Lucky Number 7!

Awwww.... 7 months is here and already passing on us. Brailey is such a cute little squirt with a funny personality coming out more and more. Still hard to get smiles for the camera, but what do ya do? I just grow to love her more and more and more... even though she can now grab things that I don't want her to (and this is after I think that I have made it impossible to get to)... even though she can be a little bit drama queen when I leave the room. I still can't help but love everything about her. Now I know how my parents made it through the teenage years. lol. Lots and lots of love! ha ha. 

So here are so fun facts about Brailey in her 7th month. (One of my lucky and most favorite numbers). 

Look at those beautiful blues! And those chunky rolls. lol. 

• She can get up onto all fours when she wants to, but she doesn't always want to. ha ha. Her favorite forms of moving are either rolling all over the place or turning herself in a circle. 
• She is starting to understand different words. I know she knows what I mean when I say "no, no" but she is my little rebel and laughs and keeps doing what I told her not to do. And I am using a very calm, but serious voice without any smiles. Just a straight face. Apparently, I am not to be taken seriously. But now, every time I say "no, no, no" She turns to look at me cause she knows I don't approve.  She can also understand her name and she understands things like "eat" and "come here." When I say "come here" to her and move my hands in a motion to signify it she tries to roll in my direction. Its SO cute!
• She hates most vegetables, loves the fruits, so I have come up with a way to get her to eat the veggies since she would always just keep her mouth completely shut. I first tried keeping one of my fingers in between her lips so that I could get the spoon in long enough to get her to swallow, but that just didn't work very well. Now, though, I give her a bite of fruit and then she will continue to open her mouth and that's when I sneak in the vegetables. I usually get about 3 or 4 more big bites in before she starts to refuse the stuff. So then I do a bite of the fruits again and continue on. I know its kind of sneaky and tricky of me, but how else am I supposed to get her to eat her veggies? I haven't found any other good ways. 

Brailey LOVES riding up on my shoulders. I do it all the time and she is so giggly about it, but she is camera shy still. 

• She is such a smiley girl. She is constantly smiling and laughing, but capturing it on camera is hard. The one thing she smiles best for is my phone so I use that the most. (Plus its conveniently near me almost all the time). 
• She loves to try and babble all the time. She will just say different things to herself or squeal really loud and laugh. Sometimes we will make noises or say words and she will try mimic us with the same sound or mouth the words. 

The costume I made for Brailey this year. "Little Red Riding Hood" 

• She sleeps up to 13 hours at night and then takes 2 naps throughout the day, usually both are anywhere from an hour to 2 hours each. 
• I just recently found out she has a birth mark. When she got sick and I took her into the docs office to check her ears I asked the doc about it. He told me that not all birth marks show up right away and that they can take up to 9 months to show... sometimes more. Hers started showing up at 6 months, but I wasn't sure if it was a bruise or not.
• She loves to be swung around in the air. She just laughs and laughs when we do.
• She is SUPER ticklish all over. 
• She loves to grab EVERYTHING still. I don't think I have ever been around a baby that is so grabby and wants to mouth everything. I have held her up in the tub without her little chair before and she always tries to dive for the water just to get it into her mouth. I have to keep a really good hold on her so that she can't do that, but even then she always attempts to get some in her mouth. 

Brailey and her cousins Quincy and Adalyn. :) They put their arms around her so that she wouldn't fall! SO cute. 

• She is a such a love bug. She can play on her own, but she loves having someone to be with. 
• She likes hearing me talk. I read her books all the time and she likes to listen to my voice. 
• She loves watching her cousins and trying to "play" with them. Her version of play is to grab them and pull on them. lol. 
• She always gets comments on her big blue eyes and I absolutely LOVE them... just as bright as her daddy's. 

