8 Months Old

The months just fly by for this girl!  Here we are at 8mon already.  Again, no idea how much she weighs.  But I would bet big bucks she is up significantly from her last weigh in at 6mon (15lb 4oz), seeing as she is eating 1-2 times at night still and 2 solid meals a day!  She has a big ol' belly and thunder thighs, it is really cute.  

She will sit on the floor and play with toys for a while, which is really nice for me!  She sits up now with no problem, no more tipping over.  Still no crawling, she goes up on all fours and rocks, but no movement.  I'm really ok with her not crawling yet, I just know it is going to be a whole new game once she is able to get around and I am not sure I am ready for that.  She likes to sit in the exer-saucer and play, I've actually had to move it up to the next setting since she is getting so tall!  She grabs at anything and everything.  Her favorite things to grab and put in her mouth are tags, sweatshirt strings, and necklaces.  She has an extendo reach, so you have to be so careful when she is on your lap because she will tip over anything that is in front of her!

She is developing her personality more and more every day.  She loves to be by people, doesn't do so well all alone. She has started giggling and being goofy, we have gotten several videos of this.  She protests when I set her down, I usually have to just put her down near some toys and walk right away.  She will protest for a bit then start playing nice.  Brie does a couple 'tricks' now.  She will do 'so big'; if you say "How big is Brie?" she throws her hands up in the air.  She also does peak-a-boo, if you lay her down and give her a blanket, then say "Where is Brie?" she puts the blanket over her face then pulls it down and we say "peak-a-boo!!!!".  She has started babbling, so far she says ba-ba-ba and da-da-da.  I just love hearing her 'talk', it is so neat watching her discover her little voice.  Sometimes I still can't believe that she can do all this stuff, often times it seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital!  But then other days I can hardly remember what life was like before she came into our lives.

  

Briana is eating two solid food meals a day (breakfast and dinner).  I make all of her baby food, she is still only doing pureed food.  I'm not really sure when you are supposed to introduce more textures, but she still only has her two bottom teeth.  Some of the foods I have made her include: pears, peaches, sweet potato, carrots, blueberry/spinach/pear, broccoli/carrots/applesauce, and green beans mixed with cereal.  She likes to feed herself puffs, which she has gotten significantly better at putting her in mouth.  Josie used to love when she had puffs on her highchair tray because it meant she got to eat all the ones that fell on the floor (which were most of them!).  But now poor Josie just sits there and hopes she will drop one.  

Speaking of Josie, she is still not a fan of Brie.  She keeps her distance, and any time Briana reaches out for her she high-tails it out of there.  I do not for-see any sort of friendly relationship happening between the two of them, unfortunately.  

Sleeping is still not her strong suit.  She goes to bed at night around 7:30pm, usually goes down ok but sometimes cries for a few minutes.  Naps are becoming more and more of a struggle.  She screams and cries, I have to go in there a couple times and comfort her.  And then lately she has been taking SHORT naps, like less than an hour.  Not ok....especially because then she is a disaster in the evening and can barely make it to bed time.  She typically does two naps a day, sometimes more depending on when she wakes up in the morning and how long her naps are.  I've become surprisingly very unconcerned with her lack of a schedule.  I like that she can be flexible and go with the flow of whatever we are doing that day.

Alec and I love our little muffin so much, I just love watching her grow.  She's such a love-bug, she loves getting snuggles, hugs and kisses, and being held.  We are so blessed to have such an amazing daughter!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial weekend Alec, Briana, and I went 'camping' with the DeKruyter family in Holland.  Now, I say camping because we went for the day time then once night hit we headed to my Grandparents house who just live in Hudsonville (about 15min from where we were camping).  It was such a nice weekend, the weather was a little bit cooler than I would have liked but honestly it was better that than HOT!  And there were no bugs, so really it was just wonderful.  We did have a fire going almost all the time, and once evening hit I was a little nervous about Briana getting too chilly.

  

We played lightening (the basketball game), I was terrible....no surprise there.  But it was really fun, and we basically were the campgrounds entertainment.

 The campground we stayed at had a pool and hot tub.  And the pool was heated, so we actually did do some swimming.  Brie liked the water, it was really cute.  In the bottom middle picture these two little girls were SO interested in Briana, which was really cute....they were asking how old she was, what was her name, does she know how to swim; it was adorable.

We drove down the street to the beach and walked around and went out on the pier.  It was very chilly by the water and we didn't last there very long.  Alec and Mike (Allyson's boyfriend) were CRAZY enough to go into the water! Brrrrr.

The other DeKruyter family members (aunts, uncles, cousins) came out for dinner one evening, so that was fun to see everyone and hang out!

Merin (Travis' girlfriend) brought this cool hammock!  It is a two person one, but the problem was there wasn't a great spot to set it up, these trees just weren't far enough apart to make it a good fit.  But it was still very fun!

Oh child and her sleeping......or lack there of.  Putting her down for a nap is horrible on a good day, let alone trying to put her down in a camper where it is not quiet. She screamed bloody murder and then would finally fall asleep.  At night thankfully we just slept at my grandparent's house, so that helped.  But she would fall asleep on the way to their house, then be awake for like an hour.  

We all went for a walk up the new stairway up a sand dune.  Such a gorgeous walk. I cannot emphasize enough how gorgeous this side of Lake Michigan is.  I seriously feel like the Milwaukee people are gypped on their side of the lake!  Briana loved it, thankfully Alec carried her in the carrier (that one hurts my back too bad) facing forward.  

