Two Years.

I really don't have much to write about. I just want to dedicate my post tonight to Elizabeth. Two years ago we held our baby girl and said goodbye to her. It was something I never imagined being able to do... As well as something I never thought I would ever go through. We began some traditions to keep her memory alive which I am going to keep private, but just wanted to get out there I am thinking of our baby girl.

Happy Birthday Brynn!

I have a one year old daughter! Do you know how crazy that is to me? I feel like just yesterday my water broke, we were on our way to the hospital and we were pulling off the road at 6:30 am in the middle of a snow storm for Dan to use the bathroom at the Super America :o) You knew I just had to get that in there...

Brynn's birthday was Wednesday, the 11th. Dan and I had taken the day off to spend with her. We had a Wild game the night before. Unfortunatly, I think I got food poisoning from the chicken tenders and fries I ate there. I will NOT be eating those again. I ended up throwing up all day on Wednesday and wanting to be curled up in a ball in bed. Needless to say, the day did not go as planned. Brynn was happy and had a good day, but we didn't get to do everything we wanted to. I did pull myself together long enough to make it to the Children's Museum and she had so much fun there. As soon as we got home, I crawled into bed while Brynn napped, and I also went to bed that night at 7:30. Luckily I woke up the next morning and felt better, so I made it to work.

The weekend brought Brynnie's actual party. I spent all Saturday morning baking cupcakes from scratch. I made like 4 batches. I also made the frosting from scratch. It was a lot of work but they turned out so good.

Her party today went so well. She was a trooper. She was a lot overwhelemed by all the people... she kept walking to me and clinging to me, not wanting to put her down. It was sweet knowing she wanted me... but hard to try and mingle with her being like that. Once some people cleared out, she began to losen up a bit and play with the other kids. I have just a few pics for now that I will post. My friends Kevin and Kelsey (they are the ones who watch Brynn), Kevin took pics for me at the party so I don't have many until I get some from him :o) KJB Photography shout out!

I am so thankful for all of our family and friends that celebrated with us today. I know Brynn wont remember her special day, but I sure will for the rest of my life. Thanks to you all! :o)

These are pictures of Brynn the day of her actual birthday, 1.11, at the Children's Museum and then at our house.

Pictures from her Birthday Party!

Brynnie and her Auntie Shannon and Uncle Nick :)

In a Funk-- Emotional.

I don't know what is going on. I have not been anxious lately, but really emotional. I have been trying to figure out why...but cant seem to. Part of me wonders if it has to do with the date of the birth and loss of Elizabeth. 2 years already on the 16th. Brynn's first birthday on the 11th. I am having a hard time with that too... And I don't know why. I am glad she is growing and developing like she should be. She is so much fun. But at the same time it just has gone so fast and that scares me.

I just wonder if it will ever be easier. I love Brynn so so so much... but cant help but wonder what Elizabeth would have been like. I never thought these emotions would be this strong 2 years later. I just cant figure out how to acknowledge and celebrate the short life of Elizabeth. I don't want to be fake about it and force it. But I also feel like my family won't acknowledge it. Not because they don't want to, it may be because they don't know if they should or how to. I don't even know if they remember the day.

I just needed to get my thoughts written down. Not my typical upbeat post.

The Holidays

As usual since I have been at work... updating this blog is getting more and more difficult. A lot has been happening since I have lasst updated. Brynn has had another ear infection. She has another tooth. She had stood. Now she goes from sitting to standing on her own, without holding on to anything! (I will post video). She takes 4-5 steps at a time, too!

Sick. We all seem to be psasing it back and forth. Brynn had another ear infection a few weeks ago...and Dan got a nasty cold that he so generously passed on to me. I haven't felt this crummy in a long time, and am hoping Brynn doesn't get it.

We also have had a huge change, which is one reason it has been so long since I last updated. We have moved. We had a potential tenant walk through our house, she loved it, but needed to be in by December 15th! We didn't think we would be out before Christmas... so we had a tree and had decorated... and had about 9 days to be packed and moved out!! Talk about stressful! We somehow managed to do it, while working full time and chasing around an 11 month old. We are now all settled in at Dan's dads. I know in earlier posts I had mentioned moving in with my Grandma, but we decided that this is a much better option for us for now-- especially with an almost 1 year old. Grandma's house still has so much work, and there is so much for Brynn to get in to. All of my grandma's knitting baskets, plants, and nic-naks she has set up all over. Definitly not baby friendly. Not to mention the space... not a whole lot of room for all of us and our stuff. At Nick's, we have 1500 sq feet to fill up-- we are able to use all of our furniture, and our room and closet are like twice the size they were. We are pretty comfortable for now... and in a few months we will begin looking seriously for houses! :o)

Now Christmas! I took Brynn to see Santa at Macy's on Friday. She LOVED him. No tears, just a lot of intense looks. The line was long, but well worth the wait!

