9 months in 9 months out... and everything else you can think of!!

*The longest post ever*

I'm going to take this opportunity while Darrik is gone to get my house cleaned and catch up on my laundry. . . . . .

ha ha ha I mean catch up on my blog. :D And let me just say for the record I am really starting to hate blogger. I like updating and sharing my life and such, but this post took me so long. We're talking like some where around 20 hours. If any of you have an easier way to post pictures and text please let me know. When I upload pictures it spaces out all my text so I have to spend a ton of time deleting spaces. Bear with me, this is everything since Easter, ha ha ha. Anyway... on to my super duper POST!!!

My little baby boy Brock Lee is 9 months old. It is so weird to think that he has been out the same amount of time he was in. Nine months in seemed like an eternity, especially the 5 days over... but 9 months out has flown by.

Brock is getting so big. Here are his 9 month stats:

Weight: 19 lbs 3 oz 40% (he is thinning out a lot, probably since he is always on the go)

Height: 29.75 inches 90% (he is such a tall kid)

Head size: 17.8 45% (average size head, but above average size brains, this kid's a genius)

A little bit about Brock.

It has been a while since I've posted about him. He is not the same kid any more. It is so amazing to me to look back and see his development. He is picking up on everything, mimicking what we say to him, doing the gestures and moving his body like us. He understands when we say certain words like 'ni nite' when it's time for bed. Or 'do you want to eat?' he grunts, 'uh, uh, uh.' Or if we tell him to 'dance' he will bounce up and down and move his arms. And my very favorite thing that he does is SMILE! My baby has the BEST smile ever. I am not just being a proud mother. If you have ever been around him you will understand. This kid demands attention. He will stare you down until you look at him and smile back. He always has to be center of attention, but not in a bad way. He doesn't throw tantrums, or fits, he smiles and laughs until you look at him. It's the cutest thing ever. I just love love love him to pieces. We are so lucky to have you in our family little buddy.

Some of Brock's 'Tricks' (for lack of a better word)

Wave. When we get out of the car and walk around to get him out of his carseat he will look at you and wave his hand. When I get him out of his crib in the morning he waves. When he looks at pictures around the house he waves. Or he will wave at his stuffed animals, or strangers at the store. When we say 'say hi' or 'say buh bye' he waves. He just picked up on it one day and now does it all the time. My favorite was one afternoon Darrik was outside mowing the lawn and Brock crawled over to the sliding door and got so excited when he saw his daddy and started waving like crazy.

'Gimme five.' Brock can give five. When you put your hand out he will slap it every time. This is usually followed with 'noggin.'

Noggin. If we say 'noggin' Brock will connect his forehead with your head. Sometimes it's super hard. But so funny.

Kisses. This is definately one of my favorites. Open mouth and everything. The doctor told me that they won't start showing affection signs until way later in development, but he's been giving kisses for about a month now. Definately taking after mommy, ha ha ha.

Loves. Brock gives the best hugs. He will wrap his tiny little arm around your neck and bury his face in your shoulder. He squeezes so hard. He is a lover, not a fighter.

Dance. Whenever Brock hears music or hears a beat he nods his head, and bounces. Or if we say, 'Brock, dance' he bounces up and down. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he takes after me on that one as well. Darrik is not much of a dancer.

'What does a monkey say.' When we ask Brock this, he says, 'ah, ah, ah.' Just like a monkey. So funny.

Chew. If we say, 'chew, chew, chew' he moves his jaw up and down really fast and does this little grin.


Development

Teeth. Brock has 2 teeth so far. He got his bottom right one and then his left. These came through just after he turned 8 months old. It looked like his top tooth was going to come in for a minute, but it doesn't now. So we'll just have to wait and see.





Crawling!! FINALLY. Brock has been able to get around since 6 months doing the army crawl. He has just recently gotten up on all fours and crawled. He would get up every so often and rock back and forth and then collapse on his belly and scoot all over the place. He is about half and half now depending on how fast he wants to get somewhere. As of yesterday, July 21, Brock has been only crawling on his hands and knees. He is 9 months and 20 days old. Good job buddy.



Eating. Brock has been cleared by the doctor to eat anything and everything he wants... within reason. Foods that don't pose a choking hazard of course. But he eats everything. Not picky at all. He has masterd the art of the pincher, using his thumb and pointer finger to pick up foood. He eats cheerios, freeze dried yogurt snacks, baby cheetos, bananas, rice, bananas, gerber chicken dinner, bread, peaches, pears, WATERMELLON, basically everything you can think of. He still eats baby oatmeal with fruit once a day, but we give him food from the table and he is eating it all up.

I think he just got done eating prunes. YUM!

