Poor Baby

Baby toe, that is. I hesitated to post about this because I didn't want people to think I am a major klutz, but then I realized that most people probably know that about me anyway. I mean, can anybody else say they have had a cast on all four appendages?? (Not at the same time, of course, and two of them were for surgery, but still!) Anyway, I broke my toe!! At least I am assuming it's broken. I stubbed it on the side of the couch (which is a common occurance), but this time it didn't stop hurting after 5 minutes like it usually does. It swelled up and turned purple. Jason says he broke his at one point and the doctor told him the bone in the little toe is too small to do anything about it, so I didn't bother going to the doctor or anything. I've just been hobbling around for the past few days.

This picture really doesn't do it justice. Our camera is too crappy to take a good picture this close, and most of the bruising is on the underside anyway. (Have you ever tried to take a picture of the underside of your baby toe? Not an easy task.) Plus, it's been a couple of days so it has healed a lot. But you get the idea! I just want to pay tribute to all baby toes everywhere. We don't appreciate them enough until they are hurt. Life is miserable when they are not doing their job the way they should. So thank you, little nugget toe. I appreciate your quiet service to my foot. Get well soon.

Our House

Saturday was Jason's birthday. I hesitate to mention this because I always get in trouble when I talk about him on our blog. What a weirdo. Anyway, we went to Tucano's and played ping pong and had Ryan Chapple over for cake. It was a good day.

We are still really liking our apartment. It's the perfect size for us. We play ping pong in the rec room frequently. There are games and DVDs you can check out for free, and they just barely opened up the pool for the summer. We like to see the water all lit up at night right outside our front door.

There are three things I do not like about our apartment.

1) It doesn't have a dishwasher.

2) When you turn on the water in the sinks in the bathroom, the pipes make a very high-pitched whine. Apparently this is supposed to be fixed this summer.

3) This:

What are those, you ask? Ants. BIG ants. With wings. Every morning, the back half of my kitchen floor is covered with their dead carcasses. According to what I've read online, I think they are carpenter ants. I know this sounds really disgusting, and it is, but it could definitely be worse. First of all, although I have seen them a few times in other parts of the house, the grand majority is found on one side of the kitchen. Secondly, they are almost always dead... not sure why. Thirdly, unlike regular ants, they are not after our food. This is especially good because, without a dishwasher, there are usually some dirty dishes in the sink. One good thing about this issue is that my kitchen floor gets swept at least once a day. Although, with Brooklyn's recent affinity for throwing baby puffs, apple slices, noodles, biter biscuits, etc. on the floor, this would probably happen anyway. I told the manager about the problem and she didn't seem too concerned. She said something about not wanting to spray because of me having a baby in the house. However, I was getting grossed out and complained again so she said she will be sending somebody over to take care of it. Yay!

I was talking to my sister yesterday and she said she wanted me to post some pictures of our apartment. I explained to her that that would require me making the bed, picking up all the toys, removing all ant carcasses, vacuuming all baby's crumbs, etc. within a short enough time period for these things not to present themselves once again so I could take pictures. That doesn't happen as frequently as I would like. She said she just wanted to know what it looked like so she could "picture it." I understand that. Well, since I don't feel like taking pictures and my child is crankily whining about her teeth hurting, I'm taking the easy way out. If you're interested, click here. This is our exact apartment with all of the same furniture in the same places. Click on "Virtual Images" and you can take a virtual tour of all the rooms and the complex. The only difference is that ours doesn't have the cute little curtains and stuff. We're living here for three months, what's the point? And, in our room we pushed the two twin beds together and put a king-sized memory foam mattress pad on top. In Brooklyn's room, we put the two beds on top of each other in the corner and her crib, changing table, etc. is up against the wall with the window. Not fancy, I know, but it does the job. So that's our house! We'll give you a tour of our next one in three months. =)

