Making Memories at 4:30am

 

Sometimes, the sweetest memories are made at the most unexpected times.  As I drug myself out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to answer her screams, the last thing on my mind was taking pictures and having sweet little conversations.  Something woke her up ... a nightmare, missing Daddy, who knows.  She didn't want to go back to bed.  She wanted a clean diaper, a banana and for Mommy to turn on the Christmas lights.  So, that's what we did.  We talked about the lights, their colors, the ornaments, when Daddy would be home, if puppy was sleeping, the fact that puppy woke up and needed outside to potty ... anything that came to her mind, we talked about.  She wanted to look at Daddy pictures and rock after she finished her banana so we rocked and looked at pictures of Daddy on my phone and on Facebook (thank you FB friends for all the pictures he's tagged in!).  She hugged the phone, saying "I love daddy pictures mama" and was as happy as could be.  We got ready for the day, played tickle monster and giggled uncontrollably until we absolutely had to leave for school and work.

I might be exhausted right now, but at 4:30 this morning, I was in my own little slice of heaven.

What's Brianna Been Up To?

I've been wanting to post this for a few days but with preparing for Justin's two week mission trip to India, its been a little crazy around our house!

So, now that Bree is 22 months old (plus a few days), what's she up to?  Here's a few pictures from Thanksgiving with her two cousins, whom she adores!

- She speaks in 4 and 5 word sentences, although they may not be in correct grammatical order all the time (but who cares right!).  They however do typically have a subject, a verb and an adjective and we have whole conversations every day on the way to and from school.  I lost count of how many words she knows a long time ago.

- She's taller than everyone in her class by almost a full head so no telling what her two year well check will show.  A few of the 2T pants I bought a couple months ago will be too short in a few weeks if this growth spurt keeps going!

- She's able to tell me the general storyline of her favorite Backyardigans or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes and is starting to develop imaginative play for her doll and animals.

- She can count to 12 if she really thinks about it but regularly hits 8-10 pretty easily.  She's also starting to get basic math concepts.  We asked her at school yesterday if she counted as one person, add mommy to get two people, how many people would you have if you added Miss Donna.  She thought about it and answered 3!  Amazed me to watch her mind work that one out!

- She also knows all her colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown and pink) and is starting to identify basic shapes.

- She still signs occasionally, but usually to add emphasis, like when she really wants more cheese, not just kind of wants more cheese.

- She's very close to being able to jump with both feet now too.  Its crazy funny to watch her try to figure it out!  At first, all that happened was arm swinging, a big step and lots of giggles.  Now, she kind of hops and will get one foot off the ground.  Her favorite thing to say afterward is "TaDa!".  

- She's very intent on potty training as well, although she still can't quite tell you she needs to go before she does.  But as soon as she feels herself start to pee-pee, she lets you know and wants to be changed right away.  That is, if she's not too busy playing.  If she's playing, she could care less.  Nothing interrupts play time.

- She's becoming more social now too.  Even last week, she wasn't comfortable giving people we see every week a hug, but this week, she will enthusiastically.  She loves to hug too ... everyone at school gets hugs bye-bye and if someone's having a particularly tough morning, she's the first one to run up to them with a hug and say "all better now.  hugs make (fill in the name) happy.  no more cry."  Its so sweet to watch her being a loving little girl.

- Last but not least, she loves to play "peeky boo towel" after bath time.  She gets all excited for you to through the towel over her head so she can "hide".  After a few rounds of this, she takes off running around the living room saying, with giggles, at the top of her lungs, "I naked baby!  Watch me run!  I naked!".  I love how she sticks her little tongue out!  It was hard to get a picture of her because she was in constant motion.

I Naked!

This morning was a little hard on her with daddy being gone.  So, to make her feel better, I told her that whenever she misses daddy, just blow him a kiss and that kiss will fly all the way to India to tell daddy she loves him.  That made her smile from ear to ear and she quickly started blowing kisses in the air saying "go indada (India) kisses.  love you daddy!"  It was so sweet to watch.  My baby girl is growing up.

Midnight Conversations

So, Brianna didn't want to eat dinner last night and low and behold, she woke up at midnight.  After listening to her try to go back to sleep and then hearing the conversation become something along the lines of "mommy?  where my mommy at? Mama!  Mommy?  Where my mommy at?", I got up to check on here.  Here's how the rest of the conversation went ...

Brianna: (upon me walking in her room) Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi baby.  What's going on?
Brianna: Up mama.  Cereal Bar!
Me: Is your tummy hungry?  That's what happens when you don't eat dinner.  Would you like a cereal bar and some milk?
Brianna: Milk? Yes!  Go mommy.  I sit in mama chair.
Insert multiple repetitions of the above while I get her milk and cereal bar and set her in one of the chairs at the table. 

