Brynn Update - 14 months

Brynn is skipping her second nap sometimes. We tend to have one nap on church days and days we have special activities Brayden wants to attend. They get us off schedule. I feel bad messing her up, but don’t want to take those special times away from Brayden either. It is so hard to know what is best sometimes.

She is into push toys and her pink riding car. She loves singing toys, puppet (Bert and Ernie) and babies. She loves to walk around pretending to talk on the phone. You can hear her saying, “Hello, how are you?” and mumble away. She LOVES to “Bump” jump on the blow up jumper in the basement and READ, READ, READ!!! She loves collecting and chasing balls and rolling over them with her tummy. “Wee!”

Brynn sings the words to all her favorite songs. It is AMAZING to hear a little 14 month old singing all the words to head, shoulders, knees and toes, Pop goes the Weasel and Row, row, row your boat, etc. She loves the ABC's and counting to 10 (her favorites are 1,2,6, and NINE!) because brother does it.

If you tell Brynn that you love her she leans her forehead in so you can give her a kiss. She often makes the kissing noise back at you.

She knows all her body parts, answers questions with a “yes” or “no” and even “please”, can tell you any animals noise and have two new teeth (the top 1st molars - 10 all together now).

You would be amazed to read a book with her and ask her what things she can recall and she will tell you so many things seen in the pictures. It is awesome how clear her words are. She talks all the time and I think she is saying real words so much more than we realize and pick up on. She is way beyond Brayden at this age and we thought he was outstanding in speech. Reading back memories, he was amazing with fine motor skills and focus on tasks like matching shapes on the shape sorter and such. She does not have as much patience for that kind of thing. Being a second child, she has learned to toddle around more and keep herself occupied. She is not as tolerant as he was/is about things like washing her face, blowing her nose, etc.

She will eat almost anything she should not. She loves tasting the soap dispensers, eating play dough and crayons, sucking on paint brushes and the tips of markers. It is hard to do art with her.

Her favorite food is bananas right now. She loves to get in the fridge, pull open the drawer and ask for an “apple.” She chews it up and I find a trail of apple bits all over the house.

She loves to try to sit on the kids chairs - and then stand on them. She is definitely more fearless than Brayden.

She is so cute to watch sit at the kids table with Brayden during snack times. She looks at him and contently kicks her feet under the table. It is so sweet how she looks up to him.

She LOVES to dance. She stomps her feet and sways to the beat.

You know when she is done with her nap because she stand in her crib and opens her bedroom door so she can see out.

She is fascinated with eyes. She pokes her baby dolls eyes and even pokes her own eyes.

She backs off the stairs, bed, and sofa when she is ready to get down. It makes me feel like she is a little safer that way.

She goes crazy with anticipation when we are playing hide-n-seek or chase with Brayden. She is her mothers daughter.

She is amazing us with her role playing and creative imagination. I suppose she has been watching and learning from Bray. She loves to pretend to be a cat and crawl around on the floor meowing. She also loves to take care of her baby dolls. If you ask if her baby is crying she says, “Boo Whoo, Boo Whoo” with a big pouty lip. She rocks and pats her babies and sings “Rock a bye baby” to them. She even tried to have her baby hold a pretzel for snack today. She helps her babies jump and says, “Up and Down, up and down!” She is a hoot. She is just as animated and reactive as Brayden. You might say she is a drama queen already.

Yesterday she brought me the TV control and said, “Movie!” I asked her if she wanted a movie and she got so excited and frantically said, “Yes, yes, yes!” She is too funny!

Brayden update!

We are working on using a nice tone of voice - he thinks compliments are the way to be nice and make everything better.

He is really getting good at hide-n-seek.

He is doing some big boy things and staying quite when I ask him to...playing on his own downstairs. He is into dressing himself and getting undressed on his own.
He likes going to the bathroom on his own and he can zip his coat up (the only one in preschool).

He loves board games and transformers are his toy of choice. He REALLY wants Bumblebee for his birthday. Did you know he is having a Transformer birthday? He told our friend David that the other day. I’m glad we were there to hear it. We are going to combine all his friends from school, church, cousins and personal friends. There will probably be about 7 all together. We are going to set the jumper up in the backyard with all the backyard toys and have our own play gym/obstacle course out there. I think it will be fun. We are not going to do a meal, but ice cream cake. Brayden only likes frosting - no cake - so we figure ice cream and icing will be the best bet.

We are working on keeping our hands/head to ourselves so that Brynn does not get knocked over or bumped into things. We are talking about how big brothers protect their little sisters and try to keep them safe. He loves her so much and wants to touch her and play with her, but does not realize how tipsy she is and how one little bump gets her off balance. When she falls he must let her go gently so she can get a good foothold and stand steady. He is learning. If he doesn’t, she bites - so he will learn one way or another I suppose.

I love seeing Brayden holding Brynn’s hand and taking her around the house in the mornings. It is so sweet!

Bray tends to be very Interested in art. He loves art/crafts at school. At home he loves his art/paint spinner and Nonnie's cord art board. He is more creative than he lets you believe and he loves music/singing/dancing more than he will let you know.

He made up new words to the song “Gunk, Gunk goes the little green frog one day...” He changed the animals to an alligator with a snapping mouth and a bird with a chirping beak. I thought it was very cleaver to figure out the pattern with different animals. He is so smart with language.

He fell down the basement stairs the other day - scared me half to death. That is 13 stairs. Good thing they are carpeted. He cried just because it scared him so much and Mommy was screaming. Then, the next day, he fell from the top of the steep stairs at the park. He did get some minor scraps and scratches from that and managed to loose his shoe in the process. Needless to say, we have had big talks about being careful and holding tight to railings.

He makes his lips so raw from the way he kind of bites at his lip all day. It happens more on preschool days. I think it is a nervous habit. Jen says Ben used to do that all the time growing up.

Watching him read rhymes to Brynn and trying to read her books is so great!

Some phrases you might here him say:
“I know, I know...”
“I’m not cute. I’m cool!”
“I am precious!”

When Brynn gets to watch a movie Brayden protests and says, “That won’t keep my attention.” “It feel it will disappoint.” Where did he get those big word?

Here are more funny things he has said recently:

“Papa, you are just like a piece of cake. I could eat you up.”
Papa asked him if he would like to watch cartoons. Brayden responded with,
“Real men watch movies!” I think I need to thank Louis!

Before going to be on his own the other night he told me, “Mommy, I feel sad. You and Daddy leave me all the time now.” Boy did that break my heart. Tonight I kissed him and said goodnight and he looked so pitiful but calm. With his head on his pillow he sadly said, “Okay Mommy!”

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.

More Pictures!

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.

More News!!!

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.