Taking a moment to play with Daddy. Aw, aren't they cute? Daddy is a lot more fun than Mommy these days since from Bree's point of view Mommy mostly lays around like a putz and doesn't run around and play as much. Oh well, it's good bonding for the two of them anyways.

 

I've said before how hard it is to get anything done with Bree clinging to my knees...well, I wasn't exaggerating! Brianna's favorite game lately just seems to be holding on to my legs, trying to dart underneath me, etc. And here's the proof since this time Daddy was there to egg her on and snap a few photos! The leg game thing is pretty dangerous too because I've been wearing my "fat pants" lately since I'm starting to get a tiny bit of a pregnant belly. But, the pants are still pretty loose so I have to keep hiking them up when she does this so they don't just fall right off. Not to mention, I usually trip over her a few times, meaning this particular game usually ends in tears. But, you convince her not to keep doing it...I think part of her fun is knowing she's aggravating me. Toddlers!

 

Well, at least she looks cute while she's practically de-pantsing me and making me fall over!

 

And this is what I was trying to do while she was using my lower half as her personal playground. That was about it for our quiet Sunday at home, except there was this...

 

Winking at the camera again...what a smooth operator. This cracks me up everytime. I think because it's not like we've ever said, "Bree, wink at the camera!" She just thinks of it herself and has decided it's cool I guess. And usually, it happens so fast that we don't know there's a shot of her winking until we download them. :)

 

Hee-Haw Pants

As she gets older Bree has more and more opinions about things, how she wants to wear her hair, what foods she likes and dislikes, and what clothes she wants to put on. It’s been funny lately because her newest phrase is “I’m hung-ree (hungry)!” I mean, it’s just a normal thing to say and all but it’s funny to me to hear her say it since it’s a new word for her and also kind of nice that I don’t have to guess when to feed her anymore. Then there’s her growing flair for picking her clothing, and everyone else’s. Travis actually let her pick out his shirt for work the other day and today she insisted on choosing her own outfit. She ended up picking out a bright green sweater to go underneath some olive green overall pants. And, despite my skepticism that it would match well, she actually looked pretty darn cute. Although she did make me laugh because after I helped her put her overalls on she asked me, “Mom, do you like my hee-haw pants?” ( I think because there’s a scene in one of her Blue’s Clues episodes where the main character is wearing overalls while he sings “Old McDonald.” And, while he’s singing somewhere in there he slaps his knee and says “yee-haw.” Naturally then, all overalls must be “hee-haw” pants.) Funny little kid!

A Pic-Mic

Yesterday out of the blue, Brianna walked up to me and said, “Hey Mom, I wanna have a pic-mic (picnic) with sam-whiches (sandwiches) okay?” It was the cutest thing…and I think has something to do with the fact that one of her favorite books lately is the Berenstein Bears Picnic. So, I spread a plaid blanket out in the middle of her room and fixed her a plate with a PB & J sandwich, pretzels, raisins, and a few mandarin oranges. And, she happily sat down and had her little snack. After a few minutes of munching she declared, “This is the perfect pic-mic spot!” (Just like Papa Bear says in the book.) It amused her and I thought it was a wonderful winter activity. Apparently so did she because today around the same time of day she strolled up to me and asked to have another pic-mic. We’ll see about tomorrow, but if it sticks it’s a tradition I know I can look forward to each day.

Itchy Bun Bath Syndrome

I've heard of many kids who go through a bath aversion phase and who suddenly hate to take baths. Fortunately for us, we've never had that problem, at least not so far. On the contrary, our kid LOVES baths, maybe too much. She asks to take one at least twice a day. So, I usually let her splash around a few minutes each day, most the time just in plain water so she won't dry out too much. But it IS winter after all, season of dry skin galore. And Bree has managed to get some dry skin along with the rest of us. The other day after her morning splash she was spending her usual after-bath naked time when she started scratching her little buns. After a few seconds she was at it again. After the third scratching session she turned to me and said, "Mom, my buns are really itchy!" So, we grabbed the baby lotion and lubed the kid up from head to toe. Hopefully this resolved any itchy buns situations for a few days at least, although, it didn't bother me, it looked really funny and made me laugh.

Angel

Today Brianna wore her shirt that says "Angel" across the front of it and it reminded me of a funny little incident that happened in Idaho that I'd forgotten about...

It just so happens that she was wearing that same shirt the day we flew into Idaho. (Perhaps because I was trying to subliminally will her into really acting like an angel on the plane? But, yeah right.) And, since it's a relatively new shirt for us neither of the Grandma's had seen it yet. So, of course, one of the first things they said to Bree when we finally met them at the airport is, "Angel...Are you an angel?" To which Brianna very solemnly responded, "No, I'm NOT an angel." This made us all laugh and I think I said something along the lines of, "Well, at least she knows it!" Brianna's story had changed by the end of our visit though. On one of the last days we were there she ended up wearing her "Angel" shirt again. I think hoping for a repeat performance from before, one of the Grammies asked her, "Are you an angel?" And this time around Bree nodded and said, "Yes I am!" Well, I say depending on the day that's a matter of debate. Although she does try to be a very good girl most days.

Hi, I'm Jim!

