My little Brielle

The other day I looked at Brielle and realized that everyday my love for her grows. Despite some minor challenging moments she surely brightens my day. I can't get enough of her little smile and her loving, outgoing personality. I love her outlook on life and how excited she can get over little things. I love her little walk/run as she swings her arms and moves her little legs (the best is her little butt swaying side to side). Right now she LOVES to watch home videos and can watch them over and over again-"more" she says. Sometimes she is just walking and when she makes her way into a room she will lean her torso forward and shake her head back and forth a couple of times. I am not sure what she is doing but it sure is cute to watch. If we are sitting on the coach with the leg rest up, she things that's her seat and wants to sit with us, but on the leg rest of course. She has finally learned how to go down the stairs by sliding down, but I think she still prefers to walk down. She has learned she doesn't like to have her pant leg up, she will not move and say "uh oh" until I fix it or she does it herself. When I ask her if she wants a bath sometimes she will start running away, until she hears the water running and next thing I know she is in the bathroom shutting the door trying to takes her clothes off. When she is done with bath time she looks up and says done in sign language. The other day she discovered the zipper on her jacket and would put her entire body strength into zipping it down. Today I told her she must lay down or else I was leaving her room, so what does she do...kept her head down but stuck her butt straight into the air. I couldn't say much because she was keeping her head down. I am thinkin nap time and bed time are getting a little easier. I can honestly say she sleeps most nights, if she does wake up its rare that Matt gets up with her (which is a HUGE change). I still love feeding her a bottle and rocking her before naps or bed. When she is done with her bottle she hands it to me and puts her pacifier in her mouth. Right now she is into blankets. The other day she pulled several of her blankets into a pile and gather all the toys she could around her and sat on the pile of blankets and played. The first thought I had was, "she is just like a Hicks, nesting and making sure everything she needs is in arms reach", that moment made me think of my grandma hicks. Many times she likes to find a blanket and have me wrap it around her. She will walk around with it, or love on it. This past week she has started to say momma more and it just makes my heart skip a beat because I love hearing it. She doesn't like it when her daddy leaves for work, or church or anything really. She will cry and run to the gate or door. In fact Matt has learned to sneak away and it makes it a little easier on her. Her language skills and memory shock me everyday. I swear she is such a smart little cookie and I feel I don't capitalize on that enough.

I still can remember the days without Brielle. I miss not being able to go to the grocery store late at night with Matt, or going to the movies or eating out and not having to worry about anyone but me. However, I just take one look at this precious girl who looks back at me with her big beautiful eyes and her beaming spirit and I am ever so grateful she is mine. I am already starting to get nervous about how the second will change the dynamics of our little family. I feel I need to take advantage of every moment I have with Brielle because soon it wont be just her and I. Matt is ever so patient with me when I don't do the housework and instead I go off and play with Brielle.