Just eat some freakin' fruit already

We had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend, filled with family and swimming and games. More on that later (when I get the pictures from Heather :).

For now I will just leave you with some pictures of Bria. I've started doing her hair in these two little buns and it's super easy, super convenient, and super cute.

So even on days like today, where I feel utterly defeated with her lack of eating fruits and put her down for a nap early because she wouldn't even try some pairs, I can look at these pictures and know she's still cute.

Even if she's like her Daddy and refuses to eat fruit or anything foreign that doesn't look like dessert.

Because she's super sweet and innocent so I can't stay mad long.

27 months old

What I was going to write about was how frustrating and depressing this weather is, it's in the 60's and raining. Cannot believe it's almost June, this seriously sucks. I need some sun like now. But talking about weather doesn't make a good blog post so I'll refrain from that.

Instead I am going to update on our little Bria since one of the main purposes of this blog is a journal. I love looking back at the blog and seeing how much she has grown, it's shocking.

So here's a 27 month update on our little one:

• Has been potty trained for 5 months, it's been 5 months since I changed a diaper! She wears a pull-up at night but we are starting to see that half the time she wakes up dry, yay!
• She talks in complete sentences and says the funniest things on Earth, for real.
• She does not like fruit. At all. Every once and awhile she'll get adventurous and try my banana, but then inevitably gags and dry heaves until every last banana chunk is out of her mouth. So I make her smoothies and that's how she gets her fruit.
• Her favorite treat is raisins. The girl loves her raisins, I limit her so that she doesn't get the runs.
• Her typical day in food looks like this: breakfast-whole grain blueberry waffle with peanut butter and a cup of milk, snack-raisins or dried fruit or crackers and water, lunch-toasted pb&j and a cup of milk, dinner-scrambled eggs or oatmeal or mac 'n cheese and cup of milk. Sometimes she has a snack after her nap which is Corn Chex and water usually.
• Goes to bed about 7:30/8 pm and wakes around 7/7:30 am, takes a nap from about 1-3 pm.
• Is so incredibly loving, especially towards Mom and Dad (we are so lucky), she gives hugs and kisses all day and says lots of, "I love you sooo much, Daddy/Mommy!" My favorite is when she says variations like, "I love you to the moon!" or "I love you everyday of the year!" It makes me smile.
• Loves animals. We saw a cat on our walk the other day and she wanted the cat to come with us, which it did for awhile, but then stopped and went home. She was devastated.
• Wears size 6 shoes, and 2T clothing. Some 3T shirts.
• She weighs 29 pounds.
• Has memorized a lot of her books and also lines from her favorite movies: TinkerBell and Toy Story. (If you've seen Toy Story 3 this is a line from it that she LOVES to say when she picks up the phone: "Hello? Are you here? Molly! Stay out of my room!" It's really embarrassing in public because she yells Molly.)
• Is getting really good with her colors, she knows them pretty well but when we ask her what color something is she kind of freezes. But the other day we were coloring and Brian would ask her for a specific color of crayon and she got all of them right.
• Counts to 16
• Knows the Star Spangled Banner, not really, hehe. But that would be cool, she can point out the American Flag though :)
• Has figured out how to work the Netflix, at least enough to get our attention.
• Is very dramatic, her expressions are over the top for sure. Her favorite thing to say when she doesn't get her way is, "Mommy, I'm so sad." And it's said with her lower lip quivering and her eyes filling up with tears. It does melt my heart the first 20 times of the day she says it, but then it gets kind of old.
• Is a hot head, thanks to me. She flies off the handle easily, her and I are both working on that one, it's hard.

That got long, but I'm a mom and could go on and on about her.

Bottom line, she is the reason her Dad and I are so happy. She gives us purpose, makes us smile, and makes our heart grow daily. She is the love of our lives.

We love her silly faces...

...and even her fake sad faces.

We're pretty proud of what we made.

