BROOKS GRANT | EIGHT MONTHS

Merry Christmas!!

We haven't been to the doctor for a checkup, so I don't have weight and length updates. He's definitely growing and looking more mature, but he's a skinny thing!

eat

this boy loves him some breastmilk. He still eats mostly breastmilk, nursed or from a bottle. He had zero interested in food during months 6 and 7 and just now maybe taking a bite or two. He really doesn't enjoy being spoonfed, unless it's rosas refried beans, ha! He has enjoyed puffs, broccoli curls, blueberries, some shredded chicken, etc. Maybe we'll get there and he won't be primarily breastfed by the time he's 6!? HA! 

sleep

the last week or so has been better, after a month + of waking up several times a night, we're back to normal. He takes naps at 10am and 1:30pm.Bedtime around 8 and usually sleeps until 6ish. We like to feed him at 6, then lay him back down until 8. Most mornings this goes well.

Brooks:

-he's crawling! He's been army crawling for weeks now but as of this week he started getting up on his back legs and really crawling. Sister is unimpressed with this because now he's after her snacks and toys constantly!

-he does good with his fine motor-he can pick up the tiny puff stars and hand them back and forth between hands. I'm always amazed at the tiniest things these guys pick up when they start crawling.

-he's pulling up! he does good holding on to things and standing, perferably against the bathtub (insert eyeroll)

-he babbles but no words yet!

-he has 3 teeth! two on bottom and one on top off to the side just breaking through. 

-I end up calling him so many names throughout the day "brooks", "brother", "bubba", "buddy", "brooks man", etc.

-he has 1 dimple on his right cheek that is adorable!

-such a boy this kid lights up when i ask if he tooted or pooped, ha!

-also, perfers only toys that he can make the most noise out of. Or, he'll get a plate or something and slide it across the ceramic floor making the worst screaching sound.

-he (right now, like right this second i'm watching him from the side of my laptop) looks at me when he has something questionable, like say, fuzz in his hands. I see him raise it to his mouth and say "uh uh!" and he stops and gives me the flirtiest grin. oh sheesh.

he loves

-brushing his teeth! he lights up when I get the toothbrush ready at night and smiles the whole time! (please brooks, keep on keepin on! Currently we have to hold sister down to get her teeth brushed)

-when Ev is playing anywhere near him, he cracks up laughing. Even though she's constantly an inch from stepping on his head and i'm panicking, there is nothing he loves more.

-loves playing peek a boo! either with hands or by hiding around a corner

-he has the biggest belly laughs when you tickle him or kiss his belly!

he dislikes

putting on his pj's after his bath he screams bloody murder. every. single. night.

being put in his high chair or car seat, again, every.single.time.

month 7 was rough and I was starting to doubt this mom of 2 thing, mostly due to an ongoing cough for brooks which meant like zero sleep. But we're back to the happy boy who can now move himself to a new activity, i'm loving this sweet stage. 

we love that straight across little tooth smile! And those cheeks with the softest skin ever!

BROOKS GRANT | SEVEN MONTHS

this sweet boy is 7 months!!

does anyone else struggle with this age?! he's no longer a sit still, cuddle, sleep all day baby but he's not mobile and gets bored very easily so I feel like he's discontent a lot of the day and I can't figure out how to make him happy. 

eat

gosh, this kid will be breastfeeding for life. just kidding. but he really has ZERO, zero, zero desire to eat. I have been offering food during meal times and its a fight everytime. If, and only if, I happen to squeeze the spoon in his mouth and MAYBE a touch of food actually makes it down his throat, he gags and spits up not only that food, but also any milk from the previous nursing session. with Ev we did baby led weaning and by this point she was eating bananas, avocado and sweet potatoes practically whole. I have tried a whole banana, mashed banana with breast milk, whole steamed sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with breast milk, baby food carrots/pumpkins/sweet potatoes, baby oatmeal and puffs. All is a no. So, we will wait. I still have a goal to make it to a year of nursing so it's fine that he's still dependent on that, I just feel like without him eating, all of his caloric intake is on me which means he expects me to pump out more milk, which makes it tough! 

