Baby's First Christmas

Braelyn's first Christmas was certainly an exciting time for all of us.  There were lots of firsts including the first time Joaquin's family was here in AZ for the big day.  It was so much fun to have Braelyn's grandma, aunt, and oldest cousin here for her first Christmas.  She got to hear loads of Spanish, open her stocking and spend lots of quality time with grandma. 

Grandma and Santas Lil Helper

Aunt Judy and Christmas Braelyn

Braelyn's stocking yielded books, some Christmas tights, and a rattle.  The big gift from mom and dad was the Excersaucer.  Since she has been standing up on peoples laps we decided it was time for her to be able to stretch those legs on her own. 

Not only did she get Christmas at home with family but Braelyn also got to spend her first Christmas with our adopted family the Zorn's.  We got all dressed up and went to Beth's for a Christmas party.  Here she is with Sarah and Beth.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas ~ Feliz Navidad

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tis the Season of Lights

It's funny how having a kid gives you reason to go and experience fun holiday outings. For Halloween we went to Schnepf Farms, and now for the Christmas season we hit up Zoo Lights with some of our favorite kids and their parents.



Lil L and her parents Jen and Dustin with Braelyn and us



Miss Jadyn with Ryan and Gena



Jordan wouldn't smile in the picture with his sister so he got one by himself

This being our first time to Zoo Lights, we were so excited and the lights didn't disappoint. We dressed Braelyn in her Santa outfit and we all had a great time. 

4 Months Old!

So Braelyn is 4 months old!!! How did that happen?!  She is getting so big and has new accomplishments every week.  Her latest accolades are:

She can grab things now.  Toys have become a neccessity when leaving home. 

She has taken to sucking her thumb... no matter how many times I pull it out, she immediately sticks it back in.

She is talking a whole lot more, in the mornings I am pretty sure she recounts her dreams to me.

She likes to play with blankets and rub her face with them as she falls asleep. 

We had her 4 month pediatrition appointment.  She weighed 14lbs 13 oz!  More than double her birth weight!  She is 25 inches long, the doc said she is in the 75th percentile for weight and 79th percentile for height.  The pediatrition said we could go ahead and start cereal... here's how the first couple meals have gone.

My first meal with cereal~ BEFORE

Not too sure about all this...

I like to put my fingers in it though

A positive first attempt, but fairly certain more ended up on her bib and tray than in her mouth.



The second try produced faces like these...

Eventually we hope to get some in the mouth!



A Hairy Situation

So Braelyn is now able to reach out and grab things.  She is getting remarkably well at it.  One night I was tickling her face with my hair and she reached out and grabbed for it.  I was laughing and asking for Joaquin's help, and as evident from the picture he was looking for the camera. 

We did eventually pry my head loose and it came with the majority of my hair.  I might note that my child thought that this was the most fun, she squealed and smiled everytime my hair got close after that!

Tomato Tomahto

Since we decided on Braelyn's name~ fodder for another blog post~ I knew there would be some pronunciation and spelling issues.  This was not such a big deal because we already deal with this problem with Joaquin's name.  The telemarketers call and ask for Jo-quinn.  People want to spell it Wakeen or Hakeem, so we knew there would be some issues with her name and were prepared for it. 

Now the question has come up a number of times on the correct way to pronounce her name.  Braelyn, pronounced Braelen and Brae-lynn are both ways of pronouncing her name.  We chose to pronounce it Braelen, I just liked the "Y" for spelling purposes.    We didn't add another "N" because then I knew people would say Brae-Lynn.  Which ever way you say it is the way you say it.  I figure someday when shes older she can make her own decision as to how she wants to pronounce her name.  It's like someone named Katherine choosing to be called Kathy or Kate. 

On a side note, I think she will probably respond to just about anything now, and there are so many things she gets called, here's the list;
Braelyn (of course!) 
Munchkin
Little Monster
Girl
Mija (pronounced me-ha)
Chula
Elizabeth (some of Joaquins family call her this)
BB (This was the newest nickname and I kinda like it!)

Thats all I can think of for the moment.  Hopefully as she gets older she'll learn all these variations and respond to them.  For now I believe she just likes to hear people talk to her. 

Baby's First Blog!

My baby has her very own blog!  Ahhh!  I thought it would be a great idea to start documenting some of her goings on.  My cousin has a blog for each of her kids and I have enjoyed reading it so Thanks Kelly!  Miss Braelyn is getting so big and we can't believe how time has flown since she was born.  Just to catch everyone up I will post a picture from each month that we took on the 16th. 

This picture was taken in the hospital shortly after she was born.  She's still on the warming bed here.  Minutes old!

This was taken on her one month birthday.  Already you can see she is starting to chunk out!

More awake with my Elton John inspired shades on!  2 months old and already so stylin'!

What a cute little monster! 3 months old and smiling like crazy.