Bree was really good at spying out all the eggs. Once they were almost all found though, just the more hidden ones left, she needed the help of an "Auntie" to find the last few.

Finally, all the eggs were found and there was nothing left to do but look cute in her pink Easter hat.

Getting Ready for Baby Brother

So we've been discussing with Bree the arrival of this new mysterious baby brother for a little while now. For the most part she seems to be taking it all in stride, (probably largely due to the fact that he's not really here to intrude on her everyday reality yet). But we've been talking about it and it's been funny to see and hear how Brianna integrates this information into her life right now. Take Mom's growing belly....we keep talking about how it's getting bigger and that the baby brother is inside there. Then we tell her that right now he's growing and when he's ready he'll come out and live at our house. And, on her part Bree seems to get it as much as you can at 2 and 3 quarters old.

For example, recently while she and I were taking a bath she pointed to my belly and said, "Baby brother is growing in there?" "Yep," I said. "Okay," she answered and then she dumped a cupful of bathwater over the area. "Water will help him grow!" she explained to me seriously. (Apparently she's made the connection that plants need water to grow so why wouldn't that also apply to growing a baby brother right?)

And she has stopped even calling my belly anything other than baby brother. She'll stroll up to me, pat the belly and ask, "Mom, how's your baby brother doin'?" Then there's the matter of the new brother living with us. He's already got his own room in the new house (although it's nowhere near being ready for him and is currently sort of the moving "I don't know where this goes" dumping ground). Despite its current state of disarray however we've still been calling the room, "the brother's room" or "baby brother's room" when talking about it with Brianna. So, whenever someone new comes to visit the new house Bree loves to give them a little tour, mostly skipping all the other rooms to direct them straight into her room but not before pointing each time to the room next door and explaining, "That's the brother's room."

The most interesting part to me though is how all Bree's little dollies are now baby brothers (despite the fact that most of them came in pink clothes). One of her favorite games these days is to play with her baby dolls and all of them are brothers. She's even picked out the tiniest one and insists "he" needs to sleep in his toy crib in her bed with her. "Mom, baby brother (the dolly) needs to come to bed with me!" Overall, it all seems to be a pretty healthy integration and preparation in her daily play and activities for getting a new brother this summer.....although I do expect the sibling rivalry and resentment parts to kick in once he arrives in person. :)

Taking a Break at Como Lake

After several weeks of packing, driving, unpacking, furniture shopping, paint chip indecision, etc. we decided we were tired of all the moving in routine and needed a break. So we took advantage of our new surroundings and headed off to visit a nearbye lake.

It was more great scenery at the lake! We had fun checking out the beach, finding cool rocks, and Bree's favorite, spying out a few "chicka mucks" (chipmunks).

 

It's still very much early spring here so despite the sunshine it was a bit nippy out there. Brianna wanted her hood up and sunglasses on! Plus you know she doesn't go anywhere without her best puppy pal, Ginger. Doesn't she look like some kind of tempermental mini-movie star or something?

 

It wasn't too long before Brianna decided she was done. Back to more settling in and so forth at home. But the beach sure will be fun this summer!

 

Keep the Change!

Another line Bree seems to have picked up from the TV...

As we sat down to dinner the other night Brianna realized that she didn't have a drink in front of her. "Dad, I'm stir-stee! (thirsty)" she declared. "Okay," he said, grabbed a nearbye sippy cup full of water and sat it in front of her. "Thanks Dad and keep the change!" What?! Funny little kiddo, we were laughing about that one for a while. :)

A Funny Story from the Move

This little story actually happened about 2 weeks ago, during the main moving-in process but it was so hectic then I never got around to blogging it. I was thinking about this today though and it was making me smile so just thought I'd share...

We arrived in Montana on a Monday afternoon and all our belongings had actually beaten us here. (We used a moving company.) So, it was only a few hours after we arrived that we started in unpacking and getting settled. Lucky for us we had help though, Trav's parents were there for support the first few days along with my grandparents and my parents as well a few days later. Between all that help we managed to muscle through the major stuff pretty quickly and get all the basics functioning. (Thanks to everyone who helped out!)

