The Big 11!

You are just one month away from being a big 1 year old! SO hard to believe. But believe me when I say I am drinking up every single second of this last month before you are considered a "toddler". Now, you are still and always will be my baby girl and I refuse to think you are going to be a toddler as it feels like I just had you yesterday! And I am not going to lie, I like that you are small as it makes me feel like you are a baby still and not growing up as fast as the months say you are! Here are 11 quick tidbits about you my sunshine!

1. You are less than the first percentile in weight. We took you in to see the Dr. a week before you turned 11 months and you were 14 lb 10oz. You are 27 inches tall, 6th percentile and just a little peanut. You eat a ton, you just have a fast metabolism..which one day you will love! This month however, the Dr.'s wanted to be sure you were getting all of the nutrients from all the food you were eating and run many tests to make sure your weight was no indication of any complications. I of course was a nervous mess. As soon as I heard "we'd like to run some tests" my eyes of course welled up with tears and my motherly "protective" instinct kicked in. I became tough for you. Part of me thought it would be fine as I was only 16lb at birth but my heart just ached for the blood work you were about to face. But you were much more brave and did so much better than I had prepared myself for. In fact, it may have been harder on me...which I will take any day. I had to restrain you and another person had to help hold you down while the Dr. drew blood :(. They were as gentle as could be and they were fast, thank you Children's! And the second I swooped you up and held you, you stopped crying and we were on our way. They tested you for many different things and I am happy to say they all came back clear. As our pediatrician (whom I love so much) stated, just as I expected, she is just a tiny little girl with a fast metabolism that is as healthy as can be! Music to my ears! Our pediatrician did not seem too overly concerned either knowing my weight at a year and the fact that you are hitting all milestones and even ahead on some. And lets face it sister, you never stop moving and are full of energy so you burn a lot of calories!

2. Speaking of eating, you eat around 30oz of formula a day (6 oz every 3 hours) and you eat 3 meals a day. Usually yogurt and fruit for breakfast, veggie and fruit for lunch and a meat and veggie for dinner. And often I have to mix your veggie with a fruit for you to eat it..stinker! You have a big sweet tooth! You LOVE soft serve ice cream, strawberry shortcake and anything sweet. You also love anything your daddy and I are eating. You want whatever we have!

3. You do okay with a sippy but prefer a bottle. You love water though and often want it out of my cup. You also learned how to sip out of a straw!

4. You still love your sleep sleeping 11-12 hours at night and you take 2 long (2 to 3 hour) naps (one in the morning and one in the afternoon).

5. You love to give kisses. You kiss everyone and think its funny. In fact at a friends baby shower you kept pulling a little boy toward you and kissing him. After about the 20th time he got tired of it I think. I wont tell your daddy ;). You are just a sweet, sweet girl. You love to kiss and hug and snuggle. And I just love that about you.

6. You also love to play peek a boo still, clap for yourself and others, brush your hair, bounce (we call it dancing), singing, cruise furniture (you could do that all day), sing, wave and interact with others.

7. You now say "uh oh" and you love to say "shhh, shh".

8. You understand so much of what we are saying and follow many 1 step demands. And you often clap for yourself after. You also got your first top tooth! Your little grin warms our hearts and makes us smile as you smile so big. You love to play with those teeth!

9. You can stand on your own for about a minute but then get scared and fall down and we think you can walk but are scared to let go. People constantly comment on how fast and how much you cruise. You also love to try to climb those stairs!

10. You LOVE us. You prefer us still over anyone. You still get upset sometimes if I put you down or give you to someone in a new place and leave you. You also LOVE your friends. Anytime you see them you smile big, clap and wave your hands. You also love all kids. If you hear a child's voice you find them and try to get to them. Stella is your best friend and so is Layla.

11. You love to be a dare devil and try to roll off the bed, couch, anything. You know we will catch you so you think its a fun game. You and daddy play it most as it makes me too nervous. Your daddy is your best playbuddy and you get so excited when he gets home from work.

