Easter and 18 months!

Gig Harbor’s Uptown hosts an Easter Egg Hunt that we had checked out last year and thought was run pretty well, so we decided to give it a try again this year and let Brielle show us what she could do.

Here we are waiting for it to start. The first wave of kids allowed to hunt were 5 and under, so as the mother of a itty bitty toddler, I was a little worried Brielle would not get a chance to get any eggs. Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

I picked her up and got ahead of the other kids to give Brielle a chance to get just one egg (oh yes, I was that mom!) and as you can see, she didn’t quite grasp the concept at first, so I pointed out to her what to do.

You didn’t have to tell her twice. (Who’s more excited here, Mom or Bri. Really, I was a little crazy)

But after that first egg, she got the idea and ran off on her own to collect eggs. Check out her basket now. We only gave a little direction after the first egg, but she collected them all by herself.

The kids were limited to 10 eggs, so as soon as she go hers, we swept her up and left the egg collecting area. She had gotten to be quite a pro. What a full basket!

We went back to to start where the Easter bunny was hanging out. Bri was super excited to see such a big bunny and started saying bunny over and over again. I figured with that kind of excitement she’d be all over a picture. Again, I was wrong. Bunny from a far is pretty awesome. Bunny up close is at little different. Click on the photo to enlarge and check out Bri’s wary eyes. 

The next weekend was actually Easter weekend, so we headed over to Grandma’s for the big family egg hunt. This is picture of the grandkids that were there. And yes, this is the best we could do. The fact that they are all in the picture is truly amazing with three toddlers completely occupied with everything else but standing still. I recruited Bella to hold Bri for the photo and poor Bella had to fight to keep that girl in her arms.

Here’s Bri with Daddy (being a little of “that guy” running Brielle around to the different egg hiding spots) and Auntie Rachel during the family egg hunt.

And this is her pretty dress. :)

Alright, finally, the 18 month photos. Just like Easter, getting a toddler to sit/stand still is nearly impossible, so these are the best of the 20 some pics we took. No smile here, but look how much bigger she is compared to 1 year. (BTW, how cute is that dresser behind Jr. Cowboy Fingers?!? Just a little pat on my back for painting and fixing the rails with just a little help from Steve and his dad)

Okay, you can’t really tell, but she is a little over 2 inches taller than she was at a year. You can see she looks less like a baby and more like a little girl. It’s bittersweet really.

One way we got her to stay with the bear was to kiss his nose…

And to give him a hug. It doesn’t look like Jr. Cowboy Fingers appreciates the hug as you can seem him biting Bri’s arm in this pic. Good thing he doesn’t have any teeth.

At 18 months she is learning in leaps and bounds. I can’t count how many words she has anymore and we can easily have caveman conversations now. Ugg Hungry? Ugg Yes! Ugg Eggs? Ugg Yes! It’s been very helpful to know what she wants at meal time.

She know all the animal noises we’ve thought to teach her and/or know ourselves. I mean really, what does a giraffe say?

Today, she put her left shoe on her right foot all by herself. I had turned around to hang up her sweater and when I turned back her shoe was on and velcroed up. 

She can help get dressed but has a ways to go to do it on her own. She is getting better at stripping, including her diaper much to the dismay of her parents. It hasn’t been a problem yet, but I’m assuming it will be a challenge to keep her clothed once she really figures it out.

She’s a super helper which is great now that bending over isn’t my favorite thing to do. I can ask her to get me something, even if it’s in another room, and 80% of the time, she’ll get it and bring it to me. She is also good about throwing things in the trash and the laundry. Yes, I have had to take a few things out of the trash that I could see why she’d throw away but I was saving for some reason, and I’ve washed clean towels that she’s snuck in the basket when I’m not looking. But all in all, she’s been a huge help.

I’m sure there’s more she’s learned in the last 6 months, but being with her everyday makes me forget since I get used to her new skills. She is a rock star though and we are so blessed to have her. Can’t wait to see what her sister’s going to be like. From her activity in the womb, I think she’s going to be a wily one, but we’ll find out soon!