5 Long Years

I bet you thought I was talking about my marriage :) Adam thought that was funny!

It took me exactly 5 long years to get Trinity to move home. I have been working on getting her back here for about 4 years and 11 months. She left the day after I got married and after having a baby she is moving home. Not really sure what that says about Adam :( Hopefully she likes our new addition or who knows where she will move next. We have been friends since 4th grade. I will have to dig up some pictures of the old days.


Maybe I will get a little knitting done once she moves back. I always seem to start a new project when I am visiting her and then that's about as far as it goes. With her here to bug me I might get a couple projects done.

Trinity and family will start their long drive tomorrow. Their 3 animals should make the trip a little extra interesting. I am guessing that she will have a good blog update next week.

Dunphy Family Visit

Friday afternoon we had visitors. Kelley, Delaney, Dillon, and Shaylan came for a visit after they got done school shopping at MOA. We had a nice visit and Shaylan seemed to be very interested in her new cousin. By next summer they should be chasing each other around. Sorry Dillon I didn't put the picture up that I took of you and Lucy. The pic wasn't very flattering and I didn't want you to yell at me.

the girls

proud auntie

smiley Shaylan

little Shaylan

Happy Birthday Grandma B

Sylvie wanted you to have a happy day and she thought some pictures of your two favorite people would help.

big smoochers

big hands little bottom

more big hands

whoops you weren't supposed to see that

Have a super day and remember that you are the birthday princess (that means you get to do what ever you want).
Love,
Sylvie

Do these stripes make me look fat?

Sylvie is already 8 lb 10 oz. I think she is getting a little milk belly. She gained almost a pound in 2 weeks and I think it all went to her belly. Jen made the cute hat she is modeling.

big belly

still not so sure about tummy time

not so sure about the hat either

The tomatoes are starting to get out of hard. They are doing pretty well considering that I haven’t been treating them very well. A squirrel or maybe Lucy ate a little of a big yellow one.

Happy Birthday Jared !

This weekend we enjoyed BLT's, burgers and fresh sweet corn for Jared's Birthday. Some of us also enjoyed cookie salad. How can cookie and salad go together?? Charleen just doesn't get it!



Blake being cute, as always...

Here is some lovely artwork that Jared did. This is Jamie's Wii character. This weekend we tried our first shot at Wii and Wii Fit. It is a pretty cool device and quite possibly something that will end up in the Brodd household. For those who don't know what a Wii is, welcome to 2008, but seriously, it is a videogame system that has incorporated 'working out' into it. It is very cool.

Proud Cousins

No explanation needed...

Finally, just wanted to say thanks for the fun time at the Twins game on Sunday. Jared and I enjoyed a wild and crazy game... A special thanks to Jacob and Missy for the 'upgraded' seats after the sixth inning.

Chinese Finger Trap

Lucy has figured how to get into the fenced garden, but she can't get out. I was looking for her outside and there she was sitting in the garden on my flowers smiling. She doesn't usually try to fit through small opening because she thinks that she is bigger than she really is-no big surprise:) I guess the rewards of eating dirt and tomatoes was worth her squeezing down to her real size.

trying to hide from me

Here is a picture of Sylvie wearing the onsie that Blake made. She liked it so much she pooped on it and me too. He even signed his art work.

Sneaky Momma

Dad thinks he is the only one who can blog, well mom thinks that dad is a little long winded. She just wants to post lots of pictures. This morning we did a little tummy time. As you can see it was fun at first, then very tiring and then not so good.

learning to stick her tongue out

so tired

tummy time is over rated

After tummy time we did a little dancing and singing. She is the only one who can stand my singing voice, probably because she doesn't know any better. I think her favorite song today is Matt Nathanson-Come On Get Higher. She thinks he is cute. I told her that musicians are heart breakers but she already doesn't listen to me. I guess she will have to figure a few things out on her own. That's enough writing for today, I need to bet back to my bon bons and soap operas.

One Month Old

Our first major age milestone - One Month Old!!!

It is hard to believe that we have been blessed with little Sylvia for one month already. Time seems to fly by, and I am sure it will continue to. Before you know it, she will be asking for the car keys to go our on the town with her friends.

To highlight some of the changes over the last month, Jamie took a picture of Sylvia today wearing the same outfit she wore home from the hospital.

While the size difference may not be apparent, she sure has much more neck strength now than she did at two days old. The weight training must be paying off!

I will let you guys in on another little secret with our child. As you most likely are aware, Jamie and I are both chemical engineers, and safe to say, a little geeky. When I came across the following baby tracking website on July 15th, I knew this was for us. Basically this website keeps track of all the 'critical parameters' of a child. How much she eats, sleeps, and poops... I know you are just dying to see how Sylvia is doing, so here is a high level summary.

First the sleep tracker... The yellow bars indicate awake time and the blue bars indicate sleeping. There are also key stats posted which are interesting to monitor.

We Love Blue!!!

While the sleeping part of the equation may seem to be a little messy, I can say that she seems to be getting a pretty good pattern down. Now of course she will change that up, since I have mentioned it.

Due to respect of Jamie's 'milk makers', I won't share the nursing chart, but for those that understand the conservation of mass, what goes in, must go out... Here is the plot of Sylvia's 'working end'. The blue points are for a wet diaper and you can guess what brown is for! It is hard to believe that she has gone through 227 diapers as of this writing. Update - make that 228!

Taking Care of Business

Before we go, Jamie wanted to include a picture of Sylvia in one of her favorite positions. While you may think this isn't comfortable, it sure seems to be fine for Sylvia.

