A Slow Day....Apparently

Okay yes dang it...I'm back-blogging again. And, I can't for the life of me remember what happened this day. Maybe I blacked it out, who knows? But, apparently, it wasn't that momentous, I think just your normal day, waiting for Christmas and stuff. I think this picture of Bree about sums up the day.

Attractive eh? And this pose makes her look so intelligent too. Well, she IS 2 after all...so nose picking happens. What do you expect? I'm trying to give you an accurate picture of her complete childhood after all; the good, the bad, AND the ugly. :)

 

Naughty and Silly

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is gonna be to let Bree get away with less stuff. Between the holiday madness, traveling, and my being wiped out with pregnancy #2 she's been managing to practically get away with murder. One of her little tricks these days is to charm her way out of trouble. She'll do something questionable and then look me right in the eye, smile boldly and say, "Mom, aren't I silly?" And to her credit, this usually works, depending on my energy level and how bad the infraction was. But, I'm onto her and it's not gonna fly much longer...maybe..if I feel up to getting off the couch...

Monkey See, Monkey Barfs Too

So, yes, surprise! I've had some morning sickness with this pregnancy. Although, I'm doing better this time around than I did when pregnant with Bree. With her I actually lost 5 pounds in the first trimester I was sick enough. This time I've only thrown up a few times. But, it's been a more interesting experience being sick this time around...mostly because every time I've been, ah, worshipping the porcelin goddess, Bree has been right there with her face about 2 incehs away from mine going "What are you doing Mom?" So, I tell her, "Mommy's throwing up." Then Brianna will say, "Okay, I'm gonna do it too!" And she'll run over to her little potty chair and try to spit into it. I think maybe she thinks Mommy is spitting into the toilet? Either way, at least it hasn't triggered a sympathetic real barfing scenario. That would really suck if every time I threw up, Brianna got grossed out and did too. Maybe she's too little to be bothered by it? Hmmm...

Pirate Music

Brianna's favorite CD lately is the soundtrack to "Muppets Treasure Island." I think she likes it because it's got lots of silly voices (the muppets singing) and most the songs are upbeat. Or, it could be she thinks it's neat since her daddy bought her that pirate kit awhile back and now she's into pirates? Either way, there's no debate that it's on the top of her list right now for fun music, she calls it her "Pirate Music." At first I just thought it was kinda quirky and didn't think much more of it. But then I was actually listening to the words and some of them are kinda disturbing for a 2 year old to be singing along to. At one point the lyrics say, "people die by falling overboard!" in a really enthusiastic tone. And in another song it goes, "on occassion there might be someone that you have to execute but when you're a professional pirate you don't have to wear a suit...." I mean, it's fun and rhymy but come on...maybe not the most uplifting of choices. But, I'm going with the flow for two reasons, one being that my theory is the more I object to it, the more she'll decide she really likes it, and two, I really don't think she's picking up on those parts.

Although, there's no doubt that she's picking up on some of it. She actually knows some of the words..which reminds me of a funny little incident that happened on our visit to Idaho. Since I think that's it's pretty funny that THAT's her favorite CD, (largely because every time she hears it she starts boogy-ing down like a maniac, or like a kangaroo on crack..bounce, bounce, bounce), I brought it with us on our trip to show the grandparents. After a few minutes of dancing Bree started to poop out and wandered over to her "Grape-Grammy." "Grape-Grammy" said, "How's that song go?" and Bree immediately answered her, "Shiver my timbers..yo ho ee oh!" It made us all laugh but made me really hope that one day she's not suddenly gonna burst into that song in public and remember the part about "people die by falling overboard!" I'm thinking that would earn me a few disapproving stares.

Imagine That

Brianna is in full imagination mode these days. Today as we were running some errands she turns and says to me, "Mom, my nose is sure red. I'm Rudolph!" (Which I'm not too sure why she'd want to be since that movie scared the crap out of her.) Then later, as we were crossing the parking lot to go into the store I told her she needed to hold my hand. "Okay," she said, "I'm gonna hold Dora's hand too." (As in Dora the Explorer from TV.) "I'm holding Dora's hand and Boots and Buzz Lightyear and Woody too!" Not only was she helping one imaginary friend across the street safely, but four! Now that's quite the imagination she's got going on.