We love you so much Morgan Lily-pie. We find ourselves emailing each other when we are away from you wondering what you are doing and smiling just thinking of you. We cant wait to rush home each day to see you and play. You are so much fun and just such a sweet baby. You continue to make life fun, adventurous and more full of life than ever. Thank you. I love you so much baby girl!!

Double digits...10 months!!!

I am going to pretend you are not a whole 10 months because it scares me how fast time has gone!! By far they have been the best 10 months of our lives and I feel like my job in life is to be your mom. I find myself more in love and more obsessed with you each day! Thank you for making me such a happy momma. I am soooo proud of you and I am honored to be your mom. We have so much fun together and we have developed such a deep and special bond, it is a greater power than words can describe. I love you Morgan Lily!!!

Here are the top 10 tidbits about you for 10 months!!

10. You are still a little peanut but healthy as can be. You weigh 14 and a half pounds and are 26 inches long. So first and 5 th percentile. But you are full of love and character!! You are in size 6 month clothing or 6-9 month and size 2 diapers.... this is the longest stretch for diapers and clothes. We need to go shopping for you as the seasons are changing and you need some spring 6 month and 9 month clothes. Yay I love shopping!!

9. We have always known you are smart and many people (even strangers) often comment on how observant and smart you are but this month we learned just how smart and stubborn you are. Even your pediatrician said "wow you have an extremely smart and stubborn girl, that is a lethal combination for mom and dad".! You see this month all of a sudden you decided you would rather have food than formula and so. You just started rejected formula. Now you are close to being done with formula but little girl you are too small to give it up yet completely! You would eat food all day but you held out with formula. You would only eat z14 oz and starve instead of eating it. I of course was a nervous mess! I tried silly cups, different kinds of formula, mixing it, everything! After many worried calls to the dr they brought you in and told us you knew how to play us out! You stinker! So we were told to hold out on food and you would give in. Well they were right! We held out on food and you drank 30 oz of formula the whole weekend! We are now phasing food back in and you are happy about that. In addition you are getting your top 2 teeth so you want more finger foods! You love all food, which great and you want anything your dad or I have!

8. You still love sleep girlfriend. You take 2 long naps (2 hours or more each) and about 12 hours at night. I keep praying we luck out like this with your brother or sister.

7. You are a cruising fool! You cruise people, furniture and even furniture to furniture. You also learned how to climb stairs! So gates are up and baby proofing is in the works. You are a girl on the move and love to go go go. I am just waiting for you to let go of the furniture to realize you can walk on your own. You are close as you are fast and cruise with 1 hand often.

6. Because you are on the move and love to be miss independent, you sometimes get frustrated which has led to a fake whine or cry to get what you want. We are working on this one!

5. You are still so so so very happy and funny. You love to sing, dance, talk and play. You also wave all the time to everyone and often to us if we say "hi!". Your favorite game is peek a boo which you start playing on your own often and will play for 20 min or longer! You play in the car, in bed and everywhere! Your favorite song is ABC and you sing along and dance. Your favorite toy (other than furniture to cruise) is your ABC caterpillar that moves and sings and any toy you can push or move. You also love playing outside and going for walks in strollers which has been great because the weather is beautiful lately.

4. You are so sweet. You love to laugh and talk to us and you love to snuggle. You also just learned to give kisses. It's so cute you kiss open mouthed and also make a smacking noise. You have your special snuggle time with us and you always prefer us to others, which warms my heart that you know who we are. Although your "stranger anxiety" has heightened lately. If I am around and then leave your vision you become upset and if I am around you would rather me hold you. If I am not around you are perfectly fine, so I just take this as you are a momma's girl ;)!

3. Speaking of being smart, your receptive language has started booming lately. As far as I can tell you understand many words, and you probably even understand more than I think you do. You understand, although not always listen to, the word "no". You often stop and look at us and smirk. We are in trouble! You also understand "yay" (you clap when you hear it), "kiss", "hi", "bye bye", "mama", "dada", "Layla", "splash" (you will splash in the tub), "book", "baba" (bottle). You also say "mama", "dada" and you attempt at "book" and "layla". You also babble many other consonant vowel combos but those are the ones you associate correctly!

