Weekly Goodies

We finally started Jane on solid foods a couple of weeks ago. This pretty much sums up her reaction:

When I was ten my family went on a really long road trip. Before the trip my mom made us each pillows. I had been carrying mine around for 12 years. I kept telling Scott it was to "remind me of humbler times when we were so poor we had homemade pillows". haha. He finally talked me into getting rid of it. Farewell, daisy pillow.

When you wash darks your lint is dark. When you wash whites your lint is white. When you wash the clothes for your baby girl your lint is... PINK!

Jane is really eating up her new independence. She can sit mostly on her own and she can reach for and grab things successfully. She's practically a grown up.

The other day I was soooo tired. Jane was kind enough to lend me her belongings.

Jane is cute. But you knew that.

Our little neighbor, Eliza [aka Jane's hero], picked Janie flowers the other day. She had never been given flowers before and it was extremely cute.

My Dad and Imy came to visit! I blame this most recent hiatus on that. It's a MUCH more enjoyable reason than being perpetually sick.

I'm pretty sure Jane is dying to go to Guam now. She LOVES them.

Jane is our little wiggler. This is Jane mid-"nap". All of those blankets were at one point on her.

I'm thinking the removal was the result of this...

Jane adores bananas. But only frozen. She rejected my fresh ones.

Sometimes words like "adorable" sum up pictures.

Sometimes no words will do.

Parents

I have so many memories of my mother that I didn't really realize were significant until I became a mother. Because I was the youngest I didn't get a lot of one on one time with my mom, but I have a handful of memories that weren't big events or trips, but were simply of the little things my mom did for me every day.

I have always had incredibly dry skin, especially on my hands. I remember my mom trying all sorts of different lotions and vaseline to try to help me feel better. I remember one night in particular when I was seven or eight and we had just gotten off the phone with my Dad who lived in Guam at the time. I remember I was upset because I hated talking on the phone, but I missed my Dad, so it made it really hard for me to connect with him. I was feeling especially vulnerable because I didn't understand why he was so far away. I don't remember anything my mom said, although I'm sure she tried to comfort me, but I remember that she helped me get ready for bed that night. At that age I didn't need it, but that night I did. I needed my mom. I remember her putting baby lotion on my hands and doing it so gently because it hurt so bad. Then she slipped gloves over the lotion and I remember being so grateful for her. Her caring for me comforted me.

I had a really hard time sleeping growing up. I had a lot of nightmares (I still do) and I couldn't stay asleep for the whole night. I remember one dream that had me so upset I couldn't stop screaming. My Dad ran into the room, terrified that something had happened to his little girl (I was probably four at the time). I will never forget the look on his face when he opened the door. I remember how scared he looked and how fast he got there. Then I remember how relieved he was when he saw that I was okay. I remember how much love he had for me when he ran over and wrapped his arms around me. I remember that my mom was the one who stayed to help me go back to sleep, but I remember being so impressed that Dad got there first.

I remember so many nights when my mom would crawl into my bed with me and sing me a song about a bunny. Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure it was one of those weird, sad songs that kids don't get where the bunny dies, but I didn't care. I remember all of the words to the Ant song and I sing it to Jane all of the time. Because I remember my mom singing them to me and I remember how much it meant to me that she would stay up with me in the middle of the night when she should be sleeping.

Thank you, mom and dad!

Last Week's Weekly Goodies

Janie is finally feeling healthy and is back to her old happy self. Which means I get to see many more of these:

and these:

Which makes for a very happy mama. 

And just when I thought things couldn't get any better... The Merrills came!

Boy was it good to see Corinne. I miss her! We had lots of fun. It's weird to think of all of the times we stayed up late talking about boys and now we are married. But I think it's safe to say we picked winners and wouldn't change it for the world. 

Corinne met Jane.

Every morning I put Janie in her bumbo while I get her first bottle ready. For a while our side blinds were broken (I am a PRO at breaking blinds... just ask my landlord) and the morning sun would blare in since our window faced the East. It was pretty awesome. Really, though, I loved it. Little Jane would be so groggy and the sun would light up her bed head. Sweet girl.

I put onions in basically everything these days.

Janie is a total pro at her jumperoo.

boys vs girls

I suppose today it should really be "med students vs everyone else".

Today I went to google to check "Milwaukee Weather" to know if Janie and I could take a nice long walk.

The most recent search was "breast cancer radiation atelectasis"

yeah... we definitely spend our day doing VERY different things.

Gratitude

We have had so many little blessings in the last few weeks I cannot help but share.

