Now that Braelle is Two

As of yesterday I finished my first year of nursing school and it has surprisingly flown by. I have been so blessed with an outstanding support system and I'm so grateful to be studying to do something that I love. Thank you to everyone who has prayed me through. This time next year (hopefully), Ill be Hannah Runion, RN :)

As for Braelle, a lot has happened since she has turned two! I've been taking notes on her so that I wouldn't forget anything by the time I could finally sit down to blog.

Potty training: this has been a slow easy going process. She doesn't wear a diaper unless she's asleep or we leave the house. And she can hold her pee for 4+ hours. As long as she's willing, she does great with remembering when to go. We've taken a few steps back this week because lately when she sits down to go, her tee-tee "jumps" out of her potty and wets her clothes. She does not like that at all so she's regressed to preferring her diaper for now.

Weaning: this too, is a slowwww process. I really just don't know how to do it. I need a step-by-step manual on 'how to wean a Braelle-like two year old'. It feels impossible. She loves it SO MUCH and it has kept her healthy for 2+ years and I'm very thankful for it, but I am SO READY to put it to rest. If you have any experience with this, PLEASE give me some advice. I'm lost.

ABC's: Homegirl knows her ABC's. Every one of them. She was singing them to me in the tub tonight but got a little side tracked. "ABCDEFGH I love you...JKLM..." Ahh she melts my heart.

123's: She can count to ten on a good day. Sometimes skips #4. Maybe because when she sees the #4, she calls it #12. Not sure why...

Days of the Week: Braelle is learning the days of the week. Every day I ask her what day it is and she always gives it a good guess. Normally says its 'Monday or Tuesday'. We still have a little work to do here.

Braelle Hope Runion: that's her name and she knows the whole thing.

She puts her shoes on the right feet, always has, and wears a size 8 (rather large foot). She wears a 2t in clothes and is almost 25lbs.

Obsessed with candy...like OBSESSED. We call candy "emergencies" around here b/c well, we need Braelle to have some candy to make her happy when we're in public and a melt down is about to unfold.. She also really likes her vitamins.

Sneezes into her antecubital (aka her elbow). She does really well with this 90% of the time. I teach her the medical terms for her body parts. Nursing school would be so much easier if I would have grown up knowing the correct term for everything.

Manners: She has the most precious manners I've EVER seen a two year old have. She says please, thank you, your welcome, yes sir (to my dad), and yes mam (if I remind her). She also says excuse me! Mostly she is super good about saying thank you. If I open the door for her, hand her something, nurse her, give her a kiss/hug, it's "oh thank you mommy". Chrissy got a big hug and an "oh thank you" today for hanging a Christmas ornament. It's the little things. This girl is SO grateful just to be alive and she'll thank you for every little thing.

She still really loves to read, play outside, and pretend to talk on the phone. I hear her all the time pretending to place an order at Chick-fil-a over the phone, "Hey...lemon (lemonade), no ice, thank you, bye." She recently has really started liking her sandbox. She'll play on the backporch in it by herself for about 20 minutes. That's major. She still really loves our undivided attention though.

Christmas is coming and Braelle is really excited! She can't stop talking about Baby Jesus' birthday and all the pretty lights! We put colored lights on our tree this year just for her. I got a huge hug when I plugged them in.

Here's a few recent pictures!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Braelle!!

Braelle is 2!!! I can't believe it. She has been VERY excited about turning two!

I haven't blogged since school started so here's what's been up:
Braelle has all 20 teeth!!! Finally, we are done with teething! I let her brush in the morning and I brush them at night.

Stats: Braelle is 23.4lbs (7th %) and 35'' long (90th %). Tall and skinny!! I still haven't measured her head in a while but I don't need to to know that it's big! Her foot has been doing some serious growing and she can no longer wear her summer shoes. She now wears a size 8. Yet she's been wearing size 24 months for a year now. Kind of bummed that I don't need to go shopping for her haha

Braelle's schedule has changed in the past week. She has been trying to skip her nap and has been successful. That.has.got.to.change. So the new plan is for her to be awake no later than 7am and take a nap around 1pm. She has to wake up by 3pm to go to bed around 8pm. I really need her to sleep as much as possible so I can study, but she has different plans.