Anyways, this was all too much for Brianna. Imagine how it looks from a toddler point of view....Mom and Dad spend weeks boxing everything up then we have to drive for days at a time and when we finally get to where we're going Mom and Dad start frantically taking things back out of the boxes they just finished doing a few days ago. I'm sure we all seemed nuts to her! Plus, I think the fact that her grandparents were here and not focusing their attention soley on Bree was the last straw. We had a few days after we arrived with a very cranky and demanding toddler. She would get an idea in her head and insist she needed this or that NOW. Like when she decided in the middle of the afternoon one day that she needed to brush her teeth. She was walking up and down the hall whining and telling everyone who passed by her insistently, "I need to brush my teeth! I need some toothpaste!" One by one each of us adults kind of blew her off. "Your toothbrush is in your hand baby, just use it like that." "You don't need to brush your teeth right now." "We don't know where the toothpaste is right now." All to no avail. Apparently it was just imperative she brush her teeth right that minute.

Finally after a good 15 minutes or so of whining she got Grammy Deb to pay attention to her. Grammy Deb took a minute to find the toothpaste and help Bree get going with her toothbrush at which point Brianna turned to her and said, "See, was that so hard?" A statement that made Grammy Deb laugh and was quickly reported to me a few minutes later. (I think this must have been something I've said to her before.) But she was right after all, in the long run it was NOT hard and would have been less effort and aggravation to all to just help the kid brush her teeth with toothpaste instead of ignoring her. I guess when you're moving you sometimes forget to pick your battles, but that's what Grammies are for. :)

Finding a New Groove

Travis is back to work this week and Brianna and I are finally starting to settle into a more normal routine again, back to a more familiar pattern. (Although, the potty training has taken a bit of a setback but we'll see...) I think we're starting to find our groove in the new place. And, while she's mostly adapted beautifully Bree does have a few new things she's picked up here. Like, for starters she now has a new favorite show. We have a new cable provider and now have Noggin, a kids channel I don't think we had before. Anyways, Bree's new favorite is a silly little cartoon called "Wow, Wow, Wubzy." This makes me laugh since it's a silly name and she sounds very comical coming into the room and asking, "Mom, can I watch Wow Wow Wubzy?" or, "Is Wubzy on?" Not all the new habits are as funny though, mainly the part where she's obsessed with all the doors in the house....

Well, it's obvious the move to Montana hasn't made a difference in Bree's choice of pants...that is to say she doesn't wear them at all if she can get away with it! So, here she is in her usual top and underoos doing one of her new favorite things in the new house...messing with all the lovely doors! (Which conveniently for her have those flat door handles as opposed to the harder to turn round ones.) Our old place (the apartment) didn't have near this many doors and Bree loves to contantly slam them (I can't wait until she's 13 and doing that!) or lock herself and others out. Lucky for me she knows how to unlock them as well and usually after she panics for a minute I just have to say, "turn the lock thing" and she will. That or I do have a little key as well. :)

Me? Up to mischief? Slamming doors and such? No, not at all! How could you even think it with a sweet smile like this?

 

Minnesotan or Montanan...still adorable!

 

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

Guess what? Brianna and I didn't drop off the face of the planet like you thought! No really, I do apologize for my long absence in updating this blog. All I have is a lot of excuses about it if you'd care to hear them. You know, stuff like the long drive, exhaustion, unpacking being a huge deal, computer not set up or having to wade past a ton of boxes to get to it once it was set up, Bree getting sick and running fevers for days, and then me getting the horrible head cold she'd had and feeling like super crap...etc, etc, etc. I could go on. But, the point is after a 2 week break, (two weeks!) I'm back and promise to get back on the ball with Bree's blog, (although I'm still not sure it'll be daily). To make it up to you I've posted several "back blogs" and a bunch of pix...

Montana or Bust!

