The Big Mac

We traveled to McAlester for a short visit with Brooklyn's Great Grandparents on Monday. Brooklyn crawled all over the living and dining rooms, begged for food from the dinner table, danced on the dinner table, jumped in her Great Grandpa's arms, and posed for some precious pics with Great Grandma after a short nap.

I'd say the trip was a success! Thanks for having us!

Oh, and this is just a bonus pic...I like it, so I thought I'd share it! Simple as that. :)

Swimming & parties, oh my!

Brooklyn's been swimming with her Aunt Anna,

practicing her balancing act on any and every thing,

she's been dancing on tabletops with Grandpa,

celebrated her Great Nona's birthday with the family,

and was there to console her daddy when he got his butt kicked by her cousins in a 3-on-1 game of hoops!

Chin up. There's always next time, Daddy! :)

Crawling

Now you can see for yourselves! Enjoy! And ignore the commentary...in fact, if possible, just hit 'mute'!

We've got a crawler!

July 14, 2010. The proudest day of my motherhood thus far! My mom was here to take over baby-duty while I got ready for my evening class. "I think she just crawled!" my mom said to me. "No way!" Our eyes became glued to her every drooling movement. One, two, three crawl-steps...straight to the floor outlet! At last! She'd had her eye on that outlet for months!

Really, I have to go to class now?! I wanted to blurt it out to everyone...my daughter just crawled for the first time! Physically present, but mentally absent, the class seemed to last an eternity. On my way home I saw a little boy riding his bicycle. It made me look to the future, imagining the day when we'll teach Brooklyn how to ride her bike. First with training wheels...and then without! What a proud moment that will be! I also thought back to memories of me learning to ride a bike. In the hilly backyard of our Colorado Springs home. Kindergarten. I remember my parents' encouragement. And applause. And then the memory of selelcting my first ten-speed bike when we moved to Broken Arrow. From Lee's Bicycles. I'm so excited for our future!

Needless to say, I couldn't wait to be woken by her singing this morning! And while she was a bit slow to pick up where she left off, just an hour after opening her eyes, she's already crawled from one toy to the next. And that outlet...she hasn't forgotten about it!

Always playing catch-up!

It's been a while since I've blogged anything...and lots has happened! Brooklyn's been eating ducks at the park,

going to school on Wednesdays,

playing with Mimi on Wednesday nights,

and recently visited Aunt Diana,

and Great Grandma Helen!

We celebrated Brooklyn's first 4th of July as a family!

(She wasn't really feeling the pose...)

We picnicked on Riverside and were all ready to watch the show from the Jenks bridge when we felt sprinkles. Because we had unpacked the house on our picnic blanket, I slowly started packing in case the drops got bigger...which they did! So, we drove around to keep the baby happy & watched the show from the safety of the car! Rain aside, it was a great first 4th for miss B!

And my family put on a fireworks show for us out in Beggs the next night.

(the ears are just irresistable for me, so it's Easter every day in our house!)

Brooklyn had fun with her Mimi & Aunt Nessa...

had fun watching her cousins play...

but passed out before the big show...

She officially has 8 teeth now! And it's been a long couple of weeks while she worked on these last two teeth. So in celebration of the return of a happy baby, we spent today at Riverwalk, where we had lunch, shopped, and jammed to some live music. Brooklyn loved every second of it!!

Dad's Day

To accommodate his baseball schedule, we celebrated Jackson's first Father's Day on Saturday night. Brooklyn & I picked out a special card just for him, where she named him 'the bestest daddy on the planet'!

...and a book especially for them, titled 'Just Me and My Dad'

After domination on the baseball field Sunday (where they placed 2nd in the tournament - go Tulsa Tide!!), Jackson's dad, stepmom & sister joined us for a wonderful dinner, thanks to Stephanie!

I cut my visit with them short to spend some time with my dad Sunday evening. Anyone with a baby knows that it's very hard to carry on a conversation with a baby in tow! So it was nice to be able to spend some one-on-one time with my dad. Even though he was exhausted from his day job and working out in the field all day (for several days in a row), he humored me with conversation til he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Happy Father's Day, Dad! Years ago, my aunt described him as the rock of the family...he keeps everyone in touch, serves as a motivator, encourager, and a great role model. I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Dad, for all that you do for our family. And let's not forget that "behind every good man is a great woman". Thanks, Mom for all that you do, too!

Here's a tribute to all dad's: http://vimeo.com/12714406. It's a MUST watch!

I thought I'd leave you with a pic of our beauty's pearly whites...7 months old and working on her 7th tooth! It seems like that's all I write about: teeth, teeth, and more teeth!

Sammy

Aside from the soft blankie used to rub on her face at naptime, the toy that brings Brooklyn the most smiles is a character we named Sammy...(he's actually a nameless Dr. Seuss character). Her arms are like on auto-pilot when she sees him: they open wide and reach toward him, while her mouth changes from a smile to an open-mouth kiss!

Besides his funny looking face, the next most intriguing thing about him is the tag on his backside. This requires very close inspection upon each encounter, which usually includes taste-testing...

'What else has this busy lady been up to?', you may ask. Well, she's keeping us at the edge of our seats as she rocks back and forth, showing signs of crawling someday...

...she's been flashing her pearly whites and chompin on her toes as she rolls around babbling in bed...

...and she's had some very close encounters with the cats, whose lives will forever change after that first touch. 'Watch out, kitty kat', we tell them, as she applauds her own efforts!