Love and Happiness

Well, within the past month Brie has grown so much, both physically and cognitively. She is saying TONS of words (too many to list) and signing with her video before they do the sign or even say what it is...she recognizes so many things by sight. She is loving and snuggly all of a sudden and hugs and kisses us and her animals and the couch:) She is hilarious! She goes to bed without arguing most of the time and asks to go night night when she's really tired. She will ask for a bath and for food. It's truly amazing.

We got a little pool for her that she has been having a ball in.

At mom and dad's she has taken a couple of baths in it since they have a privacy fenced yard. She ran around the yard trying to pick Grammy's flowers and tomatoes while I was weeding one day. She kept calling the tomatoes apples though:) At least she knows how to say apple!

Last week when she was at preschool she puked all over the classroom. I hate that for her preschool teachers, but I am SO glad that I didn't have to witness it. She is not a puker so I actually have never seen her do more than cough up a little phlegm or gag and spit up. Well, since I was planning a walk on the dam, she got to go with me and she and Micah had a BALL riding in their strollers together. They were passing things back and forth and he was sharing snacks with her. When we stopped for the photo session, he noticed that she was unbuckled on one side so he fixed it for her. It was TOO adorable!

This weekend has seen many injuries for the feisty little babe. She was running away from me when I was going to change her diaper and she fell and landed her head on the nice oak trim of the couch that you see behind her. Luckily she's young and she heals quickly but you can see the gorgeous battle bruise on her head. She does enjoy being a "chair"potato and watching her Baby Einstein or Noggin. She's got the pose down:P

First Chuck E. Cheese Trip

Who knew that such a young babe would have so much fun at Chuck E. Cheese?!? Her favorite part: dancing with the freaky robot/puppet band. She absolutely loved it! She rode a few rides and smacked a few sharks and ate almost 2 pieces of pizza! I was very impressed. She wasn't a booger at all and then passed out in the car within 5 minutes:) Katie had a ball walking her around. This was also our first chance to use the monkey "leash" that she picked out. She had the choice of a bear a puppy or the monkey and she absolutely had to have the monkey. She did quite well with it too. Never complained about having it on and never tried to run off without me (or some unsuspecting young "helper" type:)) holding onto it. It was a good day.

Preschool Begins!

So, 2 days after we returned from Houston and all the excitement of the McNeil Family Reunion

Gabrielle began preschool. She was tired and cranky because I had to actually wake her up, but once Micah got in the car with her it was all smiles:)

She has done great! She doesn't even run to me when I go to pick her up. She looks at me from across the room and starts pointing at things and people and jabbering 90 miles an hour. I can tell she is having a blast.

She has been expanding her vocabulary by leaps and bounds. Since we returned from Texas, she can say hair, chair, bear and she signs more, Daddy, cup, chair and sleep. Of course, cup and chair and Daddy are her versions of the signs. It's funny how they have their own language even with signing! She is much better at bye bye see ya later alligator. Even someone who doesn't know what she's trying to say would stand a good chance of figuring it out:)

She LOVES playing with her ball popper that scared her to death when she got it for Christmas. Now she can't get enough. She crawled into Skoshi's bed and sat there playing with that thing for 45 minutes!

Sylvan Beach

Gabrielle has turned into quite the horsewoman since Gramma Lee brought her the rocking horse. She's become so skilled at it, that she has figured out how to rock the giant Dinosaur at the park!

Dad played around with her a bit after she watched some boys tossing each other off the head of the T-Rex:)




She thought the slides were great fun, and has the innate sense that once you go down you have to climb back up the slide...not the ladder:)


We'll be home soon, but Brie has definitely enjoyed her adventures:)

Texas Babe

So, we made it safely through the 4th of July and to Texas for family visit. Brie had fun with fireworks and Danny had a ball making sure she didn't burn herself:)

Brie had her first plane ride and she did AMAZING! She fell asleep just before take off and never had any issues with her ears. She was a super sweet babe:)

Brie has met her Gramma Lee and today went to the cemetary to see Grampa Al.
She has the run of Gramma RuRu's place and is loving it.

More Talking!

