Magically Delicious

 

I bought these jammies for Brandon for St. Patrick's Day. It was so cute because after Joby got him dressed he came running out to tell me he was Magically Delicious!

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Meeting Aunti P

 
 
 
 
Brandon got to meet my Aunt Priscilla this month. We had a very fun filled week when she was here!! She let Brandon feed the giraffs at the zoo and they played, played, played. For days after she left he aske me if we were going to Grammy's house to see Auntie P!

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Chatter, Chatter, Chatter

Brandon talks more than I do now (hard to believe but it's true!) and man does that little boy LOVE to sing. We bought him a little CD player for his play room and showed him how to turn it on and off. And we have a bunch of kids CDs for him to play. His vocabulary has doubled (which is scary) in about two weeks from just singing, singing, singing. At two he's already singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Row, Row, Row your Boat, most of the ABCs, and a few other songs that are originals to the artist that have words like Doodlebugs, Burrito, Dinosaurs, Violin, etc. (By the way all you moms out there - The Laurie Berkner Band is a GREAT kids group. Such fun songs. Brandon asks to listen to her every day.) He makes me laugh so much. We've made up dances to a lot of the songs and it's so much fun to watch him initiate them now. If he's playing by himself and I hear the music I sometimes peak and discover him doing the moves to the songs even when no one is watching. I LOVE IT!

I also discovered today how much Brandon wants to help me out. And by "help me out" I mean "not so much." I was nursing Alex on the sofa and we were watching Little Einsteins on TV together. I saw Brandon go over to the coffee table and pick up one of Alex's clean diapers and turn it over in his hand, then look over at me, smile, turn it over in his hand again, then look at me again and say "I help you Mommy!" And off he ran. I called to him several times to stop, to no avail, what 2 year old on a "help Mommy mission" is going to stop for Mommy? Then I heard the Diaper Champ pail turn over. Then Brandon ran back out to the family room and he looked at me, smiled, and said "All done Mommy. Diaper TRASH!" At which point I couldn't help but say "Thank you," send Joby a text message about what just happened, sigh because diapers are expensive enough without him wasting the clean ones, and laugh because my 2 year old is so funny and smart all at the same time.

And lastly - Brandon had his 2 year doctor's visit last week. He was 30 lbs and 33 inches tall. We brought a few books to entertain ourselves while we waited. Well when Dr. Chally came in he insisted on showing her his books. He then proceeded to "read" her every color in one of them (it's a book about colors). She was floored. So she took the book and randomly flipped pages (in case he had the order memorized and didn't really know his colors) and Brandon still got all his colors correct. She just looked at me and said "How did you do that? How did you get him to learn his colors so fast?" I was sort of surprised. I told her we colored a lot and what else is there to talk about when a child just scribbles with a crayon? And we have lots of legos and always talk about what colors they are with him when we play. Well - she told me that she looks for children to know about 3-4 colors at their 3 year old visits and that is was extremely unusual for a brand new 2 year old to know so many. So Brandon knows these colors - Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange (which sounds like Ocean when he says it), Purple (the most fun one to say for him), Brown, Black, White, Pink and Gold. (Last week he said "Aqua" at my mom's house for that color crayon but he hasn't repeated that yet). I find it hard to believe this was a big a deal as the pediatrician said. I feel like we just play with Brandon and haven't tried to push any sort of learning on him at all. We just have a lot of fun, act silly, sing, dance, etc more than anything else. So it was a really cool visit to the doctor that day, despite getting three shots at the end. :)

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The Playroom

 

We finally moved all the toys out of our family room and made the front living room a playroom, our plan all along when we bought the house. I had painted the walls the week before Alex was born and just recently added the boys names. It turned out really cute and Brandon just loves to put on his music (note the little white boombox in the corner under the table) and play with his trains or blocks, read his books or whatever. I caught him playing with his magnadoodle yesterday.

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Brandon is 2!!!

 

 

 

 

Well our little boy is now our big boy. He turned two and was delighted to receive a train table from us. He LOVES trains and cars and anything with wheels really. It was a good birthday.

Brandon is such a good boy. He is sweet, smart and really very funny. He has learned so much in the past year and it seems that in the past few weeks he's really become a chatterbox. He speaks in full sentences now and it's not that often that we don't have any idea what he is saying. The fun thing is that he still signs to us occassionally too. I love that.

He has also discovered that he has some control and influence over the world around him and it's been interesting to see when he chooses to exercise that ability. We call it "being 2." We can't complain though. We see other kids in the stores and realize just how lucky we are that our 2 year old isn't like those 2 year olds.

Right now Brandon pretends to sleep when you ask him to do something he doesn't want to do. He will put his head down or against the nearest object (the wall, the sofa, the floor, whatever) and fake snoring, all the while staring at us. I know he's testing us, pushing his limits on purpose. Sometimes it's really funny and hard not to laugh at - other times, not so much. Most of the time it's all very benign. I've found that teaching him basic sign language is coming in very handy (ha!) even now. When he isn't listening or is "being 2" I have found that by speaking to him and signing to him at the same time it somehow breaks through the stubborness and he responds better. It doesn't work all the time but it does cut down on a lot of frustration.

His favorite movie at the moment is Disney's Cars. He can recite whole sections of it and sometimes starts before the scene actually is on screen. He even knows the songs and will sing parts before they start as well. It's very cute. The nice thing for us is that this is a good movie and we can still enjoy it even after a million times watching it. He also continues to like the Baby Einsteins videos, especially the ones where he can do the sign language with the kids on the screen. And the Einstein puppets always make him laugh, sometimes hysterically.

Brandon is becoming quite the singer too. He can sign almost all of the They Might Be Giants "Violin" song - I need to get that whole thing on video for you all to see. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is also a favorite. He sang that for Grandma Janet on the phone the other day. Too cute! We've put more kids CDs in the car and Brandon loves to listen to them. For you parents out there - The Laurie Berkner Band is a huge favorite of ours. She's got some really fun songs that we find ourselves humming or singing around the house (or at work!).

Our boy is also getting so much taller. He can see in to the kitchen drawers now when he pulls them out! And is pants are approaching the "almost too short" length. A month ago they were too long. I swear you blink and they grow up. He's 2! Brandon is 2! When did that happen?

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Christmas 2007

 

 

 

 

Brandon was a very good boy this past year and Santa brought him a lot of great presents to play with for another year.

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Loving Baby Alex

Many of you have asked how Brandon is adjusting to having a new baby brother. Well we couldn't have asked for a better transition. Brandon hasn't missed a beat, nor has he beaten his baby brother. In fact, he absolutely loves him. Brandon is always on top of Alex crying, often becoming Captain Obvious by announcing "Baby Brother Cry!" But he does follow that up with "Baby Brother Happy!" when Alex settles down. One morning I was taking a shower while Alex slept in the swing and Brandon watched Mickey Mouse. Well Alex started to cry to I peeked out of the shower as I was about to get out and discovered Brandon standing in front of the swing, holding Alex's pacifier, trying in vain to insert it in Alex's mouth while the swing was moving, resulting in a drooping arm, hand wagging vision while he recited "Baby Brother Ah-kay!" over and over again to try to comfort him. It was so sweet and comical at the same time. We have had our moments that Brandon doesn't understand that I have to sit and nurse Alex and I can't "run, run, run" or play at that particular moment. And in some of those moments reading books just doesn't cut it. But overall Brandon is a fantastic, wonderful big brother and absolutely adorable, giving hugs and kisses (gently)to Alex every day.

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