Drinking. Brock drinks from a sippy cup for 1 - 2 feedings a day. He can hold the cup all by himself. He can also hold his own bottle. He is still nursing morning and night. Even with two teeth. And yes he has bit me several times. Why don't I stop? Because I can't. I don't know why. I will quit for sure by the time he is a year old, but not yet. I know, I'm crazy. Ok... those were my thoughts last week. I really wanted to get this post done before things changed, but that didn't happen. So Last Friday night when I was nursing Brock before bed he bit me probably 6 times. Almost every time he latched on he bit me. So I decided that we are done nursing. We were already down to nursing only two times a day by this point, so I just quit both feedings cold turkey. That lasted until Sunday night when I thought I was going to explode, so I nursed him before bed. I have been nursing before bed for the last three days, and he hasn't bit me, so that is good. I'll stop all together on Sunday. But it has been really sad for me to be done. I'm not sure why, but it is.

Drinking from a cup. Brock doesn't do that well at this, but he loves to drink from a cup. If we have drinks near him he always wants a sip. When he's in the bath tub we give him a small cup and when the water is running he will fill up his cup and drink it. He does pretty well, but he is in the bath tub for a reason. He still makes a huge mess, and gets really wet. But he is learning.




Pulling himself up. Since Brock has been crawling a whole new world has opened up for him. He pulls himself up to everything now. He is still learning how to balance once he's up there, but he has no problem getting up.

Cruising. Brock does pretty well at waking around the furniture. He has fallen a LOT, which is sad, but he's got to learn. He is picking up on it pretty fast. I walked at 10 months and Darrik walked on his 1st birthday. So we'll see. You never know. He could start walking tomorrow?

I don't know if you can tell from this picture or not. But Brock has two rather large bruises on his forehead. It looks like he is growing horns. He falls down so much and always hits his head. We need to get this kid a helmet.

Favorite Toys

tylenol bottle

wooden spoon - at Nana's house

melon baller - also at Nana's house, I promise my kid has real toys. He just is fascinated by other things.

teething tablet bottle - anything he can shake or bang together to make loud noise



couch - Darrik told me to add this one this his favorite toy list. Brock LOVES being thrown onto the couch. He laughs so hard.


balls - his latest thing is holding the ball above his head and droping it, his version of throwing it. I have seen him throw a ball once or twice lately though. When I first started this post last week he was just droping the ball, but he's learning to throw it now. He is also learning to throw his food, and when he finishes his bottle he throws that too. Silly boy.



monkey - He loves this thing. Every time I show him his monkey he grabs it and gives it hugs.
That was last week, or a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't really get too excited with it any more.


soft blue ribbon blanket - He can't sleep without it.

Yes my kid is sleeping in his diaper. It was hot that day. Don't judge me. :D

bath tub - Not a toy, but he loves the tub. He gets so mad when I take him out. He could play in there for hours. Look at that little face, he is in heaven.

Best Friend

This is a toss up because he really loves everyone. He loves it when Talmage and Lindsey come to play. They are getting along really great. Just crawling and cruising around together. An occasional bite, or hit here and there, but they are learning to play together really well.






Daddy still tops the charts. Whenever he sees his daddy he goes crazy. If he's in his car seat his little arms and legs go nuts, kicking and waving about. He prefers daddy over mommy. Which is fine with me most of the time because I have him all day. It's a welcomed break when he wants to go see daddy. The other night while Darrik was mowing the lawn Brock crawled over to the sliding glass window and starting banging on it and waving his arms and laughing really hard. It was the cutest thing ever. He was so excited to see his daddy.



Bear. Brock loves his dogs, but mostly Bear. Bear will let him climb all over him. He just lays there and takes it.

It looks like they are all in trouble.

Ladies. Brock is a bit of a flirt. He has a thing for the ladies. He looks around the room and finds all the girls, and smiles at them until then look at him. He then will sometimes do this shy head turn thing. We are in trouble. He definately gets this trait from his dad.

Mama's boy. Brock has been a little bit attached lately. Mostly when he's just waking up, or when he's tired, or not feeling well. But he won't go to anyone else. A little stranger danger going on. (This is only if daddy isn't around)

Carson and Brock at the duck pond. I couldn't get a good one of both of them looking at the camera. We had Carson for the day while his baby brother Bridger was born. We had a fun day.

This is Brock's friend Jack. They came in to town from Arizona to play. They are going to be best buddies.

