Berkley's First Halloween

Here are some pictures from Berkley at Halloween:

November 10, 2009 - She's 11 Months Old!

Hi All!

Wow! This little girl is growing like a weed! She's still a little over 19 lbs . . . I guess all that moving and shaking is keeping her weight down a little bit.

Hmmm . . . what's new this month? She's waving now. She says "mama mama mama" and "dada dada dada" but I'm still not sure she's referring to us. The "mamas" usually happen when she's eating and the "dadas" usually happen randomly. Sometimes she makes a "bob" type of sound and sometimes she whispers "dat." She's so stinkin' cute!

She was a ladybug for Halloween and she enjoyed helping mommy and daddy pass out candy. And by "helping" I mean she sat on the floor spreading the candy all over. Very fun!

Jon participated in the Iceman Cometh bike race in Traverse City for the third year in November. He placed 4th out of 63 in his group. Yay Jon! Berkley was there to cheer on her daddy!

Tammy and Jon

October 10, 2009 - Berkley is 10 Months Old!

Hi All,

I know this post is quite overdue. Sorry about that.

So the big news in our lives is that Berkley has been walking since she was 9 1/2 months old. She is getting faster and faster and walking is her primary mode of transportation. She is into EVERYTHING! It's a lot of work following her around, but she's so much fun!

If she's standing in the hallway, we can say "I'm gonna get you" and she takes off down the hall. It's so stinkin' cute! She's just adorable!

I know this is a short post, but that's the big news! Hope all is well with all of our readers!

Tammy and Jon

September 10, 2009 - B is 9 Months Old!

Hi All,

Another month down. Berkley is 9 months old. Today was her check up with the Pediatrician. She is 18 lbs, 2 oz (37th percentile) and 26 3/4" (25th percentile - for height she keeps bouncing from 25th to 50th percentile).

This girl is so close to walking it's scary! She's a fast crawler and just yesterday (technically, yes, this was AFTER she turned 9 months old) she stood up by herself without using something to pull herself up. She's making it look easy now and it's SCARY! Actually, she did take 3-4 steps all by herself last week, but I'm not sure she even knows she did it.

She has her first tooth coming in. I thought she was getting a second one - SWORE I saw it three or four times in one day - but now I see nothing. Her tooth is super cute. It's about half way in. It broke the skin on August 30, 2009 (8 1/2 months old).

Every year, my college roommates and I take a trip. This year, we went to Indianapolis to visit Lauren. Now that she is mobile, Berkley does NOT like being confined to her car seat, so Jon and I took turns sitting in the back on the way there and back. Not fun, but better than listening to her SCREAM bloody murder! We went to the Children's Museum that weekend, which was really fun. There were places for babies to play, as well as the bigger kids, so everyone had a good time.

Over Labor Day Weekend, we took Berkley camping in our pop-up camper for the first time in Traverse City. We went with Jon's friend, Jason, and his family (plus extended family). That was a great weekend! Thankfully it was not quite the disaster I had imagined beforehand! The kids and the adults all had a great time. I can't wait to take her camping again!

Tammy and Jon

Look what I can do!

August 10, 2009 - Berkley is 8 Months Old!

Hi All,

Well, another month down with MANY accomplishments! Berkley has been a busy girl this month! She's now weighing in at about 16 lbs, 4 oz. She's still a little peanut, but she's got cute, chunky legs! :)

She went to Jeremy and Gabriela's wedding in East Lansing and was so well-behaved! She "sat" through the entire ceremony without a fuss, which was great! Somehow during the fun-filled weekend she managed to get her first black eye. We don't even know what she did. I'm assuming she banged herself in the eye with one of her toys. That's the only thing I can think of that she may have done! It wasn't huge, but it was noticeable!

