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?!" :)