Summer Fun

We are already winding down our summer, and I haven't written about any of it, so I'm going to do that the nest few posts. We started this summer 2 weeks before Memorial Day by welcoming baby Berkley Kate on May 14. She weighed 7.11 and was 18.5 inches long. Braelyn used to tell everyone that I had a purple care bear in my tummy, so we joked that she would be disapointed when she saw it was actually a human baby. Well right after I delivered her, they put her in my arms, and I've been present at enough births to know she wasn't crying very loud. I was getting pretty nervous but the nurse didn't seem to get bothered until it was long enough that she started turning purple. She grabbed her and patted her pretty hard until she got ticked off enough that she really started wailing. The nurse just said she knew big sis wanted a purple care bear, and was doing her best to be that!
Our little Berkster has been such a joy. She is so bubbly and laughs and smiles a lot. She doesn't like to be put down, but is content to just look around when you are holding her. It wasn't too hard transitioning to two, but it was very hard to go back to sleepless nights and lugging around all the stuff that comes with a baby. Braelyn is a great helper and loves to go get her binky for her. I found her leaving Berkley's room the other day, right after I had put her down for a nap. I asked her why she was in there and she replied, "Just had to talk to the Berkster." They really do get along well and I'm very grateful for that.
A little over a week after that my cousins had a joint farewell/homecoming so that is how we spent our Memorial Day, and it was fun to show the baby off. Braelyn loves to go to Grandma Roberts' house and jump on the trampoline and play with the older girl cousins. Later that week my Grandma Moon, Kelle and Kylie came out and we had dinner together to celebrate Grandma's birthday. Braelyn had just started getting interested in birthdays and talked incessantly that week and for days after about "Munga Moon's birthday." She also really loves Kellee and would follow her around all night if she could.
We decided to bless Berkley on Father's Day, when she was about four weeks old. It was a small group, but was a wonderful day. Some of my strongest memories of blessing birth girls is the hours I spend getting dinner ready while they have to just watch me from the bouncy seat. I really love getting them into their dresses. Berkley was adorable in her short white party dress. She is an adorable baby, and looked like a doll that day. The blessing was beautiful and she didn't make a peep during it.
We had a little scare right after Berkley was born when the pediatrician wasn't sure if her intestines and bowels were fully formed and connected. We worried she would have to have major surgery immediately. Gratefully we found out, they were connected, but the doctor still wanted us to see a specialist at Primary Children's. We saw that doctor when she was 5 days old, and he told us there were some problems with her sphincter and that we have to perform some painful treatments everyday at home. He also said he wanted to run some more tests in a few weeks. We left that visit worried about heart conditions, kidney problems, and nerve issues that could eventually cause her to not walk. I was so overwhelmed that my perfect baby might have to deal with some scarey things in the future, and I felt like it was my fault she had come to this world with possible problems. It's difficult to be a new mom and to not feel like your love and protection will just fix everything. It was a long six weeks, but after having more testing done, we got the wonderful news that Berkley was fine, and that there were no apparent major conditions right now. It was a test of faith, and we knew we could handle anything the Lord saw fit to give us, but we were so relieved that the testing looked good, and are very thankful to the wonderful doctors, and the fact that we had access to this care.
Towards the end of June, I was getting pretty stircrazy being stuck around the house, so I decided to take the girls out to the cabvin with my family. Kevin had a very intense school schedule so he wasn't able to go. I was nervous and completely overpacked so I could be ready for anything. The girls were wonderful on the car rides, and Braelyn had a great time being outside. There is a swing for her under the deck and she would swing forever and sing "A Whole New World" over and over. She loved to go on the fourwheeler and got up early to go with Papa and Tay to "take care" of the pot gut population one morning. When she got back she brimming over with excitement and kept telling me, "Tay shoot the guts!" Then my mom told her that when she got older she could shoot my BB gun. She turned to me and said, "Yeah, I shoot the baby guts!" I said, "No, not baby guts, bb gun." And she replied, "And the daddy guts, and mommy guts!" I was laughing to hard to worry about violence craving two year old girl.