Brian: Two and a Half

I cannot believe I have a two and a half year old!  I have been having so much fun with this kid through the last year.  Every day he makes me smile, he makes me laugh, he makes me think, he makes me do, he just makes my day. . .every day.


There are so many things I want to write about Brian that I cannot even remember them all. I marvel at how fast he learns and how eager he is to learn about everything.  I just was not expecting him to know so much at this age.  It may be because I really don't know that many two year olds, but I think Bri is pretty smart for his age.  He's a little sponge soaking everything up at once.

I see so much of Mark in Brian.  Especially when it comes to fixing things and figuring out how things work.  Brian loves to use a screwdriver and his favorite thing to do is help Daddy build or fix something.  His interest in all the bells and whistles of any machine, weather it be a toy or a car, baffles me.  He is particularly into batteries and changing batteries to anything that takes them.  I find him at least once a day with my box of batteries and a screwdriver trying to unscrew the battery holder in order to "fix it" and change the batteries.  I am proud of his interest in fixing things and I hope that under Mark's tutelage he will become a Mr. Fix-it like his dad.

We use the washing machine a lot lately and he enjoys "helping" me do laundry.  We do laundry more often now because he is currently potty training.  He actually started off a little better than he is doing now, but I understand that sometimes it is two steps forward, one step back with potty training and toddlers.  He wears underwear during the day when he is not sleeping and he started out for several days with no accidents and has moved to about two accidents a day.  I'm not sure what is going on, but he wants to continue wearing underwear and using the potty so we'll just keep on working on it until we both figure out the best system. 

Brian loves books and he loves the library.  We go to the library every few weeks or more and get piles and piles of books.  Sometimes he wants to read them all several times a day and other times he'll pick his favorite and we will read it over and over again for days.  He knows exactly how to check out the books at the library and he pushes all the correct buttons on the computer to check out his pile.  Checking them back in is the most entertaining for me though.  He pushes each book one by one through the return hole in the wall.  The funny part is that his face is the exact same height as the hole and he ends up having interesting conversations with the book man through the hole about each of the books he is returning.  There is always a line behind him to return books, but I find it so entertaining that I let him take his sweet time. 

Becoming a big brother has been a big change for Brian.  He is still learning how to really be gentle with Timmy and he randomly gets the urge to crash things in to his little brother.  Things like toy cars or sticks.  I don't think he ever wants to hurt Timmy, he just really wants Timmy to be big enough to play with.  Overall I am very happy with how Brian has taken on the role of big brother.  He even calls himself big brother in Chinese, ge ge, and calls Timmy little brother, which is di di.  When Timmy wakes up, Brian usually goes charging into his room, stands on the crib rails and says "Hi Timmy"!  Timmy then gives him the biggest smile in the world.  This morning Brian made it in to Timmy's room long before I did, and the first thing I heard him say was "Timmy, are you stinky?"  When I got in there Timmy was one happy stinky di di smiling away at his big brother.

Brian loves music and he loves dancing.  He still sings in monotone, but we are working on that one.  His idea of Family Home Evening is picking random Primary songs (he chooses by the pictures above the songs) and "playing" with me as I play the song on the piano and Mark and I sing.  He also has an interest in instruments but still calls any stringed instrument a cello.

He still enjoys mowing the lawn with Mark if he can ride in the backpack and wear the ear muffs. I want him to use these ear muffs for more than just mowing the lawn.  I wish he could sleep with them on.  I have never met another kid who has such sensitive hearing.  He must have gotten those genes from my Grandmother Cannon.  She definitely had sensitive ears.  Brian hates more than anything loud noises.  I still cannot vacuum my house, turn on the blender, dry my hair, or do anything that makes really any noise without upsetting him. We had a very loud thunderstorm during the night about a months ago and he had sleep problems for weeks after that.  He would wake up screaming "What's that noise?" after hearing the slightest creak in the house.  He won't cry out anymore because I stopped going in his room to comfort him because it had become a habit to wake up all night long crying about this or that noise and wanting me to come in and tell him everything is fine.  He is still sleeping in his crib and I don't think he'll be crawling out of any time soon.  He's happy in his crib.  I have asked him several times if he wants to sleep in a big bed and each time he decides to stay in the crib.  

There are so many things that Brian loves to do so these are just a few of his favorites.  He likes to "play toys" as he calls it.  Usually this includes playing with his train set, his tractor, his cars and really anything else in view that catches his attention at the moment.  One thing he asks for everyday is to play these Reader Rabbit Computer Games I bought to help keep him busy on the plane to Taiwan.  He loves them and has learned how to use the computer mouse quite well.  I will usually let him play on the computer for a little bit while I get dinner ready.  That is one reason I love having my computer in the kitchen. 

Brian's favorite phrases change often, but here are a few current things he likes to say:

"That's cool."

"Yeah"

"What are you doing Mommy?" (he always emphasizes the word you and I hear this question all day long)

"What's that guy doing?" (he asks this about anyone else he sees whether it is a girl or a guy, sometimes in the hearing of said girl.)

"Where did Timmy go?"

"No"

"What's that noise?"

There is more to write about Brian, but this post is just getting too long.  I love you kiddo!