Going down the slide...wheee!

This is a good shot of the Hello Kitty earmuffs (which Bree refers to as "Miss Kitty" and actually talks to) and new pink coat Bree got this weekend courtesy of Grandma Deb (and of Target). Brianna is growing so fast these days and the cold has just sneaked up on us before we realized she's too big for her old winter coat. Thanks Grammy Deb!

Yep, Travis and I were there too! I had to include this shot just to prove that we were actually there and not just the ghosts behind the camera. :)

After we'd played on the playground equipment for awhile we decided to walk aways on the path around the lake. That's me incognito over there in the tan hat and grey coat. Okay, actually I'm just a baby and wanted to wear a hat..it was cold!

Here's Brianna marching along and feeling pretty happy about it. She's a pretty good little marcher!

We checked out the dock while we were at it...

Bree tried to see some fish in the lake, but it was too cold, no fish to be seen. I particularly like the lean she's doing here.

Here's Grammy Deb and Brianna on the dock, taking a quick break from our walk.

Then we had to take a time-out to snuggle Grammy.

Aaaaw...she even gets a smooch, a pretty rare commodity for Bree to give out.

Our park play ended with some vigorous jumping into a large pile of leaves. Brianna was jumping off that curb in the background over and over and laughing as she landed in the pile of leaves. It's always such a heart-warming sight to see her take such joy and have such abounding energy for life.

Get ready, get set.....

JUMP!

And finally, a soft landing into the cushy leaves. Or, TA-DA! as Bree would say. Man, jumping into a big pile of dry, aromatic leaves is the best huh? (At least, doesn't she make it look like a blast? Look at the smile! Yup, toddlers will make you appreciate the simple things in life again...)

Bree made it look so fun, she even got Grammy Deb in on the act. Here they're being very talented and displaying their synchronized leaf jumping routine.

You, yeah you...did you catch all that?! :)

Another Grammy Deb Collection

Another fun day with Grammy Deb! Here's a few funny moments from today:

Scratching Like Clifford
This morning we were amazed to look over and see Brianna with her left foot, held straight up in the air, with the toes by her left ear. She wiggled her toes on her ear while we all stared at her in amazement. "What ARE you doing?" her daddy finally asked her. "My ear itches," she said nonchalantly. "I'm scratching it like Clifford!" (The Big Red Dog...yes TV again.)

Rosy Posie Puddin' and Pie (and Cake)
One of Grammy Deb's little nicknames for Brianna is..wait for it.."Rosy Posie Puddin' and Pie." (Which if you ask me is a bit silly since her "nickname" is WAY longer than her actual name! Don't tell Deb I said so though!) ;) It kind of came from the fact that Bree's middle name is Rose. So, Deb took off with that and ran, borrowing from the nursery rhyme "Georgie Porgie puddin' and pie. Kissed the girls and made them cry"...etc. Anyways, Deb was calling Bree by that name today and actually taught Brianna how to say it as well. Soon they were both chanting "Rosy Posie Puddin' and Pie" but more often than not Brianna would add on the end, "and cake!" (one of her favorite things, apparently, judging by how many times she brings it up).

Hot Lips
Bree loves lip gloss. She uses some of mine every morning when I put on my makeup. Tonight she noticed Grammy Deb touching up her pink lip gloss and just HAD to have some. So, her grammy obligingly let her borrow a little and then handed Brianna a pocket mirror to see the results. Well, Bree was so pleased with how she looked she was smiling at herself and even kissed the mirror! "You are one hot babe," Grammy Deb told her. "I'm not a hot babe!" Bree insisted. Then she thought about it for a minute and said, "I have hot lips!" Oh no....not yet with that! I'm so not ready!!

Never a dull moment in Deb's visit so far. Although, there might be some trouble on the horizon. Every time Brianna sees Deb leave the room and each time before she has to go to sleep Bree will look at her grammy, point her little finger sternly and say "Grammy Deb, don't go to Idaho right now!" Or she'll say, "Grammy Deb, don't go see Poppa Roger!" We've already had to start saying "Grammy's not leaving right now but she's going to have to leave in a few days." Geesh! Our little 2 year old is already so worried about when Grammy is leaving that she has a hard time sometimes enjoying the fun she's having right now. Poor baby...

Until then though more fun with Grammy. We do love our grammies pretty dearly around here! Well, and who doesn't love the comfort and unconditional, spoiling love of a grammy. (sniff) :)

Fortune Telling, Hearts, and a Strict Naptime

We spent a quiet afternoon with Grammy today...

