Peas and Q's

Have you ever noticed that kids always want to eat their neighbor's snack instead of their own? Apparently, your friends' food is always much tastier than whatever your mom brought from home. Take the freeze-dried peas for example. Some weeks ago one of my friends had brought some freeze-dried peas for her son to snack on while we were out. Bree wanted to try them and thought they were great, she started popping them in like candies. "Wow, that's great!" I said, "If she'll just eat peas like that and like them then I really need to get some of those." So, about a week later I'd tracked down some of the same peas. Of course, once we owned them ourselves and they were an available item in our home, their stock immediately went down. In fact, I don't think I've been able to get Bree to eat any at all, our package is still as full as the day we bought it. Oh, she'll pretend she wants to eat some, fooling me into getting them out, but what she really does is pull them out and play with them, throw them around, make a mess, and this morning she even offered to sprinkle some into my breakfast cereal (I said no thanks), but she won't EAT them. Which, is somewhat infuriating to me....I mean, I decided she just didn't like them and have pretty much stopped trying to get her to eat them, or even bringing them in the diaper bag as a quick snack. But, the other day we were out with the same friend who had originally told us about the peas, and she had brought some in her diaper bag as a snack. What do you think happened? Yep, Bree ate them like candy for a few minutes. Geesh! Fickle kid! :)

Poodle Trouble

As I think I mentioned before, Brianna recently got a stuffed pink poodle. It's been one of her favorite toys over the past few days. Today, as we were headed out to hang with friends, she grabbed the poodle up and started saying, "I don't want to share my poodle! No one can touch it!" "Well, if you don't want to share it I think we should leave the poodle home then, where she's safe and no one will get her." "Okay," Bree agreed and dropped it on the floor. As we walked toward the car though I guess she forgot that we'd agreed to leave the stuffed animal home. "Where's my poodle?" she asked. "Remember, we left her home since you didn't want to share." I said. "Oh, yeah," she said, "Woof! Do you hear my poodle calling me? Woof! She's calling me!" "She's fine, she'll be there waiting for you when you get home," I told Little Miss Imagination. And, after we went out and had a good time, poodle was there waiting for us, just like I said.

Popsicle Bath

This morning for her snack, Brianna requested a popsicle. I thought, okay, why not? She had a good breakfast and a popsicle's not so bad. A few minutes later though Bree decided that she wanted to take a bath, but, of course, didn't want to give up on eating her popsicle either. So, since I was feeling tired and didn't want to fight her, I just let her get into the tub with her popsicle. Ya know, because it's a great learning experience right? And it was too. Bree figured out that a cold popsicle dipped into warm bathwater makes nice runny, red juice that you can use to paint all over the tub and shower walls. But, she also figured out that if you dip your popsicle one too many times and spend all your time painting with it instead of eating it, it melts and you don't get to eat it. This last discovery actually made her pretty upset and she was saying, "Oh no! I messed up! Now I can't eat it!" "Yep, guess so." I told her matter of factly. So, in the end she ended up bathing in sticky red water and I'm not sure how productive a bath it was as far as cleaning goes. However, Bree did learn alot about hot, cold, and melting so I guess it was a worthwhile little experiment. Now I just have to clean it up....

Singing in the Rain

We needed to run some quick errands tonight so we all piled into the car and started off. Bree was in a good mood so as we drove she was in the backseat happily singing, "Winnie the Pooh." Or at least, she was singing the words she knew. It went something like this, "Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh. Na, na, la, la la, la la, la la, mumble. Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh!" Which, made us parents laugh for one because, it was pretty silly but for two because it just proves the Bree is so Travis's daughter. He can never remember the right words to any song, including that one, and they sing the same wrong or made up words quite often.

Well, we finished our errands and drove back home with Brianna still singing "Winnie the Pooh" from the backseat. As we got out of the car it was drizzling just slightly so Trav, I think wanting to beat Bree at her own game, scooped her out of the car and started singing "Singing in the Rain" to her. He sang it through once (yes, with quite a few WRONG lyrics in there) and then told her, "Now you sing it." So, Bree took a deep breath, and sang "RAIN!" Then I guess she couldn't remember the rest the words so she looked over at him indignantly and said, "I can't sing that!" Then she started back in with "Winnie the Pooh."

Passion for Fashion

Bree is more and more into helping pick out her outfits each day. Recently she's been wearing a lot more dresses...by her choice. She really likes feeling fancy and dressed up, and getting to wear tights. For some reason tights are super fun too. So, she'll pick out a dress, we'll put it on and then she'll spend a few minutes admiring herself in the mirror, turning this way and that to see herself from every angle.

When she's not wearing dresses though her tastes tend to run to the more, um, exotic, as in straight into a full-blown costume. Over the past several days Brianna spent one full day as Buzz Lightyear and the next she spent as Tigger. (Which, was last year's Halloween costume she happened to find stuffed in the closet, and is now more like a Tigger capri suit, but still wearable.) Both days she wore her suit almost the entire day. She ate, napped, and accompanied me to the store in them. Well, I guess it is fun to role-play after all. And, it won't be long before she won't fully enjoy the novelty of wearing a costume all day. Let her have her fun!

Miss Independent

Brianna's little personality, her likes and dislikes are becoming more and more apparent the older she gets. Here are just a few of her opinions lately:

"Not Veggie Tales!"
When Bree was younger pretty much the only kid-friendly DVD's we owned, that weren't full-length feature films that is, were a few Veggie Tales stories. These are great little stories with good lessons. I guess we may have over-played them though since now, every time we go to put a DVD in for her she yells out, "Not Veggie Tales!" Even if we were nowhere near putting Veggie Tales in. I guess she's just really, really, anti-Veggie Tales right now.

