She Loves post bath time/hangin' out on her changing pad

Don't know what this face is. Mid -conversation maybe.

One of her favorite times is after her bath and she gets to hang out naked on her changing table, while mom acts stupid in front of her to try to get her to laugh.

A couple weeks ago, she had a diaper rash that was so bad, it was bleeding (not good). For Briz, the upside of this rash is I let her hang out naked for a long time on a towel after her nightly bath so she could air out her little booty. But she would inevitable poop or pee on the towel, and man I was doing a lot of laundry! So I'm very happy that now the naked time is more limited.

But she still gets so mad when I put clothes on her. Anyone know when that stops???

She loves bath time

She loves looking in the mirror

Trying to give herself a kiss.

Doing some serious soul searching.

Her cheerleading move.

She Loves her teething biscuits

In case you haven't caught on yet, I am doing a series of posts about things she loves. I would have taken more of her just eating food, but I'm not skilled enough to fight her hands off with a spoon while I feed her and take pictures at the same time.

She loves her bouncy chair thingy

The Many Faces of Signing Times

These are some of the faces she makes while watching her favorite thing in the world: Baby Signing Times.

She looks like a primary chorister asking to sing louder. Really, she just plays with her ears when she's tired.

Flapping the arms and getting excited.

She looks very surprised for having seen this video five thousand times.

You can't tell from the picture, but she is thrusting back and forth doing her little dance. She got her moves from her mom.

Haircut # 2

I gave Brizzy her first hair cut over Christmas break, but her hair has been growing pretty fast and it was recently turning into a pretty gross mullet. I hated to cut off the little hair she has, but I didn't have much choice. I decided to still leave the top long.

You can see the part of her hair that I did cut.

Girls Night In

It was our turn to babysit last Saturday night, but Ethan couldn't make it, so it was girls night in with Sophie and Briz. They are two peas in a pod; they have always been very similar with their personalities and size (although Briz' cheeks are quite a bit chubbier now and she is a little bit more intense). They even talk the same baby talk.

They had fun sharing (stealing toys from each other) and copying each other's moves. While they were watching Signing Times, they even held hands. It's fun to see them interact, since they've been around each other at just a couple months.

Can't wait until our next slumber pary!

Runnin' this Summer

I am running the Prelay race this summer on June 25 - 26 (Friday- Saturday). We run from Portland to Eugene. So far I've got Kyle Rodgers and McKenna Michels on my team (and possibly my little bro who is on a mission), which means I need only 9 more people to party it up with! I was there last year but I couldn't run because I had had a baby 6 weeks prior, and I was so jealous of everyone who got to do it! It really will be so much fun. We will be running approximately 3 legs, each around 5 - 6 miles. But these do vary, so you may be running a little less than that. If you are serious about doing it, let me know. If you don't live in Oregon, what a good excuse to come visit:) You know you want to.

You can check out the route and everything on their website:

www.epicrelays.com

Here is a link to a promo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qMHC2h_http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5788803095941211331nsM

Update

Highlights:

-Briz turned 8 months!
-She moved up on the growth chart: She weights 16 lbs. 1 oz. and is now in the 15th percentile for her weight.
-Cut her first tooth yesterday.
-Makes weak attempts at crawling, by getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, but then gets bored after a few minutes and indicates that she's ready to practice walking (she can't, but she thinks she can).
- Still extremely intense about food, but loves her cheerios in particular.
- Kicks her legs non stop like a banche.
- Her new nickname (by Sierra) is Lady Gaga, because she says this nonstop all day long . . . Gagagaga. Every once in a while she'll venture out to Bababa, or Dadadada. Nick thinks she's saying his name, but I inform him (every time) she's not.
- She uses the same inflections I use. So if she's talking when I read a book, she says gagaga like she's reading the book.
- She dances ALL the time!!! It's more of just the thrusting back and forth. When she does, I start making techno noises like "Nst, nst nst."
- Still loves singing, when in doubt sing to her and she will love you.
- When something or someone is new, she will stare and stare and stare. It can get kinda freaky.
- She loves to grab people's faces, and their mouths in particular, including other kids that she's playing with. Most of them don't appreciate this very much.
- She is a pig! She drinks probably about 40 oz. a day now, and then eats her three baby food meals on top of that!
- She is drinking from a sippy cup every so often, and it was hillarious when she discovered that she could suck and liquid would come out of it.
- I gave her her first haircut over the break. And it continues to grow quite a bit. I think I could say that is now pretty much an official mullet. I'll have to post some pictures of the back of her hair to prove it.

Not so much fun highlights:

- She had her first real cold over Winter Break for about 2 weeks.
- She had diarrhea for about 10 days. In the first five days, she probably pooped 10 to 12 times a day.
- Because of this pooping she got a severe diaper rash, which turned into a yeast infection. I now have to put purple dye on her pooter every morning. The most fun thing was when I spilt all over the carpet, wall, and dress. Yeah!
- She now poops about three times a day, still a lot, but hey, I'll take it over not pooping at all.
- Everything she wears is completely soaked down the front, because her drool is pretty much a constant dripping faucet of spit.

The good and bad, we still smother her. We can't help but constantly kiss those ever growing cheeks.

Christmas Summary

I am not posting any Christmas pictures on here because I just put up a jazillion on facebook, so if you're very curious, you can look there.

But I will tell you how it went. It was great, overwhelming, but great. All of my family, minus my brother who is on a mission in Puerto Rico, was there. Nick, Briz, and I, went up to Portland for a week to stay at my parents. It was mostly fun seeing my niece and nephew and Briz interact. Palmer could care less about Briz, but Portia is obsessed. The two words to describe her best are nuturing and aggressive. Here are some of the things we did:

Went to downtown Macy's to visit Santa
Built gingerbread houses
Had Santa come and visit our House
Saw Christmas lights
Went caroling
Played games
Watched movies

Christmas Day was nuts with so many people. It took us like 4 hours to open presents, because everyone just wanted to watch the little kids. Briz loved ripping the paper and opening her presents. She cared a little more about them than I thought she would (probably not a good sign). And it was fun having her there on Christmas morning, even though she doesn't really get it. I spoiled Nick with golf passes, a new golf bag, and a new iPhone (yes, I caved thanks to Brett). And I got a Wii Fit which I'm very excited about: I now like video games, at least ones that make me burn calories.

We came home for a few days to unpack, relax, and unwind. And then we repacked and went to Black Butte for a few days with the whole gang again. It was a rough few days, because Nick couldn't go skiing (he has to get knee surgery for his torn ACL, among other things). Not only was he injured, but he got really really sick. Briz was sick pretty much the whole time, and then from lack of sleep, I think, I got sick. Luckily, I was able to go skiing for one day, and I got an amazing massage from aunt Sharyl.

But now we're home, and I think maybe just barely recovered. Thank goodness Christmas wore me out, because otherwise I would still be depressed it's over. January kind of sucks.