Brianna woke up from her nap calling for Grammy Deb again. Once Grammy went in and got her up the first thing Bree spotted was the fortune cookies, still sitting on the table from the Thai food lunch we had eaten. She loves fortune cookies and tore into one with much enthusiasm. When she found the paper fortune inside I held my hand out and asked her if I could read it to her. I always "read" her fortunes for her by making up something nice about her like, "It says Brianna is such a nice girl." (My mom used to do this to me as well. In fact, all the way up to third grade, even after I could read for myself, I was still convinced that fortune cookies were so magical because Mom would read it to me every time and it would mention me by name!)Anyways, so I held out my hand and asked to read the fortune for Brianna (and the trick is passed on). But, to my surprise she told me no and quickly held up the paper and "read" it herself. She said "Grandma, you need something. 'Ranna." We all laughed at that. Even though it didn't make much sense, it was pretty funny for her to just make something up like that! Hmm...maybe she's onto me!

After finishing up her cookie Bree started asking for "herts." For the life of us, none of us adults could figure out what that was. "Hats?" we asked, "hot?" "No!" she said. She was getting quite frustrated. "Herts," she kept saying, "herts," she said again, patting her chest. "Oh... hearts?" Grammy Deb finally said. "Yes! Thank you!" Bree declared, (much to our amusement). Well, we'd made some progress. But still, we didn't know what "hearts" she was talking about. She kept pointing to the table but there were no hearts there. After a while she let it go. But, about a half an hour she was back on it again, wandering around and asking for "herts." Finally, she took her grammy's hand and said "Let's look in your suitcase." Then, it dawned on us! Grammy Deb had brought Bree some little hair barrets in a variety pack. And, sure enough some of them were shaped like little hearts, even though none of us had noticed it. So, after finally getting us to get the rest of her new hair clips out Bree was occupied for quite some time counting them, putting them all in a cup and dumping it back out again, etc.

When Brianna tired of her barretts she moved on to an even more fun game...bossing the adults around. It just so happened that Grammy Deb and I had been sitting on the little couch in Bree's room, watching her play. Suddenly Bree dragged one of her little chairs over to the light switch and turned off the overhead light. "Naptime," she declared, "Go to sleep!" Obediently, Deb and I pretended to be sleeping. A few seconds later Bree had switched the light back on saying, "Wake up!" After a few cycles of this routine Deb and I started resuming the conversation we'd been having before the whole pseudo naptime event. At one point when the lights went off I laid my head on the couch, but just kept talking. This was, apparently, against the rules. Bree flipped the light on immediately, looked at me sternly and said, "Go to sleep Mommy!" Not wanting Travis to miss out on this fun I said "Well, what about Daddy, doesn't he need a nap too?" Sure enough he did. Brianna ran off and came in dragging him by the hand and seated him on the couch with the rest the adults in the house. The lights on, lights off naptime game resumed. Sure enough, I got bored and started whispering... I got in trouble. "Mommy's talking!" Bree said, "Be quiet!" Then Travis decided to take advantage of having the tables turned and asked for a blankie, a stuffed animal, a nite light...he was a most difficult napper. After that Bree kind of lost steam on the issue.

Yep, just a quiet afternoon at home with Grammy. I think she was pretty entertained though.

Grammy Deb

Grammy Deb arrived in Minneapolis safe and sound late yesterday afternoon. Brianna was excited to see her... she spotted her grammy from about 20 feet away and ran into her arms! (It was so cute, like one of those tear-jerker movie scenes.) Then Bree started chattering away to her and never really stopped. She was telling Grammy about her house and her room and well, just about everything that popped into her little toddler head. At one point in their conversation Bree said, "Grammy Deb, come over to my house? See my room? See Bogart?" To which Grammy Deb said "Oh, I've missed Bogart!" Then Bree reached over her carseat, patted her grammy's leg and said, "It's okay Grammy, Bogart will be at my house. Don't worry!" (It was pretty funny, to see Brianna comforting her grammy like that.)

Once we got home Bree was pretty excited and raced around trying to show Grammy all her stuff at once (even though Deb's seen it all before, not that Brianna remembers though). In fact, Bree was so excited about Grammy being here that she didn't want to go to bed. We had to reassure her that her grammy would be here in the morning before she would even think about going to bed. "Grammy," she commanded, "don't leave in my house!" (Meaning of course both "stay in my house" and also "don't leave" both at once.) Grammy Deb had to promise Bree that she would still be in her house when she woke up. Finally, between the three of us adults we convinced Brianna to go to sleep.

Bree didn't forget what we'd said though. The first thing out of her lips this morning was "GRAMMY DEB, GRAMMY DEB??!! I'M AWAKE" So, Grammy went in to get her. Bree bounded into the living room. "See?" her daddy said, "Grammy Deb is still here this morning just like we promised." "Grammy Deb is here!" Bree said, "She came from Idaho...TA-DA!"

