June 7, 2011: Bryn, burgers, a big boy bed, bonding, babysitting, and a bride!

Bryn is 7 months old! She is the happiest baby (as long as she is in our arms or eyesight) and continues to be so much fun. Liam is one of her favorite forms of entertainment and he can really make her laugh. This month she started blowing raspberries and now sometimes uses that noise to voice her displeasure or get our attention. (see video below) She's a good eater already and starts smacking her lips when she sees us eating. She literally lunges for our food! Her food favorites so far are sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, squash, chicken, banana, applesauce, rice cereal (with my milk), chicken, turkey, and PEAS, her most favorite so far. She does not like broccoli, avocado, or pears too much yet but we'll keep trying. One morning I made Liam and I cream of wheat, which we both love. Bryn started smacking her lips and eyeing Liam's bowl...so she got some too! Thank goodness Liam is such a good eater, because the way she watches him makes me think she will try to do (and eat) everything he does.I can't wait till we can give her bites of what we are eating. I have already let her sip out of my water cup...it's true that she's just going through the stages must faster being the second.Bryn is rolling over both ways and now sleeps on her tummy. She's still pretty chunky so sometimes I hear her fussing at night because she's trying to heave her body over onto her tummy...it's kind of sad and kind of funny :) Don't worry she does roll all the way, she just gets frustrated when she can't do it immediately (hmmm..daddy!). She is such a daddy's girl if you can't tell....He gets some of her biggest smiles and giggles and she is SO excited when he gets home from work.Don't think Bryn doesn't get a ton of mommy and Liam time too though :) As those who have tried to baby-sit her, I applaud and apologize to you. Bryn is the perfect child...as long as I'm in a 2 foot visible radius to her...Bryn is in a phase of waking up to eat 2-3 x a night again. It was hard to go back to that after she was sleeping so well, but with dream feeds and sleep training we are making it through. She does still use wubbanub to fall asleep but doesn't keep it while sleeping or use it much during the day. Confession Bryn: You might be sleeping in our closet...but I can explain! Mostly because you were still eating in the middle of the night combined with the fact that we are trying to let you cry some of it out and didn't want you to wake Liam upstairs. Oh well, you seem to be pretty content there :) She will move up to her crib soon though because it's FINALLY in her room. (more on that soon)...but after watching a 2.5 yr old sleeping in it, she sure does seem small in there!

Byrn's also almost sitting up on her own and doesn't really like to play flat on the floor.

I think it's mostly cause she still refuses to miss out on anything! Bryn's starting to even out a little bit on her percentiles. At her 6 month visit she was 15 lbs 9 oz (40th %), 25.75 in length (49th%), and 17 in head circumference (70th%)...yes her Bacon/Barker head is finally coming out!

I also gave Bryn her first sink bath...every kid has to bathe in the sink at some point right? At least for the cute pictures...

Although I started off a little rocky, I have now settled into being a mother of two and can actually get stuff done again even with both kids. My biggest challenge still remains grocery shopping....mostly because Bryn isn't quite stable enough to sit in the cart seat yet. So that means I have to put her entire carseat into the back of the cart and pile food around her OR push her in a stroller and push a cart full of food with Liam tagging along. Both aren't really great options. But I finally found a solution!

It's not child labor if he enjoys it right? Seriously though, Liam is such a huge help these days. He cleans up his toys, goes to the bathroom on his own, clears his dishes from the table after asking to be excused and grocery shops...his wife better thank me one day!!

Last month also marked the opening of IN & OUT BURGER!! They finally found us in Texas and we were so excited...excited enough to sit in line at 10:30 in the morning to get our double-doubles :)

We had a fun morning at the science museum a few weeks ago where we met Sid the Science Kid! Liam actually was excited to meet him and even liked the science experiment show that was a little to old for him...

Liam's big news from last month is that he moved into his BIG BOY BED!! He was totally ready for this and very excited for this...He has slept very well, and has not tried to get out of his bed once. Every night we remind him of the two rules to sleeping in a big boy bed: No getting out of bed till mommy/daddy come and get you and No jumping! So far, so good :) We did decide to put the rails on the sides because he's kind of a crazy sleeper usually ending up perpendicular or upside down. I'm glad we did or else he would have fallen out numerous times by now...These last 2 weeks have been lots of fun as we've had lots of BONDING time with Pres (and Rach and Cam!) who are staying with us. Liam and Pres picked up right where they left off except without as much biting or hitting :) They have actually played really well together and now that they have so many common interests (coloring, dinosaurs, transportation, and of course Lightening McQueen) it seems to have brought them even closer...We did wash their Cars jammies multiple times, but as you can tell they always ask to wear them!

Bryn also had girl BONDING with Pres and Rachy... including lots of 'too matchy' outfits for the girls :)

Uh oh, it's a too matchy meltdown...

It's been fun having Rach and Pres around, we've got to play with them almost every day! And (for now) we even fit into one car...our optional third row seating is finally useful...We took Pres to check out the new trampoline place...trampolines up the walls, it was so much fun!Liam and Pres also took swim lessons for 2 weeks together. It was just the two of them with Ms. Renee their swim teacher in her pool. They both did really well learning to get in and out of the pool safely, monkey walk on the side, blowing bubbles, floating on their backs and "diving" in off the side! Cameron came in town for Memorial Day weekend and we had a great time catching up with him. We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese, which was fun for the kids...and adults :)

Having the long weekend was so nice. We spent all day Saturday just being bums at my parents' house. We ended up staying there as well with the WHOLE family (all 13 of us), and had a fun night and big breakfast in the morning. After breakfast the kids were so excited to get out in the pool and start showing off their swimming skills! They are wearing our water wings from when we were kids. It was great to have them floating all around the pool on their own. Bryn got in her bathing suit as well, although she didn't get much water time as it was still a little too cold. (Note: this is the bathing suit that Pres wore...last year!) We made a quick trip down to Houston for a wedding. Nick's friend from high school Brad was getting married and Grandma and Grandpa BABYSAT for us so we could go! I think the kids had as much fun as we did :)In other exciting news, we have a new BRIDE-to-be in our family...because Amelia and Daniel got engaged last weekend!! We are so excited for them and look forward to the Lingerfelts (or simply felters to us!) making it official :) (and yes Bryn is trying to grab my champagne) Like I said earlier, Bryn loves communicating by blowing raspberries...she also loves her big brother blowing raspberries to her as well. Enjoy these videos on this precious baby noise :)