Brea Jean ~ 22 Months!

Getting so close to 2!! Jake kicked off the birthdays for the babies and I cannot believe they are all turning 2!! So this is what our Brea Jean has been up to:

Nickname(s): Stinker Minker, Bea (thanks to Jake/this is also how she refers to herself :), Baby Brea (I may be having a little bit of a hard time with the upcoming birthday), Bre, Sass

Likes: getting her way, carrying toothbrushes around, baby dolls, being outside, and pulling food out of the pantry

Dislikes: being told 'no', not doing what she wants to do, her car seat facing backwards (* I made this so much worse because I let her sit in Isla's seat once when the big kids got to stay somewhere and she didn't; now she always requests "I ya's seat." Needless to say, we will be purchasing Isla a new car seat and moving Miss Brea over

Eating: Blah...this is probably my least favorite topic to write about. What kids are good eaters?! Also, this doesn't really change from one  month to the next. She eats when she is hungry, which doesn't always coincide with a traditional meal time. She is a pretty good meat eater and fruit eater but doesn't care for vegetables. She isn't quite at the stage where we can bribe her to eat her veggies so she is probably lacking in that area currently. She LOVES yogurt and eats it most mornings. Girlfriend literally likes the bowl clean and needs major clean up after eating. We have also starting cheering for her when she takes a bite of food. Luckily for us, she loves getting attention. I don't remember who we started cheering for when they had a bite of food, Jake or Nora, but once Brea recognized the attention she began eating too. Such a stinker!

She still gets her 'boobie night night' but generally is too busy to nurse for long. But she definitely relates activity with bedtime. My mom was reading a bedtime book to her and Nora and before the the baby in the story got put down for bed she mentioned 'boobies' Whoops!


Sleeping: Brea rarely cries for bedtime anymore although it does happen on occasion. She still gives everyone 'ugga mugga' before bed and I have to sing to her. Every night she requests the same 2 songs. Twinkle Twinkle and Sun (You are my Sunshine). Then I lay her down with her million baby dolls and loveys that fill her crib and she is usually good until morning. She either yells or cries now in the morning for me to come get her but some mornings I have to go in to get her up and she is just playing.

The Superficial: Such a cutie! I have been putting her hair either in pig tails or a pony to get it out of her face. Her hair to at a weird stage where the top is long and the back is long but the sides are not. Also, she looks like a hot mess when her hair is just down but unfortunately Brea doesn't keep her 'pretty prettys' (her word for hair tie) in all day. I think she is pulling out hair when she does this so I am torn between keeping her hair a hot mess or putting it up and risking some hair loss when she inevitably pulls her hair out.

She has the sweetest smile and blue eyes. Her hair is still light and I am curious to see what the summer sun will do to it. She still rocks a little baby fat and I love that! She will even grab her cheeks and say 'chubby cheeks.' :) She is pretty much out of 18 month clothes and into 24 month or 2T. She wears size 3 diapers and size 6 shoes.

Personality: This girl! I just can't with her. She is definitely going to be our challenge and is too cute for her own good. She is sweet but is usually up to no good. She likes to be the leader of the babies and gets into it with Jake quite a bit over things. She is either mothering Nora or taking things from her because she knows Nora won't fight back. She is definitely my loudest child and is going through a stage where she screams about everything. I 'try' to remind her to use her words since I know she has them. I find myself saying, 'what can you say?' a lot and Brea responding, "please!"

She tends to find trouble and I can't trust her at all. I was getting ready for school one morning and Brea came up to me and said, 'Hay Hay bite' Which startled me because while I don't think Hayden would EVER bite one of the kids you never know. I started to check her over and she was so sticky. WTH?! Well, apparently Carter had left out the maple syrup he used on his waffle and Brea had a great ol' time spreading it out on the island. I think Hayden was licking it off of her but she didn't know what word to use. She was covered in syrup and needed a bath.

Words: Girlfriend does not stop talking and really reminds me of Carter in that way. She will repeat almost everything and can be a little parrot. She is developing quite the vocabulary and strings two to three words together. Has been calling me 'mama' instead of 'mommy'

Happy Birthday to you
Love you mama
Happy Easter lamb (a stuffed lamb that says Happy Easter that my mom got her)

Other notables: Starting giving REAL hugs!! She will also respond 'love you' after you tell it to her. Carter kicked off birthday season so she likes singing "Happy Birthday to you." She is such a good mama to her baby dolls that it makes me a little sad she will never get to reach her full potential as a big sister...not sad enough however to have another baby - ha!