Yep, having a Grammy visit... just like magic! :)

Short but Sweet (a few songs to enjoy)

All right, you all are getting pretty spoiled lately! I mean with all these long, involved, detailed, posts. Not to mention the fact there's been 2 (or more) little anectotes per day for quite some time. Well, that's enough of that! It's time for a blog diet...gimme a break people! I mean, do you want me to type my little fingers to stubs over here?! (Okay, well actually the truth is I actually like doing this-surprise! It's just that my mother-in-law AKA Grammy Deb flew into town today and I have been kinda busy with our visitor and so forth.) So, tonight all you're getting is a quickie, but a goodie...

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Bree and I have gotten a couple CD's from friends with some new music on them. The more we listen to new songs, the more Brianna likes them and has started picking up on more and more of the lyrics. One of the songs she particularly likes lately is a song called "I'm Different" by Butterfly Boucher. Whenever that song comes on she starts singing along and I've actually caught her singing it to herself in quiet moments during the day. It's actually a really nice song that talks about how everyone is different and special and that's okay. In the chorus of the song the lyrics go "I'm different, different, different. Nobody is like me!" Bree has a different spin on it though. When she sings it she sings it like this, "I'm diffint, diffint, diffint! Nobody likes me!" It's kind of terrible of me but I find it hysterical every time! :)

If you want to take a listen to that song, here's the link:
I'm Different

And, while you're clicking take a listen to this song that's one of my favorites lately. Bree hasn't been as into this one since the humor is above her head. But, it makes me giggle like a third-grader every time... "Let's count them in Roman Numerals! There's i, ii, iii, iiii, iv, v, vi...." :)
Eighteen Wheels on a Big Rig

Popsicles Are Nummy

Tonight for dessert Brianna had a blue popsicle. She eats popsicles all the time but for some reason tonight it was a big "event."

She started off by running up to her daddy and saying "Dad, I want a pocshua (popsicle)!" When he didn't immediately respond she poked him in the cheek "Hey you! I want a pocshua!" He started chuckling instead of answering so she got right in his face and said real slow "I..want..a..pocshua!" "Well, try asking him nicely," I reminded her. So, she looked in his face and said "Nicely! I want a POCSHUA!" After finally getting her precious pocshua in her hand she was trying to run all over the apartment with it. Since this would only result in little sticky spots on the carpet that inevitably collect dust which I would then later have to crawl around on my hands and knees cleaning, I said no. Well, I didn't tell her all that of course I just told her that she could either eat her popsicle in the kitchen, or in her room at her little table. She chose to sit at her table in her room so she could listen to music. She looked so cute sitting there. I asked, "Are you having fun eating your popsicle?" and she answered "I mim (am)." (This is my new favorite Bree-ism "I mim"... so cute. It's also her standard answer for questions or statements she thinks are kind of obvious. It's her answer instead of sayng "Well duh!" For example: While she's dressed in her Buzz Lightyear costume if you ask "Bree, are you Buzz Lightyear right now?" She'll say "I mim!" Well, back to the popsicle...) Then Travis said "It looks good, can I have a taste?" In response to that Brianna generously wiped her popsicle along her fingers and wiped those same fingers across Trav's lips. "There you go!" she said. Then she wiggled her little eyebrows up and down at him (a habit she's picked up from him doing to her) and remarked, "Nummy huh?" :) After sharing her treat so nicely she jumped up and was dancing like a maniac in circles, singing every fourth word to a song she liked off her baby music CD. "I'm dancing with my pocshua!" "That's nice dancing," we said, "Now sit down before you drip on the carpet." Finally, after all that she was finished with her popsicle. "Hey, look at my tongue," she said, sticking it out, "Is it blue?" (Which I was impressed she would know with no mirror to look into.)

To wrap the whole experience up we wiped Bree (and the area she'd been in) down. Even though she'd sat at her little table pretty good she'd still managed to get herself and the little Sesame Street mat I've got under her little table, quite drippy. I handed her a wipe and said, "Here, wipe your hands and face." Then I started wiping down the mat. Bree wiped her hands and face quickly and then said, "Here Mom, I'll help you." Then she leaned over to wipe the mat off and was commenting on the parts of the picture she was wiping, "Wipe big bird, wipe a hippo, wipe pizza, wipe airplane, wipe my toes...." Oops, guess she got side-tracked on what she was wiping!

Leave it to a toddler to make dessert a whole other experience. I guess that's why they're fun. We would have just eaten it and moved on, without all the amusement over a normally very common-place experience.