"My crib!"
Not that we want to push her into something she's not ready for, but, since she is 2 1/2 now Travis and I keep talking to Bree about maybe sleeping in a big girl bed soon. In fact, the other day her daddy tried it again and took off the one side of her crib, converting it to a toddler bed. Brianna seemed fairly open to it and actually took a whole nap in it that way. But, when it came to going to bed at night, she was getting frustrated. All her favorite friends kept falling off the edge in the dark. She finally called us in and asked for the railing to be put back on. So, today when naptime rolled around I asked her, "Bree, do you want to sleep in your crib or your big girl bed?" "My crib!" she said definitively. Yup, still not ready I guess.

"Mmm...egg nock (egg nog)!"
As part of our early Christmas decorating this year, to get us in the holiday mood, Travis poured us each a cup of egg nog (the unspiked variety). Bree had never had it before and since it's so rich, I wasn't real sure she'd like it. "You want to try it?" her daddy asked her. She nodded and took a little sip. Then her eyes widened, she said, "Mmmm," and proceeded to pretty much drink the rest of his glass herself. Then this afternoon she suddenly said, "Hey Mom, egg nock please!" "We don't have any more baby, we drank it all yesterday," I told her. "Mom, egg nock. Mmm...egg nock. Let's go to the store and get some!" she declared. We really like egg nock it seems.

Hmm..what next in the list of likes and dislikes I wonder? To be continued.... :)

Christmas Already?

Brianna is already so excited for Christmas. I think between TV commercials, the few Christmas cartoons we've watched with her, and her big friend Savannah talking with her about it, she's just totally psyched for the season. Of course, the stores have already started selling Christmas decorations and have their trees and snowmen up. And, every time Bree catches site of a tree, a snowman, or anything with sparkly lights she just lights up..."Christmas! Look at the Christmas Mommy! WOW!"

So, since she's so excited about it, Travis and I decided we'd go ahead and get out our own Christmas decorations super early this year. Yep, we pulled them out and decorated today, the day after Thanksgiving. We just couldn't wait to see the look on Brianna's face when she saw the lights and the tree here in our own little apartment. We weren't dissappointed either... She was jumping around and exclaiming over every new little thing that came out of the box. Before we could even explain it to her, she had figured out how to hang the ornaments on the tree..so they went on even before the lights this year, mostly all on one side, on the bottom. We re-distributed them slightly later. :) Bree was also pretty thrilled with the stockings. In fact, she actually put them on her feet and was walking around in two of them, despite the fact that we explained they weren't that kind of stockings. She also ran around quite a bit with a few of the stuffed snowmen we pulled out.

When we were all done Brianna looked at the tree and said, "It's boo-tiful (beautiful)! I LOVE Christmas!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a pretty nice one over here... We spent the morning just laying around, taking it easy and watching the Macy's Day Parade on TV. Brianna was pretty excited to see the big balloons go by since she recognized many of the characters. After that we spent an hour visiting with Stacy, Trav's co-worker, and her family. Stacy's mom doesn't have any granchildren of her own yet so she always likes to love on and spoil Brianna whenever she comes into town. This time was no different..Bree left with a new pink poodle stuffed animal and a pink fuzzy sweater to wear so she could match her poodle. Then it was naptime for Brianna while Travis and I worked on whipping up a few Thanksgiving side dishes. Once our food was ready and Bree was awake we drove across town had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, Lynsay and Jim and their daughter, 18 month old Elissa. Like us, they were also Thanksgiving orphans with no family to be with this year. So, it was a very nice day...hope yours was too!

A Piece of Cardboard

So, as I've mentioned before, Bree often asks to wear some of my "lipstick" otherwise known as lip gloss. Actually I think it's almost every morning that she puts some on at the same time that I do my makeup. It's pretty funny because I just hand it to her, she opens it up all by herself, and then rubs it all over her face, getting pale pink all over her cheeks and lips. When she decides she's got enough she puts the lid back on and hands it to me.

Today though Brianna also discovered that she can enjoy a similiar ritual with Daddy in the form of Carmex. She saw Trav putting some on and was quick to ask if she could try it. This was just a few minutes before we were heading out for some last minute Thanksgiving grocery shopping. We headed out and piled into the car and it was only a few seconds later that Bree started whining. We couldn't quite make out what she was saying..she seemed to be saying "A piece of cardboard. A piece of cardboard!" This made no sense whatsoever but finally, after she rubbed her lips together and said, "I can't feel it! My cardboard" it dawned on me that she was asking for more Carmex!

More Swimming

To take a break from our crazy lives lately Brianna and I met a few friends to go swimming this morning. We got moving a little slowly so I quickly packed up our stuff into the diaper bag and we rushed off to go have some fun. Of course, it was only after we got there that I realized out of the 4 bathing suits Bree owns I'd managed to grab the one that is permanently stained. Yup, after I wrangled her into her little suit and she turned her back to me I noticed it..the large, brown stain left over from a diaper runneth over situation...it hasn't come out even with multiple washings. Oh well, I thought. So, despite a somewhat embarrasing stain we went out to the pool and had fun wading, jumping off the side and so forth. After a few minutes in the water though, I noticed that Bree's stain was looking a little less obvious...I think maybe the chlorine was bleaching it out? I was hoping that no one else noticed it though in case they were feeling grossed out by a poop stain getting miraculously erased in the pool. But, a few minutes later I had completely forgotten about that when my little girl came up and snuggled on me, gave me a big hug and said, "I love you Mom!" Actually, she doesn't say that very often just out of the blue. So, I savored it and filed it away for later. After all, it's those kinds of moments that make the poop stain incidents and toddler tantrums fade away in the big picture.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Brianna is not above admiring herself in the mirror..not at all in fact. We've found ourselves pretty amused lately when, after getting all dolled up for a party, or having new clips in her hair, Bree takes a nice long admiring stare into the mirror. The funny part though is her new thing..which is that she'll twist and turn to try and see herself from every angle. In fact, when she got dressed up to attend her little friend's party the other day, her shirt had a ribbon that tied on the back. So, there she was turning this way and that, trying to see the bow, checking it out from every angle and making sure it didn't make her butt look big. (Well, maybe not that last part, but it sure looked like she was trying to check out her own backside..it even had her daddy crackin' up.) But, we can't really blame her...she is a cute kid and all. Ah, vanity thy name is Brianna! :)

Hectic Weekend

With holiday preparations coming up and all that, we actually had a pretty busy weekend. We did a lot of running around and I was tired so I didn't get around to blogging on both days.. (gasp! I know, total shocker..what a complete let down I am! :) )

So, with all that going on I didn't manage to write down my usual little notes and reminders of all the funny/cute/toddlery/Bree stuff to blog about that Brianna did this weekend. Although, I'm sure she did some of that... it's just if I don't write things down they completely fly out of my head. (Why do you think I have this blog? I wouldn't remember any of Bree's childhood without it!)

