Tiny Texan

Brianna was born in Dallas, TX. But, as the saying goes I guess you can take the girl out of Texas but you can't take the Texas out of the girl. Or, something like that...Anyways, over the long holiday weekend Travis made a brisket. (We picked up a taste for that, and for barbecue quisine in general during the years we lived in Dallas.) Travis and I enjoyed it on Memorial Day, but Bree was feeling pretty sick that day and wouldn't eat any. Tonight for a quick dinner, we pulled out the leftovers. Brianna was feeling well enough to have a better appetite and had a few bites. We had to encourage her a little bit though. Her daddy was saying "Here, try this brisket, it's good, you'll like it!" After she tried it though, she must have decided she likes it because she started eating it as fast as her daddy could put in on her plate. She was saying "More bris-it, More bris-it, please!" That's our little Texan baby!

Side Salad

A good salad is one of my favorite foods. So no surprise, I made myself one today for lunch. For some reason, Brianna took an interest in trying it, something she's never been interested in before. I expected her to take one bite and declare it "gross," as she has in the past. But, she was actually crunching down on lettuce leaves for some time. I thought, hmmm, weird, and we went on with our day. I didn't really think any more about it until Bree decided she was in the mood for a snack this afternoon and was asking for "sat," which is of course, salad. Once again, she happily chowed down on a light salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, drizzled with Italian dressing. I've never even heard of a kid wanting to eat salad for a snack! It must not have filled her up very much though because it was only about an hour later that she stated "Mom, food time...food time Mom!" Then she managed to climb up into her booster seat, (which was sitting in a dining chair), buckle herself into it and even fasten her tray on all by herself. Well, I went ahead and fed her a little something even though dinner wasn't going to be ready for about a half hour.

Nice Shirt

Well, unfortunately, Bree was running a fever and feeling sick again today so not a lot of nice moments, mostly a lot of resting and/or screaming tantrums. But there was one funny little incident this morning...

As I mentioned before, on Mother's Day this year our whole family participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. And, each registered participant received a T-shirt as a kind of thank you. Although, I can't say that Travis was more than ecstatic to be the new owner of a mostly pink shirt featuring a pink woman walking across it. This morning though, as I was going through my usual half-awake stumbling routine I noticed that he was wearing it as a pajama top. Not one to let a good teasing moment go I smirked at him and said, "Nice shirt!" That's when Brianna, little miss big ears, piped in from the other room, (where we thought she was watching her morning cartoons), and said "Thank you!" Although to be fair, her pajama top was very nice too.

A Weekend Sickie

Brianna hasn't been feeling good today, running a little fever. That, combined with the fact that it was 95 degrees outside today meant we spent a lazy day inside. To keep cool Brianna spent most of the day running around in only her diaper and eating a lot of popsicles. Since she was feeling extra lethargic and achy when her fever was high, she also watched a lot of TV. Bree felt particulary fond of "Tale-Bob" (Veggie Tales)today and requested it frequently. In one episode about bullies, a small asparagus was being threatened by a big squash. He jumps into the scene growling and being mean. Although she's seen this episode before, Bree seemed to be feeling especially vulnerable today and when that particular part came on she ran over to me scared and screaming "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," and vaulted herself into my arms. To comfort her, Daddy settled in to watch the rest with her, laying down beside her on the couch. It only took a few minutes and both of them were completely passed out together. So, instead of in her crib, today Brianna took her nap wearing only her diaper, snuggled up to her daddy.

Prayer P.S.'s

Part of our bedtime routine has been to say a quick prayer before tucking Brianna in. This is so much a part of her routine now that sometimes she insists we say a prayer before naps too. She has caught on to the concept pretty thoroughly and has even started adding in her own thoughts to the prayer. We usually start by saying "Thank you for today," at which point Bree quite often has something to add. Today before naptime she piped in with "Thank you..puppy, play park." Which means "Thank you for when I got to pet the puppy at the park." (We went to the park this morning.) After we say our thanks then we ask for blessings for our friends and family. We sometimes try to get away with saying "Bless our friends and our family." But then Brianna will make sure to list whoever or whatever she is particularly thinking about that day including, "Bless Grammy, Bless Poppa, Bless Bee-ranna, Bless Stacy's house, Bless toes...." and so on. :)

Drive-Thru Diva

Although I'd like to believe otherwise, apparently we eat "drive-through" food quite frequently. At least, often enough that Brianna has figured out what kind of food they serve at these places and how to order. As we pulled up to the Arby's drive through lane today, while her daddy was leaning out the window to place our order, Bree starts ordering from the backseat, "hot sammich, fries, um hot sammich."

