When You Let Your 3yr Old Paint Your Toes

Nuff said.

Bree's Weird Wish List

Brianna is getting old enough now that she has definite opinions about what she wants. You know, if you ask her what she wants for Christmas she has an answer for you regarding this and that toy she's seen (darn commercials!) and thinks is neat etc. Well, like any other kid Bree has things on her wish list like toys or games, etc. But, alongside of that she also has some rather odd items on there. One of those being a snorkel.

I think it all started when she got a Sesame Street beach ball that has pictures of Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Ernie all wearing snorkels. When she first got the ball she kept pointing and asking what was on their faces and we had to tell her those were snorkels and try to explain what they were for. And now she's convinced they are super cool and usually wears her dad's goggles and pretends to be snorkeling whenever she swims... a three year old who really wants a snorkel??

The other interesting item that Bree wants is...bunk beds. Now this is one of those ideas that I'm not sure of the origins so I'll blame my usual scape goat, the TV. I pretty sure Brianna saw bunk beds on some show, or commercial, and she's decided that they are ultimately cool and that every kid should have bunk beds. Quite frequently we have to have a go around about her bed. "Mom, I don't want this bed! I want bunk beds!" "Well, this is the bed you have. We just bought it so this is the one you get." "But Mom!" and etc. Aside from the fact that her toddler bed is relatively new I just don't feel comfortable putting bunk beds in her room. For one thing, the whole climbing the ladder and perhaps getting the brilliant idea to jump off the top bunk and resulting horrible thud and screaming scenario is NOT one I want to play out. And then I'd also have to deal with Bree trying to invite everyone to stay over. No, it's true she's already started. So far the librarian and the lady in charge of our "indoor gym" playtime have been invited over to play in Brianna's room. Not to mention Grammy DeeDee actually got asked to sleep over in the top bunk of Bree's non-existent bunk beds. So can you imagine if she actually had a whole extra empty bed to invite people to??

And then there's this - Bree is dying to get the new Rihanna CD. See, it's Trav's habit to have music videos playing in the background while he works on the computer to do photo editing, which he does quite often considering the sheer volume of pictures he takes. So there he'll be, listening to the top 20 songs of the moment with Brianna hovering nearby and soaking it all up like a sponge. The other day when Travis sat down to work on his most current pixs Bree pipes up with, "Dad, can we listen to Shut Up and Drive? I really like that song!" But she wasn't content to just listen to it, she wanted to actually watch the music video as well. (Thank goodness it's a more tame video - mostly shots of cars and dancing and any innuendos go right over her head.) So, while watching it she was saying things like, "Oh look, that girl's wearing hee heels (high heels). I didn't know she wears hee heels. She might slip. Maybe she likes wearing hee heels all the time....What are those girls doing? I think they're in trouble!" And then sometimes she dances like a maniac. When she's not actually listening to the song lately she can be heard walking down the hall singing lustily, "SHUT UP AND DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!" Travis and I have watched all this with quite some amusement and on the one hand are sort of mollified that our 3 year old's favorite song is Shut Up and Drive and on the other hand go around smirking at each other about it. However, we have decided to be more careful about what we're listening to when she's around. I guess it's easy to forget that she's old enough now to be picking up on these things, really hearing the words and thinking about them. That is, it's easy to forget until, to your embarassment, your kid's in the grocery store belting out "SHUT UP AND DRIVE!" :)

Perhaps the most creative thing on Bree's weird wish list though is suction cups. This is an idea that most probably came from Larry Boy. One day she just woke up from her nap and said, "Mom, I wish I had suction cups so I could climb up my wall and get my Hungry Hippos game down!" (Hungry Hippos is on the top shelf of her tall bookshelf.) And I have to admit, it would be handy to have some suction cups to climb walls and things.

Breeisms AND Notes on Noah

Breeisms:

• "Totally!" Brianna's favorite new expression. "Mom, I totally just stepped on my rock guitar, oops!" I think she got this one from her dad, who is apparently, like, totally stuck in the 80's terminology...how rad! :P
  



• "I can't hear it!" Something I hear if I try to turn the radio or TV below earsplitting level. I thought this was a teenage phase but no. Bree insists she "can't hear" something if I turn it down to the point where it doesn't give me a headache. She likes it LOUD!
  