And here is a video of my sweet punky monkey singing the rain rain go away song. She did this all on her own one day when I told her we couldn't go outside because it was raining.

I already changed my mind...

...and it's my prerogative to do so ;)

I'm going to do Bria's room in purple and green still. I think I'll do a deep purple and then accent in green here and there. I know you were all dying to know ;) I decided since we have a few TinkerBell things and Bria still likes TinkerBell that we'll stick with it. I'm excited, I feel good about it and I'm not going to change my mind this time...today.

It's wonderful having a backyard again, Bria loves going outside and playing.

She especially likes pushing her balls down the slide, since she herself doesn't like going down the slide unless she has a death grip on your hand. I don't know what it is about slides but they scare her. The swing on the other hand, I can't get her high enough. Brian does underdogs with her and she gets so excited. But slides? Scary. Apparently.

Bria was seriously an angel last week and most the weekend. Brian and I kept saying how awesome she was, love this little phase. She took good naps, woke up so happy, was easy going, played well, and was hilarious. It's nice to have weeks like that, helps recharge the mommy battery/patience tank.

We enjoyed an anniversary party for Brian's Dad and step-mom on Saturday, then Sunday we relaxed in the morning and went to Lanie and Kris' house for dinner. It was delicious and Bria had fun playing while the grown ups had fun talking. Adult time is a wonderful thing.

So far today we've colored, played baseball (well, the 2 year-old version of baseball :), gone to gymnastic class, and grocery shopped. Now it's nap time and while Bria naps I'm going to read and hopefully do some laundry or something productive.

I will leave you with a picture of my favorite little toddler and me, this is her "mad" face, love it. Well, love it when we ask her to make the face.

"Don't tell us we can't have chocolate Daddy!"

That was fantastic

Every once and awhile Bria will go through these AWESOME sleep phases. I mean, she's a good sleeper in general, but I think during growth spurts or something she sleeps extra long. It only lasted for a few days but it was a fantastic few days, she would sleep from 8-8 and then take a 2 1/2 hour nap on top of that. It was seriously awesome.

Yesterday morning she woke at 7 am so I knew our little phase was over, but that's okay, I enjoyed it while it lasted. And I'll enjoy it when it comes back :)

Now I understand what all the moms were talking about when they said their toddler went through a CHEESE face phase with pictures. Bria really accentuates the "CH" part of cheese so that's usually the face I capture.

Evidence of said "CH" face.

And then out of nowhere this dog comes up to us, seriously. I expected an owner would follow shortly but no one did. I made sure Bria didn't touch the dog, even though it had tags on and stuff you never know a dogs temperament. It seemed really really sweet which is why I even let it get that close to Bria. She of course was in doggy heaven, this girl loves dogs and gets so excited when we see them. I hope someone found their dog, it took off shortly after this picture.

This is more her real smile, gotta love it :)

I've been spending time brainstorming about how to decorate Bria's room, the nursery, the bathroom. I have fun doing it but I also feel a little lost, decorating is not my strongest suit and I always doubt myself and my style, so I'm trying to embrace it and go with what I like.

Originally I was going to do Bria's room in TinkerBell, but she is in love with Toy Story, particularly Jessie and Buzz. So then I thought I could do a black and white room with red and yellow accents (Jessie has a red and yellow shirt). I found these curtains and thought they were perfect. Then I thought I could spray paint her letters red (they are currently pink) and then put them on a black shelf and put a cute yellow daisy in there as an accent.

I love the idea, but then I started to worry it wasn't toddler enough. But I also can't afford to change her room every 2 years so I was hoping this would last for awhile. Especially because we can change the Jessie out without having to buy new curtains and stuff. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud and would love opinions. You can be honest, if it's too old for a toddler or if it's just not kid enough in your opinion, it seriously won't hurt my feelings.

I've also been brainstorming the nursery and how to decorate, I know I want to do a purple since that is my obsession, and we have Bria's brown curtains so I think we'll do those two colors. But I'll write more about the nursery on the pregnancy blog.

