Golden Weekend

Scott FINALLY had the weekend off! It was his 2nd and 3rd day off in the last 30 days. Med school is awesome... 

Wanna know what Scott did with his time off? Studied for his giant upcoming test! This man knows how to party ; )

I finally caught a picture of Janie trying to play the piano (she gets on her tippy toes and can reach the keys)

 We are blessed in our complex to have many awesome women who act as extra mama's to Janie. This is our sweet neighbor across the hall, ironically also named, Janey.

 On Saturday Jane stole an orange slice at Brunch Bunch and fell in love. Then yesterday while another awesome neighbor was teaching me how to cut Scott's hair and we needed to buy some time, so we gave Janie half an orange. She demolished it in 3 minutes so we gave her the other half (not cut up) and she went nuts. It kept her busy for 30 minutes! She was in heaven. It made for quite the clean up, too!

You might notice that she has a little trouble telling the fruit from the skin...

 We are borrowing this toy and Janie is absolutely in love with it. We brought it outside one day and it was a hit with all of her buddies, too!

[thanks, Katie, for the picture!]

It seriously was an awesome weekend. It was filled with good friends, good food, good weather, and Scott! What more could I want?

Best Review Ever?

Enjoy.
http://gizmodo.com/5937402/the-new-furby-review-absolute-horror

We're Baaaack! [minus the dinosaurs]

I realized that since my blog readership has hit an all-time low today it means I should probably stop being a slacker and update. What we've been up to... Feeding our friends bacon popcorn.

Janie has been obsessed with snacks and frequently has yogurt melts/puffs stuck on various parts of her body (obviously we're the greatest parents ever).

It's also important to note that Janie's hair has decided the Bieb's is a good fashion icon.

I learned not to try to feed a sleepy baby solid foods. When her hair is Bieb-ing and she goes to rub her eyes with oatmeal all over her hands... It's not pretty.

Janie's latest favorite thing:

Emptying EVERYTHING. But laundry is a special favorite. She meticulously pulls out each item and drops it on the floor, and heaven forbid the item be folded, she will shoot an annoyed look at me, shake the item until it unfolds and THEN drop it on the floor.

You can imagine how awesome my house looks. There is no limit to her hobby: food storage, pantry, toy box, changing table, book case, blanket piles, drawers, groceries... you name it.

I'm thinking about renting her out to people when they get home from trips. So just let me know if you need someone to help unpack your suitcase for you.

Another favorite activity is our new piano. We frequently catch Janie on her tippy toes pushing down the keys (except as soon as she sees me she gets down and comes over so every attempted picture looks like this:)

While unpacking my zoo bag (while I simultaneously packed it... we hadn't left for the zoo yet) she found her snacks, took them, and promptly plopped herself down for a treat.

[BTW: Crystal... I'm seriously in love with her baby legs.]

Addicted

So I have this thing with Lysol Wipes... I kind of can't get enough of them. I've toned it down quite a bit (I used to clean my floors with them, making my floors cleaner than most people's counter tops...) I actually thought I was doing pretty well with my addiction, but then this morning Janie got into her baby wipes and instantly started cleaning anything she could get her little hands on.
So maybe my addiction is still a LITTLE out of control.

I can braid Janie's hair now! Sure, it's a little Pippi, but I like it.

and Janie still struggles with keeping her limbs in the right parts of her pajamas. 

Remember how short Janie is? Well this is reflected in her pajamas. These are 6-9 month and her little legs totally get caught up in the length of them.

A Filler Visit

In high school I became really good friends with a wonderful family. It started off as Toni being my YW President and then it became me watching her boys (3, then 4, now 5 of them!) and in the end I literally lived at their house. Basically, they're family and they came to visit!

It was so, so good to see them.

 Scott has been working a lot and his little girl misses him terribly. The other day every time we walked by the window she would start waving and saying, "Dada!" (we wave and blow kisses out the window when he leaves)

 See all the toys to play with? & what did the girls choose?

 Once upon a time I made WAY too much cinnamon roll dough... everyone we know benefitted.

 and proof that one time a squirrel tried to claw his way into my kitchen. on the second story. weird, right?