• "But Mom!" Ah yes, the well used and beloved kid rebuttal when there is nothing else to say. I'm hearing it from Bree quite often lately. "All right kiddo, it's time for bed now." "But MOM!" and that pretty much says it all. Such a short phrase for communicating such levels of protest and frustration from a kid.

Notes from Noah

• obsession - is what Noah has. You see, like most babies he finds comfort in sucking on his pacifier or thumb. (He finally figured out to suck just his thumb, as opposed to his whole fist.) But his problem is that lately he's been trying to do both at once. This usually results in the binky being in his mouth and his left hand accidentally wandering up to his mouth as well where he somehow manages to hook his thumb through the handle of the pacifier which then gets yanked out of his mouth when he moves his hand. This is very frustrating to him and he just can't figure out why some mean person would keep yanking his beloved binky right out of his mouth! Sometimes this makes him so mad he fusses but then, other times he just keeps on going and pretends there's a pacifier in his mouth. No kidding, sometimes I look at him and see him puckered up and his jaw moving just like he would mack down on his binky.

• size 3's! - Noah's new diaper size. His thighs just outgrew the 2's already. It's just a bit shocking to me since Brianna just potty trained out of size 4's!

• purring - Noah's new noise. He seems to think he's a cat lately because his new cooing sounds just like a kitty....sort of a rolling r throaty type of thing. And the funny part is that he does it when he's happy, cooing and purring away.
  

Trick or Treat!

Well, Halloween is officially over now but we sure had a good time celebrating at our house over the last few days. Bree really got to make use of her costume: there was the Halloween parade first then we went to a party on Tuesday night, yesterday morning we dressed up for Halloween story time at the library and then there was the actual trick or treating to top it all off.

Here's the cowgirl all dressed up and ready to go around the neighborhood. It was so chilly that Noah and I decided to stay home and pass out the candy (we had a ton of trick or treaters!) while Brianna and Travis headed out. That's also why we added the jean jacket, gloves, and bandana to the costume...more for warmth than anything!

Heading out and taking a minute to pose in front of our entryway.

And then of course, you have to check out your bounty after you get back home. :)

Hope you had a nice Halloween as well!

Male Bonding

My parents were in town for a visit recently and I was looking over the pictures from their visit and had to share this one. It was just one of those days for Noah when a kid wants to snuggle up to his Grandpa and read Popular Photography with him, like you do. Actually Noah really likes both his Grandpas and had a great time with both of them on their respective recent visits, all smiles for them. (Just somehow we didn't end up with a picture of Noah with Papa Roger.) Now they're good buddies, ahhhhh....so cute together.

Halloween Parade

In our town there was a Halloween Parade this weekend so all the kids could parade up and down main street in their costumes and hit up the local businesses for treats. And Grammy Deb and Papa Roger happened to be in town as well so they joined in on the fun. It was a good time...

Brianna was Jessie from Toy Story this year. We hadn't showed her the costume yet so when we did she was very excited to get to put it on. (So whew! a whole possible, "I didn't want to be Jessie I wanted to be Larry Boy the Super Hero!" meltdown was averted.)

Grammy Deb escorted our little cowgirl down the street.

It was a pretty crowded scene actually. But it was fun to see all the kids in their cute little costumes, and some of the adults as well!

Brianna had a lot of fun, hangin' with the grandparents and checking out all the characters, we saw Elmo and Cookie Monster, Spider Man, Minnie Mouse, a robot, several horses, and even a Buzz Lightyear to name a few but Bree was the only Jessie I saw there.

Actually it was pretty cute she kept lifting off her hat and going, "Yee-haw cow-gril!"

Here she is getting some goodies. She was very good and would say "Trick or Treat" each time and also said "Thank you" even though she got mistaken for Woody a few times. She seemed to have fun but at one point announced, "I think I have enough candy for today!"
(Plus, is it just me or is the kid getting tall?)

Yep, overall I think we ended up with a pretty happy little "cowgril" on our hands and we aren't even done with the Halloween festivities yet!

