Two of Bryanna's favorite things to do nowadays is to color (coworing) and name colors. I have been waiting for this day forever! I love to color, and it's something easy to do and she will sit and do it for a while.

 coloring with neigh (horse)

neigh lap

naming her colors

On our drive back to CT this weekend, we decided that we were going to get rid of the binky. Bryanna has only used it at bedtime for almost a year and we figured it was time to take it away completely.

Sunday night was the night. I snipped the tip off the binky and set it in the crib - I wanted her to discover it that way. She picked it up, looked at it, looked at us and said "binky broke." She handed it back to me and didn't want it after that. I think it was because she understood it didn't "work" anymore. I made her put it in her mouth to feel it and she gave it back to me again. It took her a little longer to get to sleep that night. I was worried about nap time the next day but she did pretty good, just tossed and turned a little. The next couple of days she would say binky broke before bed time but that was it.

We took her to Build-A-Bear today so that she could put her binky in an animal of her choosing. Cows are her favorite animal now and she has been saying moo-cow a lot, so in my head she was going to pick the cute cow with the cute farmer outfit. What does she go and do but pick the UGLIEST animal there! LOL. I knew this would happen. We tried swaying her to get the cow or the monkey, but she would not let go of this bunny. She loves bunnys and her blankie is a bunny, so maybe that's why? Who knows what she sees in this thing - but it's cute how much she was instantly attached.

placing binky in her new lovey

next comes the heart - I even got to put one in!

leaving the store

happy

meet "Ruff Ruff" - yes, that is what she named it

kissing Ruff Ruff

 I love Ruff Ruff

 Playing peek-a-boo (Bryanna calls it peek-a-bee) with Ruff Ruff

binky
 

ewwww - what she says when something is dirty or gross
She still loves this song and goes crazy every time she hears it!



Bryanna is getting really good at walking -it is pretty much her way of getting around now. She gets right back up when she falls and is getting pretty fast too. When I came home the other day she practically ran from the other room shouting Mommy, Mommy!

Ok, this is pretty sad/embarrassing. We ran out of diapers and I was desperate! I found a sample of these large diapers and got creative...I cut the sides and used packaging tape to fit them to her body - you just gotta do what you gotta do when your a mommy!

love her
 

loving her daddy
we need to get those cabinet doors painted! 
brownies...yum yum (num num as Bry says)
Enjoying the first real snow this year (1/21)
first time shoveling the driveway and he loves it!

We've been keeping pretty busy lately. Our week usually starts out by going to My Gym on Monday's. Tuesday is usually a slow day, but sometimes we meet friends for walks or go grocery shopping. Wednesday's we hit up the library and if it's nice out the playground afterwords. Thursday evenings we go to My Gym again for free play and Friday's we go to our friend's Sue and Ty for "music class" and playing with friends...it's a busy week but we both enjoy it. I think it's really important to give Bryanna some social interaction and we have fun and learn things at the same time!

Some new words Bry is saying is No, Mine, Bib, Wee (when doing something fun), Please (bee), bib, yellow (lello) and has started putting two words together (mommy bye bye, mommy all gone, baby night night, daddy all done).


I don't know what it is with these toys but Bryanna is obsessed! I was at Babies R Us one day and she spotted the first one (on the left). I figured why not, she likes it and it's only $3 - I didn't know what I was getting into! She thought it was a kitty and so the whole way home all that you heard was meow, meow...this went on for weeks. We finally decided to look them up and it is a chihuahua! I figured it was one of those Japanese type toys but they actually make tons of cute little animals. They are called Only Hearts Pets - the mini ones and I've only seen them at Toys R Us. We have officially started a collection. We go to Toys R Us sometimes for something to do...Bryanna has fun walking around, picking out toys and playing with them - at the end of the trip she gets to pick out one of these pets (she usually picks a white one, so we persuede her to pick a different one). We have 4 so far but there are like 80+ of these things!

we have heat! Scott loving our new fireplace
 making pizza with Daddy
Christmas was fun this year. Bryanna loved opening her gifts and couldn't get enough. She was so funny, whenever she would get clothes, she would open the box and then throw the clothes behind her and go for the next gift - I need to fix this! 

 

dress from Grandma Neal
 

Bryanna's favorite gift this year

We were lucky to have Christmas through New Years to spend time with family. As usual, we drove all over Rochester visiting family - it was so nice catching up with everyone and Bryanna had fun playing with her cousins!

I was excited to be able to meet my new niece - sad to leave Bryanna and Scott and wish they could have come with me - but excited to see Jess and hold Audrey. I left out of the Buffalo Airport Dec. 28th and came home on the 31st. She is such a little sweetheart and I'm so glad I was able to spend the time with them.

