two month favorites.

I want to go on record and say that all of our one month favorites were still favorites going into month two. And to be honest, all of our one month favorites are still favorites going into month three, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Here is what we loved in month two:

1. Gro-egg - This little gadget gives me a peace of mind. Our HVAC is pretty much busted in this rental of a home. In one room it is 70 degrees and in the other it is 65. The nursery is either one extreme or the other; there is no happy medium. The minute we turn on the AC Brooks' room turns into the arctic and when we crank the heat up one notch, the temperature skyrockets 5 degrees. SO ANNOYING. With that being said, the Gro-egg is the perfect electronic to monitor the temperature. And I love that if the temperature of the room is "just right" the egg will give you a smiley face (and vice versa). We usually keep his room between 65-67 degrees.

2. Board Books - A couple of Brooks' favorites are "Farm Faces," "Little Blue Truck" and "Baby's Very First Touchy-Feely Animals Book". He loves being read to and is interacting more by touching the books instead of just staring at them.

3. Aden + Anais Burpy Bibs and Prefold Diapers (burp cloths) - Burpy Bibs are the best bibs because they can be used as either a bib or burp cloth. And when Brooks spits up, he spits up, so I love how big these are. The more coverage, the better. And no matter what bib we are using, we always have a back-up burp cloth. I have seriously considered sewing them onto the shoulders of my shirts. No? Too far?

4. Motorola MBP36 Wireless Video Baby Monitor - I know that I mentioned that we were borrowing Lea and Bradley's Summer Infant Monitor (which we appreciated so much), but little Bennett got his hands on it and left the poor electronic in not-so-tip-top shape. We were having problems with it freezing up and shutting off in the middle of the night. You can imagine how fast my stomach dropped when I realized that it wasn't turned on! Also, it would only run plugged into an outlet and after experiencing two overnight power outages and two minor panic attacks we decided to invest in a new one. I went with the Motorola and so far we love it. Some of the features that I love are the temperature display (now I don't have to walk into the nursery in the wee hours to look at the Gro-egg), the two-way communication, the lullabies, the color screen, and the position control of the camera from the remote. I highly recommend!

5. Empire Sterling Silver Rattle Teething Ring - Such a sweet gift from sweet friends. I cherish the engraving of John Brooks' initials on the silver rattle piece. It makes it a special memento for our family. Obviously it is pretty to look at, and I'll have to admit, I was skeptical to give it to Brooks because I thought it was too pretty, but he loves it. He likes to hold it, shake it, and stick it in his mouth. Sometimes he will just stare at it in awe (of its beauty, of course). 

6. Zipper Sleepers - These sleepers are a favorite of mine. Gowns are for the birds. So are outfits with buttons. Snaps are okay and zippers are the bomb. So convenient! We switched it up a bit and retired the bodysuits for bedtime and started using these (when we use the cotton swaddle versus the fleece). Long story short, add them to your registry!

happy birthday and happy hole-in-one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP POPS!

Brooks with his grandpa the day after we came home from the hospital. True love.

We love you so very much and hope that you have a wonderful day.

And I want to give the birthday boy a special shout out for his second hole-in-one last week. What a great way to start your 68th year, Daddy. SO proud. WHOOP WHOOP!

mimic.

We have a cooing and babbling boy on our hands who recently discovered his ability to vocalize. He loooooooves to have conversations with mommy and daddy, especially daddy! Brooks thinks that John hangs the moon and it is so cute to see these two interact daily. This past weekend they were hanging out together, you know, "talking" and John captured this video:

I think that it is absolutely adorable how little JB is trying to mimic big JB. He also loves to mimic our facial expressions and has the "tongue stick-out" down pat. He is such a smart, sweet, happy baby. We are enjoying Brooks and this stage so much!

stats.

Well, our little guy is smaller than we thought...but, growing!

Brooks is landing on the charts in the 19th percentile for height and the 32nd for weight. Our bitty 11 pound 12 ouncer has grown 1 3/8 inches and is just as healthy as can be. Praise God!

Waiting patiently on daddy's lap.

Unfortunately, Brooks had to get his first round of immunizations (Pediarix, Prevnar, Rota, and Hib). Three pricks to be exact. Poor buddy. John came with me to the appointment to help console baby boy and it proved unnecessary. Brooks was a champ, even though he belted out the most horrendous, shrilling cry when the nurse gave him the shots. John and I have never heard such a heartbreaking sound in our entire lives. Looking back, I am surprised I didn't cry myself! But, as soon as I picked him up the tears stopped and we were good to go.

Later that afternoon Brooks ran a fever of 101.8, wasn't eating, and was very tired and fussy. This was expected and luckily we were prepared. I gave him his first dose of Tylenol and let him snuggle with mommy all afternoon because every time I put him down he would cry until I picked him back up. He wouldn't even let daddy hold him! As tiring as that was and as hard as it was to see Brooks feeling ill, I soaked it all in because I know that one day those snuggles will be few and far between.

our little valentine.

 

Love, our little valentine, Brooks

two months.

Is it true? Is our teeny tiny newborn really two months old today?! He sure is...and while I am unsure of his height and weight (his 2 month check-up is tomorrow), he is not so teeny tiny anymore. SNIFFLE. 

This past month has been quite eventful...

On January 12th, we took Brooks to Flip Burger for our first dinner out as a family. He did great! A.K.A, he slept the whole time.

On January 26th, he grabbed his links on his own. I am not sure that it was intentional, but he grabbed them, nonetheless. Way to go baby boy! This past week he discovered his hands and has become obsessed. He is always looking at them, holding them together, or sucking on them.

