Happy Halloween!

Uncle Shaun bought Bree her Halloween costume when we were visiting Michigan in August. And it fit her beautifully and she was the only flower we encountered tonight. We got started trick-or-treating around 6 o'clock and our first stop was Miss Sandy and Mr. Bob's house in the cul-de-sac. Miss Sandy is a school bus driver, and they have the school bus parked in their driveway for the weekend. Bree was more excited about going to see the school bus than anything else.

Bree was all for running around outside, except she'd run off down the street and I ended up running after her most of the time.

As you can see, we have a pacifier, a spare pacifier, and Beary. She's ready to roll.

After Mr. Bob gave her some tootsie rolls, she was all set to go inside and make herself at home. And eat her tootsie rolls. Bree doens't have any concept of "waiting" for anything, so me telling her that she had to wait until we got home to eat candy meant nothing to her.

As she's walking away, you can see the tootsie roll in her hand. She's ready to eat and it's only the first stop!

Bree got very shy as we were approaching peoples' houses. At the next house, she tried to trade her tootsie pops for other candy. She was a bit confused to have more candy put in her pumpkin, but decided it would be okay if she could eat it all right there.

We didn't trick or treat for very long. But for a first outing, it was successful. She should understand more next year.

And this is the picture of contentment: juice, binky and Beary. And her favorite video. All in all, a good day!

Sick Day

On Thursday I got the call that Bree had gotten sick at daycare. So I went to pick her up. Bree has done this frequently - just thrown up for no apparent reason. Other than the fact that she can, I guess.

Of course, she was fine after she threw up, so she had the rest of the afternoon at home with Mom, and could tear up the house as best she could. I give her an A+ for effort, by the way.


Of course she would NOT take a nap, and by 6pm, everything was the worst offense in the world and she would not stop crying. So I took her in her room, started rocking her, and she was asleep in 30 seconds.

I thought she might be down for the night, but she woke up around 7:15, had a little bit of dinner, took a bath, then had some milk and was on the couch when I took these pictures.

Elmo, or at least the Tickle Me Elmo variety, is not very cuddly. He's actually very stiff. But Bree tries to work with what she has, and will snuggle Elmo as best she can. She also likes to put a pacifier in his mouth. He has to be 100% horizontal for this to work, though. Otherwise it just rolls right out of the side of his mouth like he's drooling.

You'll also note that Blue Beary is in the picture and not Beary. Well, Beary was missing. Beary was last seen at around 4:00pm on Wednesday. S/He went missing somewhere in Miss Jenna's house, and it was a very bad car ride home on Wednesday. Bree sobbed the entire way home. Miss Jenna turned their house upside down on Wednesday night and continued on Thursday, but Beary was nowhere to be found. Bree continued to be upset. Blue Beary continued to be a very poor substitute.

Poor Blue Beary. Can't get any love from Bree. She prefers an Elmo that is as stiff as a board. But I am happy to announce that Beary was found on Friday. Beary magically appeared with Bree at some point during the day. Crisis over!

Halloween Spirit

My mom sent Bree a cute Halloween t-shirt that reads "Mummy Loves Me" and it lights up. I apologized to Miss Jenna in advance as this might be a tad annoying after 5 hours or so. She just laughed and said the only thing that might get annoying was the other kids chasing Bree so that the shirt would light up.


Bree is doing great at the day care. It's a bit frustrating for her to not get so much outdoor time, but Jenna does her best. Bree has started to notice school buses. And she's learned that they are yellow. Whenever she sees one, she says, "Ook, Mommy! Skoo Bah!" And I say, "What color is the bus, Bree?" And she replies, "Yelloooooooow!"

There is a bus driver in Jenna's neighborhood, and they park the bus at their house before and after school. When it arrives after school, Bree can see it from Jenna's living room window. And she spends the rest of the afternoon squealing at the yellow "skoo bah!" She also points and says, "I see it! I see it!" It's actually very cute, but after 30 minutes I just know that Jenna is wishing that she'd move on to something else. But this girl loves her school buses.

