Rachel Smiles

Brian Here.

Last weekend I actually had some time to take some more pictures of Rachel and I was able to get some pictures of her smiling! Well, I guess you all just want to see the pictures. Here is the smiling baby!

Rachel's Raspberries

Rachel's Raspberries, originally uploaded by Brian Bjork.

Rachel has mastered new trick. She can blow raspberries and it makes for a cute video. Note that I have also mastered this trick along with her and it has only taken me 27 years.

The Start of 2011

The busy holidays are over and we are settling into a new year. This year I have made my personal goals to read through the bible, do a devotion everyday, and work out at least 3 times a week on top of my once a week belly dance class. So far so good. I hate to call these goals resolutions because resolutions seem to rarely be kept for a whole year. I find that weekends are the hardest to work towards my goals because Brian is home and my daily routine changes. Rachel and I love having him home and all thoughts of devotions and the bible go out the window. I recognize this challenge and am taking steps to work through it.

In other news, Rachel is now 4 months. She got her shots earlier this week and had a great appointment up until the point where she was viciously stabbed in the thighs 5 times. The rest of her afternoon was ruined and she required extra mommy cuddles to cope. After recovering from her trauma she was back to her pleasant self and hard at work mastering her new skill of blowing raspberries.

Brian has also been hard at work around the house. We have or had a rat. I like to think it is a single rat who occasionally comes in at night when it is extremely cold or wet, sleeps, uses a single spot on the floor as a toilet, and leaves in the morning. He is not living in my garage, using everywhere as his own personal toilet, or trying to start a colony. Please do not ruin this fantasy for me with reality. Just in case what I choose to believe is wrong, Brian has been working to remove the most obvious access point. Last weekend he poured cement under the side door. The side door was hanging over dirt because for some reason the garage floor ended before the door and the foundation next to the door continued for several more inches. There is still a fairly large gap at the bottom of the door and a small gap at the top of the door because the door is hung crookedly in the frame, but that is a project for another weekend.

Things Rachel Likes

Brian Here!

I know you all missed me blogging in the last couple weeks. December has been a very busy month. Then this morning when I intended to blog I found out that a whole bunch of things in Lightroom (my picture program) were messed up. So after several hours of fighting with Lighroom and emerging victorious I can finally blog!


Now that Rachel is 3.5 months old she is is starting to form some opinions on things. So I thought I would share some of the things she likes.

First off, she enjoys here Jungle Gym. Rebekah puts it on the setting where Rachel has to hit the toys on it to make the music play for a little while. She has figured out that if she squirms hard enough that the music plays and she likes it.


Rachel also likes it when I hold her and bounce on the ball. I've spent many hours bouncing on the ball and holding her.


Just yesterday we decided to put Rachel in the stroller without the car seat. This allowed her to look around really well while we went on our walk. At first, she wasn't that happy about it but once we started walking she liked it a lot!


And last thing for this post is that Rachel likes to sit with me while I play Star Wars music. She's already a Star Wars fan!

Learning to say, "No"

DSC_8753.jpg, originally uploaded by Brian Bjork.

Its Christmas time. I wonderful time of the year, but also a time where emotions run high as do feelings of disappointment. While I love Christmas, in previous years I have tried to cram too much in trying to please everyone and do everything. The end result is usually tears on Christmas day because I am tired, stressed, and rushing around with not enough time to do what I want to do and what I feel like I have to do.

This year I have been attending Mom2Mom at church and one of the things that resonated with me was the idea of saying no. I made it my personal goal for the holiday season to only fit in what we really want to do and what we can realistically do. It is easier to say no this year because Rachel's well being is influenced by our level of activity as well as my stress level. I am also learning I am not responsible for other people's happiness. This is a hard lesson and I frequently shoulder the responsibility when others are unhappy.

A couple weeks ago Brian and I sat down and discussed what was important to us this holiday season and mapped out a plan. We have very similar desires and came to decisions very quickly. So far this year we are all relaxed and happy in the Bjork household other than Rachel who is in the middle of a growth spurt. :)

Bath Time!

Rachel looked so cute this morning after her shower that I couldn't resist taking her picture, and since it was such a cute picture I had to share it with all of you. As you can see on her face she loves bath and shower time.

Singing Baby

Rachel has started to sing with me. Super cute! It took me a couple tries to capture her cute little voice on video, and even this time she was a little distracted by the camera. On top of that I even managed to open the video in our editing software, edit it, and then upload it without any help from Brian. I have to admit I am pretty impressed with myself. I should warn you before you watch the video that my singing voice is not nearly as cute as Rachel's. In fact I can't believe I am even posting myself singing, but showing off my baby is totally worth any embarrassment I feel.