Discovering Music

Kent brought home a set of maracas (now only one after a Maisy incident). Brooke has enjoyed shaking, banging, and chewing on them!

Brooke visits Daddy in the classroom a couple times a week. She enjoys listening to band class and watching the students with their instruments. Sometimes she gets to direct them by holding the baton!

Weekend with Grandma Britta

We were so happy to hear that Grandma Britta would be down to visit us for the weekend. Brooke warmed right up to her and they had a great time together. One of Brooke's favorite things are kitchen utensils especially the big mixing spoon and the spatulas.

Brooke is sitting up really well and playing with her toys. Cassy was very jealous this weekend because she is not used to sharing Grandma Britta's attention. This is the first time we have seen this jealousy from her!




Brooke had her first piano lesson. It took her a minute or so to realize that she could make sound from banging on the keys. Once she figured it out she was making all kinds of music!



Thanks for such a great weekend!

New Foods

Today Brooke tried a new food... carrots! You can see her reaction in the video below. So far, her favorite "solid" food is rice cereal. She probably swallows about two teaspoons and spits out the same amount on to her chin and bib. The most interesting part of meal time for Brooke is the bib, spoons, and bowl!

Brooke's New Trick!

Flashback Friday, oh wait... It's only Thursday.

It was only six months ago that Brooke was a tiny little thing!

She was so tiny that I could change her diaper on the front seat of the car!

Cabella's Fun

Meeting Simon

We had a great time in Spokane! We loved the walk from our hotel to the convention center because it gave us a chance to see Spokane's downtown area.

On Sunday we went on a walk around the Spokane Riverpark Square Mall. We enjoyed looking at the city from all the connected sky walks. We met our friends Mellad and Sulochana at the Sawtooth Grill. Mellad is an amazing guitar player in an Irish band called An Dochas. I would highly recommend their CD's! Their first album Dragonfly is my favorite upbeat music to keep me motivated to clean the house!

Simon is two weeks older than Brooke and such a cutie! He has the most beautiful dark brown eyes and a very sweet demeanor. We forgot to bring a toy so Brooke enjoyed sucking on the spoons, borrowing Simon's turtle and both babies enjoyed banging their binkies on the table.

In the waiter's own words, "That's the cutest thing I've seen all day!" We agree!

Brooke really wanted to grab Simon but he wasn't sure what to think of all this aggressive attention!

Thanks for the great lunch!

All three of us decided we were pretty sick of that hotel room after three days. Brooke really wanted her freedom of space, I wanted our bed and Kent wanted to go skiing up at Mission Ridge! On the way back Brooke started SCREAMING! I asked Kent to quickly pull over to see if I could figure out what was wrong. After feeding her and checking her diaper she was still screaming UNTIL she looked up at Kent. At that moment she forgot about being mad and the huge tears in her eyes and gave him the biggest "I got you!" smile that we've ever seen. Grrrrr! As we got her back in the car seat we saw a cop pull up behind us! We've never been pulled over from the side of the street before! Good thing he just wanted to make sure everything was okay. After this, Brooke fell asleep for the last 2 1/2 hours and we all had a peaceful ending to our trip. Thank goodness!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Thanks to Grandma Britta for the Valentines Day treats and cute giraffe!

I'm writing this in our hotel room in Spokane, Washington. We are here for the All Northwest Music Educators Conference. The best part of being here has been to connect with so many friends. It has been so much fun to see baby Etta Wicks who is now a waving, clapping, crawling nine month old. It's so much fun to see what Brooke will be doing in the future!

Today we went to Cabella's for dinner tonight. Yes, I said dinner at Cabella's! Deli sandwiches choices include wild boar, ostrich and elk. I was not ready to explore these choices so I had the clam chowder and Kent had the prime rib sandwich. This was the first time that Brooke got to sit in the children's seat of the shopping cart. She's still pretty small for it, but she really liked it. Her favorite part of Cabella's was the hand puppet dogs. She laughed and giggled at the dogs just like the real ones at home!

6 Months Old

Dear Brooke,

I can't believe that you are half a year old today! You have come so far from the beautiful five pound thirteen ounce newborn. Yesterday we took you to your six month appointment in East Wentachee. You weighed 15 lbs (25%), measured 24 1/4 inches (5%) long and your "brain growth" was significant with a measurement of 17 inches (75%). You babbled to Dr. Eisert saying "dadada" and smiled at the nurses watching them come in and out of the room. Dr. Eisert held you on the table and tested your balance. You stood there for a second as steady as can be! He told us to watch out because we may have an early walker on our hands. When he felt your tummy it must have tickled because you started giggling. He was very impressed with your growth and thinks you are a beautiful little girl. We talked about how to transition to better sleeping habits because you are still waking up three times a night.

Auntie Caitlin and I go on walks around Cashmere almost every day. I put you in the Ergo carrier and you watch the world go by and laugh at the most random things. When you see the dogs walking next to you, you make a really funny "inhale" laugh that makes us laugh too! Eventually you fall asleep with your arms around me and your head resting against my back. It's such a wonderful feeling to have you snuggling right up against me!

One of your favorite things are the dogs Cassy and Maisy. You laugh and get so excited when they enter the room. Yesterday you and Cassy had a great moment when she came and laid down by you. She let you "pet" her nose and eyes and even let you grab her tail when you stretched forward and practically crawled to get it. You also love it when your dad rubs his face in your tummy, it sure tickles! At night you get tired and picky about who holds you. No one seems to be able to comfort you like your mommy. Sometimes I have to brush my teeth while holding you. You grab the other end of the toothbrush and won't let go! Last night we spotted what we think is a tooth breaking through the skin. Soon you'll be using your toothbrush too!

Thanks for being such a wonderful little girl! We love every minute with you.

Love,

Mommy (and Daddy)

New foods and reactions

We have had a lot of fun with new tastes in the last two weeks. Brooke really likes rice cereal the best followed by avocado. Daddy got his first real chance to feed her tonight and she ate like a champ! Bananas were not her favorite. She pushed most of the banana back onto her bib. She is usually most interested in playing with her bib and playing with the spoon. She likes chewing on the spoon; the rubber must feel good on her gums. We are looking forward to this week... Monday is her six month appointment, Wednesday we will have our friends Rebecca (who is pregnant!) and Jim over for dinner, and Thursday morning we head over to Seattle for the All-Northwest Music Conference. Over in Spokane we can't wait to see our friends Bob and Emily with Baby Etta! We will also get a chance to see Mellad and Sulochana and meet baby Simon for the very first time! Lots to look forward to!

We are very very happy to have Daddy home! He has been working on the musical for months now and was pretty much gone from the house for two weeks straight. He treated me to a day with hardly any diaper changes (not that he planned it, I just didn't volunteer!)... a big thank you to him! I'll officially make all Sunday's as Daddy Diaper Days.

Superbowl Party

By these photos you can tell about how much I watched the Superbowl! For me, Superbowl parties are more about spending time with friends than actually watching a game. For Kent and I, "game nights" usually mean (board)game nights! I did watch Jennifer Hudson sing the Star Spangled Banner (talk about AWESOME!) and the halftime show but the rest of the time we played with the babies!

Everyone, meet Ian Cade McFadden. He's an absolutely lovely three month old boy. He's such a sweet little guy who makes the cutest cooing noises. He loved to look at Brooke and he let her reach for his face and even take his bib!

Two sixth graders, Tessa and Morgan LOVE babies and had the best time with our real-live baby dolls.

Brooke was pretty good tonight, although the loud noise from the game and the yelling from all the excited adults was a little too much for her. This party girl will sleep good tonight *crossing my fingers*!