She got to meet her Uncle Chris, Aunt Lia, and cousins Cullen and Claire for the first time this month. We went up north to Jon's parents' cabin for a long weekend to hang out with the family and it was SO much fun letting the kids play. Berkley tends to see other kids do things and decide she can do them, too (I wonder where she got that from!?!). She saw that Claire could walk holding onto only ONE hand of her mommy's and Berkley decided she should try. It works sometimes, but sometimes not so much! She's our little copy cat, which is good because she seems to learn a lot that way!

We took Berkley to the Detroit Zoo for the first time this past weekend (when it was 97 degrees outside). She didn't complain at all! She's been such a good girl when we're out in public! She just talks to herself and lets everyone know we're coming through! She's too young to really care about any of the animals, but it was still a fun day. We bought her a little stuffed monkey and let her play with it in her stroller (really she just liked the tag) on our way out. By the time we got to the car we had a tag but no monkey. It was a nice attempt!

She took her first big girl bath this month. She loves bathing in the big tub. She plays with her toys and splashes around! It's too cute!

She has started eating some finger foods. She's quite fond of Puffs and Baby Mum Mums. She still prefers mommy or daddy to feed her the Puffs, but I'm sure before long she'll be feeding them to herself. She also decided that she could feed herself with a spoon. For a few days in a row she was grabbing the spoon and shoving it into her mouth as I was trying to feed her. She seems to have lost interest in it by now, though.

She got from her hands and knees to her bottom for the first time and had the maneuver mastered by the end of July. And, drum roll please, the girl is CRAWLING! She's not exactly fast yet, but she's getting quicker and quicker by the day! It's so cute! She even pulled herself to standing the other day using our entertainment center. She's getting so big so quickly!

It's a good thing she's learning all these new things! She's going to be busy teaching her new cousin these things soon! :) My sister and her husband are expecting their first baby in March! Congrats again, sis!

She's down to two naps now. She decided she was done with the third nap and kissed it good-bye! It was an interesting transition, but she's doing really well with it now. Sometimes it's a lot of working keeping her busy for 3 hours between naps, but it also gives us time to get out of the house and do things!

Tammy and Jon

PS - She LOVES to laugh . . . and we LOVE to make her!

June 10, 2009 - Berkley is 7 Months Old!

Hello All,

Another month down and Berkley is raring to knock down another one! She's 7 months old already! Geesh! How this keeps happening I do not know!

We weighed her in at about 15 1/2 lbs this month. She's still enjoying her food! :)

She's totally in love with her Exersaucer, which will probably soon be a distant memory, as she is bound and determined to crawl. She's trying SO hard and she's almost there! We keep busting out the video camera in hopes of getting it on tape. She'll take one little "step" here and there but can't quite master the arms and legs moving together. She's also almost able to put herself into the sitting position from hands and knees. SO close! She's also attempting to pull herself up to standing. She actually did it once by holding onto the mirror in our bedroom, but she was sitting on me at the time, not on the floor. She just stands when she's sitting with her butt on my lap and her feet on the floor. When we're playing on the floor she grabs for my thumbs so she can stand up. We've started "walking" with her down the hallway so she can practice. I think she's more interested in walking than crawling and that frightens me! We STILL don't have the house Berkley-proofed and we need to get on that pronto! She is really good at sitting up by herself now. She still falls back sometimes, but she's figured out that her elbow can brace the impact. She's also trying the whole sippy cup thing. She doesn't quite get it yet, but we're practicing.

She's so cute with that huge gummy smile. Still no teeth coming through. That's mommy's little girl! Late with the teeth. My mom said I didn't have one all the way in until I was a year old. Figures!

Oh, she's just so much fun and I love being at home with her! We have play dates with my friends who are also Stay at Home Moms and their kiddos. It's so much fun! We're enjoying the summer! She loves her pool and pool (bath) toys and being outdoors. We go for a lot of walks around the neighborhood. She also loves to sit on the porch and watch cars go by and kids play at the playground across the street.

Deep down, I think she's going to be a real daddy's girl. She gives Jon the BIGGEST smile when he gets home from work. She's the love of our lives and we can't imagine our life without her! We love our baby girl so much!

Tammy and Jon

June 10, 2009 - B's half a year old!