In the picture above, you can see a book called "Puzzling Shapes" and it was given to Bree for her birthday last year. It's a Baby Einstein book, and Bree really started getting into it about two months ago. She started bringing it to Scott and saying "Girkle." Which is how she says "circle." It took Scott a few minutes to put it all together when she first said it, but she remembered the circle shapes from the book. There's also a Baby Einstein video with the same lion in it, and that's also about shapes. It took me a while to figure out that she was saying "lion" when I heard "liennn." It's very close, and I wasn't expecting her to put two and two together and come up with "lion." But she did.

Bree has started playing this new "game" where she has me go into a room, and then she'll shut the door, and then she'll start to cry. I'm not really sure what this is all about. Unless she's putting me in a time out and is remorseful. It's really bizarre and I really wish I could figure out what it's about.

So I was finally able to get a picture of her smiling, even though it involved getting down on the floor and tickling her. Her shirt was actually blinking, but I guess I just couln't get it on film.

Bree & I are up watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I really should put her to bed, but it's taking longer and longer to get her to bed. Ever since she realized that she could get out of bed under her own power. So she's been staying up until about 9 - 9:30. Often I go to bed just so I can get her to bed. This is going to be a challenge: she's just like her Daddy in that she wants to stay up all night because she doesn't want to miss a thing. But she's just like her Mommy in that she loves to sleep in. This is problemmatic because I have to try to wake her up in the morning, and she wants nothing to do with it. I am able to get her to sleep some nights by rocking her to sleep. It take me 30 - 45 minutes, but I can do it if she's tired enough. We tried this tonight, and I finally gave up when I heard Charlie Brown came on. I love the Peanuts cartoons and thought that Bree would too. And of course she did.

So I'm going to go try to put her to sleep. I have some more photos that I'm going to put up tonight, but not sure if I'll get to it. Wish me luck!

A Glimpse Into the Future

Bree has a fascination with cell phones. Well, actually, not just any cell phone, the ones that work. I thought that by giving her my old cell phone she'd be happy, but she knows that the buttons don't make noise when you push them, and the screen doesn't have a display. My mom got her a play cell phone with buttons that did light up, and the phone made sounds, but again, Bree knows that this is an inferior substitute. She knows.

So she loves to play with my phone. And like a fool, I let her play with it. This is foolish for a variety of reasons, the most foolish one being that it's the only phone I have. We don't have a landline. If she breaks my phone - and all signs indicate to the likelihood that she will break it at some point - I'm completely screwed.


Bree sees me and hears me talking on the phone often enough that she does a very good imitation of me on the phone: "uh huh" "yeah!" and "bye bye!" (Although in all fairness to me, I only say it at the end of the call.)



Even with her fascination with the phone and her enjoyment of playing with the phone, the girl will not actually talk to anyone on the phone. With Scott working out of town, it would be great for him to be able to hear her talk to him once in a while. Don't get me wrong, she'll listen to other people talk to her on the phone, but she won't actually reply.

OMG! And then what happened?!

When I think about the technology that's available when Bree is old enough to have a phone, it makes me wonder how I can regulate it. When the only phone is smack dab in the middle of the dining room and everyone can hear you having a conversation on it, you're less likely to talk for hours to your girlfriends. (Or was this just my house?) By the time she's old enough to get her own phone, all phones will be like the iPhone and will serve as her computer / phone / gps / tv / ipod / movie player. On the one hand, I'll never get the following excuses for breaking curfew: a). I couldn't find a phone; b). I got lost; or c). I didn't know what time it was. On the other hand, I'll probably get a whole host of new ones: 1). My battery died/lost its charge; 2). I couldn't leave until the upload/download was complete; or 3). The mall has a dead zone!



And incidentally, I took this picture just to show you how much taller Bree has gotten. This is an outfit sized 9-12 months, and it's too short! Okay, it still fits her everywhere else, but she IS getting taller! (And her arms are longer too.)

We're still waiting on hair, but it is coming. Slowly but surely. By the age of 5 she should have a respectable amount of hair! :)

Ramdom Photo Round Up

For your enjoyment, some random photos from the past few weeks.

Bree loves to wear her sunglasses inside. She thinks it's the funniest thing ever.

Bree & Daddy

Bree playing with leaves, in her new pink shoes (she picked those out herself).

Bree is "Soooo big!"

Exploring the end of the dock with Daddy.

Car Trouble

Bree loves to play inside the car. She will whine and cry all the way home and can't wait to get out of her carseat, and then all she'll want to do is play inside the car.

