Brielle is 14 months old!

Brielle is 14 months old! After getting over her cold, Brielle had a fun, happy, active few weeks.

Here are a few more photos from the past months that I haven't posted yet. This month, Brielle's walking became more steady. She loves it when we set her loose in the house, even though we have to follow her very closely to make sure she doesn't get hurt or put things in her mouth. She loves opening and closing cabinet doors, climbing up the stairs, finding Daddy upstairs, and grabbing random bathroom objects and carrying them around with her.

Lucky for us, she's also still happy playing her her walled-in Playzone area. She still loves her dolls - she feeds them with her bottle and helps them play on her toys. She also enjoys pushing the buttons on her toys so they play music. She pushes them over and over to keep the music going so she can dance.

For several months there, Brielle was pretty silent as she focused on new physical developments. But this past month the babbling has been back in full force! "Wow" is probably the only new official word, but she strings together all sorts of sounds as if she's having a long conversation. At other times she sings - no particular songs we can recognize, but we can tell she's singing instead of talking.

Brielle continues to be very curious. She flips over her musical tables to try to open the battery compartment and take apart the legs. She's still obsessed with reaching for forbidden objects, like phones, remote controls, and my camera. She's continuing to enjoy her ability to throw things and throws almost everything out of her Playzone some days. I guess that's her way of keeping things clean.

Brielle has started waving more often, although she doesn't usually do it on demand. She's been giving the sweetest hugs to us, other little children, and anyone who visits. She puts her arms around us an pats us on the back.

Every evening, Brielle gets a burst of energy and walks or runs around the Playzone, talking, squeeling, laughing, throwing her arms around and spinning in circles. Then right before she falls asleep, she curls up in her donut (pregnancy pillow / boppy), holds onto her doll, and gives us the sweetest calm smile before she dozes off.

On May 10th, we had to say goodbye to Brielle's brother, Icarus. He was almost 19 years old. She was with us when we took him on his final trip to the vet. She was calm as we let him go. Brielle really loved him her her way (squealing in excitement when he walked by, grabbing for him, and sometimes petting him nicely). He was very tolerant and kind to her. We know she won't remember him, but we always will, and we'll show her the photos of them together.