Braelynn Fiona // 6 1/2 Year Old Update

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

Last week, I posted Leander’s half-birthday portraits, along with a little update on our little man. Today: it’s all about our princess!

Here is a little “half-birthday” update on our sweet Braelynn Fiona:

• We have officially started 1st Grade (but shhhh, don’t tell Braelynn that, we just call it “workbooks”). She has a super strong aversion to “school”, so we’re focusing on fun, little things to ease us back into our “school” routine. After a summer of traveling & being out-of-rhythm, we all need a little more structure to our days, and so 1st Grade has started. (Don’t worry, for all you people out there horrified that I’m cutting my daughter’s summer short – we’re very relaxed & some days are going by when we don’t do anything! We have a few more roller coaster riding trips planned for this fall – so lots of more “summer fun” before we buckle down & do school every single day.)
• Braelynn tells me, pretty much on a daily basis, that she wants to be an artist when she grows up. This has led to billions of drawings, more paper cut into teeny-tiny pieces than I can count, entire coloring books completed (what kid actually colors every single page in a coloring book?), and markers becoming something we buy on a monthly basis (because she literally draws them dry). I know we did an “art” theme for her summer portraits 2 years ago, but we had to do it “again” this year because she’s still so obsessed with all things art. She gets more & more creative every single day & it’s just incredible to witness.
• While she’s in her own little world creating things, she loves to listen to things. She loves to listen to me read (we’ve read so many fun books together), she loves music, audio stories – you name it – she loves to listen to things while her hands are busy.
• Braelynn is still obsessed with stuffed animals. Derrick estimated the other day that she has “at least one thousand” stuffies – which I think is a gross over-estimate, but it’s probably actually closer to truth than I care to realize. She doesn’t have one thousand stuffed animals in her bedroom, but she probably has one hundred. And then, up in our attic, she has several garbage bags full of stuffies (don’t tell anyone, but they vanish into thin air every few months, shhhhhh). She doesn’t have a particular “favorite”, but a weekly handful that take top spots. Somehow, she even talked us into “collecting” stuffed animals from amusement parks we visit (“Mom, you collect Christmas ornaments – I collect stuffies.”) It’s a bit overwhelming – but they make her insanely happy. And, whenever I suggest that she has too many & we need to bag some up to put away, she is (usually) more than okay to do so.
• Speaking of amusement parks – Braelynn rode her very first “upside down” roller coaster when we were in Florida this spring! Last year, she was right on the edge of being 46″ tall (the next threshold in roller coaster riding) – and this summer she is right on the edge of 48″ tall (once she hits that point, a whole new world of roller coasters opens up to her!) 46″ tall means that she can now ride Racer at Kennywood (& Exterminator, but since it’s a roller coaster in the dark, we won’t be able to get her on it for a while) and that also meant she could ride a roller coaster called Scorpion at Busch Gardens Tampa – which goes upside down. She absolutely loved it & is already looking forward to her next looping coaster (which will happen when she hits 48″)!
• Braelynn is super social – she will literally talk your ears off. She will get on Facetime & talk to her cousin (& BFF) Cameron for hours (that’s not a joke or an exaggeration). Words are constantly pouring forth from her mouth – questions, stories, ideas, plans – she wants to talk about all of it. It’s really fun, but can also be super overwhelming!
• She lost 4 teeth right at the beginning of this year (right around her birthday) and so now all 4 of her adult-teeth are growing in. I feel like the “toothless” phase was way too short – and suddenly she’s looking more & more mature.
• Derrick introduced Braelynn to video games over the winter & she’s obsessed. We got a Nintendo Switch – primarily so that we could all play games together & she’s SO smart with it. Whenever we’re home – Sunday nights are pizza night in our house & lately they’ve become “pizza & Switch” nights – which is a ton of fun.
• She’s become a really big helper around the house – with regular “chores” and jobs she does on a daily basis (although, she keeps asking for an allowance? who put that idea in her head?) She adores her little brother & (for the most part) plays with him really really well. She calls him her best friend & I am obsessed with it. (Now, if I could just get her to clean her room, we’d be golden.)

If you’d like to compare & contrast this summer’s photos with the summers in the past, you can go back & check out her 18-Month Update, 2 1/2 Year Old Update, 3 1/2 Year Old Update, 4 1/2 Year Old Update, & 5 1/2 Year Old Update (you just might want to brace yourself, she’s grown up so much)!