The Toddler of Babble

Never one to stop talking, here are a few of Brianna's new conversational nuggets...

Bree has heard me call for Travis when I need help in situations like, being in the middle of a diaper change and realizing I don't have wipes on hand. Even though our apartment is pretty small, he manages to "not hear" me a lot. So, I usually end up yelling "Trav!" Well, the other day Brianna was trying to get her Daddy's attention. She was standing right in front of him saying "Daddy, Dad, Dad..." But he was staring at his computer and didn't respond so finally she yelled "TRAV!"

Whether it's her food or her bath water Brianna doesn't want things to be "too hot," understandably. While this is very good that she can recognize when things are too hot she's taken it to a level where she's been insisting things are too hot even when they are practically ice cold. When this happens I've been telling her, "No, it's not too hot it's just nice and warm." So,the last time we ran her a bath I set her down in the water and she said "too hot," (which it wasn't), then she immediately corrected herself and said, "No, nice and warm."

Lately it seems like either Travis or myself are needing to run a lot of errands. Whenever we can, one of stays home with Bree and the other goes off by themselves since we can go much faster without a dawdling toddler along. Well, usually Bree feels a little upset to see one of us leaving and we tell her not to be worried, we'll be back soon. This morning the tables were turned on me when Travis decided he wanted to run down to the convenience store and buy us some "hot sammiches" for breakfast. Brianna decided she was going to go along with Daddy so he put her shoes on and they were ready to go. Just before they got out the door, Brianna ran back over to where I was sitting on the couch and told me "Mommy, back soon."

Park Picnic

This afternoon Travis came home a little early from work and took Bree and me out for a picnic in the park. While we were driving there, Brianna suddenly says from the backseat "too bad." (I don't even know why she was saying it or where she picked that up since I don't really remember telling her "too bad" anytime.) Once we got to the park we ate our little dinner and then played in the grass awhile. Brianna found some dandelions that had gone to seed and was blowing on them. (A big improvement over this time last year when she was puckering up and inhaling or licking them.) After she'd blown all the seeds off of one dandelion, she would say "nuther fluffy" and go pick a new one. This went on for a little while until her daddy lifted her up and was spinning her through the air. He'd set her down and they'd both be staggering around a few minutes until Bree would say "try again!" Then they would be off and spinning again. Eventually they tired of spinning (luckily before anyone threw up!) and Travis was laying in the grass, snapping some up-close pictures of a dandelion...that is until Brianna marched up and picked it, blew the seeds in his face and then proceeded to climb all over him like he was her personal jungle gym, all the time saying "climb Daddy," and grinning her big cheese grin. (Yep, I'm pretty sure that was a run-on sentence but as an artiste I refuse to change it.) By that time Travis was out of film and we headed home since it was getting close to bedtime for Bree. We went through our bedtime routine: bath, PJ's, reading, prayers, kissing 29 stuffed animals,and then as I was headed out the door I heard a small voice, "Mommy, come to bed!" I gave her another kiss and told her that Mommy has her own bed. She seemed to accept that explanation and was quickly off to dreamland. It was one of those days when I close her bedroom door with a smile on my face, looking forward to tomorrow. (All right, stop rolling your eyes, it's a little sappy I know but allow me a sentimental Mommy moment!)

Cat Scratch Fever

By and large, Brianna and Bogart, our cat, have come to a mutual agreement not to aggravate each other. Most the time she no longer does crazy things to him like, I dunno, bounce on him or "cat ski" by holding onto his tail with a death grip while he runs away. In fact, these days she's more his protector, always trying to make sure he's well fed, (although he's already a super-fat cat). If she sees he has an empty food bowl she'll point it out and then scoop more in for him, even refraining from making cat soup (by mixing his food and water) as she used to. But, today the inevitable happened and she backslid. This morning, in a moment of weakness, she could be observed lying on the floor, watching TV and using Bogart as a pillow. Then, when one of her cartoon's themes was jumping she leaped up, turned around, grabbed both the cat's front paws and helped him "jump" to the music. He didn't really seem to enjoy it, (I think he was worried about maintaining his fatty cat figure). But, as always, he weathered it with much patience and when the "jumping" was over he slinked away to hide under the bed with what was left of his dignity.