Therefore, I can't give you much specifics since at this point the weekend is just a blur of caffeine fueled moments, but, here's a quick summary of how it went starting Sat. morning going through Sun. Night:

- Ate breakfast (blueberry waffle) and watched TV (Disney Channel, Mickey Mouse Club etc.)
- Played with some toys and whined while holding onto her parent's legs while they attempted to clean the apartment.
- Ate lunch.
- Naptime.
- Went swimming with Daddy. (Jump, jump, jump, jump....jump. "Time to go!" "Waaaah!")
- Ran up and down the halls awhile with Daddy.
- Dinner.
- Bedtime.

- Ate breakfast.. (See Saturday's breakfast. We're kinda stuck on that one, it's her favorite.) Watched TV. (Yes, Disney Channel again..they have good kiddie cartoons.)
- Played with some toys alternating with whining and holding onto her parent's pantlegs while they try to clean up the messy apt.
- Threw a tantrum about being told we can't hold onto the kitty's tail and use him like a sled dog. (She holds onto his tail with a death grip and gets pulled along, running, behind him while he dashes around the place, trying to get away.)
- Lunch.
- Naptime.
- Went to the store with Mommy.
- Went to her friend, Nayan's third birthday party. Had a good time, ate some pizza and cake. Played with friends and toys very well. Got a goody bag and ballon when we left.
- Came home and chased Daddy around and around the coffee table, laughing hysterically.
-Bedtime. Threw a fit when she couldn't take the balloon with her to bed in her crib.

And, there you have it! Throw a few more fits and diaper changes in there and it's practically like you were there in person isn't it? (Yeah, you didn't miss much, I'm telling ya.)

Toddler's are Fickle

Toddler's moods seem to change with the wind. They are very unpredictable creatures and often swing from one emotion to another pretty quickly...

I needed to run to the grocery store this afternoon and, lucky for me, at the time my own little toddler was pretty happy and was being a really good girl. Actually, she was singing head and shoulders to herself as she sat in the front of the cart. "Head and Shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes and eyes and ears and mouth and nose.." This garnered her several smiles from adult passers-by and one guy even stopped to ask me, "Is she always this happy?" (Obviously the guy didn't have kids..no matter how old they are they're never just happy, happy all the time, esp. toddlers.) So, I looked at the guy and wondered what to say. And, what I said was "Yep, she's pretty spunky all right!" Which I thought was still a positive response and yet truthful.

What I was thinking about when he asked though was a few incidents from earlier in the day. For example, this morning when I was giving Bree her breakfast, oatmeal with raisins. I had thought I'd share it with her so I made a big serving in an adult size bowl. I was planning on giving her her own bowl but before I could even get to that Brianna was pointing and saying, "I want my own bowl!" "I know. I'm getting it," I told her. So, I grabbed out a little green bowl. "Not that one! Not that one!" she screeched, and started melting down. "Fine!" I said. Instead I grabbed a pink bowl out. "Not that one!" she screeched again. "Look, you didn't want the green one so this is the one you get," I told her. She stomped off all pouty to the living room and a few minutes later when I set her pink bowl down in front of her she said, "Where's my green bowl?!"

From there I was thinking about nap time. We had come in late from playing with friends so Bree was sleepy, but still in her coat and mittens. I laid her in bed, fully intending to take off her winter accessories, but again, before I had a chance to Brianna demanded, "Take off my coat! Take off my mittens!" After I had carried out those royal commands she was ready to go and I laid her down for her nap. About an hour, and no napping, later though I heard her yelling about her mittens. I walked in there to see what the issue was... "Mom, what's going on here? Where are my mittens? I don't see them anywhere!" "We took them off earlier, remember? You don't wear mittens to bed." "I want them!" she whined and started crying in earnest. Needless to say she was wearing her mittens in bed a few minutes later. (Hey, I try to pick the important battles to fight.) But, she still refused to take a nap so it was actually a complete miracle that she was acting so nice and singing in the store a few hours later.

So, when the man asked me if she was this happy all the time I was thinking, "No way!" But then, there are those great moments... the ones that make it all worth while. The ones where you stroll along shopping, while your kid sits angelically in her seat, singing a happy little song... and you smile and nod at everyone who looks over, pretending that your child really IS this well-behaved and happy all the time.

Let There Be Light!

Like most kids, Bree sleeps with a night light. It's totally not very bright but just enough that she can see her stuffed animals and not wake up in total pitch black. Which, is good since she's been going through a "there's monsters in my room," phase. She's obsessed with lights right now though. And it's understandable I suppose..power is cool! It's like getting to be a mini-God for a minute..you can make the light go on or off as you please!! She has figured out how to pull the string on the lamps and make them go on and off. And, she has also discovered that she can drag one of her tiny chairs over, sit it below a light switch and reach high enough to turn it on and off.

She especially likes to pull this last trick when she's got a parent playing in her room. She'll decide it's nap time for the adults and turn off the lights, telling Mom or Dad, "Naptime! Go to sleep!" I always play along since I figure it's a good way for her to act out what she sees happening in her world. Plus, ya know, I let her feel the power for a few minutes so she doesn't feel too bossed around every day.

When she can't reach the light switch herself though she has no compunction lately about telling you to turn on a light for her. For example, this morning she made me laugh... She woke up and started calling for me as usual. When I opened the door though the first thing she said was, "Mom, turn on the light! I can't see a thing in here!"

