Round 2-Water babies

We started our second water babies session and I'm so excited. Bria still enjoys the water and has a great time splashing around and kicking. She enjoyed getting dunked so much today that she reached for the instructor to do it again, crazy girl. I think we both enjoy going somewhere in the morning and having something to do, Bria is happier which makes me happier.

Bria's 5th tooth poked through on Friday! I had no idea until I was feeling around in her mouth (I do it every few days just to see) and sure enough I felt a sharp edge. She had a runny nose for a few days but once it poked through her nose started running like a faucet and has ever since. She's all congested and stuffy and I just think it's so weird that she gets worse after the tooth breaks through, so odd. Oh well, she's still a pretty good sport about it and I didn't mind the extra cuddles she needed yesterday.

Playing at Erin and Gabe's house, enjoying all his fun toys.

I think most babies love talking on the phone and Bria is no exception. She is obsessed with our phones. She has a toy phone and 2 real cell phones that are our old ones, but the girl still prefers our actual cell phones. Dang, she's too smart to be tricked!

I was talking to my Mom on the phone and Bria decided she had to call someone too ;)

"It's true, naps actually help."

"Hold on a moment, MJ's coming."

Bria has a blast when Daddy comes home, they do fun stuff that Mommy doesn't do:

Sitting in a chair is a big girl thing

A few weeks ago I filmed Bria climbing in and out of her chair, she thinks she's such a big girl and makes sure to say, "Good girl," when she climbs in and out of it. Totally makes me laugh.



She has since gotten even better at climbing in and out. Although there was that one time the chair slowly fell on top of her. Don't worry she wasn't hurt, just confused.

Have I mentioned I love this age?

Because I do.

I'm terrified of the terrible two's, especially with my temper-mental little Bria, so I am soaking this age in as best I can. She is talking so much and loves to try and mimc anything we say. The other day we were sitting on the couch and she was "reading" a book to me. She found a tiny picture of Elmo, pointed to him and in the cutest voice you ever heard said, "Elmo." I about fainted. It is such a cute little sound and she says it so clearly.

We walk around everywhere, meaning she hangs onto the tip of my finger as we walk all over the place. The girl seriously does not need me but as soon as she feels my finger start to slip she sits down. Gotta work on her confidence, she needs to be like her father in that way. 

She walks on her own every so often, but it's hard to coax her sometimes. Last night she had a bite of a chocolate chip cookie for the very first time (assuming her grandparents haven't snuck them in...I wouldn't put it past them ;) and holy cow the girl was hooked. I had given it back to Brian and she walked right over to him to get more. We both couldn't believe it, guess it takes a chocolate chip cookie to get this girl walking. And when we asked her to say cookie she said it perfectly. Oh my stars.

Cheezing it up for the camera.

She is growing and growing so big. The girl has the biggest belly you've ever seen and when you ask her where it is she sticks it out and lowers her chin to her chest, HILARIOUS. I'll have to grab a picture of that. 

Love this picture, wish it wasn't blurry...and that there wasn't a BK cup in the background, or a dirty towel above my head ;)

She is very good at shaking her head no and when she does I turn to her and say, "Yes," so she starts nodding her head yes and smiles. I'm going to enjoy that little trick while I can.

She does not like when I tell her no. She throws a mini fit and it's not cute, my little spunky monkey.

Hello Miss Blue eyes!

But she is still the sweetest cuddle bug. When we ask for a hug she'll lean in and say, "Ohhhh," since apparently we always make that noise when she hugs us. She also gives the best kisses ever, and my favorite is when she kisses without us asking. It makes my heart melt. She totally exaggerates the kissing noise, "Muah!" and I love it.

She use to hate when Brian and I kissed, I think she got jealous. But now she giggles and thinks it's so funny that mommy and daddy are kissing. 

Making silly faces.

Bria does not lack facial expressions that's for sure. She is always making silly faces to get us to laugh and pay attention to her, my little ham. I can't help but laugh.

