Brendan, the Explorer

Brendan, the Explorer
Mr. Handsome

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Fork please!

Brendan apparently loves to be proper.  If I go to put even a snack on his high chair tray without a plate, he will refuse to eat it until I get a "plate" and he has to have his "fork"...which at this point comes out like the dreaded f--k word.  The thing I don't understand is that he was saying "fork" just fine and then all of a sudden it changed.  It was incredibly hard not to laugh, but I didn't.  I guess even a disgusting word like that can sound super cute coming out of a 22 month's old month, especially since he has no clue what he's saying.  Hmmmm, he can say the number "four" okay...I must work on this, I think we'll be pretty safe, unless we go out to eat.

"What color is this block?"  "Blue!" (It's green.) "And this one?"  "Blue!" (It's red.)  "And this one?"  "Blue!"  "Woo hoo, you got one!"  That's how the colors have been going, up until today!  Today at the library (where B sat up front during our Babies and Books class and shouted out the correct animal noises for each page!!!--huge progress, because he wasn't sitting on my lap shying away!) B started to play with the rainbow ring stacking tower and as he pulled off he ring he said the color...on his own!  We won't count orange right now, we need to work on orange.  But the rest were correct!

B has an amazing sense of humor and an incredible personality; it's already shining at just under 2 years old.  He is a card and he's hysterical.  It's hard to put into words how awesome he really is.

B can't get enough of his tent.  Every few minutes he comes up to one of us and says "hand, tent".  So we'll go lay in his tent and he wants us to pretend to sleep so that he can wake us up.  I like it because I can close my eyes and rest them for a few seconds at a time; plus he gets a kick out of it.

Poor B had an ear infection and a sinus infection, his first ever.  I was worried about him taking the antibiotics, but I shouldn't have worried.  He loves his "medcine", he seriously wants to take it 4 times a day, not the allotted 2.  He is going to be very disappointed when the 10 days are up...


I finally uploaded the pictures from my Grandma's 94th birthday!

The Carpenters

Helping GiGi blow out the candles

She just loves Brendan

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Too fast

In just about 2 months Brendan will turn two!  Um, what?!  I'm head over heels in love with my little boy.  He is amazing.  His speech now resembles that of a parrot and his vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds!  I'm just waiting for him to start talking in full sentences any time now.  He is a super sweet boy, who is very empathetic to everyone around him.  Whenever he sees the Blackhawks logo, he now says "hockey" and Mickey has progressed from "mihee" to "mickey".  Playing with Brendan is so much fun now, especially as he plays in his own kitchen and cooks me a hot dog (on the stove in a pot) and pours me milk.  He recognizes and says all the letters in his name and a few others in the alphabet and can recognize and say all numbers 1-10...and when they're not in order!  I love seeing him grow!

B is very particular about things (he really does have my OCD, or perhaps he just observes my OCD and imitates it).  He goes around arranging the toys as they were before we started playing and he cleans up very thoroughly.  This morning he took out his step stool and carried it into the kitchen so he could watch me make his breakfast and when breakfast was ready he promptly carried the step stool back to where it belongs.  Very cute.  After breakfast, I went upstairs to get dressed and left B to play downstairs.  When I returned, he had moved the step stool back to the kitchen counter and was playing with the vitamins I had put out for myself and Charlie.  I panicked, which then scared the crud out of him.  Not very cute.  But in the end, all vitamins were accounted for and mommy learned a very important lesson.

Another lesson I learned over the weekend, was to carry one of those special "keys" that unlocks doors from the outside.  Brendan and I went with my parents to visit my grandma (GiGi to the great-grandkids) on her 94th birthday, up in Spring Green, WI.  My parents were spending the night, we were not.  I would rather make the 2 hr. 20 min. drive home with a sleeping child in the backseat than try and stay the night with him.  Brendan went into the hotel bathroom, closed the door and we let him back out.  This went on for a little while.  I got distracted with something and then realized that he was in there still (it had been about 1 min.) and when I went to open the door, I couldn't.  GASP!  He turned the little lock.  CRAP!  Grandpa's toothbrush was banged against the toilet and then dropped on the floor.  Every once in awhile he'd get upset and cry "mom", but Grandma had him counting and singing as a distraction.  It finally took Grandpa's pliers from his car toolbox and a paper clip from my purse and 20 min. (and a not very helpful office) and he was out!  We have about 4 of those special unlocking keys for the twist lock that the builder left in our house above each doorway.  One is now in my purse.