Half of my heart

Growing up

It's hard to believe that Bri is already 8 months old. I still think of her as the tiny baby I held, but as I watch her there are so many changes. She now stands herself up and takes a step or two by herself, and can walk a few when Brad or I help her. I even got her to say "mama" the other day, but she hasn't said it again since. Every night when we're putting her to bed I watch her carefully while I rock her back and forth as her eyes slowly shut. Brad is always holding or playing with her wanting to be with her all the time. He's so amazed by her and everything she does and she is always excited to see him. She always crawls over to where we are as soon as one of us walks in and automatically wants us to pick her up.

Today, I lay on our bed in Brad's arms watching her play with the blankets trying to get free, even though she isn't really stuck. She is laughing and kicking her legs around and finally gets it completely off of her then looks up at Brad and I proud of herself.

"Good job, honey!" I tell her as I pick her up and set her on my lap. It doesn't last long before she wants off, so we take her downstairs to eat. I pick her up and carry her downstairs following Brad who starts working on breakfast. Bri crawls over to her pile of toys and I walk over to where Brad is to make us coffee and get Bri's breakfast. I find her cereal and mix it then pick her up and sit at the table feeding her. "You need to eat, sweetie, you're gonna get hungry." I tell her when she looks away not wanting to eat anything. She just spits out what I fed her and won't eat anymore.

Brad walks over and takes the food from me "Finish ours, maybe she'll eat for me."

I go over to finish our food and when I look over she is eating everything for him. Not only is she eating, but she's also laughing and smiling. I'm not sure what it is, but there's a special bond between the two of them, and it melts my heart to see it. I pick up our food and take it over placing Brads in front of him so he can eat and feed her at the same time. He moves her onto his lap so he can reach her better and she takes her hand and reaches it into the bowl grabbing a hand full of her cereal.

"Do you want to feed yourself?" Brad laughs and asks her as he cleans off her hands and moves the bowl back "You need to be a little bigger to do that." He picks her up standing her on his lap looking in her face and she starts giggling.

I take her from him and start playing with her and she throws her arms around me leaning onto my chest. "Maybe she's hungry. She doesn't always like the cereal." Brad points out she didn't eat much. I move to the couch where it's more comfortable and start to feed her myself. Brad comes in a few minutes later and sits next to me wrapping a big blanket around us "I don't want you guys to get cold" he says, even though he knows we wont. I know he's just being cute and lay my head on his shoulder "I love you."

He kisses my forehead "I love you too." He looks down at Bri and plays with her hand "And you too, princess."