9:00 am- More playing

10:30 am- Baby down for a nap (if we're lucky it's 2 hours, if we're unlucky it's 20 minutes)

1:00 pm- Bria's had a nap, lunch, and now it's time to run errands or have a playgroup of some sort

3:30 pm- Attempt to put Bria down for an afternoon nap, doesn't always work

5:00 pm- Bria eats dinner

7:00 pm- Bath time for Bria, then nurse, then a story, then bedtime

9:30 pm- Crawl into bed

Crazy how time changes things. Will 2010 bring us more changes? Only time will tell.