Trip to Tucson and 2-steppin

Last weekend, we took a trip to Tucson to visit Aunt Jamie and Uncle Josh. On the way into town, we got to visit mommy's college friends Laura and her husband Andrew. Once we got to Jamie and Josh's house, we were greeted by Brenna's crazy cousin dog - Kata. Kata was VERY excited to meet Brenna and her level of excitement prevented Brenna from doing much independent moving on the floor but she still had fun and attempted to create messes with newspaper and anything else she could find. Uncle Josh had to work on Saturday, so we mostly hung out around the house (except for the excursion to Geuro Canelo's - one of daddy's favorite restaurants in Tucson - for lunch). When Uncle Josh was done working, we all went out to dinner where Brenna was entertaining to the people around us and got to try her first bite of ice cream - which she loved. On Sunday, we at breakfast out and then hit the road back home. On the way out of town, we stopped to see more of mommy's college friends - Becky and Randy and their daughter (and Brenna's blogging buddy) Felicity. The girls played a bit together and snacked a bit together. Then it was back home. On Monday night, Brenna was in a very playful mood and mommy and daddy took advantage and tried to practice some walking. She was successful at 2-stepping - taking a few steps at a time from mommy to daddy or vice versa. She was having such a good time and we were so proud of her! She definitely has the ability to stand on her own for longer periods of time now and she gets herself into that position more and more frequently. She had her share of falls and head dives, but as long as mommy and daddy were laughing, Brenna was happy too! You can probably tell that mommy gets a bit nervous when Brenna tries to take off on her own, but I love it! We are going to keep practicing and just know that any day now she will be walking all over the place!!

Splish Splash . . .

. . . you thought I'd say "taking a bath" didn't you? Well, it was a different kind of splish splash for Brenna this weekend. We bought her a baby pool to help cool off in the heat and she did LOTS of splashing and really enjoyed herself. Daddy even joined in to cool off and play on Father's Day. At first she was a little hesitant - realizing that the water was much colder than her bath, but soon was very excited and splashing water all over the place. Last week was the week of Grandma Ann daycare, when Brenna helped Grandma pack (apparently, she was quite a little helper) and got to visit with Great Aunt Tonya from San Diego (wish we would've taken some pictures!). On Wednesday, we had our followup visit with Dr. Beals. He told us that he didn't need to see her until she was 2 year old! She is healing wonderfully and we'll go back to see him then so that she can be referred for her speech and dental evaluations. We are so grateful to have that much behind us! She had a busy weekend too - we had lunch with Brinley - a blogging buddy - and her mommy and other family members, then had dinner with Sydney and her mommy and daddy. Sydney showed Brenna how fun walking can be and how to share - well as much sharing as a 17 month old can do. For Father's Day on Sunday, Brenna got to spend lots of time with daddy. This Monday, she went back to school/daycare and is doing great. She is more interested in eating real food and is doing great with it. Brenna's teachers and other daycare workers are all very happy to have her back too!

Grandparent day care

This week, Brenna spent time at home with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dave. She is still doing very well, considering that she had surgery just 2 weeks ago. We started giving her baby and table food again last Monday - it took a little getting used to but she is doing well now! We started out with some turkey/sweet potatoes baby food and she enjoyed trying to feed herself with the spoon rather than to let Justin help her. She really kept Grandma & Grandpa busy - she is a very fast crawler. But, she also provided hours of entertainment for them. She mimics (or tries to anyway) just about any noise we make, she is pushing her mower all around AND chasing Scruffy everywhere he goes. This weekend, she got to spend some time with Grandma Ann and Grandpa Rick when they bought their new 5th wheel. Mommy had plans with the neighbors, so Brenna went to Sun City with Grandma and Grandpa. She got to play with the "easy" button (as seen on Staples commercials) and had a great time laughing at it. Then, Sunday she got to visit with her Great Aunt Debbie and her cousins Chelsea and Rick. It was a busy weekend, but she was a great baby through it all! We think there are a couple more teeth getting ready to break through, but for now, here's proof of some of the teeth she already has - on the bottom anyway (there's one on the top too). Coming this week - more grandparent daycare as Grandma Ann helps us out!

10 months!

I know I always say something like this at each month, but I can't believe our baby is 10 months old! We estimate that she weighs about 21 pounds now - big girl! She is more like a little individual every day - surprising us with her independence and her quick learning capabilities. She is recovering well from her palate surgery - although she was in pain for the first few days, she has not stopped moving and being her curious self. She entertains herself for longer periods of time and finds new and exciting adventures every day. A couple of days ago, she started making a kissing noise (her version of it anyway) by smacking her lips open. We'll take whatever kisses we can get from her! She continues to walk with her mower toy - and is getting much faster with it, and is even learning how to get it turned around when she's run into a wall or the table. She waives hi and bye very well now and is learning word "no". She is pulling herself up on anything she thinks is stable and sometimes has a slip. Not long after her surgery, she was trying to get up at a table and slipped. Her face went right into the edge of the table - causing a bit of bleeding on her upper lip (where she already had a scab from rubbing her face into my shoulder). Her scab got a little bigger and looked sort of like a Hitler mustache - it was kinda funny. It's all healed up now - so she looks more like our Brenna. The arm restraints will come off tomorrow and she'll go back to getting her baby food and some table food again. She seems to be healing really well following the surgery and we don't have any worries about getting her back onto her old feeding schedule. She still isn't going back to daycare quite yet, so Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dave will watch her this week, then Grandma Ann the following week!