Our D.I. Haul

We noticed that Brooklyn was getting sick of her toys. She only has about 5 or 6 little baby toys that don't do much and she doesn't even look twice at them anymore. I have looked at buying her some more toys, but they are so expensive! Like $10 for a fake key ring or something. Anyway, I didn't have very high hopes, but we decided to go look at D.I. yesterday. Usually D.I. is so picked over and most of the stuff that is donated there has been through 10 kids already. Garage sales are much better because people still think they can get some money out of the stuff. D.I. gets the things that don't sell. Anyway, we went and looked at the toy section and, at first glance, it was just as I had suspected. Everything was dirty and broken and missing parts. Upon closer inspection, however, we found a few treasures. Here is Brooklyn with her new toys!

Here, Brooklyn is listening to T.J. Bearytales tell her a story. He is a lot like Teddy Ruxpin, if anybody remembers him. He tells stories, sings songs, plays games. His mouth and hands move along. Very cute. You can get different cartridges and books for him to tell even more stories. It's a little old for Brooklyn still, but she enjoyed listening to him and watching him move. I couldn't believe what great condition this little guy was in. It looks like he was just barely taken out of the box. He retails for $60 and we got him for $2. Hooray!

Also in the picture is a Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Toolbench. It is a very fun toy. Again, not a scratch on it and it looks brand new. I even wiped it off with a Clorox wipe and the wipe was still white afterwards! It has a rubber tipped hammer that you hit the nails with. When you hit the nail on the head, it lights up and a little man pops up and says hello! Brooklyn really likes that part. It also sings songs and does the ABCs, etc. It retails for $39 and we got it for 75 cents.

Of course the least expensive toy is her favorite. This flower also looked brand new and I thought she'd like it. It has a thick wire going down the stem so she takes one end between her legs and can twist the top of it every which way. Very cute and apparently very fun.

I like this picture because you can see her teeth in it. She's got a cute little toothy grin now. Although she is quite the cranky lady lately because of it.

Jason also got a VCR for $8 from D.I. He wanted one to be able to tape the BYU football games to send to his parents in the Fall. We used Grandma's VCR to do it last year, but this year we won't be at her house so we needed one of our own. It works great! He was very pleased.

Monkey Face

Brooklyn has a new expression that I haven't been able to get on camera yet. It looks a little something like this:
She usually does it when she is fascinated by something, so when I take the camera out, she gets distracted and stops. It makes me laugh every time she does it. I think I love her even more now that she frequently resembles a monkey.

In other news, she went from lying down to sitting up all on her own for the first time on Wednesday. She was just rolling around playing while I was fixing dinner and when I looked back at her, she was sitting up! I don't know how she did it and she hasn't done it since, but it made me nervous enough to move her crib down to the lower position so there is no chance of her falling out. The only problem now is that the part of the crib that is supposed to go up and down is stuck in the up position. So I pretty much have to drop her to get her into her crib now. I think maybe I'll get a stool to put beside the crib so I don't have to wake her up every time.

And lastly, here is an amusing picture I took the other day. When Jason gets her dressed, he insists that "buttons go in the front!" It doesn't matter to him that she looks like her head is on the wrong way from behind. Silly Daddy! =)

WW Update

Just thought I'd give a little update on my Weight Watchers progress. I have lost 17 pounds since Jan 1st (10 pounds since I announced I was trying to lose 15). So, that means I have just 5 pounds left to lose in order to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. My goal was to do that by July 12th and I think I'm still on track. It's so nice to finally be able to fit into some of my non-maternity clothes!

Weight Watchers has been great. I really don't even feel like I've made that many changes to my diet. I'm just more aware now of what I eat. I decided that I need a weekly splurge, so we still eat out once a week. (I try not to go TOO crazy, but I do use my WW "flex" points.) Because we've been doing that, I haven't lost weight as quickly as I might otherwise, but I'm happier. =) And I've still been able to reach my goals. Anyway, if anybody has been thinking about joining WW, I highly recommend it. You have to sign up for the first three months all together, but I think after that you know the diet well enough that you don't have to renew your subscription. You can just keep track of your points in Excel, or even on paper. So it costs about $65 to lose the weight - I think it's worth it. Anyway, if anyone has any questions about it, feel free to contact me. I'm a big fan.