Hi All,

Holy whoa! Berkley is half a year old already! HOW, I ask you, did that happen?

She is 26 inches long and weighs 14 lbs, 6.5 oz. She's in the 50th percentile for height and 25th for weight.

She loves solid foods. There's nothing she doesn't like so far. At first she wasn't so keen on apples, but she's warmed up to them now. She's definitely daddy's little eater.

She is still sleeping really well. She goes through spurts of different wake-up times and lengths of naps, but for the most part, she goes to sleep for the night around 6:30 pm and sleeps all the way through to around 7 am. She may be daddy's little eater but she's mommy's little sleeper! :)

She's fine-tuning those motor skills! She can pass objects from one hand to the other. She's getting VERY curious, too. She sees something she wants (like mommy's chapstick sitting on the TV tray) and she tries to get to it! She sits up by herself, but she still falls backwards sometimes, so I have to stay close. She gets up on all fours and even made one crawling motion last week. I'm nervous that she's going to be very mobile very soon!

She got to see her newest friend, Dylan, twice this past month! She also got to hang out with Dylan's big brother, Cameron, and her Indy buddy, Morgan! I think she had fun, despite having her shots earlier that day. (I guess technically that was this month, but we'll let that slide.) She got to see Nolan G. and Nolan P., as well as a bunch of other kids at our friends' housewarming party (hi Debbie and Kevin!).

She LOVES to smile and laugh . . . and grab her toes! She also LOVES her Exersaucer! She's just such a doll! We'll keep you posted!

Tammy and Jon

May 10, 2009 - 5 Months Old!

Hi Friends and Family,

Another month has gone by already!?! Time really does fly with a little one!

I guess we'll start with some stats . . . or a stat. Berkley didn't have a 5 month appointment with her Pediatrician, but she is weighing in at about 13.5 lbs. She's getting so big! We keep forgetting to measure her, but that doesn't really matter because with my accuracy we may as well just wait for her 6 month check up!

Let's see . . . new things.

Berkley can now roll from her back to her belly. I'm not so sure she likes it, but she's done it three times. We have yet to witness the event, since all three times she's been in her crib. She is loving sleeping on her side, though. We put her down and she immediately turns onto her side. Mommy's little girl!

And not that anyone who is reading this cares (by the way, IS anyone reading this?), but she is now getting formula once per day (in lieu of breastmilk) since she's running mommy right out of the good stuff!

Speaking of food, she's eating solids. We started her on rice cereal at the beginning of her fifth month. She wasn't exactly up for the new challenge the first time we tried, so we tried again a week later and were more successful. I'm including a video of this accomplishment. After a couple weeks of rice cereal, we gave her some oatmeal cereal and that went well.

The Ped. said we could start her on fruits and veggies at 6 months and we cheated and started a day early. We gave her carrots. She wasn't too fond of them at first but has definitely warmed up to them and loves them now. Apples . . . not so much. We've tried twice. She makes an absolutely hilarious face (like it's sour) and shakes. Then she whines and won't open her mouth. She looks so little in her big girl high chair (see picture above).

She got to put her feet in the grass for the first time (see picture above) and didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, I think she liked it . . . or maybe she just likes Aunt Tracy visiting!

Every day it gets easier and easier to get a laugh out of Berkley. What will get a belly laugh or squeal out of her changes daily and we have fun trying to figure out the day's fun! (We've been having a blast having Jon home until he starts his new job.)

Her new favorite activity is lying on her back and grabbing one foot with each hand. It's so cute . . . except when she's on the changing table and that never seems to fail (new developments in that area with the solids, too, but no one wants to hear about that! :) ).

We're still amazed by her every day. Each night we sneak into her room to watch her sleep. She's so precious and innocent! We're so lucky to have such a beautiful, sweet little girl!

