Happy 7th Birthday, Brenna!

Another year has come and gone and today we celebrated your 7th birthday!  Look at how much you grew this year.  The skirt length makes me laugh...below the knee at the beginning of Kindergarten and above the knee at the end. You also look so much more grown up with your front adult teeth that have come in this year. 

You had a great first year at Limestone Creek Elementary School.  You loved your teacher, Mrs. Francis, and met a whole new set of friends.  You are not the little girl you were a couple of years ago.  You gained such confidence and independence this year.  Your reading really took off in kindergarten.  You had the most Reading Counts points in the whole kindergarten and as a reward got to throw a water balloon with your Assistant Principal at the end of the year.  I think it started because you liked hearing your name on the announcements as a points leader and so you set a goal to get 100 Reading Counts points by the end of the year.  I love that at just 6 years old, you can set a goal and work hard to achieve it. Mrs. Francis always had really nice things to say about how responsible and smart and kind you are. 

The Daddy/Daughter dance was another highlight of your school year.  You and Daddy had a great time and you looked so beautiful and grown up that night. 

You are still diving and won a first place medal at a Miami dive competition this year.  You stay really busy with diving and dance, and you also played another season of t-ball in the Spring with Daddy as your coach. 

This is also the year of the cartwheel for you.  I think I've witnessed 100 cartwheels a day.  I'm glad you'll be starting gymnastics classes soon because you definitely need a place to get all those cartwheels out of your system!!!!

You and Lily are still best friends but you guys fight A LOT when you are home.  If we go out, you're fine.  If you are somewhere together without Mommy or Daddy, I know without any doubts that you will take excellent care of her.  But at home...it's pretty exhausting with all the fights.  I know it's probably hard because Lily is 3 and sometimes she is impossible but I definitely hope this next year brings less fighting at home.

You move your body with a lot of beauty and grace.  Here you are rocking the crow pose in Yoga.I just love to watch you dive and dance.  I think you are so pretty and graceful.

One thing you did this year which BLEW MY MIND, was jump off a 10 meter board at a dive camp this summer in Coral Springs.  I would have bet a lot of money that there was no way on Earth you would ever do that.  Lesson learned, I will never bet against what you can do.   This takes my breath away every time I watch it. 



One "low point" that happened this year which I'll never forget happened a few days before your 7th birthday.  You got  hurt at dive practice.  You accidentally got knocked off of the 3 meter board by another diver and landed on the cement.  I didn't see you fall but ran over when I heard you cry.  I was soooo scared you were hurt.  We went by ambulance to St. Mary's and you were soooooooooooooooo unbelievably good and brave.  The paramedics and Drs and nurses were wonderful  and a head-to-toe CT scan determined that you were just fine.  I'll never understand how a fall like that did hardly any damage.  I think you had angels looking over you that day.

After a nice summer break, first grade here you come!  There was a rainbow right outside of school on the first day and you said "I bet God put a rainbow in the sky to wish us all good luck on our first day."  I love how sweet you can be.  Happy 7th Birthday.  I love you with all my heart.  Shine on!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lou!

You crawled into bed with us at 6am and said "Did I grow?  Am I 3 now?"   Yep, you are!  Well technically not until 5:04pm this afternoon but close enough.  Happy Birthday, Lily Girl!

I sometimes stare at you and can't get over how beautiful you are.  You have the most beautiful towheaded blond hair and we have NEVER given you a hair cut yet.  You have the prettiest loose curls at the bottom.  You always request an "Elsa braid" even though I like when you let me leave it down.  You are also quite petite....easy to hold and squeeze.

Your best friend is still "BaBa."  You can say Brenna just fine but 98% of the time you call her BaBa or Bubba.   You two can definitely fight but have so much fun playing together.  You give her big sweet hugs and really just love being around her unless she's in a mood or something.

Hippo and Pacy are also 2 of your best friends.  You say these requests one right after the other.  "Pacy...Hippo!"  I told you that the pacy fair would be coming soon and your response was, "Ok, as long as she doesn't take my hippo."
I knew it got too quiet. Potty training was very easy with you.  You would pee in the potty shortly after you turned 2 and by 2.5 you would poop in the potty too.  You never had to wear pull-ups at night.  I think you've had maybe 2 accidents ever.  Even though you always got up so early, you have always gone to bed very easily for us for the most part.  We tried to put you and Brenna in the same room in bunk beds this year but Brenna didn't like the feeling of being up top and I think she wanted her own space at night so we ended up putting the bunk beds in your room and you sleep on the bottom and the top is a little reading/play area.
One of the sweetest things was when you said goodbye to your crib, one last time: Saying goodbye to her crib. #bitteraweet

You aren't much of an adventurous eater.  You eat a little bit all day but never really eat much at a meal.

