Our month in pictures

In the past month, we:

Revisited our YL stomping grounds of Crooked Creek to spend a weekend while Lane worked as Camp Director.  Brennan stole the hearts of all of the high school girls.

Played with snow for the real first time in her life.  Brennan screamed "Noooo!" in delight (meaning 'snow').

Went to 'Club' with Daddy and 500 high schoolers.  Danced in the back to the music, spinning and clapping her hands.

Continued working on her plan to have Daddy completely wrapped around her finger

Love it here!  The belly grows... 

She was completely exhausted from such a fun weekend on the way home

Decorated the house for Christmas

Got sick and had a lot of water (which she calls "Watee"), shows, and cuddle time

Spent days and days in this position.  Sweet, sweet girl. 

Visited the West Point Chapel

Walked on Wall Street and captured the ever growing belly

And even made it over to the Rockefeller tree, along with probably half a million other people on the same night

Took a final round of Christmas photos as a family of three! 

What a fun month!

EE II EE II OOOOHHHHH

This is us working on animal sounds.  It's been long enough since my last post that pictures wouldn't do her justice.  Enjoy her cute little voice and adorable little face. 

Things I don't want to forget

~ When she's really engrossed in a book, she lays down to get an extra good look at the pictures.  Look at how she studies it.  

~ I know that she is preparing to climb into a closet to hide because she yells "BYE BYE!"

~ When getting her from a nap, she is normally standing at the edge of her crib saying "Uh Oh!" because she has thrown her puppies overboard.  Every time.

~ When she doesn't want to eat food that is on her tray, she tries to feed it to me and shove it in my mouth going "Num num num mmmmmmmmm"

~ She disciplines herself- if she is about to touch something that we have told her not to, she looks at us and goes "NO!", with a pointed finger and all, and shakes her head

~ Hiiiii

~ Doggie is never said as a single word, it is always DoggieWoof!

~ Her two obsessions: books and shoes (which she pronounces sheeewwwwwwwww)

~ She says Bye Bye See You!!!  Keep in mind that we never say Bye bye see you later, she somehow knew to string those two phrases together and now only says them as one

~ Peas. (please).  Sank sou. (thank you)

~ If I am feeding her food and she doesn't know what it is yet, she must first sample it.  She will either only open her mouth up wide enough to get just the tip of the spoon in her mouth or only stick out her tongue to try the food. If she deems it worthy, she opens her mouth wide enough for a good solid bite.

~ When I hand her her beloved puppy, she puts it up to her face in such glee.  The problem (and cute thing) is that she holds it over her eyes and runs because she is so happy to be reunited with him again but inevitably runs smack into a wall because her eyesight is blocked.  

Just let yourself imagine the visual; it's hilarious.

~ When we went to baby gym time, she practically threw herself into this foam pit that children 5 times her age were playing in. She begged and begged until I let her in to play in a pit taller than she is.  The child is brave.

She is finally tall enough to reach up to our breakfast table and tonight grabbed our whole loaf of bread.  Very proud of herself.

A little bit of lately

Here are some snapshots of life lately:

Finally, finally I have a child that has hair at least semi-long enough for pigtails.  So, SO cute.

She is in a funny stage where she mimics EVERYTHING we do.  Anytime I get out the vacuum or the broom, she has to get something too to follow me around and try to clean beside me

Sometimes it doesn't go so well

Her absolute obsession with books is hilarious and adorable.  She will grab a book, bring it over to me, and once she is about two feet away, turns around and backs up into my lap pushing the book into my hand.  We spend probably 60% of our day in this position with me reading Brown Bear over and over and over and over.  

I will catch her in her room silently looking through books all by herself.

Snack time!

See?  ALWAYS reading books!  It's her favorite thing to do.  

Antagonizing the Canine

Brennan ADORES Sophie and thinks that she is just the funniest thing in the world.  I'm glad that Soph is such a loving, gentle dog because Brennan makes her put up with a lot.  Watch these videos.  She's funny.

My favorite part in this one is when she walks away clapping, so proud of herself

and a 5, 6, 5 6 7 8

SOMEBODY went to her first dance class today.

She didn't really follow any of the directions but her LOUD squeals of laughter and joy told me that she loved it.

creative little stinker

I was trying to get some work done and get organized this morning when I realized that it had been a bit too quiet in Brennan's corner of the world where all of her toys are.  

Upon further investigation, this is what I found her doing:

Words

This baby girl is almost 16 months old.  We had a doctor's appointment yesterday for her 15 month check-up, and Dr. Ryan said that at this stage most babies should have about 3-6 words that they clearly and regularly say.

So I counted the words that Brennan can say, and this is what I came up with:

puppy
cracker (ca-ca)
uh oh
bye bye
bottle (ba ba)
hi
mommy
dadda
mimi
papa
bubbles
rock
banana (nana)
night night
no
shoes (shz)
baby
down
whoa


I think she might be a smartie pants.  I'm just sayin.

