20 Months

Height:  31.5 inches

Weight:  26.5 lbs

Teeth:  Currently has 12 teeth, 4 of which are molars 

Words she likes to say:  "Bah" (ball), "dedeh" or "dah" (daddy/dada), "meh" (Mama).  She can also shake her head yes or no and sign the words all done, more, eat, bye bye, hi, and up.  She is still learning more body parts and now knows and can point to her head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, feet, and tummy.  If you ask her to show you her teeth she opens her mouth as wide as she can and if you tell her "say cheese" she gives the most adorable squinty face smile.  I guarantee you haven't seen anything cuter than her cheese face! 

Favorite Toys:  Her Rocking pony!  Now that she can get on and off her pony all by herself, she loves to climb on and just start rocking back and forth.  She will also sit on her pony just to watch tv. 

Favorite Foods:  Anything that Mommy & Daddy are eating.  Even if she has already eaten everything on her full plate.  But still loving mac & cheese, fruit, and goldfish.  Daddy, Mommy and Brinleigh are also huge fans of the squeezable fruit pouches.  Brinleigh is obsessed with them and we love them because we can throw them in the diaper bag when we are on the go and she can eat them in her car seat since they aren't solid.    

Dislikes: Still not happy about diaper changes, but getting more cooperative.  As of lately, she doesn't seem to like being in her car seat or stroller for to long. 

Nicknames: BooBoo, Brinleigh Boo, Brinleigh D

Sleep Schedule:  Bedtime is at 9pm and she sleeps until about 10am.  She will wake up once or twice throughout the night and play in her crib and then go back to sleep until the morning.  She has developed a new habit recently of laying in bed in the morning and kicking her crib.  Since her crib is against the wall that our bedrooms share and we have the baby monitor as well, this has become our new alarm clock.  She is taking one nap a day, in the afternoon, usually between 3-4pm and wakes up between 5-6pm.  I'm slowly working on adjusting her daily schedule and sleep times now that I am no longer working.  Slowly being the key word.   

Favorite Activities:  Blowing Bubbles, jumping on anything but usually the couch, bath time, reading before bed.
Favorite Song: She seems to really like the song "Let it go" from the movie Frozen.  Any time that it comes on the tv during the movie she starts dancing to it.

Favorite Book:  Pretty much any and all books but especially loves Good Night: Touch & Feel Bedtime Book.  

 

Herring Season Finale

This weekend we had some amazing weather so when they announced the herring season #4 opener, we just had to get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine.

We headed to Totem Park to meet up with some friends so we could watch all the boats.  They were closer to town this time and you could actually stand on the bridge that connects our tiny island to the main island and watch the fishermen working down below.  We had a good spot on the beach at Totem Park and Brinleigh was able to walk around and explore a little bit.  Of course, we had to stay right next to her since she couldn't walk too well on the rocks and because she would try to eat some small pebbles.

Our Weekend

The second herring season opener was on Sunday afternoon.  It was absolutely beautiful out and Kolt was with a friend so Brinleigh and I, along with my friend Kate, decided to head out and watch the boats again.  On the first day of herring season, as soon as Brinleigh and I got out of the car it started snowing raining raining snow? But Sunday, it was sunny and absolutely beautiful out.  We got a great parking spot on the side of the road right in front of all the boats.  We also had a group of sea lions who were hanging out by the shore the entire time we were there.

On our way back into town we stopped several times to watch whales and take pictures.  The whales were out EVERYWHERE!  They were all over the place, it was crazy.  Of course I can never be in the perfect spot at the right time for amazing pictures.  But I tried to do the best I could.  I'm a beginner with the whole photography thing and I'm still learning how to use my DSLR camera.

 

Opening Day of Herring Season

Herring season officially opened as of 1:45pm on Thursday afternoon in the Starigavan and Katlian Bay area.  (This area is out at the end of one of the two main roads that runs from the middle of town to the ends of town.)  Of course this meant that anyone in Sitka who wasn't busy working, drove to the part of the island that gave them the best view of the cluster of boats.  Earlier in the week, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game announced that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, the Sitka herring fishery would be placed on two-hour notice. So, after they announced the season opening, Brinleigh and I, with the rest of the town, headed out to Starigavan to watch the all the boats and planes.

Once we were almost to Starigavan, I started to see more and more cars pulled over on the side of the road.  And then all of a sudden after rounding a curve, cars parked bumper to bumper on both sides of the road.  It was a complete shit show.  I could not find a place to park.  It was crazy.  Thankfully, people only really went out to snap a few pictures so spaces were opening up fairly quickly.  I took pictures from several different locations and then we headed back into town.  On our way back in, I looked out into the water and saw a couple whales and since I already had my camera ready with the zoom lens, I pulled over & was able to get a few pictures.  They weren't jumping out of the water, just their backs were breaching the surface, but it's still amazing to see them.