Braelle and my dad(Bub) are tight! Braelle helps him put his shoes on before his daily walk and she takes it very seriously. When he returns, she helps him take them off. (even his sweaty socks). It's safe to say that she adores my dad and has the best time with him.

Lately Braelle has been calling me "Hannah" if I don't respond fast enough to her wants. She.is.silly. She also calls anyone who is a mom, "mom". I get to be called "mommy" since I am special. :)

Braelle can tee-tee in the potty although it is not a consistent occurrence.   She was VERY proud of herself when she does but she normally tells me that she doesn't want to. I haven't been pushing it. I've always heard that potty training is miserable and I think it might have something to do with the child not being ready for it. So when she's ready, she'll do it!

Braelle is my bug killer. If we are outside or inside, she finds a shoe and beats them to death. Appearantly she has seen me kill a spider or two. A couple days ago, she informed me about a "bug" and I told her to go get it. She smacked my flip flop on it and came back in with a gooey, smashed, dead spider on her finger. That's my girl.

Since my mom broke her ankle, I have been taking Braelle to church with me every Sunday. I think it's good for her to have some play time with other babies her age but I don't think she actually plays with them. I'm pretty sure she makes one of the volunteers hold her the entire time. She cries off and on but when I go pick her up, she tells me that she had a good time, but that she missed her mommy.

At two, Braelle likes to play with play-doh (although she got it taken away a couple days ago for not cleaning up after herself), blow bubbles, chalk on the driveway, play outside in the dirt, READ, and dance. She also loves to talk on the phone and her favorite color is yellow!

How cute are these bee cupcakes Rachael made for Braelle?!

20 years 20 months - Like Mother Like Child

Recently, I turned 20 and Braelle turned 20 months on the same day. We celebrated by going downtown for some Mellow Mushroom and Cupcake. Braelle wasn't on her best behavior, as she demanded to push her own stroller down King Street. I didn't think this was possible, but she seems to get more independent and strong willed every day. For instance, she likes to put her own shoes on and no matter how long it takes, I am not invited to help. Soon she'll be changing her own diapers. Which brings me to my next topic: Braelle is obsessed with "poo poo" and "tee tee". She talks about it all the time, tells me before and after she goes, and flips over immediately after I take off her diaper to take a look. Sounds like she's ready for potty training but I'm not rushing it. Speaking of which, Braelle now wears "The Honest Company" diapers by Jessica Alba. They get delivered to our house and fit Braelle's body type perfectly! Not to mention, they're really cute! http://www.honest.com/

Braelle will tell you that her favorite color is "lellow" and the best part is not hearing her say it, but watching how it comes out of her mouth. Her little tongue feels the need to escape her mouth roughly 3 times. It's incredibly cute and funny! That being said, she is learning her colors and learning how to count to 10. Her favorite number is 9 and she tries so hard to make it follow 1, 2, 3, ect.

Braelle has proved to be quite the little mommy. She LOVES her baby dolls and babies in general. And she takes very good care of them. She's so thoughtful and makes sure they get something to eat, drink, and get to look outside at the geese. Earlier she told me one of her baby dolls had "poo poo". And so we changed her baby's diaper. A couple weeks ago we met some friends up at the pool, (one of B's friends which she talks about every.single.day.: Aubri) Braelle was so sweet to Aubri and Raelyn and fed them their baby food and even put sunscreen on them! Melted my heart.

