"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Since the week I found out that I was pregnant I have written letters to Brantley as a way to journal about my experience being pregnant, preparing for her arrival, and now being a mommy. I write to her a couple of times a month and keep them in a notebook. I plan on reading them to her and letting her read them once she is able to read. I will continue to write to her as long as she is under my roof. I plan to do this for all of my children.
I thought I would share with you what I wrote to her today. :)
                                    September 29, 2009

Hey Sweet girl!
    Today I have one of the songs from one of my favorite movies stuck in my head, “My favorite things”. I thought I would write to you today about some of my favorite things.

•    Brantley Noises- Recently you have started making noises as you respond to Daddy and I, when you lay down to take a nap, and when you are just being silly. It is the sweetest thing I have ever heard. Sometimes I find myself just sitting next to your crib and soaking it all up.
•    Brantley Cheeks- I love your sweet cheeks. I wonder sometimes if you are storing food in them like a squirrel. I kiss on them all day long.
•    Brantley smiles- Your smiles have got to be the best energy booster anyone could ever take! You are simply precious when you smile. Though you smile throughout the day, I catch you smiling the most when I go to get you up in the morning. When I stopped teaching I feared that I would go through the day sometimes feeling as though I wasn’t doing a good job. There wasn’t going to be a little person telling me that I was the best teacher or that I was his or her favorite teacher. I wasn’t going to have a child drawing or coloring me pictures telling me they loved me. There wasn’t going to be that co-worker to tell me during the day that I was doing a good job. Though I knew all of that would come in due time as you got older, I still worried. Well, I truly believe that through your precious smiles the Lord fulfills all of that in my life. Your smiles truly are my words of affirmation!
•    Being a wife and mommy- I love taking care of you and your Daddy. I love being able to make sure that you both have a clean home, clean clothes, food to eat, and all those other things that come with being a wife and mommy. Your Daddy is my best friend and I love him more than you will ever know. As I am sure you have already found out, He is LOTS of fun to have around! I am so glad that your Daddy and I have been blessed to be your parents!
•    Shopping- This weekend will be your first “girls getaway”. We are going to Charlotte with Sassy to drop off your Daddy and Grandpa so that they can travel to New York for the weekend to pick up our new car. Your Sassy and I thought we would make a weekend out of it and do some early Christmas shopping. This will be your first night away from home! I sure do hope it goes well. We will see just how flexible you really are☺
•    Praying for you- I get great joy each day as I pray for you. I pray that you come to know the Lord as your Savior at an early age. I pray that you fall deeply in love with his Word and that you speak boldly the Truth to all of those he brings along your path. I pray that as you discover your gifts and talents that you will use them to further His kingdom.
•    Exercising- As I try to get these last few pounds off from pregnancy and I get used to my new body shape (thanks to pregnancy), I have enjoyed getting back into exercising on a regular basis. Sometimes it includes you as we go on long walks together. You usually spend the first couple of minutes looking around and enjoying the fresh air. The remainder of the time you spend sleeping as I push you up and down hills!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about some of my favorite things. I love you dearly my sweet one!
                                Love,
                                    Mommy

Brantley Noises

Well as you may have noticed we are a little obsessed with our child! You find yourself doing things, speaking certain ways and videoing certain things you never thought you would. Like for instance we find it absolutely hilarious the way our child poops. Her face gets all red and she grunts like a little man. Absolutely adorable to us. Never thought I would video anyone pooping nor write about anybody's poop. So Brantley has started to talk to herself a lot more now. Of course this is the most awesome thing ever to me and Megan! So I caught it on tape this weekend. Anyway, all this to say here is a cute video of our child talking to herself. You know just noises but the most beautiful noises in the world! I hope you enjoy! She starts making noises around 50 seconds into it.

Movin' on up!

