Braelynn // 45 Month Update

When we found out that I was pregnant with Braelynn and our midwife told us that her due date would be February 1, I had two thoughts.

ONE: I hope she’s born in February – that way her birthday can be as far from Christmas as possible (and I totally assumed that she would be born in February – most first babies are late, right? Which would explain why I never had any of those “hurry up & get here” feelings (I was settling in for at least 2 more weeks of being pregnant) & when my water broke on January 25, I was completely shocked).
And TWO: I am going to do fun, themed photoshoots with her every summer for her “half birthday” since we won’t be able to do too much around her winter birthday.

So, I might be a little late on this year’s shoot, but who’s actually counting (and this pregnant Mama gets props for not forgetting & actually carrying through!) This year we did a “Teddy Bear Picnic” theme & it was so much fun (we even had a few “special guests” show up mid-way through our shoot!)

If you’d like to see what we’ve done the last 2 summers, here is Braelynn’s 30-Month Update here, and her 18-Month Update here!

A few of Braelynn’s latest “accomplishments”:

• This little lady is a talker. She will literally talk your ear off! Most of the time it’s really fun, especially as most days it’s just the two of us at home, or going grocery shopping, or whatever. She loves to talk and talk and talk and talk. She has a comment to make about absolutely everything & if she doesn’t have an opinion on a subject, she’s probably asking the question, “Why?” Like I said, most of the time it’s fun, but sometimes it can get a bit grating (especially when she makes the same statements over & over & over again!)
• She is so friendly with just about everyone we come across. If someone smiles & says hello to her, she will smile & say hello back. If someone compliments her in some way while we’re out, she will smile & say, “Thank you.” She has no problem talking to waitresses & ordering her own food at restaurants and has a special friendship with our neighbor over the fence (he’s a super sweet older gentleman who always talks to Braelynn & gives Abby treats!)
• She is still obsessed with Daniel Tiger (I’m okay if this one never goes away). It’s pretty much the only show she watches on TV. Her other favorite is an Amazon Prime show that is based on the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” set of books. “Danny” Tiger still reigns supreme though and she constantly asks if we can go back to visit him at Idlewild.
• She loves watching roller coaster videos on YouTube with her Daddy. She constantly talks about how she wants to get bigger so she can go ride the “big” roller coasters with him! (Can you say “indoctrinated”?)
• She is super imaginative! She has several plastic boxes full of small figures: they range from princesses to animals to Disney characters to Daniel Tiger & friends. She also has a Fisher Price pink castle (with a bunch of Fisher Price people too) and also a Playmobile set of zoo animals & enclosures. She will sit for hours at a time, setting everything all up, and reenacting all of these little stories. It is absolutely adorable to watch & even more fun to listen to (because everyone talks to each other). Her imagination is super creative & absolutely beautiful!
• She loves to learn & is very much interested in “school”. My Mom has been doing little alphabet activities with her whenever Braelynn spends a morning at Grandma’s house (due to Mama having a doctor’s appointment or meeting). And I have a Pre-K workbook for her at home that we’ve started working in too! She is fascinated by letters and numbers and is hungry to understand what it all means.
• She is a crazy backseat driver. She is quick to point out when the light has turned green, is constantly criticizing mine & Derrick’s driving (“Why are you stopping here?” “You should drive faster” “This isn’t the way to get to Grandma’s house.”) It makes me just a little bit worried about the future.
• She is a super good eater, as she will eat just about anything that’s set in front of her. Her only problem is that she is easily distracted and will quickly “forget” about eating while we’re sitting at the table (instead, picking up her pieces of chicken & making it dance across the back of her chair, or getting lost in creating her own song). We’ve really been working on teaching her that when we sit down to eat, we need to eat. It’s a work in progress.
• Her best friend continues to be Auntie Ruby. If you ask her who her other friends are, she’ll tell you Auntie Amy, Cameron, and “the girls” (her cousins Abby & Bekah). She is a bit obsessed with her Auntie Ruby still & I’m just thankful that even though Ruby is getting older (and moving into her teenage years), that she still loves to play & hang out with Brealynn. I hope their friendship never dims.
• She is 100% potty trained & just within the last few weeks, we’ve been letting her sleep at night in her panties too (knock-on-wood)! For a long time, she was definitely 100% potty trained, but we still put her in pull-ups whenever we were going to be in the car for long periods of time and overnight – I think Mommy & Daddy just had to get to the point of trusting her & now we’re 100% pull up free!
• Her love affair with stuffed animals continues! For a while, she had some die-hard favorite “stuffies” (that’s what she calls them), but now she seems to pick a new favorite every few weeks. She is an “equal-opportunity-stuffie-lover”. She also loves baby dolls. She got a set of twin babies for her birthday back in January (they came with bottles & pacifiers & blankets & clothes) and she loves caring for them!
• Speaking of which, she is so excited to be a big sister!! She talks to her baby brother every single day (by pressing her entire face into my belly) and asks at least 3 times a day if the baby is coming “soon”? She has bounced back quite well after being convinced that the baby was a girl, although she still calls the baby a “her” on a regular basis. She proudly tells everyone that she is going to be a “big sister” and that she is going to share all of her toys with her new brother.
• Her relationship with Abby has turned from one of love & adoration to a little bit of – torture. She loves to put the leash on Abby & lead her around the house. Then she’ll lock her upstairs in her bedroom so Abby can’t ruin her “fort” (another obsession lately: piling up all of the pillows from our couches & creating little fortresses for herself). Thankfully, Abby is the best-behaved pup in the world & doesn’t seem to mind the torture at all.