Sleeping on her own

Wow. Not sure how much more I can take of this. Branigan is doing pretty well at going to sleep on her own in the crib at night, only fussing for maybe three minutes or so. But naps are a whole other story. She screams for 10, 15, even 25 minutes every time I lay her down. Then she only sleeps for maybe 30-40 minutes (sometimes not even that long) and is back up and sceaming. All this makes for a very cranky little girl - pretty much all day. Whew.

Okay, I got it out. I will now continue to persist and try to stay strong. However I see a very good bottle of wine in my future this evening.

Getting close to Walking

We've been practicing walking out in the yard with Branigan for the past few weeks. For some reason she seems to do better in the grass. Here are a couple of pictures of her doing her thing!

Time for a nap?

All worn out!

Giggle box

Our little giggle box :)

Sacha

I was thinking about Sacha, our Chocolate Lab, this morning as I vacuumed. Many know that Sacha and I have our difficulties. If you have ever been around Sacha, I can promise that you've been annoyed. She has no idea that she is too big to be a lap dog. She stays directly under your feet, and if you have on flip flops, will frequently lick them. She eats toilet papers rolls like an apple, drinks from the toilet, eats plastic bowls and generally smells a lot of the time.

But, as I thought about Sacha this morning, I thought that there are a lot of good things that we can take from her as well.

1) She is kind to everyone. If you've ever come to our door, you know that she greets everyone with affection (meaning she almost knocks you down trying to hug and lick you). I nearly bit a salesman's head off the other night, just because he caught me at the wrong moment. I felt bad about it all evening - that guy was just doing his job and trying to earn a living - I need to be more like Sacha, and even if I have to say no, still say it kindly.

2) She is a great guard dog. One great thing about Sacha is that I never worry about someone sneaking in at night - she would hear them and let us know. I think we could call this taking care of our family, something that lots of people could take a lesson from.

3) She recycles. What is recycling? Re-using items that might otherwise be called waste. You can figure out for yourself what she recycles :). We use disposable diaper here, and although I feel bad about it, I have no intention of stopping. Therefore we recycle everything else. Paper, plastic and glass - with few exceptions.

4) She is patient. I need to focus on this lesson everyday. Patience allows us to enjoy situations more than showing frustration or anger. There are times that I get frustrated with Branigan and lose sight of the fact that time doesn't slow down for anyone, and every second I spend frustrated is one that I lose being happy with her.

5) She is smart, and for a dog, really uses common sense. She should go to the Wal-Mart parking lot and teach a class on this.


In the end, I was really looking for reasons to love Sacha this morning as I vacuumed an outline around her. Moving forward, I will try to remember these lessons from Sacha and have more patience with her!

Daddy's Home!

This week has been flying by quickly, but today we had a great opportunity to just slow things down and enjoy the afternoon together. Jamie was home today, which generally means that he or I one is in the office. Thankfully, the computer programs we needed to work on were down, which gave us the perfect opportunity to sneak off to the park and pool together - all three of us!

We had a great time at the park, where Branigan is getting pretty darn brave on the slide. Probably more brave than I'm comfortable with, and certainly more than Jamie! After the park we went down to our neighborhood pool, where we were the only people. With good reason - we only stayed about 20 minutes as a major thunderstorm was moving in. But it was still nice to have Jamie there.

Branigan has been doing one sort of new thing this week. She's keeping her heels on the floor when she walks - no more tippy toes. She can now walk holding only one of your hands for quite a ways. She has also started crawling to her little cart and walking behind it rather than crawling from place to place all the time. So I guess that means she's getting closer to taking some steps on her own. I guess we'll see.

Branigan at 11 Months

How can I be writing this post? Is it possible that Branigan is nearly a year old? I am really feeling this one. She really isn't a baby anymore - we now have a toddler. Don't get me wrong - I love where we are right now. She is just so fun, and she is really starting to communicate with us. However, I can't believe how time has flown.

Branigan is a very busy little girl. She gets up between 7 and 8am, and has a breakfast of oatmeal or whole grain cereal with fruit (generally peaches, bananas, pineapple, apple or pears) and then a bottle. She plays for an hour or two while Jamie and I get things done, and then has a nap - now in her crib on her own. She does not like this, but would much rather be held by mom or dad. Once she's up, she has another bottle and plays until about noon.

