Peace Out!

We leave today for what is becoming our annual spring break trip to Florida. Can you tell Brooke's excited? We're really lucky and thankful that Matt's parents are so generous to let us use their place for a little getaway. I hope to report back with a tan, lots of cute pictures (especially from Uncle B and Uncle Jeff's "legit" cameras), and stories of uneventful plane rides.

Happy Birthday!

March and April are big birthday months in the Timmerman and Alley families. Grammie Alley's birthday is today, March 21. Uncle Joel's is tomorrow and Aunt Jamie's is April 12. We won't get to see Joel or Jamie for their birthdays, but we were able to celebrate Grammie's birthday with her tonight. Happy birthday to all of you. We love you!

Whatever it Takes

Brooke has been giggling for a couple of weeks now, and right now nothing really compares to the pleasure we take in hearing her do it. However, she's still kind of selective with it and it's taken us awhile to figure out exactly what gets her going best. We've deducted that she responds most enthusiastically when it's close to crash time (i.e. right before a nap or bedtime, but before she's really angry). My dad also discovered last weekend that she's not as big a fan of the baby voice as she is more of a deep baritone. Future suitors take note - high pitched voices need not apply. This is also why I sound extra stupid saying, "Peek-a-boo."

Visitors!

We were busy with visitors this past weekend. First Aunt Jamie came home from IU for the first time since Christmas. It was a quick visit because she was off to Australia for the rest of the semester on Saturday. We'll miss you, Jamie!


On Saturday, Papa and Grandma T (none of Brooke's grandparents really know what they want to be called yet, hence the changing names for them), came up for a visit. We can't wait to see them again after Spring Break!


Brooke was on her best behavior for all of them and even seemed to handle the time change fairly well. She's excited to fill out her brackets for the NCAA tourney tomorrow. She's got big shoes to fill since her mom has won the Alley family pool twice. Yep, I just tooted my own horn - so much for learning a lesson about bragging on the blog.

Four Month Stats

*Disclaimer: If you're looking for an especially entertaining (or even interesting) post, this isn't it.

On Friday, we took Brooke to the doctor for her four month check up. (Before having a baby, I always thought the percentiles and stats were kind of ridiculous, but now I find them interesting, so I'll share hers). She weighed 13 lb, 9 oz, and was 24 1/4 in long. Both are in the 42nd percentile, so she's right around average. Not bad considering that she was born in the 6th percentile (6 lb, 4 oz)! The kicker is that her head circumference is in the 72nd percentile. The kid really doesn't stand a chance since we both have abnormally large heads. "She needs somewhere to put all those brains!" our doctor says (You'd have to see her doctor to fully appreciate the dorkiness of that statement. I actually think he and I could go head-to-head with cheesy sayings). This picture is from when Brooke still had RSV, hence the red nose. Also, despite my best efforts, she's always rocking old man pants and/or losing a sock, so I kind of like that we have a picture of her doing both.



Brooke handled her shots like a pro, looked healthy and we got the all clear for some pool time when we go to Florida in a couple of weeks. At this appointment we shared how erratic her sleeping's been lately and were assured that Brooke does NOT need a middle of the night feeding anymore, so it was time to "Close up the restaurant" (again, really wish I had a pic of our doctor). I also decided (after getting into trouble with my OT friends) that we may as well stop swaddling her arms while we're at it.

I won't bore with details, but suffice it to say that after a rough couple of nights, she's back to sleeping much better (at night). My next challenge is to get her to nap well enough during the day so she's not melting down at 6:30. Good luck, right?



We have an exciting weekend ahead. We're looking forward to visits from Aunt Jamie, then G-Diddy and Grandma T. I think we may also try rice cereal for the first time. Hopefully we'll have lots of fun pictures to share!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Not unlike most babies, Brooke really enjoys bath time. I thought I'd share a few pictures of her during and after.


Her hair is extra curly when it's wet. We comb it straight because much like mine, it does NOT look that cute once it dries.

Lesson Learned

In my last post, I mentioned that Brooke was a "GREAT sleeper." Literally the day that I typed that, her sleeping habits went all out of whack. She's been waking up about a half hour earlier every morning (and by that, I mean, 5:30, then 5, then 4:30). We're going without the SwaddleMe tonight, so we'll see if that changes things. At any rate, I have no intentions of making sweeping bragging statements on my blog in the future. The picture at the top is of Brooke when she was about 3 weeks old (courtesy of Grammie Alley). Here's Brooke a couple of weeks ago. Note the right-forearm-sucking action: