Calton Corner

You are now 33 months old. And this is an exciting update because it's the last one before Dada comes home from deployment! Woohoo! I think it's gonna be pretty fun to watch the two of you interact with each other. I know you'll love wrestling with him again. We will also be taking another trip to Disney World before your next update - a last little hoorah before "boy baby" arrives. But for now, let's focus on what you've been up to for the past month.

You are currently wearing mostly 3T clothes. I think you're still pretty small for your age, but I can tell you're getting taller. I don't see it day to day, but there are certainly things you can reach now that you couldn't reach just a few weeks ago. You're still in size 6.5 shoes - a tiny little foot. I think I need to get you some new snow boots because we've already had our first snow of the season. Speaking of weather, you made it through your 2nd hurricane. We were very fortunate because we didn't have any damage and never lost power during Hurricane Sandy; many people lost everything. I pray you have a heart for helping people in need when you get older. You also witnessed your first presidential election - and by witnessed I mean you stole my "I voted" sticker and slept through the results. When asked who the president is, you respond, "Obama." Shockingly enough Auntie Val taught you that one.

As you quickly approach the big 0-3, I'm so happy you're still napping. You usually nap for 2 or 2.5 hours, which is so nice for this tired Momma. Currently you're still wearing a Pull-up during nap time and it's almost always a little wet when you wake up. It's so strange that you went six months or so staying dry during nap and now we've had a few months of being wet. You're always wet in the morning, but for now I'm not worrying about that. You are still a good sleeper at night too, but I'm wondering if you're starting to have dreams or nightmares because several nights a week you'll start whining in the middle of the night. You fall back to sleep without me ever coming in your room, but it's not like you to be so restless. I love our nighttime routine and I hope it can stay the same or close to the same once the baby comes. Even if we've had a stressful day, I can almost always count on bath and bedtime to be easy and relaxing with you.

So about those stressful days, you have definitely been testing boundaries lately. You know the difference between right and wrong and always look back at me when you're about to make a poor choice. You also know my "mommy stare" and know you're in trouble when you see it. You're currently going through a hitting stage. You aren't hitting out of anger or meanness, you just like slapping people. You're just being playful, but I'm working hard on breaking that habit. We are working on finding good things to do with your hands like clapping and hugging and I'm starting to see an improvement. Just the other day you were about to playfully slap me and I stopped you and sort of jokingly said, "Brennan, what would Jesus do?" and you said, "Jesus no hit Mommy!" It made me smile. I know boundary testing is all part of growing up and thankfully the majority of the time you're still a good listener. It's a big deal to me that you follow a direction the first time it's given. According to BabyWise, for first time obedience (FTO) it's a good idea to have children make a verbal response like "Yes, Mommy" when a parent calls the child's name. When we started working on that this month, you loved it and it quickly became a game. You would stand in different places around the house and say, "Say Brennan's name". I'd say your name and then you'd say, "Yes, Mommy" and come running to me. You understand emotions so well and can tell me if I'm making a happy, sad, or mad face.

I am so thankful for your sweet, sensitive, and happy nature. You get so excited for the smallest little things and your whole body starts shaking. Your teacher says you're the happiest kid in class. You love going to church and seeing all the people you know. You're a big hugger and run up to them and give them big bear hugs. You're pretty much a celebrity at church! You also have this sensitive side though. If someone even barely bumps you, you get upset. I think this mainly comes from being an only child. I'm sure having a brother will toughen you up some!

You have always loved music and would sort of sing along with me when I sang, but you've just started singing songs by yourself. I love it! Just like talking, you sing really fast so it's hard to understand, but it's just adorable. My current favorites are you singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Jesus Loves Me". You talk up a storm now and make me laugh so many times each day. Some of your funnier new phrases are "that's too yucky!", "not yet" and "Brennan a crazy boy!". You have become a pro at tracing letters and numbers and will occasionally write the letter B on your own. The "Letter School" app is amazing and is one of your favorites. We just recently added some new apps to the iPad and you love "Marble Math Jr", "ABC House", "Thomas and Friends Heroes of the Rails", and "Interactive ABC HD - Pre-reading for Kids". I had to start limiting your time on the iPad because you are obsessed with that thing. You seem to think a "limit" has something to do with "lemons" but for now you understand that when the iPad is on a "lemon" you can't use it.

You still love wrestling and want to wrestle with anyone and everyone. You also love to intentionally fall down and say, "Crash!" You love chocolate milk and candy and sweets. You're super good at memory games - like super good - it blows my mind. You love school and your teachers love you. I'd love to be a fly on the wall and see what you're like there. Papaw and Linda just came up to visit you and you loved spending time with them. Eeek! I'm sure there's much more I could talk about. I'm so thankful for my iPhone so I can add notes to it throughout the month to make these updates possible.

Mommy loves you so much. I know you'll be excited to have your Dada come very soon and then we'll have a little more time as a family of three before the baby comes along. I think you'll be a great big brother.

Love,
Mommy

Here's a video for you to enjoy.

And here's a link to the professional photos we had done recently.
http://www.brendadelossantos.com/Portfolio/Clients/Brennan/i-Xhw38Zr/1/Ti/Autumn01-Ti.jpg

I have wanted to try bathtub paint with Brennan for such a long time. I pinned the "recipe" for it forever ago and just have never gotten around to doing it. Plus the little fact that the recipe calls for corn starch and for the life of me I didn't think I'd ever find corn starch in the grocery. Then today I'm there with Brennan and it just pops out at me as plain as can be.

The recipe called for 1 tbsp corn starch, 4-6 pumps of baby shampoo, 2-3 drops food coloring, and 1-2 tsp of water. I didn't get too fancy this time and just made blue, yellow, red, and green since those are the food colorings I had on hand. I played around with the consistency a little bit and it turned out the first one I made was definitely the best. The others were a little too runny. Brennan had fun painting, but didn't want to do it for too long. He liked dumping the paints into the tub better. You can see the color of the water below. I'm not sure this was our cleanest tubby ever. And I do need to go scrub down the tub really well now because it definitely left a ring since he dumped all the paints into the water. I think we will definitely do it again soon!

The pictures don't really show much. I didn't even get a shot of the blue on the wall, which was the best one. Oh well!