Today marks the beginning of Brianna’s Gator football experience. We dressed her up in her pink Gator cheerleader outfit and her Gator socks from her Uncle Bob and took her to watch the game with the local Gators. She did Two-bits, the Gator chomp (see upper right picture below), and of course did lots of touchdown signals. I have to admit — she fell asleep in the second quarter, but who wouldn’t? Poor Hawaii, it just wasn’t a good day for them. Brianna thoroughly enjoyed her first Gator victory — Go Gators!!
This post may be a little late, but better late than never! Nana, Poppa, and Tia came to visit for a week at the beginning of August and we had all kinds of fun. Nana pulled the weeds in the front yard (my least favorite chore) and helped me pull the giganto weeds in the back yard. Amazingly, it was in the 70s during their visit so this yard work was quite tolerable. Nana also finished a special quilt for Brianna (see pictures below). It is just beautiful. The colors match Brianna’s monkey (the first thing we bought when I found out I was pregnant and the basis for the color scheme in her room) and the circles match the dot theme in her room. What you can’t see very well in the pictures is the cat paw trim and all the butterflies stitched into the beige part of the quilt. These butterflies are realistic representations of multiple different types of butterflies — Nana is truly a gifted quilter! Poppa worked on sealing some of the cracks in our floors near the doors (entry points for ants we have discovered) and helped hang all kinds of things for me — the height giraffe my aunt Kathy gave her (see above) and various kitchen items in the pantry. Tia helped watch Brianna while all of us were doing this work. In addition to all that, Jason and I went to dinner a couple of times (had to take advantage of all those babysitters!) and all but Nana, who stayed home with Brianna, went to see The Dark Knight at the Imax theater. Whew! It was a busy week. The following show a few pictures from their visit.
While it was too hot today to go to the pool, I decided to deck Brianna out in her little bathing suit and sunglasses anyway. We had an inside “pool” party instead. The following are the hilarious and adorable pictures that resulted. The top two show her having a fabulous time chatting with friends. The bottom two show her “chillin by the pool,” waiting for someone to bring her drinks. Based on the bottom left picture, perhaps the bartender should cut her off. 
I found this adorable hair clip the other day, and much to Jason’s chagrin, I couldn’t resist using it to style Brianna’s hair. Isn’t she adorable!
Brianna turned 4 months old this past Tuesday and had her 4 month checkup on Thursday. She now weighs 11 lbs., 2.5 oz, and is 23.5″ long. I think she is getting so big — in fact, you can see in this recent picture how she is almost too big for her cradle!
But, the doctor is a little concerned about her weight since she is not consistently following any one percentage growth line. Instead, every time we take her in, she is in a lower percentage. This is probably because she spits up a lot. So we have started adding a little rice cereal to her bottle. Hopefully this will add a few calories along with weighing down her food a bit to help her keep her food in her stomach where it belongs (instead of on my shirt, Jason’s shirt, her shirt, etc.). The doctor also said she has an ear infection. Now, before you feel too bad for her you should know that she doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. Either she has a high pain tolerance, or it doesn’t really hurt. The only difference we see is that she is spitting up more (almost hard to believe) and she is a little congested. Both, apparently, are signs of an ear infection. The congestion I get, but the extra spit-up? You learn something new every day.
Anyway, she is quite the happy baby. She smiles almost all the time, laughs quite a bit, and talks constantly (I don’t think she got the talking part from Jason…). She found her feet the other day and has spent the past week or so grabbing and thoroughly examining them. She also loves to play with Gina (her giraffe) and various other stuffed rattles and toys she has. Mostly, she likes to grab and taste everything (including my glasses and my hair)! Naps are still too short/infrequent, but I hear that is normal for this age. On the plus side, she doesn’t seem too bothered by a lack of sleep and she generally sleeps great at night — between 7 and 9 hours each night. Even then, when she wakes up (usually around 5 or 6) she typically eats and goes back to sleep for a couple more hours. Jason and I both really appreciate the good night sleeping!
Last week Mimi (my mom) and Tatie Kat (my aunt Kathy) came for a visit. Kathy had back surgery a couple of weeks ago and my mom came up to help her recover. Then she brought Kathy to my house since she had to go back home. Plus, it gave my mom an excuse to see her adorable grandchild! Jason and I took advantage of the at home baby sitters by going to see Batman – The Dark Knight. Excellent movie! Brianna apparently wasn’t a perfect angel while we were gone, but that happens sometimes when her tummy hurts. Mimi and Brianna got through it with a little help from the swing. Brianna’s visitors brought her several gifts from all over the world. The current favorite is Gina the Giraffe (named after my friend Gina from college), seen here with Brianna.
While here, Mimi got second piercings in her ears — they look great! The lady at the store was very nervous when she saw us until we assured her that we weren’t going to ask her to pierce Brianna’s ears. Mom headed home early last week left Kathy in our care (who, as it turns out, didn’t need much help from us at all). We had fun visiting, shopping, making sushi, etc., before Kathy headed home earlier this week. Brianna had a great time and we will all miss them!