Love this picture of all three of them! Just Beautiful! :)

I just love her with all my heart and being. She is so spunky and hyper and smart. I can't wait for more! She is just amazing in every way to me. Its funny to hear other parents say "Isn't he/she the cutest baby in the world?" with their own babies.... I understand why they believe that though. Because they are with them every day... they know everything about them. I don't base Braileys beauty on just her appearance... I know she is gorgeous because of her personality and the beauty she has within. The innocent spirit she has inside that tiny little body, the funny, crazy, dramatic little girl, and the wonderful person she is already becoming. So I too believe that my baby girl is the most beautiful baby in the world. No offense to any other mothers in the world. :) lol. I understand why God see's all his children as beautiful. He not only created us, but He knows everything about us... the good and the bad. He can see the beauty even when others can not.

Half Of A Year, But All Of My Heart!

6 months has come and gone all too quickly. It boggles my mind a bit to think how I was in the hospital 6 months ago giving birth to such a beautiful little girl and now she can do so many new things. This past half of a year with her has been adventurous, spontaneous, joyous, momentous, and just about any really great word you can think of. Its been a blessing to say the least. She has brought such indescribable happiness into our lives and it's so hard to imagine a life without her.

Would it have been the same if we had waited? Would it still have been her, had I not miscarried? Sometimes I wonder where we would be in life if things had gone differently... and all other paths just seem to be the wrong one. She is such a light in my life. She is always teaching me things and helping me to grow as a person... as a mother. I now see things so differently.


Before, I didn't care how badly I ate, or how much I exercised. I didn't care about having mail in a pile on the floor, or cords laying on the ground. I never had to worry about high places or things that could be swallowed. As an adult, you forget the importance of these things. (Or at least, I did). Now that I have her I think about how I am supposed to teach her good eating habits if I am not eating healthy myself. How am I supposed to get her out of the house as a kid to go and play and exercise if all I do is sit on the couch all day? A man named Jared Matthew Kessler once said "Lead by example, not by instruction." And so I shall, but that's all explained in the post before this one. 

She has stolen my heart just like her daddy. The love I have for them is almost overwhelming and from what I hear it only gets better with more children. :) Brailey is such a smart little girl and she learns quickly. So here is the new stuff about Brailey.

• She reaches for everything and gets really excited for her milk!
• She can't crawl yet, but she can scoot herself around in a circle to get to something.

Yummy CARROTS!!

•  She has been eating fruits and veggies for the past few weeks and it has been pretty fun! She can be quite funny to watch. I go for about a whole week with each new one instead of the 4 day rule just to be safe. Her first meal was carrots, which she loved. Then Bananas... She wasn't sure what to think. They were kind of tangy... but near the end she started to like them. She HATES peas, but I don't blame her she basically refused to eat them. And she LOVES her applesauce. She just gobbles them down. I plan on trying Sweet Potatoes next and then Pears and so on. We will see how the others go. But so far her taste buds are similar to mine. She likes fruits more than veggies. lol. Doctor said we can also give her little things to try off of our own plates. Soft things like a little bit of scrambled egg, a little bit of wheat bread, a tiny bit of yogurt... and just a few other things. I have given her a tiny piece of scrambled egg and she didn't like it. She kept trying to push it out of her mouth with her tongue. lol. It was funny to watch.

She really wanted those carrots. lol.

Carrot face. lol. Such a good first meal.

Banana time! Didn't know what to think.

Ewww... yucky peas! ha ha.. LOVE this face. 

•  At her 6 month doctor appointment she weighed 14 lbs 10 oz: 24th percentile, She is 24.75 inches long: 18th percentile, and her head is 16.5 in. round: 35th percentile. So she is pretty small for her age, but she is growing along her curve great. Doctor said she is perfect AND that she is advanced for age by being able to sit up on her own by the end of her 5 months. And she did so great with her shots. She didn't cry for the first one... only the second one. And then she stopped crying when I picked her up. Such a good girl. :)

Measurement time!

Sitting up on her own at the doctors office :)

Momma hugs

•  She said her first word (even though she doesn't know what it means) and it was MAMA!!! ha ha Yeah! All that "training" paid off. lol. Now she mostly only says it when she cries. Like "ma ma ma ma ma." Now I am training her to say Dadda! lol.  

Daddy being silly while waiting for doc to come in.

Kisses from Daddy.

•  She loves to shake her toys up and down like crazy!!!

Giggles!

Love this smiley girl. 

