Brayden and Brynn: February 2007

Brayden loves to help Daddy fix things. He has his own electric screwdriver and uses my head light to help out.

Brayden counted from 1-13 for the first time tonight, all by himself. Daddy and I were blown away.

I drew a triangle the other day and asked him what it was. He said "triangle", of course, but then added, "3 sides" and traced the outline of the sides with his finger. Wow!

I got Brayden sorting cups with teddy bears at the used store. He has been matching colors on his ball game so, I thought he just might be challenged by it. He got it the first time I showed him what to do. He would even say, "Red cup, red bear. Blue cup, blue bear." I only showed him what to do I did not used color words like he did. He is amazing!

The other night at dinner we forgot to say our prayers. Brayden ate a few bits and stopped, putting his hands together and said his own prayer. It went like this: "Thank you God, for our food, ate our food, a great day, bears. Amen." I thought it was a beautiful prayer, especially for his first prayer by himself.

We are having regular give and take conversations every day now. He helps sing songs and read stories with me. I am starting to give him some choices and he is able to pick between two things he wants sometimes. We are having more fun than ever. I am loving this stage.

Here are some of his funny looks as he says, "Broken Daddy!"

Brayden loves to make noises in cups and bowls and hear his voice sound funny.

Here is Brayden playing fall on the bed.

Here is Brayden waking up.

He loves his baby!

Mommy used to sleep like this all the time as a child.

Brayden loves to make faces. He can make a happy face, which you see here, an angry face, and a scared face.

And, of course, a silly face!

Brayden plays is the snow every day. We made a BIG snowman today.

This is his scared face.

Gramma and Grampa Overly and Auntie E come in 4 days. We are so excited!

Feb. 21 (20 months)

This is our “Cool Dude” and all he is up to these days:

We have started doing a little Jesus and God study and worship for Brayden on Sunday mornings. I was talking with him about God and how he loves us and gives us all our wonderful things and Brayden blurted out “Thank you God.” He said it many times throughout our talk and songs. It is the way we end every day now after our bedtime prayers and saying night, night to our picture of Jesus.

Brayden loves to practice playing instruments soft and quiet and dancing slow and fast. At the pool he is learning to lean on the side of the pool and kick his feet. We kick fast and slow, too. At the pool he also is learning to hold on to the side and move himself along the edge.

Brayden wants to be outside all day. He loves sweeping the water off the deck and jumping in the puddles. He loves playing stop and run on out front. He picks up all the sticks he can find. I am often worried about him running with two sticks in his hands, but I suppose all boys do this. We play hide-n-seek around the treed trunks and he likes to run into my arms as I twirl him around in the air. We examine and talk about all the things in nature. We even had a picnic lunch outside today.

Brayden was feeling one of his touchable books the other day and found the page with a sheep on it. He looks up at me while touching it and said, “Woolly!” I thought it was so funny the word choice. No soft, but “woolly!”

He identifies and can say all his shapes now: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, heart, star, diamond, and moon. He is getting really good with his colors also. We still have some trouble with orange and green, but he loves to say white and gray and pink. He can also match his balls game color balls to the corresponding color holes. He is always pointing out and commenting on what shape and color things are or counting how many of something.

I told Brayden to get ready to go out and looked over at him after I was ready and he had his hat and mittens on. He can also take off his Velcro shoes and up zip his coat zipper.

He loves ice cream. Daddy always puts whip top on his coffee. Brayden calls it “I Keem!” He gets a cup of whip top to eat him self. He loves it. He loves real ice cream also, especially ice cream bars with a chocolate shell of the outside. He picks all the chocolate off.

Brayden can look in the cupboard and tell me what snack he wants, what song he wants to sing, or what story he wants read. He uses the words “more and please” all the time. He is becoming very vocal. He has started a new frustration noise. It is a strong raspy yell he does over and over about 4 times. He wants everything his way these days.

We have learned we cannot drink a soda around Brayden or he will demand he gets some.

Brayden gets up on the sofa, his chairs, and in the stroller with ease these days.

He likes to bounce down the stair on his bum and say “Weeee!”

Brayden has been starting to comment on things when they “hurt.” It has been very helpful so that I can help him figure out what is going on and how to help him feel better. This afternoon he told me “Hurt eye. Eye broke!” It was so cute.

I was spelling Brayden’s name out in the snow last week, when I heard him talking. I listened really carefully and thought I heard him spelling his name. I found a new patch of snow and asked him to spell his name for me. I said, “Let’s write Brayden. B R” and Brayden added on the “A Y D E N.” I could not believe it. Then the other morning he woke up saying “B R A Y D E N, Brayden.” Wow, right?

He is using the “nose picker” to blow his nose. He will also blow into a tissue for me now. It is very helpful.

He leans in for hugs, love silly kisses like Eskimo kisses and butterfly kisses, and gives sweet touches.

Brayden loves squirt bottles. When I have to clean with a squirt bottle I give him his own filled with water and he squirts away to help me clean.

He wants to figure out how everything works. He watches the wheels on sliding screen door while they slide back and forth on the track. He spins the stool tops and sticks his head under to see how it is doing that. And, this weekend when Daddy and Papa were working on the sink, Brayden was right along with them trying to figure out what they were doing and look under the sink. He was never aloud to get in there with them, but you could tell he sure wanted to. He got in Daddy’s toolbox instead. He was really loving the tape measure and trying to figure out how it rolled in and out.

Brayden can close and sometimes open doors now. Those handles can be tricky.

Our friend Rachel was in Brayden’s way so I told him to tell her Excuse me, but he chose the words “Beep, beep coming through.”

Brayden likes to crawl over my legs whenever I’m on the floor spread out.

Brayden loves to take he new socks off and pick out all the toe fuzz. He will even take Mommy and Daddy’s socks off to see if we have toe fuzz. We always ask him, “Do I have toe fuzz?” and he answers sweetly “No.”

We used to have a fake owl in our condo complex at the top of the stairs. It was one of the tenants. She moved out a few weeks ago. Brayden always enjoyed going up stair and saying “Hi owl!” He still wants to go upstairs and but he now says “Owl all gone. Fly away owl. Owl bye, bye!”

He loves the wiggly bridge at the park.

When Brayden hears a baby crying he scrunches up his face like when he is winking in the Christmas pitures and says "Baby crying!" He has always given the funniest looks. This one tops them all.

Brayden’s new favorite game is called Wake Up. One pretends they are sleeping and snoring and Brayden squeals or screams to wake them up. He thinks it is the best. He gives the cutest shocked looks as he waits for them to wake up.

When Brayden wants a loved one to come back after they have walked away, he forcefully whines out their name with a sound as to say where are you. He does it to Mommy and Daddy and when Noni and Papa were hear this weekend he did it with them.

He loves his new popper ball bun and his water rocket. I count 1 –2 –3 and he says, “Blast off!” He sings the song ring-a-round-the-rosy as we play and he likes to be the doctor for the 5 little monkeys, shake his finger and say, “No more monkey’s jumping on the bed.”

He is just the best!