Well my friends, we have made the move! Brantley spent the first night in her own room. She has taken plenty of naps in her crib from the day we brought her home, but at night she was right beside our bed in her bassinet. It was so comforting and reassuring to have her right next to us because we could hear her cough, move, sneeze, breath, etc. I loved being able to peek in at her anytime during the night to look at her, but as you can see by the pictures, our child is quickly growing and it was time for her to move into the crib. So, last night we got her all ready for bed, turned on the monitor (volume all the way up), turned out the lights, and allowed her to spend the first night in her room. After 30 minutes we went in to check on her and noticed that she was still staring at her monkey mobile so we decided to take that down. Shortly after taking down the monkeys, she was fast asleep. I wanted to take the monitor and place it right next to my ear and attach it with a stretchy headband so I could hear her every move during the night, but Eric talked me out of it. I only got up two times to check on her during the night and I didn't really fall into a deep sleep just because of fear of not hearing her if something was wrong, but I know that each night will get better. She did great and I am so thankful that it was an easy transition for her.
Our new obsessions with her are watching her smile and listening to her talk to herself when she lays down to take a nap. Her smiles are the best and my favorite time to watch her smile is in the morning when I go to get her up. She is just all smiles! I am sure it is because she knows that she is getting ready to get something to eat:) Within the last week she has started talking to herself so much. Especially when we lay her down to take a nap. She has a conversation with someone in her imagination for about 5 minutes and then she is off to sleep. It is the sweetest thing we have ever heard! Of course I prefer to hear her talking to herself before she takes a nap rather than her crying:)
Here is our sweet little girl at 8 weeks old!

A visit from the Fields

Our friends Randy, Leah, and their new addition, Randall, came for a visit this weekend. Eric and I have been friends with Leah for quite some time and we were also able to share in the excitement of her and Randy getting married. We were thrilled to find out that we were pregnant at the same time and now our little ones are only 2 months apart. Their family will be returning to Central Asia in January to serve as missionaries. We are sad to see them go, but thrilled about what the Lord has in store for their family. We are so glad that we got to spend some time with them this weekend.

Brantley Week by Week #7

Well we are at week 7 and she is growing so much. Here is the picture from last week to this week! She is getting longer!! We cannot believe it has been 7 weeks already. Time is really flying by!

6 weeks old!

7 weeks old!

"Playdate" with Grantham

Brantley's buddy, Grantham, came over today for a "playdate". Now keep in mind that playdates with these two consist of looking at each other for about 10 minutes, taking naps, getting up to feed and then repeating that again, but it sure is a lot of fun for me and Grantham's mommy, Andrea, who get to catch up. Andrea has been a great friend of mine since we were in college and we were so excited that we found out we were pregnant at the same time and our children were due only one week apart. Brantley was born on July 31st and Grantham was born exactly a week later!
Though they don't do anything with each other now, Andrea and I are looking forward to real playdates in the future! I am so thankful to have such a great friend going through the exact same things I am as a mommy. It is great to be able to pick up the phone and bounce questions and concerns off of one another. Below is a picture of Grantham and Brantley! I am sure there will be many more to come in the future:)

Yippee! We did it!

Brantley and I survived our first trip together to Charleston. Some of you more experienced moms are going to think that I am crazy after you read this, but remember that I am new at this. I know my OCD and flexibility will get better.
Thursday night I got everything ready for our adventure. I layed out clothes for Brantley and I, packed the diaper bag, made bottles, gathered a few other things and lined it all up. My goal was to feed Brantley at 6 am and put her back down to sleep, get myself ready, and be pulling out of the driveway by 7am. I had to make it to Charleston by 9am for the next feeding. Well, I did it! We pulled into my mom's house at 8:58am. My mom was so excited to see us and we were thrilled to see her. Brantley does so well in the car. For the first little bit she just looked around and then once we got on the interstate she slept the whole way. I am thinking that I need to take down the mirrors that we have up so that we can see her. I love looking at her precious face and I know that it isn't safe while I am driving. I just can't help myself!
My mom and I spent the day just talking, admiring Brantley, feeding Brantley, changing Brantley, and getting Brantley to take a nap. Later in the afternoon we went to visit my grandparents. Brantley and my Grandpa share birthdays so he was extra excited to see her. My grandma had 7 children and I admire her more now then ever after having one of my own. (Epidurals were not around when she was having children, obviously. One of my uncles was 12lbs and can you believe that she had another baby after that? She's a trooper!)
Remember when you were little and your parents always told you to try and go to the bathroom before you get on the road to travel because they were not going to be making any stops? Well, I guess my child already understands that because as we were packing up everything to leave and head back to Columbia, Brantley decided to take care of some business. I was so proud of her and so excited that my mom was able to partake in that fun event. I even so freely gave my mom the opportunity to clean her up:)
We left to come back to Columbia after visiting with my grandparents and it was another great ride back. She fussed a little once we got back into Columbia due to being hungry and I am sure exhausted from the fun day. I am so glad that we were able to visit family and so glad that it went well. We are already excited about our next adventure. Below are a couple of pictures from our day in Charleston with family.

