Brie's little secret

Finally a few minutes for an update!

As you can see we have been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. We have not even had time to update the blog. So many new things going on I am not sure where to start. Brie is doing well and is becoming quite an independent little girl. She will finally play with her toys by herself. She loves to read books and will bring them to you one after the other to read. We probably read about 20 in a day. She is talking a little more and has added baby and Brie-Brie to her list of words.
Memorial day weekend we spent in Wildwood, NJ. Brie had a wonderful time. She enjoyed running on the beach and getting sand everywhere. At first she was afraid of the water, but once she put her feet in there was no stopping her. She kept running back in faster then we could take her out. The water was freezing! She wanted to go in further then just her feet but it was definitely too cold for that. She was very angry when we took her away from the water and screamed the entire way back to the hotel.
Later in the weekend Brie got her first chance to wade in the kiddie pool at the hotel. The weather was beautiful for the trip. The pool was of course freezing, but she loved it. It was a packed weekend and Brie did pretty well. She fussed a little at restaurants and ate pretty poorly, but that is our normal.
Since coming home from vacation we are now the proud owners of a home. On Tuesday we made the long trip to Muncy and spent alot of our savings and the bank's money on a house. Now the work really begins. This weekend we are heading back to buy paint, tear out walls, and clean before we start the moving process. The house is over 100 years old and needs some work, but will be nice once we get it finished. We are slowly going to do the work with the help of family and friends.
All throughout vacation, Brie slept very poorly. We hoped it was just being in a new place and sleeping in her pack-n-play, but no such luck. She slept well Monday and Tuesday night, but Wednesday she started with a cold. She is very congested, coughing and has a slight fever. Today she was pretty miserable and spent most of her time sitting with me or sleeping on my chest. She is eating very poorly and has only had about 9 oz of formula today so far. She did have some pedialyte and some juice to keep herself hydrated. Hopefully she will take some more formula in a little bit. She is sleeping peacefully right now and kept pushing the bottle away. I think in addition to the cold she is getting two more teeth. I can see another one of her bottom teeth poking through. At least it is all at once and maybe soon we will get some sleep.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Brie had a wonderful time at the beach. She loved playing in the sand, running in the freezing ocean, and walking in the kiddie pool. She had a great time!

How Preemie Moms are chosen

This is something that was sent to me on mother's day that I thought I would share.

~*~How Preemie Moms Are Chosen~*~(Erma Bombeck)

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation.
As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron Saint, Matthew.Forrest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia.Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron Saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles."Give her a preemie." The angel is curious. "Why this one, God?She's so happy.""Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel." "But does she have the patience?" asks the angel. "I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy." "But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect She has just the right amount of selfishness."The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says momma for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see--ignorance, cruelty, prejudice--and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side.""And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

Our little ham!

Well yesterday Brie spent some time at the mall getting a family portrait with her cousins Christian and Brandon. I think we gave the photographer a run for her money. She did an excellent job and got great photos of the three kids, but it was not without great effort. Between Brie running away and Brandon crawling away and then spitting up all over himself and the backdrop it is amazing we got any good photos.

Recently we discovered that Brie loves to be outside. On Monday we spent the day in Muncy doing home inspections and mortgage stuff and Brie spent her entire day walking around the yard of our house. She loved it. In fact the next day she spent much of her afternoon pointing out the screen door and fussing until we finally went outside. It is difficult to find a place to take her to play outside right now. The complex we live in recently sprayed all of the grass with a pesticides and has signs saying to keep kids off the grass. How awful. The same thing has happened at the local park. The only place I am comfortable letting her run around is in the play area. It is pretty ironic that a park has signs up to keep kids off the grass because of chemicals. And the we wonder why so many kids are obese. They cannot even play in the park!

On an eating front, Brie has been doing better. She did have two days where she vomited entire bottles again. One on Monday night and then again this morning. She does have a little cough and we think that is to blame, but overall she does not seem to be affected by it. This morning I think there was just to much in her little tummy. She ate about 10 bites of my rice krispies, about 10 blueberries, an entire nutragrain bar and some goldfish all before her morning nap. She then drank 5 oz although not with out protest for the last few oz. Well I guess the protest was for good reason because a few minutes later she revisited most of her breakfast. It is so hard to tell if she is just being stubborn or if she is full.

Brie recently hit 18 lbs! She is growing taller as well. Many of her 6-9 month sleepers are getting small. Hopefully she will be able to wear her 12 months clothes for summer. I did get a good deal on some summer stuff off of ebay for her. It was a combo of 6-9 and 12 month clothing all for summer. She got about 50 outfits for $50 including socks, 2 bathing suits
(she now has 4 for the summer), and hair accessories.