Letting her play inside the car was a great way to keep her occupied when mowing the front yard. She's in view, and she can see me (or Daddy) and she's perfectly content.



Last Tuesday, though, when I went out to start the car, it wouldn't start. I woke up Scott to see if he could give the battery a jump, and it turned out that my jumper cables were bad. So he went off to WalMart to get a new set. Once we had the new cables, my car started with the jump. Thank goodness!

But that's when we realized that we couldn't let Bree play in the car anymore, or at least I had to do a better job of turning everything off when she got out of the car, because she turns on every electrical function possible. Thus, draining the battery.

As you can see, Bree is turning on my hazard lights. She loves the sound that they make. She also loves playing with the rear view mirror and flipping on the heater. Oh, who am I kidding? She loves anything with a button, switch or lever!

I'm sure that this means she'll be predisposed to road trips just like her parents. :)

Today's Shopping Cart Contents

I have made reference to the fact that Bree likes to climb into her shopping cart, now I have photographic evidence for you.

Unfortunately, there's just not enough room in the car for both Elmo & Bree.

Sorry Elmo, you've got to go.

This is more like it!

Whoa! Full face, looking at the camera, AND smiling. Photographic evidence, INDEED!

And yes, I admit that I will push her around the house in her cart. It makes her laugh. Big belly laughs. It kills my back, but hey, it's totally worth it.

Helping Daddy Make Pizza

So, Bree always wants to help make meals. I'm not sure if this is just because she's interested, or becuase she's always been up on the counter whenever I'm in the kitchen. When she was younger (less mobile) it was convenient to put her up there with a toy and just let her hang out.

But those days are long gone - she's got to be right there in the middle of the action.

Luckily for her, Scott has more patience for this than I do. But, just so you don't think that I'm the total Mean Mommy, when we get home (during the week) it's usually around 5:45 and she needs to eat by 6:00 or she melts down. So I'm interested in getting dinner on the table as fast as possible. I don't have the energy or the patience to indulge her in helping with dinner.

But like I said, Scott has more patience for this than I do. And when he made dinner last night, Bree helped him make the pizza.


She is very intent with her task of stirring. It's very serious business. Because it's PIZZA!

Because Scott willingly lets her help, she doesn't scream or throw a tantrum when he tells her that now it's time for Daddy to give it another stir.

The pizza, by the way, was one of Scott's best. Bree is learning from the master, anyway. I figure as soon as she can reach the counter by standing on a stool, I'm going to let her make dinner. Yeah, every night if she's up to it.

That's why they say, "be careful what you wish for becuase you just might get it?" Yeah.

SIDE! Part 2

Since I am limited to 5 pictures per post, this is the follow up to the first "SIDE!" post. These are the better pictures, if I may say so myself.


She has such a good time playing outside that I often feel bad about making her come inside. But I have a new method - bring the camera outside. She got so annoyed with me being all up in her face that she actually asked to go back "side." I said, "you want to go inside?" and she said, "Yeah." And went in without a fight.

And while I know she's getting taller, I'm curious as to how tall she's getting. Becuase I was just saying to someone the other day, "I'm SURE she's on the curve now! Maybe only in the 20th or 30 percentile, but I'm sure she's on the curve!" Then I remember that she's still wearing clothes for a 12 month old. At 21 months. Yeah, she's getting taller, but I must be delusional to think that she can still wear 12 month clothes and be tall enough to be on the growth curve for a 21 month old . . . .

In this next picture, she's waving a branch with leaves like she's leading a parade. It's a parade of one, but it's still a lot of fun!

And in this next picture, she wants me to let her in the car so she can play. This started when I was mowing the front lawn - I would put her in the car and roll all the windows down, knowing that she was in a contained space while I was mowing. So now she loves to play in the car. She'll play with the rear-view mirror, turn on my hazards, lock & unlock the doors, and jump from the front seat to the back seat. And while I'm glad it's a safe place for her, it is more than a little annoying to listen to her whine all the way home because she's in her car seat, then the minute the car is off, she wants to play inside the car. Needless to say, I didn't let her play in the car after dinner. I let her play in the car for about 15 minutes when we got home. The neighbors are likely horrified that I throw my kid in the car and then go off to mow the lawn. They don't need to see her playing in the car twice in one day!