A Few Good Friends

We've spent a couple days this week hanging out with our friends. Brianna has two little friends in particular she loves to spend time with, Nyan and Kadyn. Yesterday we went with Kadyn and Hannah, (Kadyn's mommy), to the park. The girls had a blast sliding and swinging together and so forth. And, as usual Kadyn wanted to give Brianna lots of hugs. At one point Kadyn was chasing Bree around trying to hug her. This went on for a few minutes, with Bree always managing to be a few steps in front of Kadyn (Bree's not really the touchy-feely type) until finally Bree ran by and snatched the baggie of Kix out of my hand and passed it over to Hannah. This was actually a brilliant tactical manuever since Kadyn saw her mom had a snack in her hands and immediately stopped to chow down. :)

Then today we hung out for a while with Nyan, who is 2 and 1/2, and being a boy, really into cars. When I told Bree we were going over to visit Nyan she immediately started saying "cars, cars" and insisted on bringing one of her own little cars to show him. They had fun playing cars together. When we got home Brianna was still talking about him and she said "Nyan, kiss!" I'm not quite sure if she actually kissed him or was saying she wanted to, either way, oy!

Climbing the rope ladder at the park. (What a monkey!)

Bree playing "peek-a-boo" with Hannah, (Kadyn's Mommy).

Kadyn and Brianna sitting together at the park.

Peek-A-Nude

It's become our habit in the mornings that Brianna splashes around in the bathtub while I stand there next to her and do my hair and makeup. Today she ended up being "all done" before I had finished getting ready. So, she was racing around the bedroom in the nude while I continued curling my hair. After a while she came back over to me and started playing one of her new favorite games, "Who is it?" This is a game where she opens and closes the door. She'll close the door to all but a small crack then knock on it. This is my cue to say "Who is it?" in a sing-songy type voice. Giggling in anticipation she'll throw the door open, smiling like a maniac. Then I say "Oh, it's you!" or "Well, hi there!" or "Peek-a-Boo!" Whereupon she slams the door shut and we start the cycle again. (She's really big into repetition these days, I can't tell you how many times I've watched the same Blues Clues video!) This morning though, it was a new twist for Bree to play the "Who is it?" game naked. (Let's clarify, she was in the buff, I wasn't!) So, I played along and changed my responses to "Oh, it's a nudy!" and so on. Meanwhile, I finished getting ready for the day and Bree got to have some quality time in just her skin, something she loves to do.

Life is Not a Bowl of Cherries

Let's face it, life is not a bowl of cherries. But, I do think that in the fruit bowl of life there's probably at least one cherry somewhere in there if you only look hard emough. Or, to put it another way, if, as Forrest Gump said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get," then I prefer to keep tasting them until I find the one with the cherry center. Point being that where Brianna is concerned especially, I like to try to find that one gem of a moment in the bedrock of our day and focus on that. (Ok, it's possible that I've gone too far with the metaphors at this point...) Seriously though, I do try to approach parenthood with a certain sense of humor, otherwise, being a stay-at-home mom, I'd go nuts. However, with the aptly named "Terrible Two's" rapidly approaching I sometimes find it hard to keep that in mind with my patience tried by ever increasing tantrums. Although, even in her more difficult times, by the end of the day I can usually find something to smile about. (The fact that I usually write these right before I go to bed, when I'm more than a little tired and getting goofy probably has something to do with that.)

Being a first-time mom though, I've found myself frequently reading the "Parenting for Idiots" type books. And, I've been looking into them even more often with the increase in tantrums lately. According to all the experts the best response to a tantrum is to simply ignore it. Then, once your tiny tot realizes that no one is paying attention to their display and that it's not moving anyone to do what they want, they'll get tired of it and stop. If this is the way it's supposed to work then someone needs to explain that to Bree. Being the drama queen that she is even when everyone has left the room she continues on, sure that someone, if only God himself, is watching and feeling sorry about the horrible injustices inflicted upon her. (Like not getting to watch TV all day or not getting to scribble in pen wherever she wishes!) Pretty much at this point, you name it and she's mad about it, brushing her teeth, combing her hair, etc. Since the ignoring thing hasn't really been working out too well one of our strategies has been trying to take turns. When she gets upset that we need to brush our teeth sometimes we can say, "Oh, come on, let's do it. First it will be Dad's turn and then Brianna's turn." Of course, this has led her to be saying "Banna's turn," an awful lot when she wants something.

One of her biggest tantrum triggers this week has been our unreasonable insistence that she put clothes on after taking a bath. She loves to takes baths and has a great time splashing and playing with her bath toys. When she feels she's ready to get out she says "all done...nudy" then delights in running around in the buff. This is all fine and dandy until we tell her she needs to put her diaper and clothes back on. Then she is immediately sobbing and running until we have to chase her down and try to get her clothes on while she struggles. (Which is like trying to put a cat into a bathtub full of water.) We've tried compromising and letting her be a nudy for a while before mentioning clothes at all. We even tried telling her she could put her clothes on by herself since she values her independence so much but, alas, no success. At this point we are supposed to be receiving several brochures on nudist colonies in the mail!