Buzz Lightyear Does Some Houswork (Sort of)

So I guess I'll just ruin the surprise, (well actually quite a few people know already so...) Brianna has decided to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween! Okay technically I think I decided for her but I'm pretty sure that's what she wants. She's always racing, um I mean, flying around the house with her arms out in front of her going "I'm a guhl (girl) Buzz Lightyear!" Since that movie came out a few years ago now I wasn't sure if I could easily find a Buzz Lightyear costume. But it was actually easy. (God bless you Target!) I just strolled into the store yesterday and there they were...toddler sized Buzz costumes. When we came down the costume aisle Bree first saw the Woody the cowboy costume. "I want Woody!" she said. "Okay," you can be Woody if you want but did you see these Buzz Lightyear ones?" "Ooh...I want Buzz Lightyear!" she declared. And that was that. We got it home and of course Brianna insisted on trying it on immediately. (It's a little big since she's a dinky kid. I'm gonna have to make a few alterations. Being the huge nerd I am, I also want to make her some wrist guards out of toilet paper rolls, and some cardboard wings, just like Buzz. Except, I'm thinking I might cut a few holes in the "helmet" part so she can have her piggy tails poking through!) It's a pretty funny sight to see a tiny Buzz walking around your house, she wore it the rest of the day. Somehow we convinced her at bedtime she needed to get some pajamas on and not sleep in her costume, (she calls it her Buzz Lightyear shirt) and I tucked it away, hoping to leave it hidden until Halloween. I should have known better! First thing this morning, before we'd gotten her out of bed she's yelling from her crib, "I WANNA WEAR MY BUZZ LIGHTYEAR SHIRT!" And she's been wearing it since we woke up this morning...

Meanwhile since we're having a visitor arrive tomorrow (Grammy Deb) I've been trying to clean up my pig sty of a house. I started with the bathrooms since I don't want people to be afraid to use them or anything. So, in I went armed with my spray and a scrubby sponge. Bree, I mean, Buzz followed along behind me and wanted to help. Buzz seemed particularly interested in using the cleaning spray. Well, since Buzz is too little to handle those kinds of chemicals I said no and instead handed her the little orange squirt bottle we use to spray the cat when he's naughty. Buzz thought that was great and was soon "helping" me clean by spraying jets of water all over the bathroom. I had to convince Buzz not to spray the mirrored doors after I just Windexed them though. After a while, Buzz lost interest and moved onto more important matters, like standing on one of the tiny chairs in her room and making red monkeys hold hands to form a long chain. All around, a very productive morning for both of us!

(By the way...if anyone remotely connected to Pixar should happen to read this post, I'm pretty sure you owe me some money! I just mentioned one of the main characters from one of your movies a good...oh 19 or so times if you count the three times I typed Woody as well. Oop! Make that 20 times...I mean I should get paid for that kind of thing! You just can't buy that kind of free advertising...oh wait...oh nevermind then.)

A Gentle Baby

Recently we went to a playdate over at our friends Becca and Grace's place. There were quite a few moms and babies there but Bree was the oldest and I kept reminding her to be nice and be gentle with the younger kids. Well, one of the little babies names was Sophia. At one point Sophia was enjoying a jumpy toy and jumping up and down vigorously. Bree thought that looked fun so for awhile she jumped up and down in front of the toy with Sophia. Then she scooted in and was "helping" the baby jump by putting her hands on the jumper and pulling it up and pushing it down. "Careful. Be gentle baby, gentle," I told Bree. "Okay. Gentle, gentle," she said. I thought she had understood me until about 10 minutes later when Brianna walked up to Sophia's mom, pointed to Sophia and said "Hey, what's Gentle doing?" Apparently she had thought the baby's name was "gentle." We all got a good laugh out of that and then I said, "No Bree. The baby's name isn't gentle, it's Sophia." Then Bree started calling her "Soapy" which is closer to her actual name than "gentle." By the end of the playdate Brianna was calling her "Soapy-pia." My thought is...doesn't that sound just like the sweet, honey covered tortilla strips they give you for desert at Mexican restaurants?? :)

The Monster Under The Bed

I guess it's the right age for the whole afraid of the dark thing to start, but I sure wasn't ready for it...

The other night Brianna woke up SCREAMING and was saying "There's something in my bed, there's something in my bed." We assumed she'd had a nightmare and had a heck of a time getting her to go back to sleep. Finally we had to give her a brighter night light to ease the fear. Now she insists on having the night light on even during daytime naps. Before her nap the other day she said, "There's a monster under my bed!" And then at bedtime last night she was saying "There's a tiger in my bed!" "No there's no tiger," we told her. "A 'tend (pretend) one!" she insisted. "Well, if he's pretend then there's no need to worry right?" we said. I don't really know where she got this idea but poor kiddo...I feel bad for her going through this phase...

