Movie Critic

There was a time when Bree would get stuck on one show and then insist on watching it non-stop and nothing else. For awhile it was Veggie Tales, then Blues Clues, then Mickey Mouse. Now she's more open to trying other things. In fact, she'll hardly watch cartoons on TV since she's disovered we have fun kid movies. It's kind of funny when she'll casually stroll up and ask me to watch "Mad-a-mas-card" (Madagascar), Shrek, or Shrek 2. I think it's hysterical too that she'll actually request Shrek 2 instead of just Shrek. She's kind of wishy washy though and will often ask to switch movies mid-stream. "No Mommy, not Winnie Pooh. How 'bout Mad-a-mas-card?" At this point, I don't think she's seen any of the movies we own from start to finish.

Grumpy Kitty

Our cat Bogart is fat. Our fat cat Bogart won't shut up. He's always meowing, meowing, whining for more food. (He doesn't have body image problems.) At least, he's usually whining for food...sometimes he's just whining as far as I can tell. Today he was whining and Brianna got tired of it. "Bogart, don't be grumpy!" she told him.

Little Pitchers With Big Ears

Even though I don't work and Bree stays in her pajamas until 10 am most days, our mornings manage to be pretty hectic anyways. This is because we sleep in until the last minute and then Travis only has about 20 minutes to get out the door and catch the bus that goes downtown to his work. Well, 20 minutes is actually only enough time for Trav to get ready, not to mention trying to get some coffee in his travel mug and pack up some leftovers for lunch. So, some days I manage to get up off the couch and help out with this issue. This morning wasn't one of them. As I sat semi-comatose on the couch Trav rushed by and asked me if I could please help him out and put some of last nights leftovers into a tupperware container. "Well I guess....but you're a pain in my butt!" I called teasingly to his back as he walked out of the room. "PAIN IN MY BUTT!" Bree quickly yelled after him too. Oops! Shouldn't have said that. Sometimes I forget that we have a little pitcher with big ears at our house.

Caffeine Addict Wannabe

I drink a lot of coffee because I feel, as the mother of a toddler, it's my only defense. Especially in the mornings, it takes me a long time to wake up and I'm pretty comatose until my first cup kicks in. So unsurprisingly, when she was younger Bree started calling every beverage coffee. She knows better now. Now she knows that Mom also drinks pop and she's even started being able to identify the different brand names of soda we drink--as opposed to when she was younger and called all pop "Cope" (Coke). (All right, I know what you're thinking but I don't drink or smoke so caffeine is my drug of choice. Gimme a break will ya?!) Bree is fascinated with these particular beverages because she isn't allowed to have any. No coffee, (of course), and no soda pop for this little girl, at least not yet. (I really don't want to get her started on caffeine this young, or with all the sugar in there either. And, I've known too many people who give their kids pop and then that's all the kids will drink.) But, because Mom and Dad drink these forbidden drinks they're naturally quite intriquing to Brianna. She is especially interested in my whole coffee ritual. She actually likes to watch me add my creamer and my sugar and stir it all together. (I add a lot of suger!) This morning she was at it again, watching as I made my extra sweet concoction. "Mommy, is that your coffee?" she asked. "Yep, it is." I said, adding a scoop of sugar. "Mommy, is that sugar?" she asked. "Yes, it's sugar all right." I told her. She watched another second and then said "I LOVE sugar! I love Coke, I love Docka Peppa!(Doctor Pepper)" This despite her never having tasted them...I can't imagine her enthusiasm on the subject once she actually gets to drink some.

Daddy Rose

Since Travis picked Brianna's name out he's obviously quite fond of it. Actually he loves the way her first and middle names sound together so he frequently uses both of them when referring to her. It's always "Brianna Rose" this and "Brianna Rose" that. He's said it so much that I guess Bree just thinks you can add Rose to anyone's name as a term of endearment or something. Tonight she called her daddy "Daddy Rose." "I think you're confused," he told her, "I'm just Daddy and you're Brianna Rose." "No, not 'fused," she said, "You're Daddy Rose and I'm Ranna!" Considering she also sometimes call him Travis I guess Daddy Rose is okay. You know, a daddy by any other name is still a daddy right?

Heart Transplant

Sometimes I just have no idea where Bree comes up with stuff. I swear that she hasn't been watching open-heart surgery on TV around here but this morning she got ahold of pair of salad tongs from her "play drawer" in the kitchen (the one with harmless kitchen stuff and only drawer she gets access to in there) and did the oddest thing. She pulled the tongs wide open and held them on Bear and she said "Take your heart bear." Then she walked over to her daddy and held the tongs up to his chest as well only this time saying "Give you a heart Daddy!" Hmmmm...I dunno.

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

It's been funny to hear as Brianna has been singing more often and learning the words to new songs, well actually trying to learn but ultimately butchering the words to new songs. Today as we were running an errand she regaled me with the song "Do You Know the Muffin Man." Except she sang it her own special way:

Do you know the Muffin Man? (leaving off several muffin man repeats)
Do you know the Muffin Man?
You know a maid! (instead of "Who lives on Drury Lane.")

I love it! Especially the part where she just makes the last line a command: You know a maid!

Daddy's Little Helper

This evening after Bree took her bath, Trav decided to take a fast shower and jumped right in, with the bath water still draining in the bottom. It was a really quick shower, he was finished before the bath water had even drained. However, he realized he'd gotten in too fast and forgotten a towel. So, he leaned his head around the curtain and spotted Bree standing just outside the bathroom, the towel she had used to dry off from her bath sitting beside her. "Hey, Brianna, can you hand me that towel right there by you?" he asked her. "Okay Daddy," she said. She grabbed the towel, dragged it over to the shower, then suddenly yanked the curtain back and dumped the towel into the still-draining tub where it was completely soaked in about 2 seconds. "Well, thanks Bree," Travis said sarcastically. "Hey you're welcome!" was her sincere reply.

I Like To Move It!

Today we watched the movie Madagascar for the first time. In the movie there's a scene where some of the animals are dancing and singing "I like to move it, move it!" Bree thought this was great and was immediately up and dancing, singing "I like to move it, move it," which Travis encouraged by getting up and doing with her. That in and of itself was pretty funny but personally I liked the version of the dance that happened later this evening. Brianna, nude and fresh out of her bath, decided it was a good time to sing the "move it" song and dance. There she was naked as a Jay bird going "I like to move it, move it" and shaking her stuff. Not only that but this time she would occasionally stop, stare one of her parents in the face and wiggle her eyebrows up and down suggestively (a new trick her Daddy's been coaching her on). It was a great moment for the art of dance, right up there with Tom Cruise's underwear dance in Risky Business.

Piggy Tails

Unfortunately for her, Brianna's hair is just like mine. There's a lot of it, it's just baby fine and slow growing. Because of that, I'm always surprised when I see other 2 yr. olds with long flowing hair, even wearing pony tails and pig tails. I'd thought about trying to pull Bree's hair back but I just assumed it was too short and hadn't really gotten around to actually testing that theory. Well, yesterday our little neighbor girl, Savannah set me straight on that issue. She comes over to play with Bree quite frequently and for some reason got the urge to play with Brianna's hair. By the time she was done she had made two perfect little pig tails in Bree's hair. It made her look funny, adorable, and more like a little girl than a baby, all at the same time. Brianna thought they were super neat and Savannah was happy with her handiwork. So, we all sat around admiring the new doo. Of course, Trav couldn't resist and started snapping pix....

Here's Savannah playing hair stylist...

After the piggy tails were done, Savannah and Bree came over to the mirror to check them out. (Don't they look just like actual little pig's tails though with her little bit of natural curl in there?)

Here they are, the two buddies, feeling pretty darn happy with each other. :)

This one is so priceless...this is the look she got on her face while admiring herself in the mirror. When she first saw herself with the pig tails she said "I'm a girl! I'm so pretty!"

I love this shot! You get a great view of the piggy tails from the back and can also see Brianna's face in the mirror--best of both worlds.

Bree giving Savannah a hug to say thanks (although, notice she still can't quite keep her eyes off her own reflection in the mirror off to the left there).

After she'd admired herself for awhile Brianna, feeling sassy, spent the rest of her playtime with Savannah in her "garden" on the balcony.

Pigtails Day Two

Bree and Savannah had such fun with the pig tails that they did Brianna's hair up again today, except they opted for placing them higher up on her head. It was just as cute...

This is just a cute pic and shows off those high piggy tails quite nicely.

And finally, here she is with the new doo, looking like such a big girl and also too cool for her own britches, talking on the phone to Grandma Dee-Dee.

Daddies are Weird

Recently Hannah gave Bree and I a new CD full of fun, kid music. (Thank goodness, it's so easy to get tired of the same old kids songs...I mean Wheels on the Bus IS a classic but if I hear it one more time....)One of our favorite songs, which we hadn't heard before, is one called "My Daddy is Scratchy." It's a funny little song about daddies' beards and the lyrics say:

MY DADDY IS SCRATCHY
EACH DAY HIS BEARD GROWS
THOSE SHARP WHISKERS CATCH ME
ON CHEEK AND CHIN
MY FOREHEAD AND MY NOSE
MY DADDY HE’S TROUBLE (Whoo Whoo Whoo)
HE THINKS HE’S SO FASH (Yeah He’s So Fash)
HE LIKES TWO DAYS STUBBLE
BUT THAT MAKES MY FACE
BREAK OUT IN A RASH
AFTER HE SHAVES
HE’S SMOOTHE AND COOL
WE’RE FRIENDS ONCE MORE....

This made us laugh since Travis often has "two day stubble" syndrome. While we've never actually heard Brianna complain about it, or noticed her avoiding him when his whiskers are longer, we have recently noticed that several mornings right after he's shaved she stares at him a lot, makes googly eyes at him and asks to snuggle. :)

Later in the song the lyrics go:

MY DADDY HE TICKLES (Whoo Whoo Whoo)
HIS FACE IS SO WEIRD (He’s So Weird)
EACH MORNING HE PRICKLES
AND BY EVENING I CAN FEEL
HIS BEAR-EAR-EARD

And, sure enough Bree didn't miss that one. This evening as we were all driving along together she announced from the back seat (where she makes many of her proclamations) "Daddy is so weird!" Trav responded to her by saying "Oh yeah, well you're weird too." To which Bree came back with "NO WAY!"

(If you haven't heard this song and you have a few minutes..check it out:
www.goodmoodrecords.com/scratchy_lyrics/
my_daddy.html and click on "listen")

Daddy, Travis

So, I'm not the kind of wife who calls her husband "Daddy" after a kid or two comes along. I may call him that sometimes when I'm referring to him in front of Brianna or when I'm talking to him from Bree's point of view. But, I certainly don't do it every time because, well, he's not MY daddy and he does have an actual name. And, being the observant child she is Bree has picked up on this little tidbit of useful information. Of late she is just as likely to refer to her father as Travis as she is Daddy. Call me naive but I just didn't expect this particular issue to come up this soon. I thought this was a phase young teens go through when they feel rebellious and disrespectful. Imagine my surprise then when my 2 year old saunters up to her father and says, "Hey Travis, wanna come play in my room?" Or, after she's been kissed goodnight and we've sneaked out of the room to hear her yelling "TRAVIS, TRAVIS, COME HERE!" We've had several conversations with her about the subject and they all go about the same way...

Bree: "Hey Travis!"
Me: "This is your daddy and you need to call him Daddy."
Bree: "Ok, Daddy, your name is Travis?"
Trav: "Yes, it is. But you need to call me Daddy okay?"
Bree: "Okay Daddy."

(Several minutes later...Bree has since wandered off and Travis and I have started having an actual adult conversation. But, then she comes back in the room...)

Bree: (interrupting as we're talking)"Daddy!"
Bree:(getting no immediate response) "Daddy!"
Bree: (ignored again) "TRAVIS!"

Well, it does get his attention!

Show Me The Money

It's our little habit. Travis will leave the house for work and Bree will inevitably ask "Where'd my Daddy go?" And I'll answer her "He had to go to work baby. He'll be home later." Usually this satisfies her and we go on about our day. Sometimes though Brianna will feel the urge to ask this question several times. When that happens I start to elaborate on my answer saying, "He has to go to work and make some money...somebody has to!"

Over the past few years Brianna has received several penny banks as gifts from various relatives. She has thought it's neat to put change in, fitting the coin into the slot and hearing the solid "thunk," for quite some time now. And, her daddy enjoys giving her his leftover coins and watching her joy at plunking them into her little pink piggy bank. They've even started discussing the types of coins. Travis will point out pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters as they go in the bank. Bree has gotten as far as remembering the names but hasn't quite matched the names to the actual coins..she mostly calls them all nickels (I think because she likes to say that word).

So, all these concepts about money, making money, and who brings the money home have all started to become more concrete to Bree....

Travis takes a backpack to work and usually comes home with some coins in the front pocket, leftovers from vending machine purchases at work. For the past few weeks one of the first things he does after getting home is tell Brianna to get the change out of his bag and they spend a few minutes happily putting it in the piggy bank. Tonight was no different except that afterwards Bree asked to do it some more. "We can't," her daddy told her, "that's all I have. You put it all in there." With that she looked at him and quite solemnly told him, "Daddy, go back to work. Get more money!"

Shriek a Doodle Doo

Bree has been driving me absolutely bonkers lately with her incessant yelling, screaming and shrieking around the house. She's going through that phase kids go through where they love to scream just to hear the sound of their own voice and how different and funny it sounds. Nevermind that they're driving everyone else up the wall. So, this past week or so whenever she's not going "Hey Mom, Mommy, Hey, Hey Mom," then she's trying to body slam the cat and screaming at the top of her lungs. It's enough to make me want to scream myself and sometimes I do, "Would you stop?!" I'll snap at her, or "QUIT!" (Yeah, I'm not up for any mother of the year awards recently.) Well, finally the other day after she'd been shrieking I heard her say "nissimo." I knew immediately she was trying to say "fortissimo" which means loud in musical terms...she'd picked this little nugget up from, yep, TV again...off a musically based show called Little Einsteins (thanks a lot!). Yes, it's a normal toddler phase but I also blame the Little Einsteins for my troubles. I'm thinking about writing a strongly worded letter to them. Anyways, after trying ignoring the yelling (impossible) and also using warnings and time outs (she'd be in time out all day) I've finally settled on making her stand on the balcony if she wants to scream (the inside, outside voice method). Now when she starts up I tell her we can only scream outside and ask if she wants to go out there. If she says no than I tell her she better stop screaming then and use her indoor voice. This is a good method...at least it's a more measured response on my part than losing my cool and snapping at her. I guess I need to re-read the "patience-of-a-saint" part of the Mommy Manual. Oh wait, Bree didn't come with one? What?!

A Microwave Wait

Well, the same gal, Kelly, who gave us our new garden toy is a huge garage sale buff. So, I'd asked her to keep an eye out for smallish play kitchens for Bree as well. She actually found the perfect one for our compact apartment space only a few days later. Bree is now the proud owner of her very own kitchen complete with oven, refigerator and microwave. She loves acting out all the kitchen activity she's seen go on in the big kitchen in her own little kitchen. Actually this morning Travis and I got a huge kick out of her as she played there. She had her daddy sit down and told him she was making him his dinner. Then she made him wear a "bib" (a blanket she draped over him) and set a puzzle on his lap, telling him it was his "tray." After that she grabbed one of her little plastic veggies from inside her fridge and put it in the microwave. She closed the door, pretended to push the buttons and then....then she stood there looking impatient for a whole minute. Travis asked her "Is it done?" Her response was, "Almost!" as she crossed her arms and waited a little more. Suddenly she declared the plastic broccoli done and served it to her daddy on a plate, with a fork and even blew on it when he insisted it was too hot! (hee hee)

Clash of Wills

Terrific Two's, Terrible Two's, however you put it the two's are a power struggle as was made more than clear to me today. It started out innocently enough. Bree wanted a snack so I gave her options. She chose Teddy Grahams and then sat down on the couch to munch on them. So far, so good. But, as I walked through the room a minute later Brianna says to me, "I made a mess!" and points to her Teddy Grahams scattered on the floor. "Uh-oh. Well, that's okay just pick them back up again," I told her. Then I was kind of shocked when she replied "Mom, you pick them up." and walked off. The ensuing 20 minutes involved pointing, making forceful statements, the listing of choices (pick up your mess like Mommy asked or have a time out), a time out (while I ended up picking up the mess myself), and tears. Oy vay!

Happy Birthday Kadyn!

Yesterday was Kadyn's bithday party..she turned 2! We got to go see her blow out her candles and open her presents. Bree had alot of fun, although she had a number of meltdowns since she was quite sure that there was some kind of horrible mistake and the presents were really supposed to be hers. But, aside from these 2 yr. old tantrums and present envy it was a nice time.

Bree and Kadyn got right down to playing as soon as we arrived. This was one of the nicer moments of the evening, sharing and playing together peacefully. :)

The girls both wore fluffy pink party dresses for the occasion. They looked so cute!

Here they are opening up their party gift bags. Hannah, always so thoughtful, made sure Bree had a gift bag as well to help with her present envy. Bree loved it and was so excited with the contents which included stickers, a ball, and a "wrist watch" she insisted on wearing the rest of the evening.

This is a funny shot of the gals with big bibs on over their party dresses, eating dinner together at their little table.

One of the big hits from the presents was this "Potty Time Elmo."
(Notice you can kind of see Bree crowding in on the left there, trying to get in on the present action. She did pretty good for a 2 year old I think, although there was a fair amount of yelling "mine!" along with tug of wars between the two and attempted present stealing on Bree's part.)

We got Kadyn a Little People bus since we know she loves buses so much...the people even go up and down when you "drive" it around. This is Bree playing with it however while Kadyn was distracted opening up other presents.

The birthday cake.. isn't it so cute?
(The theme of the whole party was flowers.)

Here's Kadyn enjoying her birthday cake!
At the end of the evening the girls were friends again. After all, their little quarrels were nothing a little bonding over cake couldn't fix.

I Love Laundry

Today was laundry day again at our house. Bree helps quite a bit on these days, dragging a half empty laundry bag down to the laundry room, throwing a few socks from the washer into the dryer, folding (or rather un-folding) clothes, and even putting clothes back into her own drawers when they're done. While we were in the middle of all that today Bree declared "I LOVE laundry!" "You love laundry?" I asked her incredulously. "I know!" she said. Yeah well, she thinks she loves laundry now...wait until she has to do it! The seperating, the folding, the cursing (I mean gentle exclaiming) when the stains don't come out, the feeling put out that you're washing 50 towels and wondering how your husband could possible use THAT many in 7 days time.......

Learn by Example

I'm a fairly short woman, (5'5" on a good day) and can't really reach the top shelves anywhere in our house. So, I usually reach the high shelves by pulling a chair over from the dining table and standing on it. This is not the best of examples for small children I've realized since in the past few days I've noticed Bree dragging one of the tiny chairs from her set and using it to stand on in order to reach all kinds of naughty things such as the top of Daddy's work desk, the toothpaste by the sink in the bathroom (which she wanted to eat), and anything else she can think of. On the bright side at least I know she's observant right?

Just Mickey

Brianna is a very finicky and fickle DVD watcher. She'll ask to watch Blues Clues and before you can get that loaded she'll have switched and be whining for Veggie Tales and then again before the new choice is on the screen she'll switch and say she wants Mickey. That happened today, again! But I was getting just a little fed up so by the time Bree was asking for Mickey I spent a good 5 minutes trying to convince her that Veggie Tales was super great (since that was the current cartoon in the player). But no, Bree kept on insisting, "Just Mickey Mom, just Mickey!" The way she said it in that exact way reminded me that she'd had this arguement before. I've actually listened to her and her poppa Randy go around on this issue. It was after we'd been visiting in Idaho for over a week and everyone was REALLY tired of the same Mickey movie. So, my dad was trying to convince Brianna to watch Finding Nemo instead. He pointed out all the great and fun things that go on in the other DVD but to everything Bree had the same reply "Just Mickey Poppa!" I think they hashed it out for 10 minutes before my dad had to give up and put Mickey on.

The rub of it all is that, finally, after having loaded 3 DVD's into the player and getting her happily settled in to watch her show she'll wander off 5 minutes in..AAAGH!

Say What?

Well, despite the fact that Bree now has quite the vocabulary and actually manages to speak quite clearly most the time we still have our misunderstandings and miscommunications:

Hannah and I enrolled Kadyn and Bree in storytime at the library together. We've gotten into the habit each week of heading across the street to the mall afterwards to buy the girls a pretzel and fruit smoothie from Jamba Juice. This week was the same and we talked and let the girls eat and play. (The great part is that neither one can finish their fruit smoothie and Hannah and I end up getting to finish them off.) Well, as I was leaving this time I set what little was left of our drink on top of the car and started loading Brianna into her car seat. The whole time I was strapping her in she kept saying "Mom, where my food movie? Mom, where my food movie?" I just couldn't make out what she was saying and I just kept staring at her. I could tell she was getting frustrated until finally it dawned on me and I knew what she was asking for...her fruit smoothie!

As Bree and I were getting ready to have snacks the other afternoon she said, "Mom, I need my oh-ah bah." Hmm, oh-ah bah I thought..that makes no sense to me. What could it be? Not knowing what else to say Brianna just kept repeating it until finally she added, "Mom, my oh-ah-bah. In the diaper bag!" Then I realized there was only one thing that could be an "oh-ah bah" in the diaper bag...it was her granola bar!


Of course then there are times where I can clearly understand what Brianna has said...I just can't believe it:

The other day as I was unbuckling Bree to get her out of the car I leaned in and kissed her cheek. "No, no kissing me!" she said. "Why not?" I asked "You're cute and I like you!" "No," she said. "No what?" I teased her, "No, you're not cute?!"
"And you don't like me!" she said. Well after I felt shocked a few moments I said "Of course I do silly!" and then kissed her cheek again for good measure.

We had our friends Kelly and Skylar over for a playdate today. While they were over Bree suddenly announced that she needed a new diaper. So, I laid her down and started changing her diaper. Suddenly she started whimpering and said, "Mom, I'm crabby!" Later, after our friends had left and naptime was quickly approaching Brianna started rubbing her eyes and said again "I'm so crabby!" "Well, it's naptime," I told her, "Let's go in your room." She obediently headed in there but was quickly distracted by some of her toys. I let her play a few minutes and then told her "All right, it's time to rest. Come here." "I can't right now," she replied, "I'm busy!" Cheeky little kid....

Mad Girl

I have tried to be really careful about keeping Brianna from burning herself on my curling irons as I do my hair every morning. But, of course, it was inevitable and she accidentally touched one this morning. It was after I had unplugged it and set it aside to cool even, but it was still hot. When she touched it Bree gasped and then I realized what had happened and braced myself for a horrible screaming incident. But, I was surprised. Bree kind of whimpered for a minute and then yelled, "That made me MAD!" and that was it. Although, she did bring up how her finger got "bumped" and how mad it made her the rest of the day.

Twinkle Twinkle

Bree and I had to run a bunch of errands today. But, Brianna did very well and seemed to take it all in stride...she even sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to herself most of the time we were driving around. It was the cutest thing I've ever heard. Not sure if I can do it justice but here's how it went:

Twink-a Twink-a
Idda Stah
How I one-duh what you ah
Up ba ba ba wuhl so high
Like a dye-man in the sky
Twink-a Twink-a
Idda Stah
How I one-duh what you ah
Up ba ba ba wuhl so high (she hasn't figured out the words to this line yet although, it does sort of sound like that, even when you sing the real words.)

And it just kept going like that. It was the best, the highlight of my crazy and crabby day. :)

A Bird Book

As part of our bedtime routine with Bree, Travis and I have been reading a book or two with her as a calming before-bed activity. Brianna has a whole shelf full of books she gets to choose from each night. However, the other night she ran over to one of our other bookshelves and chose a field guide to birds..an interesting choice to say the least! But, she happily snuggled up to her daddy and they spent several minutes talking about the different kinds of birds and their parts: beaks, wings, feathers, etc...very educational. She liked it so well that she even insisted on taking it to bed with her and asked to do so again tonight. I mean, everyone enjoys a little light reading in bed right..nothing like bird identification to send a toddler off to sleep!

A New Garden

Bree recently got a new "garden" toy. It's actually a pretty large plastic thing that looks like a fenced in garden area. There's a little mailbox, some birds, and a front gate as well. Brianna has had a blast going in and out of her "teeny house" as she's calling it. She found some little plastic keys she'd gotten long time ago and was using them to "open" the door repeatedly. Today she gathered a collection of friends inside her garden: Bear, Green, Elmo, and Tigger. For her convenience she'd also grabbed her sippy cup too. Then, I played along and folded up some pieces of white paper, put it in her mailbox and told her it was her mail. That was a big hit and she delivered mail to herself for quite some time. She even delivered mail to Tigger. "Mail! Mail for you Tigger. Is that nice?" she said handing it to him. The best part is we scored the garden for free from a friend in our play group...Thanks Kelly!

Mix N Match

Here's another mix of goodies but shorties. (I just can't help myself. She does so many funny little things that I'd have to post 5 blogs a day if I didn't throw a few of these type in every now and then.)

I was changing my clothes after coming home from church the other day and laid my skirt across the bed. Brianna picked it up and said "Mom, this is SO cute!"

Bree's new saying is "I know." So, for example today I told her "Thank you for helping me. That was so nice." and she replied, "I know!" (It's almost like living with a teenager!)

We've been talking about our grammies and poppas and family in Idaho so much since our recent visit that when Bree talks about them now she'll say "Grammy and Auntie Missy in 'Eye-dee-hoe'"

Brianna is always so glad to see her daddy that she scrambles to get his attention when he walks in the door. Today she ran up to him shouting "Daddy! Daddy! See my stripey shirt? Look at my backside!" (I'm not really sure where that last part came from but it made me laugh really hard!)

Teddy Bear Band

Ok, now that you're all caught up on the old stuff time to tell you what happened today!

Bree and I went down to the Mall of America for Toddler Tuesday with our play group. Today's theme was the Teddy Bear Band. So, Brianna brought her bear and danced like crazy with the rest the toddlers. Well, she danced part of the time and the rest the time she spent stalking the teddy bear mascot that was there. She loved him! A lot of kids are mortally terrified of those things but not Bree...she gave him lots of hugs and sat on his lap, danced next to him and followed him around as he walked the crowd. She even cried when he left. She wasn't the only one though, there were a few other kids under the bear's sway. It was quite the scene...have you ever seen 2 year old groupies? I don't have pics for you though 'cause I took the camcorder instead...but I did get some great footage!

Mouths of Babes Addendum

I guess this is just a day for "back-blogging." Not only am I posting pix from the zoo from a few days ago I want to add on to my little anecdote about going to church as well.

I realized as I was talking to my mom on the phone about the whole going to church story that I had managed to forget to tell half the story, and the funny parts too! (Yes, we actually sometimes discuss the blog posts on the phone after she's read them. What?)

Well, as I wrote, Saturday night after Bree heard her daddy and I trying to decide if we were going to church or not she got all excited about going, mostly because she would get to wear her pantyhose. The trouble came the next morning when I was trying to get her dressed and ready to go. I got her shirt on, then her pantyhose and was about to put her skirt on when she just flipped out. She didn't want to put her skirt on over her pretty pantyhose so she ran through the house going "No! No wearing a skirt, no!" And I mean, this was a full-blown tantrum not just a little resistance either. She liked her pantyhose so well that she was seriously trying to convince me she should get to go to church in only her shirt and hose. (I guess when I sat down to write that evening I didn't remember this part as very funny..but actually in retrospect it is...kind of...if you werent there.) Well, I finally conviced Bree to put on a jumper over her shirt which she liked better since she could see more of her pantyhose than with the skirt.

So, we went to church and Brianna had a great time in Sunday School. In fact when we went to pick her up we found her wedged into a tiny corner of the room, happily playing with a toy she didn't want to share! But, they told us she was a good girl and on the way home she sang a new song she must have learned while she was there. I couldn't quite make it out but it was something about days of the week maybe? All I know is the whole ride home she was mumbling a song and then going "SUNDAY!" :)

Zoo Trip With Friends

Over the weekend Travis, Bree, and I all met up at the zoo with Scott, Hannah and Kadyn. (Why am I just now posting it? Well it took me this long to edit and process my digital pics! Geesh, give me a break man!)We all had fun and the girls especially loved hanging out at one of their favorite places together.

We spent most of our time at the zoo on the "farm." You can see the barn in the background. This is a pretty nice shot of us mommies but the girls weren't cooperating for a perfect picture...go figure with 2 year olds huh?

Here's looking at you kid!
We actually got to go in the pen to pet and feed the goats this time. The girls both had fun feeding little alphalpha pellets to them.

Bree loved the baby goats best and was so excited to get to see them up close and personal.

On the walk back from the "farm" the girls found this life-sized wood cutout of a giraffe. See how both their necks are craning so far up? :)

Along the way Kadyn took time out to do her impression of "The Thinker."

Bree loves Hannah! Whenever we hang out Brianna usually asks at least once to be held by Hannah or to sit on her lap. Here she's wanting to be carried with Kadyn and Hannah is scooping her up. I love the expressions on their faces!

This is a nice shot of the three of them. Since the girls were getting tired they actually insisted on being carried this way for quite some time. Poor Hannah! Together they must have weighed a ton...I know I couldn't have carried them both for as long as she did!

Here they all are, our friends Scott, Hannah, and little Kadyn.

A Carpet Beetle

Over the weekend Travis and Brianna found a carpet beetle crawling along, well, in the carpet...(hence the name). Actually I'm not really sqeamish about bugs and such but it did kind of make me feel gross to think about him and all his brothers and sisters crawling around unseen under the carpet fibers where Bree plays. Unlike me though Brianna though it was a great discovery and was super ecstatic. She ran up to me excitedly, "Mom, a carpet beetle! See him? See him?" She held the beetle and treated him like a little pet. Soon she was sitting him down on the coffee table to watch him walk along. If she didn't think the beetle was going the right way she was yelling "NO! NO!" at it. Then she'd scoop it back up saying "I got 'im, I got 'im," and set it back down and let it try again. I'm not exactly sure where she wanted that beetle to go but he never really did do what she wanted. So, she gave up on that for a while and took her new little friend to play in her rooom, (with Trav and I on her heels). We watched as she made the beetle go down the slide on her Little People playground set over and over. But, I don't think he really enjoyed it, he kept trying to open his wings and fly away and I'm not sure why he didn't actually fly away...maybe it was Bree telling him "No fly! No fly carpet beetle!" Well, the beetle entertained the three of us for about an hour actually until Brianna realized it wasn't moving anymore. Then we told her he was tired and need to rest outside in a plant on the balcony. (What, you want me to explain beetle death to a 2 year old?!) I like to think that beetle would have died with a smile on his face, that is, if he'd had a face or could smile. At least I can be sure none of the rest of his friends went out that particular way...death by too much sliding and being a toddler's plaything. That's the way to go.... :)

Spinach--No Way!

For a kid her age Brianna is actually pretty good about eating her vegetables. She'll eat cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes and others without batting an eyelash. Recently though I tried to feed Bree her first spinach. I know it's not exactly every kids' favorite so I thought I was being clever by adding it into a recipe that's a sort of sheperd's pie or quiche type dish. All was going pretty well...I got Travis to eat it with no complaints and he's a pretty tough customer in the vegetable department. But, after a few minutes of picking her piece of dinner apart Bree said "bleck" and was spitting a shred of spinach out of her mouth. "Come on," Travis told her, "Eat your spinach. Daddy's eating it, it's not too bad. Eat your spinach." Brianna looked at him quite seriously and replied, "No way!"

This 'n That

Another collection of silly instances lately:

Bree and I were playing in her room and listening to music when "The Twist" song came on. So, I taught her how to twist and we boogied down together. The funny part though was when she grabbed her bear and made him dance too saying "Teddy, twist!"

For lunch the other day Bree wanted ravioli's. She was eating them happily although having a bit of a hard time getting the slippery things to stay on her fork. Finally she declared "dicolous(ridiculous)!"

Brianna discovered a chip clip in one of the kitchen drawers recently and quickly figured out it's potential...it was only a few minutes before I caught her trying to "chip clip" the cat's tail.

We hung out with Hannah and Kadyn at the mall the other day. While we were there Bree insisted that Hannah carry her. So, I carried Kadyn. As I was holding Kadyn Bree pointed to her and said "That's Hannah's little peanut!" (Peanut is the term of endearment that Hannah frequently calls Kadyn.)

Travis is in the habit of asking Brianna all about her day when he gets home from work. When he first started she was too little to actually answer but we've been entertained lately as she's started to tell him the little happenings of her day. Yesterday she even beat him to the punch and before he could say anything, as soon as he walked in the door Bree said "Daddy, glad to see you Dad! Guess who came?" So Trav said "Who came?" Brianna answered "See-vannah (Savannah)...came to our house!"

As I was tucking Brianna in for her naptime today she looked at me and informed me "Mama's little baby is taking a nap!" I guess she's got a pretty firm idea of her place in the world! :)

From The Mouths of Babes

Travis and I were both raised going to church on Sundays. And, since we've had Brianna we have wanted to expose her to that as well. However, we've had a hard time actually getting up and going every week, especially when Bree was younger. She'd end up screaming bloody murder in the nursery, they'd page us and we'd rush over to comfort her and no one got anything out of it. So, we've been having really spotty church attendance the last few years. Well, yesterday we were discussing whether or not to try to go to church today. Bree overheard us and piped in with "Church! Sing songs and wear pantyhose!" She was excited to sing and to get dressed up. Of course, we did attend church this morning. I guess we don't have that excuse anymore!

Choices

Sometimes when Bree is having trouble following directions I give her two choices and then let her choose which she would like. This helps for two reasons, 1) she feels like she gets to have some input in what happens in her life and 2) it lets her know those are the ONLY options she gets. For example, whenever we cross the street Brianna gets to choose between holding someone's hand or getting picked up and carried across the street. (She's not really a hand-holder so she usually chooses to be carried. And, when I first implemented this she tried to make walking across all by herself a third choice. Of course, that didn't fly.)

This strategy really does seem to work for us. If things start to get rough I list the two options for that situation and say "Those are your choices." Well, I guess I must say it alot because today it was pretty funny... I had prepared us an afternoon snack and casually asked "Do you want to eat this at the play table in your room or out on the balcony?" Much to my surprise instead of answering Bree told me very solemnly, "These are the choices."

I Need It!

Brianna has now figured out that if she says she "needs" something it will make people stop and think a little longer about letting her have whatever it is that she wants. Usually though what she "needs" is actually just something she really wants and according to her she "needs" a lot of stuff. Take the other day when we were getting out of the car to go in to story time at the library. She had been playing with an old wallet in the car. As we got out I tried to convince her she should leave it in the car so we wouldn't lose it (and also so she'd pay attention during story time instead of drag an old ratty wallet around). Well, that didn't go over too well. She started screaming bloody murder and yelling "Mommy, I need it. I need it!" So, I decided it really wasn't worth the fight and let her hold onto it. She was still sort of whining when we ran into Hannah and Kadyn in the parking lot, also on their way into story time. "So crabby this early in the morning already?" Hannah asked Bree. "I tried to take her wallet from her," I explained. Then Bree added her two cents by saying "Hannah, I need it!" Well, Hannah was pretty amused by that but was even more amused a few minutes later after Brianna had recovered from her wallet trauma and also added,"So glad to see you!"

Kissy Virus

Ok, so part of the time Bree and I were visiting the family in Idaho Travis was actually off at a conference for his work. (For those of you who might not know he's a microbiologist.) Well, he was in Seattle for a Herpes virus workshop and while he was there he thoughtfully bought presents for Brianna and me. I got a nice necklace and Bree got a Seattle Beanie Baby bear and also a stuffed "kissy virus." The "kissy virus" is actually supposed to be a plush represenation of the virus Mono, you know, also known as the kissing disease since it's spread a lot that way. The stuffed "kissy virus" is basically just a little round purple ball thing that's pretty cute but I find the whole idea a little disturbing. (But, kinda cute and thoughtful since it's including her in his work and interests.) I mentioned that it was kind of unsettling to Travis and then he tells me that they also had stuffed toys representing Syphilus (a spiral thingy), Giardia (a little buggy octopus thing since that disease is actually a parasite), and even Ebola, (looks like a worm)! (You really should check out the web site and see for yourself, it's hysterical, disquieting, and more than a little unbelievable... www.giantmicrobes.com. I mean, am I the only one who finds a sort of sick humor in the fact that some of these, like Ebola, are horrible diseases that people would probably literally cut off an arm or leg just to avoid getting in their lifetime can now be purchased in a plush version and given as a gift!) Well, just goes to show you what life can be like living with a science nerd. He'll bring your daughter home a stuffed animal virus microbe thing as a gift. Bree actually loves it though since Travis makes it kiss her all the time. She requests to keep it in bed with her at night. (Just imagine, somewhere in the world there might be a kid getting tucked in with and snuggling up to a fuzzy verson of Polio! Yes, they really sell that one too!) At least he had the good taste not to buy her Gonorrhea or Flesh Eating Disease, which were also options!

Kadyn

Seeing as how Brianna didn't get to play with Kadyn for two weeks while we were away one of the first things we had to do was have a playdate with her (of course!). The girls didn't even seem to notice they'd been apart and are right back to their "I love you but don't ever touch any of my toys..oh and also I'm claiming all your toys for myself too" relationship. Ah yes, the hugs, the holding hands, the pushing, the grabbing, the screaming "mine!", the tears, the making up, the trading...how I've missed you so! (No, really, I have missed it. Mostly Hannah and I find the girls relationship pretty funny.) We're glad to be back and hang out with you Hannah and Kadyn! :)

The girls having a snack together.

Kadyn thinking "Hey, is that MY cup she's using?!" :)

Sing a Song or Make One Up

Looks like Brianna has inherited her father's annoying, er, I mean charming habit of singing random little songs just made up on the spot about, well, nothing and or everything. (Among Trav's more famous nonsense versus are the "Stick in the Woods" song and also "Baby in the Belly,"a song he sang while I was pregnant. That one goes "Baby in the belly, baby in the belly, baby in the belly, whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo." He's not big on complicated lyrics.) Anyways, today we needed to take some books back to the library. Bree insisted that she needed to take along her little plastic pair of "scissors," the ones that came with her Play-doh pet grooming set. So, we loaded her into the car holding her tiny pair of red scissors. As we were driving along she suddenly just starts singing "Za, za, za, zaaa, za, za...scissors song..Za, za, za, zaaa, za, za, scissors song." And she sang it over and over just like that all the way to the library. On the one hand I am quite proud that she's creative enough to be making up her own songs. But, on the other hand I can't help but thinking, "Oh God, not another one?!" I see years of nonsensical and made up songs in front of me...

LIfe With A Vacuum

Bogart, our cat, is terrified of the vacuum. Unfortunately for him with a crumb-dropping and generally messy toddler I vacuum almost every day. The other day I turned on the vacuum and, as usual, sent Bogart into a panic. He raced from the living room to underneath the table in the dining room and hid by jumping up onto the seat of one of the chairs. Well, Bree spotted him there and ran over to him saying "It's okay, it's okay Boe-git (Bogart). It's just noisy!"

I vacuumed again today and this time the cat hid and Bree just stood there. Then when I turned the power off she said to me "All done vacuum. Noisy, noisy Mom, it's enough, nuff noisy Mommy." (Of course, this is the same child who will screech at the top of her lungs and laugh afterwords. I guess it only counts as "noise" when I'm the one making it.)

Our Trip to Idaho

Well, we're back from our two week vacation to Idaho. As always we want to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy lives to make us feel welcomed, loved, and special. We had a great time visiting with all the family and friends. Although I continued to blog in Idaho, I didn't post any pix, partly because the computer at my parents' place was in the same room as Bree's crib (no nap time or bed time uploading) and partly because I didn't have my own familiar photo editing software to use. So, here's a selection of pix from our trip. Some of them should probably go with previous posts but I'm too lazy to sort through and change the posting times so you'll have to connect the dots yourself. There were so many cute photos I had a hard time deciding so there are a lot of pix here. (And this is only a fraction of them...Travis will be posting all of them on the Kodak Gallery soon.) So, hold onto your monitors, here we go!

Water Baby

This was a pretty typical scene for our Idaho trip. Bree spent the majority of quite a few of our days playing in her pool while her crowd of admirers watched the action at the poolside.

Of course, pool time is more fun with Uncle Mike and Auntie Em to horseplay around with.

Ginger loves the water! Bree had a great time dumping cupful after cupful of pool water over the side and watching Ginger snap at it...until Ginger was soaked and shivering and we made them stop.

Sometimes Tucker would swim with Bree, which she loved! Good thing he's in the front of the picture here though since Brianna is completely nude back there. She actually spent most of her time in the pool skinny dipping.

Here's Ginger and Brianna having a drink from the hose.

When she wasn't spraying down the dogs, Bree was getting her Grammy Dee-Dee sopping wet or making her try the concoctions she'd "cooked" from the pool water.

Taste-testing the "soup."

Here's Bree, with cousing Julia, filling up the pool with the sprayer. Since it was so hot while we were there Bree loved all activities involving water but she especially liked using the sprayer because of the sense of power it gave her.

Zoo Boise

Grammy Dee-Dee took Brianna, Great Grandma Barbara and I to the zoo while we were there. We all had fun..Bree especially liked the monkeys and the butterfly garden.

One of Bree's favorite parts of the zoo was getting to "ride" this baby tiger.

Ah yes, the wonder of childhood. Check out this priceless look of "wow" as Bree finds a butterfly in the butterfly garden.

This is Brianna and me sitting in a huge "nest" in the children's section.

Quality Time With the Fam

Amongst all our other running around we did manage to spend a lot of good quality time with all our family in Idaho as well.

Brianna grinning at her Great Grandpa Jerry as they enjoy an ice-cream cone together.

These are the "high heel" dress-up shoes that Brianna got from Grammy Dee-Dee. Bree insisted on wearing them all the time for several days in a row.

Of course, Bree managed to work in a game of chess as well...I think she won too.

A couple of my rocker cousins (James and Dan) playing guitar for Bree. She was so fascinated by them and would listen to them play for long stretches at a time.

Here's me (on the right) with my two baby sisters, Melissa and Emily.

Great Grandma Barbara with Bree as she pretends to hose down everyone else in the room. (That little black line is actually a tiny rubber tube from a toy fire truck.) For a while Brianna was calling her great grandma "different Grammy" but by the time we left for home she was calling her "Grape (great) Grammy." :)

Here's Bree enjoying a tomato that Poppa had just picked for her. She ate a lot of fresh fruit and veggies right off the plant or tree there. Seems like everyone had a garden of some sort.

Hanging with Poppa Roger on one of many expeditions out to see the pond, the dogs, or the horses out back.

Feeding the horses with Poppa Roger.

Brianna waving from the driver's side window of her "teeny house," (my grandparents little motor home.) Bree was actually quite enthralled with the novelty of it and insisted on playing in there quite a bit.

Looking adorable by the fish pond.