Here We Go Again

Just another day around here. Actually pretty non-descipt other than Brianna seemed to be feeling just a smidge more contrary than usual. (By smidge, of course, I mean a lot.) It started off first thing this morning...she woke up and was yelling "Mom, out!" So, I dragged myself out of bed, helped her out of her crib, paused to feed the cat who was also yelling at me, and started the coffee. By that time Bree had managed to turn on her cartoons and was staring at them in a TV coma. Her dad, who was still laying in bed, (as usual!), called her from the other room, hoping she would run in and spend a few minutes "waking him up" as he calls it. This means she jumps all around in the bed, yanks at his covers, tells him he's "all done" and then runs off. It's his favorite way to wake up. (Although, if I tried it I'd get my head bitten off, ungrateful is what he is really! The way he sleeps too, it's either have Brianna jump around on him or invest in a very large foghorn that can just blast him straight out of bed and into the shower by pure decibal vibrations. Anyways, I digress.) Well, when he called her the first time she said "No." Then the second time she heard him calling she yelled "TV!" as an explanation why she wouldn't come. Finally, after he called several more times she stalked over to the room, stood in the open doorway and said "Yes?" in an exasperated tone. (That I'm quite sure she didn't get from me.) Well, that sort of set the tone for the rest of the day. She and I spent quite a lot of time having differences of opinion on how we should spend the day, mainly a power struggle over how much TV to watch, with her voting for all the time, all day. Finally after much "discussion" and tears I convinced her I wasn't going to be turning on the TV for now and we got on with our day. We went into her room and started playing and she just suddenly said, "Here we go again." Couldn't have said it better myself!

Our Sunday Morning

We had a pretty nice Sunday morning. We got up early and went off to church, Brianna wore a cute little dress and Travis was in his new dress shirt and slacks. (And before I hear from those of you who might mention to me that I posted pictures of Pancake the turtle but not of Brianna Rose I will say yes, we'll take pictures and try to post them on the Kodak Gallery soon!) Well, as her daddy was carrying her to the car on our way to church, Bree poked at his shirt and told him "Nice shirt." :) Then after church we decided to take ourselves out to lunch at Panera Bread. Brianna has recently decided that she prefers to sit in big chairs and shuns the high chairs. So, as we were waiting for our food she was saying "hop, hop" and bouncing up and down on the cushion of our booth. Since she was seated on the inside next to Daddy, and was being pretty quiet, we decided, oh well, it keeps her happy and she's not screaming. But, not to stop there, it wasn't two minutes later that she discovered the advertisement they had placed on the table. You know the ones where they have them folded into a square that stands on the table? She put that on top of her head like a hat, (it fit perfectly around her head), and continued hopping quietly saying "hop, hop, hop." After that, I noticed more than one pair of eyes watching her but since they were all accompanied by indulgent and knowing smiles, I didn't mind and neither did Bree.

Stop It!

Anyone who knows us, knows that Travis and I have pretty different senses of humor. In his opinion, the more you repeat something, the funnier it gets, where as my philosophy is the more you repeat it, the less funny and more annoying it gets. We have been interested to see which way Brianna might lean but I think we found out today. Here's what happened...

Since Bree is understanding what we're saying more and more, if she hears us mention a kind of food she likes or a destination she likes, she'll immediately insist on eating the food or leaving for the destination. So, we have started using that old parenting trick, spelling things out to each other. Well, Trav was talking to me today about going out to do a certain activity and spelled it out. Then he thought it would be funny to spell everything he said and was talking completely i-n s-t-r-i-n-g-s o-f l-e-t-t-e-r-s. This continued for a little while until I couldn't stand it anymore and I said "Would you please knock it off?" Quick as a lightning flash and before he could say anything Brianna turned around to face him and said "Stop it! Stop it Daddy!" and bonked him on the head with the book that was in her hand. We couldn't help it, it was so unexpected, we laughed, even Trav..... Then we had to have a serious talk about not hitting Daddy.

Pancake Sighting

The apartment pond is not that big, but it's big enough and murky enough, that when we released Pancake into it I wasn't sure if we'd actually see him again. Truthfully, Bree was really mad at me for letting him go, she wanted to keep him. At the time I kept saying "Look, we're gonna get to see Pancake swim! Isn't that neat?" But she was just screaming "Tuhtle, tuhtle, no swim!" and crying. It was kind of sad. But, we were happy to see him out and about and doing well today. We actually spotted him from off our balcony on the second floor. He was swimming around and looked good. Not only that but we noticed he had a friend, a much larger and older turtle whom I have creatively dubbed "Not-Pancake." While Pancake swam around Not-Pancake was resting in the sun on the rocks. We wish them both well...

Pancake on a rock.