Spending Lots of Time Outside

Brielle absolutely LOVES her swing- she lets us know each day when she wants to go outside to swing- usually every day after getting home from daycare and, lately, in the mornings before leaving. She will spend a good 20-30 minutes relaxing in her swing- I call it her "daily swing therapy".

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.

Alot of Babbling and Some Talking

Brielle babbles throughout the day and recently is saying actual words more and more. A list of words she is now saying- mama, dada, hi, bye, ball, puppy, baby, no-no, more, uh-oh, and done. She is really getting good at communicating her needs- she recently starting letting us know when she wants her diaper changed by either bringing us one and laying on the floor, leading us to her bedroom and laying on the floor, or by waving her hand in front of her face indicating she's "stinky". This is some major progress considering diaper changing has always been a huge struggle/wrestling match with her. I still can't get her to understand that when I say "no" it is not a game to see how fast she can do whatever she is not supposed to do before I get to her. Basically "no" means "go faster" and she smiles the whole time while looking right at me.

The Last Few Weeks

We have been very busy for the past several weeks and have been keeping brielle busy as well. We took her to the zoo a couple weeks ago and had a great time. Unfortunately I forgot the camera (as always). Last weekend we borrowed a bike trailer and took Brielle on her first bike ride- she did pretty good considering we had to wake her from a nap. She has been to the park several times and to listen to a live band.

She has become quite the climber lately. She has learned to push a toy up to the couch and use it as a step stool to climb onto the couch. She can climb up, sit down, then slide down the plastic slides at day care without a problem. She's a little monkey!


Wearing daddy's socks- I like to call them her moonboots.
Okay- quick story about the next two pictures. I worked an overnight and had an outfit sitting out for the morning. Apparently Ryan didn't understand when I said it was sitting on her rocking chair because she ended up dressed in a blue and yellow top that is way too big, a pair of pink bloomers that go underneath one of her dresses, and pink scrunchie socks under her sandals. I got to day care to pick her up and all I could do was laugh- alot! She looked so ridiculously funny, but somehow kinda cute!! I was so glad that I didn't have any errands to run that day. To top it off- when he dropped her off her shirt was inside out! He claims it was a rough morning- Really?

Brielle eating rocks at the park!
Feeding herself
Then rubbing it in her hands and all over herself.
even her hair!

Watching daddy mow the lawn- wanting desperately to be following him around.
yeah!!
Nina at the park- so cute!

Genius???

Brielle is getting too big too fast and I am amazed at the new things she is doing from day to day. She seems to really understand what we are saying to her more and more and is way more aware of things than I give her credit for. She was playing in my purse yesterday and found a tube of lip gloss and immediately immitated putting it on her lips and then found my blush brush and began brushing it on her face. When she has the TV remote she points it at the TV and presses buttons until something happens. I have caught her a few times recently attempting to put socks or shoes on herself. The other day I was leaving to run an errand and all I had done was put my purse on - Brielle said "bye-bye" and was waving at me- Ryan and I were amazed! She has been saying bye-bye for a while but we had always prompted it, this completely caught us off gaurd. If you ask for a hug or a kiss she will usually respond (depending on her mood). When asked where her nose or head is, she will point to the correct body part (sometimes leading into putting her finger up her nose). She does a really good immitation of a "big person" laugh- when everyone else laughs at something she will immitate it as loud as she can. Also, if there is a group of people in the room talking she will babble as loud or louder to be part of the conversation. She does everything in her power to let us know what she wants. Ryan and I are pretty sure that she is a genius (our opinions on this might be a little biased).

Brielle's Big Bad Birthday Bash

Okay, so my title is a little misleading- it wasn't exactly a bash- it was a little girl's first birthday party- but it was fun. It was a small gathering of close family with way too much food and beer- my fault- hey, I'm a first timer- I'll learn with experience. My parents were kind enough (crazy enough) to let us have it at their house and it turned out really nice. Thanks mom and dad!!

We let Brielle pretty much dig into her cake, which she did. Turns out ice cream cake is cold on your face- as illustrated by the look on Brielle's face in the second picture.
Brielle got this wagon for her birthday from Russ and Connie (Ryan's parents), it's awesome!! I think I love it as much as Brielle does. This picture is of Brielle and Nina (my niece) in the wagon with Ryan pulling and Lizzy (my cousin) pushing.
How cute are they?
Lizzy decided she wanted to ride instead of push. I don't blame her, it was hard work in all that grass. Poor Ryan, he definitly got a workout!