Boy Band/Veggie Band

It's a fact that once you become a parent you end up watching more kids' shows than you want. Those very same cartoons that you used to love as a kid now...well tend to annoy the heck out of you with their repetitive songs and the characters' squeaky little voices. (Or, maybe it's just me getting old and crabby.) Either way, as a parent you see alot of them. (And quite often find yourself in public humming or singing some extremely silly little tune that you can't get out of your head..."Go Diego Go! Go Diego Go! Adventura amigos an adventure my friends..." And when you finally realize THAT's the song you've been humming you sneak a look around to see if anyone else overheard your embarassing little tune. Of course, if they actually RECOGNIZED it, that means they'd have to admit to watching those shows too so...)

No surprise, Bree likes to watch cartoons...she calls them "Brianna shows." One of our most favorite "Brianna shows," is Veggie Tales. We've been watching them for a long time now and we like them because they're fun for the kids and have some humor for the parents too. Plus, they're not as annoyingly obnoxious as some kids characters are. Well, in our opinions.

Anyways, one of their features is a segment called "Silly Songs with Larry." And the songs are always funny and catchy. Well, in one of the more recent shows instead of having a "silly song" they tried out doing a music video where the veggies did a boy band song. And they totally nailed it, complete with the total melodramatics and montage shots of the typical boy band music video.




Now, compare that to this next video, Incomplete by the Backstreet Boys, (which is one of the rare boy band songs I actually like). It's a typical melodramatic boy band love song. And I dare you to take it seriously after seeing how much it's just like the Veggie version. (As if anyone really takes that particular type of music video seriously before there were cartoons mocking it anyways.)

Incomplete

Now admit it, if you didn't smirk at that type of thing before, you did just now didn't you?

Big Ol' Buns

Now that Brianna's potty trained we end up spending quite a little chunk of our day hanging out in the bathroom. Bree likes company in there, you know, helps pass the time. :) So there we were the other day, her and I, in the bathroom, me perched on the edge of the tub and Brianna doing her thing. Being the chatty kid she was, of course, still talking nonstop the whole time we were in there...

Bree: "Hey Mom, I have little buns so it's kind of hard for me to sit on the big potty chair."
Me: "Yep, you sure do have little buns."
Bree: "Mom, when you were a little girl you had little buns too right?"
Me: "Yes, just like you."
Bree: "But now you're a big girl so you..... can sit on the big potty."
Me: "That's right."
Bree: "When I grow up I can use the big potty too right?"
Me: "Yep you can."

And it went on like that for a few minutes. Well, you can see where this is going... The kid didn't actually come out and say she thinks I have big buns but she said everything else around it - came dangerously close to it in fact. I couldn't decide if I was offended or amused but I went with amused since, considering I gave birth only 3 months ago I think I'm looking rather trim in the caboose area and you know actually, my buns are bigger than hers after all.

Incognito

I'm pretty sure my kids both think they are famous. Yes, because pretty much everywhere they go and everything they do there's the "Papa"-razzi, (Travis), tagging along, shouting "Look here, over here!" and snapping their photographs, many of which end up on the internet whether they like it or not. :) And, like many people who get their picture taken way too often, they can get kind of tired of it. When Brianna has decided she's had enough she'll start refusing to smile, make all kinds of faces including sticking her tongue out, and has been known to just come out and say, "No more pictures Daddy!" Well, now it seems Noah is also developing his own ways of dealing with dodging the "Papa"-razzi.

Here's him trying to go unnoticed by wearing a baseball cap. (Or he's just got a thing for hats. Or he's back into his baseball career considerations...)

Unfortunately for him, a flimsy disguise like only putting on a hat, or a pair of sunglasses, and then expecting people not to recognize you only works for Superman.

So then he tried to blend in with his surroundings. Can you spot the baby in this shot?

Obviously Mommy needs to keep up with the laudry a little better. But in my own defense those are CLEAN clothes, albeit perhaps a little, or a lot, wrinkly at that point. And also in my defense I was sick for several days when this shot was taken and got a little behind. The whole time I was sick my family was just so inconsiderate too...they just kept...you know, wearing clothes and creating more laundry! And they also kept eating and making dirty dishes too! Geesh! Some people! :)

P.S. Although I am poking fun at my poor husband in this post for his, shall we say, obsession with taking pictures I also have to express my appreciation to him. Without his, let's call it dedication this time, I really wouldn't have so many beautiful shots of the kids to capture their personalities and childhoods with. Thanks Trav!