We are having some gorgeous weather this week so I'm going to go out and enjoy it while I can!

Yeah, we're those parents

We had an eventful weekend in terms of close calls. On Thursday we went to McDonalds for dinner as a fun treat and sat down to enjoy our tasty and fatty dinner. Bria was blowing us away because she was eating her apple slices, wahoo! She would dip them in the caramel sauce and then take a bite and Brian and I would barely breath so as not to disturb this fantastic new milestone.

We continued eating when Bria started coughing and then choking, I wacked her back a few times like I've done in the past but this time it didn't work. She looked at us like, "I can't breathe, HELP!!!!" I picked her up, handed her to Brian who was now standing up and he did the heimlich on her, trying to shove the apple out of her airway. It worked and she spit out a few chunks of apple. It was seriously crazy and we were freaked out. We made her chew each bite carefully and then swallow it before letting her have more. She recovered much faster from the incident than we did that's for sure. The rest of dinner Brian and I spent looking at each other like, "Did that just happen? Oh my gosh let's puree all her food and never stop giving her loves."

On Saturday we were at REI shopping and Bria wanted to go in the elevator. We were waiting for it to come up, looking at hats and what not when she climbs in and the doors shut. Yep, just like on Modern Family, or in the movies. I RAN downstairs while Brian stayed upstairs in case she stayed on the elevator. I think I freaked everyone out in the store, seeing a pregnant lady running usually makes people concerned. I made it downstairs and saw a crying little toddler scared to death and felt horrible. Not sure if she still likes the elevator or not, it seemed to take her awhile to recuperate from that one. Brian and I felt so stupid, how could we have let that happen? Oh well, I guess you live and learn. I held her for awhile until she finally decided she was hungry and then I carefully gave her some food, watching her to make sure she didn't choke or run in the elevator again.

Whew, parenting is exhausting! How are we going to do this with 2?

I think we'll figure out a way, I mean, kids are also adorable and hilarious.

I had to snap some pictures of Bria playing with Barbies. Growing up I was OBSESSED with Barbies, along with my sisters. We played Barbies all the time, my Mom even sewed adorable clothes for them. Anyway, I was so excited she wanted to play Barbies, I think it's time to start buying more and then buy them clothes and cars and houses and I'm so excited to play Barbies with her!!! Whew, that was a long run-on sentence.

However, as much as she may enjoy playing Barbies for a little bit, her preference is to be outside in the dirt.

And I've gotten a lot better about letting her get dirty. In fact, I think I'm more okay with it then Brian, I finally found something I'm more relaxed about than him, wahoo!

I changed my blog design a little, I'm obsessed with purple right now, can you tell? :)

Alright, nap time is almost over so I'm gonna try and fold laundry or something productive.

Blogger ate my post, grrr

*So not only was blogger down for 2 days, it ate my post. I published a post and it seriously erased it, NOT COOL!

Fortunately it was a pretty boring post so I decided to leave it out and just post the pictures that came along with it, plus others.

This week was pretty low key, although we did try and get out of the house (minus Wednesday where we stayed in our pj's all day! Brian was surprised when he got home because I usually at least get Bria dressed) most days.

We made a trip to the zoo with Lanie and Bristol because we have our awesome membership passes and it wasn't suppose to rain that day.

So lady like.

These two cuties held hands all on their own, without Lanie and I prompting them too.

So cute. Until Bria hurried Bristol too fast and Bristol fell. Fortunately Bristol is tough and it didn't really phase her. She just kind of looked at Bria like, "Yeah, let's not hold hands anymore."

Gotta love her cheesy grin :)

Bria did not want to go to gymnastics or the library this week which was very unlike her. I guess she's similar to me in that some days she just wants to be home and play. So we did, and we took walks when it wasn't raining which was nice.

MJ has been caught on more than one occasion spooning Bria's dolls. I'm hoping this means she'll warm up to our new baby girl sooner than she did with Bria.

