Braelynn Fiona | 10 1/2 Year Old Update

Half Birthday Backyard Portraits in Irwin PA

Every year, for the kids’ “half-birthdays”, I take them out & do some fun portraits of them. With Braelynn being born in January and Leander born in December, I knew that we would never be able to do “fun”, warm and glowy, outdoor “birthday” portraits – so I have simply compromised with “half-birthday” portraits every year. And it’s so much fun!

Guys, I did it.
For the first time (maybe ever) I actually took my children’s “half-birthday portraits” fairly close to their actual half-birthdays.
I feel like I should receive some sort of award.

Typically, we are so busy in the summer that I just forget to take these photos until August rolls around and I panic because technically I’m late to the game (and if you know me, you know I’m NEVER late to anything). Leander’s half birthday falls in June and Braelynn’s in July – so the first week of July is truly the sweet spot and for once, I actually accomplished this goal right on time.

Like I said, I’ll take my award now. (It feel so good to check this box and have these photos done!)

So, without further ado, here is a little summer, half-birthday update on our sweet Braelynn Fiona:

If you can’t tell, Braelynn’s looks have changed pretty dramatically over the last few months, and that’s due to her getting braces. Back at the beginning of the year, we went through all the consultation-and-prep process to get her ready for braces and in February, the party officially started. As our orthodontist told us: they don’t normally do braces on 10 year olds, but Braelynn is a “special case”. One of her adult teeth started growing in in the wrong spot – very much wrong. It was behind some of her other teeth – so not only did it need to be pulled forward, but it needed pulled out as well. Neither Derrick or I ever had braces, so this whole process has been amazing for us to watch. Her teeth have moved so fast and so smoothly – it’s incredible how much better they look after just a few months of braces! We still have a few more months in this “Phase 1” treatment plan – and then they’ll re-assess how things are and determine whether they need to move forward with a “Phase 2” or if this first phase was enough. She’s been a champ through the whole process – I’m so proud of her!
Braelynn can officially say that she has traveled out of the country! Last weekend, we visited Canada for the first time – and on her observation: “It seems just like America.” We took a weekend trip up to Canada’s Wonderland (a sister amusement park to Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kings Dominion). We had a lot of fun, but mostly just loved finally getting to use our passports!
Braelynn has become a master crochet-er. She learned how to crochet last summer and quickly took off making anything her imagination could come up with. I tried to teach her to read a pattern, but she found it too cumbersome and slow, so she just created things on her own (and I must say: she’s really done an amazing job – teaching herself to increase, decrease, change colors, she’s learned different stitches) – but just a few weeks ago, she decided she wanted to make something more complicated. I printed her off a pattern, taught her what the abbreviations meant, and she went to town. It’s absolutely INCREDIBLE how quickly she picked it up and how amazing her project has turned out! As of me writing this, she’s just 3 steps away from finishing a full-blown Stitch stuffed animal (from Lilo and Stitch). It looks AMAZING and I’m so proud of her!
Over the last few months, this kid has been going through a major growth spurt! She’s gotten so tall – she can almost look me straight in the eye!! I can no longer hug her and rest my head on top of her head – this just boggles my mind! She’s gotten SO tall so fast – and I don’t think she’s quite through her growth spurt yet!
This fall, Braelynn will start 5th grade! (Just like with her being so tall, I’m not sure how 5th grade is possible?!) I think we’ll probably actually start school (slowly) in the next few weeks. I got all of our books in a few months ago and they all look so fun! Both Braelynn and Leander will be doing zoology for science this year, plus a really cool social studies program that highlights different states in our country – she might not be super crazy about starting school again, but I am!
She still loves riding her bike, riding her scooter, and roller blading – and is sure to break out her wheels any chance she gets! We’ve gone to the park so she can ride her bike and we found a small skate park close by she can roller blade at. She is VERY active!
Braelynn remains best friends with a group of girls at church – they’re all so sweet to each other and truly love being together. It’s so fun to see them together at church and to hang out at each other’s houses. I’m so thankful that our social butterfly of a daughter has a wonderful group of friends! (And never forget: her cousins remain her besties too! Even though most of her cousins are a little bit younger than her, she still loves them all and really enjoys being their ring-leader!)
Yep, Braelynn still has about a million stuffed animals. I told her that she didn’t have to bring them to our photos, but she was offended I would even say such a thing, because she always brings her favorite stuffed animals for half-birthday photos! (So, a large bag was gathered up and came with us.) Her most treasured stuffies remain Fluff and Sprinkles (two very well-loved dogs), but she bought a Light Fury Dragon at Epic Universe earlier this summer, which has been very well loved as well.
Speaking of which, both Braelynn and Leander have become quite obsessed with How To Train Your Dragon over the last year – from the movies, to the TV show, to the “real” movie coming out, to us visiting Epic Universe (Universal Orlando’s brand new theme park) and getting to explore the Isle of Berk in real life – meet Astrid and actually pet Toothless. We all very much love How To Train Your Dragon, but Braelynn and Leander in particular are obsessed!! (There are a few photos below of Braelynn in her Light Fury mask!)
The other set of characters she’s very much obsessed with right now are Lilo and Stitch. We watched the movie one night when Derrick was out of town for a work-trip, and the kids have been obsessed every since. (Thus her wanting to crochet herself a Stitch stuffie!)
She remains a purely creative artist – constantly drawing, painting, or creating something (sometimes a few too many projects get rolling at once and she becomes a bit overwhelmed). I love to see her creativity and what her brain comes up with! She’s very talented.
If you ask Braelynn what she wants to be when she grows up, she almost always answers: “I want to walk dogs.” She’s very much obsessed with dogs (even more intensely than when we had a dog). She gets dog books out from the library almost every week, she draws dogs on the regular, and she asks on a very regular basis when we will be getting another dog. To be honest: we’d love to get another dog, but it has to be the right dog and the right time. So, while we miss having a dog, we’re content not to have one for right now. That doesn’t stop Braelynn from dreaming of owning 100 dogs though and learning everything she can all about them!
Lastly, I know I already mentioned that she’s very social, but she’s taken up a very special friendship with our next-door neighbors (a sweet retired couple). She’s constantly popping over to their front porch to “show Karen something” or “tell Bob something”. They’re so sweet with her (and Leander) but we’ve been trying to teach her: you don’t have to show up and talk their ears off for hours at a time. Braelynn’s also garnered a special friendship with Derrick’s Aunt Dot. They write letters to each other and are pen-pals and it’s just so sweet!