Our family is so blessed! We had good food, family time, and a great first Christmas for Brynnie Boo. She is near impossible to bring to church... she doesn't want to just be held. She wants to go, go, go. On Christmas Eve Dan and I took turns taking her out and letting her crawl around. She sure was a ball full of energy. Christmas Day she had so much fun with Dan's cousin Berit. She played with Brynn pretty much the whole day, which was nice for me to have a little break :) Dan's Aunt and Uncle live on White Bear Lake, so we also brought our skates over because the lake is like glass! It was so nice.

Dan had Monday, Tuesday, and today off of work, which has been nice to spend time together. We went to the Mall of America yesterday-- it was so crazy. Today we are just going to putz around here, do laundry, clean, and make spaghetti for dinner. I am going to try and enjoy the little bit of time left that I have home with Brynn before I head back to work. After New Year's, I am going to seriously really hit my capstone hard. I am all registered and want to be done by time next school year begins so I get a nice little bump in pay :)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I will leave you with some video!

A lot of Change... And Stress!

Ok. I have not been the best with updating the blog. I had started a week ago, and stopped because I feel like all I had to say was so boring! It is officially December and we have snow on the ground (finally). I just finished up with the first trimester of school. Hard to believe! Ia m looking forward to the next because I get to teach astronomy and the kiddos LOVE it. I didn't get to teach it last year since I was on bed rest/ maternity leave... So I will be refreshed :)

Speaking of bed rest... December 10 was my last day of work last year and the day I was put on bed rest. One week into tri 2. Hard to believe! Hopefully we don't get a massive snow storm again next weekend like we did last. My shower was cancelled due to it... We are planning on moving out of our home next weekend so snow would not be good. Which means we have a renter! We are just waiting on the signing of the lease but it is pretty official! It is overwhelming and I have many mixed emotions about it. Going from living on our own to living with family. My grandmas house is just not going to be ready for a baby by December 15... So for now we will be with Dans dad. Saving up money in hopes to be in our own house-- not townhouse :) by the fall next year! I am glad renting our town home is an option, because it is the only we were going to be able to move!

Brynn is changing more and more each day. She is so very close to walking! She has taken a step or two and dropped to the ground. She also stands for a few seconds, then drops to her butt. Her preferable mode of moving is crawling or walking along furniture. She just cruises! Today she figured out how to put her ball into a circle on her toy... It just amazed me. I have video of it that I will post.

So, the next week will be packing/ organizing / arranging movers/ etc. today we are going to se the Trans Siberian Orchestra with my parents... Their Christmas Gift! So one last fun day before we have to work, work, work all week! My hands are raw from all the work we did at my Grandmas yesterday. We ripped up her carpet, painted, ripped out nails... Long day.

Well... Many changes to come! Here is video of Brynnie.

Sleep, Halloween, and New Tricks!

OK... so I spoke too soon. Brynn gave us a couple of decent nights sleep, and then started screaming again. I knew something wasn't right. We ended up bringing her into urgent care to get her ears checked. She had just finished her meds, but I had a feeling either her infection hadn't gone away... or it came right back. Mom was right :) She got a new prescription and so far so good (fingers crossed). She has slept pretty good this week, which makes for a happy mom and dad. She has her follow up appt tomorrow from her first infection, so we will see. I will have to let her Dr. know that she ended up getting more meds since it didn't go away. She also gets her flu shot tomorrow... no fun.

So what have the Babich's been up to? Well we took Brynnie to the apple orchard. We picked out her first pumpkin. We helped my Grandma move into her new room last weekend. We ripped all the carpet out of my Grandpa's old room, and painted it. She has been sleeping in there and she is really enjoying it. We have had our townhome for rent now for the last week and a half. Have had some interest, but no one signing a lease yet. I hope it happens soon. I refuse to leave my house before we have a renters. I don't want to pay for our mortgage and not be living here.

Brynnie enjoyed her first Halloween! We took her to the Mall of America and walked around. I didn't really want to take her trick-or-treating since I would have been the one eating the candy-- which wouldn't have been a good thing. She was a strawberry, and drew a lot of attention to herself!

Dan and I have been enjoying the start to the Wild's season. They have been playing SO SO well. We haven't been going to as many games... but it is so hard with Miss Brynn. I hate leaving her since I am away from her all day.

