Warning! Naked Pictures.

I am surprised at myself that I have yet to post naked pictures of Briz. Mostly because I think it's when she's at her cutest (as are most babies). Here are some pictures of her at 5 months. Yikes! She's getting so old.

Her tiny little tush and her little rolls. It's funny because she has these little rolls, but yet, is still the skinniest thing. It's like an old lady. Thought you would enjoy that nice mental image :)

Nick was very worried about me taking naked pictures of her. And I promised him that I wouldn't post them. But since he knows me too well, he felt it necessary to sensor this picture. Since his hand is GINORMOUS, it takes up about half her body. Freak!

Awww yeah . .. holding her own bottle and thinking that she's pretty cool.


Trying to shove all of her fingers in her mouth at the same time. A pretty regular thing for her.

After eating rice cereal. This was a fairly clean eating. Many times, its all in her eyelashes and her hair.

Mmm . . . this rice cereal is GOOD (Chris Farley SNL skit, anyone?)

I'm a Big Girl Now!

I couldn't get the Pampers commercial out of my head, but no, I am not potty training Briz yet.

She does seem to think she's a big girl these days though. She has started to sit up on her own. She props herself up with her arms and then eventually, very slowly, falls over to the side. But the other day she was sitting up by herself for a good 5 minutes.

She also holds her own bottle now too. And if she's very intent on holding it, she will swat my hand away when I try to help her. When I feed her rice cereal, she tries to grab the spoon to feed herself. I tried giving her a spoon to hold onto, so that she would think that she was feeding herself, but she wasn't fooled. She kept dropping the spoon I gave her, and would attack the spoon with the good stuff. If she can't grab the spoon, she'll put her hands in the cereal and shove it into her mouth. She can't wait the 2 seconds it takes to get from the spoon to her mouth. Apparently, I'm too slow!

Post Pregnant Body

This post pregnant body really sucks. Soon after labor, I had some real issues controlling my bladder. Just when I thought I was in the clear and starting to get back on normal, I had a setback. I was doing great running fairly consistently, but my stupid knee keeps feeling like its twisted in knots, so I'm not sure how much I am going to be able to do that! I have some flab that won't dissapear from my stomach, boobs that get in the way of everything (not to mention half my shirts don't fit my chest area), and a few friendly lines/marks that have decided to stick with me even after the skin has stretched back down to mostly normal size. And oh yeah, I still have cravings! What's up with that?

Not gonna post a picture, because, well, that would just be too much.

On the flip side, I have a beautiful little baby that is usually worth it . . . about 95% of the time. Well, okay, maybe 90% of the time.

4 Months Already!!!!

I cannot believe B-Rizzle is already 4 months. I still think she's my brand new little newborn. But perhaps this is because she still looks like she's 6 weeks old (and still wearing some of her 0 to 3 month clothes)!

Never in my life did I think I would have this little string bean for a baby. We went to the doctor yesterday and got her 4 month shots, and man she is a tough little cookie. She hardly cried (she hardly cried at her 2 month either, but I thought that was a fluke). She is so funny because we can put her in freezing cold water and stab her with a needle and she hardly fusses. But man, when she's tired or hungry or her tummy hurts, watch out!!!


We went to the doctor and I left feeling like a terrible mother. I knew Briz was little, but I had no idea how little. She only weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. - the 10th percentile. I thought for sure the scale was wrong. Then they measured her, but they measured her with her knees up and I was all mad. They said she was 23 1/4, but she was longer than that like 2 months ago! So I measured her when I got home and she was about 26 inches- the 80th percentile. Her reflux is definitely improving, but she still has a hard time nursing. My doctor got mad at me for not seeing a specialist yet, so that is our next step. I'm hoping they have some good suggestions, so Briz can fatten up a little bit. She looks hillarious in her pajamas, cause she is just so long and skinny.

New developments:

- We have started to give her rice cereal before she nurses, and she LOVES it. She is a little pro at eating with a spoon. I can't shovel it into her mouth fast enough. She likes to try to grab the spoon herself but then gets frustrated and wonders why the food isn't going immediately in her mouth.

- She recognizes when people aren't her mom or her dad, and if she gets close enough to them, she makes the saddest little face and bursts out with a sad cry. She quivers her little bottom lip quite well, and while its sad for her, its really funny to watch! After all, that's why we had a kid, for entertainment.

- She likes to do little pushups and see how far up she can push her body when she's on her stomach.

- She grabs for everything and anything within reach and then tries to (or does) shove it in her mouth.

- She snuggles up into the tightest ball ever before she sleeps; she burrows her head into your neck. And then when she goes to sleep, she hides herself under her blanket as she's curled up.

We love our little Ethiopian child.

(You can go on facebook for more 4 month pictures. Too lazy to post.)

P.S. If you would like to leave any comments about how I'm really NOT a bad mom, that would be great. I could use it. But ya know, whatever you want :)

Baby Advice

I feel like I've done pretty well thus far in teaching Briz to be a good sleeper. Right now, she goes from about 8 -8:30 p.m. to 7 - 7:30 a.m.
But I'm running into trouble when it comes to nap time. I have to be honest, I have had a hard time being too strict with her about sleeping, because sometimes I still have a hard time gauging if she is in pain or just being demanding. She has recently gotten into the habit of waking up every 45 minutes during her naps. She takes 3 naps a day, all of which are generally around 1 hour and a half to 2 hours. But now she will wake up screaming. I want to teach her to self soothe and to put herself back to sleep, but it doesn't seem to work. She just cries harder and harder (and I generally will let her cry anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes). Unless she needs to throw up, she will pretty much be fine once I put her pacifier back in. But again, I hate that I have to do that, and I want her to be able to go for the full 2 hours by herself. Any suggestions?

She has started to love her tummy time recently. She scoots along on her tummy and does this swimming motion. And she has started rolling over, but her favorite place to do it is in her crib :)

The Beach . . . again

As noted in our last post, Nick and I went to Seaside last Saturday to attend the Hood to Coast finish. But we also spent some time enjoying the coast. It was a little cloudy at first, but cleared up soon after and was absolutely a gorgeous day.

This was the hairiest person we had ever seen. He was excited, after finishing the race, to take off his shirt and jump in the water. But oh man, he defintely should have left his shirt on! It looks like he's wearing a sweater vest!

Nick was a little disugsted by the hairy guy.

Him being Mr. Mom again, wearing the front pack.

Briz was trying to eat the front pack.

He's torturing our daughter. Smile!!!

These are the cutest shoes ever. She actually has a surprising amount of tiny tiny shoes (all hand me downs), which I love putting her in. They serve absolutely no purpose, but I think they're cute. I can't believe she's almost outgrown these!

She's very happy that I'm squeezing her so tight. I just can't help it. When she's not crying, I take advantage of it.

Tuckered out from being carried around all day. It's a hard life.

Runnin'

Nick and I went up to the finish of the Hood to Coast this weekend. And it was NUTS!!! It was a little overwhelming, but it made me excited to run in one of Nick's relay races next summer. I have started training (it will take me a while!), and am going to run a 10k in October. My goal is to run a 1/2 marathon in the spring and then one of Nick's relays later on in the summer. I am not sure I will be sporting some of the gear I saw at H2C: a guy was running in whitie tighties. But I do need people to run with me. And here are some ideas of names that I saw there as well.

Could dress up as Mr. Incredible or Spiderman.

This was my favorite. Perhaps because it was serious, but I still thought it was funny.

Maybe we should put Mormon posters up on our vans and dress as missionaries while we run??? I am pretty sure, however, I will be more concerned with staying alive than dressing up.

But if you have any ideas of names, feel free to share.