3 Cheers for Goldens

My dear friend just lost her sweet golden retriever, Gus, and reading her sad story made me cry. It made me think about how much I love our sweet golden, Kansas. The poor guy has been through a lot this past year. When I had my little "vacation" in the hospital for 5 weeks, Kansas got the shaft. Chad was always either working or hanging out at the hospital...not a lot of time for walking the dog. Kansas did come to visit me once at the hospital. I held on real tight to his leash and he pulled me around the sidewalk. And now, with Brooks around, Kansas has taken a back seat. He has been so wonderful through it all. He is the best dog, considering that instead of tons of fun walks and chasing rabbits, he gets attacked by a little boy. Brooks will seriously lay on Kansas and just pull out his hair, or pinch his nose, or crawl over his body. Kansas just lays there. Don't feel too bad for Kansas though. He is still deeply loved. He gets to sleep on the couch every night, we just went on a fun hike the other day and he went swimming in the river, and now he gets extra treats that Brooks drops from the table. In saying all of this, I would be very sad if Kansas were no longer around. Now, if you don't have a dog you probably don't understand what I'm saying or what my friend is going through, and you probably didn't see "Marley and Me", and if you did you didn't like it. (Oddly enough, "Must Love Dogs" is on T.V. right now.)
Anyways, I love Kansas. And I am very sad for my friend that lost her buddy, Gus. Here are some pictures of Brooks and Kansas to make sure that we treasure every moment with him.





Chad and I are marking Brooks' first word as "dog". When he sees Kansas we point and say, "doggie...woof, woof!", and Brooks says, "uDU". Sometimes he even gets the /g/ sound in there. The word is very different from "dada". Brooks loves Kansas as much as we do.

Birdie and Scoops in Colorado

Birdie and Scoops came out for a long weekend to hang out. The original plan was for me to join the youth ski trip and Birdie and Scoops would babysit. The girls that were planning on going on the ski trip backed out last minute, so there was no need for me to go. But, it worked out well to have them around to help since Chad was gone. We had lots of fun and lots of meals out. Every time we went out we just packed tons of food and Brooks - he loved it! He is really getting excited about feeding himself noodles, peas, black beans, and turkey meatballs. He had so much fun showing off for Birdie and Scoops - He is getting real good at pulling up on everything and crawling real fast. Thanks Birdie and Scoops for the great weekend!

Now you see us...Now you don't!

Brooks and I just popped into Texas last weekend. In the short time that we were there, Brooks had great fun hanging out with Gammy and Pops. Pops liked to sing Brooks all kinds of songs, and Gammy spent most of her time either crawling around with Brooks on the floor or feeding him...two of his favorite activities.




Gammy and Pops also gave Brooks this ridiculous OU shirt. Daddy said that he's going to teach him to poop on it. He still looked so cute though.



It was such a fast trip that we didn't really get time to call people to visit. Aunt Cari did come over and hang out a bit so Brooks could spend some time with his unborn best friend. Aunt Cari looked so cute in her new shirt to show off her belly. Brooks gave her belly a little tap just to say hello. We can't wait to meet him/her in June.

The La Jolla Aquarium

While in California, we took a gloomy day with the family to go visit the La Jolla Aquarium. Brooks seemed to enjoy the fishes and all the bright colors. He loved tapping on the glass, even though it made mommy and Gammy a little nauseous to get too close to the glass. Outside at the aquarium, they had tide pools with sea cucumbers, sea anemones, and starfish. It was fun sticking my hand in the freezing cold water to touch everything. Brooks wanted to play in the water so bad. I thought at one point he might just jump in. Even though it was a cloudy and "cold" day, we had a great view of the surf below and La Jolla's Cove off in the distance.

Mommy and Brooks with all the pretty colors:


Brooks and Gammy taking a closer look at the sharks:


Owen and Brooks:


Exploring the tide pools:


Gammy, Great-Grandma Ruth, and Brooks:

Who's that stud?

Oh - that would be my little boy with a mohawk!

Brooks has these cowlicks in the front of his hair line that make it impossible to comb nicely or get to do anything! He gets these from his daddy. My mother-in-law has already told me that they make things hard, and she can remember Chad wanting a flat top (back in the 80's) and that it just wouldn't work. Hope Brooks never wants a flat top. So, I figured out that a mohawk actually does work with his hair. I thought he looked pretty darn cute. Kind of like a tough guy.

8 months old

Holy Cow...time is flying by. When I think that in just 4 months Brooks will be 1 year old, I seriously cannot believe it. We are having so much fun these days. Brooks is really moving now. He is crawling pretty fast all over the house. It's fun to watch him crawl over to his toys and entertain himself. It's less fun to look up and see him trying to pull the speakers over. He loves crawling on mommy and daddy's legs when we lay on the floor, and he is starting to pull up and climb all over us and all over the furniture. My favorite is when I go to get him out of his crib and he's crawling around in a circle. Speaking of crawling around in his crib; The other night, Chad and I went in to watch our son sleep before we headed to bed. Brooks was laying there so sweetly. Chad and I hugged at the thought that we made that little baby. But Chad couldn't keep his mouth shut and he said, "Can you believe he's our son?" (or something sweet and cheesy like that). Brooks opened his eyes and Chad and I hit the deck. Brooks immediately started grunting and moving around. We didn't want him to see us of course, because then he would really wake up. I ducked down on the chair and Chad ducked down on the floor. When I dared to peek up behind the chair, all I could see was the top of a little head bobbing around the crib, so I didn't move, and tried really hard not to just crack up laughing. Then Chad tapped me and motioned to the door, so we quietly crawled (literally) out the door.
(That's just a fun story that has nothing to do with Brooks being 8 months old.)
Other than the crawling, Brooks' vocabulary is growing...he now says "mama", "dada", "bababababa", "up", and a farting noise with his mouth that I don't know how to put in words. Of course, none of the words are really associated when meaning - but we pretend that they are when we hear him say "mama" and "dada". My favorite is when it sounds like this: "dadadaDADADAda", sometimes he can get really loud. He is also getting one more tooth, which takes the grand total to 2 teeth. Hopefully now that we've started that process the rest will come in quicker and with less pain. These two have made Brooks quite cranky at times.
I don't know his measurements, but we go in next month so I guess it'll have to wait. I really love knowing his measurements because it shows me for sure that he is growing. He seems really tall to me, and still skinny of course...I'm guessing 15 or so pounds and 29 inches tall right now. He's definitely eating like a champ, but because he is also crawling then that also means that he is burning calories. He just looks tall and handsome to me. Gosh - I love this kid!



As you can see, all Brooks wants to do is crawl.

Brooke and Brooks

We were lucky enough to travel to California last weekend to meet up with family and friends. First, I got to spend some time with my dear friend, Lexi, and her baby girl, Brooke. Talk about confusion...trying to have a conversation mentioning Brooke and Brooks, and Brooke's and Brooks'...too much! Brooke is absolutely adorable, and looks a lot like her mommy. The kids didn't really play much, but us mommies sure had a nice time catching up.