7 months

Well, little man, it's that time again.... 7 months already!  I was nursing you just the other day thinking - oh no, we are very likely already over half way done with this!

I must say this past month has been the best yet - I really just love this age and I love how very happy and sweet you are all day, every day.

Your smile is absolutely contagious!  You don't have the slightest glimpse of stranger anxiety - today we were sitting at your sister's ballet class and you kept looking over at the ladies behind us, trying to catch their eye, smiling away.  You have the best smile, buddy!

I'm a little apprehensive to write this as I don't want to jinx anything..... but mommy has gotten THREE straight nights of solid sleep!  On Saturday night, you slept through the night!!  I was convinced it was my mother's day present, but then you did it again on Sunday night.  I thought maybe that was just my birthday present (my birthday was Monday), but then last night you only got up once and all it took was daddy going in and putting your nuk back in and you fell right back to sleep.  Are we finally figuring out this whole sleep thing?!  I sure hope so!!  Though I must admit, I really don't mind seeing your smiling face in the middle of the night.....

You are getting really good at sitting up and just the past few days you've really come a long way.  You can sit for quite awhile before you topple over - usually it is when you are reaching for something.

You've started eating more solids....mommy still has intentions of making your own food but haven't quite gotten the ambition (or time) just yet.  You are getting less picky and have tried bananas, avocado, mango, carrots, squash, peas, green beans, rice cereal and squash.  

You LOVE to be outside.  We had a few warmer days this month and took a few trips to the park.  You could sit in the swings all day, wind blowing in your hair, taking it all in.

You are still in a size 3 diaper and are wearing mostly 6 month and a few 9 month outfits.  Your hair is finally starting to grow back, too!  You still have a little dark patch of hair that never fell out on the back of your head.  

Makenna:  Your sister, or "sissy" as she likes to refer to herself as, is soooo crazy in love with you.  She still gets a little jealous from time to time, but she loves to be with you and to make you smile.  When she comes in our room in the morning, the first thing she asks is if you are up and if she can go in your room and say hi to you.  She goes in and says "goood morning Alex!" and you get the biggest smile on your face!

She has eased up a bit on your toe lint, which is nice though she will still come looking from time to time to see if she can check your toes.  Ew.  

She is so sweet to you, buddy, and I just love to see your relationship grow.  She thinks it is pretty cool that you sit next to her at the table and the other day I caught you two holding hands at lunch.

She is starting to have so much fun with you, Alex, and I'm sure it won't be long before you are chasing her around the house.

Mommy:  You have certainly stolen my heart, little boy.  You are the sweetest, happiest, cutest boy I have ever seen.  I still have a hard time leaving you when I go to work in the mornings... I hate missing out on seeing you do new things and see your personality really start to come out.  I'm so thankful that your Daddy works so hard so that I can afford to take a few days off a week to spend with you and your sister.  

Mommy has been trying hard to come up with a pet name for you that will stick....Makenna and I came up with Xander-Monster for awhile, but it just didn't stick.  So, you are called a variety of names - most commonly buddy or Alexander Brooks.  

Daddy:  Alex, your daddy is crazy about you.  He loves to spend time with you and he always makes sure I don't hog you so that he can spend time with you.  

You put this GIANT smile on your daddy's face that I'm pretty sure he saves just for his buddy - boy.  

Alex, we love you and can't get enough of you little boy!  You bring smiles to our faces all day, every day and we are sooo thankful God saved you just for us. 

On to the 6 month pics....

Such a big boy sitting up all by yourself!

You did great until you realized you could play with the ball....

And again... you did great until you realized that was a sticker on your chest.....

Mmmmm...... destroyed!

Happy birthday Alexander Brooks!!  We love you!!

Best Mother's Day present ever.....

5 years ago we got an email that changed our lives forever. We were just getting over the heartache of losing our first 3 adopted embryos and preparing our hearts for what God had next. Our adoption agency forwarded us this email from a 2nd donor family that had just reviewed our profile and that they thought would be a good match:

"We received your package from Brad and Laura today. It made me cry. I guess you are a good listener. I also will start praying that all three of our embryos become children for Brad and Laura. They seem like the perfect match. I hope this email brings their long journey to become parents to a happy end. Please let us know how to proceed, we would be honored to have them adopt our embryos. 

P.S. Please warn Brad and Laura that these children are genetically engineered to be Tigers and Michigan fans so they will have to get over it:)"  

Pretty sure I got the best Mothers Day present of all that year!  

Alex's first Brewer Game!

Last night we took Alex to his first Brewer game!

He LOVED it!  I carried him around in the baby bjorn most of the game and his little arms and legs were flailing like crazy.  

He may have gotten a little attention at the game too..... cute kid in a cute outfit at the game, I'm not sure I've gotten so many smiles in my life:) 

He was mesmerized by all the action.  The first pitch he saw was a homer by Carlos Gomez....looks like we have a little good luck charm on our hands.