Brooks started off sleeping 3-4 hour intervals at the beginning of month two, calculated from the start of one feeding to the time he woke up. On January 24th, he surprised us by sleeping 4 1/2 hours straight. I jumped out of bed that night at 2:12 freaking out because he had not made a peep since 10:00. I actually got up out of bed to put my hand on his chest to see if he was still breathing! When I realized that he was, I huffed a sigh of relief and did a mini nighttime happy dance. Progress!

We decided to put Brooks to sleep in the nursery on January 29th. I bought the "Moms on Call" app for my phone and started him on the "4-8 weeks" schedule. I am happy to say that, thanks to the schedule and the solitude of his own room combined, Brooks is now only waking up once at night for a feeding (typically between 4:00 and 4:45)...almost 8 hours straight! YAY! After that feeding he goes back down and sleeps until almost 7:00. Also, he is a great napper. He does not fuss when we put him in the crib and falls asleep within minutes and naps for 45 minutes to an hour. Let's just say, we have one happy and better rested mama on our hands!

And speaking of sleeping in his crib, on February 1st I got my first "crib smile" when I approached him in the morning. OH.MY.STARS. Best thing ever.

His smile is my absolute favorite thing. He comes alive when he is on his changing pad. One day he squealed so loud with excitement he startled himself. I laughed and asked, "did you just scare yourself little buddy?" and he gave me the biggest smile to date. It was too funny. He smiles at mommy when I stick out my tongue, dance around, kiss him, and walk my fingers from his toes to his nose. He also kicks those little legs with delight. But, it's not always with joy that he flails them. When he is hungry or upset he pumps his legs with vigor, especially his left leg. John gets the biggest kick out of it (no pun intended).

Our boy love, love, loves to eat and makes the cutest grunts whilst doing so. I think that he went through a growth spurt between week five and six because he wanted to eat all of the time and jumped from taking about 4 ounces to a whopping 7 ounces. He was also fussy during those few days and sleeping a lot. Now, on average, he eats anywhere from 3-5 ounces during the day and 5-7 ounces at night.

We try to burp Brooks every ounce because he spits up a good bit (we had an incident this month that looked like a scene out of "The Exorcist.") Burping him is not an easy task, but it is incredibly entertaining. Every time, without fail, he squeal cries, locks his legs, and stands straight up as soon as we attempt to put him in "burping" position. SO dramatic. Hungry much?

Brooks still loves his pacifier. He will work that thing ALL night. We never leave the house without one in his mouth and several in the diaper bag for backup. And if he's not sucking on his paci, he is sucking on his hands...or bib...or swaddle...or the air. And I promise it's not because he is hungry. He is just going through an oral stage of development, I guess.

He is beginning to tolerate tummy-time and his activity mat. He can lift his head 45 degrees and turn it from side to side, but he favors the right. His favorite spot to do this exercise is on daddy's chest.

Baby boy still has baby blues and they don't seem to be changing. What is changing is his hair. It's getting darker and a lot thicker, especially in the back. But, he has a little bald spot from where his head rubs while lying on his back. We have a mullet in the works...

This month has been bittersweet. Brooks is constantly changing before our eyes. While I love watching him grow and reach milestones, there is a piece of my heart that wants him to stay a newborn forever and ever.

Every ounce of mommy and daddy love you SO SO SO much Brooksie. Happy TWO months sweet baby boy!

love sweet love.

Love is in the air in the Bryant household. We can thank our newest addition for the palpitating hearts. Obviously, this year's approaching Valentine's Day means a bit more to us than it did last year. With that being said, I wanted to spread the warmth of my heart to the house by adding some love notes here and there for my hunka-hunka burning love and heart-stealer of a son to enjoy.

I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby to grab red and white heart doilies and pre-cut burlap tags. I already had twine and a steel yarn needle at home. Before I got started, I had to take our Christmas cards down...yeahhhh.

What can I say, I love my friends.

All that I did was hot glue the red hearts onto the burlap tags. Once dry, I wove the twine in and out of the tags and doilies. When I finished with this banner I got carried away and made three more and a little something for the garage door. Now we are definitely feeling the love over here.

And of course we had to spread the love in our littlest love's nursery...

XOXO.

happy happy.

meeting gigi.

Last weekend we took our first road trip as a family to Atlanta to introduce Brooks to his GiGi, my sweet 91 year old Gram. And what a precious moment it was.

It is hard to grasp the number of years and life experiences that separate these two. Oh how I wish that Brooks was old enough to sit down with Gram and chat. But, more importantly, I wish that Brooks was old enough to sit down with Gram and listen. She has so much wisdom and love to pour into him. 

I don't know if that day will ever come. I pray that it does. But, if it doesn't, Brooks will come to know his beautiful great-grandmother and her sweet, servant heart. I will be sure of it.

Four generations...a beautiful thing.

I also took some pictures of Brooks with his Nanie and Pop Pop. I can't say thank you enough for the huge help these two were over the weekend. They watched Brooks while John and I went on our first date since he was born, kept him in their room both nights so we could get a full night's rest, and I was also able to slip away to pamper myself with a manicure and pedicure! 

Mom and dad, muah. Love y'all! 

And last, but definitely not least, we had a short, but very sweet visit with my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew before they dipped out of town to spend the weekend with Katye's family. This was a first introduction too! And I was super shocked that Abby and Daley wanted nothing to do with cousin Brooks and William wanted everything to do with him! Too funny.

I miss ALL of them already! Hugs and kisses from us and Brooks...