Have Some Shorts...

A collection of short little stories for you:

• The other day Bree was happily scribbling away on a piece of paper. When she was done she brought it to me and said, "Mom, this is a map to the play park. Do you know what it says?" I answered, "Go to the play park?" "Nope," she informed me, "It says Greetings! Go to the play park and then come home and make dinner." "Oh," I said. Well, a few minutes later she was back with her "map." "Mom, do you know what this says?" she asked. I was pretty sure I knew the answer this time, "Greetings.." I started in. "No Mom!" she interrupted, "It says, Congratulations! You get to go to the play park!" How am I supposed to know the answer if it keeps changing? That was the first time she's used the words greetings and congratulations also so I pretty much had no chance of getting it right. But then, no matter what don't kids always kind of think their parents are a little slow on the uptake?


• Brianna walked up to her Daddy recently and stated "Dad, I have a problem!" "What's your problem?" he asked her. "My problem is that I don't have a dog named Odie. And we can't get a dog until we have a fence. (Which is the excuse we give her as to why we can't get a dog right now.) That's my problem." "Well," Trav told her, "Fences are kind of expensive so we can't get one right now but we're working on it." "But Dad!" she protested... I guess not having a dog when you really want one IS a problem for a kid.


• Bree is getting used to life with Noah but she still has some moments when I'm sure she gets a little frustrated. Like the other day when she was sort of cavorting around him while he was laying on a blanket in the floor. She just wanted to play with him but she sometimes has a hard time remembering he can't play at her level and she has to be careful around him. So there she was running around when she accidentally stepped on him. Naturally this didn't feel so hot to little Noah and he started wailing full force and then so did Brianna. I walked over closer to see if Noah was okay and Bree cried even harder, I think assuming she was in deep trouble. "It's okay. I know it was an accident." I told her and after a few minutes she calmed down. Later in the day she must have still been thinking about it and said, "Mom, when I stepped on Noah I cried and cried!"

• Despite a few unfortunate stepping on baby incidents Brianna really does like playing with her little brother. All I have to do is pretty much set him in his bouncy seat in her room and away she goes. So today when I was cleaning up her room I sat Noah in his little man recliner in her room and we were off on a grand imaginary adventure...."Mom, you and me are the bad guys and Noah is the good guy," Bree informed me. Yep, I guess she must like him pretty good if he gets to be the good guy. :)

• Recently Bree had a litttle sore spot on the roof of her mouth. She kept poking at it and it was bothering her so much I decided that I'd try to get a little Oragel on there to make it feel better. So, I put a little on her finger and told her to touch the hurty spot in her mouth, (like she'd been doing all day), but instead she decided to taste the medicine first and stuck her finger on her tongue. Well, as you probably know Oragel tastes horrible and so Brianna made a yucky face and then said, "Mom I don't need medicine, my mouth is all better now!" Lesson being I guess that if the cure is worse than the ailment, most patients will be magically healed!


• As some of you may know, Bree was Buzz Lightyear last year for Halloween. Well, this year when we asked her what she wants to be she told us, Jesse (the cowgirl from Toy Story 2). So, we thought, the Toy Story theme continues. Now you can't buy a Jesse costume in most stores so I needed to order it online. But as you know, pretty much once you buy that way there's no going back. So every day for a week I asked Brianna, "What do you want to be for Halloween?" and each time she would answer with "Jesse!" So, I took the plunge and ordered a Jesse costume online. Well, of course, I think it was the day after the costume arrived and had secretly stashed it in my closet as a big surprise that Bree announced she wants to be....Larry Boy (From Veggie Tales) instead. Oy! Problem is I looked and the don't make Larry Boy costumes being as he IS a rather obscure character in the cartoon kingdom. So I'm still hoping that I can pull the Jesse costume out as a surprise and Bree'll be so excited she'll forget the Larry Boy thing. (I hope! Or we may end up with one unhappy and tearful little trick or treater.) But as a tribute to Bree's favorite cartoon super hero and for those of you unfamiliar with him, I leave you with this intro to Larry Boy... click here

NickName Game

First off, I must apologize ahead of time to anyone in the following blog who might find themselves feeling embarrassed or harassed as a result of the stories I am about to share (namely my parents and my husband who I am hoping are good sports). I am sorry but I just had to share...

