Outside

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times: Brynley loves to be outside. Here are some photos that I took on one of the many walks that we took in October and November (when the weather was nice!)

Running down the driveway:

Digging up the driveway with my trowel (one of her favorite outside "toys"):


Cute little ruffle butt:

Sitting on the porch steps:

Curly-girl:

Peek-a-boo:

Rolling around in the grass with Cider:

Hugging Cider...

...or as Bryn calls her "Ci-Ci!"

Random photos

Peacoat

Check out Brynley in her little navy peacoat. Too cute!

Silly girl

Here's Brynley in one of her rare "Brynley moments" (defined as those moments when she is actually playing by herself and not paying attention to Mommy and the camera).

Giggling at her paint-with-water book. She has a paintbrush in her hand, but no water.

Getting down to some artistic business


Brynley is a serious artist

(sorry for the dark photos)

Why May?

Why do we want Brynley potty trained by May? Because in May, Brynley will become a...

This blog is going to get a whole lot busier in 2011!! I better catch up now! :)

Potty time

On November 5th, my Aunt Sue & Uncle Bill were down from upstate New York for a brief visit. That night we made a huge feast for dinner and sat around our big farmhouse table enjoying their company. After dinner, Brynley started to follow Aunt Sue into the bathroom while holding her diaper and pointing to her potty so my Aunt calls out to me that she thinks B needs to use the potty. Not quite believing her, I explain that B has never used the potty yet...we haven't even been trying.

To humor ourselves, we took B's diaper off (which was dirty!) and let her sit on the potty. I took some photos, thinking all along that this wasn't really going to be the first time she used the potty. I mean, she initiated it herself! After about 5 minutes, she stood up and ran to me screaming in delight...and, sure enough, there was a potty full of pee! We all cheered as if she had just won a gold medal in the Olympics.

As I'm writing this on 12/28, Brynley has only used the potty two other times, but we also haven't been pushing the issue too much, although I know we should. She's interested...and it's time. I'd love to have her potty trained by May (fingers crossed!)

Silly girl

Brynley and some more of her silly antics.

Photos taken in October/November 2010

Where does an Elmo trick-or-treat bucket go?

On your head, of course!

Uncle Bill taught her this little trick:

Walk this way...

Halloween

Better late than never, huh? Let's just pretend it's still October...

Rob, Brynley, & I spent the Halloween weekend in Northern Virginia. It was quite a busy weekend and we enjoyed spending time with Nana & Grandpa.

On Saturday afternoon, Brynley and I went to Erika's house to spend some time with her and her girls, Abby and Natalie. We played outside, baked and decorated Halloween sugar cookies, oohhed and ahhhed over the Mitchell sisters' beautiful witch costumes, and shared some dinner.

Sunday was Halloween and Rob and I took Brynley to the Taylor household! We enjoyed a delicious Pioneer Woman chili dinner with Heather, Mama & Papa Riddle, and the triplets. After dinner, the kids all got dressed up and we went trick-or-treating. Bryn was lucky to get a small bag of pretzels at her first house which kept her entertained and satisfied for the remainder of the houses. When she was winding down, we headed back to Nana's house, took some more photos in her costume, and ate some candy. Somehow her head grew that evening because we had some trouble getting the ladybug costume off!

Brynley and the triplets

(a.k.a. Ladybug, Nemo, Jessie, and Woody)

Heather has a better picture of this...hint, hint!!

My little ladybug

Before the traumatic costume removal:

All in all, a very fun weekend and quite an adventure for our little girl!

October fun

October was another busy month for the deMariano family. It started with everyone being sick for a week! Other happenings in October:

• Nana & Grandpa came to visit and we went to the Festival of Leaves
• We visited Granddaddy Hinkley in Pennsylvania
• A visit to another pumpkin patch (Corn Maze in The Plains) with the Franklin family
• Halloween weekend...spent time with Nana & Grandpa, Aunt Tina, Erika & her girls, and Heather & the triplets.
• Played outside A LOT!!!
• Brynley fell head over heels in love with Elmo (a.k.a Mel-Mo!)

I was not very consistent with taking pictures in October, but here are a few to share:

Playing in our backyard:

Watching the parade at the Festival of Leaves:

At the pumpkin patch:

Going down the slide by herself (she loved it!):

Halloween pictures yet to come...

Pumpkins

A few October photos:

Green sink

The page in one of Brynley's books reads:

Bathtime baby

Sit and think

While you soak

In this green sink

For a few months now, whenever we get to this page in the book, Brynley has to cross her hands just like the baby in the photo. I have no idea where she got this from; she started doing it on her own one day. After she crosses her hands, she looks around to everyone in the room to make sure that they see her and are also crossing their hands. This pleases her to no end! Crazy adorable!

New York

The deMariano family made our annual trip to upstate New York at the end of September. My aunt, uncle, grandmother, and many cousins live there and it is always wonderful to spend time with all of them.

On this trip, Brynley got to sit facing forward for the very first time. (Yes, she had just passed the 20-lb minimum!) At first, she giggled and squealed with delight, then she settled herself in for the long car ride.
Being on vacation also means a lot of extra time to play with Daddy and, being quite the Daddy's girl, Brynley took advantage of every second of it!

Two of my cousins had babies this year: Jovan was born in May and Bailey in July. Brynley didn't get too jealous when I snuggled the new babies, but she did insist on climbing on my lap so I could hold her & Jovan at the same time. We got a few cute pics of the cousins altogether.

Bailey, Brynley, Jovan

And even though I threatened to, I didn't run off with anybody else's baby.

Jovan actually told me to bring him to Virginia, but then I saw his mommy holding Bryn (in the pic below) and I was afraid that if I took him, I'd never see B again. :)

Brynley took to my Uncle Bill like a duck to water which is suprising only because the only man she'll go to is Rob...and sometimes Grandpa deMariano.

I think Uncle Bill was smuggling Brynley candy and cookies. (But that's just my theory)

Brynley loved the big baseball field behind my aunt & uncle's house and we had to walk around it several times a day.

My grandmother got quite a kick out of B as well. Every morning when Brynley woke up, she went to Grandma's door to check on her. One day I went into Grandma's room and saw her sitting in her chair with a pile of shoes in her lap. It turns out that Brynley was handing her all her shoes and Grandma couldn't figure out why. It was clear to me though - Brynley always hands Rob & I our shoes and says "Shoes! Side!" which means, "Hey fool...put your shoes on. I want to go outside again now!"

There are several other stories to tell of our time in New York and I didn't get nearly enough photos. It was a fun trip and we can't wait to see everyone again next year!

Cox Farms

On September 18th, we headed to Cox Farms for some pumpkin patch fun. Brynley went last year when she was only 8 months old and had a blast.

Enjoying the hayride:

Going down the big slides. Rob & I took turns taking her down.

Petting a cow:

In the corn "maze":

Taking a break in the corn maze:

We picked our two pumpkins and Brynley held on to them for dear life:

Cox Farms will always be an annual adventure for us. They have so many activities and we didn't even do half of them!