Ultimately we ended up telling her that Bear was a good bear and that he would save her and also that her special light would make her safe in bed. It's been helping a little. Now before she goes to sleep she's been saying "Bear will safe me. My special light is on."

Missing the Grandparents

Even though we live pretty far away from them, we actually manage to see Brianna's grandparents fairly frequently. Enough so that they are still people she talks about daily and they are real to her, a presence in her life. She talks to them on the phone at least once a week. Still, she seems to be missing them a lot lately. Every time she's got one of them on the phone she's asking them to "Come on an airpane. Come and see me??" Seems like every little thing reminds her of her grandparents these days...

The other day we had her out after dark and she was going "It's dark. Go see Grammy Dee-Dee? Go see Grammy Deb?" For the life of me I couldn't figure out WHY she was saying that until I realized..the last time we were out in the dark was when we woke her up at the crack of dawn (we had an early flight) to get on the plane to go visit her grandparents in Idaho. She has a surprisingly long memory! Then just yesterday she saw a motorcycle parked at our apartment complex. She pointed and said "See the motorcycle Mom? I wanna ride it!" "No," I told her, "we can't ride that motorcycle. It's not ours." "Just ride Poppa Roger's motorcycle." she replied. (Which she did get to sit on at our last visit.)

We miss all our Grammy's and Poppas!

Sunday School Promotion

Brianna loves getting to go to Sunday School. And why not? After all she gets to play with new toys, sing songs, color, and have snacks in there. She also thinks it's fun to get to dress up. This morning as we were putting her dress on she said, "It's Sunday!" (The only day she wears dresses, usually.) Today when we tried to drop Bree off at her classroom we got a big surprise though. We were told she's no longer in Room 5, the Kangaroo Room, (which is a toddler nursery), but that she's now in Room 9, the Dolphin Room, where they actually do more Sunday School type things. It didn't matter to her though. I was a little worried she might be tentative to be going to a new classroom. Alas no, she jumped from foot to foot impatiently while I signed her in and then ran in happily, without a second glance backwards. After the service, Travis and I went back down to pick her up where the teachers assured us she was a very good girl. "So, Bree," we asked her, "What did you do in Sunday School today? Did you sing?" "Yep," she said. "What did you sing?" we asked. She thought a minute and said, "Sing, Jesus!" I guess she was paying attention in there...that's the first time we've heard her say that! :)

More Park Play

It's been awhile since we've taken ourselves out for a little sweet after dinner treat and some fun play at the park. This weekend we revived the habit to take advantage of the wonderful fall weather. It's gonna get too cold for this type of stuff soon enough. We ended up having a great time and Brianna was super adorable in her bright green sweater! Once again there were too many cute pix...check it out...

She really enjoyed her treat. She was closing her eyes and saying "Mmmm...de-wish-us (delicious)!"

See the look of pure unadulterated joy at getting to eat ice cream at the park?! She was laughing after each bite of pure happiness!

After our dessert we spent quite some time taking turns chasing after Brianna. She was really into the "chase me, chase me" game on this particular day for some reason.

All that running around made them tired!

Then Bree and I spent some time playing "peek-a-boo" behind some trees. Notice how well hidden I am in the second shot. :)

Here's where Bree just decided to up and make out with a tree. (I dunno.)

This was when Brianna saw an airplane flying past up above us.

After that, Travis helped Bree be an airplane herself by making her "fly."

A big ole' smooch from Daddy!

Looking up at the clouds together.

In this pic they had actually each just finished throwing an armful of leaves up into the air, even though it looks like one of those running across a meadow, big hug scenes. It's cute either way!

A great father-daughter shot...notice the matching large smiles! :)

Dirty Dancing

The other night Bree was feeling footloose and fancy free! She was dancin' up a storm and making us laugh. She ended up climbing up onto the table and doing a little dance for us there. Normally we don't allow her to be up there but we let it go for a few minutes...it was just so funny! Here's how it went:

Put your hands in the air like you just don't care! Yeah!

Here's where she's trying to get more audience participation. (I'm sitting on the couch there just off to the right.)

Obviously thrilled with herself with those little sparkly eyes and wide grin...

One Silly Evening

All right, I had already posted two little anecdotes for today and I was going to call that good, I really was. I try not to get too carried away on this thing and write about every tiny detail. But, I just couldn't help myself...Brianna's been giving me so much material lately. Not that I spend every moment laughing it up. I mean, she's 2 so we have quite a few moments of aggravation and mutual frustration as well. But, funny nights like this one make up for it. It all started with...