You like playing with playdoh and lego duplo blocks.  You LOVED any and all things FROZEN this year and you sang "Let It Go" and acted it all out every chance you got.  At this exact moment, Frozen seems to be on the way out and you have discovered a love for Paw Patrol.  You also go to Yoga sometimes with Brenna and even though the class is for 4-8 year olds you still participate sometimes and you'll come out and see me and maybe have a snack or a drink and then go back in and finish.   You love demonstrating your handstand against the wall.

This summer you took a dance class which you loved.  You were really good at following the directions and you loved dressing up each week.  The one time Daddy took you though you cried and wouldn't go in.  Not sure what that was about...I think you were just used to me taking you.  We really enjoy going to story times at the library and going to ride the carousel.
You are a phenom on your scooter!   When Brenna was playing tball, you'd bring your scooter to the ball fields and scoot around and then you closer to 2 than 3 and people would stare cause they couldn't believe how good you were.  You and Brenna will race (you on scooter and her on her bike) and you can beat her!  She does not like that but you do!!!
Instagram You are also an amazing swimmer and swim at the pool where Brenna dives a couple times a week.  You can swim, float, swim thanks to ISR and we always go back every so often for a refresher lesson.

You also started school this past September at CEC.  You were very comfortable the first week since you were so use to going there with Brenna the last couple of years.  The second week was rough and you cried when I'd drop you off in the morning but you are used to it by now and I love hearing you sing all the songs from Chapel and your good morning song "Lily came to school today, school today, school today, Lily came to school today, we're so glad you're here."

Lily's First Day of Preschool!

I got out of the shower to this.... I love you, Lou Lou! Happy Birthday! The 2's were pretty great so don't be make it the terrible 3's ok? xoxoxoxox

And just like that, you are 6!

Happy 6th Birthday, Baby!!!!!

Each year on your birthday, I always love sitting down and reflecting on the year and all you've done and accomplished and struggled with and conquered.  OMG, I'm almost overwhelmed at the list of things you've done on what was only your 5th year on this planet.  But I will do my best to recap...

You had one more year of preschool at CEC.  You made some wonderful friends and graduated with smiles!  Mrs. Miguel taught you so much and you went from shy and clingy at the beginning of the year to happy and confident at the end.

You started KINDERGARTEN last week at Limestone Elementary School.  As we mentioned in last year's post, we red-shirted you for school.  Sept 1st was the cut off so instead of starting school at 4 turning 5, you started at 5 turning 6.   There is not 1 single ounce of me that regrets doing this because the growth that you had emotionally this year was HUGE.  You started kindergarten confident and excited and I couldn't be happier with how well you appear to have transitioned to big-girl school.

Teeth!  I could not believe my eyes when not far after you turned five, you got your first wiggly tooth!  I guess it's early to get, early to lose cause I remember you had a mouthful of teeth at a year old when some of your friends didn't have a single one.  Then 3 more fell out so you have the cutest little toothless smile right now.

The first little WIGGLE
Omg #loosetooth

Thanks to my good friend, Lauren Donovan for snapping this cute pics of my toothless wonder!

You learned to ride your bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS.  At CEC, they had a trike-a-thon where you bike around the parking lot raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.  A few of the girls in your class didn't have training wheels and you did so you came home and made the decision that it was time to learn and you did it in about 10 minutes.  Just like walking and almost anything in life, you like to wait until you are absolutely ready and then you just do it.  It was the same for walking...you waited until you knew you could run.  You don't like making mistakes, you are a bit of a perfectionist so you like to do it on your own time when you know you got it!  Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to fail.  You gotta hit some lows to appreciate the highs.  I get it though...I'm the same way.
Lookey here! #notrainingwheels #brennaboo

Dive:  You have been diving for a little over a year now and competed in 3 dive competitions.  I was soooooo proud of you because these are like real competitions and you were always one of the youngest there.  They are quite intimidating and just the fact that you competed and did 6 dives each time is something to be soooo proud of.  You're not so eager to try new dives but you really enjoy perfecting the ones you know.  Here you are at your 2nd competition where you got a gold medal :-)
Soooo proud of my little gold medalist today!!!! What a difference in 6 months in terms of guys and confidence!!! #3ddive

Here was your first unassisted front line up off the 3 meter board. GUTS!!!! I can't imagine being so brave First unassisted front line up off the 3m. Guts!!!!! Love my girl!