Oh, and I found a new chocolatey snack that I love... S'MORES!!! You can have one whole graham cracker, three squares of a regular-sized Hershey bar, and 2-3 marshmallows (depending on the brand) for 3 points! I roast the marshmallows with a fork over our gas stove and the chocolate gets all melty. Heaven on Earth.

Growing up

I can't believe how fast our little girl is growing lately. She just turned 7 months old a few days ago. She is already almost out of her 6-9 month clothes. I guess she must be going through a growth spurt or something because she just started wearing 6-9 month clothes a few weeks ago! She looks bigger to me every morning when I get her out of bed.

In addition to her two new teeth, her hair is getting longer and she is acquiring new skills. She likes to pick things up with her fingers and put them in her mouth. These things aren't always food. Now that she has teeth, she has become quite opposed to having anyone look in her mouth. I'm not sure why that is, but it sure makes it difficult to fish out whatever inedible object she has decided looks tasty. However, it is fun to let her sit in her high chair and watch her pick up and eat little baby puffies or curly noodles. She gets so excited and proud of herself. Somehow, there are always baby puffies all over the apartment.

Her army crawl is getting really fast. When she gets bored of playing with toys and starts crying, I say, "Come here, baby. Come see Mommy." She crawls right over to me and reaches up for me to hold her. It is incredibly heartwarming. Lately, she has also been pushing up onto her hands and knees so I bet she'll start crawling for real here soon.

For some reason, Brooklyn has decided that she'd rather sleep in her carseat than her crib. When she falls asleep in our arms and we go to lay her down in her crib, she screams. If we lay her in her carseat, she wakes up, looks around, and goes back to sleep. Strange, but acceptable. We just set her carseat in her crib.

One thing we DO NOT like about his stage in her life is her tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and want to play. She thinks it's morning at 2:00. The other night she woke up and was SO EXCITED!!! I brought her in bed with us because I was tired and she was just kicking and laughing up a storm. I don't think I've ever seen her so enthusiastic. In spite of our drowsiness, we thought it was pretty cute. But why can't she be like that during the day?! Anyway, here are some recent pictures of our little girl:

Brooklyn still doesn't like to sit up, but she can. I think the reason she doesn't like to sit is that she is so active and likes to move around. Take the above picture for example. When she's in a sitting position, all she wants to do is get her toys and she stretches as much as she can, but can't reach them. She eventually flings herself back and rolls over so she can crawl and get it.

Doesn't look comfortable, right?

We had a problem with there always being toys strewn all over the house from Brooklyn's escapades. We decided we needed a toy box to keep in the living room to make it quick and easy to get out and clean up toys. Little did we know that this little $1 laundry basket we decided on would turn into a toy itself! She likes to pull it over her head and laugh at us through the holes.

I just thought this picture was cute. She was so tired the other day that she fell asleep while I was feeding her. She's still got bananas in her hair and everything. What a sweet little girl...