The Grossest Meal Ever
For dinner tonight I made tacos. Bree has often eaten tacos with no complaint. Of course, tonight it was just not what she wanted. She opened up the tortilla, stirred around the insides and just played with her food in general without actually eating it. "I don't like it!" she told me. "Okay fine," I said, "How 'bout a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" "Okay!" she said. Relieved to have reached a solution so quickly I slapped together a PB and J. Well, while I was making the sandwich Bree started singing a little song to herself. I thought that was kinda nice until I realized she was singing "I'm stupid, stupid, stupid." (I HATE it when she does that!) So, I gave her "the look," (you know the one) and said, "What did you say?" Without missing a note in her little song and without responding to me directly Bree immediately changed her song and quick as a flash was now singing "I'm 'mart (smart), 'mart, 'mart." "That's what I thought you said!" I told her. After that little aside I finished up the sandwich and sat back down to my rapidly cooling meal. Well, naturally, once the sandwich was actually in front of her Bree just picked at it. But, she did manage to eat a decent-size meal. It was just really disgusting because what she ended up doing was ignoring both the bread and the tortilla from her taco (still sitting on her tray). She would dip her finger into the jelly and have a lick of that, then dip her finger into the refried beans from her taco and eat that. YUCK! Oh well though, we let her eat and I guess she even got several food groups represented..just in a rather un-appetizing combination. I guess it's not disgusting if you're two though.

Dessert and a Show
After dinner Brianna and I shared a bowl of ice cream for dessert. Although we shared the same bowl Bree insisted on having her own spoon. Then, she started alternating taking a bite and then doing a fake and exaggerated, "Hiccup!" She actually kept that up until the bowl was empty. (If you recall, the last time Bree had ice cream for dessert her daddy came down with the hiccups shortly thereafter.)

Bathtime Shenanigans
(WARNING: This may be TMI (too much information) about Beth's anatomy for some people. If you're worried about it...STOP reading! I did run this one past my mom first though so it should be okay....)
Bree was such a mess after her dessert that we decided to give her a bath. Since I needed to wash my hair anyways, I jumped in with her. (Well, what?! She is only 2 after all and bathing together is one of the only ways I actually get to spend more than 3 minutes enjoying the warm water.) So, there we were in the bathtub together when Bree started admiring certain parts of my "big girl" anatomy (my chest). I did nurse Brianna until she was 16 months old and she's still retained some fascination with that area. Not to mention she's 2 (do I mention that often enough?) and is learning about all the different body parts. Anyways, for a while after we stopped nursing I ended up getting pinched in that area quite a lot. This finally tapered off after I pointed out to Bree that she had her own nipples and she started leaving mine alone. Tonight in the tub she was back on the subject and said, "Look at my nipples!" "Yep there they are," I said. Then Bree looked over to my chest."I wanna poke your big ones. They're really big!" she declared. After a pause...I decided to take that as a compliment!

Bedtime
Finally we got Bree into her PJ's and ready for bed. As per our normal bedtime routine we told her to pick out the book she wanted to read. This time though instead of going to the little bookshelf in her room (with her own books on it) she wandered out to the other bookshelf and came back into the room holding...the Holy Bible. Yep, it's true. Travis happened to have a pocket Bible tucked away somewhere so he told her that was her special little Bible and we put her to bed with her clutching it to her chest.

I can honestly say at this point I never know WHAT will happen next! :)

A Questionable Vocabulary

While we've managed to avoid having Bree pick up on the major naughty words she's still incorporated a few words and phrases I'm personally not too thrilled about into her repertoire. She's been using the word stupid for example. Here are a couple other little stories about things she's said that make me raise my eyebrows (and also stifle my laugh):

Every time I think we've convinced Brianna that shut up is not a good thing to say she fires off with it again. (I suppose it really could be worse though!) Today she told me to shut up again. (It's odd though she just says it out of the blue when no one is even talking.) So, she said it and I gave her the Mommy Look. (You know, the one that lets them know they're about to die if they don't take it back.) So, she quickly ammended herself and said, "No, not shut up Mom...could you stop talking?" (Which I thought was impressive since it means she knows the definition of shut up at least.) So, I told her again that's not an okay thing to tell your parents. Finally, she told me that Bug's Life says it...so THAT'S where she keeps hearing it and why she's wanting to say it. Dang Bug's Life needs to just SHUT UP! :)

While working on the computer today I got a little frustrated at not getting something to work fast enough. So, showing much restraint all I said was "What the??" and let it trail off. Brianna, however, thought it was an invitation to fill in the blank and without missing a beat she said "heck!" I thought this was pretty funny and so I started laughing despite myself but I was laughing even harder in the next minute when my daughter looked at me askance and in response to my laughing said, "Mom, you're freakin' me out!"

