Braelynn Fiona // 5 1/2 Year Old Update

Every year, for the kid’s “half-birthdays”, I take them out & do some fun (typically “themed”) portraits of them. With Braelynn being born in January & Leander born in December, I knew that we would never be able to do “fun”, warm & glowy, outdoor “birthday” portraits – so I have simply compromised with “half-birthday” portraits every year. And it’s so much fun!

This year, for Braelynn’s 5 1/2 year photos, I was a little bit stumped. We have done a teddy bear picnic (going along with her great love of stuffed animals), a “dress-up” theme, and last year was “art” themed (for her great love of art). But I seemed to have run out of ideas for this year! That is: until I was cleaning out the closet in our bedroom a few months ago (hello quarantine project) and came across my wedding dress – BINGO I had my idea!

So, a few weeks ago, we went over to my parent’s house (they have the best backyard for photos!) and we had a ton of fun! I put my wedding dress (from 10 years ago) on Braelynn, stuck a few clamps in the back to hold it up, and we went to town! She had a blast dancing & twirling around in it, playing with my veil – it was simply delightful.

It brought back so many memories for me of finding my wedding dress & wearing it on Derrick & I’s “Day 1”. I think every Mama should put their little girl in their wedding dress just once – and 5 1/2 years old seemed to be the perfect age! Braelynn is old enough to understand what a wedding dress is & the fact that I wore that dress when I married her Daddy – but also not too old to take it too seriously & not dance & have fun in the dress.

If you’d like to compare & contrast this summer’s photos with the summers in the past, you can go back & check out her 18-Month Update, 2 1/2 Year Old Update, 3 1/2 Year Old Update, & 4 1/2 Year Old Update (you just might want to brace yourself, she’s grown up so much)!

A few more updates about Braelynn:

• We have officially started Kindergarten & already I am noticing a HUGE difference between this year & last year! We had a lot of fun with Preschool last year and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much she has retained & remembered even thru taking the summer “off” from school. I’ll be honest: I had considered doing “light” school thru the summer, just so that we could continue on the uphill path we were on, but it turns out that I needed the break as much as she did & guess what? It was completely fine! (And my own Mother is going to say, “Well, duh.”) She has dove back into school with a passion & is already leaps & bounds further along that I imagined we’d be at this point! I am so proud of her!
• Braelynn loves art – specifically drawing & coloring. In fact, I now buy markers on a regular basis because she literally colors with them so much that she runs them out of ink. I feel like: the “normal” problem to have with markers is that their lids get left off & they dry out – but that is definitely not the case for Braelynn. She colors & draws with fine-tip markers so much that she runs them dry. Our house is covered in artwork & I absolutely love it.
• Braelynn continues to love her stuffies – her collection keeps growing & growing. She doesn’t really have a “top favorite”, instead, she rotates her collection through on a weekly-ish basis so that each stuffie receives equal love.
• She absolutely adores her little brother & he would follow her to the end of the world. Watching them play together makes my Mama-heart burst with joy (and then, after a few peaceful moments, something always happens to disrupt the peace – but that’s normal, right?) She told me the other day that she “never wants to get married” and when I asked why, she said, “So I can stay with my brother forever.” Cue all the feels.
• Speaking of Braelynn & her friends – when I wrote her “half-birthday” post last summer, she had just met the little girl who lives next-door & after playing with her almost every day for a week, she still was struggling to remember her name. I’m happy to report that one year later – Braelynn firmly knows Moxie’s name & counts her as one of her BFF’s (quarantine-season was rough on the girls – they would stand on opposite sides of the fence & talk to one another). However, at the very top of her best friend’s list remains her cousin Cameron. Her twin cousins Abby & Bekah are also counted as BFF’s as well as her little cousin Alethea (who has grown up in the last year from being just “a baby” to a little playmate!)
• In an effort to continue to connect Braelynn with Cameron on a more regular basis (since they live 5 hours apart), Braelynn has learned how to use Facebook Kids Messenger & the girls chat on a very regular basis. It’s pretty darn adorable to hear them chattering away with one another – I hope they are always best friends (just like their Mommy’s continue to be! In case you weren’t aware: Cameron’s Mom: Naomi & I have been BFF’s since high school – and yes, we ended up marrying brothers which also makes us sister-in-laws – we planned that from the very beginning).
• Braelynn will talk your ear off. Literally.
• Books also continue to be a favorite of Braelynn’s (if I couldn’t make the wedding dress idea work, I had considered taking her to the library & taking her photos there). Over the past year, she has graduated to more “advanced” books – meaning chapter books. I started reading aloud to her while she ate lunch & it was such a huge hit! We’ve read all the “Ralph S. Mouse” books by Beverly Cleary, almost all of the “Little House on the Prairie” books, along with a few other random books tossed in for fun. She loves to sit & listen to me read & since I love to read, it’s a win-win all around!

Okay – enough updates – let’s get to these photos!! I’m obsessed with them!

Of course, we then did a few photos in “normal” clothes as well – Leander even snuck into a quick photo!

Just in case you get the incorrect impression that it’s “easy” to photograph one’s own children – here is proof that it is not! Braelynn is just like any other kid – she wants to be silly & loves to make faces at me – right along with the smiles & giggles.