Little Swimmer

Even though we have an indoor pool available to us year-round here at our apartment complex, our swimming habits sort of go in spurts. We'll go fairly often for a few weeks and then nothing for quite a while. This is because, for one thing, it's hard to find a time when 20 other people didn't decide that swimming sounded fun just then. And, the other thing is that once Bree gets down there all she'll do is jump off the edge. Over and over and over again. Forget swimming..what she likes is the jumping. She'll do it until my arms are aching and she's crying when we have to leave. So, the whole event is way more fun for Brianna than the adult who accompanies her.

Well, anyways, so it's been awhile since we've gone swimming. But, last night Bree happened to spy one of her bathing suits hanging off the back handle of her door. Sure enough, she was soon asking to go swimming and was so insistent that we ended up taking her for a brief swim. She had a lot of fun. So much so that this morning when I walked into her room to get her out of bed she said, "I have an idea! Let's go swimming!" Oddly, I didn't feel like swimming first thing in the morning so I put her off. I managed to distract her all morning but, as I laid her down for her nap there it was again. "Mom, let's go swimming." "Maybe later today," I told her, "Now go to sleep." A few hours, and no nap later due to swimming anticipation, I found myself again confronted with a demand to visit the pool. Finally, I gave in and we both got in our suits and started down the hall.

I guess I was feeling less than enthusiastic about going but I was immediately more excited when, as we headed down the hallway Bree burst into a spontanteous song at the top of her lungs, "If you're happy and you know it say hooray, HOORAY!" Then she added in her own little twist, "If you're happy and you know it then MARCH," (followed by marching down the hall), "If you're happy and you know it say hooray, HOORAY!" She sang it all the way to the pool and it reminded me that it doesn't take much to make her day.

Smooth Operator

It's become apparent to me lately that Bree has inherited both her fathers oh-so-smooth, extremely uncorny charm and my own finely honed since of style and grace. (Did you catch the sarcasm in there?) And, I have examples to prove it even.

Take today... Brianna and I were getting ready to head out for library time. I hurriedly put her into her coat and turned around to gather up the diaper bag and library books. As I was doing this I could see Bree out of the corner of my eye, standing in front of the mirror. She was staring into her own eyes saying "Zacktly!" (Exactly), wiggling her eyebrows up and down and then trying to wink at herself. She didn't just do this once either, she kept on doing it until I said it was time to go. I have NO idea where she got that but it struck me as her effort to be cool and casual, but falling short. Sort of like the toddler equivalent of the good old Joey, from friends, line, "How you doin'?" Oh yeah...suave.

After I got her to stop schmoozing herself in the mirror we headed down and I got her loaded into the car. Once she was strapped into her carseat she insisted she wanted a stocking cap (one of mine) and one mitten (hers) that she'd spied laying in the backseat. (My car's kind of a mess with a variety of stuff thrown or left in there.) Bree quickly donned the cap and started playing with the one lonely mitten. She rode along happily for a few minutes but then started making a little whiny noise and said, "My mitten!" I looked into my rearview and quickly determined the problem. She was craning her head all over, desperately looking for her mitten but I could see it. There it was, stuck to the top of her head. See, the mitten is one of those that has a velcro slit up the back so it's easier to get your kid's hand inside it. And, yup, the velcro had stuck to the fuzzy stocking cap she was wearing. "Your mitten is on your head!" I told her. "Oh!" she said and grabbed it off. Now, at this point you're probably chuckling and thinking to yourself, "How cute, only a 2 yr. old!" But, the sad thing is that this is totally something I would end up doing now, today, at my current age. Most days I'm like a walking Mr. Magoo. I mean, I wouldn't end up getting the mitten stuck to my head if I'd been handed them separately. More likely that I'd grab a hat out of our stockpile with the mitten already stuck to it, not notice it was there, and go around wearing a mitten on my head all day since everyone would be too embarassed to mention it.

Yup, Brianna..she's got a little of both of her parents in there. Poor kid. :)

Baby Karaoke

During the day, or driving in the car, Brianna and I often listen to fun kiddy songs. It's a good way to pass the time when we're driving, or having a lazy afternoon, and we will dance or sing along to our favorites quite often. We've gotten several new CD's in the past few months so Bree's song repertiore is expanding. It's always funny to me when I realize that there's an extra little squeaky voice singing along from the back seat, sometimes to songs I didn't think she'd been paying attention to. Course, I find it even more amusing when she suddenly bursts into song at home when there's no music playing..like when she started singing "The Twist" or whenever she sings "The Muffin Man." It's just so sweet in her little baby voice, singing a happy song...

Her new favorite song lately is "10 in the Bed." She can't quite sing all the words intelligibly but it goes something like this, "(mumbling)...ten in bed...one said ROLL OVER, ROLL OVER! So,(mumbling)..one FELL OFF!" Usually at FELL OFF she'll let herself fall onto her little bottom quite hard. Of course, this song is most fun when being sung while jumping up and down vigorously on Mommy's bed (supervised of course) and then flopping over onto the mattress at the end. (The other great bed-jumping song naturally being, "Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed.") She'll sing the 10 in the Bed song over and over and cry when I finally make her get down off the bed. It was especially amusing the other day when Bree was doing her usual bed-jumping routine but had added a little extra show by having Thomas, the blue kangaroo, join her. ('Cause he likes to jump.) Not only that but Thomas was sporting pig-tails even! (Bree had pulled the pony-tail holders out of her own hair and shoved them over Thomas's ears... which, happen to look a lot like pig-tails.) I didn't get any pix but here's some audio to go with your mental visual: 10 in the Bed

Another great song that Bree has actually never sung yet, but that I would just die laughing if she does, is a song about being a little nut. I think it would be funny to hear her say it for one because she does do a lot of nutty stuff and two because her daddy calls her nut as a pet name fairly often. So, I keep playing this one hoping she'll pick it up soon. I'll let you know if she does! Meanwhile, I can get it stuck in your head! I'm a Little Acorn

Okay, and just for fun, here's a great song that's ended up on one of Bree's mixed baby song CD's. It didn't come from a kids CD originally, and I'm not even sure if she's into this one but it's a good one to groove to! :) (Picture me bopping to this one in the car while Brianna stares at me from the back seat thinking, I'm sure, "Oh MOM!") Bongo Bong

A Pirate and Thomas, the Blue Kangaroo

So, Travis came home yesterday from TX where he was presenting his thesis defense. Yep, he can now officially sign his name with the letters PhD afterwards. (And, no, for anyone out there wondering, I will NOT be calling him "Doctor" anytime soon, even though that's the title for those with PhD's. Gotta keep him on the same level as the rest of us humans.) But, that's enough talk of Trav's trifling accomplishments. :) After all, this blog is about Brianna....