Naples Zoo

I realize that it is obscenely late for me to be blogging about Florida, but there is still so much to share! Plus, it is super fun for me to go back and look through the pictures and remember what a great time we had. On Friday, we went to the Naples Zoo. I honestly don't know when or if I have ever been to a zoo before. I must have been at some point because I have kind of a visual image in my head of what a zoo is like. It involves a lot of hot concrete between exhibits and animals in pens that are too small or so far away that you can't even see the animal. Like I said, I don't know where this image comes from, but the Naples Zoo was nothing like that. It was so beautiful and tropical and nice. We meandered through trees and got to see animals in very natural-looking enclosures. It didn't have the best selection of animals. There were mostly just alligators, turtles, monkeys, and a few different kinds of big cats like lions, tigers, etc. It wasn't even very big, but it was so relaxed and enjoyable. We went to a little show on "predators" where they brought out a few different animals and told us about them. We got to see a Gila Monster eat meal worms and this weird fox/dog thing do tricks. It was perfect. We also got to buy fish food and throw it to the fish in the ponds. We found an injured alligator who ate it too... (why he wasn't eating the FISH was beyond us). My sister flirted with a lion and he put on a show for her. We got to see the alligators being fed steak and hear all about them. We even saw a HUGE alligator ROARING up against a bank. We had no clue what he was doing until later we were told that it was mating season and that's how the males call for the females. It was pretty intimidating, I wouldn't come if my man talked to me like that. =) My favorite part was the monkeys. I love monkeys in general and at the zoo all of the different types of monkey had their own little island. I guess the water acts as a natural boundary for them and they all stayed put without any fences or barriers. To see them all, we got to go on a little boat ride around the islands and hear all about the different types of monkey. So fun. Somehow, my brother-in-law, Tyler, got a hold of our camera at the zoo so we have an ABUNDANCE of pictures (including his famous self-portraits). Here are a few of our favorites:

The vegetarian alligator...


and his fishy friends!

Ah! This one's trying to escape!!

Our favorite monkeys were Milli and Vanilli.

A shot of the monkey island tour boat.

Helloooo up there!! I wish I could remember these monkeys' name, it was something to do with their beautiful black and white coats.

These cool Banyan trees were everywhere! The tree grows out by dropping a sprout from the branches. It implants itself into the earth below and then grows thicker and thicker so the tree looks like it has multiple trunks. Very cool.

Go Cougars!

My sister's feline boyfriend. (Is this him, Katy, or was it a lion?)

Brooklyn loved the zoo. Enthralled.

And then there were two...

Now baby has TWO teeth on the bottom! I discovered the second one yesterday. No wonder she's been cranky lately. Is this why moms start weaning?!

She Moves! She Moves!

Brooklyn started "crawling" last Saturday, May 3rd. Grandma Maner had gotten her a little ball to play with and when it got away from her, she crawled after it! Like it was no big deal! I will admit that she has her own unique interpretation of the preferred baby crawl. She looks like somebody chopped off her legs. But, it works to get her where she wants to go. She wasn't really in the mood when I filmed her, but you get the idea. Here is our little fake amputee in action! Enjoy.

My BABY has TEETH!!!

Okay, so maybe it's only one tooth... but still! I was fishing something out of her mouth yesterday (I don't know how she always manages to find something to chew on... no matter how many times I pick up the floor) and I was scraped! By a tooth! I didn't even know it was coming! It's so cute and little and I just can't get over it. My baby is growing up.

Here is my best attempt at a picture of it without tormenting her too much. =) So tiny!

Strawberries

So I thought I'd list some of the pros & cons of the little baby feeder I got Brooklyn a while back, just in case any other moms were thinking about getting one.

Pros:

1) I got the Sassy brand which includes a little gel pack in the base so you can freeze it. Plus, there is a cap for it. So, you can stuff it with food, put the cap on it, and throw it in your diaper bag. The food stays cold and you can use it later in the day.

2) It keeps Brooklyn entertained for a good 30 minutes.

3) It lets her try new foods.

4) I don't worry about her choking.

5) It teaches her the coordination to feed herself.

6) Frozen foods (she even likes ice) are great for teething.

Cons:

1) It's a mess. But what food isn't a mess with a 6 month old? I just wipe her down afterwards. She's waterproof.

2) This particular brand is really hard to get open. I guess that is so the baby is sure not to choke if it accidentally comes open. I guess this could also be considered a pro, but it sure is irritating when the baby is crying for more food and I can't get the stupid thing to come apart.

3) It is somewhat difficult to clean.

4) Baby SCREAMS once she has dehydrated all of the food inside. I guess that just means she really enjoys it.

