Brie is growing before my eyes!

I always feel like she's growing, so last week we measured her against the wall and marked the spot on some duct tape.  Yesterday morning, when I lifted Brie out of bed and she hugged me she just felt taller and I was saying that to Mat.  To which Mat gave me the look of "you always think she's growing" and I said "I know, I know." And was just going to let it go, but then I remembered I measured her last week.  So we had her stand against the wall and she had, indeed, grown.  Just under an inch!

Here she's enjoying sitting at her desk with her legs up on it.

A Brie First

eating on her own with a spoon!

She is enjoying her cream of wheat with cheerios. 

Miss Helpful

The other day, Brie's dirty diaper was sitting on the side table by the bed (where we change her) and when she got off the bed, she grabbed the diaper and took it to the garbage can.  It made me smile.

Then this morning, as I was making the cream of wheat I emptied the box and Brie wanted it.  So I handed it to her and she took and put it in the recycling bin.  :-)

It's amazing to realize how much she is observing and picking up on.

The ridding of stuff...

So, as most of you all know, Mat and I live in a small space.  It's completely adequate for our needs and makes us so happy in the sheer fact of it's location.  We did have to rent it furnished, so when we first moved here we put our belongings into storage and paid six months upfront because we then got the seventh month free.  Well, hard to believe, but we have been in Henderson Harbor for six months.  Geez, time flies.

We decided that we'd get rid of our storage unit and go through all the boxes and items there to see if we really needed them and to sell a couple of our big items (i.e. the couch, glider rocker, etc.) We are trying to hang onto the bed, because Mat feels that it's the most comfortable bed and because they are super expensive to purchase.  So, if you come to visit us and stay in our guest room, you will now have a very tall bed.   We've put the box spring and mattress below the other set that was all ready in the guest room.  It now makes it quite easy to change Brie.  No need to bend over.  She's right at the perfect height!

Anyway, back to the ridding of stuff...

It's been very refreshing and freeing to go through and send to the thrift store books, clothes, kitchen gadgets, and other extraneous items that we really haven't needed or missed in the six months that we had them in the storage unit.  And it's kind of exhilarating to know that we don't have all those possessions anymore.  I think that was one thing that I really actually loved about working seasonally and moving every six months for the many years that we did it.  I'm still amazed at how much we accumulated in just five years in Asheville.   I am so very, very thankful that we didn't have a large house because we would have had even more stuff to cart around!

Playtime at the Park

While waiting for some friends to show up to play with, we had a fun photo session at the park.  Brie loves the slide because it is her perfect size to do on her own.  It was kind of an overcast day to be out, but it was fun!  She was pretty worn out by the end of the park playtime and took a great nap this afternoon.  (She hasn't been napping too much lately during the day.  I hope she goes back to at least one nap a day!)

Brie's new favorite thing to do

Brie's reading room of choice tonight.

Brie used to love sitting down in a cardboard box and reading to herself.  I guess she decided the box was too big, because she's now started inserting herself into Maddy's food bowl and my mixing bowls to do her reading. 

 
(The day she was putting herself into Maddy's bowl she couldn't figure out why she didn't fit.  She'd squat down and her bum would go into the water bowl. Then stand up, look around and repeat.   I wish I would have gotten it on video!)

lovely times

It's been a busy time here on the Levine front. We watched the harbor melt out last week, so we are very glad that we skied on it when we did because who knows if it will freeze again. Brie and I have enjoyed spending time with the people we've met through story time and I have enjoyed my volunteer training for adult literacy.  I completed the training yesterday.  Brie enjoyed her time playing with her friend, Harper, while I was at these trainings.  Thanks to Sarah for being willing to watch Brie for two of those mornings.  It really made it so I could complete the training. 

Over the weekend we had a delightful time with a visitor who was on a road trip of the east coast. Yay!  It was so much fun to have our friend, Leslie, stay with us. We figured out that we hadn't seen each other for about seven years.  So there was a lot of catching up to be done.  On Saturday, we took her to our favorite beautiful spots that are close to us, Wehle State Park and Black Pond.

It also snowed a little bit on Saturday evening, so we got out for beautiful cross-country ski at Barnes corner the next day before she continued on her road trip.  Mat skied with Brie in the backpack and I skied with Maddy on the ski-joring setup.  Maddy did a pretty fantastic job.  She sniffed most of the tracks, but luckily she didn't take me off trail to follow them.  :-)

We love it when it snows here so that we can fully enjoy winter!  I feel so fortunate that we ended up living here.