Little Bruiser

Well today Brie got her first black eye. I am sure it will not be her last. While I was in the shower, Marcus was watching Brie. She has been getting more independent with walking and will take a few steps on her own before falling. Well this time when she fell she hit her eye on the plastic garbage can that Marcus was clipping his nails into. He said she did not fall very hard or far, but it was enough to give her a shiner. After a few seconds of crying she is as good as new, except for the little bruise under her eye!

The last few weeks Brie has been attending music class at the local kindermusic studio. There are 3 other kids in the class. She seems to enjoy the music and getting to play with the other kids. She has now begun dancing when we listen to music. The kids are all of similar age ranging from 9 months to 17 months. Brie is of course the smallest, but she makes her presence known. She crawls around and steals the instruments from the other children. We are trying to balance keeping her healthy, but allowing her to interact with other children.

Today we were scheduled to get Brie's one year photos done, but we got snowed in. It is probably for the best as she has a nice shiner that would have looked wonderful in her pictures. Hopefully it will be gone by next Thursday.

As for eating, Brie seems to be on a solid food strike. I think she has two more bottom teeth coming in. Her gums are very swollen and she cried out many times during the night last night. She also woke up twice to eat during the night which happened the last time her teeth came in. She also has been coughing today so she may be developing a little cold. Hopefully it is just teething and she will be better in a few days. Her bottles are going better. She basically takes 3 5.5 oz bottles and one 3 oz per day. She still will not take more then that at a time and we are basically trying to teach her that eating solid food makes her full, not bottles. We are trying to use them more as a snack. She is maintaining her weight and is now at 16lbs 11 oz. We were hoping she would be at least 17 lbs by her first birthday, but I am not sure if that will happen. This week we will have to work on more high fat foods to see if we can reach 17 by next Saturday.

Happy Valentine's Day

Brie had a pretty good first Valentine's Day. She spent it at home with mommy and even woke up at 10 pm to spend a few minutes with daddy. She enjoyed all of the cards everyone sent, but was especially fond of the one from Aunt Shelley! She smiles everytime Shrek burps.

Recently we have been getting things ready for Brie's first birthday party. Today we picked up the decorations at Party City. Her party is going to be sesame street. We got lots of decorations so it should be alot of fun. Mommy even practiced making the elmo cake and it turned out pretty good. I cannot believe she is going to be a year old already. It seems like time has flown by. She has changed so much in such a short period of time.

A few days ago we had our first real snow storm. We could not resist the urge to take Brie out for a few minutes to let her play in the snow. She basically just sat there and looked at it. There was less then an inch on the ground, but it was fun anyway. I tried to get her to do a snow angel, but she is a little young for that!

With regards to eating, Brie seems to be doing better. She still enjoys self feeding and is not a fan of the spoon, but will let us get a few bites in as long as she has something she can chew on. Tonight we found that she really loves blueberries. She ate about half a pint of them with dinner. She actually grabbed more blueberries and threw her cheese curl on the floor. She seems to like fruits and veggies which is wonderful. We also tried ham with her last night and she ate a few bites mixed with cheesy potatoes and of course peas. Bottles now are no longer a battle. She has been taking them awake and actually asks for them. Last night she took her bottle and then sat up and smiled. She then played a few minutes on the floor and then crawled over to be picked up. She layed her head down on my chest and went to sleep. I could have cried.

Brie through the months

First Haircut

After many days of looking like pebbles we finally trimmed Brie's hair. At first she was a little leary of the scissors, but she sat still as Nanna cut her bangs.

They are a little on the short side, but they will grow in. We are still able to put her hair up in a ponytail, but now she has bangs. I will take some new pics tommorrow.

Brie did well with Nancy today. She actually ate almost an entire jar of baby food. We used a spoon that vibrates and she kept taking more. The Nanna and I stopped for lunch and she munched on some avocado, crackers, red peppers, and green beans. She ate the most adult food today that she ever has. For dinner she ate some pork ribs. Well she mostly licked the bbq sauce off, but she seemed to enjoy it.



This weekend Brie went out to lunch with Nana and Pop Green and Cousin Christian. She ate at McDonalds and did very well. Pop said she screamed once and looked around for mom and dad but overall she did well.

Our little stinker

Well Brie continues to fight us at every meal. Tonight Marcus and I enjoyed a good meal of fresh salmon, green beans and mashed potatoes to the sound of Brie screaming. We just continued eating and let her scream. It is getting old. Hopefully this will improve soon.

Brie is finally getting over her virus. It looks like it was roseola that was the culpert. She had 4 days of fever and then yesterday she started with a rash. She does not seem to be bothered by the rash, but she is still very fussy. Tylenol seems to make her feel better. So we have been giving it to her several times a day. Here are some pictures of her rash. It looks worse then it is. The camera really picks up the red.

Today Brie is 11 months old. Her birthday party is coming up pretty quickly. I have to get the invitations done so I can get them in the mail. She is having two parties. One on March 1st with our family and the other on March 9th with her birthday buddy Erin. We share many of the same friends so rather then make people chose between the two little ones we are going to combine the parties.

Our little Pebbles

After many weeks of seeing the feeding therapist we still have seen very little change. Brie is still refusing to eat more then a few bites at a time and she insists on feeding herself. She does not let us get near her with utensils. It is very frustrating. Brie is approaching one year very quickly and I would like to get her off of formula. She hates her bottles, but right now they are still her primary nutrition. This week we are going to try and make things with cheese whiz. She loves cheese crackers so I will try tortillas and cheese sandwiches made with it. Mommy did find some freeze dried veggies and fruits that Brie seems to like. She ate a bunch of peas today and seemed to enjoy the blueberries.

Brie has been feeling a little under the weather the last two days. She has had a low grade fever and has been super fussy. Today after a trip to the pediatrician they said it is either teething or a virus. She has no other symptoms so my guess is she is teething. Her bottom two teeth are completely in so it must be the top ones trying to come through. She did not seem to have a problem with the bottom teeth, but these must be more painful. Hopefully she will start feeling better.

As you can see Brie's hair is getting longer. We need Nanna's hand to heal so that she can give her a haircut. For now it has to go up in a pony tail! She is our little Pebbles.

Still being stubborn!

Gabrielle has been having fun chasing the cat. She laughs the entire time as she crawls and chases poor widget around the living room. Widget now hides during the day or sits on the windowsill so she cannot be attacked.

As for feeding, we have been ignoring the behaviors for the last 3 days. So far we have not seen much of a change. She screams and cries when all of her food is on the floor and there is nothing left for her to do but sit and watch mommy and daddy eat. She even congers up some big crocodile tears. Hopefully soon she will realize what is going on and stop throwing things on the floor. We continue to work on getting her to drink out of a sippy cup. She has been taking about 2 oz of juice a day from the cup. She refuses to drink the formula out of her cup. I am thinking about trying some goats milk with her. She sees the pediatrician in 2 weeks so I will ask them if it is okay to try a little in her cup. I do not blame her for not liking the formula. It smells disgusting and I am sure tastes horrible. She went from drinking sweet breast milk to hypoallergenic formula. Yuck! We have tried to flavor it with strawberry quick, vanilla, Karo syrup and even flavor packets for kids from nestle she wants nothing to do with it. We have been managing to get about 20 oz into her a day so hopefully that is enough.

As far as growth she continues to be 16 lbs. She does seem to be a little taller. Using Nanna's Christmas present of the wall growth chart tonight I measured her to be 26 inches. If that is correct she has grown an inch since her last pediatrician appt at the beginning of January. Her 3-6 month clothing seem to be getting short and her legs hang over the edge of the car seat so I think the measurement is accurate.