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...