Bridget is 1!

Naturally, I'm writing Bridget's birthday blog in February (her bday was Nov. 11), so you could say I'm a little behind!

I almost feel bad, because when Ana was this age, she was getting like, monthly blog posts from me, documenting her growth, re-telling all the funny stories; you name it, I was taking notes. (ALSO I was in my brief stint as a stay-at-home mom, and Ana was obviously our first baby, so I had time for things like this).

I say I *almost* feel bad, because Bridget is the most loved little girl on the planet.

Honestly, it must be SO FUN to be the youngest!

I swear, if James walks her downstairs after her nap, and the big kids are now home from school, the room just ERUPTS with cheers and applause. Are we setting the bar too high? The rest of Bridget's life, she's going to come to expect this! 😉

The kids are just crazy about her.

"She is such a gift in their lives," my mom will say.

Except for when she's ... not? haha. If Bridget is being yell-y or stiff arming everyone, Robby's the first to pout, "Bridget is being a jerk." The first time he ever said anything like this, btw, I couldn't even hold back my laughs. "A BABY CANNOT BE A JERK, ROB."

Robby, it should be mentioned -- from pretty much the time Bridget was born -- has been yelling in her face. He's a touch rough with her, I have to remind him that she's just a baby 9,000 times a day ... but the thing is, now that she's 1, I've kinda stopped being so overbearing.

If he wants to yell in her face, and she pops him on the nose, that's the repercussion, I suppose. "Bridget's just a jerk" or whatever, lol.

Anyway, I used to watch Robs like a hawk, like, "ROBBY back up! Give B some space!" And now she just giggles and giggles at him (well, usually). She's guarded, but I can see how much she loves his big personality.

Ana has been my helper girl since day one. She is so tender with Bridget, and sweet, and helps me carry her around the house -- especially as of late. In December, I had a little surgical procedure (I was home same-day; it was NBD), but I was on "no lifting Bridget for several weeks" orders -- and Ana was a godsend. Bridget really looks at her with trust and genuine love. I always wanted a sister. I'm so happy they have each other!

James and I always say, "She knows." (As in, BRIDGET knows). I swear, we ask her questions, we involve her in conversations (I mean, not fully; we're not insane), but we really treat her like any other kid, in some senses. She knows.

If I'm like, "Bridget, hand me your milk," she will. "Bridget, pick up that crayon," she will.

Just as of super late, she responds "YESH" to things.

"B, you want milk?" -- "YESH."

"Lulu, should we read that book?" -- "YESH."

And she is WALKING as of ... right around her birthday? I think a few weeks after she turned 1, she officially took off and never turned back.

It's surreal how like, "Oh, I guess she's all set crawling then?" And then you realize it's been a day, or a few days, and then weeks, and it makes you realize how fleeting babyhood is.

Bridge had been standing and cruising the furniture and seeming oh-so strong for MONTHS, but she just wouldn't take that first step as early as we suspected she would. Then we were at Third Street Market Hall, this food place downtown Milwaukee, and James and Ana went to go stand in line for dinner, and Robby and I both caught Bridget's eye in the play area, righttttt when she attempted a step or two on her own!

It was crowded, there were people all around us, but we both went absolutely berserk. We honestly looked at each other, jumped to our feet and went "BRIDGET OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH, YAYYYYYY!"

We were laughing and laughing. Everyone around us was startled. Ana and James couldn't believe they missed it!

I was pretty confident Bridget would be a "just around her first birthday" walking bear. And there we were!

What else?

She is ...

The hardest to get to sleep, of my 3 children. There is VERY rarely a night or a nap when Bridget's just like, "this has been an exhausting day, thank god I'm in my crib." She fights and cries and acts like there's been a terrible injustice done to her, every time she must sleep. She also doesn't nap when we're out and about. If we're running errands or we have a long day at German dance (which just happened around the holidays, we saw soooo many kids napping on their parents or in their strollers; and we were like, "why can't our girl do that?!"), Bridget will fight the good fight to stay awake. Mad case of FOMO over here. Also, when we went to my uncle's place in Northern Michigan in late July, she was ... 7 months old at the time, and the drive was easily 8-9 hours, when you factor in stops. She napped for maybe 15 total minutes. It was crazy.