Better Late Than Never I Always Say...

Okay, yes...I did it again. I got busy and skipped a whole week of blogging again! But, I 've been keeping track of a few things I want to say so once again, I'm just gonna back blog each day and you can just pretend that I've kept up to date...DO IT! Come on, use your imagination. And, just think, now instead of one you have several new blogs to read and enjoy. So, it's a bonus really. I was just thinking of your own personal enjoyment and not my own laziness when I skipped that week. Ya know, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that...now aren't you just so happy to have a few new entries? Yup, it was all my plan to make you appreciate me more....

A Weekend in Idaho

We spent this weekend (Friday thru Monday) in Idaho visiting with our families. The main purpose of our trip though was to celebrate Travis' brother, Cody, getting married. So, our first order of business was to attend Cody and his new wife, Alicia's reception. We had a good time celebrating with the happy couple and Bree had a blast! After that we spent the rest of the weekend spending some quality time with family. Of course, our trip flew by as usual but there were some funny Brianna moments in there...

One of those moments was when Bree was riding home from the airport with Grammy Dee-Dee. They started having a conversation about Bogart for some reason and then Bree just suddenly says, "Bog-it (Bogart) says, 'MEOW' when you squeeze him and he gets mad. He's like a sheep." It was the funniest thing, her admitting that she squeezes Bogart and that he gets mad. I have no idea why she compared him to a sheep though but it made my mom laugh hysterically. Of course, I think she was more amused a few days later. Remembering their earlier discussion my mom said, "Brianna, do you have a sheep at home?" (Meaning Bogart.) Brianna looked at her Grammy like she was crazy and said, "There's no sheep at home. Just Bogart my cat and toy sheeps maybe."

That's only one funny little discussion among the many Bree had with her doting relatives. When she wasn't charming the socks off them with her sparkling conversational skills and funny little sayings, (like calling her Grandpa Randy "Poppa Granny" and her aunts, one named Missy and one Emily, "My Missies"), then she was amusing them by romping with their dogs and playing with the toys they have ready for her. (Spoiled kid.)

Overall we had a great time and hope everyone there did too. It sure was a fast, fun, and crazy weekend....

Brianna on the dance floor at the wedding reception. There was a live band and Bree went nuts, dancing like crazy. Apparently though, her idea of dancing is running around in circles. She was the only one on the dance floor for quite some time and was making everyone laugh, running in big circles to the music and then stopping to clap and cheer when each song was finished. She actually "danced" for an hour or more this way and I was surprised she didn't just pass right out since it was past her bedtime already at that point. But, she had a blast. After all how often does a 2 year old get to dance the night away to a live band? Gotta take advantage of the moment.

 

After awhile Bree's older cousin, Chad, came over and took her hands and they danced like this awhile. Aw, aren't they cute! Can you believe it? My baby's first dance with a boy! At least it was with her cousin right? I actually was pretty shocked she would let him do this since when her daddy had tried to dance with her earlier she blew him off, ignoring him and running circles around him on the dance floor.

 

The bride and groom sharing their first dance together as a married couple.
Congrats Cody and Alicia!

 

Here's Travis, the best man, telling a few embarrasing stories about Cody as a child and giving his toast. He did a great job, despite being a little nervous about it.

 

Bree taking amoment to rest and chill out in her tiny chair while watching a cartoon in her very own room at Grammy Deb's house.

A little sidewalk chalk fun with Poppa Roger.
We somehow didn't get a picture of Brianna playing with her Poppa Randy, who she calls "Poppa Granny."

 

Bree and I sneaking in a little Mommy-daughter snuggle in between all our other activities.

 

Playing dress-up at Grammy Dee-Dee's, so cute in her little hat.
This was the morning before our flight left. It was a quick trip and was over before we knew it. But, as usual we managed to cram quite a bit in there and we had a nice time getting to see our families this close to the holidays. Until next time everyone!

