Brynley Boo

Brynley is doing well. She's still eating every four hours, even at night. More and more often she's the "subject" in Mariska's play, as evident by the pictures. She's going to be four months in a few weeks and I'm so excited that she's getting older. She has yet to hit any milestones other then smiling and laughing, which she's just starting. I'm excited for her to start rolling over, hopefully soon. It'll be a lot of fun for Mariska. Anyway, we're good, just here doing our best and hoping you're all well.

Mariska Versus Brynley

Mariska:

Brynley:

I think they look a lot alike...

What to do?

We are so tired. Brynley has started waking up almost every hour in the night, for her binky. I both love and hate that little bit of plastic and rubber. After her first feeding of the night (still around 12-2) she goes down and then wakes up for her binky about every hour. She's barely 3 months old so we don't know what to do. Take it away 'cold turkey' and only go in to soothe her every 10 minutes or so?? Just go with it, she'll grow out of it? We are so tired and are just at the end of our ropes. Please comment... and advice is welcome!

Fun in the sun!

We got Mariska a little pool and she LOVES it!


She's a "pretty little girl today."

The Mariska Show

Just having fun with Mariska...

The latest...

We finally have high speed!! I can finally blog from home! Things are going well. Brent's students took the TAKS tests this week, so some stress has been lifted. Until, of course, they get the results, there might be a fair amount of stress coming with those, but we've got our fingers crossed!

I'm home and trying to keep up with everything. I have to admit there were some days last week that I forgot to give Mariska lunch, but I'm also proud to report that I didn't respond too badly on the day she decided she just wasn't going to use the potty. I kept my cool, although I think it was in protest to my "Potty Chart", she now has to use it 3 times to get a treat. I think this made her mad and she was just trying to stick it to me. But after seeing how well she can do it, and after the 4th "accident", I decided it might be worth trying the cool bath. So now if she has an "accident" she gets rinse in the tub with cool water, and if she uses the potty she gets to color a square on her chart, 3 squares equals either a sucker, marshmallow, twizler, mini candy bar or a Chewy Chips Ahoy cookie. This now being the case, we haven't had any accidents since. I'm going to slowly phase out the treats by adding a square every week, until we make it that if she doesn't have any accidents all day will get her a treat. I hate using food as rewards, but it works, and we can't afford much else! As she gets older we can find other things.

Brynley is adorable but wearing me out. Her night stretches of 7 hours start at dinner time. So I'm still getting up at 1 AM and again at 6. No matter what I do I can't get her hours to shift to when I need to sleep. We're finally getting her to take a few naps in the day, but I have to go in and put her back to sleep several times. Hopefully things will pan out soon.

My weight loss is a total bust. I'm thinking I simply bit off more then I could chew a bit too soon after having Brynley. I hadn't anticipated not sleeping a full night for over 3 months, Mariska was a great sleeper pretty early. Brynley is really pushing me to my limit. I hate putting my goal on my blog and having to admit, that yet again, I'm a miserable failure at losing it... but I'm just going to keep going and I'm going to push my goal to be for Christmas instead of September. I've put up some pictues, enjoy...

Our funny funny girl...

Okay, just a warning, if you are at all squeamish about "female issues", then you may not want to read this post. If you're not, then read on!

Yesterday I took the girls with me to my obgyn to get an IUD place (so excited) and Mariska was having a particularly difficult time staying in her chair. She was extra social. So the doctor comes in and I get spread eagle into the stirrups. The doctor gets going with the "procedure" complete with all sorts of equimpment. Mariska is, of course, right at his elbow getting a good look at the action. Suddenly she gets really stern and says, "Hey, you stop doing that to my mommy's bum!" I explained to her that it was okay and that the "doctor is helping Mommy not have a nervous breakdown within the next 5 years."... So she continues to keep a close eye on his work. Finally we get all finished, I sit up and as he's washing his hands Mariska walks up to him, points to me and says, "You make sure you get all your tools out of Mommy's bum."!!! It was SO FUNNY! We all laughed so hard!

Well, we are due to get high speed this week, so keep a look out for pictures!