10 months old

brennan grace. stop it. you are growing so quickly and are practically a little GIRL already. the way you look at us sometimes just stops me in my tracks. boy, are we going to have our hands full. so. stinkin. cute.

lately, you love:

* to explore. you are adventurous and love discovering new rooms in the house, new items in my purse, and new routes of escape out of the confines of our usual play area and into the great unknown.

* to wave. this is your new trick. you actually picked it up just today and now do it nonstop.

* to eat sweet potatoes. last night, i actually noticed an orange tint to your skin... maybe we should lay off the beta-carotene and eat more spinach.

* to walk. you're still just cruising around with your push-cart, but you think that you're a pretty big deal as you cruise your way around our living room.

just your average friday

we gave brennan spinach for the first time and she LOVED it, i could hardly get the spoon to her mouth quick enough. by the end of her meal, her whole head was practically green as she would put her fingers in her mouth and then rub her eyes, itch her forehead, and grab her ears. successful dinner followed by a successful bath.

b has discovered the worlds that hide behind cabinet doors.

TERRIBLE picture of me and how i tried to crop as much of myself out as i could, but it did still leave my awkward nose in there. however, i am willing to sacrifice my pride in the name of showing you the adorable picture of my baby girl. i caught her at just the right moment of blowing her perfect little raspberries.

and here is our favorite game of the moment. I've loved seeing brennan learn and be able to comprehend things before she can communicate them herself. i will go hide and call out to her 'brennan....come fiiiiind me!', and then watch her crawl my way

and then she gets closer and as she sees me she gets so happy

ahhhh. success.

feburary 14th. yes.

oh how wonderful my tuesday was. how wonderful that it just happened to fall on valentine's day and made my holiday fantastic. lane offered to start watching brennan a few tuesdays a month and this past tuesday was our first installation of daddy daughter day.

i spent most of my day here:


zoe's is my very favorite coffee shop in town and provides instant comfort for me. it already holds many good memories; it is where i would go to work when i was writing for cinchouse, it's where i meet with my college girls, and it is even where i was when i went into labor with brennan.

so it was tuesday and i had several hours of quiet to myself, i of course went to zoe's and sipped my coffee, did my bible study, and ran errands all by myself. glorious.

but then, i got to walk in the door to see this beautiful girl. her first valentine's day and she is the absolute very best of valentine's

introducing in her inaugural performance...brennan!

brennan has been so funny lately. she has discovered her voice and uses every chance she has to practice her new noises. we went up to frisco this last weekend and shared a room with her in the basement so our friends matt, jess, and their girls could take the top floor. i realized that a big perk of sharing a room with my little babe was that in the morning as she woke up i got to hear all of her little noises. she wakes up chatting... ba ba ba... bttthhhhhhh...... ba ba ba! sweet sweet little voice of hers.

the raspberry noise seems to be a universal communication tool in her mind. it is intermixed with her ba's and ma's, but then if she is upset for any reason (typically when we have to wipe her ever-running nose, darn teething) out comes the raspberry again. it seems to say 'i'm so happy!' one minute and 'how dare you!!' the next. funny little one.

in an effort to capture all of her newfound noises, i have had our camera stuck in her face for the last week. most times, she is completely captivated by the camera and crawls over to me instead of performing or the only video i capture of her is frustrated fussiness. finally, i think i got a cute one that demonstrates her voice in all of its 9 month glory. she gets very serious in the middle, you can almost see her little brain working so hard to make a sound, but this was the best video i could get for now. enjoy!

9 months, 15 days... boo for a boring title

It feels like Brennan is growing SO QUICKLY and is all of a sudden turning into a little girl before my very eyes. Because of that, I have been trying to be much better at taking pictures of simple little details of our days so that I can remember this time when she is, in fact, still so tiny.

If B gets tired in the car we're toast. Our 15 minute car drive from anywhere in the city is sometimes just too much for her to handle. I LOVE to watch her peaceful little face as she sleeps! I remember just 9 short months ago when she barely fit in her carseat because she was brand new, and now it looks like she barely fits in it because she's getting so so big.

No caption here. I just think she's cute.

Working on her standing skills!

So strong. Taking the job of learning to walk very seriously.

I just think they're super cute and wanted to capture this memory.

And THIS. This is cute. This is how she greets me after each and every naptime and in the morning. This side of her crib faces the door to her room so every time I walk in to get her, she is just standing there staring at the door, making happy noises, while waiting for someone to come free her.