The hills are alive, with the sound of Brennan. Ah la la la

We are about to begin our 4th and final week here.  All in all, it has been a super fun assignment.  No huge issues besides the child not sleeping 40% of the time, but I suppose I would have a hard time sleeping too if I were stuck in a dark closet.  Brennan really is having a fun time here and I actually love being able to focus all of my attention on her for a straight month; we've had some fun bonding time and I've really enjoyed seeing her explore and play!  

I think the combination of all kinds of places to explore, sticks & rocks to play with, and having 500 strangers around to be her best friend has made this place Brennan's paradise.  She LOVES it here. 

This is the view from our back porch.  Not too shabby.  You will notice: the continental divide (beautiful) and the blob (scary).

 I love this picture for 2 reasons: 1) this is how she walks, with chest out and arms up and 2) she is carrying food.  the girl LOVES her food.

 When b is super overjoyed with something, she will throw herself onto the ground and roll around in sheer delight

How much do you love those teeth!? 

 This picture had to make the post.  Notice her nose crinkle.  This is one of the main things I love about my daughter right now.  If she thinks something is hilarious or is just really excited to smile (especially when that smile is directed at someone) she not only smiles, it becomes a whole-face smile and she wrinkles up her nose.  How cute is that.

Another main thing I adore about her: she is becoming a cuddler.  Notice her snuggling my hand.  She will walk up for a hug and then run away.  Or she will grab a book and bring it over, turn around, and back up into my lap to read it.  Or, if I pick her up, she will lay her head on my shoulder and sometimes even wrap her arms around me for a hug.  Pure sweetness.  I think I can already tell Physical Touch is a love language of this one.  

Seriously.  Just look at the cuteness.  The teeth, the cheeks, the smile.  Love her. 

Fun at the park!

 Lane had a few hours off yesterday afternoon, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get out of camp and head into Winter Park.  We discovered a really fun children's park which provided ample entertainment.  It is so much fun that Brennan is now at an age where she can really play and discover.  We had such a great time!

We sent her down this slide all by herself for the first time and she loved it.  She kept trying to climb back up to do it all over again.

She is a climber

Come on girl, ride that horsey! 

Adventures at Crooked Creek

also could be known as Daddy Daughter Day from all of the pics of the two of them.

Today was gorgeous weather and Lane had some time during the afternoon that allowed us to wander and explore.

Can I just say that I absolutely adore my daughter?  As in, ADORE.  It's fun seeing glimpses of her little personality now and guessing how that will continue to play out.

For example:
She is SOCIAL.  She LOVES people... any person.  She walks into a room going 'hiiiiii.'  'hiiiii'.  (imagine how the kids say hi to Brennan on facetime and that is how she has learned to say hi... hiiiii Brennan, hiiiii Brennan).  She is smiley, friendly, loves to laugh and make new friends, goes to new people easily, and tries SO hard to keep up with the big kids here.

She is STUBBORN.  She knows what she wants and is a feisty little thing and we have seen that streak in her since the early days.  She has started blowing raspberries at me if she doesn't get her way.

She is a TOUGH little chick.  She really loves to be adventurous, explore, get roughed up, then doesn't complain a bit when blood comes.  She fell on the cement sidewalk today when just wearing a onesie and got a decent case of scraped up knee, but didn't make a peep just jumped up and kept playing.  Later, a rock dropped on her toe and she kind of looked at me with wide eyes and I tried to pick her up but she brushed me away to keep playing.  It wasn't until later that I noticed the dried blood streaking across her gashed toes that I realized it was a legitimate injury.  She falls, she bonks her head, she bangs into things, and it doesn't even bother her.  She is way too into exploring and climbing to let a little ouchie make her whine.  I love it.  

This girl goes CRAZY over balls.  If she sees one, it's over; any plans you had now include and are limited to anything having to do with the ball.  

Why is this girl so happy?  Because her daddy just walked out the door.  SHE LOVES HER DADDY.  Oh my word, if I could count the number of times a day she says Dada.  The number of times she says momma?  2

It took us probably 20 minutes to make it up this sidewalk so that she could chase that ball.

This place was her paradise.  Volleyballs and basketballs galore!  Ball!  Ball!  Ball!

Chasing after a volleyball even though she just had one in her hand

Must.  Have.  That.  Ball.

Carrying around a basketball even though it was half her size

Just look at that grin.  She is that spitting image of her daddy.

This was probably time number 56 that they crossed this bridge

She was so excited to discover a little cave just her size

That rock definitely went to dinner with us.  It was just not worth the battle to pry it from her hands.  The raspberries were epic.

And there's pictures of our day!