We took off from Minneapolis on a Saturday morning and headed west for a long drive. Brianna was really excited at first. She was saying "Are we going to our new house?" all excited. Poor kid didn't know what she was in for. The whole first day she was a complete angel to ride with and then she got tired of being in a car. (Well, who could blame her...) So, the second day was almost the exact opposite. We'd stayed in a motel overnight and I don't think she slept well so she was very whiny and needy and hard to handle the second day. I shudder just thinking about it! Luckily though, on the third day she was a little better and we only had to drive for half a day...we arrived at our new place just in time for lunch on Monday. We were all glad to have the long drive behind us but especially Bree I think. On my part there is no way I'm going on another 3-day, 1200 mile drive with a toddler again anytime soon!

We sure saw a lot of this along the way...road, road and more road!

 

This is a fun travel pic. That's the motor home back there where Bree, me, and my grandparents were driving along. You can see how crammed full our car was. It was so full that Trav was the only passenger. This shot was taken by Travis backwards over his shoulder while simultaneously driving with one hand. Which, is either very talented or something that should be in the next Jackass movie. (So, don't tell our car insurance people about this, huh?)

 

We almost considered pulling over and settling here... at the "Home on the Range." Nah, just kidding but really, did you know there is just such a place somewhere on the road between Minnesota and Montana? Now when you sing the song, "Home, home on the range" you can know that it's out there in North Dakota somewhere, and we have a shot of the road sign to prove it! :)

 

Finally we arrived home!

 

A House With a View

Well, we have talked and talked with Brianna about moving to Montana and living "in the mountains." In fact, just before we moved she was telling people "I'm gonna live in the mountains!" And, it's true, now we do. We're surrounded by them in fact with ranges on both sides of the valley. It's been nice to just check out the view when we get tired of un-packing and so forth...

Check out the view from our living room window!

 

Another view of the mountains, and also the tops of our neighbors houses. We really are sitting almost right at the base of them. I love it! This is more like the scenery I grew up with so I feel right at home.

 

And here's a wide shot of the neighborhood as the sun sets. What a great view huh?!

 

Brianna's New Room!

Well, at long last Brianna has the new room we've been promising her for the last few months. As of right now it's the nicest room in the house since we wanted to get hers put together first to ease the transition and trauma of moving. I think it turned out pretty darn good! We bought most the new stuff from IKEA before we left, including the bed, the tiny bedside table, the over the bed leaf canopy, the stuffed animal hammock and the bedding. I love the fun, bright colors! It's sort of a rainbow, orange and pink, jungle-ish sort of thing. It sounds odd but I think it pulls together. One of Bree's favorite things about the room though has to be her pink wall. Hooray for having the freedom to paint your own walls whatever color you want! We picked this pink since it matches the pink in the comforter and rug and wanted to tip the scales of the theme to the slightly more girly side. We only painted the one wall though since it's a very bright pink and I was afraid it would either make the room seem smaller, overly crayony or like the inside of a bottle of Pepto Bismol. So, for now it's just the one pink wall. Bree loves the pink though! When we got done painting the back wall she pointed to another wall and said, "Now make that one pink!" So, I'm thinking of also painting the wall right beside the bed pink as well. We'll see. For now though, take a look....

(When I was taking these pix Bree was very excited that all her friends in MN would get to see her new room. Although she keeps asking, "Will they visit?" We miss you MN friends!)

Here's the new room from the doorway. Isn't it cute?! I love it anyways and I think Bree is pretty happy with it too. It's a more vibrant color scheme, to match her personality, and is fun and kiddish. Oh and that's fabric hanging from the window there. That will be curtains soon...

Standing a little further into the room. One of the last things we need to do to "finish" this room is to add a few things to the walls, seeing as they're bare here. Makes it still seem a little stark even though there's already a lot of stuff in there. I'm thinking of buying a few blank canvases and trying out my artistic hand by copying a few of the little bright, jungle animals off the bed and hanging them on the white wall there.

 

A wide angle shot of the room, makes it distorted to seem longer then it really is but you can see everything all in one go.