Cocoon

So you may have noticed, Sylvia looks a lot like her Daddy... In noticing not only the looks, but the characteristics of Sylvia, there seems to be a little bit of Mommy in her as well:

Sylvia's Traits

From Daddy:
Beer Belly
"Explosive" Digestive system
Good Looks
Intelligence

From Mommy:
Her Hair
Long Fingers
Freckles
Ability to change moods instantaneously
Spelling skills
Her 'Charm'

Hope you all enjoyed Sylvia's one month birthday as much as we did. I am sure we will post again on her two month birthday, if not sooner?

Almost One Month Old

Once again sorry for the delay in posting, but things are, as you know, busy. Actually, things are fine, but for some reason, I would rather sit in a chair and hold my dear daughter instead of type a blog post. Jamie really needs to learn to do this! (Jamie is already complaining... she "claims" she has plenty to do during the day)

Last week Wednesday, Jamie's work friends; Angel, Laura, and Sara, stopped by around lunch time for a visit. Jamie took some pictures but unfortunately, someone was messing with the camera settings and all of them turned out quite poor (sorry guys). It was good to see everyone again and catch up on things.

Grandma and Grandpa B came down on Thursday night for dinner and to visit with Jamie. Oh, I mean hold Sylvia! It was good to see the family and have some good socializing. "Missy, Missy, are you outside? I can hear you!" yells the little neighbor boy aka Missy's boyfriend. That was some funny stuff... Also that night, my sister Liz gave Sylvia a very fitting nickname... "Crazy Pants" aka "Loco Pantalones". And not to forget, a special thanks to Mom for the yummy desserts!

It was a crazy Friday night... we watched the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic games. Jamie did a little shopping in there as well, but we don't need to talk about that.

Saturday was spent doing 'chores' and 'running errands'. That's pretty much a normal weekend day. That night was capped off with a dinner at Scott and Liz's place. Since they are moving across the darn Cities, we need to get in as many BBQ's while they are still close. Jamie did drink almost a full beer! It was her first one in about 10 months and in her words was 'delicious'!

Jamie did harvest one bean from the garden on Saturday. Wow... our life is so exciting. Editor's note - Jamie wanted me to include this tidbit (including picture) so you all know we do have a life outside of Sylvia - just not too much of one!

Mr Bean Mr Dill

Finally, Sunday was our first family trip out to the cabin. It was too short, but a good first attempt at some relaxing time. Great-Grandpa Gil aka "The G Man" was introduced to Sylvia for the first time. He sure did seem happy to hold his second great grandchild.

"The G Man" and Sylvia

While the gals were sitting around gabbing, I thought I needed to live up to me new nickname - Hard Workin' Man - and do a little movin'. I am sure many of you have seen pictures of Redneck Moving Services, but if not, I have included a reference photo. Following is my best shot at it!

The Original Redneck Movers

Redneck In Training

And while on the topic of Rednecks, I had to include these lovely photos:

Man I love the Internet!

Breaking News...

The stump fell off!

Yukky... or not so much. On Sunday (Age: 22 days), Sylvia lost the remaining piece of Jamie that was attached to her. It truly is amazing that she was feed and grew through that cord for over nine months, and now, three weeks after being outside of Jamie's belly, the left over dried up chunk of umbilical cord is now sitting on a burp rag. We are not really sure what to do with it. Some people have commented on putting it in a scrap book or even feeding it to the dog! YUK... I am thinking it is something that will end up in the garbage (or Kong!) at some point, we just are not at that stage of letting go yet.

Yesterday, another exciting development in Sylvia's life. Her first tears! While I was holding her last night, so was getting frustrated in my lack of milk production, and had to let me know about it. She screamed, wiggled, and then cried... real tears! It was quite cool. After a quick snack, she helped Daddy finish up some of the final touches on the bathroom remodel. She is a big fan on the cordless screwdriver.

Hard Workin' Baby

Finally, one last note on Lucy. She has been pretty good dealing with all of the changes around the house, like Mom and Dad still up at 11:30 every night, walks with a stroller, and of course, the smells of poopy diapers, but after looking at her face yesterday, Jamie and I are convinced that she has turned to drugs and liquor, since no one loves her anymore...

Strung Out Pug

That's about it for now. Jamie will have to take her shot at blogging to talk about her first real trip out of the house with Sylvia. Baby class at United Hospital! She wasn't really by her self, but Auntie Missy was a great 'partner'.

Also sending out a big Thank You to Jamie's Fairy Godmother. You know why!

Daddy's Home!

So Daddy just got home for Oklahoma and as I mentioned earlier, that place is like Hell. This week I can tell you it sure was hot as hell! Today when I left OKC it was 104F.
In addition, it seems that Northwest is trying to save some money because the air conditioning wasn't working while we were sitting on the tarmac. Holy crap was that hot! (and sweaty & stinky...) That being said, I looked anorexic compared to the 450 pound mammoth of a man sitting across the isle from me. I could see the pain in his eyes the entire two hours home. Poor fella...

While I was gone, I missed out on one of Sylvia's firsts... Her first zit!
Things could be worse, like the day before the Prom or something, but I am sure she will get over it. She did however venture out of the house for a trip to the Mall of America on Thursday night. She had to cover up the zit to make sure no boys saw it! From what Jamie tells me, she only got a couple phone numbers. Needless to say, those phone numbers met the working end of the paper shredder the minute I walked in the door. Eighteen more years before this one is talking to boys!

More later... Good Night!