Brielle's 2nd Birthday

Brielle had a great 2nd Birthday! Daddy had the day off so we spent some time celebrating!

The day before, we went to Red Robin to claim her free Birthday Kid's Meal! She gobbled down all her macaroni and cheese and used her spoon the whole time! She was thrilled to get a balloon and her own ice cream sundae. 

On her birthday, she slept in until 7:30 which is a record for her. (She actually woke up earlier at 5 something, but we just put her straight back in bed). She was pretty excited to see the dining room decorated with streamers and balloons and to have candles on her cinnamon roll.

Around lunchtime, Kaden, Neil, Rebecca, Alexis, and Grandma Carol came by to play, open presents, eat pizza, sing, and have cupcakes and ice cream!
Brielle really liked all her presents. Kaden liked handing her the presents and helping her to open them :) I wish I could've been recording when she opened some of them. The way her eyes and face lit up to see some of her favorite characters (Elmo and Rapunzel) in toy form was priceless. I'll just have to keep it in my memory and hope she does it again at Christmas time when I'll be prepared.

We'd been practicing blowing out candles, but she still struggled a little bit. She was pretty excited the whole time. Happy birthday to our big 2 year old!

Our Growing Girls-for the grandparents

Since Lily's joined our family, Brielle has seemed so much bigger and grown up than before! I was looking at pictures and videos from a year ago and she's changed so much. Her hair is down past her shoulders, unlike a year ago when it barely reached the nape of her neck! Sometimes I think I get overwhelmed with how much she requires of me (like a hand to hold going up and down stairs, even though she can do it herself, a snack right NOW, etc.) and don't appreciate how quickly these baby days will go by. Here are some things about Brielle---
She loves: dancing, balloons, bubbles, anything birthday, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, swings, playing with Kaden, stickers, music, youtube videos, Elmo, phones, iPods, computers (anything with a screen and buttons basically)
Her favorite foods are breakfast ones (just like her mama!) : waffles, pancakes, muffins, cereal. She also likes macaroni and cheese, pizza, any kind of bean, peanut butter, and ice cream. She'll eat a variety of things, this week I picked up a jar of green curry sauce and she ate the chicken curry all up!
She can say a prayer on our food, ask to be excused, and says please and thank you with regularity. She has a great time in nursery, at story time, and at our weekly Mainly Music class. These pictures make her look so grown up to me!

Lily is going on 7 weeks old and is over 7 lbs!  Her main vocalizations are crying and what sounds to me like low monkey grunting, but this week she's cooed a couple of times. She's also starting to surprise us with smiles at random times and will entertain herself by hitting the hanging toys on her playmat with her fist or foot. If she's fed and dry she'll be content to lay there and play for awhile, but will then usually express her wishes to be held, especially in the evening. Sometimes she'll end up taking a nap during tummy time, and sleeps really well that way. Shhh don't tell our pediatrician! As a second child, she does have to wait sometimes to get attention, so she's doing pretty well with that, considering she's just an infant. She likes to play pat-a-cake, Row Row Row your Boat, and Bicycle Bicycle. She tolerates being "held" by Brielle on a regular basis, and being carried around in my moby wrap on occasion when we go out. Brandon took these artistic pictures of her the other day. Her outfit reminds us of one of the shirts Grandpa likes to wear.

a sort of smile!

We love our Lily and Brielle!