2. You love playing with kids. I think this comes from being at the sitters all day with other little ones. You just stare at amazement at them and you wave your arms and get super excited when you see kids. You love to interact with them and try to be just like them. Our little neighbors love you and you feel the same way. I see many back yard play dates in our future!

1. You continue to be the sunshine of our lives and the best thing that has ever happened to us. I just wish time would slow down!!

Love you little bug!

Pregnancy 1 vs. Pregnancy 2

Seems as if the most common question (other than "so, how far apart will they be?!") these days is "is your pregnancy different this time?". And for the most part so far I have to say not really. Now, if you recall, I had many of the less than 20% chance problems occur in my last 15 weeks of pregnancy but up until that point my pregnancy was easy. So, I am hoping this time those problems do not occur and it is all smooth sailing, but I am being realistic and planning for them anyways. I want to enjoy this pregnancy and soak it in, but it is going SO fast...that is the biggest difference. Morgan's was super slow and this one is flying! However, if having all of those issues mean getting a healthy baby in return like Morgan, then I say bring them on! In other words, I would do it all over again as the end result was more than worth it and it all was still a magical journey. But up until this point, I have felt fairly well. Now, I have had all the "staple" pregnancy symptoms, but I consider those good signs! For about 3 weeks I felt fairly nausea and even got sick twice (which I never did with Morgan, I just had a lot of dry heaving). And I of course have had the exhaustion and am just now feeling like I have my energy back. I do have to use the restroom a lot more, but I think that is because this is pregnancy 2! Which is also the excuse that I am using for developing the bump so much sooner and getting back into those maternity pants WAY sooner! Looking back at pictures, I looked how I look now at like 22 weeks, yikes! I think as I was peeing on the stick I was growing a bump it seemed like. It was almost immediate I started showing, which means it was immediate I had to "hide" it for a while. Even Chris noticed how much sooner I started showing. The good news is, it has slowed down. Thank goodness! Isn't it funny, the first time around I think I pushed my stomach out because I was desperate to see any sign of a baby and now I think to my self "oh no I am going to be huge at this rate!". Although I have to say, I was not quite to where I wanted to be weight wise when I got pregnant, so why not just go back into stretchy pants? I do like the stretchy pants! I am however trying to work out more this pregnancy as I am determined to not gain as much weight. So far I am doing pretty good, I work out about 3 times a week! I have been emotional, but not as emotional as I was with Morgan, maybe that is to come...lucky Chris! I have had the crazy dreams, the mushy brain and the "weird" effects on the body....some again I will not mention but if you are a woman and have had a baby you know what I am talking about! As far as cravings, I craved juice and sweets like it was the last thing to eat on earth. I am not sure why I thought she was a boy as I fit all the girls wives tales. This time, I do not have any strong cravings yet but I have craved blueberries and buffalo sauce (not together, thank goodness). I am also starting the juice thing again, but trying to use self control! As far as looks, I will let you be the judge but other than being "bigger" at this point I am carrying low right now just as I did with Morgan but I feel like its in my hips and butt...where Morgan was in my hips. Err, so maybe the hips are just left over? That is why I am thinking BOY for right now!!! Which again means nothing as I thought Morgan was a boy, with the exception of about 3 weeks, and even thought she was a boy up until the moment she was born. Another difference is I felt this baby move WAY earlier (about 14 weeks!)! It is not as often yet but it was just as special and glorious. There is no better feeling than feeling a life move inside you. I. LOVE. IT. It reminds me of the life I am supporting and taking care of and how much I already love him/her. The moment I felt her/him move is when our bond and connection became even stronger. That mother/child bond. Simply love.