And, she did miss him over the 3 and 1/2 days he was gone. She asked for him several times and kept saying "Daddy's at work. Daddy's in Texas. I wanna go to Texas with Daddy!" She missed him most though when she got into trouble with me. She would start wailing "I want my Daddy!" (Since I'm just mean old Mommy!) Of course, when we picked him up at the airport it was a different story. Oh, she was pretty glad to see him. She looked over and said "Daddy! Hey it's my daddy!" Trav gave her a hug and said, "Hi! Did you miss me?" And Bree told him "Nope!" (Although a few minutes later she did say, "I missed you Daddy!" so...) But she spent quite a while looking all around to see who else had come. See, usually when we go to the airport we are picking up a relative we don't see very often and much present-giving and fun ensue. So she was a little confused that it was just plain old Daddy we were picking up. Finally, she looked around and asked, "Daddy, where's Thomas?"

(For those of you who might not know, Thomas is one of Trav's really good friends in TX. While her daddy was gone Bree and I had talked about him being in Texas to work and to see his friend, Thomas. I guess she had decided she really wanted to meet this friend of Daddy's and had gotten the idea he would be coming to our place. She was really quite taken with the idea of Daddy's friend Thomas. Actually, she has met him once but she was too little to remember it so I'm not quite sure why it is exactly she's so enthusiastic about him, although he is a great guy.)

Anyways, so Travis had to explain to Bree that Thomas wasn't coming to visit right now. But, her daddy told her, Thomas and Meg had sent Brianna a present that was in his suitcase and she could have it when we got home. We all piled into the car and Bree waited excitedly to get home and see what she'd get. Finally, we got inside and she ran over to her daddy and said, "Daddy, open your suitcase! Those are the choices!" At long last the suitcase was opened to reveal...a big blue kangaroo! Brianna was so excited. She grabbed ahold of the kangaroo and was saying "boing, boing" and making him jump around the room. It was only a few minutes later that the she started calling the kangaroo Thomas. And so, we now own a blue kangaroo named Thomas, after Daddy's friend whom Bree apparently adores sight unseen.

Of course, being the thougtful Daddy he is Travis had also bought her a little present of his own...a little pirate dress-up kit. Brianna is really big into the dressing up these days. So, needless to say this was a huge success. Soon she was wearing a skull and crossbones bandana and an eye-patch and reading the book about pirates that came with it. The rest the evening we had one tiny pirate running around causing mischief hand in hand with a blue kangaroo. Isn't life interesting? I mean, really, who would have guessed that I would have spent last night with a pirate and a blue kangaroo name Thomas?? Not me that's for sure...

An eye patch...hmm. How does this thing go?!

 

Aha! There we are!
After some help from Daddy she got all pirated out. Notice she's got a suitably grumpy pirate look on her face. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Dead men tell no tales! ...and all that. Actually Travis kept trying to get her to say AARGH! but she never quite got it. She was just running all over in her eye patch and growling like a tiger.

Trying to figure out the big pirate hoop earrings to complete the look.

 

It's Bogart the Pirate Kitty!
After she decided she didn't really want to wear them herself, Brianna thought "Bogit" (as she calls him) needed to wear one of her pirate earrings. He's not too happy about it obviously. But, as usual he took it with much kitty patience and just slinked off as soon as he could. The pirate's life is not for him...he's more of a couch cat.

 

Thomas the blue kangaroo and Bree. This is the only shot we managed to get of them together. Apparently, Thomas is a little camera-shy or something. Plus, Brianna was so excited she was jumping all over and we couldn't get her to stop and pose with her new friend. So, the gifts were a big hit all the way around. Thanks to the real Thomas and Meg and also to Daddy, of course.

 

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Here's a short collection of some of the funny little things Bree's said over the last few days:

So, the toilets in my apartment have that horrible rust ring around the top, just under the lip of the seat. I really have tried to scrub it off..I've tried a variety of different products but all to no avail. Well, since they're technically not my toilets and we'll be moving here in the next months I've kind of just given up on the stains. I mean, I still clean my bathrooms just without spending a long time trying to get the rust ring off. Bree has observed me cleaning the bathrooms, or her own little potty, (yes, she's used it a few times lately hooray!), several times. And, being at a height where she can see directly into the toilets better than us adults, the whole rust stain thing was really disturbing to her. The other day when the toilet seat was up she pointed in there and said, "Mom, would you clean this? Mom, clean this up!"

For our afternoon project one day I had cut up some construction paper and then Brianna and I made a long paper chain. Bree thought it was pretty neat and I was showing her that she could hang it off her crib, etc. So, she took the chain, draped it over her stepping stool, looked over at me and said, "Mom, is that cool?" Already she's worried about being cool!

Then, this morning Bree spent quite some time playing happily with a few of those tiny pumpkins we still have sitting around from Halloween. She piled them all up near her and was talking to them and so on. At one point during the morning I squatted down next to her to ask her a question. But, before I could start talking to her she was reaching over for a pumpkin that was sitting below my knee, "Here pumpkin," she said, "Move or Mommy's gonna crush you!" Nice, I wasn't even touching it and I don't weigh that much! :)

What a Day!

