Brynlee Growning - 7 months

How did you get to be 7 months?

This is the excitement you have when you see your sisters.

They were attempting to "help" me get you to not climb off the chair and get you to smile.

You are the HAPPIEST baby!

Your favorite thing to do right now is blowing raspberries/spitting. You love to eat, however I am wondering if you are still having trouble with your tummy. So I have decided to try cutting back on your solid food intake (Im definitely NOT worried about you starving to death!). And considering you can down an ENTIRE avocado at a single meal, I think there is plenty of room to "cut back".  You are still a horrible sleeper, well I probably shouldnt say horrible I should say "not as good as your sisters." Your 3-4 wake up calls EVERY night are getting super duper old, and I am ready to get a solid stretch of sleep.  You have just recently developed a ridiculous attachment to me. If I am in the room you MUST be on my hip (or in one of your various carriers attached to me). Today you really started moving across the floor, Im not quite sure I am ready to call it "crawling" but you are definitely scooting your fat self all around.  You are still nursing like a champ, and have not had as many bottles as I would like (which is my fault), Im hoping your daddy will start putting you to bed with a bottle soon on weekend nights. Despite your biggest sisters' BEST (and unending) attempts to shove in your face get you to drink water from your own cup you still refuse. You love your car seat WAY more than your sisters at this age, and you even sleep in it, which is a whole new world for me. You are a very content baby, most of the time, and you have a lot of patience most of the time which I feel like is a requirement of the 3rd born. You are 19+ lbs, Im not quite sure your exact weight, but I know you have plenty of meat on those bones, which makes momma VERY happy! You still love men, you will smile and "talk" to any guy that will listen to you. You kick your feet when you are happy and excited. You are DYING to get your hands on the iPad. You are trying desperately to suck your thumb (just like your sisters), which does not make your momma happy, and you think the paci is a toy. You have lost most of the hair on the back of your head leaving a semi-bald spot, and the hair by your ears and in front are growing longer and longer. Despite being dressed in pink (and other girl colors) you still get mistaken for a boy. You have brought a ridiculous amount happiness and joy and love and giggles to our lives and we love you more than you will EVER know!

Kaylee getting Brynlee dressed

This is a funny video. I missed the funniest parts while I was trying to get the camera rolling. Everytime Kaylee would try to put her clothes on Brynlee would try and roll away!

Kaylee even picked out her outfit

I HAVE A KINDERGARTENER!!!

Kaylee has been begging me for weeks now to start her Kindergarten curriculum that has been sitting in a box in the school room for a couple of months now. Finally I gave in and decided I would let her start it because she was so determined to do so. That is the beauty of homeschool, if she wants to start school in June......so be it. If we want to take the month of September off.......we can! The first day went well and after the 2nd day I noticed that she had already completed ONE TENTH of her entire curriculum for Kindergarten. Now after less than a week she is ONE FIFTH of her way through!  If we continue on this pace (mind you I am not forcing her to do any of this, she comes to me throughout the day asking to do more schoolwork) she can finish Kindergarten and start 1st grade by this fall! Now dont get your feathers ruffled (the person I am referring to, you know who you are), Im not saying thats what I am going to do. im not exactly sure what I am going to do about this situation yet.

I knew when the curriculum arrived it was going to be easy for her. I even tossed around the idea of finding another curriculum. But a great friend and homeschooling expert advised me to stick with it even if it was too easy. I am glad I did! I think I will continue to use this curriculum throughout our homeschool experience. I love it and it is apparent that she loves it too. I love the fact that it is gentle and encouraging, I love how it is repetative and she knows what to expect. And I dont want to bounce around from curriculum to curriculum each year. I want to stick with what we start with (unless we hate it, but obviously we dont) and that way she is where she needs to be to move on to the next level. My fear is that she might be behind when/if we out her in school. Hopefully that will never be the case!

Kaylee has also been asking me to start the 1st grade math curriculum I purchased. The girl LOVES her math! YAY for that! So I am getting the teachers manual for that curriculum and we will be starting it soon, per her request.
Also, Kaylee has asked on numerous occasions about electricity. She says, and i quote, "mommy can you teach me about electricity in Kindergarten. I want to know all about it!" How can I NOT teach her about electricity when she is dying to learn about it! So I have ordered a science kit pertaining to electricity. She also seems super into blood and guts and that sort of thing so I bought her a science kit and a few books pertaining to that topic as well.



Now I have to decide what the heck Im going to do when she finishes Kindergarten this summer! Any ideas/suggestions???

Horse camp picture

I just found this picture they took of the campers during Kaylee's horse camp.

 It was too sweet not to share!

She is at the bottom left of the circle. She is covering her fave with her eyes and wearing a purple shirt.

(Great) Grandma's Furniture

This post has been a LOOOONG time in the making!

 

After my grandmother passed away earlier this year my dad asked me if i wanted her vanity. I screamed YES before he could even finish his sentence. I was so thrilled to be able to get to have a little something that was special to her. Come to find out is was more special than I could have ever imagined! Turns out her chest of drawers and vanity were a matching set so I was going to get BOTH of them!!! When we got the furniture back here I made the decision to have someone restore the pieces. My dad found a guy who has a business out of his house and thats who we chose, and I am so glad we did. He did such an amazing job! Here are the pictures that were taken before any work was done.

Originally we were going to have the pieces stripped and restained. But after thinking about it, I decided I wanted them to look as natural as possible. So I asked the man doing the work for us if we could see them after they were stripped to make up our mind. Here they are after stripping

I chose to just have them clear coated and to let the natural mahogany shine. I am so thankful I did because they turned out magnificent!  The man told me that when he took the backing of the mirror off to remove the glass he found a date. Turns out these were made in July 1937. My grandparents were married JULY 1937 and these were most likely a wedding gift or purchased by them after their marriage. When I learned this my knees almost buckled (and Im getting goose bumps right now just typing about it) How lucky am I to be able to have pieces of furniture that were obviously super special in the life of the woman I admire most! And this marks the 2nd set of furniture I own from my grandparents. I've had my maternal grandmothers' bedroom suite for like 15 years now, and it too holds a special place in my heart!
Here are the pieces as soon as we got them into Kaylee's room. We werent allowed to put the hardware back on for 5 days so that the sealer stuff could harden and set properly.

Here is the chest of drawers completely finished with the hardware.

And the vanity

I am still so happy everytime I think about the fact that I am lucky enough to own both sets of grandparents' furniture. And they are both remarkably beautiful sets!