A tribute to Grammoo

As many of you know Brie's great grandmother died this Tuesday. Brie got to see her one last time on Sunday morning before she passed. She will be missed.

Here is the obituary from the paper for all who didn't get to see it.

Ruth A. Green, formerly of Germansville, Slatington, Slatedale and Allentown, passed away Tuesday night, July 29, 2008, in Gracedale, Upper Nazareth Township. Born May 31, 1917, in Schoenersville, she was a daughter of the late William and Clara (Abbott) Schmoyer. Ruth was employed as a sewing machine operator for several factories in the area until retiring. She was a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Slatedale. Ruth will be deeply and greatly missed by her family and friends. Survivors: Sons, Ralph F. Green Jr. and his companion, Darlene E. Nesfeder, of Pen Argyl, David M. and his wife, Lee A. Green, of Germansville; daughter, Joan M. Shea of West Lawn; six grandchildren, seven great-grandchilren; numerous nieces, nephews. She was preceded in death by numerous brothers and sisters. Services: 11 a.m. Saturday, August 2, 2008, Kevin E. Hunsicker Funeral Home Inc., 4214 Main Street, Slatedale. A calling hour will precede the service at 10 a.m. The Rev. David L. Hess will be officiating. Interment, Cedar Hill Memorial Park, Allentown. http://www.hunsickerfuneralhome.com/. Contributions: To the church, c/o the funeral home, P.O. Box 29, Slatedale, PA 18079-0029.

Little chatterbox

Our little peanut has become quite the chatterbox over the last few days. She now likes to repeat many of the things mommy and daddy say. Just a few of her new words are: book, up, stuck, quack-quack, baby, Brie-Brie, and hi. Her favorite work is still mama, but she can also say mommy at this point when she actually wants me.

Brie has also been getting a mouthful of teeth. She has 4 front teeth poking through, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom, and her two lower molars - the one on the right is almost completly through. She has been pretty pleasent throughout most of this and it has not affected her sleeping too much.

As for our other daughter, yes the new arrival will be another little girl, she is doing well. We saw the high risk OB on tuesday and she is growing perfectly. According to the last ultrasound she is 11 oz and very active. My placenta appears to be growing well this time so hopeful she will continue to do well and be born at the end of November as she is scheduled to. Marcus and I are just starting to think of names for our new little diva. We of course can agree on a boys name, but not a girls at this point. Once we get our scanner hooked up we will post her pictures. She looks alot like Brie did at 20 weeks!

Our budding artist!

Will it be music or painting? Only time will tell. The last few days, Brie has been very busy. From visiting in Wellsboro and getting her first piano lession to finger painting at home, Brie has been an active little girl. Here are a few pics of our little artist in action:

As we can see she was a little more interested in painting herself then the paper!

The finished product!

A day at the Lycoming County fair

Yesterday we introduced Brie to some of her favorite animals. She has a great time imitating the moos, bahs and oinks of the animals. She especially loved the sheep. They were showing the sheep and all of the owners brought them over for Brie to pet. They also had a fawn that Brie got to feed. She kept trying to give it a hug. The poor thing was trying to sleep and Brie kept coming back to get it.

It was a very warm day and Brie did not eat well while we were out, but overall she enjoyed getting to see all of the animals and people. The rides were a little big for her, but she enjoyed watching the other children.

Today was another day of putting boxes away. There are no longer any boxes in my dinning room! We have organized half of the room to be for Brie's toys and she had a great time today digging them all out and making a mess of everything.

Summer fun

Finally after 3 weeks things are starting to come together. We are down to about a dozen boxes left to unpack and they are in the dinning room. We still have not found the toaster, but the upstairs bathroom is functional. Pop came yesterday and installed the toilet and sink. It is nice to be able to shower and get dressed on the same floor. There is still some work to be done in the bathroom before we can say it is completed like trim, some touch up paint, and a closet door.

Brie has been enjoying the house, especially the yard. We got her a swing and a slide which she loves. She can climb up the rock wall side of her slide and then slide down all on her own. She also likes to play in her froggie pool. Today I turned the sprinkler part on and she was not a fan. I think the water was a little too cold and the spray a little to powerful.

