A Weekend With Friends

Sorry, no pictures, I promise to get some up soon.

On the weekend of July 26th and 27th Ryan was gone all weekend for a golf tournament in Illinois. So, it was just me and Brielle on our own for 48 hours. On Friday evening, we went to Rick and Michelle's so Brielle and Aiden could play. Aiden will be turning 3 in October so there is an 18 month age gap, but they play good together. Brielle laughs at everything Aiden does and Aiden enjoys being her entertainment. On Saturday, we got up early, not by my choice but because Brielle woke up at 6:30 all bright eyed and bushy tailed. We went to my friend Mandy's new place to meet up with her and her 5 year old daughter Aubrey to go to Grant's Farm. Aubrey just loves to help with Brielle, she is such a helpful and polite 5 year old- she would always ask "Jessica, would you like me to ..." Well, by the time we got everything loaded in the car, loaded the girls, and went through the McDonalds drive thru, we were on our way. Rick, Michelle and Aiden met us there. So it was 4 adults, a 5 year old, a soon to be 3 year old, and a 15 month old. And somehow, we all made it!! The tram was a hit- especially for the adults because the kiddos were forced to not run off! We fed the goats and they attacked my clean white shirt with their dirty feet. Then we spent the remainder of our visit pretty much chasing kids around and trying to keep everyone in the same vicinity. On Sunday, Brielle let me relax during the morning while I tried to get rid of a headache. Then in the afternoon we went to my grandparents house to swim. We met my mom, Nina, my aunt, my cousin Elizabeth and a couple of her friends (4 and 5 years old). Brielle and Nina went down the slide a couple hundred times until me and mom were tired of catching them. Brielle enjoyed the pool more this time than ever before. She actually sat in her floating tube for a while just enjoying the water. The rest of the time she spent running around, getting into everything. Then we came home and welcomed Daddy. Brielle smiled so big when she saw him and gave him some big hugs. I had a great weekend with her, but was glad to have Ryan home to help keep her entertained. It's always hard to take her to daycare on Monday mornings after spending a great weekend with her.



A couple new things she is doing:

- I think I have mentioned before that she is doing better with diaper changes. Well, she has this little noise she makes- kind of a gasping sound- when she is telling us she wants her diaper changed. So then we ask "do you need your diaper changed?" and she runs to her bedroom and lays on the floor. Now, just the other day she wanted a wipe, so I gave her one and she wiped herself. It really caught me off gaurd. So, now she wipes herself (only with wet diapers).

- If you hand her a tissue and say "wipe your nose", she will wipe her nose.

-She tries dressing herself and can get one leg in her pants on her own.

-She is really helpful with chores around the house especially laundry. She hands me the clothes from the dryer as I hang or fold them and then carries the clothes to be put away. For some reason she thinks this is just great and mom appreciates the help!!

A Sweet Song

Within the last week or so, Brielle has gone from strictly referring to us as Mama and Dada to Mommy and Daddy. Well, yesterday she made up a couple songs for us and they go like this..."Mom-mee, Mom-mee, Mom-mee, Mom-mee" and "Dad-dee, Dad-dee, Dad-dee, Dad-dee". She does a little dance while she sings to us, it is so adorable.