Brielle's sense of fashion

Brielle is starting to ask for specific clothing items when we're getting her dressed in the morning- she'll say "want dress", "want jeans", and "boots on"... and this has been a popular combination lately:)

Her dress is actually a swimsuit coverup-- a birthday gift from Matt & Natalie.  The rain boots were a birthday gift from Grandpa Ted & Grandma Carol.

Here's another variation of the outfit:

John, 8 1/2 months

Brielle has been given most of the attention on the blog in recent posts, so here are some photos of John.

He is mastering how to feed himself Cheerios.  This is the high chair at my parents' house, and it's the very same high chair that my sisters and I used.  

He still has his dimple!  Looks like he is flirting with the camera.

This is John's pose-- he does this a lot!  And not just when the camera is on him.  While he's crawling, this is how he stops to look around.  Tim says John is working on his external abdominal obliques.

"California, Chicago"

Birthday Party

We had a fun birthday party for Brielle at my parents' house... with balloons, Happy Joe's Pizza, a flower-shaped cake, and Whitey's ice cream.

Brielle & her 13 cousins... they are all in there somewhere!  Some are hidden behind the others.   John was sleeping.

Just a little taste of the frosting:)... that's what birthday girls are supposed to do before they blow out the candles, right?

Some help from Elly, Connor & Sam to blow out her candles... 

...mmmmm....

...and ready to head home with her new purse & dog in hand.

Birthday Cake #1

Tim made a chocolate cake for Brielle.  Grandma B stopped by because she was in the neighborhood, so she joined us for some cake & ice cream.  Brielle still thinks ice cream is so cold, and she doesn't care for it... yet. 

ooooh... Brielle's nose discovered that lit candles are hot!

Thank you Jenny!

...more birthday photos to come later this week...

she asked for bows and for pigtails

...and she asked me to put about 12 more barrettes in her hair too:)

getting quicker

I'm kind of impressed sometimes by how quickly he moves doing this army crawl... it seems like more work than if he'd get up off his belly, but I guess he's getting efficient- so why change something if it's working for you?  As they say, change takes a lot of effort.

Happy 2nd Birthday Brielle!

Today Brielle turns 2... we're having a birthday party on Saturday:)

sleepover with Josie

Brielle & Josie enjoyed a 3-night-sleepover while Josie's parents were enjoying a Mexican vacation.  The girls both slept in Brielle's bed.  Here they are watching one of Brielle's new favorite shows, "Charlie & Lola."   

7am this morning

play like a girl

John, 7 1/2 months

just playing around

flipping through the Sunday ads

I like reading the paper during breakfast, and Brielle has picked up the habit.  She chose the Target ad... and, on her own, noticed the advertisement for the Madagascar 2 movie.  

"I like to move it, move it."  

Jenny & Alexia showed her the Madagascar YouTube video over Christmas, and Brielle talks about it often:).  We don't have the Madagascar movie yet, but now we have an idea for her upcoming birthday!

they call this...

the army crawl:)

(Yes, I was using a little "bait" so he'd crawl for the camera!)

smiley John

Brielle really likes John's "Tractor Book"... and John smiles about almost anything.

After Johnny's bath

Our morning at the hospital

Brielle had a minor outpatient oral surgery procedure last Friday. Everything went very well... thanks to everyone who was thinking & praying for a smooth & safe procedure for her. We knew she was in very good hands with Dr. King, the oral surgeon, & Dr. Sackis, the anesthesiologist. We had wonderful nurses, Lola & Grace, who gently cared for Brielle.

Here we are reading the Dr. Seuss book "Are You My Mother?" and watching cartoons. These distractions helped the hour and a half pass where we had to finish off the 8 hour nothing-to-eat-prior-to-surgery. At 6:50 am, with ten minutes to go before the surgery, she started asking for "milk? orange? macaroni and cheese?" (no, we have never given her mac-n-cheese for breakfast :) )

The sticker on her forehead is actually a thermometer which she wore all morning. What a clever way to monitor the temperature on a 23 month old who isn't crazy about a thermometer in her armpit:).

When Lola came to get her just after 7am, Brielle went right to her, taking along her blanket and stuffed animal moose. Tim & I got out of Brielle's sight while Lola & Brielle walked down the hall to the doors to the OR. Brielle didn't make a peep:). Way to go, Lola... and Brielle. That made it much easier on Mom and Dad.

The surgery was quick as expected- it was over by 7:20 when Dr. King came to give us a perfect report. By 8 am, Brielle was out of recovery and back in our arms, drinking apple juice (12 ounces- she was thirsty!), munching on Cheerios and a cherry popsicle.


Brielle didn't even seem to notice that her upper lip was numb:)... of course, I thought it was cute to capture a photo of her smile with that numb lip.

We only had to wash the shirt twice to get the cherry popsicle out:).

We had to wait an hour and a half after she was out of recovery before we could go home. Here she is playing in the hospital crib... and watching more cartoons.

Brielle was ready to get these yellow hospital jammies off. The only thing she didn't like earlier in the morning was taking her pjs off and putting these on. That's why we put the blue shirt over top-- it seemed to "fix" the problem.

And to finish the morning, a little hide-n-seek with Dad. We were glad she was in such a great mood, and right back to acting like herself. We were able to go home at 9:30am. She slipped right back into her usual routine at home, and didn't complain all weekend about any discomfort. She's healing well, and we're glad to have the surgery behind us:).

calling Alexia