On my side of the family we tend to call each other funny little names to tease each other just for the fun of it. I dunno, it's sort of a weird family tendency but there it is. Well anyways, this little habit has not been lost on Bree. She picks up on these types of things pretty quickly. So, we have to be careful how we refer to each other if we don't want Bree picking a silly/embarrassing nickname to permanently call someone.

For example, my poor dad is now often referred to as "Stinky Pete" by Bree. See, "Stinky Pete" is from one brief line in Toy Story 2, which we happened to be watching one time when my parents were visiting and my Mom and I thought was an amusing name to teasingly call Dad the rest of the day. And ever since then, more often than not poor old Grandpa Randy, aka "Papa Granny" (as if that one weren't bad enough), gets referred to as Stinky Pete.

My Mom doesn't get off though. She is now and forever deemed "GooGoo Baby." Now, that one comes from a game that Bree was playing with her Grammy one day where Brianna got to be the mommy and Grandma was supposed to play the baby. Of course, my mom is the type who's more than willing to indulge her grandchild and play along. And so, there she was happily replying "goo goo" to whatever Bree said. In fact, whenever Grammy tried to talk in words Brianna corrected her. "You're supposed to say 'goo goo' Grammy!" Hence the name "GooGoo Baby."

This particular nickname thing seems to only apply to relatives on my side, (even my cousin Amy got dubbed "Evinrude" when visiting one time). And, I'm sure much to their relief, Trav's parents have managed to escape such nicknames so far. Thus, when Bree lists off her grandparents it goes like this, "Papa Roger, Grammy Deb, Stinky Pete and GooGoo Baby!"

Even Travis is not exempt from this nickname thing... The other day he wanted to make Bree laugh and so he did a silly little dance. "Your dad is a weirdo," I said to Brianna. "Tell him he's a weirdo!" Obediently she said, "You're a weirdo!" "Make that Dr. Weirdo!" he replied. (Insert reference to one of Trav's favorite "adult cartoons" AquaTeen Hunger Force here.) And so now, on a fairly regular basis Bree will stroll up to her father and start a sentence with, "Hey Dr. Weirdo..."

Oh well, it does keep the conversations pretty interesting when you're talking about such characters as Stinky Pete and Dr. Weirdo. And naturally, we only use these little nicknames in the most loving and respectful way possible. :P

Milestones

SLEEPING THROUGHT THE NIGHT

Last night was the first time that Noah really and truly slept all the way through the night. I mean, he's slept for good 4-5 hr. chunks before but I'm not sure if I consider it to be "sleeping through the night" when I have to get up while it's still dark, dragging my feet through the thick fog of sleep and blinking my red-streaked eyes at a screaming baby. But last night Noah slept from 10 pm to 5:30 am. Wow! That's so great for a baby of his age and kind of unusual as well. I'm pretty sure it was a fluke so I really don't expect that to be the norm from now on. And unfortunately for me, I didn't really get to enjoy last night's fluke record sleep streak for a variety of reasons. (But I can just picture it if I did...I would have woken up with a glowing complexion, a sparkle in my eye, and soft and shiny hair that looked like I just came from the salon...) First off I didn't go to bed until around 12:30 am (no good reason, just up) then, Bree was up and crying somewhere in there. I didn't have to get up and comfort her, she just cried for a minute and then was back asleep but it was enough, with my "Mommy radar" to wake me and keep me wondering and awake for about a half hour. Then Noah was up so I had to go grab him out of his crib, nurse him, and tuck him into bed with me in hopes of getting more sleep. Just when I was nodding off...Trav's alarm went off. And, here's the thing about Trav's alarm, he sets it for an hour before he actually needs to get up since it practically takes an act of God to pry him out of the bedsheets and into the shower. So, he has to have several loud alarms going off about every 15 minutes (which he sleeps through) and me repeatedly kicking him (but only because I'm such a caring concerned wife that I want him to be on time for work) before he's officially "awake." (And for those of you who are in a position to know about Trav's sleep patterns, I'm really not being cruel or exaggerating - he sleeps like the dead.) It's usually about this time every morning that I give up on any hope of 10 more minutes of sleep and chug 2 cups of coffee as a consolation. To top this all off I also have a fairly vicious cold right now so in between all that I was trying to roll over so that I could keep alternating nostrils open for breathing. Yep, just your typical night at our house. But, the point is that Noah slept throught the night! Hooray!