Brianna: (now eating said cereal bar) Kitty cat up up!
Me: Yes baby, Cleo is on the table.  Take a bite of your cereal bar please.
Brianna: Kitty cat on table!  I pet.
Me: No baby, eat your cereal bar.
*Cleo starts washing her face at this point*
Brianna: Kitty cat lick baby fingers?
Me: No baby.  Kitty cat is licking her paw so she can wash her face.  That's how cats take a bath.
Brianna: Kitty cat take a bath!  Oh my!
Me:  Yes baby, now eat some more cereal bar.  How about a drink of milk?
Brianna: Okay, I drink milk mama.
*Cleo comes over the be petted and sniffs Brianna's taggie*
Brianna: Oh no no kitty cat!  My taggie!
Me: I'll hold taggie.  Now, eat some more cereal bar baby.

This general line of conversation continued for another 20 minutes involving discussing Cleo sitting in my lap, drinking puppy's water, would she eat puppy's food, Cleo's thirsty again, Cleo's playing, Cleo's watching me and a few others I don't remember.  This was followed shortly by returning to her room to rock until 2am, at which point I put her in bed, thinking she was asleep, only to find out that she really wasn't and had absolutely no intentions of going to sleep.

It was 3:15am when we all finally got back to sleep.

A Few Fav's from a Recent Photo Shoot

Many thanks to Kandice Ray Photography for these wonderful pictures of Brianna.  These are just a few of my favorites from the shoot a few weeks ago!

I know she's mine, but I have to say, Justin and I have a beautiful daughter, full of personality, and she's absolutely the light of our lives!

First Camping Trip

Justin and I haven't been camping in awhile, okay a very long while, so this weekend, we joined a few good friends in camping at Turner Falls, Oklahoma.  I took Brianna up for the day and she had a blast!  Below are a few pictures ... enjoy!

Watching for fish with Daddy

 

Throwing rocks in the stream and getting muddy!

Help me with my chair daddy?

 But don't help me too much!

Having a great time!

A Little Doll

 

So, its November and finally cold enough here for a coat.  I've been waiting to break out this beautiful coat and hat set my sister and mom found for Brianna!  Just like with bows, she hasn't wanted to wear hats before and had this one on less than 30 seconds before pulling it off.  I explained to her that it was cold outside and she needed to wear her hat to keep her head warm, plus I told her she would look so cute with it on.  She patted her head and said "hat head daddy?" and I confirmed that yes, she would be just like daddy if she put her hat on.   That did it!  She said "hat on!" and didn't take it off until it fell in her eyes while trying to eat her cheese stick in the car on the way to school.  

She looks like such a big girl now ... no more baby :-(  Every morning, she asks "where ye-yow (yellow) school bus is?" and she watches for them the whole ride to school.  If she sees one, "ye-yow school bus mommy! ye-yow school bus!".  I know that before long, she'll be one of the big kids riding the yellow school bus every morning and that thought makes me very sad.  I'm not ready for her to grow up.

Its a bird ... Its a plane ... No, Its FLASH!

Yep, that's Brianna in her homemade Flash costume!  It was her daddy's idea since she likes to run so much, it seemed appropriate that we make her in to a super hero known for speed.  She had a blast hanging out with our good friends, the Durham's, and getting spoiled and loved on by little mama's Averi and Aspen.  She also got her first kiss from a boy, at least that I know of.  Knight's very good at giving kisses, and very serious about making sure his target gets the full effect of his kisses too!

Her daddy said he knew Knight was too old for her (he'll be 3 in a few days) and that he should have kept a better eye on that boy!  But look at those curls ... how could any girl resist that.  You notice Brianna isn't really pushing him away.  I think his beautiful blue eyes won her over just a little bit!

Finally - A Bow!

Okay, I know its been a long time since my last post and I owe several updates on Brianna, our vacation in Charleston and life in general. For now though, you'll have to be content with this slightly dark and grainy picture I shot over my shoulder this morning with my iPhone.

You see, there is a reason that you never see Brianna in pictures with bows or hats or headbands or any other form of girly paraphernalia in her hair.  She simply won't tolerate it.  She hasn't since the day she was born and fussed at me for trying to put a hat on her head to take her outside in the cold February wind.  Needless to say, I won that battle but it was just the start of me trying to put things in her hair only to have them yanked out, sometimes with tears.  But, lately, all the other little girls at school have had bows in their hair and while she's told me all about them, she's yet to want one of her own.