•  She now sleeps 12+ hours in the night. I usually get her to bed by around 8:30-9 and she wakes up sometime in the night at least once and then she plays around or talks to herself and then goes back to sleep after a little bit. Its so fun to watch her on the monitor cause she stares at the camera like she knows what it is. lol. She also moves A TON in her sleep. When I put her down to sleep she will be in one position, by the time I leave the room she will be in another position.... when I come back 5 minutes later to check the monitor again she will be completely different again. And so far she likes sleeping on her tummy. I always lay her down on her back and in no time at all she is on her tummy. It still scares me, but not as much now that she can roll really good both ways.

This was SO funny. I was trying to get a picture of them together and she shoved his face away and I captured this when she did it. His face was PERFECT and she just looks like "yeah, I did that!" lol.

Better picture of her and Doctor Visick. :) Such a great doctor. 

•  She rolls around all over the place now. She will be on one side of the room and even if I turn my back for a minute she will be in a completely different place or clear on the other side.

Time to get ready for shots. 

OWWW!

Celebrating 6 months at the Ogden days parade with Aunt Amberly.

•  She grabs at anything and everything and it automatically goes in the mouth. She was trying to eat my friends hair and the look on her face was HILARIOUS. She had this disgusted look like "eww, what is this?" but she still kept putting it in her mouth.

Rainy day parade. 

More kisses from daddy while watching the horses go by. lol. 

• She loves to be able to move around. She is getting to the point where she doesn't like her bouncer chair or her swing. I have been avoiding putting her in the swing for the most part anymore because I don't want her to get too used to being swung to sleep during nap time. I have been putting her in her crib for naps over the past month and she fusses or cries for about 5 minutes and then she falls asleep on her own. Happy Mommy Moment! lol.
  
  
• She doesn't really care for binkies. She likes to chew on them, but that is about it. She will just pull it out and play with it in her hands or she will spit it out. She prefers her thumb, but she hardly uses it either. 

• She likes to screech at the top of her lungs just to hear herself. 

• She loves seeing herself in the mirror... she will talk to herself and reach for herself and just giggle and smile. 

• She stares at other babies when they are around and tries to grab them. I think she is fascinated by them. 

• She has what we call The Pitchford Allergies. She is "allergic" to the sun. Not really, but she sneezes every time she is out in sun. Jordan has it and so does all of his family. It must be some sort of a gene or something lol. Makes me laugh inside. :)

• She is so different when we are out in public. She just stares at everything. Getting her to smile is very hard. It's the same look she gives me when I pull out the camera to take a picture of her. lol. The only thing I can really capture a smile on is my phone and I don't even know why. You think she would be used to the camera by now.

• I am pretty sure she hates her headbands. ha ha ha. She always pulls them off... no matter how many times I put them back on they usually end up around her eyes, in her mouth, or on the ground.

This little turkey of mine is growing up so fast. It makes me realize how short life is. It felt so slow getting to the point of having my own children and being a mommy, but now life is just like a ticking time bomb. I feel as though I don't have much time left before it's all over and done with on this earth. I am just glad that it doesn't really end here and that I get to be with my family for eternity. I love being with her and being able to watch her grow and learn new things. I am overly grateful for her and the better person she has helped me to become. 

Becoming a better Example.

Lately, I have been really thinking about the example I want to be for my daughter. I have noticed how lazy I have been, how terrible I eat, and how I just don't pay close attention to certain things. I recently had my sister over with my cute little niece and nephews and another cute little girl. I loved having them over to visit, but I had so many little things on the ground like mail and credit cards and lots of other little things. My youngest nephew, Liam, is at the crawling stage and he made me realize (when he proceeded to eat some of my mail, which gave me a good laugh) that I need to be more careful. Brailey is become more mobile and I just can't take the risk that she will find something really small and choke on it. 

