Brooks Week 32

Brooks is eight months old today!!! Happy birthday big guy! It is hard to believe that eight months have come and gone. I was watching Brooks today and thinking that it is so amazing how much he has grown and developed since he was born…even in just the past few months he has changed dramatically. I just love all of the different stages and accomplishment he is making. I swear he does something different daily and I am blown away that he is able to do it!

We started off the weekend early but going out to dinner with Mark’s cousins that were in town. Rebekah and Greg and all four of their girls were visiting from Huntsville for the week. They had never met Brooks so we all got together at one of our favorite restaurants, Pei Wei, for some yummy food and catching up. Rebekah and Greg’s girls (Camden, Brynn, Ashlen, and Dacey) are so great…they were so well behaved and so sweet. Camden, who just turned 8, insisted on holding Brooks. She is a great big sister and took great care in holding him…even when he was super squirmy! Dacey is almost a year old and Brooks swamps her in size! Don’t let that fool you; she was quite taken with Brooks’ pacifier even though she had her own in her mouth. It was so cute, she would pull Brooks’ passy out of his mouth and then try and put it back in. Brooks didn’t know what to think at first but after a few swipes by Dacey he was NOT a happy camper!

Babies are so funny when you get them together! It was great seeing family…we just love living in Orlando because everybody eventually comes to Disney World and so we get to see them too!

Saturday started off with a bang…I mentioned last week that Brooks had a little bit of a cold. Well that cold escalated into a cough on Friday and then into a fever and juicy cough on Saturday. Lucky for us our pediatricians see patients on Saturday and we were able to get in first thing. Sure enough Brooks has his first ear infection. Poor little guy…we are just thankful that we caught it VERY early and we were able to knock it out with a simple round of antibiotics. He still has a cough but other than that he is feeling MUCH better. Sunday was a normal church day with a nice lunch afterward at another one of our favorite eateries, Dubsdread. It is a golf course country club that has a fantastic brunch/lunch on Sunday afternoons. Brooks enjoyed it too…he is always the center of attention everywhere we go these days! Sunday afternoon we went over to Baldwin Park for their Earth Day celebration. We met up with our friends Chris, Ny and Ella and we strolled around the downtown and enjoyed all of the venders and live music. We also go to sample some organic beer and vodka…who knew there were such things!

The last couple of days have been “stay at home” days because of the rain and with Brooks just getting over his ear infection. It has been a nice change of pace for us…much needed after being so busy! Staying at home is great. Brooks is able to just play in his element and I am able to soak it all in. I just love watching him play and discover new things. We just started working on baby sign language this week…very interesting concept…we’ll see if it works! Right now I’m teaching him, “more”, “all done”, “please” and “thank you”. I figure those are the basics and so far he just laughs and smiles at me when I do the signs…I sure I do look like a big dork but whatever!

Brooks’ big accomplishments for this week are waving bye-bye and crawling!!!! When we were eating dinner with Rebekah and Greg, there was a group of people sitting behind us and when they got up to leave one of the ladies was waving bye-bye to Brooks. I noticed it out of the corner of my eye but didn’t think much about it until he picked up his hand and waved back to her!!!! I was shocked to say the least! Typical…you try and teach your child a new trick and he shows it off to a total stranger for the first time! Mark and I decided today that Brooks is officially crawling. He started scooching backwards on Sunday and yesterday he made a few forward movements but today he was pulling himself up on all fours and making both arm and leg motions forward. Yay Brooks!!!! Now grant it he is not making tracks but I just know that it will be a matter of days and I will be chase him down! Watch out world…here comes Brooks! We caught a little bit of his action on video…he is now moving forward not just sitting there!

Brooks is also showing a big interest in pulling up especially on people. My mom taught him a trick (I know that sounds like I’m talking about a dog but whatever!) a few weeks ago where Brooks will be sitting facing you and he will grab hold of both of your hands and pull himself up to a standing position. This week his is actually pulling/crawling himself up on your body. It is too cute and he is SO proud of himself when he gets up. What a big boy!

Brooks discovered his toy basket this week too. He will sit in front of the basket and pull each toy out one by one and play with each for a few minutes and then proceed to the next one. It is so cute to see him just sit and play by himself. I was able to get a whole workout in the other day because he was playing for so long! Got to love an growing attention span!

I am so working on weaning Brooks…slowly! After doing a bit of research I decided to try and give him a few ounces of formula in a bottle in the late afternoon. This is been going well so far. I’ve just been using those tiny bottles of formula that they send you home with from the hospital. Brooks loves them! They are the perfect size for him to hold himself and he downs them in no time. So far so good…like I said we are taking this slowly…no need to jump into having to buy formula right away if we don’t have to, especially when the other stuff is FREE!

Well I finally got a picture of the famous two bottom teeth! I knew I would one of these days! They are almost all the way in and now I think he is working on the top teeth. The drooling is endless and everything that he gets his hands on goes straight to his mouth!

Well happy eight month birthday Brooks. Mommy and daddy just enjoyed a brownie sundae in your honor! Before too long you will be digging in to your own birthday cake! *Sniff-Sniff*

Here is a little video clip of Brooks laughing. He gets so tickled by the strangest things...today it was the word ball! He just laughed and laughed! We have the sweets/cutest/most precious baby in the entire world...I'm not biased at all!