Friday, December 14, 2012

ONE

Dearest Brenna -
You are one.  ONE!  To be fair you turned one almost a month ago, but mommy was having some technical blogging difficulties which seem have now been fixed. 
It is incredible to think that this time last year you spent most of your days sleeping or snuggled in my arms.  Our mornings were early, our nights were long, but yet there was something perfectly magical about life. 
In the past year you have changed our little family in such wonderful ways.  You are a vivacious, sweet, inquisitive little lady.  You openly adore your sister, who in turn adores you.  The two of you play together everyday and I most often hear your belly laughs when she is around.  She is gentle and kind with you and you two seem to speak a language that Daddy and I are not fluent in. 
You can be a bit of a skeptical child - you take time to assess a situation before deciding if you are comfortable. You intently search peoples' faces and often seem to know more than anyone else in the room.
You crawl like the devil and when you really get going you can cross rooms in seconds. You will walk with your mail cart walker, or holding on to our hands but you've yet to take an independent step. You are an excellent furniture and wall cruiser.
You have continued to be a tiny bit of a thing and your appetite is minimal.  At your one year checkup our doctor decided that you were just going to be a petite little pea and removed the label of failure to thrive (thank heavens!).  For being the biggest of the grand kids at birth, you are certainly a little, little lady now. You measure in on the 5th percentile for weight, at a whopping 17 lbs 13 oz; you are at the 24th percentile for height at 28.5 inches and, shockingly, your head is in the 94th percentile at 18.5 inches.  Daddy called you our little bobble head, our friend Karen said you were a Lalaloopsey doll - no matter what, we think you are just perfect.
Your first birthday fell on Thanksgiving, which we celebrated in Akron with Uncle Jeaf and Gramma Kathy.  You weren't very interested in your cupcake, but you thought the candle was pretty cool.  You also devoured some of Uncle Jeaf's amazing deep dish apple crumble pie.   We celebrated your birthday again at home with the entire Neyer clan, and yet again you weren't so impressed by ice cream or cake.  Your lack of interest in sweets makes me question if you are mine, and then I am reminded of your complete love of cheese.
You eat like a bird - just a little bit here and there.  You are not a fan of most veggies, or for that matter even fruits, but if they come pureed in pouch you'll suck them down.  You have changed your mind about bananas and now will happily munch on a slice or two.  What makes you happiest food wise, however, are Brenton crackers, cheese and meat.  You'll eat pork, chicken, beef, tuna salad.  You love meatballs and chili.  You happily slurp down yogurt and cream of broccoli soup.  As is stands you don't love your sippy or straw cups, and prefer to have a bottle, but are only allowed first thing in the morning and occassionally before bed.  This annoys you, but you are adjusting.
Luckily for me you inherited the Neyer sleep gene and love your crib.  At bed and nap times you prefer to be put in your crib with a few buddies to snuggle with and left alone to do your thing.  Just recently you have shown more of an interest in and patience for books, but story time still isn't your thing.  The only book you really seem to love is  Five Little Pumpkins.  I am very, very tired of reading it to you, but I do to tease out a smile and a few brief moments of snuggle time. 
Brenna, you are a babbler.  Grandma Patty says when you get real words I am in for it - I think she's right.  You chit chat to yourself in your crib, you babble in the car, you shriek for attention, you have conversations with the cat.  You are a huge fan of pointing at what you want whether it's food, a toy or just something you want to touch.  I definitely hear you say Mama, Dada and Adah.  Once in awhile I think you say Kit for the cat.   You can blow kisses, play peek-a-boo and patty cake.  You wave bye bye and night night and seem to be understanding and using  the signs for all done and more.You like to imitate your big sister and try to put headbands on to be fancy.  You love to snuggle with blankets and stuffed animals, but not so much with people.  You have a daily battle with your socks, get annoyed with winter hats and aren't quite sure you like tutus.  Your mood can shift with the wind - generally you are a happy, laughing baby.  But when you are unhappy, you are very unhappy, and you make sure the world knows it.  You have an impressive set of lungs and a fabulous array of facial expressions.  You have taken to tilting your head to one side and smiling  to get what you want, and it works like nothing else.  You find it funny to be a little naughty and like to crawl at mach speed out of gated off rooms, finding it hysterical that you've escaped. If the gate is left open you seem to think it is your responsibility to crawl through it and slam it shut. In general you are gentle with our old lady cat but every once in awhile you decide to terrorize her paws, ears and tail and you think it's kind of funny when she meows at you.  Grandma Patty taught you uh oh, which you think is super fun to say - particularly after tossing your milk cup from your highchair or chucking an item out of our shopping cart.  You say uh oh, widen those enormous brown eyes of yours and laugh. 
It's hard to remember a time before you, Brenna.  You were the missing piece to our family.  You make my heart so full and with out a doubt you fill your Dad's and sister's hearts too.  You fill our days with laughter and sunshine.  Your brown eyes can warm the coldest of mornings and your silly smile will melt any heart.
You are our sweet Brenna Bear and somehow you are already one. 
 



2 comments:

Mich said...

welcome back - we missed you.

and thanks for the mid-morning tears - you have a great way of expressing all those "my baby is one - holy shit" thoughts and observations into a very eloquent way. Nice job.

Sue said...

Aw, sweet post about a sweet little lady! I've missed you!