Check Your Expectations at the Door: Life with Brielle: January 2015

We kicked off 2015 we an eventful start! We had our first night away from our girl. Every year for 6 years we've spent New Years Eve with friends from college. We had planned to bring Brielle, but my parents kindly offered to come stay the night with her. I was a little nervous because her toddler behavior has increased lately, but of course she was a little angel for her grandparents. It was so nice to have a night away! I can't believe we didn't take a single picture together!

Scott has also started a new job with Ventiv Tech, which he loves! His position is more web development than his previous one, and he commutes 3 days a week to the office. It has been an adjustment to have him gone, but it makes our family time all the more special. Brielle certainly misses her daddy while he is gone!

We had an appointment with the ophthalmologist, and it took 4 hours! She did great, but does have a slight vision problem. We hope to pick out her glasses this week. Then the next day we had her OT evaluation. We are excited to start with some therapies because I know they are going to help her tremendously! The evaluation went well, and right now our concentration is learning how to color better and learning how to stack blocks. We have a PT eval on the 23rd, and then we will start both therapies weekly.

Brielle has been growing and changing all the time! She has gone through so many developmental stages since we got her in August, and she is coming fully into toddlerhood. It is very fun, but also very challenging. She has a lot of opinions, and does not like to be told no! She may not talk but she certainly makes her opinions known.

One of the best things about Brielle when we first got her was that she would eat anything, veggies and all! But with toddlerhood has come picky eating...I'm just thankful she still likes avocado and broccoli.

We also started potty training last week, and its going really well! I'm not sure when we can actually move into big girl panties, but it is really nice to use one or two pull-ups a day instead of multiple diapers.

She consistently signs 'more' or 'all done' when given a choice between eating more or getting down. She is pretty consistent about obeying 'look at mommy', which is a big victory because eye contact has been hard for her. I am hoping she will learn the sign for going potty, but we're still working on it. Food is a much better motivator!

Her laughter is still medicine for my soul! She is a child of big extremes, very happy, very sad, or very mad. We certainly enjoy her, and she pushes us to our limits.

I know 2015 holds great things for our girl! I cannot wait to look back over the year when we get to our gotcha day, and see all the expectations she has exceeded!

Here is a look at our life lately:

Rainy Saturday=Chick Fil A breakfast