sleep

He is a so-so sleeper, aside from the constant dry cough he's had that wakes him up. Still takes 2 good naps at 10am and 2pm roughly each day. On a normal evening, he sleeps 8-6, but lately has been waking up at least once a night, and acts starving (see above). Sometimes we can lay him down and he puts himself to sleep, other times he takes wayyy too long to nurse, console, calm down, etc. to get him to finally go to bed. again, this is a rough age for us.

play/development

-he has 2 TEETH!! as seen in the picture above. both bottom teeth. he was actually not too bad teething!

-he is so close to crawling! he leans over and reachesssss for what he wants, can scoot his bottom, and can somewhat army crawl. He isn't up on all 4's "rocking" like Evynn did. Sister was crawling at this point so I guess I expect that? But, life will only get crazier once he's on the move so I should just enjoy this.

-like I said, he gets bored pretty easily. He loves digging through a bucket of toys and exploring everything, playing in his exer-saucer and scooting around on the floor-but none of these last for a long time.

-he loves Evynn and she loves him! She is the first to bring him a toy when he gets to fuss and tells him "its okay brother" a thousand times a day. he loves to turn around and see her and he lights up.

-he is very motivated, if he wants something, he will try with all his might to get to it and he ALWAYS has to check out "whatever is new". just now, I was nursing and brought my computer close and he sure stopped eating, sat up and reached to try to get the computer.

-he LOVES Bath time and making THE biggest mess possible splashing.

dislikes

being left alone, being tired/hungry, trying food, when he's bored

even as busy as he can be, that smile makes it all worth it!

making our home a (grey)t one!

four months later and I think our home is mostly settled in! The children rooms are still pretty much untouched, so those projects will be saved for much later. 

We moved in late june and knew we had a lot ahead of us. We hit the ground running, painting most of the house that weekend along with moving in. So so much grey paint. We had a few DIY projects we wanted to do sooner rather than later and did them as budget friendly as possible. 

HUGE thanks to our family for helping us.. with everything. everyone in our family had a paint brush in their hand at one point. and my dad for being the carpenter and making our vision come to life! 

our home isn't perfect, but it is perfect for our little family! we have already celebrated birthday, baby showers, get togethers and play dates here and look forward to many many more. 

here's the before and after!

excuse the fact that "before" pictures were taken after we had moved all of the paint supplies in, oops!

BROOKS GRANT | SIX MONTHS

happy half birthday to my smiley, sweet boy!

weight: 17lbs 3oz (40%)

height: 27.5" (75%)

dr check up: all looks good for our tall and skinny guy! 

Brooks is such a doll! Not a visitor we meet doesn't tell us how sweet and cuddly this guy is. He is definitely moving away from the baby phase though and into an active guy, cue the tears now. 

sleep

he is mostly a great sleeper! Every night around 8pm as we're doing bedtime routine he is rubbing his eyes and irritable and more than ready to crash! After I feed him and lay him down, most nights he sleeps until 6/7am! On occasion he does wake up at 3am or so but those seem to be getting fewer and farther in-between. He wakes up in the morning, eats, and sometimes take a cat nap after that. His morning 10am nap is debatable, kind of depending on our day. But then he takes a great afternoon nap 2-4, same time as E!

eat

This is the most eager kiddo to have food I have ever seen. We have exclusively breastfed the whole 6 months so far and he is just now trying food in his first day of being 6 months old. He nurses every few hours and I still kind of nurse on demand to calm him down or whatnot. He takes several 5 oz bottles throughout the day when I am at daycare. But, anytime we're eating, he is watching us very closely and reaching for our every bite. He has tried banana twice so far and is not impressed. Ha! 

play/development

• as of lately he sits up on his own! Of course, that is after I put him in a sitting position, but once left in that position, he can hold himself for awhile! 
• he is reaching and picking up toys so much! He is still very clumsy and whacks himself in the face several times but I can tell he is really focused.
• He LOVES his sister. Whatever she is doing, he has his eyes on her. He lights up when she comes near and she adores him. She brings him toys, tells him over her shoulder "its okay brother" if he's upset and wants to hold him often. The sweetest.
• He popped a tooth! It's sharp and barely there! 