She loves the alphabet song and tries to sing along while dancing. She totally gets her sweet moves from me ;) 

Manners

I've always felt manners were so important, it's just how I was raised (that's a shout out to you Mom and Dad!). So that's something Brian and I talked about a lot when discussing our kids, we wanted to raise them with manners. Not only how to be polite by saying "Please" and "Thank you" but also at the dinner table when we eat. 

It's important to be lady like and remember to take small bites that we can safely swallow.

And also to keep the food off our lap.

And not to put too much food in our mouths at one time.

But it's also fun to throw all that out the window once in a while and dig in. What's life if you can't have fun and smash a blueberry muffin in your face!

Also, I got an email saying Bria was in the finals for the cover of Parents magazine! If you want to vote for her that would be great! http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/248896

Baby Gauchos and Gordie

We had a neighbor (they have since moved) with a little girl and she gave us all of her clothes before they left. My absolute FAVORITE piece of clothing that she gave us were a brown pair of gauchos.

I cannot describe in words just how cute these gauchos are on Bria, so I will just let you look at the pictures. Which I don't even think the pictures do them justice. They're that cute.

And the blond haired girl in them doesn't hurt either ;)

Oh the adorableness kills me!

We had some positively beautiful weather this last weekend so Brian worked outside on his bus. His friend Craig drove his bus down from Washington and so it's safe to say Brian was in VW bus heaven.

Penny on the left and Craig's bus on the right.

Craig mentioned that he was still trying to come up with a name for his bus but hadn't found one yet. A lot of his friends mentioned girl names. I looked at him and said, "Your bus is a boy, he needs a boy name." I think him and Brian thought I was crazy but cars talk to me, they tell me their name, just like Penny told me her name. So I thought about Craig's boy bus and it came to me: Gordie. Gordie the bus. Craig is going to paint him green so he'll be Green Gordie :)

And now Penny has a boyfriend.

Craig and Brian both agreed that Gordie fit him perfect and Craig was excited to finally have a name for his bus. I guess naming cars is my special talent. 

Too bad it wasn't singing or something.

Bria also enjoyed VW bus day because she got some driving lessons from Daddy, can't start too soon right?

It was such a nice day. Not only weather wise but I also got to do some yard work (which I really enjoy!) and Brian of course got to play with his bus. It was a good weekend for the Holcomb's.

Finding her Prince

We went to Garland Nursery this week and I turned to see Bria doing this.

Without a doubt the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Guess she wanted him to turn into her prince charming.

Rocking chairs and B's

So Brian has 8 weeks of classes left, and this time it really is the end. After this he will be DONE!!! He's working really hard each night and I'm so proud of him. Trying to do homework while your wife and baby are laughing and having fun can't be easy.
Neither can listening to your baby cry while your wife complains to you that she needs a break...not that I've ever done that.

In 9 weeks we will be heading to Shasta for a family vacation and I'm really excited. My whole fandamily is going and we rented a house boat! Usually when we go we camp so it'll be fun to be right on the lake and in the middle of all the fun. Not sure where we are going to put Bria yet, none of the rooms are big enough to put Bria's pack 'n play. That sucks because she does really well in her pack 'n play. She does not do well sleeping with us, I've tried a few times for naps and she has none of it. Hopefully we can figure out something that will make it so we all have fun. I'd feel bad if everyone had to listen to Bria scream all night because she was annoyed that we were in her personal space or that we were breathing on her.

Bria is loving little rocking chairs. They have two at the library and she spends her time climbing in and out of them so I knew we needed one at home. Lucky for us Grammy M. had one that has been in the family for a long long time, so not only is it adorable, it has sentimental value.

And Bria loves it.

"Does my butt look big Mom?"

So proud of herself.

Reading intently...my little bookworm.

I mentioned that I had ordered Bria a "B" bow holder and I finally remembered to snap a picture of it.

I just love it. It fits the decor in her room perfectly and it's so nice to have all her bows in one area. Plus it's freakin adorable.