Brock Stories


Bronchiolitis. Brock got bronchiolitis about the end of March. He was just about 6 months old. Bronchiolitis can be caused from RSV, or para influenza, or croop. I was so mad. (not mad at him mad at the stupid PA who looked at him and mis-diagnosed him and sent us home) He had a cough so I took him in and he saw the only ‘doctor’ who could see us at such short notice. He checked him out and said he was a little raspy but looked fine and sent us home. That was on a Friday and by Sunday night he was way worse. Coughing hard and sad and whiney. Not my happy, bouncing baby at all. So I called Sunday night to get in with my usual doctor, Dr. Pruitt and we got in on Tuesday. When we went in he had double ear infections and Bronchiolitis. They checked his oxygen levels and the doctor told me that I needed to stay at the office and do breathing treatments with him until they were up to a good level. He said that we were 2% away from rushing to the emergency room. NOT GOOD. We stayed there and did 3 treatments and got his levels up. And the doctor let us leave but not without 4 different prescriptions. We got a home breathing nebulizer and albuterol for the breathing treatment, Amoxicillin for his ears, and ear drops for the pain. Along with all that we did saline and suction, and gave him Tylenol too. He had to have breathing treatments every 4 hours at first even during the night. So I was up at 2 and 6 doing 15 minute treatments. We were doing feeding every 3 hours, breathing treatment every 4 hours, ear drops every 2 hours, Tylenol every 5 to 6 hours, amoxicillin twice a day, saline and suction twice a day. And after 3 days we went back and it was still not good, so we got another prescription for his breathing and started again. After two weeks we went back and his lungs sounded much much better, but he still had ear infections. So more meds, but this time it was Augmentin. A stronger drug. So that went on for a while but he got better. But it was so scary. You think you are being careful but you just never know what can happen.





Ear Infections and Cold. Brock is on his 3 set of ear infections. This time they gave him Omnicef. An even stronger drug. He just finished the 10 day treatment and seems to be feeling better, so we'll see. He also has a nasty cough which the doctor says isn't bad. But it sounds awful. I have the same cough and its not fun. He is also teething so he has a cronic runny nose. He is still a happy camper though. He is sleeping a bunch more, but he is getting better which is great!


Flying lessons #1. A little while ago I was putting Brock in his high chair to eat and I was telling him, 'sit on your bum,' while I had his bib and high chair tray in my right hand. Brock was bending his a knees a little up and down and all of the sudden he cocked his head back and to the side and fell right out of the high chair. I don't even know how or what happened, but I was sitting there panting hard, in out, in out, holding my son by his ankle with my left hand as he swung back and forth. I had caught him before he cracked his head open on the floor. Heavenly Father definately helped me out there. Scariest thing ever. Brock was a little shaken, but was totally fine.


Flying lessons #2. Darrik and I were in bed one morning listening to Brock babble in his crib when whe woke up. I usually let him play in there for a little bit before I go get him. All of the sudden we heard a loud THUD! And the screaming... So we ran into his room to find him lying on the floor. Poor little guy had climbed up and over his crib railing and fell onto the floor. So we lowered the mattress. That was the scariest sound ever.



Flu. Brock got the flu a couple weeks ago. We had just left the hospital from seeing our friend's Marie and Lance's new baby Bridger. Brock just started puking in his car seat. Uncontrollable vomitting. It was so sad. There was nothing we could do. We pulled over to try and clean it up, but it just kept coming, so we just quickly drove home. Poor little guy. He was covered. He went straight into the bath and then threw up some more. I gave him gripe water and just held him until he fell asleep. He was fine after that. The next day I got it. Not fun.


Brock Talk

Brock can talk! I know what you are thinking, he's 9 months old, no he can't. But he can communicate with us through his words/sounds. Thus, HE CAN TALK! He doesn't say these things all the time, or on his own, but if we say to him, 'say, ball,' he will say 'bah,' or whatever we ask him to say for the most part.

dada

mama

na na - ni nite, he says this when he's tired for nap time and at bed time


bah - ball

yah - this means nothing, but he says this all the time, yah yah yah

dah or a 'gg' sound - dog

bah bah - bottle

uh oh - when he drops his sippy cup off the side of the high chair he says, uh oh. when he drops anything for that matter, or tips over his stacking cups, or when I drop something. I'm telling ya, he is a smarty pants. This has become a game for him. Not fun for mom. Especially at the grocery store when he continued to drop his toys on the floor and repeatedly said, 'uh oh.' I just had to smile.

di do - thank you. He will say this one after you hand him something and you say 'thank you' he will repeat you.

no no no no no - probably not the best one to teach him, but it's so funny.


That pretty much sums it up. He is a lot of fun and learning every day. We just love him so much. I can't imagine our life without him. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

I came in to check on Brock one morning and found this. His bear sits at the bottom of his crib, so he had to crawl down there get it and crawl back to this position, and then hug it. What a cutie.

This is what Brock looks like after swimming lessons. I have to put a lot of sun screen in his hair so it gets all greasy. He really needs a hair cut too. Yes Brock is in swimming lessons. He is doing so good. I'm very proud of him. He is loving the water and smiling the whole time for the most part. The first day was a little rough. He had a hard time warming up, but he is doing great now. He will be swimming the English Channel in no time.