BROOKS GRANT | FIVE MONTHS

                     

weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (per our scale at home)

height: 26"

wears size 3 diapers and size 6 months of 6-9 clothes!

• he loves to have something in his mouth-a toy or anything, he commonly latches onto any part of my face, ha! he also loves holding thing in his hands, always. whether that be someone else's fingers, a toy, someones hair, etc.
• similar to above, he is slobbery and so I wonder if he'll be an early teether? Unlike his sister who didn't bust a tooth until 10 months.. he is much more of a mouth baby!
• still a roller! Rolls tummy to back almost immediately when doing tummy time. and as of the last few nights, he immediately rolls onto his tummy in his crib and sleeps on his tummy. His sister did the same around the this age and still is a tummy sleeper! 
• he found his feet recently and can't help but suck on his toes any chance he can get! he always has his hands grasped together too.
• he loves sitting up and if we have him laying down, talking to him, he immediately starts trying to hold himself up. if he's in his bouncer or car seat, he puts his hands on the edges and tries to lift himself out, ha! we bought a bumbo type chair that I'm loving-he sits up in it for awhile while I cook/in the kitchen. I use the tray and put a few toys on them. He usually knocks them off quickly which makes for a fun game for sister to pick back up and hand back and forth ;)
• he is social and even if he isn't super chatty, if he notices everyone leave his sight, he is a sad guy! he sees me shut his bedroom door and immediately starts whaling!
• in between babysitters and child care at church, he is a hit with the ladies ;) everyone comments on his sweet he is!
• he sleeps in his crib wonderfully throughout the night, usually 8/8:30pm-6:30am on most days with the occasional 3am wake up. However, for naps he is a tough guy lately! Its usually a long battle of nursing, rocking, lay down in crib, nursing, rocking, rock n play, and eventally after some crying he gives it up. He naps usually 10-12am and 2-4pm with an evening cat nap.
• he LOVES Ev and she LOVES him even more. When kisses all over him 24/7 (hence the constant cold I feel like we circulate around here) and he smiles so big, which makes her think he kissed her, ha!
• he has the biggest gummy grin that we LOVE! And a slight dimple too ;) When he's excited he lets out a "sucking air" sounding laugh and squints his eyes. 
• he is exclusively breastfed and the plan is continue that until at least 6 months, at that point we will approach BLW!
• he is called "brother" 99% of the time with the occasional brooks or bubba!
• he eats every few hours (& on demand) when I'm home, and every few hours a 4.5oz bottle when I'm away! 

first

double ear infection. ouch! after several days/nights of refusing to nap and nurse/take a bottle and constant screaming we knew something was up! We got him into the dr and found out it was a double ear infection. We shoved antibiotics down (he hates medicine) for the 10 days and all clear now!

Evynn Claire | two years old

I cannot believe we have a two year old on our hands! Evynn turned two weeks ago, but it took days to get her checkup stats and then even longer to get my computer working then Cody spent HOURS yesterday working on it  so here we are today! 

Evynn is 29lbs and 34.8" tall coming in at 75th% for both!

She is 100% full energy, keeps us on our toes, and is social as can be!

E's favorite number is "2" and color is "blue" and thats about the extent.. for now. She is starting to pick up other colors and numbers but for awhile she would repeatedly count "2, 2, 2", ha!

When she see's letters she refers to them as "acc's!" haha so we're working on that too!