Luckily she continues to eat well. We think the new house has something to do with that. We are not longer eating crunchy foods we are eating real food. She enjoys trying to feed herself as well. She is getting pretty good at using a fork. She needs a little help spearing the food, but once it is on the fork she knows where to put it. She is very proud of herself and even claps after taking a bite. Hopefully as she improves with utensils we will take more of an interest in eating at the table with us. Right now we are still feeding her separate and walking around to get her to eat.



Today we started a milk trial. Our new ped wanted us to wait until we see the GI, but there next available appt was not until the end of August. Today I added 1 oz of whole milk to 4 oz of her formula. She had no problem taking it, but when she woke up she coughed and milk came out her nose. She has not done that in months, but we have to give it more of a chance.



As for Brie's little brother or sister, things seem to be going well. I had an appt with the OB this week and the heartbeat was nice and strong. We discussed scheduling my c-section between 36 and 37 weeks and did a bunch of bloodwork to ensure Brie's premature birth and my small placenta were not because of a clotting problem. Hopefully we will get the results soon. I see the high risk OB in a little over a week and hopefully will have an ultrasound that day. I know many of you are hoping to know the sex. We are to. The babies room is far from ready, but it would be nice to start planning. Marcus has requested purple if it is another little girl, if it is a boy it will be blue of course.

Sleep overs, moving and other misc.

Well it has been an interesting few days. We are finally settling in to our new house in Muncy. Brie is having a wonderful time exploring the house and absolutely loves the yard. She has a slide and swing that she loves and there are tons of flowers in the yard for her to look at. There is still a lot to be done to the house, but at least we are not "camping" anymore. We actually have a bed and Brie her crib.

Just after we moved in the ceiling in the bathroom collapsed. It was a huge mess and luckily Brie was away with Nanna. Marcus and I feared it would fall, but after 2 weeks of nothing we began to forget about it. Well on Friday morning there was a crack and by afternoon there was little left of the ceiling. We intend to redo this bathroom in the future, but there are other things that take priority. Luckily the toilet, sink and bathtub are still functional because our newly built upstairs bathroom is not finished yet. You can take a bath, but that is about it. Today we laid the cement tiles so hopefully by next weekend it will be functional.

During the move, Brie spent a few nights with Nanna. On Tuesday, Nanna spent the night at our old appt while Marcus and I went to a dinner with my former employer. Then she took her home with her for the next two nights. She seemed to have a good time and ate well for Nanna. Pop brought her back to us on Friday and although she was happy to see mommy and daddy exploring the new house was a blast.

In addition to all of the moving excitement, Brie is teething again. Her right top eyetooth is poking through as well as 2 of her 1 year molars. She has been having some sleep issues because of it, but is quickly calmed down by laying with mommy and daddy in their bed. (I know bad habit!)

Once we discover the usb for the camera we will upload some new pictures. Brie is getting so big. Looking at her tonight asleep in her crib it is hard to imagine she was only 1 lb 12 oz 16 months ago.

Hard at Work

Here is the front room before all of the ripping and tearing. It is no longer blue. It actually has no walls and beautiful hardwood floors! Thanks to grandpa Myers and great grandpa Don for all of the help ripping down the walls!
Here is Brie's room. It started our blue and green with a dinosaur border. It is now pink with white trim. Thanks to the Joiners and Petersons for all of their hard work.

Here is Pop putting the finishing touches on Brie's room. Daddy is much happier now that the trim is painted white. We have decided to refinish her hardwood floors instead of putting down carpet. That will of course be done after we move in.

After a little bit of water damage we ended up putting some tile down on the floor in the bathroom downstairs. We will eventually redo the entire bathroom, but for now a new floor was necessary. Everyone said putting down tile was easy, I think they lied. Nothing in the bathroom was straight and almost every tile need to be cut! There is still one more tile to be done, but it is hidden behind the toilet so it can wait.

And finally here is the little munchkin helping daddy paint the living room. Of course there is no paint on her brush. She did manage a few minutes later to get her fingers into the can of paint when daddy was not looking and decided to add some color to her clothes and Mommy's.