It's a zoo around here...

These are for Helena, who is tired of leftover turkey.








I know this is a dark video and difficult to see, but if you look closely you might notice Bryn now has a pony (we're still working on piggies).

Turkey and tidbits

Bryn enjoyed her first Thanksgiving dinner. The stuffing and pumpkin pie with ice cream were her favorites.


It's been brought to my attention I haven't had a newsy update on Bryn's blog in awhile so here are some tidbits and photos from the past few weeks.

- She's opening up a lot to others and will now let people pick her up or sit with them, though usually on her own terms. She'll happily give hugs and kisses now, which thrills her grandparents.

- In the past month she's slept through the night only twice. On average she's up twice each night for a cuddle. After 8 months of this I suppose we should just resign ourselves to the fact she's not a great sleeper and buy shares in Maxwell House. (This will be my last public comment on our lack of sleep.)

- She's turned into quite a tease and giggles over the silliest things. It used to take a lot to make her laugh so listening to her say "funny" and giggle about something is such a joy. She's such a happy little girl and is developing a real sense of humor but she does have a short fuse so there's usually an outburst or two a day when something doesn't go right but they're short-lived.

- She still carries her wet cloth around and sometimes sticks it on her head and says "nice hat".

- She's become a bit braver and will now go on the swing at the park and down the slide on her play structure. She's mastered climbing up the basement stairs and is getting pretty good at going down. Thankfully we've had no falls yet.



Collecting leaves on a walk by the river.



Walking a mile in dad's shoes.


- Bryn calls her aunts by something they've done with her. There's Auntie Bubbles (LeighAnn, who blew bubbles with her), Auntie Spizer (Simone sings Itsy Spider), Auntie Chele Fries (Michele bought her fries), Auntie Cheese (Carey fed her cheese from a pizza) and Auntie Nonie Cookie, an easy one to figure out.

- She has a picture of Girard and me she carries around and looks at and says "mom, dad, fammia". (Translation: family.)

- She still loves to dance and listen to music and has started singing along to some songs. She sings Wheels on the Bus, Head and Shoulders, Ring Around the Rosy, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle, Pat-A-Cake and a few obscure ones Girard has taught her. She misses a lot of the words but it's so much fun to listen to her.

- She's back into her books big time and has started to really play with her toys instead of just spreading them around the living room. She likes her Mega Blocks and picture puzzles and loves to draw.



Reading with Nana who came to visit us last week.



Hanging out with Papa, who was here to spend Bryn's 1st Thanskgiving with us.


- We have magnetic letters and numbers on our fridge and she can pick out "m for mom", "d for dad", "b for Bryn" and "j for Jessie". I'm not quite sure if she's made the connection between a number and an amount but she recognizes 0, 1, 4 and 8. She counted to 5 the other day. (Her Nana, who was visiting, just about fell off her chair.)

- We continue to be amazed at her vocabulary. Because she repeats everything we say we really do try to watch ourselves. But we are human and slip up from time to time so for a few days Bryn was saying "Holy cap". Girard has since taught her to say either gadzooks or omigosh. Her sentences are often 3 or 4 words now. Some of her bigger words are necaween (nectarine), dinosaur, addidator and umbrella (I can't figure out how to spell that one the way she pronounces it though).





Helping with the yard work.


- During a summer visit, Bryn's cousin Brianna was teaching Bryn her colors. At 17 months old, that wasn't about to sink in but she loved saying yellow. For the longest time everything was "yewow" which is interesting because ever since China yellow has been her favorite color. It took her awhile but she finally figured out what yellow was. Now she knows yellow, purple, black, brown, green, blue and orange. She's turned into quite a tease as she always starts off by pointing to something and saying "yewow" with a big grin on her face. Of course our response is "that's not yellow!" and she giggles and tells us what color it really is.

- She'll spend hours watching the videos posted on her China sisters' blogs. Now she's wanting to watch the photos and can't quite figure out why they don't move.

As I was rocking Bryn to sleep last night she was so full of energy and chatter and giggles it was taking forever to put her down. At one point she held up her index finger and said "one". Yes, that's right, I said. Then she started saying "one finger." I'd say yes, that's right, good for you! and she'd laugh. Over and over this went til finally she held up both index fingers, looked at them and said "Two ones." I think I'm suffering from information overload -- I can't possibly absorb all this amazing child has to show me in a day.

Dim Sum

Yesterday we met Shea and Caia for dim sum. The girls had tons of fun eating their noodles and sticky rice while Shea, Girard and I had a great visit and enjoyed a delicious lunch.

I can't believe how well Caia eats with a fork. Not a kiddies' plastic fork but a real piece of cutlery. Bryn, on the other hand, still chooses to use her fingers most of the time. I'm pretty sure her thinking is she can eat more that way, which turns out to be true. She managed to wolf down most of the noodles while Caia sat like a little lady next to her, patiently using her fork to eat most of her lunch. She did eventually resort to using her fingers but she probably knew she didn't have a hope in heck of getting her share if she continued to be polite.



Mmmm...noodles!



An after lunch rest with wet cloth and blanket.

More Giggles

What makes stomping your feet so funny I can't quite figure out, but this qualified as a knee slapper for Bryn!


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When Dad's In Charge

The hardest thing about the past week has been not being able to pick up Bryn. As some of you know, I'm recovering from surgery. The 4 days I spent in the hospital without my baby were hell. It was the first time I'd been away from her for more than a few hours at a time and it was awful.

It's heaven to be home with her again, but it's so hard not to be able to pick her up. She stands at my feet and says "up, up, up" and when I say "I'm sorry, dolly, mom can't" she says "mom, owie" and then says "up, up, up" again. It's extra hard when she wakes in the night and calls for me and I can't go get her out of her crib and rock her back to sleep. It breaks my heart. How do you make a 19-month-old understand such a thing? The next few weeks will be hard, though quite likely harder on me than Bryn!

The second hardest thing as been watching her dad dress her. I think he's gone color-blind and I hadn't realized he was so fashion-challenged. The first few days I was home I didn't say much. But after seeing the outfit pictured below I decided I had to step in and take over. I'm now back to picking out Bryn's clothes each day. In Girard's defense, I suppose I should mention Bryn was the one who insisted on wearing her housecoat!



A fashion don't: Red shirt, blue and grey fleece sweatpants, bright pink slipppers and peach housecoat. All very pretty clothes on their own, but certainly not together! (Though she still looks adorable.)


The upside to all of this is we're fortunate Girard is able to get time off work and can be home for a few weeks so we have more time to spend together. He's taught Bryn to call her stuffed teddies "Da Bears" and she watches football with him and says "hut, hut", though not always at the right time. Ah, the influence of a man.

Thanks to everyone for your concern and all the get well wishes while I was in the hospital and since I've been home. And an extra special thanks to my best friend, Cath, who is always there when I need her and Simone for coming to help Girard while I was in the hospital.