Happy 2nd Birthday, Braelynn!

Tonight is the eve of my precious little babe’s 2nd birthday.

I know it’s super cliche to say, but I literally cannot believe that she’s 2 years old already. I mean, it’s truly amazing. She is growing more and more every single day, right before our eyes, and it’s mind-blowing. She is so smart and so silly and such a stinker sometimes!

Here’s some of Braelynn’s latest accomplishments:

• She is getting more and more vocal every single day. We can just about hold conversation back & forth, it’s hilarious! With her bravery at trying new words & attempting to get her thoughts across, there is a lot that we are suddenly not understanding though. She will jabber on for a good 30 seconds, and then look at you with the most sincere look in her eyes, and I have no clue what she just said. It’s frustrating – I so wish I could understand everything that she’s trying to communicate! Okay, wait, so those statements might be a little misleading: for the most part she does an amazing job at conveying her thoughts and we usually can decipher what she’s saying really well. She’s very very smart. There’s just bubbles of time that I can’t figure out what she’s trying to say and that’s where I wish I could understand everything!
• She loves to read. She will sit for long, long periods of time and just look at books. Since I love to read, it makes my heart so happy to see her love to read too. Sometimes she just looks at her books and won’t say anything, but sometimes she “reads” the stories to herself. Once she reads her books, she’ll stack them in nice neat stacks, it’s so cute. Her current favorite books are The Best Nest, The Pout-Pout Fish, and her 2 Daniel Tiger books.
• Speaking of Daniel Tiger, he is still her favorite and she still lovingly calls him “Danny”. She loves to watch Daniel Tiger, The Little Einsteins, and every once in a while she likes to dig out an old favorite Baby Einstein movie too. Over Christmas, she was quite obsessed with Frosty the Snowman!
• She still is infatuated with stuffed animals. Her collection just keeps on growing & I know it is about to get even larger with her birthday tomorrow! Her favorites still continue to be her original baby doll from her first Christmas, her bunny from her birthday last year, her bear from Dollywood, Daniel Tiger from Idlewild, and recently we’ve added a Katerina plush at Christmas, she’s been quite attached to my Mickey & Minnie Mouse plush from when I worked at Disney, and Auntie Ellen & Uncle Jonathan gave her a big-eyed owl at their wedding since they were going to be on their honeymoon over her birthday. So, she sleeps with all of those fluffies, plus of course, her washcloths. Yes, my child is obsessed with washcloths – she carries them around, wraps her babies in them, wears them on her head – she loves them.
• Speaking of Auntie Ellen & Uncle Jonathan’s wedding, Braelynn had her first official big job as their flower girl and she was amazing. We weren’t sure how she’d do walking down the aisle and tossing her flowers, so I just assumed she would walk with me as I proceeded down the aisle. However, after a few practice runs at the rehearsal, we decided to see if she’d walk down the aisle by herself on Saturday and so when the doors opened, in she went, tossing her petals & snowflakes! I lost it – I’m sure those photos are going to be lovely of me ugly-crying in the background, but it was incredible. She got about half-way down the aisle before she looked up & realized the pews were full of people and that I wasn’t by her side. That’s when she got a little bit turned around and so I walked in to help her get the rest of the way down the aisle. She was so beautiful and so big – my Mama heart simply burst.
• We’ve been working really hard to get Braelynn to sleep all the way through the night, in her own bed, without waking up. It’s been rough. The first week was promising as she got progressively better every night – ending with a night where she slept the whole way through. But it’s been almost 4 weeks now of working on it and she still hasn’t conquered it. And the last few nights have felt like we were taking steps backward – waking up more and more often. So, that’s a tough spot for us right now. We’re determined to keep pushing forward, it’s just really tough on me to keep having to get up and go into her room and console her and give all her babies back (because she throws them all out of her bed when she wakes up) so, hopefully we can figure this sleeping thing out soon! We have a toddler bed for her, so that might be the next thing for us to try, just to see if it makes a difference.
• Braelynn loves to jump – she figured out how to jump a few weeks ago (like legitimately jump with 2 feet off the floor, not just skipping) and now she jumps everywhere. She learned she could jump down the stairs (and then missed a step one day, so that scared her into not doing that anymore – thank the Lord) and just this morning, she learned she could jump off the couch! It’s a little scary, but she loves it and it’s hilarious to watch.
• She remains a pretty good eater. She loves peas, bacon, carrots, ham, pancakes, bananas, pretzels, broccoli, and Cheerios. She loves ice cream and anything sweet, but Derrick & I have really been working at cutting sugar out of our diets, so sweet things truly are a treat for everyone in this house! She has pretty much graduated from sitting in her high-chair/booster seat and now simply prefers to sit on her knees (or stand) on a regular seat just like us.
• Potty training is on the horizon! She’s gone on the potty a few times for us, so it’s time to simply buckle down and get it done! I was waiting until after the wedding because I knew those last 2 weeks leading up to the big day were going to be crazy, but now, here we are on the other side! And it’s time for Mama to get to work! Potty training, here we come!

There’s literally a billion other things I could say, but I’ll stop there! Being as how Braelynn has a January birthday, I have kind of set it in my mind that it’s okay not to have an official “birthday photoshoot” around her birthday. I’ve resolved to doing a fun shoot around her half-birthday in the summer. However! This past weekend, for Auntie Ellen & Uncle Jonathan’s wedding, the temps hit the mid-60’s! So, we took advantage of the weather & ran around outside a bit on Sunday! Enjoy some updated photos of my little munchkin!

Her birthday party is this coming weekend and we have so much fun planned! Stay tuned!