I am still nursing Braelle but it has slowed down. She nurses in the morning and when she goes down for a nap. She used to get it in the bath every night but if I don't take a bath with her, she doesn't get it. Looks like she'll definitly still be nursing by the time she's 2. We'll see how my school schedule will be like in the fall and whether that cuts into her nursing schedule. I've been talking about weaning but my sister brought up a good point, "What would be the benefit of not breastfeeding anymore?" I haven't come up with anything yet and I'll need at least something to go up against all the benefits of continuing to breastfeed. Other than it being socially unacceptable, which I could care less about, why should I stop?

Sorry you are having to read so much, she can skip down to the pictures if you prefer :D But I have a couple more things to say... Braelle is the biggest copy cat EVER! So you really have to watch what you say and what you do. All parents should always remember that because kids are ALWAYS watching. At night, I rock Braelle to sleep (unless it's taking too long-which is most of the time), and she encourages me to sing to her even though I don't have the voice of an angel. I like that she likes for me to sing to her though. When I get bored with 'Don't cry little baby', 'Bushel and a peck, 'Jesus loves me', 'Jesus loves the little children, ect., I start making up my own songs.

I have found 3 tiny freckles on Braelle's left cheek. They are so cute! It's funny how you love the things that your child got from you even when it's things you don't love about yourself. Like freckles and a random short toe.

Now for pictures!!

 She loves pushing her babies in their stroller!



Did I fail to mention how much she loves to chalk...on herself??

Sweet face

19 Months!

Since I know you all love updated pictures of Braelle, I thought I'd share ;)

"So...which one of you wants to go swimming?"

                                                                 Happy Birthday Atee!!

A Year and a Half

Braelle celebrates her half birthday every year on St. Patrick's Day! Right now, I'm sure she thinks all the choas is revolved around her and thinks that everyone is throwin down for her half birthday! Can yall believe she's already 18 months?? Check out just how so very cute she is!

Cutest outfit you've ever seen?! Wish it came in my size!!

So Braelle is 18 months and this is what's been up:

• Walks up and down stairs (with assistance)
• Moved up to size 4 diapers
• Speaks words and babbles A LOT. Some examples are, "read, momma, Bub, Heath, water, uh-oh, woah, wow, baby, hey, thanks, ect." Aunt Ashton pointed out that B also says "weee" when seeing or going down a slide, "hot" and "yum yum"
• loves the beach
• knows all body parts
• tells me when she has a 'full diaper'
• definitely right handed (thank God)
• still nursing...the new goal is to stop by age 2
• has hit the terrible two's early...throws temper tantrums on the regular...but good thing is they don't last but about 5 seconds
• weighs 21 lbs still (5%)
• Not interested in letting me measure how tall she is and we haven't been to the doctor's for a check up in 9 months, but comparing her to other kids her age, she seems tall.
• LOVES ice cream!!
• Insists on giving headbutts, pounds, high fives, hand shakes, kisses, hugs AND waves (in that order normally) when having to say bye-bye. If she gets all of those tricks in, she doesn't care if you have to go. So this little routine really helps with seperation anxiety. She also needs to run to the door and watch you leave. She often tries to give a distant headbutt and blows kisses as I drive away. Sweet girl huh?!



Let's Reminiscence

Let's reminiscence, shall we? So apparently nursing school pretty much requires you to have a smart phone, which I don't have...yet!! I've had my nonsmart phone for 3 years and have lots of pictures of Braelle on it so here are some over the years that I couldn't do away with!

Will I be a basketball player??

 Or a gymnast??

 Bubbles!!

 Braelle drooled on my pants and it made a heart!

 When B had Salmonella...

 My 1st Birthday!

 1st time I saw B sleeping on her back

haha ok so B was nursing and had an itch on her cheek so she scratched it with her toes!

 I'm too cool

 Sleepin in the tub

 Oh how I LOVE this picture

 hahah...Baby dreads

Just a couple hours old

 haha a girlfriend of mine texted me one night..."hey sexy" and I replied with this picture, "how's this for sexy??"

 And of course I'll never forget this day...ha