A few posts combined....

(She sent this picture along with a stylish purse to her Aunt Laura for her birthday! It was a hit.)


Well it has been a busy few weeks. Mostly great things. I have a very blessed life, a wonderful husband, family and child. Life is full and its great. We have had lake trips, weddings in Cabo, dinner with Coach Switzer, family in town, Berkley sitting up on her own, Berkley eating new foods, etc, etc, etc.

Through all of that I have been feeling like every few days I have been thrown for a loop. I get frustrated with myself when I feel disappointed, hurt or let down due to someone one else or a silly situation I come across. I get stuck on that negative thing and forget what good health we have, a home, a healthy/happy child and nothing to truly complain about. I haven't had to suffer loss of a family or friend and I have it so good compared to so many. I know I am so blessed but I feel like for so long I have been in a funk. While most who know me know I wear my heart on my sleeve...as in I am not good about hiding my feelings, I don't think most know what I am feeling deep down. It is usually surface joy or surface annoyance at something mundane that people see or experience around me. I hate that. I feel like I have had to have some major self examinations lately, make some hard decisions and choose Berkley/Bart and what is best for us over others and of course I look back, even to yesterday and know I have made a few mistakes too many. I hate disappointing people, or making a decision someone else doesnt like. I have a major problem with being a people please which majorly butts heads with my big mouth/opiniated self. I am very sensitive yet also strong. Too many contradictions!!

Praying for grace, direction, courage, forgiveness, and so much more.

Love and Blessings,
Brooke


***Below is most of July in a picture montage(sp?)***

5months.

Thursday Tattletale....or let's call it what it is, a Brooke rant.

I really want to post about the awesome Boston trip (with pictures), how big my baby is gettin,how excited I am for the 4th of July lake trip, etc. but instead I am gonna tell yall about my date night. I realize this is my take on what happened but if you need to verify just ask my hubby.

We drop of precious lil one at grandparents house, we eat, we go to movie, we run into Katie and Michael and then Dee (not together)and then we go on into the movie for our date night. We choose a lil snack, I complain that I would rather be at Eclipse or Toy Story, but we go walk into another movie and we settle in. I realize I am easily 'hiped' up by things so when I see 15+ teenagers come walking in, oh and by walking in I mean yelling, laughing, stomping, making a rukus I kinda sigh. "Here we go", I think, there is gonna be name calling and popcorn throwing and giggling and texting and phones going off. I didn't think I had to be in a classroom till August??

If that was all I saw tongiht I would have been a happy woman. Instead here is an account of my movie...

5 seats to my right there was a man, his wife and a teenager. They also had in tow a 3-ish year old little boy, and twin 1-ish year old little girls. My first thought is "why, why do they think this is appropriate for that age of children, and it has got to be bedtime!" Then I think (aloud to my husband) "why do people bring kids to movies? If it was Toy Story or something appropriate I am all for it, but a PG13+ adult humor movie at night I just will never understand." If you can't get a babysitter then you need to be an adult and choose to stay home and realize that taking your child to an adult movie, where others who want to watch the movie and only hear the actors talking, and have paid quite a bit to watch the movie, and it has got to be past that childs bedtime is flat out selfish (my opinion). Nway, I look over and try to think that maybe they are just those super good kids who are like always quiet and love movies no matter what they topic and they are gonna be quiet little angels. NOOOOOPE! They scream, they cry, they play on the stairs, they drink soda, they run up and down the isles, the dad takes them out...and by out I mean to the little hallway by the stairs where you can still see the movie so when they scream it is AMPLIFIED! Oh and did I mention the mom was taking turns nursing the twins?? Yes, yes you heard me right, she was. Now I nurse, I think its great she nurses, I even think its ok to nurse in public, but I personally would think it is appropriate to use a nursing cover when the child is old enough to pull your shirt up and down and expose you. Yes, I saw her bubbies. Nway, in between nursing the twins, they would drink soda. No, I am not kidding. The 1-ish year old twins were swiggin mommy milk and soda. Oh and yes I was watching this family more than the movie.

Seriously?? I was a hot mess.

Sorry for the rant. I have a great life, a great kid and a great husband. Life is good.

