A Kitchen Helper

And so it begins. Kitchen cabinets are so tempting and so very fun. She loves them. 

She also LOVES the dishwasher. I've tried to show her how to hand me the spoons and forks, etc....a little "helper' but she would much rather climb into the dishwasher. ;o)

And this is a random picture but when she is in her big, puffy marshmallow coat, she can't really reach for the camera. Ha! She is so confused by it. Love her.

Storytime

Our public libraries have gone through some budget cuts and our Mother Goose on the Loose story time is gone. Sad. I'm especially sad because Marin has really become SO VERY interested in her books. She wants to read everyday. It is so much fun. So I found this blog on Pinterest.....

and decided to copy the idea. I gave it a whirl this week and it was so funny. She would sit through Blue Hat, Green Hat because that one has become one of her favorites. But the others, I would have to read to her while she was playing or she would take it away from me and hand me Peek a Who, Grow Up,....or another one of her favorites to read. It made me laugh! So we usually ended up reading a lot of books. She really is so cute. 

These were our first 5 books in 5 days selection. :o)

Then I found this blog on Pinterest.....

I really like Pinterest. But I loved the activities with each book even though some of them are too old for Marin right now. So I am going to steal ideas from both of these blogs to do some 1 year old activities with her 5 Books a Day.  We'll give the same books another go next week and then I have some love books and some baby books for Valentine's day and for Hollis' arrival. We'll "read" them again this week and sort laundry (Blue Hat Green Hat), jump on the bed (Five Monkeys), play with our bug puzzle (Hello Bugs), and "exercise" with Daddy (Just Like Daddy). We'll see how it goes..... 

The teacher in me....

The teacher in me made her a little February "sensory/treasure box". It has Mardi Gras coins and beads and Valentine's pencils, erasers, and heart containers she can open and close. She has a little container with a slot in it for her to put her coins in and out as well. Her favorite thing to do is DUMP EVERYTHING out! :o)

This is a "please stop taking pictures of me" face. 

We even did some sorting! :o)

But again dumping it out is her favorite!

I got her some Valentine cards to put in the envelopes but they didn't come with envelopes.
That's Dollar Tree for you.
So she got my little wallet organizer to put them in. :o)

I have a lot of fun with this little one. 

Trouble

Funny story....
Marin bit me and got a very stern "no no" and gasp from Mommy. Immediately the tears came because her feelings were most definitely hurt. But the funny part was that she looked at me, grabbed her blankie, and crawled over to her Daddy and snuggled with him. I got a few glares but for the most part she just snuggled up next to him. It made me laugh so hard!! We eventually made up and loved on each other....but it was funny!
 I'm afraid we may have gotten a little glimpse of what adolescence may look like in the Brednich home. So get it out now, little one, because I'm pretty sure when you pull that trick when you're 13, we won't think you're that cute. :o)

I wish I had snapped a picture that day but here they are saying their goodbyes.....

So cute! 

Lids, Spoons, and BIG GIRL STEPS!!!

First of all, on January 18, 2012 Marin Jordan stood up in the middle of the room all by herself and officially took about 4 steps! She has taken steps before when she would walk back and forth to me or Burke. But this was the first time she initiated it all by herself, so we are saying that these little steps are HER first! Since then she has taken a few more steps here and there but her favorite thing to do is stand up on her own. She does it on top of her slide, her little bike, the high chair.....you can see the problem. But we definitely have to get a video of it because she starts out in the downward dog yoga pose and then pushes herself up.

And a couple of her new favorite things to do....

She loves putting the lids back on bottles and containers. She can screw them on but
can't quite figure out how to get them back off. She was so very happy to get
different bottles and lid sizes to play with....

It has been so fun watching her learn how to do simple things like this and to watch
her have so much fun doing it! 

And this has been a fun one for a while now.....but stirring with a spoon!
Any time she has yogurt I have to get two spoons. One for her to stir with and the other for me to feed her with. :o)She can get some bites to her mouth and she does it quite well....it just takes FOREVER so
I sneak in bites with my spoon. :o) 

She looks guilty here.  

Stir, stir, stir....

And an oldie but she still plays with her stacking cups some days. This particular day she was studying them real intently so I snapped a few pictures. 

Her shirt says "Big Sister in Charge".  Ha!

Hollis at 35 Weeks

We had our 35 weeks appointment today and all looks well. Hollis sounds great and we are just counting down until we meet our new little girl!

And all three of Burke's ladies....

Some of our morning....

This morning our teething little girl was a bit crabby but here are a few snip-its of a happy girl! She is really into her books right now. She has four favorites...Peek a Who (still), Grow Up, Barnyard Dance, and Pink Wiggly Pig, What Do You Wish For? She will pull these books out and want to read them everyday. I got a couple of videos of her reading through her favorite books.

Then we had to do some sliding while hiding and playing peek-a-boo.....

Then she wanted to watch videos of herself. She was so funny watching herself on video. And, I of course, loved watching videos of her and seeing how much she has grown in this short year!

We watched one from October and the girl was BALD.
Her hair is really growing! We actually have to comb it now! 

I tried to get a reflection of her face in the screen because she was grinning from ear to ear
but it didn't work. :o(

Ready for another one.....

My Get Well Card

This past week I had a little virus that the doctor thought could be the flu. We ended up having to make a little run to the hospital for a flu test...right at Marin's bedtime on the day she had 4 shots. It was a fun evening. But Burke was a hero!!! Hollis was fine and a couple of days later we found out it wasn't the flu. I feel all better now but wanted to post a picture of the card that Burke and Marin made me. I LOOOOOVVVEEED it. So very sweet.

Burke handed it to me and said, "I can sing it for you, if you want."  Ha! :o) 

Playing Ball

Marin loves to play ball. She actually has a really good arm. She throws the ball quite well. (Makes her Daddy proud!)

For my Sister....

Cissy,
 I know your LOVE for feet so I figured you would enjoy these photos. Marin found the nail clippers and apparently thought I needed a pedicure this morning. Since I can't see my feet, she's probably right. :o)

Shedd Aquarium

We finally made it to the aquarium....on a free day which was even better! It was the first day back to school for the big kids so we thought the crowds may not be so bad. They weren't bad at all but Burke and I had gone to the aquarium pre-kid and thought it was a bad aquarium. But still thought "maybe it's better when you have kids." Nope, kid or no kid, it's a pretty bad aquarium. So we were a little glad it worked out that we didn't pay an arm and a leg to go on her birthday with the rest of Chicago. She did enjoy it for a little while and pointed and pointed and pointed at the fish. But then she became much more interested in the other kids than the aquarium. It was pretty funny.

Even blurry, I think that kid is too cute. 

We spotted some fish.
And look at those big girl shoes. We finally got her some that she can't take off.
Size 4W...not just 4 but 4 WIDE!

A duck! Quack, quack!

More pointing. "See Daddy."

And more pointing.....

Well, hello there. 

Having a little chat.

Touching the big fish in the lobby.
(I love Burke's face here. He's so proud of her.)

Propped up on Hollis watching a fish movie.
Pushing the button to make the movie come on was more fun than the movie.