Brynnlee's new baby doll - b/c Brynnlee is ONE! : )

Here is a video of Brynnlee at about 6:30am on Saturday morning. We let her open the box we wrapped of her two little gifts first thing. She was a little suspicious of the baby doll at first and then really loved it! : ) She was overwhelmed by the wrapping paper on the presents people brought her in the afternoon - let alone all the fun stuff that was inside. I will upload pictures from her 'party' later. xoxo, Jennie

New Chair

Enjoying her new big green chair

yummmm, milk is so tasty

chillin' in her chair


Brynnlee got a new chair today. It is her birthday present from Nana and Grandpa - a little early so they can see her enjoy it. She has so far enjoyed a little Blue's Clues and Wow Wow Wubzy from the comfort of the big green arm chair with a sippy cup of milk and a silky blanket she likes to cuddle with. She seemed quite content to lounge this evening. ; )


Hope you enjoy the pictures.


xoxo, Jennie

Legoland

on the boat for the Legoland tour

sitting with Grandpa after lunch

watching the Lego pirates sing with Daddy

checking out Duplo village

ah, toddler size Legos - finally! : )


Brynnlee in JAIL!

Biker babe!

sliding alone

sliding with Grandpa

look at THESE! : )



Today Eric took the day off work and all four of the adults currently inhabiting our little base home accompanied Brynnlee to Legoland in early celebration of her first birthday. We departed early and arrived to a nearly empty parking lot --- a site for sore eyes since so many things in Southern CA are always so busy and packed full of people. The whole time we enjoyed the park it was not very full - which made it easy to maneuver around and get Brynnlee close enough to the things she wanted to see. The first order of business was taking a boat ride around a little lagoon that had animals made of legos along the banks and lots of neat attraction from around the world completely built from legos. Brynnlee sat between Mommy and Nana and quietly watched the first half of the scenery go by without much reaction. Boy did that change as we came upon a waterfall..... her little arms stuck straight out and she started quaking.... she was trying so hard to express her excitement that gibberish came flowing freely from her excited little lips.... it was awesome and made the whole day worthwhile if just for that moment! : ) We took a stroll around "Minitown" where some of the major cities in the USA have been recreated with Legos - Las Vegas, DC, New Orleans, San Francisco, etc. Brynnlee especially enjoyed the moving parts like the little ferris wheels, cars driving around and fountains in front of the Vegas hotels. We enjoyed a nice lunch and went on to visit "Duplo village" - a whole little mini world for kids with houses, slides, cars, a jail, a hospital, etc all kid-sized and full of those bigger duplo legos for kids under 3.... you know, the kind they cannot swallow, no matter how hard they try! : ) We even found a motorcycle for Brynnlee to ride that made reving sounds so we could take pictures to share with Papa in Wisconsin.... Brynnlee's Harley Grandpa! : )



All in all it was a great day and not too long ago Eric put a very pooped out (almost) one year old to bed. YES, we are making a grand transition to Daddy bedtimes as Brynnlee has started drinking whole milk from a cup and stopped nursing before bedtime. It is very exciting and seems to be going well!



Our love to all of you. Hope you have a wonderful week.



xoxo, Jennie

First 24 hours with Nana and Grandpa

commandeering Grandpa's Blackberry

these people are silly AND fun - what a combo

laughing with Nana in pj's

enjoying a good book with Grandpa in the morning


Mom and Dad (aka Nana and Grandpa) arrived on Saturday at noon. Eric was going to head down to get them alone but we had other errands to run along the way.... so we all went along for the ride. Nana won Brynnlee's affections quickly with some cute knit finger puppets and Eric gave Grandpa a cracker to give Brynnlee which made her happy. : ) A lover of all things CARB.... a girl after my own heart! We stopped for lunch on the way home and then Brynnlee, Nana and Grandpa played the rest of the afternoon, getting to know each other all over again. Brynnlee showed off her walking skills and tried to share her dinner with everyone. (any of YOU want slimey, partially chewed ravioli??? hehe) The next morning we ran a couple of errands, had lunch at the golf course and spent the afternoon playing and taking a trip to the pool. It was a great first 24 hours. Here are a few pictures for you to see for yourselves!


Hope all is well with all of you - and everyone has survived the weird and terrible weather that accompanied Ike.


xoxo, Jennie

Pool time

on the move - not even phased by the bump growing
on her forehead from her run-in with the cement bench
2 minutes earlier.....

dropping the gator like old news- something new
was getting her attention!

touching the leaf with her toe - such a girl!!!!


Ok, it has been a busy time here so I have not been updating! Sorry about that! Here are a couple of pics from a recent trip to the pool and I will follow them up with pics from Nana and Grandpa's current visit! xoxo, Jennie


ps


you will see from the pics - Brynnlee enjoys a lot of time outside of the pool now that she is so mobile and showing her independence.... OH BROTHER! : )

Editor's note!

Who are we kidding.... no one edits this.... not even MOI. I am always in such a hurry to get it done in snippets of time..... but I found a horrid mistake earlier and must note it and try to correct it! I said "pear" when I meant PEER (I think....haha) when I spoke of Brynnlee looking around a tree at Charlie Rinehart. Sorry ladies and gentlemen.... I am trying so hard to use my brain correctly, but it came w/o a manual. Brynnlee DOES love pears, but they cannot help her look around a tree. Happy reading.

xoxo, Jennie : )

Going Green - for money and the environment!

Brynnlee has new diapers! We are making the switch to cloth - for both financial and environmental reasons. After a lot - a LOT - of research, and the help of some friends, neighbors, and very helpful store owners (yippee WEE LITTLE SPROUTS!) Brynnlee is all set with her supplies and now just needs a far more skilled mommy. Poor child.... what a hand she has been dealt. HEHEHEHE : )

The rest of this is what some might dub TOO MUCH INFORMATION - so if you want to laugh at our expense, READ ON, but if poopicodes upset you, LOG OUT! : )

The cloth diapers of today are far different than anything I picture in my mind from my generation and before. They have darling designs on the covers and the cotton that goes inside is so soft and absorbant. We have only had one 'incident' so far. Today we went to Toys'R'us to pick out Brynnlee's birthday gifts. Side note - oh the wonder of a nearly one year old.... she can go shopping with us for her own bday and forget in an instant what we picked out (except Mommy and Daddy are having trouble getting the doll to quit talking inside our closet - this might be a long two weeks!). : ) Back to the diapers though..... I smelled something yucky for a few minutes before I realized it was our own dirty child. Eric handed me the car keys and I headed out to the car for a quick change. I had brought all the appropriate supplies to keep with the cloth while we were out --- but things really went awry when I came face to face with a very yucky material. When Eric got out to the car Brynnlee had said bad material covering her legs, one arm and one hand - I had it all over one arm, one hand (and had wiped it in my hair, yuck) - we were both squealing. Eric, trying to cover his nose, started helping me wipe said bad material from our poor child. People were walking by, likely thinking we had just adopted a one year old, we were the child's aunt and uncle with no children of our own, or we had stolen Brynnlee from her true, more talented parents. OH MY. Let's just say all the diaper supplies I had so carefully packed are all in the washer as I type and Brynnlee wore a regular, disposable diaper to lunch and then home. Ack. It was baptism by fire. Such is life with a constipated baby.... that is no longer constipated. : )

Here is Brynnlee modeling one of her new diaper covers. It has frogs she points to over and over! And for those of you on tummy and thigh watch for her chubbiness - you can see how, sadly, walking has thinned her out a bit!

Have a great weekend - xoxo, Jennie


coming right atcha!


cute little bum