Branigan's taste in toys has changed drastically over the past month. Gone are the days that any old toy would entertain her - she now wants puzzles or problem solving toys, books or any kitchen utensil. She's probably happiest with a big cup and a wooden spoon, but still loves her books and brings them to us throughout the day to read to her. She is also starting to like stuffed animals or dolls with faces. She still loves her pal Scout, and recently Fred and Shirley brought her a doll back from their trip to Romania that she just loves. Honestly, I've tried to put it up to save it for her - but she really likes it. So, it goes almost everywhere with us, even in Wal-Mart. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen when she picks it up and hugs it to her. She'll take one hand and crawl with it, carry it or toss it to wherever she's going next. So hopefully Fred and Shirley won't mind....:)


Branigan has lunch at about noon, where we try to get in her veggie servings for the day. She generally eats peas, carrots, green beans, or sweet potatoes. After the veggies, we try different finger foods. She's definitely in an experimental mode right now, and is rather picky about what she'll actually swallow. She loves puffs, cheerios, gold fish, cheese, cheese, cheese, pineapples, cheese, and did I mention cheese? She'll also eat club or graham crackers, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. But chicken, hamburger, green beans, carrots and bananas all get left on the plate.


After we've had lunch is now when we venture out. We go to the park, the swimming pool, the store or visiting. Branigan is so much fun to take shopping. She tries to talk to everyone in the store. We have a "marco polo" locating system here at the house - if she's in another room and wants me, she'll go "ehh ehh" (sort of like a dolphin), so of course I say that back. So in the store she of course thinks this is how to get other people to talk to and play with her as well. :)


I try to be home by around 2 or 2:30 so that she can get another bottle and then its back down for a nap. After she gets up we do any last things here around the house and prepare dinner. Her dinner usually consists of a bit of fruit and cottage cheese. After she's eaten that, we do finger food trials again to see what she likes. I usually try to stick with things that we are having for dinner so that she gets used to the idea of eating what mom and dad eat.

After Branigan, Jamie and I have all eaten dinner, its generally getting close to her bedtime. So, we give her a bath in the bathtub. We finally put away her inflatable ducky tub about two weeks ago. Honestly, I really prefer the smaller one up on the counter - its easier to get to her and not nearly the temptation for her to stand. However, she's really just too big for it and it scares me to think about it falling off the counter. So, we are all learning - Jamie and I to give her a bath, and her to take one, in the big tub. She definitely likes it, but it does create new challenges. :) After bath time we read a quick book and then Branigan gets her last bottle of the day. After her bottle we lay her down and she is going to sleep on her own, just like nap time. Again, she does not like this, but we are persisting.


At the end of the day I'm always glad to have two hands again with no one pulling on my pants, and to be able to sit down with Jamie and relax. But I still always miss her, and look forward to times when she gets to stay up later with us.

Branigan's hair is coming in thickly now. Some days its totally curly, and some days its totally straight - but every day it is red, red, red. Everyone asks me if my husband has red hair, and when I say no, they look up at me quickly. Really? Is what I think. No, we are not sure where it came from but we love it. Her eyes are still sort of blue gray and undecided. She now has her fourth tooth in, all four front ones. None are fully in, but have now broken through.

Branigan is very tall for age, at nearly 32 inches. This puts her almost out of her 18 month clothing already. I actually got a size 18-24 months outfit the other day at Gymboree for her for the 4th of July, and nearly cried. But then we went to Wal-Mart (seems like we are there everyday) and we saw this lady with a baby. Branigan loves other babies now, so we stopped to chat. Upon seeing the little girl, I guessed her to be around 6-7 months old, as Branigan clearly dwarfed her. But, she was actually 18 months. Granted, this little girl was very little for age, but it made me laugh - why would I ever get upset about buying a bigger size for Branigan? She's a normal and growing little girl. I'm blessed to buy bigger sizes! Last week I took Branigan shoe shopping as she had grown out of her size 3 shoes. I was guessing that she was a size 4, but didn't know for sure because I couldn't find any for her to try on. So I finally just took her to a shoe store, and the size 4's there were WAY too small! She was actually a size 5 in Buster Brown's, and a size 6 in Nike's. I absolutely couldn't believe it.


Branigan's personality is very sweet, although not laid back. She can actually be quite bossy, so I'm a little interested to see how she'll act once she can use real words. :) She loves it when you can sit down and play with her. She'll hand you blocks or puzzle pieces, and then get them back a minute later. She totally destroys the kitchen at least three times per day - in very quick fashion. She can get into two drawers, and takes everything out of them. This is probably her favorite thing to do.


Branigan loves the dogs. When we go into her room in the morning, she stands in the corner of her crib and won't look at you until she has seen Lacey - who she yells "Ahh, ahh!" at. She and Lacey play with dog toys during the day (Lacey brings Branigan a toy, then grabs it back and runs away with it before Bran can get hold of it), but doesn't get close enough to be petted, which is very smart on her part. Sacha lets her crawl on her, pull her hair and lay her head down on her. She is the most patient dog ever.


