March Round Up

For awhile whenever I put Brooklyn's clothes on she would ask to wear gloves and a hat too. We went on a walk this day and she insisted on pushing the stroller herself. When I would try to help steer the stroller with my hands on top of the handles she would kind of swat them away and say really politely "excuse me".
Brooklyn really loves to play in the car. She will lock and unlock the doors, steer the steering wheel, and switch from seat to seat.
Brooklyn had been very interested in the "horsies" on the carousel at the zoo. When it finally was warm enough for them to run it Kelsey and I took our girls for a ride. Brooklyn was not a fan and kept saying "all done! all done!". As we got off the guy mentioned he had it on the highest speed! It was even fast for me. Although now I don't have to worry about paying for a carousel ride every time we go to the zoo.
March started to be warm enough for some park play dates and riding trikes. Brooklyn got this weird rash on her face and red eyes. I took her to the doctor for her visit ever sick visit. She got some eye drops to clear up the infection and we were told the rash on her face was something viral. We wanted to stay away from friends for a couple days so she wouldn't spread the gunk. Instead of going stir crazy at home we went to the deserted botanical gardens and table rock for some fresh air.
Picking up and throwing rocks became a favorite past-time. Fish tanks are always intesting to our little girl.
We bought sand toys that with the nice weather we could enjoy in the sand volleyball courts at our nearby park.




























We went bowling at BSU for one day of Thomas' spring break.

Binky

We have officially weaned from the binky! I have seriously dreaded doing this since Brooklyn was a newborn.  I wish we had never had to use a binky but since the day she was born she was always wanting to suck.  The first couple weeks we would just have her suck on our fingers to pacifie he.  I hadn't wanted her to get nipple confusion and not be able to breastfeed so I waited a bit to give her the binky.
This girl LOVED her binky! When she was an infant Brooklyn would only take the soothie style pacifier. Probably once she got to a year she would take whatever kind she could get. At around 18 months I started being really strict about her just having it in the car and when sleeping.
Finally, at 21 months I knew it was time to get rid of it.  In the car she wanted two binks and if one fell we had a huge meltdown if I couldn't reach back to get it.  Also, at night I liked her to use the wub-a-nub with the attached little animal so it wouldn't fall through the cracks of the crib and her wake up crying.  But Brooklyn started chewing through the pacifiers on those because they are just infant soothies.  I didn't want her choking on a piece of pacifier.
I started on a Friday night so that I would have the support of Thomas on the weekend.  Basically for a few days she screamed "binky!" and cried at naptime and bedtime and her naps were a little off for about a week. When I would put her down to sleep and she would ask for it I would just tell her "Binky went bye-bye, binky's broken." She would still be upset but she would often repeat back to me "Binky bye-bye? Binky broken?"  I was pleasantly surprised at the relative ease of it all.  I've found a lot of times in motherhood I expect the worst only to be pleasantly surprised.

A few weeks old and the wub-a-nub is almost as big as her!

Father's Day 2012

Nana and her bink what more could a girl want?

I would wash the wub-a-nubs by putting them in a garment bag and throwing them in the washer and then hold them over a pot of boiling water to sanitize the nipple. I was putting Brooklyn to bed one night and totally forgot about the wub-a-nub over the pot of boiling water and all of the water evaporated and the binky part started melting. Brooklyn and I had to evacuate the house for an hour or so to let the smell leave. We probably went through six or seven wub-a-nubs.  Some were lost others burned others chewed up.  The giraffe was obviously the favorite but we also had a pink bear, elephant, and monkey.

The pink bear didn't last long

September 2012 about 4 months old.

October 2012 about 5 months old

Thanksgiving Day 2012.  6 months old.

About 7 months old

With our neighbor Maha.  About 8 months old.

About 9 months old

A year old

16 months old and the last picture I think I have of her with a binky.

Here's to the end of the binky era!

St. Patrick's Day 5K 2014

At the finish line

This was our second year running this event.  Last year was SO cold! This year was better and we did just fine with short sleeves and gloves.  We decided to bring Brooklyn with us since neither Thomas or myself were going for any kind of personal record.  We had both been hit hard with some kind of horrible sore throat that week and so just decided to stick together.  We had taken Brooklyn with us on a 4 mile run the previous weekend and she had behaved wonderfully so we expected the same.
Well about a mile into the run she started crying and would not tell us why! We tried consoling with a sippy cup and snacks to no avail.  I pushed the jogging stroller til the halfway point after which Thomas took over. Finally with about a half mile to go I told Thomas to go ahead in hopes that he would get to the finish line faster to console Brooklyn.  I felt really bad for the runners next to us who had to listen to her screaming.  Lesson learned! No more bringing baby to races anymore.

I sprinted at the finish to catch that guy.

Brooklyn in mid scream

I finished slightly faster than I did last year on this same course (26:21 this year, 26:53 last year) but nowhere near my fastest 5K time.  I'm excited to get back into racing now that the weather is warming up! I have some motivating goals this running season.  I'm going to work to beat my 10K personal record and also train for the Sawtooth Relay in June where I will be running with a team to complete 61 miles (we each run two legs of about 5 miles each). 

Saturday Breakfasts on the Town

Lately we have started a fun little tradition of going out for breakfast on Saturday mornings.  Our favorite spot so far has been a little breakfast cafe in downtown Boise.  They have a special seasoning that they put on their potatoes and eggs that is AMAZING.  I normally always put some kind of sauce on mine but no sauce needed at this place.
I like having something to look forward to, to start our weekend off together. And to give myself a break from cooking and cleaning up.

The french toast at Kneaders was awesome! 

BSU Men's Basketball Game

We have been wanting to go to a Boise State basketball game for awhile now and finally did it.  We picked a game that was a nail biter at the end supposedly but ironically we thought for sure the Broncos were going to lose so with about 4 minutes left and them 7 points behind we left to beat the crowd.  We were feeling all proud of ourselves because we got out of there so quickly only to discover that it went into overtime and the Broncos won!
Regardless we had a great time.  Brooklyn was mesmerized by the band, the cheerleaders, the fans, and the players.  We dressed her up in her Buster the Bronco suit and she loved it.  So much so that the next day when we were going to ride bikes to the park she insisted on wearing her Buster the Bronco "jacket".

Miss Buster the Bronco

Her little tail

Concentrating on the game.

Go Broncos!

Thomas loves that she is a sports fan.

Stylin' lady.

Thursday Play Dates

Brooklyn and I have been SO blessed to meet amazing friends this past year.  The mom's that I have gotten to know through a couple of mom groups I am a part of have been such great examples to me and inspire me to become a better person and mom.
Our Thursday play group started last summer. A bunch of us kept running into each other at different activites like Baby Signing Time, library story time, the park, etc. and someone came up with the great idea to start an e-mail list with all our e-mails so we could organize play dates.
A lot of the moms in this group are from other countries.  We have some from Italy, Singapore, Mexico, and England.
During the summer we would all meet at the park but in the winter months we switch of hosting at our different houses.  Recently we also decided to start a Mommy Book Club where each month we choose and discuss a different parenting book.
Brooklyn feels right at home at all of her friends' houses.  It's been so fun seeing all these little ones grow up together.  There are a few that we have known since they were newborns!
Here is a shot of some of them from one of our play dates this winter.

Can you tell my child loves Elmo?

Little blondies.

Oliver not so thrilled that his crib is being invaded.

To go along with that picture of Brooklyn in the crib with her friends. Brooklyn is like Goldilocks, she loves to try out other people's cribs and highchairs. Like my friends make sure they clean their highchairs before we come over because they know Brooklyn will be wanting to sit in it.