Just having Fun!

Pictures of the kids just having fun: in the snow, pushing around baby dolls, and jumping on the bouncey in the basement.

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It is so nice to be able to got out to the park here and there throughout the winter and get some energy out. Brayden found a group of 7 year old boys he wanted to be a part of and followed them everywhere. They were very tolerant of his presence. Brynn is going through a real fussy phase and sadly I have not been very patient with her. I think she is over tired and teething and going through another separation anxiety stage.

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Brynn:

She loves puppets, reading stories, playing outside, saying “Hi” to her refection of the baby in the car mirror.

She yells "Amen!" after prayers and when she wants to sing the Amen song. It is loud.

She pats her legs or taps her feet to music.

She is learning all her body parts.

New words: Nice, Mess, Again, Splash, Hat, Bubble, Crash, Stuck, Bink (pacifier)
and she asks for “help!”

She walks around all day with books, handing them to people in hopes they will read to her.

She loves to play “I’m gunna get you.” She can barely stand the anticipation.

We bought her babies for her birthday because we saw how she loves the model baby at music class, yet she is not that interested in the ones at home. Tonight we saw she is still obsessed with the one at music class. She was playing ring around the rosie with it by holding its arms. She still continues to only want to play with Brayden’s baby at home. I have figured the trick is that she wants the eyes to open and close and to be larger in size.

She likes to stand on things. Today she figured out how to stand on a shoebox. We find her on the hearth sometimes...she wants to be so independents, so we have to keep an eye out.

She plays peek-a-boo on her own.

She loves to blow kisses and is quite the huggy-bug, especially with Mommy. She pats Brayden on the back and tells him he’s nice. She gives the sloppiest open mouth kisses. She even slipped Auntie Jen the tongue on Sunday.

Brynn is into sitting on Mommys lap. The funny part is that she backs up to my knees when I am on the floor and sits down.

She loves repetitive play. She is very social and interactive.

She still tries to suck her food from her spoon instead of opening up. And she gets to a point in the meal when she drops all her food on the floor, even if she will want it again.

At Babs’ house on New Years Day, we were all reading up on our astrological signs for the day of our birth. The book said Brayden is destined to be a Writer and Brynn is destined to be a Jounalist.

Brayden stories:

“I like my teachers. I like school, but my tummy wants to stay home with Mommy.”

Brayden says he wants to grow his hair long so he can “Rock out!”

“I dreamed crashbox, (a show I told him is too old for him) I was old enough to see it and I loved it! It was a cool dream!”

The things he is picking up from church:
In a prayer recently he said that he is sad Jesus died. Then at church he asked if the cross up front was Jesus’ cross. He asked were Jesus lives now so I told him in heaven and in his heart.

“Thank you for sending me all my people. Thank you for Mommy, Daddy and Brynnie. Thank you for bringing Jesus back to life. Amen”

He had to got potty and Daddy sat him down, but he wanted to stand up. He was mad about sitting and showed his upset by folding his arms and yelling, “Scrumptious!” He is playing with a lot of big words right now. It is funny what he comes up with. At the store he was upset with me and said, “I’m feeling scrumptious with you!” He was pretending to be detective tonight and said, “I am a protective.”

For Christmas, Brayden finally got the Bat Cave he has “been wanting all his life.”

He loves Boz the Bear movies and the game Hi-Ho Cherry-o, the stuffed dog Grams Overly gave him (named Bolt), his Power Ranger gloves, and of course his Bat Cave. Today he’s all about his new Autobot Transformer, yesterday it was the Batmobile, three weeks ago it was his green power ranger, but he always comes back to Wall-E and Eva robots. They seem to be true favorites. Whenever he has two of the same character (such as 2 Wall-Es and 2 Batmans) he names the big one daddy and the little one Brayden. He’s very into Daddy these days, always saying “I love my Dad” and wanting Daddy to be home. He actually shows his appreciation and love for everyone right now. He is always telling Mommy he loves her and saying how he loves his sister Brynn, too.

He is beginning to feel scared of things that he used to enjoy, like "spookies" and Santa. He always asks if there is going to be a bad guy in movies and is starting to say he doesn’t like fighting.

He and Brynn both like the blow up bounce jumper in the basement and falling down on purpose together. Although Brynn did bite him for the first time when he was wrestling too rough and he didn’t listen to her whines to get off.

He laughs a lot (and it is infectious!). I love the big belly laughs. He seems to really get jokes and funny sayings in speech. He laughs out loud at his TV shows and his sister.

He is very protective of Brynn. One of his friends was jumping in the jumper with him and Brynn wanted in. He warned “be careful of my sister Brynnie, don’t run into her.”

He is quite the perfectionist and gets frustrated easily.

He is noticing the difference in boys’ and girls’ toys and he comments on how he and his daddy are the same.

If he had the choice, he would probably never take a bath or shower.

Christmas and Auntie E's visit

Brynn loves the bath. After we clean up from dinner, see yells, “Bath!” and nearly falls out of my arms trying to get there.

She loves baby dolls that have eyes that open and close. She plays and pokes at them for hours. She also like holes, just as Brayden did. She sticks her finger in small holes she finds. She rocks her babies, pushes them in the stroller, and kisses them.

In the bath Brynn tries to stand up often. We ask her to sit down, of course. Often as she is standing up she shakes her head and says, “No” then, “down”, or “sit down.” It is too funny!

She loves the telephone and pushes every button possible. Whenever Auntie Jen’s is around, Brynn always finds her way to her purse and locates her cell phone.

Brynn is already a born artist. She loves to color, paint and draw. The problem is that she does not just keep it on the paper and ends up chewing or eating the art tools.

Brynn loves balls, babies, and shoes. She dances and does the motions to all her favorite songs. Her dance motions are so cute. She bobs up and down at the knees and shakes her head. Her favorite songs are: The Little Green Frog, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Ring Around the Rosies. Her Elmo sings the Hokey Pokey and she twirls right along with him.

In her highchair she is beginning to give this coy look as she bends her head to the side and lays her head on her tray. It is so precious. She just flirts away.

Christmas morning as the children were opening their presents, I kept trying to get Brynn interested in opening her presents, but she only wanted Braydens. I would look in her gift bags and say, “Ooo!” She would look in Brayden’s gift bags and and say, “Oooo!”

She is saying so much. I read up on what Brayden was doing at her age and see that they are very similar in their talking ability. She is beginning two word phrases such as, “Hi, Dad!”, “All Done!” “Sit Down!”, and “Hi baby” (she says this to all babies she meet, even when they are older than her.) She is starting to parrot words throughout the day also. Another smart one here!

She likes to lay her head down on soft things. If there is a pillow out, she will lay on it and say, “Night, Night!” She will sometimes pretend snore. She is amazing how she already pretends things. She picks up everything from her brother. He is so into make believe and has a great imagination. She just goes right along with it. She chases him with a lion growl and pretend washes him in the bath. She loves dress up right along with him and dolls herself up with hats, bracelets, rings, and necklaces.