—First Scott was sick. Then Jane. And then I caught some stomach bug that went around our whole complex (sorry I was gone!) But we were blessed and we each took turns. Except Scott and Jane overlapped a little, but for the most part there was always someone to care for those who weren't feeling well. Scott had decided in advance not to study on Sunday, so when I woke up in the middle of the night knowing something was off about my stomach it could not have been more perfect timing. I prayed and prayed I would feel better by Monday morning so Scott would feel okay going to school and I felt MUCH better.

— Corinne and Phil visited while they were on their way across the country. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Pictures to come.

— I had received an email telling me my utilities bill was online. I went to check it and the total was a NEGATIVE number. I was obviously confused considering we had run out of government assistance the month before. The next day I received a letter explaining that more funds had been received from the government than originally expected and since we were one of the neediest families we would be receiving an extra $200 for our electric/gas bill. I was so so grateful.

Easter

As you can imagine from the last post our Easter was a bit toned down this year.

Here is Jane's previously mentioned ponytail. Somehow this picture slipped the last post.
We were planning on going to church at the very least but Jane had a scary morning so we decided to keep her home. Bummer because Jane had a cute Easter outfit waiting for her. But we let our poor little sickie wear her jammies instead.
She did, however, still get to open her Easter basket.
We kept it simple. Because let's face it, she basically just wanted to eat it anyway.
I sent Jane and Daddy (also sick) on an Easter egg hunt first thing. Jane , being all of 5 months old, was SUPER INVOLVED. As you can imagine.
Jane also went on her first Easter egg hunt!

I had been pretty excited about it, so I popped her in the moby and we watched the excitement of the "big kids" hunting for eggs.
I say "big kids" because our neighbors are all very small. But they were bigger than Jane, and they could actually walk (or crawl) to eggs. [love Naomi's face in this one. I can't help but wonder if that is her basket, or if someone else is "sharing"...]

And for your viewing pleasure.

you know you want me.

Sick Baby = Sad Baby

Remember how I said Janie was giving me a run for my money? Well... she was super fussy for four days straight. Like really angry. Anyway, we called our doctor on Thursday morning because she had developed a really nasty cold to boot.

Well the doctor didn't have any openings. Neither did the other clinics they are associated with. So they sent us to Children's instead. Not so fun.

Jane had an ALMOST fever (100.2... 100.4 is official fever for infants). Which wasn't good because my thermometer had read her at 98. yeah... time to invest in a new one. I felt pretty bad not knowing how long that had been going on.

After a visit with the doctor we were sent away with two prescriptions for meds and information on Jane's diagnosis.

Poor little chickie. She has been in a lot of pain with her ear. Plus she has been having a hard time keeping food down. We can't give her more than 2 oz of formula at a time or it comes back up.

She also can't sleep because she wakes up coughing every few minutes and crying every few hours from the pain. It breaks my heart. So sorry for having disappeared for a few days, but my little girl needed me.
Her hair is starting to get mega-matted in the back again, remember the dreadlock? So I found a solution: putting Jane's hair in a ponytail, well that and brushing it each day [which seems a little ridiculous, what five-month old needs their hair brushed ever?]. At the end of the day her hair looks like this:
It's pretty awesome.

But she is doing much better today. She had a really rough morning, but has been in MUCH better spirits and had enough energy to play in her jumperoo, so it's a big relief for us.

Weekly Goodies

Exciting times in the Brunson household.
Janie got new burp cloths in the mail. She played with them for nearly an hour. Bumble Baby burp cloths, the greatest. seriously. (thanks Janet and Malinda!)
Scott cooked. He is a wonderful cook but I don't get to be reminded of that very often.
In other news, I apparently don't like parsley (who knew it had a flavor?). Scott loved it. Recipe here.

Jane discovered real food this week. No, we didn't feed her rice cereal... we're way too lazy for that. She helped herself to some Snickers while I made lunch (and she knew exactly what to do with them). sneaky girl.

For those who don't know, these are the greatest teenagers on the planet.
seriously. Some of my favorite people. We made silk-dyed easter eggs.
and the grand finale.
Scott's new stach. It's not okay.

Miss Behavin' Indeed

You wouldn't know it from this shot but little miss janie has sure given me a run for my money today.
We are still suckling on anything that can be latched on to. Isn't this phase supposed to be over when they're like two weeks old?
yes, folks. That's my purse. My goes-everywhere-has-been-in-too-many-places-to-be-in-my-infants-mouth purse. Jane obviously did not inherit my fear of germs.


In other news...
and Janie blew angry raspberries all day. well... the parts when she wasn't fussing because I dared so something other than wait on her hand and foot. thank goodness these days are few and far between.