Brielle at 20 months

She LOVES Matt's Ipod. She plays with it until she gets the chipmunk video clip and watches them sing and dance. She will carry it around and play with it like it's a phone too. It's great entertainment for her.

She still likes to play with the leap frog activity table. She sings along with it when it sings the abc's. She also stores all my hair pins in it.

She has learned how to climb up onto our bed.

She would prefer to lay in bed with the covers on her and watch "friends" a little video she likes.

Whenever we are cooking she likes to sit on the counter and either eat what we are fixing, help, or watch.

She also likes to help with the laundry, especially taking the clean clothes out of the basket

Brielle LOVES, LOVES watermelon. She gets it EVERYWHERE and can't get enough of it. I have to take all her clothes off when she eats it.

My little explorer..

It's overexposed but I like it, its very artistic

I was trying to create a water slide, instead she....

put her foot in it, but wouldn't go down the slide.

Brielle loves her Aunt Erin and Aunt Erin loves her.

She has a special bond with her Oma.

Brielle is a pretty special girl, and she makes everyone around her smile espeically when she smiles, her smile is infectious.

She likes to be spun around...it makes her Mom and Dad sick but we do it anyway

Brielle enjoys stuffed animals, normally it is stuffed bears but she is expanding her horizon.

How she loves to play with her phones.

She likes to get the broom and sweep the kitchen floor...sometimes the living room too.

She doesn't have her eye teeth in yet so they are nice gaps to put her finger in.

Brielle LOVES playing outdoors. Her favorite things to play with in the backyard is the water fountain and her little house.

Whenever we are getting ready to go she has to pack up the toys she wants to take along with her purse that has multiple cell homes.

She is using cups more and sippy cups less

A behavior all kids pick up is picking their nose and Brielle has found great pleasure in inserting that little finger into that open hole found on her face.

She has discovered pockets. She likes to put her hands in her pockets as well as her phone.

She is attempting to climb out of her crib, so far unsuccessful but she is getting close

It's nice to know some of the behaviors we are trying to develop are actually sinking in. For instance we have been teaching her that she needs to eat and drink in the kitchen. She will ask for a cookie or something and she will say, "eat it in the kitchen." and for the most part she will stay in the kitchen. Then whenever she goes outside she will say, "I need shoes!" Ha, how rewarding!

She will yell at me, "Mom eat!" and run to the table. I love that she is able to communicate her needs to me.

If she sees me with a bottle or getting ready to take off my shirt she says, "Mom pump." Now she likes to watch me pump. She will sit down and hold the bottle and when I am finished she says, "Mama help." She will proceed to sit down and help me pour the milk out of the bottle and into the bag. She has to carry the bag downstairs and into the kitchen.

She is starting to mimic behaviors. Sometimes throughout the day she will say, Baby eat and will lift up her shirt. If she has her baby doll by her she will place it against her chest so the baby can eat.

She can count to ten by herself and sing her abc's (skips a few letters but its pretty good). She is learning her colors and calls everything green.

Her new bed time routine is she loves to be sung to. If we stop she says "more music"or "mama sing."

Whatever she is doing she will say, "Mama, WATCH!" and will continue saying that until you say, "I am watching Brielle."

She likes to organize toys. For instance she knows that her purse has her phones and bracelets and necklace and if something is missing we hear about it.

Her new place to play is in Miles room with the infant toys. She will take them out of the basket and put them into the toy holder on his crib or the laundry holder.

I have always been surprised with Brielle's large vocabulary and her ability to communicate with us. Each month she adds more words to her vocabulary and for the past several months she has had a handful of sentences she uses. However this last month has been an explosion of putting words together and creating sentences. For example she said, "when Dada home" and "phone in vroom vroom" and "phone in purse" and "bless you baby" and "Perm watch" and "Oma's house!" and "go see mo mo's" (cows) and "my babies Jammies" and " Mama, I see wa wa" and "woof woof in back pack" and "mama, hurry!" and "Mama, I drive Dada's truck!" and "I want more green beans." and "watch out for the vroom vrooms" and "The stars are in the sky" and "I see moon!"

Maybe the large vocabulary is from all the books?

Brielle defiantly has her moments where she whines and pretends to cry hoping to get her way. We try to tell her we don't understand when she whines and she will stop and tell us what she wants. I caught a couple classic expressions when she doesn't get what she wants.

She also has an amazing memory. The whole "out of sight out of mind" thing doesn't work for her. An example of this is telling her she needs to take a nap first and then we will go to church and see friends. As soon as she wakes up she jumps into my arms and says, "Church! Go to church. See Pete and KK." Or she will want to do something and I will tell her we can do it when Daddy gets home. As soon as Matt walks through the door (several hours later)she comes running to tell me he is home and is ready to do whatever activity I told her she can do when we is home.

She only gets her pacifier during naps and bedtime. However sometimes if the pacifier is close enough she will climb the crib and reach in and grab it. She thinks she is pretty funny when she does this. She will come running with a big smile and chuckling. I know she feels so accomplished when she does this. Most the time she doesn't put up too much of a fight when I take it away because she know she doesn't get it.

She snuck the pacey out and when I tried to get it she ran into my room and onto my bed.

Brielle has discovered the fun in dipping her food into different sauces. Some of her favorite dips are ketchup, ranch and salsa and she tends to get very messy while she eats.

ketchup all over after eating a hot dog

She still has a passion for books and spends a lot of time reading and being read to.

Her balance is improving everyday day. Things she likes to stand and balance on: the horse, the foot rest of the couch or the little tike walls. She also likes to jump off of things. I have a very adventurious daughter-I wonder where that comes from? It can't be from her mother.

Her jumping:

Her balance act:

Now that she is more stable I keep the gates open so she can roam around more. When I want to keep her either upstairs or downstairs I will close the gates. The bottom gate stays open with the help of a toy or shoe. She likes to take the item that is keep the gate open and close the gate.

She LOVES to jump up and down and she actually catches some air. It's so funny to watch her becuase she will crouch down real low and then get on ther tippy toes and jumps.

She likes to paint and color but it is short lived-maybe a 5 minute activity. But she asks, "Mama, paint."