9 month photo shoot

Hey Hollywood!

Brock with Grandma Teresa

Brock and Poppy

Brock with Great Grandma and Grandpa White

Brock with great uncle Richard

I know I have a bunch of pictures with Brock in glasses, but very seldom will he wear them. We have to distract him, hence the bottle in this one.

I know it's summer, but it was cold one morning when we went for our run, so I bundled him up.

Peak-a-boo! I couldn't see Brock but I could hear him. When I looked down he was playing under the dishwasher.

'Brock, give the baby kisses.'

Loving bath time.

We love you little guy!

EASTER APRIL 2009

Brock got all kinds of stuff. Mostly clothes because he really needs them. But some toys as well, cars, sand toys, balls, sippy cup.

WATERFALL CANYON

This was an adventure. Brock in the Baby Bjorn and two dogs. I promise I helped. I carried the diaper bag back pack. I thought I was going to die. ha ha ha.

WICKED!!

In April we went to Wicked! We went with Darrik's family. This is my new favorite broadway musical. Toss, toss!! I loved it.

REAL Soccer Game

Our friend Tyson got us free tickets to go to a Real game. Our seats were super close and we got VIP tickets to go to a dinner buffet before. We had a good time. I don't remember if they won, but we had fun either way.

FROG

I thought this was pretty exciting. We were weeding in our front yard and we found a frog. Just a teeny tiny one. Super cute. I love frogs.

MEMORIAL DAY FUN - Roosevelt with the Parks

Carson is such a big helper. He is feeding Brock cheerios.

Brock's first boo boo. He was crawling around when we were in Roosevelt and I picked him up and found blood all over his pants. We think he cut his finger on the heater vent since we found blood on that as well. Poor little guy.

I promise we went slow. Brock loved it.

Marie and I think her little sister Allyse is on the back.

Lance and Carso

We went 4-wheeling and had a blast. This is Brock waiting for everyone to get back. He was very impatient... ha ha ha. Ya right! Look at that face. He is such a happy kid.

The ZOO!!

Stevie, Laney, Carson, Colby, Brock and Haleigha (if I spelled your kid's name wrong I'm sorry)

Brock totally zonked out during our little adventure at the zoo. But being the nice mom that I am I woke him up to enjoy the cool animals. Ha ha ha I had to get some important pictures.

He wasn't too upset that I woke him up. It looks like he had a good time.

Stefani and Jack Jack

FATHER'S DAY

Paige's boyfriend Phil and Paige. We were trying to get him to smile. He said this is all he's got. We'll work on it. Ha ha ha

SURF N SWIM

Clay, Ceara, Drake, Lisette, Talmage, Me and Brock Lee

Not my baby, but I wish he was. Look at those beautiful eyes. This is Drake, just chilling on the blanket at Surf N Swim.

My little monkey

THE 4th of JULY

Darrik, Kami, Dad and Cortney

We ran the freedom fun run in the morning. We all started out together and after about a mile Darrik says to me, "It hurts me to run this slow." Ha ha ha. So I told him to go crazy, we'll see you at the finish line. And he took off. He finished about 10 minutes ahead of us. Probably about a mile in front of us. He is just built for running. He now wants to start training for a marathon. I'm doing the Top of Utah Marathon in September and I told him to start training with me, but he thinks it is too soon. I think he would do really good.

After the run we raced back to my parents house to shower and get ready for the parade. Brock was not the happiest camper ever. He kept making a funny face and soon after the parade he fell asleep. Too much excitement I guess.

After the parade we went to the carnival. They always have these HUGE snow cones. So yummy!

Brock even enjoyed sharing with Nana.

After the carnival we went back to my parents house and did the slip n slide!!! It rocked. We had to tie foam pads around the fence and the centeral air box so if we hit them it wouldn't hurt as bad. We had a blast!

"Weeeeeeeeeeee"

Mom and Dad...

...crashed!

But Mom won!

Darrik with a big splash

I have a lot more pictures of this grand event, but since this post is forever long, I will spare you the rest.

Bishop Hansen

My dad got called to be the bishop of his ward. It was a really big shocker when we found out the news. Our family isn't your typical 'bishop's family', but we know that he has been called of God and will do a great job. He has already had to do some pretty exciting/hard things as bishop. Girls camp, and a funeral. He is doing such an amazing job. I had no doubts. My dad is such a kind, loving man. And he is so much fun. I'm happy to be called the bishop's daughter. It actually kind of fits... ha ha ha.

Before picture...

...during...

...and after.

They made him shave his beard. I have only seen my dad without a beard two times in my life other than pictures. It's a little different, but it's growning on me.