A Few Pics from the Last Week

Helping decorate the Christmas Tree

The stocking my Aunt JoAnn made for her.  She put a 100 hours of work into this!  The picture doesn't do it justice at all.

Christmas Card pictures ... these are the ones that didn't make the final card.

All Brianna's favorite things!  Moab, a book and her Lambchop.

Even girls can play with bugs.

Playing with Mommy's shoes.

Hew new favorite toy, the bubblegum machine.  This was a hand-me-down from the Keele's and she loves it.  it will keep her occupied for 20 minute some times, which is saying a lot for any toy!

The dress the Keele's brought her back from Cozumel

We went to see Santa today at Bass Pro Shops but I don't have the pictures from that yet.  She did pretty good sitting in Santa's lap, as long as Collin was there with her.  Once he left, she wasn't so happy about it.  But, we also rode the reindeer carousal, saw the ducks in their pond and watched overly large catfish swim in the big fish tank so it was an enjoyable experience.  I'll post the pictures as soon as I get them!

Becoming a Big Girl

Brianna had a "big girl" moment tonight and it made me realize just how completely not ready I am for her to assert her independence.  Part of our bedtime ritual has always been bedtime snacks, followed by cuddling, singing and rocking until she falls asleep.  Its more for me than for her, but until tonight, she always wanted to be rocked to sleep.  The last few nights, I've seen this coming but didn't want to acknowledge it but tonight, I had to.  My sweet baby girl didn't want to be rocked to sleep.  She wanted to go to sleep in her crib on her own like a big girl.  Okay, maybe I'm giving her more credit than is due, but here was the gist of the "conversation".  It seemed pretty obvious to me that this was what she wanted.

Brianna: pushing away from mommy, fussing and pointing to her crib
Mama: "do you want to lay in your crib and go night-night"
Brianna: points to her crib again with a noise that usually means yes
Mama: "are you ready to go night-night" and stands up to walk to the crib
Brianna: lays her head on my shoulder, pats my back, then raises up and points to her crib again

So, I gave her a kiss, laid her on her tummy and covered her up, stroked her head and told her I loved her and Night-Night, then I walked out and closed the door to her room.  I stood outside, just waiting for her to make any sound of protest but nothing.  All I heard was the shuffling of covers as she settled herself into a more comfortable position, then quiet.  Such a big girl thing for her to do!  And I'm sitting her fighting back a few tears because I'm not ready to give this up.  It means she's growing up and becoming independent and doesn't need me as much, which I know is all well, good and normal.  This is what is supposed to happen if I've done my job when it comes to teaching her good sleep habits.  I just wasn't expecting it is all.  So while there will still be nights of holding a sleeping, peaceful baby in my arms, there will probably be more nights like tonight, which will take more getting used to for me than for her.

Save the Date!

Wow ... only 7 weeks and 5 day till Brianna turns a year old.  This time last year, I was anxioulsy counting down the days until she would be evicted from my ever growing belly.  Now, I'm wishing time could slow down a little bit so I could savor all the wonder and joy of watching her grow a little longer.

Its with a tear in my eye that I start planning her first birthday party, thus the reason for this post's title.  Mark your calendars for January 30 and come celebrate with us!  More details to follow (translation: I have no idea what the other details are yet!)

Updated Monthly Pictures

Ok, I've been remiss with posting her monthly pictures, partly because I've been late getting them done.  So, here's two months of pictures for you to enjoy.  You'll have to forgive the fact that I noticed after I'd scanned them that the scanner was a little dusty in places but I didn't have time to go back and re-scan.  Sorry!

8 Months

These were taken at daycare so they're her first school pictures.  The studio took 3 weeks to get them back to me and now I've taken 3 weeks to get them scanned in but hey, they are still worth sharing!

 

 

 

9 Months

Here's her normal monthly update pictures.  She's technically 9 1/2 months old but hey, close enough.  I'm still happy I've managed to get her in to Target every month and get these done.  Its getting harder and harder to do, as evidenced by the fact that I haven't had her 10 month pictures done yet...hoping to get that done as soon as she's back to feeling better (more on that later)

 

 

 

Illness Update

Brianna was sent home from daycare Tuesday with a 102 degree fever.  This is after we kept her home voluntarily on Monday to give her another day to recover from this "crud" (that's what the pediatrician called it) that she's got.  Justin took her in and they found a mild ear infection so she's on antibiotics now.  Last night was a rough one as she didn't go down and stay down till 1:30 am, then woke up again at 4:00 am hungry.  She has a hard time keeping her appetite during the day so no surprise that she's hungry in the middle of the night.  On the flip side, its 10:15 am right now and she still hasn't woken up for the morning.  At least I got some extra sleep and am able to get a few things done ... like multi-tasking by updating the blog while reports run on my work computer! 

