80's Concert in the Park

Last night we made a last minute decision to go with some of our friends to the 80's Concert in the Park here in Chino Hills. I've been wanting to go to these concerts every summer, but the timing just never worked out before. We had a blast! Brixie Lee got to spend the evening dancing with some of her friends and we just sat back and relaxed. Totally awesome evening!

Coloring

I don't know why I didn't think of letting Brixie Lee color sooner, but oh well. Today she got her first box of Crayons and we started coloring. Or, at least taking the wrappers off the Crayons. That was more appealing in the beginning. As she started taking the wrappers she started putting them on her fingers. I followed up with the rest of her fingers and she was in total aw! It really is amazing to watch her discover new things. I can imagine that it's only going to get better with time!

Kicked out of swim lessons

OK... today we were kicked out of our pricey private swim lesson class. Today was Brixie Lee's 3rd class and she continued to cry her eyes out again. It was all very sad. I asked the instructor if I could get in the pool with her (before I was hiding), but the instructor said "we don't do that, so I'll give you a refund for the rest of your classes. Thank you. Bye-bye."

I thought... oh, we just got kicked out of swim lessons. Oh well!

Just so you do know, Brixie Lee does just fine in the pool with Don and I. In fact, she loves it! So, we're just going to pick-up a teach your baby to swim book and do it ourselves.

Boys vs Girls!!! Girls WON!!!

Today we went to visit my preschool teacher, Mrs. Linda, and her family in Taft. Talk about a family that knows how to party! They have a huge lot in Taft with tons of play equipment and food. You can't go wrong with that combination. It even inspired a Boys vs Girls competition between the Grandparents! As you can see, Grandma and Brixie Lee won that competition bottoms down ;)

The sky's the limit...

Part of my Mother's Day gift was this awesome carrier. One of the cool things about this carrier is that Daddy gets to carry it everywhere! Too cool! Maybe I should have called it a Father's Day gift and then my shopping would be done. We took off for our first pre-hike (the 2 mile walk we do around our neighborhood) and Brixie Lee was LOVING it! It was like she was seeing the world for the first time.
1 mile into our walk Don decided that the carrier was comfortable enough for us to do our normal loop that includes a big hill. Let's go Daddy!
When we got to the top of our normal hill, Daddy said that he still felt really good that we could do our bonus hike up to our water tower. Check out that view of Norco baby! Daddy's a rock star!
Brixie Lee was so excited when we saw a pack of horses on the hill. They were so beautiful and it just made our first carrier hike that much better.



In a few months we'll be going to Yellowstone with Don's family (Grandma, Papa, Aunties, Uncles, and 7 cousins) and this carrier is going to be perfect all those trails. In the mean time, we'll be doing lots of local hikes and enjoying this beautiful summer weather!

Grandpa's tractor is sooooooo cool!

Today we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Claypool in the beautiful Tehachapi mountains. WOW! I really miss how awesome it is up there. For those that don't know, my first 4 years of life were spent in Tehachapi before we moved to Bakersfield. I only have a couple of memories of that time, but I've seen a lot of pictures and I can say that it sure was an awesome place. I visited my Grandma (my Dad's mom) up there quite a bit and we went to play in the snow sometimes. If money was no object, Don and I would love to raise Brixie Lee in a town like Tehachapi. I don't see any pharmaceutical companies moving to the mountains so I guess we'll just have to be happy with the occasional visits.


See you soon Grandpa and Grandma!


While we were there Brixie Lee got to play on Grandpa's brand new tractor! She had a blast! If I could figure out how to get a little video clip on here I would, but I just don't have time to figure out how to shrink the video file. Last time I tried to add a little clip it just kept loading for hours and never did anything. Maybe that's just how long it takes... anyway, back to the point. Here are a couple of cute pics of Brixie Lee on Grandpa's tractor!

They're getting sooooo BIG...

Kim and Caleb came to visit us today! He's such a good boy. He slept right up until lunch was ready (I think Brixie Lee taught him that) and then he just wanted to eat and go back to sleep. Kim and I actually got to "talk"... like... adults... because Brixie Lee went down for her nap right after lunch and Caleb was just so easy going the entire time. I was WONDERFUL to be able to "talk" to Kimmie! I just can't get over it.

Then I found this picture that Don took of me giving Brixie Lee a kiss and it just hit me how BIG she has gotten. It's just so shocking to me in this picture. My baby girl is just not a baby anymore!

Slippery Fish, slippery fish...

My little slippery fish was covered with sand when we got home from the park today, so we decided to hose her off out on the porch. I didn't know how she was going to react because for some reason she has been kinda scared in the bathtub. Weired because she had always loved it before.

Well, nothing to worry about there! She couldn't wait to play in the water. She can be such a goofy little girl and I LOVE IT! We hung the hose over the balcony bars so she got her first outdoor shower. Maybe we'll do this instead of bath time and then I don't have to scrub the tub every week.
After about 15 minutes she was freezing. It wasn't very cold outside but a breeze kept blowing on her and making her cold. Her little goose bumps were cute but I couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to leave, but I just HAD to get her warmed up. She was soooo incredibly upset when I took her inside.
She starts swim lessons next month and now I don't have any worries! If you would like to see all the photos from the outdoor shower, check out Don's gallery.

With The Boys...

Today we had a great day with some of Brixie Lee's boys.

We started off the day in Riverside with Aunt Kimmie and Baby Caleb. Brixie Lee said "ca-ib" all the way there and when we got there she found him much more interesting then when we saw him last month. For some reason she's really into babies right now. Back on point... today was Kim's first Stroller Strides class and she was such a rock-star! The girl acts like she didn't spend the last half of her pregnancy on bed rest, go through hours of labor ending up with an emergency c-section and all while dealing with excruciating pelvis pain. Nope, none of that slowed Kimmie down! She just kept on truck'n with the rest of these awesome mamas. To make it even better, Caleb slept through the entire class, woke for some yummy boobies, and sacked back out. Great job Kimmie and Caleb! Perfect way to start the morning.

From there Brixie Lee came home and took a nice LONG nap and we headed out to the evening class that I teach in Chino Hills. Two of Brixie Lee's favorite boys were there and after class Brixie Lee was taking there hands and dragging them to the playground. It was the cutest thing and us mamas laughed our butts off. We told the boys to get used to being dragged around by a girl cause it's never gonna stop. We were saying that we wished we had a camera and then I remembered (later in the car) that my phone has a camera. Oh well. I guess I was just enjoying them moment and lost my mind. Typical!

Fit as a fiddle!

Brixie Lee's pediatrician, Dr. Warren, said that she is "fit as a fiddle" at her 15 month check-up today! She has dropped down to the 60th percentile in height and weight (high 90's during her first year) and is doing really well all around. He asked me if she says 5 or 6 words and was pleased to hear that she has a huge (50-60 word) vocabulary. Mama soooo proud!

Then he said he heard a VERY SLIGHT heart murmur. That brought me back down out of the clouds. He believes it is a very mild murmur and that no action will need to be taken at this time. But, just to be safe, he's running a couple of tests (EKG and X-Ray) and sending those to his preferred specialist (Dr. Loits). We should hear back next week with the test results, but we're all very confident that she'll be just fine.