 

Brantley taking a nap on Sassy's big bed.

Brantley meeting her Great Grandpa.

Brantley enjoying some meal time with her Great Grandma.

Brantley and her Sassy:) 

  

Four Generations

Brantley Week by Week

So a co-worker of mine did this with her little ones back in the day of Polaroids. She took a picture each week of the first year of her children's lives. I thought that was a really cool idea and so did Megan. It really has been neat to see how she has changed even in the first 6 weeks! So hopefully we will keep this up. Our little girl is now six weeks and check out how she has changed from her first week:

We can't wait to see how she changes all year long!

I wish time would slow down!

Okay, before I get started on what is really on my heart I want to say that I am very excited about starting back up on blogging, but after looking at so many other cute blogs of friends, family, and people that I don't even know, I see that I have a lot of work to do. I am looking forward to adding to our blog and making it more interesting, but it is going to take a little bit of time as I figure it all out. I hope that it soon will be a blog that you enjoy visiting often.


Now on to more important things......our sweet little girl. I can not believe that she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow. It really does seem like yesterday that I was laying in the hospital bed waiting for her arrival. She truly has captured mine and Eric's heart and we sometimes wonder if it is a sin to love our child as much as we do. It is neat to look back at pictures and see how much she as already grown in 6 weeks. I am so thankful that I am able to stay at home with her. We have so much fun during the day reading books, swinging in the swing, playing on a play mat, laying on our tummies, going for walks, eating, sleeping, and just talking with one another ( I do most of the talking right now and she just stares at me. I always wonder what she is thinking.). I often find myself getting teary eyed during the  day as I look at her and ask for her not to grow up too fast. I want to suck up every minute I can with her and not miss anything she does or any opportunity that she is awake to sit and play with her.

I love when Eric comes home because he totally melts over her and starts talking in this incredible voice and language to her. I laugh and she often gives him a look that makes you think she is saying, "what in the world is he saying and why is he saying it like that?". He is such an incredible daddy. Eric truly does everything that I do as a mom except nurse her. I am sure that he would enjoy that too if he could. I have no doubt that Brantley Renee will be a Daddy's girl as she continues to grow up.

I am really looking forward to blogging about the Soong Family Adventures. Brantley and I are heading to Charleston tomorrow to visit with my mom (Brantley's Sassy). I hope to have some pictures and stories to share with you when we return.

Speaking of pictures....that is one of my favorite things to look at when I look at other people's blogs so I thought I would share a couple of my favorites with you of our family. Enjoy!

 

Yes, I kiss on those cheeks ALL day long:)
 

GO GAMECOCKS!

 

PRECIOUS!
 

We packed up Brantley and Sadie, collected our free Chick-fil-a sandwiches, and headed to the Riverwalk in Cayce for Labor Day. 
 

Eric and Sadie (our other child) waiting for the 1st USC game to start. 

So to those 5 people that read our old blog...

Well, to those few people that actually read our old blog an apology is in order. We may have been a little premature in our blogging excitement before. But things have changed only slightly. Ok, well pretty huge actually. We have a new addition to our family and she is an amazing blessing from God. Her name is Brantley Renee Soong and she was born July 31st, 2009 at 11:31pm at 8 pounds and 0.6 oz and 19 inches long.

So in my opinion we have a ton more to write about than before. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. So she has spurred us both on to keep people up to date on the family news and happenings. So here is our second attempt at blogging and I am sure it will be a much more successful one.