10 Months Old

*sniff sniff* Brianna's 10 months old today.  Its amazing how the time has flown by.  She's staring to look more like a little girl and less like a baby every day, though she gets more beautiful the older she gets.  I know, I'm partial but hey, what mom doesn't want to brag on their child every now and then! 

Here's a few of the things she's up to and in to these days.  It seems like several things have started falling in place for her lately as she's learning new things very rapidly right now.

-- Asking "at's is", which translates in English to "what's this?"  I'm constantly telling her the name of things as she holds them up to me or points to them and says "at's is".  Just last night, she noticed the new picture of herself on the mantel, pointed and asked "at's is" so I told her "baby".  She looked at me and said "aby" in that questioning way that she has and was so proud of herself when she got big smiles and praise from mama.  Of course, she looked around the living room and wanted to see all the other pictures of herself too after that!

-- She knows Mama and Dada now.  She's been making the noise and we've thought for a few weeks that she was calling me Mama but over Thanksgiving, she clearly said Mama in a way that left no doubt she was referring to me.  Grandma Petrik was changing her and I was sitting on the bed beside her when she reached up, patted my cheek and called me Mama (yes, I got a bit teary-eyed).  When we got home Sunday night and saw Justin, she pointed to him and cried out "Dada" with big smiles and held out her arms for him to give her hugs.  He won't admit that he got a little teary-eyed over that.  Again, we think she's been saying dada for more than a month now but she left no doubt that she knew who Dada was when she did that!

-- Last night, she fed herself peach YogurtMelts for the first time.  She's been playing with finger food for awhile, but showed no interest in actually eating it.  Wednesday night, she licked it but wouldn't put it in her mouth.  Last night though, she popped one in her mouth like a pro and loved it, though she made several funny faces in the process! 

A few of the more minor notations...
-- She's wearing size 3 Cruisers.
-- She's been wearing size 12 month clothing for a month now since she's so long.
-- She still takes 3 naps a day, although the last one usually more of a 20 minute power nap.
-- She's still breastfed (yeah mommy!) but has started all the meats and seems to like Chicken Mango Risotto and Chicken Apple Compote the best.
-- While we still have no teeth, I swear they will arrive any day now.  She ran a fever Wednesday at daycare and was miserable yesterday, wanting to chew on everything she could.  Her gums look solid white right in front and slightly swollen so I know those teeth are coming.
-- Her favorite toys are balls, books and the Fisher Price Learning Table at daycare.

Here's a few pictures from Thanksgiving that my mom took.  I just love her expressions!

My mom made her a bunting outfit for winter to keep her warm.  Here she is modeling it with with her Aunt Ashely and Uncle Scott.  It came in very handy this week with all the cold weather!

Grandma Petrik was playing dress up with Brianna since they'd bought her a few new outfits.  Her face in this one is just priceless.  What'd I'd give to know what she was thinking!

Crawling Video

Several people have requested video of this occasion so here you go....

She Crawled!

One week to the day after my last post, its official, Brianna is now crawling!  It was the funniest thing last night too.  I was sitting in the floor playing with her and turned around to grab something (remote, Moab's toy, I don't remember) and when I turned back around, she was on all fours and crawling towards .....

...drumroll please....

the tire off a remote control toy Jeep!  Her daddy is so proud!

She headed for Moab's ball next but I scooped her up before she could get to it.  She spent the next several minutes crawling around the living room floor after that jeep tire like she'd been doing it for weeks!  No stop and start or hesitation or falling down, just crawling to the tire, picking it up and playing with it, then giving me dirty looks for taking it away and moving to the other side of the room so she could do it all over again!  Of course, I was so excited that I forgot to get video of it but that will be remedied shortly. 

Anyway, just had to post about her latest and greatest accomplishment!