Overall, I would say it is a good thing to have around. Otherwise, we wouldn't have learned for a while how much she loves strawberries! =)

P.S. The camera is found. I asked Jason where it was and he picked it right up off of the shelf over our desk. Why didn't I see it? It was in its case... I'm not used to seeing it put away. Jason scoffed at me. I guess now he understands why I laugh when he turns the house upside down looking for his sweater and I finally tell him it's hanging up in the closet. Anyway, more pictures to come!

Finally, Florida!!

I keep using the fact that I don't know where our camera is as an excuse not to post about Florida. Well, Jason told me today that he already uploaded a few photos onto the blog and just hadn't posted them yet. So I'll just go through and tell you about these pictures and do more when I find our camera.

This is a picture of our building. We were on the 11th floor. My grandparents have the best condo in the building! Every single window looks out over the ocean. Gorgeous!

Here's a view of the pool - as if the ocean weren't enough!

Brooklyn's first time swimming. She loved the water!
Dusk.
My pensive little niece looking out over the horizon.

There is obviously much more to come. It was seriously a FABULOUS trip. I want to go back.

Goodbye, Sweet Nikki

My mom called me last night with some sad news. Nikki, our little Schnauzer who was almost 15 years old, had reached the end of her life. I wish I had a picture of her to pay a proper tribute, I'll have to get one from Mom.

I was surprised at how upset I was to hear the news. Nikki hasn't been a part of my daily life for a good 8 years now. But, she was a big part of my growing up, and she always remembered me when I came to visit. She was a piece of home.

I remember so clearly the day we went to the pound to see her run around outside of her pen. She was shy and dirty, but my mom saw the diamond in the rough and decided to give her a home. We fell in love with that cute little dog immediately and she quickly became an irreplaceable part of our family. We loved her mustache, her floppy ears, and the way she would cock her head to one side when you talked to her. She loved carrots and picking peas out of the garden. She was spunky and young and frequently enjoyed running a frenzied lap around the yard (or the living room!) when she got excited. She was mischievious, often knocking over the trash can if we left her alone too long, but almost always well-behaved. She always greeted us with an elated yap when she heard us pull into the garage after being away. My dad mocked her high-pitched bark by mimicking "wipe! wipe! wipe!" but I secretly loved that she would warn us if any stranger were to approach the house, especially on our nights home alone while Mom and Dad were out. She was also a handy cleaner-upper of dropped crumbs and squished bugs.

In recent years, Nikki lost her sight and most of her hearing. She slept a lot and was more fragile than before. Sometimes she would have an accident in the house and you could tell it embarassed her. However, she would occasionally surprise us with a burst of enthusiasm reminiscent of her energetic youth.

Nikki was fine when my mom left for work yesterday morning. She couldn't have been suffering too long when Mom came home to find her unable to move. She was mercifully allowed to leave this life quickly and painlessly as the vet put her to sleep with her loving human mother at her side. I'm glad that she is free from the pains and burdens of a body that could no longer keep up with her spirit. However, she will certainly be missed. Save a place for us in heaven, little Nikki. We love you.

Yes, we are alive

Just wanted to let you all know the reason for the lack of blogs lately. We got back from our AMAZING trip to Florida on Wednesday night. The next day, we started packing up the house to move to an apartment in Provo. My grandma is going to be living in her Lehi house for the summer so we started looking for a place to stay clear back in February. Luckily, we were looking early enough to find a two-bedroom, furnished apartment in Provo for only $395 a month! Hooray! We officially spent our first night in the apartment on Saturday. We love it so far. The ward seems really nice and I love how much storage and space there is. Anyway, I know I have a lot of catching up to do about our Florida trip, but I honestly don't know where our camera is right now... I've been cleaning and unpacking all day and just barely took a little break to catch up on everyone's blogs. So give me a few days to get settled and I'll let you all have a peek at our Florida paradise! We were so sad to leave...