 

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

As I've already mentioned, Bree is super excited about Christmas this year. It's the first year she's really been aware of all the hype and excitement that kids feel around this time of year. And now this has extended to Santa as well. I haven't been too sure how I wanted to handle the whole Santa issue. I didn't really grow up believing in Santa. I mean, I knew who he was and the idea of him and thought it was fun, but I didn't BELIEVE in him so much that I felt crushed in second grade when I found out he wasn't really real. And, I don't want Bree to be so wrapped up in the Santa myth that her whole world crashes around her when she finds out it's just a story as well. I just don't want her to feel like her parents lied to her. But, I don't want to be a Scrooge either so I've kind of avoided the topic while I've thought of how to handle it. Of course, Brianna is a pretty smart cookie so through her friend Savannah and a few Christmas themed cartoons she's watched she's figured out the whole concept. Today out of the blue she looks over at me and says, "Mom, Santa is too far away! He's up there in the sky and he's coming, but not now." Well, I couldn't argue with that....maybe we'll fine tune the details next year.

Brianna's Big News

Brianna has some big news to share with everybody! I'll let her tell you about it though...

Yep, we're expecting! Of course, Bree has no idea what the sign really says. According to all my parenting books we don't need to tell her until the last trimester, otherwise it's just too long of a wait to make sense to her. But, I figured it's time to tell you all anyways. We've known for awhile but I wanted to wait to tell everyone. But now, at almost 10 weeks we've had our first appointment, seen the heartbeat and everything seems to be smooth-sailing so it's time to share the news. Brianna's baby sister or brother will be due in mid to late July. Hopefully, that helps explain some of my comments about feeling frazzled and tired and why I've been so bad lately about keeping up with my writing. I'm just super energy-zapped (this whole creating another human thing is tiring!) and haven't had the energy to spare at the end of the day.

Of course, this brings up some questions on my part. I mean, this was a planned pregnancy and all but still, I'm left wondering, "Can I handle two?" "What was I thinking?" "How will Bree deal with the divided attention of her parents when she's been the center of our world for almost 3 years now?" And so on. But, really, all that's just side issues compared to the big, important question and that is....what do do about blogging? Does this mean I need to start a new blog for the new baby? I mean I want to be fair and all. And if the cute story involved both kids would I post it on both sites or what?? But, I'm already having trouble keeping up with just this one! :) Seriously though, I think this site will have to become Brianna and so-and-so's Big Adventures. But we have another 6 or so months until that happens. Stay tuned though!

 

Storming City Hall

Well, Brianna made her first visit to City Hall tonight and made her voice heard loud and clear. Actually, the reason we were there is because Travis had entered the "Picture Plymouth" photo contest and won the grand prize! His reward was a $100 check that they presented to him during a city council meeting this evening. Due to this fact Travis has now been going around telling me that he can be considered an award winning photographer. Which, is true I suppose, technically. But I've been teasing him by calling it his "major award" (ever seen the movie A Christmas Story where they father gets a "major award" (a huge horrible leg lamp) for correctly solving a cross-word puzzle? anyways...) So, there we were at City Hall. And Bree did make her voice heard. Mostly because we had to sit through about 45 minutes to an hour of other, extremely boring, city council crap before they reached the photo contest on their official agenda. Really, it's impossible to get a 2 year old to sit quietly for that long. Bree wasn't being bad, not really, she was just babbling to herself and pretty much refused to whisper, no matter what I said. Therefore, the government officials were going on (as they do) and every now and then you'd hear this high-pitched voice pipe in, "That's my Daddy!" "Do you like gummy worms?" "I'm 2 and 1/2." and so on. Most people seemed to bear it with good grace and I figured well, that's democracy for ya, Bree has just as much right to be there as anyone else. Finally, they got to awarding the photo contest winners and Trav got to head up there, collect his money and shake the hands of the council members. It sure was an interesting evening. :)