Someday when you read this Branigan, I hope it gives you a little picture of your life now. But you also need to know how much you are loved, and how proud we are of you. Thank you for bringing so much joy into our lives!

Eating and Sleeping

This week has brought about several changes in Branigan's eating and sleeping patterns. We started the week with her refusing all spoon fed food. She's also very busy trying out her new chompers, so rather than eating finger foods, she just holds it between her teeth, chews, and then spits it back out. So she really went all day Tuesday and Wednesday and didn't eat anything. Thankfully, by yesterday afternoon she was hungry and baby food was okay again :). Its been a rough week, but I think we are on the good side of that now.

Jamie and I finally made the decision this week to begin having Branigan learn to fall asleep on her own. So at night, we are now giving her a bath, reading her a book, giving her a bottle, and then simply laying her down in her crib with a promise that we love her. Its been an interesting week, and really not as bad as we thought it would be. The first night she cried for about 5 minutes. The second night around 20 minutes, the third about 90 seconds, and then last night back to about 5 minutes. So overall, not a bad week. Hopefully by next week at this time Branigan will accept this better. It is really breaking my heart to just lay her down and have her look at me like I'm abandoning her. We are staying strong though.

55 Pounds

Wow. How miserable did I have to feel a year ago?!?! I've officially lost 55 lbs since I was at my biggest pregnant, which was about this time last year (approximately 30 lbs baby weight and 25 lbs Taco John's weight :). I was pretty miserable.


One year ago Sunday marks my last baby shower. It was very nice and I am still so grateful to Denise for putting it on (we didn't have to buy almost anything for the nursery thanks to my showers!), but I remember being so glad it was over. I felt huge and hot and irritable. I remember that my sister Robin stayed the following week with me to help me sort out all of the wonderful gifts - probably wasn't much fun for her! Ha! A ginormous pregnant lady ordering her around all week. Regardless, I do feel much better today so thank you Weight Watchers.



We've had a big week. Monday Jamie watched Branigan while I got the paperwork for the store completed, and then Fred and Shirley came over Monday night and brought dinner. We had a great visit. Shirley then turned around and came back down on Tuesday to help with Branigan while I got the house cleaned. That was a bit of a luxury. Although I can definitely get the house cleaned up with Branigan, its much easier to have two free hands. I got everything done but the dusting (which I hate to do) in one afternoon. That really freed up the rest of the week!



Jamie and I have a catering event on Sunday morning for breakfast. We have to be at the store by 2:30 am to get everything ready. My response: Are you kidding?!?!? They definitely are not paying us enough for that. However, we are still a new restaurant and cannot pick and choose our customers or their timing. This will be great exposure for our breakfast line of products, so I will not complain anymore. Except to Jamie. Loudly. All day Sunday. :) Sunday night we are having a group of corporate Taco John's people over who are in town for a training. There will be like 10 people, so it should be fun.



Since we have such a big weekend where Branigan will be ignored, I am taking her shopping today for books and puzzles - hopefully I can find a good second hand store for some of those. She's becoming such a little problem solver who loves shapes and puzzles, so it should be fun to find her some new ones. We are also on the hunt for size 4 shoes, which are apparently hard to find. I haven't gotten her any "real" shoes yet, as I'm going to wait for her to walk. But I do like to have sandles for her - it must be all those "No shoes No shirt No service" signs that has made me feel like its dirty for her to go into stores without shoes on, even though her feet touch nothing but air. ;)

A Quick Trip Home

Branigan, Jamie and I all jumped in the truck and headed for Olney on Friday morning. We got home around 5:30 that evening, and the weekend was a whirlwind from there. Friday night we caught up with the family and then all of us crashed for the night. I always think that I'm going to get out and see the town (what little there is to see) when I'm home, and it never happens. Jamie and I really intended to get out either Friday or Saturday night, but it just didn't happen.

Saturday was a fun day. Jamie (sister) brought her boyfriend Brandon home with her for a wedding, so they were there as well. Jamie (husband), Brandon and my dad spent the morning shooting guns (Brandon brought an assault rifle with him, and the gun nuts were in heaven :) while Robin, Jamie (sister), Mom and I went to Vincennes and visited my uncle who is in the hospital. It was a strange visit - and may very well be the last time I get to see Harold. He has been fighting leukemia, lymphoma and prostate cancer for years, and appears to be at the end of his journey. It was bizzare to stand there and remember the uncle who would hold me over his head and tickle me til I cried when I was a child (note - when I told him this, he promptly told me that he would not be able to pick me up anymore - ha!). While we were out, Jamie (sister) got some bad news! The wedding was off. Have no idea what happened, and will be praying for Zach, as he sounded to be pretty upset.