Such a happy boy.....and yes, that is puke all the way down his let.  No, it isn't cracker jacks but rather a little squash.  Yum...

He tried to sneak in a quick cat nap at bed time, but once he fell asleep the D-Backs tied up the game so he decided he better wake back up and watch

and it worked....he woke up and a few minutes later the Brewers scored 2 runs to pull ahead again

We went to the game with Uncle Derek & Sara, too!

The game ran REALLY late so I tried putting him in his stroller to get him to sleep....I peeked in to find this - what a honey! "But mooooom, I'm too excited to sleep!"

He finally did crash on the way home.....

What a great night!  And the Brewers won 8-3!

And sissy....well, she missed out on the Brewers fun, but she got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpas - this was her on Sunday night - all packed and ready to go!

My Kenna Girl

Makenna, it has been awhile since I've devoted a blog post entirely to you as your brother seems to be stealing the show lately.  You are turning into quite the little lady and I find it hard to believe you are almost 4 already although I must admit that I rarely tell people you are 3 and usually tell them you are "almost 4".  I really need to slow down and just enjoy 3!  Although, I must say that 3 is turning to be quite a roller coaster.  Most  of the time you are a smart, sweet, imaginative, creative little girl.  You do, however, have a 3 year old sassy side that drives both your daddy and I crazy from time to time.  You seem to go in streaks with it and just when we seem to think we have it in check, you become a monster all over again.  Ha Ha!  You are definitely a "cups is half full" kind of a girl because if I take something away from you (such as TV privileges, your Frozen movie, etc.), you will immediately ask when you get it back.  If I tell you it is gone for 4 days, you will ask in a very excited voice - so I get to watch again on day 5?!  Sassy girl!

You are nearly impossible to take a picture of lately.  You would much rather give me a sassy or silly face the few times you aren't just running away from the camera.

You are learning so much at school these days - you hate to talk about what you learned when I ask you after school, though.  You will always say "I don't know" but you eventually talk about the planets and days of the week and months and the other stuff they are teaching you.  

You are getting very smart at knowing what you have on what day of the week.  You know that Awana cubbies is Wednesday night and you look forward to it all week

Here you are before your "princess night" at Awana.  You got all dressed and put your coat on at 5:30 even though we don't leave until a little after 6 and were all bummed when I kept stalling you telling you it wasn't time to leave yet.

You've done a great job learning lots of memory verses this year at Cubbies - your favorite is Romans 3:23 - All have sinned.  For some reason that one has stuck and any time I ask you what is your verse this week, you start with that one.  This week we have awards night at Awana and I look forward to seeing you on stage.

You also know where Awana Cubbies "lives" and every time we drive past it you tell me - Hey, Mama, that is where my Cubbies lives, followed by - is it open and can we go?

You are VERY excited that tax season is over and our family is back together.  Last Friday you asked me if daddy was going to be home for dinner and then I told you he'd be home tonight and Saturday and Sunday and you were beside yourself excited that you would see him 3 days straight.  

You LOVE family time and will always point out when all 4 of us are together

You just might be the prettiest little girl I have ever seen...

You have a million silly face and you insist on busting each and every one of them out whenever I get out my phone to take your picture...

You are OBSESSED with wearing dresses.  This just started the last few weeks but every day you want to wear a dress.  You are smart enough to know that it is STILL not spring so you put on a long sleeve shirt underneath and try to find the twirliest dress you can to wear.  You even picked a dress over your Elsa shirt the last few days!

You are obsessed with all things Frozen.  You know just about all the words to all the songs, though your favorite is Let it Go- you will sing it and run circles around the room all day long.

They are showing Frozen at the library this week and just before you fell asleep tonight, you yelled to me in the office - "mama, guess what?  Daddy is taking me to see Frozen at the Houssex (it is sussex, but you call it houssex) libary on Friday - I'm sooo excited!!"

You have hand me down Tinkerbell PJ's from Madison that have what looks like an Elsa cape on them so you want to wear them every.single.night

Mama was sick this past weekend and you had a rough time with me not being able to play with you and snuggle you.  You took such good care of me and even tried to lay in bed and hold me so I would feel better.  You were very concerned and kept coming in to see if I needed more medicine or if the medicine would "feel me better" soon.  

We had our basement finished over the past few months and you had to go down and check on the "basement guys" work every day to see how it was coming along.  You thought it was the coolest thing that they put a toilet in down there and the day we got the carpet, you ran downstairs saying "ooo, fuzzy wuzzy" and kept running back and forth across the basement over and over.

You really are a lot of fun at this age, despite your sassiness and I look forward to spending lots of family time with you these next days & months!!

I love you, Kenna girl!!

Take me out it the ball game!

Alex we are in the dugout!!!!!

Meeting "Mr Jean" (before he got clocked in the head with Ryan Brauns bat that night) 

Alex says .... Hey high 5 over here!!

His first time in at Miller Park and he's in the dugout..... Not too shabby;)

Happy Easter