She LOVES baby brother! She is always kissing on him (which is probably why I feel like someone always has a runny nose!), tells him "its okay brother" when he cries and always pats his back and has to be right next to him playing.

she jibber jabbers a lot but also comes up with her own 3 word sentences- "brother eat milk" "brother crying sad" "thank you mama" "dada where are you?!" 

She has the best imagination! She will "cook" in her kitchen and bring us sample bites then say "mmm"

She breastfeeds her baby dolls then burps them

She is all girl! Always has a purse on her arm and needs all things pink. When she saw me getting ready for a party last night, she got herself dressed in a dress, bow, and sandals.. blew her daddy a kiss and said bye bye, only to her surprise she was staying home with Cody. 

She is her daddy's biggest fan and wants to do everything he does! She loves her nightly routine with dad and reading the bible. 

She usually has a good appetite but has picky moments. she loves fruit and bread but some days won't eat a bite. toddler life.She is pretty good at feeding herself with a fork or spoon. she still drinks 2 cups of almond milk a day-1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. 

after bath time we get in jammies, read the Jesus Storybook Bible (we recommend to everyone, child or not!!), pray then down to bed. She usually talks to herself in her crib and then sleeps 9-7:30am. She takes a nap around 1:30 or 2pm for about 1.5-2 hours. She has days where she fights that and plays the whole time, but other days she crashes hard.

We're working on sharing, which is hard. It'll definitely be more of a learning experience once brother gets old enough to "share" toys ;) When we're around older kids, E is very intrigued by them. 

She LOVES the water and we make frequent visits to the pool to go down the slide and splash around. She really loves playing in any context.... as long as we're close by ;) 

discipline is getting real... and tough! She has her moments when she knows she misbehaved and immediately pouts. We spank her and do time out, and this sensitive girl cries for way too long  after the disciplining is over. She is a defiant little girl who puts on a show when she wants. This is definitely the tough part of having a toddler!

BROOKS GRANT | FOUR MONTHS

 Weight: 15lbs 13oz (75th%)

Length:  28inches (80th%)

Dr. Checkup: we actually had his well visit for 4months at the same time we thought Evynn was sick with something, so naturally by the time we got the doctor Brooks seemed too. They both checked out just fine and Brooks is doing great!

Eat: Still nurses about every 3 hours, I leave several 4.5oz bottles for when I'm at work. 

Sleep: He is fighting sleep alittle more now than ever before. He has not loved taking naps as of lately so it's a long process of putting him down, crying, pick back up, back and try again. At night I nurse him after bath time while Evynn is reading the bible and hopefully I can lay him down after that without a peep. Sometimes it takes longer (we had several nights when he wouldn't go down until 10pm!! ahh!!). but mostly its been good and he will sleep until 5 or 6am, eat, then back down until 7:30/8. He sleeps in his crib 90% of the time and occasionally the rock n play, like if we have guests over sleeping in his room. 

Play/development:

• He is definitely more into things now, like his toy cars he can watch as we push them to and from him
• he sits up a lot! of course with support but he is always trying to pull himself up. I can set him in the bumbo or exercise saucer with support and he enjoys being up for alittle bit.
• he frequently rolls from belly to back, and twice this week (at night time, in his crib of course) rolled back to belly which then upset him a lot, ha!
• makes deep grunts and noises, ha! 
• he laughs and screeches real loud when people kiss him or get his attention
• he loves taking baths with his sister and while laying on the bath incline thehe picks up his legs and slams then down real big to make a big splash!

Loves 

anyone's full attention, he loves being spoken to, and being kissed. 

Dislikes

sudden loud noises, being in one place for too long, and being too tired.

he has the biggest gummy grin and his eyes light up when he smiles, we love that sweet face!!

Maternity leave, moving, and all around madness

What in the world have we been doing?!

First, let's start off by saying our hearts had been leaning towards church planting for a year or so but we brushed it aside. Then it came up again when I was 8.5 months pregnant and oddly, it felt like the right time. Ha! So we decided we would take the leap of faith and everything we knew would change... All with a newborn... And a toddler! 