 They had a perfect baby bath tub for her, she loved it!

It was really chilly in the evening, so we wrapped up baby like a mummy!

So in Holland there is sign:

So then everyone comes tentatively up to the cage, scarred they are going to get their face latched onto by a bat!  

You get closer and then see:

Haha!  Its just a couple red plastic bats, SO funny though.  My uncle got a video of all of us going up to it and checking out.  Too funny.

It was a very fun weekend and we are so excited to be around for all this stuff and be able to easily spend time with the family.

Our New Niece - Tia Jae

Alec's sister, Kate, had her baby on May 18!  Another little girl!!!  They did not know what they were having and the anticipation was killing me! Little Tia is soooo precious and has tons sisters and girl cousins to play with!  Tia is the 4th girl in her family, 6th granddaughter in the DeLange family, bringing the grand total of grand kids to 10.5 (#11 is due in December to Aaron and Audrey!).  

When we found out we were moving to Michigan I said from the very beginning that my goal was to be moved here by the time Kate had her baby.  I wanted to be able to go see that baby in the hospital!  We hadn't been able to do that for any of the other babies living in Milwaukee, we always had to come the weekend after they were born.  It was just so special for Alec and I to be able to go meet Tia only hours after she was born.  

Tia has 3 older sisters that will be great helpers!  Oh boy Steve, are you ready to live in a house with FIVE women!?  He can handle it ;)

The first thing we all said when we put Brie and Tia next to each other in the hospital was "Holy GIANT baby!".  It is amazing how fast kids grow, they are only 7.5mon apart, and look at the difference!  I am personally soooo happy it is a girl, for Brie's sake!  It is going to be so fun having another cousin so close in age.  I just imagine them playing baby dolls, Barbies, and all that together all the time growing up.  Kate and Steve send their kids to Ada Christian, which is also where Alec and I plan to send Brie.  Tia and Brie will actually be in the same grade, which makes me SUPER excited!  (Again though, crazy to look at the picture and think those two are going to be in the same class!).  

For every DeLange baby we do a guessing chart, and I NEVER even come close to winning.  Well for this baby I WON!  Boo ya!  Its the small victories in life :)

We love you Tia!

Soaking in the Family Time

We have been in Michigan now just over 2 weeks.  We have just been soaking in the family time and loving it!  We love being able to go to all the birthday parties and family get togethers.  We even went to Dearborn for a few days to spend some time with my parents, Alec's company has an office near there as well so it works out that he can go to work from there.

While in Dearborn my mom and I were walking and we found a kid sandbox on the side of the road in someone's trash pile.  SCORE!  Grabbed it and dragged it all the way home, cleaned up, and poof....FREE sandbox!  

Things are going well though, we definitely feel like we are living in transition, but it is going just fine.  Brie has not really been sleeping all that well still, which is frustrating.  Especially since she WAS sleeping 12hrs at night, and now she gets up 1-2x/night.  Oh well, something we will deal with at the new house.

She usually makes her way to our bed around the 5am hr.  Alert: bad parenting moment about to be admitted......  This morning she was in our bed, NOT sleeping.  Alec had gotten up to get ready for work, well I must have fallen asleep and all the sudden THUMP....followed by CRYING.  Yeah, she fell out of bed.  Thank goodness it is nice carpet and a low bed, she was fine just freaked out.  Oh well, I like to think she is stronger for it.....makes me feel better about it anyways :)

I have been enjoying the country life-style though here in Grant!  Laying on the hammock, putting clothes on the line, walking down the country roads....a real country woman I tell ya!  Josie LOVES it here, she loves running around the 10 acres, chasing the cats, exploring in the field, and barking at anything that moves.

 Having fun at the Scholtens' house!  Rob and Anne got a 4-wheeler and the kids love it!  I had my 8yr old nephew take me for a ride, and one ride was enough for me.  Josie hated us jumping on the trampoline, she just barked and barked the whole time.  And Brie and Evelyn rolled around the floor together, so cute watching them grab at each other and steam roll each other.  

We enjoyed some time at the Fulton Farmer's market.  

And then lunch at Ramona's Table in East Grand Rapids.  SOOO good!

Spent some time in Newaygo with Anne and Will and Bumma.  Brie loves the swings!

We did a girls outting in Rockford.  It was a gorgeous day, perfect for walking around, doing some shopping, lunch, and ice cream!

We walked down the street to go watch our nephews in their spring concert at Grant Christian School.  They did a great job, and I think my favorite part was that Gage wore a suit!  Brie was a little bit squawky so we had to walk around with her.  She just wanted to sing with the big kids!  In the picture below she was trying to reach for her cousin Will's cookie.  He was NOT thrilled with this and was leaning waaaaay over to the other side to avoid her.  

Julia's Wedding!!!

My amazing friend Julia got married April 27!  Julia and I met at Calvin, lived together for 2 of those years, and were completely inseparable!   Such good times together, love this girl!  I am so excited to be living closer again to her so we can see each other far more frequently than we did when I was in Milwaukee.  

Julia was in my wedding (July 2008):

And I had the honor to be her Matron of Honor:

It was such a beautiful day for the wedding.  We started watching the 10 day forecast and it was NOT looking good.  I kept joking with her "geez, I thought you were supposed to be having a spring wedding....not a WINTER wedding!"  But sure enough it was amazing weather and the sun was shining.  I am so excited for Julia and Brad, they make a great couple!  Being married is the best thing ever I think, living with your best friend and being able to share memories together for the rest of your life is such a blessing.