Thought this was cute...

Here is another, probably better, video of Braelyn giggling.  The amazing thing is that she's super tired at this point because she missed her afternoon nap.  We had to go to school so I could help a student and she could say goodbye to Daddy before he left for Arizona with the soccer team.  She doesn't nap in different places well and then when we got home, of course she didn't want to fall asleep.  So here she is now, an hour before bedtime...

asleep in the swing, face on the little tray.  Oh well.  She's done this before where she naps really close to bedtime because she didn't nap in the afternoon and it doesn't affect her sleeping well when I do put her to bed, so that's good.

5 months 2 days early

Braelyn will be 5 months in two days!  By my measurements, she hasn't really gained any length, though maybe a 1/2 an inch.  However, she is packing on the pounds (OK, not really).  She's now 14.8 pounds (14lbs, about 13 oz) by our scale, at four months she was 13lbs 6 oz.  We go back to the doctor next month for more shots.

In the last day or so, her tolerance for the dreaded tummy time has increased.  She can go 10-15 minutes or longer at times without crying.  I've even gotten a smile out of her while she's on her tummy.

As you can see, Hunter enjoys joining her on the ground.  Actually he mostly enjoys sniffing her.

Braelyn has started sucking her thumb pretty regularly.  She's never been super partial to the pacifier, so that's not really a surprise.  I think she looks kind of pathetic when she sucks her thumb, but it's pretty cute too.

I love how she's holding her hand, like she has to hold it in her mouth to get it to stay there.

Today I found the best toy for her!  She's starting sticking pretty much everything in her mouth and grabbing everything, including taking my glasses off my face when I wear them and trying to put my hair in her mouth.  I suspect she's starting teething, but I haven't felt or seen any signs of a tooth coming in.  Anyway, this morning while I was brushing my teeth she kept trying to grab my toothbrush, so I gave her a new one we had lying on the counter.  She loves biting on the rubber part of the handle and biting the brush.

It may not be the safest toy (I don't know??), but it's never too early to have good oral hygiene habits.  I'm sure our dentist would be proud.

Finally, I captured a cute moment with Daddy.

These moments are a little rare in Braelyn's life at the moment because Nate's soccer schedule STINKS.  Since the new field isn't done, they practice from 6-8 and he has so much to do for school he just stays at school until practice.  This week he got home yesterday at 7:30 (they had a game), he won't get home until after her bedtime tonight, tomorrow they have a game, Thursday through Saturday he won't be home at all since they have a tournament in Arizona. :(  Hopefully once the field is done he can be home sooner on non-game days!  It's only a month and a half more, thank goodness.  That is, unless they make playoffs.  His team is little and young this year, but they have the potential to win some games if they could put in the effort.

School's Started!

This marks week three of Braelyn going to our sitter!

This was our nemesis until...

I started bringing my dirty shirts to Autumn's (our sitter).  Turns out she needed Mommy's smell to eat comfortably, I guess.  Who knew?  And don't go saying we should have started her on a bottle all summer.  We did.  She just didn't want to eat for someone new, I guess.  Now I just give Autumn my dirty laundry!  HA!

Now our nemesis is...TUMMY TIME!

Apparently nothing could be more torture than being on her tummy, except of course, being hungry. I just tell her that she needs to learn to roll over front to back because then she wouldn't have to be on her tummy. She doesn't get it.

Braelyn's doing really well at the sitter and seems to be doing OK with our new schedule. I am doing OK with the new schedule. I'm starting to get to know my classes (the new-school-year-honeymoon is quickly ending). My only problem is that I don't quite feel like I'm able to adequately help my students since my help hours are limited. That contributes to the feeling that I'm going to be neither effective as a teacher nor effective as a mom, though I know God working through me will make me be effective at both.

Hunter, on the other hand, is really getting on my nerves...here's what he did the other day.

This is the second bib he's ruined. Anyone want the dog in the red shirt? (just kidding...though it wouldn't take much convincing to get rid of him) He also keeps trying to steal her toys. Unfortunately baby toys are an awful lot like many dog toys, so I can understand that to an extent.

Howie has been relatively good, except the other day he was laying close to her on the floor and she started kicking him. He started growling. At least he didn't go in for the kill right away, he gave some warning.

This one has been fine, actually pretty much completely out of sight.
Anyway, since Husker football season is upon us, I'll leave you with a few pictures of Braelyn showing her spirit...

She likes Bo as much as Mommy does! :)  Go Big Red!