So we had Brooks on April 13th and began considering buying a house within the following weeks. Touring houses with 2 under 2 is not an easy task by any means. Thankfully most houses we looked at had little girls toys all over, praise hands!

late may/early june:

We told our current lead pastor about our change in ministry and arranged to go to training in Orlando for church planting funding. Around the same time we went to tour a house and my parents were luckily pulling into town to visit at the exact time. It was great to have their wisdom when buying our first house! We decided to put an offer down that night. Then spent the weekend counter offering. Meanwhile, we went to midland to celebrate Stephanie's 30th birthday!! 

The next week we sadly told our current church that we would be leaving to prepare to plant a church. With tears in our eyes we hugged everyone. So filled with excitement and sadness. That afternoon we packed up and headed to Codys parents. We did get one day of "fun" in the middle of all this ;) we found out that Evynn LOVES the water! Cody and I left the next morning with Brooks to Orlando, Florida while Evynn spent the week with our parents. I was in Florida with Brooks for 4 days the first week of June and cody stayed in orlando for the whole 8 days.

 I wish I could say we went to Florida for vaca but no way, it was an all day conference. Brooks and I were in tow for 4 days of the training so I took frequent nursing breaks during the classes. Everyone was so sweet about us bringing our (then) 7 week old. 

I flew back (by myself for the first time!!) with Brooks on Saturday and God gave me so much peace during the flight. Ps. I hate flying. I landed, got our car back, and went to my parents to hug Evynn. The next day we went to church then got Evynn ready to be a flower girl in my friend Kylie's wedding! We spent the next few days in Sherman catching up with friends and waiting for Cody to fly back on Tuesday.

By mid June we got home from being gone for a week and a half and started packing.

No joke, I never completely unpacked our suitcases from the trip! I sold everything we hadn't touched, looked at, or thought about in the last 4 years. We finally had it all packed and ready for closing day! 

We signed our life away, got the keys to our house on Friday June 23rd, picked out paint and started painting! We had most of it painted by that evening. Thanks HUGE to our parents who even stayed late while we took the littles home! Our parents helped so much that weekend with painting, moving and unpacking. I had 1 week left of maternity leave at this point and spent every minute free settling in even more.

The following weeks Cody finished his job as youth pastor, I started back to work full time, we repainted our whole kitchen, got new kitchen floors, met our wonderful neighbors, had friends over for my birthday, a birthday party for Evynn and have had family and friends stay the night several times.

Needless to say, we are wiped! We are loving our home and how cozy it is for our busy young family! 

So there's that! We're back in the big city! We're so excited about our new home, new community, and new adventure for our family. The Lord has been faithful through every time and has shown His plan all along. It hasn't all been smooth but whew, we have learned a lot.

Currently Cody is working on his Ministry Team Development and the funding portion. We are looking for people to support us in a variety of ways and excited to see how God provides!

The newborn? He's greaat! I haven't been able to hold and swoon over him like I did with Evynn partly because with a toddler you just can't but also we've been doing a million other things!! But he's been a champ, traveling in the car and on a plane. Sleeping (all night!!!) in hotel rooms and multiple houses. He's cooing and smiling and melting our hearts. He's not a fan of loud noises and doesn't like when he's not getting attention. 

Evynn is miss personality who is talking in little 2-3 work sentences. She cares for brother like nobody's business and has the patience of a gnat. I think all the change/mom and dad always working on something has been hard on her but here soon she'll have our full attention back and a house full of fun to enjoy :) 

Thankfully my recovery this maternity leave has been easier (did I have a choice?!). Would I ever suggest someone to change everything, move, etc. with a newborn? No but I'm glad the Lord aligned it all so I could be 100% present during it all. 

Please join us in prayer for our new chapter! For our new ministry and Cody to grow, learn, and prepare. For our home to be a place to welcome people, disciple our children, and love our family.