The biggest difference this pregnancy is not symptoms or how I look, but the experience. It is so weird the second time around. I don't know if it is because I know what having a baby is like or if it's because I am super busy taking care of another baby but the experience is different the second time around. Don't get me wrong it is JUST as wonderful, JUST as exciting, JUST as special, and JUST as miraculous but just different. With Morgan I spent every second of every day thinking about the pregnancy and day dreaming about the baby. Now, I think about this baby often and day dream about this baby but I think more of having the baby and holding the baby more than I do about the actual pregnancy and I can relate to having a baby now, not just dream about so I know the emotions and excitement that go with it. And lets face it, with working and taking care of Morgan I am a busy momma! I also worry about this baby's health even more than I did Morgan's. I am not sure if it is because I realize how lucky and fortunate we are to have 1 healthy baby and how much of a miracle that is, so I think what makes us that lucky to have 2 healthy babies, or if it is the fact I am just a worrier, but I have already started worrying. That's the worst part of pregnancy! But I am SO excited to meet this baby. I think about the hospital experience and meeting this miracle every day and get goose bumps and just can not wait for August to get here. Thinking about meeting our little baby, Morgan's little sibling, our little angel just makes me so excited I can not stand it! I can't believe we get to expand our hearts again and give this much love to another tiny human. This morning I was laying in bed and had my hand on my belly and was just talking to the little peanut telling him/her about the world awaiting him/her and how we just can not wait to meet him/her. But the guilt of a mother of two has started already. I blogged about Morgan every blog post, every week...this is only my second post about Baby Brown 2.0. I had a scrap book started already for Morgan...I have the pictures but have not started yet...note to self, must get started! I hear this is normal, but boy is the guilt strong. Please know Baby B, I LOVE YOU just as much as your sister and you are already our miracle and our pride and joy and we can not wait to meet you and love on you. I have your ultrasound pictures on my bedside and I look at them numerous times a day. So you may not get as many blog posts or as fancy of a scrap book, but that in no means is a measure of my love for you!! Yesterday, your sister and I went shopping and already bought you some special outfits and blankets! I could not believe how tiny they are, sad how fast you forget! But I just couldn't help but stare and admire them and get so excited to meet you! I love you sweet bean!!

So there you have it, pregnancy comparisons. I am sure they will change and I will document it all (or try to!). Happy beautiful Sunday friends!

It is 65 out and not a cloud in the sky! Chris and I had the stomach flu (yes so hard while pregnant) and have not eaten or gotten out of the house really in 4 days so we are hitting up the zoo with a special big sister and enjoying the blessed day with our perfect little family!!

Baby Brown 2.0!!

