Brendan Sum Up

Brendan...I've been slacking, there has been so much going on with you and I haven't written any of it down.  September, October, and November are all through and here we are in December, and you'll be 33 months old in about 2 weeks!  We have had a very busy fall; you started school, we went on our first Disney trip with Grandma and Grandpa V, we went to the apple orchard, the pumpkin patch, and you dressed up as a cow for Halloween!  You made hand turkeys and we colored big turkeys for everyone in our family telling them that you are thankful for them.  And now you are super excited for Christmas; you understand what is going on and you walk around telling everyone "Merry Christmas".  You have helped decorate our house; it looks so festive.  One of your favorite things is our Dickens Village Christmas collections.  You sit and stare at the houses and buildings for long periods of time.  We have an Elf on the Shelf for the first time this year, you named your Scout Elf, Chippy.  The other day we asked you what you wanted Santa to bring you for Christmas, and you said, "Santa will bring me Thomas, gifts, money, and books."  You love to put coins and bills into your little blue piggy bank.

You have grown so much, you are 38.75 inches right now and about 31 pounds; my long and lean big boy.  School is one of your favorite things, along with going to your weekly library class that Mrs. M leads.  You can now put on your jacket all by yourself!  Miss Debbie and Miss Nicole at school have been teaching you to put on your own jacket and we've practiced at home and now you can do it all by yourself.  You are so incredibly proud of yourself and every time you accomplish this task you run and give me a huge hug!  You can now drink out of a big boy cup...we are so proud of you!  It took you a lot of practice and many spills, but you didn't want to give up, you kept trying and you finally drink out of a big boy cup at our meal times.

Music and singing...you can't get enough.  You make up your own songs and sing all day long.  Plus you sing all of your favorite songs...all day long.  Right now, some of your favorite songs are "Puff the Magic Dragon", "Sweet Baby James", and anything Raffi related.  You've started to dance now too; it's so much fun to have dance parties with you.  Sometimes you take me by the hands and ask me to dance with you because I am a princess and we sway back and forth holding hands.  You are my prince!

Lately, you've been working on the letter sounds, by yourself.  I catch you saying a word (soap) and then thinking about what it starts with and then you'll say the letter sound (sssssss) and the letter name (s).  You're always thinking and always reading; you still love your books and I hope you always will.

You have been so animated, amazing, fun, silly, and funny; we love you so much and are so proud of you, but sometimes you drive us nuts too!  You are one of the most stubborn people I know (and you get that from me) and right now you're going through a phase where you are beyond contrary.  If you want or need something, you say the opposite.  For example, when you really want to have a certain snack or go to a certain place (i.e. Grandma's house) and you can sense it won't be instant gratification, instead of asking for that particular thing outright, you madly say, "I don't want cookies after dinner!" or "I don't want to see Grandma and Grandpa!"....when clearly, these are things you want.  You'll repeat those proclamations over and over and over and over.  You do it for everything and you do it ALL DAY LONG.  We left your friend Everett's house yesterday, and the whole way home, you yelled that you didn't want to see Everett soon.  Did I miss something, is it opposite day, every day?

Your testing the limits with so many things, as many children your age do, and your listening skills have taken a nosedive!  We'll ask you to do something or not do something and you slyly look over your shoulder and run away or continue doing what you shouldn't be doing.

On a more positive note, you love to help and you are becoming more and more independent every day. You are constantly telling us, "I can do it by myself!"  You love to help us build and fix things...especially when tools are involved.  You walk around like a little handyman; your favorite tools are the tape measurer, hammer, and drill.

You are excited about your baby sister coming, but at the same time you get very upset about it.  Sometimes you shut down completely if talk of your baby sister comes up and other times you excitedly tell us about the things you'll do for the baby when she gets here.  You have felt your sister kick you and you were so excited!  Only 10 more weeks to go and you get to meet her!

And how could I forget about your sleeping habits!  You are one silly guy.  You've been sleepwalking a few times now and you do very odd things while sleepwalking.  One time you went into your bathroom in the middle of the night, grabbed your toothbrush and toothbrush holder and threw them down the hallway.  Another time, you came into my room, and started knocking on my bedroom wall, and then went into my bathroom and stood in there with the door closed for about 1 minute with no lights on.  And you talk in your sleep A LOT!  You also must have a lot of bad dreams, because you wake up crying a lot in the middle of the night.  You come to my room and ask to be tucked in again, sometimes you come in 5 or 6 times.  Other nights you are quiet and sleep soundly all night long (those are my favorite nights).  You are an early-riser; you get up between 5 and 5:30 every day.  You know that you need to stay in your room and wait for your special clock to turn green (6:30), but you still come and visit me every 15 minutes, in between reading books.  You end up reading about 10-20 books every morning.  You leave a big pile by your shelf, as you sit and read books until your clock turns green.  I love hearing you down the hall, reading all of your favorite books.

Hopefully, I can keep up with you Brendan and write about all the great (and not so great) things you do, so that I don't have to jam all of it into one post!