You participated in 2 dance recitals this year.  A sugar plum fairy in December's Nutcracker and a Bluebird in the Ugly Duckling Ballet in May.  You really were awesome...you totally paid attention and did all the moves.


Notice how you give your friend Sofia a little shove to get going at the end...lol, you know your cues!


In addition to dive and dance, you also played T-ball this year and Daddy was your coach.  You looked so little out there and you were adorable and loved being with Daddy.  You wore #2 just like he did when he was little.  I loved watching this special time for you and Daddy.  He loved it too and was a great coach!

Great season dolphin-mermaids!!!

This year was the year of FROZEN.  It came out in theaters in October and I think we had a constant loop of the soundtrack playing in the car from November - July.  Like every other girl your age, you love to sing "Let It Go"  And you are pretty darn good at it too.



This year was also the year of YouTube, specifically Kindereggs and playdoh art tutorial.  You can watch Kindereggs being unwrapped for hours and you love watching tutorials on playdoh creations.  You've turned into quite the little Playdoh Picasso but what I love most of all is catching you playing alone and pretending you are giving a tutorial on youtube..."Hi, My name is Brenna and today I'm going to be showing you how to build the perfect Mickey Mouse out of playdoh"   Ugh, could you be any cuter!
Brenna the Playdoh Picasso

Oh, another big deal this year was getting your ears pierced.  We went to the mall one day and ran into two friends randomly (Caroline and Cameron from CEC) and they sort of spur of the moment decided to get their ears pierced.  You FREAKED out during your 5 year old shots so I knew there was no way you were going to let 2 holes be poked through your ears.  Peer pressure or not you were not having it.  So we went home but to my surprise you woke up the next morning saying, "Mom, I want to get my ears pierced...I just need to wear my Brave Maeve shirt."   And so we went that day and did it.

So speaking of Brave Maeve and for anyone who might not know...Maeve is the little sister of one of your preschool classmates and I have become friends with their mom, Megan, who is one of the most brave and articulate moms I know and she oh so eloquently shares her journey of having a child with Type 1 Diabetes through facebook journal entries and community fundraising events and you are soooooo interested in Type 1 Diabetes and anything to do with Maeve.  You watch their YouTube videos and when you play house, you are always the "Big Sis who has Type 1 Diabetes."  You "check Lily's blood sugar" in the bathtub.  Megan texted me after she gave a little talk at CEC on Diabetes and said that you are bound to be an Endocrinologist when you grow up because you knew everything there was to know about the disease.  Your Grandpa Les has it too so you are very interested in it.  Your charitable heart is so special.  You were faced with a difficult decision this year because there was a Saturday where you had a T-ball game, a dive meet, and the Brave Maeve walk.  It wasn't difficult for you at all....the Brave Maeve walk it was and you scooted that whole 2 miles with your friend Dagny.  Daddy had to coach the team and you wanted to be with the Brave Maeve team.

You are an amazing big sis.  You and Lily have your share of arguments at home but anywhere else in public you are SUCH a good sister.  Always watching out for her and loving on her.  I'd take you both to a morning of gymnastics camp and you'd always tell me that you hung out mostly with Lily and took her to the potty whenever she needed to go.  The camp posted a picture of circle time on facebook and she was sitting on your lap.  You are her "Baba" even though she can say "Brenna" just fine now.  She loves her "Baba" so much.

Can you believe what a year you've had?  You have done soooo much in just 1 year's time.  I love you so much.  You make me so proud and yet can also drive me so crazy.  You continue to be so emotionally intense.  You are so sweet and kind but can also become very upset and angry (especially if sleep deprived)  This year was not a great one for you in terms of sleep.  You ended up on the floor of our room almost every night.  Even after Daddy built you the most beautiful bunk bed ever, you just didn't like it so we changed everything back to the way it was to try and get you sleeping better.  I'm really starting to see just how true the saying is "the days are long and the years are short."  Keep shining, baby.  You are so special and I am so blessed beyond measure to be your mom.

