Even their toys are not safe now that Brianna has started moving around more. She went behind her chair to get to this one. Jason went ahead and got it out for her — she can’t hurt it and the ball does not come out of the slot. As you can see, she had a grand old time playing with it.
Brianna got an email this evening requesting more pictures…something about an ice storm and NEEDING new pictures to stay warm…hmmmm. I don’t know if I am buying it, but here are a couple of my little munckin. 
Today she tried out Puffs (banana flavored) for the first time. After pushing them around on her tray for a few minutes, she figured it out and happily chowed down. I tried some myself — they are quite tasty!
Even though she does more scooching than crawling, she still manages to get around quite well. Here is a rare shot of her actually on her knees in a crawl pose.
Generally, the knee shots are just transitional — she is either on her way to the seated position or on her way down to do some scooching. Most of her “crawling” takes place on her tummy, and she is getting pretty quick. She even managed to sneak a block over to the edge of the loft and drop it — I didn’t even know she had it in her hand! Sneaky little thing…Time to put up some kind of screen before the poor kitties (or Mommy/Daddy) get coshed on the head by falling objects!
She does LOVE to stand however. Lately, one of her favorite things is to grab a hold of my hands (shirt, legs, arms, whatever she can get her hands on) so she can pull herself up.
I am told she has pulled herself up in her crib, but I have yet to see her do it myself. She can take all the time she wants — I am not in a rush!
Today was a wonderful day, in every respect. We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland — yay! Jason and I took Brianna out for a few minutes while it was snowing to show her all the beautiful snow. She didn’t seem to quite understand what all the fuss was about. She will learn!
It snowed until about 1 PM. When all was said and done, our house looked like this. We had about 4 inches throughout most of the yard, but parts close to the house had over 6 inches due to drifts building up.
After it stopped snowing, we took Brianna out again to show her the kids sledding down the hills and to generally play in the snow.
She liked it better the second time, and only got fussy after we sat her down in the snow, most likely due to a combination of being tired and not being too sure about all that white cold stuff.
In between snow journeys and naps, Barack Obama was inaugurated. No matter your political persuasion, this was a huge day in our country’s history! Brianna really seemed to enjoy the few festivities she saw. I wonder what changes Brianna will see in her lifetime?
Lastly, our little munchkin has been teasing us for weeks with almost crawling (scootching around on her butt, repeatedly rolling over to get from point A to point B, etc) and almost getting herself back up on her butt from her tummy or back. Well, today she mastered one of them. When we went to get her out of her crib after a nap, this is the sight that greeted us:
She looks like a little jailbird! She has been in this position after each nap. As I am typing this, Jason says he finally saw her actually move back into a seated position all by herself. She will be moving before we know it!
What a day!
It is supposed to get really cold here in the next couple of days. Today was quite chilly all by itself, especially in the morning. But, we had to go out, so we bundled Brianna all up in her nice coat, new hat, and matching mittens. I tried to get her hair out of her eyes, but she was having none of it! In the second picture, she is waving bye-bye.
Many of our Christmas presents revolved around Brianna. For example, Jason made a calendar of much or our favorite Brianna pictures to give as gifts. Also, a friend (thanks Jeanette!) told me about this wonderful lady (Patti Rishforth) who made this fantastic silhouette of Brianna for us. It is marked as “sample,” but it really is Brianna.
Patti puts her silhouettes on just about anything you want, so I had some coffee mugs, ornaments, and note cards made up for gifts. Jeanette found Patti’s website at etsy.com, where Jeanette and her mom also sell their fabulous handmade pottery (we got some of this as gifts as well — check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6207258). Patti’s website on etsy is http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5988262. You can also look at Patti’s stuff at www.pattirishforth.com. We were very pleased with the results!
Lastly, we had some formal portraits made in October. Brianna took lots of wonderful pictures — at one point the photographer asked if Brianna takes a bad picture! Here are a couple of the collage prints that show most of our favorites. Enjoy!
I would have posted this stuff sooner, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprises.
Brianna must be a true Gator. While I was in labor, the Carolina Hurricanes lost their last game of the season, and therefore, a spot in the hockey playoffs. On her birthday, the Tar Heels lost in embarrassing fashion in the Final Four. But last night, on the day that my little Gator cut her second tooth (a Gator tooth!), the Gators won the National Championship in football on the backs of (1) the Gator D, (2) Percy Harvin, and (3) Tim Tebow. YAY!!!!
I know many of you have already seen picture above (taken after the Gators won the SEC championship), but it is just perfect for this celebration. The picture below was taken today in honor of the Gator national championship (yes, our tree is still up – yay!). It’s great, to be, a Florida Gator!
Here is our big girl — Brianna is 9 months old!
She had a wonderful Christmas and New Years visiting family and soaking up all the attention. Jason and I wonder if she will go into attention withdrawal this week after everyone leaves. I sure hope not!!
By our measurements, she weighs roughly 17 lbs. She will go see the doctor next week for her 9 month checkup, so we will get official weight and height numbers then.
During the past month she accomplished many things — some good, some bad. She experienced her first illness and ended up sick twice, both times with a fever. They were pretty close together, so it is possible it was all one bug. Regardless, she didn’t want her bottle and she wasn’t sleeping well so the end result was a trip to the doctor’s office the Saturday after Christmas. Poor thing — she had a double ear infection (just like we figured). She is feeling much better now and is back to her normal, happy, self. On the plus side, she has learned to scooch backwards quite well. She waves bye-bye (whenever we say bye-bye and wave at her), blows smacking kisses all the time, especially when someone else blows smacking kisses to her, and has started pulling at the side of her pack-n-play. In honor of that last accomplishment, we removed the bassinet from the pack-n-play and dropped her all the way down! She now spends more time playing with her toys instead of trying to throw them out of the pack-n-play. She has not started pulling herself up in her crib, but that is only because she has not yet figured out how to transition from her belly to her butt by herself. She also claps whenever you say “yay!” or “good girl!” — she even occasionally claps when you say “touchdown!” We have not yet convinced her to raise her arms in the touchdown symbol, but she is thinking about it…
She also cut her first tooth on 12-30-08 (lower right front tooth). You can’t see it in this picture, but I assure you it is there (very sharp!).
She sleeps great at night (except when sick) — generally from 8PM to 7AM. She still does not nap well at daycare, but generally takes a ~2 hour nap sandwiched between two ~1 hour naps when at home. We have added peaches, raspberries, bananas, and apricots to her diet. Today or tomorrow I plan to add cauliflower followed by asparagus and carrots. Then, I will start mixing and matching. She gives every indication that she does not like peas. Unfortunately for her, she did not let me know this until after she finished the small batch I made, and after I made a new large batch of peas. So, we mix them with applesauce and bananas and she seems to tolerate them…barely. You just have to make sure you give her bites of other things in between bites of peas.
Happy New Year everyone! As you can see, Brianna is enjoying the holidays. She is sitting here with Pup-pup — a very soft and cushy gift from her Uncle Bob. I see many years ahead with her dragging Pup-pup around from spot to spot as a giant pillow. Much of my family is still here. We celebrated Christmas on New Years so that we could celebrate with my Uncle Mike, who did not arrive until yesterday. Brianna does not quite know what to make of all these people, but she is adapting! She is also cutting her first tooth. The very edge poked through a couple of days ago. She has become a drooling and gnawing fiend!!