She's also the hardest to get to laugh, of my 3. Once you get her, she'll giggle along with the best of them, and her belly laugh is hysterical. But achieving that laugh in the first place? Is HARD. Maybe we're just not that funny? lol. 😉 Tough crowd, that Bridget -- or she has a very advanced sense of humor, lol.

She's SO hit or miss on food. She doesn't love mindless carbs like my other children; she will absolutely smash blueberries for 2 weeks straight, only to decide that she now hates them out of the clear blue sky -- actually, she JUST did this with bananas, and my least favorite thing is feeling like she's hungry, but doesn't really want anything. She always wants her milk, I'll tell you that. It's like her comfort item. We do probably need to scale back, but you know what? Whatever. I'm a firm believer in "she'll do it/break the habit when she's ready." And I'm clearly talking about milk or any lil routine when I say that. All kids do things when they're truly ready.

She's not really a cuddly child. Neither was Ana, but Ana was still way cuddlier than B. Also, if you took Ana into your bed, which James and I did manyyyyy mornings, she loved it so much and would fall back asleep with us like it was a great treat. When I say B would never, she would NEVER.

And that means, if and when Lulu DOES cuddle, you get *so excited*. She sat with me on the couch today and held my hand, and I was incredibly touched.

Even last week, she was fussing and fussing, so I took her into my bed, and what did she do? Curl up in my arms and feel my heart beating, remembering what it was like to be in the womb? Nah. She bopped me in the face and was like, "Do you want to see me stand up? How 'bout now? Wait, I swear I can balance on this stack of blankets. What's that on your nightstand? I'll crawl across your face and go get it."

I promptly returned her to the crib after about 5 minutes and she seemed relieved, haha.

All that said, she is a very happy lil girl. She has cranky moments, of course, but I do genuinely think she loves to be around our family, Olivia (omg, you should see her run and hug Olivia), and the kids more than anyone. It brings me so much joy to have everyone home in the evenings, as Bridget squeaks and squawks and bops around the living room as Ana does homework and Robs ... well, yells in her face.

James said recently, "I can't even remember life before her." And I can't either. I kinda cringe when people will say like, "and with this child, now our family is complete!" ... because honestly, James and I could have been complete, just the two of us. And then once we had Ana, if we had to stop there, we would have been "complete." But every time we add another kid, it just gets better and better. The month of January was super challenging, and LONG, tbh, so I'm not going to say it's all easy. Actually, balancing work-three kids-no family help can be a real challenge.

But Bridget really has been the most delightful addition I ever could have imagined. I love pulling out tubs of Ana's old clothes and seeing flashes of the older two kids in our B-girl.

I just ... love us.

I love all the kids' -- and our! -- nicknames for Miss Lou.

She is Bridget, Bridgerton Bear, Bridgington Bear, Bridge, B, B-girl, Bridgey Lou, Lulu, Miss Lou, Louis (I giggle every time at Louis), Foo, Lulu the Snoo, Miss Cranks, and probably 54 other names I'm forgetting.

She's also a very big baby at nearly the 100th percentile in ... every category.

How was she my smallest bear at birth, despite the gestational diabetes, and then all of a sudden my hugest?

She might look small in pics, but she's probably about 30 pounds. She wears a 2T and my other kids were a lil closer to size.

Finally, you should hear her cute lil voice. If you ask her, "Bridget, would you like a banana?" She says, "YESH," and then when she takes a bite of said banana, she goes "mmm!" It kinda has some inflection in the middle. It's a very animated, joyous little sound. James keeps saying he wants it to be his ringtone.

ANYWAY. That's what I got on my third child's very late birthday blog!

Love you, little Lu.