This morning, as I was brushing her hair for school, I asked her for the first time in weeks if she wanted to put a bow in her hair.  She looked at me, touched her head and said "bow? hair?".  So I asked again if she wanted the pink bow.  "No!" she said, followed quickly by the statement "blue bow!" with much head patting and grinning.  So, I put it in her hair and she very gently patted it and said "blue bow.  hair."  She walked out of her room so gently is was like she was afraid that it was going to fall out!  Then that walk developed a bit of prissiness and she looked at me like "I've got a bow in my hair and I know I'm cute!".  At school, the teachers commented on her bow and she patted it every so gently saying "blue bow.  hair" and grinning.  I checked the webcam at daycare two hours later and it was still in her hair!  Amazing that for almost 21 months, I've tried and tried to get her to wear a bow and one morning, she just seemed to decide it was okay.  Oh how I love my stubborn little daughter!

 

Zoo Pictures!

I'm so thankful that this was a much cooler weekend than past ones since, with Nana and Pops visiting, it make our trip to the zoo much more enjoyable.  Brianna seemed to really enjoy seeing all the animals, particularly the monkeys, elephants and giraffes!  She got a little nervous when they started walking towards her but she kept that wide-eyed look of amazement and I can only imagine what she must have been thinking.  Its one thing to know what the animals are in the pages of her books, but it must have been completely different to see them life-sized, moving, making noise and running around. 

One of the mother chimps had an infant and she spent several minutes trying to make herself comfortable so she could feed her baby.  Brianna kept pointing at it and smiling, saying "baby monkey" over and over.  I think she could have watched them play and interact for hours.  She wasn't content to sit in her stroller or be held either.  Honestly, we could have left the stroller at home for as much use as it got.  We had her little monkey backpack and she just ran from one place to another with one of us holding on to the tail.  I have to say, I always thought a "child leash" was unnecessary until I had a toddler of my own and realized just how enjoyable it can be to let you child run till they're heart's content, but not run off or get into trouble.  She laughed and giggled and shrieked and told us all the names of the animals until we were all ready to drop.  It was a very successful and fun-fill day!

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Checking out the elephant's picture with Nana

Family Picture

Elephants really do have long noses Mommy!

Checking out the Orangutans with Pops!  She kept this wide-eyed look almost all day.  It was like she couldn't believe that the animals she's used to seeing in her books really were alive.

Snake Petting ... she was all excited to "pet" the snake until it was her turn, then she didn't want anything to do with it.

Watching the kangaroo's sleep

Strolling along, happy as can be

Fast asleep in the car ... my big girl was all worn out from her adventures.

Dancing!

This video says it all ... my baby girl loves music!

Random Photos!

Here's a few photos from this weekend already that I just wanted to share...

First Kolache!

Daddy's Newest Lawn Lab Supporter!

"Helping" put her toy cubby together

Driving daddy's truck

O-TAY!!

The word of the day is O-tay ... wait till about the 1 minute 20 second mark and you'll see why!



That's my funny girl right there!

On a health related note, its been a rough week for us.  We thought Brianna had hand, foot and mouth virus but after seeing a blister starting on her eye when she woke up this morning, I took her to the doctor.  He diagnosed her with Herpetic Gingivitis (I think...).  Basically, she has the virus that causes cold sores and this first eruption has left her with several sores around her mouth, one on her finger, one on her knee and her gums are highly inflamed.  Unfortunately, this means she will get cold sores off and on her entire life now but we're keeping things in perspective.  If that's the worst medical thing she ever has to tolerate, then that's really not so bad.  However, the doctor put her on an anti-herpes medicine to keep it from spreading to her eyes any worse.  Well, she now has 4 hives on her right leg so no more meds tonight until we know if its unrelated or an allergic reaction.  She doesn't seem bothered by them at all but we gave her some Benedryl just to be safe.  As you can see from the video, she's her normal crazy self tonight!

18 Month Update & Summer Pics

I can't believe that Brianna is 18 months old now.  She had her well check last week and is doing wonderfully on all her development checklists.  She's at the 87th percentile on height and the 49th on weight.  She's up to between 50-60 words/signs in her vocabulary and is regularly speaking two word sentences with the occasional three word sentence.  Her first 3-word sentence as Dada Foo All-Gone.  She doesn't quite have the "d" on food yet but it was clear she was telling me that Justin had cleaned his plate!

We've also been having lots of fun playing outside, despite the 100+ heat.  She tolerates it a lot better than I do.  Below are some pictures from the backyard, a recent trip to the pool and her first experience with a trampoline at our friend The Ray's house.

She's going to make her Grandma Petrik very proud with this next picture.  She "helped" me feed Moab yesterday and of course, the food ended up going everywhere.  She wouldn't be happy till she'd done this ...

Surprise!

First Trampoline Experience

She loves her friend Andrew, who took care of her and played with her all night.  I think its obvious that she had a great time!