The past 18 months have been a whirlwind. I was unable to capture the details of my daughter's babyhood as I had done with my son. I feel guilty about that. I don't have posts dedicated to her clapping or walking. I hardly have anything about the messy eating or the wonderful sleeper she turned out to be. I don't even have a post about her First Birthday party which her grandma and grandpa drove from Kansas to attend. Life has happened. A whole little life has started to unfold. The second child is every bit as special as the first, but there isn't as much time to relish in the delight. This post is completely for my sweet baby girl.
She has always been a good sleeper. She started sleeping through the night at just a couple weeks and maintained that through the first year. Not only did she sleep all night long, she also went to sleep without anything other than a pacifier, being tucked in and the light turned off. She's only recently started protesting, and that's because we converted the crib to a toddler bed. It took nearly a month for her to even realize she didn't have to stay in bed when we turned out the light. We started reading to her before bed, because we felt guilty that she was so easy to put to sleep. She had a period of about 3 months that she woke up once every night, but all it required was finding her pacifier and she'd go back to sleep.
She crawled at around 7 months old and she liked crawling so much that she didn't walk until around 13 months. She stood a lot and cruised a lot more than Dexter ever did. Now she runs with her brother, so it didn't matter that she waited so long to take those steps. She also barely fell, so I think she needed to know she could do it before trying it out. She wasn't much of a risk taker then, but she is quite the climber. Her favorite thing to do is to climb on the bench behind the couch, climb over the back of the couch, plop down onto the cushion, slide off the front of the couch onto the floor and then hightail it back to the bench to repeat. I wonder how many hours of her little life has been spent thus far doing this. It definitely must be pushing a whole 24 hour day by now.
She doesn't say much yet. She started with "hey", "hi", "bye". She still says "daddy" mostly and only says "mama" when she's upset. She tells everyone "night-night" before going to bed which is the cutest thing. The occasional word pops out here and there, but there isn't a whole lot that she will repeat. "Please" and "cheese" are recent fun ones that she will repeat as well as our nanny's husbands name, "Dave" (go figure). She's pretty quiet for the most part. She will sometimes make loud "aaa aaa" noises, but I'm pretty sure that's just a way to get her brother to join in.
She likes to dance and she has a lot of moves, not just the pogo like her big brother. She likes rock-n-roll, especially hard rock, and will bounce and bang her head and stomp her little feet. She will hum simple, catchy melodies too. She LOVEs shoes. She always has loved them. I think she was born with an innate shoe fetish. She likes clothes and dressing up in costumes. She can never pass up sunglasses. She will try on every pair handed to her. She also, like her brother, loves helmets and will scream and point to her bike helmet to wear. She will wear it for hours too.
Brixie is a cuddler. She is so much like a kitten because she like to be on our laps or laying next to her brother. The only bad habit she has is biting. She bites anything around her when she gets frustrated. Luckily, it isn't usually too hard, for she's bit me a few times as well as Dexter. She will even bite her own foot if she's mad enough, but usually it's whatever thing is nearest to her teeth at the moment - like her crib or a toy. She's just so easygoing and easy to take care of. Even at her most demanding, she is more funny than intimidating. She already is a bit bossy and will get our coats when she wants to go outside. She is just an awesome little baby. Now I can see why some people have a lot of kids. If they were as easy as Brixie, I'd have a million of them!
