Blog | 2008
Brianna celebrated her first Christmas by declaring it a “no nap” day! Fortunately, we have a very sweet baby who can pull that off without too much fussing. Getting her to bed last night, well, that was a whole other story. But, we managed it without too much difficulty. She is still feeling a little poorly, but she looks and acts like she feels much better. I think she might have an ear infection — we shall see. Right now, she is getting a bottle from her Great Grandma and basking in all the attention her family is showering on her.
She had a wonderful time yesterday playing with her new toys and watching her Daddy put things together and generally soaking it all in. I was amazed at how she gave each present her undivided attention. She checked them out and tasted as many as she could. Almost everyone was received with a big smile and lots of clapping. She is so lucky to have so much. We will do our best to make sure she always knows that. Here are a couple of pictures — enjoy!
Today was a very sad day in our family. Jason’s grandfather, “Papa” (pronounced paw-paw) died today at the age of 92. Although his health had begun to fail him in recent years, he always had a sharp mind. I regret that Brianna never met him. But we will tell her about him — how funny and sweet he was, and how she got her beautiful blue eyes not just from her Daddy and Poppa, but from her Papa. We will miss him dearly.
Well, this past weekend was a bit rough as we helped Brianna make it through the worst of her first cold and fever. It started with a low fever on Friday, which by Saturday afternoon spiked up to 103.6. I am happy to say that we all (including Mommy and Daddy) handled it just fine. Tylenol is a beautiful thing. 
Today she is feeling much better, and her fever seems to be gone. Yay! Even when sick, she still was full of smiles, as you can see below. The sunglasses may not stay on long, but they fit, and she looks just adorable while they last (Jason thinks she looks like a mini-librarian)!
Here’s another picture of Brianna in her red Christmas dress (and gingerbread man hair clip). This shot shows off her eyes.
Hi everybody. I haven’t posted in a while (since last April). I’ve been busy working on EA’s latest NASCAR game, NASCAR Kart Racing for the Wii. We’re wrapping up now. The game is scheduled for release on February 10, 2009, just in time for the Daytona 500. See the official site for more details.
I just love these pictures!! They perfectly show the split personality of our munchkin (little darling, little devil). Now don’t tell her, but she is sitting in the one of her Christmas presents…she looked so cute in her dress sitting in that chair that I just could not resist.
It is hard to believe that our little munchkin is eight months old already! We are having a blast with her. Here she is in her jammies with her bunny slippers. In this picture in particular, I think you can see why I keep saying she has Jason’s eyes.
She is still fairly stationary, but she spins more and more every day. I am told that one day, she will just get it and start crawling. For now, she loves to play on her play mat and in her exersaucer and pack-n-play. She bangs/shakes things (measuring cups, spoons, rattles of all sorts, etc.), talks to her toys/stuffed animals, and generally gnaws on everything. No teeth yet, but I am pretty sure she is working on it (really, gnaws on everything!). We have added applesauce, real oatmeal, acorn and butternut squash, peas, and pears to her diet. She still eats/drinks everything we give her (picture a little birdie) and is growing fast! In fact, she is quite impatient when it comes to food. We keep her out of the kitchen whenever we are preparing a bottle or solid food (whenever possible) because if she sees us working on food for her, she gets quite loud and insistent!
She currently weighs ~16 lbs. I know I said last month she was 26.75″ long, but I think that was a mistake. Not only was that seemingly too big of a differential from October’s measurement, but today’s measurement came in at 26.5″ and I am pretty sure she did not shrink.
For several weeks she has slept through the night with no problems (anywhere from 10 to 12 hours every night). Lately she does wake up wet, but I will happily put clean sheets on her crib every day if she keeps sleeping through the night. We have tried several things, including double diapering, to help keep her dry, but no luck. Somehow, she is “leaking” out the top of her diaper. She still does not take great naps at daycare (2 to 3 naps anywhere from 25 to 60 minutes each), but she naps great at home. Generally, she is awake 1.5 to 2 hours and then she takes a nap for 1 to 2.5 hours.
She loves to laugh (and we love doing things to make her laugh), and she loves to dance/bounce with us. Her new trick is clapping and giving high/low fives. She will clap pretty much on cue, but the high and low fives are reserved for special occasions (logic known only to her). I was unable to get a picture of her giving a high five, but here she is clapping. As you can see, she is quite amused by it all!
We hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!! We had a quiet and very nice first Thanksgiving with Brianna. Instead of out-of-town visitors, we had a couple friends over for dinner. We split the cooking and came up with a very nice feast (turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, asparagus, homemade rolls, cranberry jello salad, and pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting). Brianna was an absolute angel all day — lots of long naps to help us get things done, and lots of happy faces and sounds while awake. She slept through our dinner, which enabled us to focus on our friends. We of course gave her lots of attention before and after dinner! Here she is in an absolutely adorable outfit one of my friends gave her. I love the red bows on the jacket and the embroidery on the jacket and pants!
As for her latest “tricks,” she loves to spin around and push herself backwards on her belly, and she loves banging things (measuring cups, spoons, lids, plastic blocks, whatever). She also loves when we clap her hands for her, but she hasn’t quite decided to do this herself yet. I am beginning to wonder if my baby girl is like her grandfather or my grandfathers — they all loved food and different kinds of food and so far she is just like them. She gets very excited when she sees a bottle or sees me making her some food. I often have Jason take her out of the room while I prepare her meal because she is very impatient with the whole process. She eats every bite and seems to love it all (so far, that includes cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, acorn squash, applesauce, and bananas). Next up: pears and peas… Here she is doing her favorite post-meal activity: gnaw on bib, throw bib on the floor, wait for Mommy or Daddy to pick it up, repeat…
Sunday, Jason and I went to the mall and saw a new shop/boutique full of baby stuff. So, we checked it out (of course!). We found an adorable piggy bank (white ceramic with blue, green, and brown polka dots) very similar to one we saw months ago. We regretted not buying it then, so this time, we went ahead and bought it. It is very cute! They also had lots and lots of hair bows. I am partial to the “clothes-pin” type as opposed to the “snap” type since they are so much easier to put in Brianna’s hair. But, I couldn’t pass up this purple, pink, and green one (snap type). Once you get it in her hair, she doesn’t seem to mind it a bit. I think it just goes great with this outfit!
As for this picture, well, don’t you just feel like she is talking to you? She is, and it is very important stuff, so listen up!
Apparently, they take school pictures even at daycare these days. Brianna was, of course, adorable as always. She needed a little help sitting up at the time, but we managed. These are all the low res versions, so please excuse the artifacts. I just love the hat in this one:
This one shows off her beautiful blue eyes and her curious little face to perfection:
And this one, well it is just a perfect example of the face that greets me everyday!
