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.