Birthday Girl!

Someone had a birthday this week at the Zollinger home! Actually, two people have birthdays this week around here, because tomorrow Greg turns the big 2-9. Only one year til he reaches 30, people. This stuff is serious.

Anyway, all musings on how old Greg is getting aside, this little girl is now officially two! She talks up a storm. Anything that is small is called "baby." As in, when the rainstorm is ending, "Awww, baby thundah, toot!" Anything that is a baby is cute. She calls bows on her clothes butterflies, but only some of them, because, well, not all bows look like butterflies. She is starting to get old enough that she loves playing in her dresses and loves to choose them out herself. Her favorite foods are nacks (fruit snacks), anything with cheese in it, and tookey (turkey). Also she loves tandy (candy), it is so nummy (pretty sure you can guess that one). Anything remotely related to fruit is an apple. Also sometimes potatoes and beans are apples too. She LOVES swinging at the park and would do it all day if I would let her. She is also starting to do things like pretending to be different animals and crawling around the house roaring or whatever. It is so awesome to watch her spunky little personality unfold.

I still can't believe that she was born a whole 2 years ago. Time flies. She gave me a little present on her birthday and fell asleep in my arms before her nap. She hasn't done that in a long time but it was just what I needed to remind me that even though she's getting bigger, she will always be mine.

Last year Brynn was a bit confused about the whole unwrapping presents thing, but this year she dived right in. With her blankie, because...well, I'm not sure. We live in Florida. It's 1000 degrees with 939% humidity.

She got some bottles for her dolly, some books, a puzzle, and some clothes. So a pretty good haul. She also got this set for her dolly...a stroller, swing, and little bed. We spoil her I think. Oh well. She's really cute. SHE NEEDS PRESENTS. Plus, look how much she likes it! She loves anything that has to do with her baby. 

Grandma and Grandpa also got her this little trike, which she found as soon as she woke up and loves. 

She also got this little dress that I made. It was fun to do, although she still needs to grow into it a little bit. 

Fishy cake! And baby fish cupcakes. 

We had a little play group/party at the splash pad with some friends. Brynn refused to play in the splash pad, which was weird, but again, there were swings there, and swinging is life. 

It was a great day to celebrate our little Brynn Eliza. 

I don't mean to get overly sentimental here, but this little girl really saved me two years ago. She was the first child I got to take home with me, the first one I fed, the first one I woke in the dark to hold. We are learning and growing together and I love her so much it almost aches. She is beautiful and strong and sweet...one of my friends called her fierce, and that fits her. Well, Brynn girl, I love you fiercely, so maybe that is where you learned it. 

18 Months!

Happy Valentine's Day! To celebrate we had pink waffles this morning. We are also celebrating the fact that Brynn is 18 months old today! Yay! *And sniff!* 

I can't give you any stats because we haven't had an appointment yet, but I can say that she seems older to me everyday. She "talks" all the time to us. Sounds like this: (with urgency) "Behoo nubad die na daheh die." She likes saying "die" a lot. She used to answer every question "Yeah!" with gusto. But now she has a perfect little sing song "Noooooooo." 

Favorite foods are mac and cheese and any dinner with cream cheese in the recipe. She likes shutting herself in rooms alone, and when I come get her she says "Bye" and tries to shut me out again. She liked going to nursery on Sunday but didn't love it when they turned off the light for nap time (1pm church calls for desperate measures). She screamed and screamed until Daddy heard her all the way across the building in priesthood. She likes taking walks and going to playgroup with friends. She loves to take Mommy and Daddy's books off the shelves and sit on the couch and pretend to read. She also LOVES coloring, but you can't let her do it by herself because she loves chewing on crayons even more than she loves to color. 

Big girl ponytail. 

Reading books with our friends! 

More play time! She also loves to carry my keys wherever she goes. I'm so surprised we haven't lost them yet. 

Church is over people, Truman and I are ready to go! 

Brynn also really loves swinging! She could stay in that swing for hours if I let her. 

Big Girl

I know it's cliche, but I can't believe how big Brynn is getting. I'm so happy to see her grow and play and learn. She's very curious, and that's so fun for us. But sometimes it makes me a tiny bit sad too. I feel like her babyhood is slipping away from me. We waited so long for this, and now she's already almost 8 months old. Where has the time gone? What have I been doing? 

I guess the best way to freeze this time while also celebrating her growing-up accomplishments is to post some videos and pictures, right? Right. 

Playing with Daddy's hat in downtown Philadelphia. Greg's brother's family came into town for conference and we had so much fun going into the city. 

Sipping on her first juice from the Middle Eastern juice bar at Reading Terminal Market, which is officially my favorite place in Philly. 

Big girl sitting in the highchair (mostly we still use the bumbo). 

From yesterday. I was folding laundry and I turned my back for one second. Brynn had been sitting in front of the laundry basket, but when I turned around she was standing up. It's the first time she totally pulled herself into a standing position all on her own, and I missed it! See what I mean? So big. Sniff! 