Baby Brown 2.0 has quite the story, just like Morgan did! And although they are very different, they each are just as unique and just as special to us and just as memorable. Clearly we were not "trying" like we were with Morgan (meaning no infertility treatments, artificial insemination's, drugs, ect) as a matter of fact I had not even had a period or cycle after Morgan was born so this baby truly is also a miracle. Back in December I went to see my OB (wonderful Dr. M..yay for getting to spend another 9 months with him!) for my yearly and he decided to run blood work just to check my levels. Little did we know that baby Brown 2.0 was just conceived. Well turns out my insulin was once again high and so I was put back on metformin and was told to induce my own period every 8 weeks to keep my body healthy if I did not get the gift from mother nature on my own. He told us that this should help jump start my cycles but if not when we were ready to try we could come back in to discuss what we needed to do. I was not phased by this as another baby was not quite in our forethought just yet. Chris and I had said after all we went through to get Morgan that we wanted our kids close in age and we really just assumed (yes I know what people say about people who "assume") that since I had not had a period or a normal cycle that we would have to go down the same road we went down to get Morgan when we were ready to have another baby join our family. Well little did we know the Lord (and the body) works in mysterious ways! We had decided we were going to start "trying" for another baby around Morgan's first birthday, so it is not that we were not ready for another baby, we just weren't trying yet. Well remember my Christmas story with the hectic but wonderful travels? Yes, this baby was a Christmas discovery and it was the best Christmas gift Chris or I could have ever imagined. But let me back up some on just how we "found out" about our little bean! The Friday before Christmas my mom had her annual Christmas party (one of my favorite traditions) and this one was special because she invited everyone and was so excited to show off her granddaughter. Needless to say I was up all night with a very close girlfriend (one of my only gf's who can get me to stay up ALL NIGHT)! After about 3 bottles of wine and staying up way too late, lets just say I did not feel so great the next day...which was Christmas Eve! Well Christmas day I still did not feel "right" and I was very bloated. I just assumed it was from all of my fun and did not think much about it. Now, since I had not had a true cycle, I periodically took pregnancy tests but never thought much of it, I just wanted to be sure. As I mentioned earlier, we flew to Texas for 3 days after Christmas to visit Chris's grandmother who was ill. The day after Christmas I still was not feeling right and thought to myself I probably should just take a test to be sure, but I did not think anything of it. I thought so little of it I sent Chris out to the store to get wine and beer with his cousins (who we were staying with) while I stayed at the house with Morgan and to take "the test". Well lets just say my night of fun before Christmas was my last of that kind for a while! The test came up with a bright positive right away! My heart did skip a few beats and I had to clear my eyes quite a bit! With Morgan I got negative test after negative test for months and it took some heavy duty drugs and IUI to conceive her so to see a positive that we achieved on our own, without drugs, without planning, without expecting, without "trying", without countless tears and heartbreaks was unknown territory. Was this how it was for most people? This is what normal was like? This is what a random test with a positive feels like? Wow! How easy!! Well I paced the door for what seemed like hours with Morgan in my arms waiting for Chris to return back to his cousins house. As soon as they walked in I handed Morgan to his cousin and said "Chris, I need to talk to you". Which at this point I am sure he was thinking "Shit, what did I do now?". As soon as I pulled him into the room I held the test up and said "Guess what, I am pregnant!". Now I was in shock and a little scared but Chris's reaction was better than winning a million bucks and made my fears subside. He got the biggest smile and became so giddy and said "No way, holy shit, are you serious" then he quickly followed with "this is awesome! This is amazing! How did this happen?" Which I then looked at him and asked him if I really needed to explain. ;) He instantly went on about how great it was we did not have to try, I did not have to spend months crying and how this baby is a miracle. He also called it our "free baby". But he is so right, Baby Brown is a true miracle. After all we went through to get Morgan my body corrected itself and we had another little miracle peanut on the way! And yes, we saved thousands of dollars too. The Lord has blessed us once again! Now I instantly thought, I have had no cycle and have no idea how far along I am. And I freaked out because I had not been taking prenatals, I had been having some holiday cocktails and was not eating or living a pregnant lifestyle. And so began the worrying. Chris was so giddy he had to tell someone so he told his cousins but we swore them to seceracy until we knew more. And let me tell you it was hard! We flew back to Georgia 3 days later and I had to tell my family and couldn't wait to tell them. We did not get to tell them about Morgan in person so this was really special for me. I told my mom that we had another gift to give them but she couldn't open it yet but we could tell her. And I will never forget their expressions. Before we could say what it was my brother jokingly said "are you pregnant?" and after I said yes their jaws dropped and excitement consumed their faces. My mom said "oh my gosh!!" and my dad was literally speechless, but very excited. After hugs and congratulations and some jumping up and down we spent the rest of the night talking about what a miracle this baby is and how excited everyone was.

Well the next day I had some spotting, which I know is normal but I did not have this with Morgan (one of the few things I did not have) so I was freaked out to say the least. Luckily one of my best friend's dad is an OB so I called him and he brought me right in and did an ultrasound and we got to see our little peanut! And even though we had been through this just a year ago, it was just as exciting and miraculous. My heart melted and I instantly fell in love, and it seemed more real! It was also great to confirm how far along I was at that point (just 5 weeks, whew!). It also was good because he was able to prescribe me the progesterone medicine I was on with Morgan which I believe is why both of these pregnancies have "stuck". Other than my parents, we decided to only tell Chris's parents for the time being. After we were back and settled we celebrated Christmas with his parents and we decided to wrap up an ultrasound picture and give it to them. It was so funny, when they opened it they said "oh how nice they gave us an us pic of Morgan" and after saying that was not Morgan it clicked that there was another one on the way! They were just as excited and shocked too I think as my family so it was so exciting to share in everyones joy!