Well, Brianna's obsession with Muppet's Treasure Island continues. She has to listen to the soundtrack 3 or 4 times a day and asks to watch the movie at least once a day. This obsession has even spilled into her pretend play, which is a big part of her play these days. She's now started referring to her daddy as "Pirate" and herself as "Jim." (The main character of Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins.) So, she'll say things like, "Hey Pirate, would you help me with my toy." etc. This is usually followed by the clarifying statement, "I'm Jim. You're Pirate and I'm Jim!" I suppose this is all fine and dandy except for the fact that Bree is a girl and all and I'm pretty sure one of these days when someone asks her what her name is she's going to introduce herself as Jim. Which, would either mean that we are pretty progressive parents, or that we were both very confused when we named her. Oh well, at least it's sparked her imagination...now just how to explain to her that she can't actually decide to become a pirate for her career when she's older...I guess that's a problem for another day though.

Happy New Year!

We rang in the first day of our new year by taking Bree sledding. This kid has been so excited for winter and has been just dying to get suited up and play in the snow and more importantly, to get her sled out. And, you'd think that would be no problem for a kid who lives in Minnesota, also known as the frozen north, right? Wrong! Last night was actually our first really big snowfall that had any type of accumulation left on the ground for more than a few hours. I mean, we've had a few skiffs but nothing that you could sled on, which is odd for Minnesota at this time of year. So, FINALLY we had our first big snow, enough to go out and sled in. And, we did, much to Brianna's enjoyment. It was a great way to start off the year. :)

The long awaited moment at last...sledding! I don't know if you can see the little smirk on her face in this shot. But, she was loving it! Of course she was though, we were the ones doing all the work and pulling her along...we were ready to go back in way sooner than she was.

 

This is actually a happy face...it's what we got when we asked her to smile for the camera. She had a blast though and actually cried when we told her we had to go in.

 

New Years Eve

So, we spent part of our evening hanging out with our friends, Scott, Hannah, and Kadyn. We haven't seen them in awhile and the girls were so excited to see each other. They were little maniacs, running all over and getting into everything. It was fun to get to catch up with Scott and Hannah though and watch the girls play. After that, we went home to put Bree to bed and watched a movie until midnight. Yeah, we're real crazy partiers all right. Well what, we're almost 30 now and have a kid...we're officially old and boring...

Brianna and Kadyn playing Peek-A-Boo with Travis over the back of a chair. Of course, that was only the tip of the iceberg, they ran all over and were like a pair of hyperactive super toddlers.

Then they played Ring Around the Rosie awhile with Hannah.

 

And, they spent some time helping Scott construct a railroad track for Kadyn's Thomas the Train set.

 

As usual, they had their share of squabbles due to that darn sharing your toys thing again...but at the end of the night they were still good buddies.

Going to Work with Daddy

Due to my lack of energy lately, Bree has a bad case of cabin fever. We haven't gotten out that much and she really hasn't got to see many of her little friends to socialize with recently. So, today I really wanted to make sure she got out of the apartment to do something fun. I mentioned this to Travis and his big idea was to take her into work with him, since he needed to go in for awhile today anyways.

Now, I think I've mentioned this before but Trav is a microbiologist with an emphasis in virology. Translation=he studies viruses and spends his day peering through microscopes and mixing stuff in beakers and test tubes. I also think I've mentioned before that I personally, HATE going to the lab, especially when Trav's talked me into bringing Bree along. This is because there's really nothing interesting to watch Travis do while he works, at least in my opinion. Like I said, he looks into stuff and then mixes other stuff and then looks at stuff again. Meanwhile I'm left trying to keep my toddler from touching something she might infect herself with, breaking any of the many glass items in there, getting exposed to radiation, etc. And no, I'm really not exaggerating. Anyways, so needless to say when Trav mentioned this as his idea of a fun activity for Brianna, I was pretty skeptical. But, then he said that he planned on taking her in himself and that I didn't have to go. So I gave him my blessing, asked him to keep our kid safe, and sent them on their way.

It was really funny actually because as soon as Bree woke up from her nap her daddy asks her, "Hey, you want to come to work with me?" She immediately got all excited and said, "Sure!" I think she was especially psyched since she's been going through a phase lately where she doesn't want Daddy to go to work at all and gets upset when he leaves. But, this time, she was getting to go with him. So, she hurried to find her socks and shoes and then grabbed up her "laptop" (a little fake-y kid "computer" we got her for Christmas) and stood by the door, ready to go. "Dad, let's go to work!" she said. A few minutes later they were off. Bree looked back at me and said, "We're going to work Mom! See you later!"

While they were gone, I tried to take advantage of the quiet and get a few things done, but I was pretty amused the whole time, thinking of my two workers, working away. After they'd been gone about an hour and a half I got a phone call, Travis checking in. "How's it going?" I asked him, "Is she helping or just getting in your way?" "Oh, a little of both," he answered. Then I heard some toddler babble in the background and Trav says, "HEY! Don't touch that!" "Gotta go!" he told me. This conversation only heightened my amusement as I pictured the scene.

Finally, after being gone around 3 hours they came back home. Travis assured me they'd avoided getting infected with any viruses, and, they both seemed pretty happy so it must have gone fairly well, although I think it took Trav twice as long then usual to get his work done. As for Brianna, she walked in the door with a smile on her face, "Mom, I went to work!" she told me. "I did tips and stirred ice!" Then she laid down on the floor, "I'm tired!"

Who knows, maybe that was the start of a long and illustrious science nerd career for Brianna...

After they got there, Trav quickly set Bree to work filling some boxes with tips for his pipetter, breaking several child-labor laws I'm sure. It was fun for her since she's into puzzles and sorting stuff anyways and also a good, harmless diversion from some of the more dangerous parts of the labwork. Note the gloves she's wearing anyways though, safety first and all that. Her daddy had to actually tape on a pair of small gloves to keep them on.