 Got it all on video a few minutes later:

How we love our darling Brynn Eliza. 

Oh, Brynn. You will never know how happy you have made us. 

Brynn is (kind of) Crawling!

Sorry the quality is pretty bad on this video...I'm still figuring out how to put videos on the blog. I've never had a reason to do it before. 

But now we have a great reason! Little Brynn is starting to crawl around. I'm not actually sure you can call this crawling... It's more just scootching. She kind of has to figure out how to coordinate her legs and arms at the same time. It's just about the funnest thing ever though. I can't believe she's getting so big (sniff!). 

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Now that she's more mobile, I'm going to have to change my Mom Game Plan. Today I left the room while she was playing for like 2 seconds. When I left she was on her back in the middle of her play mat. While I was gone she apparently decided she wanted to play underneath the couch. 

She is pretty dang freakin' cute, if you don't mind my saying so. 

Six Months!

On the 14th, Brynn was six months old! Crazy crazy. At her appointment, she weighed 16 lbs 5 oz and was 26 inches long. She's just about perfectly on the 50th percentile curve...except for her head measurement. Her head is 7th percentile. Obviously it's not a big deal, BUT SOMETIMES IT MAKES ME THINK ABOUT THE ZIKA VIRUS.

Brynn doesn't have any teeth yet, but she likes to eat cereal, bananas, applesauce, avocado, and sweet potatoes. When she's playing on the floor, she can move herself side to side in a big circle, but she hasn't really figured out how to crawl forward yet. We think she might be getting kind of close though! She sleeps 12 hours every night. Yeah. I know I'm lucky. She's curious and can sit and entertain herself for a while when Mom does homework. If she gets lonely, she's pretty happy to sit next to me on the couch while I work. Her favorite toys are Sophie the Giraffe (thanks Lizzy!), the Very Hungry Caterpillar (thanks Sharline!), Daddy's face, and Mommy's hair.

Happy six months Brynn Girl! You make us so happy.

This is a comparison to one of Brynn's newborn sleepers. I can't believe she was ever that teeny tiny!

One day when I was getting some reading done, we snuggled up on the bed, and she fell right asleep. 

Last week we drove to Indiana to spend some time with Greg's brother Kellen and his family. It was so fun! Here's Patrick with Baby Brynn at Reed's basketball game. Pat was such a natural with her! I guess that comes from having 5 younger siblings! (Cameo by Jane) 

First ponytail at Kellen and Calise's house. Oh my gosh. So cute. 

Brynn LOVED playing with her older cousins Ellie and Claire when everyone else was gone at school. She couldn't stop laughing at their silly games! 

Rockin' the sunglasses. We'll have to get a pair when we move back to Florida. 

Grabbing on to Daddy's hand. She would not let go and it was the most adorable thing ever. 

Brynn was playing on the couch while I did homework. Grabbing on to a toy, one sock off and stuck under neath of her...she fell asleep. Sometimes I feel like I'm neglecting her when I do homework, but she can usually take care of herself pretty well. Look

Brynn's new favorite activity is grabbing the edge pieces off her mat so she can suck on them. It makes her really happy and she does it all the time, as you can see: 

Brynn's Blessing

We had a special day here on Sunday. Brynn was blessed at church and we had family in town to be with us. A baby blessing in the LDS faith is similar to a christening, but it is performed by a lay member who has the Priesthood. It was such an amazing experience for me to be able to watch my daughter be blessed by her dad, and I know it was an amazing experience for Greg to be able to do it. 

Blessing her is something we've been looking forward to doing for years. When Austin and Daniel were born they both received blessings. They were very simple and very powerful. It was a window into who they were. I felt the same way at Brynn's blessing. She has her whole life ahead of her. It was a reminder to me that the whole journey of bringing her to our family was never just about "us," if you know what I mean. She has her own life, her own talents, her own strengths. She's going to have her own struggles and make her own choices. She's so little now, but there are so many things she is going to experience. She's not just my beautiful daughter--she is her own person. Maybe that sounds simple and silly, but having this more full picture of who she is just makes me fall in love with her even more. 

I was pretty proud of her blessing dress. I knew she would be a girl the moment we found out we were expecting, and I really wanted to be able to make her a blessing dress. I practiced sewing the whole time I was pregnant so the dress would turn out nice. It was a little big for her, but Grandma Zollinger helped us fix that with a ribbon around her waist. I thought she looked so beautiful and I'm so glad I started the tradition of making my kids' blessing clothes! Hopefully I can keep it up. 

Isn't she lovely though? 

Greg's parents and his brother Morgan's family came into town. It was so fun to have them here! We took Brynn out on some adventures this weekend and just had a blast. 

I'm so happy she is in our family. 

We took some cousin pictures. James was not having any of it! But they still turned out pretty adorable. 

Motherhood is funny. I've never been so consistently exhausted in my life and sometimes I have no freakin' clue what I'm doing. But she is beautiful and life is so good.