I am going to be a hunting widow this weekend :( I hate when Dan leaves us. I know he enjoys it, but I will admit it, I am a needy wife and like when he is here. I plan on going to the SSP Football game tomorrow night. We play St. Thomas in the section finals.... again. Brynn will get to hang out for a bit with Grandma Suzie. I have a good feeling though and I hope the boys win. Saturday Dan scheduled me for a massage and facial (I think to make the fact he is leaving this weekend a little less stressful), so that will be so nice. Auntie Shannon will be watching Brynn for me.

Sunday... maybe a little shopping?? :) I should start some Christmas shopping. I am going to really try and not go too crazy. It will be hard having Brynn.

New things Brynn has been doing:
--She waves "Bye Bye". MOST of the time when we do it with her. Sometimes she just stares at us.
-- When we lift our arms up in the air and say "SO big!", she lifts her arms up, too!! SO fun.
--Lots of baby babbles... la la la, ba ba ba, da da da.
-- Says "mama"... and I think "dada"
-- SO CLOSE to standing on her own. She has let go of things quickly and then either sat down or held back on.
--Crawling/ Standing all over the place... and walking behind her "walker" toy.

How will she be 10 months in a week?? I just love her to pieces and feel so blessed to have such a beautiful little girl.

Finally Some Sleep!

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, Brynn had her 9 month appointment last week. She is 29 inches long, 18.8 lbs. 90th % for length, and 50th% for weight. Still long and lean! At her appt we found out Brynn had an ear infection. I was relieved! I had brought her in a couple weeks before when she was sick, and nothing then. I am assuming her cold then led her to her ear infection. She was given amoxicillan, and she is acting like her normal happy self again!!

Sleep. Oh boy. Brynn got that nasty cold probably 3 weeks ago. It kept me home one day with her. Along with her cold, she was teething. Her top two are out and showing now! At the same time, she was developing her ear infection. No wonder she was not sleeping well!! It has been a long month of nights... but the last 2 nights have been awesome!! Last night, she went down about 7:30 without screaming, and didn't wake up until 4 am. I fed her, hoping she would let me sleep in since I didn't have to get up this morning. She did! Woke up at 7 am!! Yay! I hope this trend continues... because she is so much more cheery and like herself! :o)

We had conferences this week. So uneventful. Which is good! My kids this year are so so so awesome, so that is why I think they were so easy. Not a lot of issues to talk about! I am really enjoying these kids. I know I am going to be sad seeing a lot of them move on at the end of the year...

Faith (SSP Varsity Soccer team) plays to go to state tonight. For once, it isn't against Mahtomedi! They have a very good chance at making it to state. I am so happy for the girls (and a little jealous). I really hope they win, and that I am able to make it to the game if they do. The year we had the best chance of making it to state in HS, we played Minnehaha Academy in the Section Finals, and lost 2-0. They went on to win the state tournament. I still remember that game. I remember the field, what the weather was like, everything. Crazy how those things stick with you. I was fortunate at least to win a conference tournament in college, and make it to the National Tournament. Oh the glory days! I sure miss playing soccer at that competitive of a level. I think I will finally be healthy enough to play this summer. Having 2 summers off due to being pregnant/ dealing with post pregnancy issues was a bummer.

We have a guy from Renters Warehouse coming over tomorrow to look at our townhome to see how much we can rent it out for. I know we will probably take a bit of a hit and have to pay a couple hundred a month, but it is what it is. This whole situation though is so depressing. I just wish we could sell our house and buy another one-- like normal people did it 5 years ago. That was our plan. At no fault of our own, we are now in a stupid situation... I hate that we have to live with someone else for a bit of time (most likely) if we want to buy a house. If we didn't, we would be here a lot longer. We have some decisions that need to be made and made fast. If we are renting, they recommend being out by November 1st. That is just around the corner. Ugh. Stress and decisions. I hate decisions.

Today I am going to a market research interview-- I make $100!! Money for shopping :) it is only an hour and it is about diapers. What a good deal! I also have my 2nd chiropractor appt in one week... I am having issues with my shoulder/ neck. It isn't good and I am in a lot of pain. I hope I can get it taken care of.

As far as the rest of the weekend, tomorrow I should clean... maybe squeeze in some shopping :) We have the meeting with the renters warehouse guy. We also should start packing/ organizing if we go that route. Saturday I think I am watching Brynnie's friends, Liam and Sophie. My Friends Kelsey and Kevin (who watch Brynn) are taking some pictures of my other friend Amy's daughter... so I offered to watch the kiddos for them-- the least I can do for them watching my Brynnie everyday... which I know I say all the time, but it is going wonderfully!!! She just loves Kevin... and they all seem to be enjoying her! :)

I think that is all I have for now... here is a video of Miss Brynn from yesterday.