Stories

A few quick stories that I wanted to share before I forgot them:

On superbowl Sunday we were all sitting around the kitchen table at Ryan's parent's house. Brielle was on my lap, facing me, when she started rubbing my belly and said "mommy big".

We went to a chinese buffet for dinner the other night and before one of us could stop her, Brielle grabbed the sugar shaker and attempted to shake it all over Ryan's food. She missed and just made a big mess all over Ryan and the table. Then she looks at me and says "Dadda messy" as if Ryan was the one who made the mess.

The three of us were hanging out on our bed at home and Brielle was asking us where Buck was. I told her to call him and I showed her how by cupping my mouth with my hands and calling "Buck", she imitated me exactly. Then I said "say it louder", and Brielle still with her hands cupped around her mouth calls "say it louder".

The three of us were in Brielle's room last night reading her favorite Elmo book when she started counting to ten while pointing at different things in the book. She says every number in order but leaves out 6 every time. Then she tells herself "good job Brielle!" She did this over and over. Ryan and I were trying so hard not to laugh out loud that I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

She insists on coming into the bathroom with me, then claps and says "yeah Mommy!!" when I'm done. Shouldn't this be the other way around?

Catching Up

Sorry, no pictures. Promise to post them soon.

Wow! It has been a long time since I posted anything. I don't really even know where to start.


Halloween- It was fun! We got Brielle dressed in her honeypot costume then me, Ryan, Brielle, and my mom and dad went around our neighborhood for a good 30-45 minutes. We pulled Brielle in the wagon. There were TONS of people out. Brielle got really good at putting her candy bag out or grabbing candy from the bowl and then saying "Tank chew" at each house.



Talking- Wow! She talks so much now it is difficult to remember how it all evolved but here are some of my favorites:

• "Mommeee, where are you?" - She says it in a sing-song way and you can substitute Dad-daa or any object that she is looking for into this. At my mom's recently when my mom was getting ready to give the girls a bath and was looking for the bubble bath, Brielle said "Bub-bles, where are you?"


• If you tell her I love you she will say it back- it is so sweet and she says it almost perfectly with a very loving tone.


• I jokingly tell her all the time "Dadda stinks" and she'll say "Tinky Dadda". The other day Ryan was telling her that I stink and I said "no, mommy smells pretty". The next day when we got in the car leaving daycare she asked where Dadda was and I said "Dadda stinks" she replied "Mommy pretty". It was great!


• She knows how to say "I sowry" (I'm sorry) and says it often- usually after being put in timeout for doing something defiant.


• I love to ask her to sing the ABC's- it goes "A, B, A ,B, E, E, E"
• She will act like she is fixing my hair- (all she really does is mess it up)- then look at me and excitedly say "Cuuute"
• She pretends to have conversations with people on my cell phone daily. The other day she was on it saying "Hi paw-paw", so I put it on speaker and called my dad. He answered, she said "Hi paw-paw" then asked "where's Eena (Nina)?" my dad answered that Nina was sleeping. Brielle asked again, "where's Eena?" my dad was mid sentence answering again that Nina was sleeping when Brielle said "Bye, bye paw-paw" and hung up on him.

Suddenly, over the past few months she and Nina are best buds. They used to get jealous and cry most of the time when they were together, but lately they get along great. They are always excited to see eachother and run off to play as soon as they get together. I hope this continues because it is very sweet to see them getting along so good. Brielle calls her "Eena".

Just In Case You Haven't Heard Yet...

We are having a boy!!! We went for my ultrasound today and baby Ruediger is not shy- at all! And, we got to see him in 3D which I wasn't expecting so was pretty surprised when I saw it. Now all we have to do is pray for is a healthy, happy baby! We are so excited!

The Past Few Weeks

We went to the pumpkin patch. She preferred the maze, sandpile, and ponies over posing next to the pumpkins. Look at those cute pigtails.
Brielle at her first camping trip. She had a blast and slept through the entire, freezing cold, night.

Trying on Mommy's shoes. She wasn't able to walk much, but she looks good.
She spent a whole 24 hours with her cousin, Nina, last weekend and they were actually pretty good together.
Nina was shivering and Brielle thought it was hilarious!
I love this picture. She was saying "cheeeese".
She LOVES these boots. They are a size too big, but Brielle doesn't care at all.

Normal Toddler Behavior????

Brielle gets reports sent home every day from daycare. Yesterday, her report said "Today I was very mean to my friends and wouldn't follow directions". Hopefully it was just a really bad day!!

Thankful, Worried, and Tired!!!

So, I'm pretty sure that everyone knows that we are expecting another little one around the end of March. I have been feeling pretty crappy with "all day" sickness for the past few weeks, but have been feeling better and better the past few days. Hope that continues! I am thankful for Ryan and his understanding of how tired I am most days. He has been taking care of pretty much all of the house cleaning lately. Yesterday I came home from work exhausted and had to take a nap. Ryan picked Brielle up from daycare and took her to the park to play so I could have a quiet house to nap in. She came home dirty and smiling so she must have had fun!!

So, the new arrival--We are very excited and have been talking about this for a while now. But somehow, when it became permanent- like when I got the positive result on the home pregnancy test- thats when reality sank in and I started to worry- about everything! Not feeling well and being tired has reminded me of how UNBELIEVABLY tired I was for about six months after Brielle was born. Seriously, there were days that I wondered how it would be possible to make it on the small amount of sleep I was getting. I was a zombie! To go from being pregnant and huge, unable to sleep comfortably for longer than 2 minutes consecutively to spending 36 hours of labor and delivery with very little sleep and then having this little angel who wants you to wake up every hour and a half to nurse for 30 minutes! So, I am a little worried about being able to handle everything, but I know women have been doing it since the beginning of time. I will be okay, I just have my fears and insecurities. And of course there are SO many wonderful things that after you get through the rough patches you are so thankful for.

I have been wondering about how Brielle will adjust to sharing her mommy and daddy with a baby brother or sister. She is used to being around smaller babies because she is one of the oldest in her class at day care and she is very gentle with the little ones there. Actually, she does the cutest thing at home with her baby dolls. She is very motherly with them- wrapping them in blankets, patting their backs, rocking them in her rocking chair, she evens talks to them in the high pitch that adults talk to babies in. She will lay her doll down, crouch down with her hands on her knees and in a high pitched voice say "Hiii". Staff at day care says that she does this with the other babies there to. Then she uses her tickle fingers to tickle their tummies. She is so stinkin' cute. I finally got her on video doing this yesterday. I will try to link it sometime- I just have to figure out how.

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".