Two year olds! One day they spend all day driving you nuts and the next day they're all smiles and fun. Today was one of those crazy fun days for us. Bree was giving me all kinds of funny material...

She started out this morning by playing with her Strawberry Shortcake dolly. She was playing along and she said, "Mom, see my dolly?" "Very nice," I told her, "Her name is Strawberry Shortcake did you know that?" "Oh..Strawberry Suitcase," she said. Then she spent some time playing with "Strawberry Suitcase."

We also had to run some errands this morning. For one thing, we needed to buy a new blender. (I exploded mine trying to make Bree a fruit smoothie for breakfast..don't ask..) For some reason we had an eventful time just trying to get from our front door to the car. First off there were some ducks eating next to the stairs on the way down. One duck was pecking stuff up in the grass and another one was poking it's beak around in some rocks. Brianna pointed to the first duck, "It's eating grass!" Then she pointed to the other duck, "He's eating rocks!" "Well," I said, "He's not really eating rocks, he's just finding stuff in between the rocks." But, at that point she wasn't listening since she'd spotted a squirrel as well. "Hey, Mom! Look, did you see that squirrel?!" "Sure did, I think he's looking for nuts," I told her. "I'm gonna help find his nuts...Hey NUTS!"

Once we got to the store Bree was quite good since now they have carts with little cars hooked on the front at our store. Bree likes to sit in the car and pretend to drive while I push the cart around. The car even has a little beepy horn in it and Bree will honk at people as we go by! Of course, she gets kinda frustrated with me when I stop to actually put an item in the cart since that makes her car stop too. She'll lean out and say, "Go Mom, drive!" So, picture me racing around the store and trying to throw things from my list into the cart by merely slowing down, rather than actually stopping. I saw a few cute things that I thought would be good stocking stuffers for Brianna and thought I was adding them to the cart pretty sneakily. But, alas, she managed to see my every move and was quickly whining for toys I was trying to hide. Once we got home I realized that I'd done it again...that is bought enough groceries that I couldn't really get them, and my kid, all up the stairs at the same time. Dilemma. See, I don't want to make more than one trip since then my choices are try to leave Bree in the apartment unsupervised while I make one or two more trips (totally unadvisable) or drag her up and down with me, which isn't very fun. So, I decided to use the old stroller trick. In this scenario I pile all the groceries into the stroller, (it actually holds like 10 bags), and push that up the handicap ramp, through the doors and into the elevator and voila! One trip grocery unloading. (Did I mention I hate trying to get groceries home to the second floor?) The drawback to this particular manuever is that I can't really carry Brianna and push that heavy of a stroller both at the same time, and she usually freaks out that she can't be sitting in the stroller while I push it along. (Of course, most the time she refuses to sit in it at all but when there's groceries in her spot then...) So, we ended up walking into the apartment with me gently pushing along my pram full of groceries and my kid dragging her feet behind me, whining and poking along like a slug. I'm sure we looked quite interesting to any passers-by. By then it was getting to be lunch time followed shortly by naptime. (Much to my relief.)

After all that when dinner time rolled around I decided I was too exhausted to cook. So, I ordered pizza! When the pizza guy came to the door Bree said, "Who's that Mommy?" "It's the delivery guy," I told her. We sat down to dinner and she actually ate two whole slices of pizza! (Ruining my theory that she's not a very good eater.) Afterwards she was running around the house going, "Mom, I'm a wijery (delivery) guy!" and handing me a toy or a block or something. Who knew that pretending to be a "wijery guy" could provide an hours worth of entertainment? I see an illustrious career ahead of her already.

Finally, just before bedtime Bree turns to me and says, "Mom, wanna run in the halls?" Well, I didn't really but I figured it would be a good way to burn off some pre-bedtime energy for her. So,we headed into the halls and she takes off. Then she noticed a guy walking in the hallway, carrying his laundry to the laundry room. "Mom, who's that... a guy?" she asks. "Yep," I say. "Is he doing his laundry?" she asks. "Yep," I say. We walked along behind him for awhile and then he turned into the laundry room. He managed to drop a sock on the floor in the process. I picked it up, handed it to Brianna and told her she'd need to go give it back to him. I opened the door and she strolled in there, holding the guy's sock out in front of her like it's dead or something. He saw her coming and kinda chuckled. "Thanks," he said. "You're welcome," she replied primly. Then we finished up our walk and I put her to bed.

Whew! You see? Totally wipes me out every day... and that's not even telling everything that happened!

You've Got Mail!

Obviously, it's really no surprise to anyone that I spend a fair chunk of time online each day... blogging, checking my e-mail, reading my mom's group message boards, etc. This has not gone over Bree's head. She is totally into the computer and wants to do stuff on it too. So, sometimes she'll sit in my lap and we'll visit kiddie learning and game sites. She gets to press buttons to make bubbles pop on the screen, or watch about the alphabet, etc. Actually I don't feel too bad letting her do that with me since it's some quality time, we're talking about what we see on the screen, and it's also educational in many ways. But, Brianna still wants to do more on the computer. For example, she's dying to get an e-mail. Take the other day...

We went out to meet some of the moms and kids from our group at a local coffee shop that also has a kids play area inside it. (Such a genius and wonderful idea!) We love to go since while the moms sip their coffees the kids can run and play with toys. For some reason, there's also and old, broken computer sitting in there that the kids like to bang on the keys and so forth. Well, this time we walk in the door and Bree immediately runs over to this computer and says, "I need to e-mail!" This made some of the other moms pretty darn amused but I think it also made them wonder about my internet addiction. :)

Time Warp

One of the things Bree is still grappling with is her sense of time. (Geesh, not sure why that would be huh? Time is such an easy concept for a 2 yr. old right?) :) So, at our house, everything happened yesterday, even the things we did today. Quite often when Daddy comes home he'll ask Brianna what she did during the day. She'll run over to him eagerly and fill him in saying, "Library time yesterday Daddy!" or whatever it was we did that day. Yep, she seems to live in a kind of time-warp where today is always yesterday.