We've had an exciting week with Brie. It started on Sunday morning at Grammy's house. We always have coffee and Grammy says "ahhh" after she takes her first sip. Well all day Sunday whenever one of us took a drink of anything Brie would say "ahhh" and giggle. She's been watching us when we pray and after we're done she looks around at all of us and says, "men". Along with the "ahh" after the coffee...Grammy actually let her taste some and she liked it so much that Grammy put coffee (with MUCH creamer) in her sippy cup! She downed it. I guess she's following the tradition:)

Monday she had her checkup and got 3 shots. She's 29 inches tall and weighs 19 lbs 11 oz. The doc is quite pleased with her and the only warning I had was that those frustrated with their lack of communication skills tend to be biters. YIKES! But the good news is that once she learns to talk that stops. Hopefully she'll learn to talk before she gets frustrated enough to bite!

She had a big day on Monday though...she ate a fresh tomato straight from Grammy's garden (with salt of course)! She also was being a booger. She pulled the air freshner from it's socket in the kitchen and handed it to her Grandpa. He asked her if she was being bad and she looked from the socket back to him and said "Bad Girl".

Brie at the Zoo

We had a great time with Brie at the zoo on monday. She got to see most of the animals and she was totally enamored with the aquarium building. She even petted a goat:) So, we took pictures of her expressions and then what she was looking at. Check it out.

New Each Day

So many things are happening that I haven't had time to keep up with posting. We took Brie to the beach, the pool, visit family in TN and MO for Memorial Day and tomorrow we plan to take her to the zoo. She is AMAZING. Her walk has quickly become closer to a run and she is trying desperately to talk. She started saying Bye to everyone and she has a little southern accent so it comes out sounding like Bah. She also tries to say see ya later. It comes out a bit garbled but it's clear enough that you know what she's trying to say. She has been making her bible and trying to "read all about Jesus" with her little finger in her hand. She of course has the YEAH (clap) part down. She picked out her own clothes, jammies and Jellies sandals at Walmart when we were shopping with Grandmom. She was floored. She said if she hadn't seen Brie doing that with her own eyes she would have never believed it. I have tons of pictures to add to this post so check back. She played in the sandbox with her cousins and had quite the big time. And she tried walking Tippy (great grandparents dog). I'll add more after the zoo trip, but I just didn't want to forget to mention stuff.

Rockin Babe

So Dave is determined that Brie becomes a rockstar. Not only did he get the Elmo guitar for her for her birthday... he also has a Gibson magnet that she runs around with...then he was practicing his own playing last night when she stood mesmerized in his doorway. Seeing the effects...he grabbed his mini amp and brought it out into the living room and let her play his guitar. She was so excited....but I'm not sure which one of them was the most excited:) We got it on video and if I can figure out how to attach it I will later. I just had to write about it before I forgot!

Growing Up Fast

This age is amazing. She learns so much so fast and it's incredible, hilarious and at times a bit disconcerting. Gabrielle and Walker have been fighting today! Pushing each other, sitting on each other, screaming. It's all of a sudden and very intense. But it stops just as quick as it starts. I separate them and within 30 seconds they are laughing at each other and playing nice again. CRAZY!

We've been slowly letting Brie try her hand at feeding herself with a spoon. Last night was the most hilarious. I was letting her feed herself sweet potatoes out of a little dish. She started trying with the spoon,





then went to her hands


and finally turned up the dish and tried to drink them.




And apparently she thought maybe smoking them would work better:)
It was so funny!

Baby Girl is ONE!

We made it a whole year and didn't kill her or the plants I got in the hospital. Miracles are alive and well:) And to top it all off...she started walking more than one step at a time...ON her birthday and really showed it off at her birthday party the next day.

We had a lot of fun partying with our friends and family. Her Elmo guitar from Dave was the hit of the party. She was hilarious with her ladybug. She wanted to get on it and slide off the back. Forget rocking...that's what the guitar is for:)

In the past month Brie has changed so much. She is very aware of so many things and able to interact just all of a sudden. She loves being outside and wants to touch all the leaves and flowers. She has eaten dirt twice. She says a few different things other than uh-oh and boo which are the most common. Her newest thing is to grab your face and turn it to where she wants you to look and point at something and she says look. She eats all sorts of things now...especially pasta and mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. She loves all chips and makes us work hard to make popcorn safe for her consumption.

She also loves to play with the computer and makes it quite difficult to update the blog, so I must go.