Now, I had my first ultrasound with Dr. M at 8 weeks and he just had to laugh when he saw us and said "welcome back!". I know I have said it before, but he literally is the best doctor ever. I owe my health and my baby's health to him and I could not be more thankful to have him in charge of this newest addition. After some joking around we got to get a glimps of our little bean again! THe baby looked healthy as could be however there was another little sack outside of the baby's sack. In fact, he and I thought it could be twins at first until he looked in the sac and saw no baby...again whew. It was a sac filled with blood which could have been caused by many different things. The good thing is this explained my bleed and it is fairly common, but the bad thing is it can cause you to be at a higher risk of miscarriage. So here we went again. And I had just got done swearing to him that I was going to be an easier patient this go around. Guess not! So to monitor the sac and make sure it was growing smaller Dr. M decided to bring me in for an us every 2 weeks until I was in the clear. After this appointment the worrying started and my guard went up. It was a long two weeks to say the least! Luckily I have a very optimistic and positive husband and a baby at home to keep me busy. At our 10 week u/s the sac was way smaller and the baby was way bigger and all looked great so I could finally breath! And at our 12 week ultrasound it was gone and little baby Brown 2.0 was kicking around!! It still takes my breath away to see our baby we created growing and moving around. To think I am growing a life is so miraculous and just crazy.

So there you have it, the story of baby Brown 2.0!

Up next, details of this pregnancy, and even in comparison to my last pregnancy. All the "blissful" and not so "blissful" moments of the first trimester!!

August 27 here we come...and to our little peanut we can not wait to meet you and see who is joining our family!!!

LONG over due photo updates

Making baby Brown 2.0 public news!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hooray for big sister!

Cant wait for our summer days at the park together!

And pool days!

Like her momma, not a fan of snow! Southern girl at heart ;)

Seriously mom, take this thing off!

Baptism celebration!

Nearest and dearest friends

Morgan has the best grandparents

Very fitting picture

Grandma and Grandpa Brown

Godparents and priest

Yaya and Grandpa Sawchak

My angel on her big day

Godparents Meryl and Kevin

Silly Uncle Kevin

Love my baby

Happy New Year!

Question, does this phone come with a data plan?

These are all for me?

Look at all those presents!

In Atlanta for Christmas!

Your princess wagon!

Who me? I am 9 months, what?!

Big Month 9!

This month was a big month for firsts for you sweet girl. It also was a big month for your personality to just shine through. You have the most fun, sweetest and lovable personality. You are VERY observant and quite shy when in public but at home you laugh (you crack yourself up quite often), talk and are just happy and fun. You LOVE to play! Instead of typing out a book this month about you I am going to "steal" an idea I see off of many blogs to update your 9 month post.

9 things about Morgan!

9. You still love your sleep and sleep 12 hours at night and take 3 naps. You also are about 15 pounds and are in size 2 diapers and 6 month clothes still.

8. You are wanting everything we eat these days and less baby food. I love making your baby food and am so nervous to give you solids so we are taking baby steps. We have done banana, avocado, peas (over steamed) and carrots (over steamed), soft bread, and pickles. And you LOVE pickles. You go crazy over them. They also make you hyper. It is very entertaining. You also require a bottle every 3 hours during the day.

7. You are so lovable, cuddly and just sweet. You still love to snuggle and you are just very kind and sweet natured. I can tell you are going to be shy in new environments but once you open up you are so silly. You love to smile and you love to play games with your daddy and I and have developed your own special games with each of us. You also love to laugh and smile and sing. Anytime there is singing on the tv or radio you start singing too.

6. You are trying to say Layla. When you see her you wave (you love to wave and wave at everyone) and you say "wla" "wla". And speaking of your best friend you discovered her dog bowl and you make a bee line for it and you love to throw handfuls out of the bowl and Layla sits behind you and eats it real fast which makes you giggle pretty hard.

5. You have mastered army crawling and are very fast at it. You also love to stand and walk with your walker and you love to cruise furniture. We are convinced you will be the smallest walking person ever but thats ok, it is cute. You also are so proud of yourself for walking and love to know that we are watching you.