-BB

**Below are some lovely pictures of our Boston trip! It was fabulous. Horrid travel to and from but such a fun lil weekend. Love that city. Go SOX.
Oh and there are also some newer pics of my lil princess. She is 20 weeks! Where is the time going? Ugh! Oh she loves her feet, grabs them both and stick her lil booty up in the air. Love it. She had her 4mo check up...about 10 days before she is 5mo, oops! Nway, she is 14lbs.12oz, 24 3/4" long and her head is normal. :) She is right in the middle for everything. Rice Cereal here we come.

Sorry it is all out of order. I am not a great blogger.

neked baby!
loves the bath.
THE GREEN MONSTER
happy 18 weeks!
19 weeks and in love with her WUBBA NUB. Loves it.

Pedroia's winning hit!!!
Loved Fenway, loved the game.
My favorite. Papelbon came out from the bullpen and they played this awesome irish music and everyone got all pumped up and I was freaking out. LOOOVE that crazy fool.

Poop.

Peek-A-Boo
Making faces with daddy.
We were taking a pic to send to Grandma Mabel.
Big girl! 4months old!
She loves looking at the TV. I will have to worry about this when she is like 2 but for now if it gives me time to eat or use the bathroom, she can stare. By stare I mean STARE.
She will stay like this and not move or squirm, which is so not like her.
She loves holding onto things. She will fall asleep like this.
She had just woken up and was a little grumpy. Kinda like her mommy is in the mornings. :) This was right before she shot her first commercial with daddy!
This is her new funny face. She smiles with her mouth closed. We think its to die for.

4months old...Lots of smiling and pooping:

So it seems my child no longer has issues with going #2. She wouldn't go without help for the first like 2.5mo of her life. Well she is making up for that! She poops all day everyday. Most days when I go get her out of her bed in the morning she has been squirming around so much that I am just praying it is not a poop all over the bed,sheets and mattress day. That has been 2 times this week so far. She has also pooped on her exersaucer, me, her bouncer, her changing table and her car seat. She bears down, makes the sound then laughs. I think my child is paying me back for all the years of torment I gave my parents!

We are leaving her for the first time overnight this week. We are going to BOSTON for the weeknd, and we get to go see our REDSOX at FENWAY! Needless to say we are super pumped. I am getting more nervous by the day though. She will be staying with my parents. They are great grandparents and keep her all the time, but they haven't had the pleasure of an overnight stay yet. Luckily she usually sleeps around 8-9hrs, eats and goes back down for another 3, but still. So in preparation of our trip I have basically been writing a "take care of Berkley manual". I doubt it will get read but I am gonna give it to them anyway and hope they humor me. It contains tricks for quickly defrosting breastmilk, how to make a bottle, how much to give her at each feeding, how to add a little formula at the nighttime bottle, it has how to put a baggie around the milk baggie in case it gets a little hole while thawing, it has tricks for naps, how to tell when she is sleepy, how to use the avent bottles with the little stopper things versus using the drop in liner bottles, and so on. It is exasperating, I know....but this is MY first child and so I get to make a manual if I want. Does it make it better that it's only 4pgs so far?? Ha.

She is 4months now! She loves standing up so she LOVES her exersaucer (we got one for BeBe and PaPa's house).She puts everything in her mouth, has started to grab her feet, loves being outside, and talks a lot! Sometimes it sounds like she is crying, but she is doing it with a smile while playing. She will crow and scream and laugh and is really happy. She doesn't just smile, she expresses her joy with her full being! It is really fun to watch. She has also started to do this funny smile where she smiles while her mouth is closed, kind of biting her lip and it is just so darn cute. I realize I am bias, but she really is the best...the love and joy of our lives. Especially when we have had a 9hr of sleep night with a 3 hr nap right after!

Love and Blessings,
BB

Swimming...swimming, just keep swimming!

Daddy and Berkley swimmin!
Dads and Daughters
Loves standing up and loves her hat! Ok I love her hat. (14wks)
Snooze on the boat.
Allie snoozin on the boat. She was a sweet baby all weekend. Keep hopin she rubs off on mine. :)


Addie loved splashin around on the raft.

First lake trip of the season! Loved being up at the lake for Memorial Day Weekend. Babies kept us on our toes but we still had a great time. Next time might be sans kids but either way who can resist that water? It was warm, it's never warm this early in the year. It was fab!

15 weeks!