Imitation is the Sincerest Flattery

Brianna is a talker (surprise!). Talk, talk, talk, talk all day, it never stops. (It's actually kind of mentally exhausting to keep up with her.) And, it's not just me who thinks she's a big talker. Strangers in the grocery store or at the park after only having hung out with us for 5 whole minutes will say, "Now, how old is she? My she's a talker isn't she? Does it ever stop?" Or, something along those lines. And, my mom called recently one day while Bree was in the middle of one of her rather long-winded moments and I was trying to carry on a conversation with them both (not an easy task) when Mom finally said, "You know, I know it's only one kid but it sounds like a whole daycare you've got there."

So, all that to say what those of you who have ever met her already know, Bree is a very chatty little girl. She'll tell you a pretend story she made up or tell you all about something that happened that day, or in absence of anyone else to talk to, even carry on both sides of a conversation with one of her stuffed animals. Her new thing though is to do impressions of people. It totally caught me off guard and made me laugh the other day when out of nowhere she wakes up from her nap and after a few minutes looked over at me and said, "Mom, do you know what Daddy said? He said," (then she lowered her voice), "I'll read you one book and then you have to go to bed." Even though it seemed like a serious conversation, I couldn't help it, I started smirking. Then I started laughing when she followed that up with a high pitched voice (higher than normal) and told me, "then I said, 'Okay Dad'."

I guess it's kind of helpful now...whenever she's quoting something her daddy told her it's pretty unmistakable, she uses her "deep" man voice. This was especially funny though the other day. Travis has started this new thing with Bree. As I'm sure I've mentioned we're going through a phase where it's pretty hard to get her to mind you without threatening her within an inch of her life. This was the case the other day when her Daddy was trying to get her to put on her pajamas. Naturally instead of doing that she was running all over her room, pulling out new toys and generally trying to stall the PJ thing. Much to his credit, instead of losing his cool, raising his voice, or just scooping her up and making her do it (an approach that NEVER goes over well) Trav instead tried a new tactic. He lowered his voice further than normal and said all growly and teasy, "Brianna, you are gonna make me mad! You don't wanna see me mad...Don't make me turn my hat around," and he fingered his baseball cap. "If I have to turn my hat around you'll be sorry," Then he grabbed the brim and started to inch his hat backwards. This made Bree laugh since he was doing it in a very over-acty way... but at the same time it worked and she ran over to him and laid down, ready for PJ's. This worked so well in fact that it's an ongoing thing at our place. If we're having a hard time getting Bree to obey all Trav has to do is say, "Don't make me turn my hat around!"

Naturally Brianna has managed to turn this one around on us already though. Recently when Daddy wasn't doing exactly what Bree wanted when she wanted it, he was distracted getting something done, she marched up to him and said in a deep voice, "Daddy, don't make me turn my hat around!" (Even though she wasn't wearing a hat.) And, what do you know? It worked on him too. He laughed and did what she wanted. Maybe I'll have to try this method out?