PRINCESS OF PANTIES

Brianna has now successfully been wearing underwear for almost an entire week now! (Although I almost hesitate to say it for fear of jinxing our success.) But, after a week I think I can say that we are, at long, long last, "potty trained." The whole issue has been a sore spot for us over the past year. We'd make some progress and then she'd backslide. Over and over again. In fact, she was virtually trained just before our big move 6 months ago and then it was just gone *poof* after the move. No surprise really since that kind of thing is to be expected when kids have such a major change in their lives. Of course, then after that I knew we'd be getting Noah soon so I put off really pushing the training until after he'd come and Bree was reasonably adjusted to him. This all kind of came to a head about 2 weeks ago when Brianna figured out how to changer her own diaper. Yes, you read that right. She decided she had a soggy diaper and so she just pulled the straps, left the sopping diaper where it lay on the floor and strapped on a new one. It was at this point I decided we were going to give up diapers. After all, if you can change your own you are ready to move on! And now we seem to be doing great. I almost can't believe it since over the past year I've tried everything, incentives from candy to toys, parental praise, potty instructional movies (THAT was a great one. She wouldn't USE the potty but could sing a number of catchy songs about it) and even trying to convince her she was ready to be a big girl, etc. So I'm not sure what finally clicked but as I said, panties for a week now. And the great part is that since she's getting at this whole using the potty thing at the later end of the spectrum she's also been wearing her underwear to bed and waking up dry as well. In fact, I've been kind of amused since now the first thing I hear in the morning from her is the sound of her little feet running into the bathroom and the door closing. I suppose the only small down side is the amount of embarassing potty talk in public, you know, like when she suddenly announced which kinds of potty she intends to make and in what quantities. :)

Milestones for both kids this week then.

Kids of Many Different Hats

You know that old saying that you don't know someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes? Well, in our family we apparently think you don't know someone until you've walked a mile wearing their hat.

It all started when we set out for a walk the other evening. It was a bit chilly so Bree decided to wear her new winter hat.

But, being 3 it wasn't long before she decided she didn't want to wear the hat anymore. So, since I had somehow spaced out putting one on Noah, I just popped hers on him. He was pretty happy about it at first...

But, then I think he started to feel a little silly wearing his sister's hat.

Then Bree decided she needed a hat after all and stole her daddy's ball cap to wear.

Lucky for Travis I wasn't wearing a hat at the time or else he may have ended up looking silly walking down the street with it on - since we seemed to be playing musical hats.

I suppose the whole thing wasn't that surprising considering Bree has had a thing for hats from pretty early on...

And she's always thought wearing daddy's hat was fun as well...

And it's early yet, so we'll just have to see if the hat fetish continues with Noah. :)

Tiger

In case you haven't noticed, Travis takes tons of pictures of our kids. And he's been pretty thrilled lately since 2 things have been happening with Bree. 1- She's old enough to kind of take directions about their "photo shoots" (Like, "Now look at me and smile." or "Step back!" etc.) and 2 - She has started to show an interest in photography and can now turn the camera back around on him.

Keep those things in mind as you look at the shots from this "photo shoot" Trav took the other day to get shots of Bree's cool hairdo. Now, I wasn't actually there for this one, (I think I was feeding Noah at the time), but looking at the shots I can just imagine how it went....

Here Trav probably said, "Okay, look at me and smile Brianna!"

(Trav says) "Good. That's nice."

"Okay, now be angry. Yeah and drool a bit to show how mad you are..."

"And now you're so mad, you're a tiger! Grrr..."


And then it was Bree's time to turn the camera around on her dad...(and yes, she actually took these herself.)

(Bree says) "Smile Daddy!"

