Breeisms

As a baby, Brianna never would take a pacifier, just didn't like them. Noah, on the other hand, is very fond of his, which is nice in lots of ways. But, one of the drawbacks is that we can never find one when we need one. We own a dozen of them but they keep disappearing. This is partly because Bree has been taking them right out of Noah's mouth and hiding them in odd places that us parents would never think to look. I've watched her doing this behavior and when I catch her I just say, "Bree, put Noah's binky back please!" And I just chalked it up to a sort of passive aggressive sibling jealousy thing. Finally though, the other day I got really fed up with this and finally asked her, "Why are you doing that?! Why do you take his binky?" And to my surprise I got the most unexpected answer. Turns out, it wasn't what I thought at all. Her answer? "Because Mom, I like his sounds. I like to hear him."

We went out to eat the other day and were all sitting at our table. While Travis and I perused our menus, Bree happily colored away in the kids menu. When the waitress came up to ask us if we wanted to start with something to drink, before she could even get a word out Brianna says, "I want macaroni and cheese and lemonade. Mom, what do you want?" After the mac and cheese arrived Bree looked around for a moment and said, "Hey, where's my fork?" "Right there beside you, wrapped up in that napkin," I told her. "Oh!" she said. Then she leaned over to her daddy and whispered conspiratorially, "Mom's kind of a snerd isn't she?" It made Trav practically roll on the floor, although I'm not sure how Bree not being able to find her fork makes ME a snerd. As if that weren't riot enough, a few minutes later Travis couldn't find his silverware (they hadn't given us enough) and Bree chimed in again, "Now who's a snerd?"

Bree very much wants to be a "big girl." And being a big sister, and almost 4 year old isn't enough for her either. She wants to do adult things that she thinks are neat and can't really do right now. She'll say, "When I'm a big girl I'll eat hot peppers, and drink coffee and drive a car!" The latest addition to this list is getting married. Some time back she noticed my wedding ring and was asking me all about it. "Daddy gave it to me," I told her, "Because he likes me." Well, ever since then getting married and getting her own ring have been on her mind a lot. She pointed out our wedding picture in our bedroom to her daddy recently. "Daddy, that was when you married Mommy, remember that?" "Yes." he said. Then she'll heave a big sigh, "I wish I could get married. I wish I had a ring!" What's super cute is how she's also doing the classic, "When I grow up and marry Daddy" phase. (Which, they say, is supposed to be a sign of a good daddy.) The kid just can't wait to grow up and do all these big things already, and meanwhile I already think she's growing up way too fast!

I think all kids go through that phase where they don't really want their parents to be affectionate with each other but instead would prefer that both parents focus all their attention soley on the child. Brianna is now in this stage, and every time Travis and I attempt to have a conversation she's immediately butting in, talking over us, and even saying outright, "Hey! Don't talk to Mommy, talk to me!" And, the other evening Travis happened to be walking past me and patted my rear end on the way by... which Bree happened to catch sight of and yelled out, "Hey! Don't smack Mommy's butt!" Although, not sure if that had so much to do with the previous reason mentioned so much as I think maybe she thought I was getting in trouble?? :)

For a long time now, Bree has liked to pretend to be a cat named Mrowser or Apple Cinnamon Cat. But she now officially has a new favorite alter-ego.....Twinkle the Dog! Yep, and just like all the other pretend personalities she takes on, you have to actually address her as Twinkle, or else she ignores you or corrects you. "Brianna," you say. "You mean Twinkle?" she says immediatley. Sometimes I indulge this but I do have to admit, sometimes I find it really difficult to keep it up all day. For example, I just don't feel that excited to be out and about walking around a store and having to call my kid Twinkle in front of other people. Sometimes I say, "No, I'm not calling you that. Your name is Bree and that is the name I named you!" "That's not the name I named me!" she'll shoot back. Between the addition of Twinkle, not to mention Apple Cinnamon, Apple Cinnamon Cat, Mrowser, Mom, Zoo Keeper, and so on, it's getting very hard to keep all the multiple alter personalities straight around here.

And finally, for your amusement, I leave you with a few more words lost in translation around here...

comftee = comfy
weskawant = restaurant
lipshiner = lip gloss
hooker = anything that's a hook to hang stuff up on IE: a coat rack hook. (I actually got a new entry way shelf/coat hanger thing for Christmas and when we had guests over Bree said, "Did you see our new hooker?" Yep, true story.)