I'm a Cousin???

Today Morgan became a cousin!

Congratulations Hillary and Owen!

At 5:55 am this morning Sophia Lane was welcomed into the world as the newest addition to our family. We are all so excited! She weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. and was 20 inches long. Hillary and Sophia are both doing wonderful. We are anxiously awaiting pictures, so stay tuned.

Post-Publish Note (5/30/2008): We have pictures! These are a few of our favorites, but go to Sophia's blog to see more and a couple adorable video clips. She is soooo cute! We can't wait to meet her.
http://owenandhillary.blogspot.com/

4 Months Old

I am 4-Months old today! Yeah!

Milestones this Month

After finding her hands at 3 months, Morgan has been busy learning how to use them. She can now hold things and loves when she makes noise with her toys. And anything in her hands is soon in her mouth. Morgan's exploration with her mouth has definitely started and we think her favorite toy sometimes is her tongue. Talk about convenient!

Morgan is all shrieks and giggles. She will smile at strangers and smile/laugh at us (except when Mommy is trying to take a picture of course). And sometimes she will giggle spontaneously. It is an interesting game to try and guess what Morgan happened to think was funny. As promised, 3 months so far seems to have been the crying peak. Making this a huge month for Mommy and Daddy. (Mommy is still waiting for Morgan to sleep through the night though.) Today was like magic; a night and day difference compared to even yesterday. We still get complaining from the "peanut gallery" and the occasional naptime meltdown, but definitely an improvement.

Every month Morgan is getting more interactive with the world around her. It is really fascinating. One of her new things this month is recognizing herself in the mirror...which always leads to a smile on Morgan ... and of course on Mommy and Daddy too. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a really nice, relaxing, three-day weekend at the Brown household. It was gorgeous weather that we enjoyed to the fullest by being outside as much as possible. We went to Marsh Creek State Park and Peace Valley Park to check out some potential sailing locations. (In case you haven't heard yet, Daddy recently became the ecstatic proud owner of a Vanguard 15 day-sailer. We are going to pick it up on vacation in June so stay tuned for more pictures.)

Morgan is still a bit unsure of the big outdoors...but I suppose who could blame her...grass is scary when you are used to soft cozy blankets and what must an infant think about wind.

We also had a great time visiting with some friends at a Memorial Day BBQ.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday! Yeah!

My friend Courtney and Morgan's buddy Kaya took us to the Philadelphia zoo; as you can see Crazy-Colored Monkey had to come along too. We had a great time walking around, enjoying the perfect weather and finding/looking at the animals. (Can you find the tiger?)

It was apparently Field Trip day for schools so the zoo was super crowded and juggling the schedule of two infants in combination with Schuylkill traffic proved to be a little challenging. However, we still had a ton of fun during our short visit and look forward to the girls being old enough to enjoy the animals at the zoo, not just the ones they brought with (Jacques the Peacock and of course Crazy-Colored Monkey). :)

I'm a Model, You Know What I Mean

Mommy picked up the pictures from JCPenney's and I suppose she wasn't too excited about them because she decided to try her hand at recreating a few "3 month pictures" herself this weekend. Of course, I think I look cute in any picture so I didn't understand what the big deal was. ;)

The family portrait Mommy took (using her new camera remote!)...

Granted Mommy's models didn't make it easy on her, but the pictures still turned out pretty good. Check out the faces when she said, "Just one more shot!" She had to keep reminding us that these are memories we will cherish forever. Despite all our complaining of having to go through this modeling ordeal yet again, every now and then you just have to humor the one who feeds you.


And some of just me! Giving smiles, finding my hands, and controlling my head... all my proud accomplishments for this month.





If you want to see some excellent pictures of me...check out Mommy's friend's blog. Danielle came over last week for a photo shoot and just posted her favorites.
http://blog.dmphotos.net/2008/05/milestones-at-three-months.html

Aren't I just too cute???

New Remote

One of Mommy's Mother's Day gifts was a remote control for her camera. I told Daddy that she didn't need any encouragement to take even more pictures, but apparently he didn't listen. Oh well. Have to admit, Mommy and I did have a ton of fun playing around with it (or perhaps it was just us being slap-happy by the time Friday afternoon finally came around during a rainy week). Here is one of our favorites... :)

Nudey Butt

I posted one of these poses yesterday, but she was just too cute to resist posting a few more. (Realize where there are 4 shown there were probably 40 taken; it was hard enough narrowing it down to these!) So please just indulge a proud new mom (& amateur photographer) and enjoy a few more nudey butt pictures of Morgan...or should we say blackmail in 18 years. ;)

Mother's Day

Yesterday I celebrated my first Mother's Day.
What an amazing feeling; I now know what it feels like to be a mom and am starting to truly appreciate the mothers and grandmothers in my life. Too often in the past 3 months I have focused on the changes in my life being things like sleepless nights, disturbed dinners, and missed Happy Hours. I started thinking yesterday what it really means to be a mother and was reminded of a poem that a dear friend sent to me about a year ago (just click on the picture to read). We laughed later that neither of us knew I was actually pregnant at the time.

I also took some moments to marvel in the miracle of life that is embodied by Morgan and to appreciate the joy she brings us. As well as imagine the joy my own parents got from me.

So what do you think…two peas in a pod?

Mommy & Morgan

To all the mothers reading this blog, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! I hope you were able to enjoy the day…you definitely deserve it.

B-Day Party for Kai

Yesterday Morgan went to her first birthday party for her friend Kai who turned 1-year old. Happy Birthday Kai! He was so cute! And such a calm birthday cake eater; we hope Morgan will be that civilized in 9 months.


Kai's parents just finished creating an amazing toy room. Everyone really enjoyed chilling in the kid-friendly zone.


Morgan's buddy Kaya was there too. We had a great time...well aside from the moments of crying/screaming. There was just too much going on for a poor girl to have any chance at a nap.

Penney's Photo Shoot

This was a busy weekend. On Saturday we went to JC Penney's Portrait Studio for a "quick" photo shoot that ended up taking just about all day. I know I know...everyone has asked "why did we bother?" Especially with some of our friends' mad camera skills and our own amateur photography hobby. Mommy just wanted to make sure she didn't miss the experience. :) It wasn't too bad but we definitely learned some lessons...decrease the expectations and increase the common sense (Sat. at 11:30 is not the time to go w/ a 3 month old! No matter how well it fits into her nap schedule. Besides you won't be seen until 1:00 anyway.) Probably the best lesson was that we learned to appreciate our own photography a little bit more.



I think we got a couple good shots...stay tuned.