In other news, our stinkin' basement flooded again. Thanks to my dad for helping us (again) and to Mike and Korry for letting us borrow equipment . . . and to anyone who offered to help with the disaster. A note to those using or considering using g Diapers - DO NOT FLUSH THEM! They're "flushable." You can flush them. Yes, you CAN . . . if you want to clean a flooded basement for DAYS! I do not recommend this. That item was NOT on our To Do list.

Besides fixing up the basement (cleaning, organizing and re-carpeting), Jon is on a home improvement spree while he's on his little break, doing random tasks ("Random Task, show them what you do!" Anyone?) here and there . . . fixing cupboard doors, planting flowers, etc. We're also getting new blinds here in a couple of days.

Also, thanks to Erika, Jeff, Evan and Owen for visiting us a few weekends ago. We took the kids to the park across the street and Berkley got to go down the slide for the first time (with a little help from mommy and the Baby Bjorn).

Tammy and Jon

As promised, here is the video of the first time she ate rice cereal (which was the second attempt - the first time consisted of me pouring it down her chin). Please pardon Jon's sweat . . . he had just finished a run. :)

Happy Easter!

Hi again! I'm a crazy blogger today!

I just wanted to share this picture of Berkley's first Easter. We went to East Lansing and had brunch at the University Club with Grandpa and Grandma Bruner, where Jon's dad, Dick, is the General Manager. This was taken at Dick and Sharon's house before brunch.

Berkley also got to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. I think you'll have to come to our house for a visit if you want to see that picture. Maybe I'll find a way to scan it, though I'm sure that breaks some sort of copywrite law. Ah well . . .

Tammy and Jon

Go State!

Michigan State may not have won the NCAA Tournament, but this is just too cute not to share! We LOVE this picture of Berkley!

Tammy and Jon

April 10, 2009 - 4 Months Old!

Hi All,

Well Miss Berkley is 4 months old already! My, how time flies!

At her Pediatrician appointment, she weighed 11 lbs, 15 oz, which is just below the 20th percentile. Her height was 23 1/8th inches, which is just under the 25th percentile. She's growing well, but we did increase the size of her bottles to get that weight up a little bit. With how well she's been sleeping, she's only eating four times per day.

Speaking of sleeping, we couldn't be prouder of this little girl! Since she was 3.5 months old, she's been sleeping between 11 and 13 hours per night. Sometimes she goes down without crying at all and sometimes she cries for awhile (still letting her cry it out so she's learning to go to sleep by herself). It's FANTASTIC! Her naps are getting better, too. She usually takes a 2-3 hour nap (in her crib - YES!) in the morning and then a couple shorter naps in the afternoon (45 mins - 1.5 hr.). I have a lot more free time now that she isn't sleeping on me for all of her naps! She's doing so well!

She's "talking" a lot more and making funny sounds with her mouth. She's also a little spit monster. She's started spitting and drooling, but she's not teething yet. It's so funny. We don't even have to be in the room. She can be hanging out in her swing and I'll be in the kitchen and hear her start talking to herself and making noises. It's so adorable! She loves pulling herself up to the standing position using mommy and daddy's hands.

She smiles all the time and loves to play games with mommy and daddy! She just gets more and more fun every day! I'm so happy to be her mommy!

We attempted giving her her first solid food, rice cereal. Yeah, she wasn't having that! She still has the tongue reflex that causes her to push objects out of her mouth. This includes food! Hardly anything even went in. It was basically me pouring goop down her chin. We'll try it again this weekend!

In other news, Jon has resigned from KPMG, effective May 4, 2009. He has accepted a Director level position in the Internal Audit Department at GMAC. He begins there at the end of May. He'll have three weeks off between jobs to spend with the family! YAY! Also, I was laid off from KPMG, which is effective June 2, 2009, which was supposed to be my return date after maternity leave. So, no more KPMG for this family. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. It's going to be interesting looking for work in this job market!

We also wanted to say thank you to Jon's Godmother, Ruth. Ruth came to visit during the NCAA Tournament and we had so much fun having her here!

I hope you all enjoy the pictures I'm attaching from Berkley's fourth month of life! She's our little doll! The ones where we're dressed up were taken at Jon's cousin's wedding (before Berkley spit up all over my black dress!). Congrats Lindsey and Tyler! And, yes, we're the only parents who dress our child in MSU gear for a wedding - there was an NCAA game that night! We must keep our priorities straight! :)

Tammy and Jon

Berkley's Newest Achievement

We are proud parents! Not only is our little girl sleeping better (she goes to sleep around 8:30 - 9:00 pm and wakes up once to eat before we go to bed and then sleeps until 6:30 - 7:00 am - of course this could all change tonight!), but she is learning to put herself to sleep!

The pediatrician said at 15 weeks we could start sleep training her (i.e., letting her cry it out). She's 15 weeks today and last night is when we accidentally let her cry it out. I honestly expected her to cry for hours the first time we did this, but we got lucky. I'm probably totally jinxing us by even telling you all this, but here we go.

She was really fussy last night around 8:00 pm. At 8:50 Jon put her in her crib because she was screaming in his face and he needed a break. She cried until 9:00 and he went in and gave her her pacifier. She cried for four more minutes and then, I kid you not, the girl fell asleep! She slept until about 11:45 pm and then needed to eat. She then slept until 6:30 this morning. I gave her her pacifier so I could prepare a bottle and she fell asleep until 7:30!

Next up: naps! Today she started to fall asleep on me in the chair, our usual napping spot. I decided to see if she'd sleep with me in our bed. I let her squirm there for about ten minutes before she started to fuss. I swaddled her and put her in her crib. She cried for ten minutes and then I gave her the pacifier. She cried for another seven minutes and then just stopped. I crept into her room to see if she was asleep, but she was awake. I decided to leave her there for awhile and she passed out! She's waking up now, though, so I have to go. It was a short nap as far as morning naps go, but we'll try again this afternoon. I don't even know what to do with myself while I have free time! It's a whole new concept! There are so many options! I hope this napping thing works!

Oh and one more thing . . . GO SPARTANS!

Tammy and Jon

March 10, 2009 - 3 Months Old!

Our little Berkley is another month older! She’s getting so big and strong. She can hold that head up all by herself (and loves her Bumbo seat), can support her own weight when she “stands” on us and has a mean grip with those tiny fingers! She smiles a lot more and cries a lot less. She can grasp her own rattle when it’s offered to her. And, best of all, SHE ROLLED OVER! I’m posting a video of it! The day she turned three months old (March 10, 2009) was the first day she rolled over. It was so cute and we were so excited and proud! She’s done it a couple times since, too, so maybe she’ll keep it up! Her newest thing is sticking out her tongue and trying to imitate mommy’s and daddy’s sounds. She also blows a lot of spit bubbles!

We took her to Traverse City for the first time. She was such a good girl. She slept the whole way there and back (thankfully – she’s usually good in the car but sometimes she decides to scream)! She did have a little (okay, a BIG) breakdown in Macy’s! Now we refer to her screaming at the top of her lungs as “Macy’s crying.” Seriously – who knew SUCH a loud, blood-curdling scream could come out of something so small and cute! Whew!

Last week when it was warm outside, I took her for her first walk in her stroller. It was nice. She seemed to like it. I can’t wait for spring so we can take daily walks.

She’s starting to sleep longer. She still gets up once per night to eat and still needs to be rocked to sleep, but we can deal with that for now. I guess technically she’s been sleeping through the night for the past few nights, but we can’t wait until she starts sleeping for 10+ hours! We all know how much Tammy likes (liked) her sleep! Plus, she tends to have a 3 or 4 day pattern and then, once we think she’s starting a routine, she changes! The pediatrician said that once she hits the 15 week mark we can let her cry it out . . . we’re just not sure yet if mommy’s sanity can take that yet.

Thanks to everyone who has come to visit us! We really appreciate it! It’s just so much easier that way than us having to pack up and go somewhere else (we don’t travel lightly these days!), though it is fun to get out of the house every now and again.

Tammy and Jon