A Squirt

We have a squirt bottle we use to spray Bogart, our cat, with when he's being naughty. Naturally, Brianna has wanted in on that action and has recently discovered the fun of the squirt bottle. She's had a lot of fun squirting her daddy whenever she gets ahold of it, all the while with a smirk and a gleam in her little eyes. Why not? It's a kid's perfect revenge! Today though she actually squirted Bogart. He ran away of course and was quickly followed by Bree, who was running along behind him going "Hey, come back. Let me help you! I'm gurting (squirting) you!" He ended up hiding under the bed so Brianna settled for squirting herself in the mouth over and over again...

Bree Takes a Trip Down Memory Lane

Yesterday Brianna found the scrapbook I made of her first year. She was completely enthralled with it. She was turning the pages and pointing out her daddy and going "Look, there's 'Ranna (Brianna)! There's me! There's Daddy!" The pictures that got her most excited though were the ones with her and Bogart. It's no secret she's just in love with our cat but actually Bogart likes her pretty darn well too. (Which is somewhat surprising considering that she chases him around like crazy and has used him as a living trampoline in the past...) Well, Bree looked at her scrapbook for quite awhile. I was amused and thought that was that. I didn't realize how much she liked it until this morning when she was frantically looking in the spot she'd found the scrapbook yesterday. "Mom,where's my big book?" she asked me, "I can't see it everywhere!" (She meant anywhere of course.) So, I handed it to her and she spent a long time pawing through it again...I suppose mourning the loss of her youth. :)

This was the photo in the scrapbook that Bree liked the best. Actually it's one of my personal favorites as well..so much that I gave it a title. I call it "Copy Cat." :) In this pic Bree is only about 8 months old, she couldn't crawl, walk, or talk yet (can you imagine!) so this is how she spent a lot of her time. Bogart always liked to be near her (in the days before she could torment him) and on this day that's just what he did. I really do think he was copying her! Obviously I thought it was so hilarious that I snapped a quick shot. When 2 yr. old Bree saw this she said "Look at me! Look at Bogart!" Then she ran over to Bogart and shoved the book in his face and was going "See Bogart? Look at you! See?" (Funny thing was, I think he was actually looking for a second before he sauntered off.)

Time With Daddy

Oh my gosh! Bree was so funny hanging out with her Daddy this evening I couldn't choose just one moment so here are the top 3 funny moments from their evening:

Travis was talking to Brianna when she just suddenly says, "shut up!" "Did you just say shut up to me?" her daddy asked. "It was a teeny shut up," she said, "just a teeny shut up Daddy. It was an accident."

Brianna shared a bowl of ice cream with her daddy for dessert. Afterwards he came down with a case of the hiccups. Bree was convinced that he was doing it solely for her entertainment. Every time he hiccuped she was laughing hysterically and going "Silly Daddy!" This went on for quite some time.

As Bree was sitting on Trav's lap he pulled his laptop up and was checking out the blog (yes, he reads it too). He happened to pull up the pix of Kadyn and Bree at the park the other day. She took a look and said, "It's Ranna (Brianna) and Peanut! Oh, oh it's Kadyn Daddy. Oh my gosh!" It was the "oh my gosh!" that killed me because she was putting her hands on her cheeks when she said it.

A Pretend Hannah

As everyone knows by now I'm sure, (since I've only talked about them a million times on this site), Bree and I hang out with Hannah and Kadyn quite frequently. Not as much now that they've started school, but still, quite often. In fact we see them enough that I've often wondered if Brianna might think we're related to them...we started playing with those two when Bree was only 7 months old! I think Bree views Hannah as some kind of Auntie..and I think by now Hannah qualifies as an honorary Auntie.

Anyways, Hannah and Kadyn have a really nice red wagon with room for 2 small girls to ride in it. During the summer we used the wagon to cart the girls around a good number of times at playdates. Kadyn and Brianna would pile in and sit quite happily while Hannah pulled them along. Well, yesterday Bree got a little toy wagon (thanks Dawn!) that she just loves. Today it was the funniest and most endearing thing when I observed her re-enacting one of those summer days with her pals. She stopped the wagon and acted out sitting two tiny pretend people inside it. As she was doing that she said "There's 'Ranna (Brianna). There you go Peanut (Kadyn's nickname)." Then Bree looked over at me and said, "I'm a 'tend (pretend) Hannah." And then pulled the wagon along. Well what's that saying? Imitation is the best form of flattery...(or something like that!) Aaaw, we sure love you over here Hannah!