4. You have developed a very strong attachment to us, and especially me, this month. You use to go to anyone and let anyone hold you but this month you want no one but momma or dada. You often crawl over to me to sit in my lap to play, although you also like to entertain yourself most of the time too. When we are out and about you either want me holding you or you want me on the floor with you and close by. We were at a birthday party this month and I had to be on the floor with you and you just sat back and observed. We also went to a bridal shower this month and so many people wanted to hold you but as soon as you were in their arms you were right back in mind because you would reach for me and your bottom lip would come out like you were going to cry. Even at Camp Little People recently when I put you down to play to leave you turn around and reach for me and crawl for me and JJ has even mentioned you sometimes have a hard time with me leaving. But when I come to get you, you do your excited dance. You wave your arms so hard your body rocks and you smile and laugh. It breaks my heart to leave you but warms it back up as soon as I see you. And although I notice you are sensitive and shy this is the first time you have really shown a strong attachment to me and how much you love me, so it is sort of sweet to know you prefer me over anyone...and your daddy too.

3. You got your first 2 teeth! The bottom center ones came in fast and you love to play with them. You did have a fever for a few days and a runny nose and did not seem yourself, which had me worried, but you bounced back quick once they were in.

2. We took you swimming for the first time and you had a blast! I can not wait for our days by the pool this summer sweet girl!

1. You now feed yourself with your bottle and finger food! Now part of me is happy about this but part of me is sad. You are growing up way too fast and becoming way too independent way too fast! That is just something else you no longer need me for. And boy do you like to be independent when you want something!

We also announced this month that you are going to be a BIG sister!!! Baby Brown 2.0 is due in August and we feel so blessed to be making our family of 3 into a family of 4. Another miracle, how wonderful! More details to come soon!

Morgan Lily,

You continue to be the sunshine in our lives and my heart grows each day bigger than the last. I do not know how but I become more in love and more attached to you. It is so fun to see you learn about this great big world and figure things out. It is fascinating to watch your personality form and shine and it is wonderful to watch our family bond and love flourish and grow. You make me happier and more proud than you will ever know. I never thought I would have a daughter, much less a beautiful and perfect daughter like you. I do not know what I did to deserve to be your mom but I thank the Lord each night for the gift He has given me, you! Now if we could just slow down time! I love you so much sweet girl of mine and you make each day a bright and magical one!

Love you,

Mom

Super 8 months!!

Baby girl turned 8 months a few weeks ago! Here are some super facts about you my sweet angel!

Stats

I am guessing you are around 15 pounds! And I am not sure about height, but it all is porportunate. So you are still small all around, but that is the way we like it! You are in size 2 diapers still and wear 6 month clothing and even some 3-6 month. You get cold easily since you are so little so we layer up most days!

Eating

You are still on the same eating schedule. You eat 6oz of formula every 3 hours and baby food 2 times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening mixed with cereal. I got a baby breeza for Christmas so I have really gotten into making your baby food since it is so easy. You of course love all your sweets and you do not like your veggies. So we often end up mixing some fruit with your veggies to trick you...sorry! For moms out there, the Baby Breeza is amazing! You literally put the food in, set a timer and press start and it steams it then blends it without you having to do a single thing! This has made your daddy and I eat healthier too because I only buy organic for you so I usually make you whatever we are having! You still also use a level 3 nipple on your bottles. You love to drink water too but love it most from our cups. You think you are such a big girl. We did get you a sippy cup and you will drink from it but do not seem that excited yet.

Sleep

You still love your sleep and follow the same sleep pattern. You go down about 8 or 8:30 at night and we have to wake you at 7 on weekdays and on weekends you will sleep in until about 8 or 8:30. You take 3 naps still. You go down around 8:30 until 10 and then in the afternoon you sleep from about 1 until 3:30 and you take about a 45 min. cat nap in the evening. Which is perfect timing for me to get dinner ready!