First Oreo

It was delicious.

It was messy.

It was followed by a bath.

Perks of Having a Firefly Infestation

Pros
1. They're not spiders.
2. Other people like them.
3. I get lots of practice squishing bugs.
4. Fireflies now fear me (for reals)
5. They don't live indoors for more than 24 hours.

Cons
1. They're bugs.
2. I have found them in truly horrifying places.
3. At any given moment there are at least eight actively having sex on my window
4. I am constantly afraid I will step on one
5. They don't live indoors for more than 24 hours. This is both a pro because it saves me a lot of killing and a con because their little bodies are everywhere waiting for a curious crawler to come along and put them in her mouth.

Things I Never Intended to Learn About Fireflies
1. They don't light up indoors unless you squish them.
2. Mating season is in August
3. They use exactly three sexual positions.

I am currently using the windex method of total firefly annihilation removal.

 HOWEVER, despite firefly issues there are still some serious reasons to live by us. Today we will address the two most important.

#1 Baked Goods.

 #2 A Cute Baby.

 Janie is a little cruiser now but she has trouble getting back down from flat areas.

We hope her little button nose lives on forever.

Wisconsin State Fair

Last night we went to the fair with our good friends, Emily and Lyle. We had a blast, despite Janie deciding partway that it was WAY too hot and crowded. However, on our way out we were met with rain! It felt amazing. Janie sang and clapped. 

 Janie playing with the trash fun toy.

Happy Thoughts

Things that make me happy lately:
Janie's new favorite activity is to play in our food storage. She will spend a good half hour playing with our ketchup and coke (the essentials when you're a Brunson).

Janie ate her waffle like a big kid. It was completely adorable.

We have started saving for a visit to Washington (sometime in 2013).

WE BOUGHT A PIANO!

Yup. I'm pretty much the happiest person in the world.
I need to post a video of Janie playing the piano. She figured it out really quick and now plays for a couple of minutes and then claps for herself. So talented.

Dishes Smishes

Can I just say how strange it is to me that no one seems to have dishes sitting by their sink when I visit? 

Last week I was at a baby shower and I happened to be in the room when a dish was cleared... The host (who I had just met) slipped it into the dish washer with a whole bunch of other dirty dishes. HA. Solved. People HIDE them. Then the host told me a secret... she also had some dirty dishes hiding in her cupboard! It totally made my day. 

Anyhow, I have been making little goals to keep my house cleaner. I remember as a kid they tell you it takes 21 days to make a habit, but I'm bad with numbers, so I'm going with a month-to-month plan instead. 

So while it is pretty darn embarrassing, here are my goals because I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who is human and a little bit lazy when it's a gazillion degrees outside.

My goals:

June— Throw away junk mail immediately. It is amazing how much space it takes up.

July— Take trash out (even if Scott isn't home to do it for me) and keep floors clean (because now I have a baby who eats gross things).

August— Go to bed with no dirty dishes. This is a total stretch for me, but it's the THIRD and so far so good. Also hate my living room less (it needs some life... I'm working on this).

Three Quarters of a Year!

Somehow my sweet baby keeps growing. Maybe it's all that healthy food I've been giving her...

Or maybe it's all that monkey hair she has been sneaking... (seriously gross, right? I can't tell you how many times I have caught a little fist full of hot pink hair about to go straight into her mouth)

Either way, she is growing up.
She is beautiful.

Smart.

Hygienic. 

Curious.

Strong.

Teething.

Completely lovable.

and a little bit tired of her mama being obsessed with her.

Sorry, short stuff. This runs deeper than you know...

At 9 months:

Janie is a whopping* 26" tall!

Weighs 17 lbs 9.5 oz

and has an impressive 17.7" head.

**whopping is sarcastic. 26" is in the 8th percentile...

for those who care, her weight is in the 22nd percentile and her head in the 75th.

PPS. For the neighbors who I'm sure are seeing that toy at the end are are thinking, "hey! she totally stole that from out front!" you're right. I did. I will put it back soon.