While MJ cuddles with dolls, Bria enjoys washing herself off with her new favorite washcloth-an Easter gift from Aunt Jenny.

She takes getting clean very seriously!

Anyway, we're just chugging along here at the Holcomb house waiting impatiently for summer to come so we can throw on shorts and flip flops and play in some water.

Today I'm going maternity clothes shopping with Lanie, well she's not buying maternity clothes but I am, hopefully. And then Lance and Kayla are coming to stay with us, our first over night visitors!!

And now I'm going to go plan our week so Bria and I have something fun to do each day even though it's suppose to rain. Wish me luck ;)

Big girl bed? Okay!

So I was scared to post anything too early in case I jinxed it, but Bria has been in her big girl bed for over 2 weeks now. This girl blows my mind. I get so scared and anxious for new transitions and then she does all awesome and I worry for no reason. Just another way she is like her Dad and I am very grateful for that.

Like I mentioned, we had both the bed and crib in Bria's room so she would get use to the bed. One day for nap time she wanted to sleep in her bed so we said, okay sure. She took a little while to go to sleep and ended up going to sleep with her feet bent up towards the headboard. But she slept well. That night she wanted to sleep in her bed, I was terrified because I wasn't quite ready for the bedtime battle but I didn't want to discourage her or anything so again we said sure!

She did awesome, I believe the first 3 nights in her bed she woke up once in the middle of the night and I would go in to find her in some crazy position so I'd put her back on the pillow and give her a kiss and she was fine. She doesn't always sleep with her head on the pillow or even in the right direction for that matter, but she sleeps and that is what counts.

I'm so excited that she is doing so well in her big girl bed and we pray it continues. It feels really good to have her potty trained and in a big girl bed well before our next baby girl comes along.

I love my little sleeping angel.

We are still getting glimpses of good spring weather and we run outside to enjoy it when we can.

We have a park within walking distance so that has been really nice to go to on the sunny days. It's pretty small and doesn't have swings (the swings are Bria's absolute favorite) but it works. Plus it has a big grass area to run and play in.

We usually take the wagon there since the walk tires Bria out. This girl doesn't like sitting in her wagon normally, she prefers to lounge.

One time I made the mistake of not taking the wagon and I so regretted that. She made me carry her most of the way and this pregnant mama was so tired. I started cramping and when we got home I had to sit down for awhile and drink some water. Guess the baby didn't appreciate me carrying 30 pounds and walking a mile.

It looks like she's asleep here, which would've been so awesome and hilarious. But she's just squinting because her pretty blue eyes aren't use to seeing the sun.

This weekend we are heading back home for my niece's baptism. Can't believe Kailey is 8 already, so crazy. Anyway, we're excited to see the family and Bria always loves playing with her cousins, aunts & uncles, and of course her grandparents.
Something tells me they kind of like her too ;)

Yellow is a happy color

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We have no special plans or parties today but maybe I'll have a virgin margarita or something ;)

I can't tell you how much I enjoy when the sun comes out. I realize I blog about it every time we get sun, I can't help it, it makes me happy and energized and all motivated to be a better person and stuff. Funny that the sun can have such an affect on me.

Last week we got a sunny day and it wasn't too cold out which was a double bonus. We went in the backyard to soak it all up.

Bria enjoyed gathering rocks and sticks while I bathed in the sun.

I love this picture, it has an adorable toddler in it and also our a/c unit. Ahh, a/c is nice in the summer.

I'm at a loss some days on how to fix Bria's hair, so some days I just let it go crazy. This day was obviously one of those days :)

Looking at all her fun treasures in her little bag.

Can you tell I was happy since I put both Bria and myself in yellow? It's happy.

I love that Brian is carrying Bria's little purse :)

After spending some time in the backyard we went and got Burger King and had a picnic in the park. Then proceeded to play and play at the park, along with the whole entire city. It was a fun day, hopefully the summer is filled with a ton of these kind of days.