I heard this song in the car yesterday and I feel like it totally sums up how I feel about you right now.  So proud of you and I feel like I catch glimpses of you growing up before my eyes.  So bittersweet.

Lily Lou is 2!!!!

Lily Lou is 2!!!  Awwww, in 1 year you went from my little brunette just-learned-to-walk cutie pie....

....to my gorgeous sun-kissed, spunky, funny BLOND little love!

Shortly after your first birthday, you started calling Brenna "BaBa."  Even now at 2, you can say "Benna" but you still chose to call her "BaBa" and she refers to herself as "BaBa" and can often be found loving on you saying something like "oh, come here and sit on BaBa's lap and BaBa will hold you."  This was the year that you and BaBa became best friends.  She adores you and takes such good care of you and loves to make you laugh.  One thing we used to do a lot was say "Lily, who do you love?"  And you would reply "BaBa."  And then I'd say "BaBa?!?!?, What about Momma/Daddy/Grandma and go down the list just to have you smile and say "No, BaBa"  And of course Brenna would find this hilarious.  Of course you guys get in fights sometimes but really you love each other more than I ever could have imagined a sisterly bond could be so early on.  Here you are showing off your new trick and wanting Brenna to watch you "Ready, Look BaBa!!!"

Lily Girl, you get up EARLY!  You are so easy to put down for a nap and at bedtime but honestly I can count the number of times you have slept past 6:30am on 1 hand and I'm not exaggerating.  You get up between 5:15-5:45am everyday.  Luckily your dad and I switch off every other day who gets the early morning shift because man it can really wear on you.  But you're so sweet in the mornings and drink your milk and watch tv on the couch with us.  And because you are up so early, you take 1 early nap when Brenna is at school which works out nice for mommy because I could get some things done for work or around the house when you're asleep.  

You are kinda on Brenna's schedule and this year we spent a lot of time at the pool watching Brenna take diving lessons.  

You think you can do anything that BaBa does and you jump into the water with no fear!!  

Which is why we spent our summer in ISR swim lessons.  

You can often be found walking in plastic princess heels and pushing a stroller around the house.  One thing that is so funny about you is that you are LOVE musicals.  You can watch Annie on youtube over and over again and your absolute favorite thing to watch on tv is Teen Beach Movie on the Disney Channel.  You dance to the music and prefer that over Mickey Mouse Clubhouse any day of the week.  

You answer yes by saying "mmm hmm" in a cute little high-pitched squeak and your new favorite thing to say to me is "Momma, you know what?"  Me: "What?"  Lily:  "Nevermind"  You also say "And...Papa Les" all the time out of the blue because you know it's funny.

When you have a dirty diaper, I say "Are you stinky"  You:  "NO!"  Me:  "Yes, you are, can I change you?"  You:  "NO!!!"  Me:  "Will you tell me when I can?"  You"  "Ok, Momma"  It's your little routine we go through almost everytime.

PURPLE HIPPO  Oh how you love purple hippo.  "Pacy"  "Hippo" are requests I receive all day long.  We even bought a second hippo this year when we couldn't find yours one day.  You LOVE hippo.  Now we just have to get rid of the Pacy but our new puppy, Sydney Mae Grace, is helping with that because she is chewing all of them up that she find laying around the house.  You were scared of dogs until "Syd Syd" came along.  When we leave the house you say "Bye Syd Syd, love you!"

Recently, when you are frustrated or annoyed you let out a big "UUUGHHHHHH"  Wooopsies, you definitely got that one from me.  You've thrown a couple of fits one involved me having to carry you out of the mall in the football hold while people were staring at me.  You wanted to hop through the mall like a frog and any other mode of transportation was unacceptable to you and you let me know it.

I love you, Lou Lou!!!!  You are beautiful inside and out and to be your momma is the best feeling in the whole world!

Brenna, All About You at Age 5!

Brenna, you are 5 years old today!  5 is a big deal...you said to me this morning on the way to school "So Momma, I'm 5 today, right?  Not 5 and a half, right?"  Nope, you are 5...please don't try to speed up the process on me.

