99 balloons

I watched this yesterday on the Oprah show - WAIT!!! - keep reading...it truly is one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen. Whether you cry at movies, commercials, basically anything that tugs at your emotions, or you consider yourself a rock and never shed a tear, you will be moved by this. I had to pass this on as it deserves the attention and will totally speak for itself.

God bless this little soul.

Party animals!

Ok, not really. But we were quite social this weekend, starting Friday night with dinner at my parents house. My dad was in town from Oklahoma City and Rob was home too, we had a great time and I have realized I no longer matter. Brooklyn is all anyone wants to see or cares about at this point, I am no longer in any kind of spotlight - not even a flashlight.

Saturday night Grandma & Grandma (yet to be named by B) watched Brooklyn for Dom and I and we headed out downtown. First stop was the rooftop at Whole Foods for a suprise party, got to see a lot of folks and picked up a couple coozies compliments of the party. Happy Birthday Aaron, hope you had a good time and I'm glad Texas won or your party probably would have sucked. ;)

We left there and went to Maggie Mae's for Steve's bday and it was there that I got to enjoy a FEW cold CCL's with Quiroz and DeLorme, and it had been a long time coming. Lots of other folks showed up to celebrate with Steve and we had a blast. I ended the night with a TC run, breakfast tacos after a night of drinking never tasted so good. Dom was the designated driver that night which also translates to baby duty so I got some sleep and didn't pay for my night too much on Sunday!

Days gone by...

It was just the week before last that I was praising myself for keeping up with my blog, to my standards any way. It's been over a week since I've last been here - where does the time go? I'm convinced now that I have a kiddo I will be saying that over and over. We hit the 6 week mark this last Monday with Brooklyn, that seems to be the common age where you don't feel so inadequate and crazy anymore with your new baby. I agree, seems like now things have just fallen into place. We have a routine, I guess, it varies a bit day to day but I'm calmer now if something is not quite in sync. You learn the different cries, grunts, stares, squirms, and for the most part you know how to please the little munchkin. And then there are the days when no matter what none of your new found tricks really work. A little stressful at times but then she goes to sleep and you stare at that little face and it's forever worth it!

We've been up to quite a bit, I swear my child has gone more places in the first 6 weeks of her life than most do their first few months. This last weekend we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and head downtown for a bit. Brooklyn got her first glance at South Congress, 6th street, and the Capitol. She even had a pint at BD Riley's. Okay, maybe mom had the pint but whatever. Best part of the weekend was the boots we bought her at Allen's on South Congress. They are way too big for her now, but in a few years I have this strange feeling she'll be tromping around here with just a diaper and those pink cowboy boots. Loading up in the truck with her uncles or grandpa, heading out to the ranch to go hunting or fishing, but still keeping it real in the pink cowboy boots.

Road warriors....

Mom & I at the game

Richard, Me, & B
Uncle Richard & Brooklyn

So we made it to Abilene and back this weekend, great time had by all. Brooklyn did fantastic in the car, she is a little road warrior already. She slept the whole way there, and home, didn't cry at all! Even at the football game she was a trooper, all bundled up in her pink polo jumpsuit. Richard won 51-7, it was awesome to see him out on the field again. ACU is now 6-0, 4 regular season games left then playoffs baby!

Football frenzy

Tomorrow morning we are packing it up and heading to Abilene to see Uncle Richard and watch him play football. We're hoping to leave the house by 8:30 but if you read my previous post about lessons learned it will most likely be more like 9:30. Dom, Brooklyn, Grandma, and I are loading in the SAAB and making the 3 1/2 hour drive. I'm guessing with the occasional diaper change needed we'll do the trip in about 4 1/2 hours. I can't wait to get up there and have Richard meet Brooklyn for the first time, and to watch him play in person rather that on the computer.

Notice I'm sporting the Wildcat t-shirt.

It's also Texas vs. OU this weekend, and I'm pretty certain my daughter (at her old age of 4 weeks), is already a Longhorn fan. Her grandpa must have brainwashed her when we weren't looking. Last Friday while my mom was watching her she fell asleep like this:

What can I do about that? So, hook'em horns!

Look who's talking...

Did you get all that? Makes perfect sense to me. She only likes being on camera for about 20 seconds at a time, you saw what was about to break out there at the end. Yeah so maybe it's just cute to me but I had to share. She's changing so much and making more and more noise every day.

10 lessons learned

So, over the past 4 weeks I have learned some valuable lessons I'd like to share:

1.) There is no such thing as 'quickly' changing a diaper. You must always have the changing pad and replacement diaper in hand, if you don't you will end up paying $37.41 to have your comforter dry cleaned.

2.) You can't avoid spit up so don't try. Even if you cover yourself in burp cloths it will ultimately find the one piece of exposed clothing and land there.

3.) Babies know when you are trying to do the quiet and delicate lay down in there crib. The will immediately wake up no matter how hard you had them to sleep. Just put them down, save yourself the humiliation.

4.) Designate specific pockets in the diaper bag for things. Diaper bags come with 100 different pockets, if you just throw your stuff in there it will take hours to find where you put the butt paste or pacifier, and you don't have time for searching. Very important lesson learned.

5.) Don't sit near the front of any restaurant. Everyone that comes in the door wants to look at your baby and talk to you. This is nice sometimes but when you're trying to enjoy a nice dinner with your hubby this causes way too many interuptions.

6.) Don't bother putting socks on a baby, they always fall off and you end up with one of every pair.

7.) Just take the photo.

8.) DVR things throughout the day so you have something to watch when you're up at 3:30 a.m. Paid programming gets old.

9.) You will always be late not matter how hard you try, so tell folks you'll be there 30 minutes after everyone else.

10.) You can blow dry your hair, put on make up, change clothes, make spaghetti, do dishes, laundry, and write your blog with just one hand.