Hidden Ability

For those who don't know, Leslie hates to color. Anytime I get the crayons out, she spends the entire time sorting them and dumping them from one container to the other. We can always tell which paper is her's at school or Sunday School because the only mark on it is where her teacher wrote her name. The only way I can get her to color is to threaten putting them up. And even then, she doesn't actually try to go in different directions... or even look at the paper most times. Hates, hates, hates to color.

However, she might be hiding some natural ability yet. I guess I just haven't inspired her in the right way because she found a pencil this last weekend and made beautiful pictures on several walls and tiles around the house. Drawing not only her regular lines but big circles too! I made her help me clean it up (which I think she thought was kind of fun) and she definitely knows it was naughty and will get a spanking if she does it again. But, part of me can't help but rejoice in the small glimmer of hope that I might have a coloring buddy after all. I wish the pictures turned out better because this was by far her best art work to date. Hopefully, I can get some recreations in the near future... only on paper this time.

Funny baby

We were getting ready to go out yesterday and Barry picked up Leslie's shoes and said "I've got san-dles!" Leslie ran up to him, climbed in his lap, and with the exact same tone and inflection said "I've got fe-et!"

She always finds the funniest ways to make us laugh:)

Sleepy games

Here's some cute pictures I took last night while I was playing on the computer and Barry and Leslie watched and waited...

Here's Leslie lounging on the bed with her daddy...



Here she is playing the "Night-Night Wake-up!" game and having Daddy "pat her bottom."

This was a very popular game around our house until I picked her up after school one day and the teacher told me Leslie got in trouble at nap time for pouncing on all the kids and yelling "Wake-up! Wake-up!" We've had to introduce some more constructive games into her playtime that won't get her sent to time-out:)

And when all else fails, she pats her own bottom to help her go to sleep:)

The kid loves to sleep! Wonder who she got that from?

Big girl bed

At almost 2 1/2yrs old, we finally took the side off of Leslie's crib yesterday. It has a front rail piece we added on to keep her from rolling out, and I left the bumper pads up for now since she likes to snuggle up against them. It's been a surprisingly easy transition. I've had zero trouble with her getting up. She slept in this morning, but I am a little anxious on how things are going to play out when decides to wake up at 7:15am and I can't leave her in her bed to play until what I consider a more appropriate time:) She's such a big girl...


Now if only I can get her out of diapers!

U. Mass Game

We made it back to Lubbock this weekend to watch Tech "shellac" the University of Massachusetts. Leslie LOVES LOVES LOVES football games. Every morning she wakes up saying, "I go football game!" Finally, on Saturday her request was answered... Barry went to dress her and from the other room I hear, "I love my jersey. I love my Tech jersey. I love my big Tech jersey! I go see Uncle Willy! I do Jasmine and Dora puzzles at football game!" She doesn't like watching the actual game, but everything else is just like a big old party for her. She eats cookies and reads books and does puzzles all afternoon. I guess I'd like traveling alot too if everywhere I went people smiled at me and told me how adorable I was:)

Between football games and our regular 2 hour wait times at the pediatrician, we thought we would invest in this "kid tough" DVD player for her. It definitely served its purpose getting us through the final quarter...

I strongly recommend one for anyone who has a sickly child and uses Dr Nabulsi:)

Funny moments

I wish I could have a video camera going all the time to catch Leslie's funny little moments. Here's a couple of last week's best...

Mom's been really sick with migraines this last week, so I ended up making Will's birthday cake. Leslie came in the kitchen as I was taking out the beaters and getting ready to pour the mix into the pan. She looked at what was going on and said very matter-of-factly, almost confrontationaly, "That's my chocolate. I eat that." I told her it was for Uncle Willy, and she kept repeating herself, "That's my chocolate. I eat that" like I just wasn't understanding what she was saying. I ended up letting her lick the spatula and that was enough chocolate to meet her demands. Funny baby.

I always read books with Leslie before bed. It seems to become exponentially harder every night as my belly grows, and Leslie loses lap room. I was trying to readjust tonight and get us comfortable for her last book, and she got all antsy and didn't like that I was trying to move her. So she moved back to her usual spot on my lap and started telling me to open my legs. I thought she didn't like that I had them crossed opposite as usual, so I switched them and tried to start reading. But she kept saying , "No- open" so I just uncrossed my legs entirely and once again tried to start our final book. But that was not what she wanted... So, she said, "No mommy. Abre! Abre!" ("open" in Spanish) I opened my legs and let her sit on the little bit of chair between them, and she was happy. I guess at least she's learning something for Dora:)

Football season opener

We finally made it to a Tech football game this last Saturday. It was a night game, but we woke up early and left so we could get some shopping done in Lubbock and have Will's birthday lunch.

Leslie (who is usually not a get up and go morning person) was all smiles all morning. She loves wearing her "big t-shirt" #5 Crabtree (Tech's amazing reciever) jersey, and she loves having her hair up in little Princess Leia type pig tails. Here's a picture of her before we left that morning...

She was amazingly good for the game. Like a typical girl, she thought the actual football portion of the game rather boring, but she loved watching all the pregame show.

Here she is wearing her Crab hat (for #5 Crabtree.) She makes crab hands, too, but i couldn't ever catch a picture.

After the game, we went back to the bus and had a snack and changed into PJ's before hitting the road. She took a picture with Uncle Willy since it was his birthday.

Sick Baby

Leslie woke up from her nap Saturday with a temp of 101.7. She was very sad all evening and none of the medicines I gave her helped bring it down. It was a long, sad evening of movies and Dora for the Brauchi's...