I know a post is long over due and I still have to blog about Christmas and many other things but I had to post this because it's so exciting!!! Bryanna took her first independent steps on January 5th - it was during her My Gym class. After that night, she showed no interest in walking at all until last night. Bry was standing in front of me and kept letting go of me to stand by herself - she was having fun with it and we were both laughing. You should have seen the concentration on her face and of course her hand was moving around like crazy (like it does when she is excited). Scott came into the room and asked her to walk toward me. When this usually happens, she will bend her knees to sit or start whining but this time she started laughing and walked right to me!! We kept passing her back and forth for about 20 minutes - she was laughing to whole time. You could tell she was getting a little tired but she kept wanting to walk, so we kept going and of course she fell right on her nose and got a bloody nose. I was scared that would set her back but it didn't, thank God! We went to My Gym today and she pretty much walked around the whole time - like she's been doing it forever. We are so excited and proud of her!

Happy Birthday Daddy - we celebrated Scott's birthday this year with some chicken voila (the microwavable dinner kind) and a redbox $1 movie - I had visions in my head of making a cake and having Bryanna help mix the batter but we didn't have any bowls or utensils...there is always next year!


We finally moved in to our new house (well, partially)! Tonight will be our 3rd night sleeping here, the house looks like a disaster, there are boxes everywhere, we still don't have cabinet doors (still have to paint those) and I have no clue where to put anything! I know we will get everything figured out, eventually, but I hate looking at this mess. To finish off the living room, we need base molding, molding around the ceiling, molding around the window and door and I have to paint the baseboard cover. We finally got our refrigerator in last night with the help of one of Scott's friends. Nothing is ever easy, so he had to take off all the doors on the refrigerator to get it in the house - 1.5hrs later they got it in - I never thought I would be so lost without a refrigerator! I cooked our first meal tonight, it's been a while since we have had a healthy, home-cooked meal - we've pretty much been living off of Burger King for the last few weeks! The kitchen is painted, except for the cabinet doors, which is the last thing that needs to be done to finish that room. The dining room needs to be sheetrocked, painted and the baseboards need to be painted too. Bryanna's room needs to be sheetrocked and carpeted, the fireplace room needs a new stove and to be painted and the spare bedroom needs to be painted - got all that! There is so much left to do and we are trying not to get overwhelmed, but it's hard!

Bryanna had her 18 month appointment on her 18month birthday. She cried harder when she saw the doctor than when she got the shots! There are a few men that scare her and he is one of them! She is in the 75th percentile for length and weight - so pretty consistent there. I voiced my concern about her not walking on her own yet and with her being so verbal, walking by holding onto one finger, and cruising around everywhere, he isn't concerned at all. He mentioned she has good leg strength and thinks she is just scared and has to gain confidence first. If she isn't walking on her own by 21 months, he will refer us for PT. Her latest thing is walking around everywhere on her knees - not sure if that is progress toward walking but from what I've read online, a lot of perfectly healthy babies walk late and some knee walk first so we will see!

She is really good at putting her socks and shoes on - she is growing up too fast!

loves measuring things, just like Daddy

our happy girl

We have spent the last month going back and forth between houses, cleaning, painting, putting up drywall, getting new windows put in, getting our hardwood refinished, cleaning again and painting some more! We feel terrible about it, but we have had no time to get a tree or put up any Christmas decorations - what a terrible time to buy a house! Everyone keeps reminding me that Christmas is this Sunday - I just can't believe it! We went to Lowes the other day to look for a tree and they literally had 5 trees, they were short and bare - we thought about just grabbing one up and calling it our charlie brown tree but thought we could get something better. Today was the day to go see Santa and get a tree. We got to the mall, waiting in line for 30 minutes to see Santa, and everything was great. Bryanna was blowing Santa kisses from the line and waving and smiling at him, then all hell broke loose. Once we got up close, I think she realized it was a person and started screaming! I knew this was going to happen, but wasn't totally sure because of how excited she was to see him. We actually don't care that it isn't the perfect smiley picture - it portrays perfectly how she was at the time and shows how much of a scardy cat she is! LOL Next was tree shopping. We went to Sears and Target thinking that maybe we could get a cheap fake tree, since we are only going to have it up for a few days anyway, but you can't buy one under $150, so a live tree it was. We tried Lowes again - all gone, next was Walmart - all gone too, our last stop was the local garden store and they were open! So, $40 later, we have a tree, a very wet tree at that, but at least we have one! You can't have Christmas without a tree because how will Santa know where to put the gifts?

Killing time, waiting for Santa

Santa


Lowes - no trees

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