And, like all kids, the other big time issue she has is waiting for things. Take Halloween for instance. We bought her costume about 2 weeks in advance and every day she would ask about wearing it, Halloween day, and also trick-or-treating. Finally the big day arrived and she was super psyched about finally getting to trick-or-treat...and we did have a good time. But then, sure enough pretty much every day since then she's asked if we could do it again. How do you explain once a year to a toddler?

We're having the same problem with Christmas. Once again, despite the fact that we haven't really explained the holiday to her, or spent a lot of time talking about it just yet, she's managed to figure out the whole concept. (I think 'cause she watched The Nightmare Before Christmas with her daddy recently. She's been talking alot about "Christmas-town." Plus, I did overhear our neighbor girl, Savannah, saying something to her about Christmas. And, they're already running ads about Christmas stuff on TV.) So, I've been hearing alot about Christmas this and Christmas that.."Is it Christmas? Can we go to Christmas?" etc. Imagine how she'll freak out when we actually get some decorations up! Well, at least we know it'll be a lot more fun watching her open her presents this year. Anyone with this much anticipation already will surely be enthusiastic on the actual day...

Weird Things I've Said Recently

So, on my mom's group online message board recently there's been this discussion about some of the totally odd things you find yourself saying as a mother. Things you probably never would have pictured yourself saying. Some of the things that the moms shared they've found coming out of their mouths lately were:

- "Why is there a dirty sock in my Tupperware drawer?"
- "Please get your tail out of your mouth." (The kid was a dog for Halloween.)
- "Mommy's tampons don't go in the toilet."
- "Don't put your socks in your poop!"
- "Does that comb taste good?"
- "Just where do you think you're going with all that oatmeal?"

It made me laugh so I'd thought I'd share a few of the completely strange things (when taken out of context) that I've had to say to Bree lately...

"No, monkey's can't come in the bathtub."
(After she tried to bring her new favorite friend, a stuffed monkey, into her bath.)

"All right! A poopy diaper! Give me a high five!"
(After she was having a little trouble going potty.)

"Eat some of your squirrel trees."
(Which is the odd but fun-for-Bree name we call broccoli and/or cauliflower..it's a long story. I'll tell ya later.)

"The cat is not a ride."
(That one needs no explanation!)

"Take that frog out of your mouth!"
(A rubber bath froggie..which is gross to chew on because if I don't keep up with bleaching the inside of it every so often it grows *stuff* inside there.)

"Bathwater is NOT a yummy drink!"

So..there you have it. Just a few of the totally strange things I find myself having to say during the course of our everyday life. :)

One Girl, Many Looks

Brianna...she's just a fashion chamelion! She has a million funny and cute facial expressions and usually has the attitude to back them up. And, as I was flipping through some of our latest photos of her I was thinking how different she manages to look from shot to shot. Sometimes you wouldn't even think it was the same kid! So, here I've compiled a short display of some of her most recent fashion statements.

One of Bree's favorite styles is the little rich girl, ala Paris Hilton, look. Here she's wearing her pink jogging outfit and super cool yellow sunglasses. She's got the whole "Oh pullease, I'm so over the paparazzi" look...

 

Oh yeah, the glasses look totally cool pushed up into your hair too. And check out the "I just don't care. I'm a material girl," pout.

 

Then there's the toddler bad-girl hip-hop gansta look, complete with messy hair and pants hanging halfway off the (ahem) booty. She woke up this way one day from nap time, hence the messy hair. As for the pants, well, all her pants fit that way...she's one skinny kid!

 

This is her Mick Jagger look. Ya know..huge mouth. :D

 

And, we'll finish with a classic...Bree's impression of the Mona Lisa. Note the mysterious feminine smirk and round cheeks! (She's wearing a fabulous red wool coat with black fur trim..a classy and lovely hand-me-down from "Grape Grammy." We got it in the mail a few days ago and she loves it! She insists on wearing it for fun quite often.)

Sketti-Oops

Brianna has now reached yet another of the toddler milestones...only wanting one thing to eat ALL the time. Her favorite thing for lunch or dinner these days is Spaghetti-O's, which she calls "sketti-oops." (I think becaue they're little circles, or "loops"??) She asks for "skettt-oops" all the time, sometimes even for breakfast. I suppose there are worse things she could be stuck on but I'm still not super thrilled with Spaghetti-O's being the favorite. After all, they come from a can with all the preservatives, extra sodium, and so forth. I really try to give her fresh stuff as much as I can. So, to assuage my Mommy Guilt whenever Bree eats "sketti-oops" I also make sure to have a fresh veggie alongside it at least. Well, I guess it's to be expected. Geesh, you serve one can of Spaghetti-O's one day when you're tired and pressed for time and bam! you're stuck serving them all the time for the next 2 months. I have a hard enough time getting my busy girl to even sit down to eat...I'm not gonna fight it. "Sketti-Oops" it is. :)

A Quiet Saturday at Home

We've had so much running around and doing of stuff lately that today we just spent a quiet day hanging out at home. Of course, for Trav that still means playing around with his camera...so, here's a few pix of our play time today.

This is how she spends most of every day...mouth open, eyes sparkling, about to tell you something.

And here she is teasing Daddy through the sliding doors. This is a good look for her huh? She did this for awhile and then moved onto opening the door a crack and peeking out at him, like this...

 

Peek-a-Boo! Heeere's Brianna!
After a while though she lost interest in this game and started driving her car around the apartment.

And she'll have fun, fun, fun 'till her daddy takes the T-Bird away!

