What's New With Bryn?

Well let me tell you. Bryn is a cute little curly-headed baby. The most frequently-asked question I get from the out-of-towners about her is whether she's a fluent walker these days. The answer is definitely yes, and has been for a couple months. She's quite skilled on the stairs as well. She taught herself to go up and down them a long time ago and is now going down them the grown-up way. She'll sit on a step, put her feet on the next one and stand on it, then scoot onto her bum and do it again, all the way down. I for one am impressed. Second most frequently-asked question is how many teeth she has. Last time I checked it was six. 2 on bottom and 4 on top.

I find several things particularly lovable about her right now.

Her honey-colored curly locks.

Her extreme excitement for baths - she tries really hard to launch herself over the side of the tub fully-clothed when she hears the water start.

Sweet hugs that she gives to Mommy.

Obsession with books. If she sees one of her faves she'll get to it as quickly as possible and then climb on you and stick it in your face until you read it to her. She used to say "moo" while doing this, which I found quite endearing.

Her good eating habits - especially with fruit. She'd eat it nonstop all day if I'd let her. She goes crazy in the strawberry patch.

And a few skills: smelling flowers, and making the right animal sounds for fish, cows, and snakes (which is my personal favorite).

We graduated from the highchair to a booster a few months ago when we couldn't keep her from standing up in the high chair. And she's also down to one nap a day.

AND she now has her own room, because we moved Addison up to the loft.

We currently have two main challenges with her. Number one (which I think might be on the way out) is that she loves her mommy just a little too much. Last week she wanted to be held all the time, and would throw a tantrum when I was up to my elbows in dishes or laundry or hot frying pans (which was often). Not particularly enjoyable.

Number two is her morning schedule. Ugh. For the past couple weeks it's wake-up time between 5:30 and 6:30. And it's not happy singing babbling wake-up time. It's yelling obscenities like only a 14-month-old can despite my retrieving her pacifier seven times and giving her a bottle and throwing stacks of books into her crib. Not cool. But this morning after a 5:45 scare, she went back to sleep until almost 7:30. Oh yeah.

And on a completely different note, this is a pillowcase dress my sister Shauna helped me make for Bryn while she was visiting in July. Stinkin' cute.