"And now you're angry...be a tiger!"

Okay, okay. I'm sure that's not actually how it went down at all. But it sure is funny to think of the two of them out there doing a whole cliched photoshoot..."That's right the camera loves you!" type of thing.

Lefty?

As Noah is growing his personality is starting to come out more and more. He has been holding true to his early pattern of being a happy and laid back little guy. (But then, I did do a lot of praying for an "easy" baby when I was pregnant so...) Now Noah not only smiles at the ceiling fan but also will have big smiles for his parents and sister if we smile at him. Actually it doesn't seem to take much, he smiles easily and even wakes up with a smile for mommy each morning! He's generally pretty content unless he's hungry (which seems to be often and would account for his hefty size) or if he's tired. But even then he's a sweet lamb and when I can tell he's getting cranky and sleepy I can just lay him down in his crib while he's awake and walk away. And then, get this, he actually falls asleep! This is a new thing for me since there's no way Brianna would have ever gone down for a nap that way at that age. ('Cause she's always been a peppy and fiery kind of little gal.)

Noah's newest discovery is his hand. He is just amazed that he has one and he likes to watch it waving around in the air for long stretches of time. At this point I'm not real sure if he realizes that he is actually controlling it though. It's kind of funny to watch him just be mesmerized by his own little fist. I guess it's kind of like TV for babies, or maybe more like Atari? Noah has also discovered hands are well, handy, because he likes to suck on his fist. He has sort of an obsession right now and if he doesn't have his pacifier he has to suck on his fist. No, not his thumb, his whole fist!

With all this fist staring and sucking though I've made an observation. It always seems to be his left hand he's using. I guess it's a little early to tell but I would like to think that he might turn out to be a lefty, just like his Mommy! (and his Uncle Doug and his Great Grandpa Don.)

Where I Stand

Every day around here I get several offers to come play in Brianna's room. "Mom, would you like to come play in my room? It's really fun!" Sometimes I say yes and sometimes if I'm in the middle of something I have to say no. Well, the other day when I was walking past Bree's room I heard her say, "Would you like to come sit at my table?" Naturally, thinking she was talking to me I said, "Not right now baby I have to go change your brother's diaper. Maybe in a minute." This garnered me the quick response of, "Not YOU Mom! I was talking to Jim!" (Her little imaginary friend.) Oh! Well, you can imagine my embarrassment. :D

Then the other day all four of us were at the park when Bree jumped up from where we were sitting on the grass and said, "I'm ready to play! Daddy, will you come with me? You're my best friend!" And I'm thinking, well what does that make me?


Finally, the other day as we were crossing through a parking lot to get to the car Brianna tried to get away with not holding my hand. For me, this is a non-negotiable thing since it's a safety issue. So, I grabbed her hand and we walked to the car (read as I pretty much dragged her kicking and screaming bloody murder across the lot). Once we arrived at the car Bree stood there sobbing and yelled, "I don't want a Mommy!" I guess I could have let it hurt my feelings but I took a deep breath and reminded myself her safety is sometimes more important than her feelings and filed it away as a classic motherhood moment.

So overall, I guess I know where I stand...I'm the one who often has to play the heavy and do horrible things like, you know, say no sometimes or actually enforce rules. I guess that's why sometimes the imaginary friends get invited to play in Bree's room before I do. But the little tough moments are sure outweighed by those other moments when my little girl wraps her arms around me and tells me, "I love you Mom!" :)

Again with the Breeisms

• "Pie-ano" - Bree's version of the word piano. "Mom, see I'm playing my pie-ano!"


• Party-fiesta - Brianna now knows several words in Spanish, due to her watching shows like "Go Diego Go" or "Dora the Explorer" that promote both languages. So, the other day we attended a party and Bree says, "It's a fiesta!"


• "twelveteen" - Which is, apparently, the number that comes after eleven in Bree's world. "Nine, ten, eleven, twelveteen!"
  
• "Tallian Sodas" - Italian sodas, one of Bree's all time favorite drinks according to her. "Mmmm. I love Tallian Soda Daddy. It's my favorite!"
  
• "yesterday" - In Bree's world everything happened "yesterday." Even those things which actually happened months ago. So, if we go to the park one day and then we're back a week later she'll say, "Mom, we were here yesterday!" Every time, happens without fail.