Hope you enjoyed the photos. I'm trying to get a video of her dancing. For those of you familiar with Seinfeld, she's started to dance EXACTLY like Elaine Benes. It is hysterical and must be shared. If I can get her on camera, that is.

SIDE!

To say that Bree LOVES being outside would be an understatement. When she finds out about tents, yurts, treehouses and RVs, she'll never live inside again! Her word for "outside" is "SIDE!" And she always wants to go "SIDE!"

Since it was a nice evening, we went outside after dinner. And now that I have a memory card that holds about 10 times the number of photos that my old one held, I brought the camera with me.

In this first picture, you can see that she's getting more hair. It's filling in, anyway.


She's actually asking a question in this next photo, but it looks like she's just yelling.

You'll see that I was slightly more successful in getting a full on shot of her face. Only slightly, though. I still got plenty of goofy photos. Like this next one where she's swinging "big girl" style.

Now she's all serious again, saying "Dowwwwwnnn. Dowwwwwnnn."

In this last photo, she's trying to escape the back yard. Thank goodness for fences. Well, at least we have a fence on one side of the yard. The city stormwater people haven't put up a fence to replace the one that they tore down last year.

Mini Daredevil in Heels

Okay, first of all, I am not quite sure what happened to Bree's pants in these two pictures. And yeah, that's pretty bad when that's how I start out the post, I know.

Bree has taken to wearing my shoes around the house. When she wears the flip-flops, it looks like me when I tried skiing for the first (few) time(s): tripping myself because I was crossing my skis. Bree somehow manages to do that in flip-flops. But now she's discovered the allure of dress shoes - in particular, the basic black pump.


Scott will tell you that there's not a black pump out there that I don't like. In fact, I am under a self-imposed moratorium on buying any more black shoes. Because I already have a lot. Some might say too many, but I wouldn't go that far.

However, if Bree ends up as a size 6, then I will be able to double my shoe choices. That is, if she can maintain her preference for the black pumps.

And it's been a while since I've updated you on the contents of the shopping cart! This evening we have a mish-mash of baby dolls, Ziggy, Beary and her bottle. (For the record, I serve milk in a bottle because of her penchant for making messes. I'm going to transition milk to a sippy cup, but really? Let me have my small moments where I can keep her a baby!)

So there's actually a story behind the Ziggy stuffed toy. (And for some reason, I want to use the Taco Bell spelling of "stuft." But I'll refrain.) There was one morning where Bree threw up all over herself in the car right as we were turning into the day care provider's driveway. So there was no way that I could try to pretend that nothing happened, espcially when I'm stripping her down in the driveway. To avoid the possibility of spreading a stomach virus, Bree wasn't allowed to stay that day. I totally understood, but it seriously happened on the worst.day.ever. for me to be out of the office. So I brought Bree with me to the office so I could pick up my laptop and work from home. Incidentally, there wasn't anything wrong with Bree, except that she woke up during the middle of the night and drank two bottles of milk, which apparently didn't sit all that well on her tummy.

As long as we were at the office, I brought Bree around to say "hi" to my co-workers. And everyone was nice enough not to call me out on the fact that Bree was not sick, she looked fine, so what the heck was I doing taking the day off when there was so much work to be done?! Anyway, one of my co-workers gave Ziggy to Bree as a present. Bree hugged it close to her chest and gave it Beary-like status. (Almost).

When we got down to the car, I could hear Bree making noises at Ziggy. That's when I realized that she thought it was a pig. Well, to be fair to Bree, Ziggy does have a big nose. But I couldn't get it through to her that Ziggy was not a pig, that he was a . . . . cartoon person? what the heck is he, anyway? Okay! We're going with pig!

And when you look down on Ziggy as he's laying in the shopping cart, you can bet he looks exactly like . . . a pig!

Beary is mashed up in the upper left corner, Wee Baby is in the bottom left, Ziggy (the pig) is in the bottom right, and Baby is diagnal in the middle. With the bottle plunked down on her chest.

After this picture was taken, Bree removed the bottle, climbed in, and promptly flipped the whole thing over. But she wasn't wearing my heels at the time, so the damage was minimal. Thank goodness for small favors, huh?