Each year I look forward to sitting down and reflecting about who you are and who you have become in this past year.  Your 4th year started out pretty smoothly.  Your new school, CEC, was a terrific fit and you enjoyed learning so much in Pre-K.  You are so smart and I can tell that you are going to like school.  Here you are on your first and last day of PreK-4.

One thing that really stands out this year is that this is the year that you and Lily really fell in love with each other and have become best friends.  You are her "BaBa" and she just adores you!!!!  And you are the best big sister in the whole world.  

My heart just about exploded when I went to an exercise class and it was one of Lily's first times away from me.  You and her were in the childcare room with other kids and Lily was sooooooooo upset.  You comforted her even though Jalyn was there and wanted to play with you.  You took the best care of her, getting down on your knees to talk to her and hug her and have her sit in your lap....I was so proud of you for that...makes me cry just thinking about it.

You are one of the most inquisitive kids I've ever seen.  You want to know about EVERYTHING.  I can't really watch the news because you want to know about EVERY story that comes on...you have a deep empathy for others and that is one of your qualities I am most proud of.  If there is a fire on the news, you need to know where it is and who lived there or if there's a story about a sick child, you want to know more and sometimes will even ask to make a card for them.  If there is a song on the radio, you are not content just humming or singing along, you have to know what the song is about...if it's about a boy and a girl breaking up, you have to know why they broke up...what did the boy do? For example, here you are singing a Christmas song and explaining what the song was about.




You are a true beauty inside and out.  You remembered how we gave a donation to Brave Maeve for Lily's 1st birthday and on your own wanted to do the same for your 5th birthday party coming up.

You have a passion for the water.  You excel at swimming and had fun taking diving lessons this year.

And of course a big highlight was the addition of Sydney Mae Grace.  You had been asking for a puppy for months..."A puppy named Sydney."  It was such a treat to add her to our family this year.

The year wasn't without challenges.  Your mood and behavior can be intense at times.  You had a bad bought of UTI's at the beginning of the year and it really affected you and caused you to want to withdraw from a lot of things.  For a big portion of this year, you became very attached to me and didn't really want to do anything other than be at home with me...school, dive, dance...pretty much everything became a struggle to get you to do them without tears.  You ended up in our bed most nights this year.  This is where parenting gets tough...sometimes I would let you bail and sometimes I would try and get you to keep on truckin....I'm not sure if I made the best choices but I did my best, Brenna.  You still struggle with anxiety at times and I have a feeling that this "emotional intensity" will be a recurring theme as you get older.  This parenting stuff isn't for the faint of heart.  This is one reason we decided to "red-shirt" you and repeat Pre-K4.  Being that your birthday is right on the cut-off we wanted to give you another year to be a kid before moving on to elementary school.

I keep a jar on the counter for Kid Quotes and write down some of the cute stuff you say during the year.  Here are some goodies:

1/13:  Upon Lily waking up really early in the morning, I said to Brenna "I'm sorry Lily woke you up." Brenna:  "It's ok, I mean it's probably going to be my low point for the day, but it's ok."

1/13:  Mom, my hands are so clean because I used the whole bottle of soap in the bathroom.  That was a lot of soap so they are like really really clean now."

6/13: Brenna:  "Please give me the lellow crayon."  Me:  It's Y-ellow.  Brenna:  "L-ellow."  Me:  "Say Yo-Yo"  Brenna:  "Yo-Yo"  Me: "Yellow"  Brenna: "Lellow"  Me:  "Yell"  Brenna: "Yell"  Me: "oh"  Brenna: "oh"  Me:  "Yell....Oh"   Brenna:  "Yell...Ow"  Me:  "Yellow"  Brenna:  "Lellow"   Me:  We will try again once my coffee kicks in....;-)

7/13: Brenna begging for a dog says "Don't worry, I'll still play with Lily sometimes too if we get a dog."

7/13: After doing summercamp at Temple Beth Am.  Brett:  "The statue of liberty is hollow, you can actually walk up to the top."  Brenna:  "The statue of liberty is made of Holla like bread???"

8/13:  Brenna:  "Mom, can you have another baby?"   Me:  "No, why?"  Brenna:  "Because if there was another kid here, we could play duck duck goose and it would be more fun"

 My prayers are that you remain strong, healthy, kind, compassionate and brave!  It's ok to push yourself because you can do so many things!  We love you sooooooooo much. xoxo  your momma