Braelynn // 18 Month Update

I can hardly believe it, but my little munchkin turned a whopping 18 months old this week!
She is such a little princess and is growing like a weed. She literally learns something new (sometimes good things and sometimes bad things) every single day & it is SO exciting!

Here’s a little update on what she’s up to these days!

She is madly in love with Daniel Tiger. Obsessed, infatuated, head-over-heels, crazy. She affectionately calls him “Danny” and could literally watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood all day long. She watches a show every morning while I answer emails and the last few weeks, she’s been picking Daniel over Baby Einstein (her previous love) – it’s just another sign that she’s growing up! We are going to Idlewild next week & I cannot wait for her to meet Daniel in person!! It is going to be so much fun to ride the kiddie-land rides based around his Neighborhood, watch the little shows they put on, and even get to MEET him!! My little Mama heart will probably explode! (we’re just hoping she isn’t scared of seeing a life-size version of her idol like some little kids *cough* like I was *cough* are)

She has a daily increasing vocabulary! A little over a month ago, she put her first 2 words together and they were: “more cheese” – what a kid. Since then, her 2 word sentences have since increased to “Thank-you Mama” and “Oh no” and “Oh boy” and “Bye-bye Abby”. She’s becoming steadily more and more proficient at repeating what you say, for example, we had to wish her little friend Xavier a happy birthday last week, and she could say “Happy” “Birth” – but the “Day” part was a little tricky, so it was “Happy .. Birth!” He just turned 2, so he speaks her language.

Abby is her very best friend. Braelynn asks for her literally the moment her eyes pop open in the morning. She can regularly be found laying on Abby, giving her hugs, reading her books, and feeding her treats (she discovered where we keep them, so now that cupboard is kept locked). She tells her “Bye-bye” every time we leave the house and has to give her good-night kisses before bed.

She is a pro at climbing up and down the stairs, climbing up and down off of the couches, climbing up and down off of our bed – basically, she’s a little monkey. She tries so so hard to jump, but still can’t figure out how to get both feet off of the ground at the same time. She does really well in the car, which is fabulous considering that we travel almost every single weekend! And she’s a pretty decent eater, but loves graham crackers and Cheerios and Kiefer smoothies the most.

She still doesn’t sleep thru the entire night and I think her morning nap is quickly coming to an end. She loves swimming at the lake (she cries when we arrive in the evening and can’t go straight down to the water) & would rather walk than ride in the stroller. Her tiny little feet have finally grown & we’ve moved into a size 5! WOOHOO! She is the proud owner of 12 teeth!! She literally went from having 4 to 12 in the space of about 6 weeks – she was doing really well and almost sleeping thru the night until that happened and then it was all over! She is very attached to her blankie, baby, bunny, and bear – and loves every stuffed animal she can get her hands on. She also has this funny attachment to washcloths? She loves to gather them up and carry a whole pile of them around – weird!

In a nutshell, we can’t imagine life without her. Anytime she isn’t with us, all we do is talk about how much we miss her and wish she were with us. She is our little sunshine, our super smiley, friendly lovebug, and we simply adore her!

To celebrate her half birthday, we did a little photoshoot! My thought was: since she has a January birthday (meaning, no fun outdoorsy photos for her birthday), we decided to go all out & have some fun with her half birthday! We combined all of her favorite things: reading, her blankie, bunny, & baby, and her big lion that was a (generous) gift from the Bacorns.