Personality

You are so happy and so easy going. You can go with the flow and are just plain happy. People still comment on how happy you always are. You can be woken up, moved or tossed around and you are happy. You love to smile, laugh, sing and talk. You LOVE to play with toys and you entertain yourself. You also have a stubborn streak. If you are trying to do something and can't you grunt out of frustration and if we take something from you that you dont want us to take, you get mad and let us know! You also want to get into everything! We have to now keep a closer eye! You also get excited a lot and show it by flapping your arms, smiling and grunting. You also give your dad and I reaction when you see us that you do not give anyone else which tells me how much you love us which is undescribable the feeling it gives me. You also love to snuggle and do only certain things with me and certain things with your dad. You have a funny personality that shows more and more. You are quiet and shy in new places, especially if they are busy places like a restaurant. It takes a while for you to warm up. But you show your personality most with your dad and I.

Firsts

You said "da da" this month which just melted your daddys heart! I have told you before, but the two of you have a very special and unique relationship. He just lights up when he sees you and you do the same. He is so hands on with you and you are his whole world. And by the way you react to when he is in the same room, the feeling is mutual with you. You still roll every where but you are army crawling now. You get up on your knees and arms and will pull yourself forward then kick your legs behind you for reinforcement. It gets you from point a to b and fast! You also are a rolling machine. And you are super fast with rolling! You also make many new syllable/vowel sounds. You have your own funny language and talk all the time. You also have gotten so good at standing you will hold on to things with one hand when you stand. You also celebrated your first Christmas at Yaya and Grandpas house in Georgia!! It was such a special first Christmas and although you will never remember it, we have over 1000 pictures to show you and it is something we will forever remember. I was so happy to be home for Christmas and to share special things I grew up doing with you. Yaya threw a party just for you and you met so many special friends and family. She and Grandpa went ALL OUT for your first Christmas. The house was decorated and looked like the North Pole! It was beautiful. They really wanted to make it so special for you. You had your own stocking, your own ornaments and even a doll! There were decorations everywhere, they spent months getting ready for you. Grandpa went all out on the outside. We lit up the entire state of Georgia! There was big blow up frosty and 2 huge Christmas trees and one had a ice skating rink under it. The entire front and back of the houes was lit up beautifully and their neighbors even went out all for your blowing up lawn ornaminents and decorating. You were quite the Christmas blessing! You truly made Christmas so special this year. There was a whole new meaning to Christmas and a whole new magical feeling. It was truly magical with you. We all were so excited! We had the party, we laid out cookies, went to Christmas Eve mass, had special dinners, and had so much fun. And little girl you were spoiled!! You could open a small toy store with all of your new toys. We barely got them all back to Ohio! You got a musical set, a wagon, which Grandpa bought especially for you and built it for you..and it was a princess wagon (which you are obesessed with being pulled in!), a push toy, animals, dolls, blocks, a beautiful quilt that Meryl made you , a picnic basket, your first soccer ball, a fishing rod, kitchen sets, your first play mobile set, many toys that make music and are educational, a race track with cars and so much more. It was so fun opening the all with you. You love paper so you were into playing with the paper too. It also was a blast playing with them all with you. Like I said we have so many pictures I will post some! Over the holiday break we also took a trip to Texas and you were able to meet your great grandma, great Uncle Danny and great Aunt Jill and your 2nd cousin Ryan and his kids! It was a very special visit and you loved meeting your family. And boy did they love you!! I also have pictures of you with your Texas family and I will post those! So we drove 9 hours to GA, flew to TX, flew back to GA and spent New Years in GA and then drove 9 hours back to OH and you were SO GOOD! You did not skip a beat in your schedule and were as happy as could be. You were a traveling champ! Then when we got back to OH we celebrated Christmas with grandma and grandpa Jeff and you were again nothing short of spoiled! You got another kitchen set and another cell phone and laptop set, some crawling toys, some clothes and so much more. You also had your own decorations and stocking at their house! This was an exciting month for you and for us and I will forever cherish it.

I have been terrible with pictures lately so I promise pictures to come and stories: month 7, baptism, first Christmas and month 8 pictures.

Morgan you are the love of my life and each month is more fun with you. I can not tell you how much I love you because words can not describe it. I just wish time would slow down. You are forever my daughter and I am forever your mom and our special bond is one that nothing else can ever compare to. I love you to the moon and back a billion times.