She woke up Sunday without a fever acting fine. However, she still wasn't eating well and was just in a horrible mood by dinner every night, so I finally gave in and took her to the doctor yesterday. Left ear infection.

The doctor chuckled when he saw us walk in and said, "I guess winter came early this year." Leslie is notoriously and constantly sick every winter. We were hoping this one would be better...

19 weeks

I like to think I usually look bigger, but here's the picture anyways...

I'm ready to be out of that "is she pregnant or just fat stage." It will come much too quickly I'm sure. Until then, I try to wear tighter shirts when I go out so people can hopefully tell the difference:)

Friday night fun

Last Friday we filled up the pool and all played outside after dinner. Leslie loves pretending to be Superman on her swings...





About the only thing she loves more than swimming is putting everything she can lift in her pool...

I didn't make her wear a swim diaper since we were just in the backyard. Here's the money shot that resulted...

One of her favortie activities in the backyard is getting Daddy to pull her and Bella around the yard. Penny always bolts, but Belle just loves some attention.

Just for Grammy

I know how Grammy loves sleeping baby pictures, so here is one from when I had to wake her up last week... rear straight in the air.

So we're having a....

We had our Fetal Echo Cardiogram (fancy ultrasound) last Thursday to get a better look at the baby, specifically the heart. Everything looked really good as far they could tell at this gestation. The nurse had to incline the table back to try and convince the baby to move. As I have suspected for the last several weeks, the baby is curled up in a ball laying on the bottom of my uterus, using the "placenta as a pillow." She laughed alot and said that was very weird and even showed me the vast amount of room the baby has to move into should it ever decide to expand its horizons a little. Don't ask me why my belly/uterus is expanding if the baby isn't using it. I always thought the expansion was caused by the internal pressure of a growing fetus, but evidently there are other factors. I broke out a pair of maternity pants that sit really low below my belly to try and put the squeeze on the little one and convince it to move up a little. I'll let you know how it turns out...

So, we will go back to this special doctor October 16th when a Pediatric Cardiologist from Dallas Children's Hospital comes down and let him look at everything again and make sure we have a perfectly healthy little baby. The baby was measuring right- to the exact day. We got alot of funny pictures of big feet and long fingers, but here is the only one anyone really cares about...


"Two lines and no dangly parts"

It's not as definitive to me as Leslie's sono was because we got a between the legs shot with her, and this baby has only offered through the legs shots, but the nurse and doctor were both pretty convinced. We'll have plenty of other chances to check again for those holding out for a boy.

Barry and I, however, are super happy to be having another little princess running around. After four brothers, I've had my fill of tee-ball games and Ninja Turtles. I'm excited to get a few dance recitals and Disney Princesses into the mix. And Barry would be happy with either, but I've always said it takes a special type of man to be a good girl's daddy and he is the best I've seen. He even said maybe this time around he'll learn how to to do hair:) yeah- right!

It's funny how your thoughts and attitude change once you find out the gender of your child. It goes from being this... thing, that I really don't feel any personal connection with, and then in an instant, it transforms into being my daughter. I love her already. It went from being this crazy, boisterous little boy practicing to be a punter with my insides- into a sweet, precious, fragile baby girl just having some trouble perfecting her twirls.

Leslie has mentioned several times this weekend that she needs a little sister to play with her. We were talking about what all she would do with the baby like give her a bottle and teach her how to do puzzles and Leslie mentioned change diapers. (I've been telling Leslie she needs to learn to use the potty because the baby will be in diapers and she needs to show her how to be a big girl, etc...) So, Leslie said she would help change diapers and I asked her if she would "change the tee-tee ones?" and Leslie said "Yes." Then I asked if she was going the "change the poopy ones too?" and she hesitated a moment and got a funny smile on her face then said "No, Mommy change poopies." Funny Leslie.

I love being pregnant. I love being a mom. And I am excited to meet this little one and give Leslie the playmate she feels she so desperately needs.

Night Time Routine

Take bath (drinking bath water is a constant battle)


Take medicine...

Brush tangles out...

Brush teeth...

Hospital visit

I had to go to the ER Monday night for what turned out to be kidney stones. After three hours, they gave me some pain pills and sent me home. However, since they can't give you the good pills while you're pregnant, my pain got so bad that i was back in the ER a few hours later to be admitted and given IV pain meds. The rest of the day was a blur because all the meds they gave me knocked me out, but when I woke up that evening, all was better. It's amazing how you go from a "10- the worst pain imaginable" to a "1- pretty good" in a matter of a couple hours. I came home Tuesday morning, and hopefully, I don't have to deal with that ever again, or at least not while I'm pregnant! Thanks to all the family who helped us out. Especially Uncle Ben who gave up his entire holiday to stay with Leslie!

Grammy and Binx visit

Playing catch with Binx...


Wrestling with Binx...

She did this Little Mermaid puzzle ALL WEEKEND...

Grammy insisted they do a victory lap around the house after each completion...

Duck Pond

We have had an exciting weekend around the Brauchi household. Grammy and Binx came in from Houston to visit us (well, Leslie) this weekend. We got up and went to the duck pond Saturday morning, and the ducks were actually hungry for once!


They were really friendly and would eat right out of your hand... however, Leslie was not excited at them pecking her fingers...

Here is a picture of the baby ducks. Leslie's favorite thing was watching them get a piece a bread. She'd throw her hands up and yell, "Yay Babies!"

After the ducks stopped being quite so eager to eat, Leslie got back down and was able to enjoy just looking at them (from a safe distance of course)