A Brinker July

Happy 4th of July!

First Fireworks with Daddy

Mom's homemade cheese crackers!

 On 4th of July we were on our way to a friend's house for a BBQ and to watch the premier of his show "Into High Country" and Dave's TV debut in another show! While cruisin' along on the dirt road Dave suddenly slammed on the brakes and stops randomly! There were two kittens right in the road. Without thinking, I jumped out of the car scooped them up and we were on our way. I looked down at my lap to these two tiny, adorable little things and thought - "What have I just done!" The Sposito's said they would take one of the cats and we considered keeping the other one. But a week later this mama just couldn't do it. I have too many little beings to take care of right now, and lets face it - I hate cat litter!!!  Isabel was head over heals in love, and some day when she is old enough to take on the responsibility herself she can have her own cat. But for now we remain a one dog family.

Las Tias

For our much anticipated trip to Nashville it worked out for my Tia Olivia, my cousin Maria and my sister Rosa to all come out and watch the kiddos! I knew they would be in the most loving care, but still had my worries about Easton taking a bottle (he hadn't been too reliable) and his finicky sleep schedule. The night before we were to fly out he had the most horrible night in month!!! At 2am - two hours before we were to leave to catch our flight - we called the trip off. We had gotten zero sleep and I just couldn't leave my little guy for 5 days when he still needed his mama so much. I know he would have survived the trip and been totally fine, but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy myself while worrying about him the whole time. We decided to head to a friend's cabin for 2 nights instead, which was a much more reasonable amount of time to be gone! The first night that we were gone, Easton slept like a champ and woke up once, chugged his bottle and went right back to sleep! It actually worked out perfectly because we were able to spend a few more days with my family, which is priceless!

An afternoon at Hylite

Our Lake Getaway

Another Trip to Yellowstone!

The argument before the cute picture "You never take pictures with me Maria!"

5 & 6 months

5 months
The biggest milestone this month is the amount of sleep that Easton is finally giving me at night! The weekend of Mother's Day he gave me the BEST present ever! An 8 hr night, followed by 7 hrs the next night and then 6 hrs to round out the best 3 nights sleep I have had in over 6 months! It didn't last long though... but right now we are in a pretty good routine of 5 hrs to start off, and then nursing once at night and once in the morning to eeeek out another hour or so of sleep :-)

Here are his other developmental highlights:

Weighs 17lbs & 5oz
Can put his toes in his mouth

Babbles are becoming more complex
Blows bubbles and gives mom raspberries on her shoulder
Reaches for toys and to touch faces
He's a little grabber and anything that goes into his hands goes into his mouth
Will occasionally roll over from stomach to back
Does a forward fold type of sitting up

6 months

Sleeping is getting better & better (finally!) A typical night Easton will go to bed between 8:30-9:30, wake up to nurse around 4-5am and then be up by 7-7:30. This is a much more manageable schedule for this mom's sanity. We also had a break-through in how he goes to sleep. With about 80% success I can lay him down awake and he will go to sleep on his own. This is HUGE, because he used to scream like he was being physically hurt when I would lay him down in his crib. Even if he was asleep he would wake up throwing his arms out and give mom a piece of his mind! Its so hard to put a baby to sleep in your arms when you have a 2-year-old banging on the door because she feels left out!

This month Easton tricks include:

Rolling over both ways (stomach to back & back to stomach)

Sittin up straight, but still plops over eventually

Eatting solid food for the first time (the jury's still out on that one)

Shows his temper if something he wants gets taken away

Decided that he doesn't like being strapped in his car seat for more than about 20min

Still no teeth, but drools and gnaws on things like crazy

Reaches for mama when he wants to be held

Never stops moving!!!