This was the second time I have been able to see the opening of herring season.  The first year we were here, the location was further off shore and could only really be seen through binoculars.  Last year, we were in North Carolina while Kolt was going to school.  I was super excited this year when I saw that the location was closer to the road and we could see it fairly well.  Especially with my DSLR camera.  I put the bigger zoom lens on and was able to get some great pictures.  Including a close up of the Maverick, one of the boats from the show Deadliest Catch.  Funny Story:  I actually didn't know it was the Maverick when I was taking pictures.  I just saw a boat and decided I wanted to take a close up of one particular boat.  It was the only picture I took of just one boat and not a group of boats.  When I got home, I put all the pictures on the computer and Boom!  My solo ship pic was.... the Maverick!

 The radio station reported on facebook that there were about forty-eight seine boats and a dozen or more tenders in addition to the aircraft that were participating.  I only saw maybe five planes above who were spotting the herring for the boats below.  From what I remember from the first herring season, there were a lot more planes above.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Over the weekend we had some friends over for dinner which gave me the perfect excuse to divulge in my sweet tooth and get creative for the holiday.  I decided to make my signature white chocolate covered pretzels.  (Recipe can be found here)  Since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend, I used green food coloring and added some green sprinkles.  They were delicious as always.

We attempted to spice up Brinleigh's breakfast on St. Patrick's Day by introducing her to Lucky Charms.  (I normally don't stray from whole wheat cheerios.)  She quickly found the little marshmallow rainbows and that's all she wrote.  It was love at first bite!  I was barely able to get her to look at me for a picture.

 

As usual, Brinleigh was sporting the appropriate Holiday attire on St. Patrick's Day.  I'm starting to wonder how long I will be able to keep this holiday infatuation tradition going as she grows.

Btw, those are size 2T jeans!  Yes, I almost cried.

"Here's to a long life and a merry one.  

A quick death and an easy one.  

A pretty girl and an honest one.  

A cold beer - and another one."

Outdoor Baby

Brinleigh is all her Daddy! Not only does she look just like him (still) but she is such an outdoorsy baby.  She loves being outside!  She likes taking walks in the stroller (even if I have to bundle her up in six layers), she loved playing in the snow (and even through a huge temper tantrum when we brought her inside) and thoroughly enjoys playing on and exploring the playground.  On Monday we had a break from what seems like constant pouring rain, and we decided to escape from the house and venture out to the playground.  I have pushed Brinleigh on the swings before and she had so much fun, but now that she's bigger we let her explore more on her own.  She walked around looking at things and we took her down the slide for the first time.  There was a very tall slide that I took her down on my lap and she got the biggest kick out of that.  She thought it was hilarious and her giggles and laughs were so funny that we had to record a video of it.  Then we put her on a smaller slide by herself and just stood next to her slightly holding on so she didn't fall.  I think we will be visiting the park more often from now on.   

I loved this video so much that I kept watching it over and over again.  Later that evening Brinleigh was sitting with me and I played the video for her and she was cracking up laughing while watching herself giggling all the way down the slide.  That was just as hilarious to us so of course, we recorded another video.

Sippy Cups & Bedtime Stories

Our baby goal for February was to wean Brinleigh off of her sippy cups of warm milk before nap time and bedtime. We chose to eliminate the nap time sippy first.  Since we give her a cup of milk with her lunch and put her down for a nap right after, it was super easy and I don't even think she noticed.  After a couple weeks we decided to stop the bedtime sippy.  We started giving her cold milk instead of warm milk and she quickly got to the point where she was only drinking a little bit.  Then we stopped giving her any sippy cup at all.  It was surprisingly much easier than I was anticipating.  Although, I'm not sure why I was so surprised, she's been such an easy baby, especially with the weaning of things.

Our goal for March is to make reading a book part of Brinleigh's bed time routine.  We will read one or two books every night before putting her into her crib.  It gives us that one on one cuddle time that we had when we gave her a sippy before bedtime and it's something that lets her know she is getting ready to go to sleep for the night.  

I posted our current favorite sippy cups and books below. 

 Nuby Sippy Cups - Pretty Princess Pig Book  -  Playtex Sippy Cups

Lansinoh mOmma Cup  -  Nuby Sippy with Handles  -  Guess How Much I Love You

On The Night You Were Born  -  The Three Little Pigs