Once we got home, we had lunch and then it was time for Jamie (sister) and Brandon to head home. They had planned to go to the wedding and then head back to KC, but since the wedding was off, they took off a bit early. The rest of us spent the afternoon playing outside and swimming. Who knew my parents had a raspberry patch? There were some ripe, and they were awesome! We had another evening in, followed by watching the Blind Side after Branigan went to sleep. What a GREAT movie!

I used some poor judgement on Saturday night after we went to bed. Branigan was in the pack n play in our room (a borrowed one as we forgot ours at home), and woke up with a leaky diaper sometime in the middle of the night. My sleep hazed brain thought that if we changed her diaper it would have been an hour before she'd go back to sleep (and it would have been), so I thought it would be better to just put her in bed with us rather than get the borrowed pack n play wet. Bad thinking. From now on I swear that I will always happily spend that hour getting her back to sleep rather than spending the rest of the night with neither Jamie and I sleeping. Branigan just kept trying to crawl on me and kicking him. Yikes. I don't think we'd make good co-sleepers :).

Sunday Branigan and I went to church with my parents while Jamie slept in so that he would be ready for the long drive home. We had breakfast after church with some of my aunts and uncles as well as my Grandma, and then we headed home. Branigan slept 5 of the 7 hour drive home, and then was asleep by 8:30, and slept till 8:30 Monday morning! We all slept in that day - very much needed. A great weekend at home, that as always went too fast.

Sunday=0 Teeth, Thursday=3 Teeth

Wow! What a difference three days can make! Branigan had her first tooth pop through on Monday, her second on Tuesday, and her third on Thursday! Can't hardly believe it - what a big girl. We've had no more independent walking since Monday, but she's totally getting close. Its just a matter of time. I guess one morning I'll wake up and she'll decide to walk across the room rather than crawl.

Its been a quick week so far. We got back Monday afternoon, and have been playing catch up ever since. Shirley and Fred just got home from traveling abroad, and came down this afternoon for a visit. Plus I no more than got unpacked on Monday then it was time to pack again today to head to Olney for a visit with the Varner's tomorrow. Whew. Quick week.

Fun at the Lake

We had a rather peaceful, but fun, weekend at the lake. We left Friday before lunch, so got to the house in the early afternoon. After settling in, we went swimming. Branigan had such a great time in the pool and really wore herself out! She passed out cold around 7pm, and was down for the count.

Branigan loves a good drawer to empty, and the tupperware drawer was her favorite! Don't worry Shirley, we washed all of the containers :)

The lake was beautiful and calm all weekend - hard to believe for Memorial Day!

Saturday was a very relaxing day. We started with breakfast and then a family nap. Haven't done that in a long time. We spent the afternoon swimming and then had a nice dinner in. Branigan wanted to stay up late, and didn't go to bed until about 9:30pm. Yikes. The good part of that is that she at least slept in!!!

Sunday was a good, but seemed like a short day. Branigan didn't get up until after 9, so Jamie and I had already finished her our breakfasts. After that, we all went swimming. This time, Jamie and I remembered to use the sunscreen - as we were both sporting pretty good burns from Saturday. For lunch we went to a Mexican restaurant on the lake, then back home for more swimming. We had a great time. Once again, Branigan stayed up way too late.

Fred and Shirley have an infinity pool, and Branigan had a blast watching the water flow over the edge. But you really had to hold on to her, she wanted to use the overflow slope as a waterslide!

Monday morning was time to get back up and come home. Branigan slept in again allowing Jamie and I to pack the truck. She was so good the entire weekend, and I think had a really good time. Jamie and I were able to come back refreshed, ready to attack the summer season at the store. :)

Enjoying her inner tube

Watching Harry Potter while I cooked dinner

Daddy and me

Mommy and Me

A quick snack

May 31 2010

Not only is this Branigan's Aunt Jamie's birthday, it was a big day for her as well. She woke up this morning at around 9:00, with a tooth poking through her gum! It was her top front tooth on the right side. Her first tooth.

Her big day continued as she took her first few tentative steps. We came home from the lake that day but before we left, Branigan stood up in the kitchen. She is getting really good at this, and I crack up at the number of "squats" she does during the day. I should follow her lead! :) This time though, Jamie knelt just a few feet in front of her and reached out his arms. She was pretty shaky, but did make a few toddling steps toward him on her own. I don't really think she knew how she did it, and hasn't done it again since. But still! A big moment. Now if we can just get her off her tip toes, she'll be walking all around.

As a mother, I was so proud of her. But, it was also one of those bittersweet moments where I could just feel my baby growing up. I'm going to miss her gummy smiles, and I both look forward to and dread the day she walks. What a lucky lady I am to experience this with her!