I have decided that I don't want Brailey to grow up unhealthy and lazy. So many kids nowadays grow up playing games and watching t.v. I want her to play outside, ride a bike, and just have fun. So, to be a better example to her, I have been exercising almost every day for an hour or more each time. For anyone who knows me this is a big challenge... I usually HATE exercising (unless its made fun like tumbling or playing a sport or something, but just plain exercising is terrible). I have also been trying to eat more healthy. Another big challenge because we don't have a lot of grocery money... and healthy foods are expensive. My weight has never been an issue to worry about because I have my parents metabolism which is great cause no matter what I eat I don't gain weight, but its no excuse for me to not eat healthy and feel more energetic.

I don't want Brailey growing up seeing a lazy couch potato mom who eats crappy food... because in her mind she won't understand why she shouldn't be the same way. 

I notice things more often now... things that I realize I need to change so that she will grow up having a great future. I need to avoid thinking mean thoughts and especially saying rude comments out loud. I need to avoid arguing so much. 

I want to teach her humility and love and I want to teach her how to be a good friend. I want her to grow up knowing that she is a Daughter of God and that she is unique in her own way. 

I want her to try different sports and get into music whether its through singing or playing an instrument... I want her to learn how to defend herself, while being able to be a peacemaker. 

I have SO much hope for her future and I can only hope to be a better me so that I can be a better example of how I want her to be. 

This is the new me. I love that Brailey is bringing out the best of me and helping me realize that I not only need to change for her, but for myself. If I ever plan to be her leader I have to start by being an example. 

Well thats all for this post. Next post will be on Brailey. :)

Firsts!

 Well... Brailey has had a few firsts again! Yay!

Jordan and I decided we wanted to go swimming on a very hot day, but we didn't want Braileys head to get sunburned so I went looking everywhere to find her a sunhat to cover her face and her eyes a little bit. I had already bought the swimsuit cause I saw it and absolutely loved it and I had 70+ spf sunscreen ready.

Brailey had a really great time swimming. She loved the warm water at the aquatic center in the childrens pool and she just kept staring at her hands in the water and kicking her feet. We might have a little swimmer on our hands. I think she was so fascinated with the water and all the kids that she just didn't care that she was tired. She kept rubbing her eyes and I tried to get her to nap, but she just refused. So I kept taking her in and out of the water to play and she was very content. If she gets super tired she starts to get fussy, but she didn't get fussy once! I was AMAZED to say the least. lol. As soon as we decided to go and pack things up... I changed her into a normal outfit and put her in her car seat and she crashed... she was completely out! She did SO good.

Braileys first time in the pool with daddy!

Brailey and me.

Beautiful girl in her sunhat and swimsuit!

Love this face and those blue eyes of hers. :)

Whats going on?

Out like a lightbulb!

Completely Crashed.

Then for the 4th, Jordan went out and bought a few fireworks with his family... we all sat out to watch them and Brailey just had so much fun seeing all the bright colors. I covered her ears for the noisy ones cause I just didn't want her ears to hurt. We lit a sparkler in front of her and she just kept wanting to reach for it... I had to make sure not to keep it too close cause she would have gotten it.

Sparklers!!! Grandma had to hold her back. lol

At 5 months old Brailey enjoyed her first meal of rice cereal... okay.. she didn't quite know what to do with it much less be able to enjoy it, but she did great and has been eating like a champ since. :) (Pretty sure I already posted on this, but figured I would add it in with all her other firsts)

Mmmm... Rice Cereal!

The last of Braileys firsts was laughing on her own without anyone trying to get her to do it. I usually have to tickle her to get her to laugh but this time was different. I was doing my normal routine of getting her to bed and I was feeding her... she was drowsy and her eyes were halfway closed when all of a sudden she looked up at me with her eyes wide open and just started laughing out of nowhere. I didn't even do anything. I didn't move or make any noises and all that was on in her room was a night light. When she did this I had to laugh back cause it just caught me by surprise. After I laughed back at her she just laughed again. Finally, I started to play by pretending to eat her hands or moving her feet up and down and she was just a bucket full of giggles. This will definitely be one of my favorite things to listen to.


I love being able to see all these FIRSTS, but a couple days ago I looked back at her baby pictures again and how tiny she was and I remembered how I felt when I had her and I just started to cry a little. I miss those days... And I am only going to miss them more as she continues to grow up. I cherish all my moments with her because I don't want to take anything for granted.