A Chocolate Bunny

Okay so, for Easter, (yes Easter over 5 months ago), we had bought Bree a chocolate bunny for her basket. Thing is, at that time we weren't really giving her lots of sugary sweets and she was smaller, so the bunny was a HUGE amount of chocolate for her. Well, the other day after Bree had gone to bed both Travis and I were prowling around the apartment, craving sweets but not finding any. Until we realized...we'd hidden the chocolate bunny in the pantry months ago and never pulled it out. Like two naughty children we pulled it out and opened it up and were about to eat it when....we started feeling kinda bad. The bunny had this cute little face and we knew it would make Brianna just so happy to see a little bunny and then get to enjoy the sweet treat of..well, eating him. (Kinda disturbing now that I'm thinking about it as I write, but, anyways...) So we came to a compromise and only ate the back of the bunny. (Picture Travis and I furtively tearing off chunks of the back of Bree's chocolate Easter Bunny.) It was a win-win situation because we got some dessert and Brianna still got to have her bunny without us feeling bad about how much chocolate she'd be eating. Sure enough when we gave it to her the next day she was so excited and enjoyed her treat immensely.

In fact, she liked it so well that tonight after dinner when I told her Daddy might have a yummy treat to share with her (I meant ice-cream) she perked up and said, "A chocolate bunny?" (Which is how I got on this topic to begin with.)

Bree's First Love

Okay, it's already happened! Can you believe that at only 2 years old Bree has already told a boy she loves him?? Here's how it happened...

We were over at our friend Dawn's house with her son, Alex. Our other friend Becca and her daughter, Grace were also there. The kids were having fun playing in all the lovely crunchy fall leaves. Actually, Bree and Alex were even raking them too since Dawn had some pint-sized rakes on hand. At one point Becca was playing with Alex and she scooped him up into her arms, looked at Dawn and said, "I love him." Shortly thereafter Brianna was playing with Alex and suddenly put her arm around him (odd since she's not normally that touchy-feely with her little friends) and said "I love him!" (Little big-eyes copycat!) A little while later we noticed Alex making a move on Bree and putting his arm around her. Geesh, I guess they're never too young for those kinds of shenanigans! :)

She Said What?!

Another collection of Bree's newest little sayings that have made us smile:

Upon finding herself awake in her crib in the morning...
"MOMMY! I'm AWAKE! Suh-pise!"

When trying to negotiate for what she wants...
"Mom, have a treat and a pocshua (popsicle). How's that?"

After having Daddy teasing her alot....again...
"Daddy! Just settle down!"

After me giving her a kiss and hug goodbye as she was leaving to go play at the apt. park area with Savannah...
"Mom's so sweet!"

Making up new words to her favorite song while playing her rock guitar...
"Twinka twinka on my 'tar (guitar)"
(Which amused me since the new words fit perfectly. Just like her father though, always making up new words to old songs.)

After catching a lady bug and having it fly away, much to her dismay...
"Mom, I can't ah-weve (believe) it!"

Upon seeing her own picture go by on our computer screen saver...
"Mom, it's you! Look at you on the 'puter (computer)!"
(Which is what we always tell HER.)

:)

Park Fun with Kadyn

Once again today we got to play with our good friends Hannah and Kadyn at the park. Since it was the weekend the daddy's got to come as well this time and both whole families got to play for awhile. The girls had a lot of fun and wore themselves out making sure they played on all the fun stuff there. As usual Travis was there with his camera to capture all the cuteness. The girls were so adorable and he had so many good shots though that there's alot here... Check out all the fun they had!

They started out swinging together...but were soon off and running (literally) to other park activities.

The girls played on just about every part of the park. Here they are climbing up a ladder together....(little monkeys!)

One busy gal, always on the move, burning off those calories by running, running everywhere! (This is how she spent most of her time at the park.) How do you think she keeps her skinny toddler figure?

One of me. Yep, there I am having fun at the park too.
(Or, more correctly giving Travis a sassy look.)
Although, I have to say that I think I look just like my mom in this shot. I find the older I get, the more like her I look. Which isn't a bad thing, I think my mom's a pretty lady. So, by default I'm not that bad I suppose. But at one point I thought I looked like...myself. Alas, no, we're practically twins. And, Mom says Bree looks just like my baby pictures...poor kid! :)

A cute shot of Hannah and Kadyn.

Teeter...

...Totter!

Looking cute and having fun!

Bree says "..eh." Kadyn's saying "Whee!"

After the teeter-totter the girls rode on the spinny thing. (What's it called?) Kadyn got a real kick out of them doing it together.

They seemed to enjoy it. Personally though, a few minutes on anything that spins is enough to make me feel like heaving.

Is this not just the cutest BFF (best friends forever) moment ever?? Look how precious with the holding hands and the gazing into each other's eyes. Aaaahh...

Then Travis though it looked so fun, he though he'd try out the spinny thing for awhile. Aah, look how happy it made him! (Scott's taking the photo.)

This is the way Kadyn likes to swing lately on the big swings...