 

Here's the room from the other side. I wanted to keep the middle open for play so the wall over there is pretty, um full, to say the least. This is after we got rid of some toys (donated to the baby brother) and also there's not as much furniture in the new room. Just makes me wonder how in the heck we fit all her stuff in the last room. And, if the kid gets one more toy I don't know how we'll fit it in...from now on I'm asking people for cash donations only, ya know, for the college fund or something. :)

 

One Last Hurrah

Well folks, this is the last post for awhile. The computer is getting packed up tomorrow. Oh, I'll be back online in a week tops although probably still distracted and not blogging daily. But, for now here's a few last pix of the action around here in the last week or so. Hope you enjoy. Talk to you on the flip side of this move....

The Toddler's Survival Guide to Packing and Moving

Obviously, packing and moving can be trying things for a toddler. All the change, Mom and Dad stressed and tired and not playing as much...all your precious toys getting boxed up. Overall though, I'd say Bree is really handling it pretty well. And, she's managed to find things to keep her busy.

And over the course of the last couple days Brianna has had some insights about the whole process. Like...

Even when all your toys are packed up, you can find stuff to do. Trying on one of your mom's shirts can be a good distraction for awhile at least. And it might make you regain a small sense of power. (Look, I'm a Mommy!)

Empty cabinets are a great source of endless entertainment. You can go in there and close the door, then pop back out. Go in, close the door, pretend to take a nap, come back out. Go in, close the door, come back out. It's great! (Too bad these things normally have toddler proof locks on them.)

 

While Mom is distracted with moving stuff, another great activity is to get into her make-up and use her mascara to make yourself some bushy black eyebrows. (After all, that IS where she puts it on every morning, right? Is it? And plus she packed all your toys so...) Make sure to look innocent like this while you do it though so you don't get into trouble.

...they really help emphasize your expressions. Like, they're great for scowling and making an "angry" face.

 

Bushy mascara eyebrows are also great for making a silly face.

 

Even when you're super busy packing there's always time for your favorite hobbies, like taking a minute to harass the cat.

 

And finally, there's always time for a quick snuggle. (Awww...) :)

 

When Toys are Scarce

As the move grows closer more and more of Bree's room, including her toys, are being packed away and so are unavailable. This means that a 2 year old can get pretty desperate for entertainment. Like today when she asked me if she could play with....a lamp cord. (Hey, at least she asked first right?) So, naturally I said NO. This, in her own words, made her feel "very sad that I can't play with the cord." And so this is what she told to her best stuffed bud, Ginger the puppy. The funny part was when Gingy replied back in her apparently very squeaky dog voice, "I'm sorry!"

The Big Potty

Brianna has been doing really well at the potty training thing lately. (Much to my huge relief and joy in light of my having new tiny buns to diaper arriving this summer.) She's been using her little potty chair for a few weeks now and the last week or so she's also been using the big people potty too. Daddy showed her how she can use her little lid to make it all comfy for a small person so she won't fall in. And, with a stepping stool nearbye she can even go in there, put the lid on the big potty, pull her own pants down, get on and go all without any help. (Although one time she forgot to put the cover on and DID fall in...) She will go both kinds of potty in there...with some bribery of the possibility of a little treat or toy afterwards that is. (Hey, whatever works right?) Actually the "reward" system for this whole potty training thing has gotten a bit complex at my house since Brianna is turning out to be quite the little negotiator. EVERY time she goes potty we have to have a 5 minute bicker session like this:

"Mom, I went poo! You're so proud of me! I get a huh-prise! (surprise)"
"Good job! Great work! Okay let's pick a surprise out."
"Mom, two huh-prises?"
"No, just one."
"Mom, two little ones?"
"Okay two little ones or one big one."
"Mom, three?"
"No, definitely not. Now pick out a potty surprise for doing such a great job!"

