So we are a little off the mark of updating the blog every month, but that is not an indication that we have little to nothing to share. Life is moving as quickly and as fantastically as ever. Bree is just becoming more and more of a little girl every day and it is just such a joy to watch. We celebrated her first Christmas and watched her have more interest in climbing the stairs at Grammy’s than unwrapping presents. She did receive such a generous amount of new toys that “Bree-land” has been completely transformed and we were forced to buy a little three drawer dresser to store a lot of her littler toys that we kept stepping on. She has a new love of anything Little People…thanks completely to our wonderful Aunt Loretta who sent an amazing Little People nativity set for Bree to celebrate Christ’s birth. Bree loved to suck and bite all the pieces especially all the wisemen. She got very upset when the angel was put on top of the manger (where the picture and we all know she is supposed to be). She really never wanted anything where it was supposed to be and learned to throw the manger off the hearth when we least expected it. Mommy and Bree had many talks about not leaving Baby Jesus on the floor, everything about that just seems very wrong even for an 11 month old baby. Not surprising, Mommy did not win that fight so we will have to hope that God has a huge sense of humor (which I’m very sure he does). Bree expanded her Little People collection on Christmas Day with a new Little People SUV and a farm. All the Little People coexist in harmony and eventually take a turn in Bree’s mouth!
Bree also got a lot of toys involving colors and counting; and of course everything makes noise. “Bree-land” is always alive with several songs fighting for Bree’s attention. It’s getting harder and harder for Mommy and Daddy to get any Good Morning America in during our morning coffee.
Bree has also perfected climbing our stairs and we spend a lot of our time running to the baby gate trying to beat out the fastest crawler in the west to shut down that opportunity when it is not time to go upstairs!
We are working on walking and Bree took her first steps on Monday, January 7th. It was truly a surprise as she has been standing up like a pro for many weeks. Sean asked her to come to him and she just took 3 steps, no problem. Now we take three steps and then are back to crawling. Who can blame her, it really is the most reliable mode of transportation at this point. We are trying to give her more and more opportunities to walk towards us and fingers crossed she will be walking by her birthday.
Other exciting changes since the last post involve Julie finally going part-time at her job at UTA on January 7th. She works two full days and one half day every week and she is able to spend the rest of the time with Bree. It is definitely a time of adjustment as Julie learns how it feels to stay at home with Bree all day and learn about her wants and needs. We are quickly establishing a great morning and afternoon nap routine and it is such a great feeling to wake up on my two off mornings and know that Bree and Mommy have nowhere to be. Julie is really learning about slowing down and cherishing moments and taking the time to do things we have only rushed through before. She is taking on a new love of cooking and has been trying recipes she has been thinking about but never experimented with in the past couple weeks. Our evening time has really become family time again as most of the chores are able to be accomplished when Bree is napping during the day. We both know that this is going to be a great arrangement and are again so thankful for the opportunity.
We are less than two weeks away from Bree’s first birthday. We keep talking about how it felt a year ago at this time when we thought Bree would be here each and everyday we woke up and then discovered that she wasn’t ready until 6 days that engrained DUE DATE. What an adventure this past year has been for all of us. We have been so blessed to have such a healthy and really easy baby (God please don’t test us with B). We have also been so blessed to have such loving family and friends around to keep us grounded and better yet included in their lives. We want to thank everyone for making our first year as parents truly unforgettable. We can’t wait to see Bree grow into toddlerhood and cause us to question our sanity. Her ability to ignore “NO” is becoming alarmingly clearer and clearer everyday…she definitely is going to be quite an explorer and we would expect nothing less!
We have December pics posted…ENJOY!