 

Remote Savy

You know what they about kids and technology these days...our kids know more about our computers and programming the TiVo than we do. Well, we're not quite at that point at our house yet. But, it was kind of a shocker for me to realize that Brianna totally knows how to work the remote control. I mean, she's had the power button figured out for a long time now, since it's the biggest button and blue instead of grey. However, she's now added a few other remote-control skills to her list of tricks. I found this out after I had set her up watching a parental approved DVD the other day. I like her to watch educational cartoons if possible, and preferable ones that are 15-30 minutes in length as opposed to a full-length feature film or something. So, I turned on a nice little show, set the remote down on an end table, and went around the corner to try and fold some laundry. When I came back into the room to check on her 5 minutes later though, I noticed that she was lounged on the couch actually flipping through the TV channels. This means she had grabbed the remote, knew which button to push to make it switch from the DVD player back to the TV, and then was navigating the up and down buttons quite successfully! I guess she must have been watching us very carefully for some time to figure that stuff out. Observant little monkey!

Popsicle Etiquette

Okay so I guess I've been complaining a bit about Brianna over the past few days. I mean, she's a joy in lots of ways and does keep me plenty entertained, but, it's also true, she's in a sort of difficult phase right now.(Yeah, did I mention she's 2?!) But, she really does try to do be a good girl too. Take, for example, the other day when she was eating a popsicle. I had given her one as an afternoon treat and, some time later when I didn't see her with it anymore I assumed she'd eaten it all. This was not the case however, as I found out when I discovered the popsicle, sitting on the coffee table in a puddle of melted green ooze. I had a moment of irritation, wondering how long it had been sitting there and if my coffee table would end up with yet another toddler war wound when I noticed that the popsicle was actually sitting on top of a coaster! (Although, the puddle had expanded onto the table as well but still...) In her own way, Bree WAS trying to do the right thing when she'd finished with her messy treat. How was she to know about melting and water stains? :)

Aack! The Jumping Thing...Again!

Most moms of mobile children will talk to you with longing about the days BEFORE their child could walk. After all, it's just easier to keep Jr. from getting into naughty, dangerous stuff when they're stuck plopped in the place where you left them. Well, I'm now looking back at the pre-knowing-how-to-jump days with much longing. It's just a continuing issue over here. I feel like a total grouchy Mom having to constantly be going "No, we don't jump on the couch. No, we don't jump off the couch. No, we don't jump off kitchen chairs. No, we don't jump off...." I remember..she couldn't jump properly for the longest time. She would go "ooph" and bend her little legs, then stand straight back up again quickly. But, her feet would never really leave the ground. Oh, how I long for the days when both her feet would stay on solid ground all day! As it is now it's like having a little Mexican jumping bean, or a hyper-ative frog. Use whatever jumping metaphor you want! Bree even described herself and said.."Look at me! I'm boinging like a kangaroo!" I wish we could get this jumping thing under control so she only does it safely! But ya know, if wishes were fishes then....there'd be a lot of fish dinners at our house. (I dunno. Does anyone know how the rest of that "If wishes were fishes" saying goes? Obviously, I don't.) At least today we sort of got to work it out of her system a little. We went to Edinborough Park this morning, the indoor play place (since it was frigid cold and snowing out!). And, they have one of those air-filled jumpy room things..ya know? So, Bree spent quite a bit of time jumping around in there. That, and also running around, going down the slides and pretty much anything you can think of. (It was like having a toddler on speed in there!) It did make me laugh though...at one point while we were there, we were riding the elevator when an elderly lady got on with us. Bree was jumping up and down in the elevator (shocker!) and babbling on about her shirt and her wrist band and so forth. So, the lady looks at her and says, "My, you've got a lot of energy don't you? You've got a lot of pep in you!" Which, I've decided was the nicest understatement of the year. Peppy doesn't even begin to cover it! She's exhausting! :)

Stuff and Things

Apparently, Brianna has figured out that you can use the words "stuff" or "things" to mean pretty much anything. So, lately we've been having a lot of these type conversations:

Bree: "Hey, Mom, have you seen that stuffs?"
Me: "What stuff?"
Bree: "Mom, my stuffs, where is it?"
Me: "I don't know what you mean."
Bree: "Mom, those things."
Me: "Brianna, what things? What stuff?"
Bree: (Getting upset and whiny now.) "Mom! I need my stuffs!"

Sometimes I can wander around, randomly picking things up and guessing and get it right. Other times I ask her to show me and she'll say or do something to make it more clear. But, there are also quite a few instances when I really have no idea what she's talking about and we can go on like that for quite some time, much to both our frustration. And, I don't know where she's picked this up! I mean, really, the kid needs to be more specific about..things. She needs to start using the proper names for all her..stuff. Geesh! Guess figuring out the whole vague, handy-dandy use 'em in a pinch type words is a double-edged sword. Who knew that "stuff" could cause so much trouble eh?

Don't Tell Me

So, Bree's old enough now to know, in most situations, when she's doing something one of her parents wouldn't want her to do. And, being the contradictory, testing age that she is, she'll just go ahead and do it anyways. Just before she goes ahead and does the naughty thing though, lately she'll look over at the nearest parent, point her little finger at them and say, "Don't tell me. Don't say it to me." This means of course, "Don't tell me no or that I'm not supposed to." For example, like most 2 yr. olds, Bree has been going through a jumpy phase. She wants to climb on top of most anything and jump off, bumps and bruises be damned. This has included climbing up onto the end tables in the living room and jumping joyously onto the couch. Maybe I'm a Grinch, but I just don't think that's super safe, fun though it may be. So, every time I see her about to climb up there I tell her no. Sure enough, the last time she made a move for the end table, she hoisted on little foot over the side of the couch and onto the table. Then, seeing me a few feet away she stopped, pointed her finger at me, and squinched her eyes up at me. "Don't tell me Mom!" she told me. But, of course, I did tell her anyways and made her get down. Makes for an interesting day around here since she's really into a testing mode right now, finding out how serious I am about the rules. Testing...1,2,3..testing!

A Halloween Side Note

For Halloween, we did a variety of fun activities on different days. Bree got to dress up a number of times and got treats and goodies in a couple different places. So, I guess this morning when she woke up she was having a hard time realizing that it was all over. First thing this morning she woke up and was yelling, "HEY! I want candy! I want trick-or-treating! Hey, you guys, would you WAKE UP?!" :)