• ice water - Brianna refuses to drink water without ice. She likes it cold and also "fresh" I think thanks to her Grammy DeeDee teaching her about "freshing" (refreshing) water a few months back. There's no give on this issue either, if you even try to give her water without ice she sends it back and refuses to even sip it.

Doll Baby

I guess Brianna must like her little brother pretty well. She seems to want to include him in her playtime and in her life in general, as evidenced by the earmuff and modesty leaf incidents. Which is nice for me because even though Noah's only a few months old, they can already "play" together, or at least Bree can hang out near him with her toys, and it keeps them both amused.
Well Bree was at it again today. She decided to play dolls with Noah. Literally, she treated him like one of her dollies...

Can you tell which of these is the real life baby?

Okay, I guess it's pretty obvious, partly because the rest of the babies are getting treated so badly, lying face down in a jumble, and partially because Noah's the biggest. He's a big boy! He's already in size 2 diapers and that outfit is a size 6-9 months, so he's alot bigger than the other dollies.

Plus he's the only smiling "dolly," he's just a happy boy.

And in this shot he's even got some "cupie doll" hair going on.

Fit's right in there though huh...what a "doll!"

And truth be told, Noah enjoys these little playtime sessions as much as Brianna does. Just look at the look of pure adoration he's giving her as she leans over to tell him something.

And here's Bree pretending to feed both herself and Noah a dolly bottle. What could be better than a real live dolly right?

Hair!

Unfortunately for her, Brianna was doomed to have the same kind of hair as both her parents...fine, pale, and wispy fly-away. This means that most the time she goes around with an interesting sort of birds nest on the back of her head since it seems no matter how many times I comb it, it's just back into a mess a few minutes later. This also means that the poor kid doesn't seem to have a whole lot of hair. It's just so blond and fine that while it's there, you just don't see it most the time. I'm always in awe of those little girls who, at eighteen months, have hair down their backs. That's not the way we do it in this family I guess.

Well, anywho, Bree's hair is finally starting to get some length to it and we managed to capture it in a few shots. So, I thought I'd share these cute pix that show how long her hair is getting.

Yep, this is "long hair" for her.

Notice the crop job she did on her bangs has finally grown back out.

I think she may have gotten just a little of her Grammy Deb's natural waviness to her hair with the way it's doing natural "Farrah" wings.

Rooms to Grow in...

Just wanted to share a few pix of the kids' rooms since I promised I would about 30 blogs back and also because well, I want to since it was my overruling obsession before Noah was born to get both their rooms all done up to my satisfaction. So, I want to share the final results. (I know I've shared Bree's before but it wasn't done, no curtains, etc.) I've actually been meaning to do this for awhile but just never got around to it and whenever I thought of it, well, the rooms were, ahem, unpresentable. So, after I had them both cleaned up the other day I quickly snapped a few photos...partially to help me remember what their rooms look like clean since they tend to stay this way for about 2.5 minutes after they're picked up and tidy. (I know what you're thinking: how could Noah possibly mess up his room at his age? Well I'll tell you - he has a big sister! Once her room is thoroughly trashed she moves on to his...) Anyways, here's their rooms:

Somehow, they both ended up having sort of jungle-y themes (perhaps due to my subconcious beleif that children would feel more in touch with wild animals) :), although the jungle thing is way more obvious in Noah's room. And also they both ended up with stripes ('cause maybe I think stripes are fun?). And despite my best efforts to not do the whole cliched and unoriginal thing where we have a pink girls room and a blue boys room Bree's room is definitely, well, pink and Noah's does have blue accents so.... Oh well, that's what's sort of fun about having one of each I guess. And when they're grown they may roll their eyes at me for the pink/blue thing but they're young enough I can get away with it knowing full well when they are old enough to express a color preference we'll end up with new paint colors anyways, no matter what I do now.

But overall I'm happy with how the rooms turned out. I feel like they feel young and fun but are still not overly babyish so I can change the accesories to grow with them - at least for a few years yet.

So, there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about their rooms and why they are the way they are. But, at least you now have a context in which to picture them when I tell you these little stories. :)