This conversation is usually followed by a five minute indecision hovering session over the prize bin since she is more motivated when she gets to choose her own little surprise (as opposed to the easy way of me grabbing something and handing it to her). So, she'll grab something, stare at it a second, throw it back in and grab something new. This is a delicate moment since if you as the parent try to rush the important potty surprise picking moment then she has a meltdown. Finally we have to say, "Pick one! Quick! Decide, we're gonna put the bin back away." After a bribe, er surprise has FINALLY been picked comes the part where we stick a sticker on her potty chart.

"Mom, two stickers?"

and round we go again.....

Crazy Life

Okay, I know it's been kind of awhile since I last took the time to sit down and write a little something down here. At least, much longer than I normally let the blog go considering it's supposed to be a daily blog. But, it's just been super busy here getting ready for the move...the moving van will be pulling out next week! So, there's my excuse. In fact, I suppose this really isn't an entry either just an explanation of why I'm not posting as often. No time, too tired now, etc. In fact, you may only see one or two more new entries in the next few weeks since I'll be finishing up packing, driving across the country, then unpacking for quite some time. And, with the eminent arrival of #2 soon after that I'm thinking this daily blog might have to turn into a weekly one, we'll see. So, just be patient with me in this time of transition folks. :) I do have some pretty cute "packing" pictures of Bree inside boxes and hiding inside empty kitchen cabinets that I plan to post in the next few days, as soon as I can get them uploaded and so forth so check back.

What?! Still reading? Oh all right if you're that desperate I'll throw you a little bone at least. Here's a few quick cute moments from the past few days....

Like when Bree strolled up to me and asked me, "Hey Mom, are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" And I said, "What are you thinkin'?" And she said, "I'm thinkin' I want a popshua (popsicle)."

Or, today when we had to run a few quick errands. I was in a rush and didn't want to take Brianna out of the cart, much to her dissatisfaction. After asking me repeatedly to get down and walk, and me saying no, she finally told me, "Mom, you're driving me crazy!" Only 2 yrs old and her mom is already driving her nuts!

Oh and here's something interesting. For the longest time Bree has had a stuffed kitty named "Motorcycle" or sometimes she calls him "Motorhead." And we've thought that was pretty interesting, but couldn't figure out WHY that was his name for the life of us...that was her only stuffed animal that seemed to have a completely out-of-nowhere creative name. Well, in talking with Bree's friend and our next door neighbor gal, Savannah, today I finally figured out where the name came from. See, this summer on occasion I would let Savannah take Bree down to the apartment's playground area, just the two of them, for short periods of time. Turns out, while they were there one of the apartments that overlooks the playground would have a cat out on the patio quite often. And Savannah and Bree would talk to the little boy who lived there about his cat who's name was, yep, MOTORHEAD. Go figure. Now if I could just figure out why Bree's pink stuffed poodle is now suddenly named "Sick" I'll consider myself a very wise woman indeed.

Potty Huh-prises

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re at the potty training phase in our house and have actually met with some success. (Hooray!) I’m not sure if Bree just decided that she was ready what but she’s just suddenly made big strides in the potty department. (I haven’t changed a stinky diaper in about 2 weeks. Although, wet ones are another story.) Perhaps part of her new motivation has been our “reward” system. If she goes then we give her a “potty surprise” which is some sort of little inexpensive toy or trinket that I’ve found in the $ store. Bree calls them potty “huh-prises,” which is her version of surprise. But, she’s been doing SO well that I’ve had a hard time keeping up with the bribes, uh, I mean potty going incentives. It seems I need to refurbish the supply every few days and it also seems I’ve spent a lot of money on trinkets. So, I had this great idea. Awhile back, in the process of the getting-ready-to-move cleaning and organizing I thinned out Bree’s toys. I ended up taking out a lot of little things that she never touches that were cluttering up the place. I had shoved them away thinking I might be able to use them for just this kind of thing. Well, this last time I ran low on potty surprises I supplemented with a few of these items I’d stashed away. It had been almost a whole month since I’d put them away and I was sure she wouldn’t recognize them. WRONG! She took one look inside the surprise bin and started pointed those exact toys out. “That’s not a potty huh-prise. THAT’S not a potty huh-prise…” Man! Busted! I can’t get away with anything with that kid!