Brianna - 8 Months

Brianna is 8 months old! She is getting so big and really getting a fun personality. She laughs, talks, and makes silly noises all the time.

She eats like a dream. She wants to try EVERYTHING, and I give her what I can and feel comfortable with. She has started to eat little pieces of meat, fruit, and veggies, along with her normal container of baby food at meals.

She still has just 2 teeth. Even though the growth of them is painful for us all, I'm anxious for her to get more. 

She is down to 2 naps a day now (most days). One in the morning, and one in the afternoon at the same time as Maya. And she has started to sleep through the night! I night weaned her the week before Ryan and I went to San Francisco so that hopefully my parents wouldn't have to get up with her in the night too much. She slept through the night EVERY NIGHT she was there. And then came back home and started waking up again! Little stinker. She has slept 8 PM - 6 AM once for me, but still usually wakes up once a night. Thankfully, she goes back down very easily and quickly most of the time.

She isn't crawling, or even showing any signs of crawling yet. She likes to sit up to play and is good at rolling all around.

She is still extremely even tempered and rarely throws a fit. She has started to get more clingy than she used to be, but nothing a ride in the lillebaby carrier can't cure!

I think this picture is really cute. It kind of looks like she is rocking out to something, but in reality she was getting whiny and reaching out for me. Still makes me smile. :)

Brianna - 7 Months

Happy 7 months to the happiest blue eyed baby in our family! She has the funniest way of smiling REALLY big. It always makes us laugh. And when her smile isn't humongous, it's really sweet with squinty eyes, just like her daddy.

Brianna can now sit up on her own! It's really nice - it immobilizes her again. She was getting just too good at rolling all over the place.

She has two bottom teeth and has experimented a few times with biting me while nursing. She learned quickly that I do not particularly enjoy it.

She shakes her head "no" a lot. It makes Maya laugh when she does it while I'm trying to feed her baby food.

She hates it when I take showers. I will surround her with her favorite toys but she just sits there and cries and cries. She is also starting to get a little more clingy to me in general. I love it but it's hard sometimes too.

She is sleeping much better at night, only waking once or twice and nursing once (until I can get my milk supply acclimated; my goal is to eliminate all night feedings by the end of next week).

She had her first cold this past month. Not fun for any of us; lucky Ryan was out of town almost the whole time she was sick.

I love her blue eyes. 

She is a wonderful baby and we love her oh so much!!

Time

I have time to post! It's 11PM and I am lying in my parents' guest bed in a room with pictures of my husband and sister hanging out (they dated in high school). My almost 7 month old is sleeping in the crib at the foot of my bed. Thank goodness for Vicks baby rub. Poor girl finally caught Maya's cold. My two year old is asleep in the room on the other side of the bathroom. I am wide awake so I am going to blog. Nothing in particular, just a record of recent weeks.

I am proud of my role as "model" in the company I work for. It's not my only role, but I love it. New website launch is soon. :)

Brianna can sit up now!

The weather is really starting to feel like spring. I have gone on walks and runs and am loving it. I can't wait for the warmer weather to stick around!

Maya likes to line up her little people, get Ryan's hymn book from his mission, and lead them in song. Unrelated, she also loves to wear this dress of mine. 

(Hello, knee.) And of course there is a closing prayer. 

We went on a walk and fed geese! Brianna enjoyed her late afternoon nap en route. 

She gas graduated to a high chair!! I love not having to hold her, feed her, and eat all at the same time. 

Brianna is really great about letting me work. I can usually get in a good 45 minutes before she starts to whine. 

Maya has started pretending to go shopping (and becoming insistent on wearing a dress everyday). She puts an old cell phone, a wallet, and old credit cards in her purse. I guess the hat just adds to the feel of "going out". 

Ryan is on another business trip this week, so the girls and I came to visit my parents and sister for a night. They were more excited than they look, I promise. And that's where we are tonight!

So there you have it - fun times at the Koenig house!!

I guess I'll go to sleep now. Early mornings are a requirement when having two babies. Good night. 

Once Please. Just Once.

Nursery is a sea of germs. Ever since Maya started attending nursery at church she gets sick a LOT. And they are always illnesses that knock her out. She had the flu for an entire week a few months ago. And then a nasty cold. And now this.

Last Saturday afternoon she woke up from her nap sounding hoarse and wheezing when she breathed. She didn't improve much during the day. Ryan was working all day and didn't get home until very late (2 AM), so when I went to bed and poor Maya could hardly breathe I was so worried. I put a humidifier in her room and gave her a pillow so that she would be elevated a little. At 10:15 PM, after Maya had woken up a few times already because she couldn't breathe, I asked a friend if I could borrow her oil diffuser and RC oil for a few days. Her husband brought it to me right away.

Sunday morning she sounded awful. We talked to Brendon (my BIL), who is a doctor, and he said it sounded like she had croup and that we should call Maya's doctor to find out if we needed to take her in. The on-call nurse told us to put her in a steamy shower for 20 minutes and then breathe the air in freezer. When the nurse called back, and heard that Maya's condition had not improved, she told us to take her to Urgent Care ASAP. Ryan took her to the Children's Hospital and I stayed home with Brianna. I desperately wanted to be there with them, but Ryan said it wasn't a good idea to take a 6-month old to a place where everybody is sick, and even though he was right, it was still hard.

Ryan sent me a couple of pictures of Maya. She was practicing holding the face mask on, but Ryan said that as soon as it was hooked up to the nebulizer (sp?) she rather freaked. She also freaked when she got a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. I was glad I wasn't there. My heart would have broken.

They were at the hospital for 8 1/2 hours. She got to watch 2 movies and lots of shows on Ryan's phone. Ryan said she did fantastic. After 2 nebulizer treatments and 1 oral steroid, she got to come home. They had wanted to keep her overnight to watch her, but Ryan told them he didn't feel it was necessary. We got a prescription for another steroid pill for the next morning as well.

I think all of those things combined (lots of prayer, humidifier, oil diffuser, nebulizer, and steroids) helped put that girl back on track by Tuesday. She hardly even coughed after getting home from the hospital. I am so very grateful that she recovered so quickly, but we do not need to experience it again!

Brianna - 6 Months

Brianna Joyce is already half way to a year old! She is such a sweet doll, and we love having her in our family. She and Maya have a great relationship. Maya loves to make her laugh, and Brianna is starting to laugh socially now.

Her two bottom teeth are just starting to poke through. Thank goodness that's almost over with (for now). I have not been enjoying sleepless nights with her. She is showing love and affection with lots of hugs and kisses, especially when she's either really excited or tired. It's quite adorable and I love it, even if her hugs include pulling my hair really hard and sometimes I am afraid her kisses will leave a baby-hickey on my chin (they haven't yet). Worth it!

She is a pro at rolling around to get to things. That's new for me, and I have to make sure there's nothing in the entire room that she shouldn't have, not just within a few feet. She is starting to be able to sit up on her own, but not for longer than a few seconds.

She is happy. Always happy.

She still isn't sleeping through the night though, which would make ME happy! She wakes up quite a bit, but she only nurses once. I started being consistent about night weaning her earlier this week because I really need my sleep again. Hopefully after that she will be able to learn to fall back to sleep without nursing quickly.

Her 6-month appointment is on Tuesday, and I will update with weight and height then, but I'm pretty sure she's still in at least the 50%.

I love my precious little chubby baby!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmastime vacation(s) this year.

We had planned for 2 years to go to my grandma's house in Salt Lake for Christmas to see her huge set-up one last time. I'm really sad I didn't take any pictures of it. Then about a year ago we found out that Ryan's mom was planning his grandmother's 80th birthday party for December 21st. So guess what we did?! Huge road trip! I was honestly kind of dreading it; 30 hours in the car with 2 babies was not sounding very great to me. We decided somewhat last minute to drive to Phoenix through the night. Hard on Mom and Dad, great for the kids. And I tell you what, I am really really glad that we bought a bigger car last summer. It was quite packed! 

We arrived safe and sound in Phoenix at 11 AM on the 18th. We spent the next few days in Phoenix spending time with Ryan's side of the family and celebrating his grandma's birthday. She seemed incredibly grateful that we all came to see her and I am glad that we decided to go, even though it wasn't the most convenient thing for us this year.

We took family pictures to give to Grandma Carolyn for her birthday. This is the whole gang. Maya, oh Maya, where have you gone? Oh there you are, on the left. Trying to run away. (I couldn't blame her; we had just sat through 45 minutes of sacrament meeting and then straight to another 45 minutes of another church service.)

Cindy and Berne have an amazing backyard for kids. Maya was in heaven and if we couldn't find her, we knew she must have ventured out the back door. Her older cousins were great at taking care of her. It was quite nice to have babysitters around all day long!

We left Phoenix and headed to Taylorsville, UT, on the 22nd. We left at 3 PM and didn't make it to my grandma's house until 2:15 AM. It was a lot more tiring after having just driven through the night a few days earlier. But we made it! We went to Temple Square on the 23rd. It was really cold and CROWDED. Maya's favorite part was the castle (temple) and waterfalls by the mall where we parked.

Christmas morning was great! We had fun having a yummy french toast breakfast and then opened presents.

Later that morning we got to Skype with Ben and all of the family! It was fun to see him. The time is flying by. I know he will be back before we know it!

And then more presents from Nana and Papa. 

We had a lot of fun seeing family and relaxing in Utah. We got to see The Hobbit too! Always a fun treat to get to go to a movie these days. I was really sad to come back home, but was glad to be here when we got back. It was even super exciting to plan a menu and cook dinner again!

I am looking forward to a fun-filled 2015, even if I am turning 30 next month!