Brianne's latest doctor appointment has her at 35 inches tall, and 33 pounds and a classic case of Elmo-itis (the we love Elmo stage). Along with continually trying to count and sing her ABC's, she has adapted all forms of comedy everywhere we go.
Just the other day at Meijer, Kami and Brianne were checking out and Brianne was handing us the items to scan and place into the bag in the self-checkout. When she handed over the last item and scanned it, she cried joyfully "Yay! You did it mommy!" To say the least, that just had about everyone's attention for 6 aisles over, all likely wondering, "What exactly did you do?"
And just when you think you couldn't top that, we had fun selecting a comforter. Now, Kami and I wanted to get Brianne something special for her room since she will be sharing it with her little brother, and we couldn't quite figure out what we wanted to get her with her Birthday money, so we went to Big Lots to look at comforters. Well we couldn't find the exact comforter we wanted, so I started pulling all of the Disney themed comforters, such as, the Tinker Bell comforter (shown below) asking Brianne if she thought they were "cute". Her response, "No", or "Not cute." After about the 6th or 7th one, I was about to give up, so I pulled one more that had pink, purple and red flowers (see below) and then those magic words happened. Brianne said "That's cute! Okaaaay lets go." (yes, we know you just said that in your prettiest girly-est voice in your head, admit it.... come on.... just admit it!)
Now you'd think that would be the funniest thing yet, but just wait, there is more. For Valentine's Day, we decided a good tradition would be that Daddy would buy her a carnation, a pink carnation to be exact. To start off the hilarity, we attempted to get Brianne to smell the flower, only to have her blow on it as if it were hot. It was just too cute. Then we gave her a card from us that was still in the envelope. Now you have to understand, Brianne loves opening cards. She gently opened the enveloped, peeked inside and quickly yelled "Elmo got me a card!" I am sure you have surmised that the card had Elmo on the front of it. We both laughed at her statement as she danced around the room with the card so excited that "Elmo got her a card." Once she calmed down and we let her open it further so she could read the Happy Valentines from Mommy and Daddy, you could just tell that she was still on cloud nine with the thought of Elmo getting her a card (so if you are a secret letter writer for Elmo, by all means send letters this way, as this little girl LOVES Elmo).
With the fast pace at which Brianne has been growing up, Mommy has decided it is time to allow her to help out in the kitchen when baking. Things like egg-less sugar cookies, egg-less brownies, egg-less pancakes, etc. Now Brianne has a definite egg allergy, not bad to the point of touching them (at least it isn't that way anymore), but to the point she isn't supposed to eat them and her doctor has also told us to stay away from peanuts and peanut butter, so keep this in mind. Last week Kami was making Breakfast Omelet Muffins, which contain egg. Faster than you could say "No", Miss Brianne was pulling up a chair to help (you can only imagine our fear). Then to top it off, last week Kami was making Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookies for her brothers, and you-know-who just had to pull up a chair and help with that too. As my wife politely put it, "I've created a baking monster!" Thankfully she did well both times strictly doing only the stirring or the dumping of items that she is likely not allergic to into the mixing bowl. However, that didn't stop Kami from taking the mixing bowl with her every time she left the kitchen and Brianne was still on her chair.
Apart from her new fondness of baking in the kitchen she really loves to lay on Mommy's stomach and get kicked in the head by her little brother. We honestly think it doesn't phase her one bit. It is just funny that every time she lays on Mommy's stomach, her brother wakes up and decides it's time to start kicking and stretching. We haven't determined yet if Brianne is ready for her brother or not, but every so often, she just has to give him a kiss. We are taking that as a sign that she is liking the idea of having a brother.
It has been way to long since our last update on Brianne, so it is our promise (and you need to hold us to it!) to do these more often, as there are just too many stories to fit into a single update. We are loving Columbus, enjoying the time we get to see family on our outings to the North, and looking forward to our new addition in April.
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne, and Baby Wilkin